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All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 177
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News
Consultant questions Venice's industry credentials
With 300 buyers in attendance and 80 market screenings, this year's Venice Festival would appear to be catering to industry demands as thoroughly as it can, given the Lido's awkward infrastructure. But Edith Grant, consultant to Venice's industry office, has questioned how deep the Biennale's commitment to staging a meaningful ...
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San Fu Maltha ready to fly with De Bernieres bestseller
BlackBookproducer San Fu Maltha has optioned bestseller BirdsWithout Wings from Louis De Bernieres, whose Captain Corelli's Mandolin was filmed in 2001 by WorkingTitle. Thestory is set in 19th Century Turkey, just as the Ottoman empire is beginning tocrumble. Dealingwith life in a small village split by religious and political tension, ...
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Granada steps up film commitment after Queen success
Following its success with The Queen, UK TV company Granada is to step up its commitment to feature film.Granada's controller of Drama and Comedy Andy Harries, speaking in Venice, has given details of a slate of new projects the company is developing. These include films with talent ranging from Paul ...
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Oliver Stone and Spike Lee get political in Venice
It was a day of fiery pressconferences in Venicewith Oliver Stone, Paul Verhoeven and Spike Lee allpresenting new films. A belligerent and upbeat Stone, on the Lido with World Trade Center, surprised onlookersby attacking the "cultural problem" of violence in US movies,chastising films such as Black Hawk Down and Pearl ...
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Nordisk to handle sales for Boe's Offscreen
Nordisk Film is to handle international sales on Camera D'or WinnerChristoffer Boe's latestfilm Offscreen,it has just been announced in Venice.Offscreen received its internationalpremiere in Venice Days earlier this week. The story of a man obsessed withputting his life on camera, the film was produced by AlphaVillePictures Copenhagen with support from ...
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Gil Rossellini plans two romantic comedies
Italian film-maker GilRossellini, whose latest film Kill GilII premiered in Venicethis week, is hatching two new feature projects. RaiCinema has already committed to boarding romantic comedy Once Upon A Time In Parma, set in the communitywhere parmesan cheese is produced. Rossellini is co-writing and will alsoproduce. It is yet to ...
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Seung-wan Ryoo stages Korean protest in Venice
Another festival, another Korean protest. Following in thefootsteps of Park Chan-Wook, who mounted a one-mandemonstration against the new screen quota laws in Korea during the BerlinFestival, fellow director Seung-wan Ryoo is taking to the streets in Venice.Today(Friday) at 4pm Ryoo will holdplacards denouncing the quota plans and mount a silent ...
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McGrath says Infamous offers distinct Capote portrait
First,in the early 1960s, there was Richard Brooks' film version of In Cold Blood. Then, last year, therewas Bennett Miller's well-received biopic, Capote,which netted Philip Seymour Hoffman an Oscar for his portrayal of the mercurialAmerican novelist, Truman Capote. Now, in Venice, a third film inspired byCapote's trip to Kansas to ...
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Williamson to team with Big Beach for Sunshine Cleaning
Former Focus Features production chief and now independent producerGlenn Williamson (whose latest film Hollywoodland received its world premiere in Venice yesterday) is to partnerwith Big Beach, the outfit behindbox-office hit Little Miss Sunshine,on Sunshine Cleaning.BigBeach is fully financing the project, with a budget of about $7m. Shooting isdue to begin ...
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Black Dahlia gets enthusiastic response in Venice
Brian De Palma's James Ellroy adaptation TheBlack Dahlia yesterday received a mixed but largely enthusiastic receptionas it opened the 63rd Venice Festival yesterday. Maverick crime novelist Ellroy himself - who attended the opening press conferencealongside stars Scarlett Johansson, Josh Hartnett,Aaron Eckhart, Mia Kirchner and director De Palma -was clearly delighted ...
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Venice opens with more talk of Rome rivalry
As the 63rd VeniceFilm Festival opened yesterday with the world premiere of Brian De Palma's TheBlack Dahlia, the rumbling row about what impact the upstart new Rome Festival(due to be held for the first time in October) will have on Venice's long-termfuture showed no sign of dissipating."We are in Venice.Let's ...
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Roger Michell opts out of next Bond film
Britishdirector Roger Michell has confirmed that he will notbe directing the next Bond movie, the 22nd in the 007 franchise."I'vedecided not to do it," Michell told ScreenDaily.com. "I was very tempted. Ispent a long time working on it but I wasn't tempted enough to actually jumpin. At the last minute, ...
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Reviews
Severance
Dir: Christopher Smith. UK. 2006. 95mins.The latest in a seemingly endless cycle of newBritish horror films, Christopher Smith's Severanceis slick, funny and determinedly superficial and derivative. The screenplay(co-written by Smith and James Moran) is leavened with sub-Viz humour, satirical asidesabout office politics and the arms trade, and self-parodicjokes. Smith, who ...
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The Lives Of Others director to host special screening for Attenborough
Florian Henckel von Donnsermarck is planning a private preview in London of his multiple award-winning debut feature The Lives Of Othersfor Richard Attenborough. "We're going to hold aspecial screening in England before the film premieres because I know that hedoesn't really like to go to premieres," von Donnersmarksaid. The young ...
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Kazakh epic Nomad racks up sales in Locarno
It may have had threedifferent directors and an immensely complex birth, but bloodcurdling Kazakhepic Nomad has caught buyers' hearts.The $35m epic, which received its international premiere in Locarno's Piazza Grande at the weekend, has been bought in anumber of international territories. In France, Nomadwill be co-distributed by Rezo and Wild ...
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Reviews
The Lives Of The Saints
Dirs: Rankin/Chris Cottam.100mins. UK. 2006.The Lives Of TheSaints is a bold but determinedly awkward affair in whichdebut directors Rankin and Chris Cottam ultimatelyrisk overstretching themselves. Individual sequences are strikingly shot andperformed and there is no faulting the film-makers' ambition or imagination - butthere is no disguising either the gauche moments ...
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Reviews
Stormbreaker (aka Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker)
Dir: Geoffrey Sax. UK-US-Ger. 2006. 93mins.Geoffrey Sax's Stormbreaker, the first in whatthe producers are hoping will become a new British movie franchise to rival Spy Kids or Harry Potter, announces its intentions right at the outset. The audienceare treated to a frantic chase in which James Bond-style superspyIan Rider (Ewan ...
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First ThinkTank draws 170 international delegates
The inaugural Copenhagen ThinkTank, which took place last week, has been pronounceda success by organisers. "I think it wasextraordinary. We had 170 people there, representing 34 countries including Australia and Canada," the Danish Film Institute's chief executiveHenning Camre said. During the conference, delegatesbrainstormed strategies for "strengthening and reinvigorating European film." ...
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London UK Film Focus to host 12 premieres
The London UK Film Focus(LUFF), the annual showcase of British films for invited UK and international buyers, is looking to set up aco-production market along the lines of Rotterdam's CineMart. "It may be at the beginningor end of LUFF in 2007," said Adrian Wootton, chiefexecutive of organiser Film London. "Initial ...
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Vue's buyout should help with flexible planning
Following its managementbuyout earlier this week, UK exhibitor VueEntertainment is aiming to open as many as 20 cinemas over the next threeyears. "We are continuing with a very aggressive expansion programme in the UK," Tim Richards, CEO of Vue,told ScreenDaily.com. The new cinemas will be ineither greenfield sites or will ...