Small MPU – Page 811
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News
Image extends North American DVD deal with Criterion to 2013
Image Entertainment has extended its exclusive North American video distribution deal with Criterion and will continue to release the Criterion Collection until July 31, 2013.The agreement replaces the one dated August 1, 2005, and grants Image exclusive distribution rights over all video formats, including kiosk-based DVD-burning initiatives.Criterion retains broadcast and ...
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Palm Springs to honour Jerry Weintraub, Juno at awards gala
The 19th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will honour Jerry Weintraub with the Patron Of The Arts Award presented by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation.Weintraub will receive the award at the festival's awards gala on January 5, 2008. The festival will also honour Juno with the Chairman's Vanguard ...
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Monte Cristo closes pre-sales on Japanese horror End Call
Monte Cristo Entertainment has closed pre-sales on its Japanese horror title End Call, which is scheduled for a February 2008 shoot in Tokyo.Rights went to South Korea (KoreaScreen), and the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia (Parkit Films & Television).Chilean martial arts film Kiltro starring Marko Zaror has sold to the UK ...
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Moser named vice president for new Participant TV division
Participant Productions has launched a television division and hired John Moser to serve as vice president.Moser will oversee the conception, development and production of original programming that will follow the company's goal of creating commercial and socially relevant entertainment.He will report to Participant president Ricky Strauss. He most recently served ...
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Deauville honours Girlfight
The Deauville Festival of American Cinema has awarded its Grand Prix du Cinema Independent to Karyn Kusama's Sundance title Girlfight.But Christopher Nolan's Memento, the only Deauville competition title which did not premiere in Sundance, won no less than three prizes. The revenge story, which stars Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss and ...
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Roman Polanski's story to get big screen treatment
Amadeus Pictures has lined up Polanski, an unauthorised story about the life of Roman Polanski that is set to begin filming in Belgium, Poland and the US in January 2008.Amadeus CEO Damian Chapa will direct from his own screenplay, and will also produce and play Polanski's Polish producer friend Eugene ...
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Opinion: The writing's on the wall
Given the hype about the battle for the digital future, it's apt that the current Hollywood writers' strike appears to hinge on the old chestnut of DVD payments.No-one should be too surprised. The argument about DVD, and indeed television rights is simply for a fair share of existing revenue. In ...
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In focus - American film market - Mixed fortunes at 'subdued' AFM
The first big play in Hollywood's slide towards an all-out strike in 2008 inevitably cast a pall over the American Film Market (AFM). As the world's buyers and sellers descended on Santa Monica last week, the big question was whether the disgruntled writers would go on strike for the first ...
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Features
United states - Fairy-tale project
It has been more than a decade since Barry Josephson first brought Enchanted, Walt Disney Pictures' big release for the forthcoming US Thanksgiving holiday weekend, to the studio.At the time, Josephson was starting out as a producer after his stint as Columbia Pictures' president of worldwide production. So he understood ...
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Features
United states - Dance partners
With its uplifting story and cinematic style, War/Dance has won a shelf-ful of festival honours, including the Sundance documentary directing award, and looks likely to be in the running for this year's documentary feature Oscar.Directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine say the most important beneficiaries will be the children ...
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Features
South Africa - Durban legend
A nant Singh is a busy man. In the US, he has just wrapped production on AmericanEast, his 62nd film and director Hesham Issawi's first, described as "Do the Right Thing for the American Muslim community".In South Africa, Singh is in post-production with the docu-drama More Than Just A Game, ...
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Features
Israel - Rude awakenings
Actor-turned-director Tzahi Grad is a household name in Israel as a star of local film and television. With a reputation as a serious and self-assured actor, he decided to move behind the camera in 2001 to make his debut feature, Giraffes, in order to "control the language of cinema" as ...
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National treasures - spotlight on foreign-language Oscars
Nationality and language are such blurred elements in international film-making today that the Academy's foreign-language film category is always likely to attract controversy. For this year's foreign language submissions - click hereThe most nominated countries - click hereTake The Band's Visit - Israeli director Eran Kolirin's charming story of an ...
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Awards countdown people
TAMARA JENKINS - The SavagesThe Savages balances comedy and tragedy. Film-maker Tamara Jenkins speaks to Patrick Z McGavin about the challengeIn The Savages, the story of a brother and sister coping with their dementia-scarred father, writer-director Tamara Jenkins deftly handles both comedy and tragedy.'It's braided together,' Jenkins says of the ...
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South Africa - Film hub - A nation ready for its close-up
Unlike the national rugby squad, which mowed down competitors with cohesive confidence at the recent World Cup, South Africa's film industry is a mixed bag: on the one hand, it is an increasingly sought-after destination for international productions ranging from the minute to the mammoth; on the other, the local ...
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Features
South Africa - On location - Double appeal, half the cost
Filming in South Africa was buoyant before the Department Trade and Industry's rebate scheme - a 15% tax rebate that kicks in above $3.5m of South African spend - was launched in 2004. But in terms of creating jobs and local revenue streams through international co-productions, the rebate is viewed ...
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South Africa - Production - Support for rising talent
South Africa's indigenous films often do well at the box office; the biggest star Leon Schuster's broad slapstick comedies, for example, regularly trounce Hollywood competition. Yet local production virtually ground to a halt last year when the National Film & Video Foundation's (Nfvf) $5.6m (r37m) budget was slashed by a ...
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Australia - Bringing it all back home
When production on Warner Bros' superhero project Justice League Of America (working title) wraps shooting next year, director George Miller hopes that, for once, the project's many Australian crew members will not have to move abroad to continue working. That is also the reasoning behind Australia's revamped tax incentive for ...
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Australia - ASIA pacific awards - Pacific celebration
Held on the sandy shores of the Queensland Gold Coast in Australia, the inaugural Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsas) aims to celebrate and promote some of the region's leading films and film-makers to the international industry.'There is a marketing push behind all of this,' says Apsa chairman Des Power. 'I ...
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Features
International - The rising of Japan
A slew of Japanese films made a powerful dent in the international top 40 this weekend, collectively taking more than $13m and accounting for 8.9% of the chart's total revenue.Ensemble drama Always - Sunset On Third Street 2 was the highest new entry over the weekend, taking $4.7m from 330 ...