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Category: Hollywood

  • Eddie Redmayne cast in Warner Bros’ wizarding world adventure

    Eddie Redmayne cast in Warner Bros’ wizarding world adventure

    MUMBAI: Academy Award-winning actor Eddie Redmayne has been cast as Newt Scamander in Warner Bros. Pictures’ wizarding world adventure Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

     

    Redmayne will play J.K. Rowling’s creation Newt Scamander, the Wizarding World’s preeminent magizoologist, who in his travels has encountered and documented a myriad of magical creatures, ultimately leading to his penning the Hogwarts School textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

     

    Warner Bros. Pictures president of creative development and worldwide production Greg Silverman said, “Eddie Redmayne has emerged as one of today’s most extraordinarily talented and acclaimed actors. We are thrilled to welcome him into J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, where we know he will deliver a remarkable performance as Newt Scamander, the central character in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

     

    Making her screenwriting debut on the film, Rowling has developed the character of Scamander and his primer – taken from her Harry Potter series – to further explore the unique wizarding world she has crafted in print and bring it to life on screen.

     

    David Yates, who directed the last four Harry Potter films, will direct Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

     

    “Eddie is a fearless actor, brimming with invention, wit and humanity. I couldn’t be more excited about the prospect of working with him as we start this new adventure in J.K. Rowling’s wonderful world, and I know she feels the same way,” said Yates.

     

    The film is being produced by David Heyman, producer of all eight Harry Potter features; Rowling; Steve Kloves, who scripted all but one of the Harry Potter films; and Lionel Wigram, who served as an executive producer on the last four installments of the franchise.

     

    Redmayne won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the 2014 biopic The Theory of Everything. His stunning portrayal of Stephen Hawking in that film also brought him Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards.

     

    Warner Bros. Pictures will release Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in 3D and Imax on 18 November, 2016.

  • Disney pacts with China’s Youku Tudou to market Marvel films online

    Disney pacts with China’s Youku Tudou to market Marvel films online

    MUMBAI: Disney and China’s online video platform Youku Tudou have partnered, wherein the latter will be the exclusive online movie marketing platform in China for Marvel collection of movies and TV series.

     

    Youku Tudou will drive online marketing through promotion of trailers, online ticketing, live events and original programming dedicated to silver screen movies.

     

    Youku Tudou’s strength as the leading online movie marketing platform in China comes from its market position. Leveraging its 500 million unique monthly users across screens, marketing efforts are able to disseminate across Youku Tudou’s media and entertainment ecosystem resulting in greater audience impact than traditional offline movie advertising.

     

    Disney and Marvel titles resonate with Youku Tudou’s audience with over 530 million cumulative views of titles across movies, television series, trailers, Youku Tudou original productions, and live-streaming.

     

    Online marketing efforts contributed to boosting the box office revenue of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy and in the case of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, to almost 800 million, compared to 80 million RMB of the previous installment of the franchise in China. The trailers and Youku Original productions for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy have over 41 million cumulative views with over 15.8 million combined movie VOD views on the Youku Tudou platform. The Avengers: Age of Ultron trailers and Youku Original productions have received over 25.7 million cumulative views with the movie currently in theaters.

     

    “We are committed to expanding our media and entertainment ecosystem by working with strong partners. These partnerships, like the one with Disney, are multifold and give Youku Tudou the opportunity to use its strengths to further its business model and drive future revenue streams through high-quality content, innovative marketing efforts, and merchandising channels,” said Youku Tudou chairman and CEO Victor Koo.

  • Entries invited for 16th Calgary International Film Festival

    Entries invited for 16th Calgary International Film Festival

    NEW DELHI: The Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) has invited entries from filmmakers all over the world.

     

    The 12-day showcase of up to 200 multi-genre films from Canada and over 40 other countries will be held from 23 September to 4 October. The entries close on 15 June.

     

    The festival hosts gala events, screenings, award ceremonies and special presentations. A large number of participating filmmakers from around the world connect with the audience through post-screening question and answer periods, and through panels and film talks open to the general public.

     

    Each year’s line-up is presented in series that group CIFF’s offerings into easily identifiable categories including Canadian, American and world cinema, documentaries, late shows, music on screen and shorts. A number of awards are selected by audiences and juries for outstanding films and performances.

     

    In a release, CIFF said that it “exists to transform the way visual stories are shared and experienced. The aim is to discover and share the best and most remarkable, especially those that would not otherwise be seen.”

