All articles by Sandy George – Page 37
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Icon takes Oz, NZ rights to Frears' The Queen
Icon has boughtAustralian and New Zealand rights from PathePictures International for director Stephen Frears' The Queen, which is in its third week offilming. The Queen tracks the UK aftermath of the dramatic death ofPrincess Diana in a car accident in Paris, including the actions of the shocked anddisbelieving British public, ...
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...as deal with Crescent brings expansion
Village Roadshow Pictures(VRP) is likely to finance and produce more films and possibly acquire relatedinterests under a recently finalised deal that gives US investor Crescent Entertainmentoptions to secure a 50% interest in VRP.Crescent partners Hal Gaba - co-owner with Norman Lear of mediainvestment firm and record company owner Act III ...
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Village Roadshow takes on December Boys...
Village Roadshow has takeninternational sales rights to DecemberBoys, the feature starring Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe that goes intoproduction before the end of the year.Roadshow Film Distributors,as part of this new deal, will also co-distribute the coming-of-age dramalocally alongside Becker, which is the production company behind the film.Village Roadshow does notcommonly ...
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AFC appoints Fitchett as acting development chief
The Australian FilmCommission (AFC) has announced that it won't appoint anyone to the influentialposition of director of film development until early next year and hasappointed two people to fill the gap until then. Independent writer/producerChris Fitchett will act in the role from October 31, and Lori Flekser, aproject manager at ...
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Fastest Indian shines at home and keeps selling
NZ Film has just signed overSpanish and French rights to The World'sFastest Indian to Alta and Rezo respectively, as the film has topped theNew Zealand chart in its first week of release with $542,000 (NZ$775,375), fivetimes more than nearest rival Dark Water.Kathleen Drumm, NZ Film headof sales and marketing, told ...
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Village Skycity takes control of the Embassy
New Zealand's largest cinema circuit, Village Skycity Cinemas,has taken over management of the country's grandest picture palace, TheEmbassy, in a first step towards giving the chain a mainstream presence in Wellington.The Embassy had a majorrefurbishment in the lead-up to its hosting of the world premiere of The Lord Of The ...
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Little Fish swims into lead for AFI Awards
Rowan Woods' Little Fish has received the largestnumber of nominations for this year's AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards,announced today in Melbourne, with 13 nods including best film. Look Both Ways and two UK-Australian co-productions, The Proposition and OysterFarmer, were also nominated for best film. Three of the best filmnominees, Little ...
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AFI Awards to get makeover for TV debut
Organisers of the AFI(Australian Film Institute) Awards have revealed a major revamp on the heels ofthe recent announcement that the event is being hosted by Russell Crowe.The awards have been splitinto a craft and non-feature awards event on Friday November 25 at theWaterfront City Pavilion and a cocktail party and ...
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IndiVision project West set to crank up in Sydney
West, the second film greenlit under the Australian FilmCommission's new low-budget initiative IndiVision, is scheduled to startproduction in Sydney next week. The first draft of the film waswritten by its writer/director Daniel Krige about 20 years ago when he was just16 years of age.The film stars young actorsNathan Phillips, whose ...
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Wolf Creek release hit by Oz murder trial
A murder trialthat starts on Monday (Oct 17) has led to Australian distributor Roadshowwithdrawing home-grown horror flick Wolf Creek from some cinema screens at the requestof the Director of Public Prosecutions. The film will nolonger be shown in the Northern Territory from November 3 but will be releasedeverywhere else in ...
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Becker picks up world rights to Cattaneo's Dream
Becker Films Internationalhas snapped up world sales rights to the finished film Opal Dream, setin outback Australia and helmed by Full Monty director PeterCattaneo.The UK-Australianco-production started life on the Renaissance Films slate but was orphaned whenthe UK sales agent folded. It had its world premiere at theDinard British Film Festival ...
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Crowe to host Australian Film Institute Awards
One of the biggest names inshow business anywhere in the world, actor Russell Crowe, is to host the 2005Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards in November in Melbourne.In a statement announcing thenews, Crowe said the ceremony will be "irreverent and respectful in equalmeasures". He continued: "Interesting TV, that's the aim. Fast-paced, ...
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Australia's FFC announces funding for seven features
Film Finance CorporationAustralia (FFC) has agreed to invest in seven features, two of which will behandled internationally by Celluloid Dreams and two by Arclight Films.The seven projects include actor/theatre director Richard Roxburgh'sdirectorial debut Romulus, My Father, to star Eric Bana; director CherieNowlan's long-awaited follow-up to Thank God He Met Lizzie, ...
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Rialto picks up rights to Tsotsi, C.R.A.Z.Y.
Rialto Distribution has picked up C.R.A.Z.Y. and Tsotsi,two of the major prize winners at the Toronto International Film Festival, fordistribution in Australia and New Zealand.Both films are also official entries in the best foreign film categoryof the 2006 Academy Awards: C.R.A.Z.Y. for Canada and Tsotsi forSouth Africa.C.R.A.Z.Y. won the Toronto ...
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Arclight picks up Aussie war story
Arclight Films has boarded anuntitled war story about Australian soldiers in Papua New Guinea during World War II, which gives former Film FinanceCorporation Australia (FFC) head Catriona Hughes her first credit as producer.The film, which startsshooting on September 30, also marks the feature debut of director AlisterGrierson, whose short film ...
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Fiji makes Oscar bid with The Land Has Eyes
Fiji has made its first ever attempt to win an Academy Award by submitting TheLand Has Eyes for the best foreign-language film category. In order to qualify,Australian-based distributor Ronin Films opened the film at the only multiplexin the Fijian capital of Suva on September 8, where it took a respectable ...
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Little Fish hooks Oz audiences
Little Fish has had the biggest opening for an Australian filmthis year in its home territory.Director Rowan Woods' secondfilm grossed $502,000 (A$655,672) in the week to September 14, coming seventhin the film chart. Distributor Icon says thisresult is comparable to Lantanaand Japanese Story, which went onto gross $9.4m and $3.5m ...
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Exhibitors team up for Australia's biggest arthouse cinema
Australia is to get its biggest purpose-built arthouse cinemain late 2006, a nine-screen complex in the national capital of Canberra that will link the Dendy and Electric Shadowsbrands. It will also be the firstspecialist complex to feature small, intimate auditoriums - two 35-seaters -with food and beverage delivered directly to ...
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Roadshow loses appeal against Wolf Creek rating
Distributor Roadshow haslost its appeal against the R18+ rating handed down three weeks ago to localhorror picture Wolf Creek, which it releases in cinemas on November 3.It was a unanimous decision madeby the three-member panel of the Classification Review Board and the deputyconvenor of the board. Former memberof parliament Trevor ...
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Wrenn lights up Firesign but keeps Celluloid gig
Michael Wrenn, who heads Celluloid Dreams' Pacific office, has launcheda production outfit, Firesign, and won New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC)development money for the feature Electric.Wrenn is working with debut director Brendan Donovan and writer ChadTaylor, who is adapting the script from his own novel. The story, set in thechaos of ...