All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 155
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News
A-Film still in the arthouse buying game
New A-Film boss Wilco Wolfers has arrived in Cannes in acquisitive mood and keen to dispel the idea that the Dutch distribution outfit is in a period of retrenchment and is moving away from releasing arthouse fare.New acquisitions include Pablo Trapero's competition title Lions Den (Leonera) and Gregor Jordan's thriller ...
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Troubled German VIP fund back in business
VIP Medienfonds, the financier of such hits as Monster, Black Book and Perfume, is back in the film production business, says Thierry Potok, who took over as CEO of the German private media fund at the beginning of this month.VIP has more than $31m (20m Euros) in funding from VIP ...
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Footage from Moodysson's Mammoth set for Cannes screening
Producer Lars Jönsson of Memfis Film has revealed further details of Swedish wunderkind Lukas Moodysson's $12m English-language debut Mammoth (on TrustNordisk's Cannes slate.) On Sunday, there will be a closed screening for selected distributors of the first footage from the film, which stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams. Veteran ...
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After box-office boost, Norwegian film looks to future
Norwegian films have reached a record high of 32% market share in the first quarter of 2008. The figure was announced in Cannes this week by Wiegard Harsvik, deputy minister in Norway's Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs. 'The first quarter was way beyond target,' Harsvig commented of figures that ...
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Ghengis Khan conquers new territories
Buyers are galloping after Oscar nominated Byambasuren Davaa's feature documentary The Two Horses Of Genghis Khan (on Atrix's Cannes slate). Spanish rights have now gone to Madrid-based Karma Films. Meanwhile, Benelux rights have gone to Contact Films.The film begins shooting in June in Mongolia and is set for a theatrical ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Hard truths, soft money
Earlier this spring, when the UK government clamped down on "sole trader" schemes, it seemed like the last hurrah for a gold rush era in UK film financing. The old Section 48 and Section 42 tax reliefs were no longer in place. A period in which hundreds of millions of ...
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Features
Germany - Funding station
Look, it's not Speed Racer. It's not Iron Man. But this is a quality film, it's really fun and it's an amazing cast," says Jens Meurer of Egoli Tossell, the German producer of Michael Hoffman's English-language The Last Station, now shooting in Cologne.Set in 1910, the film tells the story ...
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Co-productions - Wish you were here'
The need to make international co-productions work is more compelling now than ever. Film-makers looking to work on a certain scale - and not just to make low-budget movies for local consumption - are rarely able to raise their budgets in their own countries.'As an independent producer without a billionaire ...
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Ben Stassen announces further sales on 3D title Fly Me To The Moon
Early in the market, it is clear that buyers' appetite for 3D fare shows no sign of waning. Ben Stassen, director/producer of Fly Me To The Moon, has announced further sales on the animated 3D adventure, which is being released in the US later this year by Summit.Stassen has confirmed ...
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TrustNordisk acquires $10m Norwegian war drama
Scandinavian powerhouse TrustNordisk has picked up $10m Norwegian war drama Max Manus directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg.The duo was also behind Bandidas, starring Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek and produced by Luc Besson.National release is December 19th. Nordisk Film will handle distribution in the Nordic Countries.Max Manus was ...
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News
NonStop takes biteNonStop takes bite of Swedish vampire film
Underlining its continuing appetite for genre fare.NonStop Sales hastaken on world sales for Swedish vampire movie Not Like Others.The film, billed as a 'sensitive relationship drama with vampireelements,' marks the feature debut of director Peter Pontikis.It is the story of two vampire sisters in contemporary Stockholm. The cast is headlined ...
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Davaa's Two Horses Of Dschingis Khan race to market
The Two Horses of Dschingis Khan, the latest project from Oscar nominee Byambasuren Davaa (The Story Of The Weeping Camel, The Cage Of The Yellow Dog), is stirring up interest in the market. Splendid's documentary division Polyband has taken German and Austrian rights to the film, which is on Atrix's ...
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Hunger to open Cannes Un Certain Regard
Steve McQueen's Hunger about IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands is to open the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. The film was a surprise ommission when the festival line-up was announced last week but its presence was confirmed today.British artist McQueen co-wrote the screenplay with award-winning playwright Enda Walsh (Disco ...
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News
Carlos Acosta to star in $3m feature for Rosa Bosch
Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta is set to star in a dramatic feature inspired by his own life story. The film, based on the Acosta biography No Way Home, will shoot in Cuba and the UK. Acosta's nephews will play him as a younger man.The $3m project is being produced ...
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Antonia's Line team back with My Father's Notebook
Marleen Gorris and Hans de Weers, the director/producer team behind Oscar winner Antonia's Line, are reuniting on a new feature, My Father's Notebook. The film, based on the bestseller by Kader Abdolah, is set at the time of the revolution in Iran and then in Holland a generation later. It ...
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Revamped Baker Street partners with Darkside on Kitchen Games
UK producer and film financier Baker Street Entertainment is partnering with London based animation studio Darkside Entertainment on ambitious new $8m (£4m)CGI animated feature, The Kitchen Games. The film comes billed as 'a tale of cutlery from opposite sides of the table, which compete once a year to decide who ...
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Profile: Zentropa co-founder Peter Aalbaek Jensen
Last month, Scandinavian major Nordisk Film acquired 50% of the shares in Denmark's Zentropa - backing that will enable the company founded by Lars von Trier and Peter Aalbaek Jensen to expand internationally.After years of Dogme manifestos, irreverence and a rebellious nature, has age finally caught up with the maverick ...
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UK landscape shifts as Warner moves to same-day VOD/DVD
Amid signs that the UK distribution market is in an increasing state of flux, British distributors are testing out more and more new ways of getting their movies in front of spectators.'Companies are beginning to look at imaginative release plans for films that 10 years ago simply wouldn't have been ...
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Space man: Duncan Jones talks about his feature debut
It is an early March morning at Shepperton Studios and Sam Rockwell is in a spaceship, shaving. He stars in Moon, an unusual and ambitious film which is being made in the spirit of classic 1970s sci-fi such as Ridley Scott's Alien and Douglas Trumbull's Silent Running.The film marks the ...
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Producer Iain Smith tapped to chair UK's new Industry Training Board
Famed UK producer Iain Smith (Children Of Men, Cold Mountain) has been appointed to chair the Film Industry Training Board (FITB).The appointment was confirmed today by The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). Under Smith, the FITB will have statutory levy powers. Its role is to ensure that the ...