Small MPU – Page 774

  • News

    Galway festival confirms world premiere for Jordan's Intermission

    2003-06-27T04:05:00Z

    Intermission, the second title from Neil Jordan and Steve Woolley's Company of Wolves production outfit is to have its world premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh on July 11. It's addition was welcomed by Fleadh programme director Sally Anne O'Reilly, "This is the kind of high octane, edgy drama that ...

  • News

    Icon takes on sales of Artisan/Tribeca's Stage Beauty

    2003-06-27T04:05:00Z

    Shooting starts today in London and at Shepperton Studios on Compleat Female Stage Beauty, an adaptation of Jeffrey Hatcher's play directed by Richard Eyre. Icon Entertainment International has come on board the picture to handle international sales; Artisan Entertainment is the domestic distributor.The film is set in the 1660s and ...

  • News

    Calendar Girls set for US Christmas date

    2003-06-27T04:05:00Z

    Last month it took the international press at Cannes by storm. This week it was the turn of attendees at Cinema Expo in Amsterdam to fall under the spell of the Calendar Girls.Constant guffaws, frequent applause and stifled bouts of tearful sniffing punctuated the morning screening of the gentle comedy-drama, ...

  • News

    New Spanish production company prepares debut film

    2003-06-27T04:05:00Z

    Newly formed Spanish production company Bruta Escena has signed on the UK's F&ME and Portugal's FBF Filmes to its first feature film, Joao Costa Menezes' Penta.Each has committed to 10% of the estimated Euros 2.8m budget, according to Bruta Escena founder Rebeka Biguria: FBF as an advance for distribution rights ...

  • News

    American Beauty leads Oscars race

    2000-02-16T16:25:00Z

    As expected, Sam Mendes' American Beauty led the pack in the nominations for the 72nd annual Academy Awards with eight nominations including those for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay.But the Academy came up with some major surprises including six nominations for box office ...

  • News

    Melbourne Film Office appoints Pitcher

    2003-06-27T04:05:00Z

    Caroline Pitcher has been appointed general manager of the Melbourne Film Office, a role that gives her responsibility for enticing local and overseas producers to base their productions in the state of Victoria and for keeping them happy while they are there. "She brings with her a wealth of knowledge ...

  • News

    Constantin Film rejects Highlight, Eichinger bid

    2003-06-27T04:05:00Z

    Highlight Communications and Bernd Eichinger's joint tender offer of Euros4.50 per share for the remaining shares in Constantin Film has been rejected by the German producer-distributor's management board and the majority of its supervisory board as "not appropriate and too low". The joint tender offer by Highlight and Eichinger was ...

  • News

    German arthouse cinema nominations announced

    2003-06-27T04:05:00Z

    The Pianist, Good Bye, Lenin! and Bend It Like Beckham are among the films nominated for the Guild of German Arthouse Cinemas' Film Awards.The five films competing in the German Films category are: Doris Doerrie's Naked, Wolfgang Becker's Good Bye, Lenin!, Thomas Riedelsheimer's documentary Rivers And Tides, Fatih Akin's Solino ...

  • News

    Danish Cannes hit Reconstruction gets US visa from Palm

    2003-06-27T04:00:00Z

    ChrisBlackwell's Palm Pictures has acquired rights in the US and the Caribbeanto Christoffer Boe's Reconstruction, the Danish drama which won both the Camera d'Or andLabel Regards Jeunes at the Cannes Film Festival this year.The deal was concluded between Palm's David Koh (head of acquisitions andproduction) and Ryan Werner (head of ...

  • News

    Mellis & Scinto to script Potsdamer Platz for Scott, Searchlight

    2003-06-27T04:00:00Z

    Louis Mellis and David Scinto, writers ofSearchlight's Sexy Beast, have been signed to write the screenplay for Tony Scott's planned film version of the novel Potsdamer Platz which is being developed at Fox Searchlight Pictures.The $15m project, based on abook by Buddy Giovinazzo, centres on the intergang turf wars that ...

