Small MPU – Page 1479

  • News

    Sogecable reduces losses

    2001-02-24T17:08:00Z

    Spanishmultimedia conglomerate Sogecable posted year-end financial results for 2000which reflect an 18.2% decrease in net consolidated losses to Euros11.4m(pts1,900m).The losses arelargely due to content expenses - particularly rights deals for cinema andfootball - for the group's pay TV platforms Canal Satelite Digital (CSD),launched in 1997, and Canal Plus.Sogecableposted Euros11.2m (pts1,860m) ...

  • News

    TEAM Communications plans expansion

    2001-02-24T17:15:00Z

    The US TV production and distribution company TEAMCommunications Group, whose shares are traded on the Nasdaq and Neuer Marktexchanges, is planning further expansion in Europe and the US through'strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions' and the developmentof a sales force based in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, the Benelux countries,the UK and ...

  • Reviews

    3000 Miles To Graceland

    2001-02-24T17:23:00Z

    The Tarantino effect is very much in evidence in 3000Miles To Graceland, a trashy, excessively violent action movie about a casinoheist that goes hilariously and uproariously awry. Using the iconic Elvis Presley and his ostentatiousattire as a conceit, the yarn is set against the background of the glitzy,high-energy chaos surrounding ...

  • News

    Summit spears diva Britney's first film project

    2001-02-24T21:05:00Z

    Pop diva Britney Spears is the latest American megastar on offer to international buyers courtesy of Summit Entertainment which has boarded her first feature film. The as yet untitled film is being financed by her record label Jive Records and is set to start shooting next month.Summit Entertainment had no ...

  • News

    MCP backs Cronenberg's Spider with Fiennes

    2001-02-25T01:26:00Z

    Having departed as the director of Basic Instinct 2, David Cronenberg is back aboard the long-gestating psycho-thriller Spider that is now being financed through MM Media Capital Partners (MCP).Ralph Fiennes, originally attached to star opposite Miranda Richardson when the film was announced in October 2000 as a UGC production, also ...

  • News

    UK Film Council eyes IRA picture Bloody Sunday

    2001-02-25T02:15:00Z

    In a move bound to trigger controversy, UK public funding body the Film Council is likely to invest in Portman Film and Granada Film's Bloody Sunday, a feature about the real-life shooting of 13 unarmed civilians by members of the Parachute Regiment in Northern Ireland.The project, being made through Jim ...

  • News

    Woody Allen project trio Bac in business in France

    2001-02-25T02:22:00Z

    VCL Film + Medien has secured a new French distributor for its trio of forthcoming Woody Allen pictures and confirmed Spanish and Italian releases. Jean Labadie's Bac Films, which has released many previous Allen films, will distribute the films in France. VCL, which has until now not identified the other ...

  • News

    IEG directs Traffic to Japan, Australia

    2001-02-25T02:29:00Z

    Initial Entertainment Group (IEG) has closed its last two remaining territories on Steven Soderbergh's Oscar contender Traffic, selling Japanese rights to Nippon Herald and Australian and New Zealand rights to Village Roadshow.In addition, IEG's CEO and president Graham King has closed a deal with Korea Pictures Co for Korean rights ...

  • News

    Hannibal still heads US box office; Graceland weak

    2001-02-25T22:25:00Z

    Franchise Pictures' violent actioner 3000 Miles To Graceland and Fox's costly animated/live action mix Monkeybone failed to make much of an impression at the box office which was led for the third week by MGM's smash chiller Hannibal. However the status quo is in for a shock next Friday as ...

  • News

    Gladiator dominates Baftas, but Bell is best actor

    2001-02-25T22:29:00Z

    Jamie Bell, the young star of Stephen Daldry's featurefilm debut, Billy Elliot, has won the Bafta award for best leading actor- despite having been overlooked in the Oscar nominations.Bell, who claimed that he almost didn't bother attending theawards, given the caliber of the competition, beat the Oscar-nominated RussellCrowe to the ...

