All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 179
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News
Wild Bunch back Marc Caro's new sci-fi action film
Marc Caro, the French film-makerwho collaborated with Jean-Pierre Jeunet on Delicatessen and The City Of Lost Children, is preparing anextravagant new sci-fi action movie called DanteXXI that is being represented for worldwide sales by Wild Bunch.Billed by the seller as Cubemeets Gattaca,it's a tale about a convict in space. Tormented ...
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News
Troubled German media fund will fight on, says CEO
Andy GroschCEO of beleaguered German media fund VIP, made a defiant defence ofhis company at the Screen International Europe Film Finance Summit, shruggingoff a new lawsuit being prepared against the company as pure nonsense. Eventhough his business partner Andreas Schmid has beenin custody on charges of tax evasion since Sept ...
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News
Gilliam goes west with McMurtry's Billy The Kid
Terry Gilliam is to team up with Brokeback Mountain co-screenwriter and Pulitzer Prize-winner Larry McMurtry on AnythingFor Billy, a new feature inspired by wild west anti-hero, Billy The Kid. Gilliam is attached to direct the new project, which isadapted from McMurtry's best-selling novel. Anything For Billyis about Ben Sippy, an ...
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Reviews
Gitmo
Dirs: Erik Gandini,Tarik Saleh. 78mins. Den-Swe. 2005.There is something Kafka-esqueabout the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba. Despitebeing part of the War On Terror, prisoners detainedhere in their strident orange suits are not given "Prisoner Of War" status butare treated as "Unlawful Combatants." Many have been left in limbo for ...
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Reviews
Running Scared
Dir/scr: Wayne Kramer. US-Ger. 2006. 122mins.Film-maker Wayne Kramer follows up hisOscar-nominated film noir The Cooler withRunning Scared, a hyper-charged,ultra-violent thriller that opens in frantic fashion and never slows down.While Kramer succeeds insetting a relentless narrative pace and shows plenty of flair for stagingbloody set-pieces, his sledgehammer approach has obvious drawbacks. ...
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Reviews
KZ
Dir/sc: Rex Bloomstein. UK.2005. 97mins.Initially KZ,Rex Bloomstein's harrowing documentary, appears tocover seemingly familiar territory. His subject is the former concentrationcamp of the title, located at Mauthausen in UpperAustria, and the last of the Nazi death camps to be liberated after the war.Thousands of men, women and children from more than ...
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News
Director Joe Wright collaborating on Hangover Square
Sought-after young Britishdirector Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice)and writer David Nicholls (Starter forTen) are collaborating on a new version of Patrick Hamilton's classic 1941novel, Hangover Square, for Fox/DNA. Dixie Linder is to producethe feature, currently in development at DNA.Fox own the rights to Hamilton's novel. It has been filmedfor the ...
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Wild Bunch to launch sales for Leconte feature
French outfit Wild Bunch is to launch sales on Mon Meilleur Ami,(My Best Friend), Patrice Leconte's latestfeature at the Paris Rendez-Vous later this month. Touted as a comedy in the style of François Veber, Leconte's new film tellsthe story of a snobbish art gallery owner who gradually comes to realise ...
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Reviews
Lassie
Dir/scr: Charles Sturridge. UK-Ire-Fr-US 2005.Hansomely crafted, full of lively performancesfrom both animals and humans, and with far more satirical bite than might havebeen expected, Charles Sturridge's Lassie is a richlysatisfying affair.In drawing his inspirationdirectly from Eric Knight's 1938 story, Sturridge hastaken the famous collie away from Hollywood and back to ...
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News
Peter La Terriere to produce Quiver
Ex-Trainspotting hardman and former Bond villain RobertCarlyle is to star as Cupid in a new romantic comedy, Quiver, being set up by London-based First Foot Films. Frenchactress Virginie Ledoyen (The Beach) will play the woman whobreaks his heart. Also in the cast is James McAvoy.Scripted by Liam Gavin, Quiver is ...
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News
Atmo and Zentropa to partner on animation film
Swedishproduction outfit Atmo and Lars Von Trier's Zentropa are partneringon an unusual new cartoon venture - an adult-themed, English-language animatedsatire which promises to lay bare the political tensions at the heart of modernEurope.Metro, asthe animated feature is called, is written and directed by TarikSaleh (whose Guantanamo Bay documentary Gitmo received ...
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Reviews
Keeping Mum
Dir: Niall Johnson. UK. 2005. 103mins.Keeping Mum is acurious mish-mash: part morbid comedy in the vein ofold Ealing classic Kind Hearts And Coronets, part family drama, part Rowan Atkinsonvehicle, part murder mystery, part Mary Poppins, its disparate elements are thrown together withlittle craft or subtlety.Director and co-writer NiallJohnson never seems ...
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News
Drouot takes MD role at Flemish Audiovisual Fund
PierreDrouot has been appointed managing director of the Flemish Audiovisual Fund(VAF), it was announced late last week. Hesucceeds former MD Luckas vander Taelen, who made an abrupt exit from the Fundearlier this month.Drouotalready worked for the Fund in various capacities, for instance as a mentorguiding young filmmakers and as a ...
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Dutch doc festival focuses on freedom of speech
AyaanHirsi Ali was a surprise guest at the opening of theInternational Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). In her speech to festivalguests, the Somalian-born Dutch MP and filmmaker hailed IDFA for dedicatingthis year's event to freedom of speech and for offering a platform "tomakers of documentaries about Muslim women and the lives ...
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News
Verhoeven steers new course for shipwreck tale
Paul Verhoeven and his regularscriptwriter Gerard Soeteman are pushing ahead again with Batavia's Graveyard, their blood-curdlinghistorical epic about the shipwreck of the Bataviain 1629. The film was previously set up at FilmFour."It's a story in the directionof the Bounty but it's much more about the development of a fascist regime," ...
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Allegro joint slate with F&ME reaches Fever pitch
Austrian production outfitAllegro Films is joining with London's Film and Music Entertainment on a slateof three films including a new project, Fever,to be directed by Bruce Beresford (DrivingMiss Daisy). First up is the latestproject from Swiss-born director Simon Aeby,titled MulberryCrossing. This will shoot in English,with a British cast. Currently ...
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New Serko deals for Diot's Onoma
Pascale Diot's Paris-basedOnoma has closed new deals on Serko,the 19th Century-set Russian adventure on which it is co-producer aswell as sales agent. Italy's Lucky Red and Switzerland's Monopole Pathe have joined distributors announced at AFM such as Seville Pictures for Canada and Cineartfor Benelux. Directed by JoelFarges, the film follows ...
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News
Flemish fund terminates managing director's contract
The Board of Governors of the Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF) has terminated the contract of its managing director Luckas vander Taelen. Financial director Hans Everaert and Pierre Drouot (producer of Toto The Hero) will take over the running of the Fund until a new MD is appointed. The reasons for ...
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News
Kilmer joins Silverstone, Gallo in Luna's Moscow Zero
Val Kilmer has beenconfirmed as the third major lead in Moscow Zero, the psychological horror picture from cult directorLuna. Appearing alongside Vincent Gallo and Alicia Silverstone, he will play anunderground dweller fighting demons in the Moscow subway. Shooting begins nextmonth in Russia and Spain.The project, sold byValentia at the AFM, ...
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Content sells Mee Shee to VCL/Warner and others
Content Film has closed adeal with VCL/Warner for German rights to its new family adventure, $25 millionMee-Shee The Water Giant. Thedeal was the first major territory closed on the film, which features specialeffects from Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Deals with Senafor Iceland, Lusomundo for Portugal, WEG India for India, Intersonic ...