Small MPU – Page 626
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News
Picture This takes Mirage for North America
Picture This! Entertainment has acquired North Americanrights to Svetozar Ristovski's Mirage (Ilujiza), a Macedonian -language coming of age tale that hasbeen an official selection at festivals including Toronto, Tokyo and Rotterdam.Picture This! plans a November 2005 theatrical release forthe film, which was acquired from Small Moves Ltd. Ristovski, who previously ...
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Brad Pitt's Plan B moving from Warner to Paramount
Brad Pitt's production company Plan B has ended its dealwith Warner Bros and signed a first-look production agreement with ParamountPictures, whose chairman and CEO Brad Grey was one of Plan B's originalfounders. Pitt and Grey are pictured together here.The production company already has several projects indevelopment at Paramount. True Story ...
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Academy tightens rules on Oscar producers
The US Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)has further tightened the number of producers who can takehome an Oscar.In approving rules for the 78th Annual AcademyAwards this week, the AMPAS board decided that its Producers Branch ExecutiveCommittee will "designate the qualifying producer nominees for each of thenominated pictures."The decision means ...
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Magnolia, SPHE acquire domestic rights to Nine Lives
MagnoliaPictures and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) have teamed up to acquireNorth American rights to Rodrigo Garcia's Nine Lives, which played as a premiere at Sundance this yearand screened this week at the Los Angeles Film Festival.Magnoliaplans to release the film theatrically in Sept with subsequent DVD and videodistribution to ...
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Lions Gate pounces on The Descent
Lions Gate has snapped up NorthAmerican rights to Neil Marshall's British gorefest The Descent from PatheInternational.The film, which sold widely during Cannes,is to receive its world premiere at next week's London UK Film Focus.The Descent (Marshall'sfollow-up to 2002's Dog Soldiers) isa Celador Films production, executive produced byPaul Smith and produced ...
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EuropaCorp to co-produce tasty Thai title
Luc Besson's EuropaCorp will co-produce Thai director Wisit Sasanatieng's (Tears of the Black Tiger) next project withFive Star Production Company, marking the French mini-major's first foray intoAsian film production. Titled NamPrix (which translates as hot chilli sauce), Nam Prix will start shooting early next year in Thailand for alate-2006 delivery ...
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UAF to stike Winterbottom gold
United Artists Films (UAF) is close to striking a first-look deal with director-producer team Michael Winterbottom and Andrew Eaton, sources confirmed.The move comes after UAF and Pathe Pictures financed the duo's epic love-story Kingdom Come set during the goldrush. That picture was one of three pictures, along with Directors' Fortnight ...
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Almodovar preps collector's editions of his own work
The Almodovarbrothers' El Deseo has bought into Spanish DVDdistributor Cameo Media and will pump the bulk of its catalogue and newproductions through the company, including Pedro Almodovar'supcoming feature Volver.Funding a capital increase, El Deseo joins Alta Films, Wanda Vision, TornasolFilms, Continental Producciones, Golem and Cameomanaging director Juan Carlos Tous as ...
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EuropaCorp to co-produce tasty Thai title
Luc Besson'sEuropaCorp will co-produce Thai director Wisit Sasanatieng's (Tears of the Black Tiger) next projectwith Five Star Production Company.The deal marks the French mini-major's first full-fleged forayinto Asian film production, having previously produced films such as the French/Japanese thriller Wasabi in the French language. Titled Nam Prix (which translates ...
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First Look acquires worldwide rights to Emmanuel's Gift
Los Angeles-based First LookMedia has acquired worldwide rights to Emmanuel's Gift, a documentary produced and directed by Lisa Lax andNancy Stern about a young disabled man from Ghana, West Africa, who rode abicycle across Ghana on one leg to eradicate the country's negative perceptionof the disabled.FirstLook Pictures plans a domestic ...
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IMAX soars in China
IMAX Corporation has signed a deal to open its 25ththeatre in China, which willmake the country IMAX's largest territory outside the US.The IMAX theatre, set to open in December 2007, will beinstalled at the Suzhou Science and Cultural ArtCenter and is set to programme Hollywood event filmsand documentaries in both ...
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Herbie motors into Australia, Batman lands in Korea
Herbie: Fully Loaded is the sole US studio filmmaking its international debut this weekend - and that only in one territory -in the lull between the wide day-and-date global launches of last week's BatmanBegins and next week's War of the Worlds. With teen favourite Lindsay Lohan starring, Herbieopens in Australia ...
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Europe pays steep price for bargain DVDs - summit claim
The plummeting cost of DVD threatens to cost distributorsand retailers billions in lost revenue over the next five years, delegates toScreen International's 2005 Home Cinema Summit were told yesterday.And independent distributors blamed the studios for backinga price-cut policy that was damaging to everyone in the business, including theHollywood majors themselves.If ...
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Kosslick extends Berlinale contract by another five years
Dieter Kosslick willcontinue to serve as festival director at the Berlin International FilmFestival for at least another five years.A spokesman for Germany'sState Minister of Culture Christina Weiss confirmed to ScreenDaily.com that thedecision to extend 57-year-old Kosslick's contract had been made at a sittingof the supervisory board of the Kulturveranstaltungen des ...
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Kadokawa ready for Hong Kong HQ launch
Japan's leading media group, Kadokawa Holdings, is to open its newheadquarters in China in August.Hong Kong-based Kadokawa Holdings China will sell the group's mediacontents and handle rights deals across the whole of China. The operation is backed by a $1.29m (Y140m) capital investment fromKadokawa Holdings.The group owns Japanese original Ring ...
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Heroes wanted for Braveheart Challenge
The UK Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund (CTBF) isinviting the film industry to join its charity fundraising BraveheartChallenge.The three-day event of 19 gruelling physical challengestakes place in Scotland from September 30 to October 2.Those heroic enough to take on tasks including speedboating,abseiling and JCB driving will compete for the Braveheart ...
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UIP reorganises Indian distribution
ParamountFilms of India Ltd (PFI), distributor of UIP product on the sub-continent, hasoverhauled its set-up across Indiaand entered into agreements with four local distributors to release Paramount,Universal and DreamWorks films.PFI,which is one of the oldest motion picture distributors of American films inIndia, will now work with Shringar Films in Maharashtra, ...
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AOL launches virtual film festival online
AOL Moviefone will launch its first "virtual short filmfestival" next week.It is the kind of deal that some in the film industrybelieve points to potentially lucrative future partnerships with new-media businesses. AOL's moviefone.com will ask readers to rate competitionfilms from new and up-and-coming directors as well as films that have ...
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Byrne premiere brings Fleadh to orderly close
The 17th Galway Film Fleadh hasannounced its full programme, with the premiere of Anthony Byrne's debutfeature, Short Order, to close theJuly 15-11 event. An Ireland/UK/Germany co-production, Short Order joinsother previously-announced features including On A Clear Day, with Peter Mullan, Billy Boyd and Brenda Blethyn,which opens the event.Matt Dillon, screening his ...
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Amiel signed to give wings to Angels
Jon Amiel has signed up to direct a new film forLondon-based production company, The Producers.Angel Makers tells the story of a Yorkshire farming communityafter the First World War where returning soldiers discover that German POWshave taken their jobs and wives.Amiel, whose previous work includes Entrapmentand Sommersby, has talked to Helen ...