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19 articles
Cte lands Mermaid pay-tv rights
2 hours ago
Hong Kong-based Celestial Tiger Entertainment (Cte) has acquired exclusive pay-tv rights to Stephen Chow’s The Mermaid for its channels in Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore.
Cte licensed the film from Sony Pictures Television. The Mermaid is currently China’s highest-grossing film ever with box office of $513m.
“This film, together with the films from our five output deals, cements our commitment to bring our viewers the biggest Chinese blockbusters with the biggest stars,” said Cte executive vice president, TV Networks, Ofanny Choi.
Cte has exclusive output deals with Hong Kong studios including Distribution Workshop, Emperor Motion Pictures, Media Asia, Mega-Vision Project Workshop and Universe Entertainment.
In addition to The Mermaid, the regional channel operator has also secured rights to the two other films that were a big hit over the recent Chinese New Year holiday – Soi Cheang’s The Monkey King 2 and Wong Jing’s From Vegas To Macau 3.
Cte channels include Celestial Movies, Celestial »
- lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
'Game of Thrones' star Gwendoline Christie joins 'Top Of The Lake' second series
10 hours ago
Game Of Thrones actress will star alongside the returning Elisabeth Moss, with filming now underway in Australia.
Gwendoline Christie (Game Of Thrones) has joined the cast of the second series of Jane Campion’s Top Of The Lake, which began filming today in Sydney, Australia.
She will star alongside Golden Globe-winning Elisabeth Moss in the returning drama mini-series, produced by See-Saw Films for BBC Two.
Additional cast joining the series include David Dencik (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Alice Englert (Beautiful Creatures) and Ewen Leslie (The Daughter).
Commencing four years on from the end of the events depicted in series one, the second series sees the body of an unidentified Asian girl wash up on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. The case initially seems hopeless, until detective Robin Griffin (Moss) discovers that the girl did not die alone.
Campion will return to direct, again writing alongside Gerard Lee, and will be joined by co-director Ariel Kleiman (Partisan).
Producers are [link »
Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie joins 'Top Of The Lake' second series
10 hours ago
Game Of Thrones actress will star alongside the returning Elisabeth Moss, with filming now underway in Australia.
Gwendoline Christie (Game Of Thrones) has joined the cast of the second series of Jane Campion’s Top Of The Lake, which began filming today in Sydney, Australia.
She will star alongside Golden Globe-winning Elisabeth Moss in the returning drama mini-series, produced by See-Saw Films for BBC Two.
Additional cast joining the series include David Dencik (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Alice Englert (Beautiful Creatures) and Ewen Leslie (The Daughter).
Commencing four years on from the end of the events depicted in series one, the second series sees the body of an unidentified Asian girl wash up on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. The case initially seems hopeless, until detective Robin Griffin (Moss) discovers that the girl did not die alone.
Campion will return to direct, again writing alongside Gerard Lee, and will be joined by co-director Ariel Kleiman (Partisan).
Producers are [link »
Gwendoline Christie joins 'Top Of The Lake' second series
10 hours ago
Game Of Thrones actress will star alongside the returning Elisabeth Moss, with filming now underway in Australia.
Gwendoline Christie (Game Of Thrones) has joined the cast of the second series of Jane Campion’s Top Of The Lake, which began filming today in Sydney, Australia.
She will star alongside Golden Globe-winning Elisabeth Moss in the returning drama mini-series, produced by See-Saw Films for BBC Two.
Additional cast joining the series include David Dencik (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Alice Englert (Beautiful Creatures) and Ewen Leslie (The Daughter).
Commencing four years on from the end of the events depicted in series one, the second series sees the body of an unidentified Asian girl wash up on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. The case initially seems hopeless, until detective Robin Griffin (Moss) discovers that the girl did not die alone.
Campion will return to direct, again writing alongside Gerard Lee, and will be joined by co-director Ariel Kleiman (Partisan).
Producers are [link »
Jj Abrams, Andrea Arnold in Tribeca Talks series
12 hours ago
Top brass at the 15th Tribeca Film Festival have unveiled the participants in the on-stage conversation series.
Panels and conversations in the Directors Series will include such guests as Abrams talking to recent Oscars host Chris Rock on April 15, while April 18 will see Arnold discuss her career as well as the separate on-stage pairing of Joss Whedon and Mark Ruffalo.
Jodie Foster will take part in a conversation with Julie Taymor on April 20, on the same day that Alfonso Cuaron will appear on stage to discuss Gravity and other highlights of his career.
