All News articles – Page 5291
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TEAM raises $50m production fund for TV projects
US producer-distributor TEAM Communications Group is a launching a $50m TV production fund entitled TEAM TV Fund following a pact with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC).TEAM, which is listed on Frankfurt's Neuer Markt and the US NASDAQ exchange, has put up $ 5m of its own capital for ...
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Warner, FilmFour, Senator vow Death To Smoochy
Warner Bros, the UK's FilmFour and Germany's Senator have partnered on Death To Smoochy, a Robin Williams and Ed Norton comedy directed by Danny DeVito.The project, currently in pre-production, marks the next in the long-term production partnership that FilmFour and Warner announced last Cannes. It reverses the relationship on the ...
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Last Dance, Crouching Tiger drive holiday record
The North American box office continued the record pace set in December with a massive four-day Martin Luther King holiday weekend, up 38% from the same weekend last year and the biggest Martin Luther King Day weekend ever.Driving the box office was Paramount Pictures' Save The Last Dance, the latest ...
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Shooting Gallery buys six more for 3rd film series
The Shooting Gallery has announced the films it has acquired for its third film series at Loews Cineplex Entertainment theatres across North America.The six independent films which will screen over a three month period in 16 markets are Pawel Pawlikowski's British critical hit Last Resort and Kieron Welsh's Irish comedy ...
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Spain: production up as local market share falls
Spanish production levels rose significantly last year but box-office for local product fell, according to the year-end analysis by the Spanish Cinema Academy.Spain produced a whopping 104 films last year, seven more than the previous year and 25 more than in 1998. Average budgets on Spanish films continued their decade-long ...
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Spain's Anita heads for Berlin's Panorama
Anita Takes A Chance (Anita No Pierde El Tren), from veteran Spanish director Ventura Pons, has been invited to screen in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival.This marks the fourth consecutive year that Pons will screen a film in Berlin, following To Die- Or Not (Morir- O ...
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Spain's Via Digital appoints general manager
Pedro Urieta has been appointed general manager of Spanish digital satellite TV provider Via Digital.Urieta, 42, was previously general manager of Via Digital parent company TPI, a subsidiary of telecommunications giant Telefonica. During his tenure he helped generate an income rise of 100% over four years.Urieta will work alongside Via ...
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Quebec's Falardeau takes director award
Quebec director Philippe Falardeau has won this year's Claude Jutra Award for The Left Half Of The Fridge (La Motie Gauche Du Frigo), a mockumentary that uses humour to tackle the issue of unemployment.The award will be presented to Falardeau on January 29 at the 21st Annual Genie Awards, Canada's ...
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Advertising plunge hits UK exhibition sector
UK cinema advertising revenues plunged last year as major advertisers pulled out of the sector completely or scaled back dramatically, according to new figures from monitoring service ACNielsen MMS.UK exhibitors took $116m for the period January to November 2000, down from $125.8m for the same period in 1999. The rare ...
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Tele-Muenchen, Concorde pact with Studio Hamburg
Studio Hamburg's feature production arm, Studio Hamburg Letterbox Filmproduktion, has signed a three-picture co-production and distribution deal with Tele-Muenchen Group and its distribution arm, Concorde Film.Heading the trio of titles is Widerstand Der Herzen, the next project from internationally-renowned German director Margarethe von Trotta, which marks her first feature since ...
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Dancer, Bench, Italian split Danish Oscars
Lars von Trier's Cannes winner Dancer In The Dark, Per Fly's The Bench and Lone Scherfig's Italian For Beginners led the nominations for Denmark's Oscar equivalents, the Robert awards.The trio secured ten nominations each in a year when award nominations for Danish films proved as competitive as the fight for ...
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Loews Cineplex heads for corporate distress
Cash-strapped Loews Cineplex has retained a leading corporate distress specialist, indicating that the exhibitor is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection.New York-based Loews Cineplex has opened its books to investment bank GE Capital so that it can prepare a so-called "debtor in possession" financing structure. Under "debtor-in-possession" guidelines, the debtor ...
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Unbreakable proves indestructible in Hungary
Unbreakable smashed recent box office opening records in Hungary last weekend, earning $184,979 from 24 screens.The supernatural thriller recorded the second highest three-day opening of all-time, behind 1999's Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace with $310,900. Released through Intercom, the Buena Vista International title took a mighty screen ...
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Time Warner, AOL merge with new media conditions
Controversial new media conditions hit Time Warner and America Online as the price for the last piece of regulatory approval for the two company's proposed merger.The US's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave its approval for the takeover - the last clearance necessary for the $105bn deal to go ahead - ...
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IFP Spirit Awards nominate Requiem, Chuck & Buck
Miguel Arteta's Chuck & Buck, Darren Aronofsky's Requiem For A Dream and Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count On Me have each received five nominations for the 16th Annual IFP/West Independent Spirit Awards. The Independent Feature Project/West announced the nominees in Los Angeles on Wednesday night. Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls, ...
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MCP taps Levine as new creative affairs head
MM Media Capital Partners has hired Jackie Levine, formerly head of development at Michael Douglas' Furthur Films, as its head of creative affairs. She will be based in MCP's Beverly Hills office.Her appointment follows the recent hiring of Lakeshore International's Peter Rogers to head up international sales and distribution operation ...
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Connery has Highland fling with Queen Of Scots
Sean Connery is set to throw his weight behind the long-gestating Scottish period epic Mary, Queen Of Scots.Fountainbridge Films, the Scottish actor's production outfit, is set to board the lavish period piece, which is set up with co-financiers BBC Films and Intermedia. Intermedia already has a production pact with Fountainbridge.Acclaimed ...
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Billy Elliot opens Brussels International Festival
Stephen Daldry's crowd pleaser Billy Elliott is to open the 28th Brussels International Film Festival, which is being held from January 18 to 27.The ten-day festival will close with Elle Chouraqui's tale of war-torn former Yugoslavia, Harrison's Flowers, starring Andie McDowell. The competitive event offers a Euros 80,000 top prize ...
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Murdoch readies float for Global Networks
News Corp is reported to be moving ahead again with plans to float off its satellite holding division, Sky Global Networks.According to unconfirmed wire reports, News Corp is pressing ahead with preparations for the flotation in parallel with ongoing talks to acquire US satellite giant DirecTV, from Hughes Electronics. The ...
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Helkon's Peppermint appoints Daniel Otto as buyer
High-profile film buyer Daniel Otto is to become head of acquisitions at Helkon-backed sales and finance outfit Peppermint. Otto joins the outfit after four years of acquisitions in the film department of KirchMedia. Peppermint was established in March of last year, with a slate focused primarily on TV programming, but ...