Small MPU – Page 1652
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News
Two Weeks Notice charms UK audiences
Three major new openers stormed the UK box office this week, led by Warner Bros' romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice. The strong combination of the three debutantes, a host of other new titles and continued strength of holdovers, such as Catch Me If You Can, led the box office for ...
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New box office high for New Zealand
New Zealand exhibitors had their best ever year at the box office in 2002 with 17.8 million ticket sales generating $142.7mAccording to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of New Zealand revenues were up 14% on 2001, in part attributable to the number of wet weekends during last year. A $1 ...
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Miami launches co-production market
The 20th Miami International Film Festival is to introduce its own co-production market, called Encuentros.The event, which runs Feb 27 - March 1, is to follow a growing and successful new trend in festivals called whereby film projects in their early stages are presented to potential co-producers, financiers and distributors. ...
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Cast takes shape for Joffe's epic Invaders
Bollywood star Vivek Oberoi is to play the lead Indian role in Roland Joffe's upcoming The Invaders, which is due to shoot in India later this year. Oberoi is one of India's fastest-rising stars, having been catapulted to stardom by his debut film, Company, which was released in India last ...
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Bavaria embraces A Torn Hug
Recent Rotterdam CineMart project, A Torn Hug, (Un Abrazo Partido) by Argentinian director Daniel Burmann has been picked up for world sales by Bavaria Film International. The deal completes the financing of the $650,000 tale about piecing together one's identity in multicultural Argentina. Other backers include Burman's own Burman ...
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Yugoslavia, Slovenia co-produce Red Coloured Grey Truck
Hot Slovenian production house E-motion Films, producer of Damjan Kozole's Spare Parts which premieres in Official Competition in Berlin, is to co-produce feature debutant Srdan Koljevic's Red Coloured Grey Truck as the first collaboration between Yugoslavia and Slovenia since the Balkan War. Koljevic's Euros 1.2m roadmovie - "in the tradition ...
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Paradise secures sales in Latin America, Europe
Cuban-Spanish co-production A Paradise Under The Stars (pictured) has secured two major sales in the wake of its successful screenings in the World Cinema section of this year's Sundance Film Festival.The deals, concluded in Park City, were for all Scandinavia to Angel Scandinavia AS and for all Latin America to ...
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Steve Coogan to play Phileas Fogg in Walden's 80 Days
UK TV comedian Steve Cooganhas landed the plum role of Phileas Fogg opposite Jackie Chan as Passepartoutin Walden Media's mega- budget movie adaptation of Jules Verne's AroundThe World In Eighty Days.The move, which wasconfirmed by Coogan's UK agent ICM yesterday, marks Coogan's first lead role ina Hollywood movie, although the ...
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ECG Worldwide brings new thriller The Invitation to AFM
ECG Worldwide has acquired writer-director Pat Bermel's thrillerThe Invitation and will offer it for worldwide licensing at next week's AFM,company president Barbara Mudge announced today (Feb 11). The picture will makeits premiere sales marketing screening at AFM. Lance Henriksen, whose creditsinclude Aliens, The Right Stuff and Dog Day Afternoon, stars ...
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Promark signs two-picture co-production deal with Sci-Fi Channel
Jonathan Kramer's US and UK-based production and sales companyPromark Entertainment announced today (Feb 11) it has signed a co-productiondeal with US cable network The Sci-Fi Channel to make the action pictures Graveland and Ghost Monkey. Promark will be offering allinternational rights to pre-sale buyers at the AFM next week. Graveland, ...
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Village Roadshow ups funding capacity in Warner co-financing deal
Bidding to play a part in more "tentpole" pictures and increaseits range of options, Village Roadshow Pictures (VRP), the five-year-oldproduction arm of Australian-based Village Roadshow Limited (VRL), announcedtoday (Feb 11) that it had boosted its co-financing deal with Warner Bros bycommitting a revolving $1bn. The investment applies to the studio's ...
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Celluloid strikes Belleville deals
PatrickFraterFrenchsales agent Celluloid Dreams has struck a host of deals on Cannes hopeful BellevilleRendez-vous (aka Les Triplettes De Belleville) and has also agreed a five-picture package deal with UKdistributor Metro Tartan.Belleville, an animated thriller for adultsdirected by Sylvain Chomet, is part of the Metro-Tartan package, which alsoincludes Jean-Pierre Limousin's recent ...
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Magnolia buys Amazing trilogy
PatrickFraterBelgiandirector Lucas Belvaux's trilogy An Amazing Couple, On The Run and After Life has clinched a US dealwith boutique distributor Magnolia Pictures, taking rights to North America,excluding French-speaking Canada. In a separate deal, Telepool bought Germanrights.French sales outfit Films Distributionsaid that the Magnolia deal was completed after a dinner with ...
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Industry mourns Daniel Toscan Du Plantier
Daniel Toscan Du Plantier Daniel Toscan Du Plantier, president of Unifrance Film International, died suddenly yesterday in Berlin. Toscan Du Plantier was an always colourful, sometimes controversial, character who was ideally suited to the role of promoter in chief of French cinema. The festival immediately moved into a phase of ...
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Reviews
Traces Of The Dragon: Jackie Chan And His Lost Family
Dir: Mabel Cheung. China-HK. 2003. 94mins.This homage to Hong Kong action hero Jackie Chan, which opened the Panorama Documentary section at Berlin, was commissioned by Chan himself as a "family souvenir". But in the hands of director Mabel Cheung (known until now for features such as The Soong Sisters or ...
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Reviews
Flower Of Evil (La Fleur Du Mal)
Dir. Claude Chabrol. France. 2003. 104mins.Opinion is likely to differ on Flower Of Evil (La Fleur Du Mal), the new opus from Claude Chabrol, one of the soundest names in Gallic cinema. His numerous admirers will once again appreciate this insidious ironic study of the provincial bourgeoisie, while detractors will ...
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Oscar nomination leads to instant business
The Academy Award nomination for the German entry Nowhere In Africa led to immediate business at the European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin for Bavaria Film International."A couple minutes after the announcement, we closed a deal with the Greek distributor Rosebud," says Bavaria head of sales Thorsten Schaumann, Producer Andreas ...
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Columbia TriStar mulls German distribution move
Columbia TriStar is considering distributing third-party German films, on top of in-house productions by Deutsche Columbia Pictures. If Columbia does take on German films, it will be welcomed by many in the local industry who have seen the number of heavy-weight distributors shrink over the last two years.Juergen Schau, ...
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Buskin branches out into co-productions
Italy's Buskin Film will expand its new production activities to include minority co-productions with other European partners, Buskin president Roberto Bessi and CEO Antonio Guadalupi said in Berlin.Bessi and Guadalupi said they are currently considering projects in the UK, Germany and Spain, with an eye to adding three minority co-productions ...
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Argentine Patagonik kicks off 2003 with strong slate
Argentina's leading production company Patagonik Film Group, in Berlin with Panorama entry Kamchatka, has a strong start to 2003, with a six-title slate of feature films.The three-way joint venture - between Buena Vista International, Spain's Admira and Argentina's Clarin Group - is in the process of selecting a director to ...