  • News

    Ontario groups show united front to attract Hollywood productions

    2003-06-27T00:00:00Z

    A coalition of Ontario-basedfilm and television industry interest groups has formed a united front to lobbythe federal government and market the province as a production destination toHollywood. Amongst the members of theOntario Film and Television Consortium (OFTC) are more than 30 companies,including the leading service producer in the country, Dufferin ...

  • Reviews

    Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

    2003-06-27T00:00:00Z

    Dir: McG. US. 2003. 111 mins. As its title suggests, the sequel to autumn 2000 hit Charlie's Angels revs up the goofy humour and preposterously gaudy action elements of the first movie - and leaves coherent narrative even further behind in the dust. Youthful moviegoers who helped the original to ...

  • News

    Karlovy Vary prepares for celebrity guests

    2003-06-30T04:05:00Z

    The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which kicks off its 38th edition this week, will honour Morgan Freeman and British director Stephen Frears, with awards for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema. Festival organisers remain guarded concerning other celebrity guests' attendance, however, mindful of the previous two years' disappointments at ...

  • News

    Global entertainment spend set to recover from 9/11 shock

    2003-06-30T04:05:00Z

    Global entertainment spending is set to grow from $1.1 trillion in 2002 to $1.4 trillion in 2007, a compound average growth rate of 4.8% per year. That GDP-busting growth is the forecast of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in the latest edition of its Global Entertainment and Media Outlook. It acknowledges that 2003 ...

  • News

    German fund to invest in Fox marketing campaigns

    2003-06-30T04:05:00Z

    German fund initiator Ideenkapital is launching its Mediastream IV fund to raise Euros232m from private individuals for investing in the marketing costs of three releases by 20th Century Fox.The three features are the sci-fi action film I, Robot starring Will Smith, which is scheduled to open in the US on ...

  • News

    Cecchi Gori steps down from running family empire

    2000-02-15T14:54:00Z

    In a surprise move, Vittorio Cecchi Gori has stepped down from day-to-day running of the Italian film and television company his father set up in the 1940s. The move marks the end of family management of the company, which Vittorio Cecchi Gori took over when his father Mario died in ...

  • News

    Gilliam's Grimm starts 17-week Prague shoot

    2003-06-30T04:05:00Z

    Terry Gilliam's $75m Brothers Grimm kicks off its 17-week shoot in Prague today, with Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Lena Heady, Peter Stormare and Jonathan Pryce in the main roles. The shoot will travel around the Czech Republic for the next two weeks, with Czech castle- and cathedral towns including Krivoklat, ...

  • News

    Belgian success heralds local production boom

    2003-06-30T04:05:00Z

    Flemish filmmaker Tom Barman's feature debut Any Way The Wind Blows has become the strongest opener in Belgium in the last year, clocking up around 14,000 admissions on 12 screens for distributor Cineart since its release on June 18.A combination of good reviews, excellent word-of-mouth and the song Summer's Here ...

  • News

    Had To Be Made Festival teams with VSDA for independent market

    2003-06-30T04:00:00Z

    The VideoSoftware Dealers Of America (VSDA) and the Had To Be Made Film Festival(HTBMFF) have teamed up to launch a new video/DVD mini-market at this year's2003 VSDA Home Entertainment convention in Las Vegas (July 29 to 31)."VSDApartnered with Had To Be Made to bring industry professionals together toconnect and find ...

  • News

    LA's Panettiere, India's Biswas team to co-produce films

    2003-06-30T04:00:00Z

    VincentPanettiere's new LA-based production company Thistle Productions is teaming upwith Indian producer Anamika Biswas and her AB Exports to co-produce at leastthree films.The films willbe financed by Biswas through AB Exports and she will serve as executiveproducer on them; Panettiere will act as producer.The titles are: TheAgenda, a thrillerwritten by ...