  • News

    Cannes 2001: Apocalypse maintenant

    2001-02-26T03:18:00Z

    Twenty seven years after Francis Ford Coppola walked away with a Palme d'Or for The Conversation and then repeated the feat five years later with Apocalypse Now, the festival is to dedicate a sidebar tribute to the filmmaker that will be crowned by an extended director's cut of Apocalypse Now.Coppola, ...

  • News

    MARKET UPDATE

    2001-02-26T10:58:00Z

    SULLIVAN UNVEILS THREE PROJECTS FOR NEW FEATURE ARMToronto-based Sullivan Entertainment Group has put forward three projects,including an animated version of its Anne Of Green Gables franchise, for production through its newly-launched feature film division. The first project, the $8m Anne: The Animated Movie set for completion in September, is slated ...

  • News

    Sogecable posts net operating profits

    2001-02-26T11:52:00Z

    Spanish multimedia conglom Sogecable posted net operating profits of Euros3.3m (pts 548m) for 2000, a rise over the previous year's losses of Euros22.6m (pts3,768m). The group's net consolidated losses were down 18.2% from 1999 to Euros11.4m (pts1,900m). The company has grappled with debt since the expensive 1997 launch of digital ...

  • News

    UK cinema chain exploits uncertain climate

    2001-02-26T12:30:00Z

    Amid cinema consolidation in the US and a nine per-cent downturn in the UK television advertising market in the first seven weeks of 2001, UK exhibition giant Warner Village Cinemas has secured a proven vehicle for increasing brand awareness. The company has signed a $1,455,400 (£1m) deal to sponsor the ...

  • News

    Cesars celebrate French film industry

    2001-02-26T14:01:00Z

    French 'cinema d'auteur' had plenty to celebrate at the Cesars, with The Taste of Others, and Harry, He's Here To Help both scooping four awards each. The comedy hit The Taste Of Others (3.8 million admissions to date) by first timer Agnes Jaoui, recently purchased by Miramax for domestic distribution, ...

  • News

    Kinowelt leaps 20% on Bertelsmann takeover rumour

    2001-02-26T16:38:00Z

    Kinowelt Medien's shares on Frankfurt's Neuer Markt jumped by over 20% on speculation that the Bertelsmann media empire was considering a takeover of the Munich-based concern.By 16.36 (German time) the stock had risen 19.11% on the previous day of trading to Euros15.02 after a report in Welt am Sonntag had ...

  • News

    Irons boards Callas Forever

    2001-02-26T18:20:00Z

    Jeremy Irons is set to join the cast of Callas Forever, Italian director Franco Zeffirelli's upcoming drama about the last months in the life of Greek opera diva Maria Callas.The $20 million film, written by Martin Sherman and Zeffirelli, is scheduled to begin shooting in July, with opera singer Teresa ...

  • News

    Nos Miran adds Hera Film

    2001-02-26T18:25:00Z

    Italy's Hera Film has boarded the Spanish thriller Nos Miran, which is currently shooting in Madrid under the direction of Norberto Lopez Amado.The thriller, budgeted at Euros2.6m is being produced by Spain's BocaBoca Producciones. The story follows a police inspector's investigations into the cases of missing persons, tracking his subsequent ...

  • News

    Terra Lycos appoints Killeen

    2001-02-26T18:32:00Z

    Internet company Terra Lycos, a subsidiary of Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica, has appointed Stephen J. Killeen president of operations in the United States.In the newly-created position Killeen will fill a hole left by the departure earlier this month of Lycos founder and CEO Bob Davis, who continues on as non-executive ...

  • Reviews

    The Finder

    2001-02-26T18:46:00Z

    Dir: Frank Shields. Australia. 2000. 90 mins.Long-time producer Phil Avalon's considerable achievement in raising enough private finance to make this Australian crime thriller from his own script would have been infinitely greater if the finished movie, launched during the American Film Market in LA, wasn't so lazily derivative.The concept is ...