All News articles – Page 5132
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Rings grosses $6.8m from 2-day Japanese debut
Lord Of The Rings grossed a powerful $6.8m (Y900m) over its opening two-day weekend in Japan, recording 620,000 admissions from 600 screens. While impressive in itself, the film's debut weekend was nowhere near the level of business that Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone generated, which grossed a record $12.8m ...
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Intermedia/Spyglass merger cancelled
Intermedia and Spyglass Entertainment have called off their imminent merger, Intermedia announced on Monday in an ad hoc disclosure to Frankfurt's Neuer Markt.Intermedia said that Nigel Sinclair, Guy East and Moritz Borman will continue in their positions as co-chairmen of Intermedia. East and Sinclair had been expected to step down ...
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BBC Films appoints Isabel Begg
BBC Films, the film arm of the UK public broadcaster, has appointed Isabel Begg, formerly head of UK business and legal affairs at Miramax, as head of business and legal affairs.Begg will report to Jane Wright, who has been promoted from head of business development to the new role of ...
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PGA votes for Moulin Rouge, WGA Park, Mind
Two more talent guilds dished out their annual awards over the weekend, adding fuel to speculation about which films will take home Academy Awards later this month. Last night (Sunday), the Producers Guild Of America (PGA) shook things up by naming Moulin Rouge its best picture of 2001 beating favourites ...
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We Were Soldiers tops chart for Paramount and Icon
Mel Gibson's star shone bright at the North American box office over the weekend as We Were Soldiers, his latest war epic financed by his own company Icon Entertainment with Paramount Pictures, opened at the number one spot with $20.2m. Gibson stars as Lt Col Hal Moore, on whose book ...
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Antitrust authority blocks Stream/Telepiu sale
Italy's Antitrust Authority has frozen the deal which would have seen Rupert Murdoch's News Corp sell Italian pay-tv platform Stream to Vivendi Universal. The two media giants reached an agreement last month after News Corp bought Telecom Italia's 50% share of Stream for Euros 48m. The move enabled News Corp, ...
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Fausto and Sorum are Fantasporto favourites
Spain's Fausto 5.0 and South Korea's Sorum walked away the big winners of the 22nd annual edition of Portugal's fantasy and sci-fi oriented Oporto International Film Festival (Feb 22-Mar 3), better known as Fantasporto.Fausto 5.0, directed by Isidro Ortiz, Allex Olle and Carlos Padrissa, took home the official Fantasy section's ...
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Hong Kong cinema ticket promotion backfires
A price promotion by the two largest theatre chains in Hong Kong backfired when movie-goers were charged full price for the most popular films.On February 25, UA and Broadway cinemas announced a four week promotion for Tuesdays and Wednesdays where tickets would be reduced by as much as $6.40 (HK$50) ...
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Kuhn fund to raise Euros 99m for 10-picture slate
With its first project Sin Eater, now in production (Screen Daily, March 1), Michael Kuhn's German-based media investment fund N1 European Film Produktions-GmbH & Co KG (N1 EFP) is planning to raise Euros 99 m by the end of 2002 to invest in the development and production of 10 English-language ...
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Ster Century Europe sells three national circuits
South African Media Group Primedia and Kersaf Investments have sold their cinema interests, Ster Century Europe, in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia for $18.5m.The cinemas were bought by UCI Central Europe BV, a joint venture between United Cinemas International (UCI) and venture capital and private equity fund Argus Capital ...
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Acting surprises at Cesars but Amelie wins top two
Despite taking the awards for best film and director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie failed to dominate Saturday's French Cesar awards as expected, winning in four categories out of its 13 nominations.While Amelie's star, Audrey Tautou, has been widely recognised as a talent to watch and was generally considered the favourite for ...
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Italy's Eagle swoops on two-picture Mandalay deal
Eagle Pictures, the fast-expanding film and TV outfit based in Rome and Milan, has struck a two picture deal with Mandalay Pictures, the Paramount-based independent headed by Peter Guber. Mandalay had previously licensed movies in Italy through Cecchi Gori Pictures and more recently Medusa Film. Under the deal, Eagle has ...
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Michael Kuhn co's first picture rolls in Rome
Shooting has started inRome's Cinecitta Studios on 20th Century Fox's Sin Eater, the first project to go into production throughformer PolyGram Filmed Entertainment chief Michael Kuhn's new productionoutfit.Directed by Brian Helgeland(A Knight's Tale), Sin Eater is the story of a mysterious character who exorcisesthe sins of dead people and stars ...
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Franchise wins 1st court battle with Intertainment
Franchise Pictures has won acourt victory against Germany's Intertainment Licensing GmbH, asubsidiary of the publicly traded Intertainment AG. The two companies have beenembroiled in legal battle for over a year now regarding the terms of an outputdeal Franchise had sealed with Intertainment in 2000.Yesterday's judgmentsees Intertainment liable for $6.5m for ...
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Massis does multi-picture deals in Italy, Israel
Alex Massis' NewYork-based marketing and sales outfit The Film Source has closed multi-picturedeals with Dall'Angelo Pictures in Italy, Israel Cable Programming (ICP)in Israel and Pengloss in Switzerland.The video/DVD and TV dealsclosed at NATPE and the Berlin Film Market consisted of four classic Mario Bavahorror films (Lisa & The Devil, Baron ...
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ContentFilm teams with Furst, WMA on digital pics
Ed Pressman and JohnSchmidt's New York-based production outfit ContentFilm has formed atwo-year strategic alliance with LA-based producer Sean Furst and his FurstFilms. And in an unusual angle to the deal, Rena Ronson and Cassian Elwes ofWilliam Morris Agency division WMA Independent will provide "strategicsupport" by sharing its resources with the ...
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ShoWesters to view footage of digital Star Wars II
Exhibitors at nextweek's ShoWest convention will get a world-first glimpse of footage fromGeorge Lucas' Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones as part of a presentation by its producer RickMcCallum on shooting digitally with the Sony 24P camera.The convention'sOpening Night Dinner will be hosted next Tuesday (March 5) ...
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Guadalajara fest to go ahead with new director
Mexico's premiere film event, the Guadalajara Mexican Film Showcase, kicks off next week despite the resignation of its newly-appointed director Enrique Ortiga, who never even got a chance to manage the event once.Deputy director Kenya Marquez Alkadef stepped in to replace Ortiga, who left amidst claims that he had neglected ...
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Millimages buys 51% of Toons 'N' Takes
Leading French animation house Millimages has acquired a 51% majority stake in Hamburg-based studio Toons 'N' Takes.The move is seen as part of an intensification of their existing working collaboration on animation series for television.Millimages, which has been listed on France's Nouveau Marche d'Euronext since June 2001, opened a US ...
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Telefonica reports decline in net profits
Spanish telecoms operator Telefonica reported a drop in net profit for 2001, down 15.9% to Euros 2.1bn from Euros 2.5bn in 2000. The company estimates the devaluation of the Argentine peso impacted its results by as much as Euros 369m.Telefonica media filial Admira posted Euros 347.3m in net losses, a ...