All articles by Mike Goodridge – Page 59
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Reviews
Oliver Twist
Dir: Roman Polanski.Fr-UK-Czech Rep. 2005. 128mins.Roman Polanski made thisnew version of Oliver Twist for his children, but it's hard to imaginekids anywhere warming to his austere, colourless treatment of the story.Oliver Twist here evokes both Polanski's traumatic childhood andthe Wladyslaw Szpilman character in The Pianist - a blameless humandesperate to ...
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News
Producer Burton joins Swank and Lowe as partner in accomplice
Producer Mark Burton(pictured), whose credits include Santosh Sivan's The Terrorist, Finn Taylor's Cherish, Richard Jobson's 16 Years Of Alcohol and Deepa Mehta's Water, is joining Hilary Swank and Chad Lowe as a partnerin their production company accomplice films.The company, which plans tomake film and TV programming, recently struck a first-look ...
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News
Toronto festival juggernaut starts to roll
The Toronto InternationalFilm Festival kicks off today and - once again - is offering an abundance, somewould say over-abundance, of world premieres. Buyers, media and publicalike have been poring over the packed schedules since they were announced, decidingwhat to target and what they will inevitably have to miss. It's rich ...
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Reviews
Everything Is Illuminated
Dir: Liev Schreiber. US.2005. 102mins.The fine US actor LievSchreiber makes his directorial debut on his own ambitious adaptation of whatis perhaps an unfilmable book - Jonathan Safran Foer's brilliant first novel EverythingIs Illuminated. It's a brave attempt, but only partially successful, andcritics will compare it unfavourably with the very recent ...
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Reviews
Stoned
Dir: Stephen Woolley. UK.2005. 102mins.Veteran UK producerStephen Woolley makes an accomplished directorial debut with Stoned, anabsorbing portrait of Brian Jones, the founding member of The Rolling Stones,and the events surrounding his death on July 2, 1969. Rich in period atmosphereand music, the film possesses the same knowing style and historical ...
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Reviews
Secuestro Express
Dir/scr: JonathanJakubowicz. Venez-US. 2005. 86mins.The debut feature fromVenezuelan-born 26 year-old Jonathan Jakubowicz, Secuestro Express is abold warts-and-all chronicle of a commonplace kidnapping on the brutal streetsof Caracas. Shot on digital video and filled with the kind of flash kineticenergy which will get him noticed on the world map, the film ...
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News
Pathe International gets On The Road with Salles
Pathe International ispartnering with Focus Features on the long-gestating movie of Jack Kerouac's OnThe Road which will be directed byWalter Salles, written by Jose Rivera and produced by Rebecca Yeldham.The film is a reunion forthe makers of The Motorcycle Diaries which was directed by Salles, written by Rivera, executive produced ...
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News
Hitler Cantata gets festival slots in Montreal, Tokyo
Jutta Bruckner's Germandrama Hitler Cantata, the storyof composer Broch and how he was commissioned to write a cantata for Hitler's50th birthday, has been selected for the Montreal World FilmFestival in Aug and for an official competition slot at the Tokyo InternationalFilm Festival in Oct.The festival slots wereconfirmed by the film's ...
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News
Amritraj and Hyde Park seal five-year overall deal with Fox
Ashok Amritraj's Hyde ParkEntertainment has signed a five-year, first-look production and distributiondeal with 20th Century Fox which incorporates co-financing, production anddistribution and includes a number of put pictures.Fox will handle domestic distribution on all films under the deal,with Hyde Park retaining international rights and selling them through HydePark International under ...
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News
Mosawi forms new genre outfit The Mayhem Project
Former Mutual Film Co COOAnthony Mosawi has set up a new production and finance company called TheMayhem Project. Backed by European private equity source, the outfit plans todevelop, finance and produce genre films budgeted between $10m and $25m such asthe first property acquisition, videogame horror hit Clock Tower."We are looking ...
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Odd Lot to self-release Green Street Hooligans in US
Odd Lot Entertainment, theproduction and finance company run by Gigi Pritzker and Deborah Del Prete, hasformed a US distribution company to be called Odd Lot Releasing.The first film to be handledby the division will be Odd Lot's Green Street Hooligans, formerly known as Hooligans, which stars Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam ...
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News
SPC picks up UA's Capote, sets Sept 30 US release
Sony Pictures Classics hasconfirmed that it will assume domestic distribution duties on Capote, one of the remaining films produced by UnitedArtists before its parent company MGM was bought by a consortium led by SonyPictures Entertainment.SPC has set a release datefor the film of Sept 30, which is also the birthday ...
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Reviews
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory
Dir: Tim Burton. US.2005. 115mins.Tim Burton brings histraditional baggage to the new film adaptation of Roald Dahl's Charlie AndThe Chocolate Factory, a lavish summer tentpole from Warner Bros whichpurports to stay true to the original novel more than the sunny 1971 musical WillyWonka And The Chocolate Factory. Although that assertion ...
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News
Disney takes domestic on Yari/Stratus drama Hoax
Walt Disney Studios has boardedYari Film Group/Stratus Film Company's drama Hoax starring Richard Gere and directed by LasseHallstrom as domestic disributor.Yari's Syndicate Films ishandling international sales on the film which is scripted by Bill Wheeler andtells the story of Clifford Irving the man who wrote and sold a bogus biographyof ...
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News
Lions Gate seals comic book deal with Niles, Jane
Lions Gate Films hasacquired worldwide rights to a host of comic books by author Steve Niles andsealed a first-look deal on all projects by or found by Niles and hiscollaborator - actor Thomas Jane.The deal includes hit title TheLurkers, The Dark Country by TabMurphy, In The Blood and a newproject ...
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Reviews
Dark Water
Dir: Walter Salles. US.2005. 100mins.Hideo Nakata's elegant2002 Japanese chiller Dark Water makes a smooth transition to a New YorkCity setting in its US remake thanks to an intelligent screenplay by RafaelYglesias and intense direction in his English-language debut by Walter Salles.But while a moreself-possessed film than the Hollywood redos of ...
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News
Revelations, Intel team for new online venture ClickStar
Morgan Freemanand Lori McReary's production outfit Revelations Entertainment has formed a newdistribution company aiming to distribute films directly to consumers over theinternet, with backing from Intel, the leading chipmaker and manufacturer ofcomputer and networking products.The company,called ClickStar Inc, plans to create an online service in which consumers canaccess, pay for ...
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News
Spielberg's Mossad thriller to shoot in Malta, Hungary, US
Steven Spielberg's untitledthriller set in the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre has begunshooting in Malta, with stints to come in Hungary and New York City beforepost-production and delivery in time for a Dec 23 release date in the US.The movie, scripted by TonyKushner, follows the secret Israeli squad ...
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Fox claims victory as first studio to cross $1bn in international
20th Century FoxInternational has become the first studio to cross $1bn in internationalgrosses in the increasingly fierce race for grosses outside the US. As oftoday, the studio's international distribution arm reported $1.09bn in boxoffice returns so far in 2005.The films included in theachievement are Robots, theanimated movie which took $114m ...
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News
Statham leads charge in Boll's Dungeon Siege
Jason Statham, LeeleeSobieski, Ron Pearlman, John Rhys-Davies, Matthew Lillard, Kristanna Loken andBurt Reynolds have all signed on to star in Uwe Boll's latest video gameadaptation Dungeon Siege.The film, which startsshooting next week in Vancouver, Canada, is again produced by Shawn Williamsonof Brightlight Pictures, the Vancouver production outfit which produced Boll'sBloodRayne.Boll ...