Small MPU – Page 1448
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News
Year Of The Devil wins Karlovy Vary's Crystal Globe
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival wrapped in the Czech Republic on Saturday, with the Crystal Globe, the festival's main prize, going to a Czech film, Petr Zelenka's Year of the Devil. It was a weekend of surprises and disappointments in the Bohemian spa town. Zelenka's film, a part fiction, ...
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France's TF1, M6 team up for Canal Plus bid
French private broadcasting groups TF1 and M6 are considering joining forces with Pathe in order to acquire Vivendi Universal's Canal Plus Group, a source 'close to the deal' told French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur.TF1's chairman Patrick Le Lay and M6's president Nicolas de Tavernost have already both voiced their interest ...
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Italian government moves to overhaul entertainment laws
The Italian government has presented a draft law to Parliament proposing a number of dramatic changes to the country's entertainment laws, including the introduction of a tax shelter.The draft law proposes that public funding for Italian movies should be capped at 50% of the budget. The current state funding ...
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Fortune Star joins with DreamWorks for Hong Kong Cafe
Fortune Star, the new production division of News Corp's Star TV group, is teaming up with DreamWorks to distribute Hong Kong Cafe, a one-hour TV series celebrating Hong Kong action movies and martial arts. The series will feature clips from Star's 600-title library which includes films starring Jackie Chan, Bruce ...
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Vivendi Universal chief financial officer resigns
Guillaume Hannezo, Vivendi's Universal's chief financial officer has resigned, French newspaper Le Monde reported on Friday July 12.The unconfirmed report said that Hannezo had tendered his resignation on Tuesday (July 9) and was expected to leave within the next few weeks.Hannezo's departure had been widely anticipated as he was a ...
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$9m large-format Bugs! goes into production
Bugs!, a $9m 3-D giant-screen documentary film, has started principal photography in the jungles of Malaysia.A live-action film about the hidden world of insects, Bugs! will use macro-photography and 3D imagery to convey the tiny dramas of bug life on a grand scale - and will be hoping to repeat ...
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Can this summer's blockbusters break the pattern of 2001's one-week wonders'
Two more blockbusters passed the US domestic $100m mark this week. However, this summer is in danger of following last year's pattern of providing a couple of early pace setters followed by a series of 'one-week wonders'.Steven Spielberg's Minority Report passed the $100m mark on Tuesday, becoming the director's 11th ...
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New minister of culture heralds turning point for Polish film industry crisis
Last week's appointment of Waldemar Dabroski as the new Polish Minister of Culture may signal an end to the political divisions that have been crippling the Polish film industry. Dabroski, who as minister for cinematography in the early 1990's was responsible for establishing the government-backed agency for film production, is ...
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The Eye is eyed up for remake treatment
Danny and Oxide Pang's chiller The Eye could be the next Asian picture lined up for Hollywood remake treatment.Under a deal brokered by Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment, remake rights are to be acquired by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner's Cruise/Wagner company with a view to the film being made ...
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Perdition hits big, but can't gun down Men In Black
Men In Black II (MIIB) clung on to top spot at the North American box officeover the weekend with an estimated $25m gross, although a spectacular opening for Road To Perdition on half the number of screens came close to dethroning it. The Columbia Pictures sci-fi sequel averaged $6,923 ...
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CTFDI scores $17.4m with MIIB, breaks all-time record with Spider-man
Men In Black II (MIIB) took an estimated $17.4m at the international box office over the weekend as Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International rolled out its sci-fi romp to 12 territories bringing its running total to $34.7m. With an unconfirmed best-ever opening in South Korea for a non-Korean language picture ...
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Scooby is Warner's second biggest all-time UK opening
Scooby-Doo continued to snap up the international competition for Warner Bros over the weekend, opening in the UK with $8.1m (£5.2m) from 474 screens, according to studio estimates released today (Sunday). If the figure is confirmed tomorrow it will be Warner's second highest UK opening behind Harry Potter And The ...
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Reviews
The Bourne Identity
Dir: Doug Liman. US. 2002. 118 mins.One of Robert Ludlum's best-selling Cold War spy novels gets a refreshingly edgy cinema update in The Bourne Identity, an international thriller that, under the guidance of indie director Doug Liman, spins out its Hollywood genre conventions with continental flair. The film opened strongly ...
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Reviews
The Seagull's Laughter (Mavahlatur)
Dir. Agust Gudmunsson. Iceland 2001. 104 mins.The new offering from veteran Icelandic director Agust Gudmunsson initially posits itself as a post-war coming-of-age social satire. Yet this acerbic comedy soon offers up several lively portraits of women looking to assert themselves in a world very much controlled by men. Based on ...
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European local hits fight back against US blockbusters
In a reversal of fortunes for Spanish films, a musical comedy has become the third-highest grossing local title of this year after just 10 days on release. Meanwhile, continuing a robust trend, a Danish film has kicked Spider-Man off the top spot at the box office, with the fourth-best opening ...
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Episode II sets new all-time opening record in Japan
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones has set a new opening record in Japan, taking a gross box office of $13.8m over the two-day weekend.The sci-fi adventure attracted a massive 1,075,287 admissions to reach $13.8m (Y1.6bn) from a record high number of screens - 630, over the ...
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Sun Gateway fund opens up for English-language productions
Features by Michael Radford, Sandy Johnson and Amy Lyndon have been lined up as possible projects for backing by the new Sun Gateway Entertainment (SGE) private media fund.The German fund, which aims to raise Euros 50m this year for up to seven English-language feature film and TV productions, is managed ...
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Germany's Splendid Film package sold for $17.4m
The romantic comedy Kate & Leopold and police thriller NARC are among a 16-title, Euros 17.3m package of films sold by Splendid Film to the German private broadcasting group ProSiebenSat1 Media.Among the other titles in the package, which will begin generating income for Splendid in the second half of 2002, ...
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Two Eastern European countries boost national film funds
The newly-appointed Hungarian ministry of culture has awarded $3.3m (HUF 800m) in immediate cash for its struggling local film industry, while in neighbouring Slovakia a new law has been passed requiring broadcasters and exhibitors to contribute to the country's production funds.In Hungary, cultural minister Gabor Gorgey and minister of financial ...