Small MPU – Page 1102
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News
AMPCO, Salon and Hengdian unite for Sino-Ozco-productions
Australia's Adelaide Motion Picture Company (AMPCO), Hong Kong's Salon Films and Hengdian Film Productions from China's Zhejiang Province are forming a China-Australia co-production alliance. The three companies signed a Memorandum Of Understanding in Hengdian in Zhejiang province to shoot three movies starting from December. The first film will be family ...
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Theresa Peters leaves WMA to become partner at UTA
United Talent Agency (UTA) has scored a coup and lured Theresa Peters following a 14-year stint at the William Morris Agency.Peters becomes the 18th partner and an agent in the UTA talent department and brings a client list that includes James McAvoy, Kirsten Dunst, Mads Mikkelsen, Mandy Moore and Hugh ...
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Russia's Admiral has huge local bow for Fox International
A local Russian hit and a Hollywood paranoia thriller knocked Mamma Mia off its perch after a grand five-week reign as international champion.The Russian market has yielded mighty returns this year for local titles in particular and the trend continued as Fox International opened Channel 1/Solyaris' Admiral (Kolchak) in Russia ...
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Chihuahua bites $17.5m for number one spot at domestic box office
Historically American audiences have been happy to anoint talking animals as their champions and so it was little surprise that Buena Vista's Beverly Hills Chihuahua was the top dog in its second week of release.The family film added an estimated $17.5m to raise the running total to $52.5m and had ...
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Evans, Jurjens launch sales outfit Tavix Pictures at AFM
Producer Casey Evans and director Brad Jurjens have announced they will launch the distribution company Tavix Pictures at AFM, which runs from November 5-12 in Santa Monica.The inaugural slate includes Jurjens' action thriller Hired Gun starring Michael Madsen, John W Kim's Hitchcockian thriller Blur and Michael O'Brien's baby boomer documentary ...
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Motohiro cranks up Bayside Shakedown follow-up
Japanese director Katsuyuki Motohiro, whose 1998 cop comedy Bayside Shakedown grossed nearly $100m at the Japanese box office, has started production on SF drama Satore.The film stars hot male TV star Masanobu Ando as a mind-reading doctor whose gift becomes a national treasure - and personal misery. It marks the ...
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News
Icon buys UK rights to Fraser's Dean Spanley
Icon Films has signed for the highly imaginative and whimsical period film after seeing it last month at the world premiere in Toronto. Kathleen Drumm, head of sales agent New Zealand Film, says an offer for US rights is on the table but won't elaborate.Drumm negotiated the deal with head ...
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Oliver Stone's W to open 26th Turin Film Festival
Oliver Stone's George W. Bush inspired drama W will open the 26th edition of the Turin Film Festival.Turin's organisers also announced today that the film-maker would attend the festival to present the film in its Italian premiere.W is Stone's third examination of an American Presidency after JFK and Nixon.The film ...
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Reviews
Quarantine
Dir: John Eric Dowdle. US. 2008. 89 mins.A remake of the 2007 Spanish cult hit [Rec], Quarantine is a passably-engaging claustrophobic horror told entirely via hand-held footage shot by one of its characters (a la Cloverfield or Blair Witch). The story - about a television reporter who accompanies a group ...
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Thessaloniki selects 15 projects for festival's co-production forum
Fifteen projects from 11 countries have been chosen for the 3rd Crossroads Co-Production Forum at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) from Nov 14-23.Crossroads caters to projects from countries in the Balkan and Eastern Mediterranean regions, introducing them to a network of financiers, producers and leading industry specialists from across ...
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Reviews
Sex Drive
Dir Sean Anders. US. 2008. 108 mins A raunchy title and some gross-out gags have earned Sex Drive an R rating in the US, but deep down this teen comedy from Summit Entertainment is a sweet-natured and likeable coming-of-age tale that recalls the feel of the American Pie movies. Though ...
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ReviewsSkin
Dir: Anthony Fabian. 2008. UK/South Africa. 107 mins .Telling the extraordinary true story of Sandra Laing, a woman born black to white parents in 1955 South Africa, Skin is a moving film which illustrates the impact of apartheid on a single family unit.Boasting a measured and harrowing central performance from ...
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News
In Focus: Andrei Kravchuk's Admiral
Russia 's Channel One/Solyaris production and 20th Fox CIS distributor topped the Russian box office with Admiral following its world premiere last Monday.Having taken $11.3m in Russia alone, Andrei Kravchuk's biopic is now the biggest Russian opener of all time, beating the $9.6m first weekend record set by The Irony ...
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News
DreamWorks and Universal sign distribution deal
Universal and DreamWorks have signed a seven-year worldwide distribution deal in a much anticipated move that is understood to cover up to six films a year commencing sometime in 2009.Speculation had been rife in recent weeks as to which studio would distribute the DreamWorks slate following the recent departure from ...
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News
Screen Media Films takes domestic rights to Lymelife
Screen Media Films has picked up US rights to Derick Martini's drama Lymelife following its world premiere at Toronto last month, where it won the FIPRESCI Discovery AwardLymelife takes place in the 1970s in a Long Island community afflicted by an outbreak of Lime Disease. The ensemble cast features Alec ...
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News
WBITV strikes licensing deal with On Demand Deutschland
Warner Bros International Television Distribution (WBITV) continued its expansion into subscription VOD today [October 13] with a licensing deal for On Demand Deutschland (ODD) to carry between Warner TV in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland.ODD, a joint venture between On Demand Group (ODG) and Tele Munchen Gruppe (TMG), will carry ...
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Advanced boosts slate with Paradise, Killers
Adding to a string of MIFED deals, German distributor Advanced Medien has added two more titles to its 2001 release slate: Majid Majidi's award-winning film The Colour Of Paradise and Dito Tsintsadze's Lost Killers.Paradise, acquired from Menemsha Entertainment, has enjoyed successful runs in a number of countries, but in Germany ...
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Guillaume Depardieu dies tragically at 37 from pneumonia
Guillaume Depardieu, the actor son of Gerard Depardieu, died on Monday [October 13] in a French hospital from pneumonia. He was 37.Depardieu died at the Raymond-Poincare hospital west of Paris after he was flown back from Romania, where he contracted a pulmonary illness during filming.Despite winning the Cesar for the ...
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Penelope Cruz to receive Santa Barbara's top award in Jan 2009
Penelope Cruz will receive the 24th Santa Barbara International Film Festival's (SBIFF) Outstanding Performer Of The Year Award on January 31, 2009.Cruz is currently filming Nine for the Weinsteins and starred this year in Woody Allen's comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona and the Philip Roth adaptation Elegy.She was nominated for an ...
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Colin Stanfield takes over as executive director of Nantucket festival
Independent producer and festival veteran Colin Stanfield is taking the reins at the Nantucket Film Festival after founder and current executive director Jill Burkhart announced she was relinquishing oversight of day-to-day operations to chair the festival's board of directors.Stanfield will commence work immediately in advance of the 14th edition that ...