All Finance articles – Page 328

  • News

    Jingle Ma to direct Jackie Chan in $40m Titanium Rain

    2002-06-28T04:05:00Z

    Media Asia has lined up hot Hong Kong director Jingle Ma to direct its $40m Jackie Chan vehicle Titanium Rain.The futuristic action title is set in China, the US and Japan and is being scripted in both English and Mandarin. Production is scheduled to start next March for release during ...

  • News

    Ketan Mehta to produce The Rising, raise $12m via IPO

    2002-06-28T04:05:00Z

    Veteran Hindi film producer and director Ketan Mehta has announced plans to produce a three-part international English-language feature titled The Rising based on the 1857 revolt of the Indian forces against the British Raj. Mehta, chairman and managing director of Maya Entertainment Ltd (MEL), told Screendaily that the company is ...

  • News

    Singapore's Raintree strikes joint production deal with Media Asia

    2002-06-27T04:05:00Z

    Singapore's Raintree Pictures is planning a substantial production expansion after signing a deal with Hong Kong major Media Asia.The deal sees the two companies agree to jointly produce between four and six films per year. Production costs will be equally shared. "It resembles a first look deal, but with a ...

  • News

    Swedish TV comedy outfit plans first feature film

    2002-06-25T04:05:00Z

    Sweden's most popular TV comedy production outfit, Killingganget, will celebrate its ten-year anniversary by making its first feature film.In line with actor/writer group Killingganget's hugely successful TV formula the project will be a comedy consisting of several stories tied together the central characters.The Swedish-language film, which has three different working ...

  • News

    Mike Newell to pilot Deighton's Bomber

    2002-06-25T00:00:00Z

    Mike Newell is to direct an adaptation of Len Deighton's World War II novel Bomber.Roger Randall-Cutler, whose credits include Dance With A Stranger and The Commitments, is producing Bomber with Robert Cheek at the First Film Company. Leigh Jackson is adapting the book, which follows 24 hours in an Allied ...

  • News

    Tough times see Spanish producers adopt novel approach

    2002-06-25T00:00:00Z

    The tough climate for film financing in Spain is causing producers to turn to literary adaptations, especially works which have already proven popular with audiences and critics. Indeed, there are currently more than a dozen films based on novels in advanced stages of production in Spain.The current batch includes director ...

  • News

    UK's Film Consortium names Neil Peplow head of production

    2002-06-24T00:00:00Z

    Neil Peplow is taking over as head of production at UK National Lottery franchise The Film Consortium, replacing Julie Baines with immediate effect.Peplow recently produced Mike Bassett: England Manager and The Abduction Club. He was co-producer on Waking Ned and Shooting Fish, working with Richard Holmes, the former managing director ...

  • News

    German production community faces 90% reduction

    2002-06-21T04:05:00Z

    The German production community is facing a crisis which could see the numbers of film and TV producers decimated by the end of next year, according to Stefan Arndt of X-Filme Creative Pool.Speaking at a discussion during Cologne's Medienforum on the future structure of the new German Film Law (FFG), ...

  • News

    The Tunnel's Teamworx team picks up producers' prize

    2002-06-20T04:05:00Z

    German production company Teamworx's Nico Hofmann, Ariane Krampe, and Bettina Reitz, the team behind "event television" productions The Tunnel and Tanz Mit Dem Teufel - Die Entfuehrung Des Richard Oetker, have been awarded this year's Producers' Prize at the Cologne Conference. Picked up in January at the Rotterdam Film Festival ...

  • News

    Scala boards dialogue-free debut feature

    2002-06-20T04:05:00Z

    The UK's Scala Productions has boarded Wounded, a dialogue-free feature from new UK production outfit Kaos Films.A contemporary thriller set in the wilds of North America, the film is produced by Arif Hussein and Piers Jackson, who was previously head of development and production at Screen Production Associates. "Basically, two ...