     

    CIFF’s vision emphasizes discovery and it claimed to have been the platform for debutantes including new filmmakers, particularly championing and fostering Alberta’s own creative voices.

     

    Films invited to the 2015 Festival are automatically considered for nomination in all Award categories for which they are eligible. Nominations are made on the basis of achievement in form and content in their category by a jury of industry experts and leading cultural figures from Canada.

     

    The awards are: Discovery Award for Emerging Filmmakers (Feature films only – Documentary and Narrative categories) – Audience vote; Alberta Spirit (Shorts films only) – Jury award; Audience Choice Award (Feature & Short films – various categories).

     

    Only films completed after 1 January, 2014 and not previously submitted to CIFF are eligible. 

  • WB Sound acquires Digital Cinema New York

    WB Sound acquires Digital Cinema New York

    MUMBAI: WB Sound has acquired Digital Cinema New York, following its two-year relationship with the studio.

     

    The addition of Digital Cinema New York adds to the full complement of sound and picture services Warner Bros. offers in Burbank, New York, and London.

     

    “As the industry moves to a broader consolidation of picture and sound, Warner Bros. continues to expand and develop the full scope of our post production services. The volume of production in and around the New York area grows more and more robust, and we are fully committed to creatively serving the increasingly greater needs of the community,” said Warner Bros. Entertainment SVP, post production services worldwide Kim Waugh.

     

    WB Sound New York, helmed by Oscar-winning sound supervisor and re-recording mixer Skip Lievsay, provides sound design, sound supervision, sound editorial, re-recording, and ADR services at its state-of-the-art Midtown Manhattan facility (formerly occupied by Digital Cinema).

     

    “This acquisition is representative of our overall expansion of the post production services business at Warner Bros. We are pleased to meet our clients’ needs wherever they prefer to post their productions – between the greater Los Angeles, New York, and London areas, we’re truly able to creatively serve the industry at a global level,” added Warner Bros. Entertainment president, worldwide studio facilities Jon Gilbert.

     

    Lievsay’s creative team includes sound supervisor and re-recording mixer Paul Urmson, supervising sound editors Eliza Paley and Ben Cheah, and re-recording mixer Michael Barry. Recent features edited and mixed at the WB Sound NY facility include Into the Woods, Rikki and the Flash, Family Fang, Miles Ahead, and Run All Night.

     

    Warner Bros. began working from the Digital Cinema facility in May 2013. Together with Digital Cinema and Sync Sound veterans Bill Marino and Ken Hahn, Warner Bros. re-equipped the existing re-recording stage and built out eight new sound design and picture editing suites. Marino and Hahn will continue to operate Sync Sound, which was established in 1984.

     

    Warner Bros. is planning a number of significant upgrades to the Digital Cinema facility in the coming months to bring it in line with the Burbank and London locations. 

  • Universal plans six-network roadblock on NBC for ‘Jurassic World’ preview

    Universal plans six-network roadblock on NBC for ‘Jurassic World’ preview

    MUMBAI: A roadblock broadcast of the original Jurassic Park will be hosted by three-time Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg and Chris Pratt, the star of Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment’s Jurassic World, beginning on 5 June and concluding on 6 June.

     

    They will also introduce a two-minute, exclusive sneak preview of Jurassic World, which arrives in theaters on 12 June.

     

    Spielberg and Pratt will share their respective memories of Jurassic Park and drive to a debut of a two-minute exclusive sneak preview of Jurassic World, which will air during the program.

     

    This first opportunity to see new material from the upcoming film will be aired on 5 June on NBC. The following evening, on 6 June, the program will air on Bravo, Syfy, USA Network, E! and NBC Universo. For its part, NBC Universo will telecast a Spanish language version of Jurassic Park.

     

    In Jurassic World, the story of Spielberg’s original comes full circle as the park that was only a promise comes to life. Jurassic World is a fully operational luxury resort off the coast of Costa Rica where 20,000 guests explore the wonder of Earth’s most magnificent living prehistoric marvels—of every shape and size—and interact up close with them every day.

     

    When the massive and mysterious Indominus rex stages an escape and disappears into the jungle, order turns to mayhem and guests turn into prey. Dinosaurs escape into the open, skies and water to engage in an all-out war for survival, and no corner within the world’s greatest theme park is safe anymore.

     

    Pratt, Irrfan Khan, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D’Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Omar Sy and BD Wong star in the 3D epic action-adventure that is directed by Colin Trevorrow and based on characters created by Michael Crichton.

