Category: International

MUMBAI: The Dhaka University Film Society (DUFS), in association with Goethe Institut, Dhaka, will hold the 5th International Inter-University Short Film Festival from 15 to 20 May.

The festival that will showcase short films made by the students of various local and international universities and colleges from various countries of the world will be screened at the TSC Auditorium and Goethe Institut Auditorium, Dhaka.

Said 5th IIUSFF, International Participation Coordinator, Nahad-Ul-Quasem, “We are trying to provide a platform for the young film enthusiasts where they can showcase and share their works, exchange their ideas and views and thus take their work forward.”

The DUFS has invited entries from university students, the works of whom will be screened at the festival. Participants will have to submit their works by 15 April.

This year the European Film Academy will also participate in the festival.

MUMBAI: Johnny Depp‘s upcoming film The Rum Diary is set to be released on 28 October, it has been confirmed.

Depp, who previously portrayed Thompson‘s Raoul Duke in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, plays a journalist Paul Kemp who heads to Puerto Rico in an attempt to find a calmer life, before getting entangled with an American woman (Heard) and her shady businessman fiancé (Eckhart).

The film, an adaptation of the Hunter S. Thompson novel, stars Aaron Eckhart, Amber Heard and Giovanni Ribisi along with Depp, will be released by FilmDistrict.

Announcing the release, FilmDistrict co-founder Graham King reportedly said, “Hunter S. Thompson became close with Johnny Depp during the filming of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and showed Depp the unpublished manuscript for The Rum Diary. I am extremely proud to bring this novel to film and to honour Hunter‘s legacy.”
 

MUMBAI: The Batman franchise is all set to be reinvented. According to Warner Bros chief Jeff Robinov, the franchise will be completely altered after the third in the current Batman series.

Robinov further revealed that Christopher Nolan will produce the reboot alongside his wife Emma Thomas. When asked if he meant a reboot, he is said to have replied thus, “I do. Chris Nolan and [producing partner and wife] Emma Thomas will be producing it, so it will be a conversation with them about what the next phase would be.”

Warner has also revealed that superhero film Justice League would have a 2013 release, a year after The Dark Knight Rises and Superman: Man of Steel alight the big screen.

Also on Warner Bros‘ agenda are films like The Flash and Wonder Woman, which are expected to take off from the Justice League film.
 

MUMBAI: Farley Granger, who played the likable tennis professional in Alfred Hitchcock‘s Strangers on a Train has expired of natural causes in New York. He was 85.

In 1948, Granger had won acclaim for another Hitchcock murder thriller, Rope, in which he played a young pianist who perpetrates a Leopold Loeb-type murder with a fellow school chum. 

Under contract to producer Samuel Goldwyn during his relatively short Hollywood career, he played a confused or neurotic young man who always faces a series of melodramatic problems. After appearing opposite Danny Kaye in Hans Christian Anderson in 1952, he bought out his Goldwyn contract and traveled to Europe in 1954 where he starred in Luchino Visconti‘s Senso.

In 2007, Granger published a memoir, Include Me Out, in which he confessed of being a bisexual. The book documented his affairs with Shelley Winters, Ava Gardner and Patricia Neal as well as playwright Arthur Laurents and a two-night fling with Leonard Bernstein.

Since ‘60s, he lived with his longtime partner Robert Calhoun, a soap opera producer, who died three years ago.

Granger made his movie debut playing a Russian in Lewis Milestone‘s The North Star, a war propaganda moved about the Soviet Union‘s resistance to Nazi Occupation, written by Lillian Hellman. He next appeared in another World War II film, The Purple Heart, as a US flyer court-martialed by the Japanese before joining the Navy in 1944. His last film appearance was in the art world satire The Next Big Thing in 2001.

MUMBAI: Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica will preside over the jury of the Un Certain Regard section of the 64th Festival de Cannes, scheduled to take place from 11 to 22 May.

Un Certain Regard is an important section of Cannes official programme, next only to the main competition section. Last year, Vikramadity Motwane‘s film Udaan had its world premiere as part of this section. The film went on to become a critical and commercial success in India and overseas thereafter. 

Around twenty films from across the world are selected in the section. These films are ‘characterized by the originality of their ideas as well as their aesthetics‘. The best film is awarded the much-coveted Prix Un Certain Regard prize. Last year the award went to the Korean filmmaker Hong Sang Soo for his film Ha Ha Ha. The film was part of MAMI‘s Mumbai Film Festival programme of 2010.

