Small MPU – Page 1396
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News
Quiero TV shake-up likely after Auna stake sale
Telecom Italia looks set to finally sell off its 26.9% stake in Spanish telecoms operator Auna, majority backer of pay digital terrestrial pay-TV (DTT) platform Quiero TV.The Spanish shareholders Endesa, Fenosa and Banco Santander are understood to be paying an estimated Euros2bn (Ptas333bn) for the Auna stake. While the long-anticipated ...
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News
Cecchi Gori in court over cash-for-votes flap
Embattled movie mogul and former senator, Vittorio Cecchi Gori is set to appear in court this week on corruption charges.He will answer questioning on charges of paying $9,000 (L20m) to a middle-man in the Sicilian town of Acireale in exchange for a package of political votes allegedly controlled by a ...
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News
Canadians, Koreans check into Officers Ward
Mercure Distribution has sold Canadian rights to Cannes competition title The Officers' Ward (La Chambre Des Officiers) to Christal Films Distribution. With Cinema bagged South Korean rights.La Chambre Des Officiers (pictured), a World War I drama adapted from a novel by Marc Dugain and written and directed by Francois Dupeyron, ...
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News
Ottfilm snags Mostly Martha on the rebound
Sandra Nettelbeck's Mostly Martha has been picked up by Ottfilm for theatrical distribution in its native Germany. The film was originally included in Kinowelt's lineup for release this month.Kinowelt's mounting financial problems, however, persuaded producer Karl Baumgartner of Pandora Film to take back the film back to offer to other ...
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News
Animated Oscar to go ahead; nine films eligible
The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) will go ahead with its inaugural Best Animated Feature category this year after the board of governers voted in its favour at a meeting on Monday night.Nine films were declared eligible to compete by the executive committee of the short films ...
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News
Fox sets X2 release for May 2, 2003
Laying claim to a choice release date 18 months ahead of time, 20th Century Fox has announced that it will release X2, the second film in its X-Men franchise, on May 2, 2003.The dating comes in the week that Warner Bros secured domestic rights to Terminator 3: The Rise Of ...
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News
Sundance sets 11 for Screenwriters Lab
The Sundance Institute has named the 11 projects which have been selected for the annual Screenwriters Lab which takes place Jan 4 to 9 at the Sundance Village in Utah just prior to the Suncance Film Festival.At the Lab, writers are given the opportunity to develop their work-in-progress screenplays in ...
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News
Artisan teams with National Lampoon on Wilder
Artisan Pictures is teaming up with National Lampoon to release college comedy Van Wilder: Party Liaison in North America on March 29, 2002. Set to launch in over 2,000 theatres, the film will be redubbed National Lampoon's Van Wilder as a throwback to the 1978 college hit National Lampoon's Animal ...
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News
Atanarjuat and War Bride lead Genie race
Zacharias Kunuk's Camera d'or winner Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) and Lyndon Chubbuck's The War Bride both received seven nominations for Canada's Genie Awards, announced Dec. 12 in Toronto. Bruce Sweeney's Last Wedding had six nominations while five were awarded to Renny Bartlett's Eisenstein, Bernard Emond's La Femme Qui Boit and ...
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News
Not Another Teen Movie
Not Another Teen MovieReviewed by John Hazelton in Los AngelesDir: Joel Gallen. US. 2001. 82mins. A genre spoof aimed, apparently, at both teens and twentysomethings, Not Another Teen Movie hits its barn door of a target just often enough, although never with much style or wit. A handful of raunchy ...
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News
Zee confirms Indian partnership with AOL offshoot
Zee Telefilms , India's largest media firm, and AOL Time Warner offshoot Turner International (India) Private Ltd, have agreed the establishment of a joint venture outfit that will distribute Zee's channels abroad and AOL's in India.The deal sees Zee hold 74% of the new Delhi-based company, Zee Turner Private Ltd. ...
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News
Helkon SK ventures into production
Children's fantasy comedy Tooth and comedy thriller Max Dark are among the first projects at the newly-launched production operation of UK distributor Helkon SK. Emma Berkosfky, former head of development at BSkyB film arm Sky Pictures, will head up development at the outfit.Berkosfky, who was also previously at British Screen ...
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News
Vivendi builds war chest with BSkyB stake sale
Vivendi Universal yesterday raised $1.5bn from the sale of a third of its stake in UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB. It appears to be amassing a warchest with which to build a TV production and distribution powerhouse. Last week it raised $1.07bn from the sale of some of its non-media ...
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News
New Zealand moves against parallel imports
The New Zealand Government yesterday announced it will introduce legislation to ban parallel import of video.The move will prevent films, videos and DVDs from being imported by retailers or persons other than the authorised distributor within nine months of its worldwide release. The policy will not affect private or domestic ...
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Reviews
2001: The Film Year in Review
There were few great films in 2001, but enough good ones by new (Todd Field), developing (Peter Jackson,Baz Luhrmann), and veteran (Lynch, Altman) directors, to make the year moreagreeable. With most studio releases slipshod and slapdash, the interestingfilms were easily evident on first viewing. Hence, choosing the best was notdifficult, ...
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News
Alliance given OK for Canadian indie film channel
Alliance Atlantis Communications (AAC) has received approval from theCanadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for its acquisition of the Independent Film Channel Canada (IFCC). The IFCC was acquired through AAC's purchase of Halifax-based Salter Street Films earlier this year. The IFFC was launched in September 2001, one of an array ...
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News
Germany's Feardotcom acquired by Warner
Warner Bros. has picked up North American rights for William Malone's horror action thriller feardotcom, starring Stephen Dorff, Natasha McElhone, Stephen Rea and Udo Kier.The German-UK-Luxembourg co-production, produced by ApolloMedia's Frank Huebner, Quality International's Jan Fantl and Moshe Diamant, will be released by Warner Bros in the US on March ...
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News
Libermann picked to head France Television Dist
Michel Libermann is to become CEO of France Television Distribution (FTD), the film and television rights trading arm of public broadcaster France Television, which includes international sales house President Films.The 43 year-old Libermann replaces Marc Bonduel, who departed in October to head Pathe's French film distribution arm Pathe Distribution and ...
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News
Indian directors, cable cos agree piracy measures
The representatives of Indian film producers and cable operators havereached an agreement to check video piracy which poses a serious threat tothe Indian film industry. Under the terms of the deal it was agreed that no film should be exhibited without a valid licence from the copyright holder. Also, ...
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News
Liberty Media's lifeline complicates Kirch dilemma
John Malone's Liberty Media Group is reported to have opened talks with Kirch Group about ways to help the debt laden German giant meet pressing loan repayments. According to The Financial Times, executives from the companies have discussed options to provide funds to Kirch. This includes the possibility of Liberty ...