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Category: Hollywood

  • American supernatural thriller Voices from the Stone acquired by 13 Films

    American supernatural thriller Voices from the Stone acquired by 13 Films

    NEW DELHI: The supernatural thriller Voice from the Stone starring Emilia Clarke which is being produced by Dean Zanuck (Road To Perdition, Get Low fame) and Stefano Gallini-Durante (White Shadow, En La Caliente) and will be directed by Eric D. Howell has been acquired by leading international sales and finance company 13 Films.
     
    13 Films president Tannaz Anisi announced this at the ongoing American Film Market. However, the film’s producers will retain rights for the United States.
     
    Veteran sales agent Anisi will also be the executive producer of the project which is set to start principal photography in November in Italy.
     
    Marton Csokas has also joined the cast alongside Clarke.
     
    “I was immediately drawn to the unique and haunting script of Voice from the Stone and
    am thrilled to be partnering with established producers Dean Zanuck and Stefani Gallini-Durante on the project. The beautiful and talented Emilia Clarke is the perfect actress to bring life and freshness to the role of Verena,” said Anisi.
     
    Written by Andrew Shaw and based on the Italian novel La Voce Della Pietra by Silvio Raffo, Voice from the Stone marks Eric D. Howell’s feature film directorial debut.
     
    Voice from the Stone is the haunting story of Verena (Clarke), a solemn nurse drawn to aid a young boy named Jakob who has fallen silent since the untimely death of his mother nearly a year ago. Living with his father (Csokas) in a massive stone manor in Tuscany, Jakob not only refuses to speak, he seems to be under the spell of a malevolent force trapped within the stone walls. As Verena’s relationship with the father and son grow, she becomes ensnared and consumed by Malvina’s severe force. If she is to save the boy, and free herself, she must face the phantom hidden inside the stone.
     
    13 Films’ full slate at AFM also includes the romantic comedy Take Care starring Leslie Bibb and Thomas Sadoski, which made its market premiere yesterday and will be released theatrically in the US by Phase 4 Films on 5 December, crime thriller Manhattan Nocturne starring Oscar winner Adrien Brody, Yvonne Strahovski and Campbell Scott set to start shooting in December and Very Good Girls with Dakota Fanning, Elizabeth Olsen, Peter Sarsgaard and Demi Moore, which was released earlier this year by Tribeca Films.

     

  • Global Genesis Group acquires worldwide rights for ‘The Distance Between us’

    Global Genesis Group acquires worldwide rights for ‘The Distance Between us’

    NEW DELHI:  The award-winning feature film The Distance Between Us, which was awarded the best feature narrative at the 2014 world’s independent film festival has been acquired by the Global Genesis Group for exclusive worldwide distribution.

     

    The movie is a love story about immigrants finding hope in America. The film also examines broken ambitions and the triumph of the human spirit.

     

    “We believe that many of us can relate to struggles in a relationship, life’s challenges and finding the American dream,” said Global Genesis Group CEO Scott Staff.

     

    The deal was struck at the ongoing American Film Market.

     

    Chandu Yarram makes his debut as a writer and director with The Distance Between Us. Sanjay Currie is the executive producer and the film was shot entirely in the US – in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. The film stars Rahul Rai, Leah Kavita, Ariane Mallon, Akshay Reddy, Axita Patel, Ashok Chaudhry, Nicken Kotak and Roni Mazumdar.

     

    Global Genesis Group’s core business is the production and distribution of television series, feature films and merchandising as well as creating and developing its own original IP’s to generate merchandising and sponsorship opportunities globally. Movie Buff Creations is an American based independent film production house with a unique approach that differentiates it from other independent production companies. The core team of Movie Buff Creations has worked for some of the world’s largest management consulting companies – offering a valuable Asian-Indian American view of life internationally and of immigration.

  • ‘Maya the Bee – Movie’ deal signed for release in America and Canada

    ‘Maya the Bee – Movie’ deal signed for release in America and Canada

    NEW DELHI: Studio 100 Film has acquired the popular Australian-German film Maya the Bee for the North American market following a distribution agreement with Shout! Factory, a leading multi-platform entertainment company.

    Studio 100 Film is an international feature films sales agency based in Munich/Germany. The announcement was made by Studio 100 Film CEO Patrick Elmendorff and Shout! Factory’s founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos.

