ITV

Category: International

  • SFFS executive director Graham Leggat dead

    MUMBAI: Executive director of the San Francisco Film Society (SFFS), Graham Leggat expired yesterday after waging a 18-month battle with Cancer. He was 51.


    Under his almost six-year watch at the SFFS, the operating budget grew from $2 million to $6 million; membership rose 98 per cent; ticket sales rose 62 per cent and the board of directors almost doubled from 12 to 22. He stepped down from his role at SFFS on 4 July.
     
    During his tenure with the SFFS, Leggat also oversaw the publishing of the nation‘s only regional online film magazine, SF360.org, founded in 2006 in partnership with indieWIRE. The publication now boasts over 1,000 pieces of original arts journalism.


    “Graham was fiercely proud and appreciative of his years at the Film Society and frequently referred to them as the best years of his life,” said Film Society‘s board of directors‘ president Pat McBaine.


    “It‘s no accident or coincidence that those years have also been the best years in the life of the Film Society. Our board and staff are deeply saddened by the loss of our leader, colleague and friend but inspired by his example and memory to carry on his work and build on his accomplishments and vision,” he added.


    He is the recipient of the 2009 International Film Festival Summit‘s Director Excellence Award. In 2001, the French consul general in San Francisco made him a Chevalier de l‘Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, in recognition of his support to cinema.

  • Scorsese remaking 1974 film The Gambler

    MUMBAI: Martin Scorsese has decided to team up again with Leonardo DiCaprio in the remake of 1974‘s The Gambler, of 1974‘s The Gambler.


    He will also re-team with script writer William Monahan, who had earlier written the Oscar winner The Departed.
     
    The 1974 film, directed by Karel Reisz, follows the story of a revered New York English professor who has a secret gambling addition and gets deeper into debt taking desperate measures to obtain money.


    While Scorsese‘s next film is Hugo, a 3D family film based on the novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, DiCaprio will next be seen in J. Edgar, a Clint Eastwood film about the secret-harboring head of the FBI for almost 50 years.


    Scorsese will next shoot for Silence, an adaptation of a novel by Shusaku Endo, about a Jesuit missionary in 17th century Japan.

  • 1990 thriller Flatliners up for remake

    MUMBAI: In its bid to remake the 1990 medical thriller, Colombia Pictures has commissioned Ben Ripley to write the screenplay of Flatliners.


    The original film boasted of Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon and William Baldwin along with Oliver Platt and a cool premise involving a group of med students who build an experiment with temporarily inducing death in order to explore the afterlife.
     
    The film was said to be one of those classics that still holds up with repeat viewings. The film centered on a group of medical students experimenting with death as they investigated myths about the afterlife.
     
    The film was directed by Joel Schumacher.

  • Bad Teacher crosses $ 200 million mark

    Bad Teacher crosses $ 200 million mark

    MUMBAI: This summer, Sony’s Bad Teacher has become the third R-rated comedy to cross the $200 million mark worldwide.


    The film that stars Cameron Diaz hit the milestone over the weekend, earning $2.2 million at the foreign box office for a new international cumulative total of $102.6 million.


    The film, also starring Jason Segel and Justin Timberlake, has grossed $98.1 million domestically for a world total of $200.7 million.


    The film’s better-than-expected performance means strong profit margins for Sony that made the film for under $20 million. The studio purchased Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky’s script in 2008.


    Warner Bros.’ The Hangover Part II, that opened in theatres on 26 May has earned a whopping $581.2 million worldwide followed by Universal’s Bridesmaids that has grossed $272.9 million globally since its release on 13 May.


    The summer’s other notable R-rated comedy is New Line and Warners’ Horrible Bosses that has, to date, totaled $170.4 million worldwide.

  • Israel lures Hollywood filmmakers

    Israel lures Hollywood filmmakers

    MUMBAI: Crying halt to Hollywood filming Jesus‘ crucifixion in Italy and the Crusader invasion of the Holy Land in Morocco, Israel is wooing Hollywood filmmakers to shoot on its locations.

    Israeli officials are promising better tax breaks, terror attack insurance and handouts of up to $400,000 in this connection. By this, they want to cash in on the multibillion-dollar industry and want the real Jerusalem on the silver screen and not Mediterranean stand-ins.

    “It‘s absurd. Movies set in Jerusalem are filmed in Malta, Morocco and Greece,” Yoram Honig, an Israeli film director and 10th-Jeneration Jerusalemite has been quoted to have said.

    He heads the Jerusalem Film Fund, which was set up three years ago to encourage more moviemaking in the city.

