Small MPU – Page 3496
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News
3Geez acquires film rights to Cheese Monkeys
Los Angeles andToronto-based 3Geez Productions has acquired the rights to veteran book-coverdesigner Chip Kidd's debut novel The Cheese Monkeys.Partcoming-of-age novel, part introduction to graphic design, The Cheese Monkeys follows a group of students throughtheir first two terms majoring in art in university.The project will be producedby Amy Green and Sarah ...
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News
Duguay revs up Villeneuve racing biopic
Gabriella Martinelli'sToronto-based Capri Films will produce a bio-pic of legendary Formula 1 racerGilles Villeneuve. Christian Duguay (The Art Of War) has signed to direct from a screenplay to bewritten by documentary filmmaker Malcolm Clarke (Prisoner Of Paradise). The announcement was made in Montreal Thursday atthe nightclub owned by Villeneuve's son ...
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Spanish box office hit gets sales lift at EFM
Spanish salesconsortium Grupo Pi has announced a handful of deals concluded at the recentEuropean Film Market in Berlin.The outfit soldlocal box office hit 4th Floor (Planta 4a) to Movie Max in Italy, where the film is expectedto be released on around 50 prints, and to Jekino Films for Benelux.The BocaBocaproduction, ...
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Trauma scares up North American deal via DEJ
DEJ Productions has acquiredNorth America rights in all media from Myriad Pictures to Marc Evanspsychological thriller Trauma,which is scheduled for DVD release on Jun 14.The picture is the firstproject from Little Bird's specialist horror arm Ministry Of Fear and starsColin Firth and Mena Suvari in the tale of a man ...
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News
Haggis to win inaugural screenwriting award at San Francisco
Paul Haggis willreceive the inaugural Maurice Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting atthe 48th San Francisco International Film Festival, which runs from Apr 21-May5.Haggis, who isnominated for an adapted screenplay Oscar for Million Dollar Baby, will present a masterclass onscreenwriting accompanied by a screening of the drama Crash, which he ...
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MGM fourth quarter figures hit by merger costs
Merger costs, an$8.3m non-cash charge and falling revenue led to lower year-on-year fourthquarter income at MGM, which is in the process of being taken over by aconsortium of buyers led by Sony.The studioreported $38.5m net income or $0.16 per share for the fourth quarter of 2004,compared to $60.3m or $0.25 ...
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News
MPAA launches third wave of lawsuits at online pirates
The MPAA haslaunched a third wave of lawsuits targeting online pirates of such currentOscar contenders as Spider-Man 2, Sideways and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.Officers havefiled an unspecified number of 'John Doe' civil suits with federal courtsacross the US in the latest round of legal action since November. It ...
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News
RSA, Black Dog sign Akerlund, Renck for commercials, music videos
Film andcommercials production company RSA and Blackdog Films have signed Swedish directorsJonas Akerlund and Johan Renck for representation in the US and UK.RSA will handleall commercial work and Black Dog will represent the clients for music videos."The work ofJonas and Johan and their company RAF is groundbreaking and it is ...
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News
China centennial takes Centre Stage at HK Fest
Thisyear's Hong Kong International Film Festival (March 22 - April 6) plans tocelebrate the 100th anniversary of Chinese cinema by screening a digitallyremastered version of Stanley Kwan's 1992 period drama Centre Stage.Theaward-winning film, one of a series of special digital presentations at thefestival, stars Maggie Cheung as 1930s Chinese actress ...
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News
Producer Salvi kick-starts new Italian buyer
Italian producerVeronica Salvi has launched a new film production and distribution company,named Dujass Film.Salvi and partnerMarco Ambrosini formed Dujass after acquiring Esse&Bi Cinematografica, thecompany formerly run by Salvi and Italian director Paolo Modugno.Dujass is alreadyactive on the acquisitions front. In Berlin, the outfit picked up OlivierDucastel and Jacques Martineau's title ...
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News
German-Turkish culture clash comedy makes Connection
Hamburg-basedproduction house Wueste Film has signed the first deals with distributors fromAustria, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Turkey for Anno Saul's KebabConnectionTheculture clash comedy, starringDenis Moschitto and Norah Tschirner, had its internationalmarket premiere in the Berlinale's German Cinema section last week.Buyers includedSwitzerland's Cineworx and Turkey's R Films - both of whom released ...
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News
Golden Harvest, East-West to create Chinese portal
Hong Kong-based Golden Harvest Group and shareholder Acer Digital Services Group have joined forces with East-West Entertainment and Morning Technologies to form Eolasia.com, an entertainment portal to target the global Chinese community. The HK$200m investment will go towards three portals with localised content to service the China, Hong Kong ...
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News
Dutch wage two-pronged assault on Norwegian war satire
Dutch producer 24fpsis working on a film version of Krig, the satirical Norwegian novel about a war betweenthe Netherlands and Norway that erupts after an incident during the Europeanskating championship.Producer AntonScholten is at the moment negotiating the project with some unnamed Norwegianproducers. Krig's estimated budget is Euros 3m. No director ...
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FRANCE 25 February
French comedy Iznogoud is pretty good after all. Staying in the topspot in its second week, the film beat Meet The Fockers which debuted atnumber two with 751,304 admissions. Iznogoud has now taken a cumulative$13,649,422. Keanu Reeves supernatural thriller Constantine opened in third placewith just over half a million tickets ...
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Reviews
Sacred Heart (Cuore Sacro)
Dir: Ferzan Ozpetek. Italy. 2005. 117 minsFerzan Ozpetek serves upa cringingly sentimental tale of managerial altruism for the multiplexgeneration: and yet another great white hope of Italian cinema falls by thewayside. The Turkish-born, Italian-trained Ozpetek is, alongside fellow Medusaregular Gabriele Muccino, the director who most ably occupies the middle-groundbetween commercial ...
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Arts Alliance to manage UK digital screen network
Taking a huge step in creating the western world's biggestdigital cinema network, Government-backed support body UK Film Council has selected an offshoot ofventure capitalist Arts Alliance to install a nationwide digital circuit of 250screens.Under the £11.5m contract, Arts Alliance is to spearhead theinstallation, training, servicing and upgrades over an 18-month ...
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Constantine to wreak havoc in Italy, Spain
Warner Bros PicturesInternational's supernatural thriller Constantine opens in Italy and Mexico today (Feb 25) on the backof a smattering of smaller European debuts earlier in the week.The picture has grossed$33.7m after two weekends and executives will look for solid debuts and strongholds in Asia as well as Spain, France and ...
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France's 30th Cesar awards provide an evening of surprises
The 30th anniversary of France's Cesar awards proved to be an evening full of surprises with Abdellatif Kechiche's L'Esquive taking four prizes, including best picture and best director. The awards were an upset for favoured films: The Chorus and A Very Long Engagement which were both up for two Oscars ...
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Fockers extends reign and nears $200m
DreamWorks International's MeetThe Fockers continued to dominate the international box office over theweekend, adding an estimated $20.8m on 4,185 screens in 48 territories throughUIP for a $184.7m international running total.Strong holdovers saw the picturestay top in Germany, France and Austria as it grossed $5m on 629 for $12.2m,$2.8m on 591 ...
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It's Sideways all the way at the Independent Spirits
Sideways stamped its inimitable mark on the 20th IFPIndependent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica on Saturday (26), winning five awardsincluding best feature, best director for Alexander Payne and best male leadfor Paul Giamatti. The$16m Fox Searchlight hit, whose inclusion in the budget-contingent Spirits wasa surprise to many, also took best ...