Category: International

MUMBAI: In a meeting with prominent Russian culture figures in Moscow, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has told Russian filmmakers to look towards Hollywood in order not to lose the youth audience.

The Russian youth “want to see saviors of the world – modern, strong and good – among our guys,” commented film director Dzhakhongir Faiziyev . He also said that a modern movie production center should be created in Russia to produce films that will be popular with young people.

Agreeing with Faiziyev, Medvedev said, “I have my own family impressions. I see how my 15-year old son watches these kind of movies – with great interest. Everyone wants to be a hero in this age. But these heroes do not speak Russian, and that‘s a fact.”

Russia should produce more high-quality action movies,the President said, “not in order to regain the audience from Hollywood but because this first-rate giant mechanism sometimes does produce rubbish.”

Production of the films should be sponsored mainly by private investment, although the state should also take part, Medvedev observed.
 

MUMBAI: Celebrity actress Elizabeth Taylor passed away on Wednesday due to congestive heart failure.

In a career that spanned more than 70 years and fifty movies, the 79-year old Taylor won two Academy awards for best actress – for her performances as a call girl in the 1960 film Butterfield 8 and as Martha in 1966 in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Taylor, whose name was synonymous with glamour was considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood‘s golden age. The American Film Institute named Taylor seventh on its Female Legends list.

Taylor was married eight times to seven husbands with all but one ending in divorce. The husbands were: Conrad Hilton, Micheal Wilding, Michael Todd, Eddie |Fischer, Richard |Burton and Larry Fortensky.

Bollywood celebrities took to micro-blogging site Twitter m,ourning her death. Amitabh Bachchan, in his blog said, Another sad moment! Elizabeth Taylor passes away! God‘s creation in abundance … now reduced to dust! The way for all someday. Wrote Madhur Bhandarkar, Elizabeth Taylor, the ultimate iconic actress, RIP. The world will never forget the role of immortal Cleopatra.
 

MUMBAI: According to reports, Hollywood star Hugh Grant was rushed to a hospital after he complained of feeling faint, dizzy and short of breath.

The 50-year-old actor was taken to the emergency ward of the hospital after the health scare, it is said.

The Notting Hill star, who waited at the Chelsea and Westminster hospital without making any fuss, refused to call an ambulance as he preferred not to waste paramedics‘ time.

MUMBAI: American filmmaker Morgan Spurlock‘s new film Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold that exposes the pervasiveness of product placement on both the big and small screen will open the Hot Docs International Film Festival.

Spurlock, who took on the fast food industry with Super Size Me, is in talks with a chain for film and TV sponsorship in Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

Spurlock’s film will open Hot Docs, the annual Toronto festival that screens documentaries from around the world, on28 April.

Executive director Chris McDonald announced a program of 199 documentaries to screen in 16 cinemas around Toronto. One of the innovations of this year‘s festival is that screenings will expand to many other neighbourhoods around the city.

The buzz films include Pirate Tapes, a documentary by a Somali Canadian who gets himself embedded with a Somali pirate gang. The murder of four Americans by Somali pirates last month has focused attention on the east African country which has not had a proper government for more than 20 years.
 

MUMBAI: The fifth edition of the Asian Film awards saw South Korean shine with it winning best director, best screenplay, best actor, best supporting actress and best editing awards.

The awards held in conjunction with the Hong Kong International Film Festival, featured a tough competition among some of the most renowned Asian cineastes, but it was marked by many absences in the aftermath of the disastrous earthquakes in Japan, and ovations were respectful rather than enthusiastic. 

Thailand’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won the best film award while Lee Chang-dong won prizes for both best director and screenplay. Ha Jung-woo won best actor award for his role in the Korean thriller, Yellow Sea.

Kim Dong-ho, former director of the Busan International Film Festival (formerly PIFF), was honoured with Outstanding Contribution to Asian Cinema award. Three esteemed directors ? Lee, China’s Jia Zhangke and the Philippines’ Brillante Mendoza presented the golden trophy to Kim.
 

MUMBAI: New Mexico‘s new Republican governor Susana Martinez has succeeded in her attempt to get state lawmakers cap tax incentives for the film industry.

A bill, on its way to Governor Susana Martinez‘s desk after the legislative session ended over the weekend, would limit total state film incentives to $50 million a year.

Under the cap, if a film is due more than that in tax credits in a year, the filmmaker could collect in the next years as well. It is being said that the said cap could mean some $23 million a year in savings.

