All articles by Sandy George – Page 43
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NZ arthouse player plans expansion into UK and US
New Zealand's dominant arthouse player, Rialto, isplanning to establish distribution operations in the US and the UK, as well assetting up a cinema chain in Australia, where it has been distributing filmsfor nearly three years.The ambitious global expansion, to be funded through cashreserves, is unprecedented for a specialist distributor from ...
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NEW ZEALAND 2 November
The two most popular films at the box office on the weekendwere both openers, being Shall We Dance'which took NZ$267,734 from 58 screens for BVI/Miramax, and The Forgotten, which grossed NZ$198,866 from 10 fewer screens forColumbia TriStar.The strongest performer of the four other openers in thechart besides Shall We Dance' ...
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AUSTRALIA 1 November
BVI's Shall We Dance'had no trouble holding on to the top spot in the chart in its second weekend,taking A$1,724,248 from 268 screens, or 18% less than the corresponding fourdays a week ago. It again registered the highest screen average, it being A$6,433.Two UIP films fought it out for the ...
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Somersault wins every single AFI prize
Cate Shortland'sSomersault managed a remarkable cleansweep of prizes at the star-studded AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards inMelbourne (Oct 29), winning in all 13 categories.Somersault's record-breakingrun meant no other feature was honoured. The awards included best film forproducer Anthony Anderson, best director and best script for Cate Shortland,and actor awards for ...
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Trouble continues for River Queen
Director Vincent Ward is off the New Zealand shoot of River Queen and, unlike Samantha Mortonwho earlier took time out because of illness, isn't coming back.A statement issued today from the production office saidonly that Ward "has been removed". It did not give a reason andpublicist Sue May declined to ...
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AUSTRALIA 25 October
Shall We Dance'opened last Thursday and leads the box office chart for the four-day weekendending on October 24. It sold A$2,104,907 worth of tickets to 267 screens to beable to earn that honour.The BVI title pushed Collateralinto second place after just one week at the top. The UIP Tom Cruise ...
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Becker takes on Love Reigns sales
Becker Films International is to handle worldwide sales on WhereLove Reigns, which is being set up as an official tri-partite productionbetween the UK, Canada and South Africa and has Martin Scorsese on board asexecutive producer.Thefilm is based on the true story of the torrid love affair in the early 1900sbetween ...
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New Zealand lobbies for second film sound stage
New Zealand film agency Film Auckland is bidding forUS$1.8m (NZ$1.7m) from the New Zealand Government to help construct a secondpurpose-built film sound stage in the country.New Zealand's only other purpose-built film stage is downsouth in Wellington and is now being used for Peter Jackson's King Kong.It was built earlier this ...
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Australia, New Zealand generate star power
Films of all shapesand sizes are now underway in New Zealand and, after a considerable productiondrought, in Australia - and both countries are awash with internationallyrenowned acting talent.In Australia, HeathLedger and Geoffrey Rush are to star in Candy,and Cate Blanchett is the focus of LittleFish, which also stars Sam Neill ...
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Hopkins in the saddle for World's Fastest Indian
Anthony Hopkins plays a motorcycling legend in TheWorld's Fastest Indian, whichwriter/director Roger Donaldson has been shooting for three weeks on the Utahsalt flats and moves shortly to New Zealand for a further 11 weeks.The New Zealand Film Commission and New Zealand FilmProduction Fund are the financing partners on what is ...
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AUSTRALIA 18 October
It is highly unusual to see the first three spots in the top20 chart occupied by openers but that is exactly what happened on the four-dayweekend to October 17. And there were no other new faces in the chart.Leading the charge was the Collateral, starring Australia's one-time adopted son Tom ...
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AUSTRALIA 12 October
In its third weekend on release Shark Tale was top ofthe pops at the box office with a gross of A$1,707,044 from 289 screens forUIP. Despite having spent only 18 days in cinemas, its total gross of nearlyA$12m is second only to that of TheBourne Supremacy's A$15m, which has taken ...
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NEW ZEALAND 12 October
The homegrown In MyFather's Den can hold its head high as a result of its first weekend incinemas, which comes after considerable festival exposure this year bothlocally and abroad. It grossed NZ$184,793 from 20 screens for Hoyts to claimthird place.It was one of two openers in the top three but ...
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Lack of leading lady puts Eucalyptus, Crowe on hold
The producers behind Jocelyn Moorhouse's Eucalyptus, which was to have gone into production this year,are gearing down because they have not been able to find an Australian leadinglady to star alongside Russell Crowe and Geoffrey Rush.They say Crowe and Fox Searchlight, which is fully financingthe film, remain very supportive of ...
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Watson, Hurt attracted by The Proposition
Emily Watson, John Hurt, Ray Winstone, David Wenham andDanny Huston star in the big-budget UK/Australian co-production TheProposition, which goes into production inthe tiny outback town of Winton on Monday (October 11) amid temperatures likelyto be well over 30 degrees Celsius.The film reunites director John Hillcoat and music legendand scriptwriter Nick ...
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Hopscotch leaps on four hot titles
Australian distributor Hopscotch has acquired 3-Iron, which won the FIPRESCI award andthe best director award for Kim Ki-duk at the Venice Film Festival, as well as Downfall, Mysterious Skin and Bombon.Argentinian film Bombon,by director Carlos Sorin (Minimal Stories)is also a FIPRESCI winner, at San Sebastian.Downfall, byOliver Hirschbiegel (Das Experiment),is Germany's ...
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Somersault smashes AFI nominations record
Somersault hassmashed the record for the number of nominations received in the AFI(Australian Film Institute) Awards, winning the thumbs up 15 times across all13 categories for which it qualified.These include best film for producer Anthony Anderson, bestdirector and best original screenplay for Cate Shortland, best actor for AbbieCornish and Sam ...
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China, Australia head for co-production treaty
It is highly likely a co-production treaty will be signedbetween Australia and China following an eight-day visit by a Chinesedelegation that ended on Saturday (Sept 25)"There is a great enthusiasm on their part and anintention to conclude an agreement, and the same goes for us," said KimDalton, chief executive of ...
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Village Roadshow admits to Catwoman loss
The lacklustre performance of Catwoman at the worldwide box office has hit its co-producerVillage Roadshow (VRL) hard.In an extraordinary statement released on Friday, theAustralian company said that the release of films in the next 12 months inwhich it is a production partner will be insufficient to cover the lossesincurred by ...
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Dendy's Sarfaty new head of indie cinema group
The organisation that helped make Australia's majordistributors more accountable for how they deal with small exhibitors has a newpresident and a new name.Mark Sarfaty, head of the arthouse chain Dendy Cinemas, sayshe wants to use his new role as president to further strengthen the voluntarycode of conduct so that it ...