Category: International

MUMBAI: Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison’s son David Ellison has raised $350 million to co-finance films with Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures.

The funds valuing $150 million in equity and a four-year $200-million revolving credit facility led by JPMorgan Chase will enable Ellison to step up production at Skydance Productions, his production house. 

Ellison hopes to make four to six films a year at his 4-year-old Santa Monica-based production company. Skydance will focus on big-budget action, adventure, science fiction and fantasy films as well as modestly budgeted comedies and genre pictures. In turn, Paramount will have first dibs on all of Skydance‘s projects in development, with the opportunity to co-finance and distribute films that the company produces.

Paramount‘s first big-budget film that Ellison will co-finance are the by Brad Bird directed Mission: Impossible 4 that stars Tom Cruise, True Grit starring Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Jeff Bridges and an untitled film starring Chris Pine. Skydance is also co-developing License to Steal, an action heist movie with Paramount. The film, about the high-end repo business, will be produced with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.

Ellison has a number of moderately budgeted projects in development including an untitled comedy written by David Caspe starring Charlize Theron and Hyde based on the Dark Horse comic The Strange Case of Hyde that is being adapted for the big screen by Cole Haddon and produced with Mark Gordon and Dark Horse Entertainment.

MUMBAI: Good old action rules and so does veteran action star, Sylvester Stallone. The actor-director’s “The Expendables” has raked in $35 million in USA and Canada over the weekend to steal a march over “Eat, Pray, Love” (approx $24 million).

What is special about “The Expendables” is that the explosions and stunts have been done with physical effects instead of digitally generated by computer technology. The film is about a bunch of mercenaries assigned to finish off a cruel dictator of a South American island.

Though expected to appeal mainly to male audience, the film had drawn a decent ratio of female audience to make the earnings look more promising to the local distributor Lionsgate. Made at a cost of $82 million, the film has already recovered this in pre-sales.

The all action cast of The Expendables” includes, besides Sly Stallone, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke and Dolph Lundgren.
 

MUMBAI: Julia Roberts will receive an award for her movie career at next month‘s film festival in San Sebastian. She will also attend the festival to promote her latest film Eat Pray Love that co-stars Spanish actor Javier Bardem.

Eat Pray Love, based on a novel of the same name by Elizabeth Gilbert, is the story of a recent divorcee played by Roberts who travels to Italy, India and Bali that helps her rediscover her inner peace through each place.

The 42-year-old Roberts came to fame for her role in the 1990 movie Pretty Woman and spent a decade becoming one of Hollywood‘s favourite box-office draws and highest paid actresses. She won an Oscar for best actress in 2001 for Erin Brockovich.

In recent years she has taken some time off from acting to get married and gave birth to three children.

She will receive the award for her film career on September 20. The San Sebastian International Film Festival runs from September 17 to 25.
 

MUMBAI: A Chinese film has bagged the top honour at the Locarno Film Festival. Li Hongqi ‘s Han Jia (Winter Vacation), a coming-of-age story set it small town China won the Festival‘s Golden Leopard prize. This is the second consecutive year that a film from a Chinese director has bagged the festival‘s top prize.

Last year, it was Xiaolu Guo-directed She, a Chinese that had won the Golden Leopard. Combined with this year‘s winning film, this marks the first time since 1995-96 when the same country won back-to-back Golden Leopards.

Among the festival‘s other top prizes: Morgen, a border drama set on the boundary between Romania and Hungary from Marian Crisan won a Special Jury Prize while Denis Cote was given the Prize of the City and Region of Locarno for Best Director for the Canadian thriller Curling.

Emmanuel Bilodeau, who played the male lead in Curling won the best actor award while Jasna Duricic won the best actress honor for her work in Beli Belisvet (White White World).

The top prize carries an award of 90,000 Swiss francs ($85,000), while the Jury Prize and Best Director award are worth 30,000 Swiss francs ($28,000) each.

The award ceremony was followed by the world premiere of Sommervogel (Little Paradise), a first feature film from 64-year-old Swiss director Paul Riniker, a veteran of more than 70 documentaries.

