Small MPU – Page 875
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Kinowelt makes exhibition move
Germany's fast expanding Kinowelt group has made its first move into exhibition by acquiring a 50.1% stake in the Theile Hoyts Kinopolis group. It has also taken control of a ticketing service and clarified its plans for a move into broadcasting.The THK joint venture, Germany's number five exhibition circuit, operates ...
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High Point scores Vinci sales to Japan, US
UK outfit High Point Filmshas announced sales on Juliusz Machulski's Vinci, which screened at Cannes earlier in the week. The comedy crime caper hasbeen picked up by New Select Co in Japan, Bonton Film for the Czech Republicand Slovakia and Pegaz Art Production for North America.Vinci officially opens its festival ...
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Brussels sprouts new tax financiers
Belgian tax financiers havehit Cannes with a vengeance this year, announcing plans to launch new filmfunds while looking for new international projects to invest in.New Brussels based outfitMoviestream has already invested Euros 1.5m in a slate of four projects and isnow planning to raise Euros 15m over three years from ...
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Storitel funding rouses horror Arising
Manchester-based producerPaul Sherwood's Storitel Films is to fully finance Arising, a new Britishhorror film marking the directorial debut of veteran TV director Bob Baldwin. Scripted by Dan Spencer,Nick Ryan and Mark Barron, the film moves into production next month. Also new on Storitel's slateis (Seymour's Adventures in) Bookworld, billed as ...
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Stars gear up for Driving Lessons
Oscar nominees Julie Waltersand Laura Linney are to star alongside Harry Potter's Rupert Grint in Driving Lessons, writer Jeremy Brock's directorial debut.The story is about a shyvicar's son (Grint) with an overprotective mother whose world changes when hemeets a retired actress. Brock loosely based the comedy-drama on his own life.The ...
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Fiennes uncovers Mata Hari
Martha Fiennes (whose newfilm Chromophobia closes theCannes Festival later in the week) is plotting a new film about MargarethaZella, also known as Mata Hari - the notorious exotic dancer who was shot bythe French in 1917 for allegedly spying for the Germans during the Second WorldWar.Fiennes is setting up theproject ...
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Lightning strikes for Israeli drama
Los Angeles-based Lightning Entertainment has picked up international rights to Giddi Dar's award-winning Israeli feature Ushpizin.Set in the cloistered worldof ultra-Orthodox Jews, Ushpizin is about a married couple in financial direstraits whose prayers for salvation are answered by the arrival of twomysterious strangers.Shuli Rand, Michal Bat-ShevaRand, Shaul Mizrahi, and Ilan ...
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Germans build transatlantic link
Seeking to consolidate ties with Hollywood, Germany's VIP Media Grouphas set up VIP Media USA and installed former Ascendant Pictures chief PhilipElway as president.TheBeverly Hills hub will serve as a conduit between the US production anddistribution community and European filmmakers and develop co-productionopportunities.VIPMedia USA will also provide creative and financial ...
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Fox takes chance on Brazilian love story
Fox Latin America has boughtpan-regional rights to Philippe Barcinski's Not By Chance, a love story co-produced by Donald K Ranvaud'sBuena Onda and Fernando Mereilles' 02 Filmes.A love story between anobsessive compulsive and a control freak, Chance will shoot from October inBrazil and participated in the Sundance Screenwriters' Lab last January.Theproject ...
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Huayi Brothers takes Battle to Cannes
China's leading privateproduction company Huayi Brothers has unveiled a high-profile slate ofproductions headed by $20m period epic Battle Of Wisdom. Hong Kong star Andy Lau isheading the cast of the film which is scheduled to start shooting this Octoberwith Hong Kong's Jacob Cheung directing. According to Huayi president JamesWang, Battle ...
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Bristol Media handles Greek drama
MatthewModine, Richard Griffiths and Greek billionaire-turned-actor Alki David are toheadline new UK-Greek co-production OPA! Directed by Udayan Prasad (My SonThe Fanatic.)Sales for OPA!, which recently started shooting in Patmos,are being handled by Tony Manne's Bristol Media International.Modine plays anarchaeologist who comes to Greece and falls under the spell of a ...
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Saredi, Pandora launch joint sales outfit
Leading art-house film seller World Sales Christa Saredi and Germany's Pandora Films are to set up a new outfit Orfeo Films International.The two firms have a long history of co-operation and now hope to assemble a wider range of art-house productions.Orfeo will be based in Cologne, but Saredi will remain ...
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Taiwan launches first Asian tax finance incentives
Taiwan has become the firstdestination in Asia for producers looking for tax-based financing. LA and Taipei-based fund,Double Edge Entertainment, is working with the Taiwanese government to provideprivate equity and tax credits that can cover up to 50% of mid-budgetproductions that partially shoot in Taiwan. Following a change inTaiwanese law, the ...
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Weinsteins on a Promise with Chen
Harvey and Bob Weinstein areback in business with Chen Kaige, the Chinese director whose Farewell MyConcubine shared the Palme d'Or in1993 and gave Miramax one of its breakthrough Chinese hits.The brothers'new operation The Weinstein Company has teamed up with IDG New Media Fund toacquire rights in North America, the UK, ...
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Global Cinemas takes world rights to Mortal Kombat: Krusades
Peter Elson'sGlobal Cinema Group has picked up worldwide rights to the upcoming $35m actiontitle Mortal Kombat: Krusades and is pre-selling the project here. LarryKasanoff's Threshold Entertainment holds the rights to the video game franchiseand the producer expects to start production later this year.Paul W SAnderson directed the franchise curtain-raiser Mortal ...
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Participant gobbles up Fast Food Nation
eBay mogul Jeff Skoll'sParticipant Productions has munched up North American rights as well a healthymouthful of equity in Fast Food Nation, it was announced in Cannes yesterday by Participant ProductionsPresident Ricky Strauss. The deal was done with London-based Hanway Films.Fast Food Nation is a Recorded Picture Company production. It isbeing ...
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Cuaron, Del Toro enter Pan's Labyrinth
Mexican filmmakers Guillermodel Toro and Alfonso Cuaron will produce the Spanish-language Pan'sLabyrinth, to be directed by delToro. The two have set up a production shingle, OMM Films, with FridaTorresblanco to co-produce the film alongside Spain's Telecinco.Shooting will begin in Julyon the Euros 11.5m film which stars Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu, ...
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Monster-in-Law beats Kicking to top US box office
New Line Cinema's Monster-in-Law made a strong debutin North America this weekend, grossing an estimated $24m and beatingUniversal's rival family comedy Kicking & Screaming, which took asolid $20.9m, to the top chart spot. Action thriller Unleashed, from Focus Features' Roguelabel, opened well with an estimated $10.6m and took third place.The ...
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Monster-in-Law beats Kicking to top US box office
New Line Cinema's Monster-in-Law made a strong debutin North America this weekend, grossing an estimated $24m and beatingUniversal's rival family comedy Kicking & Screaming, which took asolid $20.9m, to the top chart spot. Action thriller Unleashed, from Focus Features' Roguelabel, opened well with an estimated $10.6m and took third place.The ...
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Kingdom holds on at international box office
Kingdom of Heaven, last week's big day-and-dateopener and international box office leader, held on to its position thisweekend with moderate drop-offs in many territories and a solid opening inJapan. The results owed something, however, to the scarcity of competition inthe last weekend before Star Wars: Episode III invades the globalmarketplace. ...