Small MPU – Page 3945
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News
Cannes faces up to showbiz strike threat
France's striking showbiz workers have threatened to disrupt next month's Cannes Film Festival to draw attention to their cause.A group representing the workers, the 'intermittants du spectacle', released a statement on Thursday saying they intended to create an occupation committee for the Cannes Film Festival. They are protesting against government ...
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Zhu's Clouds scoops Hong Kong festival prizes
Chinese director Zhu Wen's South Of The Clouds scooped two prizes at the awards gala of the Hong Kong International Film Festival (April 6-21) on Thursday night - the Golden Firebird Award and the award of the FIPRESCI jury.The film, about a retired factory worker who takes off for one ...
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Munich festival to honour Kaurismaki brothers
Filmmaker brothers Aki and Mika Kaurismäki are to be the subjects of this year's Retrospective at the Munich Film Festival (June 26 - July 3).Both directors are expected to accompany the retrospective in person.This year's festival, which is the first under the new management of director Andreas Stroehl, will see ...
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North by Northwest script scheme unveils international line-up
In its eighth year of business, the international scriptdevelopment programme, North by Northwest, has announced it most extensiveline-up yet.Participants come from all over Europe from the UK,Scandinavia and Germany to Spain and France for their three training courses,Classics, Kids Stories and Seven Samurai.Thanks to strong word-of-mouth from the more than ...
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Thai boxing drama takes French box office by storm
Luc Besson's Europa Corp scored a notable box office coup this week when its Thai action film Ong Bak opened in the fifth spot in the French charts.The foreign language feature sold 440,495 tickets on just 281 screens for a powerful $10,000 screen average.In terms of new releases it was ...
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Metallica doc scoops top Danish festival prize
Copenhagen's NatFilm Festival wrapped in the Danish capital over the weekend, and awarded its audience prize to Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster.Tomas Alfredsson's Swedish drama Four Shades Of Brown was singled out by the critics jury.The NatFilm Festival remains the biggest film event in Denmark ...
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News
River King feels heat as UK gets tough on co-productions
Myriad Pictures' The River King has been thrown into uncertainty mid-shoot after the UK government challenged its application for British status.Set up as a UK-Canadian co-production, the supernatural murder mystery needs to qualify as British in order to access tax relief under Section 48. Movision, the tax-based fund co-financing the ...
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Venice reverts to single Golden Lion competition
Venice is reverting back to its single Golden Lioncompetition, cutting back by half the number of films that have screened on theLido in the past three years, newly appointed festival chief Marco Muellerannounced on Thursday.Mueller said the newly streamlined festival will enableindustry professionals and critics to fully focus their attention ...
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Massis picks up Spook for The Film Source
Alex Massis' NewYork-based marketing and licensing company The Film Source has picked up rightsfor worldwide representation in all media to Barry Levy's supernatural thiller Spook.Based on the memoirs of an unidentified former CIAoperative, the film follows a Vietnam veteran's bid to expose Canada's covertrole in the South-East Asian war.Levy, who ...
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News
MK2 snares rights to restore, release Keaton collection
Sherlock Jr,The Navigator and GoWest are among a rosterof Buster Keaton pictures to be restored for digital theatrical releasefollowing an agreement between The Douris Corporation and MK2.Under the terms of the deal Douris, whose 700+ Rohauerlibrary includes rights to the silent star's films, has agreed that Paris-basedMK2, the worldwide distributor ...
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Secret Window looks to prise open Euro markets
The thriller Secret Window goes on its first international rampage this weekend with openings inFrance on 400 (Apr 14) and Spain, Italy and Brazil two days later on 254, 250and 61 prints respectively.Executives at Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International(CTFDI) will be hoping for some strong bows to propel the picture ...
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Lions Gate launches expansion drive under new CEO
Frank Giustra has stepped aside as chief executive officer of Lions Gate Entertainment, the Canadian mini-studio he founded nearly three years ago, and passed on the managerial reins to former Sony Pictures TV chief Jon Feltheimer.The power transfer, which took affect Tuesday night, is intended to kick Lions Gate's already ...
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Warner Bros Japan receives distributor award
Warner Bros Japan is to receive the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award for best foreign film distributor of the year for its box office achievements in 2003.William Ireton, managing director for Warner Bros Japan, will accept the award at a ceremony today (Apr 16) at the Tokyo Chamber ...
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News
Warner Bros Japan wins distribution prize
Warner Bros Japan is to receive the Minister of Economy,Trade and Industry Award for best foreign film distributor of the year for itsbox office achievements in 2003.William Ireton, managing director for Warner Bros Japan,will accept the award at a ceremony on Apr 16 at the Tokyo Chamber of Commerceand Industry.The ...
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Reviews
The Punisher
Dir: Jonathan Hensleigh. US. 2004. 124mins.Hard on the heels of the first movie about Dark Horse Comics' Hellboy comes a new film of Marvel Comics' The Punisher, a startlingly brutal actioner in which the comic book anti-hero is almost as sadistic as the inhuman killers he seeks to punish.Slickly produced, ...
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Reviews
Connie And Carla
Dir: Michael Lembeck. US. 2004. 98minsWith My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Nia Vardalos, both as scriptwriter and star, demonstrated that she knew exactly how to turn run-of-the-mill TV fodder into theatrical box-office gold. Her second outing in the genre, the funny and often touching Connie And Carla, preserves and perfects ...
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Reviews
Goddess Of Mercy
Dir: Ann Hui. China. 2004. 109mins.A word of warning for viewers of a nervous disposition: there is precious little mercy in this lifetime for anyone, especially the men, connected with the heroine An Xin. But Goddess Of Mercy is not a man-hating diatribe. Experienced director Ann Hui delivers an understated ...
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Desi Del Valle leaves Frameline Distribution
FramelineDistribution director Desi del Valle has announced she is leaving the SanFrancisco-based non-profit distributor of gay and lesbian cinema to pursue otherinterests including her acting career.Del Valle joinedFrameline, which also presents the San Francisco International Lesbian &Gay Film Festival, in 1992 as a distribution assistant, taking overdistribution two years later.Maura ...
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Loggia, Harmon, Feore join cast of The Deal
Robert Loggia, Angie Harmon, Colm Feore and John Heardhave joined the cast of Front Street Films, Milestone Entertainment and MyriadPictures' Wall Street thriller The Deal,which has started shooting in Vancouver.Christian Slater and Selma Blair star in a story of covertgovernment business, illegal oil trading, blackmail and the Russian mafia.Harvey Kahn ...
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Alta strikes Bad Education truce with Warners
One of Spain's leading independent exhibitor-distributors,Alta Films, has agreed to put Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education back up on eight screens nationwide after pullingthe film from 13 earlier this month over a programming dispute with itsdistributor Warner Bros.Alta announced on April 1 it would pull all Warner filmsfrom its screens in ...