All articles by Patrick Frater – Page 56
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Shanghai set to expand theme park
The Shanghai Film Studio is pressing ahead with an expansion of its movie-driven theme park.By October, Shanghai will open the second part of a $72m three-phase film park at the old Chedun Film Studio, half an hour from the city centre in Songjiang. The current 17-hectare site already boasts street ...
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AOL Time Warner, Toshiba unite for digital push
AOL Time Warner and Japanese electronics giant Toshiba are to team up to develop and push digital cinema distribution. Business daily Asahi Shimbun quoted Richard Parsons, co-chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner, as saying that they plan to distribute Warner Bros pictures worldwide via satellite using Toshiba technology. Parsons ...
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$17m Hero to bring together top Asian talent
Of all the film projects floated at last week's Shanghai International Film Festival, the most mouthwatering had to be Zhang Yimou's $17m Hero, a 'wuxia'-inspired historical adventure that is set to bring together many of Asia's top talents, both in front and behind the camera when shooting starts as early ...
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Gong Li climbs aboard Sun Zhou's Train
Chinese superstar actress Gong Li is to star in the new film by Sun Zhou, re-uniting her with the director of Berlin 2000 competitor Breaking The Silence. That film just won her the runner-up prize for Best Actress at the recently completed Seattle Film Festival.Production of Sun's new film, The ...
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Shanghai rewards Antitrust with Golden Urn
Antitrust, an alarm-bell ringing picture about monopolies and the abuse of the power of technology, was the big winner at last night's closing ceremony of the Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF). The MGM-distributed picture scooped one Jin Jue (Golden Urn) for best film and another, best director, for the UK's ...
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Zhang Yimou to direct Chinese Olympic bid promos
Controversial Chinese director Zhang Yimou has begun work directing a series of short films for China as part of its bid to host the Olympic Games in 2008.The decision to commission Zhang is surprising, given his previous run-ins with the Chinese government. Zhang, who recently directed The Road Home and ...
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Shanghai fest's AFMA pact boosts market plans
The Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) yesterday struck a pact with the American Film Marketing Association (AFMA).The deal is just one of several initiatives intended to boost Shanghai's weight as a market for films.The SIFF-AFMA memorandum of friendship sets out a five-point plan that starts with exchanges of information and ...
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China opens up local distribution to competition
China Film Group Corporation is to lose its dominant position in the handling of foreign-produced films in the People's Republic of China, opening up the local distribution system to internal competition.The move, announced by Yang Buting, chairman and chief executive of China Film, during the Shanghai International Film Festival, is ...
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UK film school unveils China fund
The UK's National Film and Television School (NFTS) has set up a new scholarship programme for Chinese students to study in Britain.The award, which was unveiled in Shanghai by NFTS director Stephen Bayly, is worth $21,000 ($15,000) and will allow a film student from China to attend a one-year Advanced ...
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RKO plans to unfurl wings in China, Asia
RKO, the once glorious Hollywood studio, is planning to resurrect itself as a foreign-language producer with outposts in China and other parts of Asia.Speaking during the Shanghai International Film Festival, RKO president Ted Hartley said: "we aim to be involved with three or four pictures a year from China, the ...
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Chinese industry ready to take on the world
After a decade in which admissions have collapsed from 16 billion a year to some 2.1 billion, the Chinese film industry is now facing up to the challenges of globalisation.Worried by the perceived threats to the film industry brought on by the opening of its borders, the Chinese central government ...
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Cyprus becomes focus for multiplex builders
Mediterranean sunspot, Cyprus is to get its second multiplex next month with the opening in Larnaca of a six-screen theatre operated by K Cineplex.DJK Karatatis, the local Cypriot trading group which built and operates the K Cineplexes, opened its first site in Limassol in late 1999 and plans to open ...
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10 year forecast: int'l box office keeps growing
The latest ten-year outlook for the worldwide theatrical exhibition sector looks stagnant, but increasingly focused on international and developing markets. According to the 4th edition of Informa Group's survey Global Film: Exhibition & Distribution, box office revenues are set to rise by $6bn or some 36% to $24bn between 2001 ...
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Visible Secret spooks HK railway, scares up big BO
Hong Kong major Media Asia has been forced to cut a key scene from its new film Visible Secret. But the company looks like ending up with the last laugh.In a last minute move suburban rail operator MTR asked Media Asia to cut a scene in which a character dressed ...
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Ster Kinekor backs out of Zimbabwe exhib sector
South African exhibition giant Ster-Kinekor is to pull out of neighbouring Zimbabwe by the end of June.The move is reportedly due to shortages of foreign currency within the Zimbabwean operations making it difficult to acquire foreign films and to pay for company houses. Two complexes, said to be the best ...
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Bronfmann family cut Vivendi stake by a third
Vivendi Universal this week bought in 16.9 million of its shares after the Bronfman family sold off approximately a third of its holding in the media giant. Edgar Bronfman Jr, who remains executive chairman of the group, said: "This sale reflects my family's desire to diversify our investment portfolio after ...
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Reitman to be honoured at Cinema Expo
Ivan Reitman, director of Ghostbusters , Twins and Dave, is to receive the "award of excellence in filmmaking" at the forthcoming Cinema Expo convention (June 25-28)."Reitman has consistently been exciting, thrilling and entertaining moviegoers worldwide. He is remarkably talented and a tribute such as this is justly deserved," said ...
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UPC loan gives Malone more control
Beleaguered cable giant United pan-Europe Communications (UPC) has completed a series of transactions that gives it a Euros1bn loan and sees US entrepreneur John Malone take effective control of UPC's American parent UnitedGlobalCom.The loan from Malone's Liberty Mediareplaces a rights issue that was proposed in February, but to which stock ...
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Hallmark grabs major terrs on mini-series pair
The Hallmark Channel has bought exclusive pay-TV rights to two big budget min-series stuffed with theatrical talent from Alliance Atlantis Television.The series Life With Judy Garland: Me And My Shadows and Haven were both bought for Latin America, Spain, Portugal, Russia, the CIS, Middle East and Italy. Hallmark also took ...
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IFC satellite, cable deals ensure wider coverage
The Independent Film Channel (IFC) has struck a rash of carriage deals that extend the number of households that can watch it.Rainbow Media Holdings, which owns IFC, said that the channel had agreed a long-term carriage agreements with satellite platform DirecTV and also with cable operators Adelphia Communications and Charter ...