Small MPU – Page 840
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News
First timer Bousman gets Saw 2 directing gig
First-time writer-director Darren Lynn Bousman will directSaw 2, the sequel to Twisted Pictures'2004 horror hit that grossed close to $100m worldwide through Lions Gate.Principalphotography is set to begin on May 2 in Toronto in time for a Halloween releasein North America.TwistedPictures' Gregg Hoffman, Oren Koules and Mark Burg are producing, ...
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Atmosphere, Relativity team up for new Chiller
Mark Canton's production companyAtmosphere Entertainment and financing outfit Relativity Media have formedChiller Films, a joint venture to produce several films a year budgeted at upto $20m each. Canton andRelativity principal Ryan Kavanaugh will produce with Atmosphere's SteveBarnett and Relativity's Lynwood Spinks serving as executive producers. The partners arein talks with ...
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Atrix, Sola take on Toronto, Sundance hit Forest
Beatrix Wesle'sAtrix Films and Solveig Langeland's Sola Media, which has a sales partnershipthat has handled Austria's Antares and German thriller Silentium, has taken onworldwide sales rights excluding Germany and France to Sundance award-winner ForestFor The TreesDirected by Maren Ade, Forest For The Trees played at the Toronto International FilmFestival ...
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Perrin issues statement about Chorus controversy
Producer JacquesPerrin has responded to threats of legal action by the father of one of thesingers in Christophe Barratier's Oscar nominated The Chorus by saying he will only answer to thecourts.FrancisHartmann, whose daughter sang on the award winning soundtrack, has alleged thather participation has not been properly remunerated. It was ...
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Paramount confirms talks with Berman
Brad Grey'santicipated revolution at Paramount Pictures appeared to be underway yesterday[22] as it emerged that the studio was holding talks with Fox Entertainmentpresident Gail Berman.While a NewsCorp spokesman declined to comment on the development, Paramount confirmed thattalks had begun, throwing into uncertainty the current status of the leadingtelevision executive, who ...
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Lau turns Focus onto Asian film-making talent
Hong Kong starAndy Lau's Focus Films plans to finance a series of six high definition (HD)features from up-and-coming Asian filmmakers, as part of a drive to bring newtalent into the Chinese-language film industry. The regionalproject, "Focus: First Cuts", was unveiled today at Hong Kong's FilMart. Focuswill oversee production and international ...
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Quinta boards IAC's Midnight Return
Quinta Communications, the rights trading venture of Tarak Ben Ammar, has committed to provide half the $30m budget on IAC Film and Davis Panzer Productions' Midnight Return.Quinta will arrange distribution of the follow-up to Midnight Express in France, Italy, Spain and the UK, as well as work with UK-based IAC ...
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Australia's FFC gets involved in Hell
Australia's Film Finance Corporation (FFC) isto invest in Richard Frankland's To Hell And Bourke, only the thirdfeature ever to be made by an indigenous Australian writer/director.Following a board meeting yesterday, the FFC said itintended to finance the film if producer Ross Hutchens can raise the rest ofthe finance and meet ...
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Sundream launches with $38.5m production war chest
Sundream Motion Pictures, the new film venture of Hong Kong's pay TVoperator i-CABLE Communication, officially launched today at Filmart.Sundream plans to finance 15-20 feature films with a total investment of$38.5m (HK$300m) over two years.Tsui Siu Ming, executive director, programming services ofi-CABLE subsidiary Hong Kong Cable TV, will head the new ...
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Au cranks up Nana in Hong Kong
Hong Kong's Daniel Wu and Chinese actress Zhou Xun are set tostar in Nana, the feature debut of acclaimed music video director SusieAu which starts shooting tomorrow (March 24) in Hong Kong. Producedby Philip Lee's October Pictures and Au's Handmade Films, the film will be shotin Hong Kong, Shanghai and ...
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News
Italian Amore powers into international chart
GiovanniVeronesi's comedy-drama Manuale d'Amore powered its way onto theinternational chart last weekend thanks to a strong opening in Italy.Thefilm, which tells four stories about different stages in relationships from afirst kiss to abandonment, took the country's lead spot with a superb $3.8m off482 screens - both a high figure and ...
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French, Chinese film-makers eye closer co-operation
Searching for a new sort of entente cordiale betweenfilmmakers from France and China was at the heart of "French Day" at HongKong's Entertainment Expo.The day kicked off with a seminar on the common groundbetween the two industries. Interestingly, the lingua franca was English, withall six panellists from France, Hong Kong ...
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News
Fox names Glotzer vp of digital media
Matthew Glotzer has beenappointed to the new post of vice president of digital media at Fox FilmedEntertainment (FFE).Glotzer, who most recentlyserved as vice president of VOD and business development, will be responsiblefor developing content distribution channels across new and emerging technologyplatforms, and will also pursue long-term initiatives with major IT, ...
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Maysles to get lifetime award at Chicago doc festival
Veteran documentarian AlbertMaysles will collect the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award at the ChicagoInternational Documentary Film Festival (CIDF), which runs from Apr 1-10.More than 100 documentariesincluding 15 world premieres, will screen at the event, including JoeBerlinger's profile of Nazi doctor Heinrich Gross in Gray Matter, and Mark Wexler's portrait of his ...
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300 features, tributes to Buscemi, McDowell at Philadelphia
More than 300 features andshorts from 42 countries will screen at the 2005 Philadelphia Film Festivalwhen it runs from Apr 7-20, including eight world premieres, 10 North Americanpremieres and 13 US premieres.Titles include Gregg Araki'sMysterious Skin, Todd Solondz's Palindromes, and the late Theo Van Gogh's final picture, Cool!Festival strands includeWorld ...
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New Line, HBO team to buy Newmarket Films
Seeking a strong handle onthe specialty films sector, Time Warner sister companies New Line Cinemaand HBO have jointly acquired Newmarket Theatrical Distribution for anundisclosed sum and formed a new jointly owned theatrical distributor of independentfilms headed up by former Newmarket Films chief Bob Berney.Company name, staffingdetails and the initial slate ...
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FilMart wraps on a high
Moving to a pre-Cannes slot has proved successful for HongKong's FilMart as this year's market, which wrapped Thursday (March 24), was byfar the biggest and busiest yet.Combining the market with Hong Kong's other film-relatedevents also gave it more of a buzz. FilMart organiser, the Hong Kong TradeDevelopment Council (TDC), reported ...
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BSkyB to back Liz Murdoch's solo venture
Elisabeth Murdoch, who earlier today dramatically quit as BSkyB's managing director of Sky Networks, is expected to strike a TV programming deal with the satellite broadcaster as part of her new production venture.Murdoch, a driving force behind BSkyB's prolific film production activity, is setting up a UK venture specialising in ...
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Reviews
Valiant
Dir: Gary Chapman. US-UK.2005. 76mins.A charminglyold-fashioned tale of heroic Second World War carrier pigeons, Valiantis aiming for Chicken Run legs - but whether it truly has the wings tosoar internationally flies under a large question mark.Valiant is a promising effort from a largely British team(it was made on a purpose-built ...