Emir Kusturica received the Palme d‘Or in 1985 for his film When Father Was Away On Business, his second film. Ten years later, his second Palme d‘Or for Underground made him a member of that elite group of directors who have twice been honoured.
 

MUMBAI: Bolstered by robust business in China, Battle: Los Angeles remained atop the foreign box-office for a second weekend on Sunday.

The special-effects extravaganza drew almost half its total weekend overseas take of $16.2 million from 55 territories in China where it earned $7.4 million.

Also, the film opened at No. 1 in Venezuela, New Zealand and Vietnam. The film has tallied $79.5 million since opening overseas on 9 March, with China summing up for $24 million.

The Johnny Depp cartoon Rango was second overall with $15.5 million also from 55 markets. Just Go With It co-starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston followed with $9.1 million from 37 markets.

Debuting at the No. 4 spot with a $7.4 million intake from 23 markets was Zack Snyder‘s action-fantasy-thriller Sucker Punch that also debuted at No. 2 in North America.
 

MUMBAI: Grossing $24.4 million Fox 2000’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules came winner in the weekend box-office race that delivered the studio a new franchise.

On the other hand, Warner Bros.‘ Sucker Punch grossed $19 million.

Rodrick Rules, based on childrens‘ book series and screening in 3,167 theatres came in ahead of the original Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which opened a year ago to $22.1 million. 

The sequel, costing $20 million, enjoyed a 39 per cent raise on that of Saturday with nearly 60 per cent of the audience under the age of 18. The success of Rodrick Rules, about a middle school boy and his brother, almost guarantees that Fox 2000 will make a triquel.

Sucker Punch, costing at least $75 million to produce, was co-financed by Warners and Legendary Pictures. Internally, Warners had expected the fanboy pic — about a rough-and-tumble group of girls trying to escape from a mental institution — to clear $20 million.

Sucker Punch‘s Imax runs set records. Playing in 229 Imax locations, the movie grossed $4 million for the large format exhibitor, or 21 per cent of the opening weekend gross. That’s the biggest share ever for a 2-D release in Imax.

Overseas, the film grossed $7.4 million from 2,145 screens in 23 markets, putting its worldwide bow at $26.4 million.

MUMBAI: James Cameron is considering bringing in the cast of the Avatar sequels to Brazil‘s Amazonian rain forest in order to get in touch and be inspired by the place and its many indigenous tribes.

“Avatar is a film about the rain forest and its indigenous people. Before I start to shoot the two films I want to bring my actors here, so I can better tell this story”, the Canadian director is reported to have said.

“Actors could learn about the natives and what real life in the jungle is like”, he added.

Cameron is currently attending the second International Forum on Sustainability in Manaus which also features Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Clinton.

On Wednesday Cameron reportedly took Schwarzenegger to the Xingu River, where he had spoken out against the construction of hydroelectric dam in Belo Monte last year. “I introduced him to some of the indigenous leaders whom I met last year,” he said.

Earlier, Cameron was baptized with the name of Krapremp-ti, a term used for a “man who is a friend of the jungle” Later the director has been quoted as telling reporters that he would use that name on a character in the Avatar sequel.
 

MUMBAI: The 35th Cleveland International Festival kicked off last Thursday when it screened Hamill, a true story of a wrestler Matt. This sports drama tells the story of the struggles and successes that Matt, The Hammer faces as the first deaf wrestler to win a National Collegiate Championship. 

The film festival will feature 150 films and 130 short-subject films from over 60 countries.
 

MUMBAI: Jackie Chan along with 100 other artistes will take part in a concert next week to raise money for the relief efforts in Japan. The others include singer Hacken Lee, actor Eric Tsang and model Angelababy.

On his website Chan has said that the event was being held to raise money and praise the spirit of the Japanese people. “The earthquake in Japan was a devastating disaster and I want the Japanese people to know that my thoughts are with them,” he observed. 

The four-hour concert called Love Beyond Borders 311, organised by Chan and other members of Hong Kong‘s entertainment industry, will be broadcast live from the city‘s Victoria Park on 1 April.

It is hoped the event plus a single called Do Not Give Into Heartache, recorded by participating celebrities, will raise around 40 million Hong Kong dollars ($5.1 million) for the Salvation Army‘s relief efforts in Japan.