All News articles – Page 5198
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Equity throws UK productions into uncertainty
Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things is amongst the high-profile productions plunged into uncertainty as the UK film sector starts to feel the impact of last week's decision by actors union Equity to strike from December 1.Other titles hit by Equity's call for its members to refuse any new contracts involving ...
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Acquisitions boost for Nordic Smile
Nordic distribution and production outfit Smile Entertainment, which has divisions in Denmark and Finland, has boosted rights acquisitions, grabbing a number of new titles for Scandinavia. According to Smile head Timo T. Lahtinen, the increase is in part due to delays in the outfit's own productions and co-productions, caused by ...
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South Korean film minister appointed
South Korean President Kim Dae Jung has appointed Namgung Jin to serve as his next Minister of Culture and Tourism, following the nomination of former Minister Kim Han-gill as a candidate in a local parliamentary election.Namgung, 59, worked previously as senior presidential secretary for political affairs before the President's cabinet ...
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Father And Daughter awarded Cartoon d'Or
Michael Dudok de Wit's animated short Father And Daughter was presented with this year's Euro25,000 Cartoon d'Or at the 12th Cartoon Forum co-production market (September 19-22) which was held in the Bavarian town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 2001. Next year's Forum will be hosted by the region of Snowdonia, Wales. De ...
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Screen International Comment
Not even our darkest imaginations could have foretold the horrors of last week, although several came close enough to force our creative industries into a sensitive retreat. A handful of upcoming films and TV shows with terrorist themes were instantly put on the back-burner; adverts laced with ghoulish humour were ...
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M6 grabs CJ's Musa, holds onto Yeoh's The Touch
Korean blockbuster Musa (aka Musa The Warrior) has been picked up for French release by M6 and heads a growing Asian slate that, despite rumours to the contrary, continues to include Michelle Yeoh's The Touch. Musa, which is the biggest-budget Korean title of all time, is set for an early ...
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Kirch, Mediaset dismantle top-heavy Epsilon
Epsilon, the joint venture film finance outfit involving the Kirch group and Italy's Mediaset, has been wound up after two years of internal wrangling.The two companies' film production label Emotion and the TV arm Evision will live on as 50-50 joint ventures controlled by the parent companies. But their ambitions ...
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Germany gains digital accord, loses Puffer
German broadcasters yesterday (Thursday 20 Sept) put aside their differences and reached agreement on new standards for digital TV. But that came too late to save Manfred Puffer, who was replaced by Peter Mihatsch, as head of Premiere World.Puffer joined Premiere World last year as its chief financial officer and ...
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Ridley & Tony Scott sign three year deal with Fox
Ridley Scott and Tony Scott and their production outfit Scott Free have closed a three year-producing and directing deal with 20th Century Fox to develop and make movies with all producing divisions of Fox. In addition to producing films for Fox, the brothers have committed to direct at least one ...
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Melissa Mazgedian upped at Paramount int'l group
Melissa Mazgedian has been promoted to vice president, international motion pictures, for Paramount Pictures Motion Picture Group.Mazgedian will work closely with Paramount's international distribution unit United International Pictures (UIP) to coordinate sales and marketing for the international release of feature films. She will continue to report to Joanna Johnson, executive ...
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Germany's RTL joins Filmstiftung NRW
Germany's largest private TV channel RTL is to become the fourth shareholder of the country's largest public fund Filmstiftung NRW.At a session of the fund's supervisory board, it was decided to give RTL a seat each in the film funding committee, the supervisory board and the shareholders' assembly. RTL's decision ...
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France's new TPS Star challenges Canal Plus
Television Par Satellite (TPS) the French digital satellite operator which is a rival to Vivendi Universal's CanalSatellite, is taking on Canal Plus, the French pay-TV channel, with the launch of a 'premium' channel, TPS Star, which will concentrate on film and soccer programming.The operator -- which boasts 1 million subscribers, ...
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Warner Village tests Greek co-production
Warner- Village Roadshow's first ever Greek co-production, the satirical comedy, Crying, A Blessing From Paradise will be a crucial test for local titles' box office potential, when it is released on Oct 26.The Safe co-production, with local directors Thanassis Papathanassiou and Mihalis Reppas, will try to renew the spectacular success ...
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Miyazaki beats own Japanese box office record
Spirited Away, the Hayao Miyazaki animated feature that outperformed the Hollywood competition this summer, has broken the all-time box office record for a Japanese film, set in 1997 by Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke. In just 56 days since its July 20 release, the fantasy about a young girl's adventures in a ...
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Irish producers and unions failing to reach accord
A report on labour relations in the Irish film industry prepared for the Irish Film Board by Frank McGettigan and released Sept 19 concludes "there is little likelihood, in the short term at least, of the negotiation of agreements which satisfy both parties." For more than a year producers' organisation ...
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San Sebastian honours absent friends
The San Sebastian International Film Festival kicked off its 49th edition yesterday (Sept 20) with the screening of The Safety Of Objects by Rose Troche, and a surprise announcement that Warren Beatty would be the recipient of a third Donostia Award. Beatty, like fellow Donostia recipient Julie Andrews, will not ...
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Warner's double international hit
Warner Bros had cause to celebrate this weekend in the international market as two of their titles carved up the box office. While Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence crossed the $100m barrier, even before opening in many key European territories including France, Spain and the UK, Swordfish secured top level ...
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Apes passes $150m, AI $100m in international takes
Two more movies have hit powerful international box office milestones in the past week. 20th Century Fox's Planet Of The Apes topped the $150m mark over last weekend, while Warner Bros' AI Artificial Intelligence soared past $100m.Planet Of The Apes has now taken $156.4m after seven weeks on release. Over ...
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Michael Nathanson renews contract at MGM Pictures
Michael Nathanson, the president and COO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Pictures, has entered into a longterm agreement with MGM to remain in charge of the production division. He has been in the job since 1997 and is one of the few senior managers to have survived the transition of management at ...
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US theatres plan Sept 11 charity day next Tuesday
Theatre circuits across the US are banding together to create a "Victims Benefit Day at the Movies" next Tuesday (Sept 25) on which 100% of ticket and concession sales will be donated to the September 11th Fund of the United Way and the American Red Cross.50% of the proceeds will ...