Small MPU – Page 1566
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News
UK secures largest share of MEDIA development funding
UK filmmakers benefited from over Euros 2.8m (£1.9m) of MEDIA programme investment into their companies this year.The UK MEDIA desk recorded that 18.6% of the total Euros15m of development funding went to UK film projects.2003 is the first year that the UK has received the largest share of funding - ...
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Sundance reflects a new cinema of discomfort
The Sundance Film Festival,the film calendar's official discovery venue for US independent films, todayunveiled the dramatic and documentary competition lineups for its 2004 event(Jan 15 to 25) today, as well as the titles in the American Spectrum section. Several film-makers who havefilms in dramatic competition are already well-known in Sundance ...
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Morgan Creek wins in lawsuit against Franchise
Morgan Creek Productions haswon its lawsuit against Franchise Pictures and has been awarded close to $2m.Morgan Creek had loaned Franchise $2m and in return Franchise had guaranteedthat it would replay that amount out of revenue corridors of other films.The jury found thatFranchise had "breached the implied covenant of good faith ...
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Revolutions passes $250m in international for Warner
The Matrix Revolutions continued to decelerate in its fourth weekend in theinternational arena as it added an estimated $11.9m from all territories toraise the running total to $253.5m.Figures released by WarnerBros reveal the final episode in the sci-fi trilogy drew 1.9m admissions from6,081 screens. Reloaded grossed$454m at the international theatrical ...
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Master And Commander scores $15m maiden wide weekend for Fox
FoxInternational's Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World stirred up the international waters overthe weekend as it grossed $15m haul from 2,944 screens in 31 territories.The naval epic's high spot was a $1.1m number one openingon 152 screens in Russia for Fox's fourth biggest bow of all time ...
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Wellspring teams with Gilula for US video distribution
US-basedWellspring Media has moved to bolster its video distribution and originalprogramming operations through a deal with Mark Gilula's Stanford Media Group.Gilula will headup Wellspring's home video operation and work with the company's team toservice sales to current key accounts, open additional distribution channels,acquire new programming and arrange strategic marketing partnerships.Wellspring'shome ...
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Nemo submerges competition with $37m weekend
Buena Vista International(BVI) executives are predicting Finding Nemo will pass $300m in international ticket sales bynext Monday (Dec 8) after a stunning $37m weekend haul raised the animated hit'srunning total to $230.8m.The acclaimed title andleading contender for next year's best animated picture Oscar has become Disney's11th animated title to pass ...
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Specialty division chiefs subpoenaed to appear in Indies V MPAA case
Studiospecialty division chiefs Harvey Weinstein of Miramax Films, Michael Barker andTom Bernard of Sony Pictures Classics, David Linde and James Schamus of FocusFeatures and Bingham Ray of United Artists may get their say after all in thebattle over the screener ban, since all have been subpoenaed to appear in USdistrict ...
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JAPAN
There was little change in the Japanese box office top ten, with only one new film, Phone Booth, breaking in. Benefiting from heavy rotation of a 'making-of' promo on the local Fox channel, the film debuted at number three, with a screen average of $29,769. Meanwhile number one The Matrix ...
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GERMANY
BVI's Finding Nemo may be available on pirate DVD, but it hasn't stopped cinema-goers rushing to see "the fish film", as some in the German industry have rather disparagingly called the blockbuster. Nemo's 1.3 m-plus admissions in the second weekend must seem like manna from heaven for the beleaguered ...
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Reviews
Maqbool
Dir: Vishal Bharadwaj. India. 2003. 134minsShakespeare meets Bollywood in the energetic Maqbool, a two-hour-plus extravaganza expressly modelled on Macbeth, the most blood-besotted play of the Bard's maturity. Ultimately more Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Body Heat than Shakespearean, this rambunctious film borrows the playwright's characters while tarting ...
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Reviews
The Floating Landscape
Dir. Carol Lai Miu-suet. Hong Kong/France, 2003. 100mins.Not much happens in this quietly introspective tale of a young Hong Kong woman haunted by the untimely death of her lover. Unable to pick up the thread of her own life, she goes back to his home town to try and unravel ...
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Next Best Thing is second best to Whole Nine Yards
Despite four new releases in the marketplace, nothing could displace Warner Bros' comedy The Whole Nine Yards from the top position at the US box office. In its third weekend, the comedy directed by Jonathan Lynn and starring Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry, grossed $7.3m on 2,793 screens, bringing its ...
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Jackson feted as Return Of The King premieres in NZ
Peter Jackson was asked whether he would consider running for Prime Minister of New Zealand during a press conference yesterday, just hours before the world premiere of The Return Of The King in his hometown of Wellington. For the record, he said he was "very happy" with his current job.The ...
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Blockbuster goes on the block
Blockbuster Inc, the world's number one video rentals chain, may be sold in a leveraged buyout or through a share swap as early as next week.On Monday this week (Dec 1, 2003) Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom, the media conglomerate that owns Paramount, CBS and Blockbuster, told a New York ...
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UK/IRELAND
With two major wide releases following West End platforms and five new entries in the top 25 it was no great surprise that weekend takings jumped 13% week-on-week in the UK and Ireland last weekend. However, total box office was still 6% down on the same weekend last year when ...
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Almodovar eyes Cannes launch for Bad Education
Almost a year after his best original script Oscar coup for Talk To Her (Hable Con Ella), Spanish maestro Pedro Almodovar is putting the finishing touches on his next film, Bad Education (La Mala Educacion), and considering a premiere at the Cannes Film Festival."We are open to the possibility of ...
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Von Trier close to finding Grace with Howard
Newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard - the daughter of director Ron Howard - is close to taking on the role of Grace in Lars von Trier's Manderlay, the director's follow-up to this year's controversial Dogville."I can confirm that we are negotiating with her, and that we believe she would be a ...
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Gibson's Passion finds a home in Catholic Italy
Mel Gibson's controversial new film, The Passion Of Christ, has found a distributor in Catholic Italy, with powerful Rome distributor Eagle Pictures acquiring all local rights to the picture.Eagle is believed to have seen The Passion on the eve of the Venice film festival at a private screening that was ...