Small MPU – Page 622
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News
Sumitomo snaps up Japan's AMC Theatres
Japanese film conglomerate SumitomoCorporation has paid a reported $48m for AMC Theatres Japan, which hascurrently five multiplexes nationwide. Sumitomo already owns 11multiplexes across Japan through the United Cinemas exhibitor brand.Sumitomo has numerous filminterests. It owns leading indie distributor and production company Asmik AceEntertainment together with Kadokawa Shoten Publishing and other ...
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News
Chinese film-makers eye global distribution at Shanghai
'Be realistic about your film'sinternational potential' and 'don't ignore your home market' were the twostrongest messages delivered at a seminar on the global distribution of Chinesefilms at the Shanghai International Film Festival this week. Speakers includingOcean Films' head of acquisitions Thierry Decourcelle reminded Chinesefilmmakers that the space for foreign-language cinema ...
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News
Screen conference to examine changing DVD market
The changing dynamics of thehome entertainment sector will be the subject of a major Screen Internationalconference to be held at the Langham Hotel in Central London next Thursday(June 23).Topics to be addressed atthe event include what the current trends in DVD retail and pricing mean forthe film industry, the impact ...
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News
Taiwan's CMC unveils big-budget Silk
Taiwan's CMC Entertainment Group has unveiled Silk (Guisi),Taiwan's biggest film since Chen Kuo-fu's Double Vision in 2002. Unlike Vision, whose $7m budget came from Columbia Pictures FilmProduction Asia, Silk is fully financed with local money to the tune of$4.8m. Silk is the second feature of Su Chao-pin, who also scripted ...
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News
FilmFour, GFO plan late night shopping spree
The UK's FilmFour and the Glasgow Film Office (GFO) are collaborating on Late Night Shopping, an oddball, after-hours comedy that marks GFO's debut as a film financier.Saul Metzstein will direct the project from a script by Jack Lothian, with additional financing coming from the Scottish Arts Council's National Lottery fund ...
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News
Rai to play royalty in Dutta's Indian biopic
Aishwarya Rai is play royalty in a biopic on the lifeof Gayatri Devi, the former Maharani of Jaipur. A film based on her autobiography A PrincessRemembers is being directed by Indian filmmaker J. P. Dutta (Border).Rajmata Gayatri Devi (as she is now known) has given her consent to Dutta tocast ...
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News
British Film Institute to carry out archive access review
The British Film Institute(bfi) has asked CCS, the consultancy service of the Charted Institute ofLibrary and Information Professionals (CILIP), to carry out a review with theaim of increasing access to its archive of film and television materials.The first stage of thereview will identify options for future development including the possibilityof ...
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News
Roeg to chair Copenhagen festival jury
Director Nicolas Roeg is to preside over the jury atthe third Copenhagen International Film Festival (CIFF). The festival, which will focus on European films thisyear, is scheduled to run from August 18-28.Roeg (Don't Look Now, Performance) is preparing aphilosophical thriller to be shot next year with Neve Campbell in a ...
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News
Batman Begins swoops in for $15.2m on first day
The caped crusader wastedlittle time getting down to business this week as Batman Begins grossed a lofty $15.2m on its first day of release.Warner Bros opened Christopher Nolan's comic book adaptation in 3,858 theatresscreens at midnight on Weds Jun 15 and studio executives were thrilled with theresult.That first day gross, ...
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News
Echo Bridge acquires worldwide on street basketball title
LA-based sales anddistribution company Echo Bridge Entertainment has acquired worldwidedistribution rights to the street basketball title Black Top Confidential'sStreetball Confidential: Volume 1.Scott Miller's picture starsNBA All-Star Baron Davis, urban streetball legend Headache (Tim Gittens) andhip-hop artist The Game (Jayceon Taylor).Styled as a streetballinstructional, the picture features exclusive moves by Headache, ...
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News
Harvey moves up, Sakurada moves in at Myriad
LosAngeles-based Myriad Pictures has announced two appointments as in its film andtelevision sales department.Jim Harvey(pictured) has been promoted to executive director of sales and distributionand Jennifer Sakurada has been appointed to director of distribution.Moving up fromdirector of sales and distribution, Harvey assumes a leading role within thetheatrical sales department with ...
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Reviews
Bewitched
Dir: Nora Ephron. US.2005. 98 mins.Sony's eagerly awaited movie of the beloved 60s TV series Bewitched has to be one of the most featherweight summerblockbuster prospects in recent memory. Although it's stuffed with A-listtalent from stars Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell down, co-writer and directorNora Ephron has delivered a romantic ...
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News
Batman set to land on 8,000 screens and over 70 territories
Batman Begins takes off through Warner Bros Pictures International thisweekend on a massive day-and-datelaunch that sees the picture open onapproximately 8,000 screens in more than 70 markets.The comic book adaptation opened in France and Mexico on Jun 15and in Australia and Germany a day later. The UK, Spain, Italy, Brazil, ...
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News
Bignardi to step down as Locarno artistic director
This year's edition of the Locarno International FilmFestival (August 3-13) will be the last one under the mantle of artisticdirector Irene Bignardi.Bignardi, 62, said that she had made it clear from thebeginning that she hadn't wanted to head the festival for any longer than fiveyears. She described her time at ...
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News
Lau revs up debut First Cuts project in Taiwan
Hong Kong star Andy Lau flewinto Taiwan yesterday with three directors to promote the first production inhis Focus: First Cuts project, six features shot on HD in collaborationwith Star Chinese Movies Network.Lau's company Focus Films will oversee the series' production andinternational sales.Announced at Hong Kong'sFilMart in March, the films bring ...
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News
Alliance goes back-packing
Gurinder Chadha, director of Sundance opener What's Cooking and Bhaji On The Beach, is directing an adaptation of William Sutcliffe's best-selling novel Are You Experienced for Canada's Alliance Atlantis.The story, likened to The Beach with a sense of humour, is about back-packing teenagers in India looking for love, sex and ...
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News
Greeks look to bed down tax financing initiative
Launching a film financing initiative worth up to 30% ofa budget to attract foreign shoots is probably the best thing has ever happenedto the Greek film industry.Foreign productions, which used to be welcome source offoreign exchange, have dried up in recent years dueto the lack of studios and the emergence ...
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News
Stargate, Magic Hour launch£30m 'protected' UK fund
A new £30m "capital protected" film financing fundhas been launched in London. MagicGate is a joint venture between fund managerStargate Capital Management and UK production company Magic Hour Media whosecredits include MIke Barker's A Good Woman.MagicGate aims to invest in four films in the £5m to £10m range over the ...
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News
Kinowelt snares Drum, Prokino gets Hidden
Kinowelt has acquired all rights for German speakingterritories (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) to Zola Maseko's SouthAfrica-set drama Drum which will be theopening film at this year's Munich Film Festival on June 24.The co-production between VIP 2 Medienfonds, ArmadaPictures, Nova Films, and Black Roots Productions is set to open in Germancinemas ...
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Emily Watson embarks on pan-European Crusade
Oscar nominated Dutchdirector Ben Sombogaart (Twin Sisters) has started shooting the Euros 12m Crusade In Jeans, which stars Emily Watson and Belgian actor JanDecleir.An English language adaptationof the popular Dutch novel by Theo Beckman, Crusade in Jeans tells the story of a young boy, Dolf, who isaccidentally transported to the ...