All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 185
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News
Icon does brisk business with Clear Day
UK sales outfit Icon International has been doing brisk business on therun up to Cannes with Gaby Dellal's On A Clear Day, securing salesto MK2 (France), Degeto/ARD for free TV in Germany as well as wrapping dealswith Portugal (Lusomundo), Israel (Shapira) and Iceland (Skifan.)On A Clear Day, the opening film ...
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News
Elton John to exec produce It's A Boy Girl Thing
SirElton John is to executive produce high school comedy It's A Boy Girl Thing through his company Rocket Pictures, it was announced this week. "Iabsolutely love this project. The script is hysterical - I can't stop laughingwhenever I read it," the British pop star commented.Directedby Nick Hurran (Little Black Book, ...
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News
Warner Bros boards Ant and Dec's Alien
Warner Bros is to handleinternational distribution on Alien Autopsy, the new feature showcasingthe acting talents of diminutive British TV presenters Ant and Dec. The film, produced by MichaelKuhn of Qwerty Films and Barnaby Thompson of Ealing Studios, begins shootingnext month.Alien Autopsy is a comedy abouttwo friends who make a spoof ...
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Dubrovnik Film Festival unveils competition line-up
The DubrovnikFilm Festival, taking place in Croatia immediately after Cannes, has confirmeddetails of its line-up and many of its guests. The festival (running 25 to 29May) is to open with Charles Dance's Ladies In Lavender and to close with Sahara.Britishactor John Hurt is President of the main festival jury. Other ...
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News
Willemsen parts company with Maurits Binger Institute
In a surprise move, it was announced last week that DickWillemsen's contract as director of the Maurits Binger Film Institutewill not be renewed. Willemsen is on six month's notice and will be leavingthe Institute in early August.Founded in 1995, the Amsterdam-based Binger Film Instituteoffers project-driven training for screenwriters, directors, producers ...
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News
Intandem mulls distribution move with Woolley's Stoned
A new entrant looks set to join UK's already crowdeddistribution sector. Gary Smith's Intandem Films is strongly considering handlingthe British release of Stephen Woolley's directorial debut, Stoned,about the life and death of Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones. Intandemfinanced and is selling the film, formerly known as The Wild And WyckedWorld ...
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UK exhibitors call for cinema rentals rethink
Thevexed issue of UK cinema rentals - the sums paid to distributors by exhibitors- has come into sharp focus following remarks by John Wilkinson, chiefexecutive of the Cinema Exhibitors' Association.UKrentals are reputed to be among the lowest in Europe, but Wilkinson has told ScreenInternational that in some cases they should ...
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News
Storitel launches $1m fund to back UK talent
Manchester-based producer Storitel Films, the company set upby software tycoon Paul Sherwood, has established a $1m development fund toback new British talent. "We're looking for exciting projects from people whoare not able to get access to production money through the normal channels.We're looking at talent rather than experience," Sherwood said ...
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News
UK set to lose Paramount's $120m Watchmen
In a move underlining justhow tough it is to keep big budget Hollywood movies in the UK, theproducers of Paramount's superhero thriller Watchmen are on the verge of taking the film away fromPinewood Studios. The $120m sci-fi epic isalready in pre-production at Pinewood, but last week, several crew members -some ...
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Pinewood Shepperton acquires Teddington Studios
The UK's largest studio player, Pinewood SheppertonPLC, has acquired Teddington Studios, it was announced to the London stockmarket today (April 1.) Pinewood Shepperton has bought Teddington Studios Limited,which is currently in administration, and the entire share capital of TheStudio Broadcasting Company Limited (SBC) for £2.7m. Teddington, which is based in ...
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Schrader defiant as Exorcist prequel unveiled
Paul Schrader was indefiant mood as his Exorcist The Prequel was finally unveiled this weekend at the Brussels InternationalFestival of Fantastic Film. Flanked at Friday's pressconference by nine of his cast and crew, who had flown in to Belgium at theirown expense to support him, Schrader expressed his happiness that ...
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Reviews
Exorcist: The Prequel
Dir:Paul Schrader. US. 2005. 111mins.Shroudedin controversy, almost buried at birth by its producers Morgan Creek (whocommissioned an alternative version by Renny Harlin), Paul Schrader's Exorcistprequel is a far richer affair than its troubled production history mightsuggest. A notable improvement on Harlin's rushed job (released to mediocrebusiness and largely damning reviews ...
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News
Sony Pictures Classics swallows Jordan's Breakfast
Sony Pictures Classics has taken North American, LatinAmerican, German and South African rights to Neil Jordan's latest film, BreakfastOn Pluto.Breakfast On Pluto is Jordan's second adaptation ofa novel by Patrick McCabe following on from his award-winning 1997 effort, ButcherBoy. Starring Irish trio Cillian Murphy, Stephen Rea and BrendanGleeson as well ...
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Sokurov plans 'free fantasy' version of Faust
Having tackled Hitler, Leninand Hirohito, Russian director Alexander Sokurov is to round off his four filmproject on "Men Of Power" with his own version of Faust. The new film, loosely basedon works by Goethe and Thomas Mann, promises to be in a very different registerto its dark and brooding predecessors, ...
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Loach sounds off over Iraq, Tsunami relief
Speakingin Berlin last week, Ken Loach (one of the three co-directors of portmanteaupicture Tickets) berated the double standards in western responses todeath and disaster. "Your country and mine have killed over 100,000 peoplein Iraq," Loach told a US journalist. "And we are encouraged to showno sympathy, to collect no money, ...
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News
Market gets animated about Euro-toons
European-madeanimated feature films are at last beginning to crawl out from underHollywood's shadow and establish a foothold in the international market. Thatwas the message in Berlin earlier this week as details of Cartoon Movie 2005,the three-day co-production forum and market, were announced.Theevent will take place in the middle of next ...
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Exorcist exhumed: Schrader's prequel gets world premiere
Provingthat in this era of DVDs, re-issues and special festival screenings, no footageis ever safely in the grave, Paul Schrader will bring his version of TheExorcist: The Beginning to the Brussels International Festival of FantasticFilm on March 18 in a precursor to what looks like a limited theatricalrollout.Thiswill be a ...
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News
US pack circles Dog Day doc
Based On A True Story, Walter Stokman's documentary about thereal events and characters behind Sidney Lumet's classic film, Dog DayAfternoon, is being circled by a small pack of US buyers currently inBerlin. Amsterdam-basedsales agent SND Films is weighing up offers from, among others, theatricaldistributors here!, Cinema Guild and Avatarand TV ...
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Fox sinks its teeth into Night Watch vampire franchise
20th Century Fox has unveiled its plans to build a global blockbusterfranchise out of Timur Bekmambetov's Night Watch (Nochnoj dozor), theRussian-language smash hit vampire thriller, playing at the Berlinale tomorrownight as a special screening.Last summer the studio bought worldwide rights (excluding Russia and theBaltic States) to the movie, which took ...
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Menzel serves up King Of England
Oscar-winning Czech directorJiri Menzel is finally set to direct his long-gestating adaptation of IServed The King Of England, one of the greatest novels by Czech writerBohumil Hrabal. The new project is beingpresented to potential production partners at the EFM by Czech sales anddistribution outfit AQS in advance of its official ...