Small MPU – Page 1747

  • News

    Bertelsmann raises $500m from US private placement

    2003-04-25T04:05:00Z

    German media concern Bertelsmann has raised $500m from US investors in a private placement to offset existing bank loans.The issue, which was more than three times oversubscribed and represents the biggest US private placement to date by a German group, is divided into three tranches: one of $100m with a ...

  • News

    Buenos Aires Lab announces subsidy award winners

    2003-04-25T04:05:00Z

    Buenos Aires Lab, the film workshop launched by the Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival with the co-operation of the Fundacion Antorchas of Argentina and the Hubert Bals, Goteburg, Rockefeller and Ford foundations, announced the winners of subsidy awards at the festival (April 16 to 26).The Hubert Bals fund rewarded ...

  • News

    Critics' Week unveils Cannes line-up

    2003-04-24T00:00:00Z

    The organisers of Critics' Week have unveiled their line up for this year's Cannes Festival. Of the seven titles, six are first time efforts and therefore also eligible for a shot at the Camera d'Or which is given to a first film competing in any of the main selections. Cuba, ...

  • News

    Mexican production company buys into arthouse cinema

    2003-04-25T04:05:00Z

    New Mexican film production company INDIFilms has bought a major stake in arthouse cinema Cinefrancia in Mexico City. INDIFilms, run by Juan Carlos Blanco and his wife Mitzuko Villanueva, currently has three films in pre-production, both written and to be directed by Blanco. Villanueva will take over the day to ...

  • News

    European Commission seeks tax on internet movies

    2000-02-08T18:04:00Z

    The European Commission (EC) is specifically targeting media products as it seeks to extend its tax net to goods sold on the Internet. The proposals, which will be detailed in the next two months, focus on virtual goods such as music, software and, by implication, streamed or downloadable film content. ...

  • News

    Norway puts cinema sell off plans on hold

    2003-04-25T04:05:00Z

    Plans by Norway's three largest cities - Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim - to sell large stakes in their municipally-owned local exhibitors have stalled. Oslo City Council has not managed to secure the price it wanted from any private cinema operator for a 66% of its stake in the municipally-owned ...

  • News

    STARZ! takes three TV premieres including DNA's Final Curtain

    2003-04-25T04:00:00Z

    Three movies -DNA's British comedy The Final Curtain, Nu-Image/Millenium Films' romantic comedy AllI Want aka Try 17 and StudioCanal's Gaughin biopic ParadiseFound - will go straight topay-TV on the US through Starz Encore Group's STARZ! Cinema multiplexchannel.In The FinalCurtain, which premiereson STARZ! Cinema in June, Peter O'Toole plays a leading ...

  • News

    Wolfe Video to invest in US theatrical distribution

    2003-04-25T04:00:00Z

    Wolfe Video, theUS distributor dedicated to gay and lesbian videos, is embarking on a newstrategy of marketing support to independent theatrical distributors whosetitles it will eventually release on video.Making theannouncement today (Apr 24) company president Maria Lynn Wolfe said she waslaunching the initiative with a marketing outreach campaign in support ...

  • News

    Warner, Pandora team to distribute A Home At The End Of The World

    2003-04-25T06:00:00Z

    Warner Bros Pictures willhandle domestic rights and Pandora will handle international sales on A HomeAt The End Of The World, the secondfilm to be made from a novel by Michael Cunningham (The Hours) which is currently in production in Toronto, NewYork and Arizona. The film, which stars ColinFarrell, Robin Wright ...

  • News

    Teri Kane leaves Miramax after nine years, sets up PR firm

    2003-04-25T00:00:00Z

    Teri Kane,Miramax senior vice president of publicity, is leaving the company to set upher own firm, Teri Kane Public Relations.During hernine-years at Miramax, Kane has overseen individual publicity campaigns onnumerous acclaimed films, including Academy Award winners Shakespeare inLove and The EnglishPatient.'Teri hasmade great contributions to Miramax during her long tenure ...

