Small MPU – Page 1281

  • News

    Intermedia/Spyglass merger cancelled

    2002-03-04T10:16:00Z

    Intermedia and Spyglass Entertainment have called off their imminent merger, Intermedia announced on Monday in an ad hoc disclosure to Frankfurt's Neuer Markt.Intermedia said that Nigel Sinclair, Guy East and Moritz Borman will continue in their positions as co-chairmen of Intermedia. East and Sinclair had been expected to step down ...

  • News

    Rings grosses $6.8m from 2-day Japanese debut

    2002-03-04T11:55:00Z

    Lord Of The Rings grossed a powerful $6.8m (Y900m) over its opening two-day weekend in Japan, recording 620,000 admissions from 600 screens. While impressive in itself, the film's debut weekend was nowhere near the level of business that Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone generated, which grossed a record $12.8m ...

  • News

    Intermedia shares crash after merger cancellation

    2002-03-04T12:26:00Z

    Shares in Intermedia plummeted 65% on Monday after it cancelled a merger with production firm Spyglass Entertainment and slashed its earnings forecast.In an ad hoc disclosure to Frankfurt's Neuer Markt, the company said that Nigel Sinclair, Guy East and Moritz Borman will continue in their positions as co-chairmen of Intermedia. ...

  • Reviews

    40 Days And 40 Nights

    2002-03-04T17:23:00Z

    Dir: Michael Lehmann. US. 2002. 95mins.Stripping the military uniform that he valiantly wore in his last two screen roles (Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down) for sexier civilian clothes in his new romantic comedy proves to be a good idea for broadening the appeal of fast-rising star Josh Hartnett among ...

  • News

    Procacci launches Australian production outfit

    2002-03-04T18:32:00Z

    Italian producer Domenico Procacci has announced the formation of Fandango Australia Pty Ltd, a new production entity combining both Australian and European financial sources. The first project to be made by the company will be Rolf de Heer's Alexandra's Project which will go into production later this month.The directors of ...

  • News

    Intermedia shares crash after merger cancellation

    2002-03-04T18:41:00Z

    Intermedia saw two thirds of its value wiped out within hours on Monday after it cancelled its imminent merger with production firm Spyglass Entertainment and slashed its earnings forecast.Intermedia's Neuer Markt-listed stock fell as much as 66% before recovering slightly to Euros 7.21, down more than 62%. The company said ...

  • News

    Sex Up to become Columbia Germany's sixth

    2002-03-04T18:44:00Z

    Florian Gaertner's screwball teenage comedy Sex Up will be the sixth local feature to be produced by Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion GmbH (DCPF), the German production arm of Columbia TriStar Film.DCPF's production partner on the project, which is being scripted by Gaertner with Jakob Hilpert (Kleine Kreise), will be Berlin-based ...

  • News

    El Deseo confirms My Life Without Me cast

    2002-03-04T18:47:00Z

    The Almodovar brothers' Madrid-based production house El Deseo has confirmed casting on forthcoming English-language production My Life Without Me from director Isabel Coixet.Sarah Polley, Mark Ruffalo, Amanda Plummer and Deborah Harry are set to star in the $2.5m film, which begins shooting March 25 in Vancouver with Canada-based My Life ...

  • News

    Lauren Bacall hands out Denmark's Bodil Awards

    2002-03-04T18:55:00Z

    Lauren Bacall was the guest of honour at Sunday's Bodil Awards in Denmark, where she handed the best film prize to director Ole Christian Madsen for Kira's Reason.Hollywood-legend Bacall was fresh off the shoot of Lars von Trier's Dogville, which wrapped on Friday in Sweden, and her presence added ...

  • News

    AusFILM boosts location marketing activity

    2002-03-04T18:58:00Z

    AusFILM is dramatically stepping up its marketing of Australia to the film world. The conglomerate of private companies and government agencies moves into Fox Studios Australia from March 11 and will triple staff thanks to a near fourfold increase in government funds.There is "considerable scope" to increase the 6% of ...

