All articles by Sandy George – Page 70
-
News
Australia's Ten in talks for New Zealand buy
Australia's Ten Network is reportedly in talks with Canadian parent company CanWest Global Communications about buying CanWest's two New Zealand television stations TV3 and TV4, and its NZ radio assets.The deal looks increasingly likely because it would help CanWest reduce debt following its recent purchase of the publishing assets of ...
-
News
Cubbyhouse clocks up sales; adds Leonard to cast
Beyond Films has sold Murray Fahey's Australian thriller Cubbyhouse, which goes into production on August 7, to a raft of Asian distributors including Mongkol Cinema in Thailand and Global Film Distributors in India.The film has also gone to Speeding Video Distribution in Malaysia, Sunny Films in Singapore and World Television ...
-
News
Austar expands offering with Two Way TV
Australian pay-TV operator Austar is adding a local version of popular interactive UK TV channel Two Way TV to its line-up starting from October.However, the service will initially be one-way as it will not allow users in different locations to compete with each other until there is improvements to Austar's ...
-
News
Australian Film Finance Corp shuffles board
Roger Amos, Australian head of KPMG's Information, Communications and Entertainment Group, has been made deputy chair of the Australian Film Finance Corporation, 15 months after being first appointed to the board. Muriel's Wedding producer Lynda House has been reappointed for a further term while Robyn Kershaw, producer of this year's ...
-
News
Hanway Films boards Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence
HanWay Films, the sales arm of UK producer Jeremy Thomas' Recorded Picture Company, has boarded Phillip Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence, the Australian-born director's first project in his home country after 12 years in the US.Written by Christine Olsen, the adaptation of Doris Pilkington's book follows three Aboriginal girls forcibly taken from ...
-
News
Patriot ends event movie roll-out in Oz
One of the last event blockbusters on release in Australia this winter, The Patriot, took $1.6m (A$2.8m) from 325 screens on its opening four-day weekend (July 20-23). This gave the Australian office of Columbia TriStar its third biggest opening weekend ever and knocked last weekend's opener X-Men off the top ...
-
News
Oz distribs warn against day and date releases
Although simultaneous global release dates are being encouraged by some US distribution executives, their Australian counterparts have cautioned against not carefully weighing up all factors when dating blockbusters, including the competition and timing of the school holidays."There is a lot of merit in tent-pole pictures going simultaneously in as many ...
-
News
Australia's Paper Bark develops White adaptation
Paper Bark Films producer Antony Waddington and the husband-and-wife team of director Jon Hewitt (Redball) and actor Belinda McClory (The Matrix) are co-writing an adaptation of Australian writer Patrick White's novel The Eye Of The Storm. The project has already won the support of the inaugural A$10,000 Rodney Seaborn Playwrights ...
-
News
X-Men disappoints in Oz
Despite claiming Australia's eighth biggest ever opening day gross on July 13, Fox's X-Men has taken only $2.8m (A$4.76m) from 245 screens after its first week on release. This figure places it at 29 in the chart of the territory's top weekly openings.The results are surprising considering the film's impressive ...
-
News
La Paglia joins Wenham in Connolly's Bank
Australian actor Anthony La Paglia will join David Wenham in the cast of producer Robert Connolly's writing and directing debut The Bank, which is in production in Melbourne throughout August and September. Axiom Films is handling world sales on the thriller, which is set in the world of high finance. ...
-
News
Inside Story triumphs at AWGIES
Robert Sutherland's script for The Inside Story won the prize for best original feature film at the Australian Writers Guild Awards (AWGIES) on July 15. Sutherland also produced and directed the low-budget privately-financed film.The Inside Story was the sole winner at the awards as no prize was given in the ...
-
News
Morphett takes up financial role at Austar
Jonathan Morphett has been appointed chief financial officer of Austar United Communications, parent company of Australia's third largest pay-TV service, Austar.Morphett, who takes up the post on August 21, is currently managing director of corporate finance for investment bank Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. In this role he played a leading ...
-
News
Oz pay-TV falls short on local drama spend
Only two of Australia's 17 pay-TV drama channels complied with voluntary requirements to spend 10% of their annual programming budget on local drama in 1998-99, according to the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA). The only two that did comply were The Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, which are both aimed at children. ...
-
News
Paramount signs two-pic deal with M:I2 star Polson
Paramount Pictures has signed a two-picture deal with Australian actor-director John Polson, who stars alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 2.The first project under the deal is an untitled New York-set dark comedy from scriptwriter William Mapother, which is housed at Cruise's Cruise-Wagner Productions. Polson has a high profile in ...
-
News
Lend Lease takes hit on Fox Studios investment
Lend Lease Corporation, which half-owns Sydney's Fox Studios Australia, has made a provision of $47m (A$80m) after tax to cover its losses from the failure of the 19-month-old Backlot, one of three distinct parts of the studio and entertainment development. It will also make an appropriate write-down of the value ...
-
News
AFI Awards get record number of entries
Twenty-five films have been submitted for the 2000 AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards, the biggest number of entries for nearly 10 years. Titles range from box office winners The Wogboy and Looking For Alibrandi, to highly-anticipated features such as Chopper and Bootmen, to tiny privately-financed fare such as Chasing Parked ...
-
News
Australia's Palace buys private Dope
Australian distributor Palace Films has picked up local rights to Australian title Dope, a privately-financed project from first-time writer-director J Harkness which is currently in pre-production.The cross-cultural love story cranks up in Adelaide on August 21 with Harkness and Mark Patterson producing. Adelaide-based Guerilla Films is the production company. The ...
-
News
Passover Fever to open Oz's first Israeli fest
Shemi Zarhin's epic comedy-drama Passover Fever (1995) has been chosen to open Australia's first Israeli Film Festival, to take place in Canberra from August 4-10.Israeli writer-director Joseph Pitchhadze will introduce the festival with a screening of his road movie Under Western Eyes (1996), part of a five-hour seminar examining representations ...
-
News
Scarfies sweeps New Zealand film awards
Scarfies dominated New Zealand's film awards on July 1 winning the best producer award which went to Lisa Chatfield, best director for Robert Sarkies, best writer for Sarkies and his brother Duncan Sarkies and best female actor which went to Willa O'Neill.Scarfies was the debut film for the entire creative ...
-
News
AFC overhauls funding guidelines
As part of its on-going revamp, Australia's major development agency, the Australian Film Commission (AFC), has issued new funding guidelines under which film-makers with a proven track record will be given the most support. Experienced talent will be given access to the lion's share of AFC funding - and at ...