  • News

    Two Towers scales $910m worldwide box office

    2003-04-25T04:00:00Z

    New LineCinema's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers has become the fifth highest grossingworldwide film of all time with a cumulative box office to date of $910m.Making the announcementtoday (Apr 24) Rolf Mittweg, the company's president and chief operatingofficer of worldwide distribution and marketing, hailed the achievement as ...

  • News

    Bailey, Barbato named recipients of Frameline Award 2003

    2003-04-25T04:00:00Z

    Frameline,presenter of the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival(SFILGFF), today (Apr 24) announced that this year's Frameline Award willgo to Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, the director-producers of numerousgay-themed TV and film projects through their World of Wonder Productions.The award willbe presented at the 27th SFILGFF on Jun ...

  • News

    Focus, Eskwad team up for French thriller Saint Ange

    2003-04-25T04:00:00Z

    Focus Features andStudioCanal subsidiary Eskwad have teamed up to finance the thriller SaintAnge, Focus co-presidents DavidLinde and James Schamus announced today (Apr 24).Principal photography is setto begin imminently in France, where the film will be shot simultaneously inEnglish-language and French-language versions.Focus has worldwide rightsto the film excluding France and other ...

  • News

    MGM announces reduced losses for first quarter of 2003

    2003-04-25T04:00:00Z

    MGM today (Apr 24) announcedreduced losses for the first quarter of 2003, driven chiefly by the successfultheatrical release of Agent Cody Banks, improved performance in the home entertainment division and the launchof MGM-branded channels in Europe.First quarter 2003 losseswere $55.8m or 22 cents per share compared to a net loss ...

  • News

    El Bonaerense director unveils Argentinian slate

    2003-04-28T04:05:00Z

    Pablo Trapero, the Argentinian director of acclaimed police drama El Bonaerense, unveiled the new slate of his fledgling production house Matanza Films at the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival.Leading the slate is his third film Familia Rodante which he hopes to shoot in August and September. " This was ...

  • News

    Kinowelt picks up two from Checkpoint Berlin

    2000-02-08T18:07:00Z

    Kinowelt International, the foreign sales arm of German media concern Kinowelt Medien, has acquired international rights to Hansjoerg Thurn's Love Never Fails (Marmor,) and Peter Keglevic's Falling Rocks (Stein Und Eisen).The films are the first two projects from young Berlin-based production outfit TTD Checkpoint Berlin. The company was founded a ...

  • Reviews

    Ghosts Of The Abyss

    2003-04-25T00:00:00Z

    Dir: James Cameron. US. 2003. 59mins.For his first film since 1997's Titanic, Oscar-winning director James Cameron has chosen to return to the vessel that made him king of the world, this time with the large format 3-D cameras of Imax. It probably sounded like a money-spinner when this film was ...

  • News

    Directors' Fortnight champions 'less equal' films

    2003-04-25T00:00:00Z

    Directors' Fortnight, under the new stewardship of Francois Da Silva, has unveiled a greatly expanded line-up for this year's Cannes Film Festival. Usually featuring some 15 films, this year's Directors' Fortnight showcases 25 films from 19 countries, while a further 9 countries are represented in the concurrent shorts competition. (See ...

  • Reviews

    A Mighty Wind

    2003-04-25T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Christopher Guest. US. 2003. 92mins.Like the two earlier pictures which writer/director/actor Christopher Guest co-wrote with Eugene Levy - 2000's Best In Show and 1996's Waiting for Guffman - A Mighty Wind is a film with a premise but no plot. The concepts themselves - a folk music reunion, the ...

  • News

    Wild Bunch takes selected territories for Today And Tomorrow

    2003-04-25T00:00:00Z

    France's Wild Bunch has picked up international sales rights outside Spain and four Latin American territories on new Argentinean title Today And Tomorrow (Hoy Y Manana), set to premiere in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.Spanish rights will remain in the hands of Madrid-based sales and production house Bulbeck & Mas, ...