All articles by Patrick Frater – Page 30
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US studio costs far outstripping revenues
Jack Valenti's annual 'state of the union' speech at ShoWest earlier this month was notable for what it did not quite say, as much as what was explicitly uttered by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) president.Valenti pointed to the high and rising production costs (negative cost) incurred by the seven ...
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Golden Screen Cinemas to open 16th Malaysian multiplex
Exhibitor-distributor Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC) is to open its 16th multiplex in Malaysia later this year.The new complex, located on the island of Penang in the north of the country, will be a 12-screener with a total seating capacity of 1,850. GSC's investment in the new complex is some $3.95m ...
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EU regulators suspend Canal Plus investigation
The European Union's competition watchdog has suspended its investigation into French pay-TV group Canal Plus' deals with the Hollywood studios. Mario Monti, the Commissioner whose responsibilities include competition, internal markets and the information society, has put on "indefinite hold" its long-standing probe into the pay-TV company, following changes in the ...
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CME wins damages from Czech government over TV Nova
The Czech government was this week ordered to pay $353m of damages and interest to Central European Media Enterprises (CME) in a case concerning control of commercial broadcaster TV Nova. The ruling by an international arbitration court is less than the $527m that CME had sought, but is big enough ...
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Carlton International sells film package to Showtime
Steven Soderbergh's sex lies and videotape, The Tamarind Seed and The Big Easy will screen on US pay-TV service Showtime, following a major deal with Carlton International, the sales arm of UK broadcast group Carlton Communications.Other library titles included in the package include Jacknife, Jon Voight and Kevin Costner in ...
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Video rental windows face extinction
Video rental windows around the world could soon be a thing of the past, home entertainment experts predicted this week after an eight-month stand-off in the UK between video giant Blockbuster and Warner Bros came to an abrupt end.An agreement between the studio and the world's biggest home entertainment player ...
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Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum to feature 24 new projects
Top name directors including Taiwan's Tsai Ming Liang and Chang Tso Chi, Australia's Clara Law, Hong Kong's Mabel Cheung, Korea's Jang Sun Woo and Thailand's Nonzee Nimibutr are among the 24 artists unveiling their next projects at the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) next month (April 7-9).HAF, which ...
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Golden Network Asia arrives at AFM with expansive slate
Golden Network Asia, one of only two specialist film sales companies from Hong Kong, has arrived at AFM with a busy slate and promise of further expansion following financial restructuringCompany principal Carrie Wong is currently finalising a raft of new finance that will allow the company to expand its activities ...
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Mirovision sells Sword abroad
Mirovision has achieved record prices in several territories for its martial arts period piece Sword Piece to Nobelo & Partners in Scandinavia, Metro Tartan in the UK and A-Film in The Netherlands. The same three buyers all grabbed horror title Phone, which also went to Rapi Films for Indonesia. Older ...
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Gary Oldman to star in Dead Fish
Gary Oldman, one of the UK's most bankable stars, is confirmed to star in Dead Fish, an $11m thriller about a locksmith and a contract killer who accidentally switch mobile phones. Dead Fish is being directed by Charley Stadler, a top Munich-based commercials director making his feature debut. The ...
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Jade Warrior finds finance after Screen International Summit
Jade Warrior, a film pitched at the Screen International European Film Finance Summit in Berlin, has now been financed and will shoot at the end of this year. San Fu Maltha's Dutch production house Fu Works has boarded the film which is being produced by Tero Kaukomaa of Finland's Blind ...
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Blockbuster-Warner ceasefire spells change for UK film, video
Video rental giant Blockbuster and Warner Bros this week announced that they had reached an agreement on video rental practices in the UK. The deal is likely to change the structure of the video sector, favouring "sell-through" video and new media at the expense of rentals. The agreement ends an ...
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Buyers shoot for UGC's Mike Blueberry
UGC International has struck a number of key sales deals on its big-budget supernatural Western, Mike Blueberry, Expanded Reality.The $35m film, directed by Jan Kounen, who previously made the stylish and ultraviolent Dobermann, is the story of a "Wild West" marshal who faces the challenge of a lifetime when his ...
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Sumner Redstone eyes selected VU entertainment assets
Paramount-owner, Viacom may have emerged as the new front-runner in the race to buy Vivendi Universal's US entertainment assets. Viacom is understood to have focused its interest on Universal Studios and the TV operations, but not Universal Music.Viacom chief Sumner Redstone and Vivendi Universal boss Jean-Rene Fourtou met recently in ...
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Movies phone home in Germany
Having been one of the most depressed places around, German TV is set for a rebound thanks to last week's takeover of Premiere and the arrival of Deutsche Telekom as a video-on-demand (VoD) broadcaster. Represented by former Kirch executive, Daniel Otto, Telekom's on-line subsidiary T-Online is at the AFM as ...
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Korean horror scares up French sale
Cineclick Asia secured a "low six figures" pre-sale of Korean horror flick A Tale Of Two Sisters to France's Wild Side Films. The film, based on a traditional Korean folk tale is a chamber piece involving an interfering ghost, a cruel stepmother and two sisters with very different characters. The ...
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Cannes contenders take shape
Cannes this year looks set to be a feast of high-art with stalwarts Lars Von Trier, Michael Haneke, Arturo Ripstein, Peter Greenaway and Ingmar Bergman all set to light up the Croisette with their latest films. According to international gossip - but absolutely without any sort of confirmation from the ...
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Keitel political thriller sells to Brazil, Portugal
The Galindez Mystery, a political thriller starring Harvey Keitel and Saffron Burrows, has been bought by Mandra Film for Brazil and Madragoa Filmes for Portugal. The film is handled by Slav International, the new sales outfit founded in January by former TF1 International executive Max Saidel. It is an adaptation ...
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Korea's most expensive live-action film begins shooting
Leading production house Kang JeGyu Films has just got underway on the largest ever live-action film - and possibly the country's most topical given current global tensions - ever made in Korea. Tae Guk Gi - which translates literally as "Korean national flag" - is a $11.5m about the Korean ...
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Fortissimo Eyes up horror sequel
Fortissimo Film Sales has picked up world sales rights to The Eye II, the sequel to Danny and Oxide Pang's stylish horror hit The Eye."We are thrilled at the level of interest from buyers. In many cases we have had bids even before the first film has been released in ...