Small MPU – Page 1788
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Reviews
Baader
Dir: Christopher Roth. Germany. 2002. 129mins.As all Sixties survivors know, that decade had nothing to do with political protest. This portrait of Andreas Baader, the founder, with Ulrike Meinhof, of the notorious Baader-Meinhof group, reveals what it was really about: spouting vague revolutionary slogans, listening to some rather good music ...
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News
Monsters, Inc. fights off Ali and Ocean's 11
The UK chart saw two strong openings over the weekend but neither could challenge computer-animated holdover Monsters, Inc. for the top spot.Michael Mann's Ali, distributed by Entertainment, launched on a limited release of 17 sites to land twelfth position with $179,904 (£125,573). No doubt boosted by its two acting Academy ...
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News
Japan's Toei to focus on DVD business
Toei, Japan's leading video rental distributor, is to follow the example set by Blockbuster last year (Screendaily Sept 12, 2001) and shift its focus to DVDs.The company plans to release 30 classic film titles on DVD and place them, along with its existing DVD library in 4,000 rental outlets by ...
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News
Singapore box office exclaims I Not Stupid
The Singapore comedy I Not Stupid outclassed its box office rivals during Chinese New Year to become not just the top grossing film over the competitive holiday period, but in record time, also the fourth highest grossing local film ever.Released wide by UIP on 30 prints, the comedy pulled in ...
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News
Cash crunch hits Portugal's producers
The Portuguese film industry is beginning to feel the effects of the growing financial difficulties within the nation's broadcasters. The global slump in advertising has hit this corner of Europe particularly hard, with one Portuguese television executive estimating a 40% drop in the market in recent months.Pedro Berhan da Costa, ...
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News
Germany's Helkon must release titles through BVI
The German office of Buena Vista International (BVI) has obtained a temporary injunction from a Munich regional court preventing Helkon Media from distributing The Musketeer or Rollerball either directly in-house or through third party distributors. In January, Helkon had announced that it was terminating its agreement with BVI for handling ...
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News
Veteran Colom quits Spain's Via Digital
Spanish industry veteran Ramon Colom has resigned from his position as head of contents and programming at Spanish digital satellite platform Via Digital. His resignation, the latest in a series of high-level personnel shuffles at the various holdings of Admira, Telefonica's media subsidiary, is unlikely to come as a surprise. ...
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News
Gruber Films gathers Momentum, Film Council deals
Gruber Films, the UK production outfit of Shooting Fish and Waking Ned producer Richard Holmes, has struck development deals with support body the Film Council and UK distribution-production operation Momentum Pictures.Holmes, who stepped down as managing director of media concern Civilian Content at the end of last year, has also ...
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News
Miramax teams with FilmFour, Wolves on Actors
The UK's FilmFour and Stephen Woolley and Neil Jordan's production outfit Company Of Wolves have teamed with Miramax Films on Conor McPherson's The Actors, a comedy starring Michael Caine, Dylan Moran, Michael Gambon, Lena Headey, Miranda Richardson and Ricky Gervais.FilmFour International will handle international sales, while Miramax has taken North ...
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News
Canada's first VOD service launched by Rogers
Rogers Communications will launch Canada's first video-on-demand service. The company's cable subsidiary, Canada's largest operator, has signed a long-term pact with Alliance Atlantis Communications (AAC) to distribute its films over the new service in the VOD window, which follows the home video window by approximately 45-60 days. The initial phase ...
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News
Myriad romps with Neil Jordan's Borgia
Myriad Pictureswill finance Borgia,the next film from Neil Jordan, which is being produced by Jordan's producingpartner Stephen Woolley and Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey ofImage Movers. Jordan - who isalso involved as a producer ConorMcPherson's The Actors (seeseparate story) - wrote the script which follows thenotorious Borgia family ...
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News
Summit forges ties with Anschutz-backed Walden
SummitEntertainment has secured a new product line through an agreement reached withCary Granat's Walden Media, one of two film production companies backed byPhillip Anschutz, the Denver-based billionaire who now also controls a sixth ofAmerica's movie theatres.Summit willoffer Walden's first two films: the large-screen 3-D documentaryGhosts Of The Abyssfrom director James ...
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News
Polone partners up with Senator Int'l, Screen Gems
Gavin Polone,whose latest picture Panic Room opens in March, is the latest producer to source financing fromthe international marketplace, teaming up with Senator International todevelop, acquire, produce and distribute a slate of pictures. But unlike many such deals, Polone's company Pariah and Senator have guaranteed domesticdistribution through a second alliance ...
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News
UK sales upstart Moviehouse comes out smokin'
New UK sales company, Moviehouse Entertainment has unveiled a $10m supernatural thriller, The Smoking Man, and satirical comedy The Rage In Placid Lake as the first pictures of its 2002 slate.The company is run by former J&M Entertainment head of sales Gary Phillips and Mark Vennis, formerly a director of ...
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News
GMI picks up Lisa Cholodenko's Laurel Canyon
Good MachineInternational has acquired all international rights to Laurel Canyon, the new film from Lisa Cholodenko (HighArt) which stars FrancesMcDormand, Kate Beckinsale, Christian Bale, Natascha McElhone and AlessandroNivola. Sony PicturesClassics has domestic rights to the picture which is the story of astraight-laced PHD student (Beckinsale) who moves to Los Angeles ...
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News
Renaissance teams with Catch 23 on Vapor
RenaissanceFilms, the UK production and sales outfit run by Stephen Evans and AngusFinney, is teaming up with LA-based Catch 23 Entertainment to finance NeilLabute's next film Vapor which he will begin after he has completed the currently-shootingThe Shape Of Things.Based on thefirst novel by Amanda Fillipacchi, which Labute is currently ...
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Reviews
Monday Morning (Lundi Matin)
Dir: Otar Iosselliani. Fr/It, 2002. 122 mins.The first ten minutes of Georgian director Otar Iosselliani's delicate new film break all those script workshop rules about snappy, cut-to-the-chase montage. We see a man getting up, having breakfast, going downstairs, crossing a muddy yard, getting into his car, driving, parking, catching the ...
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News
Screen International AFM news round-up
A round-up of the latest news taken from the Screen International AFM dailies For related stories from the 2002 American Film Market - type: AFM into the search bar at the top of the screendaily homepage.Promark Entertainment Group, Jonathan Kramer's LA-based production and sales group owned by Germany's Das Werk, ...
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News
Hong Kong's Han revives classic Chinese vampire
Han Entertainment, the Hong Kong-based multimedia company established by former Media Asia head Thomas Chung and Michelle Yeoh, has added a contemporary take on the classic Chinese vampire genre to its burgeoning development slate.The project, entitled Jiang Shi, is being scripted by French writers Julien Carbon and Laurent Courtiaud, who ...
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News
Oz tax smallprint reveals gov't 'runaway' hopes
With its recent introduction of a new scheme regulating the "refundable tax offset", the Australian government now anticipates that the level of runaway films shooting in Australia will increase to 10 per year within five years and have a total value of $440.3m (A$850m), with $253.8m (A$490m) of this spent ...
