Small MPU – Page 212
-
News
Dixie Chicks doc gets Toronto gala berth
Dixie Chicks - Shut UpAnd Sing, by filmmakers BarbaraKopple and Cecilia Peck, will screen as a Gala presentation at the upcomingToronto International Film Festival (TIFF).It was one of 23 documentaries unveiled today, 13 of them world premieres,including Kurt Cobain About A Sonby A J Schnack, featuring unreleased audio interview with ...
-
News
Montreal secures Yamato international premiere
Japanese second worldwar naval epic Yamato: The Last Battle will receive its international premiere at the Montreal World FilmFestival (MWFF).Directed by Junya Sato, produced by Haruki Kadokawa for the Toei Studio, andstarring Takashi Sorimachi and Shido Nakamura, the film recounts the lastmission of the pride of the Japanese fleet during ...
-
News
BVI seeks to tighten grip on overseas market
Pirates Of The Caribbean:Dead Man's Chest should cruise past$250m this weekend as it extends it reach with a further 11 debuts throughBuena Vista International (BVI).The adventure romp boosted its international tally by more than $20m this weekto $239.1m and sets sail in Germany, Austria, and German-speaking Switzerlandon Jul 27.Meanwhile Cars ...
-
News
Aspen Filmfest to honour Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford will receivethe Aspen Filmfest's annual Independent by Nature Award at this year's 28th autumn festival in recognition ofhis contribution to modern cinema.The evening tribute will take place on Sept 30. The award recognises a filmartist whose body of work has redefined the movie experience and has previouslygone to ...
-
News
McShane joins cast of Coraline
Ian McShane hassinged on to star in LAIKA Entertainment and Pandemonium Films' stop-motionanimated children's story Coraline,which is being distributed worldwide by Focus Features.As previously announced the cast includes Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, and theBritish comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.Coraline is based on a story byfantasy writer Neil Gaiman ...
-
News
Broken Lizard, Warner Bros line up The Babymaker
Broken Lizard Industries andGerber Pictures will produce comedy The Babymaker for Warner Bros.Broken Lizard's Jay Chandrasekhar, whose credits include The Dukes Of Hazzard is set to direct and colleague KevinHeffernan will star under the company's first-look deal with the studio.Written by Ice Age: The Meltdownco-screenwriters Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow, ...
-
News
ICM agrees terms to acquire BWCS
In its first major play since last year's $100m cash injection by investors, ICM has signed an agreement to acquire The Broder Webb Chervin Silbermann (BWCS) Agency.The move boosts ICM's credibility in the television arena and will see BWCS managing partner Chris Silbermann become ICM co-presidentalongside co-president Ed Limato.All of ...
-
News
Jindabyne gets off to strong start on home turf
Ray Lawrence's Jindabyne hashad the biggest opening week for any Australian film so far this year grossing$928,000 (A$1.2m) from 65 screens. The film, which was released on July 20, also had the biggest openingamong local films on less than 100 screens since Muriel's Wedding in September 1994. Distributor Roadshow has ...
-
News
MediCinema starts first project in Scotland
MediCinema,the charity that installs cinemas in hospitals, has started building work forits second project in the UK.Followingthe first MediCinema in St. Thomas's hospital in London, the second project is being built at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow. Thecinema will be wheelchair and bed accessible. The Charity was ...
-
News
Yubari fantastic film festival closes its doors
After much speculation aboutthe future of the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival (YIFFF), it wasofficially announced today that the 17-year-old event is being shut down. The closure is due to thecurrent state of bankruptcy in the tiny town of Yubari in the Hokkaido region in the north of Japan. The ...
-
News
Tartan's De Casto to oversee US and UK operations
Tartan Films has expandedthe role of UK-based managing director Laura De Castoto also run Tartan USA in addition to her UK duties. She has become managing director of US theatrical and home entertainment, effectiveimmediately.De Castowill primarily continue to work out of Tartan's London office but will travel to Los Angeles ...
-
News
Angry Monk secures domestic deal
Angry Monk Productions hasclosed a domestic deal for its documentary Angry Monk, which played at Sundance earlier this year.First Run/Icarus in New York has picked up the profile of the rebelliousTibetan monk Gendun Choephel directed by Luc Schaedler.The picture has also sold to Zorro Film in Germany, and previously went ...
-
News
The Film Source enters Compound
Alex Massis' The FilmSource Company has picked up worldwide rights on Will Fredo's psychologicalthriller Compound.John Arcilla, Janet Russ, Jake Macapagal and Liza Dido star in the English andFilipino-language tale of hidden paranoia and political intrigue in a seeminglyidyllic estate in the Philippines."Compound is a complexthriller that brilliantly reinvents itself as ...
-
Reviews
Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby
Dir: Adam McKay. US. 2006.108mins.Even though TalladegaNights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby intermittentlyspins its wheels, crowd-pleaser runs well enough to reach the finish line.Playing to his strengths, star/co-writer/executive producer Will Ferrell reapsmany good comic moments early on in Adam Mckay'sfeature to compensate for a sluggish second half.Set in the world ...
-
News
Dead Sheep and War Tapes win at Britdoc
The first Britdoc festival,presented in association with Nokia, wrapped on Friday night with 37 UsesFor A Dead Sheep winning the Britishcompetition and The War Tapeswinning the international competition.Ben Hopkins' 37 Uses ForA Dead Sheep, about the PamirKirghiz tribe, was described by the British jury as "an outstandingachievement in documentary filmmaking ...
-
News
Locarno president talks of 'budgetary worries'
On the eve of this year'sLocarno International Film Festival, which will open on Wednesday (August 2)with Michael Mann's Miami Vice,the festival's president Marco Solari has spoken out about the financialchallenges facing Locarno for this year and for the future.In an interview with theSwiss daily newspaper Der Bund atthe weekend, Solari ...
-
News
Motovun honours Look Both Ways and We Feed The World
Festival hit Look BothWays by Australian director SarahWatt took the main Propeller Award at the eighth Motovun Film Festival (July24-28) in Istria, Croatia. Both the Amnesty International Human Rights andFIPRESCI awards went to Erwin Wagenhofer's ambitious documentary We Feed theWorld. Croatian director GoranDukic's Wristcutters won theaudience award and the 'A ...
-
News
Miami Vice busts Pirates to open top
Audience focus moved dueNorth from the Caribbean to Florida at the weekend as Universal's Miami Vice displaced the pirates with an estimated $25.2mopening.Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest continued to break records however, while Warner Bros' Lady In TheWater plummeted to seventh place andFox's The Devil Wears Pradaconsolidated its ...
-
News
Pirates adds records, sails past $300m
Buena Vista International's(BVI) Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest maintained its unstoppable form as it plundered anestimated $55m from 7,698 sites in 40 countries for $305.5m.Powered by a huge German debut, the adventure romp became the seventh BVIrelease to cross $300m and has overtaken the 2003 original's $655m global ...
-
News
Telefonica responds to Villalonga controversy
Spain's Telefonica responded this week to reports published in Spanish daily El Mundo that president Juan Villalonga benefited from insider information in the purchase of Telefonica stock options in 1998.The report alleged that Villalonga had already initiated merger talks with both British Telecom and WorldCom-MCI prior to his buying 264,224 ...