    In this agreement, Shout! Factory has secured exclusive US and Canadian distribution rights to Maya the Bee – Movie, including theatrical, home entertainment, digital distribution and broadcast for cross-platform releases.

    Shout! Factory plans a strategic rollout of this film in selected theatres, video-on-demand (VOD), subscription video-on-demand (SVOD), electronic-sell-through (EST), television and in all packaged media through Shout! Factory Kids in 2015.

    Elmendorff said: “Following the recent success of Maya the Bee – Movie in Germany, South Korea, Poland, etc., we are very proud to announce the distribution agreement for the North American market. I am delighted to partner with Shout! Factory. They have demonstrated great expertise in distributing feature films.”

     Maya the Bee is a worldwide and well-known brand. The books of the little bee were first published over 100 years ago and since then worldwide audiences young and old have loved the brand. “The worldwide sales of the movie to more than 100 countries illustrate the continuous popularity of this well-known and much-loved brand and the rising demand for great family entertainment,” says Elmendorff.

    “We are incredibly excited about this new relationship with Studio 100 Film. This highly entertaining family movie is the perfect addition to our library of exciting new films. We look forward to presenting Maya the Bee movie to North American audiences through a wide variety of entertainment distribution platforms and on family home entertainment shelves,” Shout! Factory’s founders said.

    Studio 100 Film presents Maya the Bee – Movie as Australian-German co-production of Studio 100 Media and Buzz Studios in association with Flying Bark Productions. Directed by Alexs Stadermann, it is produced by Thorsten Wegener (Studio 100 Media) and Barbara Stephen (Buzz Studios) and executively produced by Patrick Elmendorff (Studio 100 Media) and Jim Ballantine (Buzz Studios). Studio 100 Film, the film division is a hundred percent subsidiary of the international children’s production and distribution company Studio 100 Media based in Munich.

    The story is about a freshly hatched bee Maya who is a little whirlwind and will not follow the rules of the hive. One of these rules is not to trust the hornets that live beyond the meadow. When the Royal Jelly is stolen, the hornets are suspected and Maya is thought to be their accomplice. No one believes that she is the innocent victim and no one will stand by her except for her good-natured and best friend Willy. After a long and eventful journey to the hornets hive Maya and Willy soon discover the true culprit and the two friends finally bond with the other residents of the opulent meadow.

     

  • Around 400 exhibiting companies taking part in American Film Market this year

    Around 400 exhibiting companies taking part in American Film Market this year

    NEW DELHI: A total of 396 exhibiting companies are being represented in the 35th American Film Market (AFM) which opened this week, marking the highest level of participation since 2008.

    Being held from 5 to 12 November, the AFM will have more than 8,000 attendees from over 80 countries in Santa Monica over the course of the week.

    Growing from 2013, a total of 430 films are set to screen with 349 market premieres and 84 world premieres. Attendees can look forward to first-glimpse performances by the likes of: Samuel L.

    Jackson, John Travolta, Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer, Morgan Freeman, Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Jessica Alba, Clive Owen, Adam Driver, Kate Beckinsale, Maggie Smith, Hailee Steinfeld, Kristin Scott Thomas, Al Pacino, James Franco, Elijah Wood and many others.

    More than 100 speakers from around the globe will participate in the AFM Conference Series, Producers Forum, Roundtables and Industry Conversations – with industry thought leaders and experts sharing their knowledge and insights with participants.

    The business of independent motion picture production and distribution reaches its peak every year at the American Film Market. The global film industry converges in Santa Monica for eight days of deal-making on films in every stage of development and production, as well as screenings, conferences, networking and parties.

    With 8,000 industry leaders from more than 80 countries, 700 screenings and the industry’s largest Conference Series, AFM is the pivotal destination for filmmakers, producers, writers,  directors, distributors, financiers, industry executives, talent, the international media and all those who provide services to the worldwide motion picture industry.

    The AFM is produced by the Independent Film & Television Alliance, the global trade association of the independent motion picture and television industry.

    Director/producer Brett Ratner takes part in the Finance Conference and comedian/podcast king Adam Carolla will participate in an Industry Conversation. Millennium Films’ President Mark Gill, WME Partner Mark Ankner, and UTA’s Independent Film Group Co-Head Rena Ronson will impart wisdom and advice in the Production Conferences.

