All articles by Sandy George – Page 63
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Spice Factory/Beyond to Cut Deeper
The UK's Spice Factory and Australia's Beyond Films are co-developing writer/director Michael Hurst's science fiction horror film Cut Deeper, a sequel to the 1999 Australian film Cut (pictured). Shooting is scheduled to start early next year.Cut Deeper is to be produced by Michael Cowan and Jason Piette from the UK's ...
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BVI's Man Who Sued God rides high
Australia scored another local hit last weekend as boisterous comedy The Man Who Sued God chalked up one of the biggest openings of the year in the market.The film grossed $780,612 (A$1.53m) for Buena Vista International in its first four days from 226 screens. The gross was $102,000 more than ...
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Fox Studios Australia to close the Backlot
Fox Studios Australia is to shut down its loss-making public entertainment site, the Backlot to expand the professional component of its otherwise hugely successful central Sydney site.A restructure is also planned that will see Lend Lease Corporation sell its 50% share in the studio portion of the site back to ...
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Lantana lights up Australian audiences
The enthusiasm shown by local audiences for new Australian film Lantana has buoyed the already high expectations by Palace Films, which is distributing the psychological drama in association with Beyond Films. The film opened on October 4 and took $215,348 (A$430,696) in four days from 15 screens, giving it an ...
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Shine pair re-teams for Oz-UK Love's Brother
Jane Scott and Jan Sardi, the producer and writer of Australian hit film Shine, are teaming up again for the romantic comedy Love's Brother, except that this time it will also be Sardi's directorial debut. Great Scott Productions' producing partner in the official Australian/UK co-production is Sarah Radclyffe Productions.A substantial ...
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Lantana opens Brooklyn's New Wave Down Under fest
The film component of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's (BAM) New Wave Down Under Festival opens with new Australian film Lantana this Thursday (Oct 4). BAM decided that the month-long celebration of Australian arts and culture should go ahead despite the tragic events in New York and Washington of September ...
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Beyond Films improves but still suffers loss
Australia's Beyond International made a profit of $1.1m (A$2.25m) for the 12 months to June 30, a reversal of fortunes given the $1.6m (A$3.2m) net loss recorded for the previous financial year. Total revenues grew by 10% to $48.5m (A$96.98m), about 85% of which came from television production and international ...
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Ledger may be in Our Sunshine
Heath Ledger is in negotiations to star in Our Sunshine, based on Robert Drew's 1991 book about the infamous Australian bush ranger Ned Kelly. Working Title is attached to the project, which is being produced by LA-based Australian Nelson Woss. Other projects on Kelly that are in the pipeline include ...
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One Night The Moon tops Oz AWGIES
One Night The Moon, a 55-minute musical that has been picked up by Dendy Films for a local theatrical release on November 8, won the major gold award of the night at the annual Australian Writers Guild Awards (AWGIES) on Saturday September 8. Writers John Romeril and Rachel Perkins also ...
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Oz AFI awards return to commercial TV
The Seven Network will both produce and broadcast live the Emirates Australian Film & Television Awards at a date yet to be set but timed to take place alongside the annual conference of the Screen Producers Association of Australia, being held in Melbourne from November 14 to 17. It is ...
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Political advocate to head Oz producers' body
Joanne Yates' appointment as executive director of the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) suggests that the organisation wants to increase its political influence in Canberra, where many regulatory and funding decisions are made.For the past five years Yates has been an advisor to the Democrats, a political party which ...
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New Oz tax rebates and local funding announced
The Australian government has revealed a new refundable tax incentive that gives certainty and flexibility to those wanting to shoot sizeable features, mini-series and tele-movies in the territory. It has also increased local funding to the tune of $48m for the next four years.For international productions, the government has announced ...
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FCC greenlights three new Oz films
The Australian Film Finance Corporation (FCC) has greenlighted the desert drama Japanese Story from the creative team that made local sleeper Road To Nhill, and starring Toni Collette. The other two projects getting FCC approval are Blurred, the first in a series of low-budget films supported by UK sales agent ...
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Australia's April reveals strong slate
Australia's April Films has announced a slate of seven films, two and a half years after it launched on the back of a first look deal with Universal Pictures. The most developed project is The Campaign, a contemporary screwball comedy written by Tony McNamara and with Praise director John Curran ...
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REP's Sheffield to join Hoyts' Oz distribution arm
Richard Sheffield, of Australia's REP Film Distribution, is believed to be joining the newly-formed Hoyts Distribution, with responsibility for international acquisitions, although neither party would confirm the move. Sheffield, one of the original founders of REP Films in 1987, left the company eight years later to establish the Australian subsidiary ...
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Lantana lights up Melbourne Film Festival
Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) audiences stuck by their homegrown talent and gave the crown of most popular film to Ray Lawrence's Lantana, which closes the Toronto International Film Festival in a couple of weeks. The next biggest crowd pleasers were, in order, Zacharias Kunuk's Canadian film Atanarjuat The Fast ...
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Australia's Movieline to be online by December
Movieline is to add Internet movie ticket sales to its existing telephone ticketing and information lines in December, just in time for the peak Christmas and school holiday period. Up to 250,000 tickets are expected to be sold in the first year of what will be Australia's first nation-wide online ...
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Oz's PBL suffers from One.Tel collapse
Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL), one of Australia's big three entertainment and media companies, has revealed its first annual loss in over 10 years for the year ending June 30. The result, which was entirely expected, was largely due to the collapse of telecommunications company One.Tel earlier this year. PBL ...
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New Zealand suffering from parallel imports
The 1998 removal of parallel importation restrictions and the failure of the DVD zoning system are being substantially blamed for a box office battering in New Zealand. If the decline matches that experienced in Singapore, the only other OECD country where the theatrical window has effectively disappeared with the removal ...
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Oz exhibs and distribs improve communications
Australia's major distributors have been warned that there is no justification for charging first week terms to regional cinemas that do not get films until several weeks after their national release, just because it is new to that district. The deadline for submissions into the current cinema industry code of ...