ITV

Category: Hollywood

  • Seth MacFarlane’s Cosmos documentary to premiere at White House Film Festival

    Seth MacFarlane’s Cosmos documentary to premiere at White House Film Festival

    MUMBAI: On Friday, February 28, the White House is hosting the first-ever Student Film Festival, featuring the work of more than a dozen young filmmakers who created short films celebrating the role of technology in the classroom.

     

    The Filmmaker-in-Chief, President Barack Obama was at Buck Lodge to celebrate progress on ConnectED when he recorded the video on his iPad. ConnectED is an ambitious project to connect 99% of American students to next-generation broadband and wireless technology within five years. In Adelphi, he announced that some of America’s largest companies answered the President’s call to action towards that goal by pledging more than $750 million in commitments to deliver cutting-edge technologies to classrooms, including devices, free software, teacher professional development, and home wireless connectivity.

     

    Building on the President’s eagerness to connect students to technology, and his newfound interest in filmmaking, The White House excited to host the first-ever White House Student Film Festival. In November, we called for Kindergarten to 12th grade students around the country to create short films on the role of technology in their classroom, and students responded with nearly 3,000 entries. In collaboration with the American Film Institute, the White House will screen the finalists’ works this Friday along with a star-studded cast including Kal Penn, Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Conan O’Brien.

     

    In addition to the celebration of the student films and the President’s remarks, FOX and National Geographic Channel will treat the attendees to a sneak peek of the first episode of the upcoming television series, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a US documentary executive produced by Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy, Ted, The Cleveland Show) which celebrates the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).

  • 12 Years a Slave to be part of public high school curriculum

    12 Years a Slave to be part of public high school curriculum

    MUMBAI: The National School Boards Association (NSBA) is partnering with New Regency, Penguin Books, and the filmmakers to distribute copies of the film, book and study guide of the acclaimed motion picture, 12 Years a Slave to America’s public high schools.

     

    The initiative, coordinated by Montel Williams, host of The Montel Williams Show, one of the longest tabloid talk shows in recent times, will start to distribute 12 Years a Slave nationwide in September 2014 in concert with the new school year. It is modeled against an initiative Williams launched to distribute the Civil War film Glory to public high schools that ultimately led to The Montel Williams Show.

     

    In a press release Montel said, “12 Years a Slave is one of the most impactful films in recent memory, and I am honored to have been able to bring together Fox Searchlight and National School Boards Association to maximise its educational potential.  When Hollywood is at its best, the power of the movies can be harnessed into a powerful educational tool. This film uniquely highlights a shameful period in American history, and in doing so will evoke in students a desire to not repeat the evils of the past while inspiring them to dream big of a better and brighter future, and I’m proud to be a part of that.”

     

    “Since first reading 12 Years a Slave, it has been my dream that this book be taught in schools.  I am immensely grateful to Montel Williams and the National School Boards Association for making this dream a reality and for sharing Solomon Northup’s story with today’s generation,” said Steve McQueen, director of 12 Years a Slave.

     

    12 Years a Slave is an award-winning film that depicts the harrowing tale of a New York State-born free black man kidnapped in Washington, D.C. in 1841 and sold into slavery. This groundbreaking film won the 2014 Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Picture, the Producers’ Guild Association (PGA) Award for Best Picture, the British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Best Film and is nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Motion Picture of the Year.

     

    According to the press release, NSBA President David A. Pickler is quoted saying, “The National School Boards Association is honored to partner with Fox Searchlight Pictures and Penguin Books to ensure that every public high school student in America has the opportunity to stare the stark realities of slavery in the eye through books and film. We believe that providing America’s public high school students the opportunity to bear witness to such an unrelenting view of the evils of slavery is essential toward ensuring that this history is never forgotten and must never be repeated.”

     

    Williams also has joined NSBA as a celebrity spokesperson in its Stand Up 4 Public Schools campaign that showcases the great things happening in America’s public schools.

  • Avatar actor arrested for punching photographer

    Avatar actor arrested for punching photographer

    MUMBAI: Sam Worthington, best known for his roles in Avatar, was arrested on Sunday, 23 February after getting into an altercation with a photographer, reports New York Police Department (NYPD).

     

    The 37-year old Australian actor was accused of punching photographer Sheng Li in the face after Li allegedly kicked Worthington’s 26-year-old female companion in the shins at 5:30 p.m. in Greenwich Village, according to NYPD Detective Kellyann Ort. The department refused to reveal any details in regards to the identity of Worthington’s female companion. However, no one succumbed to any injuries.

     

    In addition to Avatar, Worthington also starred in Terminator: Salvation, Clash of the Titans, Wrath of the Titans, Drift, Man on a Ledge, Rogue. He auditioned for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale, but lost to Daniel Craig.

