Small MPU – Page 789
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News
Indian beer baron moves into film production
Indian beer baron Vijay Mallya has entered the Indian film business and is to produce his first Hindi film, Rakth. Mallya runs UB Group, whose best-known brand is Kingfisher beer. Kingfisher is the market leading beer in India and sells in 65 countries around the world. Rakth, which is about ...
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Vivendi offloads French animation business
Vivendi Universal is to sell animation studio Ellipse Animation, a division of television producer and distributor Studio Expand, to French comic-book publisher and cartoon producer Dargaud Marina. The deal will create the largest French animation company as well as one of the biggest European animation catalogues.Along with existing series like ...
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Spirited Away wins Cambridge audience prize
Hayao Miyazaki's Oscar-winning Spirited Away picked up the audience award at the 23rd Cambridge Film Festival, which wrapped on July 20.The Japanese animated feature polled over 700 of the 4000 votes cast by festival goers to win the Q103 People's Choice Award. Spirited Away goes on general release in the ...
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France's GMT gears up for Napoleon four-parter
Leading French drama producer GMT Productions is developing a four-part mini-series, Napoleon, which is set to Christian Clavier (Asterix & Obelix, The Visitors) in the title role. The big-budget historical drama will be co-produced by French public broadcaster France 2 and will be filmed in both French and English. The ...
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News
APTN produces movie show for UK's ITV2
News agency APTN Entertainment and distribution partner MercuryMedia have been commissioned by the UK's ITV2 to produce a new 10-minute weekly movie preview and news programme for a 20-week run beginning on July 28.Movies Now! will give British audiences bite-sized previews of the big movies set for U.K. release in ...
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Toronto puts Canadian film-makers into Perspective
Canadian filmmakers Gary Burns, Deepa Mehta and Guy Maddin have been awarded prominent positions in the line-up of the Toronto International Film Festival, as the event announced its Perspective Canada programme. Burns' A Problem With Fear (pictured) will open the programme, Mehta's The Republic Of Love will be a ...
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Imax beefs up China presence
Imax Corp. has increased to ten the number of giant-screen cinemas set to open in China by the year 2005, signing a deal with Shanghai United Cinema for two Imax MPX theatre systems. MPX systems can screen both Imax 2D and 3D large-format films as well as its DMR-branded transfers ...
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Limited releases and holdovers make The Hulk somewhat green
Ang Lee's The Hulk topped the UK/Ireland chart this week but had a less spectacular opening than might have been hoped.The UIP-distributed comic-book film's $5.6m (£3.5m) from 500 venues opening weekend gross included three days of previews at some 450 sites. Without the inclusion of the $2.1m (£1.3m) generated from ...
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MGM in strongest ever position, says Yemenidjian
Fresh from the sale of its 20% equity stake in Rainbow CableNetworks, MGM's chairman and chief executive officer Alex Yemenidjian said thecompany was in its best ever financial shape as second quarter results wereunveiled.Company figures state that operating activities for the periodended Jun 30 generated $51.2m in net cash, compared ...
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Historias Minimas sweeps Los Premios Condor, Argentina's Oscars
Carlos Sorin's MinimalStories (Historias Minimas) made a sweep on Monday night of Argentina's Oscars, Los Premios Condor. The Spanish-Argentinian co-productiontook home eight awards from its twelve nominations, including trophies for bestpicture, director, original screenplay, new actor, cinematography and sound. Adrian Caetano's Un OsoRojo, won only one award out of anequal ...
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DPS buys into Vanguard Animation, forms co-production giant
Digital Production Studios(DPS), the New Jersey-based 3D animation subsidiary of IDT Media, has teamed upwith John Williams' UK-based Vanguard Animation in a major co-productionpartnership.The move paves the way foran animation giant following an eight-figure capital injection into Vanguardfrom the deep pockets of IDT Media's parent company IDT Corp, themultinational carrier, ...
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Warner International hits $1bn after seven months
Driven by the worldwide successes of Harry Potter And TheChamber Of Secrets, The Matrix Reloaded and Two Weeks Notice, Warner Bros Pictures International has passed $1bn inticket sales after just seven months of the year.The $1.012bn running total is the sixth time the distributor hasreached the $1bn mark (after 1993, ...
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MPAA unleashes nationwide anti-piracy campaign on Thursday
After months of apocalyptic warnings about the global threat ofpiracy the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is ready to unleash itsfirst nationwide US educational campaign.Starting on Thursday (July 24) a series of 30-second publicservice announcements produced by 20th Century Fox will air on more than 35network and cable outlets ...
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Reviews
Father And Son (Otets Y Syn)
Dir: Alexander Sokurov. Germany. 2003. 81mins.Alexander Sokurov's new film is the second part of a trilogy that began in 1996 with the esteemed Mother And Son, which brought the director to international attention. Subsequent appearances in Cannes competition have included Moloch (1999), Taurus (2000), and Russian Ark (2002), the last ...
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Reviews
All Tomorrow's Parties
Dir: Yu Lik Wai. China-France. 96minsShot digitally for the sake of flexibility and screened the same way in Un Certain Regard at Cannes - though a film version is in the making, to judge by the credits - Yu Lik Wai's second feature attempts to explore the near future ...
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Pictorion Das Werk unveils new management structure
Pictorion Das Werk - formerly Das Werk - has unveiled its new management structure and the opening of an additional post house in Cologne.The move comes three months after Helmut Breuer's Media Select took over the insolvent Das Werk postproduction group' facilities in Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich and Frankfurt-based ...
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Strikes hit Paris Cinema attendance figures
A week after the curtain closed on the inaugural Paris Cinema, organisers have announced that roughly 70,000 Parisians attended the festival. The two-week mini-festival which ran from July 2-15 was backed by the city and run by former Directors' Fortnight artistic director Marie-Pierre Macia. While good intentions, a healthy programme ...
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Spinetta named MD of FreemantleMedia production
Emanuela Spinetta has been appointed managing director of FremantleMedia's production business in Spain with immediate effect. FreemantleMedia, formerly known as Pearson Television, is one of the major international producers of entertainment and drama productions, responsible for more than 260 programmes in over 40 countries.In addition to her new role, Spinetta ...
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Kidman parts company with Von Trier's USA trilogy
Despite collaborating to great acclaim on Dogville, Nicole Kidman and Lars Von Trier will no longer work together on the next two instalments of the director's planned USA trilogy.Because of Kidman's busy schedule, Lars von Trier feels he cannot wait for the Hollywood star and will shoot the films with ...