All articles by Patrick Frater – Page 21
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News
Indie Circle acquires first European title
Celebrated Spanish film Take My Eyes (Te Doy Mis Ojos) has become the first European picture to be bought collectively by multi-national buying consortium Indie Circle.The deal was struck with seller Sogepaq following its screening in San Sebastian and means the film will be assured of distribution in France (through ...
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News
French teacher sues documentary makers
In an extraordinary about-face retired French schoolteacher Georges Lopez has begun legal proceedings against the makers of the documentary film Etre Et Avoir, which he dominated with his strict-but-fair handling of a junior school class in the Auvergne.In the Paris high courts, Lopez is suing director Nicolas Philibert, the film's ...
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BVITV to handle Miramax rights in Spain
Buena Vista International Television (BVITV) has signed adeal to represent the TV rights in Spain to MiramaxFilms' feature slate. Theexclusive multi-year deal, signed on Friday (Oct 10), replaces an earlier dealthat saw local all-rights distributor Lauren Films handle Miramax's titles inall sectors of the Spanish market. But Miramax's relationship with ...
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News
MIPCOM bounces towards lively conclusion
The MIPCOM internationaltelevision programmes market in Cannes has been a relatively lively affair. It saw theunveiling of few mega-deals, but it was distinctly more buoyant than recentevents. Corridor traffic was widely felt to have been busier andboth buyers and sellers reported that the time for transactions had replacedinterminable talks. "This ...
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News
Mirovision wanders into horror Park
Korea's Mirovision has picked up international sales on the new picture by super hot Hong Kong director Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, one half of the team behind the Infernal Affairs sensations.The Park is a low-budget horror piece about a group of seven teenagers who step into a theme-park which has been ...
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News
Shochiku lines up Mullan for jazz drama
Expanding Japanese production and distribution group Shochiku is to unveil new historical drama Out Of This World by leading director Sakamoto Junji.Under the tagline 'Jazz Brings Peace', the film stars UK actor Peter Mullan and US actor Shea Whigham as American GIs who introduced jazz to Japan when the country ...
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News
Fortune Star set for MIPCOM debut
Fortune Star, the Hong Kong film and television production arm of News Corp's Star TV, makes its debut as an exhibitor tomorrow at MIPCOM (Oct 10-13) with an emphasis on the DVD sector and high definition content.The boutique, headed by former Media Asia distribution head Peter Poon, has yet to ...
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News
Tartan swoops on ten pictures at Pusan
Tartan Films of the UK has had a busy time at the Pusan festival and PPP market, picking-up ten pictures from Korean and Hong Kong sellers.Heading the slate in terms of art-house prestige is probably 2046, Wong Kar-Wai's long awaited treatise on post-handover Hong Kong life. The company enjoyed great ...
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Vietnamese Buffalo rolls with Euro financing
Filming on Buffalo Boy, a Vietnamese coming of age drama gets underway next week after having secured a raft of European financing.The film is the ultimate product of the growing system of project and co-production markets. Buffalo Boy was presented at Korea's PPP and New York's Independent Feature Project last ...
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News
Oz industry launches Asian focused trade body
A group of executives from the Australian industry have formed a new trade association to lobby their government for legislative support of their efforts to work within Asia.The establishment of the Australian Asia-Pacific Co-Production Association was announced yesterday at South Korea's Pusan International Film Festival by a group including Roger ...
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News
CJ's Yoon moves over to Kang Je Gyu Films
One of Korea's best known sales agents Mark Yoon has joined Kang Je Gyu Films, the production and sales boutique that is currently making the $13m war picture National Flag (Tae Guk Gi).Yoon becomes head of international business at Kang Je Gyu, having for the last several years been vice ...
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News
Arclight engrossed by Chan's New Police Story
Arclight Films has picked up international sales rights to the new Jackie Chan vehicle which currently goes under the working title of New Police Story.The film is produced by JCE, a new company formed by Jackie Chan and his regular business and investment partners Willie Chan (no relation) and Solon ...
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News
Pusan gets surprise North Korean sidebar
Ina late addition to its line-up South Korea's Pusan International Film Festival(PIFF) is to show a selection of seven films from North Korea. The move isbelieved to be the first time that films from the isolationist northern statehave been officially screened in public in the South.PIFFchief Kim Dong Ho said ...
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News
Celestial parent to float on Malaysian stock exchange
Astro All Asia Networks, the Malaysian pay-TV operator that owns Hong Kong film studio Celestial Pictures, is to float on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange later this month. The flotation, handled by Goldman Sachs and Malaysian investment bank CIMB, is expected to raise up to $552m (M$2.1bn) of fresh cash. ...
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News
Han, Arclight to fly with $15m Silver Hawk
Hong Kong's Han Entertainment has completed finance on its $15m martial arts action film Silver Hawk through a gap finance deal and the appointment of Arclight Films as sales agent.Han principal Thomas Chung and Jarred Underwood of specialist bank Comerica yesterday closed a loan of undisclosed size. The advance is ...
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News
Jackie Chan vehicle revs up in Hong Kong
Distant echoes of a successful franchise rang around Hong Kong this week as production got underway on a new Jackie Chan vehicle, currently titled New Police Story."Strictly speaking it is not a sequel and we won't call it Police Story anything as we don't have the rights," said Albert Lee, ...
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News
Egyptian Oscar nominee courts controversy
Egypt has chosen a controversial relationship film as its first ever contender for the foreign-language Oscar nomination.Sahar El Layaly which has alternative English titles of Sleepless Nights and Night Out, was selected by a specially formed committee of Egyptian film industry elders. Directed by Hani Khalifa, the film, a drama ...
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News
Rappeneau romance gets Oscar nod
Veteran directorJean-Paul Rappeneau's Bon Voyage has been selected as France's contender for the foreign-languageOscar. Thefilm, which stars Isabelle Adjani, Virginie Ledoyen, Yvan Attal,Gregori Derangere andGerard Depardieu, is a romantic drama set against the period when France was losing ground in WWII. The director, who previouslydirected foreign-language box office champion Cyrano ...
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Rome plays host to cloistered screening of Gibson's Passion
Special projects require special tactics. And there can be few films requiring such an approach as Mel Gibson's $25m religious tract The Passion.Gibson's company Icon Entertainment and ICM, the Catholic activist superstar's agent, are carefully selecting distributors for what it already knows is inflammatory and difficult material. On the eve ...
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Reviews
A Good Lawyer's Wife
Dir: Im Sang Soo. Korea. 104 mins. 2003As an examination of the sexual shenanigans of a bourgeois couple, A Good Lawyer's Wife is a polished domestic drama, rich in energetic sex scenes and frank dialogue. And it carries a gut-wrenching twist mid-way through. For Korean audiences the elements of social ...