All News articles – Page 5412
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AFM: Alliance Atlantis has head in Clouds
Alliance Atlantis Communications (AAC) is to finance White Clouds, the Italian-set kidnapping drama that was the last completed feature film screenplay from the late British dramatist Dennis Potter.Adapted from on the novel Cara Massimina, by Italy-based British expat author Tim Parks, the story involves the abduction of a girl by ...
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Renaissance, Clear Blue Sky strike three-year pact
UK producer Renaissance Films has teamed up with Paul Allen's Clear Blue Sky Productions in a three-year co-financing and co-producing deal.Renaissance will handle international sales on at least five films to be produced under the agreement which will see the partners share investment and profits. The first project under the ...
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AFM: Armstrong, Blanchett in talks for Charlotte
Gillian Armstong is in advanced talks to direct FilmFour's adaptation of Sebastian Faulks' best-selling novel, Charlotte Gray.John Madden was previously expected to direct the high-profile project but he is now attached to Working Title Films' Captain Corelli's Mandolin. As previously reported, Cate Blanchett, the Australian actress who starred in Armstrong's ...
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Working Title taps Cruz for Captain Corelli
Spanish actress Penelope Cruz has signed to star opposite Nicolas Cage in John Madden's Captain Corelli's Mandolin for Working Title Films. Eric Fellner and Kevin Loader are producing the film which is being backed by Universal Pictures and Canal Plus. Miramax has UK and Australian rights. Production is scheduled to ...
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Kidman, Norton lift UGC's $32m Veil
Gillian Armstrong's long-gestating adaptation of Somerset Maugham's The Painted Veil has re-surfaced as a $32m project on the sales slate of France's UGC International, with actors Nicole Kidman and Edward Norton the targeted leads.Maugham's turn-of-the-century tale is set in China and follows an adulterous doctor's wife who redeems herself during ...
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Toshiba joint venture cranks up first production
Towani Corp, a joint venture between Toshiba, Warner Bros and Nippon Television Network, has started production on its first feature film, action fantasy Sakuya, which has Tomoo Haraguchi directing.Haraguchi is one of Japan's leading make-up artists and special effects supervisors with credits including the horror hit Ring and the Gamera ...
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Spain gets greenlight for super studio
Spain looks set to gain its biggest ever studio complex after the backers behind the proposed 'Audiovisual City' greenlit the project this week.The complex, newly dubbed "The City of Light" (La Ciudad de la Luz)', is being supported by the Valencia regional government and as-yet-unnamed partners from the 'Spanish and ...
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Zellweger to play Bridget Jones for Working Title
Renee Zellweger has been cast as thirtysomething singleton Bridget Jones in Working Title's adaptation of Helen Fielding's best-selling novel Bridget Jones' Diary.Sharon Mcguire is directing the film from a script by Fielding, Richard Curtis and Andrew Davies. Producers are Jonathan Cavendish and Working Title partners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.Zellweger, ...
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AtomFilms teams up with Forefront
Seattle-based Internet distributor AtomFilms has boosted its catalogue through a partnership with off-line short film distributor Forefront Films.Forefront's library of short films will be added to AtomFilms own catalogue which has recently been expanded through a deal with the UK's Aardman Animation and with South Africa's Primedia Pictures to acquire ...
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Germany's RTV buys Australian Energee
German animation production-distribution entity Ravensburger Film & TV (RTV) has purchased a 69% stake in one of Australia's most significant animation companies, Energee Entertainment, in a move that will spur production activity at the company's new studios opened late last year in Sydney. RTV paid $24.6m (DM48m) in shares and ...
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AFM: Breillat's Fat Girl sexes up FPI slate
Flach Pyramide International (FPI) is once again at a film market selling sex. After the hugely controversial Romance, FPI is at the AFM handling Catherine Breillat's next picture, Fat Girl, an explosive examination of female sexuality set on the slopes of Mount Etna.The picture, which examines the troubled relationship of ...
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UK's Warriors, Kid scoop Nymphs at Monte Carlo
UK productions dominated the mini-series category of the 40th Monte Carlo Television Festival (Feb 17-23) with the BBC's Warriors walking away with the top award and Channel Four's Kid In The Corner scooping three of the four remaining prizes.Peter Kosminky's Warriors - which focuses on a group of British UN ...
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AFM: HBO Asia signs five-picture deal with J&M
HBO Asia has licensed five pictures from London-based production and sales outfit J&M Entertainment, including House On Haunted Hill which was distributed in the US by HBO sister company Warner Bros.The other movies in the deal are The Guilty and History Is Made At Night, both starring Bill Pullman, Bruno, ...
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Softbank invests in Content Capital
Japanese venture capitalist Softbank has taken a strategic stake in Australia's Content Capital, one of two government-sanctioned Film Licence Investment Companies (FLICs) aimed at coaxing private investment into Australian production. The investment is Softbank's first venture capital investment in Australia. Legislation restricts foreign companies from owning more than 33% of ...
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AFM: Harlin tapped for Stallone's Champs
Renny Harlin is in talks to direct Sylvester Stallone's long-cherished motor racing thriller for Franchise Pictures. Formerly titled Champs, the movie is now simply known as Untitled and will be executive produced by Franchise's Andrew Stevens.Untitled would reteam Harlin, hot off worldwide hit Deep Blue Sea, and Stallone, who has ...
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AFM: Harrison Ford drops out of Traffic
Harrison Ford has dropped out of Traffic, the highly publicised drug trafficking movie to which Initial Entertainment Group (IEG) bought international rights last week. Director Steven Soderbergh, domestic distributor Fox Searchlight and IEG are already talking to other major male stars with a view to replacing him and are hoping ...
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New Line locks down Japanese package deals
New Line International (NLI) has sealed two high-profile package deals in Japan - with Nippon Herald for 15 Minutes starring Robert De Niro and ensemble piece Knockaround Guys, and with Gaga Communications for Jennifer Lopez-starrer The Cell, The Invisible Circus with Cameron Diaz and teen comedy Detroit Rock City.Rolf Mittweg, ...
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Summit has Panic attack
Summit Entertainment has acquired all international rights to Panic - the Sundance American Spectrum entry which was picked up by Artisan Entertainment for domestic release earlier this week.Panic stars William H Macy as a man having a mid-life crisis drawn to a manic young woman (Neve Campbell) he meets in ...
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AFM: Metrodome forms prod venture with Danish duo
Metrodome Distribution, the UK distributor of British hit Human Traffic, has formed a UK production company with Nicolas Winding Refn and Henrik Danstrup, the up-and-coming film-makers behind the two Danish films Pusher and Bleeder.Titled NWR UK, the company will produce English-language features from the Danish duo, with director Winding Refn's ...
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Nikkatsu forced to sell studio to clear debt
Japan's oldest film production company Nikkatsu is selling its studio - one of the largest and most active in Japan - for $72.7m (Y8bn). The buyer is Maru, a real estate management company owned by Masaya Nakamura, the president of Nikkatsu's corporate parent Namco.The sale will enable Nikkatsu to raise ...