    Additional speakers include: Preferred Content’s Kevin Iwashina, Tugg, Inc CEO and independent producer Nicolas Gonda, Cinetic Media Founder John Sloss, Relativity Europa’s Russell Schwartz, Mister Smith’s Jill Jones, CineTel President & CEO Paul Hertzberg, UTA partner Rich Klubeck, Foresight Unlimited CEO & Chairman Mark Damon and independent producer Cassian Elwes.

    The independent film industry growth is evident as 126 buying companies from 41 countries and 112 exhibiting companies from 21 countries will participate in the market for the first time. Asian companies will once again be particularly well-represented, with the largest number of new buyers coming from South Korea.

     

  • Netflix adapting ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ into an original series

    Netflix adapting ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ into an original series

    MUMBAI:  The subscription streaming service Netflix has announced yet another original TV series based on the ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ books written by Lemony Snicket, the pen name of author Lemony Snicket

    It has acquired the rights to the 13 best-selling novels published from 1999 to 2006.

    Netflix is producing the project and currently looking for a director and will move forward from there.

    Paramount Television, the TV arm of Paramount will produce the series in association with Netflix. Handler will serve as an executive producer.

    ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ tells the tale of orphaned children Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire at the hands of the villainous Count Olaf, as they face trials and tribulations, misfortunes and an evil uncle in search of their fortune, all in their quest to uncover the secret of their parents’ death. More than 65 million copies have been sold in the series, which has been translated into 43 languages and spawned board games, card games, video games and albums.

    ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ is just the latest property to be adapted into a series. Other titles to be adaptation include ‘Archie’, ‘In the Heat of the Night’, ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Big’.

     

  • Benedict Cumberbatch gets engaged !

    Benedict Cumberbatch gets engaged !

    MUMBAI: The Imitation Game actor, Benedict Cumberbatch announced his engagement to Sophie Hunter, a theater actress and director, via a paid-for announcement in The Times newspaper’s classified section.

     

    The ad read:

     

    MR B.T. CUMBERBATCH AND MISS S.I. HUNTER

     

    The engagement is announced between Benedict, son of Wanda and Timothy Cumberbatch of London, and Sophie, daughter of Katharine Hunter of Edinburgh and Charles Hunter of London,” read the classified.

     

    According to media reports, a wedding date has not been set yet.

     

    The couple met while shooting the thriller Burlesque Fairytales in 2009. Cumberbatch and Hunter were only confirmed as a couple five months ago, after being photographed together at the French Open.

     

    Cumberbatch’s engagement comes two years after his breakup with fashion designer Anna Jones and four year after his longest relationship (10 years) with actress and screenwriter Olivia Poulet that ended in 2010.

     

    Hunter, has had some small roles in films, including Vanity Fair, and won a Samuel Beckett award for her play The Terrific Electrice, which she wrote and directed. She’s since staged productions of Ghosts (Henrik Ibsen), and The Magic Flute (Mozart). She also constructed an installation, Lucretia, inspired by Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia.

  • ‘Fast & Furious 7’ trailer out!

    ‘Fast & Furious 7’ trailer out!

    NEW DELHI: Star Movies and Universal Pictures International – India gave fans a sneak peek into the latest sequel of the Fast and Furious franchise ‘Fast & Furious 7’, by airing its first look on 2 November 2014, thus giving Indian viewers the opportunity to watch the trailer along with the rest of the world.

     

    Thirteen years ago, Universal Pictures released the action film set within the underground street-racing subculture of East Los Angeles called The Fast and the Furious.  

     

    Six films later, the franchise has grown into a global sensation, garnering more than $2.3 billion in worldwide box-office receipts and setting a record as Universal’s highest grossing franchise in history. 

     

    The trailer of the seventh edition of one of the most iconic movie franchises in the world was launched by Star Movies together with Universal Pictures. The film will be releasing in cinemas on 3 April 2015.

     

    In less than 24 hours, the video garnered over 9 million impressions.

     

    The first look of Fast & Furious 7 awaits fans at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvKV6j1VGU8 and https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10150446412769964&set=vb.73166874963&engine=2&theater.

  • Fox cancels ‘Utopia’ reality TV show

    Fox cancels ‘Utopia’ reality TV show

    MUMBAI: ‘Utopia’, the Fox series dubbed as a one-year social experiment with 15 participants trying to create a new society from scratch has been discontinued by the network after 66 days.

