Small MPU – Page 470
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News
Fockers stays top but Gold Circle makes Noise at two
Universal's Meet The Fockers stayed top and passed $200m in its third weekend while theparanormal thriller White Noise, produced by Gold Circle Films and handled by Universal in NorthAmerica, opened strongly in second place on an estimated $24m.Fockers becomes the sixth biggest release of 2004 and addedan estimated $28.5m for ...
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Ben-Ami gets promotion in anti-piracy department at Warner Bros
Yotam Ben-Ami has been promoted to vice president of worldwideanti-piracy operations, North America, at Warner Bros Entertainment.Ben-Ami will oversee all North American anti-piracy operations andmanage strategic worldwide anti-piracy initiatives and projects, workingclosely with Warner Bros Entertainment's anti-piracy regional teams andbusiness units.He joined the company in 2002 as manager of corporate ...
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Baby wins National Society Of Film Critics' prize
Clint Eastwood's MillionDollar Baby has been named Best Picture ofthe Year 2004 by the National Society of Film Critics, adding further impetusto the drama's swelling Oscar prospects.Baby'sHilary Swank tied for best actress with Imelda Staunton for Vera Drake on 54 votes apiece, while Jamie Foxxedged out Paul Giamatti in the ...
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White Noise makes waves with $24m US opening
Universal's Meet The Fockers stayed top and passed $200m in its third weekend while theparanormal thriller White Noise, produced by Gold Circle Films and handled by Universal in NorthAmerica, opened strongly in second place on an estimated $24m.Fockers becomes the sixth biggest release of 2004 and addedan estimated $28.5m for ...
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Magnolia takes domestic rights to Sundance Enron doc
MagnoliaPictures has acquired North America distribution rights to Alex Gibney'sdocumentary Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, which is set to make its world premiereat Sundance later this month.The picture isthe first complete project to be financed and produced by HDNet Films, thehigh-definition production division of Todd Wagner and Mark ...
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Bridget enjoys massive $4.2m launch in Italy for UIP
Bridget Jones: The EdgeOf Reason scored Working Title'sbiggest ever opening in Italy through UIP at the weekend, ranking number one onan estimated $4.2m on 376 screens.The debut was approximately107% bigger than that of Bridget Jones's Diary in 2001 in US$ and 30% bigger inEuros.Overall the romantic comedysequel added $7m through ...
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Reviews
Racing Stripes
Dir: Frederick Du Chau.US. 2005. 102mins.A talking zebra picture which borrows liberally from Babe, NationalVelvet, Doctor Dolittle, Ice Age, The Incredible Journeyand every Disney movie on record, Racing Stripes may not be a familyfilm on the Pixar level of sophistication, but it generates enough of its owncharm to score with ...
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Golden Harvest unveils digital, exhibition push
Hong Kong's Golden Harvest Entertainment (GHE) is making an aggressive push into the Internet, following Taiwanese hardware giant Acer's investment in the company, and has also unveiled plans to step up exhibition activities in mainland China.In a deal mirroring AOL's merger with Time Warner, Acer Digital Services Group (ADSG) recently ...
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Reviews
White Noise
Dir: Geoffrey Sax.UK-Can. 2004. 98mins.The idea of communicatingwith the dead has always had an irresistibly spooky appeal and with WhiteNoise production outfit Gold Circle and a team of mainly Britishbehind-the-scenes talents do a decent job building a movie around the hi-techequivalent of ouija boards and seances.Financed as a UK/Canadaco-production but ...
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Reviews
I Am Cuba, The Siberian Mammoth (Soy Cuba, O Mamute Siberiano)
Dir: Vicente Ferraz.Brazil. 2004. 90mins.Saddled with an unhelpfuland slightly repellent title, I Am Cuba, The Siberian Mammoth isn'tactually a wildlife film but an intelligent making-of documentary which alsomanages to examine a particularly-interesting slice of Cold War history.And although it can getbogged down in its own minutae, Mammoth is fascinating enough ...
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Reviews
Olga
Dir Jayme Monjardim.2004. Brazil. 144minsAn adaptation of areal-life story set between Germany's concentration camps, Moscow, and aturbulent Rio de Janeiro, Olga was Brazil's box office champ of 2004 (atleast 3m admissions) and the country's official entry in the Oscar stakes.But despite a clutch ofsales to smaller territories, though, its telenovella-ish ...
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News
UK Treasury embarks on Section 42 talks
The UK Treasury hasscheduled a series of meetings this week with film industry chiefs as part ofan overhaul of the influential Section 42 tax-based financing incentive forlarge-scale productions shooting in the UK.Industry executives fromsupport and trade bodies such as the UK Film Council, PACT and BSAC are joiningfinanciers and producers ...
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News
Canal Plus strikes NBC Universal film deal
TheCanal Plus group and NBC Universal have concluded a long term exclusiveagreement which will see Canal's pay-TV service air all films emanating fromthe US studio.Theaccord includes first window rights for the main Canal Plus channel and secondwindow for its thematic channels and rights for its pay-per view service.Canal'sdeputy managing director ...
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German box office climbs in 2004
German box office takings rose 7.4% to Euros879.1m in 2004, boosted by a string of successful German films such as (T)raumschiffSurprise - Periode 1. Overall admissions also climbed by 7% from2003's 140.3m to 151m, according to figures from Nielsen EDI.While US films werestill the dominant force in German cinemas, their ...
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Leigh's Vera Drake scores for Momentum in UK
Vera Drake has given MikeLeigh his biggest UK opening to date through distributor Momentum Pictures.Thecritically-lauded drama, which is favourite to win the best actress BAFTA nextmonth for Imelda Staunton, opened on $496,850 (£266,010) from 65 screens for astrong $7,645 location average.Other key openersover the weekend included Alexander which took £1.2m ...
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Piracy growth eats into European theatrical admissions
While many Europeanterritories have reported a growth in cinema admissions during 2004, the sizeof the increase appears closely linked to the growth of film piracy in therespective countries.In the UK, for example,admissions climbed 6% during the year while admissions in France grew at afaster rate of 12%.However, figures show thatthe ...
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Cinepolis fast-tracks Mexican IMAX expansion
Spurred by impressive results at its IMAXcinema in Mexico City, Latin American exhibitor Cinepolis has moved forward to2005 the target opening dates for two proposed Imax cinemas in other Mexicancities. The cinemas are part of a deal previouslyannounced in 2004 and were originally scheduled to open in mid-2006 andlate-2007 respectively. ...
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MDC takes on sales for prize winning pair
MDC International is to handle internationalsales on two prize-winning feature debuts: French director David Lanzmann's DooWop and Serbian writer-director Srdjan Koljevic's comedy Red ColouredGrey Truck (Sivi Kamion Crvene Boje).Lanzmann's film received the FIPRESCI Jury'sprize at November's International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg and aSpecial Award from the International Jury. Red Coloured Grey ...
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Berlusconi's son replaces Carlotti at Mediaset
Pier Silvio Berlusconi, son of Italian mogul Silvio Berlusconi, has been named chairman of Mediaset's RTI television production unit, replacing Maurizio Carlotti who is resigning after battling with the company's top executives. Pier, 31, has been at Mediaset since 1992 and is the former vice-chairman of RTI. His appointment had ...
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Michalchyshyn gets senior job at Sundance Channel
Former Alliance AtlantisCommunications senior vice-president of dramatic programming LauraMichalchyshyn has joined US cable network The Sundance Channel as executivevice president of programming and marketing.Michalchyshyn will be basedin New York and will report to Sundance Channel founder Robert Redford andpresident and chief executive officer Larry Aidem.She will be responsible forall creative ...