NEWS

• 'Bond 19', now in pre-production, due for release in November 1999, is scheduled to shoot early in the new year with Michael Apted directing. Once again Pinewood's huge exterior tank and the Albert R Broccoli 007 Stage will figure in the shooting as Eon producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli return to their old haunts,
• The British Film Institute (BFI) announced the creation of a 1 million fund intended to co-finance a large format IMAX film about London. The fund comes from an Arts Council of England lottery award. The intention is to have a locally produced IMAX film which will play at the BFI's new IMAX cinema currently under construction on London's South Bank and to develop large format production facilities in the UK.
• Abbey Road Studios announced the opening of their new fully integrated film recording, surround sound and DVD facilities in September. The studio is the first in the UK to combine all of these facilities under one roof
• Neil Jordan will write and direct an English language remake of Jean-Pierre Melville's 1955 classic Bob Le Flambeur in a co-production between Canal Plus and Warner Bros, which bought the remake rights from the pay television giant. Steve Woolley will produce and John Wells will executive produce.
• Australian cinema group Hoyts plans to open 150 screens in 15 multiplexes in the UK over the next four years. Its first multiplex at the Bluewater complex in Dartford, Kent is still under construction and is scheduled to open next summer. Hoyts has secured sites in north London, Liverpool and Wolverhampton and plans to invest approximately 75 million in cinema construction.
• The Motion Picture Association of America estimates that the average cost of producing and marketing a Hollywood studio film is now $75 million. Rising p & a costs are considered the main reason for several studios cutting back in both the number of films produced per annum and in the number of production deals.
• Work has now started on two new sound stages at Pinewood Studios. Scheduled to open in the summer of '99, these two large purpose built sound stages will bring the studio's stage count up to 20. At almost 20,000 sq ft each, both the new stages (R and S) will, sizewise, edge ahead of original stages A, D and E. There will be full supporting accommodation together with new heavy construction workshops nearby. "These two new stages will allow us to accommodate an additional large production at any one time throughout the year. We are quietly confident of high occupancy" said Robin Busby, Pinewood General manager / Director.
• Auctioneers Christie's first sale of James Bond memorabilia realised almost 500,000, two and a half times more than predicted. Among nearly 300 lots sold, the magnetic Rolex watch used by Bond in Live And Let Die sold for 21,850, a Lotus Esprit shell used in The Spy Who Loved Me went for 29,000 and the steel rimmed bowler hat, used by the villain Oddjob in Goldfinger, sold for 61,750.
• The global box office will grow by 34% over the next ten years, to $10 billion, but this growth will be fuelled mainly by rising ticket prices and the growth of multiplexes, according to a recent report from Baskerville Communications, the US media consultancy. Average ticket prices will