All News articles – Page 5369
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Gitai chooses Miller adaptation for next project
Israeli film-maker Amos Gitai - whose latest film, Kippur, was in competition at Cannes this year - will next direct an adaptation of Arthur Miller's novel Plain Girl: A Life.The project marks a departure for Gitai who usually focuses on Israeli history and social issues. Kippur is set in the ...
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Pinefilm taps Sorby to head up acquisitions
Australian distributor Pinefilm Entertainment has appointed Nicole Sorby as head of acquisitions replacing Peter Downer who left the company last week following a breakdown in relations with owner and managing director Sean Rothsey.Rothsey was formerly a financial backer of The Globe Film Co, when Downer was one of three partners ...
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DreamWorks, Polyvideo reportedly in on-line pact
DreamWorks has signed an exclusive agreement with Milan-based Polyvideo to sell its home video and DVD titles on-line, according to Italian press reports.The deal is expected to be the first in a series of alliances that DreamWorks plans to establish in Europe to sell its product on-line. In the US, ...
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Star Wars, staff cuts boost Kinematografer profits
Norwegian exhibitor Oslo Kinematografer, owned by Oslo City Council, has posted a pre-tax profit of $696,000 (NKr6m) on turnover of $21.5m (NKr185m) for the 12 months to December 1999.The result is significant improvement for the company which for the last two years has reported profits close to zero. Head of ...
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Fox, Cinram seal North American video pact
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Toronto-based videocassette and DVD manufacturer, Cinram International, have entered into a multi-year agreement under which Cinram will produce and distribute Fox's VHS tapes in the US and Canada. Previously the company distributed Fox product in Canada only. Given the ten-fold increase presented by the ...
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Football set to feature at British Short Film fest
Football, starring Helena Bonham Carter, will be a timely highlight at the upcoming British Short Film Festival.The film is directed by Gaby Dellal, whose credits include a segment of Sky Pictures' Tube Tales and Granada Films' upcoming feature Single Girls Diary. Dellal's short film Toy Boys won the prize for ...
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Canal Plus-Pathe continue talks for UK pact
France's StudioCanal appears to be forging ahead with talks to create a pan-European distribution network - a releasing apparatus that would effectively run alongside United International Pictures (UIP) should Canal Plus and its parent Vivendi succeed in their planned takeover of UIP partner Universal.According to well-placed sources, StudioCanal expects to ...
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Vivendi Universal merger deal only days away
It looks as if Vivendi chairman Jean-Marie Messier will be saying 'Bonjour Hollywood' within just a matter of days after both he and his prospective second-in-command Edgar Bronfman Jr separately confirmed that their hot-and-heavy negotiations to take over Seagram are all but wrapped up. The resulting Paris-based media and communications ...
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Qualcomm, Technicolor form joint digital venture
Digital media technology company Qualcomm and Carlton Communications-owned Technicolor Digital Cinema are teaming up to provide an open standard distribution system for digital cinema. The joint venture, to be called Technicolor Digital Cinema LLC, marks another major step forward to finding a useable method to deliver digital films worldwide - ...
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Allouache secures backing from Hubert Bals Fund
Salut Cousin! director Merzak Allouache is amongst a host of film-makers from developing counties to secure funding from the International Film Festival Rotterdam's Hubert Bals Fund.Allouache was awarded support for L'Autre Monde, which explores the social and political situation in Algeria through a young woman's search for her fiance.Other projects ...
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TV2 Danmark appoints Price to film, drama role
Danish national broadcaster TV2 Danmark has appointed 33-year-old Adam Price as head of drama production starting 2001. The role has been expanded to encompass all fiction production including investments in features.Price has worked as a freelance writer in a wide range of genres and media for 14 years and has ...
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Toei celebrates anniversary with Genji adaptation
As part of its 50th birthday celebrations, Japanese major Toei is set to produce a Y1bn ($9.3m) adaptation of The Tale Of Genji, a classic of world literature written by Murasaki Shikibu.The script, by Akira Hayakawa, does not focus on the novel, but the writer, a courtier who began to ...
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Edinburgh unveils gala screenings
Franchise Pictures' Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her, which boasts a cast including Holly Hunter, Glenn Close, Cameron Diaz and Calista Flockhart, will screen in the gala section of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (August 13-27). The festival has also confirmed Simon Cellan Jones' Cannes Directors' Fortnight ...
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Brune to replace Dassonville at Columbia France
Eric Brune, currently sales director at French distributor UGC Fox Distribution (UFD), is to replace Richard Dassonville as CEO of Columbia TriStar's French outpost.Prior to UFD, where he has spent the last five years, the 38-year-old Brune has worked at Pathe, Disney and Warner.UFD - a joint venture between French ...
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Intertainment to raise $163m for production push
Fast-expanding German rights broker Intertainment plans to raise more than $163m (Euros170m) to fund its drive into film production.The Munich-based company today said that it will increase its share capital by some two million shares in a rights issue in mid-July. Intertainment's financial advisers will set the price for the ...
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Alliance sews up world sales on Stardom
Alliance Atlantis Pictures International has sold Denys Arcand's Stardom, which closed this year's Cannes Film Festival, to a slew of territories including Germany, where the picture went to Arthaus, and Rentrack in Japan.The film also went to Spring Cinema for Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, Cinemien for Benelux, Triangle Films ...
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Paramount worldwide acquisitions chief to quit
John Ferraro, senior vice president, worldwide acquisitions and co-productions at Paramount Motion Picture Group, is to leave the studio after 20 years to pursue other interests. A well-known figure on the international festival and market circuit, Ferraro was most recently instrumental in acquiring British comedy Kevin & Perry Go Large ...
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Blockbusters bunch up in Oz
While the European box office fights soccer-mania and pre-summer seasonal box office lows, Australia's chart is riding high with help from the southern hemisphere winter and two hits carrying a high level of Australian content.Mission: Impossible 2 at number one has scooped $7.6m (A$13.3m) after just 12 days, a record ...
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Balkans documentary scoops BANFF grand prize
The grand prize at Canada's BANFF Television Festival went to documentary A Cry From The Grave, which investigates the massacre of 7,000 Muslim refugees in Srebrenica.The film, produced by the UK's Antelope and BBC, the US' Thirteen-WNET and the Netherlands' Ryninks Films, also picked up the top prize in its ...
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Pearson completes TalkBack acquisition
Pearson Television, the TV production arm of the UK's Pearson Group, has finalised its acquisition of London-based TV production outfit TalkBack Productions for $94m (£62m), Pearson announced today (June 14).The Pearson group is to finance the widely-anticipated move through existing bank facilities. The debt incurred is transferring to Pearson Television ...