Small MPU – Page 3964

  • News

    Kodak, Atlab restore Australian cinema classics

    2000-03-27T12:40:00Z

    Miramax Films, Miramax Television, HBO and Good Will Hunting writers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are teaming up to launch a US contest in which a total unknown writer will have his or her screenplay greenlit.Starting in the summer, anyone in the US can submit a screenplay electronically to www.projectgreenlight.com. ...

  • News

    Peace Arch and Showtime partner up through 2007

    2004-05-12T00:00:00Z

    Canadian entertainment outfit Peace Arch Entertainment Group andUS-based Showtime Networks have signed a co-financing and distribution dealthrough 2007 for up to 15 projects averaging $10m each.Peace Arch will provide production support and assume allinternational rights including Canada, while Showtime will premiere titles onits Showtime Network.Peach Arch's London-based subsidiary Peace Arch ...

  • News

    Rosett named president of United Artists

    2004-05-12T00:00:00Z

    Danny Rosett hasbeen named president of United Artists in a move that had been widely expectedfollowing the departure in January of Bingham Ray.Rosett most recently served as executive vice president ofmarketing and distribution for MGM Studios, which included overseeing worldwidebusiness operations for the specialty unit UA, and will report to ...

  • News

    GERMANY 12 May

    2004-05-12T00:00:00Z

    The season of blockbustersopened in fine style with UIP's Van Helsing charging into the Germanbox-office chart at No. 1 with a whopping $ 9,813 screen average from its 742screens, while last week's top film, Columbia TriStar's 50 First Dates,was the only release to muster any competition with takings of around ...

  • News

    Politics colours Cannes

    2004-05-12T04:00:00Z

    Even if everything passes off peacefully this year's festival, as a result of a rapprochement with striking arts workers, Cannes will still be shaped by the invasive effects of politics - global politics, politics of the workplace and political films.Indeed, industry politics was already charged at a high-powered colloquium on ...

  • News

    Italy still struggling to secure summer releases

    2004-05-12T00:00:00Z

    Despite the Italian industry's sustained efforts, the localbox office summer season has once again failed to properly take-off, withupcoming 2004 summer releases few and far between.The Italian box office will benefit from the day and daterelease of three Hollywood juggernauts before the summer officially kicks in,all of which will be ...

  • News

    First Look selling Kevin

    2004-05-13T04:00:00Z

    US-based First Look Mediawill finance and serve as executive producer on Toni Kotite˙s dark comedy KevinApproaches, which stars Guy Pearce, Laura Linney and Robert Carlyle.The company's sales armFirst Look International will begin pre-sales at Cannes while First Look andICM International˙s Shaun Redick will handle domestic rights.Kevin Approaches stars Pearce in ...

  • News

    Little steps into Attenborough's Ring

    2004-05-13T04:00:00Z

    Veteran sales agent RobbieLittle has stepped in as executive producer on Closing The Ring, RichardAttenborough's epic love story.Little is expected to tie upselected pre-sales at Cannes on the project, which now has an unconfirmed castincluding Dennis Hopper, Pete Postlethwaite, Mena Suvari, Shirley MacLaine andColin Hanks.Shooting is scheduled forthis summer with ...

  • News

    Carlyle, Anderson come of age with The Mighty Celt

    2004-05-13T04:00:00Z

    Robert Carlyle and GillianAnderson are being lined up to star in The Mighty Celt, a coming of age talebased at Robert Walpole and Paddy Breathnach's Irish company TreasureEntertainment.BBC Films, The Irish Film Board and the NorthernIreland Film & Television Commission are to bankroll the production, whichis set to shoot in ...

  • News

    Korean distributor unveils debut production slate

    2004-05-13T04:00:00Z

    South Korean distributor Chungeorahm Film makes its first trip toCannes this year with a wide slate of upcoming titles from its newly-launchedproduction and investment arm. These include a new film by Old Boy and Chihwaseonstar Choi Min-shik and a big-budget disaster movie by Bong Joon-ho, director ofthe award-winning Memories Of ...

