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All articles by Sandy George – Page 71
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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 ...
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Lend Lease takes hit on Fox Studios investment
Lend Lease Corporation, which half-owns Sydney's Fox Studios Australia, has made a provision of $47m (A$80m) after tax to cover its losses from the failure of the 19-month-old Backlot, one of three distinct parts of the studio and entertainment development. It will also make an appropriate write-down of the value ...
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AFI Awards get record number of entries
Twenty-five films have been submitted for the 2000 AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards, the biggest number of entries for nearly 10 years. Titles range from box office winners The Wogboy and Looking For Alibrandi, to highly-anticipated features such as Chopper and Bootmen, to tiny privately-financed fare such as Chasing Parked ...
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Australia's Palace buys private Dope
Australian distributor Palace Films has picked up local rights to Australian title Dope, a privately-financed project from first-time writer-director J Harkness which is currently in pre-production.The cross-cultural love story cranks up in Adelaide on August 21 with Harkness and Mark Patterson producing. Adelaide-based Guerilla Films is the production company. The ...
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Passover Fever to open Oz's first Israeli fest
Shemi Zarhin's epic comedy-drama Passover Fever (1995) has been chosen to open Australia's first Israeli Film Festival, to take place in Canberra from August 4-10.Israeli writer-director Joseph Pitchhadze will introduce the festival with a screening of his road movie Under Western Eyes (1996), part of a five-hour seminar examining representations ...
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Scarfies sweeps New Zealand film awards
Scarfies dominated New Zealand's film awards on July 1 winning the best producer award which went to Lisa Chatfield, best director for Robert Sarkies, best writer for Sarkies and his brother Duncan Sarkies and best female actor which went to Willa O'Neill.Scarfies was the debut film for the entire creative ...
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AFC overhauls funding guidelines
As part of its on-going revamp, Australia's major development agency, the Australian Film Commission (AFC), has issued new funding guidelines under which film-makers with a proven track record will be given the most support. Experienced talent will be given access to the lion's share of AFC funding - and at ...
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Major territories in place for Crocodile Dundee 3
CLT-Ufa has acquired French and German rights to Crocodile Dundee In LA, the third film in the Crocodile Dundee franchise. UIP will release the film in the UK, Scandinavia and the local Australian market. Paramount Pictures has North American rights and plans to release the picture in April 2001.Kathy Morgan ...
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Collins replaces Rhys-Jones at Roadshow
David Collins has been chosen to replace Libby Rhys-Jones as New South Wales general manager of Roadshow Film Distributors, based in Sydney and reporting directly to managing director Joel Pearlman in Melbourne. He starts on July 10.Rhys-Jones resigned from the biggest Australian-owned distributor at the end of May after a ...
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Australia's FLICs get luke-warm response
Australia's two Film Licensed Investment Companies (FLICs) have convinced investors to tip in only about half of the tax deductible total of $23.9 (A$40m) that they were allowed to raise before the June 30 deadline.The government-sanctioned FLICs were formed 15 months ago as a pilot scheme with the aim of ...
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Australia's Energee to create TV Magic Pudding
Australian animation house Energee Entertainment is planning to spin its not-yet-released first feature, The Magic Pudding, into a television series. International sales agent Icon Entertainment International has sold The Magic Pudding feature to more than a dozen territories including Bac Films for France and Gruppo Minerva for Italy. It will ...
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Australia passes digital legislation
Australia has finalised controversial legislation restricting the number of TV channels in the digital era.Legislation passed late yesterday (June 29) - the final instalment in the laws that will determine Australia's digital TV future - confirmed the three commercial incumbents' continuing monopoly of free-to-air services for at least five years. ...
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Oz investors won't let filmmakers wiggle out of it
Investors in Australian title The Wiggles Movie are considering taking legal action against production company Gladusaurus Productions, manager Movieco Australia, the promoter, and perhaps the distributor 20th Century Fox, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.The article reports that only about 13% of $964,000 (A$1.6m) in production funding has been returned ...
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Little Crumb director to adapt Pete, The Rascal
Dutch writer-director Maria Peters, whose credits include the Netherlands' biggest local hit last year, Little Crumb (Kruimeltje), based on the novel by Chris van Abkoude, is developing another adaptation of the late writer's works.Peters is combining all eight novels in Van Abkoude's Pete, The Rascal (Pietje Bell) series into one ...