  • Universal Pictures to restore 15 classic silent films over the next four years

    Universal Pictures to restore 15 classic silent films over the next four years

    MUMBAI: Building on its 2012 Centennial celebration, Universal Pictures will be restoring some of the world’s most classic silent films.

     

    During the next four years, the studio will restore approximately 15 silent film titles from Universal’s early years. The complete list of films is still in development in collaboration with outside film historians, institutions, and preservationists. Partners and collaborators in the initiative include the Library of Congress, The Film Foundation, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, George Eastman House, UCLA Film & Television Archives, Association of Moving Image Archivists, and Hollywood Heritage.

     

    The announcement was made at the Opening Night of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. 

     

    “The company understands its responsibility and need to preserve our silent film legacy. This early art of filmmaking is the foundation on which Universal Pictures was built more than 100 years ago, and it’s important we honor our rich history,” said NBC Universal vice chairman Ron Meyer.

     

    The silent film era is best known for instantly recognizable storylines, settings, costumes, and characters. Most early silent films were accompanied by a full-fledged orchestra, organist or pianist to provide musical background and to underscore the narrative on the screen. Some even included live actors or narrators. The major genre emphasis was on swashbucklers, historical extravaganzas, and melodramas, although all kinds of films were being produced throughout the decade.

     

    According to a report released by the Library of Congress, 70 per cent of the America’s silent feature films have been completely lost. Universal’s restoration team will work with archives and collectors worldwide to secure copies of prints and additional elements needed to complete this restoration effort and augment the silent film titles currently in its library.

     

    Universal Pictures silent film restoration initiative builds on the company’s ongoing restoration commitment. Since the program was first announced in 2012, nearly 30 titles have been restored and 25 more titles are expected to be restored by 2017. Fully restored titles to date include All Quiet on the Western Front, The Birds, Buck Privates, Dracula (1931), Dracula Spanish (1931), Frankenstein, Jaws, Schindler’s List, Out of Africa, Pillow Talk, Bride of Frankenstein, The Sting, To Kill a Mockingbird, Touch of Evil, Double Indemnity, High Plains Drifter, and Holiday Inn.

  • Roger Deakins to shoot sequel of 1982 sci-fi film ‘Blade Runner’

    Roger Deakins to shoot sequel of 1982 sci-fi film ‘Blade Runner’

    MUMBAI: Twelve-time Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins will join director Denis Villeneuve on Alcon Entertainment’s shoot the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi film Blade Runner.

     

    Deakins, who was presented with the Pierre Angenieux Excellens in Cinematography Award at the Cannes Film Festival, reteams with Villeneuve on what will be their third feature collaboration, having previously worked together on Alcon’s Prisoners, starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal as well as Villeneuve’s upcoming film Sicario, a drug-trafficking drama starring Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro from Black Label Media.

     

    Deakins received his latest Academy Award nomination this year for his work on Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken. He was previously nominated for Joel and Ethan Coen’s Fargo, The Man Who Wasn’t There, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men and True Grit; Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption; Martin Scorsese’s Kundun; Andrew Dominik’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; Stephen Daldry’s The Reader, which he shared with Chris Menges; and, more recently, Prisoners and Sam Mendes’ Skyfall.

     

    Blade Runner is scheduled to start principal photography in summer of 2016. Hampton Fancher (co-writer of the original) and Michael Green have written the original screenplay based on an idea by Fancher and Ridley Scott. The story takes place several decades after the conclusion of the 1982 original. Harrison Ford will reprise his role as Rick Deckard.

     

    Alcon co-founders and co-CEOs Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson said, “Roger is an extraordinary talent and we are very excited that Denis and Roger have chosen to continue their collaboration in bringing the sequel to Blade Runner to the big screen.”

     

    Alcon Entertainment acquired the film, television and ancillary franchise rights to Blade Runner in 2011 from producer Bud Yorkin to produce prequels and sequels to the iconic science-fiction thriller. Yorkin will serve as a producer on the sequel along with Kosove and Johnson. Cynthia Sikes Yorkin will also produce.

     

    Thunderbird Films CEOs Frank Giustra and Tim Gamble will serve as executive producers. Ridley Scott will also executive produce.

     

    Among its many distinctions, Blade Runner has been singled out as one of the greatest movies of all time by innumerable polls and media outlets, and overwhelmingly as the greatest science-fiction film of all time by a majority of genre publications.

     

    Released by Warner Bros., Blade Runner was adapted by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples from Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and was directed by Ridley Scott following his landmark Alien. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards.

