Small MPU – Page 932

  • News

    FFC backs 10 new Aussie films as it prepares to shut its doors

    2008-04-03T10:52:00Z

    After more than 20 years as the Australian Government's key film investor, the Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) board yesterday agreed to invest in 10 new Australian features worth $56.7m (A$62m), the last batch of films before it closes its doors on June 30.'The FFC was cognizant that the new ...

  • News

    Vilcek offers funding for immigrant film-makers in US

    2008-04-03T11:00:00Z

    The Vilcek Foundation has invited filmmakers who have had an impact in the US but were born outside that country, to apply for the $25,000 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise.'After researching a multitude of arts categories, filmmaking seemed to be an incredibly flourishing field, and we thought it would be ...

  • News

    LoveFilm brings in Ching-Har Wong to head customer acquisition

    2008-04-03T11:06:00Z

    LoveFilm has appointed Ching-Har Wong as head of customer acquisition, replacing former head Nick Adderley.Wong takes the post immediately and reports to UK managing director Andrew Ground. She manages a team of five.Wong has more than 13 years of marketing experience, including senior positions at global Vodafone, Barclays, Kilivington Leith ...

  • News

    Arri Media Worldsales picks up music drama Hanna's Words

    2008-04-03T11:16:00Z

    Arri Media Worldsales will handle international distribution for Andreas Struck's third feature Hanna's Words which began principal photography in Cologne this week. Based on a screenplay by Dagmar Gabler (Porno!Melo!Drama!), the music drama centring on a Nu Jazz trumpeter stars up-and-coming German actors Stefan Rudolf and Paula Kalenberg, Russia's Chulpan ...

  • News

    Working Title signs newtwo-picture deal with Edgar Wright

    2008-04-03T11:27:00Z

    Working Title has confirmed a new two-picture deal with UK hotshot director Edgar Wright.He will write and direct two projects for Working Title, starting with Baby Driver, described as 'a a wild spin on the action and crime genre which will be set in the US.'The second project under the ...

  • News

    Australia's FFC to clamp down on US studios taking tax rebate

    2008-04-03T14:35:00Z

    US studios and other international players who plan to take films they have developed to Australia to shoot, then claim the new 40% producers rebate for Australian films rather than the 15% location offset designed for foreign films, are very unlikely to be successful under yet-to-be-released new guidelines.The Film Finance ...

  • News

    Pinewood 2007profits fall 26%, impacted by US writers' strike

    2008-04-03T16:19:00Z

    UK studio Pinewood Shepperton saw a 26% fall in pre-tax profits in 2007, to $10.58m (£5.3m).The studio has recently hosted the latest Bond film, Quantum Of Solace, Sweeney Todd and The Wolfman, but lost out on another planned major shoot - said to be Angels & Demons -- due to ...

  • News

    Picturehouse to release Joiningthedots.tv documentaries

    2008-04-03T16:29:00Z

    UK exhibitor Picturehouse Cinemas is working with Joiningthedots.tv to show films licensed to the site across its UK cinemas.Joiningthedots.tv is a documentary website from Mercury Media and The Independent newspaper.The first title to hit cinemas, from late May, is Joshua Dugdale's The Unwinking Gaze about the Dalai Lama.MercuryMedia MD Tim ...

  • News

    Japan's Entertainment Farm launches Singapore-based fund

    2008-04-04T02:00:00Z

    Japanese production company Entertainment Farm has established a Singapore-based film fund to underwrite features in America and Asia, it announced today.Entertainment Farm established Entertainment Farm Pte Ltd in Singapore at the end of last year.Under director Satoru Yano, the hub will manage the fund, which looks toacquire between $30m-$50m from ...

  • News

    The Cell captures top spot; Comunidad opens well

    2000-10-04T14:41:00Z

    It was a busy weekend at the Spanish box office with five new releases bowing to different fates last Friday. Riding on buzz and hefty marketing campaigns leftover from their US premieres, Jennifer Lopez-starrer The Cell and Buena Vista's Coyote Ugly landed in the first and second spots. Aurum and ...

