Small MPU – Page 1810
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News
Spean Bridge emerges as potential UCI investor
Vivendi Universal is looking to pull out of United Cinemas International (UCI) - its international exhibition joint venture with Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures.A report in the Financial Times on Wednesday (April 10) said that Vivendi chief Jean-Marie Messier was looking to make an exit from UCI in order to lower Vivendi's ...
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Italian publisher buys into Mikado Film
Italian publishing giant De Agostini has taken a majority stake in local arthouse production and distribution outfit Mikado Film, which recently co-produced Otar Iosseliani's Lundi Matin and released Jill Sprecher's 13 Conversations About One Thing. The move, which represents De Agostini's third major venture in the Italian film industry in ...
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Mr. Bones to get major German release
Anant Singh's Videovision has announced that South African comedy Mr.Bones which smashed all box office records for a local film in South Africa, will be distributed by Constantin Films in Germany with a release of 400 prints across the territory. Sanjeev Singh, head of distribution at the company, says, "It ...
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News
Scotland's Smuji pushes video compression
Scottish based production company Smuji Films is pioneering a revolutionary video compression system for broadcasting moving images over the internet. The Essential Viewing software plays images into a web browser without the need for plug-ins or players. The result is files a fraction of the size of conventional formats meaning ...
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South Africa's Ster-Kinekor boosts local revenues
By closing some of its loss-making South African cinema sites, wooing Indian and black audiences by increasing its Bollywood offer - and effective management of its labour costs, Ster-Kinekor, the territory's leading distributor/exhibitor has managed to engineer a turnaround in its fortunes at home.The company reported a 39% improvement ...
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News
Digital cinemas expand in Brazil
Brazil now boasts the first digital cinemas to operate on a regular basis in Latin America, with five screenings scheduled daily. A joint venture between exhibitor UCI and Brazilian technology integrator Teleimage, and sponsored by telecommunications company Intel, the second Intel Digital Theatre opened Friday March 29 in Sao Paolo ...
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Olmi's Arms embraced by Italy's Oscars
Ermanno Olmi's 16th century war epic The Profession Of Arms swept the board at the David di Donatello awards - Italy's Oscars - scooping nine prizes last night (April 10), including best film, best director and best screenplay. The Profession Of Arms won a prize in every category it was ...
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Fourth Korean film to be remade by Hollywood
Warner Bros has bought the remake rights to Lee Hyun-seung's Korean melodrama Il Mare from South Korean production company Sidus Corporation, making it the fourth film to be acquired for adaptation by a major Hollywood studio.The terms of the deal provide for an initial $500,000 plus a further 2.5% of ...
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Reviews
God's Bankers (I Banchieri Di Dio)
Dir: Giuseppe Ferrara. Italy. 2002. 127mins.With its controversial reconstruction of the life and mysterious death of Italian banker Roberto Calvi, Giuseppa Ferrara's latest film was designed to create an even bigger stir than his earlier political outings. God's Bankers has done so on one level at least: at the end ...
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News
Fox enjoys international Joyride
20th Century Fox scored a hit in Spain at the weekend, taking the top spot in the chart with their thriller Joy Ride. The film, which is the latest from director John Dahl, took a three-day gross of $1.1m (Euros1.2m). Playing on 230 prints the film scored a strong average ...
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News
Medusa acquires Pinocchio as part of Cecchi Gori package
Italy's leading distribution outfit, Medusa Film, has grabbed theatrical rights to six films including Roberto Benigni's eagerly-anticipated Pinocchio (right) from beleaguered former powerhouse Cecchi Gori group.Pinocchio producer Elda Ferri and Medusa were unwilling to reveal financial details of the deal. However, sources close to the production believe the amount to ...
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News
Friends and foes fight for KirchPayTV
Whether and when KirchPayTV will announce its insolvency has been a source of intense debate all week, since sister company KirchMedia filed for protection from its creditors on Monday (April 8).The company, which is the parent of the sickly Premiere World pay-TV operation, is trying to come up with a ...
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News
RAI to handle sales on Bellocchio's Cannes contender
RAI Trade, the film sales division of Italy's state-owned broadcast giant RAI, has picked up international distribution rights to Marco Bellocchio's Hour Of Religion. Organisers at the David di Donatello awards ceremony held on April 10, announced that the Italian auteur's film will receive its international premiere at Cannes, where ...
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News
Hong Kong's TVB believed close to dropping Galaxy launch plans
Hong Kong's leading broadcaster TVB has denied reports that it is pulling out of the local pay-TV market by dropping plans to launch its $640m (HK$5bn) Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting platform.According to a report in Hong Kong daily, the South China Morning Post, TVB board members, led by chairman Sir Run ...
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Reviews
Take Care Of My Cat
Dir: Jeong Jae-eun. Korea. 2001. 112 mins.Take Care Of My Cat is a sympathetic, modern coming-of-age movie. As such it is a Korean antidote to the make-believe and squeaky-clean Hollywood approach adopted by Britney Spears-vehicle Crossroads, which examines a similar demographic. Structured as a slightly unbalanced five-hander with a tone ...
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Reviews
KT
Dir: Junji Sakamoto. Jap. 2001. 138mins.A thriller about the true-life 1973 kidnapping of Kim Dae-jung, the current South Korean president, from a Tokyo hotel, KT tries for a no-frills approach that presents its knotty Cold War story in realistic shades of grey, as if John Le Carre was transposed to ...
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Ledoyen returns to host Cannes ceremonies
French actress Virginie Ledoyen was this week confirmed as hostess for the opening and closing ceremonies at Cannes, reprising her role from 2000.The local beauty who also represents perfume house L'Oreal, has starred in nearly 30 films and made her international break-through with James Ivory's A Soldier's Daughter Never Dies. ...
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Fireworks strikes output deal with TeleMuenchen
Fireworks International, the London-based sales arm of Canadian film and TV group Fireworks Entertainment, has struck an exclusive output deal with Germany's TeleMuenchen (TMG) covering all its TV programming.In German-speaking Europe, TMG, which has production, broadcast and distribution interests will handle Fireworks' entire slate. It will also represent Fireworks on ...
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Spain's producers' federation appoints three VPs
The Spanish Producers' Federation (FAPAE) has named three vice presidents as a part of an ongoing restructuring of its leadership.Filmax president Julio Fernandez, current president of the Catalan producers' association Barcelona Audiovisual; Pancho Casal, spokesperson for the Independent Producers' Association of Galicia (AGAPI); and Enrique Uviedo, president of the Spanish ...
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Woody Allen's Hollywood Ending to open 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 ...