Small MPU – Page 630

  • News

    Pact, British Directors, Ille de France plan conference

    2005-05-19T04:00:00Z

    In conjunction with UKproducers' agency Pact and the Directors' Guild of Great Britain, the Ile deFrance Film Commission has announced a conference series to be held on June 15in London.The Ile de France commission was created in 2004 toattract producers to the region in and around Paris as well as ...

  • News

    Wales opens up£7m film and TV fund

    2005-05-19T04:00:00Z

    Wales hascalled for applications for its £7m intellectual property fund.The fund, overseen by theWelsh Assembly, will act as a gap financier for film and TV production, plusnew media and music projects. Open to international projects, the initiative aimsto attract production to Wales.Producer Linda James hasbeen appointed to the board and ...

  • News

    Metacinema takes Italian rights to Gallenberger's Time

    2005-05-19T04:00:00Z

    Metacinema has acquiredItalian distribution rights to Florian Gallenberger's Shadows of Time.Sold by BavariaInternational, the epic film is set in India before independence and traces thetragic love story of Ravi and Masha, a couple who were forced to work as childlabourers.The picture marks the featuredebut of writer-director Gallenberger, who won an ...

  • News

    Italy's DNC snaps up Un Certain Regard title The King

    2005-05-19T04:00:00Z

    Italy's DNC Entertainment haspicked up Italian distribution rights to three titles, including Un CertainRegard title The King.Sold by ContentFilm, JamesMarsh's The King features Gael Garcia Bernal as a handsome young USmarine who returns to his preacher father's hometown with the hope ofreconciliation.The film was written by Marshand Milo Addica (Monster's ...

  • News

    Echo Bridge dead keen on Mortuary

    2005-05-19T04:00:00Z

    Echo Bridge Entertainment has completed a string of deals on TobeHooper's horror title Mortuary.Rights sold toAnchor Bay for the UK, Bronson Entertainment for Germany, Eagle Entertainmentfor Italy, and Swen Entertainment for Brazil. France and Japan are expected toclose imminently.BridgeEntertainment bought for Benelux, HollywoodEntertainment for Greece and PT Parkit for Indonesia."The ...

  • News

    Star Wars: Episode III already breaking records

    2005-05-19T00:00:00Z

    Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith wasalready starting to break records as its massive international release began onWednesday and continued into the weekend.According to distributor Fox International, the launch ofthe film with more than 9,000 prints in 113 markets in 104 countries outsideNorth America is the widest ...

  • News

    TFI takes world rights to Ong-Bak follow-up

    2005-05-19T00:00:00Z

    French sales house TF1International has taken world rights to Tom-Yum-Goong starring Ong-BakphenomenonTony Jaa and directed by Ong-Bak's Prachya Pinkaew.Ong-Bak was a huge hit inits native Thailand and also performed well for EuropaCorp. who handled itsinternational sales. The film sold nearly 1 million tickets in France.Tom-Yum-Goong tells the tale ofa villager, ...

  • News

    Strom takes Mai's place at Trust

    2000-05-11T16:20:00Z

    Danish production outfit Zentropa's international sales arm Trust Film Sales is in Cannes with a new head, Annakarin Strom. The 25-year-old Swede was previously with Trust's Nordic competitor Egmont-owned Nordisk Film International Sales for four years, and is taking the seat from Thomas Mai, who is moving to the US ...

  • News

    Japanese uber-producer lines up Kurosawa remakes

    2005-05-20T04:00:00Z

    Kadokawa Haruki Jimusho, thecompany of uber-producer Haruki Kadokawa, has acquired the remake rights to theAkira Kurosawa classics Yojimbo and Tsubaki Sanjuro from KurosawaProduction. The purchase price, asannounced by Kadokawa Haruki Jimusho, is $2.8m (Y3000m).The company has indicatedthat, after it remakes the films for the Japanese market, it may makeadditional versions ...

  • News

    Warner Bros takes multi-territory rights to del Toro's Labyrinth

    2005-05-19T00:00:00Z

    Warner Bros Pictures International has picked upSpanish and Latin American rights to director Guillermo del Toro's upcomingFranco era horror title Pan's Labyrinth.Filming is expected to begin thissummer on the co-production between Estudios Picasso and delToro, Alfonso Cuaron and Frida Torresblanco's new Spanish company OMM.Del Toro, Cuaron and Torresblanco will produce ...

