Small MPU – Page 1299

  • News

    Jordi Molla's directorial debut to open Malaga fest

    2002-04-17T05:00:00Z

    We're Nobody (No Somos Nadie), the directorial debut of actor Jordi Molla (Blow, Second Skin), will open the fifth annual Film Festival of Malaga (April 26-May 4), Spain's leading competitive event dedicated to national productions and co-productions.Other titles competing in the official section alongside Molla's Lolafilms production, (pictured) include: Julio ...

  • News

    2002 UK cinema admissions predicted to reach 164m

    2002-04-17T05:00:00Z

    Cinemagoing is continuing to rise in the UK, prompting the Cinema Advertising Association (CAA) to predict that ticket sales will reach 164 million in 2002 - a 5% increase on last year's hefty total of 156 million.Admissions reached over 48.3 million in the first quarter - a year on year ...

  • News

    Universal strikes film supply deal with Greece's Star

    2002-04-17T05:00:00Z

    Universal has struck a long-term film supply deal with Greek commercial broadcaster Star. The exclusive contract spans films and made for television programming.Among the films is a mixture of current films and library material. Titles include Gladiator, The Mummy, Bridget Jones's Diary, Hannibal, and The Fast And The Furious.TV content ...

  • News

    Cannes' Camera d'Or jury announced

    2002-04-17T05:00:00Z

    The jury of Cannes' Camera d'Or, which was created 25 years ago by Gilles Jacob and is awarded to a first film selected either in the official competition or in the Un Certain Regard, Director's Fortnight and International Critics' Week sidebars, has been announced.Selected from among previous Camera d'Or jury ...

  • News

    Imax set for widest ever release with Space Station 3D

    2002-04-17T05:00:00Z

    Imax Corp. is set for the widest release yet of one of its giant-screen films. The company said Space Station 3D, with narration by Tom Cruise, has commitments from more than 100 IMAX theatres. The film, its first space-related 3D picture, opens in North America April 19 in 24 theatres. ...

  • News

    First programmes for Cologne Conference selected

    2002-04-17T05:00:00Z

    The German premieres of the World War II series Band Of Brothers, produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, American Beauty author Akan Ball's black comedy Six Feet Under and Swiss documentary filmmaker Christian Frei's Oscar-nominated War Photographer are among the international productions being lined up for the 12th International ...

  • News

    Canadian animation series funded by Scottish bank

    2002-04-17T05:00:00Z

    Ottawa-based animation studio Amberwood Entertainment will produce two animated series with gap financing provided by the Royal Bank of Scotland.It's the first time the RBS has arranged the financing for a Canadian company. The productions covered by the arrangement include 13 half-hour episodes of preschool series Katie And Orbie narrated ...

  • News

    Columbia develops European dramas

    2002-04-17T05:00:00Z

    Columbia Tristar International Television (CTIT) has announced that it is developing local European dramas and plans to launch them internationally at Mipcom in October. CTIT has Spanish, French, German and Italian-language connections in the region. The model of As If - a European youth drama format that first aired on ...

  • News

    Messier forces Lescure's resignation from Canal Plus

    2002-04-16T00:00:00Z

    Amid French press reports that his own future is at risk, Vivendi Universal chairman Jean-Marie Messier has announced that Pierre Lescure, head of the company's pay-TV group Canal Plus, is stepping down from his post.Lescure is to be replaced by the fifty year-old Xavier Couture, who until now has been ...

  • News

    MGM deals Bond with RTL in Germany, Viacom in US

    2002-04-17T05:00:00Z

    MGM Worldwide Television Distribution has concluded two major deals on its James Bond franchise. Germany's RTL Television has signed an exclusive licensing agreement for German free-TV rights to the next Bond movie Die Another Day which teams Pierce Brosnan with Halle Berry, as well as broadcast rights to four classic ...

  • Reviews

    The Hour Of Religion (L'Ora di Religione)

    2002-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Marco Bellocchio. Italy. 2002. 103mins.The term "auteur" is not much used these days outside of ironic quotation marks. But it is difficult to think of a better description for Italian director Marco Bellocchio, now well into his fourth creative decade. The story of an atheist painter who suddenly discovers ...

  • News

    Cannes competition jury line-up announced

    2002-04-17T00:00:00Z

    A week ahead of the announcement of the Cannes film festival's official competition line-up, Gilles Jacob has announced the full jury, which this year is chaired by David Lynch. Actresses Sharon Stone, Michele Yeoh and Christine Hakim will be joined by no less than five film-makers, including three Cannes veterans ...

  • News

    Almodovar's Talk reaches international audiences

    2002-04-17T00:00:00Z

    The latest film from Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, Talk To Her (Hable Con Ella), has seen a strong launch in international territories outside its homeland. Opening in France this week for Pathe Distribution, the film, which was produced by El Deseo, sold an impressive 355,412 tickets, equivalent to $1.7m, in ...

  • News

    David Lynch joins condemnations of Lescure's removal

    2002-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Condemnations of Jean-Marie Messier's decision to sack Pierre Lescure were coming from as far away as Hollywood yesterday, with Cannes jury president David Lynch calling the move scandalous.It is the second time in as many months that Messier has sparked a political furore (the first being when he publicly stated ...

  • News

    Morocco to get two new film production studios

    2002-04-18T04:30:00Z

    The Moroccan film industry is set to for a major boost with the announcement of ambitious plans for two studio complexes at Ouarzazate, a town 200 kilometres south of Marrakesh, at the foot of the Atlas Mountains. Dagham Film, owned by Moroccan-born businessman Mohamed El Asli, who spent 25 years ...

  • News

    German animation studio to close after just two years

    2002-04-18T04:30:00Z

    After just two years in the German market, animation production outfit Ellipse Deutschland Film und Fernsehproduktion has shut up shop following the decision by its French parent Expand to pursue a course of consolidation after group losses last year. Despite Ellipse Deutschland's success with the setting up of the international ...

  • News

    Cinemas face cost of Disability Discrimination Act

    2002-04-18T04:30:00Z

    While the international exhibition industry has always aspired to keep ahead of government regulations, especially those regarding access and facilities for the disabled, the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 has given rise to a new and challenging set of issues that could prove costly to resolve.In what many will hope ...

  • News

    New controversy erupts over Italian TV appointments

    2002-04-18T04:30:00Z

    New controversy has erupted over the control of Italian state broadcaster RAI after the parties in media mogul and prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's coalition were awarded the coveted top managerial jobs at RAI1 and RAI2 as well as their influential news programmes.Coming almost two months after the Italian Parliament appointed ...

  • News

    The Garden Of The Finzi Contini to be remade

    2002-04-18T04:30:00Z

    A new version of Oscar-winning classic The Garden Of The Finzi Contini is to be produced by top Italian producer Carlo Degli Esposti under his Palomar label.The new film is not intended as a remake of Vittorio De Sica's 1970 masterpiece, but is rather a new adaptation of Giorgio Bassani's ...

  • News

    Constantin takes majority stake in Rat Pack

    2002-04-18T04:30:00Z

    Germany's Constantin Film has added to its portfolio of 'satellite' production houses by taking a 51% majority stake in Christian Becker and Anita Schneider's new outfit Rat Pack Filmproduktion The new film and TV production company, in which director Sebastian Niemann and writers Juergen Egger and Alexander Ruemelin hold minority ...