     
    For a long time, it didn‘t make financial sense for the producers to shoot in Israel. According to Hollywood filmakers, Jerusalem is too volatile to ensure smooth filming on location.

    While Israel in the 1980s attracted such star-studded productions as Sylvester Stallone‘s Rambo 3 and Chuck Norris‘ The Delta Force, it later lost out to other countries that started giving big tax incentives to producers.

  • Shoot of Bond film in India stalled

    Shoot of Bond film in India stalled

    MUMBAI: This is bad news for James Bond fans in India. Those who rejoiced with the news that the forthcoming James Bond film would be shot in India will be sad to know that the shooting of the film in the country has been stalled after the production house couldn‘t get the permission to shoot.

    The makers of the film, tentatively titled Bond 23, wanted to shoot high-speed stunts on the Indian Railways. However, they could not get the permissions due to safety issues and as a result director Sam Mendes is now on the search for new locales.

    However, the country‘s railways minister Dinesh Trivedi has decided to look into the matter but at the same time “I can‘t jeopardize the safety of passengers,” he said.

    The shooting is likely to move to South Africa, where the producers already have permission to shoot some scenes but not until January.

  • Hollywood in turmoil as DVD sales drop

    Hollywood in turmoil as DVD sales drop

    MUMBAI: Hollywood is in turmoil with the news that DVD sales have fallen by more than ?3.5billion. The DVD market, once the industry‘s most lucrative revenue stream, appears to have peaked.


    The decline spells trouble for the industry which is desperate to avoid suffering the same fate as the music business.


    “Previously if films flopped you could make up the difference on DVD. That‘s harder to do now. Business is tougher and people need to be more efficient and adaptable. I think with the decline in DVD sales inevitably Hollywood is getting nervous about the films its making … and we could see a decline in the number of films being made,” said Studio Canal Head of Home Entertainment John Rodden in a report.


    High street rental stores have given way to digital providers and streaming services. But though digital downloads are on the rise, it is not offsetting the drop seen in physical sales.


    The market is worth ?2.6 billion to the UK economy but


    demand for actual discs fell last year by 8.3 per cent.

  • Meirelles‘ 360 to have world premiere at London Film fest

    Meirelles‘ 360 to have world premiere at London Film fest

    MUMBAI: The 55th BFI London Film Festival will open with the European premiere of Fernando Meirelles‘ film 360 on 12 October.

    The film is a modern and stylish kaleidoscope of interconnected love and relationships linking characters from different cities and countries in a vivid, suspenseful and deeply moving tale of romantic life in the 21st century.

    From a simple decision made by one man – to remain faithful to his wife – springs a series of consequences. From uplifting, beautiful and romantic moments through to desperate, confused and conflicted interludes, each protagonist in 360 has their own vivid, entertaining, funny, tragic narrative as their stories entwine across the globe, states an official press release of the festival.

    Starting in Vienna, the film beautifully weaves through Paris, London, Bratislava, Rio, Denver and Phoenix into a single, mesmerizing narrative.

    Incidentally, the directors last offering The Constant Gardener opened the BFI London Film Festival in 2005.
    The festival will run from 12 to 27 October.

  • Thai director will give keynote address at Busan fest

    Thai director will give keynote address at Busan fest

    MUMBAI: Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who is known for his film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives University will present keynotes at the first Busan Cinema Forum. He will be followed by Dudley Andrew, a film scholar and Film Studies professor at Yale.


    The theme for the Forum is ‘Seeking the Path of Asian Cinema in the 21st century: East Asia where representatives from French publication ‘Les Cahiers du Cinema,‘ and North American film association ‘Society for Cinema and Media Studies‘ along with six world film research organisations and film critics are likely to participate.


    The 16th Busan International Film Festival that will be held from 6 to 14 October 6-14 will host the first Busan Cinema Forum (BCF) from 10 to 12 October.

  • Elizabeth Taylor ranked most photogenic

    Elizabeth Taylor ranked most photogenic

    MUMBAI: Elizabeth Taylor, known for her beauty and glamour, has been voted the “Most Photogenic Celebrity of All Time,” according to a poll.

    Taylor, who died in March of congestive heart failure at age 79, beat out Jennifer Aniston and soccer star David Beckham, who were placed second and third place respectively.

    Along with Taylor, a few other Hollywood icons were featured on the list including Audrey Hepburn (No. 5), Marilyn Monroe (No. 8) and James Dean (No. 10). Megan Fox who is ranked No. 4, beat Angelina Jolie to put her in the seventh place.

    Jolie‘s longtime partner Brad Pitt narrowly missed out on the top ten, along with actress Freida Pinto.