Small MPU – Page 1653

  • News

    Tokyo international film festival gets new head

    2003-02-13T04:05:00Z

    Tsuguhiko Kadokawa (pictured), president of Kadokawa-Daiei Pictures, has been appointed general producer of the Tokyo International Film Festival. Kadokawa succeeds Michiyasu Kawauchi, who produced the 2001 and 2002 editions of the festival, and whose brief reign was marked by controversy, particularly when three films were disqualified from the competition section ...

  • News

    Bigelow set for VIP treatment

    2003-02-13T04:05:00Z

    A new film by Berlinale competion jury member Kathryn Bigelow is one of ten features being produced by the second tranche of the private German media fund operator, Film & Entertainment VIP Medienfonds .Bigelow's 1930s-set drama Scottsboro Boys is being co-produced with Mark Damon's MDP Worldwide, as is the thriller ...

  • News

    Hours, Adaptation lead Golden Bear sweepstakes

    2003-02-13T04:05:00Z

    Stephen Daldry's The Hours and Spike Jonze's Adaptation are leading the Golden Bear sweepstakes, followed closely by Zhang Yimou's stirring martial arts epic Hero, which was lauded to the skies by some critics but trashed by others. China was also in the running for a prize of some sort with ...

  • News

    Buyers catch The Last Train

    2003-02-13T04:05:00Z

    Max Saidel's new sales outfit Slav International has enjoyed good business with The Last Train (El Ultimo Tren, aka Corazon De Fuego). The social comedy, directed by Federico Luppi, which was Uruguay's foreign-language Oscar hopeful, was bought by Pandora/Pegasos for Germany and Austria and by Fama for Switzerland. A ...

  • News

    Europe gets Dogme Blues

    2003-02-13T04:05:00Z

    Natascha Arthy's Dogme film Old New Borrowed And Blue has notched up brisk sales for Trust Film Sales, which sold German and Austrian rights to Senator. The romantic comedy-drama also went to Artcam and AG Market for the Czech Republic and the former Yugoslavian respectively. Both companies also bought Swedish ...

  • News

    Producers launch European lobby group

    2003-02-13T04:05:00Z

    120 producers from all over Europe have launched the European Motion Picture Producers Association (EMPPA) to act as a networking platform and a lobbying group to represent producer interests vis-a-vis Eurimages and MEDIA Plus as well as push for changes in Germany's Media Decree regulations on international ...

  • News

    Waiting For The Clouds gets ready to shoot

    2003-02-13T04:05:00Z

    Behrooz Hashemian, co-producer of Michael Winterbottom's Berlin competition film In This World, is preparing a new film that looks tailor-made for Berlin director Dieter Kosslick's favoured themes of tolerance, diversity and multi-cultural understanding.Waiting For The Clouds, by Turkish director Yesim Ustaoglu (director of Journey To The Sun) centres ...

  • News

    Films Distribution beefs up slate

    2003-02-13T04:05:00Z

    French sales outfit Films Distribution, which is handling the Lucas Belvaux trilogy, one of the hottest properties at the EFM, has added four films to its Berlin-AFM slate. These are headed by Central Station-writer Marcos Bernstein's directorial debut The Other Side Of The Street. The film, which stars ...

  • News

    Neue Kinowelt strikes first deal

    2003-02-13T04:05:00Z

    Neue Kinowelt's German language sales arm, Futura/Filmverlag der Autoren has made its first pickup - Christoph Schaub's melodrama Secret Love (Stille Liebe) - following the reorganisation of Kinowelt's acquisition and distribution division From now on, Futura will be in charge of the international sales for the Filmverlag der Autoren ...

  • News

    Metacinema snaps up Berlinale titles

    2003-02-13T04:05:00Z

    Metacinema, the Italian production, distribution and communications outfit launched last year at Venice, has bought a three-picture package of Berlin festival films from Fortissimo Film Sales.The company, formed by industry veteran Giovanni Tamberi, formerly with Key Films and most recently with Istituto Luce, bought Yes Nurse, No Nurse, the ...

