All articles by Sandy George – Page 42
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News
Wright's Macbeth to be set in Melbourne's underbelly
A retelling of Shakespeare's Macbeth, set in the present-day violent underbelly of Melbourne,took a step closer to getting a green light with Romper Stomper director Geoffrey Wright at the helm.M, as it istitled, was the only feature to get production funding as part of a $787,000(A$1m) package of support handed ...
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Producers honour three New Zealanders
Producer Trevor Haysom, casting agent Diana Rowan (pictured)and up-and-coming filmmaker Florian Habicht were all honoured at the close ofthe annual conference of the Screen Production and Development Association ofNew Zealand.Haysom had something else to celebrate - within two days ofbeing awarded the title of inaugural independent producer of the year: ...
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AUSTRALIA 23 November
Bridget Jones - TheEdge Of Reason had no trouble staying ahead of the pack in its secondweekend in Australian cinemas, grossing A$3,245,873 for UIP. Being on 370screens made it readily accessible to patrons.The next most popular films at the cinema for the four daysending on Sunday were both openers from ...
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Rialto takes Australasian rights to foursome
Rialto Entertainment has acquired Australian and NewZealand rights to The Machinist, Mean Creek, The Queen Of Sheba's Pearlsand Last Days.Chief executive Kelly Rogers describes Gus Van Sant's LastDays as a visual requiem, not just to Kurt Cobain but to an entiregeneration of rock 'n' roll, and says its acquisition continues ...
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Consortium develops tool to predict financing models
Some of the millions of dollars spent developing films thatnever go into production could be saved if a group of researchers succeed indesigning a tool that can reliably assess the value of what have previouslybeen regarded as intangible assets.The Securities Industry Research Centre Asia-Pacific, theUniversity of New South Wales and ...
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AUSTRALIA 16 November
UIP opened BridgetJones on 370 screens on Thursday and soaked up A$5,588,507 of the cinemaspend of Australians over that and the next three days. The screen average wasa highly impressive A$15,104. Cinemagoers spent more to see the film then theydid to see the other 19 in the chart combined.Another opener, ...
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NEW ZEALAND 16 November
Hero knockedBVI/Miramax stablemate Shall We Dance'off the top of the chart with an opening gross for the four-day weekend ofNZ$203,246 from 23 screens. The result gave the Zhang Yimou action pic a screenaverage more than three times that of any other film in the top 20.Shall We Dance'had been leader ...
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Somersault continues winning streak
Cate Shortland's Somersaulthas continued its winning streak, picking up the Australian film of theyear at the IF Awards on Wednesday (Nov 10) and the Film Critics Circle ofAustralia Awards on Sunday (Nov 7).It also won best directionfor Shortland, best actress for Abbie Cornish, and best cinematography for BobHumphreys at both ...
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Project Greenlight comes to Australia
The Movie Network pay TV channel yesterday launched anAustralian version of Project Greenlight, which will result in a 12-partdocumentary series chronicling the making of a A$1m (US$762,000) feature by afirst-time filmmaker.The movie channel's production partner for both theseries and the feature is Screentime, one of Australia's most successfultelevision production companies.Ben ...
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AUSTRALIA 9 November
Australia's tastefor Asian action films has matured to such a point that Zhang Yimou's Hero had no trouble at all topping thebox office chart on its opening weekend. It grossed A$2,258,748 from 165screens for BVI, giving it a screen average of A$13,689, which was far ahead ofanything else in the ...
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NEW ZEALAND 9 November
Taxi tried veryhard to accelerate past last weekend's box office topper Shall We Dance' but just missed out.Shall We Dance'took NZ$158,393 from 58 screens for BVI in its second weekend on releasecompared to Taxi's NZ$157,427 on 23less screens for 20th Century Fox. Taxi's screen average was the highest in the ...
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Magnolia takes US rights to Somersault
Magnolia Pictures has secured North American rights towriter/director Cate Shortland's Somersault, which late last week broke all records with its clean sweep of theAFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards in Melbourne.Sydney-based producer Anthony Anderson, principal of RedCarpet Productions, said he was very pleased it has gone to the New York-baseddistributor, which ...
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River Queen's DoP takes over directing duties
River Queen directorof photography Alun Bollinger has stepped up to replace director Vincent Wardon the UK/New Zealand co-production, which is on track to complete principalphotography in late November.Bollinger has had a chequered history with River Queen himself, relinquishing his role to John Cavillbecause of a back injury before Samantha Morton's ...
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Blethyn vehicle wins Oz funding
Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) is to backdirector Cherie Nowlan's comedy drama Clubland, starring Brenda Blethyn.Blethynplays a raunchy Sydney club performer whose shy 20-year-old son is forced to make a decision between her and his feisty new girlfriend.The RB Films project has the backing of MovieHouseEntertainment in the UK and ...
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NZ arthouse player plans expansion into UK and US
New Zealand's dominant arthouse player, Rialto, isplanning to establish distribution operations in the US and the UK, as well assetting up a cinema chain in Australia, where it has been distributing filmsfor nearly three years.The ambitious global expansion, to be funded through cashreserves, is unprecedented for a specialist distributor from ...
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NEW ZEALAND 2 November
The two most popular films at the box office on the weekendwere both openers, being Shall We Dance'which took NZ$267,734 from 58 screens for BVI/Miramax, and The Forgotten, which grossed NZ$198,866 from 10 fewer screens forColumbia TriStar.The strongest performer of the four other openers in thechart besides Shall We Dance' ...
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AUSTRALIA 1 November
BVI's Shall We Dance'had no trouble holding on to the top spot in the chart in its second weekend,taking A$1,724,248 from 268 screens, or 18% less than the corresponding fourdays a week ago. It again registered the highest screen average, it being A$6,433.Two UIP films fought it out for the ...
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Somersault wins every single AFI prize
Cate Shortland'sSomersault managed a remarkable cleansweep of prizes at the star-studded AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards inMelbourne (Oct 29), winning in all 13 categories.Somersault's record-breakingrun meant no other feature was honoured. The awards included best film forproducer Anthony Anderson, best director and best script for Cate Shortland,and actor awards for ...
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Trouble continues for River Queen
Director Vincent Ward is off the New Zealand shoot of River Queen and, unlike Samantha Mortonwho earlier took time out because of illness, isn't coming back.A statement issued today from the production office saidonly that Ward "has been removed". It did not give a reason andpublicist Sue May declined to ...
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AUSTRALIA 25 October
Shall We Dance'opened last Thursday and leads the box office chart for the four-day weekendending on October 24. It sold A$2,104,907 worth of tickets to 267 screens to beable to earn that honour.The BVI title pushed Collateralinto second place after just one week at the top. The UIP Tom Cruise ...