All News articles – Page 5187
-
News
UK's ITC argues for early Carlton/Granada merge
The chairman of the Independent Television Commission (ITC), one of the UK's broadcast regulators, has called on the government to bring in urgent interim legislation that would allow the two largest commercial broadcasters to merge.Sir Robin Biggam, said: "We are going through tough times and government needs to act quickly ...
-
News
peppermint to launch film distribution at Mifed
The German international sales sector has seen some movement with the news that the German TV distributor peppermint is to launch a feature film distribution arm at the forthcoming MIFED market with eight titles, including Ralf Huettner's romantic comedy Moonlight Tariff (Mondscheintarif) and Stefan Jaeger's digitally shot Birthday.As part of ...
-
News
Golden Harvest reports reduced crop
Robert De Niro, togetherwith his business partner Jane Rosenthal, formally unveiled plans yesterday fortheir new four-day film festival in downtown Manhattan that they hope can helprevitalize a neighbourhood devastated by the terror attacks on September 11th.The first annual TribecaFilm Festival will run from May 1st-May 5th and showcasesome 40 feature ...
-
News
Germany's MBP launches family entertainment fund
Low budget family entertainment features are the focus of a new film fund being launched by Munich-based financier MBP whose past credits include Istvan Szabo's Taking Sides, Fred Schepisi's Last Orders and Jimmy Murakami's animation feature Christmas Carol.MBP NY 121 (NY 121 refers to MBP's address in Munich's Nymphenburger Strasse) ...
-
News
Lars von Trier lines up Wagner and Wendy
Fully living up to his maverick reputation, Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier (pictured), will not only direct Richard Wagner's mammoth 3-day long opera The Ring Of The Nibelungen in Germany but is writing a US-set film that features guns - but not lead girls."To head a staging The Ring Of ...
-
News
France has big appetite for American Pie 2
American Pie 2 has bolted out of the starting blocks in France, with more than a quarter of a million admissions on its first day of release, making it the sixth best opening of the year so far.Debuting on 495 prints, the UIP title pushed last week's chart-topper Bridget Jones's ...
-
News
The Pledge shows international promise
Sean Penn's latest directorial effort, The Pledge, saw strong openings in several key territories this week and continues to find solid success in others. Opening in Germany and Switzerland on Oct 11 and the UK on Oct 12 the drama, which features an all-star cast headlined by Jack Nicholson, showed ...
-
News
SPC buys Almodovar's latest for North America
Sony PicturesClassics (SPC) has acquired North American rights to Pedro Almodovar'snext film Hable Con Ella (Talk To Her) in a deal struck with the film's sales agent, Good MachineInternational.This is thefourth Almodovar film to be released in the US by the SPC managementtrio of Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie ...
-
News
Besson's Europa in major output & facilities deal
Vivendi Universal and Canal Plus have signed a three-year, ten picture deal with Luc Besson's company Europa Corp. The partnership also includes the use by Universal Music and Universal Studios of Besson's own high-tech facilities Digital Factory.The amount represented by the various deals remained undisclosed. Vivendi Universal chairman and ...
-
News
Hamburg film fund invests in production support
New film projects by Margarethe von Trotta, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Volker Schloendorff, and Rolf Schuebel have received backing in the latest round of funding by Hamburg's regional public film fund FilmFoerderung Hamburg. A total of $1.2m (DM2.6m) production support was given to von Trotta's Rosenstrasse project, which will begin shooting ...
-
News
Oberhausen to analyse Catastrophe as media event
The ways in which catastrophes become media events will be the focus of the Special Programme at next year's edition of the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival (2-7 May 2002).The events of September 11 have given the programme a new topicality and resonance which had not been anticipated when preparations ...
-
News
Latvia becomes 27th Eurimages member
As from 1st January 2002, Latvia will become the 27th country to join Eurimages, the support fund for the co-production, distribution and exhibition of European films. Consequently all projects involving a Latvian co-producer can be presented for the forthcoming deadline for applications on 10 January 2002. Latvia will also ...
-
News
Maziya appointed CEO of African Broadcast Network
Savannah Maziya has been appointed chief executive officer of the African Broadcast Network, a pan-African TV network launched in January this year. South Africa-based ABN currently operates a one-hour primetime feed to GTV (Ghana), KBC (Kenya), AIT (Nigeria), ITV (Tanzania), ZNBC (Zimbabwe) and ZBC (Zambia), but is poised to expand ...
-
News
Germany's Constantin relinquishes Mandalay output
Germany's ConstantinFilm will not be renewing its output deal arrangement with Mandalay Pictures when it expires at the end of this year. The decision comes as the producer-distributor is drawing up a new strategy for filling its product pipeline for theatrical releases. As a recent bank analystreport observed, until now ...
-
News
Microsoft bets on Intertainer for broadband VOD
Microsoft will be making a significant push into the online entertainment market by offering VOD broadband service Intertainer through its widely available internet portal when it is revamped next week under the name of MSN 7. Intertainer's VOD service will made be available in the top 35 broadband markets in ...
-
News
Fiona Watts returns to Warner Bros marketing in LA
Fiona Watts, a veteran international marketing executive who spent ten years at Warner Bros Pictures from 1988 to 1998, is returning to the studio in Los Angeles after two years as a consultant in the UK.She is being appointed senior vice president, international marketing, reporting directly to Sue Kroll, president, ...
-
News
Foreign films enjoy bumper year in North America
Sony Pictures Classics widened Jacques Rivette's Va Savoir from three to seven prints last weekend, scoring $67,268 for a fine $9,610 screen average. The success of that film, added to First Look's hit Italian release Bread And Tulips and Menemsha's long-running Philippine American hit The Debut ($64,670 on just six ...
-
News
UK property developer launches UKI Films
Secretive UK property player UKI has entered the film production business, launching UKI Films with former Rocket Pictures development chief Polly Steele.UKI, said to be worth up to $1bn (£700m), is covering overheads and providing an annual development fund of $217,000 (£150,000) over three years. Steele, who produced Rocket's Women ...
-
News
Loews Cineplex and Yelmo expand in Spain
Loews Cineplex and Spanish partner Yelmo Films have announced they will pump a Euros 60m (pts9.98bn) loan into the construction of eight new multiplexes for Yelmo Cineplex, their joint exhibition venture in Spain.The capital injection will supplement current cash flow and Loews' initial contribution to the venture on its 1998 ...
-
News
Little Bird feathers its nest with new talent
Flush with the success of Bridget Jones's Diary and the US release of Croupier, UK-based production outfit Little Bird is revving up its slate by expanding its network of affiliated filmmakers and international financing partners.Producer-director team Dixie Linder and Tim Roth have joined the company to develop a slate of ...