Small MPU – Page 225

  • News

    Verhoeven's Black Book selected as Dutch Oscar entry

    2006-08-23T14:01:00Z

    PaulVerhoeven's long-awaited Black Book has been named as the official Netherlands entry for the Best ForeignLanguage Film Academy Award.The filmwill have its world premiere Sept 1 at the 63rd Venice FilmFestival, where it is screening in competition.The$21.8m (£17m) wartime thriller is the most expensive predominantly Dutch-languageproduction ever made and tells ...

  • News

    Artsworld to upgrade BFI classics to HD

    2006-08-23T00:00:00Z

    Sky arts channel Artsworld has signed a one-year sponsorship deal with theBritish Film Institute (BFI) to help with the transfer and restoration of 16films to HD quality.The list of films includesJean-Luc Godard's Sympathy for the Devil; Derek Jarman's Caravaggio and Wittgenstein; Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract, A Zed And TwoNoughts, ...

  • News

    Abdulhamid Juma takes new post in Dubai

    2006-08-23T00:00:00Z

    Dubai Technology and MediaFree Zone Authority (DTMFZA) has appointed Abdulhamid Juma as deputy director general.As part of his role, Juma willsupervise overall management of the Dubai International Film Festival. He isone of the festival's founders. From 2002-2005, he was CEO of Dubai Media City.The 2006 Dubai International FilmFestival will run ...

  • Reviews

    Sweet Mud (Adama Meshuga'at)

    2006-08-23T00:00:00Z

    Dir/scr: Dror Shaul. Is-Ger-Fr-Jap.2006. 100minsDror Shaul's Sweet Mud features the obligatorydisclaimer at the end of the credits about how none of the characters nor events are based on real-life. But it does not take agenius to figure out that it is an intensely personal settling of accounts, anangry and bitter ...

  • News

    New outfit Diffusion takes UK rights to Mutual Appreciation

    2006-08-24T04:00:00Z

    New UK distributor Diffusion Pictures hasacquired all UK rights to director Andrew Bujalski's first two films, Mutual Appreciation and FunnyHa Ha. Diffusion struckthe deal with US-based Goodbye Cruel Releasing and FilmFour/Channel4 International at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where Mutual Appreciation is playing.The films havealso been sold to New Star ...

  • News

    Wide Blue Yonder finds funding at first Nordic Co-Production Forum

    2006-08-24T04:00:00Z

    UK producer John Cairns of Parkland Films left theNorwegian Film Festival in Haugesund yesterday with his new feature, Wide Blue Yonder, fully financed, havingrecruited Stavanger's Sydvest Film as Norwegian co-producer at the first NordicCo-Production Forum.Cairns was one of the ten UK independent producers,pitching new feature film projects to potential co-producers ...

  • Reviews

    The Patriot

    2000-06-29T12:35:00Z

    The struggle for control of Groupe Videotron, Canada's third-largest cable supplier, is heating up again. Rogers Communications has gone to court in an effort to lift an injunction handed down in April that effectively prevents its merger with Videotron. In February, the nation's largest cableco tendered a bid for the ...

  • News

    Stone named director of the year at Hollywood Film Awards

    2006-08-23T00:00:00Z

    Oliver Stone is to receivethe Hollywood Film Award for Hollywood Director of the Year at the HollywoodAwards ceremony on Oct 23 in Los Angeles.In addition, arestrospective of Stone's films will screen during the Hollywood Film Festivalpresented by STARZ. Titles screening are Salvador, Platoon, Born On TheFourth Of July and World ...

  • News

    TWC, IFC Films reteam to import Indigenes

    2006-08-24T00:00:00Z

    The Weinstein Company andIFC Films are reteaming to co-distribute Rachid Bouchareb's Indigenes aka Days Of Glory in North America. The film played in competition atCannes this year and won the best actor award for male ensemble cast. It willhave its North American premiere at Toronto next month.The film takes place ...

  • News

    PHEI makes series of senior appointments and promotions

    2006-08-24T00:00:00Z

    Paramount Home EntertainmentInternational (PHEI) has made a series of promotions and appointments in itsinternational management team to reflect the integration of DreamWorks into thecompany, among other factors.The appointments wereannounced by Kelley Avery, president of worldwide home entertainment atParamount Pictures.Don Hunton, currently seniorvice president of the Asia Pacific business adds the ...

