Small MPU – Page 721

  • News

    Champagne flows in Paris as European giant is born

    2000-06-20T01:30:00Z

    The Paris media elite broke open the champagne on Monday night and partied away within sight of the Eiffel Tower after the boards of Canal Plus, Vivendi and eventually Seagram all agreed to a three-way merger between their companies in a $40.2bn deal including debt that creates Europe's first truly ...

  • News

    Media Luna sells Ganz picture to China

    2006-05-19T04:00:00Z

    Cologne-based Media Luna has sold Bruno Ganz picture Vitus to Chinese' distributor Hansion Media.''The film, directed by Fredi Murer, is about a boygenius whose parents' would like him to become a pianist, until the boyeventually takes 'control of his own life.''Vitus hasalso been sold Mexico's Quality Films, Brazil's Ciruito' Cinearte,France's ...

  • News

    Lionsgate bites into Daybreakers

    2006-05-19T00:00:00Z

    Lionsgate isteaming up with US-based Furst Films and New Zealand effects house WetaWorkshop on the vampire horror feature Daybreakers.Lionsgatepresident of international Nick Meyer will introduce the project to buyers herethis week and Lionsgate plans a North American release in 2007.Australianfilmmakers Peter and Michael Spierig will direct the future-set story of ...

  • News

    First Look in ring with Clark's fightclub pic

    2006-05-19T04:00:00Z

    Henry Winterstern's ambitious US production, distribution and salescompany First Look Studios is developing a project about the teenfightclub scene with Larry Clark.Clark will direct the story based on a concept he devised withWinterstern. Clark and Evan Weiner are co-writing the screenplay.The First Look Studios production will be produced by Winterstern ...

  • News

    Celluloid Dreams on the Ball

    2006-05-19T04:00:00Z

    Celluloid Dreams will handle internationalsales on an upcoming project from Alan Ball the company announced Thursday.Ball is best known as thescreenwriter of American Beauty for which he won an Oscar in 2000 and as the creator of TV series Six Feet Under.The as-yet untitled film is producedby Ted Hope on ...

  • News

    Paramount brands specialised label as Paramount Vantage

    2006-05-19T14:30:00Z

    Paramount unveiled its new division Paramount Vantage at a high-profile reception heretonight.Vantage willencompass Paramount Classics and will release approximately 8-10 films each year said John Lesher, who heads up both divisions.The first Vantagerelease will be Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Babel,which receives its world premiere here on Tuesday and opens in North ...

  • News

    Fortissimo picks up global on desert pic

    2006-05-19T04:00:00Z

    Fortissimo Films has picked up world rights toSounds Of Sand directed by award-winning Belgiandirector Marion Hansel.Set against the backdrop of the Africandesert, the film features actors from Burkino Faso, Djibouti and Belgium in thestory of a group of African villagers driven away from their homes by drought,famine and the threat ...

  • News

    Kinowelt finds buyer interest for The Unknown Soldier

    2006-05-19T00:00:00Z

    Buyers are circling KinoweltInternational's documentary, The Unknown Soldier.Head of World sales SteliosZiannis is in talks with distributors in 'the US, the UK, France, Italyand Benelux on the film, which focuses 'on the crimes of the Germany armyduring World War II.On the eve of Cannes, theLeipzig-based international distributor added Katharina Otto-Bernstein'sdocumentary ...

  • News

    Firth, Weisz and McKellen sign on for The Colossus

    2006-05-20T04:00:00Z

    Colin Firth, Rachel Weisz, Ian McKellen and Susan Sarandonhave signed on to star in The Colossus for director Sean Mathias.Katselas Films' political thriller is based on AnnHarries' novel Manly Pursuits. Lisa Katselas, who previously worked on RichardIII and MrsDalloway,will produce. Mathias co-wrote the screenplay with Myer Taub. The story follows ...

  • News

    Thomas Vinterberg plans Danish comedy

    2006-05-19T14:00:00Z

    After twointernational projects -- It's All About Love and Dear Wendy -- Thomas Vinterberg will return to Denmark to shoothis next feature, a comedy entitled A Man Comes Home."I'm making a Danishmovie with all my friends and it's gonna be a rather silly film about sex, loveand foolishness in general," ...

