Small MPU – Page 243

  • News

    Spain's Lolafilms readies Aranda's Lolita's Club

    2006-09-15T04:00:00Z

    Spanish production house Lolafilms is preparing director Vicente Aranda'sLolita's Club, the follow-up to his English-languageromp The White Knight.The estimated $6.4m (Euros5m) film will star Eduardo Noriega (Alatriste) and is expected to start shooting in Spain in early 2007. Producer Andres Vicente Gomez says hewill seek co-producers, likely starting in Italy.The ...

  • News

    Pinewood in partnership to fund Shepperton development

    2006-09-14T17:05:00Z

    UK studio company Pinewood Shepperton has announced plans to enter into a joint venture with Morley Fund Management to form a partnership that will further develop Shepperton Studio. Pinewood had previously announced plans for the expansion and growth at both Pinewood and Shepperton, and this new partnership will enable the ...

  • News

    Bside takes on documentary Before The Music Dies

    2006-09-14T00:00:00Z

    Bside Entertainment hasacquired North American rights to Andrew Shapter's documentary Before TheMusic Dies which will be its firsttheatrical release.The innovative distributorwill ally itself with companies like MySpace and chipmaker AMD and deployonline marketing and innovative exhibition models. Further details will beunveiled in due course.Before The Music Dies premiered at the ...

  • News

    Mill Film ups Hughes to head operations

    2000-07-03T13:25:00Z

    The UK's Mill Film has appointed Neil Hughes to the newly created position of facilities and operations manager as the effects house beefs up its facilities.As well as looking after the day-to-day management of the company, Hughes, formerly production accountant for Mill Film, will maintain and develop relations between Mill ...

  • News

    Loewy to return to MPD, focusing on New Line product, says report

    2006-09-15T00:00:00Z

    The dispute between filmdistributor Motion Picture Distribution and its former chairman Victor Loewyhas been resolved, according to a newspaper report in Canada. Citing unnamed sources, theGlobe and Mail newspaper said Loewy had negotiated a return to the MPDexecutive suite which will see him deal exclusively with the output deal withNew ...

  • News

    Cruz, Williams, Bullock added to lineup of Oct Hollywood Film Awards

    2006-09-15T00:00:00Z

    The Hollywood Film Awards has added Robin Williams, Penelope Cruzand Sandra Bullock to its line-up of honorees at its annual bash on Oct 23 inBeverly Hills.Williams stars in drama The Night Listener and will receive the Hollywood CareerAchievement Award, while Cruz will appear later this year in the Spanish drama ...

  • News

    Sachar to oversee financing, development at Kindred Media Group

    2006-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Filmmaker and actor Jonathan Sachar has joined USdistribution outfit Kindred Media Group as executive vice president and willoversee development and financing.Sachar has been working with Kindred on One Part Sugar starring Danny DeVito, Dylan Walsh andJustin Long; Southern Gothic; and Superheroes.Kindred Media Group president Jeffrey D Erb said:'We're very happy ...

  • News

    Fox, MySpace launch preview screenings programme with Borat

    2006-09-15T08:00:00Z

    Twentieth Century Fox and corporate sibling MySpace have teamed upon a new promotional tool that will enable MySpace users to see previewscreenings of upcoming features.The Black Carpet scheme will kick off with the preview screeningof Toronto hit Borat.MySpace users in six countries Ð the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, Germany andCanada ...

  • News

    Bunny Chow's Dv8 renews slate deal with South Africa's NFVF

    2006-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Joel Phiri and Jeremy Nathan's Dv8 Films, the production companybehind John Barker and Dog Pack's Toronto world premiere comedy Bunny Chow, have renewed their slate deal with theSouth African government's entertainment industry agency NFVF.The deal commits to the production of at least fourfeatures over the next 18 months, with a ...

  • News

    BVI's Pirates has final territorial opening in Italy

    2006-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest will cross the $600m international markthis weekend as it launches in its final market of Italy.Buena Vista International's (BVI) adventure yarn has taken$594.6 to date and will surely pass $600m with the Sept 13 Italian release.Meanwhile Cars,which overtook its BVI stablemate as the ...

