All News articles – Page 5383
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Saredi, Pandora launch joint sales outfit
Leading art-house film seller World Sales Christa Saredi and Germany's Pandora Films are to set up a new outfit Orfeo Films International.The two firms have a long history of co-operation and now hope to assemble a wider range of art-house productions.Orfeo will be based in Cologne, but Saredi will remain ...
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Kinowelt makes exhibition move
Germany's fast expanding Kinowelt group has made its first move into exhibition by acquiring a 50.1% stake in the Theile Hoyts Kinopolis group. It has also taken control of a ticketing service and clarified its plans for a move into broadcasting.The THK joint venture, Germany's number five exhibition circuit, operates ...
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German lobby group rallies round De Hadeln
German film industry lobby group SPIO (Spitzenorganisation de Deutschenfilmwirtschaft) has mounted a stern criticism of the Berlin festival organisers and their handling of Moritz De Hadeln's recent dismissal.In a statement, SPIO this week said that De Hadeln had been fired without notice "after successfully heading the second most important A-List ...
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Dear moves to SBS from Film Four Australia
Channel Four and Film Four have lost Australian representative Miranda Dear to SBS Independent, the production arm of multicultural broadcaster SBS, where she takes up the role of commissioning editor of drama from early July. She replaces Barbara Masel who signified her intention to leave several months ago.
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Momentum confirms Brother, Rocky acquisitions
Momentum Pictures, the UK joint venture of Canada's Alliance Atlantis and Germany's Kinowelt, has confirmed it has picked up The Adventures Of Rocky & Bullwinkle and O Brother, Where Art Thou' for the UK.David Kosse, managing director of Momentum, said that the Coen brothers' Cannes competition title will go out ...
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Seven Arts International joins Rat Race
Seven Arts International will partner with Paramount Pictures on Rat Race, a big budget action comedy from producers Jerry Zucker (Ghost, Airplane) and Sean Daniel and Jim Jacks, whose production outfit Alphaville was behind The Mummy and The Jackal. Andy Breckman wrote the movie which is about a road race ...
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Deneuve to star in Wild Bunch's Thumb
Catherine Deneuve is to star in Olivier Dahan's Le Petit Poucet (Little Tom Thumb) with Elodie Bouchez and Romane Bohringer. The $12m fairy tale, which is currently in development at French production outfit La Chauve Souris (Dobermann), is one of the two major French films which Wild Bunch, the 'classics' ...
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Celluloid takes first look at IFC
French sales outfit Celluloid Dreams has sealed a first-look agreement with the US' Independent Film Channel (IFC) following its acquisition of international rights to IFC-produced title Happy Accidents, directed by Brad Anderson and starring Marisa Tomei and Vincent D'Onofrio.Celluloid, headed by Hengameh Panahi, is about to pick up a second ...
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FilmFour seals Warner alliance
The UK's FilmFour and US studio Warner Bros Pictures have formed a long-term co-production alliance, FilmFour chief executive Paul Webster and Warner president of worldwide production Lorenzo di Bonaventura have announced.The deal, aimed at achieving FilmFour's long-cherished goal of making bigger-budget pictures, starts with Gillian Armstrong's Charlotte Gray, starring Cate ...
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Zentropa goes to Hollywood
Aggressive Nordic producer Zentropa is launching a Los Angeles production beach head while separately hatching a multinational partnership which is expected to involve Germany's Kinowelt and Fine Line Features.Trust Film Sales head Thomas Mai will relocate to head up the LA office which already has two projects in development. Harvey ...
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Gladiator marches into Australia, Mexico
Ridley Scott's highly anticipated film Gladiator thrashed Australian competition when it reported its opening four-day gross May 4-7. The Roman epic became the fourth highest opening film ever in the territory marginally beating The Lost World: Jurassic Park distributed in May 1997. Playing on 287 screens, the UIP release scooped ...
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Senator first up for Roth slate
Germany's Senator Film has become the first international distributor to sign up to the highly anticipated package of studio-level films being put together by former Disney chief Joe Roth. The five-year deal initially gives Senator all media rights in all German-speaking territories. It is promised a minimum of six films ...
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Warner international chief Frumkes calls it quits
Ed Frumkes, the president of international distribution and marketing for Warner Bros Pictures, is to leave the studio when his contract expires in December.The 13 year-old veteran of the studio, who took over from Wayne Duband as head of Warner International in Feb 1996, leaves on a high, after his ...
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Mutual's foreign partners strike $200m credit line
The three leading foreign distributors involved in Mutual Film Company have jointly secured a $200m revolving credit line allowing the production company to develop and finance projects without having to necessarily wait for a greenlight from a Hollywood studio partner.The flexible financing arrangement is the result of a three-year credit ...
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Hugh Grant named advisor to Internationalmedia AG
Ahead of its floatation on the German stock market this year, Intermedia and Pacifica's recently-formed film and media company IM Internationalmedia AG has added some star-power to its supervisory board by appointing Hugh Grant.The British actor will join other supervisory board members including Munich-based financial consultant Antoinette Hiebeler-Hasner, who acts ...
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RAI joins Napoleon's $35m European campaign
Italy's RAI Fiction has joined forces with France's GMT Communications and France 2 to co-produce Napoleon, the planned four part mini-series starring Christian Clavier (Asterix & Obelix, The Visitors) and Gerard Depardieu. GMT had been expected to partner with Italy's Mediaset and Germany's KirchGroup/Beta Film on the project (Screendaily, February ...
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Sogepaq picks up Fugitivas, eyes del Toro's Devil
Sogepaq, the rights and acquisitions arm of Spanish media group Sogecable, has picked up world rights on Fugitivas, a feature film currently in production at Seville-based Maestranza Films.Sogepaq is also understood to be negotiating international rights on Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone (El Espinazo Del Diablo), a Tequila Gang ...
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Constantin adds Propaganda to production stable
Bernd Eichinger's Constantin Film has unveiled its third US venture inside a week, setting up a production joint venture with Propaganda Films.The move is designed to deliver three or four films per year using Propaganda's unusual stable of directors and actors. Propaganda said under the deal it "will be taking ...
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Kevin And Perry go large again in the UK
The British comedy Kevin And Perry Go Large is back at the top of the UK chart after pinching the number one slot from last weekend's chart topper Scream 3. However, box office revenues across most of the country plummeted over the weekend (May 5-7) as the first ...
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Scott's Gladiator slays US box office
The annual bloodbath known as the US summer box office has begun in earnest and already one film has emerged victorious: Ridley Scott's $103m Roman spectacle Gladiator which debuted with $32.7m and utterly slayed all its weekend competition.Starring Australian actor Russell Crowe as the hero who fights back in the ...