All News articles – Page 5219
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RTL sees share value slide after profit warning
Shares in RTL crashed today after the broadcasting giant joined the long list of companies warning of ad-related slowdowns.The pan-European broadcaster issued a profits warning forecasting that earnings before interest, tax and depreciation will fall by 10%-15% this year, hurt by falling advertising markets. The thinly traded shares tumbled from ...
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Germany's Das Werk expands international network
German postproduction group Das Werk has taken a 25% stake in the Belgian high-end video and film post-production company ACE Digital House, as part of its creation of an international network of postproduction companies. A cash payment of Euro 1.5m (20%) was supplemented with 5% in Das Werk shares. Over ...
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India's Zee TV to enter film production
Following the success of its maiden venture Gadar/I>, India's leading satellite television operator Zee TV has plans to enter film production as a backward integration policy for its networks. The company has announced plans to produce five $5m films a year. At present, the company has two movies in production ...
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Telemontecarlo's future questioned after takeover
As Italian tyre and cable manufacturer Pirelli, backed by the Benetton retail empire, took over Telecom Italia, Europe's fifth-biggest telecom group, this weekend, the future of the telecom's financially beleaguered TV station, Telemontecarlo, was again called into question.Just two months ago, Italy's highest appeals court cleared Telecom Italia and multimedia ...
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Apes start taking over the planet again
20th Century Fox's Planet Of The Apes re-imagining, under the direction of Tim Burton, opened day and date in Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand to massive box office figures.Even while it was smashing numerous records over the three-day weekend (Friday 27 July-Sunday 29) in North America, Apes was showing muscular ...
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'Father of Korean cinema' starts 98th film
Following the worldwide success of his previous feature Chunhyang, Veteran Korean director Im Kwon-taek has started production of his 98th film. Titled Chwi-hwa-seon in Korean, the film chronicles the true story of 19th century painter Jang Seung-eop, whose free lifestyle and eccentric personality earned him as much fame as his ...
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Swiss film industry on an upswing
Switzerland has seen cinema admissions soar by 6.4% in the first half of 2001 to 8.78m, with local productions accounting for a 4.1% market share in the first six months, compared with 4.6% in 2000 as a whole.However, of the 100-plus Swiss films released in the first half of 2001, ...
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Locarno competition favours debut directors
In her first year as Locarno International Film Festival's new artistic director, Irene Bignardi has shown strong commitment to fresh and young cinema. Almost in diametric opposition to the Cannes festival's latest edition, which displayed the work of veteran auteurs, such as Manuel de Oliveira, Shohei Imamura, Jacques Rivette and ...
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Oldenburg festival launches $99 Specials
The Oldenburg Film Festival (September 5-9) has launched a new short film programme in co-operation with the Slamdance Film Festival and based on its "$ 99 Specials" initiative which was a new feature last January. Twelve of the hottest young German filmmakers will each be provided with a budget of ...
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Traumwerk and Promark unite for TV series
Das Werk's production subsidiaries Traumwerk Filmproduktion and Promark Entertainment are banding together under the label Promark International to develop English-language TV 'events' and mini-series productions for the international market. The joint venture will be co-ordinated from Los Angeles by Promark's Jon Kramer and from Traumwerk's new Berlin office by former ...
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Deauville announces additional titles
Joel Coen's The Man Who Wasn't There, toplining Billy Bob Thornton and Frances McDormand and Woody Allen's The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion, featuring Dan Aykroyd, Helen Hunt and Charlize Theron are among a raft of titles which have been added to Deauville's 2001 line-up.Both the Coen brothers (whose debut ...
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Sony Classics grabs Sverak's Dark Blue World
Sony Pictures Classics has picked up Jan Sverak's Czech language WWII aerial drama Dark Blue World for theatrical release in North America, Australia and the UK. The deal brings the total number of territories to which the film has been sold all rights to 23, including Japan, Italy (Medusa) and ...
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Big budget films boost Italian industry confidence
With a total of 12 Italian films showing in various sections of this year's Venice film festival, and a raft of big budget films in the pipeline from the likes of Roberto Benigni and Franco Zeffirelli, the Italian film industry is feeling more positive than usual.After last year's bleak patch, ...
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Venice selection expansion hailed as double treat
The programming innovations revealed for the 58th Venice Film Festival - which this year heralds the advent of an additional competition line-up known as The Cinema Of The Present - have been greeted with generally favourable industry reactions.Many have praised the inclusion of more innovative and 'fringe' titles into the ...
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No Borders Co-Prod Market unveils 2001 lineup
The Independent Feature Project (IFP) has announced the projects which will make up this year's No Borders Co-Production Market taking place between Sept 30 and Oct 4. In addition, No Borders has struck up an arrangement with UK public funding body The Film Council which will act as a presenting ...
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Apes rules US box office; Fox epic opens on $69.6m
20th Century Fox breathed a sigh of relief as its great summer hope Planet Of The Apes opened to out-of-this-world box office results, taking an estimated $69.56m over the Friday to Sunday weekend which is the second highest opening, the highest non-sequel opening and the highest non-holiday weekend opening of ...
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Venice 2001: Film Festival Line-up
Following this year's radical restructure of one of the world's oldest international film events, Venice film festival chief Alberto Barbera has unveiled the line-up of the two official competition sections for the event's 58th edition. Now including the Cinema Of The Present competition - which showcases some 30 contemporary, debut ...
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Reelplay buys FilmBazaar as B2B websites dwindle
Reelpay has completed its acquisition of FilmBazaar, further consolidating the business-to-business e-marketplace for the film and television distribution industries.Under the terms of the merger agreement, Reelplay acquired FilmBazaar in a stock-for-stock deal. Headed by co-presidents Stephen Liu and Dennis Young, Reelplay is also suggesting that it will look for further ...
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Kirk Wong signs to direct Artisan's Iron Fist
Hong Kong action director Kirk Wong has committed to develop and direct Iron Fist, the film of Marvel Enterprises' comic book which is the first to be generated by a joint venture between Artisan Entertainment and Marvel formed to create character-based programming across all media.Ray Park will star in the ...
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Robert Luketic
The Robert Luketic story is already well-known around Hollywood. It is now set to be repeated many times by the talented young Australian director as he conducts worldwide publicity for his debut feature Legally Blonde, which opened at the top of the US box office, winning a popular vote ...