Small MPU – Page 725
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Dueling Napoleon projects race to the screen
In what is becoming a Capote-esque race to get to the screen first, the twoNapoleon movies about his final days on St Helena and his friendship with a 15-year-oldare now both set to go before the cameras.Patrice Chereau has declaredthat he will shoot his $20 million The Monster Of Longwood ...
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Da Vinci Code breaks international opening record...
Riding a global wave of publicity and controversy, The DaVinci Code this weekend became the biggest international day-and-dateopener ever, with an estimated gross of $147m from 12,213 screens in 90territories. Added to the film's estimated North American gross of $77m,the international take gives Sony's Holy Grail-themed adventure a worldwidefirst-weekend total ...
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Channel Nine to invest $12m in Indian programming
Kerry Packer's Channel Nine is commissioning Indian producers after being awarded the daily 19.00-21.00 slot on Indian state broadcaster Doordarshan's Metro channel for a block of branded programming.The Australian company, which has set up offices in New Delhi and Mumbai, is investing $12m in Indian programming and plans to launch ...
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...and delivers in US with $77m debut
The Da Vinci Code opened powerfully in NorthAmerica this weekend with a gross of $77m, making it the first of the year'ssummer blockbusters to live up to expectations. Unlike Da Vinci's massive $147m internationaltake, the domestic gross - from 3,735 screens, for a $20,616 per-screen average- broke no all-time records ...
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Lau linked to Chinese classic
Korea'sTaewon Entertainment and Hong Kong's Visualizer Film Production areco-producing $15m-$20m epic Three Kingdoms - Resurrection of the Dragon.Hong Kong star Andy Lau Tak Wah is attached to the project with other castingto be confirmed.Thefilm is being directed by Daniel Lee, who previously directed Dragon Squad,starring Sammo Hung Kam-bo and Michael ...
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Irvine Welsh to direct The Man Who Walks
Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh is to make his directorial debuton TheMan Who Walks.The $3.7m (£2m) productionwill be made for his own company4way Pictures and is an adaptation ofthe 2002 novel by fellow Scottishauthor Alan Warner, who also wrote MorvernCallar. Producer Catherine Aitken iscurrently in Cannesfinalising finance.A blackly comic road moviethriller,the ...
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Edinburgh festival adds documentary award
TheEdinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) has announced special plans forits 60th festival, to be held August 14-27.Thefestival is launching a new award for best documentary feature, which willcarry a cash prize. TheEIFF is programming a special 1970s retrospective this year. They Might BeGiants: Other Voices from the New American Cinema ...
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NonStop Sales gets Irreverent Media slate
Stockholm-basedinternational sales agent NonStop Sales has struck a multi-picture deal withVancouver-based Irreverent Media Ltd.The slate deal includes TheBestRestaurant in the World. Ever, starring Bruno Ganz with THINKFilm to distribute in Canada; TheLight-house starring Kevin Zegers,Ryan Reynolds, Henry Czerny and Ewen Bremner; and mockumentary Gay Like Me', also with THINKFilm. The ...
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PolyBona readies Sky Fighters release in China
China's Beijing PolyBona hasscheduled a June 23 theatrical release for Gerard Pires' Sky Fighters, one offour French titles recently acquired by the company which is stepping updistribution of foreign films.The air force thriller willbe premiered at the upcoming Shanghai International Film Festival (June 17-25)before receiving a wide theatrical release across ...
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Verhoeven's Black Book continues shoot in Israel
Paul Verhoeven's wartimeepic Black Book, recently sold toEureka for Korea, is now in the final part of its marathon shoot.Verhoeven, producer San FuMaltha, writer Gerard Soeteman and other colleagues invested an extra $382,770(Euros 300,000) of their own money to enable Verhoeven to take the project toIsrael.He is currently on locationin ...
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London Film Festival plans 50th anniversary events
As the Times bfi London FilmFestival prepares for its 50th anniversary (October 18-November 2), plans areunderway for a series of celebratory events.These will include a specialscreening under Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square as well as the largest surprisefilm screening, showing simultaneously in 50 venues across the city. There arealso expected ...
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Oliver Stone unveils World Trade Center footage in Cannes
The first nerve-crunching 20minutes of Oliver Stone's World Trade Center were screened before the 20th-anniversary screeningof Platoon on Sunday night to astrong response from a packed Salle Debussy in Cannes.The footage laid out themorning of September 11, 2001, from the point of view of John McLoughlin(Nicolas Cage), a Port Authority ...
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TV producer Red to make film debut with Mark of Cain
Nicola Shindler's UKtelevision drama production outfit Red Production Company is to venture intofeature film production. Red, whose TV credits include Queer as Folk and Clocking Off, will make its big-screen debut with The Mark OfCain, a hard-hitting film aboutBritish soldiers' experiences in the Iraq War. Shooting starts this month inTunisia ...
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Asmik Ace to release Kadokawa film library on DVD
Asmik Ace Entertainment, the film production and distribution arm of Japan's Kadokawa Publishing media group, will release of total of 63 Kadokawa films on DVD starting this August. Titles will range from the 1976 hit The Inugami Family to the 1997 box office smash Lost Paradise. With Kadokawa's belated entry ...
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Shane and Romano plan $120m Buddha biopic
Producers Michel Shane andAnthony Romano have boarded Indian billionaire Bhupendra Kumar Modi'slong-gestating biopic about the life of Buddha.In addition, Modi hasoptioned the rights to Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh's book about Buddhism, OldPath White Clouds, on which the$120m Buddha will be based.Shane and Romano, whoexecutive produced I Robot and CatchMe ...
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Films Distribution takes rights to new Leopold film
Fran'ois Yon's FilmsDistribution has taken worldwide rights to Wolfsbergen, the latest feature fromhighly acclaimed Dutch director Nanouk Leopold (whose Guernsey screened in the Quinzaine last year.) The new film --a kaleidoscopic drama about four generations of a family -- re-unites severalof the stars from Oscar-winning Character.The cast is headlined by ...
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Jodorowsky plans new film King Shot
Alejandro Jodorowsky, theoriginator of the midnight movie, has a new film planned, entitled King Shot.He describes the project as somethingof a metaphysical spaghetti Western that could star his fans and friends NickNolte and Marilyn Manson. Producer Pieree Spengler is developing.Jodorowsky is in Cannestoday for Cannes Classics screenings of 1971's El ...
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Field and Al Ali named artistic directors for Dubai festival
The DubaiInternational Film Festival has unveiled new artistic directors for 2006, MasoudAmralla Al Ali and Simon Field, who will program films from the Arab andnon-Arab worlds respectively. Al Ali is basedin Abu Dhabi and is the artistic director of the UAE Cultural Foundation andthe founder of the Emirates Film Competition; ...
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Hawke. Finney and Tomei sign to Lumet film
Oscar-winning director Sidney Lumet is moving aheadwith new thriller, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead. London-based Capitol Films revealed at Cannes that isfinancing and selling the project.Lumet (whose credits include such acknowledgedclassics as Network, Dog Day Afternoon and Twelve Angry Men) is currently putting together a heavyweight cast. Already attached ...
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Ledger and Williams join Haynes' Dylan project
Hot off their Academy Awardnominations, Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams have both joined thestar-studded cast of I'm Not There,Todd Haynes' $25m portrait of Bob Dylan that finally starts shooting inMontreal this July.Ledger, who replaces ColinFarrell, will be one of six top-flight actors to play the iconicsinger-songwriter in his different life-guises. ...