  • 3D Guild formed; initiates 3D awards

    3D Guild formed; initiates 3D awards

    NEW DELHI: A new 3D Guild has been conceived to link professionals from all over the world who share a passion for 3D, in order to help them to work in concert, to push always further back the fascinating and sometimes surprising frontiers of 3D.

     

    Additionally the 3D Guild has also instituted a new award to recognize and honour the best productions and other masterpieces in 3D. The 3D Guild Award will be presented every year for the best films made globally in 3D.

     

    The award instituted by the new association 3D Guild will be given out on 17 December during the 3D Stereo MEDIA event, traditionally held in Li?ge, Belgium, since 2009. 

     

    The jury will meet in London in November to identify the first winners of the 3D Guild Award.

     

    A decision to this effect was taken by the 3D Guild in a meeting at the American Pavilion during the Cannes International Film Festival.

     

    The idea of creating a new association and a new award for 3D was initially proposed by the two organizers of this major internationally acclaimed event, Prof. Jacques G. Verly (University of Li?ge, School of Engineering) and Alain Gallez (Image & 3D Europe). They received full support from several key actors of 3D in Europe, and defined with them the details of the new association and award. They also consulted with the Advanced Imaging Society – formerly called the International 3D Society – to work synergistically with it, in the best interest of 3D worldwide. The new award was designed by a young Belgian designer Thien Vo.

     

    The 3D Guild was officially founded on 8 May, as an international non-profit organization, symbolically headquartered in the Capital of Europe, Brussels. Its 11 founding members come from Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom.

     

    The 3D Guild defines itself to be “an association of people for people,” devoid of any corporate influence. In the same spirit, the 3D Guild Awards will go to people, as opposed to content (even if the selection is based on the screening of content).

     

    The initial presidency of the Guild was entrusted to Prof. Verly, and the co-presidency to Angus Cameron (Vision3, UK) and Joséphine Derobe (Stereographer, FR).

     

    The 3D Guild will initially focus on the domains of entertainment (cinema, television, virtual/augmented reality, video games) and research, the latter cutting across all applications of 3D.

  • AFM sues six Hollywood studios for reusing soundtracks in movies

    AFM sues six Hollywood studios for reusing soundtracks in movies

    MUMBAI: The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) is suing six major studios for reusing film soundtrack clips in other films and television programs without appropriately compensating musicians.

     

    The studios named in the lawsuit are: Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal City Studios, Walt Disney Pictures and Warner Brothers Entertainment.

     

    “Our agreements obligate the studios to make additional payments to musicians when soundtracks are reused and AFM members are entitled to receive the benefit of that bargain. Our efforts to resolve these contract violations and missing payments have been unproductive, so we are looking to the courts for relief,” said AFM International president Ray Hair.

     

    The studios have been pulled up for reusing previously recorded film soundtracks in violation of AFM’s collective bargaining agreement with the studios.

     

    The lawsuit cites numerous examples of the studios reusing film scores without paying musicians including:

    • Columbia using music from Karate Kid in an episode of the television series Happy Endings;

    • Disney using music from Beauty and the Beast and The Muppet Movie in the television series The Neighbors;

    • Fox using music from Titanic in the film This Means War;

    • Paramount using music from Up in the Air in the film Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story;

    • Universal using music from Bourne Identity in the television series The Office; and

    • Warner Brothers using music from Battle for the Planet of the Apes in the film Argo.

     

    The AFM is seeking award damages for all losses, including prejudgment interest.

     

    In April this year, the AFM had also sued the studios for allegedly breaching the guild agreement by recording film scores outside the US and Canada.

     

    Click here to read the complaint: 

  • Andrey Zvyagintsev to head SIFF jury, Ishu Patel to lead animation jury

    Andrey Zvyagintsev to head SIFF jury, Ishu Patel to lead animation jury

    NEW DELHI: Russian film-maker Andrey Zvyganitsev will be the president of this year’s Golden Goblet Awards jury at the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF).

     

    The Festival is being held from 13 to 21 June.

     

    Zvyagintsev won Best Screenplay at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for Leviathan. The film was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Academy Awards. The drama, about one man’s crusade against his small town’s corrupt mayor, will screen at the festival this year.

     

    The festival has also announced that this year’s Golden Goblet competition will have a Best Documentary and a Best Animation category. Malcolm Clarke and Ishu Patel will head the documentary and the animation jury, respectively.

     

    This year’s SIFF edition will also include a Takakura Ken retrospective held in association with the Motion Pictures Producers Association of Japan Inc and the Tokyo International Film Festival.