All articles by Melanie Rodier – Page 42
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De Angelis makes Magnificent film move
Alfonso Arau's $16m remake of The Magnificent Ambersons, a project which began life as a mini-series when it went into production this year, has now been transformed into a full-fledged feature film as part of a push into the theatrical business by its European backer, The De Angelis Group.Former RKO ...
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Floods delay Italy's St Vincent Prize
Italy's prestigious St. Vincent Prize for Italian cinema, scheduled to be held this week, has been postponed due to the heavy flooding that has swamped north-western Italy in the last couple of weeks. Felice Laudadio, director of the Valle d'Aosta-based St. Vincent festival, said it would be "inopportune" to hold ...
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Istituto Luce grabs Semana Santa
Italian state-funded distributor Istituto Luce has acquired local rights to Pepe Danquart's English-language thriller Semana Santa, starring Mira Sorvino and Olivier Martinez, which is currently shooting in Seville.UGC International is handling sales on the $5m film about a female US police detective who becomes involved in a double murder case ...
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Mancini appointed Cinecitta general director
Italy's Cinecitta Studios has named Lamberto Mancini as its new general director, replacing Antonio More who had held the position for more than ten years.Mancini, 40, worked in business and marketing before becoming deputy general director of the Italian studio in June 1999. The appointment was voted in by Cinecitta ...
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TMC taps Giovalli to lure youth audience
Italian publishing giant Seat has appointed Roberto Giovalli as Telemontecarlo's (TMC's) new chief of programming, as part of its drive to target the youth market and rake a healthy portion of the TV advertising market.Giovalli, who takes up the post on November 1, is currently director of Mediaset's youth-orientated channel, ...
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Profit attempts to grab share of Italian TV market
Italian media company Profit has acquired local broadcaster Odeon TV, in a bid to build a satellite television network that could break RAI and Mediaset's stranglehold on the Italian TV advertising market.Milan-based Odeon TV owns 16 stations nationwide and has an average audience of about 4-5 million. Profit owns children's ...
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Italy's Pablo snaps up Turin trio
Fledgling Italian distributor Pablo has hoovered up local rights to three films set to screen at next month's Turin Film Festival: I Nostri Anni, directed by Daniele Gaglianone, Corso Salani's Occidente and documentary I Fantasisti. I Nostri Anni, about two World War II veterans tormented by their war memories, and ...
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Mediatrade launches Cross Media unit
Mediatrade, the rights trading arm of Italian media giant Fininvest, is setting up an umbrella organisation, Cross Media Factory, to seek synergies between Fininvest's publishing, internet, film and television arms.Mediatrade president Maurizio Costanzo and managing director Roberto Pace said the first projects for the new company, which aims to be ...
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Bignardi to replace Mueller at Locarno
The Locarno International Film Festival has appointed Italian film critic Irene Bignardi as its new director, replacing Marco Mueller who quit at the end of this year's event in August. Bignardi, 57, currently works as a film critic and columnist for Rome daily La Repubblica. Until recently, she was also ...
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RAI to seek international partners
Italian state broadcaster RAI continues to deny rumours that its television channels are about to be privatised, but according to board member Stefano Balassone, will seek global partners as soon as it gains autonomy from the Italian government.The Italian parliament has recently stepped up efforts to push through statutory reforms ...
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Zeffirelli, Paskaljevic head Cattleya slate
Having set new box office records even before its official UK and US releases, its no surprise that Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone is making news in every territory as soon as it is released.In Germany, Potter has broken Men In Black's four year record of 1.95m admissions for ...
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DVD sales drive Italian video sector growth
Italy's home video market grew 3% last year, buoyed by the blossoming DVD sector and an upswing in news-stand videocassette prices and rentals.The home-video market posted a turnover of approximately $575m in 1999, according to Univideo, Italy's home entertainment association. DVD sales soared, with a 450 % increase in ...
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Mediaset to acquire Kirch stake
Italian broadcaster Mediaset has announced that it will acquire a 2.48 % stake in its German partner, Kirch Media, underscoring both companies' aim to cement their film buying and production alliance, Epsilon.Additionally, Mediaset's board of directors approved a plan to increase the group's share in Spain's Telecinco by 5% to ...
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Locarno appoints Solari as president
The Locarno International Film Festival has appointed Marco Solari to succeed Giuseppe Buffi as president of the festival.Solari, an executive at the Swiss publishing house Ringier AG, will officially take over from the festival's committee of directors who had shared the president's duties after Buffi's sudden death on the eve ...
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Italian watchdog fines Stream, Telepiu
Italy's communications watchdog has slapped a $130,000 fine onto rival pay-TV groups Stream and Telepiu for failing to agree to a single decoder that will allow viewers to freely zap from one channel to another.Communications chief Enzo Cheli ordered the two groups to undertake the necessary measures within the next ...
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Italy's Scimeca lines up Spanish period drama
Sicilian director Pasquale Scimeca, whose Placido Rizzotto premiered this week in the Venice film festival's Filmmakers of Today sidebar, has finished writing his next project which will be set in 15th Century Spain.The film will recount the period when a royal edict forced thousands of persecuted Jews to leave Spain. ...
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Kieft, Mediaport set to open first Cinestar 'plex
German exhibitor Kieft & Kieft Filmtheater will open its first multiplex through the Cinestar joint venture, created with Italy's Mediaport and property developer Dora, in Udine, Italy on September 14. Kieft and Mediaport, which is part-owned by state-backed Italian producer-distributor Istituto Luce, launched the joint venture, which aims to build ...
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Key chief mimics Factory with artists' collective
Kermit Smith, head of Italian distributor Key Films, is creating an artists' collective, called Happy Together, which plans to promote, produce and distribute independent Italian films."I would like it be a creative forum similar to Andy Warhol's Factory in the 1970s," Smith said, referring to the US artist's famed gathering ...
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Venice to introduce TV festival
Venice will hold its first International Television Festival in March 2002, an event that will be helmed by former Munich festival chief Marlene Sternbaum and Veneziafiere president Gabriele Zanetto.The new television festival will be officially unveiled on September 8 at the Venice film festival (Aug 30- Sept 9) by Venice ...
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Scorsese documentary pulled from Venice line-up
Martin Scorsese has pulled his much-awaited Italian cinema documentary out of this year's Venice film festival, saying that the four-hour film, entitled Il Mio Viaggio In Italia is not yet ready to be screened."Due to the nature of working with old films and elements that are sometimes forty and fifty ...