All articles by Sandy George – Page 44
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...as Australian Labor Party pledges industry funds
The Australian Labor Party today pledged that if it wins theOctober 9 election it will provide one-off cash injections of $35m (A$50m) for theFilm Finance Corporation (FFC) and $14m for the Australian Film Commission(AFC), half of which will be for a low budget feature fund.The FFC got $43m in taxpayer ...
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Ghost Rider heads for Australia
The attractiveness of runaway production to local economieswas made clear in Australia today with the Victorian Government announcing thatColumbia Pictures Entertainment is to film $40m GhostRider in Melbourne.Premier Steve Bracks and the Minister for Innovation JohnBrumby said Ghost Rider, a Marvelcomic adaptation to be directed by Mark Steven Johnson ...
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NEW ZEALAND 13 September
The Villageconvincingly outsold Dodgeball whenthey both launched last weekend, but the 20th Century Fox comedy turned thetables on its BVI competitor second time around. Dodgeball took NZ$275,743 from 50 screens to top the charts and The Village took NZ$234,410 from 56screens.To add insult to injury, TheVillage could only claim fourth ...
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AUSTRALIA 13 September
The only two openers in the chart were 20th Century Fox's Dodgeball and UIP's Terminal and both were among the top five films of the weekend. DodgeBall took A$2,343,763 from 255screens to lead the chart with an impressive screen average of A$9,191 and Terminaltook A$1,275,197 from 205 screens to come ...
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Ledger, Collette starring pics win Oz funding
The Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) has cleared theway for cameras to roll on two new films, investing in Candy starringHeath Ledger and Like Minds starring Toni Collette.Ledger and rising star from Abbie Cornish (Somersault)play lovers full of lust and self-destructive tendencies in thelong-gestating drama Candy, which also features Geoffrey ...
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AusFILM recruits Fox Studio Australia chief
Fox Studios Australia chief executive Michael Harvey hasbeen named deputy chair of AusFILM, the organisation responsible for attractinginternational production to Australia.Ian Robertson, of Sydney law firm Holding Redlich, remainschair.Two new board members have also been appointed: Helene Nicolfrom Melbourne-based television commercials production house Great SouthernFilms, and Greg Smith, director of ...
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AUSTRALIA 6 September
Two of the three most popular films in cinemas on theweekend are openers. They are BVI's TheVillage, which grossed A$3,117,621 from 290 screens, and Columbia TriStar's13 Going On 30, which grossedA$1,783,128 from 221 screens. Separating them was UIP's The Bourne Supremacy, which sold A$2,585,052 work of tickets to 311screens on ...
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Spooked scores NZ distribution
Arkles Entertainment has acquired New Zealand distributionrights for director Geoff Murphy's local conspiracy thriller Spooked.Cliff Curtis (Whale Rider) plays the lead role of ajournalist who becomes obsessive about investigating a mysterious fatal carcrash on the Auckland Harbour Bridge. The starting point for Murphy's scriptwas the true events depicted in Ian ...
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King Kong goes before the cameras
Director Peter Jackson and actors Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody,and Jack Black faced the media yesterday at Jackson's Wellington studio complexto mark the beginning of principal photography on King Kong.Camerasofficially roll on Monday on the remake of the 1933 classic, which is beingfinanced by Universal Pictures and will be released on ...
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NEW ZEALAND 31 August
While UIP's The BourneSupremacy, in its first weekend in the charts, took about 10 times morerevenue than second placed Fahrenheit9/11, the documentary did climb two places despite being in its fifth weekon release.The Bourne Supremacygrossed NZ$618,691 from 54 screens, registering a screen average of NZ$11,457,while Fahrenheit took NZ$68,712 from19 screens ...
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Acclaimed directors lead Australia's upcoming slate
The directors of three of the most highly acclaimedAustralian films of recent years, Ana Kokkinos, Rowan Woods and Ray Lawrence,are named within the country's upcoming slate of financed but still-to-be-madefilms.The Book OfRevelation, Ana Kokkinos's second film after Head On, and Little Fish,Rowan Woods' second film after The Boys,are being represented ...
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International buyers clamour for Lord Of War
Lord Of War,billed as one of the biggest independent features currently in production inthe world, has relocated to South Africa after two weeks of shooting in NewYork.Executive producer and Arclight Films managing director GaryHamilton says he has already sold the US$50m action thriller starring NicolasCage and Ethan Hawke into "virtually ...
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AUSTRALIA 23 August
Besides Hellboyand The Ladykillers, three otheropeners registered in the chart. Roadshow's BeforeSunset (11th ) grossed A$166,871 from 24 screens, and Rialto's Coffee & Cigarettes (16th) grossedA$88,634 from just 11 screens. At A$6,952 and A$8,057 respectively, the screenaverages on both these films were the two highest in the chart apart from ...
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NEW ZEALAND 23 August
The top 20 films in New Zealand together sold less ticketson the weekend than any other top 20 group of films this year. Despite thislack-lustre result, the five most popular films grossed within NZ$10,000 ofeach other, intimating that it was a hard-fought race at the top.Two openers, JerseyGirl from BVI/Miramax ...
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Australia has mixed feelings about digital cinema
Hoyts executive chair Paul Johnson believes all Australiancinemas will be delivering pictures digitally within five years but UIP'smanaging director in Australia, Mike Selwyn, will be surprised if more thanhalf have converted to digital within a decade."I can't help feeling this is a product seeking anapplication," said Selwyn, during a robust ...
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Miracle works for audiences at Melbourne
Cannes competitor Life Is A Miracle, set in Bosniaand directed, co-produced and co-written by Emir Kusturica, was the mostpopular feature at this month's Melbourne International Film Festival.Runner up in the vote by audiences was The Life And DeathOf Peter Sellers, directed by Stephen Hopkins and starring festival patronGeoffrey Rush in ...
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NEW ZEALAND 16 August
Walking Tallknocked Hellboy off the top of thebox office chart after only one weekend at the top, just as Hellboy did to The Chronicles Of Riddick the previous weekend, and The Chronicles Of Riddick did to I, Robot on the one before that.But it was a close call. WalkingTall grossed ...
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AUSTRALIA 16 August
Man On Fire heldon to the top spot for its second weekend on release, taking A$1,112,405 for20th Century Fox from 262 screens. Snapping at its heels was newcomer Walking Tall, which grossed A$1,031,611from 192 screens for the same distributor, and in third place but not farbehind was Columbia TriStar's WhiteChicks, ...
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Australian producers mull alternative distribution models
Amending traditional distribution deals so that producersget more control and a greater share of returns was the dominant theme at Australia's annual conference ofproducers. Splitting rights was proposed, for example, as was adoptingwebsite-based sales systems, forfeiting high sales prices in exchange for boxoffice bonuses and under-reporting sales figures to avoid ...
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Impact of DVD boom on Cinema measured
The DVD boom is having a major impact on cinema-going -but it is a positive one and probably more pronounced in Australia than in anyother territory."As DVD sales continue to grow, and as rental behaviourstays strong, more people - not less -are attending the cinema," Video Ezy chief executive Stephen ...