All articles by Tim Dams – Page 76
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Hoy joins Columbia Tristar UK as distribution chief
Columbia Tristar UK has appointed Paul Hoy as director ofsales and distribution for the UK. He joins from UIP where he served assales manager.Hoy will take up his post at Columbia Tristar UK in the NewYear and replaces Peter Taylor who earlier this month was named as the newmanaging director ...
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Vivendi, Viacom complete UCI Cinemas sale
Vivendi Universal and Viacom have completed the sale of UCICinemas' European operations to UK private equity group Terra Firma for Euros270m ($343.5m).The deal is part of Vivendi Universal's efforts to narrowits focus on media and telecoms and sell non-core assets to reduce its debt.Viacom and Vivendi each owned 50 percent ...
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Minghella, Chadha sign for Script Factory's SCENE
Directors Anthony Minghella and Gurinder Chadha have bothsigned up for Script Factory's SCENE Festival.SCENE (November 27-30) is The Script Factory's annualmini-festival within TheTimes bfi London Film Festival and puts some of theworld's leading filmmakers on stage to talk about their work and theprocess of filmmaking.The Script Factory recently announced Gwyneth ...
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UK tax credit scheme is 'moveable feast'
The amount of moneyavailable to producers from the new tax credit scheme announced by the UKgovernment is a 'moveable feast', delegates heard at Screen International's UKFilm Finance Summit.Panellists sitting on adebate about the 'Son of Section 48' said that the benefits could be anythingfrom 10% to 20% of a film's ...
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Leigh launches London Film Festival with Vera Drake
TheTimes BFI London Film Festival kickedoff on Wednesday night (Oct 20) with the UK premiere of Mike Leigh'saward winning Vera Drake at agala screening at the Odeon Leicester Square.Leightook to the stage before the film along with producer Simon Channing-Williamsand 30 of its cast and crew - including lead actress ...
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9 Songs clears UK and Irish censors uncut
UK censorthe BBFC has passed Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs uncut and has awardedit an '18' certificate for cinema release.Meanwhile, sources in the Irish distribution trade havetold ScreenDaily.com that the Irish Film Censor, John Kelleher, has alsopassed 9 Songs uncut and given it an '18' certificate.The film,which includes images of explicit, ...
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Sheffield Documentary fest to open with Tiger King
TheSheffield International Documentary Festival (Nov 8 -14) is to open with DavidFlamholc's House Of The Tiger King.Thedocumentary follows explorer Tahir Shah and a group of mismatched companions asthey search for Paititi, the Inca's lost city of gold.Otherfilms in the festivals 75 strong line-up include Darwin's Nightmare,which investigates the link between ...
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Netflix postpones foreign expansion plans
Online DVD rental pioneerNetflix has postponed plans to launch in the UK and Canada to concentrateinstead on its US business.The move comes as Netflixfaces increasing competition on its home turf from Blockbuster's new onlinerental service and from the expected entry of Amazon.com into renting DVDs bymail.It is understood thatNetflix had ...
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Fortissimo grabs Jarmusch library
Fortissimo Films is act as the internationaltheatrical, video, and television distributor for the entire Jim Jarmusch filmlibrary. The catalogue had previously been represented by diverse entities.Fortissimo's relationship with Jarmusch began lastyear with Coffee And Cigarettes.Included in the deal are Permanent Vacation (1980), StrangerThan Paradise (1983), Down By Law(1986), Mystery Train ...
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Taylor appointed Warner Bros UK distribution chief
Peter Taylor has been appointed managing director UK & Ireland ofWarner Bros. Pictures International UK.Taylor joins from Columbia Pictures where for the last five years he hasbeen director of distribution. Prior to that he was director of sales at Columbia,a position he held for nine years.He replaces Nigel Sharrocks who ...
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Civilian Content celebrates Summer sales
Pawel Pawlikowski's My Summer Of Love has racked up$2.3m worth of international sales, according to financing and sales outfitCivilian Content.Ina statement to the London Stock Exchange it said the sales significantlyexceeded management's expectations. The sales were handled by Civilian's salessubsidiary The Works.At last month's Toronto Film Festival, the Works sold ...
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League Of Gentlemen starts Dublin, London shoot
Principal photography has begun on the feature film The League of Gentlemen - Royston Vasey (working title).Directed by Steve Bendelack, The League of Gentlemen - Royston Vasey is from the team behind the award winning UK comedy TV series TheLeague of Gentlemen, created by and starring Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton,Reece ...
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Foreign hopefuls jockey for position in Oscar race
The foreign language Oscar race kicks off in earnest thisweek after the deadline for submissions closed on Friday (Oct 1).The last few days before the deadline saw a flurry ofheavyweight films added to the long list of contenders (see list, below).They included Venice prize winner The Sea Inside by Spain's ...
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Dinard Festival of British Film unveils jury
The Dinard Festival Of British Film has unveiled its juryfor this year's event (Oct 7-10).Actors Hugo Speer, Phil Davis and Kieran O'Brien make up theBritish contingent on this year's jury.Veteran French TV personality Jacques Chancel is this year'sJury President, presiding over an eight strong jury. His fellow FrenchJury includes actresses ...
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Night Watch named as Russian Oscar entry
Russian blockbuster Night Watch has been selected to represent Russia at next year'sAcademy Awards ceremony. .Night Watch has rakedin some $16m, breaking all box-office records in Russia's post-Soviet historysince premiering on July 8.The action-packed fantasy thriller featuringstate-of-the-art special effects turns contemporary Moscow into a battlegroundfor a century-old fight between the ...
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Portman Film sold to UK radio magnate
Chris Wright, chairman ofradio group Chrysalis, has acquired a majority stake in UK sales agent andco-producer Portman Film and TV.The acquisition is apersonal investment by Wright, who remains chairman of Chrysalis, and alsobecomes executive chairman of Portman with immediate effect.The major property ofPortman is the current ITV television show Doc ...
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Warner Bros strikes ITV licensing deal
UK broadcaster ITV hassigned an exclusive licensing agreement with Warner Bros. InternationalTelevision Distribution (WBITD) for free television rights to new and libraryfeature films.Under the terms of the deal,ITV will have access to feature films from Warner Bros' 2003, 2004 and 2005theatrical slates including titles such as Harry Potter and the ...
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Red Kite flies with animation film arm
Edinburgh based animation production company Red Kite haslaunched a film arm, Red Kite Films, and is working on a new feature-lengthfilm Nocturna.The film, a collaboration with Spain's Filmax Animation andFrance's Animakids, sees Red Kite making its first foray intotheatrical-release animation features.Nocturna tells thestory of Tim, an orphan who sees a ...
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High Point picks up Van Gogh's Cool
London based sales outfit High Point Films has picked upinternational rights to Theo van Gogh's Cool.The film had its world premiere earlier this month at theToronto International Film Festival in the Contemporary World Cinema section.Targeted at a youth audience, Cool is an urban, music-driven thriller that uses amixture of professional ...
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US buyout firm in 'exclusive' Cine UK takeover talks
US buyout firm the Blackstone Group is in reportedly inexclusive talks to buy British cinema chain Cine UK for about £120m ($216million) after last month missing out on buying the rival Odeon chain,according to Reuters.Quoting 'people familiar with the situation'Reuters said an agreement to buy the business, owned by J.P. ...