Small MPU – Page 832
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News
Les Choristes controversy erupts over soundtrack singers
The father of one of thesingers appearing on the soundtrack of France's biggest box office hit of 2004,Les Choristes, raised questionsTuesday as to the remuneration received by the film's young stars. A lawyer for FrancisHartmann, whose daughter's voice can be heard on the award winning soundtrack,told Agence France Presse ...
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Investors tune into Premiere's German flotation
Shares in Premiere the German pay-TV operator startedtrading today on the Frankfurt stock exchange at a healthy premium to the offerprice.The strength of investor demand suggests that analystssee the business continuing to grow, a prospect which could rub off on thelocal film industry.The company yesterday announced that it would sell ...
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GERMANY 9 March
Sony Pictures Releasing's (SPR) Hitchentered the charts at the top of the pile with an impressive $11,145 screenaverage from its 796 screens and became the first release so far this year tohave attracted more than 1m cinema-goers in its first weekend. SPR also proudlyreported that the Will Smith comedy garnered ...
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AUSTRALIA 9 March
Sony Pictures' Hitch opened on the weekend andshot straight to the top of the box office chart, grossing nearly three timesmore than the next most popular film. Hitch took A$3,507,820 from 370screens to clock up a screen average of A$9,481, the biggest in the chart.The rest of the top five ...
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NEW ZEALAND 9 March
Roadshow's opening film Constantine was sent inon the weekend to challenge the box office supremacy of UIP's Meet TheFockers, which is only on its second weekend on release. But it failed: Fockergrossed NZ$500,991 from 60 screens compared to the NZ$421,541 taken by Constantinefrom 65 screensThe onlyother opening film, Closer, came ...
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War epics take Japan, Russia by storm
WillSmith comedy Hitch ended Meet The Fockers' five week run at thetop of the international chart thanks to 19 territory launches includingGermany, Spain and Australia (see link below for full chart).Mostcountries awarded Hitch with number one positions except for Spain, where rivalopener Hide And Seek slipped in ahead with an ...
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Advanced to raise $34m for acquisitions spree
Readying itself for a raft of acquisitions, German distributor, producer and licensor Advanced Medien is to raise more than $34m (euros37m) through a rights issue.The company said that it will issue 3.325 million new shares, raising its capital base by a quarter. The exact price will be determined during the ...
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Pathe's Chorus tunes into changing UK market
When Pathelaunches The Chorus (Les Choristes) into the UK on Friday, itwill do so in a way unthinkable for a foreign language film just a few yearsago.For a start, thefilm is launching at approximately 65 locations, a scale of release that wouldhave seen as wildly over-optimistic back in the 1990s.The ...
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News
Baby rides Million Dollar Oscar wave
Just as a bestpicture Oscar win can mean so much at the domestic box office, so it serves toboost a picture's international prospects. Million DollarBaby's night of triumphon Feb 27 has already had significant ramifications for its international roll-outthrough Lakeshore Entertainment and there are no signs of letting up. Since ...
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News
Hit Danish director readies supernatural Island
Nikolaj Arcel, the Danish director of local smash King'sGame, is to shoot action adventure The Island Of Lost Souls thisJune. Produced through Zentropa and Nimbus Film, Island Of LostSouls is a supernatural family film in the vein of Steven Spielberg'searlier work. Unusually for a Danish film, nearly 20% of its ...
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Mar del Plata kicks off in face of economic troubles
Argentina's Mar del Plata International Film Festival kicksoff its 20th anniversary edition today (March 10-20) with a line-up boastingmore than 300 titles.Thisyear the sole FIAPF-accredited A-grade festival in Latin America will also hostthe first annual Mercosur Film Market (March 14-19), sponsored by Al-Invest,Europe's MEDIA Programme and the local Exportar Foundation."The ...
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Reviews
Adam & Paul
Dir:Lenny Abrahamson. Ire. 2005. 8s6mins.Imaginea full-length Laurel and Hardy film set in Dublin's junkie netherworld andscripted by the bastard son of Samuel Beckett. If you like the sound of that,then you'll love Adam & Paul, Irish commercials director LennyAbrahamson's first feature.Abrahamsondoes a grand job, but it's scriptwriter and co-star Mark ...
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Alliance Atlantis MPD unveils 2004 revenue hike
Alliance Atlantis' incometrust Motion Picture Distribution has recorded a 27% increase in its revenuefor 2004. The rise, from $340m(C$410.5m) in 2003 to $433m (C$522.5m) in 2004, came from strong results acrossthe breadth of the company's holdings in Canada, the UK and Spain. Canadian operations recordedtheir fourth consecutive year as the ...
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News
Universal promotes Cole to senior vp, media
Suzanne Cole has beenpromoted to senior vice president of media at Universal Pictures, and willserve as chief strategist for media planning for film marketing campaigns andfor Universal Studios Home Entertainment releases.Cole, who willreport directly to Universal Pictures Marketing president Adam Fogelson, joinedUniversal as vice president of media in 1999.Since then ...
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Chartier sets up new sales company with Devlin
International sales veteran Nicolas Chartier has teamed up with Dean Devlin'sproduction house Electric Entertainment to form the international sales company VoltagePictures.Voltage will pick up films for international sales as well as handling Electric's film and television slate, including TheTriangle, which is setto premiere in the US on the Sci-Fi ...
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Tribeca unveils narrative and documentary strands
Tribeca Film festivalorganisers have unveiled the NY, NY Narrative Competition and NY, NYDocumentary competition strands as well as the Narrative Feature FilmCompetition and Documentary Feature Film Competition programmes.Boasting 24 world premieres,the two NY, NY strands entries cover a range of subjects from post 9/11 griefto slapstick comedy to tales of ...
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France's CNC paints mixed picture of film investment
France's CNCreleased its 2004 survey of the local sector production on Wednesday, withheadline figures showing that the number of films produced in 2004 droppedslightly to 203 from 212 the previous year. Overall, totalproduction spend was Euros 1.049bn, down from Euros 1.153bn in 2003. The mainreason for the fall is a ...
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Clouds Of May scoops Istanbul's Golden Tulip
Turkish films dominated the 19th International Istanbul Film Festival (April 15-30) where the top honour in the international competition, the Golden Tulip, was awarded to Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan for Clouds Of May (Maysi Sikintisi) (pictured).The film also won the top prize in the national competition as well as ...
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ITALY 10 March
None of the six films which were released in Italylast weekend managed to dethrone the top three films at the local box office.UIP's animation feature Shark Tale held firmlyon to the top spot for the second week running, grossing $7,939,095 from 422screens for a strong average of $7,204.However,the weekend's sweetest ...
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FRANCE 11 March
In itssecond week, the star studded Meet The Fockers knocked local comedy Iznogoudfrom its top perch. The filmsold an additional 425,793 tickets to bring it to a cumulative score of$8,647,434. JamieFoxx's Oscar earning turn in Ray landed the film at number two in itsdebut week with 381,813 admissions on a ...