     

    Based on a Dutch series by Significant Brother creator John de Mol, the show was made to challenge participants to produce their personal society. It aired its final episode on 31 October and pulled down its 24/7 online live-stream of the compound on 2 November.

     

    Throughout its run, Utopia was averaging 2.6 million viewers when it aired on Tuesdays and 2.4 million on Fridays.

     

     ‘Utopia’ premiered on 7 September and Fox began by airing the series two nights a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays.  The network then cut back to just Fridays due to Tuesdays’ low-ratings. The live-stream stayed up throughout filming, and viewers could gain access to multiple, around-the-clock feeds if they paid a $5 a month subscription fee.

     

    ‘Utopia’ presented a challenge to its 15 participants with wildly diverse backgrounds to create a working society with limited supplies and no indoor plumbing. They would have to decide on a type of government, economy, to follow a religion and other great choices a community must make in the beginning. The reality series also introduced the threat of elimination for one of the 15 contestants.

     

    On Fridays, the series will be replaced by reruns of Masterchef Junior.

  • Dev Patel to star in ‘Lion’ with Nicole Kidman

    Dev Patel to star in ‘Lion’ with Nicole Kidman

    MUMBAI: The Slumdog Millionaire actor Dev Patel has been finalised to star with Nicole Kidman in the new The Weinstein Company drama Lion.

     

    The drama, based on the memoir ‘A Long Way Home’ by Saroo Brierley, follows a street kid from Calcutta (Patel) who is taken in and adopted by a couple in Australia.

     

    Garth Davis, who co-directed the Golden Globe-winning miniseries ‘Top of the Lake’ with Jane Campion, is set to helm the movie while Luke Davies, the screenwriter on Anton Corbijn’s upcoming Life, adapted the book for the screen.

     

    In addition to Lion, Patel plays self-taught Indian math genius Srinivasa Ramanujan in Matt Brown’s period drama The Man Who Knew Infinity. He will also star in Lionsgate’s Soviet-era thriller Child 44 and The Road Within, a remake of the hit German dramedy Vincent Wants to Sea.

     

    Patel also appears in John Madden’s upcoming The Second Best Marigold Hotel, the sequel to the 2011 hit, which Fox Searchlight will release in the US next year.

     

    It was earlier believed that Hugh Jackman would also star in the film, but as per media reports, the actor has denied any connection to the project.

  • Full cast of ‘The Godmother’ announced

    Full cast of ‘The Godmother’ announced

    MUMBAI: Jon Bernthal, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Oscar Jaenada and Mehdi Dehbi have been finalised to join Catherine Zeta-Jones in her next movie The Godmother.

     

    Eva Sorhaug will direct the movie from a screenplay by Frank Baldwin, and production will begin next spring.

     

    Oscar winning Zeta-Jones stars as the notorious Colombian drug queenpin Griselda Blanco, also known as ‘The Godmother of Cocaine’.

     

    Blanco was the first and only woman in history to head a major Colombian drug network, and the film chronicles the rise and fall of the woman who became the wealthiest, deadliest, and most wanted drug lord in the world. Notorious for instigating and fueling the Miami drug wars that took place during the late 1970s and 1980s, Blanco grossed millions of dollars a month amidst fierce competition as cocaine replaced marijuana as America’s drug of choice. Blanco was eventually arrested and convicted in 1985 in her home in Irvine, CA.

     

    She served 18 years in prison before she was released in 2004 and deported back to Colombia. Blanco was murdered on 3 September 2012 — shot to death by a drive-by motorcyclist outside a butcher shop in Medellín, Colombia.

     

    The film is being produced by Daniela Cretu through her First Born Films banner, while Oscar nominee Nicholas Pileggi is the executive producer along with Sierra/Affinity’s Nick Meyer, Marc Schaberg, and Kelly McCormick.

     

    It isn’t Zeta-Jones’ first turn in a movie about the drug trade. In 2000, she starred in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, which earned more than $200 million at the global box office.

     

    Bernthal, who currently stars alongside Brad Pitt in David Ayer‘s Fury, was last seen in Martin Scorsese‘s The Wolf of Wall Street.

     

    Moreno was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Maria Full of Grace, and she recently appeared on the TV series ‘Red Band Society’.

     

    Jaenada most recently starred in Cantinflas and was previously seen in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides while Dehbi’s past film credits include A Most Wanted Man and The Other Son.