Small MPU – Page 628
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News
Beta Cinema goes into battle with Genghis Khan
Germany's Beta Cinema hasunveiled details of $10m biopic, Mongol - The Early Years Of Genghis Khan, which starts shooting in July with Japanese starAsano Tadanobu playing the Mongol warrior. Directed by Russia's SergeiBodrov with Hong Kong-based Philip Lee (Hero) and Sergey Selyanov (Brother) producing, the film brings together talent andfinancing ...
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Cannes briefs: latest deals, announcements
Shoreline Green with Coupland screenplayMorris Ruskin's ShorelineEntertainment has picked up worldwide rights excluding Canada to the DouglasCoupland original screenplay Everything's Gone Green. The deal was concluded with Radke Films and TrueWest Films. The upcoming project centres on a good-natured slacker whofalls into a money-laundering scheme and ends up having ...
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Cannes briefs: latest deals, announcements
Katapult scores with ZidaneKatapult Film Sales hasscored a Japanese deal with Cine Qua Non for football documentary Zidane: A21st Century Portraitabout Real Madrid superstar Zinedine Zidane. UIP pre-bought the rights forFrance. Japan's Presidio has bought Klimt, starring John Malkovich,from Independent Film Sales. The UK sales outfit has also sold the ...
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Blue Star launches Tracker, My Favourite Game
London-basedBlue Star Movies is handling international sales on two new projects.Tracker is a $20mdrama-thriller set in New Zealand. It will be co-produced with the UK's EdenFilms. David Burns (Eden Films) and Pete Maggi (Blue Star Movies) will produce,while Nicolas van Pallandt, who also wrote the script, is set to direct.Set ...
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News
Fine Line commits to Zentropa trio
Fine Line Features has confirmed that it will take North American rights to three titles from Denmark's Zentropa Internationale which are being co-financed by German film giant Kinowelt.According to Zentropa co-founder Peter Aalbaek Jensen, Fine Line is expected to tip in 30% of the budget of the three English-language titles: ...
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Svankmayer project headlines Barrandov Studios slate
Theproduction arm of Barrandov Studios has announced further details of itscurrent slate.It is shortly to appoint asales agent for Lunacy, the newproject from cult Czech animator Jan Svankmayer. A co-production withAthanor, Czech TV and C-GA Film, Lunacy is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe and the Marquis De Sade. Combining liveaction ...
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IFM World Releasing strikes Rapid Fear deals
Tony Ginnane's IFM WorldReleasing has struck a number of sales at the market, headed up by anall-rights deal on Geoff Cox's Australian action adventure Rapid Fear to RRS in Germany.RRS has sub-licensed videorights to Columbia TriStar Home Video and retains pay and free televisionrights.Meanwhilethe Los Angeles-based sales company has sold ...
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News
Toho pre-sells Shining Boy And Little Randy
Confirming the currentappetite for films about animals in Asia, Japan's Toho International haspre-sold Shining Boy And Little Randy, based on the true story of Japan's first elephant trainer, to severalAsian territories. The film has gone to GoldenScene for Hong Kong, Major Cinepictures for Thailand and Long Shong for Taiwan.In addition, ...
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News
Ellis to oversee Film London fund
FilmLondon, the regional film agency for London, has beefed up its productionfunding activities by appointing Maggie Ellis as its first head of production.Ellis,previously Film London's production executive, will run the body's micro-budgetdigital feature fund. She will also oversee the agency's digital shorts schemeand work with film funds run by local ...
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News
Eastern promise for Egyptian Top Gun
Independent producer YoussefEl-Deeb is on a mission to break Egyptian cinema out internationally.El-Deeb's Takhayalproduction company is here with an as-yet unnamed film based around Egypt's1967 disastrous war with Israel, a project he says will have "Top Gun" elements and is intended to appeal to the youngermarket.Anotheris a biopic of the ...
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News
Petit embarks on Unrequited Love shoot
Shooting hasbegun on Unrequited Love, the latest feature from cult British filmmaker Chris Petit (LondonOrbital, Asylum). Adapted from abook by Greg Dart, the film is an essay-drama exploring the links betweenunrequited love and stalking.The film is aco-production set up by Illuminations with Mediopolis in Berlin, LondonFilm,.MDM, ZDF/ARTE, YLE and the ...
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Kuhn to chair Independent Cinema Office
Qwerty Filmsboss Michael Kuhn has become Chair of the Board of Trustees of the IndependentCinema Office (ICO), it was announced in Cannes yesterday. The ICO's othertrustees are Julia Short, M-D of Verve Pictures, and Ben Cook, Director of Lux.Set up in July2003, the ICO is funded by the UK Film ...
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News
International directors plan Mozart film festival
An international array ofacclaimed directors including Bahman Ghobadi, Tsai Ming Liang and ApichatpongWeerasethakul will make films for an innovative festival celebrating Mozart's250th anniversary.Unveiling plans for thefilms in Cannes yesterday, festival organisers said they will be inspired bythemes from the composer's later works, including The Magic Flute and theRequiem. Named after ...
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News
Hopscotch jumps on Scott's Dancer
Australiandistributor Hopscotch has invested development money into the screen adaptationof author Li Cunxin's autobiographical book Mao's Last Dancer, and will be taking its first everexecutive producer credit on the film.Cunxin wasplucked from a peasant childhood for training at Madam Mao's Beijing DanceAcademy. He made a dramatic defection to the US, ...
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Barenholtz, Mitra tout three new features
Real estate developers andentrepreneurs Joseph Scarpinito and Shiraz Sanjana arrive in Cannes with threeprojects on the books for Mitra Films, the new production company they launchedrecently with longtime producer-distributor Ben Barenholtz.Brooklyn-based Mitra is seeking co-production partners and plans toproduced three titles a year.Featuring on the initial slate are the 1950s ...
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J&M walks down Cloudstreet
The UK's J&M Entertainment has boarded four titles including Cloudstreet, an adaptation of the Australian best-seller for which Geoffrey Rush, Judy Davis, Anna Paquin and Heath Ledger are in talks to star.Peter Duncan (Children Of The Revolution) is to direct the picture from an Ellen Erwin adaptation of Tim Winton's ...
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Summit climbs the heights with Cannes slate
Summit Entertainment has reported brisk business on its Cannes slate,virtually selling out on Atom Egoyan's competition entry Where The TruthLies,Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's ensemble piece Babel, Tony Gilroy's dramaticthriller Michael Clayton, Nick Goossen's comedy Nana's Boy, and David Ayer's SouthCentral set drama Harsh Times.Where TheTruth Lies has sold toMomentum in the ...
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Swipe swoops for Paper Clips international rights
Frank Mannion's Swipe Filmshas picked up international sales on Paper Clips, the acclaimedfeature documentary that passed the $1m mark at the US box office last weekend.Thefilm, directed by Elliot Berlin and Joe Fab follows the story of students in arural Tennessee school who collect one paper clip for each person ...
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EU ministers call for action on legal download of films
Europeanministers this week called for more collaboration between the film business andinternet service providers to combat piracy and exploit the online market forcinema.Meetingat the Cannes Film Festival, the ministers from most of the EU member statesissued a statement saying that there is "an urgent need for a meaningfuldialogue" to ensure ...
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Reviews
Shanghai Dreams
Dir. Wang Xiaoshuai,China, 2005. 120mins.Once a rebel now workingin the mainstream, Wang Xiaoshuai draws on his own reminiscences as anadolescent for Cannes competition entry Shanghai Dreams.Wang's family was relocatedfrom Shanghai to the poor, mountainous province of Guiyang, all part of theChinese authorities' decision to install fortified industrial cities near theborder ...