All News articles – Page 5344
-
News
Channel 4 boards Southern Star's Secret Life
The UK's Channel 4 has boarded Australian production outfit Southern Star Entertainment's The Secret Life Of Us, marking its first pre-production commitment to a long-running Australian series. Australia's Network Ten and pay-TV entity Optus Television are also partners in the 22-hour $5.3m (A$9m) series. Southern Star describes it as "a ...
-
News
German state of Hessen to launch production fund
The German state of Hessen is planning to launch a $7m (DM15m) fund to support commercial film and television production in the region from next year. Herbert Hirschler, state secretary in the Economic Ministry, stressed that Hessen would "want to be an equal partner in the risk and success of ...
-
News
Cinar founders Charest and Weinberg fight back
Cinar co-founders Micheline Charest and Ronald Weinberg have rejected the company's decision to fire them from their managerial posts and also its request that they relinquish their seats on the board of directors.The husband-and-wife team, who have kept a low profile since March when allegations of tax fraud and unauthorised ...
-
News
New sales co Buskin to focus on Italian fare
Former advertising executive Antonio Guadalupi has launched a Rome-based international sales outfit, Buskin Films, which is dedicated to handling titles from emerging local directors. The new company, which plans to officially launch at this year's MIFED, has already acquired four films: Giochi Di Equilibrio, directed by Amadeo Fago, Egidio ...
-
News
Seven wins access to Telstra network
Australia's Federal Court has dismissed appeals from telecommunications giant Telstra and pay-TV provider Foxtel against a decision to give Seven Network access to Telstra's broadband cable network.Seven was first granted access earlier this year (Screendaily, March 29) and now looks to have secured it, providing the aggrieved parties don't take ...
-
News
Dimension greenlights Scary Movie II for 2001
The tagline was "No Mercy. No Shame. No Sequel." but Dimension Films, the genre production and releasing arm of Miramax Films, will break that promise and start production on Scary Movie II later this year. The first film has grossed close to $150m at the domestic box office and will ...
-
News
Hollywood wins case against DVD hacking website
Hollywood's eight movie studios won a significant court battle at the end of last week in its effort to protect DVDs from being copied onto computers.The studios via their advocate organisation The Motion Picture Association Of America (MPAA) successfully sued website publisher Eric Corley who had made available online software ...
-
News
The Cell tops chart, Spike Lee docu dazzles at 2
New Line Cinema's only release of the summer - serial killer thriller The Cell - took the top spot at the North American box office over the weekend with an estimated $17.2m on 2,411 screens for a strong screen average of $7,134. The very adult movie, in which a psychologist ...
-
News
Cartel, Creaccion set to shoot Ungria's El Deseo
Spanish producers Creaccion and Cartel plan to shoot Alfonso Ungria's El Deseo De Ser Piel Roja from September in Spain and Morrocco.The $1.1m film tells the story of two men, their fight to close a nuclear power centre and their battle for the love of one woman. Up-and-coming actors Patxi ...
-
News
Cinar fires founders Charest and Weinberg
Cinar Corp has fired its co-founders Micheline Charest and Ronald Weinberg as employees of the company and asked them to step down as directors.The move is seen as a way for the embattled company to distance itself from the tarnished image of its founders, who have been on leave since ...
-
News
Taxi 2 Drives Admissions In Japan
Even though its villains are Japanese, Taxi 2 is burning rubber at the Japanese box office. Opening on August 12, it recorded 110,000 admissions on 165 screens its first weekend, for a gross of $1,587,156 (Y173m), enough for third place in the rankings after MI:2 and The Perfect Storm.To rev ...
-
News
My Mother Frank wins Melbourne vote
Audiences favoured home-grown films at this year's Melbourne Film Festival (July 19-August 6). My Mother Frank, directed by Sydney-based Mark Lamprell, scooped the Stella Artois Award for most popular film, while Melbourne director Paul Cox scored second and third spot with Innocence and Molokai: The Story Of Father Damien. A ...
-
News
Oz producers, directors claim copyright victory
Australia's parliament has passed the Copyright Digital Agenda Bill prompting both directors and producers to issue media statements claiming they have won the long-running battle over directors' copyright. The Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) claimed victory on the basis that the new legislation was passed without the controversial amendment ...
-
News
Jazztel founder launches rival cable operator
Jordi Compte Batista, co-founder of Spanish cable company Jazztel, has launched his own competing cable outfit dubbed Flash10.com, according to Spanish news reports. Flash10 plans to offer telephone, data, internet and multimedia services in 32 cities in the Catalan region of Spain. Compte is said to be seeking international backers ...
-
News
Radcliffe revealed as the real Harry Potter
UK actor Daniel Radcliffe has been cast as Harry Potter in Warner Bros' Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, scotching rumours over the weekend that fellow Brit Gabriel Thomson had clinched the role.11-year-old Radcliffe recently played young David in the BBC's David Copperfield and also features in John Boorman's The ...
-
News
Oz ratings chief speaks out on screen violence
Des Clark, director of Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC), has claimed that Australians are concerned about rising levels of screen violence, and plans to take this into account in a review of the film classification system to take place next year.The most serious concerns are about violence ...
-
News
Parallax unveils partnership with Scotland's Makar
The UK's Parallax Pictures has established a Scottish production base through a partnership with Edinburgh-based Makar Productions. The two companies are already collaborating on Makar's first National Lottery-financed feature, the $3.9m Child Of Air.Parallax's Sally Hibbins will executive produce the feature with Makar's Eddie Dick producing. Pat Harkins, who recently ...
-
News
German exhibs team for on-line ticketing venture
German exhibitors CinemaxX, UFA Theater and Kieft & Kieft Filmtheater are joining forces to launch what they claim will be Germany's first nationwide on-line ticketing service.The service will allow customers to use the internet to make reservations and pay for tickets at the three circuits' combined 1,000 theatres across Germany. ...
-
News
IN THE HOT SEAT - ROBERT JONES
The Film Council's new head of commercial production, Robert Jones, has a heavy burden to bear. If he fails to generate a flow of hit mainstream films the whole of the UK government's recently revamped film support strategy could be in jeopardy. Adam Minns asks if he has what it ...
-
News
Leipzig documentary fest to open with Happiness
A gala screening of a restored print of Alexander Medvedkin's silent classic Happiness (Stschastje) from 1934 will open this year's International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animation Films (October 17-22). The festival will also feature a retrospective dedicated to the East German film-maker Juergen Boettcher and a special programme of ...