All articles by Sandy George – Page 65
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Village makes new retreat from Euro exhibition
Village Roadshow has sold its sold 13-screen cinema site in Switzerland to Pathe, and its 45 Hungarian screens at six sites to Intercom, its jointventure partner in the region. The company has also offloaded its remaining 50% property interest in Village Entertainment Park to the Pradera European Retail Fund, and ...
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Crocodile Dundee in LA in Australia
Crocodile Dundee In LA, the third film in Australia's most successful franchise ever, was the most popular film over the Easter weekend grossing A$2.25m ($1.13m) from 234 screens from its opening Thursday April 12 to Monday April 16. In its favour were two public holidays, but these were offset by ...
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Thinking outside the Fox: Slaviero quits Oz branch
Robert Slaviero, Australian managing director of Twentieth Century Fox Film Distributors, created a shock wave when he officially resigned on Tuesday (Apr 17). Slaviero said it was an amicable separation and he is doing everything possible to create a smooth transition up to his departure on July 6.It is very ...
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Australia rings the changes to awards rules
Starting this year, films will only qualify for Australia's principal awards system if they have had a theatrical release in the previous year. Until now eligibility for AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards has instead been on the basis of when a film was made, often resulting in released pictures being ...
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Sydney prepares to welcome Matrix marathon
Warner Bros in Los Angeles and the Premier of New South Wales Bob Carr in Sydney simultaneously announced today that Australia will host production of two sequels to the action thriller The Matrix, Warner Bros' biggest hit to date with a worldwide gross of US$450m. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne ...
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One small step for The Dish; a leap for Premiere
Sydney-based Richard Sheffield and Wellington-based Larry Parr will launch New Zealand distribution entity Premiere Filmed Entertainment with the Australian hit film The Dish. The film, which had revenues of $16.8m from Australian cinemas alone will be released mid-year as a joint venture with its producers, Melbourne-based Working Dog. The film, ...
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SingTel set to buy Cable & Wireless Optus.
After months of speculation Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) looks sure to buy Cable & Wireless Optus, Australia's second biggest telecommunications company and parent company of pay TV platform Optus Television.Optus has welcomed SingTel's offer of $2.3 (A$4.57) per share, which values Optus's equity at over $8.5 billion (A$17 billion), but it ...
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Chopper star Eric Bana returns to comedy roots
Having burst onto cinema screens as violent Australian criminal Mark "Chopper" Read, Eric Bana is to return to comedy, the genre in which he made his name as a stand-up and TV comedian.Bana's second Australian film after last year's Chopper will be Nugget, the story of three road workers who ...
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Dirty Deeds is Australia's model for future growth
If Australia's filmmaking ambitions can be encapsulated in a single film, it is writer/director David Caesar's $5m gangster movie Dirty Deeds, which has pulled off a number of investment firsts.Dirty Deeds is Nine Films & Television's first production commitment, after more than a decade in which there has been no ...
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Australia's cinema wars move into the courtroom
Reading Entertainment Australia is heading for the courts over the issue of access to first-release films according to The Age newspaper. Using its Market City cinema site in the heart of Sydney as its latest battle arena, it is claiming in the Federal Court that Roadshow Film Distributors is in ...
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Seven Network pulls out of Asia TV service
The Seven Network has dumped the Asian satellite service Australia Television (ATV), which it took over from public broadcaster the ABC in 1997. It made the move despite being chosen in favour of five other tenderers to revamp the service with Federal Government money.The announcement drew a new round of ...
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Village Roadshow, Network Ten see venture fail
The ambitious internet leisure site SCAPE has gone into voluntary administration only 18 months after Village Roadshow and Network Ten negotiated the joint venture. The news was announced in a joint statement to the Australian Stock Exchange today. The first such formal coupling between a broadcaster and an entertainment giant ...
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Australian independent exhibitors push for change
Australia's independent cinema owners are planning to push through a number of changes in the code of practices between distributors and exhibitors. The code generated considerable controversy when it was introduced three years ago, but despite increasing transparency in the industry it has failed to satisfy many independents.The Cinema Owners ...
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Village Roadshow A$3.8m short after financial scam
Village Roadshow managing director Graham Burke has told the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) that Village Roadshow Ltd's (VRL) net loss is A$3.8m from a financial scam that saw nearly A$30m wrongly removed from company accounts in 1998 and 1999. Burke was speaking on the eve of Andrew Ross Henry, ...
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Icon teams with Australia's top management
The production arm of Icon Entertainment's new Australian distribution operation will be a joint venture with Shanahan Management, the highly-regarded actors agency headed by Ann Churchill-Brown. The new company, called Icon Shanahan Productions is to be run by Sally Chesher.Five years ago the Australian industry was bemoaning its lack of ...
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Fortissimo picks up Ayres' debut film
Co-chair Wouter Barendrecht has confirmed that Fortissimo Film Sales is taking all international rights for Walking On Water, one of three Australian features which go into production in the next few months in time to premiere in March 2002 as The Adelaide Festival of Arts' first ever film content.It will ...
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Two new theatrical distributors emerge in NZ
The next two New Zealand films to release locally signal the arrival of two "new" theatrical distributors - or, more accurately, players who have principally been active in video distribution.Mark Galloway's Stage Door Entertainment releases The Price Of Milk on March 1, and Gordon Adam's Metropolis Film releases The Irrefutable ...
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Icon launches Australian distribution company
Icon Entertainment, Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey's production outfit which successfully launched UK distribution outfit Icon Film Distribution in 1999, is doing the same in Australia - creating a local distribution companyThe Icon offshoot could go up against Village Roadshow as an indie giant if the Australian results of Icon's ...
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Sheffield to replace Gooder at REP
Veteran distribution executive Richard Sheffield is to return to Australia's Becker Entertainment to take charge of its mainstream distribution operation, until recently called REP, replacing Mark Gooder who has resigned to move to another as-yet-unnamed distributor.Sheffield only accepted the job on the understanding that he will also be able to ...
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Australia's GUET fit-out company splits in two
Australia's biggest cinema fit-out company, Greater Union Entertainment Technology (GUET), will begin operating as two businesses - one dealing only with film technology and the other handling the installation of sound, video and lighting systems in other markets - from February 1. The company is active abroad as well as ...