All News articles – Page 5280
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News
Villalonga joins Univision board
Juan Villalonga, the former chairman and CEO of Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica, has been appointed to the board of directors of US-based broadcaster Univision Communications Inc.Villalonga was forced to resign his post at Telefonica last July amid accusations that he benefited from insider information when he bought and sold stock ...
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Pinewood, Shepperton complete merger
Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios, the UK's two leading film production facilities, have finalised a merger that will create a European super studio.Pinewood will take control of Shepperton, which is co-owned by directors Ridley and Tony Scott. Pinewood chief Michael Grade will become executive chairman of the new group, while ...
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Miramax snaps up Italian For Beginners
Miramax has acquired Lone Scherfig's dogme title Italian For Beginners, one of the hottest titles in the main competition at the Berlin Film Festival since its screening on Friday, for release in the US, Mexico and English-speaking Canada. Miramax is understood to have paid $600,000 for the romantic comedy, beating ...
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Liv Ullmann to replace Jodie Foster at Cannes
Norwegian actress and director Liv Ullmann will head the jury of the 2001 Cannes film festival, replacing Jodie Foster who pulled out to take the lead role in David Fincher's The Panic Room."I am both honoured and deeply appreciative that I am now given the pleasure of being the president ...
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Lions Gate buys US theatrical rights to Liam
Lions Gate Releasing has acquired US theatrical distribution rights to Stephen Frears' drama Liam, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year. Starring Ian Hart, Claire Hackett, Anne Reid and introducing Anthony Burrows, the film is set in the Irish Catholic quarter of Liverpool in the 1930s and examines ...
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Manager John Carrabino joins Catch 23
Catch 23 Entertainment, the newly formed LA production outfit formed by financier and philanthropist Robert B Sturm, has hired talent manager John Carrabino as executive vice president of Catch 23's as yet unnamed talent management division.In his new position, he will help build and oversee the division which plans to ...
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Showtime, Zone Vision launch Showtime Turkey
US cable giant Showtime Networks has entered into a joint venture with Zone Vision, a UK-based broadcaster and distributor of thematic channels throughout Europe, to launch Showtime Turkey. Launched on Jan 15, 2001, the channel is available on the new direct-to-home platform DigiTurk, which is currently available in Turkey.The announcement ...
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Hannibal cannibalises US box office with $58m
It was a sensational weekend for Hannibal Lecter at the North American box office. The long-awaited sequel to 1991 classic The Silence Of The Lambs mesmerised the country with an estimated $58m opening weekend gross, giving director Ridley Scott another megahit after last year's Gladiator and MGM, which has domestic ...
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Leading German producers form lobby group
Constantin Film's Bernd Eichinger, Kinowelt's Rainer Koelmel and Road Movies' Uli Felsberg are among 16 leading German film and TV producers banding together to form a producers lobby group.Dubbed FILM 20, the group will focus on representing the film and TV production sector when dealing with broadcasters, public funding bodies, ...
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Murath, Brunckhorst share German Script Prize
Two scripts - Clemens Murath's Schatten Des Jaguar and Natja Brunckhorst's Wie Feuer Und Flamme - were awarded this year's German Script Prize, worth a total $47,000 (DM100,000), by Germany's state minister for culture Julian Nida-Ruemelin.Murath's thriller is to be made as a European co-production, with Filmline's Arno Ortmair ...
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UK's Hit Entertainment acquires Lyrick
UK licensing and merchandising company Hit Entertainment has acquired US rival Lyrick in a $275m reverse takeover that unites the companies behind popular children's characters Bob The Builder and Barney The Dinosaur.Hit is to help fund the deal by placing new shares to raise $106m, most of the cash payment ...
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Film Council's Premiere Fund to park with Altman
UK film superbody the Film Council is close to investing in iconic US indie film-maker Robert Altman's UK-set satire Gosford Park which will be distributed domestically by USA Films and internationally by Capitol Films.The body is negotiating to board the 1930s-set satire, for which Altman aims to secure an ensemble ...
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GMI to sell Ed Burns' next film Ash Wednesday
Good Machine International (GMI) has acquired international rights to Ash Wednesday, the fifth film to be directed by Edward Burns. Burns has written, will direct and star in and co-produce the film with Margot Bridger, producer on his last film Sidewalks Of New York.Set in 1983 New York, Ash Wednesday ...
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US strike rules pave way for international bonanza
International acting talent and non-US movie companies are set for a boom time later this year as The Screen Actors Guild guidelines to shooting outside the US should an actors strike take place in June became clear yesterday.The Screen Actors Guild Board of Directors issued the following position on work ...
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Verite opening is second biggest in French history
Warner Bros' French outpost has scored its best opening day ever with a local film, La Verite Si Je Mens 2: La Grande Distribution, which has also become the second biggest opener in French box office history, with 503,582 tickets sold on February 7.The sequel to the 1997 hit comedy, ...
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Italy's Buskin Film acquires Mother Viper
Rome-based sales outfit Buskin Film has picked up worldwide rights to Mother Viper, an English-language World War II drama which is written and composed by the award-winning Life Is Beautiful team.Directed by Italy's Sergio Citti, Mother Viper is about a woman's betrayal of her young daughter and her husband, played ...
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Bavaria, Moviefan swoop on Angel projects
Two projects from Danish producer-distributor Angel Films have been picked up for worldwide sales in the market at Berlin - Laila The Pure, directed by Gabriel Axel (Babette's Feast), which has been bought by Moviefan, and Hella Joof's Shake It All About, which has gone to Bavaria Media. Laila, a ...
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Malaga fest to launch documentary market
The Spanish Film Festival of Malaga plans to inaugurate a sales office and documentary film market at this year's fourth edition (June 1-9).The sales office will be open free of charge to films participating in any of the sections of the festival, which include the official competition, a short film ...
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E-M-S, Sunfilm strike video distribution pact
German video and DVD company E-M-S New Media has forged a distribution partnership with Munich-based video distributor Sunfilm.Under the terms of the agreement, Sunfilm will handle distribution of E-M-S video and DVD titles in the rental market, while E-M-S will do the same for Sunfilm titles in the sell-through sector. ...
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DCPF joins Media Programme in German Equinoxe
Columbia TriStar's German production arm, Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion (DCPF), is setting up a German outpost of the French scriptwriting workshop Equinoxe which has supported 150 screenplays since its inception in 1993.Equinoxe Germany is being established by DCPF executive Ellen Winn Wendl, producer Huelya Sancar and lawyer Martin Heller. Sancar ...