Small MPU – Page 397

  • News

    No Mercy For The Rude takes audience prize at Udine

    2007-04-30T20:31:00Z

    Udine's Far East Film Festival wrapped its ninth edition Saturdayas organizers lauded the growth and appeal of a once niche festivalthat has edged its way to become Europe's most complete sampling ofAsian cinema.The non-competitive festival announced audience award -winnersSaturday night. South Korean noir title No Mercy For The Rude directedby ...

  • News

    Sweden's Jonsson starts shoot for debut feature King Of Ping-Pong

    2007-05-01T04:00:00Z

    After 14 shorts and several awards, Swedish director Jens Jonsson has started principal photography for his first feature, King of Ping-Pong, in Norbotten,northern Sweden.Scripted by Jonsson with Hans Gunnarsson, the story is about the relationshipbetween an obese table tennis champion and his younger brother. Jan Blomgren is producing for Sweden's ...

  • News

    Former Blockbuster executive Wilson joins First Look as COO

    2007-05-01T05:38:00Z

    Dean Wilson has been named chief operating officer First Look Studios (FLS) and will report to FLS chief executive officer Trevor Short and Avi Lerner, co-chairman of FLS controlling company First Look Holdings.Wilson most recently served as head of new business development for Blockbuster Inc and was responsible for the ...

  • News

    Lakeshore reorganises, hires Deckter, promotes Burke. Longmuir

    2007-05-01T05:44:00Z

    Lakeshore Entertainment chairman and chief executive officer Tom Rosenberg and president of worldwide marketing and distribution David Dinerstein have announced wide-ranging changes at the Los Angeles-based production, financing and sales company.Former Arclight Films president of international sales and Morgan Creek International vice president Jonathan Deckter arrives as senior vice president ...

  • News

    Sony consolidates international production under Schindler, Wigan

    2007-05-01T05:51:00Z

    Building on its longstanding ties to the foreign local language community, Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is launching its International Motion Picture Production Department.Deborah Schindler, who since 2005 has run the East Coast motion picture production and development operation for Columbia Pictures, is promoted to president of the new division and ...

  • News

    MPAA changes Hip Hop rating from R to PG-13

    2007-05-01T06:01:00Z

    The Motion Picture Association of America's ratings review board has revised the rating for THINKFilm's The Hip Hop Project from an R to a PG-13.The eight-member panel voted six to two in favour of the change, citing the upcoming release's 'positive images and inspiring message'.'This motion picture is a call ...

  • News

    German regional fund backs 18 projects with $6.8m

    2007-05-01T06:27:00Z

    The fifth outing of The Wild Soccer Bunch franchise, an adaptation of Thomas Mann's novel Buddenbrooks and a TV remake of the classic The Bridge are among 18 projects awarded a total of $6.8m (Euros 5m) by the Munich-based regional fund FFF Bayern in its latest round of funding. The ...

  • News

    First Pakistani film to shoot in India opens on home turf

    2007-05-01T12:19:00Z

    The first ever Pakistani film shot entirely in India, Javaid Fazal's The Return, was released on April 27 in its home country, where it played to packed houses over the first three days. Producer Shoab Alam said that the entire music and post-production work was also completed in Mumbai. He ...

  • News

    $80m investment fund to cashflow UK tax credit

    2007-05-01T14:14:00Z

    An $80m (£40m) investment fund has been set up to cashflow the new UK tax credit.The Limelight Fund is offering producers who qualify for the incentive finance on what it says is a competitive terms.UK producers David Parfitt and Christopher Figg are amongst the scheme's designers and sit on Limelight's ...

  • News

    Stray Dog takes best film at Cine PE - Festival do Audiovisual

    2007-05-01T14:31:00Z

    Stray Dog (Cao Sem Dono) is the big winner of Cine PE - Festival do Audiovisual, one of the most important and prestigious Brazilian film festivals. The event, basedin Recife (the sunny Northeast of the country), awarded as best film the drama about a guy in the middle of an ...

