All articles by Patrick Frater – Page 58
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UPC cable giant fights watchdogs as shares slide
UPC, Europe's largest cable group, hit back at Dutch regulators which have promised to bring in competition to the broadband market. But that was not enough to prevent its shares hitting a record low for the second day running.On Thursday evening UPC shares closed down 26% at Euros5.90 on the ...
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Executive Suite
Vincent MaravalThe founder of Wild Bunch, which has handled some of the most distinctive films of recent years, including Eureka, pictured, explains how a "research department" has become one of the world's hottest sellers and producers.Why did you start Wild Bunch'We wanted to do sales differently. Historically the international ...
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Solomon restates TEAM's losses, takes equity stake
Michael J. Solomon, the company doctor attempting to resuscitate TEAM Communications, has taken an equity stake in the stricken US-German film and TV group and restated the losses incurred under the recently departed management.The moves come at the end of a week in which no less than seven law firms ...
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Beauty, Lights for Non Stop Films
The 52nd Berlinale has announced the names of the eight members of the Official Competition's International Jury which will be headed this year by Indian director Mira Nair.They are: film author Peter Cowie (UK), director Lucrecia Martel (Argentina), producer Claudie Ossard (France), director Oskar Roehler (Germany), film reviewer Kenneth Turan ...
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UK's year-end cinema admissions below par
Admissions in the last quarter of 2000 slid 13% to 32.2 million, compared with 37.1m in the last three months of 1999, according to data from government agency National Statistics. If the data is seasonally adjusted the fall was 14%, from 37.7 million to 32.4 million.The figures reveal a total ...
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Blockbuster, Enron divorce creates VoD rivals
Blockbuster Video and Enron are to set up rival video-on-demand (VoD) services, having ended their year-old partnership.The original deal (Screendaily, July 20) had envisaged a match between Blockbuster's marketing power and the distribution capacity provided energy giant Enron's broadband fibre-optic network. This already spans North America and is being expanded ...
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Sonet couples with Trust
Denmark's Trust Film Sales has struck an output deal with prolific Swedish production and distribution outfit Sonet. The deal hatched on the eve of last month's AFM gives Trust, part of Denmark's Zentropa Entertainment empire, two more titles to add to its Cannes list. First up will be Home Sour ...
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Costly Costa! campaign pays off
Costly Costa! campaign pays offCosta!, the Dutch teen comedy by Johan Nijenhuis, has shattered domestic records during its opening run. In the Thursday to Sunday first weekend it notched up over 100,000 spectators in its home market of The Netherlands.On its opening Thursday it attracted 22,000 visitors, a total which ...
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Fortissimo announces robust sales
Dutch-Asian sales agent Fortissimo Film Sales enjoyed a strong AFM ahead of what is expected to be a busy Cannes.During the AFM it sold Thai Cannes hopeful Tears Of The Black Tiger by Wisit Sasanatieng to Bim Distribuzione (Italy), Alta Films (Spain), NFM (Netherlands), Edko (Hong Kong), Cathay (Singapore) and ...
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Harvey Keitel joins Sicilian Mafia thriller
Harvey Keitel is continuing his love affair with European cinema and is now shooting Ginostra, a Sicilian-set Mafia thriller by French director Manuel Pradal.He is joined in the cast by Andie MacDowell, Asia Argento and Stefano Dionisi. Shooting continues until the end of March. The $11.9m (FF86m) English-language picture is ...
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Zelezny's French chateaux besieged by CME
Central European Media Enterprises (CME) has been awarded damages of $27.1m by a Czech court in its long running dispute with businessman Vladimir Zelezny. Zelezny is the former chief of CNTS, CME's Czech TV services company, and who took disputed control of the Nova TV company. The Czech order allows ...
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Cannes 2001: Apocalypse maintenant
Twenty seven years after Francis Ford Coppola walked away with a Palme d'Or for The Conversation and then repeated the feat five years later with Apocalypse Now, the festival is to dedicate a sidebar tribute to the filmmaker that will be crowned by an extended director's cut of Apocalypse Now.Coppola, ...
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Woody Allen project trio Bac in business in France
VCL Film + Medien has secured a new French distributor for its trio of forthcoming Woody Allen pictures and confirmed Spanish and Italian releases. Jean Labadie's Bac Films, which has released many previous Allen films, will distribute the films in France. VCL, which has until now not identified the other ...
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Europe ready to roll its costliest cartoon feature
Europe's most expensive animated feature, Simsala Grimm, is finally poised to go into production in May under the direction of cartoon veteran Gerd Hahn.Drawn from a Russian fairy tale, the long-in-development theatrical version sees the return of the evil characters from the eponymous TV series who attempt to take over ...
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Wild Bunch hits the road with The Red Siren
French super-mini Wild Bunch has boarded its second English-language picture The Red Siren (La Sirene Rouge) by rising French filmmaker Olivier Megaton Fontana, a director rated by compatriot Luc Besson as one of the hottest emerging talents in Europe. Megaton's film is a road movie thriller with a heavy accent ...
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Fortissimo serves up spicy Thai dish
Fortissimo Film Sales has picked up a trio of new pictures including Jan Dara, by Nonzee Nimibutr, the Thai director behind last year's pan-Asian blockbuster Nang Nak.His follow-up Jan Dara is a saga of sex, guilt and retribution set in 1930s Thailand which sees a young man return to a ...
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Hudlin to direct Chan in $35m martial arts fantasy
Emperor Multi-media Group (EMG) has signed Reginald Hudlin to direct its Jackie Chan film The Highbinders which, at a suggested budget of $35m, is the most expensive film ever to be financed from Hong Kong. The English-language martial arts fantasy will shoot later in June or July in Hong Kong ...
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EuroArts snaps up New York partner
German sales agent EuroArts Entertainment and the New York-based production house Snapper Films have formed a development and production alliance.Under the three-year deal, the two expect to produce at least two English-language pictures a year with budgets in the $5m region. "What we are looking for is films in three ...
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Universal unspools webcast deals
Universal Studios has signed a deal with broadband network Intertainer to deliver its films in pay-per-view (PPV) and video-on-demand (VoD) format. It is believed to be close to a similar deal with Blockbuster and Enron.The long-term deal will see Universal provide Intertainer with all its new releases and some film ...
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Founders quit as AlloCine expands online ticketing
Jean-David Blanc and Patrick Holzman, the two founders of film ticketing business AlloCine, quit Vivendi Universal subsidiary CanalNumedia on Thursday.CanalNumedia also increased its stake in AlloCine from 75% to 100%, but did not disclose the value of the deal.Blanc and Holzmann will serve out their notice periods with CanalNumedia, but ...