All articles by Mike Goodridge – Page 63

  • News

    Berlin screening of Wilder satire reopens 60 year-old controversy

    2005-02-21T04:00:00Z

    BillyWilder's 1947 romantic comedy A Foreign Affair, which screened in Berlinas the closing night attraction in the Selling Democracy series, may seemcharming to many - but it re-appears in Berlin with a legacy of controversythat saw the film banned in Germany for years after the war.Thefilm was made by Wilder ...

  • News

    Ducastel & Martineau's Beach goes to Strand in US

    2005-02-21T00:00:00Z

    Strand Releasing hasannounced one of the first domestic deals from the Berlin Film Festival lastweek, acquiring US rights to Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau's comedy MariscosBeach (Crustaces Et Coquillages).The deal was closed byStrand's co-presidents Marcus Hu and Jon Gerrans with sales agent Sylvain Moreau of Bac Films International. Mariscos Beach ...

  • News

    Potter's Yes a 'Ja' for Germany

    2005-02-18T04:00:00Z

    GreeneStreet Films International has closed a deal with distributor Alamode forGerman rights to Sally Potter's Yes, which screened in Panorama duringthe Berlinale. GreeneStreet's Cedric Jeanson has closed a host of deals on the film on the back ofthe Berlin screenings including with Lumiere in Brazil and Roadshow in Greece,following earlier ...

  • News

    MonteCristo scares up a horror slate

    2005-02-17T04:00:00Z

    IS Media, the company behinddefunct online entertainment operation InternetStudios, has launched aninternational sales and distribution outfit called MonteCristo Entertainmentunder sales and acquisitions executive Michael Taverna.MonteCristo has acquiredinternational rights to a slate of independent films including comedy YardSale starring Andrea Robinson and David Lipper and thriller Milagros DeRio which will be ...

  • News

    Kino snaps up Happily for US

    2005-02-17T04:00:00Z

    US independent distributorKino International has picked up US rights to two 2004 pictures - Yvan Attal's HappilyEver After (Ils Se Marierent Et Eurent Beaucoup D'Enfants) andFrench/Israeli co-production Or directed by Keren Yedaya.The romantic comedy HappilyEver After (Ils Se Marierent Et Eurent Beaucoup D'Enfants) stars CharlotteGainsbourg, Emmanuelle Seigner, Alain Chabat and ...

  • News

    La Fabrique takes French rights to Slamdance hit On The Outs

    2005-02-17T04:00:00Z

    La Fabrique De Films, the French distributor run by Verane Frediani, hasacquired French rights to US Forum entry On The Outs, directed by LoriSilverbush and Michael Skolnik. Andrew Herwitz's The Film Sales Company, whichis representing the film, closed the deal.The film, which follows the story of three US inner city ...

  • News

    IFP/New York names five docs to win development funding

    2005-02-17T04:00:00Z

    IFP/New York, the membership and advocacy organization for independentfilm-makers, has announced the names of the five films which will be share$50,000 in the latest round of development funding through the AnthonyRadziwill Documentary Fund.The grants are open to US-based producers and directors and were createdto provide "seed funding" to new documentary ...

  • News

    Celluloid skips ahead with Beat sales

    2005-02-17T04:00:00Z

    Celluloid Dreams has closedmost major territories on Jacques Audiard's Berlinale competition entry TheBeat That My Heart Skipped (De Battre Mon Coeur S'Est Arrive) before itsworld premiere screening in Berlin.The film, which will bereleased by UGC in France on March 23, has gone to Happinet in Japan,Artificial Eye in the UK, ...

  • News

    Sony Pictures Classics takes 2046 for US

    2005-02-17T04:00:00Z

    Fortissimo Films has finalised the global distribution patchwork on WongKar-wai's epic romance 2046 by closing a US sale on the film to SonyPictures Classics (SPC).The movie, which was screened in its first incarnation in competition atCannes last year, had been extensively pre-sold by the Hong Kong andAmsterdam-based Fortissimo to companies ...

  • News

    Sutherland promoted to executive vice president at MGM

    2005-02-17T00:00:00Z

    Ian Sutherland has beenpromoted to executive vice president, international theatrical distribution andmarketing, at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) just months before the studio is set tomerge into Sony Pictures Entertainment.The announcement was madeyesterday by MGM Home Entertainment president David Bishop. Sutherland joinedMGM in 2000 as senior vice president, international marketing and distribution,overseeing the ...

