Small MPU – Page 988

  • News

    Helkon co-founder Werner Koenig dies in accident

    13 November 2000

    Werner Koenig, co-founder of Germany's Helkon Media, died on Sunday after being caught in an avalanche near Verbier, Switzerland, whilst scouting locations for upcoming feature The Extremists.The film's director, Christian Duguay, and another crew member were also present when the accident happened but remained unharmed. Helkon said in a statement ...

  • News

    Forever The Moment wins bestfilm at Korea's Blue Dragons

    20 November 2008

    South Korean Director Yim Soon-rye's Forever The Moment walked away with the best picture award at the 29th Blue Dragon Awards in Seoul.Based on the true story of the Korean women's handball team for the 2004 Athens Olympics, the film made $26m at the box office and was the first ...

  • News

    Eastwood to receive Modern Master award at Santa Barbara

    20 November 2008

    Clint Eastwood will receive the Santa Barbara International Film Festival's highest honour The Modern Master Award on January 29.Eastwood has two films in contention this awards season with Changeling and the upcoming Gran Torino and has won the directing Oscar twice for Million Dollar Baby in 2005 and Unforgiven in ...

  • News

    Bruce Tuchman promoted to president of MGM Networks

    20 November 2008

    Bruce Tuchman has been promoted to president of MGM Networks and will continue to be based in New York City.Tuchman reports to MGM chairman and CEO Harry Sloan and will continue to oversee the division, which manages and develops the company's activities in MGM and non-MGM branded international television channels ...

  • News

    Seattle Film Festival announces $780,000 in grants

    20 November 2008

    The Seattle International Film Festival has received $750,000 in grants from The Wallace Foundation and $30,000 from The Academy Foundation Of The Academy Of Motion Picture Art And Sciences.The Wallace Foundation award will be spread out over four years to develop ethnic, youth and family outreach.The $30,000 received from The ...

  • News

    Columbia signs Mullens to adapt Moore's novel The Swap

    21 November 2008

    Columbia Pictures has signed the writing team of Tim and Tom Mullen to adapt Antony Moore's comedy novel The Swap.The story centres on an out-of-shape comic book dealer who loses a priceless part of his collection and follows that up by getting involved in romance and murder at his high ...

  • News

    Columbia acquires comedy pitch by Perez for Happy Madison

    21 November 2008

    Columbia Pictures has acquired a comedy pitch by Mark Perez that Happy Madison Productions will develop at the studio.The story centres on a man in a troubled marriage who discovers a new way to create the perfect wife.Doug Belgrad, who is president of Columbia Pictures along with Matt Tolmach, will ...

  • News

    Mila Kunis joins Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman in The Book Of Eli

    21 November 2008

    Mila Kunis has joined Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman on Alcon Entertainment and Silver Pictures’ $85m action thriller The Book Of Eli.Albert and Allen Hughes, whose last feature From Hell was released in 2001, will commence principal photography in New Mexico in February and Warner Bros has earmarked the North ...

  • News

    Image Entertainment merges with Nyx Acquisitions in $100m deal

    21 November 2008

    Nyx Acquisitions and Image Entertainment have merged in a $100m deal whereby Image stockholders will receive $2.75 per share in cash.The parties said the acquisition price represented a 299% premium to Image's closing share price of $0.69 on November 20 and a 267% premium to the 30-day average closing price ...

  • News

    Summit's Twilight arises in Russia, Italy, Mexico, Sweden

    21 November 2008

    Quantum Of Solace should cross $300m this weekend after racing to $267.4m through Sony Pictures Releasing International (SPRI).The latest James Bond saga opens in Australia on November 19 followed by Spain on November 21 and is expected to deliver strong holds in all its territories. Casino Royale amassed more than ...

  • News

    Screen editorial: Invisibility is cinema's most dangerous foe

    21 November 2008

    A report this week from UK legal firm Olswang makes encouraging reading for the industry. Its annual consumer survey found that, for all the wider demand for choice and control, the theatre remained the place to see a movie.That's something to celebrate and even the pessimists would have to conclude ...

  • News

    Kinowelt takes control of Village's German circuit

    13 November 2000

    Proving that its taste for acquisitions has not yet been satiated, Kinowelt has taken control of Village Roadshow's German theatrical circuit.The widely-anticipated deal (ScreenDaily, Sept 27, Oct 31) sees Kinowelt purchase a 25.2% stake in Village Roadshow Exhibition, but obtain management control. Day-to-day operations will be handled by the management ...

  • News

    In focus - Distribution - Facing Europe's digital dilemma

    21 November 2008

    'We are in the business of culture, not the culture of business,' says Mark Cosgrove, head of programme at Bristol's Watershed cinema complex in the UK. It is a distinction that is relevant in Europe in a way that would seem extraordinary to much of the world and particularly the ...

  • Features

    In focus - The Solutions - 'The funding is there - get organised'

    21 November 2008

    The growing recognition at European level of the danger digitisation poses to independent cinemas was clear at the Europa Cinemas annual conference in Paris. And that begged the question - could there be a case for European-level funding to support the switchover'The answer appears to be yes but with big ...

  • News

    Summit looks for Twilight to shine

    21 November 2008

    As any teenage vampire or US distribution executive will attest, the release of Twilight should be a watershed event for Summit Entertainment.With audience buzz having risen to a crescendo in the run-up to the film's November 21 opening in North America and international markets including Mexico, Italy and Russia, the ...

  • News

    Profile: Martin Gaiss

    21 November 2008

    Martin Gaiss leads a double life. By day he is Los Angeles-based vice-president of creative content at Twentieth Century Fox International. But in whatever spare time his job leaves him, the widely travelled German native is a writer-director whose first completed short, a witty tale of urban neurosis called Jarred, ...

  • Features

    United Kingdom - Indies find the Sky's the limit

    21 November 2008

    UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB has not enjoyed the same recognition for its influence on film as it has on sport, which has been revolutionised by its multi-channel offering.The film industry's television focus has been turned far more towards the BBC and Channel Four, both of whom have a production remit. ...

  • News

    Focus: Kristian Levring is back with Fear Me Not

    21 November 2008

    Ten years on from the peak of the Dogme movement, Kristian Levring is back creating buzz with his latest feature, Fear Me Not. The Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde-inspired psychological drama was one of the stand-out hits at Toronto, where US rights were sold to IFC Films.Co-written and directed by ...

  • Features

    Production - International Film Festival of India - India's window on the international scene

    21 November 2008

    The 39th edition of the International Film Festival of India (Iffi) runs November 22 -December 2 in the seaside town of Goa. Around 5,000 delegates from India and abroad are expected to attend. Some 15 films will compete for the Golden Peacock in the World Cinema section. All are titles ...

  • News

    Production - Attracting a partner

    24 November 2008

    Back in 2002 when Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas screened at Cannes, the Indian film industry was still regarded as an exotic item - fun to have at the party but the international industry did not really know how to talk to her. Fast forward through six years of a booming ...