Small MPU – Page 1310
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News
Graham Chapman life story to be filmed by HippoFilms
LA-based independent production outfit Hippofilms has optioned rights to the life story of late British writer/actor Graham Chapman, a founder member of Monty Python. David Eric Brenner of Hippofilms is to direct and co-script the film.The film will address Chapman's early years at Cambridge and medical school, his struggles with ...
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Spanish media giants agree to merge their pay-TV operations
Spain awoke this morning to the prospect of a dramatic revolution in its media landscape, with the announcement that industry giants Grupo Prisa and Telefonica have agreed to merge their pay-TV units. According to the terms of the deal, which must now be approved by both groups' administrative boards, as ...
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Reviews
Smoking Room
Dirs: Julio Wallovits, Roger Gual. Spain. 2002. 89mins.This low-budget debut feature film seemingly came out of nowhere to quietly storm last week's Spanish Film Festival in Malaga, where it created buzz among critics, crowds and even international buyers gathered for a sidebar market. The film marks the debut of ...
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Reviews
Thunderpants
Dir: Peter Hewitt. UK-Germany. 2002. 84mins. The big selling point of Thunderpants for its target audience will also be the main deterrent for their chaperones: the idea of a nondescript, none-too-bright 10-year-old boy with a single extraordinary talent for farting. Our hero's peer group will, of course, love this premise. ...
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NZ film body pulls plug on four films at Larry Parr's Kahukura Productions
The New Zealand Film Commission's (NZFC) Alan Sorrell has confirmed that it was "reluctantly concluded" today that the government agency is unable to find a way to complete four films caught in a financial melt-down at producer Larry Parr's Kahukura Productions. The films include director Grant Lahood's Kombi Nation, Adam ...
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De Palma's Femme Fatale seduces French audiences
Brian de Palma's latest feature, the French-US co-production Femme Fatale, recorded a healthy start on its world debut in France. The thriller, which has secured an eleventh-hour out-of-competition Cannes screening on May 25, sold 220,000 tickets (equivalent to $1.1m) in its opening week to May 7.The film, which takes place ...
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News
First Australian pick-up for France's Flach Pyramide
French sales house Flach Pyramide International has made its first major investment in Australian filmmaking, taking international rights to writer/ director Kathryn Millard's debut feature Travelling Light Millard's acclaimed one-hour film Parklands - Cate Blanchett's big screen debut - sufficiently impressed the sales agency, which is known ...
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Dream Work takes top prize at Oberhausen shorts fest
Austrian filmmaker Peter Tscherkassky's visual poem Dream Work won the Grand Prize at this year's Oberhausen International Short Film Festival (May 2-7)The jury awarded two other prizes to Stephane Elmadjian's Je M'Appelle and Luciano Larobina's documentary Los Zapatos De Zapata, while the Arte Prize for European Short Film went to ...
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News
International buyers are hot for Son Of The Bride
Oscar nominated Argentine film Son Of The Bride (El Hijo De La Novia), currently on limited release in the US via Sony Pictures Classics (SPC), has already been sold to a slew of territories prior to its world market premiere at Cannes. Neil Friedman's LA-based Menemsha Entertainment which acquired international ...
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News
Helkon severs TV ties with Buena Vista International
The German outpost of Buena Vista International (BVI) and local distributor Helkon have formally ended BVI Television's representation of Helkon titles in German speaking territories.In fact , at the end of last year, Helkon had unilaterally announced that the arrangement with BVI was over, as the US major failed to ...
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News
Sweet Sixteen, Deux, 10 Minutes Older picked up by ottfilm
Ken Loach's Sweet Sixteen, which will premiere in competition in Cannes on May 21, is one of three new titles picked up by German theatrical distributor ottfilm. The Berlin-based outfit has also picked up another two Road Movies productions: Werner Schroeter's German-French co-production Deux -which will be screening in ...
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News
Hamilton and Syrmis greenlight Arclight
After spending weeks meeting with practically every producer in the country, Gary Hamilton and Victor Syrmis have at last announced what must be the worst kept secret in the Australian film industry: the pair are establishing a new Sydney-based sales agency and production company called Arclight Films. This means that ...
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News
Max Film wraps Rose's debut Menopause
Canadian producers Roger Frappier's and Luc Vandal's Max Film is close to wrapping production On Comment Ma Mere Accoucha De Moi Durant Sa Menopause (which translates roughly as "how my mother gave birth to me during menopause"). The debut film by director/screenwriter Sebastian Rose, the comedy tells the story of ...
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News
Canada's Remstar signs output deal with Chesler/Perlmutter
Montreal-based distributor Remstar has signed a two-year multi-picture output deal with Toronto-based Chesler/Perlmutter, the first such deal the production company has secured in three years. The two-year pact, which includes development funds, will give Remstar first look for Canadian distribution of upcoming titles including the recently completed Tempo In Paris, ...
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News
Cannes adds two heavyweights to special screening programme
The Cannes festival filled out its special, out-of competition screenings programme with two heavyweight additions, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones and Brian De Palma's Cannes-set thriller Femme Fatale.George Lucas's Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones will be shown twice in the Salle Bunuel ...
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News
Controversial French film is banned four weeks after release
Four weeks after its theatrical release, Australia's Classification Review Board has withdrawn Baise-Moi's R18+ certificate, making it illegal to screen the film in the country.The four-member review board unanimously overturned the original R18+ classification given to the French film, because it contains elements beyond those set out in the legislative ...
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News
Intermedia co-founders step down from board of directors
Internationalmedia (IM) co-founders Guy East and Nigel Sinclair have stepped down from the board of directors and entered into a three-year producing deal with the company. At the same time, Graham King, President and CEO of the IM Group subsidiary IEG, will join the executive board.The move comes just two ...
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News
New director to give newer look to Venice Film Festival
Venice director Moritz de Hadeln has introduced a raft of new elements to the film festival, and while keeping the double competition established last year by Alberto Barbera, he will ensure that this time the differences between the two sections are more clearly defined.In line with the simplicity advocated at ...
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News
Salesman David Winters is back in business at Cannes
International sales veteran David Winters is back in Cannes with a new sales outfit Alpha Beta Films International and three films to sell. Winters, one of the sales world's more colourful characters, was a child actor and played Arab, one of the Jets, in the Broadway and film musical West ...
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News
Igby Goes Down to open Seattle Film Festival
After world premiering one film from United Artists last year (Ghost World), the Seattle International Film Festival will this year open with another, the world premiere of UA's tragicomedy Igby Goes Down directed by Burr Steers and starring Kieran Culkin, Bill Pullman, Susan Sarandon, Ryan Phillipe, Jeff Goldblum, Amanda Peet ...