Small MPU – Page 801
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News
Fox enjoys South African honeymoon with Just Married
Fox International opened the comedy Just Married in South Africa at the weekend on anexcellent $134,000 from 60 screens, raising the film's international runningtotal to $44.3m.The film grossed around $152,000 in total and has threemarkets to go, including Japan.Elsewhere, the thriller Phone Booth added $2.6m from 754 screens in 12 ...
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News
Hulk bulks up in India
Universal enjoyed several excellent openings at the weekendincluding number one bows for The Hulk in India and American Pie: The Wedding in Australia.The Hulkgrossed $214,000 from 81 theatres in India for Universal's ninth biggestopening ever in the territory.It also opened top of the table in Lebanon, grossing a decent$40,000 from ...
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News
Neeson re-surfaces at Columbia TriStar Int'l
Weeks after leaving his post as president of theatrical at FoxInternational, Scott Neeson has joined Columbia TriStar Film DistributorsInternational (CTFDI) as senior executive vice president of marketing.Neeson will start work on Sept 8, when he will set aboutdevising overseas marketing strategies on upcoming Columbia Pictures andRevolution Studios' films including Spider-Man ...
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BAFTA/LA puts kettle on for Emmy nominees
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts/Los Angeles(BAFTA/LA) is teaming up with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences toco-host an inaugural annual tea party honouring the British 2003 Emmy nominees.The event will take place one week prior to the awards onSept 20 at The St Regis Hotel in ...
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Reviews
Perfect Strangers (NZ, 2003)
Dir: Gaylene Preston. New Zealand. 2003. 96mins.After its sold-out premiere at the Melbourne Film Festival, Gaylene Preston's "chilling romance" has, unsurprisingly, been invited to Montreal in September, a timely reminder that New Zealand cinema has more to offer than Lord Of The Rings blockbuster fantasy. Perfect Strangers is an adult, ...
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News
BVI's Pirates strikes gold in the UK
Buena Vista International enjoyed its second highest opening of the year, after Bruce Almighty, in the UK and Ireland this weekend as Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl sailed into the lead position.The Jerry Bruckheimer production defied sweltering weather (see separate ScreenDaily.com story) to take a ...
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News
Flach Pyramide takes on Bosnian Fuse sales
Bosnian director Pjer Zalica's feature debut Fuse (Gori Vatra) which had its world premiere in the Official Competition at the Locarno International Film Festival on August 11, has been picked up for international distribution by Flach Pyramide International.The tragicomedy about a small-town in Bosnia embarking on a race against the ...
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News
Zombie debut earns Melbourne festival praise
A self-financed debut film about zombies has been awarded the 2003 FIPRESCI Award for Emerging Filmmakers at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Undead, directed by Queensland brothers Michael and Peter Spierig, was earlier this year picked up for distribution in the US by Lions Gate. It set to be released ...
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News
BVIP falls for F&ME's Loving Glances
UK-based independent production house Film and Music Entertainment (F&ME) has struck a deal with Bjorg Veland's BVIP to represent its UK/Serbia and Montenegro co-production Loving Glances (Sjaj U Ocima) for international sales.The move comes ahead of the film's competition screening at the Venice International Film Festival and its presentation in ...
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News
Notting Hill director to mentor for Directing Change
Notting Hill director Roger Michell is to mentor newcomer Shreepali Patel on the first production to go though training scheme Directing Change.Patel, a Cardiff based director-producer with credits on documentaries such as Falkland Stories and Heavenly Bodies, will work alongside Michell on Pathe UK's upcoming production, Enduring Love.The scheme, set ...
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News
Gaga blames losses on bad timing
Japanese distributor Gaga Communications has blamed its release strategy for Hollywood films as one of the reasons for cutting its earnings forecast earlier this month. At the beginning of August, Gaga said it would post a consolidated net loss of $12.3m (Y1.47b) for the financial year ending September 31. The ...
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News
Copenhagen festival gets off to turbulent start
The first Copenhagen International Film Festival (Aug 13-20) has had a turbulent few weeks in the lead up to its launch on Wednesday night. Festival programmer Michael Soeby has resigned and will not be returning next year, despite lining up a decent first programme with a strong focus on European ...
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News
Swiss producers set for government funding boost
Swiss Federal President and Minister of Culture Pascal Couchepin has proposed that the national cinema funding budget should be increased by up to 15%. At the same time, however, he called on Swiss producers to be more commercially minded in the future.Speaking during the weekend at the Locarno International Film ...
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News
Another Oz studio planned
A major new studio facility is set to be built in Australia - the fourth in the country. Paul Hathaway, a business consultant and engineer, and his property developer brother Michael Hathway, are confident they will have all the necessary final approvals by the end of this year to construct ...
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News
Montreal unveils full competition line-up
New films from African filmmaker Idrissa Ouedraogo and Japan's Yoshimitsu Morita (Copycat Killer) are among 15 titles unveiled by the 27th Montreal World Film Festival (Aug. 27-Sept. 7), which has announced the balance of its Official Competition line-up. But the announcement also reveals anticipated conflicts with rival Venice festival (Aug. ...
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News
Venice names jury members
The Venice Film Festival has unveiled the jury members for both its competitions, confirming that veteran Italian filmmaker Mario Monicelli will head the jury of the traditional Venice 60 competition (ScreenDaily.com Aug 12)Joining Monicelli, who received Venice's Golden Lion award in 1959 for his classic film The Great War, will ...
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News
Human Stain producer Steindorff wins backing
ProducerScott Steindorff, whose credits include the upcoming Miramax drama The HumanStain, has teamed up with Las Vegas business-people Andrew Molasky and Danny andRobin Greenspun to form Stone Village Entertainment.Thedeal transforms Steindorff's existing Stone Village Productions into a broaderentertainment company that will handle film production through Stone VillagePictures and television through ...
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News
Newmark/Echelon snaps up Chinese duo for US
Worldwidedistribution, marketing and sales company Newmark/Echelon Entertainment Group has acquired North American rightsto the award-winning Chinese films For The Children and 25 Kids And One Dad.YangYazhou's drama For The Children follows an inspiring teacher's impact on thelives of her students and colleagues in a small rural school.Itwon multiple awards at ...
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News
Political docs take centre stage at Toronto
Themes of politics and international affairs dominate the line-up of documentaries playing at the Toronto International Film Festival this year.Special Presentations includes Errol Morris' The Fog Of War - a profile of Robert S. McNamara - which receives its North American premiere, while Ron Mann's Go Further - which follows ...
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News
Constantin figures show sales plunge
Germany's Constantin Film has cut its sales forecast for 2003, blaming factors such as the hot summer weather and the 'shakeout of the German media market' for the revision.Releasing its half-yearly and second quarter figures today (Aug 13), the Munich-based producer-distributor announced sales of Euros 36m, compared to Euros 63.4m ...