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All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 157
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News
Zentropa launches Young Europeans production scheme
Danish powerhouse Zentropa has launched a new pan-European production initiative.Zentropa's partners are Young Europeans - as the initiative is called - aims to make eight films over a two year period. Budgets of each film will be in the $2.5m (1.5m Euros) range. The partners include IDTV in Holland, Slot ...
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News
Spike Lee shoots for Michael Jordan documentary
Inveterate sports fan Spike Lee is hatching a new feature documentaryabout basketball legend Michael Jordan. The project should be ready intime for next year's Cannes Festival.Lee's Jordan project is the latest in a line of high-profile auteurdriven sports docs, following on from James Toback's Tyson, about boxerMike Tysson, and Hand ...
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News
Juppiter back in business at Cannes
Italian production outfit Juppiter is back in business. Here in Cannes, the production outfit behind several classic Italian movies including key works by Ettore Scola and Tornatore has relaunched with a three film slate.Roberto Bessi, CEO of Juppiter Generale Cinematografica, is aiming to take advantage of new fiscal incentives likely ...
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News
Rome will go ahead after film fest head and Mayor
Following a meeting between the President of the Rome Film Fest Goffredo Bettini and the new Mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, it has been confirmed that the third edition of the Rome Film Fest will go ahead as planned from October 22-31.This meeting follows the outspoken criticisms of the festival ...
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News
Cineart snaps up competition titles
Belgian arthouse distributor Cineart has been snapping up titles in Cannes official selection. New acquisitions include Waltz With Bashir (on The Match Factory's Cannes slate) and Korean title The Chaser (sold by Fine Cut.)Among the films it has already acquired are Brazilian competition title Linha De Passe from Walter Salles ...
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News
Entertainment One's RCV bags hot titles for Benelux
Entertainment One, the fast growing Canadian media group, has announced recently bought Benelux distributor RCV Entertainment has closed distribution deals on some of the most anticipated projects on this years market.RCV's managing directors Jan A. Kouwenhoven and Joke Wartenbergh confirmed a selection of the titles they have secured. Among them ...
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News
Hans Christian Schmid prepares $9m political drama
Hans Christian Schmid (the award-winning director of Requiem) is to start shooting a new, as-yet-untitled political drama in July. The $9m project starring Kerry Fox tells the story of Hannah Maynard, a prosecutor at The Tribunal in The Hague who manages to convince a young Bosnian woman to testify against ...
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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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News
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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News
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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News
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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News
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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News
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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News
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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News
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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News
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 ...