All articles by Liz Shackleton – Page 145
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Movie Plus, Xinhua Media team for live-action Mulan
Canada's Movie Plus, China Film Group and Beijing and LA-based Xinhua Media Entertainment (XME) are joining forces to co-produce a $30m live-action version of the Chinese classic folk take Mulan. The film is expected to start shooting in China in the first half of next year. XME head David Lee ...
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Shaw Brothers calls off saledue to financial crisis
Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers has announced to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that is has ended all talks to sell a majority stake in the company, citing the current global financial crisis. The announcement marks the end of a bid by Chinese property developer Yeung Kwok-keung to buy a 75% ...
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Moment In June to open World Film Festival of Bangkok
Thai drama A Moment In June, directed by Nattapong O Wongtrinetrakul, will open this year's World Film Festival of Bangkok (Oct 24-Nov 1), while Martin Scorsese's Shine A Light will close the event. A Moment In June focuses on a group of individuals in modern Thai society and is screening ...
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Bigfoot strides into US theatrical distribution
US-Asian production and finance company Bigfoot Entertainment is entering US theatrical distribution with the release of its horror feature Midnight Movie on October 17. Produced by Bigfoot CEO Kacy Andrews, Liam Finn and Jacques Thelemaque, the film marks the directorial debut of Jack Messitt from a screenplay written by Mark ...
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Asian Film Market wraps quiet but productive third edition
Pusan's Asian Film Market (Oct 3-6) closed its third edition on Monday night, with most delegates agreeing it had felt like a quiet event, but many saying they had still found it productive. Certainly there wasn't much foot traffic at the market, held for the first time on three floors ...
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Ahmad, Lee Chang-dong take top PPP awards
Malaysian director Yasmin Ahmad's Forget-Me-Not, which is being produced by Japan's Wa Entertainment, picked up the $20,000 Pusan Awardat the closing of the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) on Monday night. The project tells the story of a Malay girl who goes to visit her relatives in Japan after her Japanese ...
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PT Jababeka, Multivision team on Indonesian studio
Indonesian real estate company PT Jababeka and production house Multivision Plus are joining forces to build a major studio complex, Indonesia Movieland, in the suburbs of Jakarta. The complex, which will take five years to complete, will be spread across 36 hectares on the 5,600-hectare Kota Jababeka development. The partners ...
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RGM set to tap Asian material for global distribution
Singapore-based RGM Entertainment, which has recently completed raising a $400m production fund, is now actively seeking Asian material with the aim of producing big-budget features for global distribution, said CEO Devesh Chetty at Pusan's Asian Film Funds Forum (AFFF)on Sunday. Chetty outlined the company's goals for the fund, which will ...
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Korea's ACTI set to launch pan-Asian film fund
Korean venture capital firm Asia Culture Technology Investment (ACTI) is planning to launch a five-year $24m (30bn won) pan-Asian film fund, with the aim of boosting the region's output and competitiveness with Hollywood. Tentatively titled the Asia Joint Production Film Fund, the fund will invest in co-productions with a focus ...
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Irresistible Films outlines strategy, new management team
New Hong Kong-based production company and filmfund, Irresistible Films, has announced its management team, including managing director Nansun Shi and general manager Lorna Tee. In addition, the company has appointed Jannie Wai as production co-ordinator. The appointments were announced by Irresistible Films director Buddy Marini, representing Japan's Avex Entertainment.The experienced ...
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The Weinstein Company's Asian Film Fund casts wide net
The Weinstein Company's vice president, Asian acquisitions and co-production Bey Logan, explained the company's criteria for selecting projects for its $285m Asian Film Fund, at Pusan's Asian Film Funds Forum over the weekend(Oct 3-5). Launched just over one year ago, the fund aims to back around 30 Asian-themed films over ...
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Asian financiers urged to learn from mistakes in the West
The Asian film biz should avoid over-supply and ensure that the interests of distributors and investors are aligned, said panellists at a seminar on Asian film funds at Pusan's Asian Film Market (Oct 3-6). The seminar, co-hosted by Screen International, also examined how film financing has become more difficult due ...
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Singapore Film Commission awards $1.6m to new directors
Nine Singapore directors have each received $170,000 (S$250,000) to direct their first feature-length film under the Singapore Film Commission's New Feature Film Fund. Funding was granted on the basis that each project has the potential to carry a Singapore-made story to overseas markets.The projects include Japan-Singapore co-production Thunder Boys as ...
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Asian Film Finance: Debt financing
In a region awash with equity, where film-makers and banks eye each other with caution, it is not surprising the Asian film industry does not use debt financing to a great degree. In general, banks are not familiar with production companies and distributors so do not know how to measure ...
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Asian Film Finance: Asian film funds on the rise
Outside of Korea, where the influx of funds and venture capital helped the local film industry grow to become a regional force, film funds have had a few false starts across the rest of Asia. Several funds have been announced but failed to leave the starting blocks or to fill ...
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Distribution Workshop kickstarts slate with Rain Fall
Distribution Workshop, the new Hong Kong-based production and sales outfit founded by Nansun Shi and Jeffrey Chan, has picked up international rights outside Japan to upcoming Japanese thriller Rain Fall, starring Gary Oldman. The $12m film, directed by Australian Max Mannix and produced by Japan's Satoru Iseki and Megumi Fukasawa, ...
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Tigerlily wraps production on Guo Xiaolu's La Chinoise
The UK's Tigerlily Films has wrapped production on London-set drama La Chinoise (working title), which is directed by Chinese writer and filmmaker Guo Xiaolu. Produced by Tigerlily's Natasha Dack through the Warp X Low Budget Initiative, the film follows a Chinese girl who moves to London and her encounters with ...
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Asia Film Finance: The world turns East
From an investor's point of view, the East Asian film industry is an exciting story: large markets across the region, lower production costs relative to the US and Europe, and the major growth engine of China, where box office has quadrupled to $459m in five years. Due to the rising ...
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PVC-1 takes top prize at Bangkok's Golden Kinnarees
Colombian feature PCV-1, directed by Spiros Stathoulopoulos, took the grand prix in the main competition of the Bangkok International Film Festival's Golden Kinnaree Awards on Sunday night. The three-person jury, comprising South-East Asian filmmakers Eric Khoo, Lav Diaz and Aditya Assarat, applauded the film for its 'raw, original and relentless ...
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Thai Entertainment Expo wraps brave but quiet first edition
The first ever Thailand Entertainment Expo (Sep 24-28) wrapped on Sunday, after a slightly busier weekend as the event was opened to the public, but overall business and buyers were thin on the ground. Organised by Thailand's Department of Export Promotion (DEP) and Ministry of Commerce, the five-day event brought ...