All News articles – Page 5272
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Stolen Summer wins Damon and Affleck's Greenlight
Dino De Laurentiis will be the chairman and keynote speaker at the Montreal World Film Festival's annual industry forum, the Film Market Conference.The producer of films ranging from Serpico and Barbarella to the ongoing Hannibal Lecter franchise is seen an apt speaker for the French-Canadian event due to his experience ...
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Spain's private TV nets post blockbuster results
Spain's thriving television sector, set to grow exponentially in the next year, is proving its potential with recently published, landmark year-end financial results, which place private networks Telecinco and Antena 3 among Europe's most profitable.Calling itself "the most profitable commercial broadcaster in Europe" for the second year in a row, ...
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Rai Trade deals with Brazil and Australia
Italy's Rai Trade has struck two multi-picture distribution deals with Brazil and Australia and has closed a score of sales on its new titles, including cult director Maurizio Nichetti's latest comedy Honolulu Baby. Under the output deal, the Rome-based sales agent sold eight films to Brazil's Top Tape and 10 ...
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EM.TV exercises its call option for Formula One
Hours before the deadline expired, EM.TV & Merchandising exercised its call option to purchase a further 25% stake in the Formula One holding company SLEC via its subsidiary Speed Investment Ltd. to bring its overall shareholding to 75%. Funding of $987.5m for the 25% was arranged by EM.TV with the ...
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Odeon Film closes Filmstadt.de
Odeon Film's entertainment website www.filmstadt.de was closed down today after negotiations with various investors for a takeover or merger came to nothing The Filmstadt.de site had been operating since 1999 and had been relaunched last autumn as a subsidiary of Odeon's new Internet holding company OdeonNew Vision providing a mix ...
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Veo announces CEO
In the first major announcement to come out of one of the two powerful consortia awarded Spain's new free-to-air digital terrestrial television licenses, Veo TV has named Andres Tejero as CEO.Tejero was previously director of corporate resources at Telefonica under former chairman and CEO Juan Villalonga.The appointment was followed by ...
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Pathe, FilmFour team for bigger budget films
The UK's FilmFour and Pathe have formed an initial two-year alliance to jointly acquire and distribute large-budget films in the UK. Under the terms of the collaboration, the companies aim to pick up at least two titles over the next twelve months, and will split profits equally. The companies will ...
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Sweden supports local hits, but The Emperor rules
Local productions dominated the Swedish box office over the last week (ending February 22) with indigenous titles filling four of the top five positions in the territory, although the chart was topped by BVI's The Emperor's New Groove.Opener Festival, a coming-of-age drama about a girl visiting her first pop festival, ...
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Formula 1 teams manoeuvre to thwart Kirch
The prospect of German media baron Leo Kirch having a controlling interest over the Formula One racing event hangs in the balance as the motor teams threaten to revolt.On February 27, DaimlerChrysler (Maclaren-Mercedes), Fiat (Ferrari) and Ford (Jaguar) threatened to exit the Formula One tournament and set up their own ...
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New tax relief heralds Indian multiplex boom
The Indian exhibition industry is on the brink of a multiplex revolution following finance minister Yashwant Sinha's reduction of customs duty on cinematography equipment from 25 to 15 percent on 28 Febuary.India's exorbitant entertainment tax structure has always been the major obstacle to Western exhibition companies investing in the territory. ...
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Heimat writer finds home at UFA
Bertelsmann's production arm UFA Film- & TV Produktion and Peter Steinbach, screenwriter of Edgar Reitz's internationally successful TV series Heimat (1984) and Margarethe von Trotta's award-winning Jahrestage (2000), have signed an exclusive agreement whereby Steinbach will work only with UFA on future projects for cinema and television.UFA producer Norbert Sauer ...
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Telefonica reveals 2000 profit up by nearly 40%
Spanish telecoms and multimedia giant Telefonica confirmed its place among Europe's top operators with a 38.8% rise in net profits for the year 2000 to Euros2.5bn. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 9.5% to Euros11.9bn.Multimedia filial Telefonica Media didn't fare so well, posting net losses of Euros627.1m, ...
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Holiday pics lead, Traffic and Dragon strong
Over a weekend during which just one opener broke into the Top 15; children's fare gained from the end of the half-term holiday and Gladiator took the BAFTA award for best picture, Ridley Scott's other box office behemoth, Hannibal, continued its reign at the top of the UK box office. ...
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Jet Li's five year-old Dragon flies to Summit
Summit Entertainment has acquired international rights to five year-old Jet Li-starrer Red Dragon which features the spectacular flying techniques used in current smash Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Newmarket Capital Group-associated distributor Silver Nitrate Releasing will release the film domestically; it has never been available to international buyers. The project was ...
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Harvey Keitel joins Sicilian Mafia thriller
Harvey Keitel is continuing his love affair with European cinema and is now shooting Ginostra, a Sicilian-set Mafia thriller by French director Manuel Pradal.He is joined in the cast by Andie MacDowell, Asia Argento and Stefano Dionisi. Shooting continues until the end of March. The $11.9m (FF86m) English-language picture is ...
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Zelezny's French chateaux besieged by CME
Central European Media Enterprises (CME) has been awarded damages of $27.1m by a Czech court in its long running dispute with businessman Vladimir Zelezny. Zelezny is the former chief of CNTS, CME's Czech TV services company, and who took disputed control of the Nova TV company. The Czech order allows ...
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UK welcomes yet another short film prize
The UK's FilmFour has partnered with mobile communications giant Orange to launch a major short film prize, which carries £10,000 and the opportunity to develop a feature with FilmFour Lab, the low budget arm of FilmFour.Aiming to find the UK film-makers of the future, the award - which supersedes Orange's ...
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Gaga Communications hires Company Man
Gaga Communications is understood to have picked up Japanese rights to Cube director Vincenzo Natali's Company Man, one of the US projects attracting most interest from international buyers at the AFM. Sales agent Pandora was apparently aiming to secure between $1.5m and $2m for Japanese rights to the project after ...
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3000 soldiers join Mogador Lovers
Italy's Poetiche Cinematografiche has started shooting The Mogador Lovers, a love and war story which is being directed by the head of Morocco's national film body, Souheil Ben-Barka.Set in the 1930s, the film tells the story of a young Frenchwoman, the daughter of a judge stationed in Morocco, who defies ...
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Canada's indie plight draws first blood
Montreal-based TVA is winding down its international sales operations and executive vice president of distribution, Jean Bureau has left the company.The closure comes as TVA's ultimate owner, Quebec-based publishing and communications conglomerate Quebecor seeks to cut costs following its $3.3bn acquisition of cable company Groupe Videotron, TVA's original owner, in ...