All articles by Mike Goodridge – Page 98
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News
Tom Quinn gets vp stripes at Samuel Goldwyn Films
Tom Quinn has been promotedto vice president, acquisitions, for Samuel Goldwyn Films. In his new role, hewill continue to oversee the acquisitions department at the company; his mostrecent acquisitions are Raising Victor Vargas, Peter Sollett's Cannes hit which was renamedfrom Long Way Home, CarlosCarrera's Mexican smash The Crime Of Father ...
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Studio threeway Peter Pan starts shooting in Australia
The big budget live actionfilm version of Peter Pan, forwhich Columbia Pictures, Universal Pictures and Revolution Studios teamed in anunusual three-way studio co-venture, has begun principal photography inQueensland, Australia under local director PJ Hogan (Muriel's Wedding,My Best Friend's Wedding).Jeremy Sumpter, who playedone of Bill Paxton's sons in Frailty, is playing ...
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News
Indie veterans Manne, Tait create Duopoly
Two veterans of the New Yorkindependent scene - Liz Manne andCatherine Tait - have teamed up to form Duopoly, a production andstrategy company which will executive produce "entertainment properties"as well as providing strategic services to production companies.Manne was most recentlyexecutive vice president, programming & marketing, for The Sundance Channelwhere she ...
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Two from Takashi Miike get US exposure through Vitagraph
Vitagraph Films, a USmicro-distributor affiliated with the LA-based American Cinematheque, hasacquired US rights to prolific Japanese bad-boy film-maker TakashiMiike's splatter musical The Happiness Of The Katakuris (2001) as well as his hyper-kinetic action picture TheCity Of Lost Souls (2000).Under president DavidShultz, Vitagraph has been buying movies for the last two ...
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Paramount shifts The Core from Nov to March
Paramount Pictures has movedthe US release date of its sci-fi action thriller The Core from Nov 1 this year to March 2003, taking it out ofthe end-of-year holiday season which would have seen it up against I Spy, The Santa Clause 2 and 8 Mile as well as Harry Potter ...
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THINKFilm is Spellbound by spelling bee doc
One year-old domesticdistributor THINKFilm has acquired North American rights to the documentary Spellbound which recently played in the Toronto InternationalFilm Festival. The film, directed by Jeff Blitz and produced by Sean Welch,follows the real-life experience of the National Spelling Bee as seen throughthe eyes of eight, driven young spellers competing ...
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London's Imperial War Museum wins IDA preservation award
The Imperial War Museum(IWM) in London will receive the 2002 International Documentary Association(IDA) Preservation and Scholarship Award at the 18th annual IDADistinguished Documentary Achievement Awards on Dec 13 in Los Angeles. Themuseum's keeper of the film and video archives Roger Smither will acceptthe award.Founded in 1917, the IWM wasmandated by ...
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Caine gets AFI FEST tribute, Quiet American gets US premiere
AFI FEST 2002, the AmericanFilm Institute's Los Angeles film festival, will honour Michael Cainewith a special tribute at this year's event which takes place Nov 7 to 17this year. The tribute includes an on-stage interview with the double Oscar-winningactor (Nov 16) as well as a short retrospective of his films ...
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Seattle absorbs Women In Cinema fest, expands focus on women
The Seattle International FilmFestival (SIFF), which next year runs from May 22 to June 15, has announcedthat it will embrace a focus on films by women film-makers into its ownprogramming following the decision not to run a separate Women in Cinemafestival next year. The Women in Cinema event has run ...
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Walden strikes two-year alliance with Disney
Walden Media, the NewYork-based production outfit run by Cary Granat and backed by PhilipAnschutz's The Anschutz Company, has signed a two-year first-look NorthAmerican distribution deal with The Walt Disney Studios (TWDS). The dealfollows from two separate project deals between the two companies: Disney hadpreviously acquired North American and UK distribution ...
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Reviews
Sweet Home Alabama
Dir: Andy Tennant. US. 2002. 108mins. The $37.5m opening of Sweet Home Alabama over the weekend in North America confirms the superstar status of its lead actress, the 26-year-old Reese Witherspoon, whose soaring popularity now ranks her as one of Hollywood's most bankable opening acts. Indeed, there's no question that ...
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News
Kormakur's The Sea lands at Palm for North America and UK
ChrisBlackwell's Palm Pictures has closed its second film acquisition of theToronto Film Festival, acquiring North American and UK rights to BaltasarKormakur's The Sea (Hafid)which broke box office records in its home country of Iceland last month. Palmplans to release the film theatrically in the US followed by a DVD rollout ...
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Jo Hyland joins Denmead Marketing as account manager
Jo Hyland has been appointed account manager at Los Angeles- andLondon-based publicity company Denmead Marketing. Reporting to Denmeadpresident Nikki Parker and senior vice president Maxine Leonard, Hyland willmanage worldwide client accounts for the film and television divisions whichservice both independent production and distribution companies and studios.Hyland will be responsible for ...
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News
Reese Is The Word: Sweet Home Alabama at the top
Reese Witherspoon proved that she was one of the brightest stars in the movie world, scoring the biggest September opening in US box office history this weekend with an estimated $37.5m bow for her romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama. Playing at 3,293 sites, the Buena Vista film scored a powerful ...
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News
First Look takes North America to Czech favourite Autumn Spring
First Look Pictures hasacquired North American rights to Vladimir Michalek's Czech drama AutumnSpring, which recently screened atthe 2002 Toronto and Montreal film festivals. The deal was negotiated betweenMJ Peckos, president of First Look, with Neil Friedman of MenemshaEntertainment with a price tag in the mid-six figure range.First Look plans to ...
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Alain Chabat launches US company, signs with Endeavor
French actor, writer,producer and director Alain Chabat has signed with Los Angeles talent agencyEndeavor for all areas of representation in the US. Chabat, along with partnersAlex Berger of Content Participations and Amandine Billot who works with Chabatin his French company Chez Wam, has recently launched a US company Wamericaheaded by ...
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Brett Ratner moves from Hannibal Lecter to Superman
Brett Ratner has signed on to direct the new live action feature film version of Superman for Warner Bros Pictures, the studio announced yesterday. The new version, long in gestation with McG, Tim Burton attached to direct at various times, comes 25 years after Richard Donner's blockbuster version Superman - ...
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Reviews
Open Hearts (Elsker Dig For Evigt)
Dir: Susanne Bier. Denmark. 2002. 113 mins. Just when you thought the Dogme 95 movement was out of fashion, Susanne Bier (The One And Only, Once In A Lifetime) delivers Open Hearts, a knockout adult drama made according to the controversial Danish manifesto. Eliciting painfully true insights into human ...
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Reviews
Jet Lag (Decalage Horaire)
Dir: Daniele Thompson. France-UK. 2002. 91mins.There could be no more marketable French film than Jet Lag (Decalage Horaire), Daniele Thompson's romantic comedy starring Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno. First of all, it is a classic formulaic romantic comedy with none of the introspection or intense drama traditionally associated with French ...
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News
Greenwald commits to film while mentoring its writer
Maggie Greenwald hascommitted to direct her next picture, a romantic comedy script Rose OfSharon by Thomas Simmons - aproject with which she became familiar while mentoring new writers includingSimmons at the Hamptons International Film Festival in Long Island, New York,last week.The director of Songcatcher, The Kill-Off and The Ballad Of ...