Small MPU – Page 738
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Reviews
Infection/Premonition (Kansen/Yogen)
Infection Dir: MasayukiOchiai. Jap. 2004. 98mins.PremonitionDir: Norio Tsuruta. Jap. 2004. 95 mins.In January 1998 twohorror films, both based on novels by Koji Suzuki, were released as a doublebill in Japan. The Ring (in Japanese: Ringu) and The Spiral (Rasen)became hits: the former especially launched the worldwide "J Horror" boom and ...
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News
AUSTRALIA 18 October
It is highly unusual to see the first three spots in the top20 chart occupied by openers but that is exactly what happened on the four-dayweekend to October 17. And there were no other new faces in the chart.Leading the charge was the Collateral, starring Australia's one-time adopted son Tom ...
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News
NEW ZEALAND 18 October
Homegrown film In MyFather's Den sold less tickets than the previous weekend but still managedto jump up from third to second spot in the chart. It took NZ$152,273 from 22screens, or 17.6% less than the previous NZ$184,793, but this was the lowestdrop shown by any film in the chart.At the ...
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Reviews
Cafe Lumiere (Kohi Jikou)
Dir:Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Japan. 2004. 92mins.One of the most consistently interesting of Far Easternarthouse directors, Hou Hsiao-Hsien has a dedicated following on the festivalcircuit and a tiny film-buff fanbase in the real world. It's telling that not asingle Region 2 DVD of any of the Taiwanese director's films is currentlyavailable on ...
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News
9 Songs clears UK and Irish censors uncut
UK censorthe BBFC has passed Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs uncut and has awardedit an '18' certificate for cinema release.Meanwhile, sources in the Irish distribution trade havetold ScreenDaily.com that the Irish Film Censor, John Kelleher, has alsopassed 9 Songs uncut and given it an '18' certificate.The film,which includes images of explicit, ...
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News
Netflix postpones foreign expansion plans
Online DVD rental pioneerNetflix has postponed plans to launch in the UK and Canada to concentrateinstead on its US business.The move comes as Netflixfaces increasing competition on its home turf from Blockbuster's new onlinerental service and from the expected entry of Amazon.com into renting DVDs bymail.It is understood thatNetflix had ...
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News
Downtown seals DVD output deal with MGM
Downtown Pictures, the UK distributor of Spike Lee's Summer Of Sam and Bill Condon's Gods And Monsters, has signed an exclusive output deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for DVD and video sell-through titles in the UK.The deal also requires Downtown to identify and acquire product for MGM in the UK. The ...
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News
SWEDEN 18 October
Though catering to younger audiences and offering completelydifferent thrills, the new release of teenage horror flic Drowning Ghost from hitmaker Mikael Haafstroem (Evil) failed to usurp As In Heaven from the top of the Swedishchart.Instead it was last week's other local release, family film Max & Josef - Double Trouble, ...
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Tanovic embarks on shoot of Hell
Oscarwinner Danis Tanovic will start shooting next week his latest film, Hell,which was written by Krzysztof Piesiewicz for the late Krzysztof Kieslowski aspart of his Heaven-Hell-Purgatory trilogy.The No Man's Land director begins the film'seight-week shoot in Paris on October 25. Hell focuses on three sisters whosechildhoods were marked by a ...
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News
Fahrenheit to hit TV screens in Germany, Spain
Michael Moore's Fahrenheit9/11 is to play on television in Germany and Spain in the next ten days,just before the US presidential elections.The move comes asMoore struggles to find a US broadcaster to play his film ahead of theelection.Cable broadcaster In Demand had planned to carry TheMichael Moore Pre-Election Special on ...
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News
Germany mulls sale and leaseback scheme
Germany's State Minister for Culture and MediaChristina Weiss has called for the introduction of a tax incentive system onthe lines of the British sale and leaseback model.Speaking to the German weekly magazine DerSpiegel, Weiss criticised the current situation where the US film industryhad been the prime beneficiary of the country's ...
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News
Archbishop wins Eurimages funding
Zoltan Kamondi's TheArchbishop's Visit has received Euros 430,000 in funding from support bodyEurimages.The film is a Hungarian, Italian andRomanian co-production between Honeymood Films/Focus Film, Gam Film and MediaPro Pictures. Its full budget runs to $4.4m.Set construction is already underway inRomania with principal photography scheduled to start in November and tocontinue ...
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News
Curtis, Morgernstern set for Holocaust tale
Hollywood legendTony Curtis and Maia Morgenstern are to star in Atlantic Alliance Pictures andHeritage Pictures' Holocaust story Love Is A Survivor.Directed by byPhilip Saville, production is set to begin February 15, 2005 in Budapest,Hungary.Love Is ASurvivor is billed as amajor holocaust film with a love story as its central theme. ...
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News
Sheffield Documentary fest to open with Tiger King
TheSheffield International Documentary Festival (Nov 8 -14) is to open with DavidFlamholc's House Of The Tiger King.Thedocumentary follows explorer Tahir Shah and a group of mismatched companions asthey search for Paititi, the Inca's lost city of gold.Otherfilms in the festivals 75 strong line-up include Darwin's Nightmare,which investigates the link between ...
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News
Shochiku launches animation division
Shochiku, a major Japanesefilm company with interests in production, distribution and exhibition, hasannounced the launch of a new division to produce animated features and TVshows.Headed by General Manager ofFilmed Entertainment Ichiro Seki, the division plans to release its firstfeature in 2005. Director, budget and story have yet to be announced. ...
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News
O'Donnell readies Noir as Dancing follow-up
Damien O'Donnell is readyingthe tentatively-titled Noir as his next project after Working TitleFilms' Inside I'm Dancing, which opened this week through MomentumPictures.O'Donnell is to startshooting next year on the quirky, dark romantic comedy for producer DavidParfitt, whose credits include Shakespeare In Love, and his TrademarkFilms.Inside I'm Dancing opened with a ...
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Kirk Douglas to receive lifetime honour at Palm Springs
Kirk Douglaswill receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 16th Annual Palm SpringsInternational Film Festival on Jan 8 2005."Mr Douglas'unparalleled body of work has entertained audiences throughout the ages, andthat will continue to stand the test of time on every level," festival chairmanEarl Greenburg said over the weekend at a ...
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News
Rudolph stands down as FilmFour deputy CEO
Mark Rudolph is stepping down as deputy chief executive officer of the UK's FilmFour, the company confirmed.FilmFour expects to confirm a replacement for Rudolph by Cannes next month. In unrelated moves, Carl Clifton, formerly at Universal Pictures International in London, will replace FilmFour's sales chief Sue Bruce-Smith during Cannes. Bruce-Smith ...
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Fox's I, Robot top in Japan for fifth weekend
Fox International's sci-fi thriller I, Robot continued its mighty rampage through Japan at theweekend, remaining number one for the fifth weekend in a row and adding anestimated $1.3m on 359 screens for a $29m running total.Overall thepicture added $1.6m on 616 international screens to raise the internationalcumulative score to $187.3m.2046, ...
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Besson commits to $78m Arthur
Luc Besson will mark a return to directing with the 3-D animatedfilm, Arthur, which is now in production. Representing the biggestinvestment yet for Besson and Pierre-Ange Le Pogam's four year-old EuropaCorp, Arthurhas a budget similar in scale to Shrek and is currently pegged at $78m(Euros65m). It will be ready for ...