ITV

Category: Hollywood

  • American films continue to win at Chinese box-office

    American films continue to win at Chinese box-office

    NEW DELHI: Marvel Studios LLC continues its winning streak in China as Guardians of the Galaxy topped the Mainland box office.
     
    In its first three days in cinemas, the James Gunn film made RMB185 million ($30.2 million) from approximately 4.74 million admissions. Released only in 3-D, the sci-fi film represented approximately 39.2 per cent of all screenings nationwide.
     
    In April, Captain America: The Winter Soldier made RMB224 million ($36.6 million) from approximately 5.17 million admissions over the three-day Ching Ming holiday weekend. It secured RMB720 million ($118 million) during its theatrical run.

    Nonetheless, Guardians of the Galaxy has by far had the best weekend for a Marvel Studios origin film in China. Three years ago, Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) opened with RMB34.3 million ($5.60 million), for a total of RMB98.1 million ($16 million).
     
    Ning Hao’s Breakup Buddies dropped to second place with RMB99.8 million ($16.3 million) over the weekend. After 13 days, it has made RMB931 million ($152 million).

    At its current rate, road movie comedy is expected to break the RMB1 billion ($163 million) mark by this weekend, making it the second domestic film to do so in 2014. Lost in Thailand (2012) took 21 days to reach the RMB1 billion mark in 2012. Earlier this year, The Monkey King took 23 days.
     
    The only other new film to reach the top ten is the domestic monster film Bugs 3D. Released only in 3-D, it made RMB12.13 million ($1.98 million) from approximately 328,000 admissions.
     
    Two years ago, Million Dollar Crocodile (2012) opened with RMB6.50 million ($1.06 million) for a total of RMB12.9 million ($2.10 million) during its theatrical run.
     
    Peter Chan’s Dearest dropped to third place with RMB22.3 million ($3.65 million) between Friday and Sunday. The child abduction drama has made RMB292 million ($47.7 million) after 18 days.

    Black & White: The Dawn of Justice was fifth place with RMB10.5 million ($1.71 million) between Friday and Sunday. The 3-D action sequel has made RMB187 million ($30.6 million) after 12 days.

    With RMB4.05 million ($661,000) between Friday and Sunday, Ann Hui’sThe Golden Era has made RMB44.12 million ($7.20 million) after 12 days.
     
    Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) returned to Chinese cinemas yesterday with a special 3-D re-release.
     
    In Hong Kong, Gone Girl became the top film this weekend due to the lack of any strong newcomers. The David Fincher mystery-drama made HK$3.92 million ($505,720) from 36 locations between Thursday and Sunday. After 11 days in cinemas, it has made HK$10.3 million ($1.33 million).
     
    Last week’s top film Dracula Untold dropped to second place with HK$2.06 million ($265,750) between Thursday and Sunday. It has made HK$9.83 million ($1.27 million) after 11 days.
     
    The top new film was spy thriller The November Man. From 34 locations, it made HK$1.69 million ($218,000) from 34 locations over four days.

     

  • Warner Bros announce three Harry Potter spin-offs

    Warner Bros announce three Harry Potter spin-offs

    MUMBAI: After a long wait, some good news for the Harry Potter fans, Warner Brothers has announced three new Harry potter spin-offs based on JK Rowling’s ‘Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them’ to be released in 2016, 2018 and 2020.

    The studio has also revealed that there will be three new installments of ‘The Lego Movie’ and 10 DC Comics superhero films, including ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Aquaman’.

    The new film will feature characters from the fictional textbook written by Newt Scamander at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  He is a magizoologist who deals with magical creatures and also author of the textbook used by students at the exclusive Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The book was mentioned in 49-year-old’s first novel in the series – ‘Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone’.

    According to media reports, the stories will be neither prequels nor sequels and will take place about seven decades before Harry and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley enter Hogwarts.

    To be directed by David Yates, the film-maker behind the final four Potter movies, the author herself will be writing the script for the movies.

    The Harry Potter film franchise remains the most successful in film history with $7.7 billion in global box office earnings.

    Rowling’s series of books has sold more than 450 million copies and the brand has an estimated worth of $15 billion.
    Giving the fans a clue before the official, announcement, last week the author tweeted out an anagram, “Newt Scamander only meant to stay in New York for a few hours,” which she said is the first sentence of a synopsis of Newt’s story.

