All articles by Sandy George – Page 49
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News
Oz popstar signs for lead role in Hating Alison Ashley
Australian pop princess and former Neighbours star Delta Goodrem has made a move into movies by accepting the title role of Hating Alison Ashley, which goes into production in the first half of this year in Melbourne."I have been offered quite a few roles over the past two years and ...
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Oz's Accent takes My Flesh from Films Transit
Fledgling Australian distributor Accent Film Entertainment has struck a deal with Films Transit International for Australian rights to Jonathan Karsh's My Flesh And Blood.The film about a woman and her 11 adopted children, all of whom have various disabilities and special needs, won an audience award last year at Sundance ...
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New awards event planned for Asia-Pacific
The Queensland Government and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) have announced that they are to create a new film and television awards event to be broadcast across the world."We want to create an annual televised event to acknowledge the outstanding work of producers, directors and actors, and the cultural diversity ...
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NEW ZEALAND
There was considerable jostling for the top spot over the weekend and at the final count there was just NZ$560 separating the two top films, both of which were officially on release for the first time.Under The Tuscan Sun was victorious with a gross of NZ$248,940 from 44 screens for ...
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NEW ZEALAND
The Lord Of The Rings - The Return Of The King, The Last Samurai and Cold Mountain were the first, second and third most popular films at the box office, just as they were last weekend, although takings for each of them dropped by between NZ$60,000 and NZ$90,000.Snapping at their ...
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OZ producers' conference moves date, location
The Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) plans to stage its annual conference three months earlier than usual and relocate it to Queensland's Surfers Paradise, so that it overlaps with the Australian International Movie Convention."This decision can only grow Australia's film business because of the opportunities that will come from ...
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NEW ZEALAND
The Return Of The King continues to reign supreme at the New Zealand box office. In its seventh weekend it took NZ$384,449 from 86 screens, which was just 6% down on the previous week. As was the case last week, The Last Samurai is in second position with NZ$301,379 from ...
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Hopscotch pounces on documentaries
Hopscotch has picked up all Australian and New Zealand rights to 2004 Academy Award documentary nominee My Architect from the Film Sales Company, hoping that again loading the slate with non-fiction will prolong last year's winning streak.The film is already showing in the US and is directed by Nathaniel Kahn, ...
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AUSTRALIA
Along Came Polly held on to the top spot in its second weekend on release despite its gross dropping by over half, although admittedly the original result was for a five-day holiday weekend and the figures have now reverted to the usual four days.The UIP release did A$1,436,260 from 202 ...
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Crombie resigns from South Australian Film Corp
The South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) is without both a contracted chief executive and a chair following the resignation of chief executive Judith Crombie during Friday's board meeting, effective immediately. The State Government had earlier decided not to reappoint David Minear as chair.Some mystery surrounds Crombie's decision to leave four ...
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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealanders' overwhelming sense of pride in and ownership of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy was good news for the opening of the final instalment, The Return Of The King, which did an extraordinary NZ$2.6m last weekend.To put this in perspective, it accounted for more than 75% of the ...
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AUSTRALIA
UIP's Peter Pan was the most popular film in its opening weekend at the Australian box office, although its gross was a slightly underwhelming A$1,507,592 from 269 screens. This result was surprising given the extra publicity generated by it being shot in Australia by Australian expatriate director P J Hogan. ...
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Brennan joins Oz Film Commission as project manager
Veteran producer Richard Brennan, whose extensive credits across several decades include Cosi, Spotswood, Blood Oath, Grievous Bodily Harm, Starstruck, Stir and Newsfront, has joined the Australian Film Commission (AFC) as a project manager.The AFC is the Australian Government's key development agency for the film industry and Brennan will be working ...
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NEW ZEALAND
BVI's Scary Movie 3 was easily the hit film of the weekend, earning NZ$403,565 from 31 screens upon appearing at cinemas for the first time. It's screen average was a quite extraordinary NZ$13,018 - the Kiwi's love their horror films - bettered only by the re-release of The Lord Of ...
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Australia's Southern Star subject of takeover bid
The Southern Star Group, one of Australia's biggest television production and distribution companies, is the subject of a takeover bid from Southern Cross Broadcasting, which operates television stations in most regional areas of Australia, as well as in Adelaide and the national capital of Canberra. Southern Star's directors, who control ...
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AUSTRALIA
BVI's Scary Movie 3 was the hit film at the box office in its opening weekend, taking A$3,011,921 from 305 screens to achieve a screen average of A$9,875. The result fell about A$70,000 short of last weekend's opening performance by 20th Century Fox's Master And Commander: The Far Side Of ...
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NEW ZEALAND
Columbia TriStar's Underworld just managed to push UIP's Love Actually off the top spot in the weekend popularity stakes. It sold NZ$331,282 worth of tickets from 40 screens, admittedly a dozen less than the 52 screens from which Love Actually earned it's NZ$310,788. It was Underworld's first weekend, just as ...
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Whale Rider makes splash at NZ awards
As expected, Whale Rider won nearly all the relevant categories at the New Zealand Film Awards tonight (Dec 8) in Auckland, including best film for producers Tim Sanders and John Barnett, best director and best writer for Niki Caro, and best actress for Keisha Castle-Hughes.With Caro currently in the US, ...
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AUSTRALIA
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World grossed A$3,078,560 from 324 screens on its opening four-day weekend. This result meant the 20th Century Fox drama easily claimed the top spot. Contributing factors included extremely strong reviews, a big print and advertising budget, a wide release, thus ensuring it ...