All articles by Sandy George – Page 42
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NEW ZEALAND 13 December
Bridget Jones -- The EdgeOf Reason continues to show greatresilience in New Zealand. For the fourth consecutive weekend it has lead thechart, helped by being on more screens then any other film. It grossedNZ$270,540 from 65 screens for UIP.Using the measure of screenaverage, however, it was beaten by both the ...
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Australian distributors go Christmas shopping
Australian independentdistributors, including Hopscotch, sister companies Dendy and Becker, and MagnaPacific, have been acquiring ever more product lately for their own territoryand New Zealand.DVD distributor MagnaPacific has broken free of the Becker Entertainment Group and is ramping up itstheatrical activities through the all-rights acquisition of up to 12 genrepictures per ...
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Top Dutch production outfit launches Oz joint venture
Leading Dutch film company IdtV Film (Twin Sisters)and co-owner Anton Smit are moving into English language film-making via ajoint venture with Australian TV producers Mark and Cathy Overett.Called New Holland Pictures, the Queensland-based jointventure is readying an Australian remake of a Dutch film called Afghan Bride(working title). The project is ...
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AUSTRALIA 6 December
Team America: WorldPolice, in its first weekend incinemas, tried hard to dislodge National Treasure from the top of thechart but fell just short and had to be satisfied with second place.National Treasure took A$1,241,160 from 276 screens for BVI in whatwas its second weekend on release, compared to Team America'sA$1,229,097 ...
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NEW ZEALAND 6 December
Bridget Jones - The EdgeOf Reason, handled by UIP, has beenthe most popular film at the box office for three consecutive weekends. In itssecond outing in cinemas its four-day gross dropped 26.2% and this weekend theNZ$416,587 gross from 65 screens represented a drop of 33.8%.A very different film, TheGrudge, was ...
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AUSTRALIA 29 November
The BVI opener NationalTreasure knocked Bridget Jones - TheEdge Of Reason off the top spot on the weekend box office chart. National Treasure grossed A$1,897,455from 277 screens compared to A$1,716,197 from 351 screens for Bridget Jones, but the UIP film has nowbeen in cinemas for over two weeks.Two other openers ...
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Wright's Macbeth to be set in Melbourne's underbelly
A retelling of Shakespeare's Macbeth, set in the present-day violent underbelly of Melbourne,took a step closer to getting a green light with Romper Stomper director Geoffrey Wright at the helm.M, as it istitled, was the only feature to get production funding as part of a $787,000(A$1m) package of support handed ...
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Producers honour three New Zealanders
Producer Trevor Haysom, casting agent Diana Rowan (pictured)and up-and-coming filmmaker Florian Habicht were all honoured at the close ofthe annual conference of the Screen Production and Development Association ofNew Zealand.Haysom had something else to celebrate - within two days ofbeing awarded the title of inaugural independent producer of the year: ...
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AUSTRALIA 23 November
Bridget Jones - TheEdge Of Reason had no trouble staying ahead of the pack in its secondweekend in Australian cinemas, grossing A$3,245,873 for UIP. Being on 370screens made it readily accessible to patrons.The next most popular films at the cinema for the four daysending on Sunday were both openers from ...
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Rialto takes Australasian rights to foursome
Rialto Entertainment has acquired Australian and NewZealand rights to The Machinist, Mean Creek, The Queen Of Sheba's Pearlsand Last Days.Chief executive Kelly Rogers describes Gus Van Sant's LastDays as a visual requiem, not just to Kurt Cobain but to an entiregeneration of rock 'n' roll, and says its acquisition continues ...
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Consortium develops tool to predict financing models
Some of the millions of dollars spent developing films thatnever go into production could be saved if a group of researchers succeed indesigning a tool that can reliably assess the value of what have previouslybeen regarded as intangible assets.The Securities Industry Research Centre Asia-Pacific, theUniversity of New South Wales and ...
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AUSTRALIA 16 November
UIP opened BridgetJones on 370 screens on Thursday and soaked up A$5,588,507 of the cinemaspend of Australians over that and the next three days. The screen average wasa highly impressive A$15,104. Cinemagoers spent more to see the film then theydid to see the other 19 in the chart combined.Another opener, ...
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NEW ZEALAND 16 November
Hero knockedBVI/Miramax stablemate Shall We Dance'off the top of the chart with an opening gross for the four-day weekend ofNZ$203,246 from 23 screens. The result gave the Zhang Yimou action pic a screenaverage more than three times that of any other film in the top 20.Shall We Dance'had been leader ...
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Somersault continues winning streak
Cate Shortland's Somersaulthas continued its winning streak, picking up the Australian film of theyear at the IF Awards on Wednesday (Nov 10) and the Film Critics Circle ofAustralia Awards on Sunday (Nov 7).It also won best directionfor Shortland, best actress for Abbie Cornish, and best cinematography for BobHumphreys at both ...
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Project Greenlight comes to Australia
The Movie Network pay TV channel yesterday launched anAustralian version of Project Greenlight, which will result in a 12-partdocumentary series chronicling the making of a A$1m (US$762,000) feature by afirst-time filmmaker.The movie channel's production partner for both theseries and the feature is Screentime, one of Australia's most successfultelevision production companies.Ben ...
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AUSTRALIA 9 November
Australia's tastefor Asian action films has matured to such a point that Zhang Yimou's Hero had no trouble at all topping thebox office chart on its opening weekend. It grossed A$2,258,748 from 165screens for BVI, giving it a screen average of A$13,689, which was far ahead ofanything else in the ...
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NEW ZEALAND 9 November
Taxi tried veryhard to accelerate past last weekend's box office topper Shall We Dance' but just missed out.Shall We Dance'took NZ$158,393 from 58 screens for BVI in its second weekend on releasecompared to Taxi's NZ$157,427 on 23less screens for 20th Century Fox. Taxi's screen average was the highest in the ...
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Magnolia takes US rights to Somersault
Magnolia Pictures has secured North American rights towriter/director Cate Shortland's Somersault, which late last week broke all records with its clean sweep of theAFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards in Melbourne.Sydney-based producer Anthony Anderson, principal of RedCarpet Productions, said he was very pleased it has gone to the New York-baseddistributor, which ...
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River Queen's DoP takes over directing duties
River Queen directorof photography Alun Bollinger has stepped up to replace director Vincent Wardon the UK/New Zealand co-production, which is on track to complete principalphotography in late November.Bollinger has had a chequered history with River Queen himself, relinquishing his role to John Cavillbecause of a back injury before Samantha Morton's ...
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Blethyn vehicle wins Oz funding
Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) is to backdirector Cherie Nowlan's comedy drama Clubland, starring Brenda Blethyn.Blethynplays a raunchy Sydney club performer whose shy 20-year-old son is forced to make a decision between her and his feisty new girlfriend.The RB Films project has the backing of MovieHouseEntertainment in the UK and ...