Small MPU – Page 816
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News
Hamburg Film Fund gives $3.1m to seven new projects
The Hamburg Film Fund has awarded$3.1m (Euros 2.5m) in production support to seven projects including newfeature films by Fatih Akin, Peter Timm, Detlev Buck and Nicolette Krebitz.Akin's production company Corazon International receivedthe largest amount - $616,074 (Euros 500,000) - for his next feature Auf Der Anderen Seite Des Lebens, while ...
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UK's Video Island and LoveFilm plan 50-50 merger
The UK's top online DVD rental companies,LoveFilm and Video Island, have announcedplans for a 50-50 merger. Video Island'sScreenSelect.co.uk brand will be consolidated under the LoveFilmconsumer brand.LoveFilm and Video Island said that the newcompany "plans to exploit synergies on marketing, technology, distribution andoperations to grow profits faster and accelerate expansion across ...
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Fox Germany signs five-film deal with Claussen & Woebke
TwentiethCentury Fox of Germany has signed a multi-picture deal with Munich-basedproduction house Claussen & Woebke Filmproduktion covering all film rightsfor five feature films in the next three years as well as further projects thatare yet to be developed.Thefirst joint project will an adaptation of Otfried Preussler's award-winningchildren's story Krabat, which ...
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MIP TV's new buzzword: convergence
The MIP TV market began to wind down Thursday after four days thatfocused more on convergence than traditional television. Indeed, this year's market was subtitled "TV Reloaded," and thebuzzwords were convergence, community and content. Many attendees said this wasthe first MIP TV to substantially address the broadening scope ofmulti-platform distribution.Alongside ...
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Deighton, Becker join Kimmel in key production roles
Joshua Deighton and Holly Becker are joining Sidney Kimmel Entertainment(SKE) as senior vice presidents of production.Deighton previously served as vice president of production at Fox Searchlight,where he acquired such titles as Napoleon Dynamite and Broken Lizard's Super Troopers.He was a production executive on Sideways, Sexy Beast, One HourPhoto, I (Heart) ...
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Markham Street to make doc on PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
The rise and fall of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment is thesubject of a Canadian documentary called 100 Films And A Funeral, which has started principal photography.Produced by Toronto-based Markham Street Films, the $1.5mhigh-def documentary will take an in-depth look at the upstart studio run byMichael Kuhn which distributed more than 100 ...
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Working Title teams with John Hamburg on Troubleshooter
Universal Pictures and Working Title have acquired John Hamburg'scomedy thriller screenplay The Troubleshooter.The screenplay is based on a story by Hamburg and MarkShanahan, and Hamburg will direct and produce along with Working Title's TimBevan and Eric Fellner. Plot details were being kept under wraps yesterday.The filmmaker has had a longstanding ...
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Ice Age 2 set to dominate international in weekend #2
Fox International's Ice Age 2: The Meltdown is closing in on $100m as it prepares toopen in 20 territories heading into its second weekend.The animated sequel has amassed more than $64.2m by Thursday andis now opening in France on Apr 5, Australia and Germany on Apr 6, and the UKon ...
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UK pirate DVD raid results in five arrests
The UK's Federation AgainstCopyright Theft (FACT) worked with London's Metropolitan Police and Waltham Forest TradingStandards to raid a major pirate DVD manufacturing facility in Leyton, northeast London.Five arrests were made andmore than 300 titles were seized including Ice Age 2, which opens in the UK today.The facility contained morethan 500 ...
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Reviews
Election 2 (Hak Sewui: Yi Wo Wai Gwai)
Dir:Johnnie To. HK. 2006. 93mins.The second part of Johnnie To's contemporary gangster saga, Election 2 will be atreat for fans of last year's original, eager for more from its black-as-pitch Hong Kong triad family.But this exposition-heavy sequel is unlikely to draw in a new audience. Slow tobuild a head of ...
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Reviews
American Dreamz
Dir: Paul Weitz. US. 2006. 107mins.A comedy attempting to have fun at the expense ofseveral contemporary US institutions - George Bush and reality TV among them - American Dreamzis a disappointingly lame follow-up by director Paul Weitzto the pleasantly understated In GoodCompany. Too broad and obvious to rate as satire, ...
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News
Group tries to stop Korean release of The Da Vinci Code
Fundamentalistgroup the Christian Council of Korea (CCK) has applied for aprovisional injunction to stop the local theatrical release of The Da Vinci Code.Korea's largest Christianorganization, the CCK filed its application againstdistributor Sony Pictures Releasing Korea to the Seoul Central District Courttoday (April 7).CCK saidin a statement that the film was ...
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Carnaby, Boda team for thriller starring Jaime Winstone
First timefeature writer-director David Evans has started principal photography on Daddy's Girl, a psychological thriller.The film started shooting inand around Cardiff, Wales on March 27. Boda and Carnaby Internationalare co-producing, with Carnaby also handlinginternational sales.Daddy's Girlis co-financed by Carnaby and the Arts Council of Wales,which developed the script with Film ...
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UK gets more detail on new film tax system
As the UK Government'slong-awaited Finance Bill was finally published on Friday, accountants andlawyers went into over-drive to analyse what implications the Bill holds forthe UK film industry. With 26 film-related pagesand 62 pages of explanatory memo in the 489-page Bill, this was not an easydocument to digest. Even some experts ...
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Paramount worldwide acquisitions chief to quit
John Ferraro, senior vice president, worldwide acquisitions and co-productions at Paramount Motion Picture Group, is to leave the studio after 20 years to pursue other interests. A well-known figure on the international festival and market circuit, Ferraro was most recently instrumental in acquiring British comedy Kevin & Perry Go Large ...
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Da Vinci Code cleared in copyright case
A UK High Court judge hasrejected a copyright infringement claim filed over The Da Vinci Code. Michael Baigentand Richard Leigh, the authors of the 1982 non-fiction work The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, hadaccused US author Dan Brown and his publisher Random House of appropriatingcentral themes from their work ...
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Election takes top prizes at Hong Kong Film Awards
Johnnie To's Election was awarded best film and bestdirector at this year's Hong Kong Film Awards on Saturday night (April 8).The gritty triad thriller,produced by Milkyway Image and One Hundred Years of Film Co, picked up fourawards in all, including best screenplay, which was co-written by Yau Nai Hoiand Yip ...
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Fox teams with Denmark's Nordisk for digital exhibition
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown has become 20th Century Fox International'sfirst digital release in JPEG2000 on the Nordisk Film circuit in Denmark.The move complies with Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), a July2005 joint venture formed by the major studios issuing specifications definingJPEG2000 as the sole and unique file compression format for ...
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Meltdown drops 50% in US but still holds top position
Ice Age: The Meltdown held on to top spot and became the first release of2006 to cross $100m after an estimated $34.5m haul raised the domestic tally to$116.4m after ten days.The animated family sequelremained the dominant picture across the globe following a staggering $93mperformance in the international marketplace that raised ...
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Ice Age sets industry and animated records around the world
Fox International's IceAge 2: The Meltdown generated one ofthe biggest international weekends of all time with an astonishing estimated$93m haul on 8,216 screens that raised the international running total to$156m.The animated romp scored anumber of new industry and distributor records as it sailed to the top in allits territories, led ...