Category: International

MUMBAI: The 14th UK Jewish Film Festival, that goes underway from 4 to 21 October, will have the presence of stars like Maureen Lipman, David Baddiel, Davina McCall, Boy George, Al Murray and Graham Norton.

This year‘s festival will have 66 films selected from more than 350 entries. The successful films will be screened at 10 cinemas in London, including the Tricycle in Kilburn, the British Film Institute, Ciné Lumiere in Kensington and the Barbican. There will be as many as 47 UK premieres of films that have been drawn from 16 countries. 

One such UK premiere will be that of The Round Up that is based on the mass arrest and round-up in the Paris velodrome of 13,000 Jews including 4,000 children by the French police in July 1942. A box-office hit in France, the film stars Jean Reno, Mélanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds) and, amazingly, a real-life survivor who is now 80 years old.

The festival also showcases new talent, most intriguing is A Jewish Girl in Shanghai, a Chinese animated film based on Wu Lin‘s graphic novel about the Holocaust. It tells the little-known story of Little Vienna, a area of China‘s most populated city in which some 30,000 Jewish refugees sought shelter during the Second World War.

Among the comedies on offer will be the UK premiere of Arab Labour made from an Israeli series by Sayed Kashua.
 

MUMBAI: More and more foreign filmmakers heading to India to shoot their films on never-seen locations are giving a boost to the country‘s economy. The Indian information and broadcasting ministry has cleared 11 projects this year and has nine more in various stages of approval compared to 24 films in 2009.

“We have given permission for more than 100 movies in the last three to four years,” said D.P. Reddy, the joint secretary (films) at the department. “It‘s primarily because we have a lot of good locales where shooting can take place and we have the technical competence,” he said.

India has been an enticing location for foreign filmmakers for as long as cinema has existed. In the 1920s, German director Franz Osten made a series of black-and-white silent films inspired by India‘s many religions and rich history.

Richard Attenborough‘s Gandhi (1982) shot in India brought the country to a worldwide audience. Then, films such like the James Bond thriller Octopussy (1983), The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and A Mighty Heart (2007) were all shot in India.

This year‘s Eat Pray Love starring Julia Roberts was the first high-profile film after Slumdog Millionaire to come to India for filming.

Some film industry watchers have attributed the surge in interest in India to the runaway success of Slumdog at the 2009 Oscars. But Reddy said India was already attracting interest even before the British-made film came out.

Reddy said that filmmakers were coming from all over the world, with recent permission given to studios behind the latest film in the Mission: Impossible franchise and the big screen adaptation of Life of Pi.

Other films in the pipeline include The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel that will star British actress Judy Dench and will be directed by John Madden.

MUMBAI: Leonardo DiCaprio is all set to star and co-produce Erik Larson‘s acclaimed novel The Devil in the White City along with Double Feature principals Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher. DiCaprio is to play the murder-minded Holmes.

The non-fiction story focuses on the lives of two men who turned the 1893 Chicago World‘s Fair into their playground.One man, the architect responsible for the fair‘s construction, in a short period of time was forced to overcome immense obstacles to construct the famous White City while the other was a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair.
 
White City has long captivated Hollywood‘s top talent, although the period setting always seemed to be a source of problem. At one point, Kathryn Bigelow was to produce and direct while Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner were also developing an adaptation.

Till 2004, Paramount was in possession of the book, when it let the option lapse but then it re-optioned it in 2007 for Double Feature to produce.

The Devil in the White City, that had a shelf-life for three years, has sold 2.3 million copies and has been translated into 17 languages worldwide.
 

MUMBAI: Tarsem Singh, known to be a veteran of commercials who directed R.E.M.‘s clip Losing My Religion has been signed to direct a Snow White feature.

The untitled project begins with the evil stepmother killing Snow White‘s father and destroying the kingdom. Snow White then enlists a gang of seven quarrelsome dwarves to reclaim what is rightly hers.

Relativity Media hopes to begin production of the film in March next.

Singh, who is more commonly known by his first name has just finished The Immortals. His other features include The Cell that starred Jennifer Lopez and The Fall.
 

MUMBAI: Entertainment has bagged the domestic distribution rights of Adaline, a romantic drama.

Starring Katherine Heigl and directed by Andy Tennant, Adaline is a turn-of-the-20th-century tale of a strangely ageless young woman who falls in love after years of isolation.

Set for release in early 2012, the film produced by Sidney Kimmel and Jim Tauber will go on the floors in March next year.

Summit chief Rob Friedman summed up the film thus: “a fantastic story that we believe will resonate with the American audience.”

Lakeshore International and Sierra Pictures will have the worldwide rights of the film.

MUMBAI: Israeli film Intimate Grammar about a boy in the 1960s who stops growing for three years claimed the top prize at the 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival, giving director Nir Bergman the festival‘s main award for a second time.

