All articles by Mike Goodridge – Page 55
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Reviews
Mission: Impossible III
Dir: JJ Abrams. US. 2005. 125mins.The Mission:Impossible franchise comes full circle and returns to its TV origins withthe frenetic third film directed by small-screen icon JJ Abrams,whose series like Lost and Alias have resuscitated longform drama on the US networks. Like a souped-up $150m episode of Alias, the film is ...
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News
Mark Gill is out at Warner Independent Pictures
Ina surprise announcement released last night (Tuesday), Warner Bros Picturesannounced that Mark Gill is leaving his post as president of Warner IndependentPictures (WIP). Gillwill enter into a production deal with the studio effective May 4, said JeffRobinov, president of Warner Bros Pictures, in the statement.Themovie is surprising only in that ...
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News
Hungarian distributor signs for Freedom's Fury
BestHollywood has acquired distribution rights in Hungary to English-languagedocumentary Freedom's Fury, which had its world premiere last week at theTribeca Film Festival.Thefilm, which looks at the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the politicized waterpolo match between Hungary and the USSR at that year's Melbourne Olympics,will be released in Hungary on ...
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Reviews
Middletown
Dir: Brian Kirk. UK-Ire. 2006.90mins.The feature debut of Northern Ireland-born TV andcommercials director Brian Kirk, Middletownis a melodramatic brew of family rivalries and religious fervour set in anisolated Irish village in the 1960s. The film is marked out by some strongacting, and its theatrical prospects will certainly be boosted by ...
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Reviews
The Sentinel
Dir: Clark Johnson. US.2006. 108mins.One of the biggest challenges facing contemporary UScinema is the high quality of homegrown TV drama, beit The West Wing, The Shield or The Sopranos or so-called "procedurals" like Law And Order or CSI. It is why a movie like TheSentinel, a White House-set thriller about ...
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News
Miami Film Festival takes industry delegation to Chile
The Miami International FilmFestival (MIFF) has launched an industry delegation to Chile this week to shareknowledge, build contacts and increase exposure to media and industryprofessionals in the local film community.The initiative is the secondpart of a film exchange programme launched during the 2006 festival in Marchwhen the work of six ...
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Kirk's Middletown is late entry to Tribeca
Brian Kirk's Middletown has been added to the Discovery Section of theupcoming Tribeca Film Festival.The UK/Ireland co-productionproduced by Michael Casey (Freeze Frame) is set in Ireland's Bible belt and tells the story of two brothers,one wracked by the love of his family, the other by the love of his god.Andrew ...
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Those Happy Days has world premiere, then wins audience prize at LA French Film Festival
ThoseHappy Days (Ces Jours Heureux), the second feature film from Eric Toledano and OlivierNakeche, won the audience choice award at the tenth annual City Of Lights, CityOf Angels (COLCOA) French Film Festival in Los Angeles which closed on Sunday.Thefilm, which had its world premiere at COLCOA, stars Jean-Paul Rouve as ...
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News
Fox teams with Denmark's Nordisk for digital exhibition
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown has become 20th Century Fox International'sfirst digital release in JPEG2000 on the Nordisk Film circuit in Denmark.The move complies with Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), a July2005 joint venture formed by the major studios issuing specifications definingJPEG2000 as the sole and unique file compression format for ...
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Reviews
American Dreamz
Dir: Paul Weitz. US. 2006. 107mins.A comedy attempting to have fun at the expense ofseveral contemporary US institutions - George Bush and reality TV among them - American Dreamzis a disappointingly lame follow-up by director Paul Weitzto the pleasantly understated In GoodCompany. Too broad and obvious to rate as satire, ...
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Reviews
Come Early Morning
Dir: Joey Lauren Adams. US.2006. 97mins.Response was mixed at the Sundance Film Festival inJanuary to Joey Lauren Adams' directorial debut Come Early Morning, but away from the hot-house atmosphere of ParkCity, the film will surely get a favourable second look from critics anddistributors.A small, unpretentiouscharacter piece notable for an outstanding ...
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Reviews
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Dir: Carlos Saldanha. US.2006. 91 mins.20th Century Foxlooks set to enjoy an early year worldwide smash with Ice Age 2: TheMeltdown (called just Ice Age:The Meltdown in North America), alikeable sequel to the spring 2002 original which was one of the firstnon-Pixar CGI films to make a mint - $373m ...
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Reviews
Basic Instinct 2
Dir: Michael Caton-Jones.US/UK. 2006. 113 mins.The crime of BasicInstinct 2 is not that it fails to achieve instant camp classic status, butthat it is never more than tragically mundane. 14 years ago Paul Verhoevenreinvented the sex thriller with the gloriously trashy original, teamingMichael Douglas with explosive new star Sharon Stone ...
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News
A dialogue with Marc Shmuger and David Linde
Marc Shmuger and DavidLinde (pictured), the new co-chiefs at Universal Studios, spoke to Screen yesterday abouttheir new roles at the company, the future of Focus Features and theinternational distribution arm which begins operating in Jan 2007.Screen: First, what will happen at Focus, David' Will JamesSchamus be sole president'Linde: I'm not ...
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News
Kirk Jones signs to US remake of Everybody's Fine
UK director Kirk Jones, whohas just scored a $100m worldwide hit with Nanny McPhee, has signed to writeand direct a contemporary English-language US-set remake of GiuseppeTornatore's 1990 movie Everybody's Fine (Stanno Tutti Bene) forHollywood Gang Productions and Cecchi Gori USA.Gianni Nunnari of HollywoodGang and Vittorio Cecchi Gori of Cecchi Gori ...
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Shmuger, Linde named to run Universal Studios
The appointments of MarcShmuger (pictured) to chairman and David Linde to co-chairman of Universal Studios weremade official with an announcement this morning after days of media speculationin the US. The news came just two weeksafter the former chairman Stacey Snider left Universal after nine years to joinParamount-based DreamWorks as co-chairman ...
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Sarasota unveils lineup, tribute to Werner Herzog
The eighth annual Sarasota Film Festival, which takes place March31 to April 9, will open with Leslie Greif's Funny Money, a comedy starring Chevy Chase and ChrisMcDonald and close with a screening of Robert Altman's A Prairie HomeCompanion.Films in narrative feature competition include Cristi Puiu's TheDeath Of Mr Lazarescu,Hiner Saleem's ...
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Bernard joins Fox Searchlight as senior vp, media and promotions
Fox Searchlight Pictures hasappointed Laurel Bernard as senior vice president of media and promotions,reporting directly to Searchlight's chief operating officers Nancy Itley andSteve Gilula.Bernard (pictured) comesfrom Fox Broadcasting Company (FBC) where she was vice president of nationalmedia, working on media campaigns for shows like American Idol, 24, PrisonBreak, The OC ...
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Tribeca names films in competition sections for April fest
The 2006 Tribeca FilmFestival, which takes place from April 25 to May 7, has announced the lineupfor its four competition sections in international and New York-centric NY, NYsections. A total of 169 features and99 shorts have been selected for the festival this year from a record 4,100submissions - including 1,950 ...
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Lionsgate sets next Perry comedy for Feb 2007
Following in the footsteps of box office hit Madea'sFamily Reunion, Lionsgate has pickedup worldwide rights to Daddy's Little Girl, the third film starring, written and directed by Tyler Perry.The company has fast-trackedthe film for a June production start and a theatrical release in Feb 2007,hoping for a repeat of the ...