Small MPU – Page 1664

  • News

    Ground-Zero closes three AFM deals

    2003-02-27T04:00:00Z

    Ground-ZeroEntertainment, the North American distributor of martial arts videos andhip-hop-influenced titles, has closed three deals at this year's AmericanFilm Market, the company's founder and CEO Anthony Perez announced. Thecompany has signed a domestic distribution deal with James Bond III'surban production company Solid Rock for six titles. A limited theatricalrelease is ...

  • News

    Daly's MFD secures P&A fund from Filmstar Releasing

    2003-02-27T04:00:00Z

    MiracleEntertainment chairman John Daly has signed a three-year revolving P&A fundwith Filmstar Releasing to support the newly-formed Miracle Film Distribution's(MFD) forthcoming domestic theatrical releases. MFD and Filmstar Releasing willshortly announce the first picture to come under the new arrangement.'I am very pleased tobe partnered with Jon Gentile and his Filmstar ...

  • News

    Zeidman leaves Landmark for Lions Gate, Peckos leaves Lions Gate for Landmark

    2003-02-27T04:00:00Z

    Marty Zeidmanhas joined Lions Gate Films Releasing as senior vice president and generalsales manager, at the same time as Jay Peckos has left Lions Gate from his postas vice president of distribution to become film buyer at Landmark.Zeidman was headfilm buyer for the US arthouse theatre circuit, and in his ...

  • News

    ShoWest focuses on China

    2003-02-27T04:00:00Z

    Two seminars on the growing film industry in China and theworldwide piracy problem are expected to be major draws at the upcoming ShoWest2003. China: A View From All Perspectives will take place on March 3 - the convention's InternationalDay - when Yang Buting, CEO and chairman of the China Film ...

  • Reviews

    Gods And Generals

    2003-02-27T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Ronald F. Maxwell. US. 2003. 216mins. If it were only two hours long, Gods And Generals would be a trial. But there then follows a further 100 minutes to prolong an experience as dull as it is earnest. Ronald Maxwell, who adapted and directed the well-regarded Gettysburg, is in ...

  • Reviews

    Party Monster

    2003-02-27T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato. US. 2003. 98mins.Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, the documentary film-makers behind The Eyes Of Tammy Faye and prosperous production outfit World Of Wonder, made a film in 1998 called Party Monster, about the notorious club promoter Michael Alig who created the Club Kid scene ...

  • News

    Co-productions boost Czech release slate

    2003-02-28T04:05:00Z

    Nearly half of all Czech films scheduled for release during 2003 are co-productions with Slovakia, the Republic's erstwhile partner in the former Czechoslovakia.One of the few female Czech directors, Michaela Pavlátová (pictured), makes her debut with Lassitude In Two, a psychological drama based on a novel by Slovak author Tina ...

  • News

    Forced exit for Tobis distribution head

    2003-02-28T04:05:00Z

    Marlies Weber, head of distribution at Berlin-based Tobis Film, has been forced to vacate her position as of today.Speaking to Screendaily.com, Weber (pictured) said that she was "not going of her own free will" and does not yet have anything else lined up.Meanwhile, Magnus Vortmeyer, Tobis Film's head of press ...

  • News

    Golden Harvest takes The Grudge

    2003-02-28T04:05:00Z

    Hong Kong studio Golden Harvest has become one of the first international distributors to sign on for Ghost House Pictures' remake of Japanese director Takashi Shimizu's The Grudge (Ju-On). The company has acquired Hong Kong and Malaysian rights to the film which will be the second production from Ghost House, ...

  • News

    Canada pursues commerce over culture

    2003-02-28T04:05:00Z

    Ararat and Crash producer Robert Lantos is readying a series of big-budget films with international casts - in line with Canadian funding body Telefilm's aim to support films with box office potential.It has been almost a year since federal funding body Telefilm spelled out its aim of focusing on supporting ...

  • News

    Taipei film festival unveils 5th edition line-up

    2003-02-28T04:05:00Z

    The Taipei Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its fifth edition (March 9-22) which includes a special focus on cinema from Australia and Japan. Among the eight films that will screen in the Australian New Current section are four from Tony Ayres, including last year's critical hit Walking On ...

  • News

    Merger mania ignites again in Hollywood

    2000-02-03T08:04:00Z

    Sony's chief executive officer Nobuyuki Idei has denied any intention to sell either his music operations or his movie studios, insisting last night that they are "a cornerstone in our overall strategy.""We want to be very clear in stating that our entertainment businesses, Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment, ...

  • Reviews

    Yes Nurse, No Nurse! (Ja Zuster, Nee Zuster)

    2003-02-27T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Pieter Kramer. The Netherlands. 2002. 100mins.Busby Berkeley comes to Amsterdam in all-singing, all-dancing Dutch-language musical Yes Nurse, No Nurse!. Relentless innocence and Mary-Poppins optimism may bore the more cynical before the end, but it contains enough visual style and sheer kookiness to carry the majority through to the inevitable ...

  • News

    New films by Rohmer, Akerman and Fridriksson get Eurimages cash

    2003-02-28T04:05:00Z

    New feature films by Eric Rohmer, Chantal Akerman and Fridrik Thor Fridriksson are among nine projects awarded over Euros 3.3m by Eurimages.Two projects were backed in the funding category for larger projects with commercial promise: Euros 700,000 for Didier and Thierry Poiraud's French-German-UK co-production Le Retour De James Bataille and ...

  • News

    Warner Bros signs Indonesian free TV deal

    2003-02-28T04:00:00Z

    Warner BrosInternational Television Distribution (WBITD) has signed a multi-year deal withIndonesia's Pt Duta Visual Nusantara Tivi Tujuh for free televisionrights to a raft of pictures, television series, animated series, TV movies,miniseries and documentaries for broadcast on the company's channel TV7.The dealincludes broadcast rights to Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, ...

  • News

    IMAX records first profitable year since 1999

    2003-02-28T04:00:00Z

    IMAX Corporationhas reported its first profitable year since 1999, with annual revenues (endingDec 31 2002) of $130.7m compared to $118.7m in 2001. Fourth quarter revenueswere $37.3m compared to $33.9m for the same period the year before.Thecompany's co-chairmen and co-CEOs Richard L Gelfond and Bradley JWechsler said they expected IMAX to ...

  • News

    Palm signs on for Assayas Cannes pic demonlover

    2003-02-28T04:00:00Z

    Chris Blackwell's PalmPictures has acquired all US and Caribbean rights to Olivier Assayas'thriller demonlover, with plansfor a theatrical release in the autumn followed by a DVD release in 2004.The multi-layered storycentres on a corporate mole who discovers an online torture chamber. ConnieNielson (Gladiator, One Hour Photo),Chloe Sevigny (Boys Don't Cry),Gina ...

  • News

    UK's BFI appoints new head

    2003-02-28T00:00:00Z

    The British Film Institute (BFI) has appointed Amanda Nevill as director, the UK film and TV body announced on Friday.Nevill, who is currently head of the National Museum of Photography, Film and TV in Bradford, Yorkshire, will take up the post in June. The move has raised eyebrows as many ...

  • Reviews

    Facing Windows (La Finestra Di Fronte)

    2003-02-28T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Ferzan Ozpetek. It/UK/Turkey/Port. 2003. 105mins.Ferzan Ozpetek is one of the few contemporary Italian directors who manages to straddle the arthouse-commercial divide. Born in Turkey, the director drew strongly on Anatolian themes in his first two films, The Turkish Bath (1997) and Harem Suare (1999), but with his last, 2001's ...