Small MPU – Page 4010

  • News

    Signs of a Blockbuster: Disney opens Syamalan's latest to $60.3m

    2002-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Mel Gibson and director M Night Shyamalan both recorded career-high openings as the mystery-drama Signs recorded a blockbuster opening for Buena Vista over the weekend with an estimated $60.3m. It is the first number one for the studio since Monsters, Inc. last November and is almost double what executives had ...

  • Reviews

    Blue Moon

    2002-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Andrea Maria Dusl. Austria. 2002. 97mins.The auspicious directorial debut from Viennese columnist Andrea Maria Dusl, this road movie which takes Eastern Europe as its subject, should have no problem finding receptive audiences in German-speaking countries. In particular, the presence of Josef Hader, one of Vienna's top cabaret acts, and ...

  • News

    Columbia TriStar snaps up rights to Japanese sci-fi Returner

    2002-08-06T04:05:00Z

    Columbia Tristar Motion Picture Group has bought worldwide rights, outside Asia, to Returner, a sci-fi thriller expected to be one of the big Japanese films of the year.Although Hollywood has taken a greater interest in Japan in recent years, the purchase by a major studio of worlwide rights to a ...

  • News

    Italy's Medusa Film announces new president

    2002-08-06T04:05:00Z

    Claudio Sposito, CEO of Silvio Berlusconi's media giant Fininvest, has been named president of the multi-billion dollar group's film division, Medusa Film. Sposito (pictured), who will retain his position at Fininvest, replaces Berlusconi's eldest daughter, Marina, who was appointed to the top job last year, following the sudden death of ...

  • News

    AOL creates new order

    2000-01-18T16:06:00Z

    Content is king again - so long as it can also enjoy widespread access to Internet users. That message was driven home this week by the revelation that America Online (AOL) is swallowing up Time Warner at a huge premium to create a multimedia monster whose market value approaches the ...

  • News

    Blue Moon rights selling fast in Locarno

    2002-08-06T04:05:00Z

    Monopole Pathe has picked up all Swiss rights for Austrian director Andrea Maria Dusl's feature debut Blue Moon which had its world premiere in the Locarno Festival international competition this weekend.Starring Austrian stand-up comedian Josef Hader, leading Ukrainian actress Viktoria Malektorovich and German actor-director Detlev Buck, Blue Moon follows the ...

  • News

    Saban Entertainment offers top price in Kirch Media auction

    2002-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Saban Entertainment, the US television production and distribution group, is understood to have submitted the highest bid of around Euros2.6bn for the assets of the insolvent KirchMedia.French broadcaster TF1 is understood to have put in the next richest bid, worth Euros2.2bn, according to German finance magazine Focus. The consortium bid ...

  • News

    Consumer-driven communications spending will drive industry growth

    2002-08-06T04:05:00Z

    Veronis Suhler Stevenson, the venerable media merchant bank, forecasts that communications spending will begin to recover in the second half of this year and continue at an annual rate of 5.5% until 2006. Veronis Suhler Stevenson's annual Communications Industry Forecast (CIF) describes the worst recession for the US media industry ...

  • News

    Mark Braddel promoted to vice president, sales, at CTFDI

    2002-08-06T00:00:00Z

    Mark Braddel, currently director of sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International (CTFDI), has been promoted to vice president, sales. Braddel is based in London and will oversee territories including Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He will report directly to CTFDI ...

  • News

    Mitch Levine takes over at Palm Springs Film Festivals

    2002-08-06T00:00:00Z

    Following the departure of Denis Pregnolato earlier this year, film-maker Mitch Levine has been named executive director and CEO of the Palm Springs International Film Festivals (PSIFF) and takes up his post this week in advance of the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films which takes place Aug 6-12 ...

  • News

    IFC, Killer & Jersey team for Todd Graff's Camp

    2002-08-06T00:00:00Z

    IFC Productions, the prolific New York production outfit behind Monsoon Wedding, Tadpole and Boys Don't Cry, has teamed with Killer Films and Jersey Films on Camp, a musical comedy which marks the directorial debut of writer Todd Graff. IFC had previously worked with Killer on Boys Don't Cry, but neither ...

  • News

    Michelle Yeoh finds Midas Touch in Asia

    2002-08-06T00:00:00Z

    Han Entertainment's The Touch, produced by and starring Michelle Yeoh, topped the box office in all four Asian territories in which it opened over the weekend.The $20m romantic action drama, directed by Peter Pau, opened Thursday, August 1, in Hong Kong, mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore.In Hong Kong, where Golden ...

  • Reviews

    Revengers Tragedy

    2002-08-06T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Alex Cox. UK. 2002. 112mins.UK film-maker Alex Cox first came across Thomas Middleton's Jacobean revenge tragedy as a student in 1976, when he was intrigued by its very modern blend of morbid comedy and ultra-violence. His long-planned screen version is steeped in a 1970s anarcho-punk sensibility, with Derek Jarman ...

  • News

    Lost In La Mancha finds favour in London

    2002-08-06T00:00:00Z

    Although the chart was dominated by the launch of Columbia TriStar's Men In Black II the talking point of the UK weekend box office was Optimum Releasing's Lost In La Mancha.A documentary following the ill-fated production of Terry Gilliam's abandoned project The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, La Mancha achieved ...

  • News

    IM Internationalmedia reports revenues up, profits down

    2002-08-06T00:00:00Z

    IM Internationalmedia's business activities developed largely as predicted in the first half of 2002, posting a 33% year-on-year increase in revenues to Euros 94.3m, from Euros 70.8m (pro forma) - while EBITDA plummeted from Euros 17.8m in the first half of 2001 to minus Euros 13.4m for this year.The increase ...

  • News

    Who'll get mail next'

    2000-01-18T16:07:00Z

    The creation of AOL Time Warner provided a catalytic jolt to the world's stock markets, seemingly putting every major media and Internet company in play this week after lighting a fire under their share prices. Analysts were predicting not so much a ripple effect as a tidal wave of mergers ...

  • News

    Motown, Migration among Toronto's 32 documentary features

    2002-08-07T04:05:00Z

    A special presentation of Paul Justman's passionate account Standing In The Shadows Of Motown (pictured) and the highly cinematic Winged Migration (Le Peuple Migrateur) from Jacques Perrin are among the 32 documentary feature films announced for the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs September 5-14.The international premiere of the ...

  • News

    Large format operator IMAX continues international expansion, posts upbeat results

    2002-08-07T04:05:00Z

    Maintaining its recent expansion into international markets, Toronto-based large format operator IMAX Corp is to open Russia's first 3-D IMAX theatre this autumn.The IMAX theatre is to be housed in Moscow's new Ramstore hypermarket, with site owner Ramenka saying that it is currently holding a tender for an operator. According ...

  • News

    Montreal world film festival reveals full competition line-up

    2002-08-07T04:05:00Z

    With a total of five films, France is especially well represented in the official competition of the 26th Montreal World Film Festival, which runs from Aug 22 to Sept 2. Competing against the five French films - four of which are international co-productions - are four films from Spain and ...