All News articles – Page 5377
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US vote opens doors to China
Last November's agreement to further open China to the US entertainment industry is set to come into force after this week's vote in Congress to normalise trade relations between the two countries. The normalisation bill was passed in the House of Representatives on Wednesday (May 24), and is likely to ...
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Carlton extends Internet pact to Epsilon trio
The UK's Carlton Communications may seek to develop corporate links with continental Europe's top broadcasters, having this week enlarged its Internet deal with TF1 to include the Epsilon trio of companies.Often criticised for not having an active European strategy, Carlton this week hinted that it sees Germany's Kirch, Italy's Mediaset ...
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Bim eats Kollek's Fast Food, Loach's Bread
Valerio De Paolis' independent distribution company Bim has acquired Italian rights to a raft of Cannes competition titles including Ken Loach's Bread And Roses, from UK-based sales outfit The Sales Co.Other competition titles acquired by Bim are Amos Kollek's Fast Food Fast Women, from Celluloid Dreams; Austrian director Michael Haneke's ...
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Irish Film Board, AtomFilms pair up for shorts
The Irish Film Board and AtomFilms are set to unveil a joint initiative - "Irish Flash" - for the production and distribution of short films on the Internet. The move is the first step taken by the board since it made a policy decision late last year to direct some ...
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High Point, Film Company expand team
The UK's High Point & The Film Company Group has appointed Chris Bluett to the position of film sales executicve. Bluett, who was previously a senior researcher for Celador Productions' Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, has been working with the the group's sales team for the past year.The group ...
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NEWS IN BRIEF
SCHEIDER SIGNS UP FOR GOOD WARROME: Roy Scheider has been chosen to replace Harvey Keitel (who in turn replaced Sam Shepard) in the $6m, ten-years-in-the-making The Good War (entitled Texas in Italy), which is being produced by Alessandro Verdecchi of Orango Films. Italian hearthrob Raoul Bova has also dropped out ...
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Putin cuts lifeline to Russian film
Russian president Vladimir Putin has decided to axe Goskino, the government body responsible for supporting the film industry, provoking a wave of protest from local filmmakers. Protesters claim that unless the decision is reversed it will signal the death of the struggling Russian film industry which is heavily dependent ...
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Carlton Media reports 12% interim profit increase
Carlton Communications has reported that profits for its media division, Carlton Media, were up 12% to $149m (£101m) in the six months to March 31, on turnover of $751m (£508m) up 13% from the corresponding period the previous year.Film and video/DVD duplication unit Technicolor, currently up for sale with a ...
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Norway launches summer box office assault
The Norwegian film industry has joined forces on a project called Summer Cinema (Sommerkino) to boost cinema admissions during the summer months when long daylight hours keep audiences out of theatres.An initiative of trade organisation Film & Kino, the project is backed by all Norwegian distributors, as well as 96 ...
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Telecinco strikes 10-pic deal with Singer
Spanish broadcaster Telecinco has sealed a 10-picture pact with US independent producer Joseph Singer, marking its first foray into all-rights acquisitions. Nicolas Cage-starrer One To One will be the first title to emerge from the deal.The pact mirrors a similar move by Telecinco rival Antena 3 which picked up all ...
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Satellite Theatre scores major coup with Shiri buy
Shochiku-owned movie channel Satellite Theatre has made its first major acquisition, purchasing all broadcasting rights to hit South Korean actioner Shiri, which has grossed $15m (Y1.6bn) at the Japanese box office. Channels such as Satellite Theatre which broadcast on communications satellites usually rely on their parent companies, including majors such ...
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Nordisk swallows Per Holst as part of overhaul
Danish production outfits Per Holst Film and Victoria Film are being folded into parent company Nordisk Film & TV in an attempt to streamline production operations at the Scandinavian major. The two companies, which merged prior to being acquired by Nordisk in 1991, have operated as stand-alone units since the ...
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Chow reduces Golden Harvest stake
Golden Harvest Entertainment chairman Raymond Chow has sold an 11.7% stake in the company lowering his 34% stake to 22.3%.Chow recently acquired an additional 4.8% of the company from Australia's Village Roadshow. At the same time Roadshow offloaded the rest of its stake in Golden Harvest to Taiwan's Acer Digital ...
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Canal Plus makes five-year pledge to French film
Canal Plus signed a five-year deal with the French film producers' associations in Cannes last week, in which it pledged to invest FFr20.5 per subscriber per month in European films in return for exclusive pay-TV rights.Of the FFr20.5 per subscriber per month, FFr15.5 will go to French productions, underscoring Canal ...
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CLT-Ufa acquires stake in Antena 3
CLT-Ufa is to buy an 11% stake in Spanish free broadcaster Antena 3 in a move that further tightens an emerging European TV production and distribution network.According to unconfirmed reports, the stake is being sold by Bank Of New York and Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica will maintain an unchanged 47% ...
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UK box office spawns hits and misses
Aided by seven opening films, the UK box office picked up again last weekend after the recent spate of warm weather. But with Gladiator holding over well, falling just 3% from its opening weekend, not all the new releases profited from healthy box office returns. Best out of the ...
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Artifical Eye snags four Cannes titles
The UK's Artificial Eye picked up four films at Cannes, including Jury Prize winner Blackboards by Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf.UK rights to the film were acquired from Wild Bunch, which also sold Artificial Eye international critics prize winner Eureka.Artificial Eye also picked up Dominik Moll's buzz Cannes film Harry, A ...
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Murdoch invites TF1 to join Stream
News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch has reportedly invited French free-TV broadcaster TF1 to enter News Corp and Telecom Italia's Italian pay-TV operation Stream, a competitor to Canal Plus' Telepiu.Murdoch and TF1 previously discussed an Italian alliance in the early days of News Corp's involvement in Stream, but the talks did ...
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Miramax bags US, remake rights to Jet Set
Miramax has acquired remake and US distribution rights to French-language comedy Jet Set which Hilltop Entertainment is selling internationally in collaboration with French packaging specialist Jean-Michel Ciszewski.The film is a "fish-out-of-water" tale about a comedian's attempts to infiltrate the jet set in order to save a nightspot threatened by closure. ...
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Carlton snaps up US cinema ad company Screenvision
Carlton Communications has made a vital step forward in tackling the US cinema advertising market through its purchase of New York-based Screenvision Cinema Network. The $93.3m cash deal announced yesterday (May 22) gives Carlton access to Screenvision's 65% share of the US screen advertising industry. This is a major ...