All News articles – Page 5388
-
News
New Zealand's First Sun makes film push with Lies
New Zealand production outfit First Sun has unveiled its debut feature development slate which includes an adaptation of Michelanne Forster's play Castle Of Lies.The play, set in the 1890s, revolves around the true story of charismatic politician William Larnach who blew his brains out in the New Zealand Parliament, an ...
-
News
Fire And Sword's Jerzy Hoffman readies Quo Vadis
Jerzy Hoffman, the director of last year's runaway Polish hit With Fire And Sword, is to start shooting next month on the country's biggest production to date, the $12m Quo Vadis.The project, based on the Nobel Prize-winning book by Henryk Sienkiewicz, is scheduled to go into production on May 8. ...
-
News
Kinowelt, BAC talk distribution partnership
Germany's Kinowelt Medien is in talks with French distributor BAC Films about joining Kinowelt's proposed international distribution network.Kinowelt, which could feed its partners with films from its recently struck deal with US producer Gale Anne Hurd, is also in talks with potential partners in Italy and Spain, where Lolafilms is ...
-
News
MGM extends Showtime domestic pay-TV deal to 2008
US pay TV operation Showtime Networks has extended a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for current and future theatrical output, certain library titles and a commitment to co-produce three new television series.The new deal, which builds on an existing arrangement between the two companies, will run through Dec 31, 2008. Showtime ...
-
News
Michael Silberman to run new US distributor IDP
Michael Silberman has been named COO and president of distribution and marketing at IDP - Independent Distribution Partners - the newly formed North American distribution joint venture between CanWest Entertainment, Samuel Goldwyn Films and Stratosphere Releasing.Silberman was previously senior vice president of distribution at October Films where he was responsible ...
-
News
Randy Greenberg joins refinanced AlwaysI.com
AlwaysI.com - an online full-length film distribution platform for independent film-makers - has closed a $5m round of financing, relocated from Cincinatti to San Francisco and hired former MGM international theatrical marketing executive Randy Greenberg as new head of marketing.Former Inktomi executive Anthony Soohoo has also joined the company as ...
-
News
Telefilm advised to quit television
Telefilm Canada, the country's principal source of production subsidy, has been advised to pull out of television and concentrate on film in two separate reports, by the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) and consultancy KPMG.The reports suggest that the federal agency should no longer administer the $200m CTF, citing bureaucratic inefficiency ...
-
News
Carlton Cinema bags Columbia premieres
UK digital channel Carlton Cinema has secured first-run rights for the UK to 35 titles from Columbia TriStar International Television (CTIT).In addition, Carlton Cinema has acquired rights to broadcast My Best Friend's Wedding and As Good As It Gets immediately after their terrestrial premieres. The deal is the third between ...
-
News
VCL issues shares for buying spree
Germany's VCL Film+Medien is raising an estimated euros54m ($51.4m) through a placing with institutional investors today, which it intends to spend on purchasing "extensive film packages" and restarting its TV licensing business.The company is selling some 1.56 million new shares and increasing its capital by 10%. The new shares are ...
-
News
Bread And Tulips sweeps Italy's Davids
Silvio Soldini's Bread And Tulips (Pane E Tulipani) scooped nine prizes at Italy's leading awards ceremony - the David di Donatellos - last night, including best film, best director and best screenplay for Soldini and Doriana Leondeff.The film also bagged awards for best actress (Licia Maglietta), best actor (Bruno Ganz), ...
-
News
UK box office jumps 21% in first quarter
Fuelled by Toy Story 2, box office revenue for the UK and Eire during the first three months of this year has risen by an impressive 21% compared to the same period last year. The $258m (£163m) taken from January to March also exceeds the blockbusting period in 1998 when ...
-
News
Bac picks up Coens' Cannes competitor from UPI
Universal Pictures International (UPI)'s newly-reconfigured UK-based sales operation has sold the Coen brothers' Cannes competitor O Brother Where Art Thou' To Bac for France.The division is also forging ahead with deals on studio pictures such as Hannibal and The Adventures Of Rocky And Bullwinkle. UPI, which is working closely with ...
-
News
Cannes Critics' Week mirrors main competition
Confirming the European and Asian-heavy weighting of the Cannes main competition, the Critics' week boasts two Far Eastern films - one from Korea, one from Taiwan - and two from France.Francophone film-makers are also heavily represented among the short films in the section. Two are from France, one more each ...
-
News
Endemol reports 36% increase in interim profits
Dutch production giant Endemol Entertainment has reported an impressive 36.4% rise in profit, before extraordinary gains and losses, to $20.9m (NLG48.3m) in the first half of the 1999-2000 financial year, compared to $15.3m (NLG35.4m) in the corresponding period in 1998-1999.The company 's operating result also increased substantially by 42% to ...
-
News
Canal Plus strikes pact with Horwits ahead of sale
Canal Plus Image unveiled details of its flotation today (April 19) and announced it is doubling its investment in film this year and has struck a production deal with Mitch Horwits, the former president of Spelling Films.Canal Plus Image, which has renamed itself StudioCanal, is launching a share offering that ...
-
News
Berlusconi's son replaces Carlotti at Mediaset
Pier Silvio Berlusconi, son of Italian mogul Silvio Berlusconi, has been named chairman of Mediaset's RTI television production unit, replacing Maurizio Carlotti who is resigning after battling with the company's top executives. Pier, 31, has been at Mediaset since 1992 and is the former vice-chairman of RTI. His appointment had ...
-
News
Golden Harvest unveils digital, exhibition push
Hong Kong's Golden Harvest Entertainment (GHE) is making an aggressive push into the Internet, following Taiwanese hardware giant Acer's investment in the company, and has also unveiled plans to step up exhibition activities in mainland China.In a deal mirroring AOL's merger with Time Warner, Acer Digital Services Group (ADSG) recently ...
-
News
Yes commits to stockmarket flotation by end of May
UK video-on-demand (VoD) concern Yes Television has committed to float by May 22, a spokesperson confirmed today (April 19).The move comes after Yes put plans to float on hold after New York's high-tech stock exchange, the NASDAQ, plunged 9.7% last Friday. The flotation puts a post-IPO value on the company ...
-
News
Keil calls for revamp of German funding system
Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg chief Klaus Keil has called for a rethink of the German public film funding system in the light of German media companies' successful IPOs.Writing a guest column for the German daily newspaper Die Welt, Keil asked whether films that that can now be "freely financed at any time", ...
-
News
Oz talent lobbies Howard for film funding boost
A high-powered group of signatories has sent a letter to Australian Prime Minister John Howard urging him to increase film industry funding when he hands down the 2000-2001 budget in early May. The group includes producers Jan Chapman and Lynda House, directors Gillian Armstrong, Scott Hicks and Chris Noonan and ...