ITV

Category: International

  • Twilight Saga still on top in 3rd week

    Twilight Saga still on top in 3rd week

    MUMBAI: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 has topped the box office for the third week.

    The latest ‘Twilight‘ film has so far reaped in $16.9 million for a third-straight No. 1 finish during one of the year‘s slowest weekends at the box office. The Summit Entertainment blockbuster raised its domestic haul to $ 247.3 million.

    Coming in the second place again was Disney‘s The Muppets with a collection of $ 11.2 million dollars thereby enhancing the film‘s domestic total to $ 56.1 million.

    With no new wide releases opening after the busy Thanksgiving weekend, ticket sales nose-dived with other holdover films managing so-so revenues. 

  • Camera used for Star Wars sells for $ 625 K

    Camera used for Star Wars sells for $ 625 K

    MUMBAI: The camera that was used to film the Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope has been sold for a whopping $625,000 at an auction held last Saturday.

    Part of The Debbie Reynolds Collection Part II, the Panavision PSR 35 mm camera was used by George Lucas for principal photography of the film.

    Makers of the upcoming film Star Warriors could continue to use the camera to continue the adventure as the fully functional machine and package included two 1000-foot film magazines, a Panaspeed motor, a matte box, follow focus, a Moy-geared head and a camera dolly and a lens.

  • Angelina Jolie film lands in legal hassle

    Angelina Jolie film lands in legal hassle

    MUMBAI: Angelina Jolie‘s first directorial project has been named in legal documents filed in federal court by Croatian journalist and author James J Braddock.

    The journalist claimed that he published an article about a woman raped by soldiers before Jolie wrote a similar story for In the Land of Blood and Honey.

    “The Subject Work‘s main female character is subject to continuous abuse and rape by soldiers and officers in the camp. In addition to being raped continuously by soldiers and officers, she is forced to become a servant at the camp headquarters, a duty assumed by very few of the captives,” the lawsuit stated.

    “The Motion Picture‘s main female character is also subject to continuous rape by soldiers and officers in the camp and subsequently becomes a servant at camp headquarters,” it continued.

    The film tells the love story between a Serbian soldier and a Muslim woman during the Bosnian war. Braddock found similarities in his work and Jolie‘s.

    Three weeks before the premiere of the film‘s premiere , the lawsuit threatens to prevent it from ever seeing the light on the big screen.

  • McQueen’s Shame grosses $ .36 million on debut

    McQueen’s Shame grosses $ .36 million on debut

    MUMBAI: This week‘s release Steve McQueen‘s Shame was one of the top debuts ever for a film given a NC-17 rating. The film grossed $361,181 from 10 theaters for a location average of $36,118.


    Fox Searchlight, that is planning an aggressive awards campaign for the film has decided to first test the appetite for the film in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.


    Searchlight, that acquired Shame from the Telluride Film Festival, believes that the film will play well throughout awards season, despite the challenges associated with the NC-17 rating.


    Two awards contenders landed on the top 10 box office chart. Martin Scorsese‘s Hugo expanded into an additional 500 theatres over the weekend. The 3D family friendly film-named best film of the year by the National Board of Review last week, garnered $7.6 million from 1,840 locations.


    In another victory for Searchlight, Alexander Payne‘s The Descendants climbed to No. 7 on the box office chart after grossing $5.2 million as it added 141 locations for a total theater count of 574.


    Descendants, starring George Clooney has now grossed $18.1 million and is the first limited release to ever cross $10 million in 12 days. And the film is already the No. 2 limited release of the year after Woody Allen‘s Midnight in Paris that has roped in a total $56 million.


    The tally of Midnight in Paris includes $274,518 million grossed over the weekend as Sony Pictures Classics made one last push before the DVD comes out on December 20 and re-released the film in nearly 300 theaters.

  • Immortals hauls $ 32 million in North America

    Immortals hauls $ 32 million in North America

    MUMBAI: Director of Indian origin, Tarsem Singh‘s 3D adventure Immortals has hauled $32.2 million in 3,112 locations in North America and $38 million internationally in 35 countries.


    Opening November 11, the Freida Pinto starrer took the number one spot in America and became the highest R-Rated action film this year and the third highest-grossing R-rated film debut in 2011 behind The Hangover 2 ($85.9mm) and Paranormal Activity 3 ($52.6mm), according to distributor Relativity Media statement.


    Relativity went into a robust marketing and publicity campaign that began by targeting the elusive under 35 male demographic, and leveraging innovative partnerships.


