Small MPU – Page 831

  • News

    Focus starts romantic comedy with Lathan, Baker

    2005-03-08T04:00:00Z

    Production has begun onFocus Features' untitled romantic comedy starring Sanaa Lathan and Simon Bakerand directed by Sanaa Hamri, the music video director who makes her featuredirectorial debut.Focus holds worldwide rightsto the project, which is being produced by Stephanie Allain through hercompany, Homegrown Pictures.Lathan stars as a Type Awoman who has ...

  • News

    Wellspring takes US on Audiard's Berlin hit

    2005-03-08T04:00:00Z

    Wellspring haspicked up rights to Jacques Audiard's noir drama The Beat That My HeartSkipped, which won theSilver Bear for best music at the recent Berlin International Film festival.The distributorplans a summer US release for the picture, a remake of James Toback's 1970'snoir Fingers thatstars Romain Duris and is produced by ...

  • News

    Caviezel, Kinnear head ensemble in Unknown

    2005-03-08T04:00:00Z

    Jim Caviezel, Greg Kinnear and Joe Pantoliano are all infinal negotiations to join the ensemble cast of psychological thriller Unknown which will mark the feature debut of music video andcommercials director Simon Brand.GreeneStreet Films International (GFI) is handlinginternational sales on the film, and GFI's Cedric Jeanson and Ariel Venezianoare executive ...

  • News

    14 docs receive grants from Sundance fund

    2005-03-08T00:00:00Z

    14 documentaries covering an eclectic range of subjects fromLaotian refugees to North Korean espionage are to receive the first wave of2005 grants from the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund.The fund was set up to support US and international filmmakerswhose projects focus on current human rights issues, freedom of expression,social justice, and ...

  • News

    Lions Gate steps up foreign-language acquisitions

    2000-05-02T13:50:00Z

    Lions Gate Films International is continuing its foray into foreign-language cinema by acquiring worldwide rights (with the exclusion of Latin America) to Mexican box office hit Gimme Power (Todo El Poder). The move follows a similar acquisition last week of Cannes Critic's Week contender Love's A Bitch (Amores Perros) (Screendaily, ...

  • News

    The Interpreter will open Tribeca Film Festival

    2005-03-08T00:00:00Z

    Sydney Pollack's United Nations-set political thriller TheInterpreter starringNicole Kidman and Sean Penn will receive its North American premiere when itopens the fourth annual Tribeca Film Festival on Apr 19.The Working Title/Universal picture is scheduled to open in NorthAmerica on Apr 22 and goes out first in the UK on Apr ...

  • News

    Hrebejk's Up And Down dominates Czech Oscars

    2005-03-08T00:00:00Z

    Jan Hrebejk's tragicomedy Up And Down won the top awards at theCzech Lions awards on March 5, taking prizes for best picture, best directorand best screenplay.The annual award of the Czech Film and Television Academy, the Lions arethe Czech equivalent of the Oscars. Of 21 Czech films released to cinemas ...

  • Reviews

    Drum

    2005-03-08T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Zola Maseko. S Afr.2005. 112mins.A little-known butimportant period in South African history is brought to vibrant life in Drum,the fact-based story of Henry Nxumalo, a black journalist who was targeted bythe Nationalist government after he wrote a series of articles exposinghorrifying prison and work farm conditions.Still awaiting a USdistribution ...

  • Reviews

    Adam & Paul

    2005-03-08T00:00:00Z

    Dir:Lenny Abrahamson. Ire. 2005. 8s6mins.Imaginea full-length Laurel and Hardy film set in Dublin's junkie netherworld andscripted by the bastard son of Samuel Beckett. If you like the sound of that,then you'll love Adam & Paul, Irish commercials director LennyAbrahamson's first feature.Abrahamsondoes a grand job, but it's scriptwriter and co-star Mark ...

  • Reviews

    Adam and Paul

    2005-03-08T00:00:00Z

    Dir:Lenny Abrahamson. Ire. 2005. 8s6mins.Imaginea full-length Laurel and Hardy film set in Dublin's junkie netherworld andscripted by the bastard son of Samuel Beckett. If you like the sound of that,then you'll love Adam & Paul, Irish commercials director LennyAbrahamson's first feature.Abrahamsondoes a grand job, but it's scriptwriter and co-star Mark ...

