Small MPU – Page 12
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News
HBO buys US TV rights to Magic Hour's Sundance doc Burma VJ
As Sundance 2009 prepared to roll into action tonight (January 15) Submarine Entertainment and First Hand Films announced they had closed a deal with HBO for US television rights to Magic Hour Films’ documentaryBurma VJ.Submarine’s Josh Braun and Esther van Messel of First Hand Films brokered the deal with HBO ...
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Screen opinion: film must marry magic and business
As befits these recessionary times, there has been a noticeable shift of tone at the business end of the industry recently. New emphasis has been placed on the search for scientific, transparent, bona fide facts and figures that might impress an investor or bank manager. With risk-aversion now set in ...
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Features
In Focus: Production's French correction
An oft-heard lament in the French film industry has been the lack of incentives for foreign productions considering a shoot in the territory. Since 1998, when Steven Spielberg told a crowd at the Deauville film festival he had chosen not to shoot Saving Private Ryan in France because it was ...
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European studios shoot to thrill
This time last year, $1 bought £0.51. Now $1 translates into £0.68. Suddenly the UK is looking to Hollywood the most cost-effective it has for years. And US productions are booking in fast to UK facilities. Twentieth Century Fox has started shooting Gulliver's Travels at Pinewood studios. Directed by Shark ...
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United States - Prohibition's era
Ten years after Twin Falls Idaho premiered at Sundance and established Michael and Mark Polish as darlings of independent cinema, the brothers return to Park City this month with Manure, one of two films they shot back-to-back last summer.A satirical riff on the US salesman archetype, Manure, which screens in ...
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United States - Welcome visitors
New York-based Visit Films has established itself as a growing boutique sales company for the kind of smaller-budget festival hits that can become lost in the international marketplace."In the environment we started the company in, we quickly filled a niche," says co-founder Ryan Kampe.That niche, however, can be "hard to ...
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FeaturesPalestinian territories - bearing fruit
Najwa Najjar has first-hand experience of the Middle Eastern conflicts that inspired her debut narrativefeature, Pomegranates And Myrrh.
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Profile: David U Lee's The Beijing connection
China-US co-productions have become popular over recent years - a trend that is likely to continue given the success of action adventure The Forbidden Kingdom. But, as many producers have discovered, navigating China's political landscape and vastly different production culture can be as daunting as one-on-one armed combat with the ...
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News
Awards countdown music - Perfect harmony
THOMAS NEWMANWALL-E AND REVOLUTIONARY ROADEight-times Oscar-nominated composer Thomas Newman has two scores in contention this year, both very different compositions for very different films: Andrew Stanton's animated futurist fable Wall-E and Sam Mendes' period drama Revolutionary Road.There is a chasm between the pictures in terms of tone. Wall-E is set ...
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Awards Countdown - Golden Globes - Slumdog has its day
Kate Winslet scored a stunning double triumph at the 66th Golden Globes last Sunday, while Slumdog Millionaire upset the form guide to shut out pre-show favourites The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and Frost/Nixon.Winslet made herself an Oscar front runner after taking home the first two Globes of her career ...
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FeaturesAwards People: Kristin Scott Thomas
Kristin Scott Thomas talks to Mike Goodridge about her latest film I’ve Loved You So Long.
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News
Distribution - Paris Match
For French films at the local box office, 2008 will be a hard act to follow. Pathe's juggernaut Welcome To The Sticks saw more than 20 million film-goers pack France's cinemas to help bring admissions for 2008's top 10 local films to more than 41 million, approximately double the admissions ...
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News
Kinowelt provides NBC Europe with prime-time fare
Germany's Kinowelt has sold another tranche of titles to German TV, this time to cable station NBC Europe which plans to run them in prime-time slots, replacing its Tonight Show and Late Night With Conan O'Brian.Lead-in for the feature package which includes titles such as Sphere, Executive Decision, A Hard ...
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News
Eye on the tiger: Rotterdam International Film Festival preview
When Rutger Wolfson was named director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in autumn 2007, his appointment was on an interim basis. His contract was for only one edition and many expected him to return to his job as director of De Vleeshal, a Dutch centre for contemporary art, ...
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News
Festival talk: Rutger Wolfson
Ahead of this year's festival, what are you looking forward to most'I'm very much looking forward to the films we've commissioned from Guy Maddin, Nanouk Leopold and Carlos Reygadas. We've asked them to make films for very large outdoor projections. Film-makers are used to making films for a very generic ...
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Rotterdam Tiger Competition
World premieresThe Hungry Ghosts (US) opening filmDir: Michael ImperioliThe directing debut of actor Michael Imperioli, best known for his role in The Sopranos, is an ensemble piece set in New York and stars another Sopranos alumnus, Steve Schirripa. Produced by Cicala Filmworks, the New York-based outfit run by Stefan Schaefer ...
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News
The co-production market - 'We had to Kill a lot of our darlings'
"We want to maintain the exclusivity of being in CineMart and to give more space and attention to the projects," says CineMart manager Marit Van Den Elshout, of the 36 projects being showcased at this year's event.She talks regretfully about having to "kill a lot of our darlings" and to ...
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News
International - The only way is up
The second instalment of John Woo's war epic Red Cliff Part II stormed to the top of Screen's international chart for the January 9-11 weekend, after opening in China and Singapore. The film took $15.7m from 1,445 screens, giving the week's second-highest screen average of $10,900.Distributor China Film Group will ...
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News
Asia-Pacific Box-Office Round-Up - China in the black as many see red
China continued its box-office surge in 2008, with a 26.7% rise on the previous year. Box-office receipts in China finished at $617.1m (rmb4.2bn) according to figures from the Film Bureau under the State Administration of Radio, Film And Television (Sarft) - the sixth year in a row the territory has ...
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News
Dion, Oakes promoted in development roles at Bold Films
Garrick Dion has been promoted to senior vice president of development at Bold Films while Jon Oakes is promoted to vice president of development at Gary Michael Walters and David Lancaster's Los Angeles-based company.Rounding out the development team is creative executive Naia Cucukov. The promotions reflect the continued growth of ...