Small MPU – Page 787
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News
Ribera wraps his third feature in Barcelona
Xavier Ribera has finished shooting his third feature, A + (or Amas) in Barcelona. Boasting a cast of up-and-coming young Spanish stars (Eloy Azorin, Elvira Herreria, Fernando Ramallo, Eloi Yebra, Carlos Fuentes and Ricardo Moya), and an ultra-cool sound-track, A+ tells the individual tales of three youths, whose paths eventually ...
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News
Italian Job gets to work in Italy
With 2003's sequel-saturated summer showing that, in some cases, sequels are not proving as successful as hoped, another staple of production schedules, the remake, is witnessing a Hollywood-style makeover.Increasingly branded as re-imaginings rather than remakes - a phrase used extensively in the marketing of Tim Burton's 2001 Planet Of The ...
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News
Little Polar Bear sequel among films to get German funding
The sequel to the 2001 hit animation feature Der Kleine Eisbaer (The Little Polar Bear) and new films by Grill Point's Andreas Dresen, Mostly Martha's Sandra Nettelbeck and Sonnenallee's Leander Hausmann are among the projects receiving a total of Euros 3.2m from the German Federal Film Board (FFA) in its ...
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News
UK lottery franchises get extensions
The UK Film Council has granted extensions to two of the three National Lottery franchises - The Film Consortium and Pathe Pictures - to spend their remaining lottery grants.The third franchise, DNA Films, is still negotiating with the council but the talks are part of a more complicated deal between ...
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News
Saban resurfaces in KirchMedia bidding
It could be the comeback of the year. Six weeks after making an eleventh hour exit from the bidding for the insolvent KirchMedia, US media tycoon Haim Saban could be back in the picture.According to German press reports this weekend, Saban has rallied the support of a group of financial ...
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News
Triumph for Nina's Tragedies at Jerusalem film fest
Nina's Tragedies a bittersweet comedy by Savi Gabizon and produced by Gabizon and Anath Assouline, won the Wolgin Award for Best Israeli feature film at the Jerusalem Film Festival. The award was accompanied by a $40,000 prize, to be divided equally between the director and producers. The film collected two ...
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News
Korea's Save The Green Planet wins PiFan festival
Local Koreanpicture, Save TheGreen Planet took multiple honours at the closing ceremony of the 7thPuchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) this weekend.The film, a first- feature directedby Jang Jun-Hwan, won the Best of Puchon award for bestfeature and also the Citizen's Choice public prize. Save The Green Planet is a ...
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News
MGM closes sale of Rainbow channels stake back to Cablevision
MGM has completed the sale of its 20% equity stake in RainbowCable Networks, which includes American Movie Classics, Independent FilmChannel and Women's Entertainment, back to Cablevision Systems Corporation.The sale, believed to be worth $500m, was announced last month.MGM receives $250m in cash at the close of transaction while theremaining $250m ...
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News
Bad Boys II does wicked business for Columbia
Columbia's Bad Boys II swaggered its way to the top of the table over theweekend on an estimated $46.7m, some three times bigger than the original's$15.5m bow in 1995.The sequel reunites directorMichael Bay with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as fast-talking narcotics cops,this time on the trail of a Miami ...
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News
Full Throttle tops $100m for CTFDI, while T3 races past $50m
Charlie's Angels: FullThrottle passed $100m at theinternational box office on Saturday (19), its 24th day of release, continuingits strong momentum from last weekend.Overall the action sequeltook $17m for Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International (CTFDI) from amassive 6,140 screens in 56 territories for a $109.4m running total.The only new major territoryof ...
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News
Newmarket, BVFS hold hands along Burns' Sidewalks
Newmarket Capital Group and Buena Vista Film Sales (BVFS) have teamed up to back Sidewalks Of New York, the latest film from Ed Burns, who will write, direct, produce and star in the film alongside his girlfriend Heather Graham and Stanley Tucci.It is the fourth picture on which Burns has ...
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News
Woody Allen's Anything Else to open Venice
Woody Allen's Anything Else will open the 60th Venice International Film Festival which runs from Aug 27th to September 6th, organisers announced.The festival-shy director has also confirmed that he will attend the movie's world premiere on the Lido - the first time he will have attended the festival."I'm looking forward ...
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Reviews
Seabiscuit
Dir: Gary Ross. US 2003. 140 minutesA good film that could have been a great one, Seabiscuit offers a welcome alternative to this summer's bloated action sequels. Based on the best-selling non-fiction book by Laura Hillenbrand, the film recounts the true, Depression-era story of an unprepossessing, knobby-kneed horse who not ...
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News
Columbia Asia takes world rights to Sylvia Chang's 20:30:40
Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia (CPFPA) has acquired worldwide rights to Taiwanese feature 20:30:40 directed by and starring Sylvia Chang.The romantic drama, which is currently in post-production, also stars Lee Sin-Je and Rene Liu who won best actress and best supporting actress respectively at this year's Hong Kong Film Awards ...
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News
UK's Artificial Eye picks up Kiss Of Life
The UK's Artificial Eye has picked up Emily Young's Kiss Of Life, which played in the Un Certain Regard section of this year's Cannes film festival.Artificial Eye have set a December 27 release date for the film, which stars Peter Mullan and Ingeborga Dapkunaite. Kiss Of Life was co-funded by ...
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News
Spain's Ministry of Culture awards funds to 15 new films
Spain's Ministry of Culture has announced that 15 films from new directors have been selected to receive subsidies totalling Euros 2.5m in 2003. The 15 projects, which have each been granted between Euros 60,000 and Euros 210,000, are unique in that they are all in the hands of new ...
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News
Summer film drought threatens Italian industry
Despite new data showing that ticket sales have remained virtually the same in the first half of 2003 compared to the same period last year, Walter Vacchino, head of national exhibitors union ANEC warned that there are "serious problems threatening the vitality of a large number of cinemas ...
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News
Korea's Mirovision takes world rights to Doppelganger
Korean independent group Mirovision has picked up world sales rights to Doppelganger, the next film by cult Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa.The film, which is being targeted for a world premiere at one of the major autumn festivals, is a sophisticated thriller with elements of comedy and black humour about a ...
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News
Germany's Splendid to divest its 80% holding in US subsidiary
Germany's Splendid Medien plans to divest itself of its 80% interest in the US subsidiary Splendid Pictures Holdings, Inc. (SPH), subject to approval at the annual general meeting.In statement, the group explained that the step was being taken "due to the currently difficult market environment surrounding the financing of US-American ...
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News
Chabrol thriller backed by Bavarian fund
Feature projects by veteran French director Claude Chabrol, newcomer director Marco Kreuzpaintner and Mostly Martha's Sandra Nettelbeck are among those receiving a total Euros 1.35m backing from Bavaria's regional public fund FFF Bayern.Over Euros 600,000 were awarded to Kreuzpaintner's coming of age tale Sommersturm, which will be produced by the ...