Small MPU – Page 626
-
News
Motorcycle Diaries keeps on cranking in Italy
Amidall the fervour over Michael Moore's documentary sensation Fahrenheit 9/11, there has been another modestly budgetedindependent film quietly showing box office promise in the face of stiffcompetition from the onslaught of big budget Hollywood blockbusters. Only thisparticular sleeper happens to have been made in the Spanish language.WalterSalles' The Motorcycle Diaries,which ...
-
News
Fahrenheit 9/11 heats up France
Frenchsales house Wild Bunch has announced that Fahrenheit 9/11 landed in 5th place for opening day scores so farthis year when the film debuted on Wednesday in France.MarsDistribution, which is handling the release, sent the film out on 28 prints inParis and noted that the first screening at 2:00pm welcomed ...
-
News
Nair launches Sundance Institute of the East
Film-maker Mira Nair haslaunched a film-maker laboratory dedicated to developing and supportingvisionary screenwriters and directors from East Africa and South Asia. CalledMAISHA, the initiative is based on the Sundance Institute model.The first annual MAISHA labwill focus on screenwriting and is scheduled to take place in Aug 2005 inKampala, Uganda. From ...
-
News
New NYC film festival launched for young women film-makers
A new film festival wasunveiled in New York City yesterday for young, emerging female film-makersbetween the ages of 16 and 25. Entitled Reel Girls Filmmakers On The Verge,the festival will run Nov 4 to 6.Organised by artsorganization Gen Art and teen magazine YM, the event will feature three seriesof ...
-
News
Day After Tomorrow sweeps past $500m for Fox
The Day After Tomorrow, 20th Century Fox's eco-disaster epicdirected by Roland Emmerich, has passed the $500m mark at the worldwide boxoffice after six weeks on release.As of Tuesday July 6, thefilm's domestic gross was $177.28 and its international gross was $322.84m,bringing its wordwide total to $500.12m.The film opened with 108number ...
-
News
Babelsberg management tipped to takeover studios
Studio Hamburg has dropped out of the bidding for the Babelsberg film studios, leaving the management buy-out team led by Studio Babelsberg Motion Pictures boss Thierry Potok as the most likely winner.Speaking to the Berlin daily newspaper Berliner Morgenpost, Studio Hamburg chief Martin Willich explained that he "didn't see any ...
-
News
German media funds look to local production
Germany's private media funds are showing increasinginterest in backing local feature production and dispelling the belief that theprivate equity they raise flows only as 'stupid German money' intoHollywood productions.As part of a move to work more closely on local features,Munich-based fund VIP Group has begun collaborating with the German DirectorsGuild ...
-
News
Distributors eye magazine DVD goldmine
Distributors can significantly boost their revenues byallowing publishers to offer 'free' copies of DVDs in magazines, Screen's DVD:The Home Cinema Summit heard yesterday.Farfrom destroying a film's library value, giving away copies of a DVD in magazinecan also significantly boost sales in the months following the promotion.In Germany, magazines that offer ...
-
News
UPI president calls for DVD discipline
"The DVD successstory is really just beginning, but we are goingto have to be very intelligent about how we manage this story," said PeteSmith, president of Universal Pictures International, giving the keynoteaddress at Screen International's DVD: The Home Cinema Summit in Londonyesterday (July 8).Smith's speech, TheFuture Of Digital Entertainment: Consumers, ...
-
News
Industry weighs up DVD pricing dilemma
The DVD release of Finding Nemo earlier this year hassparked a pricing revolution in France, said Jean-Paul Commins, chief operatingofficer of independent distributor France Televisions Distribution (FTD), atScreen's DVD: The Home Cinema Summit in London on Thursday.Apanel comprising Commins, Jan Rickers, head of marketing for Germany's Kinowelt Home Entertainment, and ...
-
News
Supermarkets and specialists set to dominate DVD
A polarisation isthreatening to disrupt the UK DVD and video sector, according Alison Casey,head of content division at market researchers Understanding & Solutions.Speaking at ScreenInternational's DVD: The Home Cinema Summit, Casey warned that the UK'shigh street and internet retail and rental business faces a shake-up in whichthe middle ground could ...
-
News
Gilliam, Winterbottom get benefit of Foresight
Terry Gilliam and MichaelWinterbottom's next productions are amongst the debut slate of titles to securea quarter of their budgets from start-up UK tax-based fund Foresight.Foresight has now raised£5m, meaning it is past its minimum subscription and halfway to its overalltarget. The fund has earmarked Gilliam's previously announced Tideland, which is ...
-
News
Isabelle Adjani to get special tribute at Montreal
French actress IsabelleAdjani will be the guest of honour and focus of a five-film retrospective atthe 2004 Montreal World Film Festival (MWFF). MWFF will present her with itsSpecial Grand Prix des Ameriques at a tribute evening on Friday 27 August. Thefestival runs from August 26 to September 6.The five films ...
-
News
du Toit named programming director at Palm Springs shorts fest
Helen du Toit has been nameddirector of short film programming at the tenth Palm Springs InternationalFestival of Short Films, which is scheduled to run from Aug 31-Sept 6.Du Toit was oneof the programmers for the 2004 Palm Springs International Film Festival andhas worked for film festivals including Seattle and Toronto ...
-
News
Spider-Man 2 to get IMAX treatment
IMAX andColumbia Pictures have struck a deal whereby Spider-Man 2 will be digitally remastered for releaseon IMAX screens around the world beginning Jul 23."When you have amovie like Spider-Man 2,it makes sense to offer audiences an opportunity to experience the film in thisincredible format," Jeff Blake, vice chairman of Sony ...
-
News
Empire launches US video arm with 9/11 shorts
Arthouse distributor Empire Pictures is set to launchvideo arm Empire Pictures Home Entertainment this autumn with September 11(11'09"01), the composite work featuringthe responses of 11 film-makers to 9/11.The divisionwill be headed up by executive vice president and industry veteran StevePennie, who most recently served as director of national accounts for ...
-
News
Global Film Initiative takes US rights to Whisky
US-basedcharitable trust the Global Film Initiative has picked up Juan Pablo Rebellaand Pablo Stoll's Cannes award-winning drama Whisky for its Global Lens touring filmsseries.The Initiative is also partnering up with the Museum ofModern Art for the New York premiere, which is expected some time in Decemberas part of MoMA's 10-week ...
-
News
Spider-Man 2 prepares for second wave attack
Barely one week into release, Sony's Spider-Man 2 has already spun such a solid international platformthat a raft of second wave releases in several major markets and strongholdovers elsewhere could take it past $100m this weekend.The comic book sequel has amassed $60.5m to date and was dueto open in Germany ...
-
Reviews
Stage Beauty
Dir:Richard Eyre. US-UK. 2004. 106minsLikeits cross-dressing hero Ned Kynaston (who makes his name playing female partson stage), Stage Beauty isn't entirely sure of its own identity. On theone hand, this is a bawdy and colourful Restoration-era romp, stuffed full ofpuns and sexual innuendo and propelled by some tremendous character turns. ...
-
News
ITALY 9 July
Columbia Tristar's crime caper The Punisher opened at number one in Italy last weekend, knockingoff Warner Bros's Harry Potter and ThePrisoner of Azkaban after five weeks of box office glory.The weekend's only other new release, Simon Cellan Jones's The One And Only, opened on 44 prints atnumber 14, grossing a ...