ITV

Category: Hollywood

  • Hollywood star Meryl Streep leading campaign for best documentary Oscar for “India’s Daughter”

    Hollywood star Meryl Streep leading campaign for best documentary Oscar for “India’s Daughter”

    New Delhi, 17 October: The controversial BBC documentary film on the December 2012 Nirbhaya rape case.

     

    “India’s Daughter” by Leslee Udwin which was banned in early March by the government, is opening at various theatres in the United States next week.

     

    Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep, who introduced the documentary at its US theatrical release in New York City, said “I’m on the campaign now to get Udwin nominated for best documentary.”

     

    The film is largely based on an extensive interview in jail with one of the attackers who blamed the victim, a 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist, for being out in the evening with a male friend.

     

    In a statement, the government warned that certain excerpts “appear to encourage and incite violence against women.”

     

    Promoter Christine Merser said screenings are also scheduled in some other countries.

     

    Despite the uproar in India, “India’s Daughter” by Leslee Udwin was re-telecast on BBC4 to mark International Women’s Day.

     

    Although BBC News is available in the country, the British pubcaster aired the documentary – for the second time in five days – on BBC4 which is not available to Indian viewers.

     

    The documentary was also screened in countries across the globe — including Switzerland, Norway and Canada — to mark International Women’s Day and is being screened in the United States today. The film also continues to be available to Indian viewers on the internet. 

  • Warner Bros, Legendary plan ‘Godzilla,’ ‘King Kong’ trilogy

    Warner Bros, Legendary plan ‘Godzilla,’ ‘King Kong’ trilogy

    MUMBAI: Following Legendary’s and Warner Bros. Pictures’ 2014 success with the global reinvention of the Godzilla franchise, the companies have come together to create an epic, new shared cinematic franchise.

     

    The initial trio of films are 2017’s Kong: Skull Island; Godzilla 2 in 2018; and then Godzilla vs. Kong, arriving in theaters in 2020.

     

    All-powerful monsters become towering heroes for a new generation, revealing a mythology that brings together Godzilla and Legendary’s King Kong in an ecosystem of other giant super-species, both classic and new. Monarch, the human organization that uncovered Godzilla in the 2014 film, will expand their mission across multiple releases.

     

    While Legendary maintains its new home at Universal Pictures, the Godzilla films remain in partnership with Warner Bros., who will now also distribute Kong as a part of this franchise. Production on Kong: Skull Island begins 19 October.

     

    Warner Bros. and Legendary released Godzilla in May 2014 with an agreement to release Godzilla 2 on 8 June, 2018. Both films feature the human Monarch organization. Shortly following Legendary’s pact with NBC Universal, Legendary acquired rights to additional classic characters from Toho’s Godzilla universe, including Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah. This paved the way for developing a franchise centered around Monarch and anchored by Godzilla, King Kong, and other famous creatures.

     

    When Legendary announced films centered on Godzilla and Kong, fans all over the world speculated these two characters might one day meet in the same film. Classic Toho monsters including King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan, as announced at Comic-Con 2014, may also join the Legendary pantheon of giant monster mayhem going forward.

     

    Legendary CEO Thomas Tull said, “Audiences really responded to Godzilla. Today, I’m excited to reveal that film was only the beginning of an epic new entertainment universe. As a lifelong fan of these characters, I’ve always wanted to see the ultimate showdown, and today we’re pleased to be announcing that and more.”

     

    “Working with our partners at Legendary, we enjoyed tremendous creative and commercial success with Godzilla. It’s great to be able to revisit these characters and help create a franchise with so many creative possibilities for filmmakers. Fans love these big, globally iconic films and it doesn’t get any bigger than this,” added Warner Bros Chairman and CEO Kevin Tsujihara.

     

    Kong: Skull Island stars Tom Hiddleston, Sam Jackson, Brie Larson, John Goodman, Tian Jing, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, John Ortiz, Shea Whigham, and Toby Kebbell. Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts and written by Max Borenstein, John Gatins, Dan Gilroy, and Derek Connolly, Kong: Skull Island will fully immerse audiences in the mysterious and dangerous home of the king of the apes as a team of explorers ventures deep inside the treacherous, primordial island. Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni will produce with Mary Parent. Alex Garcia and Eric McLeod will executive produce. Warner Bros. will distribute the film in 3D and IMAX 3D on 10 March, 2017.

     

    Godzilla 2 will be written by Max Borenstein and directed by Gareth Edwards. Legendary is producing with Parent, and Garcia will executive produce. The film is set to be released by Warner Bros. on 8 June, 2018.

