All Finance articles – Page 347

  • News

    Harvey Keitel joins Sicilian Mafia thriller

    2001-02-27T17:06:00Z

    Harvey Keitel is continuing his love affair with European cinema and is now shooting Ginostra, a Sicilian-set Mafia thriller by French director Manuel Pradal.He is joined in the cast by Andie MacDowell, Asia Argento and Stefano Dionisi. Shooting continues until the end of March. The $11.9m (FF86m) English-language picture is ...

  • News

    3000 soldiers join Mogador Lovers

    2001-02-27T16:09:00Z

    Italy's Poetiche Cinematografiche has started shooting The Mogador Lovers, a love and war story which is being directed by the head of Morocco's national film body, Souheil Ben-Barka.Set in the 1930s, the film tells the story of a young Frenchwoman, the daughter of a judge stationed in Morocco, who defies ...

  • News

    IEG directs Traffic to Japan, Australia

    2001-02-25T02:29:00Z

    Initial Entertainment Group (IEG) has closed its last two remaining territories on Steven Soderbergh's Oscar contender Traffic, selling Japanese rights to Nippon Herald and Australian and New Zealand rights to Village Roadshow.In addition, IEG's CEO and president Graham King has closed a deal with Korea Pictures Co for Korean rights ...

  • News

    UK Film Council eyes IRA picture Bloody Sunday

    2001-02-25T02:15:00Z

    In a move bound to trigger controversy, UK public funding body the Film Council is likely to invest in Portman Film and Granada Film's Bloody Sunday, a feature about the real-life shooting of 13 unarmed civilians by members of the Parachute Regiment in Northern Ireland.The project, being made through Jim ...

  • News

    MCP backs Cronenberg's Spider with Fiennes

    2001-02-25T01:26:00Z

    Having departed as the director of Basic Instinct 2, David Cronenberg is back aboard the long-gestating psycho-thriller Spider that is now being financed through MM Media Capital Partners (MCP).Ralph Fiennes, originally attached to star opposite Miranda Richardson when the film was announced in October 2000 as a UGC production, also ...

  • News

    Summit spears diva Britney's first film project

    2001-02-24T21:05:00Z

    Pop diva Britney Spears is the latest American megastar on offer to international buyers courtesy of Summit Entertainment which has boarded her first feature film. The as yet untitled film is being financed by her record label Jive Records and is set to start shooting next month.Summit Entertainment had no ...

  • News

    Europe ready to roll its costliest cartoon feature

    2001-02-23T02:37:00Z

    Europe's most expensive animated feature, Simsala Grimm, is finally poised to go into production in May under the direction of cartoon veteran Gerd Hahn.Drawn from a Russian fairy tale, the long-in-development theatrical version sees the return of the evil characters from the eponymous TV series who attempt to take over ...

  • News

    Wild Bunch hits the road with The Red Siren

    2001-02-22T01:35:00Z

    French super-mini Wild Bunch has boarded its second English-language picture The Red Siren (La Sirene Rouge) by rising French filmmaker Olivier Megaton Fontana, a director rated by compatriot Luc Besson as one of the hottest emerging talents in Europe. Megaton's film is a road movie thriller with a heavy accent ...

  • News

    Del Toro, Rush join Intermedia's Assumption

    2001-02-22T01:33:00Z

    Two of this year's Oscar nominees Benicio Del Toro and Geoffrey Rush, together with acting legend Vanessa Redgrave, are all lining up to star opposite Juliette Binoche in Intermedia's period drama Assumption Of The Virgin.Directed by Walter Salles, the film stars Binoche as a nun lured away from her convent ...

  • News

    Fortissimo serves up spicy Thai dish

    2001-02-22T01:27:00Z

    Fortissimo Film Sales has picked up a trio of new pictures including Jan Dara, by Nonzee Nimibutr, the Thai director behind last year's pan-Asian blockbuster Nang Nak.His follow-up Jan Dara is a saga of sex, guilt and retribution set in 1930s Thailand which sees a young man return to a ...

