Small MPU – Page 1284
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News
Estudio Mexico plans US distribution operation
Estudio Mexico Films, parentcompany of Mexican production powerhouseAltavista Films (Amores Perros) and Latin American distributor NuVision, is planning to launchdistribution operations in the US for Spanish language films. According toEstudio Mexico head Federico Gonzalez Compean, they are actively seeking outco-investors in the new venture which will require seed capital of ...
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News
Crowe, Berry, Howard win SAG, DGA honours
Universal Pictures' ABeautiful Mind emerged as the bigwinner at the weekend's final awards shows before the Academy Awards onMarch 24. Russell Crowe looks like a shoo-in for the best actor Oscar having added theScreen Actors Guild (SAG) award for best actor to the British Academy Award andGolden Globe, while director ...
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Reviews
The Time Machine
Dir: Simon Wells. US. 2002. 97mins.Almost from start to finish, The Time Machine, the new remake of HG Wells's classic sci-fi novel, is a poorly conceived and executed film, failing to take full advantage of the major technical changes that have improved the sci-fi-fantasy genre during the past two ...
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Reviews
Harrison's Flowers
Dir Elie Chouraqui. US/France 2000. 123mins.A stronger, more charismatic actress would have given Harrison's Flowers, the war melodrama directed by Frenchman Eli Chouraqui, a sharper dramatic focus than it gets in the hands of Andie MacDowell, an appealing actress who's more adept in light romantic comedies (Four Weddings And A ...
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News
Bormann becomes Internationalmedia CEO
Moritz Bormann (pictured) has taken up the newly-created role of chief executive officer with worldwide responsibility for the Intermedia-Pacifica group and become chairman of its German parent, IM Internationalmedia.Bormann replaces Florian Bollen as chairman after Munich-based Bollen offered his resignation last week when the company issued its second profits warning ...
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News
Francis Ford Coppola to re-cut, sell Thai epic
Francis Ford Coppola has confirmed his role as executive producer on the international version of Thai film Suriyothai and will take over the sale of all international rights. The re-edit will carry the credit 'Francis Ford Coppola presents a film by Chatrichalerm Yukol' and will be finished in time for ...
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News
Polish 'Oscar' winner highlights funding fears
Despite the glittering surroundings of Warsaw's Royal Place and a guest list that included Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Zanussi, an air of gloom hung over the 'Orly 2002', Poland's version of the Oscars, on Saturday (March 9). Award winners bemoaned the sharp reduction in film backing from TVP (Polish Television), ...
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News
Miyazaki spirits away crown from Go's record haul
Spirited Away was awarded Best Picture at the 25th Japan Academy Awards ceremony, beating Go, Japan's nominee for the foreign film Oscar.Spirited Away director Hayao Miyazaki also received an outstanding achievement award for a remarkable four-decade-long career that has produced Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind, My Neighhbor Totoro ...
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News
Wachs joins Senator Entertainment board
German industry association, Producers AG, is to lose its chief executive Dr. Friedrich-Carl Wachs (pictured), who is to become the fourth board member of Senator Entertainment from April 1.Wachs, who had headed up the producers group since September 2000, will assume the post of chief operating officer (COO) and deputy ...
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News
UK's Equity, PACT resolve actors pay dispute
UK performers union Equity and producers body PACT are understood to have resolved their dispute over payments to actors.The terms for the new contract between the two bodies are expected to be a compromise but are thought to include residual payments to actors from ancillary revenues. Equity's main grievance was ...
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News
Asian films in the spotlight at Singapore festival
The competition section of this year's Singapore International Film Festival, known as the Silver Screen Awards, has rounded up a broad cross-section of Asian cinema including Fruit Chan's Hollywood Hong Kong, South Korea's popular festival runner Camel(s), Seafood from China, the three hour epic from the Philippines Batang West Side ...
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News
Mar del Plata fest praised for diversity and scope
Argentina's leading film event, the Mar del Plata International Film Festival, kicked off on March 7 despite a 75% cut in its funding.Due to the plummeting peso and Argentina's other economic woes, the national film institute, INCAA, slashed the festival budget from $2m to less than $500,000. However, festival director ...
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News
Sundance's Groth heads programming at CineVegas
Trevor Groth, the well-knownprogrammer for the Sundance Film Festival, has been hired as director ofprogramming for the annual CineVegas International Film Festival which thisyear holds its fourth annual event in Las Vegas from June 8-15. Groth will tacklehis CineVegas role in addition to his work at Sundance."Trevor'sjoining the CineVegas team ...
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News
Emmett/Furla signs to five more with Millenium
Randall Emmett and GeorgeFurla's Emmett/Furla Films has extended its ten picture non-exclusivefinancing and distribution agreement with Avi Lerner's Millenium Filmsfor an additional five pictures. Under the current agreement, the two have alsopacted to make Lizzie Borden's next film Rialto which will star Susan Sarandon and is set to startshooting in ...
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News
Men With Brooms: Canadian comedy opens with C$1m
Men With Brooms, an English-language Canadian comedy set in theheady world of curling, has enjoyed spectacular success on its debut weekend inCanada through Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution. Taking C$1.04m,it scored the highest opening weekend of all time for an English language localproduction - and, playing at 207 theatres, it ...
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News
Italian producers threaten Venice festival boycott
With just fivemonths to go before the start of the next Venice Film Festival and still no newartistic director to run it, Aurelio De Laurentiis, the head of Italy's producers union, has threatened not to present any Italian films in the upcoming festival unless Venice Biennale president Franco Bernabe appoints ...
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Reviews
Resident Evil
Dir: Paul W S Anderson. UK-Ger. 2002. 100mins.Resident Evil is strictly for the game boys. Of course, given that the computer games on which the film is based have sold more than 16m units worldwide, the game boys - lured by the promise of gory zombie effects and Milla Jovovich ...
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News
Gibson's soldiers go fourth in the UK
Mel Gibson's Vietnam War film, We Were Soldiers, opened in the UK this week but met with a surprisingly average result. Playing at 384 sites the fourth-placed title grossed $1.077m (£757,760) for an okay screen average of $2,807 - the lowest average amongst the top five.The result will be disappointing ...
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News
20th Century Fox to roll with $100m Dragonball
Twentieth Century Fox is to make a $100m live-action feature based on the Japanese cult comic Dragonball, the inspiration behind 17 animated films as well as a highly successful TV series.Fox has engaged the comic's creator, Akira Toriyama as creative consultant, and has concluded a rights deal with Shueisha, the ...
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News
Village Roadshow's cinema sell-off boosts profit
Village Roadshow's exhibition arm has been given substantial credit for VRL's net profit after tax of $23.5m (A$45.3m) for the half-year to December 31, up 100% on the previous corresponding period.Only 15 months ago shareholders were told that VRL's unsatisfactory profits of the past two to three years were entirely ...