All News articles – Page 5340
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Hong Kong's Mei Ah steps up film, TV production
Encouraged by the new crop of pay-TV channels about to hit Hong Kong, local producer Mei Ah Entertainment is expanding its film production slate and ploughing an additional $13m-$26m (HK$100m-HK$200m) into television production.According to Mei Ah managing director Patrick Tong, the company will produce another 11 features by the end ...
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Regus to sponsor London Film Festival
The London Film Festival (November 1-16) has unveiled its first ever title sponsor, meaning the festival will change its name for its forthcoming 44th edition.Business centre operator Regus Instant Offices has guaranteed funding of over $1.46m (£1m) for the festival over the next three years. As a result, the festival's ...
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Vivendi Universal gets greenlight from Canada
The three-way merger between Vivendi, Seagram and Canal Plus has been cleared by Canada's competition authorities. The deal is now only now only waiting for a greenlight from the European Commission (EC) after being waved through by the French and US authorities. The EC was originally scheduled to rule on ...
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France's Ubi Soft acquires Clancy's Red Storm
French video game developer and distributor Ubi Soft Entertainment is to acquire Tom Clancy's Red Storm Entertainment - which develops video games adapted from the US author's novels - for a reported $45m.Red Storm, which is based in Morrisville, North Carolina, registered revenues of $52m in 1999.Ubi Soft, a leader ...
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MGM, Zee join forces for Indian movie channel
MGM has formed a joint venture with India's largest private broadcaster Zee Telefilms to establish a 24-hour movie channel for South Asia in the third quarter of this year. Through the partnership, Zee's existing English-language film channel, Zee Movies, will be relaunched as Zee-MGM. "Zee will have a dominant equity ...
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China reportedly to create cable TV giant
China plans to merge its estimated 2,000 cable companies, which reach 90% of its 1.2bn population, into a singe entity according to a report in the China Daily newspaper.The director of China's State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT), Xu Guangchaun, was quoted as saying that the move ...
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Granada, WGBH to co-produce Uncle Silas
The UK's Granada Media and US public broadcaster WGBH have struck a deal to co-produce My Uncle Silas, a mini-series based on short stories by HE Bates, set to star Albert Finney and Charlotte Rampling.Granada-owned Yorkshire Television will produce the series - about a ten-year-old boy sent to the country ...
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Harrison to step down from NSW film office
Michelle Harrison resigned today (August 29) from her key role as manager of development and finance at the New South Wales Film and Television Office (NSWFTO) in order to raise money for her own project.Harrison plans to will leave her post in late November. During her two-and-a-half years with the ...
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BBC, Telewest mull UKTV float
Telewest is considering floating its joint pay-TV venture with the BBC, UKTV, according to Telewest CEO Adam Singer.Speaking at last weekend's Edinburgh International Television Festival, Singer said the venture, which controls a stable of six cable TV channels, including UK Gold and UK Play, is valued at more than $1.47bn ...
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Hart Sharp to co-produce UK comedy Lily
Hart Sharp Entertainment - the New York-based production outfit behind Boys Don't Cry and Sundance co-winner You Can Count On Me - has boarded its second UK picture within a year - Lily And The Secret Planting which it will co-produce with the UK's Sarah Radclyffe Productions and Strawberry Vale ...
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Bleeder, Torowisko among Sarajevo winners
Danish picture Bleeder, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, won the FIPRESCI prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival last week (August 18-26) while the Regional Programme jury gave their award to Poland's Urszula Urbaniak for Torowisko.The FIPRESCI jury also gave a special mention to Srdjan Vuletic's Hop, Skip & Jump, a ...
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Seven Songs takes Nordic crown at Amandas
Finland's Seven Songs From The Tundra (Seitseman Laulua Tundralta) was the surprise winner of the best Nordic film prize at Norway's Amanda Awards, which take place during the Norwegian film festival in Haugesund. The black-and-white feature mixes dramatised local legends and documentary footage from the lives of the all-but-unknown Nenets ...
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Korea's Digital Nega backs Asian digital package
Seoul-based venture capital firm Digital Nega, a subsidiary of entertainment magazine publisher Nega, is financing a trio of digital features by prominent Asian directors Fruit Chan, Park Ki-Hyung and Hideo Nakata.Although the themes of the three films differ, all are being shot using Sony HD Cam 1080/24P digital cameras and ...
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X-Men, Shanghai Noon top tepid weekend
The UK box office over the August bank holiday weekend was disappointing, with the aggregate gross around $1.5m lower than the same weekend last year. The major opener, Shanghai Noon (pictured), released and highly-publicised by Buena Vista International, grossed $1,095,159 (£744,631) over the three-day weekend taking second place in the ...
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ABS finds one third of Oz households on-line
The number of Australian households with internet access grew to 2.3 million or 33% in the 12 months to May 2000 according to research conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The figure compares to 22% in May 1999.The ABS also found that nearly half of Australia's adult population ...
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CanalSatellite expands line-up; forecasts profit
Canal Plus' French digital satellite operation, CanalSatellite, will add several new channels and interactive services to its line-up this autumn, most of which will be derived from its alliance with media and publishing giant Lagardere. Canal Plus has also said it expects the service to reach break-even this year as ...
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Cinar founders to stay on as directors
Cinar Corp CEO Barrie Usher has said that the company will keep founders Micheline Charest and Ronald Weinberg on the board of directors, despite having asked them to step down on August 17.The news comes after the two said through a lawyer that they would not resign as company directors ...
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Caine to receive San Sebastian Donostia award
Sir Michael Caine will be the recipient of this year's Donostia Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Sept 21-30). John Irvin's film Shiner, in which Caine plays the ambitious father of a rising boxing star, will screen out of competition in the festival's official section.In 1996, Caine won ...
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Oz exhibs slash ticket prices to counter Olympics
Australia's three major exhibitors are dropping their ticket prices by more than 60% during September in anticipation of a downturn in business as a result of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.The move was lead by Hoyts, which also took into consideration the extended school holidays in some parts of ...
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Warner, Videocine launch Mexican production outfit
Warner Bros and Mexico's Videocine have formed a joint production venture, Coyoacan Films, following the success of their first co-production The Second Night (La Segunda Noche).Romantic comedy Second Night grossed $5.2m in Mexico and ranks among the top five all-time Mexican box office hits. Producer-distributor Videocine has a busy development ...