All articles by Mike Goodridge – Page 64
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News
Myriad joins Partition
LA-based Myriad Pictures hasstruck a co-production deal with Canada's Sepia Films for the epic India-setromance Partition. Jim Mistry and Kristin Kreuk will star in the film. Partitionis being executive produced by imX Communications, which previously worked withMyriad on The River King.Myriad is handling allinternational sales on the film excluding Canada, ...
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News
German hit Napola scores US sale
Doug Witkins' Picture This!Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Dennis Gansel's German hit Napolafrom Bavaria Film International. The film, which has so far grossed $2.2m onthree weeks of release in Germany through Constantin Film, is being scheduledfor an autumn 2005 theatrical release in the US.Based on a screenplay byGansel ...
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News
Lions Gate picks up international rights to Isolation
Lions Gate Films International has picked up worldwide rights excludingthe UK, France and North America to UK-Irish horror movie Isolation which is beingdirected by first-timer Billy O'Brien. Produced by The Bureau in association with Blue Orange Films and ElementFilms, Isolation stars John Lynch, Ruth Negga and Sean Harris in thestory ...
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News
Buyers look to take Nispel's Pathfinder
With English-language projects at a premium in Berlin, buyers arescrambling to get their hands on Marcus Nispel's Pathfinder, a $45maction movie being produced by Mike Medavoy and Arnie Messer's PhoenixPictures, and being represented for territorial sales by Endeavor.Nobody from the agency ispresent at the market, but Endeavor's Modi Wiczyk said ...
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Reviews
The Squid And The Whale
Dir: Noah Baumbach. US.2005. 81mins.Noah Baumbach, afilm-maker who made a splashy debut with three pictures in the mid-90s (Kicking& Screaming, Mr Jealousy, Highball), returns with astingingly honest, admirably unsentimental autobiographical portrait of hisparents' divorce which marks him out - again - as one of the smartest young USfilm-makers around today.One ...
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Reviews
The Upside Of Anger
Dir/scr: Mike Binder. US.2004. 116mins.Enigmatic stand-up comic,actor, writer and film-maker Mike Binder whose credits include Londiniumand The Sex Monster, has crafted an enigmatic fourth film in TheUpside Of Anger. The independently financed, star-studded affair is acurious blend of romantic comedy, women's melodrama and shaggy dog story whichhas a shot at ...
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News
LA memorial service for Jorge Gallegos this Friday
A "Celebration Of Life"memorial service will be held for Jorge Gallegos on this Friday Feb 4 at 11amat the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills.Mr Gallegos died tragicallywhile on holiday in Thailand on Dec 26 as a result of the tsunami disaster.He was a veteran in theworld of independent film ...
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News
Forty Shades Of Blue wins top prize for US drama at Sundance
IraSachs' intense drama Forty Shades Of Blue was named winner of the America Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and EugeneJarecki's Why We Fight was winnerof the American Documentary Grand Jury Prize as the Sundance Film Festivalwound down to a close on Saturday night.Meanwhilein the inaugural world competition sections, Zeze Gamboa's The ...
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Reviews
Hard Candy
Dir: David Slade. US.2005. 103mins.Whip-crackingly tautpsychological drama Hard Candy is the most talked about movie atSundance this year and one of the most riveting directorial debuts seen at thefestival in a few years. A two-hander in which a teenage girl turns the tableson the paedophile who has picked her up ...
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Reviews
Thumbsucker
Dir: Mike Mills. US.2005. 94mins.Music video andcommercials director and graphic artist Mike Mills makes an impressive featuredirectorial debut with Thumbsucker, a short and sweet adaptation of thenovel by Walter Kirn.Of all the high schoolpictures at Sundance this year, this is by far the best, treating the teenagerat its centre as ...
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Reviews
The Matador
Dir: Richard Shepard. US.2005. 97 mins. A crime comedy whichplays like Pulp Fiction-ultra-lite, The Matador is an unlikelyfit for the Sundance Film Festival where it world premiered on Saturday night.Broad, benign and cheerfully implausible, it is an independently financed filmwith mainstream sensibilities and distributors who have already committed willbe pleased ...
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Reviews
The Jacket
Dir: John Maybury. US/UK.2005. 102 mins. An intriguing hybrid oftime travel thriller, asylum horror movie and visual arts experiment, TheJacket may ultimately fail in its ambitions to fuse those genres but itremains an engaging and original entertainment which has the potential to tapinto a medium to wide audience on its ...
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Reviews
Assault On Precinct 13
Dir: Jean-FrancoisRichet. US. 2005. 109mins.One of the first filmsproduced under Focus Features' genre division Rogue Pictures, Assault OnPrecinct 13 is an efficient action feature which might not break any newground in the genre, but will keep a male action-loving audience happy.Theatrical results will be good, if not spectacular; audiences will ...
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Reviews
Racing Stripes
Dir: Frederick Du Chau.US. 2005. 102mins.A talking zebra picture which borrows liberally from Babe, NationalVelvet, Doctor Dolittle, Ice Age, The Incredible Journeyand every Disney movie on record, Racing Stripes may not be a familyfilm on the Pixar level of sophistication, but it generates enough of its owncharm to score with ...
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News
Film banker Jorge Gallegos confirmed dead in Tsunami
It was confirmedyesterday that veteran film banker Jorge Gallegos (pictured) died on Dec 26last year, while on holiday in Khao Lak, Thailand, as a result of the tsunamicatastrophe.Gallegos is survived by hiswife Lorna and their two sons Christian and James, who themselves all threesurvived the tsunami. The family has selected ...
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Reviews
In Good Company
Dir/scr: Paul Weitz. US.2004. 106mins.A warm, timelycontemporary comedy set against a backdrop of corporate mergers and staffdownsizing, In Good Company (formerly titled Synergy), is ripewith value for its distributors both as a medium-sized theatrical performer anda robust TV and DVD title.Both a bittersweet romanticcomedy and a moral fable of keeping ...
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Reviews
Spanglish
Dir/scr: James L Brooks.US. 2004. 131mins.Seven years after hislast movie As Good As It Gets, James L Brooks returns with asophisticated adult comedy which also looks at a bunch of misfits - only thistime they are the members of an ostensibly successful Beverly Hills family.Their world is thrown intodisarray at ...
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Reviews
Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events
Dir: Brad Silberling. US.2004. 113mins.A vast and colourfulmovie based on the sinister kids' books by Lemony Snicket aka 34 year-oldDaniel Handler, A Series Of Unfortunate Events is set to take over theworld's movie screens over Christmas and beyond. Paramount and DreamWorksco-financed this extravagantly lavish affair and returns will be considerablein ...
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News
Magiday leaves Focus to pursue production opportunities
Lee Magiday isleaving her post as European vice president, acquisitions and production, forFocus Features to pursue opportunities in production.The well-likedexecutive, who is based in London, has been with Universal companies for thepast decade, starting out working with Graeme Mason as an acquisitionsexecutive at PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, then seguing into a ...
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Reviews
Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom Of The Opera
Dir: Joel Schumacher.UK-US. 2004. 140mins.After Jesus ChristSuperstar and Evita, this is the third feature-version of an AndrewLloyd Webber musical and it suffers from the same problems in translation whichbeset its predecessors. Although filled with pleasures and confidently directedby Joel Schumacher, Phantom remains filmed rock-opera and it fails toignite as dramatic ...