Small MPU – Page 832

  • News

    Goldwyn, Red Envelope team to buy domestic rights to Trumbo

    2007-12-06T21:46:00Z

    Samuel Goldwyn Films and Red Envelope Entertainment have jointly acquired Peter Askin's documentary Trumbo about the life of blacklisted Oscar winning screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.The partners plan a late spring 2008 release on the film, which recounts Trumbo's eventful life through his letters and is based on his son Christopher's stage ...

  • News

    Jason Lee to star in dark comedy Thicker for Feverpitch

    2007-12-06T21:50:00Z

    Jeffrey D Erb and Joe Nicolo's Feverpitch Pictures has lined up the dark comedy Thicker to star Jason Lee and Christopher Lloyd.Erb and Nicolo will produce with Leslie Zemeckis and Terry Nemeroff will direct Thicker, which the producers describe as a tale of 'lethal greed and even deadlier desire.'Production is ...

  • News

    New Line is hoping Compass will be golden in 27 territories

    2007-12-07T01:47:00Z

    The Golden Compass should direct New Line International (NLI) toward sparkling returns this weekend as the fantasy adventure launches in 27 territories.Early results indicate a mighty gross as the film took $4.3m from nine advance launches on Dec 5 that produced eight number one opening days. The UK led the ...

  • News

    Del Toro and Morgan among guests at Screenwriters Festival

    2007-12-07T06:53:00Z

    The annual International Screenwriters' Festival has announced early details of its third edition, which will take place in Cheltenham on July 1-3. Speakers will include Guillermo Del Toro (The Orphanage, Pan's Labyrinth), who was a speaker at the first event in 2006.Other guests include Peter Morgan (Frost/ Nixon, The Queen, ...

  • News

    Dream, Nanking share top prize at Taipei projects market

    2007-12-07T08:42:00Z

    Clara Law and Yim Ho shared the top award at the 3rd Taipei Film & TV Project Promotion (TFTPP) held Dec 4-6, dividing the cash prize of $15,500. Ironically, runner-up Sherwood Hu walked away with $9,300. Law's $2m Like A Dream follows an American-born Chinese who travels from New York ...

  • News

    Women In Film & TV honour Alison Owen, BBC's Jane Wright

    2007-12-07T16:00:00Z

    The UK's Women in Film and Television (WFTV) has hosted its 17th annual awards at a ceremony at London's Hilton Park Lane. Honorees include film producer Alison Owen, BBC Films head Jane Wright, and Harry Potter author JK Rowling. The ceremony was opened by Sophie Balhetchet, cair of WFTV, and ...

  • News

    Josh Lucas signs on for Morahan's $15m God's Spy

    2007-12-07T11:15:00Z

    Josh Lucas with lead the cast in God's Spy, alongside Jordi Molla, Giancarlo Giannini, and Peter O'Toole. Andy Morahan will direct the $15m UK-Canada co-production. Cardinal Pictures' Lovett Bickford will produce in association with Local Films' executive producer Kim Leggatt. Brian Phelan wrote the script, based on true events that ...

  • News

    Maia Morgenstern to chair Hungarian Film Week jury

    2007-12-07T11:21:00Z

    For the 39th Hungarian Film Week (Jan 29-Feb 5, 2008), Romanian actress Maia Morgenstern will chair the jury. The jury is also comprised of FIPRESCI general secretary Klaus Eder, director Krisztina Goda, cinematographer Janos Kende and theatre director Istvan Marta. The Budapest-based event will for the second year let the ...

  • News

    Swedish government gives $3m for Bergman's legacy

    2007-12-07T11:23:00Z

    The Swedish government has allocated $3.1m (Euros 2.1m) to secure the artistic legacy of Ingmar Bergman, equally sharing the grant between his work in cinema and on stage.The Ingmar Bergman Foundation will receive $900,000 (Euros 600,000) to preserve and digitise the Bergman archives - starting with the 45 packing cases ...

