Small MPU – Page 403
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News
Austrian board backs biopic of popstar Falco
Debut features by Serbianfilmmaker Stefan Arsenijevic and the Iranian-born video artist Shirin Neshatand a biopic on the life of Rock Me Amadeus singer, the Austrian pop star Falco,are among six new projects backed with a total of $1.75m (Euros 1.31m) by thejoint funding committee of the Austrian Film Institute and ...
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Filmauro to adapt Manfredi's The Empire of Dragons
Aurelio De Laurentiis has announcedthat his Rome-based Filmauro production company has purchased the rights to The Last Legion author Valerio MassimoManfredi's The Empire of Dragons,with principal shooting to take place in China next year.A period epic adventure, Dragon winds a historical tale thatintersects the Roman and Chinese civilizations. Currently being ...
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The Lives Of Others and Volver share EFA honours
FlorianHenckel von Donnersmarck's Stasi thriller The Lives Of Others (Das Leben Der Anderen) and Pedro Almodovar's Volver werethe big winners at this year's European Film Awards.TheGerman entry for the Oscar and Golden Globes, won best European Film, bestactor for Ulrich Muehe and best screenplay for the director at the awardsceremony ...
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Reviews
The Good German
Dir: Steven Soderbergh. US. 2006.107mins.Steven Soderbergh's latestcinematic experiment is an homage to atmospheric wartime noir classics like The Third Man and Casablanca, attempting to reconjure themagic by recreating post-war Berlin on the backlot, shootingin black-and-white and encouraging the actors to give heightened theatricalperformances a la Bogart or Dietrich. It's a ...
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Spain's Ono to pump $1.7bn into expanding network
Spain's nascent cable industry is set for a major tranche of investment as local cable operator Ono (Cableuropa) has unveiled plans to invest $1.7bn (PTS300,000m) over the next five years to expand its broadband network into new regions of Spain.The company, which said it plans to build "one of the ...
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Reviews
Apocalypto
Dir: Mel Gibson. US. 2006.136mins.True to the pre-release PR spin and healthy industrybuzz, Mel Gibson's Apocalyptois less of a stodgy history lesson and more of a fleet-footed action adventure- albeit one with a highly unusual setting in the world of the ancient Maya.The action is sometimes thrilling and the evocation ...
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Danes dominate IFDA doc prizes
The 19th International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), proveda triumph for Danish documentary makers.IDFA's most prestigious prize, The VPRO Joris Ivens Award, went to Danish feature doc The Monastery - Mr Vig And The Nun, directed byPernille Rose Gronkjaer. (The Monastery was also selected last weekfor The World Cinema Documentary Competition ...
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Grisebach's Longing takes top prizes at Gijon
Spain's Gijon International Film Festival (Nov 28- Dec 1) awarded its top honours to Valeska Grisebach's Longing (Sehnsucht).The German film about a man who unexpectedly falls in love with another woman, picked up best feature film award and the Fipresci prize.The best director prize was awarded ex-aequo to Maziar Miri ...
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Feet keeps marching for Warner Bros in domestic market
Warner Bros' animated hit Happy Feet kept on marching and stayed atop thecharts for the third consecutive weekend as Sony's Casino Royale remained in second place.Happy Feetadded an estimated $17m for $121m after three weekends, while 007 raised histally by $15.1m to $115.9m after the same amount of time. Casino ...
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Chinese film wins Golden Peacock at Goa
HasiChaolu's Chinese drama The Old Barber won the Golden Peacock best film award at the 37th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa. Theprize, with its $22,000 (Rs 1m) purse, was presented by actor-writer-directorAparna at the closing ceremony of the festival.Announcingthe award, jury chairman, Australian filmmaker Rolf De Heer ...
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SPRI's Casino wins jackpot with $44.7m third weekend
Bond ruled the waves for a third consecutive weekend as CasinoRoyale grossed anestimated $44.7m from 6,770 prints in 54 territories for $196.5m.The film will cross $200m on Monday [Day 17] and alreadystands at more than $312m worldwide. 007 is on course to finish hisinternational mission in the mid-$300m range.Casino Royale ...
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News
Chan's $40m Ci Ma starts shooting in Beijing
Andre Morgan and Peter Ho-sunChan, who together run production house Morgan Chan Films, unveiled their$40m martial arts period drama Ci Ma (working title) today in Beijing.The Hong Kong-China co-productionis directed by Chan and features a stellar cast headed by Jet Li, Andy Lau andTakeshi Kaneshiro. Principal photography has just started ...
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News
Gaumont goes digital with XDC France
French major Gaumont hassigned a deal with digital developer XDC to offer its upcoming features in adigital format for cinemas equipped with the necessary projection systems. Themove makes Gaumont the first French producer/distributor to make its filmsavailable digitally. The newly created XDCFrance, a subsidiary of XDC International, proposes technical ...
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News
Sean Ellis starts shoot for The Broken
Writer/director Sean Ellishas started principal photography for his second feature, The Broken. As previously reported, LenaHeadey stars and the cast also includes Richard Jenkins, Melvil Poupaud, UlrichThomsen, Michelle Duncan and Asier Newman. The psychological horrorfilm will shoot for seven weeks. Headey plays a woman who thinks she seesherself drive past ...
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News
ACE seminars to look at 17 European projects
TheEuropean Cinema Workshops (ACE) will be held this year from Dec 6-12 inRoubaix/Tourcoing in the Nord Pas-de-Calais region of France.Theworkshops are an opportunity for European producers to gather with European andUS professionals in order to examine financing, co-production and distributionpotential for, in this year's case, a total of 17 projects. ...
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Edinburgh festival to host Luzhin premiere
Marleen Gorris' The Luzhin Defence and Bill Eagles' Beautiful Creatures are amongst the world premieres at next month's Edinburgh International Film Festival (August 13-27).Artistic director Lizzie Francke has also confirmed that the festival will be book-ended by Lars von Trier's opening film Dancer In The Dark and Wong Kar-Wai's closing ...
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Finns fly to China for kung fu co-production Jade Warrior
Beijing-based MingProductions has boarded AJ Annila's Jade Warrior, billed as Finland's "first ever martial arts movie",which is set to shoot in China, Finland and Estonia starting in August. Also the first-everChinese-Scandinavian co-production, the $3m film was previously set to shootonly in Finland with an all-Finnish cast. It will now shoot ...
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Mallboy team set to produce Melbourne-set Orange
The team behind Directors' Fortnight film Mallboy is now developing Orange, a love story set amid feuding families in a bustling wholesale fruit and vegetable market in Melbourne, Australia.Vincent Giarrusso is writing, directing, and working with script editor Tony Ayres, and Fiona Eagger is producing. This time around Chris Fitchett ...
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World's Fastest Indian heads East
TheWorld's Fastest Indian, starring Anthony Hopkins, has sold to Alexander van Duelman's EEAP forEastern Europe, including Russia, and German-speaking markets.The distributor picked upthe film, directed by Roger Donaldson, from Tanlay AG and NZ Film. "I was impressed with Anthony Hopkins' performance," said vanDuelman. "However, seeing the 16 minutes of cut ...
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New York Doll ready to rock festivals
Gary Rubin's First LookIndependent is planning a high-profile festival berth for Greg Whiteley'sdocumentary New York Doll aheadits October US release.Rubin has been fieldingstrong interest from festival organisers on the picture, which charts the upliftingstory of former New York Dolls bass player Arthur 'Killer' Kane, a reformedalcoholic and Mormon church librarian ...