Small MPU – Page 470
-
News
Pathe takes rights trio on Black Book
In a rare pre-sale of aDutch-language film, Pathe has picked up French, Swiss and Belgian rights toPaul Verhoeven's forthcoming wartime drama Black Book. The sales arranged by producer San Fu Maltha and salesagent Katapult Films, are understood to have been critical to the financing ofthe $15m (Euros12m). Structured as a ...
-
News
Fine Line acquires Yao Ming doc in Toronto
Fine Line Features kept the buying momentum going in the finaldays of Toronto yesterday, picking up worldwide rights to The Year Of Yao, the documentary about basketball starYao Ming which had its world premiere here.The company is planning a 2005 release for the film which followsthe Chinese player Yao Ming ...
-
Reviews
Sideways
Dir: Alexander Payne. US.2004. 124 mins.Alexander Payne entersthe very top rank of American auteurs with his fourth film Sideways, ablissfully enjoyable meditation on masculinity and loneliness which willdelight adult audiences and should be a significant contender in theend-of-year awards race. Fox Searchlight Pictures, which fully financed thefilm, is releasing it ...
-
News
Pollock replaces Ashmore at UIP South-East Asia
UIP has appointed Roger Pollock as vice president, sales for South-East Asia, replacing Steve Ashmore who left the company earlier this week - reportedly as part of a cost-cutting exercise following MGM's withdrawal from the joint distribution venture.Pollock will combine the position with his current role as general manager for ...
-
News
Mobius Pictures to sell Styler trio
Mobius Pictures, the sales operation of Elie Samaha'sformer partner, David Bergstein, has partnered with Trudie Styler'sUK-based production company Xingu Films for three pictures.Mobius is bankrolling A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, theadaptation of model-singer Dito Montiel's autobiography starring Robert DowneyJr. Montiel, who will direct from his own script, is to ...
-
News
German remake for hit Dutch football feature
SuccessfulDutch football feature In Orange (In Oranje) is to be remade for Germanaudiences.Germanproduction house Gemini Film struck a deal this week with In Orange producers Motel Films and Fu Worksto retell the story in German with a working-title In Die Mannschaft.Accordingto Fu Works other countries - including Spain, England and ...
-
Reviews
Wimbledon
Richard Loncraine, UK/US 2004, 97 minsRichard Curtis maynot have written Wimbledon but hisinfluence is evident in almost every scene of the film. As in Notting Hill and Four Weddings, a charming but stuttering Brit (in this case, ajourneyman tennis player) falls in love with a tougher, more worldly wiseAmerican. We're ...
-
News
Spain unveils Oscar contenders
Alejandro Amenabar's TheSea Inside (Mar Adentro), Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education (La Mala Educacion) and multiple Oscar nominee JoseLuis Garci's Tiovivo De Madrid C. 1950have made Spain's short-list for the nomination to the foreign-language Oscar.The final nominee will be announced October 1.Almodovar scored his best ever opening in Spain with BadEducation ...
-
Reviews
Melinda And Melinda
Dir: Woody Allen, US2004. 99 mins After a run of lightweight comedies that caused evenhardcore supporters to lose patience, Woody Allen achieves a heartening returnto form with his most idiosyncratic and substantial film in some time. Agenuine tragi-comedy - in that it counterpoints two parallel stories, tragicand comic - Melinda ...
-
News
Chomet readies Tati screenplay for Scottish shoot
Oscar-nominated Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets OfBelleville) is to direct an animatedversion of a screenplay by legendary French comedian Jacques Tati.Called The Illusionist,it will be produced in Edinburgh - where Chomet recently set up shop -by Mark Cousinsof 4Ways Films. Sally Chomet will co-produce through Studio Django.Other partners include Les Films ...
-
News
Cecchi Gori cleared of money laundering
Vittorio Cecchi Gori, whoseproduction, distribution and exhibition empire crumbled four years ago amid awhirlwind of bad debt and corruption charges, has been cleared of launderingmoney.In 2001, the media baron wastemporarily placed under house arrest for alleged wrongdoings linked to thebankruptcy of his former football club, Fiorentina. He was alleged to ...
-
News
Lelouch offers free showings of latest film
French director Claude Lelouch showed his new film LesParisiens for free across France on Fridayto try to prove wrong the critics who have panned it.Lelouch said he would bear the costs of the showings atabout 400 cinemas across France, according to Reuters."I've taken this decision following an unprecedentedmedia lynching," he ...
-
News
Toronto serves up succession of Oscar contenders
So, it was sometimes difficult to get into screenings, itwas impossible to see everything you wanted and Vera Drake was nowhere to be seen. Journalists always like tohave some complaints but in truth the 2004 edition of the Toronto InternationalFilm Festival left little to grumble about.Quantity was matched by quality ...
-
News
Allen's star shines at San Sebastian
Woody Allen was the undeniable star of the opening weekendof the 52nd annual edition of Spain's San Sebastian International Film Festival(Sept 17-25).That is saying a lot, considering other visitors includedthe always-polemic Oliver Stone, M. Night Shyamalan presenting The Village, Michael Winterbottom accompanying his controversialNine Songs, and local hero PedroAlmodovar, in ...
-
News
Sky is high but maybe not the limit with $16.2m opening
Maybeit was the devastation of Hurricane Ivan in the southeastern US, maybe the lackof interest in the new product but box office was slow this weekend in NorthAmerica, down some 27% from the same period last year.Theindependently financed Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow debuted top of the charts ...
-
News
Rwanda is Toronto audience favourite, Pete Tong Canadian winner
Terry George's HotelRwanda won the AGF Peoples' ChoiceAward at the Toronto International Film Festival, as the 29thedition wrapped here on Sunday.Starring Don Cheadle, theUK-South Africa-Italy coproduction is based on the experience of PaulRusesabagina, an hotel manager who saved many lives during the Rwandan civilwar. The prize was one of many ...
-
News
Lions Gate takes Canadian rights to Toronto hit Phil The Alien
Lions Gate Entertainment hastake Canadian rights in all media to Phil The Alien, the debut of writer-director-actor Rob Stefaniuk.The story of an intergalactic nomad who falls to earth in Northern Ontario, thefilm screened in the Canada First! feature film competition at Toronto.Produced by Toronto-basedproduction company Black Walk, it features Stefaniuk ...
-
News
Telefilm Canada backs new features from August, Kunuk
Telefilm Canada has announcedit will back two features, Bille August's Explosion, a Canada-Denmark-UK coproduction, and TheJournals of Knud Rasmussen, aCanada-Denmark coproduction co-directed by Zacharias Kunuk,director of 2002 Camera d'Or winner Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner.Explosion, based on Canadian journalist Robert MacNeil's novel"Burden of Desire", is a historical drama of a love ...
-
News
THINKFilm woos Three Of Hearts at Toronto
Another domestic deal wasclinched in the closing days of the Toronto International Film Festival, withTHINKFilm taking domestic theatrical and DVD rights to Susan Kaplan's documentary ThreeOf Hearts: A Postmodern Family.US cable network Bravo camein on the project at an early stage and holds TV rights with the intention oflaunching it ...
-
News
Film Movement buys North American rights to Antares
Larry Meistrich's theatricaldistribution and subscription DVD service Film Movement has acquired NorthAmerican rights to Austrian drama Antares at the Toronto International Film Festival.The controversial film directedby Gotz Spielman tells three stories of passion, jealousy and violence on thesame impersonal housing estate."Antaresis the type of work Film Movement was created to ...