Small MPU – Page 869
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News
New York Rendez-Vous with French cinema opens with Lelouch
The US premiere of Claude Lelouch's thriller Roman De Gare will open the 13th Rendez-Vous With French Cinema in New York on Feb 29.Fanny Ardant stars opposite Dominique Pinon as a bestselling author who is questioned by the police over similarities between her novels and the activities of a serial ...
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Lightning takes on sales for Pinkett Smith's directorial debut
Santa Monica-based sales and distribution company Lightning Entertainment will introduce Jada Pinkett Smith's directorial debut feature The Human Contract to buyers at EFM next week.The Human Contract stars Jason Clarke and Paz Vega in the tale of a repressed advertising executive who embarks on a passionate affair that forces him ...
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American Teen gets post-Sundance play at Miami Film Festival
Nanette Burstein's Sundance hit American Teen will get its first major screening outside Park City when it plays at the Miami International Film Festival on Mar 8.Paramount Vantage paid approximately $1m for worldwide rights excluding the UK to the story of four high school students who endure the ups and ...
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News
Ron Gell launches production and sales outfit G-Machine
Longtime producer, sales and acquisitions executive Ron Gell has launched Los Angeles-based sales and production outfit The G-Machine.Gell will arrive at next week's EFM with seven titles, among them the Cannes 2007 Directors Fortnight entry PVC-1 from Spiros Stathoulopoulas, which was shot in one continuous take. A terrorism thriller, it ...
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Reviews
The Merry Gentleman
Dir: Michael Keaton. US. 2008. 110mins.In his directorial debut The Merry Gentleman, Michael Keaton reveals some of the same flair for the off-beat, moody and unconventional he has acutely demonstrated as an actor. He summons a wonderful performance by Kelly Macdonald and strong character distinction to the secondary players, ...
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Linklater to shoot Me & Orson Welles starting Feb 24
Richard Linklater will start shooting Me & Orson Welles in England (Pinewood Studios and London locations), the Isle of Man and New York from February 24.Zac Efron and Claire Danes lead the ensemble cast for the coming-of-age romantic comedy set in the theatre world. The story follows a teenager who ...
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News
Flahive and Billard launch new sales company Wavelength
John Flahive and Anne Billard, both veterans of the British Film Institute, are launching a new international sales company, Wavelength Pictures.The London-based Wavelength makes its debut at Berlin's European Film Market. The company's first project to sell is Bacon's Arena, a co-production of the BBC and Estate of Francis Bacon. ...
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News
John Maybury to direct new Wuthering Heights for Ecosse
John Maybury has signed on to direct a new big-screen adaptation of Wuthering Heights for Ecosse Films.HanWay Films will handle international sales and introduce the project to buyers at the forthcoming EFM in Berlin.The new script is written by Olivia Hetreed, who also adapted The Girl With A Pearl Earring. ...
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News
Match Factory takes on Chiko, Revanche, LoveAnd Other Crimes
Cologne/Munich-based sales agent The Match Factory will be handling international sales for three world premieres in the Berlinale's Panorama Special section next week.The first of the trio is Hamburg-born Oezguer Yildirim's feature debut Chiko which premieres Feb 9 in the Zoo Palast.The no holds-barred story about a wannabe drug boss ...
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News
Beta's EFM slate includes 32A, Absurdistan and Heart Of Fire
Beta Cinema will be having five market premieres at next week's European Film Market in Berlin, including Luigi Falorni's Competition film Heart of Fire (Feuerherz) which Senator will release in Germany this summer.The other titles having their first outing to an international market are:Irish filmmaker Marian Quinn's debut feature, the ...
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Reviews
Blind Date
Dir: Stanley Tucci. US/Belgium/Holland. 2008. 85mins.The second of a planned trilogy of English-language remakes of films by the murdered Dutch provocateur Theo van Gogh, Stanley Tucci's Blind Date, about a man and woman who stage elaborate games in order to conceal the pain of a horrifying loss, is a ...
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Reviews
Phoebe in Wonderland
Dir/scr: Daniel Barnz. US. 2008. 96mins.In the lyrically compelling though dynamically flawed Phoebe in Wonderland, first-time feature director Daniel Barnz excites and frustrates in equal measure. His story of a dazzlingly smart young girl's personal liberation through her exposure to the Lewis Carroll masterpiece has moments of awe and ...
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Reviews
Trouble the Water
Dirs: Tia Lessin & Carl Deal. US. 2007. 90minsAlthough both productions document the same Hurricane Katrina that unleashed its fury on the US Gulf Coast in 2005, Trouble The Water could hardly be more different stylistically from Spike Lee's 2006 mini-series When The Levees Broke. If Lee's reverentially crafted ...
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News
Iceland box office up 2% in 2007, led by Astropia
Iceland had another record-breaking year at the box office in 2007. The box officein the small island nationhit $18.4m (ISK 1.1bn) on 1.477m admissions, up 2% from a strong 2006. The figures are calculated from SMAIS, the association of film rights holders in Iceland.Local productions took 9% of market share, ...
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News
Barker's Book Of Blood to be filmed by Matador, Midnight Picture Show
Matador Pictures and Midnight Picture Show are giving Clive Barker's horror story Clive Barker's Book Of Blood the big screen treatment.The project is the first in a series of planned collaborations between Midnight Picture Show and Matador Pictures to turn other Book Of Blood stories into features.Los Angeles-based Essential Entertainment ...
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News
Olympic fever impacts Australia's box office
One week into the Olympics and most Australian cinemas are reporting revenues down by 25-50%, with games venue Sydney being the worst affected. Unseasonably fine spring weather is further exaggerating the fall in business, particularly as it's helping to draw non-sport lovers out of doors.Although the Olympic site is 14 ...
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News
Jeonju unveils African trio for digital shorts project
South Korea's Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) has announced three African directors - Idrissa Ouedraogo, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun and Nacer Khemir - for its Jeonju Digital Project 2008, the festival's trademark shorts troika showcase. The festival provides each director with $53,000 to make a 30-minute short to be put in the ...
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Reviews
Riprendimi
Dir: Anna Negri. Italy. 2008. 96 mins.Anna Negri's second film Riprendimi is a bittersweet comedy about the breakup of a relationship and the fallout for those involved. Offering intelligent commentary on the fickleness of young men and women today as well as many amusing insights into humans in romantic ...
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Reviews
Over Her Dead Body
Dir: Jeff Lowell. US. 2008. 95 mins.A languid, thinly sketched and habitually unfunny supernatural comedy that never scratches beyond the surface of its conceit, Over Her Dead Body quickly wears out its welcome in both this world and the next. Delving into a love triangle comprised of a pleasant guy, ...
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News
New Zealand box office up in 2007 but no records fall
The $118.93m (NZ$151.74m) worth of tickets sold at New Zealand cinemas in 2007 exceeded the previous year by 3.6%, but fell short of 2003, the country's stand-out year in terms of gross box office. 'All the blockbusters did well in the middle of the year, yes, but business petered out ...