Small MPU – Page 3831
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News
Columbia backs film spin-off of BBC's Stella Street
Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group is backing a film spin-off of the BBC television series Stella Street, which parodies celebrity existence and pokes fun at the likes of Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman.Directed by Peter Richardson, Stella Street stars Phil Cornwell and John Sessions in multiple ...
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Dougray Scott takes part in football hooligan drama
A hard hitting film about football hooligans starring Dougray Scott has gone into production in the UK.Based on the best-selling cult novel by John King about Chelsea hooligans, The Football Factory is the first feature from Vertigo Films and is produced by Allan Niblo (Human Traffic, South West Nine) and ...
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News
First Thai film festival launches in UK
The Royal Thai Embassy is backing the launch of the first Thai Film Festival in the UK (Nov 28-Dec 5)The Thai Film Festival 2002 will show a range of 15 Thai films, encompassing traditional and contemporary films, across a range of genres from comedy to horror. It is being held ...
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Reviews
Mon-Rak Transistor
Dir: Pen-ek Ratanaruang. Thailand. 2002. 120 mins. Monrak Transistor may win a few friends on the strength of its ingenuous charm and attractive performances, but the shapeless direction and meandering story make this dark musical comedy unlikely to have much impact on arthouse audiences outside its home turf. Its best ...
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News
43rd Thessaloniki film festival fetes Asian films
Women directors and themes of family relations, censorship, racial and social intolerance dominated in the 43rd Thessaloniki International Film Festival which wrapped today. Asian films stood out in the competition section, which was restricted to first or second films.Hidenori Sugimori's Woman Of Water (Mizu No Onna) from Japan ...
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News
Paramount Pictures to tap German equity fund for two titles
Despite the growing caution among German investors, Paramount Pictures is set to access private German equity for the financing of biopic Against The Ropes and the high school comedy The Perfect Score. After collaborating with the German financing companies SachsenFonds and EastMerchant last year on a Euros 52.7m fund for ...
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News
Bowling For Columbine strikes note in UK as BO record falls
The second Harry Potter film was not the only new release breaking records in the UK over the weekend. Proving that there is a strong market for alternatives to studio blockbusters, Momentum Pictures' Bowling For Columbine launched on just 28 screens for a stellar $249,444 (£157,898).The opening gave Michael Moore's ...
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News
Berlin to pay tribute to De Niro
This year's Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 9-20) will pay tribute to actor Robert De Niro with a special screening of The Deer Hunter on Feb 17 and a selection of eleven other films in which he stars including Bloody Mama (1970), Raging Bull (1980) and Ronin (1998). "We ...
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News
DreamWorks to remake Kurosawa's Ikiru
Hisao Kurosawa, the president of Kurosawa Productions, has confirmed that he is in discussions with DreamWorks over a remake of his father Akira Kurosawa's 1952 classic Ikiru (pictured). Kurosawa, however, declined to comment on the production, saying that negotiations were still ongoing. According to press reports, DreamWorks' Walter Parkes and ...
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News
The Touch adds sales, hits US delivery delay
Big-budget Hong Kong action-adventure, The Touch has wrapped up a number of additional sales, but has hit a snag with delivery of the final version to Miramax for the US.In the days since Mifed, Sabrina Chen, sales chief at the film's principal backer Han Entertainment, has inked key distribution deals ...
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News
Deals overflow for Cinema Service's Volcano High
Cinema Service has scored a series of notable deals on its sold sci-fi, action-comedy Volcano High. The film, which features a young man banned from using his incredible fighting powers who is banished to a high school with an impossibly bad disciplinary record, was sold to Distant Horizon for North ...
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News
Protesters picket Crimen's Hollywood premiere
Protesters led by ultra conservative group The American Society for the Defence of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) picketed the Hollywood premiere of Mexican priest scandal drama El Crimen Del Padre Amaro last Thursday. Samuel Goldywn Jr, whose company holds North American distribution rights, invited the group to watch ...
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News
Jeans walks away with audience award at Luenen
German actress Nicolette Krebitz's (The Tunnel) feature directorial debut Jeans won this year's 'Luedia' Audience Award at Kinofest Luenen's annual celebration of German cinema.Apart from a specially created bronze statue, the award includes a slot in the 'Berlin And Beyond' festival in San Francisco's Castro Cinema in January 2003, financing ...
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News
Asian films take top prizes at Thessaloniki
Women directors and themes of family relations, censorship, racial and social intolerance dominated in the 43rd Thessaloniki International Film Festival which wrapped today. Asian films stood out in the competition section, which was restricted to first or second films.Hidenori Sugimori's Woman Of Water (Mizu No Onna) from Japan ...
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News
Pathe takes over FilmFour slate
Pathe UK has confirmed it is taking over 11 titles from FilmFour, the UK film operation being scaled back by broadcasting parent Channel 4.Pathe will handle UK distribution and international sales on the package, which includes Motorcycle Diaries, To Kill A King, It's All About Love and Once Upon A ...
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News
US remake of The Ring outperforms original in Japan
The Hollywood remake of Hideo Nakata's 1998 horror Ringu has already become a bigger hit in Japan than the original, after just three weeks on release. Topping the box office chart the first week after opening on November 2, Gore Verbinski's The Ring (pictured) has grossed $8.3m (Y1bn) from 800,000 ...
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News
Falcom Media signs distribution deal with Universum
Andreas Fallscheer's Falcom Media Group has concluded a long-term video/DVD distribution deal with the RTL Group's video subsidiary BMG/Universum Film for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.The first releases - all "straight to video" - will be the US children's animation film The Little Drummer Boy, Chuck Norris actioner McCourd, Mimic 2 ...
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News
IM Internationalmedia to cut staff by more than 30%
Following last week's announcement of pre-tax losses of $36.1m in the first nine months of 2002, production and finance group IM Internationalmedia has unveiled an extensive cost reduction programme to reduce expenses by Euros 28.7m and predicted that revenues for 2003 would be between Euros 330m-350m, well above this year's ...
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News
Harry Potter international tally soars to $59.5m
Actual international boxoffice figures for Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets have proved to be even better than the estimates,with an opening weekend total of $59.5m from 7.1m admissions on 4,265 screens. ' In the UK the picture set four newindustry records, beating the marks set by the original ...
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Shoujyo, City Of God win top prizes at AFI FEST
FernandoMereilles' Brazilian crime epic City Of God continued its run of festival success bywinning the audience award for best international feature film at AFI FEST inLos Angeles which ended on Sunday night with a screening of PedroAlmodovar's Talk To Her.Other audienceaward winners were Tasha Oldham's The Smith Family which won ...