But Martinez, who has called the incentives “a subsidy to Hollywood on the backs of our schoolchildren,” did not succeed in getting the incentives cut from 25 to 15 percent as she wanted. The 25 percent rebate means that a quarter of any qualified film expenditures in the state are returned to film makers.

The governor said that she was encouraged by the legislative compromise. In a statement on Friday, she said the film cuts “protected classroom funding and healthcare for those most in need.”

About 20 states currently give more or equally generous film incentives than New Mexico, including Louisiana, New York, and most recently, Utah, where a proposed incentive increase from 15 to 25 per cent awaits the governor‘s signature.
 

MUMBAI: The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, now in its 10th year, will have a new online component that features new ways for audiences to experience the festival.

The online Fest will include a free streaming-room showcase of six features from the programme as well as 18 short films. Each film will have three to five 24-hour screening windows that have a limited number of seats available. 

Online viewers will be able to vote for the best online feature and short film, which will win cash prizes. Audiences online will also be able to watch live streams of events and interact with other audience members, submit questions to a bank of festival execs and other notables and access detailed information on all of the online fest filmmakers.

The features in the lineup include Donor Unknown, directed by Jerry Rothwell (U.K.); Flowers of Evil (Fleurs du Mal), directed by David Dusa, written by Dusa, Raphaëlle Maes and Louise Moli?re (France); My Last Round (Mi Último Round), directed and written by Julio Jorquera (Chile, Argentina); Neon Flesh (Carne de Neon), directed and written by Paco Cabezas (Spain, Argentina, Sweden); New York Says Thank You, directed by Scott Rettberg (USA); and Rabies (Kalevet), directed and written by Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado (Israel).

There will also be a Future of Film blog that will include posts from film and technology experts.

The festival, that begins from 20 April will go till 1 May.

MUMBAI: Sony‘s Battle: Los Angeles commanded the foreign theatrical circuit by generating $29 million from 8,220 screens in 55 markets. It said that the special-effects extravaganza premiered at 3,968 locations in China and raked in $11.8 million there. In Australia, Brazil, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Hungary also the film stood at the no. 1 spot.

The film‘s overseas gross accumulated over 12-day period stood at $51.9 million. The latest weekend gross was the highest of any No. 1 weekend tally recorded this year on the foreign circuit.

Meanwhile, The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, also a Fox release, passed the $300 million mark overseas while Black Swan managed to cross the $175 million barrier.

Finishing at the second spot was Paramount‘s Rango, which stood first the previous weekend. A strong Russia debut ($4.2 million from 650 spots) and a first-place Israel bow for the animation title voiced by Depp spurred the total weekend tally to $20 million from 5,810 situations in 54 markets. The foreign take is $73 million since 2 March.

Warner Bros.‘ The Rite, the supernatural drama starring Anthony Hopkins grossed $7.2 million from 2,500 screens in 39 other markets, sufficient for a No. 3 ranking overall. Its international cume stands at $46.1 million.

At the No. 4 spot was Black Swan, which collected $5.8 million from 3,200 screens in 43 markets, driving the Natalie Portman starrer to a foreign cume of $175.2 million.

Lastly, at the fifth spot was Universal‘s The Adjustment Bureau that pushed its foreign total to $32.3 million thanks to a $5.6 million weekend at 2,629 screens in 38 territories.
 

MUMBAI: The 35th Hong Kong International Film Festival kicked of yesterday with the premieres of two films viz Don‘t Go Breaking My Heart and Quattro Hong Kong 2.

While the first film is a love-triangle story starring Hong Kong actors Louis Koo and Daniel Wu and mainland actress Gao Yuanyuan. “Quattro Hong Kong 2” consists of four short films, shot by four award-winning Asian directors from Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

The film festival will run for 17 days from Mar 20 to Apr 5, screening 335 titles from 56 countries, including 59 international or Asian premieres.
 

MUMBAI: Connie Britton has been signed to star in American Horror Story, the FX drama pilot. FX has also signed Ryan Murphy to direct a pilot of the show, yet untitled, that is set to roll after he wraps up Glee next month. Britton will play Vivien Harmon, one-half of the show’s central couple.

While details of the project is not yet known, FX chief John Landgraf was quite enthusiastic when he called the project “really complicated, interesting psychological horror show but incredibly ambitious.”

When asked how it will differ from Harper’s Island, Landgraf argued that both the shows would be different.