  • News

    Abu-Assad's follow-up to Paradise Now lands at Focus

    2006-05-20T04:00:00Z

    Focus Features has picked up worldwide rights to Hany Abu-Assad's follow-upto Paradise Now.Abu-Assad pitched the as-yet-untitled contemporary drama to Focus and iswriting the screenplay. Senior vice president of production Kahli Small issupervising development for production president John Lyons.Paradise Now earned an foreign language Academy Award nominationthis year and picked up ...

  • News

    Younggu Art hires Hollywood crew to finish D-War

    2006-05-19T00:00:00Z

    Korean production houseYounggu Art has hired a top-flight Hollywood crew to finish post-production onits multi-million dollar sci-fi epic D-War, which was recently picked up for international sales by Korea'sShowbox.Directed by Shim Hyung-raeand starring Jason Behr and Amanda Brooks, the English-language film, about agiant serpent on the rampage in Los Angeles, ...

  • Reviews

    Fast Food Nation

    2006-05-20T04:00:00Z

    Dir: Richard Linklater. US. 2006. 116mins.The American Dream is full of shit but everyone stillwants a slice of it in Fast Food Nation,an uneven attempt to pick the dramatic meat from the bones of Eric Schlosser's2001 non-fiction bestseller. Following the multi-story template established by Traffic, it traces the food chain ...

  • News

    Manchevski's love story Bones lands at Bavaria

    2006-05-20T04:00:00Z

    Bavaria Film International has taken worldwide rights toMilcho Manchevski's new picture, Bones. It is the Macedoniandirector's third feature after Dust, which opened theVenice Film Festival in 2001, and Before The Rain, which earnedan Oscar nomination and the Venice Golden Lion in 1994.Bones, which marks New York-based Manchevski's return to Macedonia,is ...

  • News

    Focus takes rights to next film from Hany Abu-Assad

    2006-05-20T04:00:00Z

    Focus Features has picked upworldwide rights to Hany Abu-Assad's follow-up to Paradise Now.Abu-Assad pitched theas-yet-untitled contemporary drama to Focus and is writing the screenplay.Senior vice president ofproduction Kahli Small is supervising development for production president JohnLyons.Paradise Now earned a foreign language Academy Award nominationthis year and picked up a string ...

  • News

    Myriad takes on three for sales: Argento, Barreto, Silberling

    2006-05-20T04:00:00Z

    Myriad Pictures has picked upworldwide rights to Dario Argento's English-language horror picture TheMother Of Tears, and Brad Silberling's comedy 10 Items Or Less starring MorganFreeman.The company is also sellingworldwide rights excluding Latin America and France to Bruno Barreto'sRio-set bus hijack drama 174. Filming is set to begin in Riothis autumn ...

  • News

    Bondarchuk Jr to complete his father's And Quiet Flows The Don

    2006-05-19T00:00:00Z

    Like father, like son. Fyodor Bondarchuk announced yesterday that he iscompleting his late dad's Sergei Bondarchuk's unfinished epic film And QuietFlows The Don.''Actor-director Sergei Bondarchuk, one of the legendary figures inpost-war Soviet cinema, originally shot And Quiet Flows The Don in 1992, twoyears before his death. An English-language adaptation of ...

  • News

    Bauer Martinez takes new tactic with The Break-Up Guy

    2006-05-20T04:00:00Z

    Bauer Martinez Studios isretooling its business plan to focus on self-generated material and plans tokick off this October with production of original comedy The Break-Up Guy scripted by David Drew Gallagher.Gallagher previously wrote BauerMartinez's upcoming Van Wilder 2: The Rise Of Taj.The romantic comedy scriptdeveloped from a pitch is the ...

  • News

    Good Machine Int'l unveils Cannes sales deals

    2000-06-20T02:41:00Z

    Three year-old Good Machine International has unveiled a string of sales closed during and after the Cannes Film Festival, extending its relationships with key foreign independents such as Entertainment Film Distributors in the UK, Bac Film in France and Constantin Film in Germany, while striking first-time deals with Medusa Film ...

  • Reviews

    Princess

    2006-05-20T04:00:00Z

    Dir: Anders Morgenthaler. Den. 2006. 80mins.It's a sometimes dazzling curio rather than afully-fledged achievement, but Anders Morgenthaler'sadult animation Princess is certainlyone of the more attention-grabbing items on the Cannes menu this year. Kickingoff Directors' Fortnight, this tale of vengeance in the Danish porn underworldresembles the sort of grim material usually ...