  • News

    Celluloid picks up Maddin's Toronto premiere Brand

    2006-08-24T00:00:00Z

    Celluloid Dreams hasacquired international sales rights to Guy Maddin's upcoming Toronto title BrandUpon The Brain! The film will besold through Celluloid Nightmares, the company's genre label.The silent feature willscreen at TIFF as a Special Presentation with live orchestral accompaniment aswell as on-stage foley artists, a narrator and a castrato. It ...

  • News

    Fox's History Boys to have royal world premiere in London

    2006-08-24T00:00:00Z

    Nicholas Hytner's upcomingfilm of Alan Bennett's stage phenomenon The History Boys will have its world premiere in London in thepresence of the Prince Of Wales and the Duchess Of Cornwall on Oct 2. Thepremiere will be held in aid of The Prince's Trust.The cast of the play, whichalso appears in ...

  • Reviews

    Life & Lyrics

    2006-08-25T21:15:00Z

    Dir: Richard Laxton. UK.2006. 99 mins.Easily pitched as 8Mile with a British sensibility, Life& Lyrics moulds every musical genre clicheknown to humankind into a wearily familiar, entirely predictable tale of rivalrap crews, star-crossed lovers and a dynamic slamming competition finale.Slickly made but bereft of originality, it seems more at ease ...

  • Reviews

    Life & Lyrics

    2006-08-25T21:15:00Z

    Dir: Richard Laxton. UK.2006. 99 mins.Easily pitched as 8Mile with a British sensibility, Life& Lyrics moulds every musical genre clicheknown to humankind into a wearily familiar, entirely predictable tale of rivalrap crews, star-crossed lovers and a dynamic slamming competition finale.Slickly made but bereft of originality, it seems more at ease ...

  • News

    Von Sychowski joins London's Deluxe Laboratories

    2006-08-24T00:00:00Z

    Patrickvon Sychowski has joined Deluxe Laboratories in London as director of digital business development.Hehad been of director of business development at Unique Digital Ltd., and priorto that was a senior analyst at Screen Digest.VonSychowski will complete the creation of DeluxeDigital Cinema's London office, liaise with distributors and exhibitors, createnew business ...

  • News

    Beta Cinema on board for Quinn's 32A

    2006-08-24T10:34:00Z

    Germany's BetaCinema has taken on world sales for Marian Quinn's bittersweet comedy 32A which is now in principalphotography in Ireland. The film, about 13-year-old girls in 1979 Dublin, starsthe director's brother Aidan Quinn along with Ailish McCarthy, Orla Brady,Jared Harris, Sophie Jo Wasson, Orla Long and Riona Smith.The$1.9m (Euros 1.5m) ...

  • News

    Saari's Kasting wins horror short competition

    2006-08-24T00:00:00Z

    Aloysha Saari'sKasting haswon the Zone Horror CUT! short film competition.London-based Aloysha wins $9460 (£5000) and gets aspecial screening Aug 26 with nine other CUT! finalists at the Zone Horror FrightFest. The two-minute film's budget was only £100. It stars Monica Bertei as an actress auditioning for a part that could ...

  • News

    Video Networks raises $150m for expansion

    2000-06-29T13:21:00Z

    UK video-on-demand company Video Networks has raised equity financing worth more than $154m (£102m) from investment partnership Digital Explosion, the company announced today (June 29).Video Networks chief executive and founder Simon Hochhauser said the new funds would be used to expand the company's Homechoice broadband video-on-demand, interactive TV and fast ...

  • News

    Onoma takes on sales for Ferenc Torok's Overnight

    2006-08-24T11:04:00Z

    French sales company Onoma International has taken on the world sales forHungarian filmmaker Ferenc Torok'snew film Overnight.The project has been shooting in Budapest since July 14 and will be moving to Germany on Aug 30 before a final stage of shooting in Bombay.Overnightis the final film in Torok's trilogy about ...

  • News

    Rush Hour 3 starts six week shoot in Paris

    2006-08-24T11:07:00Z

    Brett Ratner'sRush Hour 3 has begun shooting in Paris, marking continued interest from American filmmakersin the capital city.The third installment of the action comedy stars Chris Tucker andJackie Chan along with French actor Yvan Attal, director Roman Polanski and a French actress ofrenown whose name has yet to be revealed.Rush ...