Small MPU – Page 577
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News
IFC picks up Toback film
IFC Films has acquired NorthAmerican rights in all media to James Toback's thriller When Will I Be Loved starring Neve Campbell and plans to release thepicture in August.Campbell (Scream, TheCompany) plays a strong-willed womanwho exacts revenge on a couple of men whose conniving and sexist ways havebelittled her for too ...
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New sales company Hybrid to debut at Cannes with Argentinian thriller
Los Angeles-based HybridPictures principals P J Pettiette and Claudie Viguerie have launchedinternational sales and distribution arm Hybrid Pictures International (HPI).The new unit, which willoperate out of Los Angeles, is preparing to bring the psychological thriller Jennifer'sShadow starring Faye Dunaway toCannes, where it will receive its world premiere.Going forward, Pettiettewill handle ...
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Reviews
Van Helsing
Dir/scr:Stephen Sommers. US. 2004. 132 mins.Thrillseekers looking for the maximum number of effects shots for their box officedollar (or pound, euro or yen) will get their money's worth fromwriter-director Stephen Sommers' $150m summer action-adventure Van Helsing. Which is just as well,because there's not much else to be got from this ...
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HONG KONG 4 May
FilmkoEntertainment's Koma - a thriller starring acclaimed up-and-comingactresses Karena Lam and Lee Sin-je - opened in top position at the Hong Kongbox office this week, grossing $513,815 from 36 screens.Meanwhile,Wong Jing's Moving Targets, based on the popular 1984 TVB series PoliceCadet, opened in second position with $331,057 from 36 screens. ...
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DENMARK 4 May
As noneof the new releases at the Danish box-office chart really impressed on theiropening weekend, Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol.2 stayed on top ofthe chart despite dropping 40%. Starsky & Hutch, which opened muchbetter in the neighboring Nordic countries, was a close competitor for the topspot, but its screen average ...
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News
Szabo, Leigh headed for Kerala fest
The International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) has attracted several top film-makers to this year's event, including Istvan Szabo, Mike Leigh, Miklos Jancso and Marco Muller.The festival, to take place from March 31- April 7, has also been granted recognition by the Paris-based International Federation of Film Producers' Associations (FIAPF), ...
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NEW ZEALAND 4 May
Kill Bill: Volume 2opened on the weekend and claimed the top spot from another BVI/Miramax film, Starsky& Hutch, just as it did in Australia on the previous weekend. KillBill took NZ$364,251 from 32 screens while Starsky & Hutch, inits second weekend on release, snapped at its heels with A$347,516 from ...
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SWEDEN 4 May
Nothingmuch happened at the Swedish chart this week, as positions one through fiveremained unchanged with Kill Bill Vol.2 as a strong leader with a solid$3,217 screen average on its 39 prints.The newrelease of Angelina Jolie's serial killer outing Taking Lives did lessimpressively with just its $1,949 screen average on 17 ...
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JAPAN 4 May
Disney's TheHaunted Mansion led the weekend before the start of the Golden Weekholiday. Family fare usually goes over well this week-long period -- one of thefew times of the year when the millions of workaholic dads take in a movie withtheir kids. Also, nearly every sentient and ambulatory Japanese has ...
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Reviews
Godsend
Dir:Nick Hamm. US. 2004. 100 mins.Humancloning ought to make a juicy subject for a psychological horror film (not tomention a topical marketing hook for distributors). But the cloning premiseturns out to be more intriguing than the execution in Godsend, adisappointingly generic PG-13 thriller from Lions Gate that marks the US ...
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News
Ontario film censor loses power to cut
An Ontario judge has ruled that the province's film reviewboard does not have the right to require cuts to films submitted forclassification prior to distribution.Overturning a previous judgment, Mr. Justice RussellJuriansz of the Ontario Superior Court said the province's censorship rules runcontrary to the nation's freedom-of-expression statutes.Justice Juriansz said the ...
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News
Death In Gaza takes Hot Docs Audience Award
Death In Gaza, the documentary about life in Palestine whose director, James Miller,was killed during its making, won the 2004 Audience Award at the 11thHot Docs Canadian Documentary Film Festival in Toronto. Miller was in Gaza inMay 2003 documenting the lives of Palestinian children when he shot and killedby the ...
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SPAIN Production Listings - May 4 2004
SPAIN - MAY 4PREPRODUCTIONAlgoHabran Hecho(Ibarretxe & Co, Dale Candela [Arg], OM Films [Fr]) Based on the true storyof a nun who was kidnapped and went missing in Buenos Aires in 1977. Prods:Eduardo Carneros, Maria Cabrejas, Olivier de Bannes. Ed: Luis CesarD'Angiolillo. Music: Pablo Velez. Dir: Fernando Oscar Nogueira. Scr: MariaCabrejas. ...
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News
Spanish producers go for box office gold
The president ofthe Spanish exhibitors' federation FEECE has called on local producers to helpturn around the gradual slide in ticket sales in Spain by making filmsspecifically targeting the largest cinema-going demographic: the 15 to 45 agegroup. He need hardly have bothered: a new wave of films matching this profileare in ...
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News
Wild Bunch picks up Cargo for Cannes
Wild Bunch has picked up international sales duties on PaulLaverty-scripted thriller Cargo, set to star Peter Mullan (TheMagdalene Sisters) and Luis Tosar (Take My Eyes).The estimated Euros 9.8m English-language thriller is aproduction of Juan Gordon of Spain's Morena Films and Andrea Calderwood of theUK's Slate Films. Clive Gordon will direct ...
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News
San Sebastian to reprise film 'rescue' initiative
TheSan Sebastian Film Festival has confirmed it will stage Films in Progressduring this September's event, aiming to help struggling Latin American andSpanish film-makers complete their pictures.Heldin conjunction with the Recontres Cines Amerique Latine de Toulouse, Films inProgress was the first initiative of its kind from two such festivals, and hasbeen ...
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News
Oliver Stone to chair Cognac jury
Oliver Stone - whose latest title, Any Given Sunday, opens in France on April 12 - will chair the jury of the 18th Festival of Cognac (April 6-9), which focuses on thrillers and crime stories. Stone was involved, through his production company Illusion Entertainment, in 1997 Cognac grand prize-winner Freeway, ...
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News
Canal Plus acquires MovieSystem
Canal Plus has acquired video-on-demand outfit MovieSystemit was announced Monday. Founded in 2000, MovieSystem is a leader in the VoDmarket and in 2001 established five-year VoD output deals with Pathe and LucBesson's Europa Corp. along with about 70 other French production companies.The catalogue now numbers roughly 1,500 titles and isaccessible ...
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News
Dutch documentaries are the toast of Nyon
Three out of four Dutch documentaries selected for the maincompetition performed well at the 10th edition of the Visions duReel international documentary festival in Nyon, Switzerland.The grand prize ofthe international jury, consisting of directors Christian Frei(Switzerland), Werner Penzel (Germany) and Nicolas Philibert (France), wasawarded to Justiça by Maria Ramos,'for her ...
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News
Silence reigns at Jeonju
South Korea'sJeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) wrapped up its fifth edition on May2, with awards going to Iranian director Babak Payami's Silence Between TwoThoughts and Cuban documentary Suite Havana.One of Korea's topfestivals along with Pusan and Puchon, the JIFF screened a total of 284 shortand feature films, with a strong ...