  • News

    Hudlin to direct Chan in $35m martial arts fantasy

    2001-02-22T01:24:00Z

    Emperor Multi-media Group (EMG) has signed Reginald Hudlin to direct its Jackie Chan film The Highbinders which, at a suggested budget of $35m, is the most expensive film ever to be financed from Hong Kong. The English-language martial arts fantasy will shoot later in June or July in Hong Kong ...

  • News

    Franchise labels latest accusations

    2001-02-21T17:15:00Z

    Franchise Pictures' chairman Elie Samaha and president/COO Andrew Stevens yesterday responded to the latest charges in the lawsuit against them by Intertainment Licensing, labelling the accusations as "preposterous."Intertainment amended its suit on Tuesday to include Imperial Bank as a defendant, alleging that Imperial not only knew that the budgets on ...

  • News

    Romero thriller shakes Ricky's Bon Bon

    2001-02-21T00:55:00Z

    Latin singing superstar Ricky Martin is close to signing to star in his feature film debut in The Assassination - a political action thriller being directed by George A Romero and co-starring Oscar nominee Ed Harris, James Coburn and Anthony Quinn.. Set to start shooting in April, The Assassination is ...

  • News

    Miramax resumes love affair with foreign cinema

    2001-02-21T00:49:00Z

    A noticeably acquisitive Miramax Films is close to domestic deals on two of the hottest non-American titles on the current sales circuit -. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Cannes competition contender Amelie From Montmartre and Tsui Hark's The Legend Of Zu, starring Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon discovery Zhang Ziyi. In both cases Miramax ...

  • News

    Hollywood Partners champions Hill's Undisputed

    2001-02-04T19:40:00Z

    Hollywood Partners (HP), the Munich-based private film fund, has committed to co-financing and co-producing Walter Hill's Undisputed, starring Wesley Snipes, Ving Rhames and Peter Falk, in return for all foreign rights and certain income rights in the US and Canada.The film, which began shooting at a maximum security prison just ...

  • News

    Jodie Foster drops out as Cannes jury president

    2001-02-04T17:59:00Z

    Actress Jodie Foster has been forced to drop out as president of this year's Cannes Film Festival jury after being selected as a last-minute replacement for the injured Nicole Kidman in the lead role of David Fincher's The Panic Room.The impending threat of a summer strike, should either the writers ...

  • News

    MCP taps Levine as new creative affairs head

    2001-01-12T00:29:00Z

    MM Media Capital Partners has hired Jackie Levine, formerly head of development at Michael Douglas' Furthur Films, as its head of creative affairs. She will be based in MCP's Beverly Hills office.Her appointment follows the recent hiring of Lakeshore International's Peter Rogers to head up international sales and distribution operation ...

  • News

    Connery has Highland fling with Queen Of Scots

    2001-01-11T20:43:00Z

    Sean Connery is set to throw his weight behind the long-gestating Scottish period epic Mary, Queen Of Scots.Fountainbridge Films, the Scottish actor's production outfit, is set to board the lavish period piece, which is set up with co-financiers BBC Films and Intermedia. Intermedia already has a production pact with Fountainbridge.Acclaimed ...

  • News

    Depardieu adds heft to Bornedal's gothic romance

    2000-12-23T00:02:00Z

    Gerard Depardieu has joined the cast of Ole Bornedal's I Am Dina, an English-language gothic romance that is one of the most expensive Scandinavian film productions ever.The addition of the French actor, one of Europe's best paid stars, could further increase the $13m budget of the project, which is being ...

  • News

    Paramount Classics guns for Schroeder's Assassins

    2000-10-29T16:15:00Z

    StudioCanal has sold Barbet Schroeder's Our Lady Of The Assassins to Paramount Classics for the US. Paramount has also taken rights for Colombia, the country where the hard-hitting gay-themed film that takes place within a culture where human life is dirt cheap was secretly filmed. In addition, StudioCanal has struck ...