All News articles – Page 5327
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Meet The Parents scores a whopping $29m
Topping the Columbus Day weekend box office in North America with the highest October opening ever was Universal's comedy Meet The Parents which grossed a stunning $29.1m at 2,614 theatres. The comedy, directed by Jay Roach - the man behind the two Austin Powers films, was another hit for Universal ...
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French film fest throws spotlight on thrillers
The resurgence of the traditional French thriller will be celebrated at this year's French Film Festival in Scotland and the UK with a series of screenings including Frederic Schoendoerffer's Scenes De Crimes and Eric Rochant's Total Western.Other films in the series include Claude Chabrol's Au Coeur Du Mensonge, Cannes Quinzaine ...
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Germany's MediaFonds 1 launches 'back-end' fund
European film projects in need of urgent gap finance have a new source of cash to turn to following the establishment of "back-end", a fund being created by Munich-based MediaFonds 1.The new fund, which starts life with a pot worth $5m-$8m, aims to provide 30%-40% of budgets for films which ...
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European Investment Bank turns attention to film
Capital starved EU film-makers are set to grab a share in a Euros12bn boost from the European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU's long-term lending arm. The move - which could shrug off the EU's low-budget image - follows concerns that massive box office potential rests untapped because EU film-makers have ...
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Canada boosts funding for domestic films
The Canadian government has unveiled its new Feature Film Policy under which it will double its investment in feature films to $67m (C$100m) a year.The policy also includes promises to support production from "script to screen" and to boost lacklustre box office receipts for indigenous films."This policy will offer us ...
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Lachlan Murdoch rises at News Corp
Rupert Murdoch's eldest son, Lachlan Murdoch, has been appointed deputy COO at News Corp, making him the company's third highest ranking executive behind his father and president and COO Peter Chernin. The 29-year-old is currently in charge of News Corp's US print and publishing operations, and has been chairman and ...
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Helkon adds UK plank to European platform plans
German production and distribution group Helkon Media has bought a 51% stake in UK distributor Redbus Films Distribution (RFD) as part of its plan to build a pan-European studio akin to PolyGram Filmed Entertainment.The RFD acquisition is immediately expected to help Helkon cement its growing alliance of European distributors, which ...
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Lions Gate buys US on Korea's Nowhere To Hide
Lions Gate Releasing will release Lee Myung-Se's acclaimed Korean action thriller Nowhere To Hide in the US, starting with a limited run in New York and Los Angeles in December. The film was sold internationally by sister outfit Lions Gate Films International but this is a separate deal negotiated by ...
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1st German Cinema Festival set for LA next month
The Export-Union of German Cinema is to stage the 1st annual Festival of German Cinema in Los Angeles from Nov 3-9 presenting 16 new feature films, 15 shorts and a selection of shorts from German film students.Films screening will include: Sebastian Schipper's Gigantic, Achim Von Borries' England, Peter Keglevic's Falling ...
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Das Werk takes majority stake in LA's Promark
Publicly traded German post-production facility Das Werk has acquired a 73% stake in 13 year-old LA-based production and sales outfit Promark Entertainment Group.The move gives Promark access to Das Werk's network of post-production facilities while giving Das Werk a foothold in the US and access to Promark's international sales network. ...
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Ibiza comedy Harry cranks up for Sky
Sky Pictures has started production on Is Harry On The Boat', a TV movie with a cast headed by Human Traffic's Danny Dyer and Davinia Taylor, Kate McGowan, Daniela Denby-Ashe, Will Mellor and Ralph Little. UK comedian Keith Allen is also taking a role.Based on the book of the same ...
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CITT teams with Total, Mediatrade for TV movies
Columbia TriStar International Television (CITT) is teaming up with Brazilian production companies Total Filmes and O2 and Italy's Mediatrade to co-produce two TV movies.Both projects will be financed through a combination of pre-sales and tax incentive mechanisms under Brazil's Audiovisual Law. Budgets will be capped at $500,000.The first project under ...
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Splendid launches TV division
German rights trader Splendid Medien has launched a New York-based television arm, headed by TV veteran Douglas J. Schwalbe.The unit will acquire, co-finance and sell mini-series and TV movies. "We realised that there is worldwide demand for a special type of product," said Splendid chairman Andreas Klein.Splendid's first television project ...
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MIPCOM: Universal pacts with SBS, TV3
Universal Studios International has entered into multi-year output agreements with both the Dutch arm of broadcasting giant SBS and Swiss channel TV3.The deal with SBS, which owns two Dutch channels, SBS6 and NET5, covers recent box office hits such as The Mummy, The Green Mile and Shakespeare In Love as ...
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Film Council to give boost to UK production houses
UK film superbody the Film Council, which went live this week, is to pump a share of its own revenues from films back into independent production companies in a bid to help build a sustainable local industry.The boost will come from films backed through the Council's main fund for commercially-oriented ...
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Stanley lines up $9m sci-fi thriller
Richard Stanley, the South African-born director controversially taken off New Line Cinema's The Island Of Doctor Moreau in 1996, is returning to the sci-fi genre of his auspicious 1990 debut Hardware.Stanley is readying $9m futuristic action thriller In A Season Of Soft Rains for a shoot next year. Set in ...
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Time Warner, EMI call off merger plans
Time Warner and EMI said today (October 5) that they have called off their planned $20bn merger because they have not been able to meet the concerns of the European Commission's competition regulators. The two companies said were are pulling their application for regulatory approval, but will press on with ...
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Zanucks strike first-look deal with DreamWorks
Veteran Hollywood producers Richard D. Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck have signed a two-year, first-look deal with DreamWorks Pictures. Richard Zanuck has already produced Deep Impact for the studio in 1998 with his longterm producing partner David Brown and he is teaming with Dean Zanuck to produce Road To Perdition, ...
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Kinowelt USA buys Let It Ride pitch for Hurd
Kinowelt USA, the US production arm of German film giant Kinowelt, and producer Gale Anne Hurd have acquired the rights to the pitch Let It Ride by Melanie Mayron and Cynthia Mort for a sum in the mid-six figures.The film will be produced by Hurd's Valhalla Motion Pictures, which has ...
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WAMC set to animate Stephen King's Dragon
Los Angeles-based financing outfit WAMC Entertainment, headed by Frenchman Sidonie Herman, has optioned Stephen King's novel The Eyes Of The Dragon, which it plans to adapt as a $45m animated feature.WAMC - founded by Herman in 1995 - specialises in securing international production financing for North American and European film ...