  • ‘Veronica Mars’ to be available for online streaming and download on same day as release

    ‘Veronica Mars’ to be available for online streaming and download on same day as release

    MUMBAI: You can now follow the alumni of Neptune High right from the television screen to your living room. Warner Bros, the studio behind the film, Veronica Mars – based on the TV series created by Rob Thomas, will make the movie available for rent or buy online through cable and satellite providers on the day of the movie’s theatrical release on 14 March, same day it releases in limited AMC theatres across the United States.

     

    Instead of sharing ticket sales with the theatres, Warner Bros has opted to rent screen at 270 theatres which would bring them 100 per cent of the ticket sale.

     

    The film follows Veronica Mars, who has moved to New York City nine years after the events of Season 3, but is forced to return when her old boyfriend Logan Echolls is once again accused of murder.

     

    Last March, the star of the show Kristen Bell and show creator Rob Thomas got together and launched a Kickstarter campaign to encourage the fans of the show to fund it. In its first day on Kickstarter, the project broke the record as the fastest project to reach first $1 million, then $2 million; it also achieved the highest minimal pledging goal achieved and was the largest successful film project on Kickstarter. On its final campaign day, the project broke the record for the most backers on a single Kickstarter project!

     

    The film reunites most of the cast from the cult favourite series – along with Kirsten Bell (House of Lies), the ensemble cast includes Jason Dohring (Moonlight), Kyrsten Ritter (Don’t Trust the B—- In Apartment 23), Ryan Hansen (2 Broke Girls), Chris Lowell (Private Practice) with Ken Marino (We’re the Millers), Max Greenfield (New Girl), Jamie Lee Curtis (Freaky Friday), Martin Starr (Freaks and Geeks), Jerry O’Connell (Crossing Jordan), Justin Long (Live Free or Die Hard) and James Franco (Spider Man).

  • Amy Adams breaks down while remembering Philip Seymour Hoffman

    Amy Adams breaks down while remembering Philip Seymour Hoffman

    MUMBAI: Hollywood actress Amy Adams, in the weeks leading into the Oscars, filmed an interview for Inside the Actors Studio, an American television program hosted by James Lipton. In between discussing her career and her Oscar-nominated role in American Hustle, Adams broke down when host James Lipton asked her about her recently deceased co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman died at the age of 46 from an apparent heroin overdose on 2 February. Adams and Meryl Streep were among many celebrities who attended his private funeral in New York City on 6 February.

     

    The 39-year old Adams worked with Philip Seymour Hoffman on two of her most acclaimed movies: Doubt, in 2008, and The Master in 2012. “I wish you all could get a chance to work with him,” she told the assembled students. “He was beautiful. He’s a beautiful spirit and he had this unique ability to see people; to really see them. Not look through them. He just really saw people”, she explained tearfully to the students in the audience. “I just really loved him, and I know so many people did,” Adams added through sobs, “I just don’t know how much more I can talk about it right now, sorry.”

     

    The actor then apologised and said she wouldn’t be able to go on talking about him.

     

    After making her mark in the industry with memorable appearances in films such as Junebug, Enchanted, Doubt, and The Fighter, Amy Adams discusses her multifaceted career leading up to her standout performance in Columbia Pictures’ American Hustle. Her lead role as a con-artist in the Academy Award nominated film earned Adam’s her first Golden Globe win and fifth Academy Award Nomination. Adams has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and six Screen Actors Guild Awards.

  • Cast of new Fantastic Four film reboot announced

    Cast of new Fantastic Four film reboot announced

    MUMBAI: According to The Hollywood Reporter (THR), 20th Century Fox is close to signing off deals with four actors’ viz., Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell for its new film based on Marvel’s Fantastic Four (FF) comics created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.

     

    Playing the roles will be Kate Mara (House of Cards) as Sue Storm, also known as the Invisible Woman, Jamie Bell (The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn) will take on the role of Ben Grimm, also known The Thing; while Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now) will be Reid Richards, also known as Mr. Fantastic and finally rounding out the fourth member is Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station) as Johnny Storm, also known as The Human Torch making him the first African-American to take on that role.

     

    The contemporary update is based on the comic book “The Ultimate Fantastic Four,” and will completely focus on the characters as young men and women. Josh Trank (Chronicle) will helm the pic with Simon Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes), Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) and Gregory Goodman (X-Men: First Class) serving as producers.

     

    Now that the Fantastic Four have been shortlisted, you can expect to hear more about who they will be battling against over the next few months. More information on the film will be released as the project moves further along into production. The film is scheduled to premiere in US theatres on 19 June, 2015.

  • Marvel releases first full trailer of Guardians of the Galaxy

    Marvel releases first full trailer of Guardians of the Galaxy

    MUMBAI: Marvel Studios unveiled its newest team of superheroes on Tuesday night with the first trailer for the movie Guardians of the Galaxy. The footage for the film, based on the cult Marvel comic, premiered on American Broadcasting Company (ABC)’s late night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!

