Small MPU – Page 439
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Film New Zealand elects new chairman
David Madigan, former technicians guild president, is the new chair of Film New Zealand, which is responsible for marketing the country's filmmaking talents to the world.Elected deputy chair was Sue Thompson, ceo of Peter Jackson's Film Unit and Park Road Post and chair for four years up to when the ...
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Riddick opens second in Australia on $1.8m
Universal's action sequelThe Chronicles Of Riddick grossed an estimated $1.8m on 700 screens in 13territories through UIP at the weekend, powered by a third place $1.1mAustralian bow on 226 screens.The picture opened top inNew Zealand on $225,000 from 46 and raised its UIP running total to $5.5m.Industry-wide it has taken ...
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Deauville to honour Zanuck with career producing award
Veteran producer Richard D Zanuck will receive theLifetime Achievement Award for producing at the 30th Annual Deauville FilmFestival on Sept 7.Zanuck hasproduced more than 50 films in his career, earning three Academy Awardnominations and winning best picture in 1990 for Driving Miss Daisy, which heshared with his wife Lili Fini ...
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Spider-Man 2 swings past $300m international gross
Sony's Spider-Man 2 remaineda dominant international force at the weekend, swinging past $300m with a$17.5m estimated haul on 7,915 screens that raised the picture's running totalto $302m.The highlights were $3.6m on858 prints in its third weekend in France despite a decent 37% drop to ranksecond on $27m, and $3.1m for ...
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Shyamalan is king as The Village opens top on $50.8m
M Night Shyamalan's safehands delivered the promise of a late summer rally for beleaguered Disney atthe weekend, as the young director's latest mystery The Village opened top onan estimated $50.8m.This was Disney's best everJuly opening weekend, surpassing $46.6m by Pirates Of The Caribbean last year,and presents studio executives with their ...
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Shyamalan is king as The Village opens top on $50.8m
M Night Shyamalan's safehands delivered the promise of a late summer rally for beleaguered Disney atthe weekend, as the young director's latest mystery The Village opened top onan estimated $50.8m.This was Disney's best everJuly opening weekend, surpassing $46.6m by Pirates Of The Caribbean last year,and presents studio executives with their ...
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Israel's Doc Aviv launches market
The Doc Aviv documentary festival (April 21-26) is to host a market for documentary projects looking for co-producers and broadcaster partners. The event's organisers, local documentary body the Israeli Documentary Forum (IDF), have selected 26 out of 87 proposed projects. The successful titles will be showcased to international broadcasters including ...
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AUSTRALIA 2 August
Fahrenheit 9/11from Hopscotch outperformed UIP's TheChronicles Of Riddickon the weekend despite beingon 110 less screens. Theywere in thesecond and thirdspots in thechart respectively. Bothfilms were intheir first weekof official release,although 9/11 was buoyedby two weeks of previews-- and continuing debate onjust how closelyAustralia should alignitself with theUS.Fahrenheit 9/11took A$1,643,953 from116 ...
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NEW ZEALAND 2 August
The Chronicles OfRiddick opened in cinemas on the weekend and pushed I, Robot off the top spot, but there wasn't much between them. Riddick took NZ$385,766 from 47 screensfor UIP, while I, Robot tookNZ$354,212 from 60 screens in its second week on release.In third was Fahrenheit9/11 on its first official ...
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Montreal to present host of film premieres
The Montreal World FilmFestival will present the world premieres of German filmmaker Andreas Struck's Sugar Orange, Australian director ChrisKennedy's comedy A Man's Gotta Do,and Canadian documentarian Debbie Melnyk's CitizenBlack, a film about newspaper baron Lord Black. The feature-lengthdocumentary features interviews with Donald Trump, Henry Kissinger, RichardPerle and Black's wife, journalist ...
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Matsutani launches UK-based production outfit
German writer-director Rainer Matsutani has set up a newUK-based production house Red Sun Films.Speaking exclusively to Screendaily.com,Matsutani explained that the company's name was inspired by Terence Young's1971 East-meets-West western starring Charles Bronson, Alain Delon, UrsulaAndress and Toshiro Mifune.Matsutani's partners at the London-based outfit are UKproducer Tim Cranage (who worked at ...
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Filming suspended on Vincent Ward's River Queen
In the face of rumours of trouble on the set, it has beenannounced that director Vincent Ward's RiverQueen has been delayed due to the illness of UK actress Samantha Morton,but that she remains committed to the project and the delays are covered byinsurance."She has been treated in hospital for severe ...
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Scottish producer Meek named head of drama at Australia's ABC
Scottish producer Scott Meek is relocating to Australia totake up the role of head of drama at public broadcaster the ABC.Meek was involved in such features as Velvet Goldmine, Sid And Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears when chief executive at Zenith Productions. Hehas served on the British Film Institute ...
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Cape Town film studio deal challenged
South Africa's Democratic Alliance (DA) has called for ahalt to the Western Cape's film studio development, according to local mediareports.The DA has alleged that 'undue interference had been appliedin the process of awarding the tender for Cape Town's $58m (R400m) filmstudio'.The winning bidder for the project, announced in February,is Anant ...
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Cleary promoted to general counsel at IFTA
Susan Cleary has been promoted from vice president of legalaffairs to vice president and general counsel at the Independent Film &Television Alliance (formerly AFMA).Cleary will continue to oversee legal matters andarbitration activities for IFTA, and will now supervise IFTA Collections(formerly AFMA Collections), which manages worldwide claims for and collectionof audio-visual ...
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Roven taps Gartner as producing partner
FormerMGM production chief Alex Gartner has joined Mosaic Media Group as a producingpartner with the LA production and distribution group's Atlas Entertainmentfilm division.Gartner,who produced Barbershop 2 and servedas executive producer on Out Of Time, will develop and produce with Mosaic partner and Atlas Entertainmentfounder Charles Roven."This is the first step ...
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Noiret to receive Cannes Festival Award
French actor Philippe Noiret is to receive the Festival Award at this year's Cannes Film Festival. The festival said it is making the award in order to "pay tribute to the richness, diversity and everlasting life of an extraordinary career."The 69-year-old Noiret will receive the special trophy at a ceremony ...
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Murdoch-baiting documentary hits theatres this weekend
Robert Greenwald's Fox-baiting documentary Outfoxed: RupertMurdoch's War On Journalism, will go on limited theatrical release this weekend through LosAngeles-based Cinema Libre Distribution - just two weeks after becoming aunderground DVD sensation.The picture, which is essentially a sustained broadside againstalleged political bias at Fox News Channel and its notorious "fair and ...
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Azkaban enjoys biggest '04 opening in Portugal
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban added an estimated $8.7m for Warner Broson more than 3,900 screens at the weekend to raise its international cumulativetotal to $477.2m.Key drivers included the biggest debut of the year so farin Portugal, where $932,300 on 115 screens surpassed Shrek 2 by 20% and ...
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I, Robot takes $21m; Day After Tomorrow crosses $350m
Fox International's I, Robot stamped its authority over the overseas box office at theweekend, grossing $20.8m from 3,489 screens in 18 markets to become the topinternational picture of the weekend.The sci-fi thriller's distinction of opening number one inall its markets so far suffered setbacks in Argentina and the German-speakingpart of ...