Category: International

MUMBAI: Stocks of China‘s Huayi Brothers Media became one of the hottest stocks on its first day of trading last Friday on the country‘s ChiNext stock market. Its opening-day price reached $10.37 more than double of its launch price.

The media group, known for producing Feng Xiaogang‘s local blockbusters such as The Assembly and If You Are The One, passed the review of the China Securities Regulatory Commission in September and became the first film production company to go public in China. The price was then set at $4.18.

Local securities journals described the hike of Huayi‘s share price as “crazy” on Friday, Oct 30. Opening at $9.32 which was already 123 per cent up from the launch price of $4.18, the shares went up to $11.18 when it was 11am there. After suspension they fell to $10.37, 148 per cent up from the launch price.

So far the company has a market capitalisation of $1.57bn. In its prospectus to go public, Huayi said it planned to raise $91m.

MUMBAI: With the news that the media arm of Len Blavatnik‘s US-based industrial group Access Industries has finally closed its deal to buy the UK operations of Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey‘s LA-based Icon Group, Stewart Till‘s hopes to establish an international distribution network has gained momentum.

The transaction that comprises Icon‘s international sales company, the distribution operation based in the UK and the Majestic Films & Television library does not include the Australian distribution company and cinemas, which is retained by The Icon Group.

Access Industries chairman and New York-based industrialist Blavatnik backed Till‘s company Stadium when it first announced plans to acquire Icon including both UK and Australian distribution operations and the sales company and the Majestic Films & Television library in September 2008.

Till said that the UK distribution company and the sales company were “the first two pieces in the jigsaw” in establishing an international distribution network along the lines of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and PolyGram Film International.

Icon Distribution‘s upcoming UK slate includes Oren Peli‘s Paranormal Activity, Richard Kelly‘s sci-fi thriller The Box starring Cameron Diaz and James Marsden, Sam Taylor-Wood‘s multiple British Independent Film Awards nominee Nowhere Boy, The Road starring Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron, action thriller Edge Of Darkness starring Gibson, Precious, and A Single Man.
 

MUMBAI: The remake of the Korean classic thriller The Housemaid will in all probability have award-winning actress Jeon Do-yeon that Seoul-based Mirovision, Inc. is producing and also handling international sales.

Directed by Korean master Kim Ki-young, the 1960 original was the story of how a factory music teacher‘s family is thrown into nightmare chaos when they take in a strange girl as a housemaid – she seduces him, is coerced into having an abortion, and then metes out revenge.

The original version was digitally re-mastered and screened at Cannes in 2008 with the support of Martin Scorsese‘s World Cinema Foundation and the Korean Film Archive.

Jeon Do-yeon won the Cannes Best Actress award in 2007 for her performance in Lee Chang-dong‘s Secret Sunshine. Her other work includes starring in Lee Yoon-ki‘s My Dear Enemy, Jung Ji-woo‘s Happy End, Park Jin-pyo‘s You Are My Sunshine and lee Young-jae‘s The Harmonium In My Memory.

Im Sang-soo previously directed the Cannes entry The President‘s Last Bang and Venice entry A Good Lawyer‘s Wife, in addition to other critically-acclaimed films such as The Old Garden.

The remaking of The Housemaid is due to start at the end of the year, with an aim to see a local release in the first half of 2010, the 50th anniversary of The Housemaid original.
 

MUMBAI: As the American Film Market prepares to get underway this week with Neal Sundstrom‘s South African football comedy Finding Lenny, Cinemavault has seen to it that it that its slate was bolstered.

The David versus Goliath tale was partly funded by India‘s Vistaar Religare Film Fund and produced by Moviworld, whose Tsotsiwon the best foreign language Oscar in 2006.

South African stand-up comic Barry Hilton stars in the English-language feature about a man with family troubles who coaches a rural team and takes on the might of an evil corporation.

Said Cinemavault‘s senior vice-president of international distribution Caroline Stern, “It‘s the perfect primer for the tide of soccer fever already sweeping across the world prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.”

MUMBAI: Miramax president Daniel Battsek is set to put in his papers in January 2010. This is because Disney has decided to close Miramax‘s New York office. It is also said that the move will bring Miramax‘s Los Angeles operations into the fold at head office at Burbank.

It may be recalled that a year ago Battsek spoke out about oversupply in the sector during a keynote speech at Film London‘s second Production Finance Market.

A few years ago the studio‘s specialty divisions were a prestigious business, albeit a business that was occasionally inefficient and profligate.

In early October, Disney had cut down 70 per cent staff of Miramax, reducing the strength to around 20. It had also slashed Miramax‘s annual film output to a bare three.

Said Walt Disney Studios chairman Rich Ross, “During Daniel‘s 18 years of service, he has brought some very prestigious and award-winning films to the studio from Calendar Girls to The Queen to No Country For Old Men. We wish Daniel the very best on his future endeavours.”

Battsek, in a statement to the staff, said, “After further reflection and discussion about the change in direction for Miramax, Rich Ross and I have agreed that I will step down as president of Miramax, effective the end of January, 2010.

“With this decision, we have also agreed that the best chance of success for Miramax is for the company to be located in Los Angeles, and I will work with the group on a transition plan. I‘m very proud of all the great work we have accomplished here at Miramax and equally proud of my overall career at Disney.”