The inaugural Tribeca Talks: Storytellers will focus on pioneering creators who work across mediums to tell their stories and will hear from Francis Ford Coppola, Idina Menzel and Patti Smith alongside previously announced Tom Hanks and Tina Fey.
Also new is the Tribeca Talks: Daring Women Summit powered by the Li.st, which encompasses a day-long schedule of conversations with influential women in arts »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Korean industry threaten Busan boycott
16 hours ago
Committee of nine major film organisations has issued a set of demands to ensure the festival’s independence.
Key members of South Korea’s film community have announced today that they will boycott the Busan International Film Festival (Biff) if Busan City does not stop interfering with the festival.
Today (March 21), the Korean Film Group’s Emergency Committee for Defending Biff’s Independence, a gathering of nine major film organisations including the Korean Film Producers’ Association, the Directors’ Guild of Korea and the Federation of Korea Movie Workers’ Union, held a press conference in Seoul to make the following demands to ensure the festival’s autonomy and independence:
Busan City mayor Suh Byung-soo should step down as Biff organizing committee chairman and agree to revise the festival’s articles of association.The city government must stop unjust interference in Biff and withdraw the legal application for injunction against the 68 new committee advisors.Suh should »
- hjnoh2007@gmail.com (Jean Noh)
'The Winter' triumphs at Toulouse’s 2016 Films In Progress
17 hours ago
Emiliano Torres’ Argentinian western took the two top prizes at the works-in-progress event.
Emiliano Torres’ western The Winter (El Invierno) was the big winner at the 29th Toulouse-San Sebastian Films In Progress event, taking home two prizes.
The Argentinian drama took the Toulouse Films In Progress Prize, which comes with a grant for post-production services and initiatives to help promote the film, as well as the Cine Plus In Progress Special Prize, which comes with a guaranteed purchase of the film from the network, worth $16.8k (€15k).
Set in Patagonia, The Winter stars Cristian Salguero (Paulina) and Alejandro Sieveking (The Club) in the story of a young man who becomes the foreman of a large rural estate against the backdrop of a seemingly never-ending winter.
Elsewhere, a special mention was given to Maitre Alberdi’s Children (Los Ninos) by the Films in Progress jury, while Felipe Braganza’s Don’t Swallow My Heart, Alligator Girl! won »
'Jungle' cast takes shape for Arclight Films
18 hours ago
Thomas Kretschmann, Alex Russell, Joel Jackson, and Yasmin Kassim will join Daniel Radcliffe on the thriller.
Arclight handles international sales and is packaging the film, while UTA and CAA represent Us rights.
Dana Lustig produces Jungle, based on the best-selling memoir by Yossi Ghinsberg, who was the subject of the one-hour Discovery Channel docudrama series I Shouldn’t Be Alive.
Greg Mclean of Wolf Creek notoriety will direct with screenwriter Justin Monjo the tale of a young adventurer and his friends who must fight for survival in the Amazon.
Arclight managing director Gary Hamilton, Mike Gabrawy, Mclean, and Todd Fellman join Lustig on the producer roster.
Shooting is set to begin this year on location in Australia and other locations to be announced at a later date.
Screen Australia and Screen Queensland have supported development of the project. »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Israel to open contentious second Cannes stand
22 hours ago
Culture Ministry funds new stand with aim to increase Israeli presence at the festival.
The tension between Israel’s Ministry of Culture and the national film industry has entered a new phase following the department’s decision to sponsor a second Israeli film stand at the Cannes Film Festival.
According to the Ministry, the new stand is designed to offer a different and expanded perspective of the country’s filmmaking profile.
Judging by the careful phrasing of industry interviewed for this report, however, the move is seemingly a sensitive one.
“This is not supposed to be another Israeli stand selling and distributing Israeli films,” said Etti Cohen, head of the Film Desk at the Ministry of Culture.
“The role of the new [stand], to be inaugurated in Cannes by Culture Minister Miri Regev, is to unveil all of the activities that could not be exposed in the existing stand, such as presenting the many cinema schools in the »
- dfainaru@netvision.net.il (Edna Fainaru)
John Boyega triumphs at Screen Nation awards
22 hours ago
The Star Wars actor took home the best actor prize, but stepped into a social media storm following comments made in his acceptance speech.
John Boyega took home the best Male Performance in Film prize at the annual Screen Nation awards, which aims to recognise black British talent in the UK film and TV sectors.