    Rowling’s Harry Potter books – which were published from 1997 to 2007 and tell the story of the young wizard and his friends at the Hogwarts school of magic.

  • Benjamin Walker to play lead in Nicolas Sparks’s adaptation, The Choice

    Benjamin Walker to play lead in Nicolas Sparks’s adaptation, The Choice

    MUMBAI: The upcoming adaptation of Nicolas Sparks’ 2007 novel, The Choice has set Benjamin Walker as its leading man. Reports state that Walker will take on the role of Travis Parker in the Ross Katz film.
     
    The Choice follows two young neighbors, Parker and Gabby Holland, in a small coastal town. They ultimately become lovers despite having to face many barriers. With a screenplay by Bryan Sipes, the 11th Nicholas Sparks book to  turned into a movie is gearing up to start production in October in Wilmington, North Carolina although no cast has been announced yet.
     
    Sparks will co-produce with partners Theresa Park and Peter Safran. Lionsgate bought the distribution rights for the film in North America, the UK and Latin America this past spring. Sparks’ next two adaptations The Best of Me and The Longest Ride are currently in post- production for their releases on 17 October 2014 and 10 April 2015, respectively.
     
    The Best of Me is slated to release in India on 31 October 2014. Actor James Marsden, actress Michelle Monaghan and director Michael Hoffman will be present in India from 29 to 31 October 2014. The South Asia Premier takes place on 29 October 2014 followed by a closed door Black tie dinner on 30 October 2014.

  • American, Canadian filmfests call for entries for features, documentaries

    American, Canadian filmfests call for entries for features, documentaries

    NEW DELHI: Several American and Canadian feature and documentary film festivals are calling for entries from across the world to compete their awards.

     

    The New York International Children’s Film Festival has set its final deadline for Feature Films as 10 November.

     

    The Festival is North America’s film festival for children and teens. Each year the Festival presents 100 animated, live action and experimental shorts and features from around the world plus retrospectives, filmmaker Q&As, workshops, audience voting and an annual Awards Ceremony.

     

    It wants creative, original, non-formulaic short and feature films that support the mission to create a more dynamic film culture for children and teens. It also often shows films that were not created with a young audience in mind, but are received passionately and enthusiastically by attendees aged 3 to 18.

     

    Members of the Festival jury include Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Bill Plympton, Christine Vachon, James Schamus, Henry Selick and Gus van Sant, among others.

     

    Meanwhile, the New York Festivals Awards 2015 ceremony will celebrate the World’s Best TV & Films, as well as present the Lifetime Achievement Award, Broadcaster of the Year, Production Company of the Year, and United Nations Department of Public Information Awards.

     

    The deadline to enter the 2015 Television & Film Awards competition is 15 October. All Entries in the 2015 competition will be judged online and screened by New York Festivals Television & Film Awards Grand Jury of 200 plus producers, directors, writers, and other creative media professionals from around the globe. Award-winning entries will be showcased on the NYF Television & Film Awards website.

     

    Meanwhile, the Nashville Film Festival will mark a celebration of the diversity of the human spirit expressed through the art of film. In year-round programs, NaFF helps build a more informed, collaborative and alive community. The call for entries for the 2015 Nashville Film Festival is open and cash and prizes valued at over $54,000 are given. Films that qualify are Live Action, Animated and Documentary Short Films for Academy Award. The deadline is 19 November.

     

    The Hot Docs, Canada’s largest documentary festival, conference and market, will present its 22nd annual edition from 23 April to 3 May 2015. An outstanding selection of approximately 200 documentaries from Canada and around the world will be presented to Toronto audiences and international delegates.

     

    Hot Docs will also mount a full roster of conference sessions and market events and services for documentary practitioners, including the renowned Hot Docs Forum, Hot Docs Deal Maker and The Doc Shop. In partnership with Blue Ice Group, Hot Docs operates the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, a century-old landmark located in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood.

  • Hong Kong dominates Asian Film Market in Busan

    Hong Kong dominates Asian Film Market in Busan

    NEW DELHI: This week’s films from Hong Kong at the Asian Film Market in Busan in Korea represent a variety that moves from erotica to horror to romantic comedy and 3-D blockbusters.

