Small MPU – Page 292

  • News

    Lightning Strikes with $20m acquisitions and co-financing fund

    2007-10-30T22:10:00Z

    Santa Monica-based Lightning Entertainment has secured a $20m acquisitions and co-financing fund backed by a private equity investor. The new fund will allow Lightning to acquire commercial films for international distribution as well as provide gap financing and completion monies for films in any stage of production. Co-founders ...

  • News

    Jinga Films takes on Welsford's thriller Jetsam

    2007-10-31T05:00:00Z

    UK-based Jinga Films has acquired worldwide rights to thriller Jetsam.Simon Welsford wrote and directed the conspiracy thriller starring Alex Reid, Shauna Macdonald, Jamie Draven and Cal Macanich.Rosana Coutinho, Jinga's head of sales, compared the project to Chris Nolan's Following and Memento. The film had its world premiere at the Times ...

  • News

    Laura de Casto departs as Tartan announces restructuring

    2007-10-30T23:12:00Z

    Tartan Films has announced a new $6m cash injection and a restructuring that includes the departure of the company's veteran managing director Laura de Casto.She will now pursue opportunities as a producer in the US and UK.Tartan says the $6m convertible loan has been agreed with a private investor group.As ...

  • News

    School break and London Film Festival boost UK box office

    2007-10-31T06:44:00Z

    The UK's top 20 films were collectively up 15% compared to last weekend largely due to school half-term holidays and added awareness from the London Film Festival. Over the weekend, the top 20 generated $20.3m from 4,450 screens despite only four new entrants. For the full UK chart click here.Horror ...

  • News

    Little Film company gets to Know Kerrigan's latest

    2007-10-31T05:00:00Z

    The Little Film Company has acquired worldwide rights to Justin Kerrigan's upcoming drama I Know You Know to star Robert Carlyle, David Bradley and Aaron Fuller.Sally Hibbin is producing the film, which is set to begin principal photography in Cardiff, Wales, on Nov 12.Kerrigan's follow up to his 1999 clubbing ...

  • News

    ABC appoints Virgo as drama chief

    2000-09-08T15:24:00Z

    Italy has chosen Marco Tullio Giordana's The Hundred Steps (I Cento Passi) as its official entry for the foreign-language Oscar, over both Silvio Soldini's Bread And Tulips and Giuseppe Tornatore's Malena, which had both been widely tipped.The Hundred Steps is based on the true story of Peppino Impastato, a student ...

  • News

    Regent takes North America for Paris Hilton's Hottie

    2007-10-31T05:00:00Z

    Regent Releasing has picked up North American rights to the romantic comedy The Hottie And The Nottie starring Paris Hilton.The company has also acquired Central American, Caribbean and Greenland rights from Purple Pictures and will commence sales at AFM.Regent has set a Feb 14 2008 North American release on the ...

  • News

    Harrelson joins cast of Kimmel's Management

    2007-10-31T05:00:00Z

    Woody Harrelson has joined Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn on the romantic comedy Management, which Kimmel International is selling here.Principal photography is underway in Oregon on the Sidney Kimmel Entertainment (SKE) and Temple Hill Productions film.MGM has North American rights.Harrelson plays a yoghurt mogul whose travelling saleswoman girlfriend falls for ...

  • News

    HanWay takes on sales for Gorillaz feature Bananaz

    2007-10-31T05:00:00Z

    HanWay Films has come on board for sales of Ceri Levy's new feature-length film about Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's band Gorillaz. Levy started work on Bananaz when the band was formed in 2000, documenting the creation of the band's animated alter-egos, sales of more than 15m albums, and nominations ...

  • News

    Paramount Vantage kicks off sales slate with new Ferrell, Kentis projects

    2007-10-31T05:00:00Z

    Paramount Vantage arrives at its first market as a fully operational sales entity with six fresh projects for buyers including new work from Will Ferrell and Open Water director Chris Kentis.Kentis' untitled follow-up to his 2003 worldwide hit Open Water is being lined up for a February 2008 shoot and ...