  • News

    Savage sales for Celluloid

    2005-02-16T04:00:00Z

    CelluloidDreams has closed some key pre-sales on Tom Kalin's Savage Grace inBerlin, having flown the Swoon director in from New York for meetingswith buyers to share his vision of the film.Vertigopre-bought rights in Spain, BIM in Italy and Scanbox in Scandinavia;negotiations are underway between Celluloid and buyers in Greece, Japan,France, ...

  • News

    Taiwan Springs for Brothels

    2005-02-16T04:00:00Z

    SpringInternational in Taiwan and Barbarian Turk in Turkey are the latest companiesto buy Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski's award-winning Born Into Brothels,which has an Oscar nomination this year for best documentary feature.AndrewHerwitz of The Film Sales Company, which is selling the film here, is reportingintense buyer interest in the documentary ...

  • News

    Hamori pours H2O on Cronenberg's Pain

    2005-02-16T04:00:00Z

    AndrasHamori, the international producer here with the epic Hungarian picture Fatelessin competition, has reactivated his H20 Motion Pictures production outfit andset four pictures to shoot in the next two years including two with his oldAlliance Atlantis partner Robert Lantos. Hamori'sH20 has boarded two pictures which are in development with Lantos ...

  • Reviews

    Wolf Creek

    2005-02-16T00:00:00Z

    Dir: GregMclean. Australia. 2005. 98mins.Worldpremiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month but picked up byDimension/Miramax late last year, Wolf Creek is an extremelywell-crafted horror movie supposedly based on "real events". Although those"real events" are largely fabricated, the film has a ring of truth toit which renders it genuinely disturbing. ...

  • News

    Kimmel, VIP team for Holland's Beethoven pic

    2005-02-15T04:00:00Z

    Sidney Kimmel Entertainment,the prolific new LA-based production and financing outfit backed byphilanthropist and business titan Kimmel, has teamed up with VIP Medienfonds toproduce Copying Beethoven, to be directed by Agnieszka Holland and starEd Harris and Diane Kruger.Myriad Pictures is handlingworldwide sales on the film in Berlin and deals have already ...

  • News

    Berry, Forster back together for Nefertiti

    2005-02-15T04:00:00Z

    Three years ago, actressHalle Berry and director Marc Forster were both in Berlin to promote Monster'sBall. Since then, she has won an Oscar and become one of Hollywood'sbiggest stars and he directed the seven-times Oscar nominated FindingNeverland. Now the two are planning tore-team on the story of Egyptian queen Nefertiti, ...

  • News

    SPC, Renaissance swoop for Junebug rights

    2005-02-14T04:00:00Z

    Sony Pictures Classics has acquired domestic rights andRenaissance Films has acquired international rights to Junebug, Phil Morrison's comedic drama set in the deep southof the US which played in dramatic competition at Sundance this year.The film created buzz at the festival for its performance bynewcomer Amy Adams playing a childlike ...

  • News

    Momentum makes Friends with Inferno

    2005-02-14T04:00:00Z

    Momentum Pictures has acquired UK and Spanish rights to JustFriends from up-and-coming LA-based salesand financing outfit Inferno Distribution. The two-territory deal was negotiated and closed in Berlinby Inferno partners Jim Seibel and Bill Johnson with Momentum's head ofacquisitions Lara Thompson.New Line Cinema has acquired US rights to the romanticcomedy which ...

  • News

    SPC adds Potter, Zhang to bulging slate

    2005-02-14T04:00:00Z

    Sony Pictures Classics has added three new internationaltitles to its 2005 US slate, picking up domestic rights to Erik VanLooy's Belgian smash The Alzheimer Case, Sally Potter's UK drama Yes and Zhang Yimou's next picture Riding Alone ForThousands Of Miles from China.SPC, run by Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, has ...

  • News

    Berlin abuzz with Harvey and Bob talk

    2005-02-14T04:00:00Z

    With Harvey and Bob Weinstein just weeks away fromfinalising their exit deal from The Walt Disney Co, the rumour mill in Berlinis running on overdrive about their future - and their international plans areat the heart of the speculation.If the brothers' plans to create a new home forWeinstein-friendly film-makers like ...