Small MPU – Page 247

  • News

    Media Park acquires minority stake in Horizonte

    2000-07-03T17:51:00Z

    Barcelona-based content packager Media Park has taken a 3% stake in Horizonte Digital, a consortium applying for one of two new free-to-air digital terrestrial television (DTT) licences to be awarded by the Spanish government in November.Media Park's participation in Horizonte Digital gives Telefonica, which recently bought out 25% of the ...

  • News

    Metrodome's wider losses in line with expectations

    2006-09-20T17:43:00Z

    UK distributor Metrodome reportedfinancial results for the first half of 2006, with pretax losses widening to $840,337(£445,000) against a loss of $389,010 (£206,000) last year. Turnover fell 11% from$3.13m (£1.66m) to $2.79 (£1.48m) year-on-year. The loss was in line with expectations duringthe period the company described as a time of ...

  • News

    AFM, AFI FEST tout record attendance figures for Nov events

    2006-09-21T00:00:00Z

    Organisers at the upcoming AFM and AFI Fest are predicting recordattendances ahead of the partner events set to take place in November.AFM and AFI Fest established a strategic alliance in 2004, and topbrass from both camps are calling it the largest annual gathering of industryprofessionals in North America.AFM chiefs said ...

  • News

    New soundstage complex breaks ground in New Mexico

    2006-09-21T00:00:00Z

    Albuquerque Studios has moved ahead with plans to build NewMexico's first major soundstage complex.Pacifica Ventures, which will own and operate the new complex andalso operates Culver Studios in Los Angeles, reported that construction hasbegun on the $74m, 28-acre film and television production facility at Mesa DelSol.Phase One, which is scheduled ...

  • News

    Fox launches faith-based US home entertainment label

    2006-09-21T00:00:00Z

    Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has launched the labelFoxFaith, which plans to take at least six pictures specifically targeted atChristian film-goers into limited theatrical release each year.The roster kicks off on Oct 6 with Love's Abiding Joy, the fourth instalment in the LoveComes Softly seriesbased on Janette Oke's bestselling books ...

  • News

    King And The Clown selected as Korea's Oscar entry

    2006-09-21T00:00:00Z

    The Korean Film Council(KOFIC) has announced Lee Joon-ik's KingAnd The Clown as Korea's official entry for best foreign-language film inthe 79th Academy Awards. The sleeper hit, which brokelocal box office records earlier this year, was up against Kim Ki-duk's Time and Bong Joon-ho's The Host - which in turn broke ...

  • News

    Gomes, Bier and Kaurismaki films added to Oscar longlist

    2006-09-21T12:36:00Z

    Several more territorieshave come forward with their submissions for best foreign-language Oscar. Brazil's entry for consideration is Marcelo Gomes' debut Movies, Aspirin and Vultures (Cinema, aspirinas e urubus), while Finland's is Aki Kaurismaki's Lights In The Dusk (Laitakaupungin valot) and Denmark's is SusanneBier's After The Wedding (Efter Brylluppet). Movies, Aspirin ...

  • News

    Cinematography legend Sven Nykvist dies in Sweden

    2006-09-21T12:54:00Z

    Swedishfilm-maker Sven Nykvist, a legendary cinematographer who worked on many IngmarBergman classics, died Wednesday in Stockholm. He was 83 and being treated fora form of dementia. The Stockholm International Film Festival announced that its forthcoming 17th event would be dedicated to Nykvist.Nykvistwon two Oscars, for Bergman's 1973 Cries And Whispers ...

  • News

    Spring Break shoot to continue in Croatia

    2006-09-22T04:00:00Z

    Richard Shepard's Spring Break In Bosnia started principal photography on locationsin Sarajevo on Sept 12. Financed by QED International and Intermedia, the film is produced by Mark Johnson and Scott Kroopf and stars Richard Gere, Jesse Eisenberg, Terrence Howard, James Brolin and Diane Kruger. Based on Scott Anderson's article ...

  • News

    North West Vision plans October conference in Liverpool

    2006-09-21T00:00:00Z

    Regional screen agency NorthWest Vision will host a free conference in Liverpool for film-makers in the Northwest of England. The Film Focus conference,at Liverpool's FACT on Oct12, will look at the opportunities and challenges for feature film-makers inthe region. Panelists will include film-makers Carl Hunter, Juliet Mckeown, andJohn Maxwell; Steve ...

