Small MPU – Page 847
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Carver leaves Sony to head up Steven Paul's Crystal Sky
Former SonyScreen Gems senior vice president of acquisitions and co-productions BenedictCarver has been named president of Steven Paul's Crystal Sky Productions.Reporting to Paul, Carver will oversee Crystal Sky's slatethat includes the Marvel Comic adaptation Ghost Rider at Columbia Pictures starring Nicolas Cage and EvaMendes, which Paul is producing with Avi ...
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Pinewood share price hit by Watchmen wavering
The share price of UK studios Pinewood Shepperton has fallenover 20% this week to £1.43 on news of the likely loss of The Watchmenshoot. Pinewood Shepperton has confirmed ScreenDaily.com'sreport on Monday that Paramount Pictures are re-evaluating plans to shoot the$120m superhero thriller in the UK. PinewoodShepperton said it has a ...
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Euro producers link up for Carreras' Wind
New Spanish company Ficcion Producciones has signed on fourEuropean co-producers to its debut feature, 18th century drama Talking WithThe Wind starring Luis Tosar.Italy'sD'Ursi, Germany's Pictorion Pictures and Portugal's EPC Lisboa will each bring12% of the Euros 2.8m budget to the film, shooting next autumn for directorDavid Carreras (Hipnos).Spain's Intuition Films ...
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George Litto Pictures sues insurance giant AXA Re
Producer George Litto has initiated arbitration proceedings against French insurance AXA Re for revoking two insurance contracts to provide the funding for five films. According to Litto's complaint, George Litto Pictures (GLP) obtained two lines of credit from Chase Manhattan Bank worth more than $100m. The issuance of each loan ...
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Israel experiences festival outbreak
A stringof international film festivals are set to play in Israel over the next fewmonths, triggering calls for a re-evaluation of the country's festival scene.Threeinternational film festivals, all of them competitive, are scheduled in Israelduring April, with a fourth announced for late May. That's before Israel's veteranJerusalem International Film Festival ...
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France's Freshline revs up Forestier's Show
Paris-basedFreshline Production has announced a slate of films set for production laterthis year including the next feature from Dead Weight director FredericForestier. Forestier hassigned to direct One Man Show, a black comedy set in the media world.Forestier is currently in post-production on comedy Les Parrainsstarring Gerard Lanvin, Gerard Darmon and ...
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Goal! wraps in Los Angeles
Milkshake Films and IconEntertainment finished filming the first part of the $100m football trilogy Goal!on April 4 in Los Angeles. The film, directed by DannyCannon, follows the life of a young Latino footballer from East Los Angeles.who fulfils his lifelong dream as he moves to the UK to play football ...
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Local films flourish in international box office chart
Local films continued to make an impact on theinternational chart this week with 13 films in the top 30 produced outside theUS.Fourof these came from the powerhouse territory for local product, South Korea. Thetop four films in the territory all made the international chart including newlaunches Crying Fist (Show East) ...
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Pathe acquires UK rights to Arclight's Bad Men
Pathe has acquired UK rights to Three Bad Men fromArclight Films, which has also confirmed that Simon Pegg (Shaun Of The Dead)will be in the cast alongside Woody Harrelson and Brendan Fraser. Falcom Media has already snapped up German rights to thecomedy thriller, which is being produced under the banners ...
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New Line buys rights to Japanese comic Monster
US mini-major New Line has acquired rights to make alive-action version of Naoki Urasawa's hit comic Monster, Japanesepublisher Shogakukan has announced. Running in Big Comic magazine from 1994 to 2001, Monsterhas sold 20 million copies in paperback editions in Japan. It has also beenmade into an animation series broadcast on ...
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Redford joins all-star voice cast of 2006 family tentpole Charlotte's Web
Robert Redfordhas joined the voice cast on Gary Winick's upcoming adaptation of EB White'sfamily fantasy global bestseller Charlotte's Web.Redford will play anarachnophobic horse and joins a talent roster that includes Julia Roberts (asCharlotte), Dakota Fanning, Steve Buscemi, Oprah Winfrey, Cedric The Entertainerand Thomas Haden Church.The storycentres on a young farm ...
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Polley, McKellar call for Canadian content quotas in theatres
Canadian filmmakers SarahPolley and Don McKellar are calling on the federal government to take strongmeasures to improve the fortunes of local television and film, includingintroducing local content rules in cinemas. The two, both actors,writers and directors, made a presentation on behalf of the Canadian actors'guild ACTRA before the House of ...
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Toronto's Temple Street hire Quarrington to adapt book Galveston
Canadian novelist andscreenwriter Paul Quarrington will pen the screen adaptation of his book, Galveston, for Toronto-based Temple Street Entertainment.Temple Street's Ivan Schneeberg and David Fortier will produce, with TempleStreet Productions' Patrick Whitley acting as executive producer. The book, to be published inthe US in July under the title "Storm Chasers", ...
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Saint Ralph takes top honours at Paris Film Festival
MichaelMcGowan's Saint Ralphwon the L'Arc D'or (The Grand Arc Award) at the Festival ParisIsland-of-France, formerly the Paris Film Festival, at the weekend.The special jury prize wentto Fernando Eimbcke's Mexican comedy Temporada Of Patos, while Gol Gothai won the best female acting prizefor Marzieh Meshkini's post-Taliban drama Stray Dogs, and Alexandre ...
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European Producers Club unveils Cannes plans
The European Producers Clubhas announced its program for the upcoming Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22).A new screenplay market willbe launched on May 14 during which European screenwriters will present projectsto potential producers. 20 screenwriters, who have all had at least one filmreleased theatrically, will be on board to present their ...
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France's Bac continues to rebuild with new video label
Reactivated Frenchdistributor Bac Films has announced the creation of a video label, Bac Video.The new structure will release DVDs of Bac's films as well as those fromproducers Gedeon and Millimages. Bac is 51% owned by Millimages.Jerry Bellamy will head upthe department and has signed a distribution agreement with Paramount HomeEntertainment ...
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Epstein promoted to sales executive, Asia, at First Look International
Clay Epstein has beenpromoted to sales executive, Asia, at First Look International (FLI), where hewill be responsible for licensing Los Angeles-based FLI titles to all Asianterritories excluding Japan.Epstein's new duties beganthis week and he reports to joint FLI co-heads, Liz Mackiewicz, the senior vicepresident of worldwide sales and distribution, and ...
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Zimbron to oversee local production at Warner Mexico
Warner Bros Pictures Mexicohas appointed Leonardo Zimbron director of local production to spearhead thecompany's expanding operations in the Latin American territory.Zimbron, the former generalmanager of Traziende Producciones, has extensive experience in Mexicanproduction, having collaborated with the likes of Argos and Buena Vista, aswell as government agencies such as Fedicine, Imicine ...
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Cannes contenders limber up for festival competition
Which film will open the 58thedition of the Cannes festival on May 11' Could the festival take acommercial turn and opt for Star Wars Episode III: The Return Of The Sith- out of competition - or Woody Allen's UK-set Matchpoint with ScarlettJohansson' While the word is that StarWars is going ...
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Hot newcomers, veterans share Filmstiftung NRW cash
Award winning Britishshort film director Steve Hudson has received Euros 850,000 in funding for hisdebut feature Dragnet from Dusseldorf-based subsidy body FilmstiftungNRW.Hudson won the Prix UIP in Venice last year forhis short Goodbye. Dragnet is about a group of Scottish fishermen whoget involved in the human trafficking of Chinese refugees ...