![[Clockwise from top left]: Paul Thomas Anderson, Chloe Zhao, Ryan Coogler, Park Chan-wook](https://d1nslcd7m2225b.cloudfront.net/Pictures/274x183/9/0/0/1467900_writerdirectors_192733.jpg)
All articles by Sandy George – Page 66
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Chopper star Eric Bana returns to comedy roots
Having burst onto cinema screens as violent Australian criminal Mark "Chopper" Read, Eric Bana is to return to comedy, the genre in which he made his name as a stand-up and TV comedian.Bana's second Australian film after last year's Chopper will be Nugget, the story of three road workers who ...
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Dirty Deeds is Australia's model for future growth
If Australia's filmmaking ambitions can be encapsulated in a single film, it is writer/director David Caesar's $5m gangster movie Dirty Deeds, which has pulled off a number of investment firsts.Dirty Deeds is Nine Films & Television's first production commitment, after more than a decade in which there has been no ...
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Australia's cinema wars move into the courtroom
Reading Entertainment Australia is heading for the courts over the issue of access to first-release films according to The Age newspaper. Using its Market City cinema site in the heart of Sydney as its latest battle arena, it is claiming in the Federal Court that Roadshow Film Distributors is in ...
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Seven Network pulls out of Asia TV service
The Seven Network has dumped the Asian satellite service Australia Television (ATV), which it took over from public broadcaster the ABC in 1997. It made the move despite being chosen in favour of five other tenderers to revamp the service with Federal Government money.The announcement drew a new round of ...
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Village Roadshow, Network Ten see venture fail
The ambitious internet leisure site SCAPE has gone into voluntary administration only 18 months after Village Roadshow and Network Ten negotiated the joint venture. The news was announced in a joint statement to the Australian Stock Exchange today. The first such formal coupling between a broadcaster and an entertainment giant ...
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Australian independent exhibitors push for change
Australia's independent cinema owners are planning to push through a number of changes in the code of practices between distributors and exhibitors. The code generated considerable controversy when it was introduced three years ago, but despite increasing transparency in the industry it has failed to satisfy many independents.The Cinema Owners ...
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Village Roadshow A$3.8m short after financial scam
Village Roadshow managing director Graham Burke has told the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) that Village Roadshow Ltd's (VRL) net loss is A$3.8m from a financial scam that saw nearly A$30m wrongly removed from company accounts in 1998 and 1999. Burke was speaking on the eve of Andrew Ross Henry, ...
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Icon teams with Australia's top management
The production arm of Icon Entertainment's new Australian distribution operation will be a joint venture with Shanahan Management, the highly-regarded actors agency headed by Ann Churchill-Brown. The new company, called Icon Shanahan Productions is to be run by Sally Chesher.Five years ago the Australian industry was bemoaning its lack of ...
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Fortissimo picks up Ayres' debut film
Co-chair Wouter Barendrecht has confirmed that Fortissimo Film Sales is taking all international rights for Walking On Water, one of three Australian features which go into production in the next few months in time to premiere in March 2002 as The Adelaide Festival of Arts' first ever film content.It will ...
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Two new theatrical distributors emerge in NZ
The next two New Zealand films to release locally signal the arrival of two "new" theatrical distributors - or, more accurately, players who have principally been active in video distribution.Mark Galloway's Stage Door Entertainment releases The Price Of Milk on March 1, and Gordon Adam's Metropolis Film releases The Irrefutable ...
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Icon launches Australian distribution company
Icon Entertainment, Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey's production outfit which successfully launched UK distribution outfit Icon Film Distribution in 1999, is doing the same in Australia - creating a local distribution companyThe Icon offshoot could go up against Village Roadshow as an indie giant if the Australian results of Icon's ...
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Sheffield to replace Gooder at REP
Veteran distribution executive Richard Sheffield is to return to Australia's Becker Entertainment to take charge of its mainstream distribution operation, until recently called REP, replacing Mark Gooder who has resigned to move to another as-yet-unnamed distributor.Sheffield only accepted the job on the understanding that he will also be able to ...
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Australia's GUET fit-out company splits in two
Australia's biggest cinema fit-out company, Greater Union Entertainment Technology (GUET), will begin operating as two businesses - one dealing only with film technology and the other handling the installation of sound, video and lighting systems in other markets - from February 1. The company is active abroad as well as ...
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Ad chief moves to South Australian Film Corp
David Minear, chairman of the Young & Rubicam Adelaide advertising agency, has been appointed chairman of the board of the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC), which recently announced a new strategy aimed at making the state a centre for independent film-making. Film-maker Rolf de Heer has an office at the ...
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Village Roadshow to cut debt via Austereo float
Australian entertainment conglomerate Village Roadshow Ltd (VRL) is expected to raise more than $222.5m (A$400m) from the partial float of its Austereo radio division, part of which will be used to reduce its $406m (A$730m) on and off balance sheet debt. VRL will retain a controlling interest of at least ...
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Davis, Connolly join cast of Man Who Sued God
Judy Davis and Billy Connolly will star alongside Colin Friels, Wendy Hughes, John Howard and Billie Brown in Australian romantic comedy The Man Who Sued God, which begins its nine-week shoot on January 29.The Sydney-based Davis is more often seen in Hollywood films than Australian ones, her last being Children ...
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Palace Films picks up a Silent Partner
Australian distributor Palace Films has acquired all local rights to the low-budget recently-completed Australian slice-of-life comedy Silent Partner. Director-producer Alkinos Tsilimidos is in negotiations with an unnamed international sales agent interested in taking international rights. Daniel Keene adapted the script from his own play about a pair of 40-something down-on-their-luck ...
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Wilkins expands portfolio with NSW arts role
The director general of the New South Wales Cabinet Office, Roger Wilkins, is set to be given the additional role of director general, Ministry for the Arts. The move links the Australian state's most important cultural institutions, including the New South Wales Film and Television Office (NSWFTO), to the state ...
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Oz government picks up $109m from TV sector
The Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) has collected $109m (A$196.9m) in commercial broadcasting licence fees from Australia's 48 commercial television services. The sum is calculated as a percentage of a licensees' gross earnings for 1999-2000. The ABA is expected to release the aggregated financial results, including expenditure, revenue and profits, in ...
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Gibson hears what Australians want
What Women Want has given Mel Gibson his biggest ever opening in Australia, the country in which he grew up and which made him a star via the Mad Max movies. The film also scored Roadshow Film Distributors its biggest ever opening and the strongest ever performance in Australia by ...