Small MPU – Page 616

  • News

    Art Port, Casablanca buy One Love from Sola Media

    2005-06-06T04:00:00Z

    Art Port hasacquired Japanese rights and Casablanca Films has acquired Brazilian rights to OneLove, a Jamaicanromantic comedy starring Bob Marley's son Ky-mani Marley, from Germany's SolaMedia and Atrix Films which are together handling the film.The film, whosesoundtrack is produced by VP Music Group, is set for a UK release on ...

  • News

    Berk voted new Hollywood Foreign Press Assoc president

    2005-06-03T00:00:00Z

    Philip Berk has been electedpresident of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) for the 2005-06 cycle,following the group's annual election meeting.Berk, who writes for FilmInkin Australia and Galaxie in Malaysia, has belonged to the HFPA for 28 years andwill serve his fifth term as president.Mahfouz Doss was electedvice president, with ...

  • News

    Death triumphs at Transylvania festival

    2005-06-05T00:00:00Z

    Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr Lazarescu won most of the prizes at Romania's leadingfilm event, the Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF), held in Cluj(May 27-June 5).Last month, the Romanian director's film won the bestfilm prize in Cannes' Un Certain Regard section.The Death of Mr Lazarescu portrays the journey of ...

  • News

    Hadida acquires remake rights to Korean horror hit

    2005-06-05T00:00:00Z

    French producer Samuel Hadida (Brotherhood Of TheWolf) has picked upEnglish-language remake rights to Korean horror film Bunshinsaba (2004) by Ahn Byeong-gi. The film, about an ostracised high school student whoinadvertently places a curse on her classmates, will be produced through DavisFilms under the English title The Spell.The deal was concluded ...

  • News

    Madagascar dethrones Sith as box office champion

    2005-06-06T00:00:00Z

    DreamWorks' animated zoofest Madagascar was the star of the domestic scene atthe weekend, passing $100m in its second weekend as it climbed two places to number one.MeanwhileThe Longest Yard, which isdistributed through Paramount in NorthAmerica, is fast approaching the mark after the same amount of time. It stayedsecond on $26.1m ...

  • News

    Madagascar rules the roost at North American box office

    2005-06-06T00:00:00Z

    DreamWorks' animated zoofest Madagascar was the star of the domestic scene atthe weekend, passing $100m in its second weekend as it climbed two places to number one.MeanwhileThe Longest Yard, which isdistributed through Paramount in NorthAmerica, is fast approaching the mark after the same amount of time. It stayedsecond on $26.1m ...

  • Reviews

    Batman Begins

    2005-06-06T00:00:00Z

    Dir:Christopher Nolan. US. 2005. 140 mins.LikeSam Raimi did with Spider-man,Christopher Nolan has gone back to the drawing board with the Batman characterin Batman Begins andemerged with an intensely dramatic, muscular action adventure picture whichshould be successful enough to kickstart the franchise for Warner Bros. Eradicatingany of the camp and tongue-in-cheek ...

  • News

    Sith continues to lord it over international box office

    2005-06-06T00:00:00Z

    Star Wars: Episode III -Revenge Of The Sith remained thedominating international force as it swept past $300m at the weekend.The picture added anestimated $36.5m for a $308.4m international cumulative total through Fox International.Combined with North America, where it reached $300m, the sci-fi saga has soldmore than $600m in tickets worldwide.Third ...

  • News

    Korean film giants merge international sales divisions

    2005-06-06T00:00:00Z

    CJEntertainment and Cinema Service, two of Korea's leading film companies, havestepped up their recent partnership with a merger of their international salesdivisions.The development will see all of the two companies'current and library titles represented by an expanded sales team operatingunder the CJ name. The merger iseffective as of June 1, ...

  • News

    UK Film Council ploughs£3m into audience initiative

    2005-06-06T00:00:00Z

    The UK Film Council is toplough £3m of National Lottery money into a new scheme designed to increase therange of cinema-going over the next three years.The UK Audience Development Scheme is intended to stimulate theviewing of specialised films in the UK. The Council is looking for applicants to run an ...

