ITV

Category: International

  • Dead while going for a funeral!

    MUMBAI: In a kind of death that very little in the world would have, publicist Scotty Dugan died while traveling to the funeral of music executive and film producer John Atterberry on December 21.


    Atterberry died on December 12 from wounds he suffered during the December 9 attack carried out by Tyler Brehm. He was 52.
     
    Dugan used to informally handle public relations for God‘s Country, a forthcoming Christian-themed independent film produced and co-written by Atterberry.
     
    “He was the inspirational backbone of my career,” Gotzon said. “Everything I‘ve basically gotten has been from Scotty‘s belief in me. I have extraordinary memories.”
    A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner‘s Office did not have information on the cause of death and said Dugan‘s body has yet to be examined.
     
    Dugan was on his way to Atterberry‘s funeral, which was held at the West Angeles Church of God in Christ in South Los Angeles. Atterberry, 40, was also a music executive and chief financial officer and senior partner of GridLock Group, an events promotion firm based in Los Angeles.

  • Jolie’s film debuts in Sarajevo

    MUMBAI: Angelina Jolie‘s directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey is being shown in Sarajevo from Thursday, it is understood.


    It will be screened twice a day until December 28, two months before it officially opens in Europe, the local distributor, Blitz film, said in a statement.
     
    The film, a love story between a Muslim woman and a Serb man, prompted speculation in local media that it was the story of a Muslim rape victim who fell in love with her Serb attacker.
     
    In the Land of Blood and Honey which Jolie filmed in 2010, is set against the background of Bosnia‘s 1992-1995 inter-ethnic war and features a number of actors from the former Yugoslavia.
     
    The international preview took place on December 5 in New York and the film opens in the US on Friday. It will go on general release in Europe in early February.

  • Chinese govt snubs Christain Bale

    Chinese govt snubs Christain Bale

    MUMBAI: The Chinese government has snubbed Dark Knight star Christian Bale of creating a story when government-backed guards stopped him from visiting blind activist Chen Guangcheng ineastern China last week.

    The government said that Bale should feel embarrassed for trying to visit a human rights activist while he was in China to promote a movie the country has submitted for an Oscar, a Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said.

    He said Bale was invited by director Zhang Yimou to attend the opening ceremony of the film The Flowers of War. “But he was not invited to create a story or shoot film in a certain village,” Liu observed. “I think if you want to make up news in China, you will not be welcome here.”

    Bale, who won a best supporting actor Oscar for last year‘s The Fighter, said he wanted to shake Chen‘s hand and tell him “what an inspiration he is.”
    Chen documented forced late-term abortions and sterilizations and other abuses by overzealous authorities trying to meet population control goals in his rural community.

    He was later imprisoned for allegedly instigating an attack on government offices and organizing a group of people to disrupt traffic.

  • Sony acquires rights of Woody Allen’s next

    Sony acquires rights of Woody Allen’s next

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) has acquired all North American and U.K. rights of Woody Allen’s next, Nero Fiddled. Paris has grossed more than $56 million since its release in May.

    With this acquisition, this is Allen‘s fifth film to be released by SPC following his Midnight in Paris, his biggest success to date.

    “More laughs in this one than you can imagine,” SPC co-presidents Tom Bernard and Michael Barker has been stated to have said. “We know it‘s a bit premature, but thank you Woody and company for granting us the perfect summer comedy of 2012. Keep ‘em coming,” he added.

    Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page star in the Rome-set story.

    SPC previously released Allen‘s You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Whatever Works and Sweet and Lowdown.

  • Academy plans outdoor amphitheatre

    Academy plans outdoor amphitheatre

    MUMBAI: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is mulling with the idea to open a 17,000-square-foot amphitheater next May as a venue to show classic films, it is said.


    Incidentally, the Academy bought the land way back in 2005 with the intention to build a world-class film museum there but abandoned the idea after the economy crisis hit the world making it impossible to raise the funds needed to build a whole new facility.
     
    In October, the Academy announced plans to lease a former May Co. department store now owned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and put the movie museum there.

  • Orson Welles’ Oscar goes for $ 861,1542

    Orson Welles’ Oscar goes for $ 861,1542

    MUMBAI: Among many other bidders, David Copperfield was one who was clamouring for Orson Welles‘ best original screenplay Oscar that he had won for Citizen Kane at an auction on Tuesday.


    Finally, the statuette ended up selling for $861,542 to a buyer, whose name was not disclosed.
     
