BERLIN -- Roland Pellegrino, former head of German film financer CP Medien, has launched a new film and television production entity, Miromar Entertainment, together with German producers Michel Morales and Martin Koch of Munich-based production house Haifisch Entertainment, the parties said Thursday. Starting in January, Miromar will bankroll and produce a slate of TV-movies, documentaries and feature films. Koch and Morales have brought two TV productions to Miromar from Haifisch: the TV-movie "Herzrasen" (Pounding Heart) for Munich-based channel ProSieben and the documentary "Alantropa" for pubwebs WDR, BR, NDR and Austria's ORF. Financing for feature films will come from private placement deals set up by Pellegrino. As head of CP Medien, Pellegrino helped bankroll dozens of features, including "Enemy at the Gates", "The Cat's Meow" and "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery." But CP Medien was shut down in October following a change to Germany's tax law that will make it harder to use cash from German film funds to back Hollywood productions. "Under the new regulations, our current [tax fund] model is no longer tenable," Pellegrino said. "That's why we've gone the private placement route." Miromar Entertainment will be based at CP Medien's old headquarters in Ludwigsburg.
- 12/4/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BERLIN -- Roland Pellegrino, former head of German film financier CP Medien, has launched a new film and television production entity, Miromar Entertainment, with German producers Michel Morales and Martin Koch of Munich-based production house Haifisch Entertainment, the parties said Thursday. Beginning in January, Miromar will bankroll and produce a slate of TV movies, documentaries and feature films. Koch and Morales have brought two TV productions to Miromar from Haifisch: the TV movie "Herzrasen" (Pounding Heart) for Munich-based channel ProSieben and the documentary "Alantropa" for pubwebs WDR, BR, NDR and Austria's ORF. Financing for feature films will come from private placement deals set up by Pellegrino. As head of CP Medien, Pellegrino helped bankroll dozens of features, including "Enemy at the Gates", "The Cat's Meow" and "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery."...
- 12/4/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Canal Plus SA, the French pay television unit of Vivendi Universal, said Thursday that profit for the first half of the year rose 41%. ... Roland Pellegrino has stepped down as head of CP Medien as part of a restructuring at the German media fund. ... Video game developer Sega of America has appointed Hideaki Irie president and chief operating officer. ...Yahoo! has settled with EMI Group a copyright infringement suit over Yahoo!'s LaunchCast online radio service.
- 10/2/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BERLIN -- Roland Pellegrino said Thursday that he has stepped down as head of CP Medien as part of a restructuring at the German media fund that backed such upcoming films as Robert Altman's "The Company" and Jean-Jacques Annaud's "Enemy at the Gates". Pellegrino is setting up his own film marketing company, tentatively titled CP Vertrieb GmbH, which will focus on private placements in financing international film projects. CP Medien, under new chief executive Horst Benzing, will focus on distribution and exploitation of its existing rights catalogue. Pellegrino will continue to act as a consultant to CP Medien and will retain his 10% stake in the company. "CP Medien will remain the marketer of choice for our projects," Pellegrino said. "But we will operate independent of the fund and will not rely on it for financing." CP Medien board member Ehrhard van Straaten has also stepped down and has ended his consultant's contract with the group. The restructuring is a reaction to recent amendments to Germany's Media Ruling that regulates the running of private media funds like CP, the firm said.
- 10/2/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened
Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- "The Company" is Robert Altman's valentine to the challenging world of ballet and its world-class dancers. Eschewing the high drama of a dance film like "The Turning Point", Altman and his collaborators go for documentary-like realism, which scrutinizes company rehearsals, quick repairs to bruised and calloused bodies, arguments over choreography and the performances themselves, all lovingly photographed by Andrew Dunn. Altman and screenwriter Barbara Turner impose little narration on the film. Instead, they let the drama emerge from the daily routines of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago.
After the rousing critical and boxoffice success of his previous film, "Gosford Park", "The Company" may strike some as a minor work from the iconoclastic director. This also may translate into a limited, though highly appreciative, audience for the Sony Pictures Classics release. Yet the glories of the Joffrey Ballet and Dunn's luminescent cinematography, shooting in high-definition video to give us views from outside the proscenium, in the wings and overhead, make "The Company" a wonderfully vivid and engaging theatrical experience.
