Small MPU – Page 472
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Chaplin, Kier, Pare join the cast of BloodRayne
GeraldineChaplin, Udo Kier and Michael Pare have joined Ben Kingsley, Kristanna Loken,Michelle Rodriguez, Matt Davis and Michael Madsen in the cast of BloodRayne, the new film adaptation of the popularvideo game.Currentlyshooting in Romania, the film is produced and directed by Uwe Boll and writtenby Guinevere Turner. It stars Loken, last ...
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Bourne takes $6.7m in 23 territories for Universal/UIP
The Bourne Supremacy grossed $6.7m from 2,284 sites in 23 territoriesover the weekend for Universal/UIP, bringing its international total to date to$54m.The thriller sequel openedsecond in Spain after local smash Mar Adentro with a $1.9m gross from 356 sites, a 2% increase inlocal currency on The Bourne Identity in 2002 ...
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Denver Film Festival to present focus on German cinema
The Starz DenverInternational Film Festival, which holds its 27th annual event Oct14-24, will stage a focus on German cinemaMargarethe VonTrotta will attend the festival wih her films Rosenstrasse and The Other Woman, which she directed, and AmericanSoldier, in which sheacted. Other German films screening include Head-On, Jester Till, When TheRight ...
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Bahamas launches film festival in Dec
The Bahamas InternationalFilm Festival will take place for the first time Dec 9-12 in Nassau, Bahamas.The event plans to presentabout 50 films encompassing international features, shorts, documentaries andanimated films. The theme of this year's competitive section is Spirit OfFreedom with a focus on films providing insight into the "mosaic of ...
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Finland submits Producing Adults as 2004 Oscar entry
Aleksi Salmenpera'sfeature directing debut Producing Adults was been selected as the official Finnish submission forthe 2004 foreign language film Oscar.The romanticcomedy is written by Pekko Pesonen and produced by Petri Jokiranta and TeroKaukomaa's Blind Spot Pictures. It follows Venla (Minna Haapkyla), apsychologist working at an infertility clinic, who decides to ...
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Losique launches Montreal counterattack
Serge Losique, the embattledpresident of the Montreal World Film Festival (MWFF), has fired back at hisnemeses at Telefilm Canada and its Quebec counterpart SODEC.On September 7, the twoagencies, the principal sources of public subsidy of the MWFF, issued a callfor proposals for a film event in Montreal, a direct challenge ...
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Redbus hoards rights ahead of VoD launch in UK
The fast-surging UK media concern Redbus Film Group has accumulated a number of studio-level films for its upcoming video-on-demand service through a television package deal struck with German rights broker Intertainment.Intertainment, which has been busy of late concluding several free TV sales across Europe, announced this week television deals in ...
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ProSiebenSat.1 launches inhouse sales outfit
Germany'sProSiebenSat.1 group has launched an in-house sales outfit SevenOneInternational which will have its market premiere at the forthcoming MIPCOM(October 4-8).The new company will be headed by Jens Richterwho was managing director of KirchMedia's international sales operation BetaFilm from 2000 until May this year. Since leaving Beta Film, Richter has beenworking ...
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'Son of Section 48' details announced by UK Treasury
The UK government hasfinally launched its 20% tax credit for UK qualifying films.The Treasury, which was dueto unveil details as far back as July, aims to give filmmakers 20% of theirbudgets via a tax credit even if films fail at the box-office.But commercially successful filmmakers may be able to claim ...
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Yesterday named as South African Oscar choice
AIDS drama Yesterdayhas been selected as South Africa's official contender for the foreign-languageOscar nomination.Yesterday, directed by Darrell Roodt, follows a village woman(played by Roodt's Sarafina star Leleti Khumalo) who has contractedAIDS, but is disowned by her husband. Alone, she travels the country fendingfor herself and their daughter.The selection was made ...
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DeA Planeta likes look of Mirror Maze
Spanish-Italianmedia conglomerate DeA Planeta has boarded new Rioja Films thriller MirrorMaze as co-producer and local distributor.Rioja chief Jose Antonio Romero and the film's director,Guillermo Groizard, unveiled the project at the San Sebastian InternationalFilm Festival (Sept 17-25).It is oneof five feature co-productions brought to DeA Planeta by new executivepresident Alvaro Zapata ...
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Crooner Connick Jr takes lead in Oz Boomerang
US crooner Harry Connick Jr has signed to play a disgracedcorporate cowboy who pays a street kid to help him commit suicide in BoomerangDeal, to be directed by Phillip Marzella from his own script.It will be Australian director Marzella's follow-up to Low-FatElephants, which he wrote, directed and produced in 2000 ...
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Future Film acquires worldwide Kaurismaki rights
Scandinavian distributor Future Film has acquiredworldwide TV and DVD rights for 19 of Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki'sfeature films.The package includes films spanning the director'sentire career, from his very first films TheLiar (1981) and Saimaa-ilmiö (1981) to his newestfeatures.Also included are films such as The Worthless (1982), Helsinki-NaplesAll Night Long (1987), ...
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Canary to sing at Tokyo FILMeX opening
The Tokyo FILMeX festival (Nov20-28) has announced its line-up for its fifth edition, with a competitionsection presenting ten features from young Asian directors.The festival's opening film will be Japanesedirector Akihiko Shinota's Canary, which receives its world premiere atTokyo FILMeX. The director of Harmful Insect, Shiota's latest featuredepicts the story of ...
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Open to retire from Belfast's Queen's Film Theatre
TheNorthern Ireland cinema business will mark the end of an era this month withthe completed upgrading of Belfast's Queen's Film Theatre (QFT) and theretirement of Michael Open who has programmed and managed the venue for threedecades.The QFT was established under the aegis of Queen'sUniversity in 1969 and it will shortly ...
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Shanghai Story dominates at top Chinese awards
Peng Xiaolian's Shanghai Story won four awardsincluding best picture and best director at China's leading film awards, theGolden Roosters, on Sunday night despite it not having had a wide,commercial release.The film, about a family separated by the CulturalRevolution, also picked up best supporting actor for Feng Yuanzheng while thebest actress ...
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Bana teams with Hanson for Warner Bros
Eric Bana, Australian starof Hulk and Troy, has landed the lead role in Curtis Hanson's nextmovie for Warner Bros Lucky You.Bana, who is also scheduled to star in Steven Spielberg's Vengeance next year, will play Huck Cheever, the leadcharacter in the character-based drama set in the world of high-stakesprofessional poker.Eric ...
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Gibson to get producer trophy at Hollywood Film Awards
Mel Gibson will receive theHollywood Producer Of The Year Award at the Hollywood Awards gala ceremony inLos Angeles on Oct 18.Gibson joins alineup of previously named award-winners at the show including John Travolta(lifetime achievement), Michael Mann (directing), Keira Knightley (breakthroughacting - female) and Jamie Foxx (breakthrough acting - male).'MelGibson's career ...
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Palm buys music doc Be Here To Love Me
Chris Blackwell's PalmPictures has closed a deal to buy North American and Caribbean rights toMargaret Brown's documentary Be Here To Love Me, a profile of musician Townes Van Zandt which hadits world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last week.The acquisition is Palm'sthird out of Toronto after Iraq war ...
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Spanish pay-TV outfit snaps up arthouse films
Spain'ssole pay-TV platform Digital Plus has signed new deals with local independentdistributors Alta Films, Wanda Vision, Vertigo, Musidora and Golem, coveringkey European arthouse hits such as Dogville, Goodbye, Lenin! and TheGirl With The Pearl Earring.The dealscover only a handful of already-released titles cherry-picked from eachdistributor, and are among the first ...