Small MPU – Page 1221
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US actors, producers inch closer to a new contract
US actors unions and the alliance of movie studios and TV networks resumed talks in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon after negotiators took the morning off to rest from a 17-hour negotiating session which finished on Monday at 2.30am.The two sides returned to the table at 2.30 and while they had ...
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Lot 47 confirms digital marketing pioneer as chief
Scott Lipsky has been formallyanointed as chairman and chief executive officer of Lot 47 Films, the NewYork-based independent distributor of such films as Tim Roth's The WarZone, Chunhyang from Korea, Venus Beauty Institute and Claire Denis' controversial Trouble Every Day (pictured left).Lipsky, who co-founded Lot47 in 1999 with his brother ...
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Strike's off: new US actors contract agreed
A new three-year theatrical motion picture and TV production agreement has been tentatively agreed by US actors unions Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation Of Television And Radio Artists (AFTRA) on behalf of actors and the Alliance Of Motion Picture And Television Producers (AMPTP).The agreement, announced last night ...
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UK cinema industry unites to create marketing body
As part of its remit to develop a sustainable film industry, UK strategy and funding body, The Film Council, has joined the All Industry Marketing for Cinema (AIM) to create a company to promote and market generic cinema-going in the UKThe newly-created Cinema Marketing Agency (CMA) is officially launched next ...
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Irish films to suffer from low TV licence increase
In a move which will bitterly disappoint state broadcaster RTE, the Irish government has approved an increase of just $15.50 (IR£14.50) in the annual television license fee, bringing the standard charge from $75 (IR£70) up to $99 (IR£84.50). RTE had lobbied for a $54 increase in the license fee for ...
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Japanese Pia film festival prize goes to The Mall
The winner of Grand Prize at the 23rd Pia Festival was Yuki Tanada's Mall, a 76-minute video film about a woman who after witnessing a suicide passes out every time she gets her period. Kazuki Kobayashi's Pellet was awarded the Second Grand Prize, while three films shared the Jury Prize: ...
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Boswell For The Defence concludes early
Period legal drama Boswell For The Defence has ground to a halt after producers were unable to secure a final tranche of financing for the $14m film ahead of the scheduled start of photography in the UK next week.Boswell, set up between the UK's Scala Productions, German fund MBP and ...
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Tom Sizemore joins up to Fear The X
Fresh from Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down, Tom Sizemore has signed up to play the lead in the Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn's english-language debut, Fear The X, co-written by Hubert Selby Jr. (Last Exit To Brooklyn). Fear The X begins shooting in the US and Rio from November with ...
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Shrek laughs all the way to the bank
US mega-hit Shrek took the UK box office by storm at the weekend when it opened with $6.6m (£4.7m) from 470 sites, an average of $14,023 per site. Although this figure included preview figures of $1.3m (£902,736) it wouldn't change its claim to the top spot in the UK chart ...
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Karlovy Vary opens 36th festival
Following the sudden cancellation of shooting on Boswell For The Defense, as revealed in Screen Daily yesterday (July 4), both Sir Michael Caine and the film's director Bruce Beresford, have decided not to attend the Karlovy Vary film festival. Caine, who was scheduled to receive an award for Outstanding Artist ...
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UK box office down, but still looking up
Despite a year-on-year increase in UK box office receipts during four of the first six months of 2001, total revenues for the first half are down 0.9% to $439.5m (£313.8m) However, this is almost entirely due to the exceptional performance of one film last year: Toy Story 2.February was the ...
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Kinowelt eyes Czech space
Czech distributor Space Film is set to ink a deal with Germany's Kinowelt International to set up a joint venture that would cover distribution for the Czech and Slovak Republics, according to representatives of both companies. "In the Czech Republic we have a partner with whom we plan on forming ...
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Taormina Festival plans Italian distribution boost
In a determined bid to aggressively encourage broader summer programming in Italy and boost the Taormina Film Festival's position as a European launchpad for US blockbusters, festival director Felice Laudadio has announced that he will yet again move the dates of the festival forward. This year's event runs June 29th ...
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Warner Home Video opens Hong Kong office
Warner Home Video (WHV) launched its own Hong Kong affiliate company on July 5, becoming the first Hollywood studio to capitalise on a lucrative VCD market by establishing a wholly-owned affiliate, with a 12-strong sales and marketing staff.An estimated 95% of all Hong Kong households own a VCD player - ...
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Deauville announces festival details
The teaser campaign for the Deauville Festival of American Cinema has begun with confirmation that Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence will screen at the event.The film will be the centrepiece of a major Stanley Kubrick retrospective also featuring Killer Kiss, Eyes Wide Shut and the Jan Harlan-directed documentary Stanley Kubrick: ...
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French cinema festival has little to celebrate
Lara Croft was the main beneficiary of the annual French promotional event La Fete du Cinema, which suffered this year from a combination of hot weather, a lack of strong titles and a strike by Gaumont cinemas' staff.Although admissions tripled during the three-day long promotion, compared to the previous week, ...
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Secret Agent to be made by Darwin, DNA
UK National Lottery franchise DNA Films has pacted with independent UK producer Lucy Darwin to develop and produce Leonardo Secret Agent, an action adventure comedy.Written by Jonny Kurzman, a former independent producer and short film-maker, Secret Agent was optioned by Darwin earlier this year. DNA will fund development, and company ...
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Italy's distributors elect president
Italy's national distributors union, UNIDIM, has appointed Eagle Pictures' Giampaolo Sodano as its new president, replacing Andrea Occhipinti.In the same vein as last year's appointments, the position of vice president of the union has been split between an independent and a studio executive, with CDE's Jacopo Capanna and Richard Borg, ...
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Vivendi, News Corp confirm Italian pay-TV merger
Vivendi Universal and News Corp yesterday confirmed that they have reached a deal for the merger of their their respective Italian pay-TV businesses TELE+ and Stream which will create a single operator called TELE+. Italian regulatory authorities have yet to okay the venture, details of which first surfaced in April.As ...
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John Cooke quits SAG before he's even started
John F Cooke, who last week was named the new chief executive officer and national excutive director of the US actors union Screen Actors Guild (SAG), has walked away from the job.Cooke made his decision after receipt of a letter from nine members of the SAG board stating that the ...