The Star Wars: The Force Awakens actor and former Screen Star Of Tomorrow was joined as a winner at the London event on Saturday [March 19] night by Nathalie Emmanuel, who won best Female Performance in Film for her roles in Fast & Furious 7 and Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials.
Dough and Jekyll & Hyde star Malachi Kirby, who has been cast in the forthcoming remake of Roots and is another former Screen Star, was presented with the Rising Star award.
Boyega was also nominated for the publicly-voted Favourite International Movie prize as the major UK talent in Jj Abrams’ Star Wars reboot, but was beaten »
Cannes 2016 poster shows 'Contempt'
22 hours ago
This year’s Cannes Film Festival poster uses stills from Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 film.
Less than a month before the full line-up is revealed, the poster for the 69th Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22) has been unfurled.
The poster, which will be emblazoned across the Palais and displayed throughout Cannes, usually features a close up of a film star and in recent years has featured Ingrid Bergman, Marcello Mastroianni and Paul Newman.
This year, the festival has used (remastered) stills from Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 film, Contempt (Le Mépris), depicting a man (French actor/director Michel Piccoli) ascending steps against a backdrop of the Mediterranean sea.
The poster was designed by Hervé Chigioni, who has overseen the festival’s posters since 2014, and his graphic designer Gilles Frappier.
Contempt starred Michel Piccoli and Brigitte Bardot alongside legendary director Fritz Land and Jack Palance. It is a symbolic choice for the poster as the film is about the making of a film »
- michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
North American briefs: Susan Sarandon in CinemaCon honour
22 hours ago
Plus: Gravitas Ventures acquires My Father’s Vietnam; and more…
Susan Sarandon will receive the Cinema Icon Award at the National Association Of Theatre Owners (Nato) convention on April 14.
Sarandon will next be seen in The Meddler, which opens on April 22 via Spc, and her credits include Thelma And Louise, The Witches Of Eastwick, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Lorenzo’s Oil, and Dead Man Walking, for which she won the lead actress Oscar in 1996. CinemaCon is set to run at Caesars Palace from April 11-14.
Gravitas Ventures has picked up VOD and home video rights from Circus Road Films to Soren Sorensen’s My Father’s Vietnam. The documentary will debut on May 24.Aeg and Regal have partnered with Barco to announce a multi-year, strategic partnership to create Regal L.A. Live: A Barco Innovation Center. The current Regal Cinemas L.A. Live, owned by Aeg, will transform into a creative hub for all of Barco »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Prishtina expands industry programme
22 hours ago
As part of the festival’s industry forum, the Prishtina Rendezvous will focus on distributors and sales agent.
Kosovo’s Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will expand its industry programme in 2016 with the launch of the Prishtina Rendezvous, a one-day event for distributors and international sales agents to meet talent from the region.
As part of the festival’s industry platform PriFORUM (April 23-27), the day will feature companies from across Europe, including French sales agents Memento Films, Indie Films and Le pacte, as well as German distributors Pluto Films and Neue Visionen.
Representatives from the companies will attend a pitching session with selected participants from the Balkans and nearby countries, before participating in one-on-one sessions.
The festival has also locked up a partnership with the Torino Film Lab for its 2016 edition. The event’s regular Best Pitch competition, now in its fifth year, will include a two-day pitching training programme hosted with the Torino Lab’s Matthieu Darras »
Women filmmakers triumph in Sofia
23 hours ago
Elitsa Petkova received the Bulgarian festival’s Grand Prix for her feature debut Zhaleika [pictured].
Women filmmakers triumphed at the 20th edition of the Sofia International Film Festival (Siff) at the weekend’s awards ceremony in the National Palace of Culture.
While Bulgarian-born feature debutant Elitsa Petkova received the International Jury’s Grand Prix ‘Sofia City Of Film’ for Zhaleika, her graduation film from Berlin’s Dffb film school, Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili’s debut Daisi was named the Best Project at the parallel Sofia Meetings.
The Meetings’ new Grand Prix, sponsored by the Nu Boyana Film Studios and consisting of $56k (€50k) worth of services and a cheque for $5.6k (€5k), was presented by CEO Yariv Lerner who declared that “based on the merits of the presentation, the fact of the possibility of making it and a belief in the director, we definitely saw that promise in this director and we look forward to seeing this film »
- screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
Netflix sets release date for 'The Do-Over'
23 hours ago
Adam Sandler’s second feature in the actor’s exclusive deal will premiere on the streaming service worldwide on May 27.
