Small MPU – Page 871
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News
Indie Circle snaps up Iron Island
Pan-Europeandistribution collective Indie Circle has snapped up multi-territory rights toMohammed Rasoulof's Iron Island, this year's closing film in the Quinzaine. Theacquisition was concluded with Teheran-based Sheherazad Media Internationalfollowing this month's Paris screenings of Quinzaine films.The Indie Circle deal guarantees the film a release inItaly via Lucky Red, Haut Et Court ...
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Hanway takes on sales for Forman's Goya biopic
London's Hanway Films hasboarded Milos Forman's Goya biopic Goya's Ghosts as international sales agent. The film marks areunion between Zaentz and Forman who previously teamed on AcademyAward-festooned One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus.The film is scheduled tostart in Spain in September. Cannes Jury member Javier Bardem and NathaliePortman ...
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Carlyle, Firth to learn Meat Trade with The Works
Robert Carlyle and ColinFirth are to star in Meat Trade, a darkly comic, bodysnatching horror writtenby Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh.UK-based sales company TheWorks has taken on international sales to the film, which is pre-productionunder director Antonia Bird.Set in the historic streetsof Edinburgh, the script is a contemporary re-working of one ...
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Plague for Van Der Beek
James Van Der Beek will starin the upcoming thriller Plaguefor Clive Barker's Midnight Picture Show banner, which is being jointlyfinanced by Wall Street-based film equity fund D H Blair Film Capital Fund andArmada Pictures International.Beverly Hills-based ArmadaPictures International is handling worldwide sales on the project, which is setto go before ...
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South Africa, UK start co-production treaty talks
SouthAfrica is in talks about a co-production treaty with the UK, according to theorganisation spearheading the development of South Africanfilm.NationalFilm and Video Foundation (NFVF) chief executive Eddie Mbalo told a Cannespress conference that the UK would be added to similar agreements already beensigned with Italy, Germany and Canada."People have long ...
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Bauer Martinez moves into US distribution
Philippe Martinez' BauerMartinez Studios has launched a US distribution venture with a high profileslate that boasts the $40m John McTiernan actioner Riders Of The Storm, £30m thriller The Flock from Andy Lau, as well as Bauer Martinez'co-production Modigliani andfirst acquisition The Groomsmenfrom Ed Burn's Black and Tan Productions.Backed by an ...
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Warner Bros to take North America on August Rush
Warner Bros is set to take NorthAmerican distribution rights on August Rush and come on board as a producingpartner.The move was announced inCannes yesterday by production company Southpaw Entertainment, Warner Bros andsales outfit Odyssey Entertainment.Freddie Highmore (FindingNeverland, Charlie AndThe Chocolate Factory) is to star asthe eponymous August Rush, an orphan ...
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Pressman to exit from ContentFilm
Ed Pressman, the veteran producer of such classics as Badlands and WallStreet, is stepping down from his role as joint chiefexecutive of ContentFilm, the company he founded with John Schmidt in 2001.A spokesperson for Pressman did not denythe rumours and it is understood that he will continue to be involved ...
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News
Lions Gate Films picks up US rights to Skinwalkers
Lions Gate Films has pickedup US rights to Jim Isaac's werewolf project Skinwalkers, while Lions Gate International has acquired allinternational rights except Germany and will commence sales at Cannes thisweek.The film is set to go intoproduction in early autumn for a wide North American release in 2006, and marksthe company's ...
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Goldwyn, Lecker promoted at Samuel Goldwyn Films
Peter Goldwyn has been promoted to vice president of acquisitions andTamara Lecker to director of acquisitions and development at Samuel GoldwynFilms.Goldwyn will continue to pursue projects from the company's Los Angeles officeand will work closely with president Meyer Gottlieb in negotiating pre-buys andbringing completed projects to the company.Lecker will continue ...
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International quiet before Star Wars storm
Major territory releases for US films are few and farbetween this weekend as the marketplace waits for Star Wars: Episode III tomake its global entrance next week.Fox International's Kingdom of Heaven, currently theinternational box office leader after its launch in 99 territories lastweekend, opens in Japan, its only remaining major ...
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Reding hosts Euro culture ministers for Cannes summit
EuropeanUnion media commissioner Viviane Reding has said she wants European film-makersto be able to use technology to boost the circulation of their films within theEU.Reding, who oversees theEuros 513m Media Programme, was speaking to Screen ahead of a Europe Dayconference she is hosting here on May 17.18 of the 25 ...
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Reviews
Bashing
Dir/scr: MasahiroKobayashi. Jap. 2005. 82mins.A mystifying experience for any but a Japanese audience, Bashing,Masahiro Kobayashi's fictional rendering of a real-life event, would haveplayed more comfortably on less demanding grounds than its Cannes competitionberth.The story of a Japanesehumanitarian worker kidnapped in Iraq who then returned home to widespreadspite, Bashing is expressed ...
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Reviews
Kilometre Zero
Dir/scr: Hiner Saleem. Fr-Kurd. 2005. 96minsOne person's illegal war is another's act of sweetliberation in Kilometre Zero. Inspired by the toppling of SaddamHussein, Iraqi Kurdistan director Hiner Saleem has made a film that vividlyilluminates the brutal realities of life under the tyrant's rule. Pettydictators lurk at every checkpoint, people are ...
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Reviews
Lemming
Dir: Dominik Moll. Fr. 2005.129minsFive years ago, Cannes helped to put Dominik Moll on theinternational map with the rapturous response for Harry, Un Ami Qui VousVeut Du Bien. The response to his eagerly awaited follow up is likely to bemore equivocal. A psychological thriller with a peppering of Bunuellian blackcomedy, ...
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Reviews
The Bow (Hwal)
Dir/scr/ed:Kim Ki-duk. S Kor-Jap. 2005. 90mins.South Korean festival favourite Kim Ki-duk has two modes:the island film (The Isle; Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter' And Spring),and the urban film (Bad Guy; Samaria; 3-Iron). It lookedfor a while as if his city tales were a progression from the fishhooks andBuddhist isolation of his ...
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News
Deneuve to star in Wild Bunch's Thumb
Catherine Deneuve is to star in Olivier Dahan's Le Petit Poucet (Little Tom Thumb) with Elodie Bouchez and Romane Bohringer. The $12m fairy tale, which is currently in development at French production outfit La Chauve Souris (Dobermann), is one of the two major French films which Wild Bunch, the 'classics' ...
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Reviews
Match Point
Dir/scr: Woody Allen. US.2005. 124mins.Match Point would seem to prove the theory that youcan't teach new tricks to old dogs. Quintessential New York filmmaker WoodyAllen may have relocated to London but his eternal preoccupations with love,death, broken hearts and guilty minds remain central to the story. However, MatchPoint does show ...
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Reviews
Last Days
Dir/scr/ed: Gus Van Sant. US. 2005. 96minsWe sort of suspected that Gus Van Sant would not pull offanother Elephant: he's one of those directors that needs a littlebreathing space between masterpieces. But Last Days, Van Sant's newfilm, which is inspired (in the words of the final disclaimer) "in part... bythe ...
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Cannes hit by ghosts of rock stars
Two very different directors- Gus Van Sant and Stephen Woolley - hit Cannes today with films inspired bythe deaths of rock stars.Van Sant's Last Days was originally meant to be a full blown biography ofNirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, the director explained at a press conference forthe competition film. "But I ...