Small MPU – Page 3902
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Beyond The Sea to open AFI FEST
AFI FEST, theLos Angeles International Film Festival, will open on Nov 4 with the USpremiere of Kevin Spacey's Bobby Darin biopic Beyond The Sea.In addition theorganisers of the event have announced a presenting sponsor deal with Audiyesterday (23) and a name-change to AFI FEST 2004 presented by Audi,The centrepiece gala ...
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Second wave of layoffs implemented at Miramax
Barely six weeksafter the last round of Miramax lay-offs, the spectre of redundancy notices returned tothe mini-major yesterday (23 Sept) as a further 55 employees were told they werelosing their jobs as part of an efficiency drive.The numberaccounts for roughly 13% of the current 420-strong workforce. Most of thoseaffected have ...
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The Apology wins Slamdance script contest
Organisers of the 9th AnnualSlamdance Screenplay Competition announced the 10 winners at an awards ceremonyin Los Angeles yesterday (23).The competition culled thetop 10 screenplays from more than 1,800 submissions, judged by a panel ofscreenwriters, filmmakers and industry professionals.Cash prizes of $3,000,$1,000 and $500 went to the top three, while each ...
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IFTA AGM yields new executive committee, board lineup
The IndependentFilm & Television Alliance (formerly AFMA), has announced its new executivecommittee and board of directors following its AGM in Los Angeles yesterday(23).The seven-personexecutive committee, headed up by chairman Michael Ryan in his second year inthe post, includes new members Lewis Horwitz of Horwitz Entertainment FinancialServices as vice chairman of ...
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IPW picks up film rights to Groo The Wanderer
Marc Toberoff's IntellectualProperties Worldwide (IPW) has picked up the motion picture rights to GrooThe Wanderer, the long-running comicbook that has been described as Conan The Barbarian meets Shrek.Created by Sergio Aragoneswith writer Mark Evanier, Groowas first published in 1983 and has spawned more than 170 instalments. Thetitular hero fuses an ...
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MGM to continue producing after Sony deal
Sony and itsequity partners issued a joint statement with MGM yesterday (23) that they haveentered into a definitive agreement under which the investor group will acquireMGM for $12 in cash per MGM share, plus the assumption of MGM's approximately$2bn in debt.The investorgroup, which comprises Sony Corporation, Providence Equity Partners, TexasPacific ...
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IFP/New York Market Awards announce winners
Colombianphotojournalist Scott Dalton's La Sierra won the documentary feature directoraward and a $10,000 grant at the IFP/New York's IFP Market Awardsyesterday (23), which honour works-in-progress by established and emergingfilmmakers.Andrea Williamsclaimed $10,000 and the directing prize for A Spoonful Of Sugar, while Seith Mann's Come Sunday took home two awards and ...
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New distributor launches into Spanish market
Start-up Spanish distributor ABL Augusta has joined with twopartners to launch new distribution company Notro Films to reach the Spanish,Portuguese and possibly Latin American markets.The partners, who made their announcement at the SanSebastian International Film Festival (Sept 17-25), include ABL founder AdolfoBlanco, and Jose Maria Irisarri and Marcos Fernandez of ...
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Kinsey to open, Polar Express to close Chicago Film Festival
Bill Condon's Kinsey will open the 40th Chicago InternationalFilm Festival, which runs from Oct 7-21 and closes with Robert Zemeckis' animatedfeature The Polar Express.All in all thefestival boasts 111 features and 54 shorts from 44 countries, including theworld premieres of Pete Jones' coming out comedy Outing Riley and Ligy J ...
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Fortissimo recruits Mackey to launch London office
Veteran film sales executive Nicole Mackey is joiningFortissimo Film Sales to launch the company's new London branch office.Mackey joins Fortissimo from Capitol Films, where she washead of sales for the last two years. Before that she held a similar post atthe ill-fated Signpost Films and at LolaFilms UK. Previous sales ...
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Messier keen on Canal Plus, Platco collaboration
Vivendi chairman Jean-Marie Messier would like to see a link-up between Vivendi-owned Canal Plus and News Corp's planned digital platform, Platco, according to Reuters. Messier stated Thursday, April 6, that a merger between Canal Plus and part News Corp-owned BSkyB - in which Vivendi and Canal Plus have a 24.5% ...
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Germany names Downfall as Oscar contender
Oliver Hirschbiegel's World War II drama The Downfall(Der Untergang) has been selected as theGerman entry to compete in the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language Filmcategory.The independent jury charged with selecting the film saidthat it succeeded in achieving a 'powerful and demystifying cinematicrealisation of the last days of Adolf Hitler and ...
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Dutch film tax system gets reprieve
Dutch producers have given a warm, but guarded, welcome tonews that the Dutch tax-backed support system for film is to be reprieved. Itseems that the system will benefit from Euros20m of tax money.The government announcement of a reprieve came as somethingof a surprise. At the beginning of the week the ...
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High Point picks up Van Gogh's Cool
London based sales outfit High Point Films has picked upinternational rights to Theo van Gogh's Cool.The film had its world premiere earlier this month at theToronto International Film Festival in the Contemporary World Cinema section.Targeted at a youth audience, Cool is an urban, music-driven thriller that uses amixture of professional ...
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Rotterdam to focus on South East Asian cinema
The forthcoming International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)will feature a special section - SEA Eyes - dedicated to films from South EastAsia.Announcing the sidebar, IFFR chief Sandra Den Hamer said:'We don't often do geographic focuses, but this is a fascinatingregion with huge young talents who remain largely unknown, while the world ...
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Red Kite flies with animation film arm
Edinburgh based animation production company Red Kite haslaunched a film arm, Red Kite Films, and is working on a new feature-lengthfilm Nocturna.The film, a collaboration with Spain's Filmax Animation andFrance's Animakids, sees Red Kite making its first foray intotheatrical-release animation features.Nocturna tells thestory of Tim, an orphan who sees a ...
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Top UK theatre director signs for feature debut
Leading UK theatre directorLaurence Boswell, best known for the starry production of This Is Our Youth, has signed up for his feature debut, tentativelytitled D.The Gruber Films productionis a modern re-telling of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano De Bergerac, set in a south London comprehensive school. Thescreenplay by Royal Court playwright Amit ...
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US buyout firm in 'exclusive' Cine UK takeover talks
US buyout firm the Blackstone Group is in reportedly inexclusive talks to buy British cinema chain Cine UK for about £120m ($216million) after last month missing out on buying the rival Odeon chain,according to Reuters.Quoting 'people familiar with the situation'Reuters said an agreement to buy the business, owned by J.P. ...
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Bid by Goal! producer for Liverpool FC is 'no stunt'
Reports that film producer Mike Jefferies is bidding to takecontrol of Liverpool Football Club for £100m ($100m) are serious and nota stunt to promote his football trilogy Goal!, say sources close to Jefferies.Jefferies, chairman of Milkshake Films, has teamed up withformer Miramax executive Stuart Ford and has reportedly already held ...
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Celestial to launch movie channel into China
Hong Kong-based film studio Celestial Pictures has beengiven the go-ahead to launch its 24-hour Asian movie channel, Celestial Movies,into upscale hotels and residential compounds throughout the People's Republicof China.The channel, which features contentfrom the Shaw Brothers library, Golden Harvest, Korea's Cinema Service andother Asian film studios, has already been launched ...