Small MPU – Page 870
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News
Mark Cranwell leaves BT Vision for Babelgum
Mark Cranwell has been named director of content acquisition of Babelgum, the Internet TV platform.Babelgum CEO Valerio Zingarelli made the announcement about the newly created post.Cranwell will lead Babelgum's outreach to producers, film-makers and content creators. He reports to Simon Kenny, the company's head of content strategy and advertising, also ...
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News
THINKFilm Intl boards Blue Valentine with Gosling, Williams
THINKFilm International has come on board to sell international rights to Blue Valentine, which will star Oscar nominees Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling.THINKFilm will introduce the film to buyers at Berlin's European Film Market next week. The project is set to shoot in June 2008.US-based sister company THINKFilm will handle ...
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News
Smith names evp of production finance at Paramount Pictures
Roderick Smith has been appointed executive vice president of production finance at Paramount Pictures and will report to president of feature production management Mark Bakshi.Smith will oversee day-to-day management of the production finance department including budgeting and cost estimating and will analyse production incentives and tax rebates for worldwide productions.Prior ...
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Screen opinion - Copyright and wrong
Everyone has a pet-hate phrase that makes them release the safety catch on their revolver. This is a personal choice: whenever the issue of copyright theft is raised, someone earnestly gets up to berate speakers for the use of the word 'piracy'. It conjures up images in the minds of ...
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European Film Market preview
For Berlin world premieres click hereFor this year's buzz titles click hereFor the critic's choice click hereFlash back to last year's European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin, and 2007 was the year the EFM came of age.Significant deals were made as Berlin moved beyond its image as the market for ...
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Sundance review - After the gold rush
'There's no question people were cautious and were being more cautious than ever about the marketing of the film,' says the co-head of the Independent Film Group at UTA, Richard Klubeck, who negotiated the $5m sale of worldwide rights on Chuck Palahniuk adaptation Choke to Fox Searchlight.'They came to each ...
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Features
Smart money
Benjamin Waisbren does not mince words when he weighs up the film business from a financier's point of view (and using financiers' parlance). "Film's a wonderful, iconic art form; it's not a great asset class," says the New York-based president and CEO of new film-finance operation Continental Entertainment Group (CEG). ...
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Hell raiser - Sam Raimi back to his horror roots
It has been 27 years since Sam Raimi made the world sit up and take notice with The Evil Dead and 16 years since he directed his last horror film, Army Of Darkness.Since then he has broadened his range to include a western (The Quick And The Dead), a thriller ...
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Features
United States-Italy - Spike goes to war
Spike Lee's The Miracle At St Anna is alternatively being billed as the director's Second World War project and as his Italian project. Both are true - it is his first war film and the first project he has shot almost entirely outside the US."It's a miracle this film got ...
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Features
France-Spain - Coach's driving ambition
As it heads to the European Film Market in Berlin, Franco-Spanish sales company Coach 14 is also celebrating its first birthday.Founded by former Funny Balloons partner Pape Boye and Jaume Domenech, the company has offices in Paris and Barcelona, with backing from Spanish production outfit Iris Star, which was founded ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Mountain high
It has been an exciting year for Summit Entertainment. The company - with ex-Paramount executive Rob Friedman - tapped into a $1bn financing fund via Merrill Lynch to move into US distribution and in-house producing, making it a fully vertically integrated studio with development, financing, domestic distribution, production, and foreign ...
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Features
Awards Countdown - The Oscars - By the numbers: oscar nominations
2008 nominees with the most previous nods20 nominations Kevin O'Connell, sound mixing on TransformersO'Connell was nominated previously for Terms Of Endearment (1983), Dune (1984), Silverado (1985), Top Gun (1986), Black Rain (1989), Days Of Thunder (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), Crimson Tide (1995), Twister (1996), The Rock (1996), Con ...
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FeaturesViggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
A first-time Oscar nominee for best actor, Viggo Mortensen tells Mike Goodridge how he put himself in David Cronenberg’s hands to play a Russian hoodlum in Eastern Promises.
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Berlin film festival - the world premieres
In principle, it's business as usual,' says Dieter Kosslick of his seventh outing as Berlinale festival director, before going on to admit this year's line-up boasts a slew of prestigious world premieres. 'We have some really big highlights this year, such as Martin Scorsese's opening film, the documentary Shine A ...
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News
Berlin - the critic's preview
The final Competition line-up of the 58th Berlinale confirms the German festival's preference for indie kudos over commercial clout and star power.Once again - and in contrast to last year's Cannes and Venice festivals - few of the US entries are likely to tickle the critics.The one exception looks to ...
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Berlin - Market Buzz
English languageHorror/ThrillerBook Of Blood (US) Dir: John HarrisonHarrison adapts Clive Barker's Book Of Blood, about a paranormal investigator who discovers a highway along which souls are transported. UK effects house Artem is providing the scares and the film is shooting in Edinburgh.Int'l sales: Essential Ent't, (1) 310 550 9100Cry Of ...
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Features
International - The very best figures
Russian comedy The Very Best Film (Samiy Luchshiy Film) claimed the international crown this weekend with a mammoth $17.8m opening weekend in two territories, accounting for 9% of the international top 40 revenue.The parody, distributed through Caroprokat, enjoyed a $16.5m opening in Russia, the biggest ever in the country. It ...
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Features
The Critical view - Acts to grind
When writing a film review, I have a checklist in the back of my head. Did I mention the editing’ What kind of look are the director and DoP going for - handheld cine-realism, washed-out widescreen nostalgia, garish techno-futurism’ How about the sound design, the soundtrack, the miking of dialogue: ...
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PPI's Cloverfield goes on rampage in 15 territories
Paramount's monster movie Cloverfield took a big hit in its second weekend in North America but has everything to gain overseas as it goes on the rampage in 15 territories through PPI this weekend. The film lands in Germany on Jan 31, followed by the UK, Mexico, Italy, Spain and ...
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News
Exhibition in wave of global consolidation
Consolidation in the exhibition sector is expected to continue on a global scale with the imminent changeover to digital projection marginalising opportunities for medium-sized operators, Dodona Research predicts.The analyst has launched a database, Exhibitor Rankings - which lists almost 300 exhibitors operating 20 screens or more spread across more than ...