All articles by Patrick Frater – Page 62
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South Korea to relax Movie Promotion Law
South Korea is to open a chain of adult film theatres and add a fifth classification - "restricted" - to the film classification system.The moves, announced by the Regulation Reform Committee last week, require a change to the Movie Promotion Law under which adult cinemas are banned and films containing ...
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Wild Bunch picks up R-Xmas, Mischka
Wild Bunch, the increasingly independent auteur label within France's StudioCanal, has picked up sales duties on Abel Ferrara's newest picture R-Xmas and grabbed the directorial return of Jean-Francois Stevenin. R-Xmas had previously been represented by StudioCanal's main sales outfit Le Studio Canal Plus. But Wild Bunch chief Vincent Maraval had ...
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Pusan emerges as production force
South Korean port city Pusan is making a bid to become the production capital of the reviving Korean film industry by constructing state-of-the art facilities and seeking to attract foreign infrastructure investment.Development has begun on Centum City, a high-tech business and production complex half an hour from downtown Pusan. The ...
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Germany's MediaFonds 1 launches 'back-end' fund
European film projects in need of urgent gap finance have a new source of cash to turn to following the establishment of "back-end", a fund being created by Munich-based MediaFonds 1.The new fund, which starts life with a pot worth $5m-$8m, aims to provide 30%-40% of budgets for films which ...
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Helkon adds UK plank to European platform plans
German production and distribution group Helkon Media has bought a 51% stake in UK distributor Redbus Films Distribution (RFD) as part of its plan to build a pan-European studio akin to PolyGram Filmed Entertainment.The RFD acquisition is immediately expected to help Helkon cement its growing alliance of European distributors, which ...
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Time Warner, EMI call off merger plans
Time Warner and EMI said today (October 5) that they have called off their planned $20bn merger because they have not been able to meet the concerns of the European Commission's competition regulators. The two companies said were are pulling their application for regulatory approval, but will press on with ...
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Jacob appoints twin assistants to head up Cannes
Veronique Cayla and Thierry Fremaux are the two new names for every producer and director to watch following their appointment to top roles at the Cannes Film Festival under president Gilles Jacob. The two will report directly to Jacob who is giving up his role as general manager, having taken ...
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Horwits poised to boost Contantin's American dream
Bernd Eichinger's Constantin Film has hired high-profile US producer Mitch Horwits as president of its stateside development and production division, Constantin Development.Horwits, whose producer credits include The Usual Suspects, Short Cuts, Bound, Shadowlands and Breakdown, was most recently president of Spelling Pictures.According to a statement, Horwits will be responsible not ...
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Kinowelt seeks to buy Village's German cinemas
Kinowelt, Germany's fast-moving licensing and distribution conglomerate, is poised to become one of the country's leading exhibitors.It is involved in exclusive talks with Village Roadshow to buy a majority stake in the eight German multiplexes owned by the Australian group. Kinowelt was unable to confirm details about the size or ...
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EC extends deadline on Vivendi-Seagram probe
The European Commission (EC) has extended its deadline for examining the proposed Vivendi-Canal Plus takeover of Seagram. "They've offered us concessions and so we've extended the deadline (to rule) from October 2 to October 13," said EC spokeswoman Amelia Torres.The proposed creation of the $40bn Vivendi Universal group has already ...
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Gilliam, Scott support genre shorts competition
Terry Gilliam and Ridley Scott have lent their support to a new competition for short films, backed by the Sci-Fi Channel and the First Film Foundation.Sci-Fi Shorts said it is "the first genre-dedicated short film competition to guarantee theatrical distribution". It has teamed up with exhibition chain UCI to ensure ...
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Carlton scores $1m DVD deal with Spain's Filmax
Carlton International has scored a $1m DVD deal with Spanish distributor Filmax.The 15-year deal provides Filmax with over 100 titles from Carlton's ITC library for distribution on DVD in Spain and Portugal. Classic titles covered by the latest deal include All Quiet On The Western Front, The Big Sleep, The ...
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Europe ready to block AOL and EMI deals
The European Commission (EC) is proposing to reject America Online (AOL)'s $113bn takeover of Time Warner (TW), having already warned that it is likely to ban the related merger of TW and EMI. The EC has apparently drafted a preliminary rejection of the AOL-TW deal citing concerns over vertical integration ...
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Iran's The Circle wins the Golden Lion at Venice
Iranian film, The Circle (Dayereh) grabbed the top honours at the 57th Venice film festival.After the disappointments that had marked the competition section until the first weekend, it became clear that Jafar Panahi's episodic tale recounting the ongoing humiliations of women in modern Iranian society, had every chance of taking ...
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Deluxe to open Italian facility
Laboratories group Deluxe is to open a new processing facility in Rome, which will be only its second site in Europe.Deluxe Italia is expected to serve distribution clients across the European region. "This is about more than the Italian market. From Rome we will be serving our clients' European needs. ...
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Kitano sets up rival Tokyo festival
Office Kitano, the production, distribution and promotion team built around offbeat Japanese actor-director (Beat) Takeshi Kitano, has launched a new festival of Asian and independent film.The establishment of the festival is seen as something of a backlash against the growing commercialism of the long-established Tokyo International Film Festival, which this ...
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Festivals feel impact of global releasing
Global releasing is only now being adopted by Hollywood studios, but it is already having an impact on the timing and programming of festivals. Felice Laudadio this week announced that he will move next year's Taormina festival by a couple of weeks - from mid July to the last week ...
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MIFED expands with related events
Mifed is to defend its claim to be the autumn's leading film sales market by improving its technical facilities and creating a network of linked events."The need for human contact will mean that there is always a need for film markets. But at a time when deals are increasingly done ...
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Venice: Unimpressed under the umbrellas
The violent, shocking or merely technically advanced have become such staples of top festival line-ups that it has become difficult to impress jaded critics and only slightly less cynical audiences.So it is that Venice has awaited with bated breath a selection of films by top names of today - and ...
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UIP and EFA expand short film co-operation
The European Film Academy (EFA) and international distributor United International Pictures (UIP) are to extend their co-operation in supporting short films.Having last year sponsored the EFA Short Film Award, the Prix UIP at Venice - which went to Italian director Enrico Verra for Benvenuto In San Salvario - UIP now ...