Small MPU – Page 671

  • Reviews

    Close To Home (Karov La Bayit)

    2006-03-01T00:00:00Z

    Dir/scr: Dalia Hager, Vidi Bilu. Israel. 2005. 90mins.A modest, low-budget feature that shows the rarelyexplored routines of female soldiers in Israel, Close To Home was one of the more pleasant surprises from Israellast year.A theatrical debut for itstwo directors, it follows two 18-year-old girls, Smadar(Smadar Sayar) and Irith (Naama Schendar),new ...

  • Reviews

    John & Jane

    2006-03-01T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Ashim Ahluwalia. India. 2005. 83mins.Tracing a fine line between fact and fiction, John & Jane, AshimAhluwalia's documentary about workers in Bombay callcentres, is an intriguing, understated meditation on the new hi-tech slavery.It follows, in relay sequence, the lives of six workers in a facility run by aUS company which ...

  • News

    Miramax gets North American rights to Becoming Jane

    2006-03-01T14:50:00Z

    Miramax has taken North American rightsto Becoming Jane, starring AnneHathaway as young novelist Jane Austen.Becoming Jane is set to start its eight-week shoot in Ireland on March 27. Director Julian Jarroldpreviously directed Kinky Boots,another UK project that Miramax distributed. James McAvoyhas joined the cast starringas Tom Lefroy, Jane's love interest. ...

  • News

    New pan-African co-production market for Sithengi market

    2006-03-01T15:03:00Z

    A new pan-African co-production market will be launched at this year's Sithengi Film And TV Market in Cape Town.The African Co-Production Forum is an initiative between Sithengi and various international and African funds andfestivals to select two projects to pitch at Rotterdam's co-production market CineMartin 2007.A total of 15 projects ...

  • News

    British cinematographers announce 2006 award nominees

    2006-03-01T15:35:00Z

    The British Society ofCinematographers has announced the 2006 nominations for its best cinematographyaward. The nominees are Cesar Charlone for TheConstant Gardener, Andrew Dunn for MrsHenderson Presents, John Mathieson for Phantom of the Opera, Wally Pfister for BatmanBegins, and Roger Pratt for HarryPotter and the Goblet of Fire. In a change ...

  • News

    Working Title lines up March shoot for Hot Fuzz

    2006-03-01T16:59:00Z

    Working Title has confirmed that Hot Fuzz, the new film from Shaun of the Dead co-creators EdgarWright and Simon Pegg, will start shooting in Marchin the UK.Wright will direct the action comedy, which heco-wrote with Pegg. The action comedy is about London police officer(Pegg), who is sent to a sleepy ...

  • News

    French Supreme Court rules against private DVD copies

    2006-03-02T04:00:00Z

    France's Supreme Court has ruled that it is illegal to make a copy of a shop-bought DVD even for personal use.The so-called Mulholland Drivecase, was brought by a consumer who argued that he should not be prevented from copying a DVD he bought as long as he did not distribute ...

  • News

    Celluloid Dreams doing brisk international sales with Offside

    2006-03-02T04:00:00Z

    French sales company Celluloid Dreams has reported strong internationalsales on Berlinale Jury Prize winner Offside, with a US deal also close to being announced.Offside, directed by Jafar Panahi, is set during the Iran-Bahrain World Cup qualifierwhere female football fans disguise themselves as men to watch the match.Described as a Farsi ...

  • News

    Polar Express IMAX version crosses $60m worldwide gross

    2006-03-02T00:00:00Z

    Warner Bros' Christmas titleThe Polar Express has crossedanother milestone in its IMAX format release, entitled The Polar Express: An Imax 3D Experience.It is now the most successful digitally-remastered IMAX film to date. The giant-screen version hasgrossed $60m worldwide, having earned $45m in its first release beginning in2004 and some $15m ...

  • News

    Telefilm Canada greenlights seven French-language films

    2006-03-02T00:00:00Z

    Telefilm Canada has approvedproduction financing on seven French-language feature films through the CanadaFeature Film Fund (CFFF). In a release Teiefilm saidthe CFFF's overall goal was to increase Canadian audiences in theatres forCanadian feature films to a five per cent share of the Canadian box office andthat goal had been realized ...

