Small MPU – Page 1444
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News
Universal reclaims international DVD distribution
Reacting to the phenomenal growth of the DVD market worldwide, Universal Pictures International (UPI) has announced the reversion of DVD distribution rights from Columbia Tri-Star Home Video, as a three-year agreement between the two studios comes to an end.Under the 1999 deal CTHV acquired international DVD distribution rights to Universal ...
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Japan's Toei launches Laterna animation affiliate
Toei Animation, Asia's largest animation house, has launched a wholly-owned subsidiary to produce animation for families and young adults, over a range of media platforms. Called Laterna, the new subsidiary is capitalised at $420,000 (Y50m) and is headed by Tsutomu Tomari, Toei Animation president. Instead of developing projects exclusively with ...
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F.A.M.E. and RTV apply to exit from Germany's Neuer Markt
F.A.M.E. Film & Music Entertainment and RTV Family Entertainment are the latest publicly listed German media companies to announce plans to exit the Neuer Markt and trade on the Geregelter Markt.F.A.M.E. stated that 'due to the high listing costs as well as the difficult market environment in the media and ...
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News
Carlos Saura readies two new feature projects
Veteran Spanish director Carlos Saura is preparing two new projects to follow his forthcoming feature Salome, slated for a September release.The first is a story about Spain's 16th century King Felipe II, a project which Saura foresees as 'complicated and expensive' to pull together.The second, Amor De Dios (Love Of ...
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UK's FilmFour boards Touching The Void
The UK's FilmFour and the Film Council's New Cinema Fund have boarded Touching The Void, a new feature documentary from Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald.The film, which starts production in Peru on July 22 and continues shooting in the Alps in September, tells the true survival story of two mountaineers - ...
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Two world premieres announced for Toronto.
The Toronto International Film Festival has announced two world premieres for its 27th outing: Peter Kosminsky's White Oleander, starring Robin Wright Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer and Renee Zellwegger, and writer-director Brad Silberling's Moonlight Mile, starring Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon and Holly Hunter. Atom Egoyan's Ararat will open the festival, which runs ...
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News
Polish media giant postpones major floatation
ITI, the giant Polish media concern today (3 July) postponed its share flotation on the Warsaw stock exchange. It blamed difficult stock-market conditions."Despite the good reception of the offering and high interest in ITI, extremely difficult market conditions, both in Poland and abroad led us to decide to postpone the ...
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ITV programming chief Liddiment resigns
David Liddiment, programming boss at the UK's leading commercial channel ITV1, is to resign after five years in the job. He will leave towards the end of the year once a successor has been appointed.News of his planned departure has shocked colleagues and competitors alike as Liddiment is highly regarded ...
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News
Andy Lau being sued for $19.6m
Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau is being sued by his partner in Team Work Corporation - CCT Telecom Holdings - which claims it lost $19.6m (HK$153m) when he backed out of an unanimous decision to float the company.A CCT subsidiary, Noble Trend International, made the claim in a 34-page writ ...
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Messier leaves Vivendi in denial, Fourtou appointed
Jean-Rene Fourtou, the former head of France's largest chemicals firm, was last night voted in as chairman and chief executive of Vivendi Universal. He replaces the Jean-Marie Messier, architect of the company's transition from water group into media mogul, but whose dash for growth cost the firm billions of Euro. ...
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News
Global cinema admissions overtake world population
More cinema tickets are being bought across the globe than there are people in the world, according to new research from UK-based media analyst Screen Digest.Worldwide average per capita visits now stand at 1.1 across the globe, according to the research. Predictably, the lion's share of cinema ticket sales is ...
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Germany's RTL continues its buying spree
RTL Television is on a spending spree - taking advantage of the void left by the insolvent Kirch Group and strengthening its position in the German market as the most aggressive buyer of free-TV licenses.Just a week after announcing a deal with Warner Bros. International Television for a package of ...
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Cambridge film festival boasts multiple UK premieres
Director Alex Cox is to attend the Cambridge Film Festival (11-21 July) for the UK premiere of his Revengers Tragedy, an adaptation of the Jacobean classic.The festival will open with the UK premiere of Pedro Almodovar's Talk To Her, and will close with David Cronenberg's Spider.Other titles receiving their UK ...
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BBC approved for ITV Digital rescue
State broadcaster BBC, which has frequently been criticised for its costly embrace of digital services, has won the licence to run channels on the UK's collapsed ITV Digital platform.The award, made by the Independent Television Commission today (July 4), is said to give the digital terrestrial (DTT) platform the best ...
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Reviews
Cuckoo (Kokoshka)
Dir: Alexander Rogozhkin. Russia. 2002. 100 min.Awarded best director and best actor (Ville Haapasalo) at last week's Moscow Film Festival, where it proved an audience favourite, Alexander Rogozhkin's new film is another of his contemporary metaphors that deals with war and peace, man's instinct for survival and his need to ...
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News
Cuckoo heralds Russian spring
Last week's Moscow International Film Festival marked a milestone for the Russian film industry with Oscar-winning director Nikita Mikhalkov declaring at the closing ceremony that "the crisis in Russian film is over." Mikhalkov, who is both festival chief and Russia's best known director internationally, had good reason for his claim. ...
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Spirited opening for Japanese animation on Korea
Hayao Miyazaki's record-breaking Japanese animated hit, Spirited Away, received a strong reception in South Korea and its capital city of Seoul at the weekend which could see it becoming one of the biggest Japanese successes ever in the country.The film had to settle for second place in the Seoul chart ...
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Swedish Film Institute withdraws funding from major local production
The Swedish Film Institute (SFI) has taken the unprecedented step of withdrawing its financial support of $540 000 (SEK 5m) for the screen adaptation of 2001 local bestseller, Popular Music From Vittula (Popularmusik Fran Vittula). The funding would have made up a quarter of the film's budget.The dramatic move comes ...
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UGC slashes the price of its UK cinema loyalty card
UGC Cinemas UK has announced that its cinema loyalty card is to undergo a massive price reduction in a bid to attract more cinemagoers - at the same time bringing it in line with its continental European equivalents.The card, known as the 'Unlimited Pass', is the only subscription loyalty card ...
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InterCom co-founder returns to shake up Hungary's DVD market
After five years away from the industry George Mihaly, the former Hungarian partner of Andy Vajna, is back on the film scene with a new DVD venture called Ariel International. Mihaly who built the Budapest-based InterCom into Hungary's leading distribution and exhibition outfit during the early nineties was ousted by ...