Small MPU – Page 215
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News
New Hong Kong producer Artforce starts Protege
Through newHong Kong-based production company ArtforceInternational, two top Hong Kong film-makers are teaming together for the first time on Protege, a drugtrafficking drama produced by Peter Chan and directed by Derek Yee.A new jointventure between Yee, Chan and his business partner Andre Morgan, Artforce is co-producing the $4.6m (HK$36m) film ...
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Winchester hooks Midler's All Girl, Merv Griffin
The UK's Winchester Entertainment, which unveiled pre-tax profits up a record 205% yesterday (June 27), has struck first-look deals with entertainment impresario Merv Griffin and Bette Midler and Bonnie Bruckheimer's All Girl Productions.The UK film and TV concern will act as overseas sales agents on films from the two production ...
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Swiss study finds more funding but lack of box-office success
TheSwiss film industry is likely to have mixed feelings after reading the FederalOffice for Statistics' (BFS) latest study "Filmproduction in Switzerland 1995-2004'.Appearingahead of Locarno Film Festival's first Swiss Day (Aug8), which will showcase national filmmaking, the BFS study notes, on the onehand, that public and private funding for local production ...
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Reviews
Barnyard: The Original Party Animals
Dir/scr: Steve Oedekerk. USA. 2006. 87minutes.The secret lives of farm animals get an energetic animatedworkout in writer-director Steve Oedekerk's Barnyard, a colourfulshowcase that sacrifices some of its narrative cogency for frenzied jamborees,pratfalls and musical montage-fed poignancy.With neither abroad TV advertising campaign nor top-shelf star voice talent, Barnyard will face tough ...
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Film London continues festival and training funds
Film London has continued new rounds of funding for itsFilm-makers' Festival Fund and Events and Training Providers' Fund. The Film-makers' Festival Fund provides travel supportfor individual film-makers to attend key festivals where their film will playin competition. The fund also contributes towards striking a first film print ordigital master. In ...
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Valentina Merli joins Pyramide International
French sales company Pyramide Internationalhas hired Valentina Merlito replace outgoing sales executive Pascale Josse.Josse left the company at the end of July and Merli joined this week as director of foreign sales. Shewill report to managing director Eric Lagesse. Merli has previously worked as head of foreign salesat Gemini Films ...
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Billionaire Gou plans new Chinese studio
Taiwan-based billionaire Terry Gou isinvesting $200m to build a film studio in northwest China. Gou announced theproject on a visit to his ancestral hometown of Jinchengin Shanxi province, near to where the new studio isplanned in Zhezhou county. Upto 40% of the investment is expected to come from local government ...
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News
Bavaria boards new films by Randau and Thalheim
Secondfeature films by award-winning filmmakers Felix Randauand Robert Thalheim have been picked up at productionstage for world sales by Bavaria Film International.Randau's tragicomedy Die Anruferin is about a young womanlonging for human warmth and devotion who calls total strangers on the phone.Valerie Koch (from Stefan Krohmer's They've Got Knut)and Esther ...
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News
Sony strikes VOD deal with Arts Alliance
Sony Pictures TelevisionInternational and Arts Alliance Media have struck a deal to offer Sony filmsfor rentals online. The video-on-demand (VOD) deal gives AAM the right to digitally distribute 180 of SonyPictures' back catalogue titles, including TaxiDriver and Gandhi, as well as newreleases over the next three years such as Spider-Man3. ...
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News
Six more world premieres in TIFF's Discovery
The Toronto International Film Festival has added 13 titles toits Discovery line-up, bringing the total to 20, including eight world premieres.Among the anticipated films being unveiled for the first time are OutOf The Blue, Robert Sarkies' account of NewZealand's most infamous massacre in 199; Ed Stone's remake of GriffinAnd Phoenix ...
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News
Barsky named special counsel at MPAA
Simon Barsky,executive vice president and general counsel to the MPAA and its internationalcounterpart the MPA, is winding down his duties following 28 years of service.Effective Aug 14 Brasky became special counsel to chairman and chief executiveofficer Dan Glickman and president and chief operating officer Bob Pisano, andwill become an independent ...
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News
Pirates sets course for $350m
Pirates Of The Caribbean:Dead Man's Chest launches in fourterritories this weekend, headed by France on Aug 2.Buena Vista International (BVI) top brass were expecting strong results giventhat The Curse Of The Black Pearltook $7.1m from 646 screens in its first week there in August 2003. The film is off to ...
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News
Regent & Media Asia strike co-production pact
LA-based Regent Entertainment has sealed a co-production deal with Hong Kong's Media Asia kicking off with Gen-Y Cops, the sequel to Media Asia's hit Gen-X Cops, which will star Paul Rudd and a largely Asian supporting cast.Rudd, whose credits include Clueless, The Object Of My Affection, The Cider House Rules ...
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News
Varda to receive Flanders tribute
Agnes Varda will receivethe Joseph Plateau Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming 33rdAnnual Flanders International Film Festival, which runs from Oct 11-21.Previous honorees include Mike Leigh, Robert Altman, Richard Attenborough, SydneyPollack and Lili Zanuck.Festival organisers will screen 10 of her films as part of the tribute, and have separately arranged ...
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Reviews
The Lives Of The Saints
Dirs: Rankin/Chris Cottam.100mins. UK. 2006.The Lives Of TheSaints is a bold but determinedly awkward affair in whichdebut directors Rankin and Chris Cottam ultimatelyrisk overstretching themselves. Individual sequences are strikingly shot andperformed and there is no faulting the film-makers' ambition or imagination - butthere is no disguising either the gauche moments ...
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News
San Sebastian's Spanish selections include The Backwoods
Spain's premiere festival, San Sebastian, has unveiled a raft of new Spanish directorialtalent in its first line-up announcement. Filmax's 1970s-set$5.6m Spanish thriller Backwoods,with Gary Oldman, Virginie Ledoyen, Paddy Considine and Aitana Sanchey-Gijon, directed byBasque first-timer Koldo Serra,is perhaps the most splashy debut but will play outside competition in the Zabaltegi/New ...
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John Hurt to lead Edinburgh's Powell jury
The Edinburgh International Film Festival(EIFF), which holds its 60th event from Aug 14-27, has announced thejury for this year's Michael Powell Award. Actor John Hurt will chair the jury, whichwill also include Danish director Lone Scherfig,Irish novelist John Banville, Scottish directorMichael Caton-Jones and American-born musicianChrissie Hynde. This year's eligible films ...
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News
Mike Eschmann stars shooting $4.9m Tell
Swissdirector Mike Eschmann, whose last comedy Achtung, Fertig, Charlie! is the most successfullocal film of the past 25 years, begins shooting his next feature Tell, a parody of the Swissnational hero Wilhelm Tell, in the Bernese Alps from today (Aug 7).The$4.9m (Euros 3.8m) Swiss-German co-production between Lucerne-based ZodiacPictures, Impuls Home ...
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Mission: Impossible III crosses $250m internationally
Mission: Impossible III passed the $250m mark at the international boxoffice yesterday (Aug 3). The action blockbuster, which was first out of thegates this summer season, received the boost to reach the mark after receivingits belated opening in Japan on July 8. Traditionally one of starTom Cruise's strongest territories, Japan ...
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Greek Film Centre sparks controversy with Haifa withdrawal
In a move that has surprisedmany, the state-funded Greek Film Centre, which gives Greek film-makers fundsavailable for development, co-production and promotion, has decided to withdrawthe Greek films from the upcoming Haifa International Film Festival (Oct 7-14)in Israel.The films already invited byHaifa's artistic director Pnina Blayer were the Pandelis Voulgaris' The ...