Category: International

MUMBAI: Tom Hanks is to pair with Julia Roberts in upcoming film Larry Crowne.

The 54-year-old has co-written the script with director Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and was keen from the beginning to cast Roberts in the character of a teacher in the film.

“I had some teachers who looked like Julia. I would see them and think, ‘I love you, so there was never anyone but Julia. Still, even after she said yes to the role, I was the boss. That meant I got to say, ‘You don‘t wear this dress, you wear that dress and Julia‘s Julia, she can be intimidating,” Hanks is reported to have said.

Hanks will star as a middle-aged man who loses his job and decides to go back to college while Roberts plays his disillusioned teacher.

While it might be a little scary directing Roberts, the mom of three confessed that parts of filming were scary for her too.

“This was my first college experience. And the first time I had to speak in front of a classroom, I was apoplectic. All these faces looking up at me, thinking, ‘What is she going to teach us? I needed to find my composure. It was very hard it was terrible, in fact,” she averred.
 

MUMBAI: Actress Angelina Jolie is making her directorial debut with a film on the Bosnian war. It has been titled In the Land of Blood and Honey.

“The film is specific to the Bosnian War, but it‘s also universal. I wanted to tell a story of how human relationships and behavior are deeply affected by living in side a war,” Jolie has been quoted as saying.
 

Producer Graham King promises viewers won‘t be disappointed. “Working with Angelina on this film and story has been a great collaboration and I am extremely proud of this film. The filmmaking is impeccable, and signals the arrival of a visceral and compelling storyteller,” he said.

MUMBAI: Robert De Niro is in talks to play one of the most infamous con-men of history, jailed New York financier Bernie Madoff.

The 67-year-old actor is in talks to play the disgraced financier in a new film, which will be based on ‘The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff And The Death Of Trust‘, reported New York Post online.

The actor and the fraudster both grew up in New York and producers are keen to cast the veteran in the HBO cable film based on the book written by New York Times reporter Diana Henriques.

Madoff is serving 150 years behind bars after he pleaded guilty to the global USD 7 billion Ponzi scam that left thousands of victims penniless.

MUMBAI: Having collected an estimated $58 million from 8,800 locations in 61 territories, Universal‘s Fast Five has claimed the No. 1 box office slot on the foreign theatrical circuit for the second consecutive weekend.

Fast Five‘s foreign gross total stands at $271.7 million compared to its $168.8 million domestic tally, making the sequel the franchise‘s highest grossing title. It overtook the previous record-holder, 2009‘s Fast & Furious, that grossed $208 million offshore.

But the film‘s second weekend tally fell 32 per cent from the prior round indicating that the summer‘s first two powerhouse Hollywood studio titles including Paramount‘s Thor made a dent at the overseas box office.

Since its first opening offshore on 21 April, Thor has grossed $225 million. The film finished at No. 2 last weekend with a draw of $27.5 million from 11,861 locations in 60 territories. Since its 8 May China debut, the film, an adaptation of the Stan Lee comic book, grossed a total of $11.5 million, out of which $4.1 million was raised in the last weekend.

Sony‘s Priest that opened overseas on 6 May seems to be a film that is slowly catching the eye of the audience. The film grossed $16.7 million from 4,015 screens in 46 markets for an early overseas cume of $25.6 million. The sci-fi thriller in 3D opened No. 1 in the Ukraine, Singapore and Venezuela, while standing in first place in Russia with a second weekend tally of $3.5 million from 550 spots.

Woody Allen‘s Midnight in Paris registered an estimated $4 million from some 325 locations and a No. 2 market ranking behind Fast Five.

Meanwhile, Black Swan has crossed the $300-million mark at the global box-office, a feat few independent films are able to accomplish. Last weekend, the film opened in Japanese theatres where it collected $6.1 million, according to distributor Fox Searchlight. That enabled the film to push its international total to $198.4 million and its worldwide tally to $305 million.

Few other low-budget, independently released films have reached that milestone. Danny Boyle‘s Slumdog Millionaire that won the 2008 Oscar for best picture, grossed $377.9 million worldwide and Mel Gibson‘s The Passion of the Christ collected $611.9 million.
 

MUMBAI: As many as three studios namely Paramount Pictures, HBO and Showtime are in plans to make films on the Osama mission. The curiosity comes in the wake of the killing of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden by US special forces in a top secret mission in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Kathryn Bigelow, who won an Oscar for her film The Hurt Locker is already working on a project titled Kill Bin Laden. The film, written by scriptwriter Mark Boal, is about a fictitious failed assassination attempt on the Al Qaeda founder.