  • News

    Escape joins Sohonet for PODS programme with MPC

    2007-12-07T11:29:00Z

    Escape Studios has joined the entertainment industry network Sohonet. London-based Escape is a CGI training and consultation facility and the company will use Sohonet for its new Escape PODS graduate programme. Graduate students of the Escape CGI programme will wok on actual TV and film projects from partner Moving Picture ...

  • News

    AMC to install 100 IMAX digital projection systems in 33 major US cities

    2007-12-07T16:34:00Z

    Giant-screen pioneer IMAX Corp. and US exhibitor AMC Entertainment have signed a joint-venture agreement to install 100 IMAX digital projection systems at AMC locations in 33 major US markets. The agreement promises to double IMAX's installed base by 2010. The US Nasdaq exchange responded to the news by boosting IMAX's ...

  • Reviews

    I Am Legend

    2007-12-08T16:27:56Z

    Dir: Francis Lawrence US. 2007. 100mins.Will Smith makes up what is essentially the one-man cast of I Am Legend, a darkly intense sci-fi/horror drama based on the classic Richard Matheson novella and directed, with the same kind of flair he brought to 2005's Constantine, by Francis Lawrence. Genre afficionados should ...

  • News

    Charlie Mitchell takes development post at MARV Films

    2007-12-07T17:34:00Z

    Matthew Vaughn and Kris Thykier's UK-based production company MARV Films has added Charlie Mitchell as head of development.Mitchell had been development executive at Robert Jones' Material Entertainment, and prior to that worked in development at Pathe Pictures.At MARV, he will work on a slate including WWI drama The Truce written ...

  • News

    Star TV buys 26% stake in Indian cable operator

    2000-09-14T17:11:00Z

    Rupert Murdoch's Star TV is strengthening its position as a programme provider in the competitive Indian market by buying a 26% stake in local cable TV operator Hathway Cable and Datacom Private, according to wire reports.The Hong Kong-based subsidiary of Murdoch's News Corp is understood to be paying around $75m ...

  • News

    Pfeiffer/Kutcher romance begins shooting in Vancouver

    2007-12-08T20:25:00Z

    Insight Film Studios has begun principal photography in Vancouver on the romance Personal Effects starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Ashton Kutcher.Voltage Pictures introduced the project to foreign buyers at AFM and has completed pre-sales in more than 25 territories.The story centres on a man who arrives in a small town seeking ...

  • News

    Louis Gossett Jr leads cast of The Least Among You

    2007-12-08T20:29:00Z

    Principal photography has commenced in Los Angeles on the inspirational drama The Least Among You starring Louis Gossett Jr and newcomer Cedric Sanders.Mark Young wrote and is directing the story of a promising African-American student whose early dreams of escaping ghetto life are dashed only for him to discover a ...

  • News

    Screen opinion - Marketing aloud

    2007-12-07T00:00:00Z

    At Cannes this year, an enterprising producer came up with the wheeze of advertising his film on the underside of toilet seats in leading hotels. It's a ploy that carries with it an in-built joke about the quality of the product but it expresses a truth that's become increasingly evident ...

  • News

    In Focus - The Shorts shift

    2007-12-07T00:00:00Z

    The short film reflects the way society is changing,' Berlinale chairman Dieter Kosslick said last week, announcing the festival's increased interest in the form. 'It is radical without constrictions.'It is a strong claim for a form that has often been little more than a calling card for wannabe feature makers. ...

  • News

    A closer Look: Brad Wyman and Adam Rifkin

    2007-12-07T00:00:00Z

    Look, the latest in a series of collaborations between Los Angeles-based Brad Wyman and Adam Rifkin, has opened up new creative and business vistas for the prolific indie producer and the genre-hopping writer-director.The film mixes raunchy comedy with serious drama to tell five overlapping stories that unfold over a week ...

  • Features

    United States - Syvan's secret

    2007-12-07T00:00:00Z

    New York-based producer Lemore Syvan is gearing up for The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee, the next feature from director Rebecca Miller, which starts shooting in Connecticut in April.The movie, which stars Robin Wright Penn, Julianne Moore and Winona Ryder, marks Syvan's fourth collaboration with Miller, following the director's critically ...