Small MPU – Page 691

  • News

    Constantin receives $4.2m from German Federal Film Board

    2006-03-31T12:42:00Z

    Constantin Film has been named the most successful Germanproducer and distributor of 2005 after picking up a total of $4.2m (Euros 3.5m)retroactive "reference funding" from the German Federal Film Board (FFA) to invest in new filmprojects and distribution campaigns.Thiswas the second year running that Constantin hadreceived this double honour at ...

  • News

    Russian media baron Gusinsky arrested

    2000-06-14T12:08:00Z

    Russian tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky, head of the country's largest independent media conglomerate Media Most, has been arrested and is being held in a Moscow prison pending charges of defrauding the government of more than $10m. Media Most-owned television channel NTV and daily newspaper Segodnya have been sharply critical of the ...

  • News

    Romantic comedy All Bar Love to start London shoot

    2006-03-31T14:58:00Z

    Romantic comedy All Bar Love will start shooting in London on April 3. Te Papa Films, founded by Aubs Tredget, is producing.James Derbyshire, who hasworked in fringe theatre, is directing from a script written by Julia Boggio with Kristen McGorry andDavid Hofmyer.The film follows Martin, afriendly man who is inept ...

  • News

    Senator upbeat after end of insolvency crisis

    2006-04-03T04:00:00Z

    SenatorEntertainment's CEO Christopher Borgmann has struck an upbeat note on the Berlin-based producer-distributor's future afterthe company was officially withdrawn from insolvency proceedings.According to Borgmann, the slimmed-down company will now work "atfull stretch" to build its activities again with a concentration onthe (co)production and distribution of German feature films as well ...

  • News

    Carlton, Screenvision create pan-Europe ad post

    2006-03-31T00:00:00Z

    London-based Carlton Screen Advertising and Paris-based Screenvision Europe have established a new post to work on Pan-European cinema advertising campaigns. Nathalie Mangin has taken on the new post of Pan European sales manager, working across both companies. She is based in Carlton's London office.France-born Mangin previously worked at Screenvision France, ...

  • News

    Odeon to show World Cup matches in UK cinemas

    2006-03-31T00:00:00Z

    UK exhibitor Odeon Cinemas has announced plans to show select 2006 World Cup Matches in High Definition Television on its cinema screens.The chain says it will show all England games as well as the quarter and semi-final matches, the third place play-offs, and the final. That will mean a total ...

  • Reviews

    Ice Age 2: The Meltdown

    2006-03-31T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Carlos Saldanha. US.2006. 91 mins.20th Century Foxlooks set to enjoy an early year worldwide smash with Ice Age 2: TheMeltdown (called just Ice Age:The Meltdown in North America), alikeable sequel to the spring 2002 original which was one of the firstnon-Pixar CGI films to make a mint - $373m ...

  • News

    Theatrical drives big leap in Kinowelt profits

    2006-04-03T04:00:00Z

    Theresurrected Kinowelt Group trebled its year-on-year annual profits to $4.3m (Euros3.6m) on revenues of $95.1m (Euros 78.5m), up 41%TheLeipzig-based group says the "extraordinarily high" growth in overallturnover was largely thanks to the success of the theatrical division with suchreleases as Mr & Mrs. Smith (3.5m admissions) and TheMarch Of The ...

  • News

    Czechs await Prague spring for production

    2006-04-03T04:00:00Z

    After a busy second half of 2005, Praguestudios are experiencing a slow period. No major international productions haveyet been announced to shoot in the Czech territory, which is not unusual. A similar production gap opened in mid-2005before Young Hannibal: Behind the Mask, Omen 666 and Casino Royale filled localstages. Rumours ...

  • News

    Golden prize night ends groundbreaking Guadalarajara

    2006-04-02T19:00:00Z

    The 21stGuadalajara International Film Festival handed out a record $525,000 in prizemoney on a glittering awards night.TheGolden Mayahuel for the best Iberoamerican film - with a $50,000 purse -was shared jointly by Rodrigo Moreno's Argentinian/ Uruguayan/ French/ Germanco-production El Custodio and Brazilian Marcelo Gomes' AspirinasE Urubus (Movies, Aspirins and Vultures).In ...