Sandler stars alongside David Spade, Paula Patton, Kathryn Hahn, Sean Astin, Catherine Bell, Michael Chiklis, Luis Guzman, Natasha Leggero, Nick Swardson, Torsten Voges, Renee Taylor, and Matt Walsh.
Steven Brill directed The Do-Over from a screenplay by Kevin Barnett and Chris Pappas about two unlucky men who fake their deaths and assume the personas of men who unbeknownst to them were in even more trouble than they were.
Sandler, Allen Covert and Kevin Grady produce the Happy Madison Production for Netflix.
Sandler’s first film in the four-film deal, The Ridiculous 6, debuted on Netflix on December 11, 2015.
Netflix executives claimed at the CES show in January that the comedy Western was viewed more times in 30 days than any other feaure in the history of their service. »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Czech director Jan Nemec dies aged 79
21 March 2016 3:11 AM, PDT
Czech filmmaker was a notable voice of the country’s New Wave movement of the 1960s.
Jan Nemec, the Czech film director known as an important voice of the Czech New Wave of the 1960s, has died at the age of 79, according to local news reports.
Born in Prague in 1936, Nemec learned his craft at the city’s prestigious art school the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
In the 1960s he was one of a number of film-makers alongside the likes of Milos Forman who participated in a surge of creative talent, dubbed the Czechoslovak New Wave, which rose as a reaction to Communist propaganda cinema of the 1950s.
His debut feature was 1964 Holocaust drama Diamonds Of The Night, which told the story of two boys who escape from a train en route to a concentration camp. His next feature Report On The Party And Guests was a political satire that was banned by Communist censors »
Jan Nemec dies aged 79
21 March 2016 3:11 AM, PDT
Czech filmmaker was a notable voice of the country’s New Wave movement of the 1960s.
Jan Nemec, the Czech film director known as an important voice of the Czech New Wave of the 1960s, has died at the age of 79, according to local news reports.
Born in Prague in 1936, Nemec learned his craft at the city’s prestigious art school the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
In the 1960s he was one of a number of film-makers alongside the likes of Milos Forman who participated in a surge of creative talent, dubbed the Czechoslovak New Wave, which rose as a reaction to Communist propaganda cinema of the 1950s.
His debut feature was 1964 Holocaust drama Diamonds Of The Night, which told the story of two boys who escape from a train en route to a concentration camp. His next feature Report On The Party And Guests was a political satire that was banned by Communist censors »
Cannes: who's in the running?
21 March 2016 2:39 AM, PDT
Screen rounds up the films from across the globe that could launch at Cannes…
With less than a month to go until the Cannes Film Festival announces its line-up at its annual Paris press conference on April 14, Screen looks at what could make it into Official Selection and the parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.
UK and Ireland
The UK could have one of its strongest Cannes for years with hot favourites for a competition slot including Andrea Arnold’s Shia Labeouf-starring Us road movie American Honey and Ken Loach’s gritty Northern England-set drama I, Daniel Blake. It would be Loach’s 12th time in competition.
Ben Wheatley is also reportedly gunning for an Official Selection slot for his 1970s Boston-set, gangland thriller Free Fire, potentially Out of Competition or in Midnight Screenings. He was last in Cannes with Sightseers in Directors’ Fortnight.
Other UK hopefuls include Stephen Frears’ Florence Foster Jenkins and Indian »
Creative England responds to concerns over cuts
21 March 2016 12:00 AM, PDT
Exclusive: Creative industries agency taps into reserve to ensure effective delivery of services.
Since its contentious launch in 2011 UK creative industries financier Creative England has proven a boon to many UK companies and creatives.
The not-for-profit public and privately-backed organisation, whose primary aim is to invest in the regional film, games and digital industries, has invested tens of millions of pounds into more than 400 companies.
Among a host of film investments are Andrew Haigh’s acclaimed 45 Years and Kit Harrington thriller Spooks: The Greater Good, while it also runs perennial micro-budget film scheme iFeatures. It has also backed hit TV shows including Dancing On The Edge and Line Of Duty.
The company’s financial clout has grown from a budget of under £5m at launch to £12.5m for 2015/16 and it has attracted notable executives from the media, games and film industries to its board, including Karen Blackett OBE, Ian Livingstone Cbe and Studiocanal UK CEO Danny Perkins.
BFI »
- andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
19 articles