All articles by Staff writers – Page 11
-
News
AtomFilms links with Jonze, DiCaprio
Director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) has joined the advisory board of on-line distributor AtomFilms and will create three original shorts for exclusive distribution by the company. AtomFilms is also teaming up with Leonardo DiCaprio's Birken Interactive Studio to launch a short film festival. The two-year deal with Jonze includes ...
-
News
InternetStudios ups McKean; completes merger
InternetStudios.com, the LA-based web-site for licensing film and TV distribution rights and tracking entertainment industry data, has promoted Alex McKean to the position of vice president of finance. He was formerly director of finance for the company.A former corporate accounting manager at PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, McKean will be responsible for ...
-
News
SightSound.com cancels $50m float
SightSound.com, which offers movies for download over high-speed internet connections, has reportedly cancelled its planned $50m initial public offering due to unfavourable market conditions.The US-based company originally filed with the SEC to float on the Nasdaq in April. But in a filing yesterday it said it 'does not believe that ...
-
News
Tokyo festival bolsters Asian cinema selection
Only days after actor-director Takeshi Kitano launched a rival festival of Asian and indie cinema, the region's leading film event the Tokyo International Film Festival is upping its focus on local films.The festival, which runs October 28 to November 5, will showcase 16 films from Hong Kong in a focus ...
-
News
Star TV buys 26% stake in Indian cable operator
Rupert Murdoch's Star TV is strengthening its position as a programme provider in the competitive Indian market by buying a 26% stake in local cable TV operator Hathway Cable and Datacom Private, according to wire reports.The Hong Kong-based subsidiary of Murdoch's News Corp is understood to be paying around $75m ...
-
News
Tom Sherak joins Roth's Revolution
Tom Sherak has resigned as chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment's US film group to join former Walt Disney Co film chief Joe Roth at Roth's start-up production outfit Revolution Studios.Sherak is to include film development and production in his brief at Revolution alongsdie marketing and distribution. He will be ...
-
News
Film Consortium confirmed as partner on 51st State
Canada's Alliance Atlantis and the UK's Momentum Pictures have confirmed that UK studio franchise The Film Consortium has boarded their $28m action comedy 51st State (ScreenDaily, August 17). Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Carlyle will star in the film which follows an American chemist planning a once-in-a-lifetime drug deal in ...
-
News
UA Theatres files for bankruptcy protection
United Artists Theatres Company has become the latest US exhibitor to run into financial trouble, filing for protection from creditors under US bankruptcy law while it reorganises to reduce debt and expenses. In its filing, the company said it intends to reduce debt of about $720m to about $260m. The ...
-
News
Merger talks between Ifilm, Pop.com fizzle out
On-line film company iFilm.com and long-delayed entertainment web-site Pop.com have reportedly ended their merger talks which were first revealed last week."As you know, we have been in discussions with Pop.com. These discussions have ended and have not resulted in a transaction," said Ifilm CEO Kevin Wendle in an internal e-mail ...
-
News
KirchPayTV offloads stake in BSkyB
UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB's shares slid to a three-month low yesterday after Germany's KirchPayTV sold its remaining 3.1% stake in the company for $862m (£594.5m).KirchPayTV, which houses digital platform Premiere World, acquired a 4.3% stakes in BSkyB last December. At the same time, the UK company bought a 24% stake ...
-
News
China reportedly to create cable TV giant
China plans to merge its estimated 2,000 cable companies, which reach 90% of its 1.2bn population, into a singe entity according to a report in the China Daily newspaper.The director of China's State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT), Xu Guangchaun, was quoted as saying that the move ...
-
News
Bleeder, Torowisko among Sarajevo winners
Danish picture Bleeder, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, won the FIPRESCI prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival last week (August 18-26) while the Regional Programme jury gave their award to Poland's Urszula Urbaniak for Torowisko.The FIPRESCI jury also gave a special mention to Srdjan Vuletic's Hop, Skip & Jump, a ...
-
News
Fintage House to make InternetStudios e-safe
UK-based Fintage House, which provides financial services to the entertainment industry, has reached an agreement with InternetStudios under which it will handle all financial transactions for the company's OnlineFilmSales web-site.Fintage's e-safe service, launched at Cannes, will handle all transactions resulting from sales and acquisitions of film and TV rights on ...
-
News
Goteborg fest launches fund for Bosnian producers
The Goteborg Film Festival is playing a hand in rebuilding Bosnia-Herzegovina's film industry with the creation of the CineBosnia Film Fund, launched at this week's Sarajevo Film Festival (August 18-27).Unveiled by Goteborg director Gunnar Bergdahl and festival producer Magnus Telander, the fund will award $10,000 each year towards the pre-production, ...
-
News
German state of Hessen to launch production fund
The German state of Hessen is planning to launch a $7m (DM15m) fund to support commercial film and television production in the region from next year. Herbert Hirschler, state secretary in the Economic Ministry, stressed that Hessen would "want to be an equal partner in the risk and success of ...
-
News
Radcliffe revealed as the real Harry Potter
UK actor Daniel Radcliffe has been cast as Harry Potter in Warner Bros' Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, scotching rumours over the weekend that fellow Brit Gabriel Thomson had clinched the role.11-year-old Radcliffe recently played young David in the BBC's David Copperfield and also features in John Boorman's The ...
-
News
Leipzig documentary fest to open with Happiness
A gala screening of a restored print of Alexander Medvedkin's silent classic Happiness (Stschastje) from 1934 will open this year's International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animation Films (October 17-22). The festival will also feature a retrospective dedicated to the East German film-maker Juergen Boettcher and a special programme of ...
-
News
UPC reports lower than expected losses
Dutch cabler UPC's shares surged 11% today when it reported lower than expected second-quarter net losses of Euros368.2m against analysts' estimates of Euros440m. However the result was more than five times its losses of Euros72.9m in the same quarter last year.Revenues rose 19% to Euros238m compared with Euros199.6m the previous ...
-
News
Igel Media launches London-based sales arm
German family entertainment rights trader Igel Media has opened a London-based international sales arm to be headed by current international sales chief Edward Galton.The new division will be responsible for worldwide distribution of Igel product working closely with the company's Hamburg headquarters.Earlier this year Igel and French production studio Xilam ...
-
News
News Corp set to acquire Chris-Craft
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has outbid Viacom to acquire US TV station owner Chris-Craft Industries and its subsidiaries for $5.35bn. News Corp will pay about $85 a share for Chris-Craft, which owns 10 television stations, and its BHC Communications and United Television subsidiaries. However the deal faces major regulatory hurdles ...