Small MPU – Page 685

  • Features

    Thailand - Whirlwind Affair in Bangkok

    2007-06-01T00:00:00Z

    After two high-profile international co-productions, Invisible Waves and Last Life In The Universe, Pen-ek Ratanaruang has returned to his Thai roots with the $2m Ploy, a riff on The Seven Year Itch. The film played in Directors' Fortnight at Cannes, where critics described it as dark, erotic and funny.Ploy follows ...

  • Features

    Industry moves

    2007-06-01T00:00:00Z

    CONI TAKES HELM AT 01Adriano Coni has been named the new president of Italy's 01 Distribution, the distribution arm of RAI Cinema. Coni previously acted as chief of both RAI Cinema's marketing and human resources divisions.MEDIA 8 INTERNATIONAL ROLE FOR ANISIThe US's Media 8 Entertainment has hired Tannaz Anisi as ...

  • News

    DVD: specialty forces

    2007-06-01T00:00:00Z

    The specialty DVD market has thrived in recent years. But with the market under pressure Denis Seguin looks at how niche distributors are making their product stand out. Consider the sophisticated bachelor pad circa 2003, art-dressed to impress a visitor: on the coffee table, an issue of The New Yorker ...

  • News

    High-end DVD distributors

    2007-06-01T00:00:00Z

    Denis Seguin looks at a selection of company players in the high-end DVD sector. Click on bolded compnay name for more information.Artficial EyeUK-based Artificial Eye, along with its Curzon Cinemas circuit, is a stalwart of the art cinema scene. Its video division has kept pace with a vast catalogue of ...

  • Features

    Distribution - A shorts story about talent

    2007-06-01T00:00:00Z

    Ask any new film-maker why they made a short and they will likely say they wanted to tell a story and to explore their craft. But it is also true shorts act as a commercial for a film-maker's talent - and in the age of YouTube, getting a calling card ...

  • News

    Wanted: new horizons

    2007-06-01T00:00:00Z

    The film industry cannot base its hopes for expanding audiences on a diet of recycled ideas, says Leonard Klady. One of the most oft-heard industry phrases contends that 'it's a product-driven marketplace'. The simple implication being that good movies will bring more people into the multiplex.As with most truisms, it ...

  • News

    Beginning of the End's run

    2007-06-01T00:00:00Z

    Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End made Spider-Man 3 walk the plank this weekend. BVI's third instalment of the franchise knocked Sony's web-slinger off the top spot as it raked in a whopping $216.3m from 102 territories in its first weekend, for a total of $251m to date. Spider-Man ...

  • News

    eQuinoxe sets up home in Evian and selects 8 projects

    2007-05-31T15:51:00Z

    The 29th eQuinoxe screenwriting workshop will run June 3-9 in Evian, France. After years of a nomadic existence, this marks the beginning of a partnership with the town of Evian. eQuinoxe president Noelle Deschamps says the aim is that the workshop will now be based in Evian for the foreseeable ...

  • News

    UK producers group Pact appoints four new key personnel

    2007-05-31T15:58:00Z

    UK producers body Pact has announced the appointments of four new staff members. Joining June 4 are Dawn Simpson and Matthew Basham, who have been named director and deputy director, respectively, of Out Of London. That new department will be based both in London and Wales . Simpson previously worked ...

  • News

    Artificial Eye buys four more from Cannes, including The Banishment

    2007-05-31T16:35:00Z

    UK distributor Artifical Eye has announced four more acquisitions from Cannes. They are Andrei Zvyagintsev’s The Banishment, Fatih Akin’s The Edge Of Heaven, Alexander Sokurov’s Alexandra, and Bela Tarr’s The Man From London.The Banishment (Izgnanie) stars Konstantin Lavronenko, who won the best actor prize in Cannes.Fatih Akin won the best ...

  • News

    Joel Silver keen to bring future projects to Babelsberg

    2007-05-31T17:38:00Z

    Producer Joel Silver is already looking at ways of bringing future projects to Germany's Babelsberg Studios even before the first scenes are shot for Larry and Andy Wachowski's action film Speed Racer Speed Racer starts its four-month shoot Monday with a cast headed by Emile Hirsch, Susan Sarandon, Christina Ricci, ...

  • News

    The Hospital goes digital with Kodak JMN3000

    2007-05-31T17:46:00Z

    London private members club and screening venue The Hospital has installed a Kodak JMN3000 digital projector in its 30-screen cinema. The DCI -compliant unit can handle JPEG and MPEG-compressed files, including 3D MPEG, and is the first player to include Kodak Image Science. David Marrinan-Hayes, marketing communications manager for The ...

  • News

    Rozema rolls on HBO/Picturehouse's Kit Kittredge

    2007-05-31T23:43:00Z

    Patricia Rozema has commenced principal photography on Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery for HBO Films and Picturehouse. The long-awaited return to features for Toronto-based Rozema features Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin in the title role. The screenplay is by Ann Peacock, who wrote The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, ...

  • News

    Magnolia and Red Envelope take domestic rights to Ferguson doc

    2007-06-01T00:53:00Z

    Magnolia Pictures and Red Envelope Entertainment have acquired all North American rights to Charles Ferguson's No End In Sight, Documentary Jury Prize winner at this year's Sundance Festival. The film, which looks at the decision-making process behind the occupation of Iraq, was written and directed by Ferguson and executive produced ...

  • News

    Film Sales gets Cannes deals on Crazy Love

    2007-06-01T00:56:00Z

    The Film Sales Company has announced theatrical rights sales of documentary Crazy Love to Tartan Films for the UK, Palace Films for Australia and Shani Films for Israel. All three distributors plan an early autumn release for the film, which is directed by Dan Klores and co-directed by Fisher ...

  • News

    Pirates faces scattered competition in second weekend

    2007-06-01T02:45:00Z

    International weekend preview: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End opens in just one new territory for its second weekend, but with little new competition arriving in the international marketplace the Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer sequel is assured of another round of impressive grosses. Distributor Buena Vista International (BVI), which opened ...

  • News

    Warner Bros brings forward Potter opening in US

    2007-06-01T06:35:00Z

    Warner Bros has brought the US opening of Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix forward from Friday, July 13 to Wednesday, July 11. The domestic launch now coincides with the film's first major-territory international opening, in France. The extra days will also help boost the film's opening ...

  • News

    Meyer promoted to new Disney global publicity role

    2007-06-01T06:40:00Z

    In a reorganisation of Disney's global publicity operation, Teri Meyer has been promoted to the newly-created position of executive vice president of worldwide publicity for Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Marketing. Meyer will be responsible for formulating and executing worldwide publicity campaigns for all live-action and animated motion pictures ...

  • News

    Fox sells Mexican studio to investors' group

    2007-06-01T06:46:00Z

    Twentieth Century Fox has sold the Mexican studio used to shoot parts of Titanic and Tomorrow Never Dies to a group of private investors. The 46-acre Baja Studios near Rosarito, about 150 miles south of Los Angeles, was built in 1996. Its huge water tanks housed a replica of ...

  • News

    US-based web service signs multi-picture Bollywood deal

    2007-06-01T06:49:00Z

    Jaman.com, the California-based online community for world cinema, has signed a 30-film distribution deal with India's National Film Development Corporation (NFDC). Under the agreement, the films of some of India's most acclaimed directors will be available for download for the first time, said Jaman. The films will be delivered in ...