Small MPU – Page 706

  • News

    BVI partners with MegaStar for Vietnam distribution

    2006-05-03T04:00:00Z

    Buena Vista International (BVI) has formed a partnership withMegaStar Joint Venture Company to distribute pictures in Vietnam.MegaStar is a joint venture between Envoy Media Partners headed byTed Shugrue and Phuong Nam Corporation, and has offices in Hanoi and Ho ChiMinh City.The joint venture will be run in Vietnam by Lim ...

  • News

    American Pavilion goes green with Paramount, Participant in Cannes

    2006-05-02T00:00:00Z

    The American Pavilion in Cannes and Paramount's specialty divisionare teaming up to raise awareness over global warming.The initiative ties in neatly with the out of competitionscreening of Davis Guggenheim's global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which Paramount's specialty divisionwill release in the US on May 26.The partners will use biodegradable ...

  • News

    Mark Gill is out at Warner Independent Pictures

    2006-05-03T00:00:00Z

    Ina surprise announcement released last night (Tuesday), Warner Bros Picturesannounced that Mark Gill is leaving his post as president of Warner IndependentPictures (WIP). Gillwill enter into a production deal with the studio effective May 4, said JeffRobinov, president of Warner Bros Pictures, in the statement.Themovie is surprising only in that ...

  • News

    Beta Cinema to handle sales on Falorni feature debut

    2006-05-03T10:45:00Z

    Beta Cinema hastaken on international sales on Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Luigi Falorni's fiction feature debut Heart Of Fire based on SenaitMehari's international bestseller of the same name.Published in2004 as Feuerherz,Mehari's memoirs recount how she was given away byher despotic father to the Eritrean Liberation Front to become a child soldierat ...

  • News

    Italian distributor pioneers straight-to-newsstand distribution

    2006-05-03T11:32:00Z

    AnItalian distributor is launching today an alternative distribution model forAlex Infascelli's new thriller, H2Odio, which will be released straight-to-DVD and soldwith national daily La Repubblica.Releasedby 52, the distribution company set up by Infascelli,Claudio Mieli and the Espresso publishing group, H2Odio will be available for two monthsin newspaper kiosks across Italy ...

  • News

    Thai exhibitor says political chaos is bad for business

    2006-05-03T12:10:00Z

    Thailand's largest exhibitor Major Cineplex kickedoff the official opening of its latest 16-screen multiplex at upscale SiamParagon shopping centre with the premiere of Mission Impossible III - amid political and business uncertainty."The political chaostogether with high oil prices has been creating a big negative impact on thegroup's business,' says Kittsanan ...

  • News

    FFC Australia backs diverse slate of new projects

    2006-05-03T12:33:00Z

    Film Finance Corporation Australia has provisionallypromised funding to three features, including writer-director Christina Andreef's adaptation of the novel Shiver, one of 18 projects in Cannes' scriptdevelopment program L'Atelier.The other two dramas are Two Fists One Heart, to be directed by NewYork-based Australian John Polson (Swimfan, Hide and Seek),and the German-Australian-Chinese ...

  • News

    Bille August starts South African shoot for Goodbye Bafana

    2006-05-03T14:14:00Z

    Production has started in South Africa on Bille August's NelsonMandela project Goodbye Bafana, with Dennis Haysbertof TV's 24 playing the former South African premier and Joseph Fiennes as hisprison guard for almost 20 years, James Gregory.Diane Kruger also stars asJames' wife, Gloria, in the Banana Films/ArsamInternational production adapted for the ...

  • News

    High Point adds four films to Cannes slate

    2006-05-03T14:21:00Z

    High Point Films hasadded four features to its sales slate ahead of Cannes. The London-based film and TV sales and production companyhas picked up world rights to Zoo RangersIn India, Hell in Tangier,Under The Ice, and Doomstown.Zoo Rangers in India, in post-production, is the sequel to teenage adventurefilm Zoo Rangers ...

  • News

    Star Wars, staff cuts boost Kinematografer profits

    2000-06-16T13:05:00Z

    Norwegian exhibitor Oslo Kinematografer, owned by Oslo City Council, has posted a pre-tax profit of $696,000 (NKr6m) on turnover of $21.5m (NKr185m) for the 12 months to December 1999.The result is significant improvement for the company which for the last two years has reported profits close to zero. Head of ...

