All articles by Sandy George – Page 40
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News
Revelation delayed as lead actor breaks ankle
The shooting schedule of Ana Kokkinos' TheBook of Revelation has had to be rapidly re-arranged after lead actor TomLong broke his ankle on Friday (April 15) while filming in Melbourne. The filmwas one week away from wrapping.The injury occurred when Long landed awkwardly during anaction scene in a nightclub setting. ...
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Woods quits as Irish Film Board chief
MarkWoods has resigned as chief executive of the Irish Film Board after 18 monthsin the job. Woodsis moving back to Sydney, Australia, to head a significantly smallerorganisation, the national locations office Ausfilm. Woods lived in Sydney for 12 years before returning toIreland, where he was born, to join the Irish ...
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Pathe acquires UK rights to Arclight's Bad Men
Pathe has acquired UK rights to Three Bad Men fromArclight Films, which has also confirmed that Simon Pegg (Shaun Of The Dead)will be in the cast alongside Woody Harrelson and Brendan Fraser. Falcom Media has already snapped up German rights to thecomedy thriller, which is being produced under the banners ...
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Australia's Palace goes on shopping spree
Australian distributor Palace Films has acquiredseven new pictures, including Greek blockbuster Brides by directorPantelis Voulgaris.Brides,acquired from Britol Media International, is part of the first significant batch ofpurchases since Palace founder and managing director Antonio Zeccola - and hisson Benjamin - resumed responsibility for acquisitions. Buying was previouslyhandled by Tait Brady, ...
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Australia's FFC gets involved in Hell
Australia's Film Finance Corporation (FFC) isto invest in Richard Frankland's To Hell And Bourke, only the thirdfeature ever to be made by an indigenous Australian writer/director.Following a board meeting yesterday, the FFC said itintended to finance the film if producer Ross Hutchens can raise the rest ofthe finance and meet ...
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AUSTRALIA 22 March
The Australian teen picture Hating Alison Ashleygrossed A$531,144 from 180 screens in its first four days in cinemas, enablingit to claim the fourth spot in the chart. The Hoyts film, which is adapted fromthe well-known book of the same name, attracted additional publicity because ofthe first-time film presence of pop ...
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NEW ZEALAND 22 March
The Ring Two scaredits UIP stablemate, Meet The Fockers, off the top of the chart on theweekend. In its opening weekend The Ring Two grossed NZ$298,535 from 43screens. This equated to a screen average of NZ$6,943, the biggest in thechart. The other strongopener on the weekend was Be Cool, the ...
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AUSTRALIA 16 March
The nearly A$7.5 million taken at the Australian box office for thefour-day weekend to 16 March was the smallest of the year, despite Victorianshaving a holiday weekend. Contributing factors would have been Australia's glorious autumn weatherand the start of the National Rugby League season.Five new films were scattered through the ...
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NEW ZEALAND 16 March
UIP's Meet The Fockers remains on top of the NewZealand box office in its third week. The in-law comedy grossed NZ$345,778 from55 screens. Roadshow's Constantine and Sony's Closer,both in their second weekend in cinemas, and Roadshow's The Aviator, in itsfifth week, again ran second, third and fourth. Displacing Ray in ...
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AUSTRALIA 9 March
Sony Pictures' Hitch opened on the weekend andshot straight to the top of the box office chart, grossing nearly three timesmore than the next most popular film. Hitch took A$3,507,820 from 370screens to clock up a screen average of A$9,481, the biggest in the chart.The rest of the top five ...
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NEW ZEALAND 9 March
Roadshow's opening film Constantine was sent inon the weekend to challenge the box office supremacy of UIP's Meet TheFockers, which is only on its second weekend on release. But it failed: Fockergrossed NZ$500,991 from 60 screens compared to the NZ$421,541 taken by Constantinefrom 65 screensThe onlyother opening film, Closer, came ...
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Ruby Dee takes lead in New Zealand's Number 2
Filming began yesterday (Thursday March 3) on New Zealandcomedy/drama Number 2 after last month's false start due to the death ofOssie Davis, husband of the film's lead Ruby Dee. The acting pair (pictured), have been passionate advocatesof social and racial justice. They were key players in the 1963 March onWashington ...
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Australian newcomer buys Shortbus, Dumplings
Australiantheatrical newcomer Accent Film Entertainment has acquired both Shortbus,which is still in pre-production, and Dumplings, from Fortissimo FilmSales. "Hedwig And TheAngry Inch was such a wonderful film that we were very keen to jump onboard director John Cameron Mitchell's new film Shortbus aboutrelationships in New York post-9/11," said general manager ...
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South Australia offers production incentive
South Australia is soon to offer producers a new incentiveto shoot in the state - a 10% rebate on the cost of local cast and crew,including post-production personnel.South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) chief executiveHelen Leake told Screendaily.com that the initiative is being introducedon a trial basis and is capped at ...
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AUSTRALIA 1 March
Constantine was the most popular film at the boxoffice for the four-day weekend to Sunday February 27, taking A$2,986,988 from289 screens. This was nearly three times more than the result for TheAviator, which was in second position after leading the chart for the twoprevious weekends. Constantine had easily the biggest ...
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AUSTRALIA 15 February
Two US films new to cinemaslead the box office on the weekend and both would have got a boost because oftheir links to Australia. The Aviator, starring the homegrown Cate Blanchett, tookA$1,830,974 from 248 screens for Roadshow, and Hide And Seek, directedby the homegrown John Polson, took A$1,652,264 from 205 ...
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Fox's Eucalyptus wilts under script rewrite
Fox Searchlight Pictures has announced that production onJocelyn Moorhouse’s Eucalyptus,which stars Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, will not go ahead as scheduled”to allow time for further work on the script”.The news felt somehow prophetic to local film observers whohad been disturbed at the prospect of the considerably older Kidman playing ...
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South Africa, Australia co-production treaty mooted
The governing council of theScreen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) is expected next week toendorse a report arguing the case for a co-production arrangement to be put inplace with South Africa.If it happens, the reportwill be presented to the Australian Film Commission (AFC), the governmentagency that administers such arrangements. The ...
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FFC Australia bankrolls four new features
Four new Australian features - Two Fists One Heart,Razzle Dazzle - A Journey Into Dance, Footy Legends and Macbeth -are all are going into production thanks to investment decisions madetoday by Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC).The country's principal film backer is also puttingpost-production finance into The Magician, which has already ...
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NEW ZEALAND 9 February
It was a very unusualweekend at the New Zealand box office with nearly half the films rising up inthe chart instead of dropping down. This was caused by a combination of factorsincluding children being back at school, which has given more grown-up films aboost, strong word of mouth being created ...