Small MPU – Page 433
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News
Becker Group signs on for Rowe comedy
Australia's Becker Group has signed on as international sales agent for producer David Rowe's A$3m contemporary comedy Tempe Tip, scheduled to start shooting in October.REP will handle Australian distribution of the film, while international sales will be contracted out. Michael Ralph is set to direct the project from his own ...
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Toronto snaps up Shark Tale
DreamWorks' computer-animated comedy Shark Tale will make its North Americanpremiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, an announcement whichmakes it a virtual lock for a world premiere slot at Venice.Other films that haven't screened previouslymaking North American premieres at Toronto include Todd Solondz's Palindromes, featuring Jennifer JasonLeigh, Ellen Barkin and ...
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Wornham joins Sundance as director of external affairs
Cynthia J Wornham has beennamed the Sundance Institute's new director of external affairs, and willoversee all strategic communications initiatives and media relations effortsrelated to the Institute and its artists when she starts work this autumn.Wornham, who is currently anexecutive vice president of Ruder Finn Arts & Communications Counselorsheading up its ...
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Strand takes US on Thai Cannes hit Malady
Strand Releasinghas acquired US rights to Apichatpong Weerasethakul's drama Tropical Malady, which played in competition at Cannesearlier this year where it won a special jury prize.Set in the jungles of northeastern Thailand, the pictureexplores the blossoming friendship between a soldier and a country boy who areaffected by a dark spirit."Mr ...
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Hong Kong pirates get six-and-a-half year jail sentences
The mastermindsbehind a criminal syndicate that pirated tens of millions of optical discs havebeen sentenced to six and a half years each in prison.In the harshestprison sentences ever awarded in a piracy case, Hong Kong's High Court jailedhusband and wife Tsoi Kei Lung and Ng Kam Fung following a global ...
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Shark Tale gets matinee slot at Toronto Film Festival
Dreamworks'eagerly anticipated animated feature Shark Tale will receive its North American premiereas a matinee gala at the upcoming 29th Toronto International Film Festival(TIFF).Shark Tale is one of two matinee galas that arebeing introduced to the festival this year, raising the number of galascreenings from 18 to 20.The date of the ...
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UK/IRELAND 21 July
Spider-Man2 easily claimed the lead at the UK box office taking$13.5m (£7.2m) over the Fri-Sunday weekend, a 22% improvement on the original2002 film's first three-day take.Thesequel benefited from a PG certificate compared to its predecessor's 12 certificate.Theholdovers took a beating at Spider-Man's hands with the top fifteenplaced holdovers recording an ...
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News
GERMANY 21 July
Germany was at last blessed withsummer-like temperatures, but this had a negative effect on cinema attendancesas shown by the 50%-plus slip in admissions for Spider-Man 2 and Shrek2. UIP's 252-print release of The Stepford Wives was the only othertitle apart from the Top 2 to pass the 100,000 admissions barrier, ...
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NORWAY 21 July
Despitethree new releases this week, Spider-Man 2 and Harry Potter And ThePrisoner Of Azkaban continued to rule supreme over the Norwegianbox-office. Spider-Man 2 took a solid NOK37.316 screen average on itshigh 84 prints despite dropping 52% since last weekend. That was, however,beaten by the fastfood-bashing feature documentary Supersize Me, whichon ...
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FINLAND 21 July
Thealluring Stepford Wives had little chance of toppling Spider-Man 2from the top of the Finnish chart with an print release compared to the webbedhero's 60 prints.Notmuch else changed in the weekend, which saw films on release gross a total ofEuros231,254 - almost exactly the same as last year's Euros 231, ...
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Reviews
Catwoman
Dir: Pitof. US. 2004. 105 mins.Warner Bros' push to develop new franchises from the characters in its DCComics stable gets off to a shaky start with Catwoman, a flashy butuninvolving Batman spin-off (of sorts) with Halle Berry starring andone-named French talent Pitof directing.Berry's popularity, as well as brand and character ...
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News
Israeli government gives blessing to third channel
The Israeli parliament has given the greenlight to the launch of a third free-to-air terrestrial channel in a bid to increase competition in the Israeli television market.According to new legislation, the Third Channel will be operated by two companies. Israel's only existing commercial broadcaster, the Second Channel, is currently operated ...
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News
Japan's Amuse Soft pays record sum for Secrets
South Koreancomedy Everybody Has Secrets -- an official remake of GerardStembridge's Irish-UK co-production About Adam (2000) -- has clinchedKorea's biggest ever sale to Japan.Amuse Soft Entertainmentbought the title for a $2.5m guarantee together with a commitment to spend atleast $3m in p&a costs.'The salewas handled directly by Chung Tae-won, head ...
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News
China box office stunned by Flying Daggers
Chinese director ZhangYimou's martial arts epic House Of FlyingDaggers has become the biggestever opener in China.Released on 360 printsacross China, the hugely anticipated period film was the number one earner overthe weekend (July 16-18), collecting $6.7m (RMB55m).The opening figure passedthe previous record held by Zhang's Hero,which earned $6.2m (RM52m) on ...
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Steamboy under pressure on Japanese debut
Katsuhiro Otomo's long-awaited new animation Steamboy- which cost a record-breaking $22m (Y2.4bn) to make - grossed a weak $2.2m on its three-day opening weekend fromJuly 17 on 262 screens nationwide.With the summer holiday just kicking off, distributor Tohonow expects Steamboy to earn around $13.9 million.By comparison Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away ...
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High profile Korean slate wins Happinet funding
Korean distributor-turned producerChungeorahm Film has signed an investment deal with Japanese distributor HappinetPictures worth $1.7m of production finance.The deal spans all six films onChungeorahm's intial production slate including disaster movie The River, by Memories Of Murder-director Bong Joon-ho, Hong Sang-soo's untitledsixth film, My Tutor Friend-directorKim Kyung-hyung's forthcoming RomanticComic Book and ...
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Spider-Man 2 finally dethrones Shrek 2
The Asian marketplace onceagain showed its strength this week while the Hollywood blockbuster sequelscontinued to battle for pole position.Spider-Man 2 finally took the lead from Shrek 2 inits third week after launching in a slew of European and Middle Easternterritories including the UK and France. In the process the webslinger ...
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Venice chief gorges on feast of choices
The Venice Film Festival'straditionally late announcement of its line-up means that other festivals suchas Edinburgh, Montreal and especially neighbour Locarno have had to secondguess which films the powerful Venice event will select. This year the MarcoMueller effect may be adding to that conundrum.Venice's Mueller appears to besuffering all the pains ...
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Sky Italia strikes landmark deal with Italian producers
After months of negotiations, Italy's only pay-TVplatform, Sky Italia, has signed a landmark deal with Italian producers toinvest Euros 46m in Italian cinema over the next two years.Under thedeal, Sky will buy all Italian films whose pay-tv rights became available fromJanuary 1, 2004 and which have registered over 25,000 admissions ...
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DreamWorks to spin off animation unit in IPO
DreamWorks SKG is planningto sell off its DreamWorks Animation unit in an initial public offering (IPO)of up to $650m in Class A common stock.The studio said it had filedregistration papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission, however it isunderstood details were not disclosed on the number of shares offered nor ...