Small MPU – Page 640

  • News

    Arts Alliance, Lovefilm expand into Europe

    2005-07-21T00:00:00Z

    Arts Alliance Media (AAM),majority shareholder in leading UK online DVD rental service Lovefilm, hasexpanded its business into Europe.AAM has taken a controlling stakein Swedish on-line DVD rental company, Boxman.Boxman is the second largestonline rental DVD rental company in Sweden, with over 14,000 subscribers and was established in 2003.AAM said it ...

  • News

    Edinburgh festival to confiscate mobiles in piracy move

    2005-07-21T00:00:00Z

    Mobile phones are to be temporarily confiscated duringcertain screenings at this year's Edinburgh Film Festival as part of acrackdown on piracy. Festival-goers and industry executives attendingscreenings of films such as BVI's Kinky Boots - which world premieres atEdinburgh - will be asked to hand over their phones for the duration ...

  • News

    Construction begins on film studio complex in Wales

    2005-07-21T00:00:00Z

    Work has begun on the construction on DragonInternational Studios - dubbed Valleywood - in Wales.The project, championed by Lord Attenborough, has been inthe pipeline for the last five years. According to a report on the BBC, the finished projectwill boast 12 studios, ready to make the biggest blockbuster movies, a ...

  • News

    Hill named corporate communications chief at Paramount

    2005-07-21T00:00:00Z

    Janet Hill (pictured) is leaving herjob as MTV Networks' senior vice president of West Coast CorporateCommunications for the new post of executive vice president of corporatecommunications at Paramount Pictures.Based in Los Angeles andreporting to Paramount chairman Brad Grey, Hill will oversee internal andexternal business and media communications and public relations ...

  • News

    New Montreal festival applies for FIAPF accreditation

    2005-07-21T00:00:00Z

    Hot on the heels of the Montreal World Film Festival's(MWFF) reaccreditation by the Federation of Film Producers' Associations(FIAPF), Moritz de Hadeln and Alain Simard's New Montreal Filmfest has appliedfor accreditation for 2006.Followingmeetings between de Hadeln and Simard with FIAPF directors, the Federationagreed to send a delegate to this year's event, ...

  • News

    Focus unveils debut animated feature - 9

    2005-07-22T00:00:00Z

    Focus Features has unveiledfirst animated picture - 9, whichis being directed by Shane Acker and produced by Tim Burton, Timur Bekmambetov,Jim Lemley and Dana Ginsburg.Focus will finance thefeature and holds worldwide rights to the story, which is set in a postapocalyptic parallel universe where humanity faces extinction.The project is an ...

  • News

    Fox looks for fantastic business from Four's UK, France debuts

    2005-07-22T00:00:00Z

    Fox International's Fantastic Four takes on UIP's heavy-hitting duo of WarOf The Worlds and Madagascarthis weekend with hotlyanticipated debuts in the UK and France.Madagascar and War Of The Worlds have amassed more than $155.2m and $264.8m respectively and heldthe top two positions last weekend.However neither picture has a major release ...

  • News

    IMAX and Warner Bros team up for 2006's Ant Bully

    2005-07-22T00:00:00Z

    IMAX Corporation, Warner Bros, Playtone Productions and DNAProductions are teaming up on the simultaneous conventional 2D and IMAX 3Drelease of the animated picture The Ant Bully on Aug 4 2006.The picture is being directed by Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius director John A Davis and tells the taleof a young boy ...

  • News

    Ricci to star in Witherspoon-produced drama Penelope

    2005-07-22T00:00:00Z

    Christina Ricci will star in the drama Penelope, which Reese Witherspoon's Type-A Filmsand Scott Steindorff's Stone Village Pictures will produce. The film is due tobegin shooting in January 2006 in Canada.Witherspoon will play a supporting role in the fable about a youngwoman who sets out to rid herself of a ...

  • News

    Venice unveils Critics Week line-up

    2005-07-22T00:00:00Z

    US director RianJohnson's film noir Brick is among seven debut features screening in Critics Week at thisyear's Venice Film Festival (Aug 31-Sept 10).The 20th CriticsWeek sidebar will also feature two French titles: Le Passager, a drama about a Parisian father-of-onewho heads back to Marseille when his brother, who he had ...