  • News

    Oracle, 2M throw weight behind Zentropa channel

    2000-03-27T12:40:00Z

    Danish production outfit Zentropa has revealed that US database software firm Oracle and Danish venture capital outfit 2M Invest are backing its proposed English-language Internet channel, TVropa.com (Screendaily March 23). Oracle is understood to be investing $650,000 (DKr5m) in the digital platform supporting Zentropa's on-line activities, while 2M Invest has ...

  • News

    Assayas producer drums up starry slate

    2004-05-13T04:00:00Z

    Producer Edouard Weil isbusy preparing new projects following his latest collaboration with OlivierAssayas on Cannes competition film Clean.Xavier Giannoli's lovetriangle drama La Belle Image stars hot French up and comer LudivineSagnier, Nicolas Duvauchelle and Bruno Todeschini and is set to start shootingon June 7 in Paris and Brussels. The French-Belgian ...

  • News

    Senator sells Long Weekend

    2004-05-13T04:00:00Z

    Senator International hasclosed multiple deals on Gold Circle Films' comedy The Long Weekendstarring Chris Klein and Brendan Fehr. Universal Pictures, which has a domesticdistribution deal with Gold Circle, took the film for Germany, Aurum for Spain,Pasatiempo for Latin America, Cathay for Singapore, CP International for CISand the Baltics, DFW for ...

  • News

    Europe given warning on internet piracy

    2004-05-13T04:00:00Z

    Internet piracy was firmly identified as the bogeymanthreatening the future of the creative process and the livelihood of the filmindustry, at a high-powered conference organised by the Cannes film festival onTuesday.Numerous speakers railed against the growing electronictrade that bypasses traditional distributors and funds organised crime."The expansion of broadband is synonymous ...

  • News

    Enjoy Cinemas dives into diva material

    2004-05-13T04:00:00Z

    EnjoyCinema, the UK distribution outfit set up by former HanWay executive SimonGosling earlier this year, has caught the diva bug.Enjoyhas taken UK rights to Callas Forever, Franco Zeffirelli's biopic ofopera star Maria Callas, starring Fanny Ardant and Jeremy Irons, from Capitol.In collaboration with EMI who've licensed all of Maria Callas's ...

  • News

    Cannes set for Surreal premiere

    2004-05-13T04:00:00Z

    Having operated in abelow-the-radar fashion until now, new French distributor Surreal Films isusing Cannes as its public premiere.Headed by Dario Bergesio andPaul Blain, Surreal has already bought two films. First was the distinctly odd ReturnOf The Cagliostro, by Italian experimentalists Daniele Cipri and FrancoMaresco, which was snapped up from Cinico ...

  • News

    Cannes market bustles with attendees

    2004-05-13T04:00:00Z

    The Cannes Market, which opened its doors yesterday (Wed12 May), looks set to be busier than ever. According to its preliminary figuresregistered attendee numbers are up 11% at 7,225 from 63 countries.Films screening increased this year from 1,214 to 1,340including 55 trailers.According to the market's analysis of the films on ...

  • News

    German cinema admissions plunge

    2004-05-13T04:00:00Z

    2.4m fewer tickets were soldat German cinemas in the first three months of 2004 compared to the previousyear, according to statistics collated by the German Federal Film Board (FFA).The Berlin-based institutionreported that box-office takings fell year-on-year by 9% to Euros 213.1m andadmissions by 6.2% to 37m, the lowest tally since ...

  • News

    UK Film Council spells out slate rules

    2004-05-13T04:00:00Z

    Aiming to keep asmany doors as possible open to producers while channeling funding through aselect few companies, the UK Film Council has stipulated that 30% of investmentunder its new super slate deals must go to third parties.Successful bidsfor the development and overhead deals will oversee up to £1.5m in NationalLottery ...

  • News

    Almodovar toys with trio

    2004-05-14T04:00:00Z

    Spain's El Deseo is preppinga new English-language drama from director Isabel Coixet for an autumn shootprior to cranking up Pedro Almodovar's as-yet undecided next film in 2005.Almodovar, whose latestfeature, Bad Education (Mala Educacion) inaugurates Cannes, has threescripts in development, according to producer Agustin Almodovar. The directoraverages one film every two ...