Small MPU – Page 483
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News
Disney to cut 650 jobs in restructuring
The WaltDisney Co. will cut 650 jobs worldwide as part of a major new restructuring.The studio will now focus on more Disney-branded family films, aiming to produceand distribute about 10 Disney live-action andanimated titles per year, but only two to three more adult Touchstone titles per year. Amongthose leaving will ...
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News
Hanbando, Sinking Of Japan both score on home turf
Korea and Japan came out of rainy three-day weekends with nationalistic blockbusters Hanbando and Sinking Of Japan topping their respective box office charts.As political tensionsbetween Japan and the rest of Asia heighten in the real world, Kang Woo-suk's action fantasy Hanbando tells the story of Japaneseinterference in North and South ...
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Sheffield DocFest unveils early plans for autumn event
The Sheffield DocFest 2006 (Oct 30-Nov 5) hasannounced several films in this year's programme. The 13th festival will include Paul Watson's Making a Documentary, MAD; Joe Angio's How To Eat YourWatermelon In White Company (And Enjoy It); Alan Berliner's Wide Awake; Anna Bucchetti'sDreaming By Numbers; and Sergei Loznitsa's Blockade.Also, the ...
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FilmFour moves from subscription to free channel
Channel 4's film channel FilmFour will transition from a paid subscription serviceto a free channel with a relaunch on July 23.Satellite TV and Freeview customers will now be able to watch the channel,renamed Film4, without subscribing, making it the UK's biggest film channel. Advertising will be runduring the films, a ...
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Locarno buyers grow to 150 from 28 countries
Distributors from the UK, US, Russia, Spain and Romania are among theincreased numbers of internationalbuyers attending this year's Locarno Film Festival (August 2-12).Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily.com,Nadia Dresti, head of the festival's industry office, revealed that more than25 new companies will be coming to Locarno for the first time in 2006, ...
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India, UK start short documentary scheme
Eight Indian film-makers will be given the chance to create athree-minute documentary film under the new Independence In3 Minutes scheme. The shorts programme is timed to the 60thanniversary of India'sindependence from the UK.Indian film-makers are invited to pitch proposals for a shortdocumentary about Indian independence and what it means to ...
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Buscemi, Slater, Cleese add voice to Igor
Christian Slater,Steve Buscemi and John Cleese will lend their voices to Exodus' CG-animatedcomedy Igor, which is beingdistributed by The Weinstein Company (TWC).TWC holds North American rights and completed international sales in most territoriesin Cannes.The story centres on a mad scientist's hunchbacked lab assistant who dreams ofwinning first place award at ...
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News
Rosenfield joins Fifteen Minutes PR as entertainment chief
Zachary Rosenfieldhas left Insignia PR and joined Fifteen Minutes PR as the head of its entertainment division.In his new capacity Rosenfield will handle a roster of corporate clients,producers, personalities and consumer product-entertainment crossover."Zach is a young man of immense skill and character and I know he will make agreat addition ...
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News
AFM expands as record numbers expected
Anticipating recordattendance at the upcoming American Film Market (AFM) in November, organisersIFTA have added a full floor of offices at Le Merigot Hotel in Santa Monica.The expansion supplements the offices added in 2004 and 2005, and marks themost exhibit space ever provided by the AFM in its 27-year history.The AFM's ...
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Sundance Channel buys five Latin American pictures
US cable station Sundance Channel has acquired US television rights to five Latin American titles which will be broadcast in August as part of Arte Latino, a tribute to Latin American film-making.The films are Martin Rejtman's Silvia Prieto from Argentina, Mercedes Garcia Guevera's Hidden River from Argentina, Carlos Bolado's Bajo ...
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Reviews
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Dir: Ivan Reitman. US. 2006. 96mins.A tantalising comic premise about a beautifulsuperhero whose romantic frustration turns her into a vengeful stalker, Ivan Reitman's large budget action comedy My Super Ex-Girlfriend plays to diminished power that is all set-upand no pay-off. In particular, this flat, increasingly mannered work sabotagesa droll, inventive ...
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BBC veterans plan feature based on Shoebox Zoo
Drama veteransClaire Mundell and Justin Molotnikovhave set up a new production company, Synchronicity Films, to produce featurefilms and TV drama series. Mundell has worked for BBC television as a producer/director andhead of department. Molotnikov has a total of 11years TV experience, including three years of drama development at the BBC. ...
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News
Universal partners with Telefonica for Spain downloads
Universal Pictures Iberia is partnering with Telefonicade Espana to launch the first legal download-to-own filmservice in Spain. The service, which launches today on Telefonica'snew Pixbox portal, will use Avartopeer-to-peer technology. The model will provide users with access to two digital files, one for aPC or laptop and one for a ...
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News
Britdoc speakers include Broomfield and Maysles
The firstBritdoc festival, in association with Nokia, has announced some top documentaryfilm-makers participating in masterclasses and panels. Thefestival (July 26-28) at Keble College in Oxford will welcome speakersincluding film-makers Albert Maysles, Alex Gibney, Kevin Macdonald, Pawel Pawlikowski, Mike Figgis, Nick Broomfield, and Penny Woolcock. Industryspeakers include Sundance's John Cooper, SXSW's ...
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Film London revamps local film funds
Film London has started the London Borough Film Fund Challenge to stimulate local film-makingacross the city. The aim is for every London resident to have access to a local film fund. Fivenew "cluster" funds are being created to represent 13 London boroughs. They are Eastern Edge Film Fund forBarking & ...
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Barbican to present season devoted to Jeremy Thomas
UK producer Jeremy Thomas will be honoured with a season of films at London's Barbican. "Jeremy Thomas - 30 Years A Maverick" will run Sept 7-12 including screenings andtalks with Thomas and directors Nic Roeg and Stephen Frears. The retrospective opens witha gala presentation of Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987Oscar winner The ...
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Reviews
Stormbreaker (aka Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker)
Dir: Geoffrey Sax. UK-US-Ger. 2006. 93mins.Geoffrey Sax's Stormbreaker, the first in whatthe producers are hoping will become a new British movie franchise to rival Spy Kids or Harry Potter, announces its intentions right at the outset. The audienceare treated to a frantic chase in which James Bond-style superspyIan Rider (Ewan ...
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New Marbella festival to offer four competition sections
Dancing For Oliver, a documentary about the making of the dancesequences in Oliver Stone's Alexander,is one of approximately 50 films to screen at the first International FilmFestival of Marbella, Spain this Sept 8-10.The festival, funded by thecharitable organization New World Trust, aims to promote new filmmakers fromaround the world. Organizers ...
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Unfinished Sky secures FFC backing
Peter Duncan's romanticthriller Unfinished Sky, about afarmer and an Afghani illegal immigrant who fall in love, is one of threefeatures to receive production finance from Film Finance Corporation Australia this week. Australian actor WilliamMcInnes (Look Both Ways) will playthe farmer and Dutch actress Monic Hendrickx has been cast as the ...
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News
Loewy, Theroux out at Alliance Atlantis' MDP
Victor Loewy, the long-time head of Alliance AtlantisCommunication's distribution business, has resigned from his position ofchairman and director of Motion Picture Distribution LP (MPD). Also exiting thecompany is Patrice Theroux, another long-serving senior distribution executive,who leaves his post as president and CEO.MPD is the leading Canadian film distributor, with sub-distributiondeals ...