All articles by Patrick Frater – Page 68
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China Star adds talent to Hundred Years venture
China Star Entertainment has fleshed out its ambitious One Hundred Years Of Film production project, through which it plans to invest $150m a year in Asian production in a bid to woo local audiences back to Hong Kong films.The company - which announced at the AFM that it would produce ...
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Golden Network makes first foray into production
Hong Kong-based international sales agent Golden Network is making its first move into production with a three-picture slate which it will co-finance with Korea's NeGa Corporation.The slate includes Japanese picture Fatal End (working title), to be directed by Hibeo Nakata, while local star Fruit Chan is set to direct Public ...
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Ordinary Heroes triumphs at Hong Kong Film Awards
Ann Hui's Ordinary Heroes, a drama about a love triangle and political activism, was the surprise winner of the best film prize at the annual Hong Kong Film Awards.The biggest tally of prizes, however, went to Media Asia's action movie Purple Storm, which in a repeat of its performance at ...
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Applause sets Hur's Spring Day as first project
Applause Pictures, the ambitious start-up pan-Asian production company, has unveiled its first project, One Fine Spring Day, a co-production with Korea's Uno Films and Japan's Omega Projects, to be directed by Christmas In August director Hur Ji-Ho.The drama, which has a budget of under $4m (HK$30m), is tentatively scheduled to ...
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CineMedia shuffles pack for digital future
German film services group, CineMedia Film is re-shuffling its board of directors in order to best position the company for a high tech future.Co-founder Holger Heims joins the supervisory board taking the place of Markus Hoelzl. Hoelzl in turn moves over to the management board to take over financial responsibility ...
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VCL commits titles to Germany's first VoD service
Munich-based video distributor VCL Film + Medien is backing the launch of Germany's first Video-on-demand (VoD) television service.VCL has licensed 100 titles from its extensive home entertainment catalogue to Marburg-based [netCom], which begins testing of its service later this month and hopes to have a more commercially viable service delivered ...
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BSkyB says Yes with Buena Vista, Warner
BSkyB could be the next major player to invest in UK video-on-demand (VoD) pioneer Yes Television. According to a report in the Sunday Telegraph the News Corp subsidiary BSkyB is preparing to take a stake in Yes, which is currently in the middle of an £800m flotation on the London ...
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Rosetta director to head short film jury at Cannes
Belgian director Luc Dardenne, who directed last year's Palme d'Or-winning feature Rosetta, will this year head the Cannes jury for the short film and Cinefoundation sections.Other members of the jury include directors Francesca Comencini, Claire Denis and Abderrahmane Sissako and the actress Mira Sorvino.Dardenne, who shared writing, producing and directing ...
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Redbus hoards rights ahead of VoD launch in UK
The fast-surging UK media concern Redbus Film Group has accumulated a number of studio-level films for its upcoming video-on-demand service through a television package deal struck with German rights broker Intertainment.Intertainment, which has been busy of late concluding several free TV sales across Europe, announced this week television deals in ...
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New Euro TV powerhouse eyes US broadcasting stake
Pearson TV (PTV) and CLT-Ufa are to join forces, creating Europe's largest integrated production and broadcast group that now has its eye on North American broadcasting.Friday's merger announcement is the biggest yet in the rapid consolidation of the European television and new media sectors and was accompanied by an on-going ...
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Universal takes Kinowelt package
German sales and distribution group Kinowelt Medien has sold a package of 70 films to Universal Studios Networks Deutschland and a further four titles to state-owned free broadcaster ZDF.The pictures licensed to ZDF are Tony Bui's Sundance hit Three Seasons, Neil LaBute's forthcoming Nurse Betty, Pavel Chukhraj's The Thief (Vor) ...
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Yes claims $1bn value in run-up to float
UK video-on-demand pioneer Yes TV yesterday said that it believes it is worth more than $1bn, although it has less than 1,500 subscribers.The valuation came as Yes unveiled details of its planned flotation on the London stockmarket and said that its shares will be priced in the 225p-275p range. That ...
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Witt joins cast of PlesWin's Hollywood Sign
Germany's controversy-courting former ice-skating champion, Katarina Witt, is poised to return to the big screen in The Hollywood Sign. The film is the first to be financed by Eric Pleskow and Leon De Winter's Dutch studio PlesWin Entertainment Group and is the US production debut of Sonke Wortmann, German director ...
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GERMANY: Financial Briefs
Constantin turnover up 23%Distributor Constantin Film achieved a 23% increase in turnover last year as 1999 revenues climbed from $50m (DM102m) to $61.7m (DM126m). Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) - although negative at a loss of $4.6m (DM9.4m) - were $1.01m (DM2.2m) better than forecast at the time of ...
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CLT-Ufa reports turnaround in earnings
European broadcast giant CLT-Ufa reported an impressive turnaround in earnings for the 1999 financial year, delivering a euros415m profit compared with a loss of euros14m in 1998. Revenue for the period was up 5% to euros3.21bnCLT-Ufa attributed the improvement to increased profit from its traditional broadcast operations, which include Germany's ...
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Noiret to receive Cannes Festival Award
French actor Philippe Noiret is to receive the Festival Award at this year's Cannes Film Festival. The festival said it is making the award in order to "pay tribute to the richness, diversity and everlasting life of an extraordinary career."The 69-year-old Noiret will receive the special trophy at a ceremony ...
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German Film Prize nods for Buena Vista, Hotel
An unhappy week for German film closed on a more conciliatory note on Friday night with nominations for the German Film Prize evenly spread.Heading the list was Andreas Kleinert's Wege In Die Nacht, Oskar Roehler's Die Unberuehrbare and Tomy Wigand's Fussball Ist Unser Leben with three nominations each. They were ...
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Intertainment sells eight to Italy
German rights broker Intertainment has sold eight films to Italy and unveiled the beginnings of a long-term relationship with Silvio Berlusconi's film and TV group Mediaset.Mediaset is paying $20m for free-TV rights to six high-profile films - Battlefield Earth, Art Of War, Get Carter, The Pledge, The Whole Shebang and ...
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Crane World wins top honours at Toulouse
Upwards of Euros500m of new loans will be made available to Europe's audiovisual industries under a new scheme launched Tuesday (Dec 19) by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB)."This financial package is intended to improve the competitivity of the industry and to favour the development of ...
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EM.TV unveils plans for virtual market
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 ...