ITV

Category: International

  • Avatar most downloaded film

    Avatar most downloaded film

    MUMBAI: According to a study by TorrentFreak, James Cameron‘s 3-D blockbuster Avatar has been the most pirated film in the history of Hollywood.

    The film has been downloaded some 21 million times since it was released in 2009.

    It may be remembered that Cameron once touted 3D filmmaking as the entertainment industry‘s best hope for combating piracy, but there has been no respite and the 3D spectacle could not escape the wrath of torrent sites, it is said.

    Avatar‘s 21 million downloads beat out 19 million downloads apiece for The Dark Knight and Transformers. The Leonardo DiCaprio starrer Inception and Todd Phillips‘ Hangover ranked fourth and fifth respectively in the most pirated list.

    Following them were Star Trek, Kick-Ass, The Departed, The Incredible Hulk, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World‘s End to round off the top ten.

    All of the films on the TorrentFreak‘s all-time list of “most pirated movies” did quite well at the box office.

  • Die Hard titled A Good To Die Hard

    Die Hard titled A Good To Die Hard

    MUMBAI: Fox Film Entertainment‘s upcoming Bruce Willis- tarrer Die Hard has been titled A Good Day to Die Hard. The production house has announced that film that will begin shooting in January next year, will release on 13 February, 2013.

    Elaborating on the subject, FoX Film Entertainment CEO Tom Rothman said that the film would be directed by John Moore who had earlier directed Behind Enemy Lines. Willis, will play the role of John McClane. It has yet not been decided as to who will play McClane‘s son.

    Willis‘ son is in prison right now. In an attempt to get his son out of prison, McClane had a talks with the cops only to find out that things surrounding his son‘s arrest are not as they appear and world-threatening terrorist hijacks ensue.

  • Woody Allen’s film to have change of name

    Woody Allen’s film to have change of name

    MUMBAI: Woody Allen has expressed his intention to change the title of his next feature film The Bop Decameron, set to be released in 2012.


    The actor-producer-director cited people‘s unfamiliarity with Giovanni Boccaccio‘s The Decameron as the reason. The Rome-based film starring Allen, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page will now be titled Nero Fiddled.


    “I couldn‘t believe how few people had heard of The Decameron even in Rome. And the few that did assumed the movie was based on Boccaccio‘s tales which it‘s not. Anyhow, I changed the title to Nero Fiddled, which is the first time I‘ve changed a title since my last minute switch of Anhedonia to Annie Hall, ” Allen has been reported to have said.


    Nero Fiddled is being produced under the banner of Gravier Productions film produced by Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum.


    This marks Allen‘s first film to be financed by Medusa Film, an Italian production and distribution company.
     
     

  • Academy names 8 films for best documentary

    Academy names 8 films for best documentary

     MUMBAI: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has announced eight short listed names of films vying for a nomination for best documentary, short subject.


    The films on the shortlist are: The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement, Purposeful Productions, Inc., God Is the Bigger Elvis, Documentress Films, In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt‘s Unfinished Revolution Downtown Docs, Incident in New Baghdad, Morninglight Films, Pipe Dreams, Leslie Iwerks Productions,Saving Face Milkhaus/Jungefilm, The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, Supply & Demand Integrated and Witness, Buche.

  • Soderbergh to direct Liberace biopic

    Soderbergh to direct Liberace biopic

    MUMBAI: Steven Soderbergh is all set to helm a Liberace biopic for HBO titled Behind the Candelabra. The film will have Michael Douglas play the legendary entertainer and Matt Damon as his younger lover, Scott Thorson.


    “From the inception of this project, we‘ve had two priorities: getting it right creatively, and getting as many people as possible to see it,” Soderbergh has been quoted to have said.


    “HBO‘s fearless approach to original programming and their unparalleled ability to pull in viewers make them the perfect fit for us. Apart from my hair growing back, I couldn‘t be happier,” he added.


    The project boasts a script penned by Oscar-nominee Richard LaGravenese that has been inspired by Thorson‘s memoir, Behind the Candelabra: My Life With Liberace.


    Douglas has long been attached to the film, which was originally set to start shooting in June 2010. Because of Douglas‘ battle with cancer and Damon‘s busy schedule, the production was delayed. The film is now set to roll in the summer of 2012.

  • Iran govt releases 2 doc filmmakers

    Iran govt releases 2 doc filmmakers

    MUMBAI: The Iranian government has released two of the six filmmakers arrested for suspicion of working for the BBC and sentenced actress Marzieh Vafamehr to a year in jail and 90 lashes for starring in the Australian film My Tehran for Sale that premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival.


    Directed by Granaz Moussavi and shot entirely in Tehran, My Tehran for Sale stars Vafamehr as a stage actress who plots to flee Iran with the help of a man she meets at an underground rave. Though banned in Iran, the film was illegally distributed in the country.