Saturday, that was the closing day of the festival also saw the closing of the Open Doors co-production laboratory, which focused on films from Central Asia, and the final screenings of the well-received Ernst Lubitsch retrospective.

MUMBAI: Two new full-length, 3D animated films from the United States and Spain will be screened at this year‘s San Sebastian International Film Festival that opens next month.

Despicable Me, the first such animated film from Universal and Holy Night! the first Spanish animated 3D film directed by Juan Galinanes will be shown on the festival‘s giant 400-square-metre Velodrome screen.

The San Sebastian festival runs from 17 to 25 September this year.
 

MUMBAI: Organisers of the Montreal World Film Festival (MWFF) are hopeful that well-known Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi will come over to Canada this month for a film retrospective.

Panahi‘s latest film The Accordion is to be shown at the upcoming festival that will be held from 26 August to 9 September. The short film about a pair of young street musicians has also been booked for the Venice Film Festival.

MWFF president Serge Losique said Iranian judges have withheld Panahi‘s travel passport even after his release from Tehran‘s Evin prison in May after a protest from the international film community.

Losique said that he received an email from Panahi recently indicating a possibility that he might be able retrieve his passport that was confiscated on his latest arrest and imprisonment for unspecified charges in October last year.

A major figure in Iran‘s New Wave film movement, Panahi attended last year‘s MWFF as head of the festival jury.
 

MUMBAI: The inaugural eight-day New York City International Film Festival that got underway on 12 August will run up to 19 August. 

The festival has been designed to help emerging filmmakers expand their audiences and to promote New York City as a major filmmaking center.

One hundred and twenty films have been selected from all over the world for the festival.

MUMBAI: The 35th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will be held between 9 to 19 September. During the eleven-day period, an array of 300 films from over 60 countries will be screened.

Premiering at the festival would be Kiran Rao‘s Dhobi Ghat that will rub shoulders with the world premieres of films made by Robert Redford, Emilio Esteves and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Film celebrities likely to make their appearance at the festival are the likes of Colin Farrell, James Cameron and Cameron Diaz among others.

As is the tradition, the film that will headline the fest on the opening night will be a Canadian one called Score: A Hockey Musical that captures key elements of the Canadian identity – their passion for ice hockey, the unique musical style and sense of humour.

Viewers can watch whatever genre of film they want to see. There‘s Midnight Madness; Vanguard is for those with edgy tastes and there‘s more world cinema than you can take in.

The TIFF fete has, over the years, remained true to its objective to lead the world in cultural and creative discovery through cinema and to highlight Canadian achievements in the cinematic field.

Apart from films, there will be seminars, lectures, discussions, festivals and workshops of industry support and the opportunity to meet reputed international and Canadian filmmakers.

MUMBAI: Carl Icahn has extended the date when shareholders of Lionsgate possibly tender their shares to him. The extension till 22 October of the current $6.50 per-share offer from Icahn was declared on Wednesday.

Icahn said that time was needed for the Supreme Court of British Columbia to consider his application for a court injunction to rescind a recent debt-to-equity conversion between Lionsgate and major investor and board member Mark Rachesky.

The particular transaction reduced Icahn‘s stake in the Vancouver-based mini-studio and potentially his influence from 37.3 to 33.5 per cent.
 

MUMBAI: Stand-up comedian and singer Jamie Foxx has joined forces with writer-director-producer Deon Taylor to launch a Los Angeles-based production company and named it as No Brainer Films.

The banner will focus on developing, financing, writing, directing and producing mainstream films and TV series budgeted at under $10 million.

Robert Smith, founder and managing principal of private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners will finance the venture.

First up from No Brainer will be the TV series Tommy‘s Little Girl created by Foxx who has co-written and co-directed with Taylor. The mob drama stars Selma Blair, Paul Sorvino, Tony Sirico and James Russo.

Hoowever, Foxx and Taylor will continue to run their individual production companies, Foxx-King Entertainment and Deon Taylor Enterprises respectively.

While Taylor‘s latest horror thriller Chain Letter stars Nikki Reed which he wrote, directed and produced opens across America in October, Foxx next appears in Warner Bros. comedy Due Date set to open in November.