![The Brightest SunScreen[Courtesy HKIFF]](https://d1nslcd7m2225b.cloudfront.net/Pictures/274x183/3/5/0/1448350_thebrightestsunscreencourtesyhkiff_312678.jpg)
Small MPU – Page 21
-
News
Corbijn takes major honours at Edinburgh
Anton Corbijn's Control emerged as one of the major winners at the 61st Edinburgh International Film Festival. Corbijn's stunning monochrome biopic of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis was one of the discoveries at Cannes this year and has continued to build critical acclaim and industry buzz. In Edinburgh it won ...
-
News
Opinion -getting in the grown-ups
Getting the grown-ups in is becoming a healthy obsession for distributors and theatres. Venice film festival head Marco Mueller celebrates the change in Screen this week (See Venice buzz, p16-20): 'Just four years ago, to think that Universal would put an opening film in competition (Atonement) ... or that Warner ...
-
News
Bring on the class action
After a summer in which most of the films had the number three after them, the Hollywood studios and their specialised divisions are preparing for the deluge of prestige movies that comprise the so-called awards season - high-profile, director-led features which are being carefully groomed for prime positions in the ...
-
Features
United States - Planting Marigold
Since setting up its US distribution operation last year, Indian entertainment giant Adlabs has released a swathe of Bollywood pictures to US-based Indian audiences, including sci-fi box-office hit Krrish, which took $2.2m across North America.Now, the company is gearing up for its first ever release to US mainstream theatres, with ...
-
Features
United States - Tales: Take two
I feel like the pilot of a 747 that's been flying through a hurricane and is finally coming in to land," Richard Kelly says of his most recent film, Southland Tales.It has been two years since Kelly began production on his labyrinthine black comedy-cum-thriller, about the Apocalypse, set in Southern ...
-
Features
Taiwan - Eros as a labour of love
Lee Kang-sheng has walked the Venice red carpet three times as the leading man of Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang's Vive L'Amour (1994), Goodbye Dragon Inn (2003) and most recently, I Don't Want To Sleep Alone (2006). This year, however, will see him there as not just an actor but as ...
-
Features
China - Felling tales in the digital age
In the winter of 2004, Yu Guangyi entered the snowy forests of Black Bear Valley to record the lives of some of China's last lumberjacks. He spent four months, shooting with a single Sony PD150, a documentary that captures the dangerous and arduous nature of their work as well as ...
-
News
Kinowelt strikes content deal with Germany's Onyx
Ever-expanding Kinowelt is understood to have struck a film sales deal with German music channel Onyx Television. The move could transform the sleepy station which rates third behind the reviving MTV Deutschland and home-grown music channel Viva, which recently floated on the Neuer Markt."Kinowelt is the ideal partner for us," ...
-
Features
United Kingdom - British promises
Like most, if not all, successful UK producers, Paul Webster is not afraid of the US. "We're trying to work on projects with scale, so that means we need American partners," says Webster, the former Miramax head of production and Film4 chief executive who now oversees the film division of ...
-
Features
Industry moves
Boltho takes on Paramount roleAlexei Boltho, former business development manager for BBC Films, has taken on a newly created acquisitions post at Paramount Pictures International (PPI). As of August 20, he will be PPI's director, co-productions and acquisitions, working out of Paramount's London headquarters and reporting to Los Angeles-based Ellen ...
-
Features
Venice International Film Festival - Venice spans the generations
Marco Mueller, artistic director of the Venice international film festival, has been carving a personal stamp that becomes more defined each year.For his fourth line-up, Mueller has constructed a competition with a strong bedrock of English-language pictures from directors including Paul Haggis, Wes Anderson, Brian De Palma, Andrew Dominik, Tony ...
-
Features
Red's army on the march
It is a scorching summer day of around 36C at a tank base three hours outside Beijing. More than 1,000 actors and extras wearing ancient armour are in the midst of battle. As flags fly and war drums pound, Hong Kong star Tony Leung Chiu-wai dashes among the crowds, waving ...
-
Features
Analysis: International box-office - Weekend August 17-19
The Simpsons Movie barely keeps hold of the top spot for a fourth weekend, taking $22.3m from 49 territories, just beating The Bourne Ultimatum's $22.2m weekend take. The third instalment of the Bourne franchise shot up 423% this weekend after expanding in a further seven territories. The increase was catapulted ...
-
Features
Hitting the books
It used to be common to see ads that heralded a $100m gross but now that figure seems rather puny. Still, it's not that common to see a double truck for a picture that's done $500m. Certainly when you toss in ancillary revenues from cable, merchandising, soundtracks, and DVD sales ...
-
News
Critical Mass: Opportunity knocks
It's curious how little effect the advent of digital recording technologies have had on film style and structure - compared to, say, the introduction of synchronised sound in the late 1920s.Back then, films underwent a seismic shift. I'm not just referring to the thing most people know about the changeover: ...
-
News
Sony's Superbad is still baddest at North American box office
Superbad was too good for the competition in its second weekend as the Sony comedy held on to top spot following a modest 46% drop and added an estimated $18m for $68.6m.Despite a wave of new films the top three was familiar, as Universal's spy thriller The Bourne Ultimatum and ...
-
News
Ultimatum tops international box office with $14.4m take
Universal/UPI's The Bourne Ultimatum was the number one overseas film at the weekend as it generated a steady $14.4m from 2,100 sites in 25 territories for an early international running total of $55m.The result was fired up by a $2.8m number one launch in Russia from 392 sites, which was ...
-
News
Nazarian closes down Element Films International
Element Films International (EFI) has folded, as owner Sam Nazarian restructures the domestic division of his film business, Element Films.The foreign sales arm headed by Jim Harvey closed on Jul 31. Harvey, who took over the reigns after John Fremes left to join Jere Hausfater at Essential Entertainment earlier this ...
-
News
South Africa's Sasani doubles earnings
South African production outfits have been struggling recently but at least one of the country's facilities companies appears to be thriving. Johannesburg and Cape Town-based Sasani Communications has reported that earnings almost doubled from $3.2m (R22.1m) to $6.2m (R42.8m) for the year to June 30. Revenues increased 8.4% to $46m ...
-
News
inDplay, b-side pact to bring festival films to buyers
Online marketplace for film and television content inDplay has struck a deal with data services company b-side to ensure that a broader range of festival films with commercial potential are seen by buyers.The alliance combines inDplay's global network of distributors with b-side's analysis of festival audience feedback to offer buyers ...