Small MPU – Page 4286

  • News

    Bertolucci tangos with ShoWest

    2003-03-05T04:00:00Z

    Exactly three decades after Last Tango In Paris scandalized audiences and censors, Italian maestro Bernardo Bertolucci is still considered too risque for middle America, at least from the evidence of yesterday's sneak preview of his latest film to US theatre owners.After peppering up a ShoWest luncheon audience with excited talk ...

  • News

    Studio production costs soar to record levels

    2003-03-05T00:00:00Z

    Jack Valenti's state-of-the-industry address at ShoWest today (Mar 4) was startling not only for the fact that 2002 admissions were the highest in the US since 1957. Despite stabilising production costs over the past few years, negative cost of films released by members of the Motion Picture Association Of America ...

  • Reviews

    The Soul Keeper (Prendimi L'Anima)

    2003-03-05T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Roberto Faenza. Italy-France-UK. 2003. 97mins.Italian director Roberto Faenza's first English-language film spins a historical romance out of a footnote in the history of psychoanalysis. By turns involving and frustrating, it demonstrates the danger of a many-handed script which was only translated into English at a fairly late stage. But ...

  • Reviews

    18 Years Later (18 Ans Apres)

    2003-03-05T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Coline Serreau. France. 2003. 90 minsWith 18 Years Later, Coline Serreau has made a surprisingly bland follow-up to her 1985 comedy, Three Men And A Cradle, which mushroomed from sleeper into one of the most successful French films ever, registering 10.25m admissions and taking around $71.75m by today's standards, ...

  • Reviews

    The One And Only

    2003-03-05T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Simon Cellan Jones. UK 2002. 91mins. Spectacularly misnamed, The One And Only is anything but exceptional. Instead, it is a feeble cookie cutter comedy which represents a real disappointment given the considerable previous achievements of the talent involved: producer Leslee Udwin (East Is East), writer Peter Flannery (the BBC ...

  • News

    Germany's RTL Group names new CEO

    2003-03-05T00:00:00Z

    Gerhard Zeiler has been named chief executive Germany's RTL Group following the exit of Didier Bellens.Zeiler (pictured) will take up his new responsibilities immediately, but will also continue in his current position as CEO of RTL Television, a 100% subsidiary of the RTL Group. Commenting on his appointment, Zeiler ...

  • News

    Italian parliament seeks 'impartial' president for state broadcaster

    2003-03-05T00:00:00Z

    In an apparent effort to contain ongoing criticism over Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's sway on state broadcaster RAI, the speakers of the two houses of the Italian Parliament have decided that the network's next president should be appointed from the opposition party.The unprecedented decision (Rai's president and three of its ...

  • News

    Sumner Redstone eyes selected VU entertainment assets

    2003-03-05T00:00:00Z

    Paramount-owner, Viacom may have emerged as the new front-runner in the race to buy Vivendi Universal's US entertainment assets. Viacom is understood to have focused its interest on Universal Studios and the TV operations, but not Universal Music.Viacom chief Sumner Redstone and Vivendi Universal boss Jean-Rene Fourtou met recently in ...

  • News

    The Third Wave heralds Sonet's international ambitions

    2003-03-06T04:05:00Z

    Swedish production and distribution company Sonet Film has started shooting its first English-language feature film, The Third Wave, directed by Anders Nilsson, who made local box-office hit Executive Protection in 2001.Following Sonet Film's local success both Executive Protection and last year's Everyone Loves Alice, the company has announced that ...

  • News

    Hollywood to host second South African Exchange

    2000-02-03T11:21:00Z

    Top Hollywood film executives will meet face-to-face with South African film and television professionals during a five-day production conference to take place in Los Angeles from February 28. Organised under the US/South Africa Exchange umbrella by Johannesburg-based film promotion company Timbull Rorich Neville (TRN), the talks are designed to build ...

