Small MPU – Page 850
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News
TWC close to sealing interim agreement with WGA
Harvey Weinstein was expected to announce that The Weinstein Company interim deal with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) last night [Jan 10] that is said to be similar to the agreement the writers have reached with United Artists and David Letterman's production company Worldwide Pants.Weinstein flew into Los Angeles ...
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Koch Lorber takes US rights to Scott Hicks' Philip Glass documentary
Koch Lorber Films has picked up Scott Hicks' documentary Glass: A Portrait Of Philip In Twelve Parts, which follows the legendary composer over the course of one eventful year and premiered in Toronto last year.Koch Lorber holds US theatrical and home video rights and has set the US premiere for ...
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CEC makes single picture financing deal on Frank Miller's The Spirit
Finance and investment firm Continental Entertainment Capital (CEC) has announced its single picture financing deal for Frank Miller's The Spirit and has provided partial production and distribution financing for Odd Lot Entertainment together with funds managed by private investment firm Qualia Capital.Odd Lot and Lionsgate will jointly provide production and ...
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Legend set to conquer box office with Germany, Italy openings
Warner Bros Picture International's (WBPI) I Am Legend has ruled the roost for the last few weeks and looks good to maintain its number one berth this weekend.The horror sci-fi has amassed $169.3m and could cross $200m this weekend with strong holds and anticipated launches in Germany on Jan 10 ...
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Screen Opinion - film industry means business
You don't need to be Alan Greenspan to detect a change of atmosphere in the new year. There's a relatively widespread feeling that 2008 will be a tougher year than 2007.It's the reason, incidentally, why scrapping major awards ceremonies is an indulgence for the business as a whole, whatever the ...
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South Korea - The profitability factor
South Korea is no stranger to talk of a crisis in the film industry, even in the midst of years of swollen admissions, record-breaking local hits and rising exports.However, a recent study from the Korean Film Council (Kofic) estimates the average local film in 2007 to have earned back just ...
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Carlton scores $1m DVD deal with Spain's Filmax
Carlton International has scored a $1m DVD deal with Spanish distributor Filmax.The 15-year deal provides Filmax with over 100 titles from Carlton's ITC library for distribution on DVD in Spain and Portugal. Classic titles covered by the latest deal include All Quiet On The Western Front, The Big Sleep, The ...
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Features
In focus - Korea on the World Stage
As much as the Korean film industry is dependent on theatrical profits, for several years it has also anticipated making money back on films from sales abroad - literally sending everything it produces to be sold internationally.But in the first half of 2007, Korean exports fell 57% year on year ...
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Yair Landau: Sony's digital driver
Yair Landau could not have timed the start of his Hollywood career any better. After a brief stint in investment banking, the Stanford MBA arrived at what was then Columbia Pictures Entertainment in 1991, soon after the venerable studio had been acquired by Sony.'I joined as the leading global consumer ...
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Features
The home run
As communist Vietnam opens up to foreign and diaspora film-makers, the state-driven local film industry is looking to benefit from exposure to foreign film crews and investment. Yet ghosts remain and US directors are often refused entry on arrival. Not so The Rebel director Charlie Nguyen, who grew up in ...
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Features
France - Festival king
When he took over the organisation of the Marrakech International Film Festival four years ago, Bruno Barde and his 14-person team had just months to prepare.But that did not deter Barde, who was already responsible for programming five other festivals as well as the promotional activities of roughly 30 films ...
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United Kingdom - English Patience
'When Paris sneezes, all Europe catches a cold,' Austria's Prince Metternich famously quipped in the wake of the French Revolution. When Hollywood sneezes, the global film industry catches a cold. That, at least, is the suggestion of British film commissioner Colin Brown as he surveys prospects for UK film production ...
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Features
Awards Countdown People - Awards People
JACK FISKThe production designer recreated the harshness of the frontier for There Will Be Blood. Patrick Z McGavin reports.On delivery of Paul Thomas Anderson's script for There Will Be Blood, production designer Jack Fisk also received an accompanying portfolio of around 150 black-and-white period photographs to begin filling out the ...
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Features
Sundance - The Shape of Things to Come - US Stars of Tomorrow
Each year thousands come to the mountain town of Park City, Utah, for the Sundance Film Festival. Some are here to see films, some to get rejected from overcrowded parties, and others to score goody bags. Many come to divine the future of independent film from the parade of new ...
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Features
International - New Year Blues
An absence of big-hitting new releases explains the 22.2% week-on-week drop in the international top 40 this weekend, with all four new entrants failing to enter the top 30.In its second week, Russian sequel The Irony Of Fate 2 was the strongest non-US performer. The second instalment of the cult ...
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The international view - The big pictures
Impressive-looking 2007 box-office revenue figures have already been tarnished by questions about the profitability of the films. But there are other questions that should be concerning the industry.The North American box office generated revenues of $9.7bn in 2007 while the international arena rang in with an estimated $15.2bn to bring ...
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French films sustain solid overseas admissions
French films scored a healthy 53.7 million admissionsoutside France for the year 2007 with revenues of $369m, export body Unifrance announced Thursday.But at home, the box office fell with local market share falling 36.5% from 44.6%, though admissions were still above average.Unifrance's provisional figures, while above average for the past ...
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Bell promoted in visual effects production at Universal
Jennifer Bell has been promoted to senior vice president of visual effects production at Universal Pictures.Effective immediately, Bell moves up from her previous post as vice president of production technology and will oversee all aspects of visual effects creation and production for the Motion Picture Group. She reports to president ...
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Oz box office up 3% for second biggest year on record
Australians spent $801.7m (A$895m) on going to the movies in 2007, making it the second best year on record in terms of annual gross box office.The Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (MPDAA) released the figure today and said it represented a 3% rise on the previous year. Only in ...
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French director Gilles Behat to shoot $10.4m thriller with Depardieu
MK2 has announced a $10.4m (Euros 7m) film from director Gilles Behat starring Gerard Depardieu and Olivier Marchal. Diamond 13 will begin shooting in February in Belgium and is expected to be released by MK2 in the autumn of 2008.Also starring Valeria Golino and Aissa Maiga, the thriller is adapted ...