  • News

    Ice Age sequel breaks March opening record with $70.5m

    2006-04-03T00:00:00Z

    Ice Age: The Meltdown produced the first sensational box office weekend of the year asit opened to a spectacular estimated $70.5m, while another sequel Sony/MGM's BasicInstinct 2 flopped intenth place on $3.2m.The animated sequel beat the $46.3m March 2002 launch of IceAge and eclipsed theall-time April opening record of $42.2m ...

  • News

    Goldcrest picks up international rights to 39 Pounds

    2006-04-03T00:00:00Z

    Goldcrest Films International has acquired all rights to DaniMenkin's documentary 39 Pounds Of Love excluding the US and Israel and will introduce to buyers atMIPTV.39 Pounds tells the story of Ami Ankilewitz, an American-bornIsraeli who at the age of one was diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophythat renders ...

  • News

    New movie fund FarFalla Films launches with The Good Life

    2006-04-03T00:00:00Z

    Production has begun in Winnipeg on Steve Berra's directorialdebut The Good Lifestarring Mark Webber, Chris Klein, Zooey Deschanel and Bill Paxton.The picture is the first to be produced by FarFalla Films, a fundcreated by the company's partners Lance Sloane, a producer at Warner Bros, andhis brother and company chief Devin ...

  • News

    Box office meltdown as Ice Age opens top in 29 markets

    2006-04-03T00:00:00Z

    Ice Age: The Meltdown burned through the international marketplace this weekend,grossing an estimated $43.4m through Fox International on 4,571 screens in 29territories.Records toppled around the world as the animated sequel stormed tonumber one in every territory, mirroring its dominance in North America whereit took an estimated $70.5m.The weekend result does ...

  • Reviews

    Come Early Morning

    2006-04-03T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Joey Lauren Adams. US.2006. 97mins.Response was mixed at the Sundance Film Festival inJanuary to Joey Lauren Adams' directorial debut Come Early Morning, but away from the hot-house atmosphere of ParkCity, the film will surely get a favourable second look from critics anddistributors.A small, unpretentiouscharacter piece notable for an outstanding ...

  • News

    London's first East End Film Festival recruits industry experts

    2006-04-03T00:00:00Z

    London's East End Film Festival has announced the programme for its inaugural event, to be held April 27-May 4. The festival opens with Richard E. Grant introducing the London premiere of his directorial debut Wah-Wah.Grant will also be the festival's director in residence, with a discussion and a screening of ...

  • News

    Commonwealth festival to open with Life With My Father

    2006-04-03T00:00:00Z

    Manchester's fifth-annual Commonwealth Film Festival will open on April 28 with Sebastien Rose's Canadian drama Life With My Father. Sarah Watt's Australian hit Look Both Ways will close the festival on May 7.The festival, which promotes film production in the Commonwealth countries, will screen more than 200 features, documentaries, and ...

  • News

    James McAvoy on board for Joe Wright's Atonement

    2006-04-03T00:00:00Z

    James McAvoy has joined the cast of Working Title Films' production of Atonement, starring alongside Keira Knightley. Knightley will be reuniting with director Joe Wright, who previously cast her in his debut film Pride & Prejudice. Atonement, based on the Ian McEwan novel, is about a man who falls in ...

  • News

    Kwak to adapt controversial Japanese novel

    2006-04-03T20:30:00Z

    Korean director KT Kwak,whose credits include Typhoon, Korea's most expensive film to date, is set to direct a film based on famousJapanese novelist Murakami Ryu's Hanto ODeyo (Get Out Of The Peninsula). The controversial noveldepicts a North Korean commando unit taking over the island of Fukuoka in 2010 when Japan ...

  • News

    Filmstiftung NRW puts $3.64m into six new films

    2006-04-04T04:00:00Z

    New projects by Rolf Schuebel, Fatih Akin, Ulla Wagner, and Tony Loeser are among six feature films awarded more than $3.64m (Euros 3m) by North Rhine-Westphalia's regional film fund Filmstiftung NRW at its latest funding session. The largest amount -- $969,719 (Euros 800,000) -- went to Rolf Schuebel's English-language drama ...