Small MPU – Page 349
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News
Chen's Mei Lanfang starts shooting in Beijing
Chinese director Chen Kaige announced the start of production on his biopic of Peking opera singer Mei Lanfang in Beijing yesterday. The actual shooting started last Saturday (July 14) in Beijing Film Studio. Huayi Brothers Pictures came on board as one of the backers just last week, joining the original ...
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News
Film24 channel launches on UK's Sky platform
A new independent channel has launched on Sky's platform. The Film24 (channel 158) launches as a channel about film, not airing films.The original programming covers large and small films and DVD releases, new talent, regional cinema, films in production and more behind-the-scenes programmes.Nicky Davis, CEO of Film24 says: ' Movies ...
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News
Pia Film Festival awards grand prix to Bare-assed Japan
Director Yuya Ishii's Bare-assed Japan (Mukidashi Nippon) won the Grand Prix at this year's Pia Film Festival (PFF), which ran July 14-20 in Tokyo 's Shibuya district. A total of 14 films, both feature-length and shorts, were selected to screen in competition from 780 submissions. Shot for a budget of ...
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Jonas Cuaron's Ano Una among Venice Critics Week selections
Ano Una, the first film by Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron's son Jonas Cuaron, will close Critics Week at the upcoming Venice Film Festival (Aug 29-Sept 8).The film is the story of a summer romance between a Mexican teenager and an older American woman.The Critics Week will open with two films ...
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News
Cinefan opens with Iran-Azerbaijan co-production Raami
Osian's Cinefan 9th Festival of Asian & Arab Cinema opened in Delhi on Friday night (July 20) with the international premiere of Iran-Azerbaijan co-production Raami. The feature debut of documentary filmmaker Babak Shirinsefat, the film follows a musician searching for his Armenian wife, who fled to Iran during the conflict ...
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Thailand's Kantana starts work on Khan Kluay sequel
Thailand's Kantana Group has started production on a sequel to 3D animated feature Khan Kluay, about the adventures of a blue elephant, which was the top local hit at the Thai box office last year. The new animation, Khan Kluay 2, has an estimated budget of $5m. 'The bulk is ...
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Film Frame unleashes Brave at Bangkok Film Market
Thailand 's Film Frame Productions is launching action comedy drama Brave at the Bangkok Film Market, which kicks off today (July 23). The $1.2m picture - high by local standards - is a co-production with Aflin Shauki's Malaysian outfit Vision Works. The picture marks the first completed project of Thanapon ...
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Reviews
No Reservations
Dir: Scott Hicks. US. 2007. 101mins.No Reservations is the lighter, blander Hollywood version of Mostly Martha (Drei Sterne), the 2001 German-language romantic dramedy about love, food and family. The adjusted tone and the star power of leads Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart will certainly suit the remake's domestic positioning as ...
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Reviews
Rocket Science
Dir: Jeffrey Blitz. US. 2007. 98mins.After the success of his Oscar-nominated documentary Spellbound, writer-director Jeffrey Blitz takes a shaky first step into features with Rocket Science. A deadpan high-school comedy about a misfit trying fruitlessly to court the object of his affection, this indie-minded effort suggests a film-maker too enamored ...
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News
Mushroom, Screen Artists team up for Horseplay
Australia's Mushroom Pictures is working with Stavros Kazantzidis and Allanah Zitserman's production company Screen Artists on Horseplay, a darkly comic tale about a madcap plan to rig Australia's most famous annual horse race, the Melbourne Cup. Casting on the project, which Kazantzidis will direct, is underway. The feature will be ...
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News
Constantin Film parts company with Schloendorff on Pope Joan
Leading German producer-distributor Constantin Film has fired the Oscar-winning director Volker Schloendorff from the adaptation of the Donna Cross bestseller Pope Joan.In a letter to Schloendorff, Martin Moszkowicz, member of the Constantin board, wrote that 'it is unfortunately no longer possible for us to make the film together. I have ...
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News
Giffoni winners include Mid Road Gang and Keith
Two thousand children cast their votes for winning films at the Giffoni Film Festival, the Southern Italian film festival dedicated to children and young people's cinema which wrapped its 37th edition Saturday.Led by Claudio Gubitosi, the festival brought in a record number of young jurors from several countries to vote ...
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News
Universal's Wanted finishes Czech leg of shoot
Timur Bekmambetov wrapped production on Universal's Wanted in the Czech Republic on Saturday. The crew now moves on to Chicago, where they will shoot Aug 7-17. Czech press reported Bekmambetov as saying the budget of the film was $50m. The film is the first in production and distribution deal between ...
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News
Milic's war drama Living And The Dead sweeps prizes at Pula
At the 54th Pula Film Festival in Istria, Croatia (July 12-21), Kristijan Milic's The Living And The Dead (Zivi I Mrtvi) won the Grand Golden Arena for the best film, as well as the best director prize. The brutal war drama set in Bosnia in two overlapping stories happening in ...
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News
Wine growing comedy prepares to uncork
Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman, Freddy Rodriguez, Rachael Taylor from Transformers, Chris Pine, and Eliza Dushku will star in Randall Miller's wine growing comedy Bottle Shock.The IPW, Zin Haze and Unclaimed Freight Production joint enterprise will begin shooting in the Napa and Sonoma Valley regions of California on Aug 1.Jody Savin ...
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News
Chuck And Larry squeeze Harry at US box office
Universal's comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry cut short Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix' table topping career as it opened number one on an estimated $34.8m.Audiences preferred the new Adam Sandler and Kevin James story of friends who fake a gay civil union to the ...
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Potter rockets past $350m in overseas grosses
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix consolidated its gains from last weekend's memorable launch and seized an estimated $100.8m to cross $350m overseas after less than two weeks.Warner Bros Pictures International's (WBPI) fifth entry in the children's fantasy series drew approximately 14m admissions from 13,000 prints in 58 ...
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Lynch's Empire kicks off Korea's inaugural CinDi film festival
The first Cinema Digital Film Festival (CinDi) opened on Friday (July 20) with a screening of David Lynch's Inland Empire. With a view to spotlighting new Asian directors working in the digital medium, the festival has a competition section of 20 films (see list below) vying for awards and a ...
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News
Chan to star in Tokyo-set drama Shinjuku Incident
Hong Kong's JCE Movies is set to produce Japan-set drama The Shinjuku Incident, starring Jackie Chan and directed by Derek Yee. Chan will also produce the film through JCE - his joint venture with Albert Yeung's Emperor Motion Pictures (EMP) - while EMP will handle international sales. The Hong Kong ...
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Crouching Tiger to open San Sebastian's Top
Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will open "Festivals' Top", part of this year's Zabaltegi (Open Zone) section at the San Sebastian International Film Festival (September 21-30). The festival has split its traditional offering of films in Zabaltegi into two divisions: Festivals' Top, which will present features already screened at ...