Small MPU – Page 145

  • News

    Latin American locations: Mexico

    2007-03-23T00:00:00Z

    With its low costs, diverse landscapes and proximity to Los Angeles, Mexico has long been a popular production destination. 'It has always been one of the favourite locations for Hollywood,' says production manager Anna Roth.One of the biggest names in the local industry, Roth has 30 years' experience, with credits ...

  • News

    Winstar acquires US rights to A One And A Two

    2000-08-01T11:23:00Z

    New York-based Winstar Communications has acquired North American rights to Edward Yang's A One And A Two (Yi Yi), which picked up the best director award at this year's Cannes Film Festival.Winstar plans to release the picture, which follows three generations of a middle-class Taiwanese family, in October following a ...

  • News

    Latin American locations: Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay

    2007-03-23T00:00:00Z

    Chile is making every effort to compete with Argentina in attracting foreign production spend. In November last year a new commission, FilmChile, was set up with offices in Santiago and New York to assist film-makers. The territory can offer low costs, skilled bilingual production crews, post-production facilities and a fully ...

  • News

    Latin American locations: Colombia

    2007-03-23T00:00:00Z

    When producing a $50m film with a host of international stars, Colombia would not necessarily be on any producer's shortlist. But for Scott Steindorff of Stone Village Pictures, who recently wrapped Love In The Time Of Cholera in Cartagena, the experience was well worth the trouble.Colombia was not his first ...

  • Features

    Not a fare deal

    2007-03-23T00:00:00Z

    Back in 1998, Luc Besson concocted an idea for a movie that would be sheer mayhem. According to lore, he had in mind nothing more than creating a serviceable story thread on which to hang a lot of vehicular action and the excuse to wreck a lot of cars: he ...

  • Features

    300 slaughters the competition

    2007-03-23T00:00:00Z

    Action epic 300 won the battle for international top spot, generating $14.1m in its second weekend. The film expanded into an additional five territories, including South Korea and Hong Kong, across a further 867 screens, giving it a 130% boost. Fox's Night At The Museum continues to attract international audiences ...

  • Features

    Box Office: Data - Market focus - Movies in the pipeline

    2007-03-23T00:00:00Z

    Studios have, until recently, been cautious about opening up their catalogues to video downloading, allowing consumers to access films only through current online subscription, download-to-rent and download-to-own models. Fears of piracy have prevented Hollywood from taking a share of the internet pie while user-generated content sites such as YouTube and ...

  • Reviews

    The Hills Have Eyes 2

    2007-03-25T19:37:00Z

    Dir: Martin Weisz. US. 2007. 89mins. Hoping to wring more money from humans-vs-mutants battles to the death, The Hills Have Eyes 2 offers another round of dull gory fright scenes that neither push the horror envelope nor exhibit any noticeable ingenuity. Borrowing liberally from fear classics like Aliens and The ...

  • News

    heile welt named best Austrian film

    2007-03-25T18:36:00Z

    Jakob M. Erwa's feature debut heile welt received the Diagonale Grand Prix for Best Austrian Feature Film at this year's showcase of Austrian film-making which was rounded off with an awards ceremony at Graz's Dom im Berg on Saturday evening. Produced by Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion, heile welt follows a ...

  • News

    Brazilian winner of Fribourg top prize

    2007-03-25T20:56:00Z

    The last Fribourg International Film Festival(FIFF) under the tutelage of artistic director Martial Knaebel ended with the presentation of the Grand Prix toBrazilian Chico Teixeira's feature debut Alice's House The film was praised for its'intimacy, complexity, superb acting and precise point of view on auniversal story'. Teixeira's film also ...

  • News

    Anita Monga joins Seattle Film Festival programming team

    2007-03-25T21:37:00Z

    Anita Monga has been hired as senior programmer at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), reporting to festival director Carl Spence. She will work with Spence and his team on the annual 25-day festival in May and June but primarily focus on programming the new SIFF Cinema in Seattle.Monga comes ...

  • News

    Canana to release Francisco Vargas'El Violin in Mexico

    2007-03-25T21:50:00Z

    Canana, the Mexican production company founded by actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna with producer Pablo Cruz, has acquired Francisco Vargas' El Violin for distribution as its first theatrical release in Mexico.Despite winning 25 international awards and scoring sales in many foreign territories - including the US (Film Movement) ...

  • News

    Gianopulos, Rothman take reins at Fox

    2000-08-01T12:37:00Z

    Following a recent tradition of promoting from within, Fox Filmed Entertainment has named two joint successors to studio chairman Bill Mechanic - former president of 20th Century Fox Film Group Tom Rothman and former president of 20th Century Fox International Jim Gianopulos. The appointments were made by Peter Chernin, president ...

  • Reviews

    Mr Bean's Holiday

    2007-03-25T23:03:00Z

    Dir: Steve Bendelack. UK-US. 2007. 85mins If Rocky Balboa and John McClane can hit the comeback trail after a lengthy absence then who would deny a similar opportunity to Rowan Atkinson's one man disaster area' Ten years have passed since Bean but the public's affection for the gurning, bug-eyed loon ...

  • News

    Turtles take the lead from 300 at domestic box office

    2007-03-25T23:19:00Z

    Warriors continued to hold sway at the North American box office but this weekend the Spartan heroes of 300 were usurped by the might of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.The computer-animated stars from the 1980s claimed the number one post with a solid $25.4m estimated launch through Warner Bros.Kevin Munroe ...

  • News

    WBPI's 300 has earth-shaking $48m international weekend

    2007-03-25T23:43:00Z

    The Spartan army continued to sweep all before it as 300 grossed an estimated $48m through Warner Bros Pictures International (WBPI), an exceptional result from 5,000 prints in 33 markets that raised the overseas tally to $79m.The epic opened at number one in 20 markets, led by $8.9m in the ...

  • News

    Sweet Mud, Cashback share top prize at Bermuda Fest

    2007-03-26T04:48:00Z

    The 10th Annual Bermuda Film Festival came to a close at the weekend, with the Mary-Jean Mitchell Green Award for Best Narrative Feature going to Dror Shaul's Israeli drama Sweet Mud and Sean Ellis' UK comedy Cashback.Linda Hattendorf's Cats Of Mirikitani won best documentary honours, with special mentions going to ...

  • News

    Latin American locations: welcome to the jungle

    2007-03-26T11:27:00Z

    During the past decade Latin America has attracted more and more international production with its stunning and varied locations and cheap labour costs.Leading directors to have shot in the region include James Cameron (Titanic), Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill Vol 2), Gus Van Sant (Gerry) and more recently Mel Gibson for ...

  • News

    Omnilab moves into distribution and sales for Australian features

    2007-03-26T11:36:00Z

    Two of the four features that have just received funding from Film Finance Corporation Australia now see the Omnilab Media Group take local distribution and international sales rights, in partnership with others. Omnilab is Australia 's largest privately owned group of service companies and has been promising to get into ...

  • News

    Metrodome plans theatrical run for 1986 Transformers movie

    2007-03-26T12:06:00Z

    Metrodome Distribution is planning a two-week UK theatrical run for the 1986 animated feature Transformers: The Movie. The theatrical release at London 's Apollo West End from May 4 will of course hope to cash in on Transformers interest stirred by Michael Bay 's blockbuster due out in July. Metrodome ...