  • News

    Susanne Bier to direct UK shoot for The Duchess

    2006-09-15T15:31:00Z

    Director Susanne Bier willdirect period love story The Duchessfor Qwerty Films and MagnoliaMae Films. The project will shoot onlocation in the UK in early 2007 after Bier completes work on her current project, Dreamworks' Things WeLost InThe Fire, starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro.The Duchess is based onAmanda Foreman's ...

  • News

    Japan names Hula Girls as Oscar selection

    2006-09-15T15:44:00Z

    The MotionPicture Producers Association of Japan (Eiren) hasannounced Lee Sang-il's Hula Girls as Japan's official entry for Best ForeignLanguage Film for the Academy Awards. The final five films nominated in thecategory will be announced by AMPAS on January 23.Hula Girls tells the true story of a group of Japanese coalminers' ...

  • News

    New Manchester festival commissions film by Greg Hall

    2006-09-15T16:23:00Z

    The Manchester InternationalFestival has commissioned director Greg Hall and composer Steve Martland to create a new feature film that will premiere atthe inaugural festival in 2007. Greg Hall's feature debut The Plague, a low-budget urban dramachampioned by Mike Leigh, will be released in UK cinemas on Oct 6. Martland'smusic has ...

  • Reviews

    Bonneville

    2006-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Christopher M Rowley. US.2006. 104mins.A slushy salute to female friendship and the greatmysteries of life and death, Bonnevillehas the unmistakable feel of a TV-movie tearjerker. Filled with predictabledevelopments and heart-tugging revelations, it is bereft of surprises anddripping in syrupy sentiment. It has been a long while since an older ...

  • News

    Australia's Energee to create TV Magic Pudding

    2000-07-03T13:27:00Z

    Australian animation house Energee Entertainment is planning to spin its not-yet-released first feature, The Magic Pudding, into a television series. International sales agent Icon Entertainment International has sold The Magic Pudding feature to more than a dozen territories including Bac Films for France and Gruppo Minerva for Italy. It will ...

  • Reviews

    Macbeth

    2006-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Geoffrey Wright. Aust. 2006.109mins.Shakespeare's bloodthirsty Scottish warlords are transportedto contemporary Melbourne, recent home to Mafia-style vendettas, tit-for-tat slayingsand alleged police corruption, for Geoffrey Wright's Macbeth. The result makes for a good genre fit, casting the centuries old plot in a new light with suavely dressed killers,beautiful women and a ...

  • Reviews

    The Optimists (Optimisti)

    2006-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Goran Paskaljevic. Serb-Monaco. 2006.94mins.Eight years after his feature The Powder Keg portrayed Milosevic's Serbia self-destructing with avengeance, Goran Paskaljevicreturns for another look at his homeland with The Optimists. But although the former Serbian leader is now gone,and democracy of sorts has replaced him, Pasklajevicis not really enchanted by what ...

  • Reviews

    Strike (Die Heldin Von Danzig)

    2006-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Volker Schloendorff. Ger.2006. 104mins.Billed in the opening credits as a "ballad", Strike is based on events in the Leninshipyards in Gdansk, Poland during the early 1980s,which sparked the creation of the Solidarity movement and, ultimately, thebeginning of the end of the Cold War.Coming off as a Polish Norma Rae ...

  • Reviews

    Starter For Ten

    2006-09-16T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Volker Schloendorff. Ger.2006. 104mins.Billed in the opening credits as a "ballad", Strike is based on events in the Leninshipyards in Gdansk, Poland during the early 1980s,which sparked the creation of the Solidarity movement and, ultimately, thebeginning of the end of the Cold War.Coming off as a Polish Norma Rae ...

  • Reviews

    Starter For Ten

    2006-09-16T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Tom Vaughan. UK. 2006. 96mins.James McAvoy confirms hisposition as Britain's brightest newcomer in StarterFor Ten, a solid, rather endearing comedy, basedaround Britain'slong-running quiz show University Challenge. A period piece setin 1985-6, with all the music and haircuts to match, it is produced by TomHanks, via Sam Mendes, and, despite ...