Category: International

MUMBAI: Johnny Depp is all set to play the lead in a big screen adaptation of the crime novel The Thin Man. But, the actor reportedly wants his Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides director Rob Marshall to helm the project. So keen is Depp in the project, that he is looking to develop a script with producers Infinitum Nihil.

The Thin Man, based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett, is about Nick Charles, a detective who gives up his job when he marries a wealthy socialite, ending up as an alcoholic. However, he is drawn back for one last job investigating a murder and he takes his wife along with him.

But the director is already in talks to work a movie based on the musical theatre show Wicked, a prequel to The Wizard of Oz and may find it difficult to take up the film.

Depp, meanwhile, is currently filming the fourth instalment of Pirates.

MUMBAI: M Night Shyamalan is said to be developing a sci-fi project titled One Thousand A E that Will Smith will produce under the banner of his production house Overbrook that Smith runs with wife Jada Pinkett Smith.

One Thousand A E is being developed as a vehicle for the superstar‘s son Jaden Smith. by the production company. 

Unlike Shyamalan‘s earlier films, the story of the new project has been written by Gary Whitta, the man behind The Book of Eli and Undying.

Shyamalan has not been successful with his last few ventures including the recently released The Last Airbender.
 

MUMBAI: 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm have decided to release Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace in 3D in February 2012.

George Lucas believes that releasing the film early in the year will give it an open run at the box-office and will also set up the opportunity to sell its merchandise the rest of the year.

The plan is to release the subsequent five films in the series an annual event on the film calendar. Currently, the only movie slated for February 2012 is Sony‘s Ghost Rider 2, also in 3D on 17 February.
 

MUMBAI: Johnny Depp has topped the list of Hollywood‘s most powerful star followed by Lady Gaga in a new power list. The Pirates Of The Caribbean actor has come out on top of Entertainment Weekly‘s just-released Power List.

“Depp‘s career has been a long, strange trip and ending up the most powerful actor in Hollywood is the weirdest twist of all. He‘s rarely followed the standard playbook, choosing roles as misfits over the usual romantic leads and action heroes,” the magazine says before listing some of his impressive statistics, including a career box-office total of USD 5.9 billion.

Meanwhile Gaga who had occupied the seventh spot on Forbes magazine‘s list of the World‘s 100 most powerful women, has grabbed the second spot. She managed to amass a pretty impressive resume in a short time, having sold 5.1 million albums in the US itself in a career spanning two years.

TV mogul Oprah Winfrey came in at number three while former ‘American Idol‘ judge Simon Cowell occupied the fourth spot.
 

MUMBAI: Acclaimed Egyptian actress Yosra will preside over the Jury of the 2nd annual Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) scheduled to be held from 26 to 30 October.

Yosra replaces the previously announced Jury President, Hany Abu-Assad who had to step back due to a delay in production of his latest film The Courier currently being shot on location in Louisiana.

The Egyptian actress will be joined by four other members of the film industry who comprise the inaugural jury, Salma Hayek Pinault, actor, writer and director Nick Moran, Indian director Bhawna Talwar and Bosnian screenwriter and film director Danis Tanovic. Together they will choose the winners of the Festival‘s Arab Film Competition: Best Arab Film and Best Arab Filmmaker who will each receive monetary awards of US$100,000.

Additionally, the festival has also added seven more feature films to its programme – including Andrew Lau‘s Legend Of The Fist: The Return Of Chen Zhen, John Curran‘s Stone, Machete, Casino Jack and a special IMAX presentation of Paranormal Activity 2.

Two Hindi films Rakht Charitra by Ramgopal Varma and Vikramaditya Motwane‘s Udaan will also have their Qatar premiere at the festival , while Champs Elysees Je T‘aime has been added to the Arab Short Film Competition.

Remarked Yosra, “I‘m honoured to be the first Jury President of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival and I want to thank my fellow jurors Salma, Nick, Danis and Bhavna for joining me. It‘s a great privilege for me to work with them and I hope that together, we can fulfill the expectations of the filmmakers, and can contribute towards highlighting the Arab Cinema and further encouraging the talent from the region.”

Said DFI Executive Director Amanda Palmer, “We are delighted Yosra is joining us in Doha as our first Jury President for DTFF‘s first Arab Film Competition. Yosra supported us immensely in our first year as a festival, and in our second year it‘s an honour to welcome this cinematic icon to preside over an international jury.”

