Small MPU – Page 3959

  • News

    Dream acquires sex comedy ManFast

    2004-05-06T04:00:00Z

    Dream Entertainment hasacquired all international rights to Kali Films' comedy ManFast, which recently won the audience award anddirectorial debut honours for Tara Judelle at the New York InternationalIndependent Film and Video Festival.The story follows fourhedonistic women who must give up men for 100 days in order to receive a cashinjection ...

  • News

    White, Hewitt join sales team at First Look International

    2004-05-06T04:00:00Z

    First LookInternational has ramped up its sales team ahead of Cannes with the hiring of MoniqueWhite as vice president of international sales and Susan Hewitt as Europeantelevision sales consultant.Both will reportdirectly to First Look International co-heads Liz Mackiewicz, the senior vicepresident of worldwide sales and distribution, and Dina Vangelisti, thecompany's ...

  • News

    Lindsay, Seldin get senior vp stripes at Miramax

    2004-05-06T04:00:00Z

    Miramax Filmshas made two key promotions, with Mark Lindsay elevated to senior vicepresident of distribution and head of sales for Miramax International andColleen Seldin moving up to senior vice president of worldwide operations atMiramax Films.Lindsay will beresponsible for overseeing the company's international sales activities andwill continue to work out of ...

  • News

    Lightning acquires Russian thriller Moscow Heat

    2004-05-06T04:00:00Z

    RichardGuardian's Lightning Entertainment has picked up international rights to JeffCelentano's Russian-themed thriller Moscow Heat, purportedly the largest budgetedindependent picture ever made in Russia.Moscow Heat stars rising Russian star Alexander Nevsky,whose credits include Time Of Change and Red Serpent, and centres on the efforts of a retired diplomat, LA detectiveand Russian ...

  • News

    Noyce sets Bielski Brothers at Warner Independent

    2004-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Film-maker Phillip Noycehas found a new home for his film of Peter Duffy's novel The BielskiBrothers at Warner IndependentPictures (WIP), and has teamed up with Mace Neufeld and Jonas Goodman to produce it. WIP will develop and finance the project with Cherry Road Films.The screenplay has beenwritten by first-time screenwriter ...

  • News

    Cuban Film Institute chief steps down from post

    2000-03-27T10:57:00Z

    Alfredo Guevara has quit his post as head of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC), an organisation he founded shortly after Cuba's 1959 revolution, citing a desire to devote more time to international projects. A close friend of President Fidel Castro, Guevara was officially declared "released" from his responsibilities at the ...

  • News

    State and Clearing bookend LA Film Festival

    2004-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Zach Braff's hotSundance comedy Garden State will open the 10th Annual Los Angeles Film Festival on Jun 17,while Richard Linklater's romance Before Sunset is the Centrepiece Premiere and PieterJan Brugge's kidnapping drama The Clearing will close the event on Jun 26.Overall nineworld premieres, three North American premieres and two US ...

  • News

    Warner launches dedicated worldwide anti-piracy unit

    2004-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Warner Bros,which has arguably taken the fight to piracy with more zeal than any otherstudio, has stepped up operations with the launch of the industry's firstdedicated worldwide anti-piracy unit.Darcy Antonelliswill head up the unit following her recent appointment to the new position ofsenior vice president of worldwide anti-piracy operations at ...

  • News

    Screen wins top publishing accolade

    2004-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Screen International was named international businessmagazine of the year at the Periodical Publishers Association awards in Londonyesterday (May 5).Judges praised Screen for the relaunch of its weeklyedition and website, ScreenDaily.com, in August, which has resulted in a30% rise in subscribers across 73 countries.Judges singled out the introduction of issue-driven,image-based front ...

  • News

    Iranian authorities halt Makhmalbaf shoot

    2004-05-07T04:00:00Z

    Awardwinning Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf's has been prevented from shootinghis latest film, Amnesia, by the country's Ministry of Culture andIslamic Guidance.The scriptreflects two decades of pain and sufferings of the Iranian people and artists,and according to financier Wild Bunch, took Makhmalbaf years to write.It wasfinally completed last autumn when he ...

