Small MPU – Page 2018
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News
Welsh film agency launched in Cardiff
The Film Agency for Wales will be officially launched in Cardiff tomorrow (Tueday).The body, established to support the industry in the principality, will also announce its first co-financing venture for first-time feature director David Howard's Flick.The project also has support from the lottery fund of the Arts Council of Wales, ...
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News
A&E, Arau board Magnificent Ambersons
Mexican director Alfonso Arau (Like Water For Chocolate) is set to direct $16m mini-series The Magnificent Ambersons for Italy's DeAngelis Group and US cable network A&E which has signed on to co-produce the project. Arau replaces Herbert Ross (Steel Magnolias) who was forced to pull out. Principal photography is scheduled ...
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Reviews
Curse Of The Golden Flower (Man Cheng Jin Dai Huang Jin Jia)
Dir: Zhang Yimou. China. 2006.114mins.China's mostexpensive production to date has every yuang up onthe screen. One of the most sumptuous and almost absurdly opulent spectacles onscreen in recent memory, Zhang Yimou's $45m epic Curse Of the GoldenFlower is fortunately not just a pretty face. It's also a meaty,blood-soaked melodrama filled ...
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Reviews
Happy Feet
Dir: George Miller. US.2006. 98mins.HappyFeet is one strange bird of an animated movie. Directedby George Miller, who was behind Babe(1995) and its badly-received sequel, it is by turns giddy, maudlin,swinging, narratively overstuffed and artisticallymagnificent as it makes the case - not always in jest - that penguins would havea better ...
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News
Red Road makes clean sweep of Scottish Baftas
Andrea Arnold's Red Road has added Best Film at the Lloyds TSB BAFTA Scotland awards to its previous honours, including the Cannes Jury Prize and five BIFA nominations.The win was universally predicted, as was the film's easy dominance of theevening's other film prizes - Best Actress for Kate Dickie, BestActor ...
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News
Borat continues to dominate North American box office
TwentiethCentury Fox expanded Borat from837 to 2,566 screens in its second weekend and reaped the rewards as feverishword of mouth generated an estimated $29m number onehold.After two weekends the picture has amassed $67.8m, a remarkableachievement by the distributor. Fox has taken a character that was virtuallyunrecognizable before the summer and ...
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News
Cutler leaves CAA to become president of Winkler Films
Jill Cutler (pictured) has left CAA to become president of IrwinWinkler's Winkler Films. While an agent Cutler worked with Winkler on a numberof films including the upcoming Iraq War drama Home Of The Brave, which opens through MGM on Dec 15."We've had an opportunity over the last few years to ...
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News
Financier Das backs development fund for GreeneStreet
GreeneStreet Films (GSF) is going into business withprivate financier Sriram Das in a deal that will see Das will finance thedevelopment of a slate of films with the company.GSF's director of development on the West Coast Melanie Shanleyintroduced Das to the company. GSF will take the lead in creative developmentand ...
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News
Grbavica, Vitus lead AFI FEST honour roll
Jasmila Zbanic's Grbavica from Bosnia-Herzegovina won the AFI FEST's International FeatureCompetition Grand Jury Prize, while special mention went to Peter Schonau'sDanish film The Art Of Crying.The International Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize went toMark Verkerk's Buddha's Lost Children, and the shorts prize was awarded to Stefanie Berk's Disappearing.In the audienceawards, ...
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News
Firth, Shepard, Rossellini join Thurman in Accidental Husband
Colin Firth, Sam Shepard and Jeffrey Dean Morgan have joined Uma Thurmanon Yari Film Group (YFG) and Team 's romantic comedy The Accidental Husband.Isabella Rossellini, Lindsay Sloane and Justine Machado are also onboard the project, set to start production in New York today under thedirection of Griffin Dunne.Bonnie Sikowitz, Mimi ...
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News
Borat leads international with $15.6m from 20 markets
The outrageous antics of a socially gauche faux Kazakhreporter continued to dominate the international marketplace as Borat stayed top on an estimated $15.6m haul.Impressive weekend business from 20 markets raised the tally to$42.8m and ensured that, with a strong domestic hold, Borat remained the top global picture, soaringpast $100m in ...
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News
Inferno sells The Women to Constantin, Hopscotch, IIF among others
Inferno Distribution has closed a raft of major sales on itsupcoming comedy remake The Women from Diane English with Meg Ryan attached to star.Rights have gone to Australia (Hopscotch), Germany (Constantin),Italy (IIF), Mexico (Quality), and Brazil (California Filmes).Deals also closed in Spain (On Pictures), South Korea(Unikorea), Eastern Europe (Ablo), Benelux ...
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News
Swiss culture ministry's film coffers run dry
Switzerland's production community has been hit by the news that the Swiss culture ministry (BAK) has already committed its entire $4.7m (SFr7.6m) annual budget for film production and development funding only halfway through the year.BAK director David Streiff explained at press conference in Berne that the overspend is due to ...
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News
Cottbus forum to consider 13 film pitches
Thirteen projects will be pitched to potential production partners during this week's two-day Connecting Cottbus industry forum (November 16-17) at the FilmFestival Cottbus.They include the Czech production company Brutto Film's black comedy Choking Hazard: The Giant, the English-language sequel to its box office hit Choking Hazard; SEE Film Pro's omnibus ...
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News
Eichmann biopic begins shooting in Hungary and Malta
Shooting begins in Budapest and Malta next week on E-Motion's biopic of Adolf Eichmann.Eichmann, starring Thomas Kretschmann, portrays the events leading up to the capture of the Nazi war criminal by Israeli agents and his 1962 execution.Principal photography on the UK, Hungary, Belgium and the US co-production, directed by Robert ...
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News
Producers warn next Bond film may be shot outside UK
There is no guarantee that the next James Bond film will shoot in the UK. That was the message today from Casino Royale producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli."We're going to have to make that decision again," Wilson toldScreenDaily. "London is the most expensive city in the world ...
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News
Fox signs DVD deal with Chinese partner
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (TCFHE) has set up an exclusive licensing partnership with China's Guangzhou-based video distributor Zoke Culture Group (Zoke). Zoke will distribute TCFHE's recent theatrical releases as well as titles from the studio's film library in its 20,000 retail outlets in major cities across China. ...
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News
Sony takes DVD rights to self-distributed romantic comedy
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) has signed the DVD distribution rights to Ed Blum's British romantic comedy Scenes of a Sexual Nature.The film is the most successful self-distributed film to be released in UK theatres, taking more than $150, 000 (£80,000) at the box office. It was released through The ...
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Blockbusters boost Skillset UK training fund
The UK Skills Investment Fund (SIF) has reached the £4m ($7.6m) mark thanks to the success of blockbusters such as Sony's Casino Royale, Working Title's Bean 2 and Warner Bros' Harry Potter And The Order of the Phoenix.The SIF is a levy on theatrical productions, collected by UK body Skillset, ...
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News
Benson joins The Agency
Confetti producer Ian Benson has joined The Agency in a new role dedicated to new and established film and TV directors. The London-based business represents writers for film, television, radio and the theatre. It also represents directors and film and television rights in books."Having worked as a producer for a ...