  • News

    Filmstiftung NRW backs Loach and Spottiswoode

    2006-09-21T15:42:00Z

    International co-productionslead the line-up of new feature film projects backed in the latest $3.8m (Euros3m) funding round from Duesseldorf-based Filmstiftung NRW International.The regional public fund hasawarded backing to Ken Loach's next project TheseTimes, which is being written by his regular collaborator Paul Laverty andwill be co-produced by The Wind ThatShakes ...

  • News

    Australia's FLICs get luke-warm response

    2000-07-03T17:54:00Z

    Australia's two Film Licensed Investment Companies (FLICs) have convinced investors to tip in only about half of the tax deductible total of $23.9 (A$40m) that they were allowed to raise before the June 30 deadline.The government-sanctioned FLICs were formed 15 months ago as a pilot scheme with the aim of ...

  • News

    Feng enlists Korean expertise for war epic

    2006-09-21T20:30:00Z

    Chinese director FengXiaogang, whose latest film The Banquetis currently topping the box office across Asia, is working with crew membersfrom Korea's MK Pictures on his upcoming war epic, tentatively entitled The Assembly. Speaking at a Korean press conferencefor The Banquet, Feng said he was a fanof Kang Jegyu's blockbuster war ...

  • News

    Inaugural Conch winners include Boom and De Lane Lea

    2006-09-21T21:00:00Z

    UK Post& Services held its inaugural Conch Awards in London tonightto recognise the audio industry.The best UK soundfacility award was shared by Boom and De Lane Lea.The bestfilm soundtrack winners were Kinky Boots andWallace & Gromit: Curse Of The Were Rabbit."We arethrilled by the success of tonight's awards and for ...

  • Reviews

    Copying Beethoven

    2006-09-21T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Agnieszka Holland. UK-Hung. 2006. 104mins.With Copying Beethoven,workmanlike director Agnieska Holland partiallyredeems herself for such embarrassing earlier Toronto misfires like Total Eclipse (1995) - will anyoneever forget the silliness of ultra-American teen Leonardo DiCaprioas French poet Arthur Rimbaud' - but only partially.Movies thatcentre on classical music, of course, have a ...

  • Reviews

    Hula Girls (Hula Garu)

    2006-09-21T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Lee Sang-il. Jap. 2006. 108minsHula Girls has allthe ingredients for a crowd-pleasing heartwarmer butit sweats and strains to make the recipe work. Despite being based on trueevents it feels entirely formulaic with even the most casual cinemagoer likelyto be one step ahead of every twist and turn in the ...

  • Reviews

    Seraphim Falls

    2006-09-21T00:00:00Z

    Dir. David Von Ancken. US. 2006 115mins.Had it been made 50 years ago, Seraphim Falls might now be considered aclassic western. But the intervening years have warped and reshaped the genreso many times that an effort like this seems besidethe point. Unlike John Hilcoat's savagely post-modernThe Proposition, which screened atToronto ...

  • Reviews

    Wedding Daze

    2006-09-21T00:00:00Z

    Dir/scr: Michael Ian Black.US. 2006. 90mins.Those foundations of the romantic comedy, sentimental faith andoptimism, are mocked and blown wide open in ThePleasure Of Your Company, Michael Ian Black's clever and engagingly piecethat unfortunately fails to sustain its free-floating, comic riffs right to theend.Black has an extensivebackground in TV and theatre ...

  • Reviews

    Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days And 30 Nights - Hollywood To The Heartland

    2006-09-21T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Ari Sandel. US, 2006.110mins.The odd thing about Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show is that itson-screen success has little to do with Vaughn himself. The US actor may be theimpresario behind the comedy show, which was inspired by Buffalo Bill'straveling festival and played in 30 cities across America over ...

  • News

    Black Book to be opened by Sony Classics

    2006-09-21T00:00:00Z

    Sony Pictures Classics has picked up North American, Australian,New Zealand and Indian rights to Paul Verhoeven's WWII thriller Black Book.Black Bookis based on true events involving the Dutch Underground and in particular thestory of a Jewish girl who falls for a Gestapo officer while seeking revengefor her family's murders. Carice ...