All articles by Patrick Frater – Page 34
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TiVo, Replay uptake threatening broadcaster revenues
Within a few years television viewers will have little problem avoiding advertising thanks to the combination of video-on demand (VoD) and the spread of personal video recorders (PVRs) like TiVo or Replay. That is clearly a threat to the traditional broadcast model and ultimately for the film and TV productions ...
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France mulls Eurimages exit
Europe's leading film producing nation, France is considering withdrawing from Eurimages, the Council of Europe-backed support body.The proposal is only one of several suggestions made by the country's film regulator, the Centre National de la Cinematographie (CNC), in a report into Eurimages' usefulness. Although France is a net beneficiary - ...
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Cineclick Asia unveils string of international sales
Last week's Pusan festival was background for Cineclick Asia to unveil a string of English-language territory deals on its slate of high profile Korean movies.Action comedy, My Wife Is A Gangster and boxing drama Champion were both sold to the UK's Medusa. Friend, the action drama which briefly held the ...
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Europa Cinemas recognises youth-oriented activities
Film theatres in Barcelona, Spain and Liege, Belgium were presented with the inaugural Europa Cinemas awards for the quality and diversity of their programming and for in-house activities for young audiences.The winners were the 9-screen, Barcelona-based Cinemas Verdi and Verdi Park, run by Enrique Perez Font and the 4-screen, Churchill ...
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Europe's broadcasters exceeding minimum quotas by 50%
For all the everyday complaints about imported programming, Europe's TV broadcasters are comfortably exceeding local content quotas set down by the Television Without Frontiers directive. According to a European Commission report broadcasters devote an average 62% of airtime to European works in 2000, up from 60.7% in 1999. The minimum ...
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Hong Kong project market set for revival
The Hong Kong Asia Film Finance Forum (HAF) is set to make a return in 2003 after a two year hiatus. The new event will combine the project market of the first HAF with the industry screenings of last year's hastily organised Hong Kong Asia Screenings (HAS). Held at the ...
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Remakes take centre stage at Pusan
The surge in the number Asian films being remade for western audiences was highlighted at this year's PPP projects market in Pusan. After announcing the sale of remake rights on Korean hit Marrying The Mafia last month, Korean major Cinema Service opened up unreleased Break Out for remake treatment after ...
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Hong Kong's Filmko boards Floating Landscape
Rising Hong Kong film-production indie Filmko has boarded romantic drama The Floating Landscape by director Carol Lai (pictured) and producer Stanley Kwan.The film, the story of a recently bereaved woman who unexpectedly finds new love when on a trip to Qingdao to discover her late boyfriend's roots, has been one ...
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Pusan's problems reflect Asian industry's growing pains
The inconsistencies at this year's Pusan International Film Festival and the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) reflect the uneven progress of the growing Asian film industry.The festival and productions markets were hampered by growing pains, most notably the decision to locate in two different districts of Pusan which are an ...
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PPP wraps with attendance record
Local Korean director Hong Sang-soo anda team of Taiwanese directors headed by veteran Hou Hsiao-hsien were named asprize-winners at the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) projects and co-productionmarket that is held parallel with the Pusan festival. Determiningthe real winners - in terms of which projects get the finance and commercialpartners ...
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Deals overflow for Cinema Service's Volcano High
Cinema Service has scored a series of notable deals on its sold sci-fi, action-comedy Volcano High. The film, which features a young man banned from using his incredible fighting powers who is banished to a high school with an impossibly bad disciplinary record, was sold to Distant Horizon for North ...
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The Touch adds sales, hits US delivery delay
Big-budget Hong Kong action-adventure, The Touch has wrapped up a number of additional sales, but has hit a snag with delivery of the final version to Miramax for the US.In the days since Mifed, Sabrina Chen, sales chief at the film's principal backer Han Entertainment, has inked key distribution deals ...
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Korea, France sign preliminary co-operation agreement
South Korea and France this weekend signed an agreement to increase co-operation between their two film industries, with the aim of expanding it into a full co-production accord.However, the agreement fell short of being a co-production treaty, of which France boasts 43, and which would have allowed French ...
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Pusan festival gets off to a uneven start
The Pusan festival, Asia's premier cinema showcase now in its seventh edition, got off to an uneven start with a mixture of charming details and logistical headaches.VIPs arriving at the opening night ceremony, for instance were given first use of an awesome new road-bridge spanning the bay and more than ...
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Senator Entertainment issues profit warning
Senator Entertainment today became the latest German film player to admit financial difficulties.The distribution and sales outfit said that revenues for the current year will be half those it previously forecast. While it says it will still achieve a positive EBITDA, it added that it will "not be able to ...
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Internet video-on-demand system launched
Movielink, the first internet video-on-demand (VoD) system backed by the Hollywood studios, got off to a "soft launch" yesterday.The service, which is available to US-based broadband homes, starts life with 170 films provided by its five studio backers, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal and Warner Bros. It will ...
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Fortissimo lines up double Dutch treat
Netherlands-Hong Kong-based sales outfit, Fortissimo Film Sales has struck an output deal with Benelux distributor A-Films and picked up a new Dutch picture which it expects to sell worldwide.The first Fortissimo titles acquired by San Fu Maltha and Pim Hermeling's A-Film Distribution/Fu Works under the new output deal are Wong ...
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Senator's Boogeyman chased by int'l buyers
Last week's MIFED saw Senator International strike its first deals on films from the genre-film label recently launched with Sam Raimi and Rob Tappert.On Boogeyman, it licensed French rights to Hachette Filipacchi Films (formerly known as Film Office) for France, Manga for Spain, Village Roadshow for Australia, Singapore and Greece, ...
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Bavaria Film Int'l celebrates successful MIFED
Leading German sales agent, Bavaria Film International had a successful MIFED selling all rights for Japan on its local hit Bibi Blocksberg to Gaga Communications. The film, an adaptation of a popular children's novel directed by Hermine Huntgeburth, has grossed Euros8m in Germany and was also sold to Thai distributor ...
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Intermedia takes world sales rights on Suriyothai
Los Angeles-based sales house Intermedia has picked up world sales rights on Suriyothai, the historical epic, which is the largest film ever to come out of Thailand.Directed by Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol and originally presented in a three hour version at the Pusan festival in November 2001, the film was subsequently ...