  • News

    Swipe takes worldwide sales on thriller Flourish

    2006-05-04T04:00:00Z

    London-basedSwipe Films has picked up worldwide sales rights on Flourish, a feature that will have its debut at the Cannes Market. Thethriller stars Jennifer Morrison as a babysitter who helps investigate a younggirl's mysterious disappearance. Morrison,who stars on TV's House, alsoproduced the film. The cast also features her House co-star ...

  • News

    Rezo Films takes on sales for Uro

    2006-05-03T15:37:00Z

    Heading into Cannes, France'sRezo Films International has boarded Un CertainRegard title Uro by Norway'sStefan Faldbakken.The film is a thriller about a member of an elitepolice unit who works undercover to expose a criminal drug network and ends uptorn between following the law and straying to the dark side.Urois Faldbakken's first ...

  • News

    Cannes Classics to present restored Platoon

    2006-05-03T16:40:00Z

    The Cannes Film Festival has announced the lineup for this year'sedition of Cannes Classics. The initiative is a specially programmed sectionwhich screens new and restored copies of old films.Special invitees include Oliver Stone for a screening of a restoredversion of Platoon and 20 minutes of his forthcoming film World TradeCenter. ...

  • News

    Pathe and Vertigo set to start Nick Love's Outlaw

    2006-05-04T04:00:00Z

    Pathe Productions and Vertigo Films are planning a May 12start date for Nick Love's Outlaw.Sean Bean, Danny Dyer,Rupert Friend, Lennie James, Sean Harris and BobHoskins star in five interwoven stories about victims of crime taking law intotheir own hands. The feature will shoot inthe Southwest of England and London. Vertigo's ...

  • News

    Pope joins UK's NPA as CEO

    2006-05-03T00:00:00Z

    The UK's New Producers Alliance (NPA) has named David Popeas its new CEO. Pope had been director of education at New York Film Academy UK.He also directed the shortfilm Skulls, Angels Mom and Dad andfeature film Miles FromNowhere. Pope is also an associatetutor for the British Film Institute and is ...

  • Reviews

    The TV Set

    2006-05-03T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Jake Kasdan. US. 2006. 87mins.One of the early highlights of the Tribeca Film Festival, Jake Kasdan'sThe TV Set is a short, sharpinsider's view of US network television. Boasting a fine cast led by David Duchovny and Sigourney Weaver, the latter giving a tastyturn as the atrociously manipulative network president, ...

  • Reviews

    Mission: Impossible III

    2006-05-03T00:00:00Z

    Dir: JJ Abrams. US. 2005. 125mins.The Mission:Impossible franchise comes full circle and returns to its TV origins withthe frenetic third film directed by small-screen icon JJ Abrams,whose series like Lost and Alias have resuscitated longform drama on the US networks. Like a souped-up $150m episode of Alias, the film is ...

  • Reviews

    Confetti

    2006-05-04T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Debbie Isitt. UK.2006. 100mins.A good-natured but uneven farce, Debbie Isitt's Confettipokes fun at the marriage industry, using a mockumentarystructure borrowed from Christopher Guest's BestIn Show - but with engaged couples instead of dogsin the limelight. Meanwhile, the deadpan humour and low-key acting style aredistinctively British, with a cast that ...

  • News

    Hungarian distributor signs for Freedom's Fury

    2006-05-03T00:00:00Z

    BestHollywood has acquired distribution rights in Hungary to English-languagedocumentary Freedom's Fury, which had its world premiere last week at theTribeca Film Festival.Thefilm, which looks at the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the politicized waterpolo match between Hungary and the USSR at that year's Melbourne Olympics,will be released in Hungary on ...

  • News

    Pinefilm taps Sorby to head up acquisitions

    2000-06-16T13:07:00Z

    Australian distributor Pinefilm Entertainment has appointed Nicole Sorby as head of acquisitions replacing Peter Downer who left the company last week following a breakdown in relations with owner and managing director Sean Rothsey.Rothsey was formerly a financial backer of The Globe Film Co, when Downer was one of three partners ...