All News articles – Page 5290
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Salles to direct Motorcycle Diaries for Wildwood
Robert Redford's Wildwood Enterprises has reeled in Brazil's Walter Salles (Central Station) to direct an adaptation of Che Guevara's renowned journal The Motorcycle Diaries. The road movie will likely be made for a "modest" budget of $6m to $8m, according to Wildwood president Michael Nozik. Principal photography is slated to ...
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Metro Tartan buys Japan's Battle Royale
Hamish McAlpine's Tartan Films has acquired all UK rights to Japanese gore fest Battle Royale.Tartan will release the controversial film in the UK in the autumn through releasing arm Metro Tartan Distribution. Directed by Kinji Fukasaku, the futuristic story follows a group of teens on a desert island who are ...
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Sony acquires chunk of expanding BKNI
Children's animation producer-distributor BKN International (BKNI) has sold in principle a 3.8% stake to Sony Pictures Family Entertainment as the German company gears up for expansion in the US and Asia.The sale follows BKNI's acquisition of a programme library and Los Angeles production studios for $28m from BKN, effectively marking ...
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Belgium close to accord in rental terms war
Belgian exhibitors' federation, the FCB, and distributors' association, the ABDF, appear to be nearing an agreement in a two-year battle over the distributor-exhibitor split of box office grosses.Both sides are currently drawing up a joint proposal for a new federal accord to be submitted to the Belgian Council of Competition. ...
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Albis Leasing takes control of Apollo Media
Germany's largest independent leasing fund specialist, Albis Leasing, has taken majority stakes in two subsidiaries belonging to private media fund, ApolloMedia, which backed this year's Sundance Film Festival opener My First Mister. As part of the transaction, which must still pass its supervisory board, Albis has acquired a 70% stake ...
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Deluxe, Film Finances back E-Studio website
Film processor Deluxe Laboratories, completion bond company Film Finance Inc and individuals including Cecil B Demented producers Joe Carraciolo Jr, John Fiedler and Mark Tarlov and former studio production chief Fred Bernstein are among the backers of a new entertainment website called E-Studio Network. The site is a free-of-charge service ...
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ALWAYSi launches pay subscription service
The moment that this year's Academy Award nominees arerevealed to the entire world at a pre-dawn ceremony broadcast live from LosAngeles tomorrow morning, there will be the usual gasps at some of the omissionsand more questions raised about why some of the year's best-knowndocumentary features have failed yet again to ...
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Regent International sells Chippendale's movie
Regent Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to Just Can't Get Enough: The Chippendales Story and will offer it to international buyers at the upcoming AFM through sales arm Regent International.The film, written and directed by Dave Payne and produced by Sam Irvin, is a look at the famed 80s nightclub ...
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Eagle signs three year, nine-pic deal with Mutual
Mutual Film Co has closed a three year, nine-picture output deal with Italy's dynamic distribution outfit Eagle Pictures kicking off with Tomb Raider, the Paramount Pictures action adventure which Mutual is co-financing.Eagle's deal also includes any Tomb Raider sequels and indicates aggressive renewed activity by Mutual's Gary Levinsohn, who is ...
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Cast Away sweeps number one spots across Europe
Cast Away took the number one spot in all territories where it opened as the re-teaming of Tom Hanks and Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis began its international roll-out over the weekend.UIP opened the picture in the UK, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Austria and Switzerland. The film topped the UK with ...
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Australian films smash local cash records
Hit films led by The Dish, The Wog Boy and Looking For Alibrandi drove Australian films' share of last year's local box-office to more than double 1999's overall cash take, according to research released by the Australian Film Commission (AFC).Local films released theatrically in 2000 took $29.9m, the most local ...
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EM.TV plays down KirchGroup impasse reports
Executives at Germany's beleaguered rights trader and merchandising concern EM.TV have played down wide-spread reports that talks with media concern the KirchGroup are on the rocks.EM.TV spokesman Michael Birnbaum was quoted by Financial Times Deutschland as saying that there were "no problems which do not overstep the normal level". He ...
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Crouching Tiger rides Cast Away storm
UIP's Cast Away swept into the top position in the UK this weekend, but Columbia TriStar's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon posted the market's best screen average.The foreign-language epic continued on just 88 sites to retain fourth position with receipts of $976,700 and an average of $11,000. In its second week, ...
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Jodie Foster heads Cannes jury for 54th edition
Jodie Foster will head the jury at this year's Cannes Film Festival, which runs May 9-20.The Academy Award-winning actress won the top prize at Cannes, the Palme d'Or, in 1976, for the role of 12-year-old prostitute Iris in Taxi Driver."I remember going to the festival with Taxi Driver when it ...
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Berlin firms up programme for Official Competition
Love story Chloe and horror title Inugmai - both from Japan - are understood to be competing at next month's Berlin International Film Festival as the line-up for the event's main competition section takes shape.Chloe, directed by Go Riju and starring Masatoshi Nagase, is an adaptation of surrealistic novel Froth ...
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Germany's CineMediaFilm merges internet arm
CineMediaFilm, one of Germany's first integrated media corporations, is merging its internet subsidiary Film.de with Heidelberg-based internet marketing platform kinokasse.de.CineMedia will receive a 25.1% shareholding in the online marketing venture. Film.de already boasts two million page impressions a month, while, along with more traditional concepts such as online booking, kinokasse ...
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Endemol sells back stake in Germany's G.A.T.
Munich-based TV production house G.A.T. Film- und Fernsehproduktion has bought back the 49% stake Dutch entertainment concern Endemol Entertainment acquired in the company three years ago.According to the specialist media newsletter Der Kontakter, the move was prompted by Telefonica's take-over of Endemol last year. That move was also followed by ...
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German fund doubles for international drive
The regional German film fund of Baden-Wuerttemberg, currently supporting the FilmFour-majority financed Buffalo Soldiers, is to almost double its annual spend to $10m as it seeks to attract further international productions.Fund organiser Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Wuerttemberg (MFG) has also launched a scheme whereby young producers can access a $1m fund ...
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Tele-Muenchen chief readies pay-TV push
German media mogul Herbert Kloiber is reportedly readying a digital pay-TV channel to go on air this summer.Tentatively titled TM-TV, the service is expected to screen action, adventure and science fiction genres. According to German press reports, Kloiber is planning the service with ex-TM3 managing director Jochen Krohne. The operation ...