  • News

    Hustle and Flow to open CineVegas fest

    2005-05-19T00:00:00Z

    Craig Brewer's hip-hop drama Hustle & Flow will open the 2005CineVegas Film Festival, which runs from Jun 10-18.MichaelWinterbottom's 9 Songs,Rob Zombie's House Of 1,000 Corpses follow-up The Devil's Rejects, and Gus Van Sant's Cannes competitionentry Last Days arealso among the line-up.ChristopherWalken will receive the Marquee Award following on-stage interview, while ...

  • News

    Korean industry abuzz as top production houses set to merge

    2005-05-20T04:00:00Z

    Sidus Pictures and Fun &Happiness, two of South Korea's most successful production companies, arepreparing to merge in an unexpected move that has set the local industrybuzzing. Sidus Pictures, launched in1995 as Uno Films under CEO Tcha Seung-jai, is widely considered Korea'sstrongest production house, having released 31 features including ChristmasIn August ...

  • News

    European Film Promotion elects new board

    2005-05-19T00:00:00Z

    The members of European FilmPromotion (EFP) have elected a new Board of Directors at its general assemblymeeting during Cannes.The Board is composed of sixmembers and the term of office lasts for two years. Claudia Landsberger has beenre-elected as President and Christian Dorsch has been re-elected asVice-President, both ...

  • News

    Trust Film Sales whips up Storm sales

    2005-05-20T04:00:00Z

    The promo of Swedishthriller Storm directed by MansMarlind and Bjorn Stein is selling quicker than most finished films on theTrust Film Sales counter. Thailand (Pacific Marketing), Mexico (Mandala), Brasil(California Films) and Estonia (Estin Film) have all fallen for Storm aftertwo screenings.Meanwhile,Greece's Rosebud and Italy's Theodora Film have picked up the ...

  • News

    Fortissimo scores flurry of Snow Cake deals

    2005-05-20T04:00:00Z

    Fortissimo Filmshad a busy Cannes closing deals with several distributors the company hasn'tworked with before including Svensk which took Scandinavian rights to MarcEvans' Snow Cake.The company alsosold The Night Listener,starring Robin Williams, to Italy's Videa and Tsui Hark's martial arts epic SevenSwords to Filmax inSpain. Snow Cake and The Night ...

  • News

    Weinsteins sign finance deal, add three more to slate

    2005-05-20T00:00:00Z

    Harvey and Bob Weinstein have reached agreement on an equityinvestment and a debt financing commitment for their new multi-media companyfrom New York investment bank Goldman, Sachs & Co. In the latest of a string of announcements from the CannesFilm Festival, the Weinsteins also revealed a strategic relationship with TarakBen Ammar's ...

  • Reviews

    Free Zone

    2005-05-20T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Amos Gitai.Fr-Is-Jor-Bel. 2005. 94mins.Even his detractors would have to agree that Free Zone,the Cannes competition entry from Amos Gitai, is his most satisfactory picturesince Kippur. The first Israel-Jordan co-production on record, his roadmovie, which features three women each representing a facet of the Middle Eastconflict, is less ideologically insistent ...

  • Reviews

    Don't Come Knocking

    2005-05-20T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Wim Wenders. US.2005. 122mins.Reunited for the first timein 20 years, Wim Wenders and Sam Shepard fail to rekindle the magic of theircollaboration on Palme D'Or winner Paris, Texas. Don't Come Knockingis a film of striking compositions and telling moments that never achieves thetender depths of emotion that distinguished its ...

  • News

    Renaissance on board for Morality Play

    2000-05-11T16:21:00Z

    The UK's Renaissance Films has boarded medieval murder mystery Morality Play and AM Home adaptation The Safety Of Objects.Paul McGuigan, whose credits include Gangster No. 1 and Acid House, is to direct Morality, with Gangster's Paul Bettany starring as a renegade priest. Mark Mills has adapted the story from Barry ...

  • Reviews

    The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada

    2005-05-20T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Tommy Lee Jones. US.2005. 120mins.A lone quest for justice becomes an ode to friendship andthe common ground between different cultures in The Three Burials OfMelquiades Estrada, a thoroughly respectable feature-length directorialdebut from Oscar-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones.An actor who believes thatless is more, Jones brings the same approach to ...