Latest – Page 779

  • News

    Screen East gets $4.4m investment boost from ERDA

    2007-05-19T04:00:00Z

    UK regional screen agency Screen East has secured a $4.4m (£2.2m) investment fund for the East of England that will support a minimum of 20 fictional features, documentary, TV and digital media projects.The Content Investment Fund is backed by the European Regional Development Fund and will be used for production ...

  • News

    Haneke's White Ribbon to tie up in February 2008

    2007-05-19T04:00:00Z

    Further details are beginning to emerge of Michael Haneke's next project, The White Ribbon, being made through Les Films Du Losange, X-Filme and Vega.Legendary screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere has been working on the screenplay of the film, a period piece set during the last days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.A sales agent ...

  • News

    Good News builds hot slate including Bin Laden title

    2007-05-19T04:00:00Z

    Yacoubian Building producers The Good News Group have announced a four-title multi genre film slate that shows the group intends to forge ahead with controversial and hot topics about the Arab world as shown from their own perspective.Al-Qaeda will be the title of an Osama Bin Laden, Aiman el-Zawhiri themed ...

  • News

    Davis and Keener travel to Winterbottom's Genova

    2007-05-19T04:00:00Z

    Hope Davis and Catherine Keener have been confirmed to join Colin Firth in Michael Winterbottom's next effort, Genova.Shooting will begin at the end of June in Genoa, Italy and Boston. Post-production will be done in the UK.Dreamachine is handling international sales and distribution on the film, which also stars relative ...

  • News

    Medavoy plans supernatural thriller Mile Zero

    2007-05-18T17:18:00Z

    Mike Medavoy's Phoenix Pictures, whose competition entry Zodiac screened in competition here on Thursday, is preparing the supernatural thriller Mile Zero.Medavoy, Arnold Messer, Brad Fischer and James Vanderbilt will produce and Erik Van Looy will direct from an original screenplay by Holly Brix.The producers are out to casting on the ...

  • News

    Northern Ireland gets $24m boost in new three-year plan

    2007-05-18T16:24:00Z

    The Northern Ireland Film and Television Commission has unveiled a new three-year strategy and restructured its funding programmes. In a nod to the digital era, the group has been renamed Northern Ireland Screen, and has gotten a new $24m package of support from Invest Northern Ireland.The new Northern Ireland Screen ...

  • News

    New Cinema Fund backs new Winterbottom and Warp X titles

    2007-05-18T15:15:00Z

    The UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund is backing several new projects including Michael Winterbottom's next film and thriller Donkey Punch, being sold in Cannes market by Lumina. The Film Council has awarded:$1.3m (£659,331) to Olly Blackburn's thriller Donkey Punch, in post-production for Warp X and being sold by Lumina ...

  • News

    Love Me Not gets Wasted

    2007-05-18T09:41:00Z

    New UK independent production company Loves Me Not Films has secured the option on its debut feature project Wasted.The British drama, written by Livy Austin, tells the story of the harsh reality behind the lives and loves of ordinary women living in the hard, professional city of London and explores ...

  • News

    Japanese in Cannes talk co-production cash

    2007-05-18T04:00:00Z

    Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunka-Cho) is attending Cannes this year to talk up the subsidies that are available in Japan for international co-productions.Since introducing a film promotion policy in 2003, the agency has $6.6m (Y800m) available annually to support production of domestic films. It now wants to alert international ...

  • News

    Black Book producer Maltha plans new WWII project with Isabella

    2007-05-18T04:00:00Z

    Following his success with Black Book, producer San Fu Maltha is tackling another World War II-themed project. Maltha's company Fu Works is to partner with Els Vandevorst's Isabella Films on a film adaptation of bestseller, Winter in Wartime (Oorlogswinter), by former Dutch politician Jan Terlouw.The film tells the story of ...