  • News

    King Kong breaks box office records in China

    2006-03-02T00:00:00Z

    Peter Jackson's King Kong has lumbered past the RMB100m($12.4m) threshold at the mainland Chinese box office to become thetop-grossing imported film of the past five years and the third biggest foreignfilm in the history of Chinese cinema.Up until Monday (Feb 27), King Kong had taken in RMB100.49m sinceits release on ...

  • News

    Cuesta to direct true life horror Shiver for Dimension

    2006-03-02T00:00:00Z

    Dimension Films has acquired newcomer Mikey Wigart's thriller screenplayShiver, which is setto be directed and produced by Twelve And Holding director Michael Cuesta.Inspired by true events, the story follows a group of New Year'sEve party-goers stranded in a snowstorm who stumble upon the home of a torture-obsesseddoctor."Shiver is a perfect ...

  • News

    Hong Kong festival to open with Election 2 world premiere

    2006-03-02T00:00:00Z

    This year's Hong KongInternational Film Festival (HKIFF) will open with two local films - the worldpremiere of Johnnie To's Election 2and Pang Ho Cheung's Isabella, whichrecently won a Silver Bear for best score at Berlin. The festival, which runs April4-19, will close with two other Berlin competition titles - Marc ...

  • News

    Infinity Media to back Hailwood story Mike The Bike

    2006-03-02T00:00:00Z

    Capoteproducer Infinity Media is preparing Mike The Bike, a biography based on the life oflegendary British motorcycle world champion Mike Hailwood.Hailwood, voted the greatestmotorcyclist of all time in a recent worldwide poll, won the world championship10 times in the 1960s and 1970s before a near-fatal crash left him crippled."Mike The ...

  • News

    Cinema Libre picks up worldwide rights to Giuliani Time

    2006-03-02T00:00:00Z

    Politically-drivenUS distributor Cinema Libre Studio has acquired worldwide rights to KevinKeating's documentary Giuliani Time about former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's personal background and hiscontentious Zero Tolerance policy.Thecompany plans a limited launch in New York in May followed by a DVD release inSeptember.GiulianiTime played at the Rotterdam andVancouver international film ...

  • News

    Wolfe picks up US rights to Fitzgerald's version of 3 Needles

    2006-03-02T00:00:00Z

    WolfeReleasing has picked up US rights to the director's cut of Thom Fitzgerald'sglobal Aids drama 3 Needles starringLucy Liu, Chloe Sevigny and Stockard Channing.Wolfeplans an autumn theatrical release followed by a home entertainment roll-out insummer 2007.Thedirector's differs from the version of the picture that premiered at Torontolast autumn and is ...

  • News

    Bob Yari in lawsuit mayhem over Crash

    2006-03-02T00:00:00Z

    With just four days to go before the Academy Awards, Crash financier Bob Yari was last nightengaging in a legal snowstorm over his official role on the picture andbusiness dealings with former associates Cathy Schulman and Tom Nunan.Yesterday evening Yari filed a suit with the Los Angeles SuperiorCourt against the ...

  • News

    Taiwan's oldest studio closes

    2006-03-02T00:00:00Z

    Taiwan's oldest film company, the Central Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC), hasofficially closed its studio lots and once-popular theme park in northern Taipei marking the symbolic end of an era for local cinema.No recent films have shot at the studio lots, although Jay Chou's music videofor Jet Li's Fearless was recentlyfilmed ...

  • Reviews

    4:30

    2006-03-02T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Royston Tan. Sing-Jap.2005. 93mins.There are few 93-minute films as long as 4:30, Royston Tan's study of youth that feelslike a tribute to Tsai Ming Liang - or, for thatmatter, Eric Khoo, one of the film's executive producers.Nothing like15, Tan's over-the-top and similarlythemed work, it is meticulously shot in spare ...

  • News

    Uttar Pradesh takes on Mumbai with new film policy

    2000-06-12T15:33:00Z

    The government of North Indian state Uttar Pradesh is aiming to compete with India's principal film-making centre, Mumbai, with a new film policy that includes upgrading facilities at the NOIDA Film City in the New Delhi suburbs.The policy, which grants industry status to the local film sector, is intended to ...