The genesis of the film lies with actress Neve Campbell, a fine dancer who studied with the National Ballet of Canada before embarking on an acting career. Campbell wrote the story with Turner and is the only actor in the film to participate with the Joffrey corps, doing all her own dances while playing the role of Ry, a company member on the verge of becoming a principal dancer. Realizing this project not only represents the fulfillment of a longtime dream but also a smart move as an actress. This film should get Campbell out of the "Scream" business and into classier movies and roles.
The other actor to command the screen is Malcolm McDowell, who plays Alberto Antonelli, the ballet's autocratic director. Alberto roams through rehearsal halls and company offices, wearing a series of dapper scarves and bringing the full weight of his demanding personality into every room he visits. He refers to the dancers as "my babies" and insists that they think beyond their own movements to the concept of the ballet itself. (Alberto is loosely based on Joffrey head Gerald Arpino.) It is indicative of Altman's determination to keep things real that an underling, summoning the boss to tend to another crisis elsewhere in the building, interrupts any moment involving Alberto that threatens to become dramatic.
The movie has little plot. An injury creates an opportunity for Ry to perform a pas de deux in an outdoor theater during a thunderstorm. (This is perhaps the movie's most visually exciting sequence.) She is a great success, but Alberto's promise to create dances around her fades, much to the annoyance of her pushy mother (Marilyn Dodds Frank).
Ry breaks up with a boyfriend in the company, then takes up with Josh James Franco), an affable sous chef. A veteran dancer snaps her Achilles tendon, a male dancer is replaced the week before a major ballet and threatens legal action, and dancers and choreographers occasionally clash over movements. That's about it for drama.
The real drama evolves out of the daily lives of the company. Altman, Turner and Campbell prefer to let simple observation demonstrate the battle a dancer must wage to stay on top of his or her game. We are surprised to see Ry forced to work as a cocktail waitress to make ends meet. We witness how dancers' careers are always at the disposal of the company's determined director. We understand the role injuries play.
Such is Altman's love for this brave world that he glides by its darker sides. The impact of AIDS is mentioned only in passing, and nothing at all is said about dancers' constant battle to keep their weight down.
The time period is not always clear, either. We sometimes go from rehearsal to performance in a single cut. One night Ry meets Josh in a saloon, and soon he has her apartment key. Are we experiencing a single season here or several years? Hard to say.
But the film does sweep us up into the lives of ballet dancers in ways no other film ever has. Altman also takes the time to stage and film several individual ballets nearly completely. And the costumes, makeup and design both of the film and the dance performances are magnificent.
THE COMPANY
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics presents in association with CP Medien and Capitol Films a Killer Films/John Wells production in association with First Snow Prods. and Sand Castle 5 Prods.
Credits:
Director: Robert Altman
Screenwriter: Barbara Turner
Based on a story by: Neve Campbell, Barbara Turner
Producers: David Levy, Joshua Astrachan, Neve Campbell, Christine Vachon, Robert Altman, Pamela Koffler
Executive producers: Jane Barclay, Sharon Harel, Hannah Leader, John Wells, Roland Pellegrino, Dieter Meyer
Director of photography: Andrew Dunn
Production designer: Gary Baugh
Music: Van Dyke Parks
Costume designer: Susan Kaufman
Editor: Geraldine Peroni
Cast:
Ry: Neve Campbell
Alberto Antonelli: Malcolm McDowell
Josh: James Franco
Harriet: Barbara Robertson
Edouard: William Dick
Susie: Susie Cusack
Ry's mother: Marilyn Dodds Frank
Ry's father: John Lordan
Running time -- 112 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- "The Company" is Robert Altman's valentine to the challenging world of ballet and its world-class dancers. Eschewing the high drama of a dance film like "The Turning Point", Altman and his collaborators go for documentary-like realism, which scrutinizes company rehearsals, quick repairs to bruised and calloused bodies, arguments over choreography and the performances themselves, all lovingly photographed by Andrew Dunn. Altman and screenwriter Barbara Turner impose little narration on the film. Instead, they let the drama emerge from the daily routines of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago.