     

    Distribution Workshop unveils In the Room by Singapore’s Eric Khoo. Produced by Nansun Shi and starring Josie Ho, the high concept erotic drama takes place in a single hotel room with six connected stories over several decades. Also on the company’s lineup are Tsui Hark’s spy thriller The Taking of Tiger Mountain 3D and Derek Yee’s martial arts film Sword Maste, both in post-production for 3D delivery.

     

    Golden Network Asia pesents Live TV by new Korean directors Kim Seon-ung and Son Gwang-su. The thriller follows two guys and one girl who live-broadcast a threesome sex scene online in a seedy motel only to find themselves become the next victims of a serial killer. It is slated for its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival.

     

    Busan’s closing film Gangster Pay Day is Star Alliance Movies’ (HK) first co-production with Sundream Motion Pictures. Starring Anthony Wong and Charlene Choi, the action comedy is about a retired gang boss who leads a humble life but is forced to fight back to protect the woman he loves and avenge the death of a comrade. Lee Po-cheung’s film is due to open on 6 November in Hong Kong.

     

    Star Alliance is also selling Soi Cheang’s SPLII in the Asia-Pacific region only. The follow up to the 2005’s smash hit is top-lined by Thai action star Tony Jaa, Louis Koo and Wu Jing.  A 2015 summer release is expected.

     

    Universe Films Distribution touts James Yuen’s romantic comedy Paris Holiday, featuring Louis Koo and Amber Kuo as two broken hearts who fall in love in the most romantic city and the Benny Chan-produced Little Big Master with Miriam Yeung as a headmaster who runs a kindergarten for under-privileged children.

  • Mikhail Red shares joint director award with Axelle Ropert at Vancouver

    Mikhail Red shares joint director award with Axelle Ropert at Vancouver

    NEW DELHI: Mikhail Red is the joint winner of the inaugural Best New Director Award at the 33rd Vancouver International Film Festival for his debut feature, the surveillance thriller Rekorder.
     
    The jury – comprised of Sydney-based professor Ben Gibson, Vancouver-based critic Kim Linekin and Québec-based programmer Roland Smith – called it ‘an ambitious, urgent and passionate film about the underside of contemporary urban life.’
     
    Rekorder stars Ronnie Quizon as a one-time cinematographer who now illicitly records films in cinemas that he sells to counterfeiters. When he inadvertently sells footage of a violent robbery, the video goes viral.

    Red shared the prize with Axelle Ropert for her French romance Miss and the Doctors (Tirez la langue, mademoiselle), which the jury described as ‘a beautifully realised romantic drama, intelligent and full of love for its characters’.
     
    Red’s thriller premiered in the New Breed section of the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival last summer and had its international premiere in the Asian Future section of last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival.
     
    Other Asian films eligible for the award were Suzuki Yohei’s Ow from Japan, Andri Cung’s The Sun, the Moon and the Hurricane from Indonesia, and ChiennHsiang’s Exit from Taiwan.

     

  • Ben Affleck’s ‘Gone Girl’ to release in India on Diwali

    Ben Affleck’s ‘Gone Girl’ to release in India on Diwali

    NEW DELHI: Gone girl by David Fincher starring Ben Affleck will be released in the India on 23 October after a phenomenal American box office opening and rave reviews by expert critics.
     
    With staggering positive reviews the movie has already got bumper box office numbers in the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) territories with numbers expected to grow even further.

    Gone Girl, based on a best-selling novel by Gillian Flynn, earned strong reviews from critics, with an 87 per cent positive rating on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.

     
    Affleck stars as a writer who is caught in a media circus when his wife goes missing and the police suspect he is responsible.

     
    It stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, and Carrie Coon. The film had its world premiere on opening night of the 52nd New York Film Festival on 26 September. It had its American theatrical release on 3 October.

     
    The film examines dishonesty in the media, and the economy’s effects on marriage, and appearances.

    The film opened the 52nd New York Film Festival, receiving high profile press coverage and early positive reviews.

     

    Flincher is the film-maker behind The Social Network and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

     
    Published in 2012, Flynn’s novel has sold more than six million copies. Earlier this year, she was commissioned by the Hogarth Shakespeare project to rewrite The Bard’s tragedy Hamlet.

