All articles by Sandy George – Page 70
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Shunji, Zhang join line-up at third Pusan market
Several established Asian directors, including Japan's Iwai Shunji, Korea's Jang Sun-Woo and China's Zhang Yuan, will present projects at the third Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP), which runs alongside this year's Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea.A total of 22 projects from 11 countries will be attempting to raise finance ...
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UIP crowned king at Oz box office awards
UIP's Australian release of Gladiator took the top prize at the Australian Box Office Achievement Awards due to it's hefty A$30m gross. UIP and rival distributor Buena Vista International (BVI) each released seven of the 22 films that reached the all-important A$10m mark during the 12 months to June 30.UIP ...
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Technicolor invests in Southern Star Duplitek
US-based video, CD, DVD and film print manufacturer Technicolor is investing $19m (A$33m) in Australia's Southern Star Duplitek, which will use $16m (A$28m) of the cash to acquire rival optical disc manufacturer Pacific Mirror Image (PMI). Both companies will then assume responsibility for new capital expenditures at PMI totalling about ...
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My Mother Frank wins audience vote at Brisbane
Australian writer-director Mark Lamprell's debut film My Mother Frank was voted best film by audiences at the 9th Brisbane International Film Festival (July 26-August 6).Other favourite features at the event were Nabbie's Love (Japan) in second place followed by Under The Sun (Sweden), Better Than Sex (Australia), Gigantic (Germany), Titus ...
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Australia's Chopper tops local box office
Australian title Chopper has grossed an impressive $0.7m (A$1.2m) from 132 screens in its opening four days in its home territory, giving Australia its third resounding local hit this year. The Palace release, which grossed an additional $176,000 (A$300,000) in previews, is also Australia's second number one domestic title this ...
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Oz distribs choose weapons for exhibitor show
UIP has chosen to screen Billy Elliot for the hundreds of exhibitors who have booked to go to the annual Australian International Movie Convention, scheduled for August 8-12 in Queensland. Columbia TriStar will be showing off Hollow Man and 20th Century Fox has chosen What Lies Beneath. The two films ...
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Australia's Ten in talks for New Zealand buy
Australia's Ten Network is reportedly in talks with Canadian parent company CanWest Global Communications about buying CanWest's two New Zealand television stations TV3 and TV4, and its NZ radio assets.The deal looks increasingly likely because it would help CanWest reduce debt following its recent purchase of the publishing assets of ...
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Cubbyhouse clocks up sales; adds Leonard to cast
Beyond Films has sold Murray Fahey's Australian thriller Cubbyhouse, which goes into production on August 7, to a raft of Asian distributors including Mongkol Cinema in Thailand and Global Film Distributors in India.The film has also gone to Speeding Video Distribution in Malaysia, Sunny Films in Singapore and World Television ...
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Austar expands offering with Two Way TV
Australian pay-TV operator Austar is adding a local version of popular interactive UK TV channel Two Way TV to its line-up starting from October.However, the service will initially be one-way as it will not allow users in different locations to compete with each other until there is improvements to Austar's ...
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Australian Film Finance Corp shuffles board
Roger Amos, Australian head of KPMG's Information, Communications and Entertainment Group, has been made deputy chair of the Australian Film Finance Corporation, 15 months after being first appointed to the board. Muriel's Wedding producer Lynda House has been reappointed for a further term while Robyn Kershaw, producer of this year's ...
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Hanway Films boards Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence
HanWay Films, the sales arm of UK producer Jeremy Thomas' Recorded Picture Company, has boarded Phillip Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence, the Australian-born director's first project in his home country after 12 years in the US.Written by Christine Olsen, the adaptation of Doris Pilkington's book follows three Aboriginal girls forcibly taken from ...
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Patriot ends event movie roll-out in Oz
One of the last event blockbusters on release in Australia this winter, The Patriot, took $1.6m (A$2.8m) from 325 screens on its opening four-day weekend (July 20-23). This gave the Australian office of Columbia TriStar its third biggest opening weekend ever and knocked last weekend's opener X-Men off the top ...
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Oz distribs warn against day and date releases
Although simultaneous global release dates are being encouraged by some US distribution executives, their Australian counterparts have cautioned against not carefully weighing up all factors when dating blockbusters, including the competition and timing of the school holidays."There is a lot of merit in tent-pole pictures going simultaneously in as many ...
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Australia's Paper Bark develops White adaptation
Paper Bark Films producer Antony Waddington and the husband-and-wife team of director Jon Hewitt (Redball) and actor Belinda McClory (The Matrix) are co-writing an adaptation of Australian writer Patrick White's novel The Eye Of The Storm. The project has already won the support of the inaugural A$10,000 Rodney Seaborn Playwrights ...
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X-Men disappoints in Oz
Despite claiming Australia's eighth biggest ever opening day gross on July 13, Fox's X-Men has taken only $2.8m (A$4.76m) from 245 screens after its first week on release. This figure places it at 29 in the chart of the territory's top weekly openings.The results are surprising considering the film's impressive ...
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La Paglia joins Wenham in Connolly's Bank
Australian actor Anthony La Paglia will join David Wenham in the cast of producer Robert Connolly's writing and directing debut The Bank, which is in production in Melbourne throughout August and September. Axiom Films is handling world sales on the thriller, which is set in the world of high finance. ...
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Inside Story triumphs at AWGIES
Robert Sutherland's script for The Inside Story won the prize for best original feature film at the Australian Writers Guild Awards (AWGIES) on July 15. Sutherland also produced and directed the low-budget privately-financed film.The Inside Story was the sole winner at the awards as no prize was given in the ...
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Morphett takes up financial role at Austar
Jonathan Morphett has been appointed chief financial officer of Austar United Communications, parent company of Australia's third largest pay-TV service, Austar.Morphett, who takes up the post on August 21, is currently managing director of corporate finance for investment bank Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. In this role he played a leading ...
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Oz pay-TV falls short on local drama spend
Only two of Australia's 17 pay-TV drama channels complied with voluntary requirements to spend 10% of their annual programming budget on local drama in 1998-99, according to the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA). The only two that did comply were The Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, which are both aimed at children. ...
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Paramount signs two-pic deal with M:I2 star Polson
Paramount Pictures has signed a two-picture deal with Australian actor-director John Polson, who stars alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 2.The first project under the deal is an untitled New York-set dark comedy from scriptwriter William Mapother, which is housed at Cruise's Cruise-Wagner Productions. Polson has a high profile in ...