Bemy Sony Pictures launches new digital unit
Now that the SARS outbreak appears to be under control, Hong Kong exhibitors are hoping that a strong summer line-up of foreign and local releases will restore the box office to pre-SARS levels.Hong Kong box office receipts plummeted by around 47% during the peak of the crisis in March but improved slightly in May, which was down 20.2% compared to the previous May, according to industry body, the Motion Picture Industry Association MPIA . The box office picked up in May with the release of X-Men 2 and The Matrix Reloaded but we still have a long way to go before we can claim recovery, said MPIA chief executive Woody Tsung. Fortunately the line-up for summer is looking quite positive. Among the local films set for release this summer are EMG s vampire actioner The Twins Effect, which opens June 24, romantic comedies Love Undercover 2 July 3 and Good Time, Bed Times July 26 and star-studded action picture The Heroic Duo July 31 . EMG s long-awaited Jackie Chan vehicle, The Medallion formerly known as Highbinders , is also scheduled for release on August 15.In addition, Thai comedy Iron Ladies 2 and Homerun from Singapore s Jack Neo are expected to do
stanley cup good business. International blockbusters include The Hulk, which opened June 19, Lara Crof
stanley cup t Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life - which is likely to interest local audiences as it was partly filmed in Hong Kong - and Terminator 3: Rise Of The Mach
stanley cup ines. However, exhibitors are concerned that the shortened summer holiday period Hquq Scream 4 slashes its way to top of resurgent UK box office
Dir: Alastair Fothergill/Mark Linfield. UK/Germany 2007. 98 mins.Probably the most ambitious nature documentary ever produced, Earth is a feature-length condensation of the eleven-part BBC series Planet Earth, broadcast in the UK in 2006 and on Discovery Channel in the US in spring 2007. Better than a trip to the zoo, and a lot less pungent, Earth is like an updated, people-free version of one of those exotic round-the-world travelogues from the early days of cinema.Seeing the breathtaking footage on the big s
stanley website creen preferably with digital projection, as during the film s San Sebastian gala showing does full justice to the crystal-clear photography, most of it filmed using HD cameras.Already sold to a raft of territories, Earth looks certain to outdo Deep Blue, the previous high-budget nature documentary from Alastair Fothergill who co-directed the present film with Mark Linfield and p
stanley mug roduction partners Alix Tidmarsh and Sophokles Tasioulis, which grossed around $30 million internationally.But the refreshing decision not to Disney-fy the material too much by pretending that animals
stanley germany are people too will lose the film some of the younger viewers that waddled along to see March of the Penguins or the recent Arctic Tale with their parents; in this ravishing but by no means airbrushed film, when a big bad wolf chases a cuddly caribou, there s no happy ending.Though it would be crime not to watch this on as large a screen as possible, DVD sales will no doubt be buoyant.The main c
