Small MPU – Page 1804
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News
Lolafilms gets Euros18m lifeline from shareholders
The once mighty Spanish production and distribution concern Lolafilms is to get a Euros18m cash injection. The lifeline was approved on Friday (Mar 22) by shareholders, which include 70% owner Admira, part of the giant Telefonica group.The amount is slightly lower than the Euros21.6m anticipated, but will give Spain's second ...
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News
New Line's Blade II axes down the competition
New Line Cinema continued its extraordinary run of success with another number one hit. Blade II sliced to the top of the North American box office over the weekend with a gross of $33.1m which almost doubles the opening gross of the original film in 1998. Blade II is now ...
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Producer, executive Rene Silvera dies at 76
Producer and executive Rene Silvera has died in Paris after several months of illness at the age of 76. He died on March 19.Silvera was associated for many years with French comic genius Jacques Tati and was co-producer of Playtime. In the 1960s, he became the European representative for Cinerama ...
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Lord Of The Rings passes $500m international mark
New Line International's The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring crossed the $500m gross barrier in international territories over the weekend, bringing its worldwide total to nearly $800m and making it the fifth biggest international hit of all time.Fellowship now trails Titanic ($1.2bn), Harry Potter And The ...
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Memento, Bedroom dominate Indie Spirit Awards
Christopher Nolan's independent smash Memento dominated the IFP/West Independent Spirit Awards, which were presented in a tent on a beach in Santa Monica on Saturday. The awards which honour films and film-makers who embody independence and challenge the status quo traditionally take place the day before the Academy Awards. This ...
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Black actors Berry, Washington triumph at Oscars
A Beautiful Mind, the hit drama which tells the life story of mathematics genius John Forbes Nash Jr, was named best picture and its director Ron Howard best director at last night's 74th annual Academy Awards, held for the first time at its new home the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. ...
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FULL LIST OF 74TH ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS
FULL LIST OF 74TH ACADEMY AWARD WINNERSBEST PICTUREA Beautiful Mind (Universal/DreamWorks) Brian Grazer & Ron Howard, producersBEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMNo Man's Land (United Artists/The Works) Danis Tanovic, directorBEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILMShrek (DreamWorks SKG) Aron Warner, producerBEST DIRECTORRon Howard A Beautiful MindBEST ACTORDenzel Washington Training DayBEST ACTRESSHalle Berry Monster's BallBEST SUPPORTING ...
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UK's Mill launches New York effects operation
UK-based effects house The Mill is launching a New York arm, the company announced on Monday.The operation will focus on commercials work, although its UK parent has moved into features such as Gladiator, whose director Ridley Scott is a minority investor in the group. The venture is to be fully ...
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Schloendorff project faces up to rival Pope Joan
Volker Schloendorff's upcoming production of Pope Joan is heading for a clash with a rival TV project, it emerged last week.Schloendorff is adapting US novelist Donna Woolfolk Cross' book about a woman who disguised herself as a man and sat on the papal throne for two years in the 9th ...
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Moulin Rouge, Amelie win alternative awards bash
In a not entirely serious ceremony in Vilnius, Lithuania, Moulin Rouge came tops in the inaugural Golden Earring (Auskaras 2001) awards. In total it won four prizes: best director (Baz Luhrman), best actress (Nicole Kidman), best drama/ melodrama and best music. But it was beaten to the best film Auskaras ...
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IFP Market to zero in on filmmakers-in-progress
Downtown Manhattan's IFP Markethas undergone a radical face-lift that will see the week-long US indie filmbazaar transformed from years of being a large and somewhat haphazardclearing-house for completed features into a much more selective showcase whosenarrative focus will fall exclusively on works-in-development and scripts fromemerging filmmakers. With the demise of ...
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Warner Bros boards first Italian film with Verdone
Warner Bros Pictures hasboarded its first ever Italian-language film production Ma Che Colpa AbbiamoNoi (It Can't Be All OurFault) directed by Carlo Verdone.The studio is partnering on the comic drama with Virginia Films, the productionoutfit run by Verdone and Marco Scaffardi.Production has already begun(March 15) on the film which ...
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AFMA throws open doors to foreign language sellers
AFMA - which is thenew moniker for the American Film Marketing Association - has thrown itsmembership open to non-English-language film distributors after years of beingrestricted to licensors and distributors with at least some English-languagefilm or TV product.The decision, reached by theAFMA board of directors, strikes the "English-speaking" clause forboth levels ...
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Ice Age hits hot $28.8m int'l gross in ten days
20th CenturyFox's Ice Age has racked upan international gross of $28.3m after just ten days in the marketplace. TheCGI-animated US smash opened day-and-date with the domestic release on March 15in Mexico, Singapore and Indonesia, but this weekend it went out throughoutEurope, Latin America and Asia bringing its regional totals to ...
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Cannes, Positif to honour Alain Resnais
The Cannes festival (May 15-25) is to honour one of its all time favourites and right a slight that dates back 34 years.To mark the 50th anniversary of the critical magazine Positif the festival is to hold a special evening dedicated to nouvelle vague director Alain Resnais. The celebrations will ...
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Reviews
Sorority Boys
Dir: Wally Wolodarsky. US. 2002. 93 mins.Combining elements of Animal House and Tootsie - considerably more of the former than the latter - Sorority Boys is a college comedy that optimistically attempts to blend social commentary with bawdy campus humour. Predictably enough, it fails to fully deliver in either department. ...
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Reviews
Panic Room
Dir: David Fincher. US. 2002. 113minsDavid Fincher is such a technically inventive and brilliant director that, even when he tackles a genre film, like his new suspense feature The Panic Room, he elevates it with his signature flourishes way above its damsel-in-distress origins. Recalling noir films about women trapped in ...
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MGM launches channels in Portugal, Russia, S Korea
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer'sMGM Networks is launching MGM-branded channels in Russia, Portugal, Malta andSouth Korea. The move follows the launch in the middle east earlier this yearand doubles the number of countries in which MGM has established a channel presenceto date.The MGM Movie Channel isscheduled to launch in May in Portugal on cable ...
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Regent teams with NZ company Daybreak on two films
LA-based Regent Entertainmenthas struck a co-production deal with New Zealand's Daybreak Pacific Ltdto produce two features Cupid's Prey and Heaven's Pond inNew Zealand. The deals were brokered by Jeffrey Schenck, COO of Regent, GeneGeorge, president of Regent Worldwide, and Grant Bradley, a partner inDaybreak.Cupid's Prey is a thriller starring Katrina ...
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UK producers condemn SAG's Global Rule One
Plans that effectively forcenon-US productions to employ local talent under US union rules have triggeredprotests from UK producers body PACT.The body warned thatmounting pressure from US actors union SAG to use its so-called Global Rule One- whereby SAG members working overseas must use SAG contracts even if they hailfrom the ...