All News articles – Page 5131
-
News
2001: the greatest year in history, says Valenti
The state of the industry is robust, declared Motion Picture Association Of America president and CEO Jack Valenti at exhibition conference ShoWest yesterday. Despite the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, the economic recession and the traumatised exhibition sector, "2001 was the greatest box office year in film history," he said.In ...
-
News
Edinburgh film festival to honour Kon Ichikawa
The first Edinburgh International Film Festival under new artistic director Shane Danielsen will pay tribute to the Japanese director Kon Ichikawa with a retrospective of 11 of his films spanning the decade 1953 to 1963. Now 86 years old, Ichikawa originally studied animation and made his cinema debut with the ...
-
News
Columbia picks up debut comedy Bobby Ewing
Columbia Pictures has purchased the romantic comedy Bobby Ewing, the debut feature screenplay from US television writer/producer Linda Bloodworth, it was announced by Peter Schlessel, president of production for Columbia.Bobby Ewing is a comedy about an immigrant whose love for America is equalled only by his daring and desperate attempts ...
-
News
MDP reports fifth consecutive quarterly profit
MDP Worldwide Entertainment, Mark Damon's production and sales outfit which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, has reported financial results for the first quarter ended December 31, 2001 reflecting the fifth consecutive quarterly profit reported by the company since Damon, its chairman and CEO, took over the helm and ...
-
News
THX and Kinepolis in joint-branding move
Lucasfilm THX has announced that Brussels-based Kinepolis Group has become Europe's first multiplex operator to adopt THX certification in every cinema screen, including its last remaining 30 non-THX screens. To promote its 'Total-THX' status, the two companies will adopt a co-branding campaign featuring both of their corporate logos."We want ...
-
News
Epiphany Films to produce spiritual features
Crusader Entertainment, LLC, has formed Epiphany Films, to develop and produce independent feature films with spiritual and religious themes. The announcement was made by Howard Baldwin, president and CEO of Crusader Entertainment, who also announced that Dr. Bob Beltz has been appointed director of special projects for Epiphany. Dr. Beltz, ...
-
News
France leads Int'l cinema admissions league
In a special Screen International analysis of global cinemagoing trends, France has come out as the biggest international territory by admissions, based on record-breaking figures that saw more people go to the cinema in France in 2001 than in any year since 1984.After France's 2001 total of 185m, the second ...
-
News
Mothman leads openers, Ocean's goes top
The UK box office chart saw a battle of holdovers this week as only one new film, Helkon SK's The Mothman Prophecies, received a wide opening. Mothman, a thriller purportedly based on true events, opened in fifth place with a gross of $1.1m (£762,516) from 286 sites - including $53,692 ...
-
News
Two Euro training programmes launched
The Brussels-based Cartoon initiative and the German Federal Film Board (FFA) have joined forces to launch the Cartoon Movie Coaching Programme at this year's Cartoon Movie co-production market for animated feature films in Babelsberg from March 14-16.The Coaching Programme is designed to introduce up-and-coming producers and students of animation to ...
-
News
Italian government passes conflict of interest law
The Italian Parliament has passed Silvio Berlusconi's controversial law on conflict of interest. Although the centre-left opposition stormed out of Parliament before the vote in a sign of protest, votes from Berlusconi's centre-right coalition were sufficient in number for the law to be passed.The main points that the new law ...
-
News
Sal Ladestro gets senior vp stripes at CTFDI
Sal Ladestro has been promoted to senior vice president of marketing and distribution, acquisitions and local productions, for Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International. Ladestro will report to Nigel Clark, senior executive vice president of marketing at CTFDI, on all matters relating to marketing, and to Mark Zucker, senior executive vice ...
-
News
Ocean's Eleven breaks $200m int'l barrier
Warner Bros International cruised past the $200m mark over the weekend with Oceans Eleven, bringing the film's worldwide total to over $390m. The estimated weekend take for Steven Soderbergh's star-studded caper was $16.7m, bringing the film's total to $210m.The success of Oceans Eleven adds to Warner International's achievement on Harry ...
-
News
Shanghai noon for Hollywood as China opens up
China became the unexpected focusof attention on the first day of this year's ShoWest convention in LasVegas, with news that Beijing authorities are prepared to relax film importrestrictions for its planned digital cinema circuit and the announcement byWarner Bros International Theatres of a ground-breaking nine-screen multiplexin Shanghai. To cap it ...
-
News
AusFILM boosts location marketing activity
AusFILM is dramatically stepping up its marketing of Australia to the film world. The conglomerate of private companies and government agencies moves into Fox Studios Australia from March 11 and will triple staff thanks to a near fourfold increase in government funds.There is "considerable scope" to increase the 6% of ...
-
News
Lauren Bacall hands out Denmark's Bodil Awards
Lauren Bacall was the guest of honour at Sunday's Bodil Awards in Denmark, where she handed the best film prize to director Ole Christian Madsen for Kira's Reason.Hollywood-legend Bacall was fresh off the shoot of Lars von Trier's Dogville, which wrapped on Friday in Sweden, and her presence added ...
-
News
El Deseo confirms My Life Without Me cast
The Almodovar brothers' Madrid-based production house El Deseo has confirmed casting on forthcoming English-language production My Life Without Me from director Isabel Coixet.Sarah Polley, Mark Ruffalo, Amanda Plummer and Deborah Harry are set to star in the $2.5m film, which begins shooting March 25 in Vancouver with Canada-based My Life ...
-
News
Sex Up to become Columbia Germany's sixth
Florian Gaertner's screwball teenage comedy Sex Up will be the sixth local feature to be produced by Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion GmbH (DCPF), the German production arm of Columbia TriStar Film.DCPF's production partner on the project, which is being scripted by Gaertner with Jakob Hilpert (Kleine Kreise), will be Berlin-based ...
-
News
Intermedia shares crash after merger cancellation
Intermedia saw two thirds of its value wiped out within hours on Monday after it cancelled its imminent merger with production firm Spyglass Entertainment and slashed its earnings forecast.Intermedia's Neuer Markt-listed stock fell as much as 66% before recovering slightly to Euros 7.21, down more than 62%. The company said ...
-
News
Procacci launches Australian production outfit
Italian producer Domenico Procacci has announced the formation of Fandango Australia Pty Ltd, a new production entity combining both Australian and European financial sources. The first project to be made by the company will be Rolf de Heer's Alexandra's Project which will go into production later this month.The directors of ...
-
News
Intermedia shares crash after merger cancellation
Shares in Intermedia plummeted 65% on Monday after it cancelled a merger with production firm Spyglass Entertainment and slashed its earnings forecast.In an ad hoc disclosure to Frankfurt's Neuer Markt, the company said that Nigel Sinclair, Guy East and Moritz Borman will continue in their positions as co-chairmen of Intermedia. ...