Small MPU – Page 529
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New Line hails Crashers as year's top comedy
New Line' s WeddingCrashers has overtaken Hitch to become the biggest grossing comedy ofthe year in North America, racing to a $180m domestic running total since itsJul 15 launch.WeddingCrashers now ranks asthe second biggest R-rated comedy of all time behind Beverly Hills Cop, which finished on $234.8m. It is alsothe ...
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Warner revs up Dukes in UK, France, Spain, Mexico
The Warner Bros PicturesInternational (WBPI) duo of The Island and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory are expected to lead the international pack onceagain this weekend.Sci-fi actioner TheIsland, which has been the highestgrossing international release of the last two weekends, opens in Italy on Aug26. It has amassed $85.3m to date.Meanwhile ...
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Giant recognised at Haugesund
Norwegian documentary Giant has walked off with most of the top prizesat the NorwegianInternational Film Festival in Haugesund, which wrapped today (August 26).Arne B. Rostad and Hallvard Bræin's film aboutNorwegian artist Erik Bye took home the top Andreas Award as well as theaudience and local critics prize.Bye, who died last ...
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Directing Change names Dalton to work with Eyre on Scandal
BAFTA award winner Hattie Daltonhas been selected as the latest female director to benefit from Women in Filmand Television (WFTV) initiative Directing Change.She will work alongside SirRichard Eyre on upcoming feature Notes From A ScandalDirecting Change is designed to address theunder-representation of women directors in the UK industry. It gives ...
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High Point takes on sales for French pair
London based High PointFilms have taken on international sales for French language titles, Montreal competitor Miss Montigny and Julie Depardieu starring Moon on the Snow.Starring Cesar nomineeSophie Quinton, Miss Montigny isthe first feature for documentary director Miel van Hoogenbemt. It tells thestory of a 19-year-old girl who is coerced into ...
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Funny Balloons swoops for Mueller's Face Addict
Paris-basedFunny Balloons has taken on international sales for Edo Bertoglio's documentaryFace Addict whichwas produced by Venice Film Festival director Marco Mueller's Downtown Picturesand Switzerland's Amka Films in association with Swiss Television and the USA'sMako Productions.Focusing onthe past and present lives of New York's downtown scene from the late '70s andearly ...
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Verhoeven's Black Book cranks up in The Hague
Paul Verhoeven's longawaited WWII thriller Blackbook starts shooting this week (Aug 31)in The Hague in the Netherlands.The Dutch/German/Englishlanguage production will shoot for 76 days in both The Hague and Germany'sStudio Babelsberg. The $20m wartime thriller isthe most expensive pre-dominantly Dutch language production ever made and tellsthe story of a German ...
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Tsotsi storms off with Edinburgh prizes
SouthAfrican/UK feature Tsotsi emerged as the major prize-winner at this year'sEdinburgh Film Festival, winning both the Michael Powell Award for the bestBritish Film and the Standard Life Audience Award as the public favourite. Setin the shanty towns of South Africa, Gavin Hood's third feature is based on an AtholFugard novel ...
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Live And Become flies off with Copenhagen award
Romanian director RaduMihaileanu's Live And Become took the Golden Swan for best film and thebest script prize at this year's Copenhagen International Film Festival.Mihaileanu's Live AndBecome, about Ethiopian Jews rescued from Sudan by the Israelis in the1980s, opened the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival inFebruary.The Death of ...
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Renn develops English Deputy, Cinderella
Pathe's French production subsidiary Renn Productions is developing two English-language titles - The Deputy, to be directed by Costa-Gavras, and a cinematic version of Cinderella, to be directed by Bruno Aveillon.The Deputy is an adaptation of a novel by Rolf Hochhuth, scheduled to start shooting in February 2001. The ...
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Lady Zee takes top Sarajevo honours
The 11th Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 19-27) endedon Saturday night with main award going to Bulgarian film Lady Zee (Leidi Zi) by Georgi Bulgjerov, out of 11 films incompetition. The tragic comedy about an orphan girl won the main Euros25,000 "Heart of Sarajevo" prize, which was awarded by president ofthe ...
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Lumina takes on sales for Favela Rising doc
Sales house Lumina Films has picked up world rights outside the US toprize-winning documentary Favela Rising.The US-Brazilian co-production won directors Jeff Zimbalist and MattMochary the best new documentary filmmaker award at the Tribeca Film Festivalin May and will now screen at both the Montreal International Film Festival andin Rio de ...
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Burnett gets top domestic publicity job at Weinstein Co
Liza Burnett (pictured) hasjoined The Weinstein Company as head of the domestic publicity department. Burnett arrives from asix-year stint at New York-based PR outfit Dan Klores Communications where shemost recently served as senior vice president.Reporting to Harvey and BobWeinstein, she begins work on Sept 12 and assumes oversight of all ...
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Grimm opens well, but Virgin rules domestic box office
Universal's comedy The40-Year-Old Virgin held on to topspot over the weekend as it stayed marginally ahead of a solid debut byDimension's The Brothers Grimm,the latest picture to issue from Miramax's end-of-term conveyor belt. The only other opener in thetop 10 was Screen Gems' The Cavein sixth place, as overall box ...
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The Island swims past $100m in international
The Island crossed $100m through Warner Bros PicturesInternational (WBPI) following an estimated $9.7m weekend haul on more than4,500 screens in 48 markets that raised the running total to $101.6m. The picture was expected torank number one in Italy on $1.7m including previews and 216,700 admissionsfrom 332 screens.It also opened top ...
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Lambert signs on for vampire western Midnight
Mary Lambert has signed onto direct the vampire-western High Midnight for Beverly Hills-based production company TreasureEntertainment.Denis Faye's screenplaycentres on a down-at-heel sheriff who is forced to team up with a vampirehunter to stop an undead force from consuming a frontier town in 1892 NewMexico.Treasure co-chairman andchief operating officer Mark Heidelberger, ...
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The Suspect impresses at Japanese box office
The Suspect, the fourth in the series of films that startedwith the massive local hit Bayside Shakedown, had an impressive opening at the Japanese box office overthe weekend.The Fuji TV film, aboutthe inner workings of the Tokyo police, finished its opening weekend (August 27to 28) with a gross of $5,859,026 ...
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Film Source hires Jordon as director of acquisitions
Alex Massis' Florida-basedsales outfit The Film Source has hired independent filmmaker Edward Jordon asdirector of acquisitions."My role at the Film Sourceis to provide the company with topnotch product that will first demand and thencommand the attention of our international buyers," Jordon said."I am searching for allthose undiscovered gems that haven't ...
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Searchlight clicks onto Imagine Me & You
Fox Searchlighthas acquired North American, Latin American, French, Italian and Japaneserights to Ol Parker's directorial debut romantic comedy Imagine Me & You (working title, formerly Click).The picture willreceive its world premiere in the Special Presentations section of Toronto on Sept 9 and opens across North America on Feb 10 2006. ...
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Key, Manga, Korea get Better Than Sex
France Television Distribution (FTD) has sold hot market title Better Than Sex, which it also co-produced, to Italy's Key Films, Spain's Manga Films and Korea's Film Art Centre. President Films, one of FTD's two theatrical sales labels, along with arthouse specialist Art Box, has also sold the film to Greece, ...