  • News

    Shanghai noon for Hollywood as China opens up

    2002-03-05T02:12:00Z

    China became the unexpected focusof attention on the first day of this year's ShoWest convention in LasVegas, with news that Beijing authorities are prepared to relax film importrestrictions for its planned digital cinema circuit and the announcement byWarner Bros International Theatres of a ground-breaking nine-screen multiplexin Shanghai. To cap it ...

  • News

    Ocean's Eleven breaks $200m int'l barrier

    2002-03-05T07:03:00Z

    Warner Bros International cruised past the $200m mark over the weekend with Oceans Eleven, bringing the film's worldwide total to over $390m. The estimated weekend take for Steven Soderbergh's star-studded caper was $16.7m, bringing the film's total to $210m.The success of Oceans Eleven adds to Warner International's achievement on Harry ...

  • News

    Sal Ladestro gets senior vp stripes at CTFDI

    2002-03-05T07:04:00Z

    Sal Ladestro has been promoted to senior vice president of marketing and distribution, acquisitions and local productions, for Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International. Ladestro will report to Nigel Clark, senior executive vice president of marketing at CTFDI, on all matters relating to marketing, and to Mark Zucker, senior executive vice ...

  • News

    Italian government passes conflict of interest law

    2002-03-05T17:38:00Z

    The Italian Parliament has passed Silvio Berlusconi's controversial law on conflict of interest. Although the centre-left opposition stormed out of Parliament before the vote in a sign of protest, votes from Berlusconi's centre-right coalition were sufficient in number for the law to be passed.The main points that the new law ...

  • News

    Two Euro training programmes launched

    2002-03-05T17:46:00Z

    The Brussels-based Cartoon initiative and the German Federal Film Board (FFA) have joined forces to launch the Cartoon Movie Coaching Programme at this year's Cartoon Movie co-production market for animated feature films in Babelsberg from March 14-16.The Coaching Programme is designed to introduce up-and-coming producers and students of animation to ...

  • News

    Mothman leads openers, Ocean's goes top

    2002-03-05T17:48:00Z

    The UK box office chart saw a battle of holdovers this week as only one new film, Helkon SK's The Mothman Prophecies, received a wide opening. Mothman, a thriller purportedly based on true events, opened in fifth place with a gross of $1.1m (£762,516) from 286 sites - including $53,692 ...

  • Reviews

    Pumpkin

    2002-03-05T17:49:00Z

    Dirs: Adam Larson Broder, Tony R Abrams. US. 2002. 122min.Too rambling and diffuse for its own good, Pumpkin, Adam Larson Broder and Tony R Abrams feature directorial debut, is a youth comedy that suffers from an uncertain tone and conflicting intentions. Christina Ricci, one of the most audacious actresses of ...

  • Reviews

    Skins

    2002-03-05T17:50:00Z

    Dir: Chris Eyre. US. 2002. 86minViewers looking to Native American director Chris Eyre for a buoyant follow-up to his 1996 indie smash Smoking Signals will come away disappointed with Skins, a film that like his feature debut, examines life at a dilapidated Indian reservation from the inside, but lacks the ...

  • News

    France leads Int'l cinema admissions league

    2002-03-05T17:59:00Z

    In a special Screen International analysis of global cinemagoing trends, France has come out as the biggest international territory by admissions, based on record-breaking figures that saw more people go to the cinema in France in 2001 than in any year since 1984.After France's 2001 total of 185m, the second ...

  • News

    Epiphany Films to produce spiritual features

    2002-03-05T18:01:00Z

    Crusader Entertainment, LLC, has formed Epiphany Films, to develop and produce independent feature films with spiritual and religious themes. The announcement was made by Howard Baldwin, president and CEO of Crusader Entertainment, who also announced that Dr. Bob Beltz has been appointed director of special projects for Epiphany. Dr. Beltz, ...