A source close to Annapurna Pictures, the studio behind Kill Bin Laden said, “We‘re turning the script around as fast as possible and are well placed to be the first on screen with our account of a truly historic mission.”
 

MUMBAI: Universal Pictures is in a quandary about the big investment needed to make The Dark Tower, a literary saga by Stephen King, that will have Javier Bardem playing the leading role. Bardem is to play pistol-packing Roland Deschain, who has spent his life in search of the Dark Tower, humanity‘s last chance to save civilization.

Executives of the production house have been putting their heads together over the last few weeks to try and cut down the estimated production costs or not to proceed with the film at all. 

The original idea consisted of making the audiovisual version of King‘s seven books in three feature films and two TV mini-series.

The first instalment of The Dark Tower was to go on the floors this summer but as things stand today, the production house‘s rethinking of the project could mean filming might be delayed.

The Dark Tower is Stephen King‘s personal vision of the Far West, where the fantasy of a magical universe blends with his own brand of terror and elements typical of the traditional western. The project has been compared in its magnitude by some of the media to The Lord of the Rings.

Suppose in case, Universal Pictures fails to start production before July next year, the film rights will revert to the author.
 

MUMBAI: Jamie Vanderbilt known for his writing in films like the Amazing Spider-Man and Zodiac has been tapped to pen the script for Red Riding, Columbia‘s adaptation of the popular British TV movies.

Produced under the Scott Free banner along with Steve Zaillian and Film Rites shingle, the film would be directed by Ridley Scot.

The Red Riding story adapts four books by David Pearce and tracks the disappearance and grisly murders of several young girls as well as police corruption in a British town.

The stories took place from 1974 to 1983, followed a large cast consisting of a journalist, a solicitors, a reverend, a male prostitute, a businessman, many police officers, and assorted wives and lovers.

With Riding, Vanderbilt, is also set to prove to be one of Columbia‘s go-to scribes. Besides Spider-Man, he wrote Total Recall, the studio‘s remake of the 1990 sci-fi action film that starts shooting this summer.

MUMBAI: Britney Spears‘ rise to stardom and her private life has been turned into a series of illustrations by Bluewater Productions Inc.

“She is far more complicated than most people realise. No matter what preconceptions you have about her, there will always be more layers and surprises. Beyond the performer, there is a real human being there, struggling for a real life, struggling to connect with her art, and struggling to be understood,” said writer Patrick McCray.Other stars who have been given the comic book treatment by the firm include troubled actress Lindsay Lohan, Twilight stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart and pop star Lady Gaga.
 

MUMBAI: In a move that could substantially increase the number of American films allowed in the country – a long-sought goal of the major studios, Hollywood‘s chief lobbying arm and federal trade officials are going to soon negotiate with China.

Representatives of the Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA) and the office of the US trade representative have been working on crafting a compromise in a long-running trade dispute with China, which has had a rocky history with Hollywood but has become an increasingly vital market for the media conglomerates.

In addition, under the proposed plan, China would agree to provide greater market access to Hollywood by allowing an additional company to distribute foreign films. Currently, government-owned China Film Group controls the import of foreign movies into China.

China allows only about 20 foreign films into the country each year under a revenue-sharing agreement in which studios collect less than 20% of box office revenue, compared to more than twice that in the U.S. and other international markets. Under one scenario being discussed, China would expand the revenue-sharing quota to as much as 40 foreign films, said three people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the talks are confidential.

The new MPAA Chief Executive Christopher Dodd has made opening doors in China one of his top priorities since assuming the job two months ago. He plans a trip to the Shanghai International Film Festival in June in an effort to build relations with film officials there.

The efforts come as pressure mounts on China to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling in 2009. In a decision hailed as big victory for the U.S. entertainment industry, the WTO ruled that China had violated international trade rules by restricting imports of foreign movies and other media.
 

MUMBAI: Kristen Stewart, best known for playing Bella Swan in the vampire franchise Twilight, won the top honour at the Milan International Film Festival (MIFF).

The actress won the best actress award for her portrayal of a troubled stripper in Welcome to the Rileys while Nadia Tass walked away with the best director trophy for her drama Matching Jack.

Filmmaker Fenton Bailey picked up the best documentary accolade for Becoming Chaz, about pop legend Cher‘s transgender son Chaz Bono.