Small MPU – Page 440
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News
Beyond prepares to sell A Good Woman
Beyond Films is to handle international sales on director Mike Barker's upcoming feature A Good Woman starring Helen Hunt, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Wilkinson.The film is a co-production between Alan Greenspan of the US's International Arts Entertainment, Jonathan English of the UK's Meltemi Entertainment, Denise O'Dell and Mark Albela of ...
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News
Optimum snares Van Sant's Elephant for UK
UK distributor Optimum Releasing has acquired the UK rights to 2003 Palme D'Or winner Elephant.The Gus Van Sant film was sold by HBO Films London.Elephant also collected the best director award at the Cannes Film Festival.Other recent Optimum acquisitions include Julie Bertucelli's Since Otar Left and Faouzi Bensaidi's A Thousand ...
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News
Malaysia looks to partner with China for co-productions
Malaysia's film development body Perbadana Kemajuan Filem Nasional Malaysia (FINAS) is in talks with China's Fujian Film Studio about establishing a joint co-production venture.According to Mahammad Nor Abu Shahid, FINAS' director of film development, FINAS is planning a 10-member delegation to visit the Chinese film studio in Fujian province in ...
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News
Spun, Shottas get UK premieres through ICA, Amnesty
Spun and Shottas have their first UK showings in October as part of DJ Saved MY Life - a series of nights from Amnesty International and the ICA to highlight their International Arms Campaign. The movie programme includes an exclusive preview screening of the speed-freak story Spun, the first ...
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News
Sony to stock up on Hindi movies
Indian TV outfit Sony Entertainment Television is planning to buy TV rights to up to 50 Hindi movies in the next year.The company will invest up to$25 million for the rights to the films, which it aims to broadcast on Sony TV and SET Max in India and SET Asia ...
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News
Italian films hit by release bottleneck
The Italian film industry is complaining that too many local pictures are being released in an extremely short period of time, effectively damaging each film's prospects at the box office.According to Agis, Italy's national entertainment organisation, around 30 local pictures are being released between September and end of November. These ...
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News
Sky Hook set for pan-Yugoslav opening
Ljubisa Samardzic's Sky Hook, which had its world premiere at the recent Berlin Film Festival where it featured in competition, is set to receive a pan-Yugoslav release in March. The release will mark the first time since the collapse of the former Yugoslavia that a feature from one of its ...
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News
PriceWaterhouse delivers verdict on Irish tax incentive
The Irish ministers of Arts and Finance have taken delivery of the PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PWC) report commissioned by the Department of Arts and the Irish Film Board to analyse the workings and effectiveness of the Section 481 tax incentive for the Irish film industry.Because of issues relating to taxation policy ...
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News
Dutch industry rails as tax system faces closure
The looming cancellation of the Dutch tax incentive scheme (CVs) has been labelled 'disastrous' by the Council For Culture, the Netherland's most important advisory committee on cultural issues. Last week, proposals for the new state budget were published in the Netherlands and made no allowance for the continuation of the ...
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News
Kitchen Stories cooks up Norway Oscar vote
Bent Hamer's Cannes charmer Kitchen Stories has been selected as Norway's official entry to the Oscars in the foreign language film category. The original comedy had its premiere at the Tromsoe Film Festival in January where it picked up the FIPRESCI award, and has since been around the world from ...
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News
Jonsson comes out on top at Umea festival
Jens Jonsson was the big winner at the 18th edition of the Umea International Film Festival, winning two out of the festival's three awards, including the youth jury prize for one of his competing films, Headway. Jonsson's The Spade also won the Jameson Short Film Award. The film was rewarded ...
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News
Gun-Shy shoots down opposition at San Sebastian
Georgian director DitoTsintsadze's German film Gun-Shy wasthe controversial top winner on Saturday night of the Donostia-San SebastianInternational Film Festival's Golden Shell prize, while local favourite Take My Eyes was recognised with bestactor and best actress Silver Shells for stars Luis Tosar and Laia Marull. As has become customary in San ...
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News
Fox faced with $100m LXG lawsuit from Poll, Cohen
Martin Poll, the veteranproducer of The Lion In Winterand Love And Death, andscreenwriter Larry Cohen have filed a $100m lawsuit against Fox Entertainmentclaiming its summer release The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LXG)stole their idea.Papers lodged at the USDistrict Court in Los Angeles on Sept 25 cite infringement of copyright andclaim ...
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News
Six new film-makers awarded prizes as IFP/New York Market closes
Benno Schoberth headed up aroster of six emerging film-makers honoured at the 2003 IFP/New York MarketAwards on Sept 25, winning the work-in-progress completion award in theemerging narrative category for the inner-city drama Shelter.The Screenplay Award went toTanya Steele for The Parachute Factory, the story of two teenagers on the run ...
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News
S.W.A.T. dethrones Bayside Shakedown 2 in Japan
S.W.A.T. scored two number one openings in Asia over theweekend as it went out in its first major markets.The police thriller grossedan estimated $3m in Japan and became the first film in nine weeks to dethrone BaysideShakedown 2.The Yen114.3m openingcompares to Yen92m for XXX andYen107.7m for The Bourne Identity,which were ...
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News
The Rundown another number one opening for Universal
Universal'saction extravaganza The Rundownslammed its way to the top on $18m at the weekend, confirming The Rock's earlypromise as a charismatic star with box office brawn. Theformer wrestling star - who uses his real name Dwayne Johnson these days -stars as a mercenary who gets caught up in the Amazon ...
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News
Oscar-winning director Elia Kazan dead at 94
Oscar-winningfilm director Elia Kazan, whose credits include Hollywood classics On TheWaterfront (1954) and AStreetcar Named Desire(1951), has died aged 94 in New York City.Thecontroversial Kazan, whose own immigrant experience from Contantinople he documentedin the 1963 film of his book America America, worked first as an actor at New York'sGroup Theater ...
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News
Germany's RTV buys Australian Energee
German animation production-distribution entity Ravensburger Film & TV (RTV) has purchased a 69% stake in one of Australia's most significant animation companies, Energee Entertainment, in a move that will spur production activity at the company's new studios opened late last year in Sydney. RTV paid $24.6m (DM48m) in shares and ...
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Reviews
Kill Bill Vol 1
Dir: Quentin Tarantino. US. 2003. 110 mins.Kill Bill, the fourth film by Quentin Tarantino (as it is announced in the opening credits), continues the director's tradition of raiding other films, film-makers' styles and his own soundtrack collection. And like his three previous films, the result of his looting is a ...
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News
AUSTRALIA
Japanese Story took A$411,629 from 40 screens for Palace in its opening four-day weekend despite the arrival of sunny weather in most cities, school holidays, Jewish New Year and the AFL grand final. The result put it in ninth position but everything above was on about 200 to 400 screens. ...