    According to auction house owner Nate D. Sanders, bidders came from around the world. Sanders added that the statuette, that was previously put up for auction in 2007 by Sotheby‘s, failed to sell. “This is a testament to the popularity of Orson Welles and his magnum opus Citizen Kane,” Sanders has been quoted to have said.


    Copperfield told the auction house that he wanted the Oscar because “Orson Welles was not only a magician of the cinema but also a performing magician himself.”

  • Roger Moore tops with 7 James Bond portrayals

    Roger Moore tops with 7 James Bond portrayals

    MUMBAI: As the 23rd James Bond movie Skyfall is midway in terms of shooting, we take stock of how many actors reprised the role of the secret agent and number of times.

    While Roger Moore holds the record with seven potrayals of Agent 007 in films like Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy and A View to Kill, Sean Connery was one short of Moore‘s achievement (Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever).

    Following is Pierce Brosnan with four portrayals (GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day) while the current Bond, Daniel Craig is doing his third Bond film (Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall).

    But the franchise producer Michael G. Wilson wants Craig to take the record with eight Bond films.

    At the bottom is Timothy Dalton who has played Bond twice (The Living Daylights, License to Kill) while George Lazenby played the action hero in just one movie On Her Majesty‘s Secret Service.

  • New Yorkite gets one year for piracy act

    New Yorkite gets one year for piracy act

    MUMBAI: A New Yorkite Gilberto Sanchez has been sentenced to a year in Los Angeles federal prison for illegally uploading and distributing a copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine before the movie‘s premiere.


    Forty-nine-year-old Sanchez was sentenced on Monday by the court. The judge also imposed a year of supervised release and numerous computer restrictions.
     
    It is said that Sanchez pleaded guilty last March to one count of uploading a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution.


    Prosecutors say that he admitted uploading a work print copy of the 2009 film about one month before it was released in theatres after which he publicised the upload on two websites.

  • Mission Impossible grosses $68.2 million in 1st weekend

    Mission Impossible grosses $68.2 million in 1st weekend

    MUMBAI: The Tom Cruise-starrer Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol grossed an estimated $68.2 million.

    The fourth entry in the action franchise played in 6,079 sites in 36 markets. South Korea led a string of number one debuts on $11.1m from 948 venues over four days, followed by Japan on $9m from 343 over three and Russia on $6.1m from 680.

    Ghost Protocol scored the biggest launch in history on the UAE on $2.4mn from 27 sites. It launched on $5.2m in France from 616 and topped the charts in Australia on $4.2m from 240. The combined Middle Eastern total amounts to $3.5m for the biggest opening weekend for any film in the region.

    DreamWorks Animation‘s Puss In Boots took another giant stride towards the $200m mark as $30.4m through PPI from 6,054 sites propelled the running total to $188.2m. The film opened in Italy on $3.3m from 385, while Germany led holdover business with $4.9m from 693 for $13m.

    In the third weekend in France $3.7m from 1,049 pushed the tally to $19.4m. Puss In Boots stands at $12.2m in Brazil and has reached $10.3m in Mexico after three, $7.7m in Australia and $6.6m in the UK and an excellent $4.7m in Argentina, all after two.

    Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows launched in six markets through Warner Bros Pictures international and generated $14.7m from 2,113 screens. The UK led the way with a $5.8m number one debut from 1,040 followed by Italy on an outstanding $5m number one from 575.

    Fox International reported that Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked launched in 38 markets day-and-date with North America to bring in $14.5m from 3,815 screens. Only six of the markets were top 16 markets and these included $4m from the UK from 756 screens for number two and $1.6m from 1,022 in Mexico for number one. The Spanish debut delivered a $1.5m number two finish from 364.

  • Colours of the Mountains tops IFFK awards

    Colours of the Mountains tops IFFK awards

    MUMBAI: The USA film The Colours of the Mountains (USA) won the best film award at the 16th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) that concluded on December 16.


    While the best Asian film award was lapped up by director Aditi Roy‘s At The End Of It All, The best Malayalam film award went to Adaminte Makan Abu.
     
    The Future Last For Ever was declared as the best competition film, the award for the best debut film went to A Stone‘s Throw Away. While Pablo Perelman‘s film The Painting Lesson won the audience award, the award for the best director went to Hamid Reza Aligholian of Iran for his film Flamingo No:13.


    The Suvarna Chakoram award was presented to Calos Cesar Arbelaez‘s The Colours of The Mountains.