  • News

    Moviehouse takes on sales for Slingshot's debut feature Sugarhouse

    2007-05-01T16:31:00Z

    UK-based sales company Moviehouse Entertainment has taken on international sales for Sugarhouse (formerly known as Sugarhouse Lane), the first feature from new digital studio Slingshot Studios.Gary Love makes his feature debut with the urban thriller based on co-screenwriter Dominic Leyton's play Collision.Ashley Walters, Andy Serkis and Steven Macintosh star. Arvind ...

  • News

    Producer Ahrenberg plans US remake of Sophie's World

    2007-05-01T16:38:00Z

    Translated into 54 languages, and selling 35 million copies worldwide,Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder's novel, Sophie's World, which wasfilmed to limited success by Norwegian director Erik Gustavson in 1999,will now become a bigger-budget English-language project.Swedish producer Staffan Ahrenberg, who worked on Phillip Noyce's TheQuiet American (2002) and executive-produced Zandalee and Johnny ...

  • News

    Arthouse Films launches screening series at New York's 5 Ninth

    2007-05-01T16:47:00Z

    Arthouse Films and the partners of 5 Ninth restaurant in New York's meatpacking district have launched a new film salon and screening series called the Film Salon at 5 Ninth.The series will start on Monday nights in May, focusing on films by and about artists.The evenings will include screenings, food, ...

  • News

    Italian exhibitors say recent report 'gives wrong idea of market'

    2007-05-01T16:57:00Z

    The Italian exhibitors body (Anec) has a bone to pick with Italy's National Statistical Institute (Istat) over the conclusions of a recent report analyzing 'cultural consumer trends' that indicates the nation's cinema-going public is diminishing.The report, released late last week, looked at all forms of entertainment from television to museums ...

  • News

    New German sales agent to launch in Cannes with So Long, My Heart

    2007-05-01T17:03:00Z

    New German sales agent to launch in Cannes with So Long, My Heart!The Munich-based Avalon Entertainment Group has launched a sales arm that will be attending the Cannes Market with its first acquisition, So Long, My Heart! (Wir Werden Uns Wiederseh'n), the second feature by the directorial duo of Stefan ...

  • News

    Screenwriters Festival to take centre stage in industry debate

    2007-05-02T06:44:00Z

    This year's International Screenwriters Festival falls at a critical time in the history of writers.The event, which runs from July 3-6 in the UK town of Cheltenham, has quickly established itself as a major event in the industry calendar.Last year the event, backed by Screen International, attracted such leading figures ...

  • News

    Warner Bros takes worldwide rights to 11th Hour

    2007-05-02T00:37:00Z

    The Warner Bros fold has picked up worldwide rights to the Leonardo DiCaprio-produced eco-doc 11th Hour in a pre-emptive move ahead of the film's world premiere at Cannes.Warner Independent Pictures (WiP) will handle the domestic release while Warner Bros Pictures International (WBPI) will release around the world.Leila Conners-Petersen and Nadia ...

  • News

    Montreal World Film Festival to premiere Dansereau's Brunante

    2007-05-02T00:43:00Z

    The Montreal World Film Festival will screen the world premiere of Fernand Dansereau's Brunante, the festival announced today. The film reunites the director and his favoured actresss Monique Mercure in a sequel 40 years after their original 1966 film Ce N'est Pas Le Temps De Romans. As well, the MWFF ...

  • News

    Merchant Ivory boards Babenco's Independent People

    2000-08-06T23:03:00Z

    Merchant Ivory Productions (MIP) has joined with Iceland's Pegasus Pictures to co-produce an adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning novel Independent People which Hector Babenco will direct from a script by long-time MIP collaborator Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.Icelandic producer Snorri Thorisson beat off stiff competition, both local and international, to option rights to ...

  • News

    Picturehouse launches open casting calls for American Girl movie

    2007-05-02T00:46:00Z

    Picturehouse will stage a series of open casting calls at American Girl Place shops in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York in the first two weeks of May for eight-12-year-old roles in its upcoming American Girl adaptation Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery.Abigail Breslin will play Kit Kettredge, a resourceful ...