Small MPU – Page 797
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News
Irish viewers elect favourite films for broadcast
Irish terrestrial broadcaster RTE has launched an innovative, interactive scheme which allows its viewers to vote for and choose the film they want to watch each week. Called Cinepicks, the scheme sees viewers vote for one of two possible films. Viewers vote by calling one of two premium rate telephone ...
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News
Pawlikowski embarks on Love shoot
Pawel Pawlikowski, the acclaimed director of Last Resort, has started shooting his new film, My Summer Of Love.Described as a loose adaptation of the book by Helen Cross, it is the story of the friendship and burgeoning sexuality of two teenage girls - one rich, one poor - who form ...
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News
Locarno shines spotlight on film foundations
Locarno's Film Industry Office is to cast a spotlight on the workings of film foundations such as Rotterdam's Hubert Bals Fund and Montecinema Verita at this year's festival.Held on August 12, the event will examine the potential role for international sales companies or distributors becoming involved at an early stage ...
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News
Indian music major unveils ambitious film plans
Indian music major Saregama is planning to re-enter movie production and has unveiled plans to produce 20 Indian language films over the next three years.The owner of the largest music catalogue in India, the move is part of Saregama's plan to become an all-round entertainment company which will allow it ...
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News
Euro pay-TV outfits set for revenue boom
For the past three years, the news emanating from most of Europe's pay-TV outfits has been consistently grim.Financial cutbacks, bankruptcies and mergers in countries such as Germany, Italy, Spain and France hit the film industry hard as the leading pay-TV players cut back on their investment in movies.However, a new ...
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News
Saban submits fresh bid for ProSiebenSat.1
US billionaire Haim Saban is poised to take over 72% of the voting shares in the German broadcasting group ProSiebenSat.1 as part of a bidding alliance with five private equity investors.Sources at the insolvent KirchMedia confirmed press reports on August 4 that a revived bid from Saban would be on ...
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News
Oz producers bemoan lack of homegrown hits
An air of despondency is beginning to settle over Australian producers as, one by one, 2003's crop of local films fail to take off at the box office. The two latest Australian releases, Roadshow's comedy Bad Eggs and 20th Century Fox's Danny Deckchair, while only just out of the starting ...
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News
IFP LA moves 2004 Independent Spirit Awards forward by a month
Abandoning its traditional March berth but sticking to its Oscarweekend slot, IFP/Los Angeles has announced that the 2004 IFP IndependentSpirit Awards will take place one day before the Academy Awards on Feb 28,2004.The move is in response to the truncated awards 2003/04 season, anupcoming logistical melee triggered last year when ...
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News
Blonde 2 takes $4m including number two opening in UK
Fox International rolled out the MGM comedy sequel LegallyBlonde 2: Red, White & Blonde in the UK and several smaller European territories at theweekend, grossing $4m.The comedy opened number two inthe UK and took $2.5m (including previews) from 351 screens.In other openings, Belgium scored $178,000 from 40, Swedenproduced $100,000 from ...
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News
Trans-Pacific Media ventures into production with five horror remakes
International distributionconsultancy Trans-Pacific Media is making its first foray into production,teaming with Sick-O-Scope Motion Picture and Novelty Manufacturing Company toremake five horror films by cult director Herschell Gordon Lewis.The companies acquired theremake rights from Jimmy Maslon, who holds rights to most of the Lewis library,and say every project will be ...
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News
Miramax acquires six-hour Italian family saga
Miramax Films has acquired Marco Tullio Giordana'sacclaimed Italian drama La Meglio Gioventu(Best Of Youth) from Rai Tradefor North America (excluding French Canada), the UK, Ireland, Australia and NewZealand.The six-hour film, which won the Un Certain Regard - Altadis Awardat Cannes earlier this year, was originally conceived as a televisionmini-series and ...
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News
Tomb Raider 2 tops Hong Kong box office
Paramount's Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life received a strong outing in its firstmajor international territory, Hong Kong, over the weekend.The action adventure claimed $826,168 (HK$6.4m) from 34 locationsover the four-day weekend (July 31-August 3), resulting in a stellar average of$24,299 per venue and a chart topping position.Cradle ...
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News
Starz Encore in Fox hunt for recent classics
US pay TV channel operator Starz Encore has signed a long-termdeal with Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution that will give StarzSuper Pak and Starz On Demand subscribers access to titles like IndependenceDay and the entire Alien and Die Hard franchises.The licensing agreement comprises older classics and moremodern hits such as ...
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News
Two Towers breaks Swiss outdoor record
New Line's The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers has achieved the unique distinction ofbecoming the only film playing solely in open air theatres to break into theSwiss top five.The second part of Peter Jackson's trilogy adaptation grossed$63,897 (SFR 87,156) on eight screens, climbing 141% and rising from 16th ...
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News
Hulk crosses $87m overseas, but disappoints in Japan
Universal's The Hulk added $2.6m from 2,180 sites in 25 countries at the weekend toraise its international running total to $87.2m.The results do not include grosses for France and LatinAmerica, which are still being collated, but do encompass a disappointingJapanese opening figure of $1.2m from 432 theatres in its first ...
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News
Film Company takes off with Palm's Spaceman
UK-based sales outfit The Film Company (TFC) has secured worldwide rights to Spaceman, winner of the audience award for best competition feature at the Austin Film FestivalTFC acquired the film from Palm Pictures, which picked up the title following positive US reviews from its festival run. Directed by Internet humorist ...
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Reviews
Freaky Friday
Dir: Mark Waters. US. 2003. 97mins.An original remake sounds like an oxymoron, but the new Freaky Friday, Disney's reworking of its own 1976 film, is smart, energetic and loads of fun. Indeed, it is almost as good as The Parent Trap, a 1998 Disney re-make that, not so coincidentally, starred ...
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News
Saban's German bid accepted
KirchMedia's creditors have approved US media mogul Haim Saban's offer to buy a controlling stake in Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 media group.The insolvent KirchMedia announced that its creditor committee had voted unanimously to accept the proposal of insolvency administrator Michael Jaffe to sell KirchMedia's shares in ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG to Saban Capital ...
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News
Arnie heats up the UK box office
A return of the high summer temperatures affected a lot of films in the UK this weekend, but Columbia TriStar's Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines rode the heatwave with a massive $9.8m (£6.1m) gross from 478 sites playing 762 prints.The launch figures included Thursday previews of $1.7m (£1.05m) from ...
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News
Oz cheaper than Canada for runaway shoots says report
A Hollywood producer would save significant amounts of money shooting a big budget film in Australia compared to Canada, according to a report published this week.The report, which was produced by Sydney's best-known film accountancy firm for the Australian Government, concludes that a Hollywood producer would save 7.5% if he ...