  • News

    Future boosts development slate with Nursery, Quiver

    2007-10-31T05:00:00Z

    Future Films has gotten $216,550 (Euros 150,000) in development funding from the MEDIA Programme. Future is using the cash boost to develop six projects in-house: Michael Radford's Nursery based on a screenplay by Chris Wooding about a couple expecting a baby who move to an eerie house; Steve Barron's comedy ...

  • News

    Target and Pink Sands stop and smell the Apples

    2007-10-31T05:00:00Z

    Target Entertainment and Pink Sands are kicking off their new partnership with Kfir Yefet's The Smell Of Apples, which will start shooting in early 2008 starring Gillian Anderson and Julian McMahon.Producers are Kate McCreery and Charles Finch of Pink Sands.The Smell of Apples is a coming-of-age story set in 1970s ...

  • News

    Tom Strudwick to head acquisitions at The Works

    2007-10-31T05:00:00Z

    Tom Strudwick has joined UK-based The Works Media Group as head of acquisitions.Strudwick is the former VP, acquisitions and production, at United Artist. He started his career in 1991 at Manifesto Film Sales before moving to Ciby Sales.Norman Humphrey, chief executive of The Works Media Group said: 'Tom is an ...

  • News

    Easternlight takes on Japanese project Sasori

    2007-10-31T05:00:00Z

    Easternlight has acquired worldwide rights excluding Japan and several other Asian territories to the Japanese martial arts film Sasori.The saga about a vengeful sword-wielding woman is based on the 1970s comic books and cult film series and was the inspiration for Kill Bill.Easternlight managing director Ying Ye acquired the film, ...

  • News

    TLA romances US, UK rights to Bangkok Love Story

    2007-10-31T05:00:00Z

    TLA Releasing has acquired all North American and UK theatrical, home video, television and VOD rights to Poj Arnon's Thai film Bangkok Love Story.The company plans a summer 2008 release on the story of an assassin who falls in love with the man he is sent to execute.Rattanaballang Tohssawat, Chaiwat ...

  • News

    Trust dances for Fischer Christensen's A Soap follow-up

    2007-10-31T05:00:00Z

    Trust Film Sales has taken on Pernille Fischer Christensen's Everybody's Dancing, now in post and being readied for in time for potential premiere in Berlin (Christensen won the 2006 Berlinale's Silver Bear and best debut prizes with her debut A Soap.)Here at the AFM, Trust Film Sales will be screening ...

  • Reviews

    Brother

    2000-09-08T15:59:00Z

    Dir: Takeshi Kitano. Japan-UK-US. 2000. 108 mins.Prod cos: Office Kitano, Recorded Picture Company. US dist: Sony Picture Classics. Int'l sales: HanWay Films Ltd, tel: (44) 20 7290 0750. Prod: Masayuki Mori, Jeremy Thomas. Scr: Takeshi Kitano. DoP: Katsumi Yanagijima. Ed: Yoshinori Ota, Takeshi Kitano. Music: Joe Hisaishi. Main cast: Takeshi ...

  • News

    Anja Uecker to join Telepool in January

    2007-10-31T05:00:00Z

    German outfit Telepool has appointed a new coordinator, Anja Uecker. Uecker, who will start in January 2008, succeeds Justyna Musch.She has 10 years of experience ininternational licence trading.Uecker comes to Telepool after stints at EM.TV Merchandising AG and more recently at Kinowelt.

  • News

    Hyde Park's heart beats with Questa's Tell-Tale

    2007-10-31T05:00:00Z

    Hyde Park International (HPI) will commence sales here on Scott Free's Tell-Tale, a horror tale inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's classic short story The Tell-Tale Heart.Scott Free has hired Michael Cuesta to direct Poe's story of a murderer who believes his dismembered victim's heart continues to beat beneath his floorboards.Shooting ...

  • News

    Ghost House inks North American deal for The Tattooist

    2007-10-31T05:00:00Z

    Ghost House Pictures has acquired North American rights to The Tattooist, the supernatural thriller starring Jason Behr and Mia Blake.Sony, who has a longstanding relationship with Ghost House, will handle the North American theatrical release. Ghost House Pictures is owned by Robert Tapert and Spiderman's Sam Raimi, who recently visited ...