     

    Godzilla vs. Kong will be released in 2020.

  • Imax & Omnijoi expand revenue share partnership in China with 15-theatre deal

    Imax & Omnijoi expand revenue share partnership in China with 15-theatre deal

    MUMBAI: Imax Corporation and Omnijoi Cinema Development Co., Ltd, (erstwhile Jiangsu Eudemonia Blue Ocean Cinema Development Co., Ltd.) have expanded their revenue sharing arrangement with the addition of 15 new Imax theatre systems in China.

     

    This agreement brings Omnijoi Cinemas’ total Imax commitment to 31 theatres and positions the exhibitor as the third-largest Imax exhibitor partner in China and fifth-largest globally.

     

    “Today’s agreement will see Omnijoi Cinemas nearly double its Imax footprint – a significant commitment that underscores the success of the Imax business model and the continued demand for The Imax Experience among Chinese moviegoers. Omnijoi is a valued partner that shares our passion for innovation and quality and together we look forward to continuing to change the way audiences in China experience today’s biggest blockbusters,” said Imax CEO Richard L. Gelfond.

     

    “This partnership is a direct result of the success of our existing Imax theatres that have delighted our guests with the best Chinese and Hollywood films in the world’s most immersive cinematic format. As we continue to expand our network of cinemas, Imax will be a flagship attraction at our upcoming complexes – one we are confident will continue to support our business,” said Omnijoi Media Group vice president Yang Shu.

     

    Omnijoi Cinema Development was founded especially to develop and operate cinemas. It has over 15 locations of five star Cineplex as of 31 May, 2015. The company is planning to invest billions RMB to build 150 Cineplex with 1200 screens and become a leading exhibitor in China.

  • Martin Scorsese to receive 2015 Lumi?re Award

    Martin Scorsese to receive 2015 Lumi?re Award

    NEW DELHI: Eminent filmmaker Martin Scorsese is to receive the 2015 Lumi?re Award.

     

    The filmmaker will receive the distinction during the Lumi?re Festival to be held in Lyon and Grand Lyon (now the Metropolis of Lyon) from 12 – 18 October. The third edition of the Classic Film Market will take place from 14 – 16 October.

     

    For three days, film industry professionals (producers, distributors, cinema operators, television and VOD broadcasters, DVD-Blu-ray publishers, rights holders, institutional organizations) gather to discuss and exchange views on the present state and the future of classic cinema, its challenges and opportunities in a changing environment which will include a Market venue, roundtables, screenings, lunches and meetings.

     

    The Classic Films Market is restricted to cinema industry professionals. There will be a roundtable meets on “Conservation, digitisation, restoration of classic films: how to finance them,” and on “The future of the past: how to find right-owners (orphan works, unclaimed rights)?” and on “Sound restoration. Sharing viewpoints” co-organised by the SACD and the Institut Lumi?re.

     

    The Distributors Day will help filmmakers discover the titles and the upcoming classic films releases of Artédis, EYE International, Gaumont, LCJ Editions, Lost Films, Malavida, Mosfilm, Pathé, Shellac, Sidonis Productions, Swedish Film Institute, Tamasa Distribution and the film presentations of the ADRC and the AFCAE.

     

    The thematic breakfast meet will be on “Conservation, digitization, restoration of classic films: which technical evolutions? Issues and testimonies.” co-organized by the FICAM and the Institut Lumi?re.

     

    Born on 17 November, 1942, Scorsese is one of the most prominent American directors, producers, screenwriters, actors, and film historians, whose career spans more than 45 years.

     

    Part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and influential filmmakers in cinema history.

     

    In 1990, he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation.

     

    He is a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema, and has won an Academy Award, a Palme d’Or, Cannes Film Festival Best Director Award, Silver Lion, Grammy Award, Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and DGA Awards.

     

    Scorsese’s body of work addresses such themes as Sicilian-American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption, machismo, modern crime, and gang conflict. Many of his films are also notable for their depiction of violence and liberal use of profanity.

     

    He has directed landmark films such as the crime film Mean Streets (1973), the vigilante-drama Taxi Driver (1976), the biographical sports drama Raging Bull (1980), the black comedy The King of Comedy (1983), and the crime films Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995), all of which he collaborated on with actor and close friend Robert De Niro.

     

    Scorsese has also been noted for his collaborations with actor Leonardo DiCaprio, having directed him in five films, beginning with Gangs of New York (2002). Their latest collaboration, The Wolf of Wall Street, was released in 2013.

