All News articles – Page 5386
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Roissy, Celluloid Dreams cancel merger plans
French sales outfits Roissy Films and Celluloid Dreams have cancelled the merger of their international sales activities because of a misconception that Roissy was financially backing its partner."Joining our two company names proved too confusing for buyers and producers," said Roissy Films chairman Raphael Berdugo. "Each of us will keep ...
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Clouds Of May scoops Istanbul's Golden Tulip
Turkish films dominated the 19th International Istanbul Film Festival (April 15-30) where the top honour in the international competition, the Golden Tulip, was awarded to Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan for Clouds Of May (Maysi Sikintisi) (pictured).The film also won the top prize in the national competition as well as ...
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Advanced to raise $34m for acquisitions spree
Readying itself for a raft of acquisitions, German distributor, producer and licensor Advanced Medien is to raise more than $34m (euros37m) through a rights issue.The company said that it will issue 3.325 million new shares, raising its capital base by a quarter. The exact price will be determined during the ...
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Kadokawa boards Japanese movie channel
Kadokawa Publishing, a Japanese publisher with interests in film production, is boarding Japanese Movie Satellite Broadcasting (Nihon Eiga Eisei Hoso), a start-up movie channel operated by News Corp, Sony, Fuji TV, Softbank and Toho.Although Kadokawa has supplied content to satellite television, the move marks the company's first venture into satellite ...
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Lions Gate steps up foreign-language acquisitions
Lions Gate Films International is continuing its foray into foreign-language cinema by acquiring worldwide rights (with the exclusion of Latin America) to Mexican box office hit Gimme Power (Todo El Poder). The move follows a similar acquisition last week of Cannes Critic's Week contender Love's A Bitch (Amores Perros) (Screendaily, ...
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UK's Film Council sets aside $16m for bigger films
The Film Council, the UK government's newly-created film superbody, has launched a $16m (£10m) annual fund for commercial films as part of its debut package of public support measures, the Council announced today.The commercial fund, titled the Premiere Production Fund, sits alongside a hefty fund of $8m (£5m) a year ...
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Flintstones, Frequency can't sink U-571
Universal's family comedy The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas grossed $10.8m in its first three days at the box office over the weekend but was unable to beat U-571, also from Universal, in its second weekend. The submarine thriller grossed $12.3m, bringing its total to $38.2m after two weekends. Viva ...
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Loews Cineplex gets Village's Riches
A further management shake-up at Village Cinemas International (VCI) has taken place with the announcement that Loews Cineplex International (LCI) has appointed Ian Riches as senior vice president, commencing May 1. Riches, formerly regional director - Europe for VCI based in the London office, will initially be working in Rome, ...
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Cabanillas quits RTVE for government post
In an unexpected announcement yesterday, Pio Cabanillas, general director of public broadcaster Radio Television Espanola (RTVE), was appointed spokesperson of the recently re-elected government of Spanish president Jose Maria Aznar.Cabanillas was recruited to RTVE in 1998 from his post as director of international relations at Grupo PRISA. He has worked ...
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Canal Plus, CLT-Ufa discuss link-up
French pay-TV giant Canal Plus and Luxembourg-based broadcaster CLT-Ufa - which is merging with the UK's Pearson Television - are in talks about a potential co-operation in the areas of TV rights acquisition and production.Speaking at a shareholders meeting on April 28, Canal Plus chairman Pierre Lescure stressed that there ...
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CineMedia strikes output deal with Buena Vista
Germany's CineMedia has secured an output deal for theatrical distribution in German-speaking territories of its film titles with Buena Vista International. The long-term deal covers all current feature films where CineMedia has German territorial rights and kicks off with What Women Want, the Mel Gibson film that goes into production ...
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Japan's MPT asks government to carry digital costs
Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) has proposed that the Japanese government should shoulder the cost of the country's transition to digital terrestrial broadcasting, which is scheduled to begin in 2003. Representatives from the MPT, public broadcaster NHK and the commercial networks presented estimates of the cost to a ...
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MacDowell joins FilmFour's Sad Fuckers Club
Andie MacDowell is to star in FilmFour's UK comedy Sad Fuckers Club (working title) alongside Imelda Staunton and Anna Chancellor.The film is the story of three female friends behaving badly. Newcomer John McKay, who has made a mark through shorts such as Doom & Gloom and Wet & Dry, is ...
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Golden Harvest, East-West to create Chinese portal
Hong Kong-based Golden Harvest Group and shareholder Acer Digital Services Group have joined forces with East-West Entertainment and Morning Technologies to form Eolasia.com, an entertainment portal to target the global Chinese community. The HK$200m investment will go towards three portals with localised content to service the China, Hong Kong ...
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Optimum to give Best theatrical outing
Production company Best Films and Sky Pictures, the feature arm of UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB, have settled a legal dispute over the release of soccer picture Best.Sky and the film's producer-director Mary McGuckian and producer-star John Lynch have agreed to a simultaneous outing for the picture in cinemas through distributor ...
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Production report: Canada tightens public funding
Film production is starting to buzz for some Canadian producers, with the impending warm weather. But for those hoping to make films in 2001 it is becoming increasingly complicated to secure public financing. Since 1999 federal funder Telefilm Canada's regulations have required producers to supply projected audience ratings and rate ...
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Atlas picks up Constantin's Harte Jungs
Germany's Atlas International has picked up worldwide sales rights to Constantin Film's latest German box office hit, Ants In The Pants (Harte Jungs), directed by Marc Rothemund.The comedy, about a teenage boy's sexual awakening, is being unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival where it will be screened with English subtitles. ...
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Stuart Little gets bigger in Australia
Fuelled by school holidays and the Easter weekend, Columbia TriStar's Stuart Little has brought in a phenomenal $8.7m (A$14.9m) after 20 days.The film clocked up $3.5m from 323 screens in its second week (April 12-19) - a rise of 24% from its opening seven days - giving it the biggest ...
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Liliana Cavani to direct Fine Line's Ripley's Game
Liliana Cavani, the Italian director behind The Night Porter who hasn't made a film since 1993, has boarded Fine Line Features' Ripley's Game - an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's classic novel which follows Tom Ripley 25 years after the events portrayed in The Talented Mr Ripley.Cavani is supervising a script ...
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Golan's Back! FilmWorld launches at Cannes
Menahem Golan is back - again - with a new company FilmWorld and his years-in-the-making version of Crime And Punishment almost ready for unveiling. Teaming with Eugeny Afineevsky, his executive vice president and head of business affairs, and Eddie Avalos, vice president and head of international sales, Golan has two ...