Small MPU – Page 836
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Media Asia unveils 2005 production slate
Hong Kong's Media Asia Films has unveiled its productionslate for the coming year which kicks off with US$3.8m (HK$30m) fantasy Wait'Til You're Older starring Andy Lau, Felix Wong and Karen Mok. Thefilm, which commenced principal photography yesterday, tells the story of ayoung boy who ages ten years a day over ...
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Japanese, Korean film giants unveil partnership
Japan's Kadokawa Holdings, the core company of theKadokawa media group, has announced a wide-ranging tie-up with leading Koreanfilm outfit CJ Entertainment.Kadokawa officials told reporters in Tokyo that the twocompanies will jointly produce films using Kadokawa comics, novels and othercontents as source material. In addition to film investment, they will partnereach ...
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AUSTRALIA 16 March
The nearly A$7.5 million taken at the Australian box office for thefour-day weekend to 16 March was the smallest of the year, despite Victorianshaving a holiday weekend. Contributing factors would have been Australia's glorious autumn weatherand the start of the National Rugby League season.Five new films were scattered through the ...
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FRANCE 16 March
Ray jumped into the top spot this week followingits number two debut last week. The film has so far taken $5,332,029. It wasfollowed by Costa-Gavras' The Ax which opened in 2nd place for 260,436admissions on 245 screens. Meet The Fockers dropped down to number threewith a cumulative $10,563,702 over three ...
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GERMANY 16 March
Sony Pictures' release of the Will Smith comedy Hitch held on topole position for its second week with a total gross of $ 17.5m and admissionsnow topping the 2 million mark.Further down the chart, there was considerable movement with no lessthan six new entries to the Top 15 last weekend, ...
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NEW ZEALAND 16 March
UIP's Meet The Fockers remains on top of the NewZealand box office in its third week. The in-law comedy grossed NZ$345,778 from55 screens. Roadshow's Constantine and Sony's Closer,both in their second weekend in cinemas, and Roadshow's The Aviator, in itsfifth week, again ran second, third and fourth. Displacing Ray in ...
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UK Chancellor pledges new tax reliefs for film-makers
Chancellor GordonBrown has said he will provide new tax relief for film-makers.Delivering his budget today, Brown said that he wouldreplace existing reliefs with new tax reliefs for low and high budget films. Further details will follow on ScreenDaily.com assoon as they are unveiled by the UK Treasury.Brown had been pushed ...
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UK Budget: film-makers win Section 48 extension
Chancellor Gordon Brown said today that he would provide new tax creditsfor film-makers to replace the existing Section 48 and Section 42 tax reliefs.Brownunveiled the plans as he announced his Budget for 2005 in the House Of Commons.The UK Treasury later confirmed that the Government would review the Section 42relief ...
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Wedding flies off with Polish Eagles
Wojtek Smarzowski's The Wedding(Wesele) and Kyzysztof Krauze's MyNikifor were the big winners at last weekend's Polish Eagle film awards. Distributed and co-produced by SPI InternationalPoland, The Wedding picked up six official awards including best filmand also picked up the audience prize.Polish EagleAwards 2005Best Film: The Wedding (Wesele)Best Directing: Wojciech Smarzowski ...
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Boudu bounds up international chart
Notcontent with starring in international hit The Chorus (Les Choristes) -which opened in the UK this week through Pathe with a $255,566 (£132,636) startat 64 locations - Gerard Jugnot's latest directorial effort, Boudu, wasthe highest new entry on the international chart.Based on a French stage play by Rene Fauchois that ...
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Dygra racks up further Midsummer pre-sales
Spanish animation producer Dygra Films has pre-sold itsanticipated new feature film Midsummer Dream to Scanbox Entertainmentfor rights in five Scandinavian countries.Scanbox took rights in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland andDenmark, meaning the film has now racked up pre-sales to 61 internationalterritories through sales handler Lumina Films.The deal was closed at the ...
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Official figures confirm Italian film investment slump
In a further sign of thecrisis that has gripped the Italian film industry, new figures released bynational film body Anica show that Italian investment in local productiondropped 5.7% in 2004 while average budgets slumped 17.7%. On the upside, the data alsoshowed that while battling an economic crisis at home, Italians ...
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ThinkFilm prepares launch of international division
ThinkFilm has announced itwill launch its new international sales division at Cannes headed up by veteraninternational executive Mark Horowitz.Horowitz and his team will arrive on the Croisette with a slate that includesthe Sundance documentaries Murderball, about quadriplegic rugby players, The Aristocrats, which focuses on stand-up comedians, and LieWith Me, an ...
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Aniston joins Universal comedy The Break-Up
Jennifer Aniston has joined Vince Vaughn inUniversal's comedy The Break-Up,which is set to begin production in early June and is scheduled for release onFeb 17 2006.Jay Lavender and Jeremy Garelick are writing the screenplay, which is based onan original idea by Vaughn, who brought the project to the studio and ...
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ITALY 17 March
During another busy weekendat the Italian box office, Medusa had a hit on its hands with La Terza Stella,which opened at number five and earned $813,985 from 204 screens. The localcomedy, from popular TV comic duo Ale & Franz, registered a strong average of$3,990 per screen.However, the weekend's otherItalian new ...
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Israel opens up film funds to international producers
Internationalfilm producers can now apply to Israeli film funds for financing thanks torecent changes in the Israeli Film Law.A new clause recently added to the Film Law allows localfilm funds to invest in international film productions whose themes promoteIsrael's national interests - whether there is Israeli participation in thefilm's production ...
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S. Africa admissions to surge as exhibitor slashes prices
South Africa's largest exhibitor Ster-Kinekorhas slashed the price of its cinema tickets in a move that is expected to leadto a surge in admissions in the country.Ster Kinekor said that movie tickets will cost just$2.3 (R14) at the majority of its cinemas nationwide from this Friday - downfrom $5.75m (R35). ...
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UK sees launch of Screen Financiers Association
A number of leadingproviders of independent British film finance have joined forces to launch neworganisation, the Screen Financiers Association (SFA).The founding members areAquarius, Baker Street Media, Magic Hour, Prescience, and Surefire. Between themthey have been involved in financing films such as Ladies in Lavender and forthcoming features Valiant, Tideland, A ...
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German distributor Solo files for insolvency
Munichbased distributor Solo-Film has become the latest casualty in the Germandistribution scene's seemingly never ending round of insolvencies.Solo's managing director Peter Heinzemann confirmed toScreenDaily.com that his company had been forced to file for insolvency onWednesday (March 16) after a key licensing company called for payment due on afilm license.Heinzemannstressed, though, ...
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Robots set to storm across major markets
Fox International gives itsanimated picture Robots a massivepush this weekend, with major debuts scheduled for a number of leading marketsahead of the Easter break.Blue Sky/Fox's follow-up to 2002's Ice Age was due to open in Germany on a huge 900 prints and Russia on 279 onMar 17, followed a day ...