Category: International

MUMBAI: A biopic on Ronald Reagan has been planned. Mark Joseph, who bought the rights of the books four years ago will co-produce the film with Ralph Winter.

The feature film, titled Reagan to be made in a budget of $30 million will show the ex-US president‘s life — from boyhood to Hollywood actor to leader of the free world will be based on two best-selling biographies of the 40th US President namely The Crusader and God and Ronald Reagan by Paul Kengor.

Winter‘s producing credits include four X-Men films, two Fantastic Four films and the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes while Joseph, a marketing and development executive worked on films like Ray, Holes, Because of Winn-Dixie and The Passion of the Christ.

The film will begin with the 1981 assassination attempt on the ex-president and tells Reagan‘s story through flashbacks and flash-forwards.

It may be interesting to note that the Reagans miniseries starred James Brolin as the president and was supposed to air on CBS until a controversy erupted and it was shown on the premium cable outlet Showtime.

MUMBAI: Walt Disney has hired veteran consultant Valerie Van Galder to handle the marketing of the fourth film of its flagship film franchise Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Disney has had a tough summer with live-action films, with two of its disappointments — Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and The Sorcerer‘s Apprentice.

The first two Pirates sequels were global blockbusters: 2006‘s Dead Man‘s Chest made $1.06 billion worldwide while 2007‘s At World‘s End made $960 million.
 

MUMBAI: This year the Pusan Film Festival (PIFF) has chalked out a special programme of Czech films to celebrate the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between South Korea and the Czech Republic.

As part of the programme, six Czech films have been lined up viz Cinema of Liberalism, An Earthy Paradise for the Eyes, Walking too Fast and Kawasaki‘s Rose.

PIFF runs from 7-15 October.
 

MUMBAI: Jean-Luc Godard will not be attending the Governors Awards in Hollywood on 13 November when he is scheduled to be honoured with an Honorary Award said his companion and producing partner Anne-Marie Mieville.

Though Godard received a letter from the Academy, notifying him of the honour, he has not yet directly responded to the Academy.

But Mieville said Godard would respond to the Academy‘s letter notifying him of his honour and raised the possibility that someone from Godard‘s production team may accept the award in his place.

MUMBAI: Cammie King, the 76-year old actress who shot to fame at the age of 4, playing Rhett Butler‘s daughter, Bonnie Blue Butler in Gone With the Wind has expired. The actress died of lung cancer.

King made her debut with the superhit film in 1939, playing the on-screen daughter of Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. Though her only other acting credit was as the voice of Faline, a young doe, in the 1942 Disney animated film Bambi, her debut film‘s enduring popularity made her a celebrity.

In 1989 she was one of the 10 surviving cast members who went to Atlanta for a week long 50th-anniversary celebration of the premiere.

The actress was born as Eleanore Cammack King in Los Angeles on Aug 5, 1934.

Besides her son, Matt, she is survived by a daughter, Katie Byrne, and three grandchildren. Her first husband, Ned Pollack, died in 1965. Her second marriage to Jack Conlon ended in divorce in 1976.

MUMBAI: The International Film Festival Summit, held in Las Vegas in the month of December every year witnesses organisers of film festivals around the world congregate. It is for this the New Jersey Film Festival (NJFF) is known as a trendsetter.

The selection of films for this year‘s festival will showcase about 40 films selected from 266 entrants has started and will go on till 4 November.

NJFF began 29 years ago, before the VCR, before Rutgers even had its own film studies program.

Through the years, NJFF has evolved from a film series to a full-fledged call-for-entries festival that receives close to 1,000 submissions a year.

MUMBAI: Australian anti-piracy body the Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation (IPAF) has started rolling out a major new national advertising and public education campaign, covering print, television, radio, cinema and social media to combat the findings of a research that found that 1 out of 3 Australians are involved in film and TV content theft or piracy. 

“Our research provided us with some shocking overall statistics such as 53% of people pirated film or TV content during the year. We also found that people think they are basically honest. We learned some Australians don’t agree with piracy and don’t think they contribute to the content theft problem while regularly doing it. People aren’t making the connection between their actions and their beliefs,” said IPAF CEO Gail Grant.

The campaign that runs under the tagline “The Accidental Pirate,” through TV and cinema commercials is designed to make people question their actions and attitudes towards piracy and to find out more. The new campaign replaces the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft three-year-old campaign, “What Are You Really Burning?”

IPAF is a coalition of industry groups and others involved in the entertainment sector, the membership of which includes the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia, the MPA, AFACT, several pay TV operators and various cinema and home entertainment organisations.

MUMBAI: Director John Woo, who helmed big-budget blockbuster Mission Impossible II is preparing for a third phase of his career and wants to be a bridge between the good things of the West and the East “so that we can further our mutual knowledge and build a strong friendship.”

The acclaimed director was awarded a Golden Lion award for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival that recognised the director “as an innovator of the contemporary language of cinema.”

Woo, 64, has directed more than 26 films in his nearly 30 years in the industry, beginning his career in Hong Kong in the 1970s before moving to Hollywood in the 1990s.

He has directed notable films like Hard Target, Broken Arrow and Mission Impossible II among others.

Venice Film Festival director Marco Mueller says that Woo‘s films are “a perfect union of the China tradition and avant-garde filmmaking. I don‘t think we are bestowing an honor. I think it was here waiting for him.

Woo recently directed the epic period war drama Red Cliff based on a war that took place in China in the 3rd Century. He has said that it was about time to bring everything he learned over 16 years working in Hollywood, back to China.

MUMBAI: The 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival will honour Hong Kong actor Bruce Lee, credited for making kung fu films popular. The festival will hold a retrospective of some of Lee‘s most famous titles.

Thirty years after his death, Lee remains a legendary figure in the worlds of both martial arts and film, the organizers of the festival said. Best known for his role in Enter the Dragon that was released after his death in 1973, Lee still continues to inspire modern movie makers. 

“The 70th Anniversary: Bruce Lee to the Future” tribute will be part of the Winds of Asia Middle-East section at the festival, which opens at the main Roppongi Hills venue on 23 October.

The retrospective will include a screening of the rare version of Game of Death that was distributed in Japan in 1978, as well a number of films that pay tribute to Lee, including the 2010 kung fu comedy Gallants, directed by Derek Kwok, and the Vietnam film The Legend is Alive, by Luu Huynh Luu.

MUMBAI: Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been forbidden entry to this year‘s Venice international film festival. Panahi‘s work The Accordion opened the short film section of the festival.

A winner of Venice‘s top film honour, the Golden Lion, for his 2000 film Circle, as well as the 1995 Camera d‘Or at Cannes, Panahi is an active participant in international film dialogue. 

In a statement to festival officials, Panahi expressed his gratitude to fellow filmmakers, “In the most desperate moments of my imprisonment,I drew courage thinking of myself as a proud member of this community.”

Screened yesterday at Venice, the eight-minute short film The Accordion explores the lives of two young street musicians. Filmed in Iran as part of UN-backed project Then and Now: Beyond Borders and Differences, Panahi‘s work was intended to promote ideas of tolerance and international dialogue.