All articles by Mike Goodridge – Page 66
-
Reviews
Alfie
Dir: Charles Shyer. US.2004. 103mins.Charles Shyer, whosecredits include the bland remake of Father Of The Bride and the periodmisfire The Affair Of The Necklace, takes another bath with his insipidremake of 1966 classic Alfie. Systematically eliminating any of thecruelty which made Alfie such an iconic figure of his day, he ...
-
News
Fandango buys Italian rights to Weeping Camel
Italianspecialized distributor Fandango acquired Italian rights to The Story Of TheWeeping Camel at MIFEDlast week from Menemsha Films.The film, whichwas handled by THINKFilm in the US and grossed $0.88m, will be released throughFandangoC;s documentary division which will launch in 2005 with other titles onthe slate including Super Size Me and ...
-
News
Gong Li stars with Kidman in Wong Kar-wai's next film
NicoleKidman confirmed this weekend that she is teaming with Hong Kong auteurdirector Wong Kar-wai on his next project The Lady From Shanghai and that she will be joined in the film by Chinesestar Gong Li.Indeed,said Kidman, Gong has already shot her part in the film, and Wong took justfive weeks ...
-
News
Warner Bros makes history with first ever foreign production co in China
Warner Bros Pictures hasannounced the first ever Sino-foreign joint venture film company Warner ChinaFilm HG Corporation in partnership with China Film Group and Hengdian Group.The company will produce Chinese-language films, TV films and animated product.The announcement was madetoday (Wednesday) in Beijing by Yang Buting, chairman of China Film Group, XuYongan, ...
-
Reviews
Shall We Dance
Dir: Peter Chelsom. US.2004. 106mins.Plenty gets lost intranslation in Miramax Films' well-appointed US remake of Masayuki Suo'sbeloved 1996 Japanese comedy Shall We Dance' but director Peter Chelsomand his megawatt star cast generate sufficient charm to win hearts anew andscore a mid-sized end-of-year hit around the world.The glitzy teaming of post-Chicago ...
-
Reviews
Five Children And It
Dir: John Stephenson. UK. 2004. 89mins.A well-produced children's film based on the novel by Railway Childrenwriter E Nesbit, Five Children And It feels out of sync with theentertainment tastes of today's family audiences. Relentlessly pleasant anddevoid of any tension in the plot, it deliberately flies in the face ofcontemporary culture ...
-
Reviews
A Dirty Shame
After the laboured comedyof Cecil B Demented, it's reassuring to find John Waters on morefamiliar terrain in A Dirty Shame, a dirty sex comedy which really isgood clean fun. Already slapped with an NC-17 rating in the US by the MPAA, thefilm's gleefully flagrant bad language and sexual situations will ...
-
News
Motorcycle Diaries falls through foreign-language Oscar cracks
Walter Salles'pan-Latin American co-production The Motorcycle Diaries - one of the year's most popularforeign-language films - has been ruled ineligible for the foreign-languagefilm Oscar category this year. It joins A Very Long Engagement, 2046 and Bad Education in the list of acclaimed internationalfilms which have been excluded from that race.TheMotorcycle ...
-
News
Cinema Libre buys David O Russell Iraq war doc
DavidO Russell's 35-minute war documentary Soldier's Pay, which was to have been packaged with his 1999 GulfWar drama Three Kings on DVD untilWarner Bros dropped it, has landed at Cinema Libre Studio, the LA company whichis also releasing Robert Greenwald's documentary Uncovered: The War On Iraq.CinemaLibre plans to release the ...
-
News
Skoll outfit to co-finance two Warner Bros pictures
Participant Productions, aproduction company formed in Jan by former eBay president Jeff Skoll to make sociallyrelevant films and documentaries, has formed a partnership with Warner BrosPictures to co-finance two Warner 2005 movies Syriana and Class Action.Participant'smandate is to back projects which centre on "important social issues thatawaken, inspire and ...
-
News
Kinsey, Nixon bookend Hamptons festival
The 12th annualHamptons International Film Festival, which takes place in East Hampton, New York,Oct 20-24 will open with a screening of Bill Condon's Kinsey and close with Niels Muller's The AssassinationOf Richard Nixon.The festival, which wasfounded to focus on US independent film, will play host to the Golden StarfishFeature Competition ...
-
News
Star Wars box set, videogame take $115m in first day
20thCentury Fox Home Entertainment has announced that first day sales for the StarWars box set in NorthAmerica and many international territories and the Star Wars Battlefront videogame in North America have exceeded$115m.The game will be available internationally later thisweek, as will the box set in unreleased territories such as Japan, ...
-
News
Palm buys music doc Be Here To Love Me
Chris Blackwell's PalmPictures has closed a deal to buy North American and Caribbean rights toMargaret Brown's documentary Be Here To Love Me, a profile of musician Townes Van Zandt which hadits world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last week.The acquisition is Palm'sthird out of Toronto after Iraq war ...
-
News
Bana teams with Hanson for Warner Bros
Eric Bana, Australian starof Hulk and Troy, has landed the lead role in Curtis Hanson's nextmovie for Warner Bros Lucky You.Bana, who is also scheduled to star in Steven Spielberg's Vengeance next year, will play Huck Cheever, the leadcharacter in the character-based drama set in the world of high-stakesprofessional poker.Eric ...
-
News
Gibson to get producer trophy at Hollywood Film Awards
Mel Gibson will receive theHollywood Producer Of The Year Award at the Hollywood Awards gala ceremony inLos Angeles on Oct 18.Gibson joins alineup of previously named award-winners at the show including John Travolta(lifetime achievement), Michael Mann (directing), Keira Knightley (breakthroughacting - female) and Jamie Foxx (breakthrough acting - male).'MelGibson's career ...
-
News
Denver Film Festival to present focus on German cinema
The Starz DenverInternational Film Festival, which holds its 27th annual event Oct14-24, will stage a focus on German cinemaMargarethe VonTrotta will attend the festival wih her films Rosenstrasse and The Other Woman, which she directed, and AmericanSoldier, in which sheacted. Other German films screening include Head-On, Jester Till, When TheRight ...
-
News
Chaplin, Kier, Pare join the cast of BloodRayne
GeraldineChaplin, Udo Kier and Michael Pare have joined Ben Kingsley, Kristanna Loken,Michelle Rodriguez, Matt Davis and Michael Madsen in the cast of BloodRayne, the new film adaptation of the popularvideo game.Currentlyshooting in Romania, the film is produced and directed by Uwe Boll and writtenby Guinevere Turner. It stars Loken, last ...
-
News
Bahamas launches film festival in Dec
The Bahamas InternationalFilm Festival will take place for the first time Dec 9-12 in Nassau, Bahamas.The event plans to presentabout 50 films encompassing international features, shorts, documentaries andanimated films. The theme of this year's competitive section is Spirit OfFreedom with a focus on films providing insight into the "mosaic of ...
-
News
Bourne takes $6.7m in 23 territories for Universal/UIP
The Bourne Supremacy grossed $6.7m from 2,284 sites in 23 territoriesover the weekend for Universal/UIP, bringing its international total to date to$54m.The thriller sequel openedsecond in Spain after local smash Mar Adentro with a $1.9m gross from 356 sites, a 2% increase inlocal currency on The Bourne Identity in 2002 ...
-
News
THINKFilm woos Three Of Hearts at Toronto
Another domestic deal wasclinched in the closing days of the Toronto International Film Festival, withTHINKFilm taking domestic theatrical and DVD rights to Susan Kaplan's documentary ThreeOf Hearts: A Postmodern Family.US cable network Bravo camein on the project at an early stage and holds TV rights with the intention oflaunching it ...