All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 186
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News
Trust clinches int'l on Vinterberg's Wendy
ThomasVinterberg's controversial drama, Dear Wendy has been hitting the targetat the European Film Market. Followingpacked screenings in Berlin earlier this week, the film, scripted by Lars VonTrier, has been sold to Germany (Legend), the UK (Metrodome) Canada (TVA)films, Argentina (Distribution Company) and Peru (Gateno Films) Peru.USbuyers are also circling Dear ...
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Football fever spreads across int'l film industry
Withthe "Kaiser" Franz Beckenbauer in town yesterday and the World Cup tobe held in Germany next year, football fever is breaking out in the filmindustry. From Europe to South America, new football-themed films are beingplanned.InBrazil, Walter Salles (in Germany this week for the Berlinale Talent Campus) isbusy polishing the script ...
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Classic film out-takes lost in studio clear-out
Though a restored version ofMichael Cimino's epic Heaven's Gate has been screening in Berlin thisweek, it is now looks as if its out-takes will never be found - thanks to aclear-out at UA which saw discarded footage from this, and several other filmclassics, destroyed.It isn't just Heaven'sGate - out-takes from ...
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Massway leads the way for Chinese sales companies
In a move bound to boost the profile of Chinese filmabroad, independent companies from mainland China are now being allowed totravel abroad to represent films at international markets. Beijing-based Massway, one of the new wave ofprivately-financed sales agents, is at this year's European Film Market inBerlin for the very first ...
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Missing Tati title makes world bow
Exactly 47 years after itwas made, the English-language version of Jacques Tati's 1958 film, MonOncle, is receiving its world premiere in the Berlinale's retrospectivetoday.This is not a dubbed versionof the French original, but a film that was shot separately in English, withthe same actors. It contains sequences which are not ...
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Malta unveils new financial incentives to woo film-makers
The Maltese filmindustry suffered a body blow last year when, three months into pre-production,Steven Spielberg decided to postpone his highly contentious new film about theaftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics and concentrate on The War Of TheWorlds instead.Nonetheless,Malta (where films from Troy to Gladiator have shot in recentyears) is regrouping: ...
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Funds dry up at Euro Media Programme
The Media Programme'sdistribution support system appears to be in a state of disarray. Speaking inBerlin on Sunday, Raymond A. J. Goverde confirmed that the budget for 2004 ranout in mid-November and that no distributors have received the money they werepromised since then.Goverde (Head of MonitoringTeam at Media) said that the ...
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Gavin Films strikes US deal for Mothers And Daughters
Bill Gavin's Gavin Films hassold North American rights to Mothers And Daughters to SalonEntertainment.The US distributor isplanning a theatrical release for the low-budget British comedy, written,directed and produced by actors Hannah Davis and David Conolly exploring thetangled love lives and family relationships of middle class Londoners."Salon is making a verysignificant ...
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European Shooting Stars hit Berlin
"Listen to directors anddon't dream of being a star'do your job, be yourself, and it will work out inthe end." That was Man To Man directorRegis Wargnier's advice to the 21 fresh-faced actors and actresses from aroundEurope chosen for the 8th Shooting Stars initiative last week.Around 40 European castingagents are ...
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Obituary: Humbert Balsan
TheBerlinale began under a cloud with the news of the sudden death yesterday ofFrench producer and European Film Academy chairman Humbert Balsan. "We have lost one of our dearest friends and we willl miss him terribly," said festival director Dieter Kosslick.In a long producing career, Balsan worked with directorsof the ...
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Mackenzie readies post-Asylum projects
Rising young Scottish director David Mackenzie,whose latest film Asylum screens in Berlin's main competition, ishatching two new Scottish-based projects. Through Glasgow-based Sigma Productions,Mackenzie is set to direct an adaptation of Peter Jinks' novel Hallam Foe.A dark tale of an adolescent whose pet hobby is voyeurism, the film promises tobe in ...
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Michell set to embark on London Marathon
In Rotterdam last week for the festival screening of EnduringLove, British director Roger Michellrevealed further details of two future projects he is working on with WorkingTitle.Michell is about to take the leap into producing with theWorking Title backed Marathon, aportmanteau picture about six people competing in the London Marathon, one ...
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Reviews
06/05
Dir: Theo van Gogh. The Netherlands, 2004. 120 mins06/05 has considerable, albeit morbid, fascination as thelast feature of the Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who was killed by an Islamicextremist in November 2004. There are uncanny parallels between Van Gogh's owndismal fate and the events he depicts in the film. ...
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News
Sokurov's Sun to shine with The Works
In advance of what looks bound to be the busiest Berlinalefor British sales companies in recent memory, London-based The Works hasannounced it is handling international sales on Alexander Sokurov'sBerlin competition entry, The Sun. Set in occupied Japan at the end of the Second World War,the film examines the events surrounding ...
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Hanks options Cold Feet writer's Understudy
Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman's Playtone Productions hassnapped up film rights to The Understudy, the second novel from Britishwriter David Nicholls who is best known for his work on hit TV series ColdFeet. The Understudy is a romantic comedy about a failedactor and Nicholls is to write the screenplay himself. ...
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Fellowes to adapt best-selling novel Snobs
Oscar-winning British writerJulian Fellowes (Gosford Park) is to adapt his best-selling novel Snobsfor UK television - having been commissioned by the BBC's Gareth Neame.The novel, published lastyear, is a comedy about a middle-class woman on the make, trying to gatecrashinto high society circles. It is likely to be made into ...
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Random Harvest teams with Hammer, Winston on horror deal
In a move underliningthe growing market for quality, low-budget horror, British production andfinancing outfit Random Harvest is starting a new Enterprise InvestmentScheme (EIS) Company, Harvest PicturesIII, with Hammer Films and LA-based Stan Winston Productions.Harvest Pictures IIIwill back new horror films from Hammer, Stan Winston and Four Horsemen Films(Random Harvest's genre ...
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2004: A taxing year in the UK
It has been a taxing year. The Treasury's February'bombshell' outlawing tax partnerships such as Ingenious'Inside Track and Grosvenor Park's First Choice knocked a hole through thefinancing of many productions.In the wake of that decision, the emphasis was on damagelimitation. Though few could work out how the government's much-vaunted20% tax credits ...
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Marrakech mulls film market launch
The Marrakech International Film Festival is likely to setup its own market, artistic-director Bruno Barde has told ScreenDaily.com."We will organise a small market for theArabic countries," Barde said, but declined to give further details ofwhat form such a market might take.Put together in frantic haste in a littleunder three months, ...
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Alexander doesn't fit Hollywood formula, says Stone
Despite Alexander's failure to conquer the US,writer-director Oliver Stone was in bullish mood at the Marrakech Festival,where his three hour sword and sandal epic was presented earlier this week.Stone told the press that the film would nothave been possible to finance or shoot in the US. 'The script was just ...