  • News

    Easy Film starts up feature arm

    2000-05-16T13:46:00Z

    Danish commercials and documentary outfit Easy Film has launched a feature arm headed by producer Sanne Glaesel.The start-up, which has already associate produced Swede Roy Andersson's highly-anticipated Cannes competitor Songs From The Second Floor, is developing an adaptation of Danish author Leif Davidsen's award-winning 1998 novel Peter Lime (Limes Billede). ...

  • News

    Armendariz's Obaba to open San Sebastian

    2005-07-22T00:00:00Z

    San Sebastian filmfestival will open with the premiere of Spanish director MontxoArmendariz's Obaba, which willalso compete for the Golden Shell award.Armendariz's highly-anticipated feature marks a move back towardslocal directors after last year's high profile San Sebastian opener, Woody Allen's Melinda And MelindaObaba stars Pilar Lopez de Ayala, Juan Diego Botta, ...

  • Reviews

    Bad News Bears

    2005-07-22T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Richard Linklater.US. 2005. 114mins.To a generation ofAmericans, Michael Ritchie's 1976 comedy Bad News Bears was a culturaltouchstone, a rough-around-the-edges feature that celebrated an underdogbaseball team as it battled against adversity.The problem with RichardLinklater's remake is that the style of films made by Hollywood in the 30 yearssince. Bad News ...

  • Reviews

    The Devil's Rejects

    2005-07-22T00:00:00Z

    Dir/scr: Rob Zombie. US.2005. 108mins.A lot of horror movies self-profess to be brutal andout-there, but most modern genre pictures actually reveal themselves to belittle more than communal vehicles of squeamish discomfort. In the finalanalysis, their pursuit of as many pan-demographic dollars as possible ensuresthat they don't really want to cross ...

  • News

    Cinema Service founder Kang steps down as CEO

    2005-07-22T00:00:00Z

    South Korean distributorCinema Service has announced thatVice President Kim In-soo will take over as thecompany'snew CEO/President.The move will allow founder Kang Woo-suk, a film director(Silmido) recognisedas one of the most powerful figures in the South Korean film industry, to focuson directing and producing full time.Former CEO Michael Kim, who has ...

  • News

    When I'm 64, Sevigne win top prizes at Philadelphia lesbian and gay fest

    2005-07-24T00:00:00Z

    The 18th Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festivalclosed with its annual awards ceremony, which saw best feature (gay male) go toJon Jones' When I'm 64and best feature (lesbian) awarded to Marta Balletbo-Coll's Sevigne.Best documentary went to Nicole Conn's Little Man, best short (gay male) went to ArmenKazazian's Gold, andbest ...

  • News

    Fraser in frame for Spottiswoode's Sea in China

    2005-07-24T21:59:00Z

    Brendan Fraserhas been lined up to star in historical drama The Bitter Sea which Roger Spottiswoode is set todirect in China later this year. The US$19mproject, also known as The Children Of Huang Shi, is based on the true story of Britishjournalist George Hogg who saved a group of children ...

  • News

    Emmerich, VIP project wins FFF Bayern backing

    2005-07-25T04:00:00Z

    MarcoKreuzpaintner's first English language feature Welcome To America is one of 34 projects to receive atotal of Euros 5m in the latest round of funding by the Bavarian Film &Television Fund (FFF Bayern).Welcome ToAmerica is one of thefirst productions from the Reelmachine outfit formed at the end of 2004 byRoland ...

  • News

    Puchon festival wraps under shadow of industry boycott

    2005-07-24T00:00:00Z

    Following months of controversy and a tense weekduring which a rival festival unspooled in Seoul, the Puchon InternationalFantastic Film Festival (PiFan) drew the curtain on its ninth edition with asubdued closing ceremony that was almost devoid of local stars or industryfigures.Programmer Zeong Cho-sin, who alsofulfilled the duties of festival director, ...

  • News

    Venice festival shapes up as star magnet

    2005-07-25T04:00:00Z

    The Venice Film Festival (Aug 31-Sept 10) is once againshaping up as a glamorous magnet for A-list stars. However, visitors to theLido this year can expect a rather more streamlined and manageable event sinceartistic director Marco Mueller has reduced the number of pictures on the Lidoby a hefty 30% in ...