Category: International

MUMBAI: Author and scriptwriter Michael Chabon may write Disney‘s Magic Kingdom. The film is the studio‘s family adventure project set in its flagship theme park that is being directed by Jon Favreau.

The initial draft has neen written by Ron Moore who revived the recent TV series Battlestar Galactica, but a new writer was sought when Favreau came on board. Chabon has a good chance at being that writer.

Chabon and Favreau have talked about the project and a possible team-up on Kingdom. No offer has been made and obviously meetings with Disney executives would need to take place.

Chabon has been with Disneyhavibg worked on the studio‘s Snow White project titled Snow and the Seven as well as its upcoming adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs book series John Carter of Mars. He is also penning a book for Broadway-bound Dumbo musical.

Chabon is best known for his novels such as Wonder Boys and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

MUMBAI: Going by the disastrous earthquake and tsunami in the country, Japan has put to halt the screening of Clint Eastwood‘s Hereafter.

Warner Entertainment Japan, the Warner Brothers‘ local distributor announced that it was pulling out the film from theatres. The film had been screening across 180 theatres since its February release.

“In light of the recent events we decided that it is not appropriate to screen a film portraying a tsunami,” said Warner Entertainment Japan.

The film, starring Matt Damon, is about spirituality and the afterlife and features scenes reenacting the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Meanwhile, the release date of The Light, a film about exorcism starring Anthony Hopkins, has also been postponed in Japan.

MUMBAI: Korean film The Journals of Musan has won the jury prize at the 13th Deauville Asian Film Festival.

Directed by Park Jeong-bum, who also plays the lead role, the film has been receiving favourable reviews at several film fests including the Rotterdam and Busan International Film Festivals. It also picked up the grand prize at the Marrakesh International Film Festival.

The Journals of Musan depicts the hardships of North Korean defectors who have resettled in South Korea.

The film has been invited to screen at the upcoming Hong Kong International Film Festival as well as the Tribeca and San Francisco Film Festivals.
 

MUMBAI: After signing a production deal with Lionsgate to develop big screen projects, songstress Janet Jackson is all set to become a film producer.

“She has a powerful onscreen presence, with a vast audience, and we believe she will be an equally powerful presence behind the scenes. We are honoured to be able to provide a home for her ideas, passion and immense talent,” President of Lionsgate Mike Paseornek has been quoted as saying.

The 44-year-old singer-actress has a passion for storytelling. Said Jackson, “Many people forget that I started out as an actor. I have been fortunate to work in the film industry, though not as much as I would like. I have a passion for storytelling and have been doing it through my music for some time.”

Jackson, incidentally, is not new at Lionsgate. She has starred in the studio‘s films like Why Did I Get Married, Why Did I Get Married Too and For Colored Girls.
 

MUMBAI: Robbie Pickering‘s Natural Selection has bagged the South by Southwest Film Festival‘s grand jury and audience awards for narrative feature. The award ceremony held in Austin, Texas, saw prizes in 27 categories being handed out.

Natural Selection, a dramedy in which a childless Christian housewife tracks down the illegitimate son of her dying husband, drew lot of buyers after its Sunday world premiere.

Acquisition in this year‘s festival seemed to be heavier than in earlier years, with buys including IFC Midnight picking up the British horror film Kill List and the Weinstein Co. buying football documentary Undefeated. Buyers were also seen interested in titles including Weekend and Fightville.

Natural Selection also picked up jury awards for screenplay, editing, music and breakthrough performances from Rachael Harris (The Hangover) and Matt O‘Leary (Live Free or Die Hard).

In the documentary feature competition, Tristan Patterson‘s Dragonslayer won the grand jury and cinematography awards, while Where Soldiers Come From won for editing and The City Dark for music.

In addition to Natural Selection, audience awards were given to Vikram Gandhi‘s Kumare (doc feature), Jeff Myer‘s Becoming Santa (Spotlight Premieres) and Andrew Haigh‘s Weekend (Emerging Visions).
 

MUMBAI: Beijing will host its first ever international film festival. The inaugural Beijing International Film Festival, scheduled to go underway from 23 to 28 April, will screen hundred recently-produced Hollywood films for local moviegoers.

Among the films that would be screened are the Coen Brothers‘ True Grit and Danny Boyle‘s 127 Hours, Oscar favourites Black Swan and The Social Network among others.
Sixty Chinese-language films will add to the festival‘s screening panorama.

Jackie Chan and Zhang Ziyi have been named the image ambassadors for the festival.

The Chinese capital city, although being the nation‘s cultural center and base for many actors, does lack a major international film festival.

Earlier, stars travelled every year to Shanghai for the annual Shanghai International Film Festival that has been China‘s only A-category international film festival accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations.

MUMBAI: Drew Barrymore will once again don the director‘s hat in the upcoming film How to Be Single, a New Line romantic comedy that she is also producing with her partner Nancy Juvonen of Flower Films.

Single is based on a novel of the same name written by Liz Tuccillo and published by Atria on 10 June, 2008. The film explores the loves lives and break-ups of a group of New Yorkers over the course of ten years. Marc Silverstein and Abby Kohn wrote the adaptation.

Barrymore made her directing debut in 2009 with Whip It, while in 2004 she had helmed a documentary titled Choose or Lose Presents: The Best Place to Start.

MUMBAI: America, a co-production by Spain, Brazil, Portugal and Russia, has won the best director‘s award at the Sofia International Film Festival.

The main prize went to a Bulgarian film Asylum, that relates the story of a conflict between a 12-year old boy and his parents. The film by director Joao Nuno Pinto, where the lead part is played by Russian actress Chulpan Khamatova, tells about the hard life of immigrants in Portugal.

The 15th Sofia Film Festival was held from 4 to 13 March with its closing day highlighting the screening of a Russian film “The Edge” by Alexei Uchitel. Films also shown outside the competition programme of the festival were Russian films How I ended this summer by Alexei Popogrebsky and Morphine by Alexei Balabanov.

MUMBAI: In order to improve upon the special effects of the serial, Steven Spielberg‘s television series Terra Nova, a prehistoric dinosaur drama, reported to have cost $4 million per-episode, has been postponed. The series will now go on air on Fox network around September this year and is reported.

“The world of Terra Nova is visually stunning on multiple levels, and effects play an enormous part. Premiering in the fall will give us the proper time to create a world never before seen on television,” Executive producer Rene Echevarria has been quoted to have said.

Terra Nova was originally slated to go on air during mid-season, but the channel had delayed its premiere until May to coincide it with the finale of its hugely successful comedy series Glee.

Starring Jason O ‘Mara, Stephen Lang and Shelley Conn, Terra Nova follows the adventures of colonists from a dying and extinction-threatened Earth in 2149.

MUMBAI: Zelal (Shadows), the documentary explores the state and practice of the mental health profession had its Egypt premiere on 13 March at Giza.

The documentary, directed by Marianne Khoury and Mustapha Hasnaoui, explores the state and practice of the mental health profession and delves into life inside psychiatric institutions in Egypt. 

Filmed in two large asylums, the film reveals the horrific conditions in which patients are expected to live – squalor and neglect is endemic, staff are stretched beyond breaking point, therapy and treatment seems non-existent. Khoury interviews inmates with gentle sensitivity and respect, never veering into sensationalism or patronising sentimentality.

It‘s a brutal indictment of the country‘s failed healthcare system and the consequence of an increasingly religious conservatism in policymaking that leaves the afflicted stigmatised and left to rot.

The film won the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRISCI ) award for best documentary at the 8th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF).

The film was presented in Arabic with English subtitles.