MUMBAI: Yesteryear child actor, Johnny Sheffield , who played Boy in the Tarzan movie series in the late 1930s and ‘40s and later starred in the Bomba, the Jungle Boy film series has expired at the age of 79.

Sheffield died of a heart attack at his home in Chula Vista about four hours after he fell off a ladder while pruning a palm tree. “He was a jungle boy to the end,” his wife said noting that her husband of 51 years wasn‘t too high in the tree when he fell.

The son of British actor Reginald Sheffield was 7 when his father saw an advertisement in a Hollywood morninger that asked, “Do you have a Tarzan Jr. in your backyard?”
 

MUMBAI: In a cameo, Mel Gibson will appear as a tattoo artist in the sequel of Hangover. Gibson will make the brief appearance in the Todd Phillips comedy The Hangover 2.

The sequel will feature the return of Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Justin Bartha who starred in the original as friends trying to piece together a rowdy Vegas bachelor party. This time the location is set for Bangkok.

Sources say that the tattoo artist character is “important” to the plot.

The release of Gibson‘s next film, the Jodie Foster-directed Beaver, has been postponed by Summit Entertainment.
 

MUMBAI: Guaranteed $ 115 million, Paramount Studios has closed a deal with Disney to transfer worldwide marketing and distribution rights to Marvel for films like The Avengers and Iron Man 3.

The distribution deal was one of Paramount chairman and CEO Brad Grey‘s first major moves after taking over the studio in 2005 and Marvel‘s comic book-derived tentpoles Iron Man and its sequel strategically filled the studio‘s pipeline while the new regime readied its own franchises.

Disney purchased Marvel Entertainment for $4.24 billion last year, but the latter‘s current cycle of films had to be contractually released through Paramount via a distribution deal in place when Disney entered the picture.

Now that Paramount has Star Trek, Transformers and Mission: Impossible, it no longer needs the Marvel properties.

Grey said, “Five years ago, when Paramount and Marvel made our initial deal, both our businesses were in very different places. Today, this new agreement is the right deal for Paramount, for Marvel and for Disney. We look forward to working together on Thor and Captain America and we wish Disney and Marvel the utmost success in what we know will be a very productive and wide-ranging partnership.”
 

MUMBAI: In its bid to take control of MGM, Spyglass Entertainment suffered a significant setback after the ailing studio extended the deadline for creditors to vote on whether to hand the reins to Spyglass principals Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum till 29 October.

The Spyglass plan would give the production company a 4.7 per ecnt stake in the studio and the balance of ownership to more than 100 lenders. The Spyglass plan would eliminate all MGM debt. Eventually, Barber and Birnbaum would seek new loans for MGM operating capital.

On the other hand, the delay gives rival suitor Lions Gate more time to convince creditors to consider its proposal. Backed by major shareholders including Carl Icahn and Gordon Crawford‘s Capital Research, Lions Gate proposes to merge with MGM to form a company in which it would hold a 45 per cent stake and the lenders 55 per cent.

MGM isn‘t letting lenders specifically vote on the Lions Gate plan, nor have Lions Gate executives been able to make a formal presentation. But with momentum on its side, the Lions Gate proposal could win by default if lenders vote against adopting the Spyglass plan.

One way or another, MGM needs to restructure its finances to reduce or eliminate almost $4 billion in debt. Any restructuring likely would culminate in the filing of a pre-packaged reorganisation plan in US Bankruptcy Court.
 

MUMBAI: A Chinese film Tangshan dadizheng (Aftershock) about a family‘s struggle to deal with a devastating earthquake came out tops among 31 films that participated from 15 countries at the fourth annual 2010 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

The highest-grossing domestic film of all time in China, Tangshan dadizheng received six nominations including one for the best feature film.

The second most nominated film with four nominations was Shi (Poetry) by South Korean director Lee Chang-dong that his brother, Lee Joon-dong produced. The film, which took the best screenplay award at Cannes this year, deals with the story of a grandmother searching for meaning as she confronts the aftermath of a child‘s death.

Rounding out the five films nominated for best feature were, Mengjia (Monga), a gangster movie from Taiwan, a Turkish film Bal (Honey), the third film in director Semih Kaplanoglu‘s Yusuf trilogy and Paju from South Korea.

“As the Asia Pacific Screen Awards grow in stature and recognition across our vast region, we are delighted to have in the competition some of the most high profile films and filmmakers of contemporary cinema,” said APSA Chairman Des Power in a statement.