Small MPU – Page 4076
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Reviews
Surviving Christmas
Dir: Mike Mitchell. US2004. 92minsAnybody hoping that thecomedy Surviving Christmas might resuscitate Ben Affleck's falteringcareer will be sorely disappointed. The very fact that DreamWorks did notrelease Mike Mitchell's feature in the heart of the season suggests they werehoping for some early holiday good cheer from audiences to buoy its chances.Sadly ...
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Reviews
Kings And Queen (Rois Et Reine)
Dir. Arnaud Desplechin.France, 2004. 150mins.Arnaud Desplechin'sstatus as a hero of the French intelligentsia, whose charms remain largelyunfathomable to the rest of the world, continues with Kings And Queen,which is as delightful and infuriating as his previous work.For two-and-a-half hours hespins two parallel tales that eventually converge to become one. Along ...
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News
GERMANY 9 November
UIP's release of 7 Dwarves attracted another 1.2m cinemagoers in its second weekendto bring the admissions tally up to 3.5m so far and a box office gross of$26m-plus.The comedy, which is already now moresuccessful than Otto's previous film outings - Otto - Der Katastrofenfilm and Otto- Der Liebesfilm -, again ...
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Salvatores begins shoot on psychological film noir
Oscar winnerGabriele Salvatores (Mediterraneo)has started shooting his latest film, a psychological film noir entitled Quo Vadis, Baby'Produced byMaurizio Totti's Colorado Film, the Euros 3m picture is adapted from theeponymous novel by Grazia Verasani. Its title is inspired by Marlon Brando'sfamous line in Last Tango In Paris.Quo Vadis, which Salvatores is ...
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News
Magimel tipped to star as career criminal Mesrine
Hot French star BenoitMagimel (The Piano Teacher) has beentipped to star as Jacques Mesrine in Barbet Schroeder's upcoming two-partadaptation of books written by the career criminal.The first instalment of thefilm, The Death Instinct, is based onMesrine's autobiography L'Instinct DeMort, written during one of the prison terms of France's Public EnemyNumber ...
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Illusive Tracks takes double top at Nordic Film Days
The Swedish film IllusiveTracks (Skenbart) by Peter Dalle proved a big hit with both the jury andaudience at this year's Nordic Film Days in Luebeck.The jury gave the Euros 12,500 NDR Promotion Prize toDalle's "frivolous black comedy" for an "excellent screenplay[which] forms the basis for an exceptionally good cast and ...
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Turin unveils competition line-up
David Gordon Green's Undertowis among the films that will compete at the upcoming Turin Film Festival (Nov12-20), Italy's leading festival for emerging and cutting-edge talent.The festival will kick off with John Sayle's Silver City and will close with theinternational premiere of Hong Kong director Benny Chan's New Police Story.The Asian-heavy ...
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Swiss producers welcome new Film Foundation
Swissproducers have received a welcome boost with the creation of a Film Foundationin Zurich which aims to have an annual funding budget of at least $7.4m(CHF8.8m).The launchmakes the Foundation one of the leading Swiss film funding institutions afterthe Federal Office for Culture and broadcaster SRG SSR idee suisse.The city of ...
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News
UK/IRELAND 9 November
Few other distributors stood a chance as UIP laid siege tothe UK box office last weekend. The chart shows that the distributor shot newtitle The Grudge into the top spot,dethroning stablemate Shark Taleafter three weeks. However, the UK is the only territory where UIP holdstheatrical rights.The Grudge claimed$4.2m (£2.3m) off ...
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News
Australia's RGM agency forms packaging venture
Sydney-based talent agency RGM Associates, which boasts clients including Cate Blanchett and Anthony La Paglia, has formed a joint venture that will work with producers to package and raise finance for film and TV projects. Partnering with RGM is Black Rock Entertainment, the new Melbourne-based entity created by former Scanbox ...
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News
Berlinale World Cinema Fund jury named
French independent distributor Isabelle Dubar of IDDistribution and Zimbabwe-born festival programme consultant and curator KeithM. Shiri will sit on the four-member international jury which will choose theprojects to be supported by the World Cinema Fund (WCF).The other jury members are the Berlinale's festival directorDieter Kosslick, who set up the Fund ...
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News
Bunch goes Wild at AFM
Wild Bunch rounded off theautumn AFM with a sales spree for its new American titles and for RegisWargnier's Cannes-tipped Man To Man.On Outlander, its$40m monster film from Ascendant Pictures, it sold Korean rights to J-Net, EastEurope to Monolith and Russian rights to Central Partnership. It had multipleoffers at or above ...
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News
Longtime Fox international executive Mars dies at 77
Harold Mars, theformer vice president of 20th Century Fox International, died of complicationsfrom pneumonia on Nov 1. He was 77.Born inBrooklyn, Mars started out in the film business with MGM International in 1946and moved to Fox in 1964, where he became the first director of operations forLatin America.He relocated toLos ...
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News
Palm acquires domestic rights to graffitti drama
ChrisBlackwell's Palm Pictures has acquired North American and Caribbean rights toAdam Bhala Lough's feature debut Bomb The System.Palm plans aspring 2005 release for the picture, which chronicles the lives of a group ofgraffiti artists who wage graffiti war on New York after the police beat up oneof their gang.Mark Webber,Jaclyn ...
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News
Leigh to get lifetime achievement award at Gothams
IFP/New York hasannounced nominees for its inaugural best feature and best documentarycategories at The Gotham Awards and named Mike Leigh this year's recipient ofthe Filmmaker Award for Lifetime Achievement.Officials added that DanTalbot will receive the Industry Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition ofhis work at New Yorker Films in introducing classic ...
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News
IFC takes US rights to Turtles Can Fly
IFC Films has acquired USrights in all media to Bahman Ghobadi's award-winning Iranian best foreignlanguage Oscar entry Turtles Can Fly.Set in Ghobadi's nativeKurdistan on the eve of the American invasion of Iraq, Turtles Can Fly follows the fortunes of a 13-year-old satellite dishinstaller who falls for an orphan girl.The picture, ...
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Douglas, Lewis win honor for supporting Blacklist victim
Kirk Douglas and producer Edward Lewis received the Freedom ofExpression Medal last night (8) for their support of blacklisted writer DaltonTrumbo during McCarthy-era America in the 1950s.The pair defied Senator Joseph McCarthy and his Communistwitch-hunt by crediting "Hollywood Ten" writer Dalton Trumbo as one of the writerson the 1960 epic ...
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News
Trade groups act to boost Mexican industry
Moving to galvanise whatdelegates described as a desperate Mexican film industry yesterday (9), leadingfilmmakers and trade groups from the US and Mexico signed the Declaration ofSanta Monica.The declaration was issuedat the 10th meeting of the US-Mexico Bilateral Film Industry Committee andresolved to pull the Mexican industry out of crisis by ...
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Project Greenlight comes to Australia
The Movie Network pay TV channel yesterday launched anAustralian version of Project Greenlight, which will result in a 12-partdocumentary series chronicling the making of a A$1m (US$762,000) feature by afirst-time filmmaker.The movie channel's production partner for both theseries and the feature is Screentime, one of Australia's most successfultelevision production companies.Ben ...
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SERBIA/MONTENEGRO 10 November
After last week'sCinemania which offered previews of titles to be released in November andDecember, Serbian-Montenegrin audiences demonstrated once again their taste forboth local product and Hollywood fare.With two moreprints in its fourth weekend, the local Oscar submission Goose Feather remained on top position, selling 10,405 admissionsfor the weekend to cross ...