Battsek was appointed Miramax president in July 2005 and entered the Disney fold in 1991 when he was asked to start up a UK company as part of Buena Vista International‘s worldwide distribution network.
 

MUMBAI: A Thai film that features gay sex and confrontational politics has been banned from the World Film Festival of Bangkok (WFF).

The film This Area Is Under Quarantine, directed by Thunska Pansittivorakul, was scheduled to be screened next week at the 7th WFF.

According to rules, a festival organiser has to submit synopsis of all films to a sub-committee the job of whom is to consider which films on the list need to be referred to the main rating committee and which films can be screened without ratings.

The sub-committee, attached to the Thai Ministry of Culture, judged that:This Area Is Under Quarantine needed to be rated and instructed the festival organiser to go to the rating committee. But it was said that the main rating committee had argued that the festival didn‘t present a proper document for the film and couldn‘t consider it.

Meanwhile, the sub-committee couldn‘t re-consider the film either, because the law doesn‘t allow it such a function, thus the film was considered as banned.

In September, the state-funded Bangkok International Film Festival showed more controversial films such as Antichrist and Dogtooth without censoring, though the organiser imposed its own 20-plus rating.
 

MUMBAI: The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival closed with the world premiere of Sam Taylor Wood‘s John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy.

The director attended the screening along with the star cast that included Aaron Johnson, Kristen Scott Thomas, Anne-Marie Duff and David Morrissey.

The debut director said that it was a “huge honour” to be closing the festival and dedicated the film to the late Anthony Minghella, who produced her short film Love You More. 

The closing night gala rounded off two weeks of screenings and industry events, including the festival‘s first stand alone awards ceremony. BFI director Amanda Nevill, who introduced the film at the Odeon Leicester Square, described it as the “highest profile London Film Festival we‘ve ever had”.

According to festival organisers the festival saw record attendance this year with audiences increasing from 115,000 last year to 124,000 this year.

The festival has had as many as 15 world premieres, 193 feature films and 113 short films from 46 countries. There were 515 screenings and 553 filmmakers, with 277 of the filmmakers from outside the UK.

MUMBAI: Medusa Film, the company that took over the Warner Bros cinema with Alessandro Benetton‘s 21 Investment has re-launched as The Space Cinema.

The takeover in May boosted Medusa‘s chain by 150 screens bringing its total to 242 across 13 Italian regions, which makes it the leading chain with a 15% market share. It is predicted that it could account for 15 million to 16 million in annual ticket sales.

Capitolo Settimo, led by by Giampaolo Letta (also Medusa Film‘s vice-president and CEO) controls the venture, of which 51 cent is owned by Benetton‘s 21 Investimenti and the remaining 49 per cent by Mediaset. Medusa is the film division of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi‘s Fininvest group.

Other leading multiplex exhibition group in Italy includes UCI Italia, which has 256 screens.

MUMBAI: Broadway Cinema, the cinema management brand of Hong Kong‘s Edko Films, has opened its first art house cinema in China named Broadway Cinematheque MOMA in Beijing‘s MOMA residential compound.

The cinema will serve as a new distribution platform for European cinema and art house films in China. However its first major event was the Beijing premiere of Michael Jackson‘s This Is It.

Broadway Cinematheque MOMA has three screens and 401 seats with both film and digital screening facilities. MOMA is a residential compound in central Beijing with shopping, restaurants and other facilities.

The cinema is now seeking independent and specialty films from China and abroad.

China‘s film import regulations allow around 20 smaller films – usually European, Asian and US independent titles – to be imported each year on a flat-fee basis.

Currently, the cinema is co-hosting The 2nd European Union Film Festival in China showing three of the 26 films in the showcase namely Women‘s Conspiracy (2007) by Greek filmmaker Vassilis Vafeas, Sweden‘s Evil (2003) by Mikael H?fström and Flood (2008) by Tony Mitchell.

MUMBAI: As fans around the globe thronged theatres showing Michael Jackson‘s film This Is It, the film earned $20.1 million at the box-offices all around on its first day in theatres.
The film, which shows the late pop star rehearsing for a series of comeback concerts before his death in June this year made $7.4 million in the United States and Canada and another $12.7 million internationally.

Says Columbia Pictures spokesman Steve Elzer said in a statement, “The studio believes that the worldwide launch, with very strong performance across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia, represents an amazing beginning for the film and a reaffirmation of the global appeal of Michael Jackson.” 

This Is It premiered on Tuesday night and then began playing around the world on Wednesday, which is unusual for a movie that is not based on a major franchise like the Harry Potter or Pirates of the Caribbean.

In the United Kingdom, box-offices raked in under $2 million, while French sales totaled about $1.4 million and Germany just over $1 million. Japanese fans spent roughly $1.2 million and in China the film fetched $730,000.

The question now for Columbia is how well the movie will perform during the upcoming, first weekend. Jackson‘s fans were expected to turn out in droves early, but whether they will be repeat customers remains to be seen.

Columbia has said the movie will be extended beyond its planned two-week run if ticket demand is high. The studio plans a DVD release in 2010.