All Finance articles – Page 225

  • News

    Chan launches China talent search, production outfit

    2007-01-05T00:00:00Z

    Hong Kong star Jackie Chan is planning to unearth the nextgeneration of action stars through a TV talent contest, and is establishing a Beijing-basedproduction company to produce vehicles in which they can perform. The star spoke of his planswhile visiting China recently during a break in the filming of Rush ...

  • News

    Leading Asian filmmakers selected for HAF

    2007-01-04T00:00:00Z

    Leading Asian directorsincluding South Korea'sKim Jee-woon, China's Lou Ye and Japan's Kore-eda Hirokazu are among the 25 filmmakers whohave had projects selected for this year's edition of the Hong Kong Asia FilmFinancing Forum (HAF). Kim, whose credits include A Bittersweet Life and A Tale Of TwoSisters, will bring his ...

  • News

    Korean cinemagoers to face new ticket tax in July

    2007-01-03T12:32:00Z

    Korean theaters willface a 3% tax levied on tickets starting July 1. The funds from the tax will beused to finance half of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's '$4.3m-size' FilmIndustry Mid-to-long-term Development Plan, announced in October. South Korea's National Assembly passed the Bill forthe Partial Amendment for the Promotion ...

  • News

    Danielle Arbid starts shoot for A Lost Man

    2007-01-02T14:48:00Z

    France's MK2 has announced the start of production on Danielle Arbid's second feature A Lost Man. The UK's Alexander Siddig and France's Melvil Poupaud star in the road movie set in the Middle East.Filming will start early this year in Beirut, Amman and Paris. MK2 is producing and will handle ...

  • News

    Focus duo leave company to form production outfit

    2007-01-01T10:00:00Z

    Daniel Yu, chiefoperating officer of Andy Lau's Hong Kong-based Focus Films, and marketing anddistribution chief Lorna Tee, have left the company to form their ownproduction outfit. From Jan 1, 2007their roles are being filled by Simon Li, a director of Focus Films Limited,and marketing executive Sharon Cheng. Details of Yu ...

  • News

    Slovenian producers face government funding problems

    2006-12-29T13:34:00Z

    Slovenian producers arefacing a bleak future at home following radical changes in the film supportpolicies at the country's Ministry of Culture.The new harsher climate wasushered in with the dismissal of the Slovenian Film Fund's director IreneOstrouska with immediate effect for allegedly not coming up to the Ministry'sexpectations.In addition, funding hasbeen ...

  • News

    Czechs approve new money for filmmakers

    2006-12-21T20:00:00Z

    Czech President Vaclav Klaus has signed into law a 2007 budget amendment which adds $4.8m (CZK 100m) to state aid for Czech filmmakers, raising the total value of the State Fund for the Support and Development of Czech Cinematography to $7.6m for next year.The state fund provides money for the ...

  • News

    Kaminski's Christmas tale Hania to wrap in January

    2006-12-21T04:00:00Z

    Two-time Oscar winner Janusz Kaminski hopes to wrap production on Polish-language Christmas drama Hania in January, for a planned release next year.The director, best known for his work on Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan, is in the midst of a 30-day shoot on locations in and around ...

  • News

    AFC continues support for low-budget pictures

    2006-12-19T00:00:00Z

    Two low-budget thrillers, Cactus and Cedar Boys, have received production funding from the AustralianFilm Commission (AFC), while a third film, TheBullet Boy, was promised money for post-production.Writer/director JasmineYuen-Carrucan, producer Paul Sullivan and executive producer Bryan Brown, whois best known internationally as an actor, are behind Cactus. The film tells the ...

  • News

    Romanian director Caranfil wraps epic The Rest Is Silence

    2006-12-17T15:00:00Z

    Romanian director Nae Caranfil (Philanthropy, Asphalt Tango) has concluded photography on The Rest Is Silence, a $3.2m retelling of the filming of the first Romanian feature in 1911. The production is unusual in its scope both in cost (the most expensive Romanian films in recent years, Philanthropy and Catalin Mitulescu's ...