  • News

    Minister will consult Canadian film industry on tax credit guidelines

    2008-04-03T17:02:00Z

    Canada's Heritage Minister has agreed to consult with the nation's film and television production community in drafting new tax credit guidelines. The move comes in wake of producers' complaints that proposed amendments to Canada's tax law could threaten their access to production tax credits should a production be deemed 'contrary ...

  • News

    Wigan shifts to strategic advisor role for Sony

    2008-04-03T19:59:00Z

    Gareth Wigan is stepping back from day-to-day operations of Sony's International Motion Pictures Production Group (IMPPG) and has been named strategic advisor to the studio's international film enterprises.The 21-year Columbia Pictures veteran will continue to play a significant role in the studio's overseas operations, which will now rest in the ...

  • News

    ScreenOpinion- Weathering the economicstorm

    2008-04-04T00:00:00Z

    Billionaire philanthropist George Soros notched up another score for the doom merchants this week, saying we are at the end of a 60-year super-boom. It's a tragedy that so many of us were blissfully unaware we were the beneficiaries of this benevolent macroeconomic phenomenon. But that's super-booms for you - ...

  • News

    Summerheat:the battle of the 2008 blockbusters

    2008-04-03T23:00:00Z

    Hollywood's powerhouse summer of 2007 launched some of the biggest worldwide hits in cinema history. The indications are the 2008 blockbuster season may write itself into the record books too.If last year's summer was distinguished by lucrative third episodes of killer franchises such as Spider-Man, Pirates Of The Caribbean and ...

  • News

    Canadian conservative tax law boosts provocative drama

    2008-04-04T00:00:00Z

    A furore in the Canadian film business could be the catalyst for a rare local English-language hit.Thanks to a vaguely-written amendment to Canada's tax code, the Canadian government may soon have the power to strip local producers of their tax credit should it decide their film is 'contrary to public ...

  • Features

    United States - Young people filming

    2008-04-04T00:00:00Z

    "I directed a feature film when I was 17 years old," says Jesse Harris, 22, "and this is a thousand times harder. This is insane.""This" is the National Film Festival for Talented Youth whose quasi-nerdy nickname is Nffty and whose youngest film-maker is nine. The Seattle-based festival will make its ...

  • News

    Space man: Duncan Jones talks about his feature debut

    2008-04-04T00:00:00Z

    It is an early March morning at Shepperton Studios and Sam Rockwell is in a spaceship, shaving. He stars in Moon, an unusual and ambitious film which is being made in the spirit of classic 1970s sci-fi such as Ridley Scott's Alien and Douglas Trumbull's Silent Running.The film marks the ...

  • News

    Thinking Global, Acting Local: Reactions to studio international ambitions

    2008-04-04T00:00:00Z

    During the 1990s, some German producers preferred to license the local distribution rights for their films to German distributors at the expense of a potentially better deal with the local office of a US studio.Talking points: reaction of local producersThey were apparently driven by a 'them against us' fear the ...

  • News

    Production - Europe

    2008-04-04T00:00:00Z

    FRANCE - SHARING OUT THE SPOILSOver the past few years, the US studios have increased the number of French films they have acquired for French distribution. Non-local companies can access the distribution portion of the 'compte de soutien' film subsidy, for the release of French films but must channel it ...

  • News

    Talking points: The reaction on the ground

    2008-04-04T00:00:00Z

    THE PANELRicardo Tozzi, producer, Cattleya and president of Anica, ItalyLionello Cerri, producer, Lumiere and Co, ItalyHerve Truffaut, producer, Films Christian Fechner, FranceJose Covo, managing director, Twentieth Century Fox FranceSytze Van Der Laan, Studio Hamburg Produktion, GermanyJens Meurer, producer, Egoli Tossell Film, GermanyVictor Ugalde, director, producer, and head of Fidecine, MexicoSiddharth ...