  • News

    American Pie star blasts off with Space Chimps

    2004-05-07T04:00:00Z

    Seann William Scott is tovoice the lead in Space Chimps, the next animation title from Shrekproducer John Williams' Vanguard Animation.The American Pie star will voice the part of Ham, the great grandsonof the first chimpanzee to go into space. Happy in his luxury NASA cage, thehapless Ham has to learn ...

  • News

    Last King Of Scotland gathers momentum

    2004-05-07T04:00:00Z

    Andrea Calderwood's London-based Slate Films is at lastmaking headway on its long-gestating project, Last King Of Scotland.Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald is attached to direct the film, which isnow being fast-tracked. Calderwood will co-produce with Lisa Bryer of CowboyFilms.Slate's partners on the project are FilmFour, with whom the project wasoriginally set ...

  • News

    Kill Bill Vol 2 holds on to international lead

    2004-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Despitemassive drop offs in some territories (including Australia (63%), Germany(61%), Sweden (57%)) Kill Bill Vol. 2 held up well in its second weekendat the international box office. The film added seven more territories to the20 it launched on a week before and saw a 40% slip overall.Thehighest new entry was ...

  • News

    GERMANY 6 May

    2004-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Columbia TriStar reigned supreme at the German box office taking the top two positions with romantic comedy 50 First Dates moving up to pole position and the Johnny Depp starrer Secret Window coming in at number two with over $ 1.3m gross in its first four days of release.Meanwhile, last ...

  • News

    GERMANY 6 May

    2004-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Columbia TriStar reigned supreme at the German box office taking the top two positions with romantic comedy 50 First Dates moving up to pole position and the Johnny Depp starrer Secret Window coming in at number two with over $ 1.3m gross in its first four days of release.Meanwhile, last ...

  • News

    French video market suffers surprise drop

    2004-05-07T04:05:00Z

    The French video distributors' association(SEV) yesterday sounded the alarm, reporting that the home entertainment marketin France has dropped dramatically.The combined DVD and VHS retail marketretreated by 16% in cash terms, according to the SEV when the first quarter of2004 was compared with the same period of last year. The rental ...

  • News

    French protesters threaten daily disruption at Cannes

    2004-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Protestorsstormed the newsroom of leading Frenchpay-TV network Canal Plus on Thursday, forcing the channel to abandonits afternoon and evening news broadcasts.Theprotesters are the intermittents du spectacle - audiovisual workers includingactors, film directors, cameraman and other technicians, all of whom havetraditionally received financial support for a proportion of their periods ofunemployment ...

  • News

    BV horror quartet shoots for Hollywood Wizard

    2004-05-07T00:00:00Z

    Horror titles Preggers, Serpent's Kiss, Spider People and Doom Town are scheduled to begin production this summer in a joint venturebetween Kenneth Hall's Los Angeles-based production house B V Entertainment andTony Kandah's sales outfit Hollywood Wizard.Kandah will handle foreign sales on all four titles at Cannes,along with B Vús first ...

  • News

    Here come the global juggernauts

    2004-05-07T00:00:00Z

    This weekend, Universal's monsterfest Van Helsing will open day-and-date with the US in 40territories around the world, raising the curtain on what could become the mostlucrative summer season ever for the studios' international divisions.The sheer volume of heavy hitters lining up on the runways ismind-boggling with Van Helsing just one ...

  • News

    Bird flies to Yakin-scripted satanic ritual

    2004-05-07T04:00:00Z

    Raw Nerve, the production horror house affiliated with New York's GreeneStreet Films, has signed AntoniaBird to direct Abraham's Daughter, which is out to casting and scheduled to begin filming thissummer.Written by Raw Nerve principal Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt, Abraham'sDaughter centres on a recently widowedwoman whose recurring visions of murdered ...