  • News

    New production venture to back low-budget UK films

    2006-12-15T18:00:00Z

    A new joint venture between UK production outfit Matador Pictures and Regent Capital is to provide up to 30% of the budgets on a series of films qualifying for the new British tax break.The initiative - called Cinema One - will be focused on backing four to five films with ...

  • News

    France's Elia Films gets $13,200 production prize

    2006-12-14T04:00:00Z

    France's Institute for the Financing of Cinema & Cultural Industry (IFCIC)has awarded its third annual "young independent production company" prize toElia Films.The award was created in2004 and comes with a $13,216 (Euros 10,000) purse, which goes to a companythat has successfully sought financing for and either prepared or produced afeature ...

  • News

    UK producers voice concerns over new tax laws

    2006-12-13T23:00:00Z

    UK producers remain concerned about the scope of the new British tax laws, a panel of government representatives were told in London yesterday.The UK's new film tax breaks will come into practice on Jan 1, 2007, after a long journey of uncertainty but producers remain concerned about the qualifying criteria ...

  • News

    Nordisk on board for White Night

    2006-12-12T14:50:00Z

    Nordisk has taken on salesfor drama White Night by JannikJohansen.The project is shooting nowwith a cast including Lars Brygmann, Nicolas Bro, Anne Sophie Byder, RikkeLouise Andersson, and Morten Grunwald.Birgitte Skov and Morten Kaufmann are producing for NimbusFilm in collaboration with Fine & Mellow. Backers for the $3.2m (Euros 2.4m)film include ...

  • News

    Ferrara halfway through Cinecitta shoot for Go Go Tales

    2006-12-12T11:54:00Z

    Two dozen principal castmembers including Willem Dafoe, Matthew Modine, Bob Hoskins, Roy Dotrice andSylvia Miles are at Cinecitta's Studio 14 now half way through four weeks ofthe principal shooting of Go Go Tales, director Abel Ferrara's first foray into comedy which began shootingNov 27. The set - a three-floor NewYork ...

  • News

    New Barrandov facilities open with Babylon

    2006-12-11T18:00:00Z

    Canal+ sci-fi thriller Babylon A.D. will be the first feature film to shoot at a new 4,000-square-meter soundstage at Barrandov Studios in Prague. Mathieu Kassovitz will direct the film, which will star Vin Diesel and Vincent Cassel.A Peugeot automobile commercial will inaugurate the new soundstage before year's end. Kassovitz's crew ...

  • News

    China halts foreign investment in production companies

    2006-12-11T00:00:00Z

    A senior Chinese governmentofficial has confirmed that China has halted new foreign investment in film and TVproduction companies. The move overturns aregulation introduced in 2003 which allowed foreign companies to take stakes ofup to 49% in local production houses or Sino-foreign joint ventures.'Our policy is totemporarily not approve the creation ...

  • News

    Irish companies get slate development funding

    2006-12-07T04:00:00Z

    The Irish Film Board hasannounced ten successful applicants for its Multiple Project Development (MPD)funding, a multi-project development initiative drawn up in September. Following on from the IFB'sCompany Development Initiative (CDI) which went through two three-year cycles,MPD funding provides support for producers who have an attractive slate ofprojects to develop. It ...

  • News

    Goteborg Fund backs five new features

    2006-12-07T04:00:00Z

    The Goteborg InternationalFilm Festival (GIFF) in association with the Swedish International DevelopmentCooperation Agency (SIDA) has granted another $586,200 (SEK 4m) to films madein countries of transition. The five latest projects toget development support are: The First Rainy Day by Nguyen Phan Quang Binh (Vietnam) (which earlierreceive Goteborg funding at Pusan), ...

  • News

    Rickman joins Depp, Bonham Carter in Sweeney Todd

    2006-12-07T00:00:00Z

    Alan Rickman has been cast as the nefarious Judge Turpin in Dreamworks/WarnerBros' film of Stephen Sondheim's classic musical Sweeney Todd.Judge Turpin is a sinister creature who frames Todd andsteals his wife before meeting his untimely demise in Todd's barber's chair. TimBurton is directing the film which stars Johnny Depp as ...