Small MPU – Page 262
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News
Lot 47 hires distribution veteran Thompson
Distribution veteran Bill Thompson has joined New York-based distributor Lot 47 Films in the newly created position of vice president, general sales manager.Thompson began his career as a salesman in 20th Century Fox's Washington DC branch. Hemoved to New York in 1978 to become director of sales for Cinema 5 ...
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News
German audiences increase as cinemas decline
While German cinema admissions have climbed 8% to 80.3 million and box office takings increased 9.6% to $406.8m for the first half of 2001, there are deeply unsettling developments elsewhere in the market, according to the German Federal Film Board (FFA).Germany's bullish exhibition sector, once a model of robust optimism, ...
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News
Canada's Equinox reveals $59.1m slate
Montreal-based Equinox Entertainment's new production and development slate will have a total budget of $59.1m (C$80m), including approximately $23.3m (C$36m) for a series of Italian/Canadian 'movies of the week' and feature film co-productions.Equinox, the filmed entertainment division of La Compagnie France Film Inc., which previously focused on distribution, will team ...
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News
Studios warm to Mexican flavour
The statistics speak for themselves. Mexico boasts the biggest number of screens in Latin America; with close to 3,000, nearly double that of Brazil, a country twice its size. Mexico is a growing market too: theatrical revenues rose by 20.2% in 2000, and now 20th Century Fox ranks Mexico ...
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News
Carlstrom strikes first look deal with SF
Nordic major Svensk Filmindustri (SF) has signed a first -look deal with Swedish producer Bjorn Carlstrom, who previously spent 10 years working for competitor Sonet Film."We have been in talks for some time," SF head of production, Kerstin Bonnier, told Screendaily, "because we believe Bjorn Carlstrom will compliment our other ...
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Danish comedy laughing all the way to the bank
Danish producer Regner Grasten has proved once again, with the release of Anja & Viktor through BVI, that he runs the most successful Danish production company when it comes to local box office performance. Graesten's Regner Graesten Filmproduction (RGF), established in 1984, produced the musical romantic comedy, a sequel to ...
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Reviews
Mostly Martha
Dir: Sandra Nettelbeck. Germany. 2001. 107 mins.German 'food' melodrama Mostly Martha may be utterly predictable but it was one of the few world premieres at the Locarno Film Festival which showed strong potential to break out of the festival circuit and European arthouse markets. Set mainly in the kitchen of ...
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News
Portugese producer Branco courts controversy
Paolo Branco, the prolific Paris-based Portuguese producer, is attracting attention for all the wrong reasons these days. This week it emerged that he is being sued by AGRIF, a citizens' group in favour of French identity and Christian values. Branco goes to the high court on Tuesday (August 21) to ...
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News
Pie 2 stays on top; Rat Race opens with $11.8m
Universal's American Pie 2 became the first film since June to stay at number one at the North American box office for a second weekend, taking an estimated $21.4m over the three day Friday to Sunday period for a ten-day total of $87.6m.The R-rated teen sequel, however, fell 53% from ...
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News
Warner Spain executive Ed Weinberg dies at 53
Veteran distribution executive Ed Weinberg died last week in Spain after suffering a brain stroke. The respected Weinberg who was deputy general manager of Warner Bros' joint venture with Sogefilms in Spain was 53 years old.He died on Aug 4 and is survived by his wife Dianna and sons Scott ...
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News
Oz exhibs and distribs improve communications
Australia's major distributors have been warned that there is no justification for charging first week terms to regional cinemas that do not get films until several weeks after their national release, just because it is new to that district. The deadline for submissions into the current cinema industry code of ...
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Reviews
Happy Now
Dir: Philippa Collie Cousins. Wales. 98mins. 2001The guilty legacy of past indiscretions provides the backdrop to Happy Now, an atmospheric tale of smalltown secrets and deceptive appearances where the eccentricity is self-conscious and the elaborate mechanics of the plot fail to convince. Polished and well performed, it will make superior ...
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News
New German distributor teams with UIP
Christoph Ott's new German theatrical distribution company OTTFilm has signed a deal with UIP Germany for the joint distribution of new local and international titles, including Woody Allen's The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion and Robert Altman's Gosforth Park. As part of the agreement UIP will handle physical distribution of ...
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News
Daredevil relocates in fear of Canadian strike
20th Century Fox has pulled Daredevil, a multi-million dollar feature produced by Bernie Williams (The Score) and directed by Mark Steven Johnson (Simon Birch), out of Montreal for fear of a strike by 18,000 Canadian actors union (ACTRA) members.At the same time, other Hollywood studios have sounded the alarm for ...
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News
Apes swing into UK box office record books
With an opening salvo of $7.87m in the UK over the weekend, 20th Century Fox's release of Tim Burton's Planet Of The Apes became its third biggest UK opening of all time behind 1999's The Phantom Menace ($13.8m) and 1996's Independence Day ($10.1m), and edged out Batman & Robin to ...
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News
Del Toro adds spine to The Devil's Backbone
Riding high on Locarno hit The Devil's Backbone, which is currently closing a deal for the last major territory, North America, with Sony Pictures Classics, Mexican horror maestro Guillermo del Toro hit the Edinburgh International Film Festival this week to discuss a genre most executives dismiss as "a secondary form ...
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News
French pay-TV operator AB de-listed from NYSE
French pay-tv operator AB Groupe is to be de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange. The company, which operates 18 cable and satellite channels in France, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland, is to put at end to its ADR (American Depository Receipts - US-traded shares of foreign companies) programme as of ...
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News
StudioCanal secures control of TV producer Expand
Vivendi Universal's European film and television arm StudioCanal now owns a controlling 52.1% stake in French television production powerhouse Expand, after the first round of a take-over bid which closed last week.The bid for a 20% stake in Expand is to be re-opened at the beginning of November following the ...
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News
Sweden backs Gothenburg's CineBosnia fund
Short film production in Bosnia-Herzegovina has been given a welcome boost by the decision of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) on the eve of this years Sarajevo Film Festival (August 17-25) to guarantee $28,995 (SEK 300,000) backing for the Goteborg Film Festival's CineBosnia fund.Launched in 2000, the CineBosnia ...
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News
Bosnian Cinema Co-Production Project launched
Bosnian regional and federal authorities have signalled they are to make concerted efforts to provide financial support for the development of the film industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina following the successful launch of the New Bosnian Cinema Co-Production Project (NBCCP) at this years Sarajevo Film Festival. Speaking at the presentation ...