All articles by Patrick Frater – Page 31
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US turns up the heat on Asian remakes
Hollywood's fervour for remaking Asian genre titles is reaching fever pitch. Dimension Films has acquired North American and remake rights to Cinema Service's comedy-drama that has the working title Teacher Mr Kim. And separately, Cineclick Asia is finalising a deal with Los Angeles-based production and distribution group Mosaic Media for ...
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Arclight's Twins Effect secures multiple berths
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment has picked up North American and Latin American rights in all media on The Twins Effect, the made-in-Hong Kong martial arts vampire picture sold by sales newcomer Arclight Films.The Twins Effect is directed by Dante Lam and features Hong Kong teen singing sensations Charlene Choi and ...
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Japanese director set for Grudge re-match
Japanesedirector Takashi Shimizu is to remake his horrorflick The Grudge (Ju-On) for GhostHouse Pictures, the newly hatched genre label formed by Sam Raimi, Rob Tappertand Senator International. TakaIchise, who produced Ringu (successfully remade by Dreamworks SKG as The Ring) and Ju-On, will produce for Ghost House. The pictureis being fast ...
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Korea's Jail Breakers given new Dimension
Miramax Films has agreed a "mid six-figure" sum to buy remake rights to Korean comedy Jail Breakers. The comedy about two felons who break out of jail only days before discovering that they were to be pardoned, Jail Breakers was a hit that notched 550,000 on its first three days ...
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CJ strikes early deals at AFM
Korean major, CJ Entertainment sold German rights to two of its leading titles sci-fi fantasy Resurrection Of The Little Match Girl and cyber-thriller Unborn But Forgotten (pictured) to I-On New Media. The deals were struck at the end of last week's European Film Market in Berlin. An earlier Berlin deal ...
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Buyers say yes to Noi
Noi The Albino (Noi Albinoi), Icelandic director Dagur Kari's debut feature which has won six festival prizes in as many weeks, has proved a winner with buyers as well. Handled by Paris-based sales and production outfit, The Co-Production Office, Noi has now been licensed to nine territories. Latest deals closed ...
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Berlin market climate offers guarded encouragement
If Berlin's European Film Market was anything to go by, one thing is clear: the overall climate for buying and selling films is probably getting no worse.Indeed, the two recurring adjectives used to describe the state of the film sales business were "firmer" and "livelier" - particularly in comparison ...
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Waiting For The Clouds gets ready to shoot
Behrooz Hashemian, co-producer of Michael Winterbottom's Berlin competition film In This World, is preparing a new film that looks tailor-made for Berlin director Dieter Kosslick's favoured themes of tolerance, diversity and multi-cultural understanding.Waiting For The Clouds, by Turkish director Yesim Ustaoglu (director of Journey To The Sun) centres ...
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Buyers catch The Last Train
Max Saidel's new sales outfit Slav International has enjoyed good business with The Last Train (El Ultimo Tren, aka Corazon De Fuego). The social comedy, directed by Federico Luppi, which was Uruguay's foreign-language Oscar hopeful, was bought by Pandora/Pegasos for Germany and Austria and by Fama for Switzerland. A ...
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Metacinema snaps up Berlinale titles
Metacinema, the Italian production, distribution and communications outfit launched last year at Venice, has bought a three-picture package of Berlin festival films from Fortissimo Film Sales.The company, formed by industry veteran Giovanni Tamberi, formerly with Key Films and most recently with Istituto Luce, bought Yes Nurse, No Nurse, the ...
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Films Distribution beefs up slate
French sales outfit Films Distribution, which is handling the Lucas Belvaux trilogy, one of the hottest properties at the EFM, has added four films to its Berlin-AFM slate. These are headed by Central Station-writer Marcos Bernstein's directorial debut The Other Side Of The Street. The film, which stars ...
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Bavaria embraces A Torn Hug
Recent Rotterdam CineMart project, A Torn Hug, (Un Abrazo Partido) by Argentinian director Daniel Burmann has been picked up for world sales by Bavaria Film International. The deal completes the financing of the $650,000 tale about piecing together one's identity in multicultural Argentina. Other backers include Burman's own Burman ...
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Industry mourns Daniel Toscan Du Plantier
Daniel Toscan Du Plantier Daniel Toscan Du Plantier, president of Unifrance Film International, died suddenly yesterday in Berlin. Toscan Du Plantier was an always colourful, sometimes controversial, character who was ideally suited to the role of promoter in chief of French cinema. The festival immediately moved into a phase of ...
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Celluloid strikes Belleville deals
PatrickFraterFrenchsales agent Celluloid Dreams has struck a host of deals on Cannes hopeful BellevilleRendez-vous (aka Les Triplettes De Belleville) and has also agreed a five-picture package deal with UKdistributor Metro Tartan.Belleville, an animated thriller for adultsdirected by Sylvain Chomet, is part of the Metro-Tartan package, which alsoincludes Jean-Pierre Limousin's recent ...
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Magnolia buys Amazing trilogy
PatrickFraterBelgiandirector Lucas Belvaux's trilogy An Amazing Couple, On The Run and After Life has clinched a US dealwith boutique distributor Magnolia Pictures, taking rights to North America,excluding French-speaking Canada. In a separate deal, Telepool bought Germanrights.French sales outfit Films Distributionsaid that the Magnolia deal was completed after a dinner with ...
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Momentum joins in Fortissimo's Camp
Camp, the musical romp set in a summer camp star school, has been snapped up for the UK by Momentum Films. Momentum scored after beating off competition from numerous rival bidders and is believed to have paid a "near mid-six figure sum." Momentum, senior vice president of acquisitions Sally Caplan ...
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Metro Tartan takes UK rights on Black And White
Metro Tartan, the UK distributor, has picked up Black And White, an Australian period drama by director Craig Lahiff. The film focuses on a real life 1958 trial of an Aboriginal man, framed by the police for the rape of a young girl. Made by Duo Art and Nik Powell's ...
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Bergman's TV drama heads for the big screen
Svensk Filmindustri (SF) has notched up a raft of sales for Saraband, a TV drama from legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman that has now become a hot theatrical property.The film was sold to Metro-Tartan for the UK, where the distributor recently re-released and has done good business with the previously ...
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Good Bye, Lenin! heads Bavaria's sales
German sales outfit Bavaria Film International has done strong business on Berlin competition film Good Bye, Lenin!. Deals were closed on the spot with France's Ocean Films and Japan's Gaga Communications. It is in negotiations with distributors from the US, UK, Spain and Italy. Ahead of today's Oscar ...
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Arte reassures film-makers of continued investment
Jerome Clement, (pictured) head of Arte, the Franco-German cultural channel, has plenty to crow about as he makes an annual good-will mission to the Berlinale. Arte was an investor in no less than twenty festival films, including four in main competition. These are Wolfgang Becker's already hot Good Bye Lenin!, ...