All articles by Sandy George – Page 37
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New Zealand's Rialto sells shares in companies to Reading
Kelly Rogers and David Rosshave sold their half share in New Zealand's biggest arthouse circuit, RialtoCinemas, to mainstream exhibitor Reading and cashed up their distributioncompany in the process.This means that thecountry's two biggest cinema operators, the other being existing half ownerVillage Skycity, now own most of the 19-screen specialist chain ...
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Taiwanese-Kiwi venture plans $69m film of Chinese myth
Taiwaneseand a New Zealand companies haveset up a joint venture to produce a $69m English-language feature based on aChinese myth and set for release during the Beijing Olympics in 2008.Lady White Snake has been written by Chinese musician Hou Dejian, owner of Taipei-basedEquinox Film. He is working with USwriter/director Patrick ...
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Kiwi festival favourite finally makes it to the States
Sales agentNZ Film has sold US rights to the psychological drama In My Father's Den to Tartan Films, which is looking to release thefilm theatrically in May 2006.It's beenslow progress for the UK/New Zealand co-production that was one of the darlingsof the international festival circuit in 2004, but it was ...
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Tartan buys US rights to Father's Den
Salesagent NZ Film has sold US rights to psychological drama In My Father's Den to Tartan Films, which is looking to release thefilm theatrically in May 2006.Itseems a little late for the UK/New Zealand co-production to be making such asale given that it was one of the darlings of the ...
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New bond company aims to shake up market
The emergence of Media RiskManagement (MRM) is significant news for independent filmmakers, given only ahandful of companies offer completion bonds and the difficulty of securingreinsurance usually prevents new players from appearing.Melbourne-based GeorgeAdams, who was one of the executive producers on Wolf Creek, and Roger Brewitt have set up in association ...
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Australia's Kojo Group moves into film production
Leading Adelaide-basedpost-production and TV production company, Kojo Group, is moving into featurefilm production and has boarded writer/director Murali K. Thalluri's debutfeature 2:37."Our optimistic goal is tomake a couple of films per year," Kojo founding partner Kent Smith told Screendaily. "We have already had a bigrole on a number but not ...
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Australia gets serious about the truth
Australian documentarymakers who were encouraged to pitch full-length features are now seeing their projectsmove into pre-production or production.Films now underway thanks tothe initiative, introduced by the Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) lastyear, include Rampage, about a youngupcoming rap star, which is now being shot in Miami by director/writer/producerGeorge Gittoes. Moviehouseis ...
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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, ...