Small MPU – Page 4167
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Polley, McKellar call for Canadian content quotas in theatres
Canadian filmmakers SarahPolley and Don McKellar are calling on the federal government to take strongmeasures to improve the fortunes of local television and film, includingintroducing local content rules in cinemas. The two, both actors,writers and directors, made a presentation on behalf of the Canadian actors'guild ACTRA before the House of ...
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Toronto's Temple Street hire Quarrington to adapt book Galveston
Canadian novelist andscreenwriter Paul Quarrington will pen the screen adaptation of his book, Galveston, for Toronto-based Temple Street Entertainment.Temple Street's Ivan Schneeberg and David Fortier will produce, with TempleStreet Productions' Patrick Whitley acting as executive producer. The book, to be published inthe US in July under the title "Storm Chasers", ...
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Saint Ralph takes top honours at Paris Film Festival
MichaelMcGowan's Saint Ralphwon the L'Arc D'or (The Grand Arc Award) at the Festival ParisIsland-of-France, formerly the Paris Film Festival, at the weekend.The special jury prize wentto Fernando Eimbcke's Mexican comedy Temporada Of Patos, while Gol Gothai won the best female acting prizefor Marzieh Meshkini's post-Taliban drama Stray Dogs, and Alexandre ...
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European Producers Club unveils Cannes plans
The European Producers Clubhas announced its program for the upcoming Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22).A new screenplay market willbe launched on May 14 during which European screenwriters will present projectsto potential producers. 20 screenwriters, who have all had at least one filmreleased theatrically, will be on board to present their ...
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France's Bac continues to rebuild with new video label
Reactivated Frenchdistributor Bac Films has announced the creation of a video label, Bac Video.The new structure will release DVDs of Bac's films as well as those fromproducers Gedeon and Millimages. Bac is 51% owned by Millimages.Jerry Bellamy will head upthe department and has signed a distribution agreement with Paramount HomeEntertainment ...
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Epstein promoted to sales executive, Asia, at First Look International
Clay Epstein has beenpromoted to sales executive, Asia, at First Look International (FLI), where hewill be responsible for licensing Los Angeles-based FLI titles to all Asianterritories excluding Japan.Epstein's new duties beganthis week and he reports to joint FLI co-heads, Liz Mackiewicz, the senior vicepresident of worldwide sales and distribution, and ...
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Zimbron to oversee local production at Warner Mexico
Warner Bros Pictures Mexicohas appointed Leonardo Zimbron director of local production to spearhead thecompany's expanding operations in the Latin American territory.Zimbron, the former generalmanager of Traziende Producciones, has extensive experience in Mexicanproduction, having collaborated with the likes of Argos and Buena Vista, aswell as government agencies such as Fedicine, Imicine ...
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Cannes contenders limber up for festival competition
Which film will open the 58thedition of the Cannes festival on May 11' Could the festival take acommercial turn and opt for Star Wars Episode III: The Return Of The Sith- out of competition - or Woody Allen's UK-set Matchpoint with ScarlettJohansson' While the word is that StarWars is going ...
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Hot newcomers, veterans share Filmstiftung NRW cash
Award winning Britishshort film director Steve Hudson has received Euros 850,000 in funding for hisdebut feature Dragnet from Dusseldorf-based subsidy body FilmstiftungNRW.Hudson won the Prix UIP in Venice last year forhis short Goodbye. Dragnet is about a group of Scottish fishermen whoget involved in the human trafficking of Chinese refugees ...
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Hong Kong Festival wraps on ticket sales high
This year's Hong Kong International Film Festival (March 22- April 6) achieved an impressive 30% increase in ticket sales as a result ofnew marketing policies and programming strands. Thefestival, which wrapped yesterday with screenings of Jia Zhang-ke's TheWorld and Alain Corneau's Words In Blue, sold around 85,000 ticketsand about one ...
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Loach plants Barley in Ireland
Director Ken Loach is to start shooting his next film, thetentatively titled The Wind That Shakes The Barley, in Cork, Ireland,next month.The Irish Civil War drama is written by Loach's regularcollaborator, Paul Laverty. Named after a 19th century politicalsong, the film revolves around a family and one of the so-called ...
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Phantom scares up $100m international gross
The filmversion of Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running musical hit The Phantom Of TheOpera has passed the $100m mark at the international box office.The success has been led by a triumphant turn in Japanwhere a collosal $36.5m has been taken to date, 35.6% of the internationaltotal and 23.8% of the worldwide ...
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French admissions fall back in first quarter of 2005
France'sNational Cinema Federation (FNCF) has announced a drop in first quarter figuresfor 2005 against last year. In thefirst three months of the year, the box-office racked up 44.6 millionadmissions versus 50.1 million over the same period in 2004.The FNCF put the drop down to a less "rich" selectionof films compared ...
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Advanced, Petersen form joint producing venture
Advanced Medien, which earlier this week announced a $34m rights issue, is committing some of that cash to a new joint venture with Wolfgang Petersen, director of Das Boot, In The Line Of Fire and Air Force One.The five-year deal sees the creation of a Los Angeles office that will ...
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Dan Murrell to run LaserPacific in LA
Dan Murrell has joineddigital LA post-production facility LaserPacific as chairman and chiefexecutive officer, effective immediately.Murrell served as chiefexecutive officer of Home Box Office Asia, a joint venture of Warner Bros,Sony, Universal, Paramount and HBO, since 1997, and will focus on long-termgrowth, strategic planning and business opportunities.Reporting to general managerof Kodak ...
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Imagi recruits Cumming, Astin, Tucci for Cat Tale
Alan Cumming, Sean Astin,Elisha Cuthbert, and Stanley Tucci have joined the voice cast of ImagiServices' upcoming CGI animated feature Cat Tale, which is scheduled for release in 2006.Cat Tale centres on the exploits of Rover, a feline whomistakenly grows up in Dogtown and must rediscover his roots by journeying toCatopolis.Astin ...
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Voltage acquires two comedies from Insomnia
Nicolas Chartier and DeanDevlin's fledgling international sales and financing house Voltage Pictures hasacquired two comedies from Insomnia Entertainment, Eric Bernt's Vegas Baby and Matthew Cole Weiss' Standing Still.Voltage will handleinternational rights and show footage to buyers at Cannes on both pictures,which are currently in post production.Vegas Baby centres on five ...
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Brehm, Chamberlain, Weingroff get new roles at CBS Paramount Int'l
Jim Brehm and BarryChamberlain have been named executive vice president of pay television andsenior vice president of sales respectively at CBS Paramount InternationalTelevision, while Jennifer Weingroff becomes vice president of communications.Brehm will be in charge ofsales and licensing of all products for pay television including PPV and VOD.He joined the ...
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Nickelodeon launched as 24-hour service in Germany
MTV NetworksEurope (MTVNE) will launch Nickelodeon as a 24-hour children's channel and website in Germany on Sept 12.Viacom chiefsalso announced that they have set up Viacom Brand Solutions, a cross-brandingadvertising sales house to market the portfolio of channels.The locallymanaged and programmed channel and site will feature such properties as TheSpongeBob ...
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Ring Two continues to roll in Russia, Italy
Fox International's capersequel Be Cool has a raft ofmajor market releases this weekend, with debuts scheduled for Russia on Apr 7on 85 prints, followed a day later by Spain, Mexico and South Korea on 300, 220and 50 respectively.The picture is in the earlystages of its release and has grossed $13.4m ...