    The two filmmakers who were freed last Saturday are Naser Safarian and Mohsen Shahnazdar. It has been stated that Safarian was released on bail equivalent to about $160,000.

  • NYFF screens unfinished version of Scorsese’ Hugo

    NYFF screens unfinished version of Scorsese’ Hugo

    MUMBAI: The New York Film Festival (NYFF) recently screened an unfinished version of Martin Scorsese‘s Hugo.


    The film screened as a mystery booking at NYFF, which announced last week that it would be showing a new work-in-progress by a master director. By the weekend, all interested parties had essentially figured out that the movie would be “Hugo.”


    The film tells the story of a young boy who lives in a 1930s Paris train station and whose life intersects with that of the pioneering French director Georges Melies.


    Hugo is based on Brian Selznick‘s book The Invention of Hugo Cabret and according to viewers, it is less of a children‘s film than Scorsese‘s cinematic history lesson, and his valentine to the early days of cinema.


    Before the screening, Scorsese told the audience that his film still needed color correction, some visual effects and additional work on music and sound.

  • Real Steel reigns at No. 1 at domestic b-o

    Real Steel reigns at No. 1 at domestic b-o

    MUMBAI: Real Steel, distributed by Disney has topped the domestic box office chart with an intake of $27.3 million. Overseas, the DreamWorks film starring Hugh Jackman grossed an impressive $22.1 million for a worldwide debut of $49.4 million.

    In North America, the film succeeded in luring younger moviegoers, who have been noticeably absent from the multiplex in recent months, as well as posting one of the better openings for early October.

    Real Stee, a film on Robot boxing, l launched over the weekend in 19 foreign territories, of which only three of which are major markets like Russia, Australia and Mexico. The film opened on top in each of the territories grossing $6.9 million in Russia, $5.4 million in Australia and $2.9 million in Mexico.

    “The film succeeded in playing to a variety of demos,” said Disney executive vice president of distribution Dave Hollis, adding that families made up 25 per cent of the audience, teenagers 15 per cent and couples 60 per cent, many of whom were younger.

    The George Clooney-directed The Ides of March ranked at No. 2 in its debut, grossing $10.4 million. “The acting is absolutely tremendous. You coudn‘t take your eyes off any one of these actors,” Sony president of worlwide distribution Rory Bruer said of the film.

  • Shirley MacLaine to receive AFI honour

    Shirley MacLaine to receive AFI honour

    MUMBAI: The American Film Institute (AFI) has selected Shirley MacLaine to receive its highest honour, the AFI Life Achievement Award that will be presented to her at a gala tribute on 7 June, next year, in Los Angeles.


    Said AFI’s board of trustees chairman Howard Stringer, “Shirley MacLaine is a powerhouse of personality that has illuminated screens large and small across six decades.


    From ingénue to screen legend, Shirley has entertained a global audience through song, dance, laughter and tears, and her career as writer, director and producer is even further evidence of her passion for the art form and her seemingly boundless talents.”


    An Oscar winner in 1984 as best actress for her performance in Terms of Endearment, MacLaine made her film debut in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Trouble With Harry in 1955. During the course of her career, she has earned six Academy Award nominations, six Emmy noms and seven Golden Globe Awards.
    Synapse Films recently released brand-new remastered Blu-ray releases of James Glickenhaus’ The Exterminator, William Lustig’s Manic Cop, and Frank Henenlotter’s Frankenhooker with Tarantino-producer Lawrence Bender’s Intruder releasing this December.


    Her latest film, Bernie had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June.

  • Synapse Films laps up rights of 3 Horror films

    Synapse Films laps up rights of 3 Horror films

     MUMBAI; Synapse Films has picked up the rights of three terrifying feature films by celebrated Fantastic Fest and SXSW filmmaker Adrián García Bogliano, the Argentine director of festival favorite Cold Sweat and the upcoming Penumbra taken by IFC Midnight.


    In Rooms For Tourists a busload of girls fall prey to a town of terror… what connects the victims? The young filmmaker of Watch’em Die takes a job that leads to horror. Four young girls stop to help a woman in the street and it leads to rape horror and death in the breath-stopping I Will Not Die Alone.


    “I am a huge fan of Adrian’s films and have seen every single one. I feel that he may be the most talented new filmmaker I have come across,” says Synapse head Jerry Chandler.


    “He is a master of making the most of miniscule budgets and his attention to detail is unmatched. I was hooked when I first saw Rooms For Tourists —-the atmospheric dread is palpable early on. I Will Not Die Alone is somewhat similar to I Spit On Your Grave, only it’s a great movie! And Watch’em Die is much more fun to watch than Hostel or its myriad imitations.”


    Synapse Films recently released brand-new remastered Blu-ray releases of James Glickenhaus’ The Exterminator, William Lustig’s Manic Cop, and Frank Henenlotter’s Frankenhooker with Tarantino-producer Lawrence Bender’s Intruder releasing this December.