Small MPU – Page 1219
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Reviews
The Animal
Dir: Luke Greenfield. US. 2001. 83 mins. After the surprise winter 1999 success of his first starring vehicle, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, former Saturday Night Live funny man Rob Schneider gets the chance to carry a high-profile summer movie with The Animal, a resolutely dumb but occasionally endearing comedy. Backed ...
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News
Kuhn realises Euro studio dream with Fox, Citibank
Former PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (PFE) chief Michael Kuhn is back at the helm of a European-based film powerhouse after unveiling backing from US studio 20th Century Fox and financing house Citibank in London.Kuhn's London-based production and financing outfit Kuhn & Co has struck a multi-picture distribution deal with Fox, which ...
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News
Rival Palm Springs Festival set for October
Craig Prater, former executive director of the Nortel Networks Palm Springs International Film Festival, has launched a rival - and competitive - festival in the Palm Springs region called Festival Of Festivals.Set to take place this year between Oct 25 and Nov 4, the new event will screen films in ...
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News
York Entertainment starts international sales arm
US video distributor York Entertainment has created an international sales arm to license its library of urban features to international territories. To that end, the company has hired Corie VanDeutekom, formerly director of international sales for Carlton America, as vice president of international sales.VanDeutekom will launch the international sales company ...
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News
Universal sells Loews Cineplex stake for a dollar
Universal Studios has sold its 25.5% stake in exhibitor Loews Cineplex for $1. The studio, a division of Vivendi Universal, sold more than 15m shares to investment bank Goldman Sachs, in a tax move to offset capital gains. The stake was worth approximately $1.8m based on a share price of ...
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News
E Sun group grabs power at Media Asia
Ending a period of intense speculation and rumour-mongering about the direction of Media Asia, one of Hong Kong's most ambitious production and distribution operations, it has emerged that investment group E Sun has become the largest shareholder. E Sun's move allows a series of reallocations of management and operational responsibilities. ...
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News
Hong Kong's first completion bond specialist opens
Hong Kong's first consultancy to specialise in completion bonds made its bow at the Hong Kong Filmart, signalling a growing trend in the territory towards international co-productions and joint financing.Film financing and Completion Bond Consultants (FFCBC), the entertainment arm of Hong Kong's Grande Insurance, will serve as a "one stop ...
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News
Advanced takes step back as cash flow woes bite
Germany's Advanced Medien has failed to meet investment plans for Wolfgang Petersen's Red Cliff Productions and has been forced to end a $15.1m package deal with StudioCanal. The ailing rights trader has revealed that it had provided Petersen's US-based production outfit a certified letter of credit worth $3m instead of ...
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News
TV Forum Europe to target international buyers
Organisers of the newly created TV Forum Europe have unveiled details of the event, which will celebrate its first edition next year in Barcelona between February 18-21.According to organiser Bernard Chevry, the Forum "is reserved exclusively for the commercialisation of rights to European television product and is directed at buyers ...
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News
Japan's Gaga goes live on Tokyo NASDAQ
Leading Japanese independent distributor Gaga Communications officially listed on the NASDAQ Japan market on Friday, June 29. Opening at $8.25 (Y1,030), the share price rose to a high of $8.53 (Y1,064) and fell to a low of $7.89 (Y985) before closing at $7.95 (Y992). A total of 62,950 shares were ...
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News
Helkon right on track for meeting 2001 targets
While other Neuer Markt-listed German media companies have been issuing profit warnings in the past few weeks, Helkon Media is still on course to post the $138m (DM318m) sales and $19.5m (DM45m) EBIT which were forecast for the financial year 2000/2001 last September. Announcing results for the nine months from ...
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News
Psycho, Vampire turn around Lions Gate fortunes
Lions Gate Entertainment achieved net income of $5.7m (C$8.7m) in its fiscal year ended March 31, 2001, compared to a net loss of $3.5m (C$5.3m) the previous year. The company credited the turnaround on a strong fourth quarter driven by theatrical releases such as American Psycho and Shadow Of The ...
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News
Spain confirms new film promotion laws
Spain's Ministry of Culture confirmed that a much debated new Cinema Support and Promotion Law was approved by Parliament on Friday, June 22.The law mostly codifies existing film initiatives. However, it does pass into effect a new requirement that Spanish broadcasters invest 3% of their annual earnings in Spanish ...
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News
$5m Night Witches readied for Russian shoot
Night Witches, a new $5m Russian-UK co-production, is set to begin shooting in Russia in autumn, it was announced at the Moscow International Film Festival. Actor Alexander Siddig, best known as Dr Bashir from TV's Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, will make his feature directorial debut with the film which ...
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News
German toon house RTV snags Australia's Energee
German animation production-distribution entity RTV Family Entertainment has taken over full strategic and operational management at the Australian animation studio Energee Entertainment.The Travers family, founders of the studio, have resigned from all operations and board seats but will continue to hold a minority interest of 32% for the time being.Commenting ...
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Reviews
La Spagnola
World premiered at the 2001 Sydney Film Festival, this finely textured local feature proudly proclaims its multiculturalism. Subtitles translate the mainly Spanish and Italian dialogue: the film's title - The Spanish Woman in Italian - is itself testimony to the film's mix of cultures and language. This is admirably, even ...
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News
StudioCanal is subsumed within Universal Pictures
Europe's StudioCanal is set to lose its independence by being delisted from the Paris stock exchange and then folded into Universal Pictures, its stable-mate within the VivendiUniversal empire. The integration comes less than 15 months after StudioCanal was first floated on the bourse as a standalone force in international production ...
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News
Clear Blue, USA, ARP all ascend to Haynes' Heaven
Clear Blue Sky Productions, the US film production outfit founded by billionaire Paul Allen and run by his sister Jodie Patton, agreed on Friday to co-finance Todd Haynes' $12m-$15m Far From Heaven under a novel arrangementthat sees it sharing in all revenues with both USA Films and ARP of France, ...
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News
Jason Isaacs stars in US indie romcom Passionada
Jason Isaacs, the English actor whose credits include key roles in The Patriot, The End Of The Affair and Armageddon, has taken the lead role in independent drama Passionada, currently shooting in Massachussetts.Directed by Dan Ireland (The Whole Wide World), Passionada is a romantic comedy about a Portugese widow whose ...
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News
Actor negotiations continue past Saturday deadline
The deadline came at midnight on Saturday (June 30) but negotiators for the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation Of Radio And Television Artists (AFTRA) returned to the table on Sunday morning (July 1) to continue discussions with the Alliance Of Motion Picture And Television Producers (AMTP) - ...