     

    From Marvel, the studio that brought you the global blockbuster franchises of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers, comes a new team – the Guardians of the Galaxy. An action-packed, epic space adventure, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits – Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon; Groot, a tree-like humanoid; the deadly and enigmatic Gamora; and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand–with the galaxy’s fate in the balance.

     

    Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which first appeared in comic books in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (Jan. 1969), stars Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation), Zoe Saldana (Avatar), Dave Bautista (Riddick), featuring Vin Diesel (Fast and Furious) as the voice of Groot, Academy Award nominee Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook) as the voice of Rocket, Golden Globe Award nominee Lee Pace (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), Michael Rooker (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), Karen Gillan (Doctor Who), Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond), with Academy Award nominee John C. Reilly (Chicago), Primetime Emmy Award winner Glenn Close (Damages) as Nova Prime Rael and Academy Award winner Benicio del Toro (Traffic) as The Collector.

     

    James Gunn (Thor: The Dark World) is the director of the film with Kevin Feige (Spiderman series) producing, and Louis D’Esposito (The Avengers), Victoria Alonso (Thor), Jeremy Latcham (Iron Man), Alan Fine (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and Stan Lee (X-Men: Days of Future Past) serve as executive producers. The story is by Nicole Perlman and James Gunn, with screenplay by James Gunn. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy releases in U.S. theatres on 1 August 2014.

     

    Check out the world premiere of The Guardians of the Galaxy trailer

  • ‘The Monuments Men’ team get an access to Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’

    ‘The Monuments Men’ team get an access to Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’

    MUMBAI: The team of The Monuments Men got an unprecedented access to photograph the cast of the movie in front of one of the world’s greatest art masterpieces – Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper.

     

    This art masterpiece was in danger of being lost during WWII and was rescued by the Monuments Men as depicted in the film, so there is a direct correlation to the film. These images have been shot exclusively for Fox by Italian photographer Gianmarco Chieregato.

     

    It became possible because of the cooperation among the Italian Ministry for Culture and Tourism, the Milan’s Monuments, Fine Arts and Landscape Department, and Twentieth Century Fox, the film distribution company.

     

    “The Magificent Seven” in the snapshot are: the director, screenwriter, producer and star of the film George Clooney and co-stars Matt Damon, Jean Dujardin, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, and Dimitri Leonidas. 

     

    The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci is the set of one of the opening scenes of the film that will release on 21 February, because the bombing that endangered Leonardo’s masterpiece strongly contributed to the decision to set up the Monuments Men, a group of art critics, museum curators, and archivists, who towards the end of the Second World War, saved thousands of artworks from bombings, pilfering, looting and Nazi barbarity.

  • Jennifer Lawrence to present at this year’s Oscars

    Jennifer Lawrence to present at this year’s Oscars

    MUMBAI: Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence (The House at the End of the Street) will return to present at the 86th Annual Academy Awards this year, show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced today in a press statement. Lawrence took home the golden statuette for her lead performance in Silver Linings Playbook. She is nominated this year for her supporting role in American Hustle. Previously Lawrence was nominated for her leading role in Winter’s Bone. Her other credits include X-Men: First Class and The Hunger Games series. 

     

    Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2013 will be presented on Sunday, 2 March, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, Los Angeles and televised live on American Broadcasting Network (ABC). The Oscars, produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

     

    The Oscars, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, will air in India on Monday, 3 March live on Star Movies at 5:30 am with a repeat telecast at 8:00 pm.

  • Seth Gordon to direct video game adaptation of Uncharted

    Seth Gordon to direct video game adaptation of Uncharted

    MUMBAI: The long-awaited live action film adaptation of the hugely popular and award winning video game series, Uncharted may finally see the light of day.

     

    According to reports, Sony Pictures is in talks with Horrible Bosses director Seth Gordon to helm Uncharted, a live-action adaptation of the PlayStation videogame series Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune with a script by David Guggenheim (Safe House, Bad Boys 3) and produced by Charles Roven (The Dark Knight trilogy), Avi Arad (Iron Man series) and Alex Gartner (Get Smart).

     

    Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, the first one in the series, follows the journey of protagonist Nathan Drake, supposed descendant of the explorer Sir Francis Drake, as he seeks the lost treasure of El Dorado, with the help of journalist Elena Fisher and mentor Victor Sullivan. Drake’s search for El Dorado becomes competitive when a rival hunter joins the hunt, and then the plot takes a crazy turn when creatures begin attacking those hoping to learn the treasure’s true secrets.

     

    If finalised, Seth Gordon will be the third director to be attached to the project along with David O. Russel (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle) and Neil Burger (Divergent).