All articles by Patrick Frater – Page 61
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Japan, Korea lunge after Hark's Legend
China Star has secured a Japanese release through Twins Distribution for its big budget Tsui Hark movie, The Legend Of Zu.In Korea, Hark's action thriller will be distributed by Poscobo. Outside Asia the film is being handled by Summit Entertainment, which bought it as part of a three picture package ...
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Paradiso fills shopping basket at MIFED
Belgian distributor Paradiso Entertainment closed a series of package deals at MIFED with New Line Cinema, Good Machine International and Beyond International. Having previously handled New Line's Rush Hour it snapped up Rush Hour 2 and Nick Cassavetes' hospital-set hostage drama John Q, which is now in production with Denzel ...
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Puffer replaces Tellenbach as KirchPayTV boss
The Kirch group has dropped KirchPayTV boss Markus Tellenbach. The operation will be taken over from January by Manfred Puffer, who is currently Kirch Holding finance director. KirchPayTV was supposed to float on the German stock market by the end of next year. But growth in subscriber numbers is understood ...
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TF1, Beyond share sales on Yu's Revolver
TF1 International and Australia's Beyond Films are to share sales duties on Revolver, the next film by Bride Of Chucky-director Ronny Yu, after his forthcoming 51st State.In a similar fashion to their joint involvement on another Australian picture Cut, TF1 will co-finance and sell the picture in all non-English-language territories ...
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RAI Trade picks up Taviani duo, Mikado trio
RAI Trade, the film sales division of the Italy's state-owned RAI broadcast giant, has picked up a trio of new features from producer-distributor Mikado and added the next two pictures from the Taviani brothers, Paolo and Vittorio.The three from Mikado - Domenica, The Dervish (Il Dervisco) and The Third Act ...
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Media Asia sells packages to Miramax, Medusa
Hong Kong's Media Asia has struck two key deals - one a 20-picture North American deal with Miramax, the other a five-year European DVD distribution deal with the UK's Medusa Communications - that together ensure an explosive presence in international markets.Miramax is acquiring theatrical and video rights to a mix ...
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Kinowelt still in the hunt for films; targets RCV
Rainer Koelmel, co-chief of Kinowelt, has insisted that his expansion-minded German outfit is in good financial health and still on the acquisitions trail, for both product and companies - contradicting persistent talk around the MIFED halls that his company is facing a liquidity crunch. Koelmel said that despite the plunging ...
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Orfeo adds Samsara to cross-cultural slate
Samsara - a Himalayan-set story of one man's struggle to find spiritual and sexual freedom that was written and directed by Pan Nalin, a Paris-based Indian director - is among several cross-cultural projects being sold by MIFED debutant Orfeo, the Cologne-based outfit formed earlier this year as a joint venture ...
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Keitel, Warren head up Mai's US debut
Harvey Keitel and Leslie Ann Warren head the cast of Snatch, the first film to be produced in the US by Denmark's Thomas Mai.The $4m satirical comedy is set to shoot in January, under the direction of Cecilia Miniucchi, director of Selena Remembered and Nitsch 98. The film is a ...
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Fortissimo capitalises on Asian cinema boom
Fortissimo Film Sales has picked up a trio of new films from Thailand and China, the hottest producing countries in Asia. And a string of top sales shows that buyers are now lapping up the Asian resurgence.First addition is Fata La Jone, a romantic comedy from Thailand, by Film Bangkok, ...
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Pandora, Warner show literary bent
Pandora Pictures, the new Los Angeles incarnation of what was formerly Paris-based Pandora Cinema, has unveiled the first two films to come through its co-financing arrangement with Warner Bros. Both are literary adaptations that represent a significant step up in budgets for the company.The White Oleander, a $17m female ensemble ...
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Scanbox unveils slate despite takeover
Sales operation, Scanbox International continues to demonstrate rude health despite the troubles of its parent Denmark's Scanbox Entertainment, once the largest independent distributor in the Nordic region and now in the process of being sold to Germany's VCL Film + Medien after suffering through three years of losses.Restructuring notwithstanding, the ...
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Paramount Classics guns for Schroeder's Assassins
StudioCanal has sold Barbet Schroeder's Our Lady Of The Assassins to Paramount Classics for the US. Paramount has also taken rights for Colombia, the country where the hard-hitting gay-themed film that takes place within a culture where human life is dirt cheap was secretly filmed. In addition, StudioCanal has struck ...
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Korea's Cinema Service makes sales debut
One of Korea's largest producer-distributors, Cinema Service, is making its market debut as a film seller this week with a slate of nine pictures including local box office hit Bichunmoo.The $5m martial arts romance has scored 2.3 million admissions at the Korean box office. Shot in Shanghai with a Chinese ...
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Emperor kicks off $100m film push with Highbinders
Emperor Group CEO Gordon Chan is to put his directing career on hold while he powers up the wealthy Hong Kong company's $100m drive into film. Chan and Emperor president Albert Yeung plan to develop a slate of quality Asian movies that play well in both Asia and the international ...
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Filmax seeks partners for Fantastic fare
Spanish mini-studio Filmax plans to open its genre division Fantastic Factory, co-founded two years ago by director Brian Yuzna and Filmax president Julio Fernandez, to co-production partners. "We have proved that we can deliver films of quality and range. Now we want to bring on-board co-producers and to increase budgets," ...
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Good Machine adds some Latin Backbone
Good Machine International has picked up Latin American rights to Guillermo del Toro's thriller The Devil's Backbone, which is currently in post-production. Other territories are sold by Wild Bunch.The film is co-produced by Pedro and Agustin Almodovar's El Deseo company with Mexico's Producciones Anhelo and Tequila Gang. Good Machine has ...
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Intermedia puts Heaven into expanding line-up
Intermedia has added Jeroen Krabbe's new picture The Discovery Of Heaven to its already expanding London and MIFED line-up.The picture is only the second as director by Krabbe, who scored highly with Left Luggage (Twee Koffers Vol). A supernatural drama, Heaven stars Gillian Barge, Timothy Bateson, Nicholas Farrell and Emma ...
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Germany picks No Place To Go for Oscars
No Place To Go (Die Unberuehrbare) has been selected as Germany's nominee for the foreign-language Oscar. The Export Union, which picked the film from eight candidates said: "The subject of reunification has never been portrayed in German cinema as succinctly and subtly differentiated as here". Directed by Oskar Roehler, the ...
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Asian, US titles lead EFA non-European film nods
Three Asian titles - Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Wong Kar-Wai's In the Mood For Love and Edward Yang's Yi Yi - are among the six films to be nominated for the Screen International Award for non-European film at the European Film Awards (EFA). US titles Erin Brockovich, ...