  • News

    Film releases put on hold in India as cricket fever bites

    2005-03-09T04:00:00Z

    A string of major film releases have been postponed inIndia's film capital Mumbai because of the start of the cricket test matchseries today (March 8) between Pakistan and India.Distributors fear that the test matches, which are hugelypopular in India, will adversely affect the takings of their films in cinemas.The series, ...

  • News

    'Big Mac' index for cinema unveiled

    2005-03-09T04:00:00Z

    Research outfit Screen Digest has launched the Cinema Index,a new piece of research which it says provides a picture of the comparative costof entertainment around the world.Itlikens the Cinema Index to the Big Mac index, which helped leading economic thinkersanalyse inflation and growth rates across the world's economies.According to the ...

  • News

    Singapore festival throws spotlight on Asian anime

    2005-03-09T04:00:00Z

    Asian anime is akey theme for this year's Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF) (Apr14-30) which will be book-ended by two Japanese animations. Katsuhiro Otomo's Steamboy opens the festival while MamoruOshii's Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence isthe closing film. The 18thedition of SIFF will screen over 300 films from 40 ...

  • News

    Wild Bunch launches Lennon's Locker Babies

    2005-03-09T04:00:00Z

    French sales and financing outfitWild Bunch has announced the launch of a new project starring and written inpart by Sean Lennon, son of the late Beatle John Lennon, and produced by DonMurphy.Wild Bunch will finance andhandle international sales on Coin Locker Babies, adapted from theJapanese best seller by Ryu Murakami ...

  • News

    Belgrade festival weathers rampant piracy

    2005-03-09T04:00:00Z

    The 33rdBelgrade International Film Festival FEST wrapped on March 5 with a screeningof Theo Angelopoulos' Trilogy 1: TheWeeping Meadow. The festivalpresented 72 films and sold 76,000 tickets, the same figure as last year.However, this was considered an impressive achievement given that rampantpiracy has caused a major slump in cinema-going in ...

  • News

    Kadokawa boards Japanese movie channel

    2000-05-02T13:55:00Z

    Kadokawa Publishing, a Japanese publisher with interests in film production, is boarding Japanese Movie Satellite Broadcasting (Nihon Eiga Eisei Hoso), a start-up movie channel operated by News Corp, Sony, Fuji TV, Softbank and Toho.Although Kadokawa has supplied content to satellite television, the move marks the company's first venture into satellite ...

  • News

    Bacon's Loverboy to open Gen Art festival on Apr 6

    2005-03-09T00:00:00Z

    The Tenth Annual Gen ArtFilm Festival will open on Apr 6 with the New York premiere of Kevin Bacon's directorialdebut Loverboy, which receivedits world premiere at Sundance recently. Loverboy stars Kyra Sedgwick, Bacon, Matt Dillon, and MarisaTomei, among others, in the story of a woman who received little affection fromher ...

  • News

    Anger, Ballroom top and tail Bermuda Film Festival

    2005-03-09T00:00:00Z

    The Bermuda InternationalFilm Festival will open on Mar 18 with Mike Binder's family drama The UpsideOf Anger starring Joan Allen andKevin Costner, and closes on Mar 24 with Marilyn Agrelo's Slamdance hitdocumentary Mad Hot Ballroom.Michael Winterbottom is thefilmmaker in focus and festival organisers will showcase four of his pictures 9 ...

  • News

    IMAX to install screens in Guatemala, Costa Rica

    2005-03-09T00:00:00Z

    IMAX Corporation has signedagreements to install giant-screen cinema systems in Guatemala City, Guatemalaand San Jose, Costa Rica, the first IMAX facilities in both countries. The deals are with CircuitoAlba and Repretel, leading media and entertainment companies with operations inGuatemala and Costa Rica, respectively. Both facilities will accommodate IMAXtraditional large-format fare ...

  • News

    Dunne, Leiner films get world premieres at Tribeca

    2005-03-09T00:00:00Z

    More than 250 features from44 countries including 60 world premieres are set to play at the fourth annualTribeca Film festival, which runs in New York from Apr 19-May 1. As previously reported here,the festival kicks off on Apr 19 with the North American premiere of SydneyPollack's political thriller The Interpreter, ...