    Exit polls indicate that the film reached that specific group and beyond as 75 per cent of its audience was under 35 while 25 per cent was over 35 years of age.

  • Russel Brand to star in own production

    Russel Brand to star in own production

    MUMBAI: 36-year-old Russell Brand will play a hippie in The President Stole My Girlfriend that he will also produce.

    Acoording to Brand, the film has been inspired by a meeting he had with the Warner Bros studio‘s president. “In this movie, the president steals the girlfriend of a sexy hippie. It was inspired by the night I naively invited Warners president Jeff Robinov for dinner,” Brand said.

    The actor will also be seen in a musical titled Rock of Ages that features actors Tom Cruise and Mary J Blige.

  • October, Nostalgia win top awards at Cinema Tropical awards

    MUMBAI: Daniel and Diego Vega‘s film October from Peru and Patricio Guzmán‘s Nostalgia have topped the Best Feature Film and Best Documentary categories of the 2nd annual edition of the Cinema Tropical awards.


    Mexican film The Tiniest Place by Tatiana Huezo won two awards for Best First Film and Best Director (Documentary Film) while another Mexican Michael Rowe was awarded as the Best Director (Feature Film) for Leap Year.


    The non-profit media arts organization Cinema Tropical also announced that the audience will have the chance to see the four award-winning films once again as they will be showcased in a special series to take place on January 21 and 22, next year at 92YTribeca in New York City, followed by other venues in cities around the country throughout 2012.


    The films were selected from a list of Latin American feature films with a minimum of 60 minutes in length that were premiered between January 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011.


    The winners of this year‘s Cinema Tropical awards were selected by a jury panel that comprised of Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, The Museum of Modern Art; Nicolás Entel, filmmaker; Marcela Goglio, Programmer, Latinbeat, The Film Society of Lincoln Center; Jerónimo Rodríguez, film critic, NY1 News/Noticias; Paul Julian Smith, FBA, film scholar and critic, CUNY 

  • Warner Bros. acquires filming rights of Unholy Night

    Warner Bros. acquires filming rights of Unholy Night

    MUMBAI: Warner Bros. has acquired the rights of Seth Grahame-Smith‘s new book Unholy Night for approximately $2 million.

    Grahame-Smith will also produce the film with partner David Katzenberg through their KatzSmith Productions in association with David Heyman and Jeffrey Clifford‘s Heyman Films.

    Unholy Night retells the birth of Jesus as an adventure story centered on the three kings in the nativity story who travel to Bethlehem to witness his birth. In Grahame-Smith‘s version, the three kings are thieves on the run who are forced to help Mary and Jesus escape to Egypt. Along the way they battle magical biblical creatures and encounter figures like Pontius Pilate and John the Baptist. Grand Central will publish the book on April 10, 2012.

    Grahame-Smith pioneered the current trend of literary mash-ups with the surprise 2009 bestseller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. He followed that up with this year‘s hit Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. He also wrote the screenplay of the movie adaptation named Abraham Lincoln that is set to release in June 2012.

  • Sucker Punch voted as worst film this year

    Sucker Punch voted as worst film this year

    MUMBAI: In an online poll conducted by movie website Fandango.com, girl power action film Sucker Punch has been voted as the worst film of 2011.

    The film directed by Zach Snyder beat Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star and Cowboys and Aliens to top the Thanks giving Day-themed top movie Turkey list.

    Shark Night 3D and Mars Needs Moms also made to the top five, while Red Riding Hood, Green Lantern and Conan: The Barbarian featured in the top 10.

  • Sony, FilmDistrict to distribute Evil Dead remake

    Sony, FilmDistrict to distribute Evil Dead remake

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions and FilmDistrict in association with Ghost House Pictures will distribute the upcoming remake of The Evil Dead to be directed by Fede Alvarex.

    While Sony will handle the worldwide distribution, except for France and the UK, FilmDistrict will handle the distribution in North America.

    The film will be produced by Rob Tapert, Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead star) and the original director Sam Raimi.

    For 30 years, Sam, Bruce and I have been looking for the right home where we could return the deadites to the big screen,” Tapert has been quoted to have said. “Amy Pascal and Jeff Blake at Sony and Peter Schlessel at FilmDistrict have always been incredible partners who share our passion for great storytelling as well as our obsession for scaring the pants off the audience. Together, we are looking forward to terrorizing a whole new generation,” he added.

    The shooting of the film is expected to star next year.