     

    He won the Academy Award for Best Director for the crime drama The Departed (2006). With eight Best Director nominations to date, he is the most nominated living director, and is tied with Billy Wilder for the second most nominations overall. 

  • Eminent filmmaker Chantal Akerman, who became the voice of the inner woman, is dead

    Eminent filmmaker Chantal Akerman, who became the voice of the inner woman, is dead

    New Delhi, 7 October: Renowned filmmaker Chantal Akerman, who presented her last film No Home Movie on her own mother Natalia at Locarno last month, is dead.

     

    The Belgian-born, Paris-based director Akerman who figured among filmmakers who have delved deeply into the psyche of the woman died on 5 October at the age of sixty-five.

     

    According to Isabelle Regnier of Le Monde, Akerman committed suicide.

     

    Born in 1950, she is also remembered for one of the most original and audacious films in the history of cinema, “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles” which premi?red at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1975, the month before her twenty-fifth birthday.

     

    Akerman presented monumentally composed, meticulously observed, raptly protracted images of a woman’s domestic routine; and that the pressures of women’s unquestioned, unchallenged, and unrelieved confinement in the domestic realm and in family roles.

     

    In effect, Akerman transformed the visual styles and narrative forms, the dramatic syntax and artistic codes of the modern cinema, into a woman’s cinema. Her films include “Je, Tu, Il, Elle” (I, You, He, She) made in 1976, “News from Home”, “Toute Une Nuit” (One Whole Night) in 1982

     

    She made one of the great cinematic coming-of-age dramas, “Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the Nineteen-Sixties in Brussels,” one of the great documentary self-portraits, “L?-Bas,” and, in 2011, an ecstatic, hallucinatory yet trenchantly political adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novel “Almayer’s Folly.”

     

    Akerman also made a wildly rapturous, sinuously erotic Proust adaptation, “The Captive,” which came out in 2000 and was premi?red at Cannes.

     

    Her last film ‘No Home Moive’ is a video essay about her mother Natalia who was an Auschwitz survivor who died in 2014.

     

    Akerman also served on film festival juries and lectured widely. In 2011, she joined the staff of New York’s City College full time. 

  • Strengthening Bollywood & Hollywood ties to be discussed at Regional Pravasi Divas in LA

    Strengthening Bollywood & Hollywood ties to be discussed at Regional Pravasi Divas in LA

    NEW DELHI: The significant media, cultural and entertainment engagement between India and the United States will be one of the primary subjects of discussion at the ninth Regional Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Los Angeles next month.

     

    Ways of strengthening ties between Bollywood and Hollywood would also be discussed in the meet to be held on 14 and 15 November.

     

    The RPBD will be organised by the Consulate General of India in San Francisco and the India Embassy in Washington DC in collaboration with the major community organisations of People of Indian Origin in the USA and the Overseas Indian Affairs Ministry.

     

    Various official forums for India-US collaboration will also participate in the RPBD.

     

    The RPBD Los Angeles will celebrate the presence of the single largest population of overseas Indians in any one country and strengthen the social, economic and political bonds between India, the USA and the Indian Diaspora.

     

    India and the USA share a growing partnership in almost all sectors vital to their economies. Indian Americans have made a significant impact in IT, medicine, academia, banking, hospitality, science and technology and also as entrepreneurs engaged in thriving businesses. The RPBD Los Angeles will focus and build on these synergies and collaborations, through seminars and discussions involving major stake holders on both sides.

     

    The concept of Pravasi Divas, which is to be held from 8 to 10 January in New Delhi next year, was given by a committee set up by then Prime Minister A B Vajpayee to cement ties with the Diaspora. The date was chosen since it was on 9 January that Mahatma Gandhi emigrated from South Africa to India to lead the freedom struggle in the early part of the last century. 

  • Bond film ‘Spectre’ to release in India on 20 November in four languages

    Bond film ‘Spectre’ to release in India on 20 November in four languages

    NEW DELHI: The latest in the films on James Bond 007, Spectre, is slated for release in India on 20 November in four languages namely English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.

     

    Directed by Sam Mendes, the film stars Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Rory Kinnear, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Monica Bellucci, David Bautista and Andrew Scott.            

     

    Spectre follows the release of Skyfall, the biggest Bond film of all time, which took in $1.1 billion worldwide. 