  • News

    New UK tax fund targets transatlantic film distribution

    2003-03-06T04:05:00Z

    Warner Bros. is set to tap into a transatlantic distribution fund being raised through UK tax financing.The scheme is the brainchild of UK tax specialist Scotts Atlantic, which is currently raising the fund from private investors. While Scotts Atlantic was not available for comment, rival tax funds said that the ...

  • News

    Whale Rider becomes 2nd highest grossing local NZ film

    2003-03-06T04:05:00Z

    Whale Rider has become the second highest grossing New Zealand film in its home market.The film has grossed over $3.3m after four and half weeks, overtaking the previous number two picture What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted', also produced by South Pacific Pictures. With a local take of more than ...

  • News

    Latin American films dominate Fribourg competition

    2003-03-06T04:05:00Z

    More than half of the feature films showing in the competition of Germany's 17th Fribourg International Film Festival (March 16-23) come from Latin America.Brazil is represented by two films - Jorge Furtado's Two Summers and Eliane Caffe's The Story Tellers - while Argentina has four pictures: Luis Ortega's Black ...

  • News

    BBC sells Sylvia Plath project to Icon for UK

    2003-03-05T18:20:00Z

    BBC Films has sold UK rights excluding free TV to the as yet untitled Sylvia Plath Project to Icon Film Distribution, the film of arm of the UK broadcaster announced on Wednesday.Icon previously acquired Australian rights from sales agent Capitol Films. Currently in post-production, the film was directed by New ...

  • News

    Dreamworks joins Prague production influx

    2003-03-07T04:00:00Z

    Dreamworks SKG has gone into pre-production in Prague on an untitled teen comedy, formerly called The Ugly Americans. The European road trip movie represents the first shoot in the Czech capital for DreamWorks, previously the only major studio not to have shot a film in the Czech Republic, which has ...

  • News

    Rotterdam fest acts to avoid Berlin date clash

    2003-03-07T04:05:00Z

    A potentially damaging head-to-head clash between the Rotterdam and Berlin film festivals over the dates for their 2004 editions has been nipped in the bud.Following Berlin's announcement this week that its 54th festival will be held from Feb 5-15 (the earliest start for the German festival since its move to ...

  • News

    Guadalajara unveils Mexican contenders

    2003-03-07T04:05:00Z

    Guadalajara's 18th Mexican Film Showcase (Mar 21-27) has unveiled the official entries to its Mexican and Iberoamerican sections. Fifteen Mexican films have made the cut. With the exception of El Crimen Del Padre Amaro, none of the titles have yet been released in Mexico. Two documentaries are in the list: ...

  • News

    Buyers shoot for UGC's Mike Blueberry

    2003-03-07T04:00:00Z

    UGC International has struck a number of key sales deals on its big-budget supernatural Western, Mike Blueberry, Expanded Reality.The $35m film, directed by Jan Kounen, who previously made the stylish and ultraviolent Dobermann, is the story of a "Wild West" marshal who faces the challenge of a lifetime when his ...

  • Reviews

    Bloody Angels - 1732 Hotten Marerittet Har Et Post

    2000-02-03T13:34:00Z

    Dir: Karin Julsrud. Norway. 1999. 100 mins.Prod Co: Norske Film. US dist: USA Films. Prod: Tom Remlov. Co-prod: Finn Gjerdrum. Scr: Kjetil Indegaard. DoP: Philip Ogaard. Prod des: Billy Johanson. Ed: Sophie Hesselberg. Mus: Kjetil Bjerkestrand, Magne Furuholmen. Main cast: Reidar Sorenson, Gaute Skjegstad, Trond Hovik, Laila Goody, Stig Henrik ...

  • News

    Denmark's NatFilm reveals fest programme

    2003-03-07T04:00:00Z

    The line-up for the 14th edition of Copenhagen's NatFilm Festival (Mar 28-Apr 6) contains 143 features and documentaries, including many of the hottest titles from the recent Berlin Film Festival. The full programme is due to be officially announced tonight (7 Mar) at a pre-launch party and screening of writer-director ...