  • News

    ContentFilm teams with DMX for Dickerson-directed thriller

    2003-02-13T04:00:00Z

    Ed Pressman and JohnSchmidt's New York-based production and distribution outfit ContentFilmhas teamed up with rapper-actor DMX's Bloodline Films for the thriller NeverDie Alone. Based on a novel by thecult 1970s writer Donald Goines, the story centres on an aspiring journalistwho witnesses the murder of a rapper and learns why he ...

  • News

    Regent's here! takes international rights to The Trip

    2003-02-13T04:00:00Z

    Regent Entertainment's gayand lesbian sales label here! Films has acquired foreign rights to the multiaward-winning gay romantic comedy The Trip. The story centres on a pair of seemingly ill-matched lovers who have abitter falling-out, only to meet years later on a road trip in Mexico. The picture is set in ...

  • News

    Palm gets Rotterdam hit Noi Albinoi, Housekeeper

    2003-02-13T04:00:00Z

    ChrisBlackwell's Palm Pictures has acquired all North American rights to DagurKari's festival hit Noi The Albino (Noi Albinoi) at the European Film Market in Berlin and, in a separate deal, allNorth American rights (excluding French-speaking Canada) to ClaudeBerriis bittersweet comedy The Housekeeper (Une Femme De Menage). Palm plans atheatrical release ...

  • News

    Sandler named ShoWest male star of the year

    2003-02-13T04:00:00Z

    Adam Sandler has been namedShoWest 2003's Male Star of the Year. The actor-comedian will collect thehonour at the annual Gala Awards Banquet to be held at Bally's and ParisHotel in Las Vegas on Mar 6. Sandler, who recently appeared in Punch-DrunkLove and Adam Sander's 8Crazy Nights, will next be seenopposite ...

  • News

    Davis/Mondrian slate led by actioner Mule

    2003-02-13T04:00:00Z

    Veteran salesagent Chris Davis' new sales and financing outfit Chris Davis International(CDI) has unveiled the first titles to emerge from its financing and productionpartnership with Lars Sylvest's Mondrian, a Europe-based financing groupwith access to a network of European banks and equity funds.Leading the packis Mule, a $17mactioner based in the ...

  • News

    Red Dragon passes $100m international gross

    2003-02-13T00:00:00Z

    The third instalment in the Anthony Hopkins/Hannibal Lecter franchise, Red Dragon, has passed the $100m international box office mark after a strong debut last weekend in Japan.The film, which is a prequel to the 1991 Best Picture Oscar winner The Silence Of The Lambs, grossed $3.6m (Y435.7m) in two days ...

  • News

    Schumacher to direct Phantom

    2003-02-13T00:00:00Z

    Joel Schumacher is to direct The Phantom Of The Opera, a feature version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit stage musical which UK-based sales outfit Odyssey Entertainment will launch at next week's AFM market.Warner Bros. Pictures, which owned the film rights until Lloyd Webber recently bought them back, retains the option ...

  • News

    Canal Plus Nordic reports subscriptions increase

    2000-02-01T17:14:00Z

    Canal Plus' Nordic pay-TV subsidiary has reported a 37% increase in subscriptions during 1999.The French pay-TV giant's Scandinavian service had 472,000 subscribers in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland at the end of 1999, about 100,000 more than at the end of the previous year. About 30% of the new subscribers ...

  • Reviews

    Infernal Affairs

    2003-02-13T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Andrew Lau, Alan Mak. Hong Kong. 2002. 98mins.A smart Hong Kong action thriller, Infernal Affairs stands to prove as much of a hit on the international market as it has done at the box office at home. With both a prequel and sequel already in the works, Warner Bros, ...

  • News

    Splendid lines up 2003 production slate

    2003-02-14T04:05:00Z

    Germany's Splendid Medien, which co-produced Martin Scorsese's Gangs Of New York through its then subsidiary IEG by stumping up $65m for the worldwide rights except for domestic, is lining up a number of new productions for shoot later this year.Splendid's CEO Andreas Klein told Screen International that the outfit's production ...