All articles by Sandy George – Page 35
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New Zealand to keep production rebates in place
New Zealand's economic development minister Trevor Mallard hasannounced that a review of the "Large Budget Screen Production Grant"initiative has been concluded and the scheme will remain in place. Mallard also announced thatthe New Zealandgovernment has paid expenditure rebates of $16.8m (NZ$25.2m) to King Kong and $10.6m (NZ$15.9m) to The ...
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Tropfest feature programme singles out September
September,from writer/director Peter Carstairs, will be the first project to emerge from Tropfestand the Movie Network's new feature programme, which each year gives $743,000(A$1m) to the creator of a short film to make a feature.The debut feature is about afriendship between two teenage boys - one white Australian, the otherAboriginal ...
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Karl Urban to star in Robert Sarkies' untitled feature
Karl Urban, who played Eomer in The Lord Of TheRings and Matt Damon's nemesis in TheBourne Supremacy, takes one of the lead roles in director Robert Sarkies' untitled feature now in production.Tim White, who is producing alongside Steven O'Meagher, told ScreenDaily.comthey experienced some of the wildest weather he had ever ...
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Fierberg lines up stellar cast for Cassavetes debut
Parker Posey, Gena Rowlandsand Jeanne Moreau are attached to star in actress Zoe Cassavetes' firstfeature as director, Broken English, which isexpected to go into production in the next few months.The film, about a mid-30swoman who is becoming debilitated by a lack of luck in love, is produced by NewYork-based Vox3 ...
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World's Fastest Indian races to Kiwi record
TheWorld's Fastest Indian has become the mostsuccessful New Zealand story at local cinemas and it may inch into the top 10hits of any nationality.Asof Sunday February 19, New Zealanders had spent $4,458,405 (NZ$6,694,808) tosee Anthony Hopkins play Burt Munro, who traveled from their country to Utah inthe 1960s and set ...
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Eight films selected for Australia's IndiVision Project Lab
Moving South, aroad movie from director Kate Woods and producer Robyn Kershaw, who last teamedup on the local hit Looking For Alibrandi, is one of eightfilms to be developed through the second IndiVisionProject Lab.The Australian Film Commission (AFC)released the names of those chosen for the week-long low-budget initiative introduced last ...
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Australian producers conference to include major awards
The biggest annual gathering of producers, the SPAA (ScreenProducers Association of Australia) conference, will this year move back to itstraditional November time slot but stay on the Queensland Gold Coast for thenext three years.Queensland Premier Paul Beattie also announced that the 8thLexus Inside Film Awards will be staged on Friday ...
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Rolf de Heer set to shoot his next project, Dr Plonk
Prolific film-makerRolf de Heer (BadBoy Bubby, Dance Me To My Song) today got a green light from Film FinanceCorporation Australia (FFC) to shoot his next project Dr Plonk. Characteristic of his wildly diverseoeuvre, the new film is a black and white silent comedy set in 1907 about ascientist inventor who ...
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Sam Riley cast as lead singer in Anton Corbijn's Control
Sam Riley has been cast as leadsinger Ian Curtis and Alexandra Maria Lara as his lover Annikon music video director Anton Corbijn's Control, his fact-based debut feature onUK post-punk band Joy Division.It is a first big role for newcomerRiley - the troubled Curtis was in his early 20s when he ...
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NZ distributor Arkles steps up Australian presence
NewZealand distributor Arkles Entertainment is increasing its activity in theAustralian market where it is planning sizeable releases for both Junebug and Danish film Brothers in the next few months.TheAuckland-based company acquired theatrical rights for Junebugjust days before Amy Adams got her best supportingactress Oscar nomination. Both this film and Brotherscame ...
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Shooting yet to start on Luhrmann's Australian epic
Actor Russell Crowe is talking about it on red carpets, manyare hoping that principal photography will start in July or August, but thereis still no green light from 20th Century Fox for a fourth feature by Baz Luhrmann.Crowe and Nicole Kidman are billed as the leads and insiderssay that Catherine ...
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Tony Grierson joins Sydney Film Festival as CEO
Tony Grierson is to leave his roleas head of distribution and finance at the NSW Film & Television Office andjoin the Sydney Film Festival (SFF) as chiefexecutive from February 16.He was executive officer of Queer Screen for the four yearsup to 1999, has worked at Beyond Distribution, and has held ...
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ContentFilm racks up sales on Book Of Revelation
ContentFilm Internationalhas sold The Book Of Revelation,directed by Ana Kokkinos (Head On), to22 territories, one of the most robust sales performances by an unseenindependent Australian film in recent years.Distributors including TheWorks (UK), A Film (Netherlands and Belgium), Scanbox (Scandinavia) and Palace(Australia and New Zealand) signed on prior to the film ...
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Rialto picks up Science Of Sleep
Rialto Distribution hasacquired writer/director Michel Gondry's TheScience Of Sleep for Australia and New Zealand, hot on the heels of its sale to Warner IndependentPictures for North America and the UK at Sundance. The inventive film starsGael Garcia Bernal (The MotorcycleDiaries) and Charlotte Gainsbourg as young neighbours in a playful andtouching ...
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Adelaide festival offers cash prize for new competition
The biennial Adelaide Film Festival has introduced a feature film competition which will see the director of the winning film go home $19,400 (A$25,000) richer.Festival director Katrina Segwick says the move means Adelaide is now one of a small number of festivals throughout the world that offers substantial cash awards. ...
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Noyce to be honoured by Australian Screen Directors
Director Phillip Noyce is toreceive an outstanding achievement award on April 6, the top annual honourbestowed by the Australian Screen Directors Association (ASDA).Noyce was in the first classof students at the Australian Film, Television & Radio School and his first feature was Newsfrontin 1978, which won best film in the ...
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AFI manager quits despite successful awards show
The general manager of theAustralian Film Institute (AFI), Geoffrey Williams, has resigned two monthsafter successfully overseeing a revitalised awards ceremony compered by actorRussell Crowe.Williams has citeddifferences of opinion with a board that has three new members and a new chairbut the exact nature of the disagreement has not yet emerged. ...
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Dalton leaves Australian Film Commission for ABC
The Australian governmentagency with responsibility for developing features has to go in search of a newchief executive now that Kim Dalton has been made director of television atpublic broadcaster the ABC. The Australian FilmCommission (AFC) has only just appointed Chris Fitchett to head filmdevelopment, a division that spends about $12.8m ...
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Australia's box office takings down by 10%
Preliminary figures indicate that Australia'sgross box office for 2005 was 10% less than the previous year.A spokesperson for the Motion Picture DistributorsAssociation of Australia (MPDAA) says official results will not be announceduntil mid to late January but a source told Screendaily.comthat the 2005 result will be around $610.6m (A$815m). This ...
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Mullis, Oz producers win licence to launch FLIC
An eclectic team of peopledriven by executive producer Barrie M. Osborne (The Lord Of The Rings), producer Richard Keddie and Bangkok-basedfinancier Robert Mullis have won a licence to raise money in Australia for film production. Others named as part of theMullis Capital Film Licensed Investment Company (FLIC) are actors Hugo ...