Small MPU – Page 1696
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News
Robert Greenblatt named president of entertainment at Showtime
Veterantelevision executive Robert Greenblatt is joining US cable giant ShowtimeNetworks as president of entertainment.Greenblatt willstart work at his Los Angeles offices on Jul 14 and will oversee creative andprogramming activities on all existing and planned channels.In addition hewill supervise original productions, acquisitions, scheduling and businessaffairs and have direct involvement in ...
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News
Mark Gill negotiates to leave Stratus for Warner Bros
Mark Gill, the formerpresident of Miramax LA and currently a partner in Stratus Film Company, is infinal negotiations to leave Stratus and take the helm at Warner Bros'long-in-the-works specialized division. Warner confirmed reports inthe Hollywood trade press yesterday that Gill is in talks for the job, but saidas yet that ...
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News
China to lift quota restrictions for Hong Kong films
The Hong Kong and Chinese governments are close to signing a trade agreement that could give Hong Kong movies greater access to the mainland market, according to Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-Hwa in a statement made on Wednesday night. Senior officials from Hong Kong and the mainland are scheduled ...
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News
New deputy MD appointed at Columbia TriStar Germany
Gerd Bender, sales director for Columbia TriStar Film in Germany since 1990, has been promoted to deputy managing director, by Martin Bachmann, the new managing director of Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International's (CTFDI) German operation. Bender will also continue in his capacity as sales director. "I have known Gerd since ...
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News
Pippin to get the Miramax musical treatment
Miramax Films, which earlier this week announced that it hadsecured film rights to one of Bob Fosse's classic stage musicals DamnYankees, has picked uprights to another - Pippin.Pippin,which has never been filmed before, charts the life of the eponymous son ofCharlemagne who dabbles in sex, politics and war before realising ...
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News
Galway festival confirms world premiere for Jordan's Intermission
Intermission, the second title from Neil Jordan and Steve Woolley's Company of Wolves production outfit is to have its world premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh on July 11. It's addition was welcomed by Fleadh programme director Sally Anne O'Reilly, "This is the kind of high octane, edgy drama that ...
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News
Icon takes on sales of Artisan/Tribeca's Stage Beauty
Shooting starts today in London and at Shepperton Studios on Compleat Female Stage Beauty, an adaptation of Jeffrey Hatcher's play directed by Richard Eyre. Icon Entertainment International has come on board the picture to handle international sales; Artisan Entertainment is the domestic distributor.The film is set in the 1660s and ...
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News
Calendar Girls set for US Christmas date
Last month it took the international press at Cannes by storm. This week it was the turn of attendees at Cinema Expo in Amsterdam to fall under the spell of the Calendar Girls.Constant guffaws, frequent applause and stifled bouts of tearful sniffing punctuated the morning screening of the gentle comedy-drama, ...
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News
New Spanish production company prepares debut film
Newly formed Spanish production company Bruta Escena has signed on the UK's F&ME and Portugal's FBF Filmes to its first feature film, Joao Costa Menezes' Penta.Each has committed to 10% of the estimated Euros 2.8m budget, according to Bruta Escena founder Rebeka Biguria: FBF as an advance for distribution rights ...
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News
American Beauty leads Oscars race
As expected, Sam Mendes' American Beauty led the pack in the nominations for the 72nd annual Academy Awards with eight nominations including those for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay.But the Academy came up with some major surprises including six nominations for box office ...
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News
Melbourne Film Office appoints Pitcher
Caroline Pitcher has been appointed general manager of the Melbourne Film Office, a role that gives her responsibility for enticing local and overseas producers to base their productions in the state of Victoria and for keeping them happy while they are there. "She brings with her a wealth of knowledge ...
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News
Constantin Film rejects Highlight, Eichinger bid
Highlight Communications and Bernd Eichinger's joint tender offer of Euros4.50 per share for the remaining shares in Constantin Film has been rejected by the German producer-distributor's management board and the majority of its supervisory board as "not appropriate and too low". The joint tender offer by Highlight and Eichinger was ...
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News
German arthouse cinema nominations announced
The Pianist, Good Bye, Lenin! and Bend It Like Beckham are among the films nominated for the Guild of German Arthouse Cinemas' Film Awards.The five films competing in the German Films category are: Doris Doerrie's Naked, Wolfgang Becker's Good Bye, Lenin!, Thomas Riedelsheimer's documentary Rivers And Tides, Fatih Akin's Solino ...
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News
Danish Cannes hit Reconstruction gets US visa from Palm
ChrisBlackwell's Palm Pictures has acquired rights in the US and the Caribbeanto Christoffer Boe's Reconstruction, the Danish drama which won both the Camera d'Or andLabel Regards Jeunes at the Cannes Film Festival this year.The deal was concluded between Palm's David Koh (head of acquisitions andproduction) and Ryan Werner (head of ...
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News
Mellis & Scinto to script Potsdamer Platz for Scott, Searchlight
Louis Mellis and David Scinto, writers ofSearchlight's Sexy Beast, have been signed to write the screenplay for Tony Scott's planned film version of the novel Potsdamer Platz which is being developed at Fox Searchlight Pictures.The $15m project, based on abook by Buddy Giovinazzo, centres on the intergang turf wars that ...
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News
Ontario groups show united front to attract Hollywood productions
A coalition of Ontario-basedfilm and television industry interest groups has formed a united front to lobbythe federal government and market the province as a production destination toHollywood. Amongst the members of theOntario Film and Television Consortium (OFTC) are more than 30 companies,including the leading service producer in the country, Dufferin ...
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Reviews
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
Dir: McG. US. 2003. 111 mins. As its title suggests, the sequel to autumn 2000 hit Charlie's Angels revs up the goofy humour and preposterously gaudy action elements of the first movie - and leaves coherent narrative even further behind in the dust. Youthful moviegoers who helped the original to ...
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News
Karlovy Vary prepares for celebrity guests
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which kicks off its 38th edition this week, will honour Morgan Freeman and British director Stephen Frears, with awards for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema. Festival organisers remain guarded concerning other celebrity guests' attendance, however, mindful of the previous two years' disappointments at ...
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News
Global entertainment spend set to recover from 9/11 shock
Global entertainment spending is set to grow from $1.1 trillion in 2002 to $1.4 trillion in 2007, a compound average growth rate of 4.8% per year. That GDP-busting growth is the forecast of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in the latest edition of its Global Entertainment and Media Outlook. It acknowledges that 2003 ...
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News
German fund to invest in Fox marketing campaigns
German fund initiator Ideenkapital is launching its Mediastream IV fund to raise Euros232m from private individuals for investing in the marketing costs of three releases by 20th Century Fox.The three features are the sci-fi action film I, Robot starring Will Smith, which is scheduled to open in the US on ...