     

  • Mike Leigh awarded at Reykjavík International Film Festival

    Mike Leigh awarded at Reykjavík International Film Festival

    NEW DELHI: Internationally renowned British film director Mike Leigh has received the Reykjavík International Film Festival´s Puffin Lifetime Achievement Award.

     

     

    Born in February 1943 in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, Leigh is a director and writer, known for Secrets & Lies (1996), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) and Vera Drake (2004).

     
    His films frequently centre on the British working class. Most of his work in theatre and film is done without any initial script. He and the actors improvise their characters and the scenes under his overall control.

     
    He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid-1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s his career moved between work for the theatre and making films for BBC Television, many of which were characterised by a gritty ‘kitchen sink realism’ style.

     

    His most notable works are Naked (1993) for which he won the Best Director Award at Cannes, the BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated Palme d’Or winner Secrets & Lies (1996) and Golden Lion winner Vera Drake (2004).

     
    He has also served as Member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and is the chairman of The London Film School. Additionally, he was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film and television culture.  

     

    His play, ‘Abigail’s Party’, performed at the New Ambassador’s Theatre, was nominated for a 2003 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Revival of 2002.

     

    His films include Bleak Moments (1971), Hard Labour (TV, 1973), The Permissive Society (BBC Second City Firsts), Knock for Knock, Nuts in May, High Hopes (1988), Life Is Sweet (1990), A Sense of History (1992) – short, All or Nothing (2002), and Mr. Turner (2014)

     

    He has also received an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1993 Queen’s Honours List for his services to the film industry.

     

  • Mike Leigh awarded at Reykjavík International Film Festival

    Mike Leigh awarded at Reykjavík International Film Festival

    NEW DELHI: Internationally renowned British film director Mike Leigh has received the Reykjavík International Film Festival´s Puffin Lifetime Achievement Award.

     

     

    Born in February 1943 in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, Leigh is a director and writer, known for Secrets & Lies (1996), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) and Vera Drake (2004).

     
    His films frequently centre on the British working class. Most of his work in theatre and film is done without any initial script. He and the actors improvise their characters and the scenes under his overall control.

     
    He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid-1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s his career moved between work for the theatre and making films for BBC Television, many of which were characterised by a gritty ‘kitchen sink realism’ style.

     

    His most notable works are Naked (1993) for which he won the Best Director Award at Cannes, the BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated Palme d’Or winner Secrets & Lies (1996) and Golden Lion winner Vera Drake (2004).

     
    He has also served as Member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and is the chairman of The London Film School. Additionally, he was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film and television culture.  

     

    His play, ‘Abigail’s Party’, performed at the New Ambassador’s Theatre, was nominated for a 2003 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Revival of 2002.

     

    His films include Bleak Moments (1971), Hard Labour (TV, 1973), The Permissive Society (BBC Second City Firsts), Knock for Knock, Nuts in May, High Hopes (1988), Life Is Sweet (1990), A Sense of History (1992) – short, All or Nothing (2002), and Mr. Turner (2014)

     

    He has also received an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1993 Queen’s Honours List for his services to the film industry.

     

  • Scarlett Johansson coming soon on small screen

    Scarlett Johansson coming soon on small screen

    MUMBAI: Scarlett Johansson is all set to star in a new period drama for her first major TV role. According to media reports, The Lucy actress will play the lead in a limited series adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winner Edith Wharton’s classic 1913 novel The Custom of the Country.

     

    She has starred briefly in TV before, with stop-motion animated series Robot Chicken in 2005.

     

    The 29-year-old actress will be seen as a midwestern girl, Undine Spragg, who makes it her goal to reach the heights of New York high society by any means necessary in the early part of the 20th century in the series.

     

    According to the media reports, Johansson will also be the executive producer of the eight-episode period story.

     

    Besides Johansson, there is another big name attached to the project as Oscar-winning British playwright-screenwriter Christopher Hampton is on board to write the screenplay of the limited series.

     

    Johansson will next be seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron, before starring in spin-off movie Black Widow and Disney’s live-action CGI remake of The Jungle Book.

     

    Meanwhile, Johansson has been busy juggling work and motherhood after the star gave birth to her first baby with fiancé Romain Dauriac on 4 Sept.