Small MPU – Page 676
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Warp Films kicks off low-budget arm Warp X
UK production company WarpFilms has opened its new low-budget division Warp X, part of the new low-budgetfilm scheme started by the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund and FilmFour, with funding from regional screen agencies EMMedia and Screen Yorkshire, and support from distributor Optimum Releasing.(Michael Kuhn's Qwerty Films is also ...
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James Hewison to head up the Australian Film Institute
James Hewison will move on to be chiefexecutive of the Australian Film Institute (AFI) in August once he wraps hisfifth Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). He will be the third AFI chief in just over a year and replaces GeoffreyWilliams who left in January despite revitalising the 2005 AFI Awards ...
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Sandrew Metronome picks up rights to Goodbye Bafana
Sandrew Metronome has bought the rights and closed the deal, which coversall the Nordic countries Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland, with the film's co-producer Ilann Girard and his company ArsamGoodbyeBafana written by James Gregory and Bob Graham tells the true story of awhite South African racist whose life was ...
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Arctic saga to break the ice at Toronto festival
The Journals Of Knud Rasmussen, Zacharias Kunuk's and Norman Cohn's follow-up to 2001 Camerad'Or-winning sensation Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, will have its world premiere at the TorontoInternational Film Festival, as its opening night gala on September 7. Set in the Canadian Arctic in 1922 against the backdrop ofan expedition of ...
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Anderson, Fraser, Levy, Goulet inducted into Canada's Walk Of Fame
Four Canada-born screenstars, Pamela Anderson, Brendan Fraser, Eugene Levy and Robert Goulet are amongthe 2006 inductees to Canada's Walk of Fame, a celebration of Canadiancontributions to the world of music, arts and entertainment. The ceremony, which includesa star-shaped dedication and the casting of the recipients' impressions inconcrete, will take place ...
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Familia wins Claude Jutra Award, C.R.A.Z.Y. gets Golden Reel in Canada
LouiseArchambault's Famillahas been named the winner of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television'sannual Claude Jutra Award for first-time filmmakers. The prize,sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada, will be presented at the 26thGenie Awards held on March 13 in Toronto. Written by Archambault and producedby Luc Dery, Familiais ...
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MGM unveils revitalised domestic distribution operation
MGMhas confirmed its return to the North American theatrical distribution businessand unveiled an initial slate of 14 films from independent production companiesfor domestic release over the next year.Includedin the slate are Lucky Number Slevin, Clerks II and several other titles from The Weinstein Company;Mirage Enterprises' Breaking And Entering, directed by ...
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UPC in talks to acquire major stake in Noos
Dutch cable giant United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC) confirmed that it is in the running to buy a major stake in Noos, the French cable network operated by the Suez-Lyonnaise combine. UPC's bid was explained by chairman Mark Schneider at a press meeting in Amsterdam on Friday: "We are interested in ...
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Universal promotes four key publicity strategists
UniversalPictures has promoted four key publicity strategists, with Los Angeles-basedAlissa Grayson and New York's Amy Thomases rising from vice president to seniorvice president, and Teresa Johnson and Amanda Scholer in Los Angeles jumpingfrom director to vice president.Grayson, Johnsonand Scholer will head up the three national publicity departments whileThomases will oversee ...
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Papandrea moves to LA to head London's Groundswell Productions
Bruna Papandrea has joinedMichael London's new financing company Groundswell Productions as president.Papandrea (pictured) moves to LosAngeles from New York City where she was previously at GreeneStreet Films; shepreviously worked in London as a creative executive for Anthony Minghella andSydney Pollack in their Mirage Enterprises.The Australian-born Papandreawill oversee creative operations for ...
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Weisbein's Green Room strikes sales deal on Orchestra Seats
Pierre Weisbeinand his LA-based company Green Room has struck a deal with producer ChristineGozlan and financier StudioCanal to handle all English- and Italian-speakingrights of Daniele Thompson's French hit Orchestra Seats (Fauteuils d'Orchestre) which has scored over one millionadmissions in France in its first two weeks of release.The film,released in France ...
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Bafta elevates video games industry on par with TV and film
The British Academy of Film andTelevision Arts (Bafta) has boosted its recognitionof the video games industry. Bafta has now made videogames equal to film and television, and will put increased emphasis on theBritish Academy Video Games Awards. The gamesawards will move to October 2006 to coincide with the London Games ...
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Director Samantha Lang's project accepted into Aurora
Director Samantha Lang'sfourth feature may well be The RosevilleStory, following its acceptance into Aurora, a high-profile script hothouse run by the NewSouth Wales Film and Television Office (FTO). Lang made Cannes competition title The Well and the Monkey's Mask in Australia, and The Idolin France. Her actor/director husbandJeremy Sims is ...
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Lionsgate UK acquires Richard E. Grant's Wah-Wah
Lionsgate UKhas acquired Richard E. Grant's Wah-Wah for UKdistribution. Grant, who has acted in films including Withnail & I and Gosford Park, made hisdirectorial debut with the drama, a semi-autobiographical portrait of hischildhood in Swaziland.Gabriel Byrne, Emily Watson, Julie Walters, Nicholas Hoult,and Miranda Richardson star. "We are thrilled to be ...
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Channel 4 wins UK bidding war for Fox films
Channel 4 has won a bidding war to secure a five year moviesupply deal with USstudio 20th Century Fox, understood to be worth as much as $260m (£150m).The deal gives C4 immediate access to the extensive Fox backcatalogue of over 1,500 films and upcoming slate of big budget theatricalreleases.Titles include ...
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Sandino Moreno signs on to Cuadri's new feature
Oscar-nominated Colombian actress Catalina Sandino Morenohas signed on to the cast of $14.3m (Euros 12m) Spanish-UK-Portugalco-production The Heart Of The Earth,shooting from March 31.Sandino Moreno, who earned anOscar nomination and Berlin'sSilver Bear for her feature film debut in 2004's Maria Full Of Grace (Maria LlenaEres De Gracia), starsin the true ...
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Vienna Film Fund puts $1.6m into 10 projects
New featurefilms by Antonin Svoboda, Michael Glawogger,and Rupert Henning are among 10 projects awarded over $1.6m (Euros 1.4m) bythe Vienna Film Fund.The largestamount $542,609 (Euros 455,000) went to first-time director Rupert Henning'sadaptation of the satirical play Friendship(Freundschaft) which will be produced by Danny Krausz and Kurt Stocker's DOR-Film with Henning ...
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Prosperous IMAX goes back on the block
IMAX Corporation, thepioneer of large-format filmmaking and exhibition, has announced it isexploring "strategic alternatives" that include a possible sale or merger. Thecompany has retained Allen & Company and UBS Investment Bank as itsfinancial advisors in the strategy. The announcement coincides with the company's2005 financial results.It's not the first time IMAXhas ...
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UPC turns attention to video-on-demand
Dutch cable giant United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC) is positioning itself to become a major supplier of content to third generation mobile phone operators and as a video-on-demand (VoD) wholesaler. Although the group is expanding from cable into telephony and wireless communications, UPC chairman Mark Schneider said that cost factors mean ...
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Focus to back Euro projects from McDonagh and Barra
Focus Features has boardedtwo new European productions - Belgium-set hitman drama In Bruges directed by this year's live action short Oscarwinner Martin McDonagh, and an adaptation of the bestselling World War II novelNaples '44: A World War II Diary Of Occupied Italy by Norman Lewis.In Bruges is being produced by ...