The film that was awarded the $50,000 Sakura Grand Prix from among 15 competitors from over 80 countries and regions tells the story of Aaron, the son of a Holocaust survivor who seeks refinement and art amid an increasingly militant society.

Incidentally, Bergman becomes the first director to win the Sakura Prize twice, having previously won in 2002 for Broken Wings.

Bergman told a news conference last week that the film was based on an Israeli novel called “Book of Intimate Grammar” by David Grossman that “gave him an emotional shock as if reading about my own life.”

“I just loved the characters so much and I thought they deserved the big screen,” he was quoted by festival organizers as saying.

The award for Best Director went to Gilles Paquet-Brenner for Sarah‘s Key, a French film about the fate of a Jewish family during World War Two. The film won the Audience Award as well.

Kaneto Shindo, a 98-year-old Japanese director, won the special jury prize for Post Card that shows the impact of World War Two on the residents of a rural Japanese community.

Fan Bingbing won the Best Actress award for her role in Buddha Mountain a joint China-Taiwan co-production also took the award for Best Artistic Contribution. Wang Qianyuan won the Best Actor awards for The Piano in a Factory.
 

MUMBAI: The 2010 London Film Festival ended on Thursday with the European premiere of 127 Hours, Danny Boyle‘s retelling of the true story of a climber who cuts off his own arm to survive.

Starring James Franco as real-life survivor Aron Ralston, a majority portion of the film is set in a tight, claustrophobic space between rock faces and focuses on the mountaineer as he struggles to free his arm crushed under a boulder. As exhaustion and desperation set in throughout the five-day ordeal, the action builds towards the grisly point of no return.

Franco described the story as “an incredible example of human will.” He said that Boyle had pushed him hard to make his performance as authentic as possible. I didn‘t cut my own arm off. But Danny does like to push the boundaries a bit, or push his actors.”

The premiere brought down the curtain down on the annual festival that this year screened as many as 201 feature films and 112 shorts from 68 countries.

Boyle received a lifetime achievement award.
 

MUMBAI: Columbia Pictures president Matt Tolmach has stepped down and has launched a new production company. He will produce the next instalment of Spider-Man.

With Tolmch‘s departure, Doug Belgrad will be the sole president of Columbia Pictures and will take on additional divisional responsibilities. Tolmach and Belgrad, who have enjoyed one of the longest and most successful executive partnerships in recent motion picture history, have shared the role of president of Columbia Pictures since 2008. 

Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal said, “We tried to convince Tolmach to stay in his current job but we understand that the time has come and I completely support his decision. Spider-Man has been a big part of his life for the last ten years and this is the perfect segue. We know he is going to be a killer producer for us. It is also the right moment for Doug to step into a greater leadership position within the company.”
 

MUMBAI: Creditors of MGM have to vote till 5 pm on Friday, the deadline to vote on an MGM reorganization plan. More than 100 MGM lenders will vote on whether to approve a corporate alignment with Spyglass Entertainment that would get a 4.7 per cent stake of MGM.

On Thursday word circulated that MGM had offered Icahn a seat on its proposed new board if he agrees to drop his backing of a rival restructuring plan. But Icahn is pressing for an alternate proposal that would see MGM merge with Lionsgate in which he is the biggest shareholder. 

Icahn‘s corporate maneuvers can become so complicated that it‘s sometimes hard to tell whose side he‘s on. At least, that‘s the contention of a complaint filed by Lionsgate in U.S. District Court on Thursday.

Almost simultaneously with the complaint‘s filing, Lionsgate insiders were of the view that its management and Icahn are pushing for a MGM merger.

In the short run, approval of the Spyglass plan would focus most attention on that proposal, which would be filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles. Once filed, likely Monday, the plan would take 30-60 days to proceed through court review.

If approved by the court, the Spyglass plan would have its co-toppers Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum as co-CEOs of the Century City studio.
 

MUMBAI: The seventh Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) that begins on 12 December will open with The King‘s Speech.

Directed by Tom Hooper, the film is based on the true story of King George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth II, who reluctantly and unexpectedly becomes king following the death of his father and abdication by his brother Edward VII.

Plagued by a debilitating and lifelong speech impediment and considered unfit to be king of a country on the brink of war, George employs an eccentric speech therapist to help him find his voice, in order to lead Britain and inspire its people.
The film stars Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Jennifer Ehle, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Guy Pearce and Timothy Spall.

Said Festival chairman Abdulhamid Juma, “The Festival is delighted to host the film and its considerable talent in Dubai: DIFF has always sought to bring the best cinema of the world to Dubai and the greater Middle East, and The King‘s Speech‘ certainly fits that bill.”

With the 2010 edition less than seven weeks away, DIFF Artistic Director Masoud Amralla Al Ali said nearly all the DIFF programming was in place.