All Features articles – Page 513

  • Features

    Ancient Greece is the word

    2007-03-30T00:00:00Z

    300 continues to conquer at the international box office and took a whopping $48.2m at the weekend as it expanded into an additional 20 territories. The Spartan epic was boosted by 241% and had number one openings in all markets, bringing its international total to $79.3m after just three weeks. ...

  • Features

    Market focus - Double ahead for India

    2007-03-30T00:00:00Z

    India 's film industry is expected to more than double in value in the next five years, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. The business will be worth $4.1bn (rup175bn) by 2011, compared to the $2bn (rup84.5bn) it was worth in 2006, according to the report presented at this week's Ficci-Frames conference in ...

  • Features

    Production - AFCI Trade Show 2007 - The world's locations meet in one location

    2007-03-30T00:00:00Z

    This year more than 200 members of the Association of Film Commissioners International (Afci) are expected to descend on Santa Monica for the 22nd Afci Locations Trade Show 2007. The event runs from April 12-14 and is a key opportunity for the global community of film commissioners to promote their ...

  • Features

    United Kingdom - Soho story

    2007-03-23T00:00:00Z

    Sam Garbarski freely admits that his second feature, Irina Palm, is a cosmopolitan endeavour.He is a Pole, born in Germany and based in Brussels. His backers come from all over Europe. His initial plan was to shoot the film, which he describes as "a non-politically correct, romantic black comedy", in ...

  • Features

    United Kingdom - Musical Journey

    2007-03-23T00:00:00Z

    With the box-office success of films like Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster - which grossed $1.2m in the US in 2004 - rock documentaries are proving that they are not just the preserve of a niche market of nerdy music geeks. That, at least, was the thinking behind the recent ...

  • Features

    Industry moves

    2007-03-23T00:00:00Z

    Koh sees the futureFuture Films USA has hired former Fox Searchlight executive Charlotte Koh as its business development executive. Koh will report to Future USA's CEO Simon Horsman.Feeney moves from Animal Logic to ImagiComputer graphics expert Brett Feeney has joined Imagi International Holdings as vice-president of production based in Hong ...

  • Features

    Editorial - Screen says - Open season

    2007-03-23T00:00:00Z

    One of the more interesting means of assessing the health of an industry is to monitor the buzzwords. It is often far more informative than the tedious Powerpoint presentation in which such little gems are hidden. The right time to catch a piece of business terminology is when it retains ...

  • Features

    Not a fare deal

    2007-03-23T00:00:00Z

    Back in 1998, Luc Besson concocted an idea for a movie that would be sheer mayhem. According to lore, he had in mind nothing more than creating a serviceable story thread on which to hang a lot of vehicular action and the excuse to wreck a lot of cars: he ...

  • Features

    Box Office: Data - Market focus - Movies in the pipeline

    2007-03-23T00:00:00Z

    Studios have, until recently, been cautious about opening up their catalogues to video downloading, allowing consumers to access films only through current online subscription, download-to-rent and download-to-own models. Fears of piracy have prevented Hollywood from taking a share of the internet pie while user-generated content sites such as YouTube and ...

  • Features

    300 slaughters the competition

    2007-03-23T00:00:00Z

    Action epic 300 won the battle for international top spot, generating $14.1m in its second weekend. The film expanded into an additional five territories, including South Korea and Hong Kong, across a further 867 screens, giving it a 130% boost. Fox's Night At The Museum continues to attract international audiences ...

  • Features

    Music and Lyrics hits the right note

    2007-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Warner Bros is singing a sweet song as Music And Lyrics climbs up to the top spot internationally, after five weeks in the chart. The romantic comedy took $9.6m at the weekend after opening in an additional eight territories, including Germany, Mexico and Netherlands. Eddie Murphy comedy Norbit also saw ...

  • Features

    United Kingdom - History moves with the times

    2007-03-16T00:00:00Z

    As the industry increasingly looks to take advantage of back catalogues, the world's largest and most valuable film archive is now being made available at the click of a button - for free.The Mediatheque room of the new BFI Southbank beneath London's Waterloo Bridge already has available 300 film and ...

  • Features

    In Focus - UK TAX - Feeling the squeeze

    2007-03-16T00:00:00Z

    I think it's going to get worse before it gets better," admits John Woodward, chief executive of the UK Film Council of the current state of UK film finance.For the world's third-biggest producer of films, the idea that the situation will get worse will not surprise many people. But local ...

  • Features

    United States - Feeding the distribution machine

    2007-03-16T00:00:00Z

    In the third-party acquisition business, Sony has long been one of the most active and innovative of the Hollywood studios. Its commitment goes back to the 1980s, when, among other projects, it co-financed Steven Soderbergh's groundbreaking indie film sex, lies and videotape.Now the studio has revamped its acquisition team with ...

  • Features

    Denmark - Overthrowing the old guard

    2007-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Based on the memoirs of James Gregory, Goodbye Bafana tells the story of the white South African who guarded Nelson Mandela on Robben Island. But while it is a South African story, the $20m project is directed by a Dane, Bille August, and has an international flavour in terms of ...

  • Features

    Market Focus - Commercial decisions

    2007-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Distributors have long known that advertising in cinemas is an effective way to access audiences before the release of a film. But new UK research suggests audiences are more receptive to commercials shown there than to any other form of advertising.Research by TNS on behalf of the Cinema Advertising Association's ...

  • Features

    United Kingdom - Mutual Benefit

    2007-03-16T00:00:00Z

    With UK arthouse distributors bemoaning the tough market, it seems an odd time for a new player to enter the game.But Nick Crossley and Jono Stevens are keeping an open mind as they launch Diffusion Pictures. As Stevens says: "More people are watching films than ever. (The theatrical market) is ...

  • Features

    Ask the audience

    2007-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Last year at the ShoWest exhibition convention, Motion Picture Association of America (Mpaa) chairman Dan Glickman announced a study to try to pin down the truth about that mysterious animal, the movie-goer.While there was a sense of who comprises the cinema-going audience, there has been no hard and fast survey ...

  • Features

    Argentina - Father figure

    2007-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Talented young Argentinian director Ariel Rotter premiered his first feature, Just For Today (Solo Por Hoy), at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2001.The Wong Kar-wai-influenced film quickly became a festival hit, won a string of local awards, and Rotter prepared to shoot his next feature, The Other.Financing problems set ...

  • Features

    Spain - The rain in Spain

    2007-03-09T00:00:00Z

    It is easy to assume Summer Rain (El Camino De Los Ingleses) carries some autobiographical resonance for Antonio Banderas. The actor's second film as a director after Crazy In Alabama (1999) is set in his hometown of Malaga in the 1970s and relates the experiences of a group of friends ...