Small MPU – Page 270

  • News

    Germany's KirchMedia acquires Splendid package

    2001-08-31T00:21:00Z

    In a deal worth Euro 23.3m, KirchMedia has acquired the free- and pay -TV rights to a 22-film package from Splendid Film for the German market, including Traffic, Gangs Of New York, Dr T & The Women and Cutaway. Commenting on the deal, KirchMedia's deputy chairman Fred Kogel welcomed "the ...

  • News

    FCC greenlights three new Oz films

    2001-08-31T00:25:00Z

    The Australian Film Finance Corporation (FCC) has greenlighted the desert drama Japanese Story from the creative team that made local sleeper Road To Nhill, and starring Toni Collette. The other two projects getting FCC approval are Blurred, the first in a series of low-budget films supported by UK sales agent ...

  • News

    Brazil sees Rouge, French go Ape

    2001-08-31T00:27:00Z

    20th Century Fox had good cause to celebrate this week as two of its films, Planet Of The Apes and Moulin Rouge took control of the international box office. Openings in several major territories including a hugely successful launch in France, helped Tim Burton's re-imagining of the 1968 sci-fi classic ...

  • News

    How unlucky was UK's Lucky Break'

    2001-08-31T00:42:00Z

    The hottest national holiday weekend Saturday since 1871 may have contributed to it, but Lucky Break pitiful UK opening weekend box office of (£348,613) from 270 sites nationwide suggests a . Screen International's Nick Hunt tracks the development of the movie that everyone expected to be a hot hit.1998-99In the ...

  • Reviews

    L'amore Probabilmente ( Probably Love )

    2001-08-31T00:44:00Z

    Dir: Giuseppe Bertolucci. Italy, 2001. 112 mins.Towards the end of Giuseppe Bertolucci's new film, the director's voice can be heard off-camera, pondering one of those fundamental questions: "Do I really want to make this film, or do I just want to dream it'" One can't help feeling that the latter ...

  • News

    Spanish industry mourns veteran Rabal

    2001-08-31T00:57:00Z

    Spanish actor Francisco (Paco) Rabal died Wednesday August 29 on his way home to Spain from the Montreal World Film Festival, where he was part of a tribute this week.Rabal was also scheduled to receive a Donostia Award at next month's San Sebastian International Film Festival. The Spanish Festival released ...

  • News

    I Capture The Castle finally to shoot this month

    2001-08-31T18:29:00Z

    I Capture The Castle, BBC Films' adaptation of the acclaimed book by The Hundred And One Dalmatians author Dodie Smith, is to start shooting in three weeks after nearly six years in development.Subject to casting, the £5.7m project has finally come together a patchwork of independent financing from operations including ...

  • News

    Mikado grabs Italian rights to Lagaan epic

    2001-09-02T11:13:00Z

    Rome-based distribution outfit Mikado has scooped up Italian rights to Ashutosh Gowarkier's sprawling Bollywood epic, Lagaan (aka Once Upon A Time In India). Mikado's Luigi Musini said the distribution company had picked up the film after it screened at the Locarno Film Festival in August, where it met with an ...

  • News

    Taylor in the pink as amFAR raises $700,000

    2001-09-02T11:25:00Z

    All eyes were on the glowing, pink-attired Elisabeth Taylor, at the second glittering AmfAR gala to be held during the Venice film festival. The auction of luxury items during the Friday night (Aug 31) event raised more than $700,000 in support of the American Foundation For AIDS Research, organisers confirmed ...

  • News

    Danish action-comedy sequel to film in Sweden

    2001-09-02T13:26:00Z

    The follow-up to the first and so far only Danish action-comedy In China They Eat Dogs, which was well received by audiences and critics alike in 1999, Old Men In New Cars (In China They Eat Dogs 2), is getting ready to shoot in Sweden, after regional fund Film I ...

  • News

    Studio Ghibli's new film to be directed by rival

    2001-09-02T13:30:00Z

    Studio Ghibli, whose Spirited Away is breaking Japanese box office records, has embarked on a new feature, based on Howl's Moving Castle, a children's fantasy novel by British author Diane Wynne. But in a first for the studio, the director is not Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, the two ...

  • News

    Italy doubles script development funding

    2001-09-02T13:32:00Z

    The Italian Cultural Department has more than doubled the funding it started allocating last year for script development, giving state distributor Istituto Luce the task of managing the project for the second year in a row. Istituto Luce president Angelo Guglielmi confirmed that the distributor has now set up a ...

  • News

    Italy's Cortesi prepares new Infascelli project

    2001-09-02T13:35:00Z

    Massimo Cortesi, head of the Rome-based company Navert Film which co-produced Claire Peploe's Triumph of Love and Giuseppe Bertolucci's Love Probably - both screening in Venice - is lining up a new film to be directed by Italy's Fiorella Infascelli. Cortesi said he is looking for international co-production partners to ...

  • News

    Denmark's Egmont announces restructuring plan

    2001-09-02T13:36:00Z

    Nordic media major Egmont has announced a significant change in its group management structure. Analysts call the initiative vigorous as new CEO, Steffen Kragh only took up his position three weeks ago. Kragh says the changes are necessary to increase the company's profitability and re-focus the international business. Denmark's 123 ...

  • News

    Hermann to head Nordisk post-production facilities

    2001-09-02T13:39:00Z

    Despite the fact that the appointment, in January 2000, of producer Lars Hermann as head of development for the Danish Film Institute was widely approved by the local industry, he has decided to move on to head up Nordisk Film's new conglomeration of it's post-production facilities ShortCut and Johan Ankerstjerne ...

  • News

    Moore heads Fox's theatrical and home video units

    2001-09-02T13:42:00Z

    Twentieth Century Fox has united its international theatrical and international home video units under the supervision of Stephen Moore, president of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment International for the past four years. In his new position as president of Twentieth Century Fox International, Moore will continue to oversee the international ...

  • News

    Beattie joins Lewis Horowitz Organisation

    2001-09-02T13:44:00Z

    Los Angeles-based film finance operation The Lewis Horowitz Organization (LHO) has named former Equicap Financial Corporation executive Robert Beattie as its new Canadian representative. Beattie will be based in Vancouver, British Columbia. LHO founder and president Lew Horowitz said Beattie's presence in Vancouver will "significantly increase our ability to assist ...

  • News

    Warner gets distribution of New Line in Germany

    2001-09-02T13:46:00Z

    New Line Cinema has confirmed that it is finalising a deal for German distribution of its films through 2002 and 2003 with sister company Warner Bros. The arrangement will replace New Line's current German deal with financially troubled independent Kinowelt. The Kinowelt deal expires at the end of this year ...

  • Reviews

    Me Without You

    2001-09-02T13:47:00Z

    Dir: Sandra Goldbacher. UK. 2001. 107 mins. Sandra Goldbacher's follow-up to The Governess is a another female-centred period piece, although of a very different kind. A bittersweet comedy tracing a tempestuous friendship over 30 years, it's shrewdly observed and beautifully mounted, but suffers from an unevenness of tone and a ...

  • News

    Huge losses stoke Kinowelt bankruptcy talk

    2001-09-02T17:06:00Z

    Six month trading figures published by Kinowelt on Friday evening (Aug 31) after the stockmarkets closed served only to heighten film industry and finance sector speculation about the possible insolvency of the stricken German distributor. In Venice several sources claimed to have knowledge of a bankruptcy announcement within the next ...