All articles by Patrick Frater – Page 53
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Huppert to head Schroeter's next project
Isabelle Huppert, the acclaimed French actress who won the acting Palme at Cannes earlier this year for Austrian film The Piano Teacher, is to head the cast in iconic German director Werner Schroeter's next project. Schroeter's untitled project is the life story, from infancy to 45 years of age, of ...
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Mifed to have US and Asian flavour
Italy's autumn film market, Mifed (Oct 28-Nov 1) is set to be a heavily US and Asian dominated affair, according to the latest registrations. The market's organisers also hit back at suggestions that it is an expensive market to attend. Rassegne, the semi-private company that replaced the Fiera Milano as ...
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Bollywood hopeful to get unprecedented release
India may have delivered yet another in a growing trend of critical and commercial hits with Asoka, the latest Bollywood film to break onto the festival circuit. Even before the Santosh Sivan-directed epic had its world premiere in Venice, it was gaining commercial momentum in one of its key markets. ...
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Miramax grabs Warrior, Paramount loves Triumph
Attesting to the slow pace of deal-making at the festival, Miramax made the highest profile acquisition during Venice, with a film that is not even screening at the event. And Paramount Classics grabbed competition film The Triumph Of Love.Miramax nabbed large chunks of international rights to Himalayan adventure picture, The ...
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Monte Carlo launches comedy film festival
Undaunted by the closure of its TV market, Monte Carlo is to launch its first ever film festival. The first edition, dedicated entirely to comedies, will run from November 19-24, 2001.The festival is the brainchild of Ezio Greggio, impressario and head of event organiser WTT Company. While it has yet ...
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Gitai's Kedma may receive first Israeli funding
Israeli film-maker Amos Gitai is turning to French and Italian finance once again for his next film, Kedma. But he also hopes that the new picture will become the first of his oeuvre to gain official funding from his native Israel.After TF1 and Les Films Balenciaga produced his Venice competition ...
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Venice plays host to the critics
After the recent public dissent by members of the jury at Locarno, first time director Irene Bignardi must have been feeling a little let down. But the feeling is well known even for more experienced selectors, such as Venice's Alberto Barbera.Even before the festival opened, Venice had got a mauling ...
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Venice to launch new TV festival in 2002
Venice, famous for its film festival is now set to become one of the highlights of the television calendar.Kicking off next March (March 21-26, 2002) Venice will be host to a new festival organised by the Associazone Prodottore Televisisi (Italy's association of independent television producers) and Venezia Fiere. The ...
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Huge losses stoke Kinowelt bankruptcy talk
Six month trading figures published by Kinowelt on Friday evening (Aug 31) after the stockmarkets closed served only to heighten film industry and finance sector speculation about the possible insolvency of the stricken German distributor. In Venice several sources claimed to have knowledge of a bankruptcy announcement within the next ...
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Portugese producer Branco courts controversy
Paolo Branco, the prolific Paris-based Portuguese producer, is attracting attention for all the wrong reasons these days. This week it emerged that he is being sued by AGRIF, a citizens' group in favour of French identity and Christian values. Branco goes to the high court on Tuesday (August 21) to ...
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Leading German broadcaster issues profit warning
Germany's broadcast leader, ProSiebenSat1 has become the latest casualty of the advertising slowdown that has spread from the US to Europe. Today it warned that profits in the current year may not beat the record set in 2000 and unveiled a 20% drop in pre-tax profits for the first half ...
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Dot-bombs be damned: entertainment biz is surging
The message from media merchant bank and industry forecaster Veronis Suhler is that things will soon get better in the US communications sector. The upbeat message comes despite the bursting of the internet bubble and pressure on consumer and institutional spending. Those sectors such as network television and newspapers, which ...
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Capitol heads for Hollywood Hong Kong
UK sales house Capitol Films has boarded Hong Kong art-house star Fruit Chan's forthcoming Hollywood Hong Kong, picking up rights outside Asia. Within Asia the film continues to be sold by Carrie Wong's Golden Network.Set to premiere in the main competition section in Venice next month, the film is the ...
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Schneider quits UPC as results disappoint again
Mark Schneider is to stand down as chairman and chief executive of UPC, the troubled company that is Europe's largest cable network operator. His move follows the announcement of second quarter results that sent the shares on another slide. The company reported an improvement in its operational result, but the ...
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Canal Plus gets 75% of Polish sat-TV platform
Canal Plus is to end up owning three quarters of a new Polish satellite-TV platform, according to the terms of an agreement signed today (Aug 10) with Dutch cable empire UPC.The widely anticipated deal (Screendaily, Aug 6) sees UPC's Wizja TV platform merged with Canal Plus' Cyrfa+ platform and the ...
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Aardman's Tortoise vs Hare back on track
Aardman Animations is to appoint Rob Sprackling and John Smith, two of the UK's hottest script talents, to write the next draft of its DreamWorks SKG-backed Tortoise Vs Hare. Aardman last month halted production of the $40m Richard Goleszowski-directed claymation picture citing story issues (Screen Daily, July 9). At the ...
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Hong Kong's Emperor to focus on film production
Shareholders in Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG) have approved the takeover of Emperor Multimedia Group (EMG), one of Hong Kong's most ambitious production and distribution outfits.The deal, which is expected to be completed within a week, means that EMG shifts from being a private entity, wholly owned by Albert Yeung's Questrel ...
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Canal Plus, UPC merge Polish pay-TV platforms
Vivendi Universal and Dutch cable operator UPC are this week expected to merge their pay-TV platforms in Poland.The long-anticipated move will give the country a single pay-operator and potentially allow the unified platform a chance to achieve profitability faster than if the two were in direct competition.A spokesman at Canal ...
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Fantastic fiction emerges from Puchon
Puchon is a city that lives in a cloud of fantasy. A town situated uneasily between the metropolis of 10 million souls that is Seoul and the thrusting seaport of Incheon which boasts Asia's newest international airport, new town Puchon fears being overshadowed. Culture is the tool it has chosen ...
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China threatens red card for Chow's Soccer hit
Shaolin Soccer, the most popular local film of the year in Hong Kong, is in danger of being banished from China and its hugely popular actor-director Stephen Chow fined.The threat follows a row about the film's content and release permits. Zhou Jiangdong, a department head within the powerful State Administration ...