     

    A cryptic message from the past sends James Bond on a rogue mission to Mexico City and eventually Rome, where he meets Lucia Sciarra (Bellucci), the beautiful and forbidden widow of an infamous criminal. Bond infiltrates a secret meeting and uncovers the existence of the sinister organisation known as Spectre.

     

    Meanwhile back in London, Max Denbigh (Scott), the new head of the Centre for National Security, questions Bond’s actions and challenges the relevance of MI6, led by M (Fiennes). Bond covertly enlists Moneypenny (Harris) and Q (Whishaw) to help him seek out Madeleine Swann (Seydoux), the daughter of his old nemesis Mr White (Jesper Christensen), who may hold the clue to untangling the web of Spectre. As the daughter of an assassin, she understands Bond in a way most others cannot.

     

    Presented by Sony Pictures Entertainment, the film has been produced by EON Productions Limited.

  • Lionsgate inks movie output deal with Disney’s Buena Vista for Russia

    Lionsgate inks movie output deal with Disney’s Buena Vista for Russia

    MUMBAI: Reflecting its continued growth in a major international territory, Lionsgate has forged an output deal with Disney’s Buena Vista International (BVI), for distribution of its titles in Russia and the rest of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

     

    The agreement will kick off with Lionsgate’s revenge thriller Sicario this fall and will also encompass titles as: Francis Lawrence’s adventure fantasy, The Odyssey; the first live action Saban’s Power Rangers film; and the film adaptation of Hasbro’s Monopoly.

     

    “We’re thrilled to expand our relationship with Buena Vista International through this output agreement in a major territory with enormous upside. We’re pleased to continue building our BVI relationship with a powerful, commercially exciting slate loaded with blockbuster tentpoles, potential franchises and star-driven event films,” said Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-chairs Patrick Wachsberger and Rob Friedman and Lionsgate International COO Andrew Kramer.

     

    “BVI’s stature, experience and tremendous track record coupled with Lionsgate’s diverse film portfolio promise significant upside for both companies. This new output agreement reflects our commitment to Russia and our continued emergence as a creative force in the global marketplace,” added Lionsgate EVP of international sales Crystal Bourbeau.

     

    Lionsgate previously teamed with BVI on Summit Entertainment label films including the Japanese release of the action thriller Red, the release of the Step Up franchise in Japan and the Spanish and Japanese releases of Source Code and Tree of Life. Most recently, both companies announced that they will be launching the fourth installment of the global blockbuster The Hunger Games franchise, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, on 19 November in Russia and CIS.

  • Pan Nalin’s ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’ at Rome Film Festival

    Pan Nalin’s ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’ at Rome Film Festival

    MUMBAI: The cast and crew of Indian director Pan Nalin’s film Angry Indian Goddesses is on a roll. After winning many a hearts across the globe, the movie is now officially the only Indian movie selected at the Rome Film Festival, which will be held from 16 to 23 October.

     

    Overall, 37 films from 24 countries are playing in the Rome Film Festival this year, out of which Angry Indian Goddesses will be the only Indian movie. Last year Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider had bagged the People’s Choice Award in the world category at the Rome Film Festival.

     

    A story of seven girls at a wild bachelorette party made with Goa as its backdrop, the film was honoured the Grolsch People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival and was screened at the 35th Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax. It will be screened at the 11th edition of the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF). 

     

    The movie stars Sarah-Jane Dias in the lead.

  • Robert De Niro to be honoured with Hollywood Career Achievement Award

    Robert De Niro to be honoured with Hollywood Career Achievement Award

    MUMBAI: Two-time Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro will be honored with the Hollywood Career Achievement Award. The awards ceremony will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, on 1 November, 2015.

     

    The Hollywood Film Awards has recognised excellence in the art of cinema and filmmaking for 18 years, honouring some of the world’s biggest stars.

     

    “The Hollywood Film Awards is an incredible brand, previewing some of the biggest movies and stars of the year, while launching the award season. We are honored to have Robert De Niro as this year’s recipient of the Hollywood Career Achievement Award,” said Dick Clark Productions CEO Allen Shapiro. 

     

    De Niro is currently starring in Warner Bros. Pictures’ The Intern and will appear next in 20th Century Fox’s Joy, coming out 25 December, 2015.

     

    Past honorees of the Hollywood Career Achievement Award include Glenn Close, Harrison Ford, Richard Gere, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Keaton and Robin Williams among others.

     

    De Niro launched his motion picture career in Brian De Palma’s The Wedding Party in 1969 and has since starred in multiple movies including The Godfather, Part II for which he won the Oscar.