  • News

    Pop star Rain drops into Speed Racer cast

    2007-05-18T04:00:00Z

    Pan-Asian pop star Rain has joined the cast of the Wachowski brothers' upcoming Speed Racer, Warner Bros announced here.Rain, aka Jung Ji-hoon, made his big screen debut in Park Chan-wook's Berlinale competition title I'm a Cyborg but That's Okay. He is to play an young contender in Speed Racer, which ...

  • News

    El Deseo and Explora start production on Sipan tomb project

    2007-05-17T15:12:00Z

    El Deseo, the Almodovar brothers' Madrid-based production company, and Explora Films have started production on a $1.34m (Euros 1m) docudrama about the discovery and excavation of the ancient tomb of the Lord de Sipán in northern Peru.A spokeswoman for El Deseo called the tomb, remarkably intact after 1,700 years, 'the ...

  • News

    More cast lines up for Wrathall's Good shooting in Budapest

    2007-05-17T14:38:00Z

    Jason Isaacs, Jodie Whittaker and Mark Strong have joined Viggo Mortensen in the cast of Good, John Wrathall's screen adaptation of the CP Taylor stage play, directed by Vicente Amorim.Principal photography has begun in Budapest on the film, in which Viggo Mortensen plays the lead role of John Halder, a ...

  • News

    Vinnie Jones brings weight to The Heavy

    2007-05-17T14:29:00Z

    Making his directorial debut, Marcus Warren will commence principal photography on UK thriller The Heavy from May 20. Shooting in and around London for six weeks, utilising many of the Capital's major landmarks, The Heavy stars former champion boxer Gary Stretch (Dead Man's Shoes, Alexander) as a down on his ...

  • News

    De Niro, Pacino back together again in Righteous Kill

    2007-05-17T13:35:00Z

    Robert De Niro and Al Pacino will star together in the crime thriller Righteous Kill, a $60m production that signals Millennium Films and Emmett/Furla Films' most grandiose project to date.Jon Avnet will begin a two-month shoot in August in Connecticut on the story, which pairs the iconic stars as detectives ...

  • News

    Flanders Audiovisual Fund gets new injection of cash

    2007-05-17T10:17:00Z

    In a move that will provide a major boost to Flemish film production, the Flanders Cultural Affairs Minister Bert Anciaux has announced plans to increase Government support for State film body, the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF). Details of the funding emerged here in Cannes.Anciaux anticipates that the new injection of ...

  • News

    SCB on board for gap finance of Hippo's Wushu

    2007-05-17T04:00:00Z

    Hong Kong 's Hippopotamus Films has concluded a financing deal with Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), which will help arrange gap finance on its upcoming martial arts drama Wushu. SCB has pledged to lend up to 25% of the required funds for the $1.5m film once pre-conditions are met. The bank ...

  • News

    NZ starts sales on Ballantyne's debut

    2007-05-17T04:00:00Z

    NZ Film, the sales arm of the New Zealand Film Commission, is in Cannes announcing Armagan Ballantyne's debut feature The Strength Of Water, about a young boy who has to deal with an unexpected tragedy. Hopscotch has already acquired Australian and New Zealand rights. The Strength Of Water will start ...

  • News

    Voltage takes on Alan Rickman starrer Nobel Son

    2007-05-17T04:00:00Z

    Voltage Pictures has acquired international rights to the crime caper Nobel Son starring Alan Rickman that premiered recently at Tribeca. Director Randall Miller and CAA's Roeg Sutherland negotiated the deal with Voltage sales chief Nicolas Chartier, who will commence sales on the Croisette. Chartier also announced that James Cromwell has ...

  • News

    Future Films and Celsius come on board for Vivaldi biopic

    2007-05-17T04:00:00Z

    Boris Damast's Vivaldi biopic is picking up momentum. Producer and financier Future Films has now boarded the project, being made by Hand Picked Films and Mechaniks'. In Cannes today, it was confirmed that Celsius Entertainment will be handling sales. Joseph Fiennes stars as the legendary composer. Also in the cast ...