Small MPU – Page 660
-
News
Civilian Content expands into UK distribution
Civilian Content, parent company of film financier TheFilm Consortium and sales agent The Works, has launched a new UK distributioncompany called The Works UK Distribution.Industryveteran Mick Southworth and three of his key colleagues from the UK distributionarm of Anglo-US outfit ContentFilm have left to form The Works Distribution. Joining Southworth ...
-
News
Arnold takes Red Road with UK Film Council
The UK Film Council'sDevelopment Fund has invested in six new feature projects, including RedRoad from Oscar winning director Andrea Arnold.Arnold, who won this year'sOscar for Best Short Film with Wasp, has been awarded £10,962 for herfirst feature length project. The film is the latestcollaboration between Glasgow-based Sigma Films and Lars ...
-
News
Toronto has four world prems in black cinema focus
Wayne Beach's hot USthriller Slow Burn is among fourworld premieres announced in a batch of five pictures celebrating black cinemaadded to the line-up of the 30th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).The picture plays in thespecial presentations programme and stars Ray Liotta as a district attorney whohas one night to exculpate ...
-
News
LA's Gersh promotes ten agents to partner
As part of an ambitiousexpansion mandate, LA-based talent agency The Gersh Agency has promoted tenexecutives to partner and announced that longtime senior executive LeslieSiebert has become senior managing partner.The move precedes a periodof planned growth over the next two years that will see construction of a40,000 sq ft headquarters in ...
-
News
World premiere of Pray's graffiti doc set for RESFEST
The world premiere of DougPray's graffiti documentary Infamywill take place at RESFEST, which runs in New York City from Sept 15-18.Pray's picture chroniclesthe lives of seven people who are obsessed with graffiti in all its forms, fromvandalism and "tagging" to larger murals sanctioned by local communities."These are intenselypassionate individuals," Pray, ...
-
News
Holocaust love story revived and set to shoot in 2006
Atlantic Alliance Pictureshas changed its name to Atlantic Overseas Pictures (AOP) and has revived itslong gestating holocaust drama The Fence (formerly Love Is A Survivor), which is back on track with a European shoot scheduled for early2006.The $10m picture will shootin Hungary, Germany and the UK and is being co-produced ...
-
News
Searchlight acquires rights to life story of Notorious BIG
Fox Searchlight has acquired rights to the story about the lifeand death of Christopher Wallace, better known to millions of fans as theinfamous rapper Notorious B.I.G.Notorious B.I.G.'s mother Voletta Wallace will produce the projectalong with the late star's former music managers Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts.Antoine Fuqua is in talks ...
-
News
Helen Loveridge resigns from Seattle Film Festival
Helen Loveridge, who has served as executive director of theSeattle International Film Festival Group (SIFF) since 2003, has resigned her postto return home to England.Loveridge recently guided a successful 31st annual festivalthrough to its conclusion on Jun 12.Former board president and Platinum Lifetime member Deborah Personhas been named interim director ...
-
News
Hudson joins Wilson in Universal comedy You, Me And Dupree
Kate Hudson has signed on to star opposite Owen Wilson inUniversal Pictures' comedy You, Me And Dupree.Joe and Anthony Russo will direct from a screenplay by MikeLeSieur. The project is scheduled to begin production later this year.The story centres on a newlywed couple whose relationship hits arock when the groom's ...
-
News
LA documentary showcase points to Oscar contenders
The International Documentary Association (IDA) has named 12features in its upcoming 9th Annual Theatrical Documentary Showcase, DocuWeek(formerly InFact).The list traditionally serves as a key indicator of Academy Awardsfavourites and complies with Academy rules that Oscar submissions play ontheatrical screens for paid admissions in either Los Angeles County, Manhattanor four other ...
-
News
China blocks summer release of foreign films
No Hollywood films will bereleased in China for the next five weeks in what seems to be turning into aregular blackout on foreign films over the summer holiday box office season. It's understood that thefive-week ban officially begins today (July 20) and runs until the release ofUIP's War Of The ...
-
News
Prominent Canadian film-makers ready string of projects
Prominent Canadianfilm-makers were the key recipients of the production funds doled out byTelefilm Canada through its Canadian Feature Film Fund earlier in July.The agency received 90applications at its April deadline, 47 English and 43 French-language; ofthose, eight English-language and four French-language projects were selected.Of the twelve lucky titles, only a ...
-
News
Armstrong's Houdini feature wins crucial FFC backing
A UK/Australian co-production from director GillianArmstrong (Little Women, Charlotte Gray), a new film by the team behind2002 local comedy hit Crackerjack, and two documentary features, will gointo production as a result of decisions made today by Film Finance CorporationAustralia (FFC).Myriad Pictures is handling international sales onArmstrong's Death Defying Acts, based ...
-
News
Oz financing market SPAAmart unveils 12 projects
A mix of experienced directors and producers and unknownsare attached to the 12 projects selected for next month's financing marketSPAAmart.Actor Richard Roxburgh (Van Helsing, Moulin Rouge)is hoping to make his big screen directorial debut with Romulus, My Father.UK scriptwriter Nick Drake has adapted the memoir by academic Raymond Gaita,Robert Connolly ...
-
News
Malaysia defies global box office slump
Malaysia's box office has soared 24% in the first sixmonths of the year, bucking the worldwide trend of a double-digit slumpsuffered by most key international markets. 2005 is set to be the biggest year ever for Malaysiawith the box office expected to reach an all-time high of $61m (RM232m). In ...
-
News
HFPA donates over $1m to charities, non-profits
Brad Pitt, KevinBacon, Sally Field and Ziyi Zhang were among the celebrities acceptingcharitable donations on behalf of various non-profit organisations from theLA-based Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) yesterday at the group'sannual installation luncheon.Over $1m wasdonated to charitable causes. Pittaccepted a $250,000 cheque for the Film Foundation's film preservation andrestoration projects, ...
-
News
Atlas racks up sales
Atlas International has scored a raft of sales on teen comedy Ants In The Pants (Harte Jungs), Regina Ziegler's three latest Erotic Tales and its US sci-fi action picture Star Force. Ants, which Constantin and Propaganda are remaking in English through their joint production and distribution joint venture, has been ...
-
News
Losique wins back FIAPF accreditation for Montreal
The MontrealWorld Film Festival (MWFF) has won back its Category 1 status ahead of nextmonth's 2005 edition, following re-accreditation by the FIAPF (InternationalFederation of Film Producers Associations).The move meansMWFF is currently the only A-list competitive event in North America with FIAPFaccreditation, rejoining the likes of Cannes, Berlin, Venice and San ...
-
News
Esparza launches Latino-targeted film ouftit in US
In a two-prongedcampaign catering to the fastest growing demographic in the US, producerMoctesuma Esparza is launching a theatre chain and production/distributioncompany aimed at the continent's 41million-plus English-speaking Latinocommunity.Esparza's MayaCinemas chain will open state-of-the-art multiplexes in minority communityareas, chiefly in what a statement called "Latino-centric, family-orientedcommunities in underserved urban and rural ...
-
News
Elizabeth Taylor to receive BAFTA/LA's Britannia Award
Elizabeth Taylor willreceive BAFTA/LA's Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in InternationalEntertainment at the 2005 Britannia Awards on Nov 10 at The Beverly HiltonHotel.Over the course of a careerspanning seven decades Taylor earned five best actress Oscar nominations,winning twice for Butterfield 8and Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf'She has won a BAFTA ...