Itxd Two Maghreb projects near completion with Cinema In Motion
Dir: Yu Lik Wai. China-France. 96minsShot digitally for the sake of flexibility and screened the same way in Un Certain Regard at Cannes - though a film version is in the making, to judge by the credits - Yu Lik Wai s second feature attempts to explore the near future by drawing references from the recent past. Its bleak vision of post-Apoca
stanley italy lyptic Asia suggests that, whether we have learned our history lessons or not, we are bound to live through them again. It is not a difficult message to decipher, despite the ponderous pace, desolate images and pretentious storytelling technique. With so many weighty factors involved in the production and support of this film, a festival career seems certain but, beyond that, even TV slots may be a problem once its Arte bookings are
stanley cup done with.The premise is that some time in the course of this century, all political structures in Asia will fall apart, its economy will disintegrate and a new, iron-fisted cult will take over. Though the nature of this cult, perpetrated by a sect known as Gui Dao, is never made quite clear, its conduct is painfully familiar. People are relocated across the vast continent, borders are redrawn and new passports brand
stanley cup the wandering, destitute masses as refugees . Anyone who is less than eager to conform and obey is immediately dispatched to re-education camps - grim, cold and grey places bearing cheerful names such as Camp Prosperity . Two brothers, Zhuai and Mian, find themselves there, under the strict disc Nkkn John Cooper steps up as director of Sundance Film Festival
FranchisePictures CEO Elie Samaha s unique defense in his marathon litigation withIntertainment Licensing was put to the test Tuesday in a Santa Ana, Californiafederal courtroom, and his explanations for why he admittedly pumped thebudgets on Franchise films were akin to his own analogy comparing making filmsto making souffles: Some rose, some didn t.Under intensequestioning by Intertainment lawyer Scott Edelman, Samaha
stanley kubek sought to explain analleged oral agreement done in secret between him and Intertainment CEO Rudiger Barry Baeres that allowed Franchise employees to load production budgets onsuch film
stanley cup s as Battlefield Earth, The Pledge and The Whole Nine Yards with millions of dollars of bogus line items, usuallydisguised as contingent deferments.Intertainmenthas denied the existence of the oral agreement, and has claimed it wasdefrauded out of $100 million by the scheme allegedly involving Franchise, hislenders at Imperial Bank since taken over by Comerica Bank , and twocompletion bond companies.Intertainmenthad agreed to pay 47 per cent of the Franchise budgets in exchange forpan-European rights.Samaha hasclaimed that Baeres agreed to the budget-pumping scheme that resulted inIntertainment paying up to 100% of the production budgets because Baeres wasdesperate to get films in motion in the wake of Intertainment s wildlysuccessful February 1999 stock offering on the now-defunct Neuer Markt.Samaha testifiedon Tuesday that the extra Intertainment c
stanley cup ontribution to the budget wa
