Small MPU – Page 238
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News
Brit pics Grace, Queen bookend Heartland Film Festival
The US premiere of MichaelApted's slavery abolition drama Amazing Grace starring Ioan Gruffudd, and Stephen Frears' TheQueen starring Helen Mirren bookendthe 2006 Heartland Film Festival.The festival, which is setto run from Oct 19-27 in Indianapolis, will also present the world premiere ofthe CGI animated children's feature Air Buddies.Festival organisers havedoubled ...
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Seville lands The Bubble in Canada
Pierre Menahem's ScalpelFilms has sold Canadian rights to Eytan Fox's The Bubble to Seville Pictures.The Bubble, Fox's follow-upto Walk On Water, has itsinternational premiere in Toronto as a Special Presentation.The film first bowed athome in Israel, where it has notched almost 100,000 admissions in two months.Set in Tel Aviv's hippestneighbourhood, ...
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Newton & Leo comes Perfect Circle
Vancouver-based Perfect Circle Productions has completedfinancing on Jesse Rosensweet's $5m stop-action animated feature Newton AndLeo. Rosensweet's The Stone Follywon the Jury Prize for best animated shortat Cannes in 2002. Described as a 'fairytale-gone-wrong', the story follows Thomas Galileo Newton, an inventor struggling to invent a cure for his son, Leo, ...
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Amazon kicks off US download service with every studio but Disney
Amazon has launched its US download service Amazon Unbox, whichwill offer features, television and video games from more than 30 studios.The service is supported by all the US majors with the notableexception of Disney, whose major shareholder Steve Jobs is expected to launch asimilar service through Apple on Sept 12.Most ...
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MGM swoops on Rescue Dawn
MGM has bought North American rights on Werner Herzog's VietnamPOW drama Rescue Dawn,in advance of its world premiere in the Masters section here in Toronto today.It's an unusual move for MGM to acquire a picture since itre-emerged under the guidance of chief operating officer Rick Sands primarilyas a distributor for ...
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Telefonica makes formal Endemol bid
Spanish telecommunications and media powerhouse Telefonica has launched its anticipated public offer to buy out Dutch entertainment giant Endemol. The offer, which runs from July 3-24, values Endemol at Euros4.79bn.The Spanish company has had to pay a high price to complete the buy-out, thanks to a fall in share value ...
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Jia's Still Life is surprise winner of Venice's Golden Lion
Still Life (Sanxia Haoren) byChinese film-maker Jia Zhangkewon the Golden Lion for best film at the 63rd Venice Film Festival.The film had been thesurprise inclusion in Venice'scompetition, only announced earlier this week. Still Life is about how ordinary villagers' lives will be impactedby the Three Gorges Dam project. The festival's ...
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British Film Institute launches download service for archive
The British Film Institute (BFI) has launched a download-to-own service.BFI Online now includes paid-for access to features and shorts taken from the national archives that include 230,000 fiction and non-fiction films and 675,000 television programmes.The money is reinvested in the insititute's work."The BFI's archives have been revolutionised so that, for ...
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Jia's Still Life is surprise winner of Venice's Golden Lion
Still Life (Sanxia Haoren), thelast-minute competition entry by cult Chinese director JiaZhangke, was the surprise winner of the Golden Lionfor Best Film at the Venice Film Festival. Added to the list of 21 competitionfilms halfway through the 12-day Italian festival, Zhangke'sfifth feature, with a slow pace and near absence of ...
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Reviews
Penelope
Dir: Mark Palansky. UK.2006. 101minsMore of anexaggerated pantomime than a lyrical fable, Penelopestruggles to find the magical qualities that seemed to arise so effortlessly inEdward Scissorhandsor Amelie.The tale of a pig-faced girl's search for love and happiness is sweetly toldbut too often plays for easy laughs rather that true wonderment ...
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Reviews
Hana
Dir: Hirokazu Kore-Eda. Jap. 2006. 127mins.Rambling, overlong and at times even messy, Hana isnevertheless a delightful surprise from well known Japanese director Hirokazu Kor-Eda. Alwaysidentified in the past with slow, reflective, sad pieces such as Maborosi and philosophicalreflections on human existence like Afterlife- not to mention the heartbreaking NobodyKnows, one ...
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Reviews
Brand Upon The Brain
Dir: Guy Maddin. US-Can. 2006. 97mins.Arguably the first true silent movie produced ineight decades, Guy Maddin's Brand Upon The Brain premiered in Toronto with a liveorchestra, in-house sound effects artists, a singer and narrator providing apure cinematic full monty. And though there areobvious challenges in recreating such a singular event, ...
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Reviews
Borat
Dir: Larry Charles. US.2006. 82mins.A hand grenade lobbed towards the American heartland,mockumentary Borat explodes with intermittently uproarious results. Fansof Sacha Baron Cohen's enthusiastic Kazakhstanreporter and his television escapades will not be disappointed by a featuredebut filled with caustic encounters and razor-sharp observations. Others mightwonder what all the fuss is about; ...
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Reviews
Stranger Than Fiction
Dir: Marc Forster. US. 2006.118mins.A highly original script by newcomerZach Helm, some superlative performances and the deft guiding hand of directorMarc Forster, trying his hand at comedy for the first time, make Stranger Than Fiction the season's must-seefilm for discerning audiences. Financed and co-produced by Mandate Pictures,the film is having ...
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News
Weinsteins take Mandy, Vince in Toronto
Harvey and Bob Weinstein stamped their mark on the festivaltoday as they swooped on Jonathan Levine's hip genre picture All TheBoys Love Mandy Lane forDimension and Ari Sandel's documentary Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show for The Weinstein Company (TWC).Dimension Films took worldwide rights to Mandy Lane in a deal ...
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Voltage sells six-picture creature feature package to AMG in Japan
Voltage Pictures has sold a trio of upcoming Romanian-UK creaturefeatures to Japan's AMG as part of a package of six titles.The live-action family picture Mammoth 2 and adventures Sherlock Holmes andTerracotta Warriors arebeing co-financed by Voltage and will shoot in Romania from October tomid-2007.Voltage previously sold King Arthur And The ...
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Chechik to direct Pornographer's Poem for House Of Films, Fondry
Jeremiah Chechik, directorof Benny And Joon, TheAvengers and Diabolique, hassigned on to direct The Pornographer's Poem through Bill House's House Of Films and Daniel Ironsof Fondry Films, co-producer of Sarah Polley's TIFF Gala Away From Her. Karen Walton is adapting thescreenplay from the book by Michael Turner, a story of ...
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Sunshine reigns over Deauville
JonathanDayton and Valerie Faris' Little Miss Sunshine won the grand prize at the 32ndDeauville Festival of American Film last night in Deauville, France. The film,a huge box office success in North America, opened in France on Wednesdaythrough 20th Century Fox.Meanwhilethe jury prize went to Ryan Fleck's Half Nelson and the ...
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Memento signs up Jia's Venice winner
Paris-basedsales agent Memento Films has moved to sign up Venice Golden Lion winner StillLife, directed byChina's Jia Zhangke.Mementohas also come on board Jia's documentary East (Dong), which played in Venice's Horizonssection.It hasalso emerged that Jia's next film will be a period costime drama, set to startshooting next Spring. Office Kitano ...
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TF1 kicks off sales on Calderon's wildlife tale White Tuft
TF1International is launching sales here on wildlife feature White Tuft, TheLittle Beaver.Thefilm is directed by Philippe Calderon whose The Besieged Fortress will be released in France by TFM Distribution nextmonth and screened here for buyers yesterday.Afamily film using real animals, White Tuft is set in northern California and follows the ...