All articles by Sandy George – Page 48
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News
NEW ZEALAND
Along Came Polly's NZ$300,945 gross for UIP from 40 screens was enough to knock Scooby-Doo 2 - Monsters Unleashed down into second position at the New Zealand box office over the Easter weekend. In dollar terms there wasn't much between the two films, but Scooby-Doo 2, which is in its ...
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News
AUSTRALIA
Starsky & Hutch grossed A$4,350,736 for BVI from 288 screens, which was more than double the result of any other film in Australia during the extra long Easter holiday weekend - the figure is for five days instead of the usual four and includes two public holidays. The film's A$15,106 ...
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AusFILM's Pratt to step down as LA-based film commissioner
AusFILM's LA-based film commissioner David Pratt is to leave his job after six years in the post.AusFILM is responsible for marketing Australia as a location for film and television production."David has been a wonderful asset," said Sydney-based chief executive Trisha Rothkrans. "We are very grateful to him for the outstanding ...
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News
AUSTRALIA
Two high-profile family-friendly openers, UIP's The Cat In The Hat and Roadshow's Scooby-Doo 2, failed to make a dent in the popularity of 50 First Dates, despite the latest Adam Sandler romantic comedy being on fewer screens and in its second week.50 First Dates grossed A$2,573,524 from 286 screens, The ...
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Shoots attracted to new studios, locations and low costs
For full Australia and New Zealand production listings, click HEREMany internationally known women adorn the cast lists of Australia's upcoming films, although not all of them are known for being on the big screen.Rachel Hunter, who plays a caravan park Goddess and mother to an indeterminable number of children ...
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Wincer readies Pasternak epic, seeks investors for Clancy
Australian director Simon Wincer is scheduled to start shooting the epic love triangle The Loneliness Of Always from September 13 in Moscow.His own Billabong Productions is the producing entity and he will also take a producer credit alongside Robert Katz. The "highly complicated co-production" involves partners in Germany, Britain, Russia, ...
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News
NEW ZEALAND
At its first official opening weekend at the box office - audiences were first warmed up on previews - Columbia TriStar's Mona Lisa Smile has pushed The Passion Of The Christ off the top spot with a gross of NZ$309,933 from 53 screens.The Haunted Mansion's NZ$259,523 gross from 50 screens ...
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Oz's FFC bankrolls December Boys, Wolf Creek
The Film Finance Corporation (FFC) has agreed to invest in two new Australian films, the 1960s drama December Boys to be directed by LA-based Rod Hardy, and the low-budget digital horror film Wolf Creek, by first-time writer/director Greg McLean.December Boys has been adapted from Michael Noonan's novel by Marc Rosenberg ...
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Film journalist named new director of Sydney film fest
Film journalist for The Australian newspaper, Lynden Barber, is the new director of the 2005 and 2006 Sydney Film Festival, taking over from Gayle Lake on July 1 after the completion of this year's event.Announcing the appointment, festival president Cathy Robinson said there had been "an exhaustive search in Australia ...
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News
NEW ZEALAND
New Zealanders are proving to be god-fearing types. That is one explanation, anyway, for The Passion Of The Christ being the most popular film for the fifth consecutive weekend. The film's NZ$234,685 gross for the four days to March 21 was higher than each of the two previous weekends but ...
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Irreversible faces second Oz ratings review
Australia's Classification Review Board is to re-examine the "R18+" rating given to director Gaspar Noe's Irreversible next Monday despite the film having been on release for six weeks.George Papadopolous, general manager of the film's distributor Accent Film Entertainment, told ScreenDaily.com that the Australian Family Association had applied for a review ...
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News
AUSTRALIA
Three new films failed to dislodge two Icon films, The Butterfly Effect and The Passion Of The Christ, from the top two spots in the charts and had to settle for third, fourth and fifth in the popularity stakes.The opening trio was UIP's Paycheck, which took A$756,656 from 192 screens, ...
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Oz's Rialto aquires arthouse trio
Rialto Entertainment has picked up three arthouse titles for distribution in Australia and New Zealand as a result of negotiations at the AFM.The three titles are: Joshua Marston's Maria Full Of Grace from HBO Films London, Ken Loach's Ae Fond Kiss from The Works and Ondrej Trojan's Zelary from Menemsha ...
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Oz's Aurora script programme selects Caesar's Prime Mover
Writer/director David Caesar's Prime Mover is one of four projects chosen for Australia's third Aurora intensive scriptwriting programme.The director of Dirty Deeds, Mullet and Idiot Box is working with producer Vincent Sheehan on what is billed as a diesel-fuelled love triangle between Thomas, his wife Melissa, and his truck. Caesar ...
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News
NEW ZEALAND
For the fourth consecutive weekend The Passion Of The Christ has held its position as the most popular film in NZ cinemas. It grossed NZ$192,008 for Hoyts/Icon from 29 screens. UIP's challenger was Paycheck but the NZ$164,695 worth of ticket sales for 38 screens was only enough for it to ...
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News
AUSTRALIA
In its third weekend in cinemas The Passion Of The Christ had to suffer being pushed down into second place by another Icon film, The Butterfly Effect, but not much separated them.The Butterfly Effect's first four-day cinema outing took A$1,341,092 from 172 screens while The Passion took A$1,301,464 from 158 ...
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Foxtel launches Oz pay per view movie service
Australia's Foxtellaunched its new digital pay TV service on Sunday (March 14), givingsubscribers access to 27 pay-per-view near-video-on-demand channels of moviecontent.Each movie will costconsumers $4.4 (A$5.95), although those households which opt to pay $70(A$94.95) per month for the top pay TV tier, will get two per month included.Foxtel Box Office, ...
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King set to surpass Crocodile Dundee in Oz
The Australian film industry should prepare to go into mourning within the next week when The Return Of The King displaces Crocodile Dundee to become the second biggest box office hit of all time in the territory.Crocodile Dundee was top of the hit list from 1986 to 1998, when it ...
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Roadshow pounces on Libertine, Dahlia
Roadshow Film Distributionhas signed up to handle the release of three high-profile films for Australiaand New Zealand: The Black Dahlia, The Libertine and Havoc.Brian De Palma's TheBlack Dahlia is from SignaturePictures International and is an adaptation of the James Ellroy novel about thedeath of an actress in LA in the ...