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All articles by Sandy George – Page 43
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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 ...
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Becker takes on Love Reigns sales
Becker Films International is to handle worldwide sales on WhereLove Reigns, which is being set up as an official tri-partite productionbetween the UK, Canada and South Africa and has Martin Scorsese on board asexecutive producer.Thefilm is based on the true story of the torrid love affair in the early 1900sbetween ...
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New Zealand lobbies for second film sound stage
New Zealand film agency Film Auckland is bidding forUS$1.8m (NZ$1.7m) from the New Zealand Government to help construct a secondpurpose-built film sound stage in the country.New Zealand's only other purpose-built film stage is downsouth in Wellington and is now being used for Peter Jackson's King Kong.It was built earlier this ...
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Australia, New Zealand generate star power
Films of all shapesand sizes are now underway in New Zealand and, after a considerable productiondrought, in Australia - and both countries are awash with internationallyrenowned acting talent.In Australia, HeathLedger and Geoffrey Rush are to star in Candy,and Cate Blanchett is the focus of LittleFish, which also stars Sam Neill ...
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Hopkins in the saddle for World's Fastest Indian
Anthony Hopkins plays a motorcycling legend in TheWorld's Fastest Indian, whichwriter/director Roger Donaldson has been shooting for three weeks on the Utahsalt flats and moves shortly to New Zealand for a further 11 weeks.The New Zealand Film Commission and New Zealand FilmProduction Fund are the financing partners on what is ...
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AUSTRALIA 18 October
It is highly unusual to see the first three spots in the top20 chart occupied by openers but that is exactly what happened on the four-dayweekend to October 17. And there were no other new faces in the chart.Leading the charge was the Collateral, starring Australia's one-time adopted son Tom ...
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AUSTRALIA 12 October
In its third weekend on release Shark Tale was top ofthe pops at the box office with a gross of A$1,707,044 from 289 screens forUIP. Despite having spent only 18 days in cinemas, its total gross of nearlyA$12m is second only to that of TheBourne Supremacy's A$15m, which has taken ...
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NEW ZEALAND 12 October
The homegrown In MyFather's Den can hold its head high as a result of its first weekend incinemas, which comes after considerable festival exposure this year bothlocally and abroad. It grossed NZ$184,793 from 20 screens for Hoyts to claimthird place.It was one of two openers in the top three but ...
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Lack of leading lady puts Eucalyptus, Crowe on hold
The producers behind Jocelyn Moorhouse's Eucalyptus, which was to have gone into production this year,are gearing down because they have not been able to find an Australian leadinglady to star alongside Russell Crowe and Geoffrey Rush.They say Crowe and Fox Searchlight, which is fully financingthe film, remain very supportive of ...
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Watson, Hurt attracted by The Proposition
Emily Watson, John Hurt, Ray Winstone, David Wenham andDanny Huston star in the big-budget UK/Australian co-production TheProposition, which goes into production inthe tiny outback town of Winton on Monday (October 11) amid temperatures likelyto be well over 30 degrees Celsius.The film reunites director John Hillcoat and music legendand scriptwriter Nick ...