Small MPU – Page 3959
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News
France acts to ward off Cannes strike threats
French culture minister Renaud Donnedieude Vabres may have won a temporary stay against potential threats to the CannesFilm Festival when he proposed a series of measures intended to calm strikingshow business workers on Wednesday.For the past year, temporaryworkers have been protesting changes to their benefits system which took effecton January ...
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Elstree studios lease goes up for auction
The turbulent history of the UK's Elstree studios, wherefilms from Star Wars to Indiana Jones have been filmed, is set totake another dramatic turn. Earlier this week, a public meeting was held todiscuss the future of the studio site, currently owned by Hertsmere BoroughCouncil, who bought the freehold studios in ...
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Rai Cinema rocked by political appointments
Franco Scaglia, a former RAI manager, has been named thenew president of RAI Cinema, in a series of controversial politicalappointments at RAI which have led the broadcaster's president, LucianaAnnunziata, to dramatically resign.FrancoScaglia, a writer and former vice-president of the broadcaster's satellitechannel RAI Sat, will replace film director Giuliano Montaldo, who ...
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Kitchen Stories follow up wins Norwegian backing
The Norwegian Film Fund has injected $706,000 into BentHamer's English-language debut Factotum based on the novel by CharlesBukowski, as well as $1.2m into newcomer Ove Raymond Gyldenaas' local youthcomedy Tommy's Inferno.The reason why Hamer's follow-up to the multiple-awardwinning Kitchen Stories receives less than a feature debut is that Factotumis a ...
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Dream acquires sex comedy ManFast
Dream Entertainment hasacquired all international rights to Kali Films' comedy ManFast, which recently won the audience award anddirectorial debut honours for Tara Judelle at the New York InternationalIndependent Film and Video Festival.The story follows fourhedonistic women who must give up men for 100 days in order to receive a cashinjection ...
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White, Hewitt join sales team at First Look International
First LookInternational has ramped up its sales team ahead of Cannes with the hiring of MoniqueWhite as vice president of international sales and Susan Hewitt as Europeantelevision sales consultant.Both will reportdirectly to First Look International co-heads Liz Mackiewicz, the senior vicepresident of worldwide sales and distribution, and Dina Vangelisti, thecompany's ...
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Lindsay, Seldin get senior vp stripes at Miramax
Miramax Filmshas made two key promotions, with Mark Lindsay elevated to senior vicepresident of distribution and head of sales for Miramax International andColleen Seldin moving up to senior vice president of worldwide operations atMiramax Films.Lindsay will beresponsible for overseeing the company's international sales activities andwill continue to work out of ...
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Lightning acquires Russian thriller Moscow Heat
RichardGuardian's Lightning Entertainment has picked up international rights to JeffCelentano's Russian-themed thriller Moscow Heat, purportedly the largest budgetedindependent picture ever made in Russia.Moscow Heat stars rising Russian star Alexander Nevsky,whose credits include Time Of Change and Red Serpent, and centres on the efforts of a retired diplomat, LA detectiveand Russian ...
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Noyce sets Bielski Brothers at Warner Independent
Film-maker Phillip Noycehas found a new home for his film of Peter Duffy's novel The BielskiBrothers at Warner IndependentPictures (WIP), and has teamed up with Mace Neufeld and Jonas Goodman to produce it. WIP will develop and finance the project with Cherry Road Films.The screenplay has beenwritten by first-time screenwriter ...
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Cuban Film Institute chief steps down from post
Alfredo Guevara has quit his post as head of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC), an organisation he founded shortly after Cuba's 1959 revolution, citing a desire to devote more time to international projects. A close friend of President Fidel Castro, Guevara was officially declared "released" from his responsibilities at the ...
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State and Clearing bookend LA Film Festival
Zach Braff's hotSundance comedy Garden State will open the 10th Annual Los Angeles Film Festival on Jun 17,while Richard Linklater's romance Before Sunset is the Centrepiece Premiere and PieterJan Brugge's kidnapping drama The Clearing will close the event on Jun 26.Overall nineworld premieres, three North American premieres and two US ...
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Warner launches dedicated worldwide anti-piracy unit
Warner Bros,which has arguably taken the fight to piracy with more zeal than any otherstudio, has stepped up operations with the launch of the industry's firstdedicated worldwide anti-piracy unit.Darcy Antonelliswill head up the unit following her recent appointment to the new position ofsenior vice president of worldwide anti-piracy operations at ...
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Screen wins top publishing accolade
Screen International was named international businessmagazine of the year at the Periodical Publishers Association awards in Londonyesterday (May 5).Judges praised Screen for the relaunch of its weeklyedition and website, ScreenDaily.com, in August, which has resulted in a30% rise in subscribers across 73 countries.Judges singled out the introduction of issue-driven,image-based front ...
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Iranian authorities halt Makhmalbaf shoot
Awardwinning Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf's has been prevented from shootinghis latest film, Amnesia, by the country's Ministry of Culture andIslamic Guidance.The scriptreflects two decades of pain and sufferings of the Iranian people and artists,and according to financier Wild Bunch, took Makhmalbaf years to write.It wasfinally completed last autumn when he ...
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American Pie star blasts off with Space Chimps
Seann William Scott is tovoice the lead in Space Chimps, the next animation title from Shrekproducer John Williams' Vanguard Animation.The American Pie star will voice the part of Ham, the great grandsonof the first chimpanzee to go into space. Happy in his luxury NASA cage, thehapless Ham has to learn ...
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Last King Of Scotland gathers momentum
Andrea Calderwood's London-based Slate Films is at lastmaking headway on its long-gestating project, Last King Of Scotland.Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald is attached to direct the film, which isnow being fast-tracked. Calderwood will co-produce with Lisa Bryer of CowboyFilms.Slate's partners on the project are FilmFour, with whom the project wasoriginally set ...
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Kill Bill Vol 2 holds on to international lead
Despitemassive drop offs in some territories (including Australia (63%), Germany(61%), Sweden (57%)) Kill Bill Vol. 2 held up well in its second weekendat the international box office. The film added seven more territories to the20 it launched on a week before and saw a 40% slip overall.Thehighest new entry was ...
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GERMANY 6 May
Columbia TriStar reigned supreme at the German box office taking the top two positions with romantic comedy 50 First Dates moving up to pole position and the Johnny Depp starrer Secret Window coming in at number two with over $ 1.3m gross in its first four days of release.Meanwhile, last ...
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GERMANY 6 May
Columbia TriStar reigned supreme at the German box office taking the top two positions with romantic comedy 50 First Dates moving up to pole position and the Johnny Depp starrer Secret Window coming in at number two with over $ 1.3m gross in its first four days of release.Meanwhile, last ...
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French video market suffers surprise drop
The French video distributors' association(SEV) yesterday sounded the alarm, reporting that the home entertainment marketin France has dropped dramatically.The combined DVD and VHS retail marketretreated by 16% in cash terms, according to the SEV when the first quarter of2004 was compared with the same period of last year. The rental ...