Small MPU – Page 1807
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News
E.T. phones in just $6.6m from 26 markets
At a time when Hollywood is supposedly embracing re-releases, UIP's 20th anniversary edition of Steven Spielberg's E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial took just $6.6 million from 26 international territories over the Easter weekend.The 1982 hit played to most success in Mexico, where it claimed $1.4 million in four days, and the UK, ...
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Cinerenta offspring forges own path in LA
Michael Ohoven, scionof the family behind Germany's long-established Cinerenta productionfund, is striking out on his own as a Los Angeles-based producer. His InfinityInternational Entertainment will now start entertaining production ties withother European film funds while at the same time retaining its umbilical links to Cinerenta.Ohoven (pictured here) says he isrelocating ...
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News
Kirch Group faces insolvency proceedings
The crisis-ridden Kirch Group is considering instituting insolvency proceedings for its core business division KirchMedia following the failure of the Group's creditor banks and investors to agree to a bridging loan of Euros 150 million, according to German press reports on Monday.Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and Silvio Berlusconi's holding groups ...
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News
Entertainment's Blade II cuts through UK crowd
UK distributor Entertainment saw yet another success this week with Wesley Snipes action sequel Blade II taking over the top spot in its opening weekend. The film grossed an impressive $3.7m (£2.5m) from 345 sites for a mighty average of $10,595. Blade II follows a host of recent successes for ...
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Natalie Imbruglia stars in Working Title spy spoof
Pop star Natalie Imbruglia is making her film debut starring opposite UK comedian Rowan Atkinson in Working Title Films' spy spoof, Johnny English.The former Neighbours actress will play special agent Lorna Campbell, while John Malkovich will be the villain, a French megalomaniac called Sauvage. Atkinson, who appeared in Bond film ...
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Verhoeven receives honorary award in Amsterdam
Director Paul Verhoeven will receive a Life Achievement Award during the Festival of Fantasy Films in Amsterdam.Amsterdam-born Verhoeven, who made Dutch films including Turkish Delight and The Fourth Man before such Hollywood blockbusters as Total Recall and Starship Troopers, is to collect the prize during event's final weekend. Other claims ...
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Woody Allen's Hollywood Ending opens Cannes
Woody Allen's Hollywood Ending will mark the director's first trip to Cannes when it opens the festival out of competition, the event announced on Thursday.Publicity-shy Allen has shown Manhattan, The Purple Rose Of Cairo and Hannah And Her Sisters at Cannes, but has declined to attend the screenings. "The French ...
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News
UK horror Dog Soldiers wins at Brussels festival
Dog Soldiers, the UK werewolf film which became a surprise talking point last Mifed (see review, left), has won the top prize at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film.The international jury, presided over by actor Christopher Lee, presented the Golden Raven to the film at the event's closing ceremony ...
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Reviews
Dog Soldiers
Dir: Neil Marshall. UK. 2001. 105minsA zestful, unpretentious slab of prime British horror movie, Dog Soldiers delivers enough guts and gore to please most genre fans. Cheerfully acknowledging its limitations and influences without toppling into post-modern parody, it also has the chance of reaching a wider general audience. The mixture ...
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News
Stars, crew take $3m deferrals to save Cromwell
Stars Rupert Everett, Tim Roth, Dougray Scott and Olivia Williams have agreed to take deferments worth around $3 million to help save troubled period production Cromwell & Fairfax.The producers, crew and suppliers on the $20 million Natural Nylon production are also contributing to the deferrals after shooting ground to a ...
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News
Miramax joins kids craze with Pokemon sequel
As part of a visible pushinto producing and distributing family-friendly entertainment, Miramax Filmshas acquired the worldwide rights outside Asia to the next Pokemon movie sequel, out-bidding Warner Bros to the fourth film in the Japanese anime cash-cow about evolutionary pocket monsters. As reported in the LosAngeles Times yesterday, Miramaxpaid an ...
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News
Metro Tartan snares Fortissimo's Party Monster
Marking one of the highest profile deals at the Hong Kong Asia Screenings, leading UK art-house distributor Metro Tartan has struck a three picture deal with Fortissimo Film Sales.The trio are headed by biopic Party Monster, which marks Metro Tartan's biggest acquisition to date. Continuing its growing portfolio of Asian ...
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News
FilmFour options bestselling Vanity Fair expose
The UK's FilmFour has optioned How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, Toby Young's best-selling account of his time in New York on upmarket magazine Vanity Fair.Young will write the screenplay and act as associate producer on the project, which charts how the British journalist was fired after faux pas ...
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News
High Crimes
Dir: Carl Franklin. US. 2002. 112mins.After their pairing in Kiss The Girls, Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman again demonstrate their screen chemistry in High Crimes, a middling political thriller that's neither suspenseful nor dramatic. Part marriage melodrama, part military conspiracy, part male-female buddy-buddy flick, the film occasionally assumes an air ...
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News
High Crimes
Dir: Carl Franklin. US. 2002. 112mins.After their pairing in Kiss The Girls, Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman again demonstrate their screen chemistry in High Crimes, a middling political thriller that's neither suspenseful nor dramatic. Part marriage melodrama, part military conspiracy, part male-female buddy-buddy flick, the film occasionally assumes an air ...
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News
Thai consortium hatches $22m film studio
A consortium of five Thai companies reportedly plans to build the country's first integrated movie studio at a cost of more than $22 million within the next two years.The group has secured land in the outskirts of Bangkok, which will be turned into what it calls Movie Town, the Bangkok ...
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Oscar winners celebrate a beautiful box-office
The first weekend since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences handed out this year's statuettes, it was best picture winner A Beautiful Mind that reaped most benefits internationally.The Ron Howard film recorded a whopping 91% increase in admissions in France in the week ending April 2, re-entering the ...
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EasyGroup promises price competition at UK BO
Innovation in the form of price competition could be introduced to the UK theatrical market if Stellios Haji-Ioannou succeeds in expanding his Easy Group empire into cinema.Haji-Ioannou plans to open his first EasyCinema theatres in London by the end of this year and, according to the Sunday Times, will sell ...
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AOL Time Warner shrinks as shares hit record low
Shares in AOL Time Warner hit $21.65 on Friday, a record low for the company since it was formed from the merger of internet service provider and entertainment giant Time Warner over a year ago.As the world's largest media consortium, AOL Time Warner has been the focus of investor disillusionment ...
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News
NTL set to announce
NTL, the UK's largest cable network operator, is expected this week to announce that it has reached terms with banks and major shareholders for a recapitalisation and rescheduling of its $17.2bn debt.The company, which is US registered, is then likely to apply for 90-days of Chapter 11 court protection from ...