  • News

    UK box office rides into blockbuster season on a high

    2005-06-07T04:00:00Z

    Takings were down significantly in April, but the UKbox office is still riding high going into blockbuster season.Atthe end of May, year-on-year figures remained up 5% with a year to date totalbox office of $578m (£318.2m), according to Nielsen EDI figures.This is noticably down on the 13% gain the territoryboasted ...

  • News

    ...as Manderlay disappoints on debut launch

    2005-06-06T00:00:00Z

    Lars Von Trier's Manderlay launched on its hometurf over the weekend, registering a disappointing 3,686 admissions in Danishcinemas. It was the first territory to launch the Cannes competition film.The sequel to Dogville was released on 26screens, which is considered a broad release in Denmark. By comparison, SinCity launched on 32 ...

  • Reviews

    Mr And Mrs Smith

    2005-06-06T00:00:00Z

    Dir:Doug Liman. US. 2005. 120mins.Mr & Mrs Smith is a sleek, audacious mix ofromantic comedy, satire and action thriller boosted by the surging star powerof Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. And making the most of that 'Brangelina'appeal - the couple's alleged off-screen affair is currently the talk of thetabloids - ...

  • News

    McDonald and Rutter drafts in Rose to head marketing division

    2005-06-06T00:00:00Z

    UK PR agency McDonald & Rutter has appointed Philip Roseto launch a new marketing division at the company. The new division will aim to give marketing support forfilms in production, develop sales materials for films attending film-marketsand handle key aspects of UK distribution marketing campaigns. Rose joins from Fox Searchlight ...

  • News

    Copenhagen festival to focus on European film

    2005-06-07T04:00:00Z

    TheCopenhagen International Film Festival (Aug 18-28) is to concentrateexclusively on screening European films. Thefestival's new programme chief Jacob Neiiendam plans to raise the percentage ofEuropean films playing at the event from 70% to 100%."Weare narrowing the concept geographically but at the same time expect to spreadour wings genre wise. Often ...

  • News

    Hungary's IMA launches Polarlight sales arm

    2005-06-06T00:00:00Z

    Hungarian distribution and production companyInternational Media Agency Entertainment (IMA) has launched a new sales arm,Polarlight. IMA Budapest will continue the distribution ofdocumentary and television titles, while Polarlight will handle the company'sco-production activitites as well as the sales of feature films. Polarlight's current slate includes Hungarian titles suchas Karlovy Vary award-winner ...

  • News

    Hungarian distributors unveil Cannes acquisitions

    2005-06-07T04:00:00Z

    Two of Hungary'spremiere arthouse distributors acquired high profile titles at this year'sCannes Film Festival.Best Hollywoodbought rights to Wim Wenders' Don't Come Knocking and to Jim Jarmusch's BrokenFlowers. Both films are to hit the Hungarian cinemas this autumn.Meanwhile, BudapestFilm has acquired a long list of titles including Michael Haneke's Hiddenand Lars ...

  • Reviews

    The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants

    2005-06-06T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Ken Kwapis. US.2005. 119mins.Based on a wildly popular young-adult novel about fourteen girlfriends and the pair of magical blue jeans they share over the summer,The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants is a coming-of-age dramatailor-made for fans of the books, which with its sequels has sold 3.5m-pluscopies in the US. ...

  • News

    IFC Films takes Manderlay, Bier's next film for US

    2005-06-06T00:00:00Z

    IFC Films has picked up USrights to Lars von Trier's Cannes competition entry Manderlay and Susanne Bier's After The Wedding, which is currently shooting in India and Denmark.Negotiations for both titlesfrom the Danish duo were concluded with Trust Film Sales at Cannes and IFC hasscheduled 2005 releases.Manderlay, which had a ...

  • News

    Artistic License takes US rights to Bamford's Cape

    2005-06-07T00:00:00Z

    Artistic LicenseFilms has picked up US rights to Mark Bamford's festival favourite Cape Of GoodHope and plans astaggered roll-out beginning in September in New York and Los Angeles. The US-SouthAfrican co-production, which premiered at Tribeca 2004, intertwines threestories of love centering on a South African animal shelter. Debbie Brown,Eriq Ebouaney, ...