Small MPU – Page 974

  • News

    Maximum takes on international sales for Michod's Animal Kingdom

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Maximum Films International has picked up international sales rights on writer-director David Michôd's crime thriller Animal Kingdom, starring Guy Pearce. Its allied releasing arm, Maximum Films Distribution, will handle the film in Canada. The film goes starts shooting in Melbourne early next year.The Australia-produced saga explores the Melbourne underworld, where ...

  • News

    M-Line pre-sells Kitchen to Japan's Showgate

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    New Korean sales outfit M-Line has pre-sold romantic drama Kitchen to Showgate for Japan.The $1.2m film is due for a February 2009 release in Korea. Starring Ju Ji-hun, from the pan-Asian TV series Princess Hour, the film follows members of a suicide club who end up in a gruesome survival ...

  • News

    AFM kicks off with record world premieres and solid footing in November

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Whatever the economic woes in the outside world, the American Film Market (AFM) remains in robust health. That was the message yesterday as the 29th edition of the market got underway.'There are 527 films are screening here in Santa Monica, among them 102 world premieres, the highest we've ever had,' ...

  • News

    Miranda Richardson to narrate Turtle's Incredible Journey

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Long-gestating wildlife feature documentary The Turtle's Song, on Sola Media's slate here, has been given a name change and has recruited Miranda Richardson as narrator.The film will now be known as The Turtle's Incredible Journey. It should finally be ready in time for the Berlinale in February.Just prior to the ...

  • News

    Stallone reunites with Nu Image/Millennium for Expendables

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Following their successful collaboration on the global hit Rambo, Sylvester Stallone and Nu Image/Millennium Films are reuniting on action thriller The Expendables. Stallone wrote and will direct and star alongside Jason Statham with Jet Li in final negotiations to join the story of mercenaries who embark on a ...

  • News

    Deepa Mehta teams with Salman Rushdie for Midnight's Children

    2008-11-06T14:55:00Z

    Deepa Mehta is lining up a feature version of Midnight's Children with author Salman Rushdie, whose masterpiece of magic realism about the birth of modern India has remained untouched by film-makers for nearly 30 years.The film-maker announced the film with Rushdie today, at the eighth annual Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council ...

  • News

    Stormare doubles up with Gnomes and Trolls

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Swedish actor Peter Stormare (Fargo, Bad Boys II) is to voice a schizophrenic hedgehog in NonStop Sales' Gnomes AndTrolls The Secret Chamber. The versatile Stormare is then to voice acompletely different role, that of Leif The Gnome King, in the sequel.'The hedgehog will be not be part of number two,' ...

  • News

    Rothwell wins New Zealand film-makers' vote

    2000-11-09T18:51:00Z

    Director Hamish Rothwell was made young film-maker of the year by the Screen Producers and Directors Association of New Zealand (SPADA), on the first evening of their annual conference (November 9). The title is a vote of confidence for the commercials director's stylish debut feature Stickmen, which will be released ...

  • News

    Christopher Hampton returns to directing with White Chameleon

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Christopher Hampton is to return to directing. The Oscar-winningEnglish writer/filmmaker, who picked up a Special Jury prize in Cannesfor Carrington in 1995 and also won plaudits for his Atonementscreenplay, is now to write and direct White Chameleon.The new project is being put together by UK producer Chris Curling'sZephyr Films and ...

  • News

    Central Partnership launches new Russian spy franchise

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    As the latest Bond movie Quantum Of Solace is launched worldwide, the Russiansare hatching their very own spy franchise.Here at the AFM,Moscow-based Central Partnership is introducing buyers to spy movie ManOf The East, starring Sergey Astakhov and Vladimir Epifantsev. Thefilm chronicles the adventures of Russian special intelligence agentYegor Kremnyov. ...

  • News

    Greek distribution sector sees shakeups at Audiovisual, Odeon

    2008-11-06T01:27:00Z

    The Greek distribution scene has undergone a shakeup going into AFMincluding the recent appointment of Vassilis Alexiou as general managerof theatrical distribution and acquisitions at Audiovisual, the topname in the business which handles Disney and Sony product as well asnumerous independent pickups.Alexiou, who formerly ran theatrical distribution, comes in the ...

  • News

    Mirovision, M to partner on Youth Is Reckless

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Korea's Mirovision is partnering with M Production to produce Youth IsReckless, by Lee Myung-se, the director of the visual extravaganza M,martial arts mystery Duelists, and crime action film Nowhere To Hide.Youth Is Reckless is based on the Book of Five Rings, a classic samuraitreatise by Miyamoto Musashi, which Lee was ...

  • News

    Shochiku sells Tadashi Mori's Panda Diary to Wild Bunch

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Japanese entertainment conglomerate Shochiku has sold documentary PandaDiary to Wild Bunch for France, Benelux, Germany and Italy.Directed by Tadashi Mori, the documentary follows the lives ofendangered pandas who have never lived in the wild forest. Shot in theChendu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China and AdventureWorld in Japan, ...

  • News

    Lightning dives into Prodigy's The Reef

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Santa Monica-based Lightning Entertainment has acquired worldwiderights excluding Australia and New Zealand to Prodigy Movies' survivalthriller The Reef.Lightning co-presidents Rich Goldberg and Richard Guardian are takingtheir first executive producers on Andrew Traucki's tale of a group ofholidaymakers in Australia who are terrorised by a giant shark aftertheir boat capsizes. Principal ...

  • News

    NeoClassics takes on Captain Abu Raed from Fortissimo

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Canada and US-based NeoClassics Films has picked up North American, UK,Australian and South African rights from Fortissimo to Jordan's firstforeign language Oscar submission Captain Abu Raed.Amin Matalqa's film stars Nadim Sawalha as an airport janitor whoenchants children from his poor neighbourhood who believe he is anairline pilot with tall stories ...

  • News

    Winther to direct Arclight's Speed Demon

    2008-11-06T02:06:00Z

    Peter Winther has signed to direct Arclight's creature feature Speed Demon, set to begin principal photography next spring and dedicated to the late Oscar-winning effects guru Stan Winston.Special effects creature designer Patrick Tatopoulos, whose credits include I Am Legend and 10,000 BC, will bring to life the last designs developed ...

  • News

    Imax drops 3-D adaptation of DreamWorks' Shrek

    2000-11-09T21:46:00Z

    Imax Corporation has abandoned plans to produce a 3-D version of DreamWorks' animated feature Shrek. Co-CEO Brad Wechler made the revelation during an analysts briefing following the release of its third quarter financials, saying increasing production costs of the conventional film has rendered "diseconomic" Imax's proposal to adapt the film ...

  • News

    American Film Market: latest news

    2008-11-06T06:46:00Z

    The latest news and reviews from Screen's team at the American Film Market in Santa Monica.UPDATED DAILY: AFM storiesUPDATED DAILY: AFM salesAFM buzz films and preview

  • News

    Thriller in Manila opens Sheffield Doc/Fest 2008

    2008-11-06T10:15:00Z

    Sheffield International Documentary Festival 2008 opened with the world premiere of Thriller In Manila, a documentary about boxing legend Joe Frazier. Director John Dower introduced his documentary and took part in a Q & A session after the screening.Over the next four days, the festival will host international documentary makers ...

  • News

    UK Investment Fund for film industry reaches£6m

    2008-11-06T11:18:00Z

    The Skills Investment Fund has reached £6 million, thanks to contributions from UK films such as Quantum of Solace and The Duchess. The UK's Skills Investment Fund (SIF) has reached £6 million, thanks to contributions from films being produced in the UK. This year contributions have come from Quantum of ...