After the rousing critical and boxoffice success of his previous film, "Gosford Park", "The Company" may strike some as a minor work from the iconoclastic director. This also may translate into a limited, though highly appreciative, audience for the Sony Pictures Classics release. Yet the glories of the Joffrey Ballet and Dunn's luminescent cinematography, shooting in high-definition video to give us views from outside the proscenium, in the wings and overhead, make "The Company" a wonderfully vivid and engaging theatrical experience.
The genesis of the film lies with actress Neve Campbell, a fine dancer who studied with the National Ballet of Canada before embarking on an acting career. Campbell wrote the story with Turner and is the only actor in the film to participate with the Joffrey corps, doing all her own dances while playing the role of Ry, a company member on the verge of becoming a principal dancer. Realizing this project not only represents the fulfillment of a longtime dream but also a smart move as an actress. This film should get Campbell out of the "Scream" business and into classier movies and roles.
The other actor to command the screen is Malcolm McDowell, who plays Alberto Antonelli, the ballet's autocratic director. Alberto roams through rehearsal halls and company offices, wearing a series of dapper scarves and bringing the full weight of his demanding personality into every room he visits. He refers to the dancers as "my babies" and insists that they think beyond their own movements to the concept of the ballet itself. (Alberto is loosely based on Joffrey head Gerald Arpino.) It is indicative of Altman's determination to keep things real that an underling, summoning the boss to tend to another crisis elsewhere in the building, interrupts any moment involving Alberto that threatens to become dramatic.
The movie has little plot. An injury creates an opportunity for Ry to perform a pas de deux in an outdoor theater during a thunderstorm. (This is perhaps the movie's most visually exciting sequence.) She is a great success, but Alberto's promise to create dances around her fades, much to the annoyance of her pushy mother (Marilyn Dodds Frank).
Ry breaks up with a boyfriend in the company, then takes up with Josh James Franco), an affable sous chef. A veteran dancer snaps her Achilles tendon, a male dancer is replaced the week before a major ballet and threatens legal action, and dancers and choreographers occasionally clash over movements. That's about it for drama.
The real drama evolves out of the daily lives of the company. Altman, Turner and Campbell prefer to let simple observation demonstrate the battle a dancer must wage to stay on top of his or her game. We are surprised to see Ry forced to work as a cocktail waitress to make ends meet. We witness how dancers' careers are always at the disposal of the company's determined director. We understand the role injuries play.
Such is Altman's love for this brave world that he glides by its darker sides. The impact of AIDS is mentioned only in passing, and nothing at all is said about dancers' constant battle to keep their weight down.
The time period is not always clear, either. We sometimes go from rehearsal to performance in a single cut. One night Ry meets Josh in a saloon, and soon he has her apartment key. Are we experiencing a single season here or several years? Hard to say.
But the film does sweep us up into the lives of ballet dancers in ways no other film ever has. Altman also takes the time to stage and film several individual ballets nearly completely. And the costumes, makeup and design both of the film and the dance performances are magnificent.
THE COMPANY
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics presents in association with CP Medien and Capitol Films a Killer Films/John Wells production in association with First Snow Prods. and Sand Castle 5 Prods.
Credits:
Director: Robert Altman
Screenwriter: Barbara Turner
Based on a story by: Neve Campbell, Barbara Turner
Producers: David Levy, Joshua Astrachan, Neve Campbell, Christine Vachon, Robert Altman, Pamela Koffler
Executive producers: Jane Barclay, Sharon Harel, Hannah Leader, John Wells, Roland Pellegrino, Dieter Meyer
Director of photography: Andrew Dunn
Production designer: Gary Baugh
Music: Van Dyke Parks
Costume designer: Susan Kaufman
Editor: Geraldine Peroni
Cast:
Ry: Neve Campbell
Alberto Antonelli: Malcolm McDowell
Josh: James Franco
Harriet: Barbara Robertson
Edouard: William Dick
Susie: Susie Cusack
Ry's mother: Marilyn Dodds Frank
Ry's father: John Lordan
Running time -- 112 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/11/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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