Small MPU – Page 1361

  • News

    Pie 3 could be sixth international $100m hit for Universal

    2003-09-16T04:00:00Z

    With 38countries still to open American Pie: The Wedding is in the early stages of itsinternational release and is bearing down on a sixth $100m score for Universalthis year after raising its running total to $64.8m.It grossed $5.1m from 2,046 sites in 11 countries at theweekend, the highlights being strong ...

  • News

    USA, Canal Plus backing Finch start-up Eclipse

    2000-02-23T16:24:00Z

    Former William Morris Agency (WMA) UK heads Charles Finch and Luc Roeg have formed a management and production company - Eclipse - with the backing of USA Films and Canal Plus.London-based Eclipse will produce four pictures a year under the terms of the three-year deal, with USA label October Films ...

  • News

    LXG opens top through Latin America for Fox

    2003-09-16T04:00:00Z

    A string of number one bowssaw The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LXG) gross $6.6m from 1,749 screens in 21 markets at the weekend.Fox International'sfantasy-adventure opened top in all its markets (unless otherwise indicated)and produced several strong holdovers to raise the international cumulativetotal to $23.3m.It grossed $1.6m from 489screens in Mexico, ...

  • News

    BVI scores a rousing $29.7m from Pirates

    2003-09-16T04:00:00Z

    Pirates Of The Caribbean grossed $29.7m and elevated its internationalrunning total to $238.1m at the weekend, becoming the second release of 2003after The Matrix Reloaded to stayat the top of the charts for the fifth consecutive weekend.In a series of number onebows it took $3.4m from 245 screens in Australia ...

  • News

    Messier wins again in quest for severance from Universal

    2003-09-16T00:00:00Z

    Former Vivendi Universal chairman Jean-Marie Messier scoredanother round of victory in his ongoing battle to secure a severance payment onMonday in New York. Following an arbitration court's decision that Messier was owed$23.5 million in exit monies and Vivendi Universal's appeal against thefindings, state supreme court justice Marilyn Shafer said the ...

  • News

    UK/IRELAND

    2003-09-16T00:00:00Z

    Optimum Releasing saw a strong debut for its Oscar-winning Japanese animated feature Spirited Away this weekend. Hayao Miyazaki's blockbuster fantasy opened in 13th place in the UK/Ireland top 20 with a good $4,800 (£2,990) average.In Ireland alone, it placed 15th but scored a powerful average of $6,710 (Euros 5,939) after ...

  • Reviews

    8.17pm, Darling Street (20.17, Rue Darling)

    2003-09-16T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Bernard Emond. Canada. 2003. 101minsInexplicable tragedy prompts a soul-searching quest for the meaning of life in 8.17pm Darling Street, a modestly effective but resolutely glum second feature from writer-director Bernard Emond whose debut, La Femme Qui Boit also screened in Critics' Week in 2001. Addressing the guilt of those ...

  • Reviews

    Sansa

    2003-09-16T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Siegfried. France. 2003. 115minsSansa wants to be a profound and moving cinematic experience, perhaps something like a hyped-up tone poem. It is even called 'an essay' rather than a film. Toward that end, writer-director Siegfried employs every trick he can that is available in the panoply of the ...

  • Reviews

    Arimpara

    2003-09-16T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Murali Nair. India-Jap. 2003. 90minsDirector Murali Nair's Throne Of Death and A Dog's Day were feted at Cannes, the former with the coveted Camera d'Or for best first feature. But Arimpara, which screened in Un Certain Regard, has not gone down so well, and it certainly has its problems. ...

  • Reviews

    The Soul Of A Man

    2003-09-16T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Wim Wenders. Germany. 2003. 100minsWim Wenders' The Soul Of A Man, which screened earlier this year at Sundance and played at Cannes as a special screening, is the first in a series of seven films about that quintessential American art form, the blues. Other notable directors taking part are ...

  • News

    Hilltop debut slate boasts Miller, Leven

    2000-02-23T16:42:00Z

    In an attempt to become a new supplier of studio-level pictures, Hilltop Entertainment has unveiled a debut slate featuring Gone To Earth - the second film from director Rebecca Miller starring Oscar nominee Samantha Morton - and Lovers Liars And Thieves which marks the first feature from writer/director Jeremy Leven ...

  • Reviews

    A Little Bit Of Freedom

    2003-09-16T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Yuksel Yavuz. Germany. 2003. 101minsAwell-intentioned attempt to explore the fate of Kurdish immigrants, both legal and illegal, living on the streets of Hamburg and the illusion of freedom they enjoy there, Yuksel Yavuz's second feature seeks to cover too much ground and ultimately delivers too little for its efforts. ...

  • Reviews

    La Chose Publique

    2003-09-16T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Mathieu Amalric. France. 2003. 85minsAnd you thought they didn't make them like this any more' an old-fashioned political essay in film-on-film, the latest from director Mathieu Amalric - better known as an actor, though he does not cast himself here - wears its Godard influences proudly on its sleeve, ...

  • Reviews

    Mike Brant: Laisse Moi T'Aimer

    2003-09-16T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Erez Laufer. Israel/France. 2002. 101mins.A natural for French markets, this account of the meteoric rise and fatal crash of Israeli performer Mike Brant, who became one of Paris's shiniest stars in the early 1970s, is more than a nostalgia piece. Instead it plays as a cautionary tale about a ...

  • News

    SWITZERLAND

    2003-09-16T00:00:00Z

    Buena Vista International scored a hit in the German region of Switzerland this weekend with its release of UK film Calendar Girls. The first territory outside the UK to receive the film (on the same weekend it went wide at home) Switzerland proved a good start for the comedy which ...

  • Reviews

    Raja

    2003-09-16T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Jacques Doillon. France-Morocco. 2003. 112mins.The latest excursion by the director of Ponette - which scooped a Venice Best Actress prize in 1996 for underage star Victoire Thivisol - is a prickly and at times inaccessible meditation on the nature of colonial and sexual power in present-day Morocco. Though its ...

  • Reviews

    The Boys From County Clare

    2003-09-16T00:00:00Z

    Dir: John Irvin. Ireland/UK/Germany. 2003. 90 minsWarm in spirit but slight in terms of substance, The Boys From County Clare is a lightweight period charmer. Attractively photographed and ably performed, it is a nice little inoffensive film that lacks the bite or grit to make much headway in theatrical terms. ...

  • News

    UK Film Council calls on distributors to apply for support

    2003-09-17T04:00:00Z

    The UK Film Council has called on film distribution companies planning to release British films at UK cinemas between Dec 1 and March 31, 2004 to apply for support from its UK Film Distribution Programme.The £1m funding programme is retrospective and aims to reward distributors who release British films in ...

  • News

    ITALY

    2003-09-16T00:00:00Z

    BVI's Johnny Depp vehicle Pirates Of The Caribbean continued its stellar performance at the Italian box office on its second weekend, grossing a massive screen average of $6,056 from 531 screens, which brings its running total to $11,968,867.Medusa's newcomer Confidence, a thriller starring Edward Burns, Rachel Weisz, Dustin Hoffman and ...

  • News

    Michell embarks on Enduring Love shoot

    2003-09-17T04:00:00Z

    Shooting has started on Enduring Love, an adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel directed by Roger Michell. Daniel Craig, Rhys Ifans and Samantha Morton star in the project, produced by Free Range Films and backed by Pathe Pictures, Inside Track, FilmFour, Ingenious Media and the UK Film Council. Pathe Distribution will ...