  • News

    Jeremy Thomas reveals cast of Bertolucci's Dreamers

    2002-06-20T04:05:00Z

    Michael Pitt, Eva Green and Louis Garrel will star in Bernardo Bertolucci's next film, The Dreamers, producer Jeremy Thomas announced on Wednesday.Newcomers Green and Garrel play a brother and sister in Paris in 1968 who invite a young American played by Pitt to stay. Set against the turbulent political backdrop ...

  • News

    Anant Singh snaps up Deepak Chopra film rights

    2002-06-20T04:05:00Z

    South African producer Anant Singh, head of Videovision and Distant Horizon, has snapped up the much sought-after film rights to 'mind-body-spirit' guru Deepak Chopra's fictional works The Return Of Merlin and Soulmate. The deal was negotiated and concluded during Chopra's visit to South Africa last week. The rights to The ...

  • News

    Endeavour finishes photography on biggest budget Russian picture since 1998

    2002-06-18T04:05:00Z

    Major photography has just finished on new English language co-production, The St Petersburg Cannes Express, the biggest budget production to shoot in Russia since the 1998 financial crisis and the first in a slated series of new Russian projects being developed by Los Angeles-based Endeavour Productions. Directed and scripted by ...

  • News

    IEG pumps fresh blood into Jordan's $55m Borgia epic

    2002-06-18T00:00:00Z

    Neil Jordan's European epic Borgia is back on its feet after partnering with Graham King's Initial Entertainment Group.The $55m production is set to star Ewan McGregor, Christina Ricci, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Antonio Banderas and John Malkovich. Initial will handle world sales, with 20th Century Fox retaining North American rights.The ...

  • News

    Heidi delayed by KirchGroup fallout

    2002-06-17T04:05:00Z

    German media giant KirchGroup's bankruptcy has brought work on animated feature film Heidi to a standstill and may threaten the future of animation specialist TV Loonlands' Budapest facility after payments from group subsidiary TaurusProduktion, the film's co-producer failed to materialise.Animation specialist TV-Loonland, the film's other co-producer was forced to lay ...

  • News

    Norwegian Film Fund banks on The Beautiful Country

    2002-06-14T04:05:00Z

    The Norwegian Film Fund, which is shortly to celebrate its first birthday, is spreading its money widely in its latest funding round, backing two international projects as well as four local productions.The $6.3m English language drama The Beautiful Country, starring Nick Nolte and Harvey Keitel and directed by Hans Petter ...

  • News

    South African broadcaster makes first film investment

    2002-06-14T04:05:00Z

    For years, the major South African broadcasters, like M-Net, the SABC and free to air Channel e-TV have resolutely avoided investing in feature films - a move many local producers claim has prevented the rise of a viable local film industry.In an unprecedented move, however, South African cable station M-Net ...

  • News

    Polish composer scores English-language Danish tale

    2002-06-14T00:00:00Z

    Multiple award-winning Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner is to compose the score for Thomas Vinterberg's highly anticipated science-fiction fable It's All About Love, which is in the final stages of post-production in Copenhagen. The composer won international acclaim for his work on countryman Krzysztof Kieslowski's Dekalog and Trois Couleurs trilogy, which ...

  • News

    TV audience determines German blockbuster director's next movie

    2002-06-13T04:05:00Z

    Michael "Bully" Herbig, director-producer of German box-office phenomenon Manitou's Shoe, is planning a spoof of cult TV series Star Trek as his next film after asking viewers of his TV show Bullyparade to vote among four alternatives "Basically, the whole thing was an act of desperation", Herbig explained. "I asked ...

  • News

    Celador Films appoints head of production and development

    2002-06-13T04:05:00Z

    Leading UK independent TV producer Celador Films, best known for hit quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire', is stepping up its film activities.The company has appointed Christian Colson, head of development at Miramax Films' UK arm, to oversee production and development. Colson and Celador have just collaborated on ...