Category: International

MUMBAI: Lynn Frank will soon join Warners as executive vp, international marketing.

She will move to Warners‘ Burbank headquarters from London where she spent the last five years as managing director and senior vp, ESPN Europe.

Frank will report to Sue Kroll, Warners president and she will work with Kroll and the international marketing executives to create and implement the division‘s day-to-day strategy development and business and campaign planning and execution across all international territories. 

Frank will have oversight of all international campaigns, planning and budgets, as well as the strategic development and execution of regional and local campaigns. She also will be involved in local acquisitions for regional release.

Kroll and Frank had previously worked together at Turner Broadcasting.
 

MUMBAI: The Weinstein Co. (TWC) has declared its slate of films to be released this year. The goal for TWC is to have four to six wide releases a year and at least a half-dozen other limited releases, both in-house productions and acquisitions.

The company‘s next wide release will be Piranha 3-D that will open on 20 August in more than 2,000 US theatres. Apparently, TWC has been able to book the number of 3D screens it needs.

That will mark the first film in a renewal of the Dimension division run by Bob Weinstein. Other sequel titles being developed in 3D include Hellraiser and Children of the Corn.

A wide release is planned for Scream 4 in April and then Spy Kids 4 in August next year, currently in production with budgets of about $40 million each. In active development for wide release are sequels to Scary Movie and Halloween among others.

Meanwhile, Harvey Weinsteinis said to be focused again on films with lower budgets (typically $15 million-$25 million) that will get platform releases that could be expanded. That includes at least four this year that will be given his well-known Oscar push.

The films seen as worthy of Academy consideration are The King‘s Speech starring Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter, Sundance pickup Blue Valentine starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams and the recent acquisition Miral from director Julian Schnabel and starring Freida Pinto and Willem Dafoe.

The Weinsteins also will push documentary The Tillman Story about the NFL player who went to Afghanistan and was killed by friendly fire. Harvey Weinstein apparently did a re-edit on Blue Valentine after it was screened at Cannes.

On Wednesday, TWC firmed up dates for its slate of limited releases. In addition to those mentioned, they are Nowhere Boy (Oct. 8), The Company Men (Oct. 22) and two others Easy Money and Reign of Assassins that will release this year.
 

MUMBAI: The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the group behind the Golden Globe Awards, is giving away $1.5 million in grants to non-profit film organisations.

At a ceremony HFPA president Philip Berk handed out cheques to film schools and groups that support film promotion and preservation. HFPA has given more than $12 million in grants to date.

Actress Eva Longoria Parker acknowledged that she was slightly star-struck as she read from a script to present the cheques. “This is hard for me, this teleprompter, because Nicole Kidman is sitting right behind it,” Parker said.

Kidman was among the stars who accepted the grants along with Bryan Cranston, Jane Lynch, Ryan Phillippe, John Slattery, Matthew Fox, Aaron Sorkin, Carla Gugino, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco and Annette Bening.

Recipients also included Outfest, FilmAid International, the Museum of Modern Art, American Cinematheque, the American Film Institute, Inner-City Arts and eleven universities.

The 68th annual Golden Globe Awards will be presented Jan. 16.
 

MUMBAI: William Shakespeare‘s The Tempest, screening on 11 September, will be the closing film at the Venice Film Festival.

Among director Julie Taymor‘s changes to the nearly 400-year-old classic is changing the sorcerer Propero into Prospera, a sorceress played by Oscar winner Helen Mirren.

In addition to Mirren, the musical score of the film has been scored by Oscar-winner Ellio Goldenthal, while the costumes have been designed by three-time Oscar honoree Sandy Powell. Oscar winner Francoise Bonnot edited the film.

The 67th edition of the Venice Film Festival will run from 1 to 11 September.

MUMBAI: This year‘s Toronto International Film Festival will hold world premieres of films of Robert Redford, Guillaume Canet, Michael Winterbottom, John Cameron Mitchell, Tony Goldwyn, Emilio Estevez and David Schwimmer.

In all, about 50 films, including 25 world premieres, were unveiled yesterday at the opening news conference for the fest‘s 35th edition.

Redford‘s The Conspirator, an investigation into the assassination of President Lincoln that stars Robin Wright, James McAvoy and Kevin Kline, will have its gala screening at Roy Thomson Hall.

To be accorded the same treatment would be Canet‘s Little White Lies, a beachside drama that stars Marion Cotillard, Benoit Magimel and Gilles Lellouche. The South African-set Steven Silver‘s Canada/South Africa co-production, The Bang Bang Club, starring Ryan Phillippe, Malin Akerman and Taylor Kitsch will also have its premiere at the Fest.

Stars whose latest work will be on display include Nicole Kidman, playing one half of a married couple rocked by the death of their child, in Mitchell‘s Rabbit Hole. Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis facing off as rival ballerinas in Darren Aronofsky‘s Black Swan will be the opening-night film at the festival. Keanu Reeves, playing a man unjustly imprisoned in Malcolm Venville‘s Henry Crime; Edward Norton and Robert De Niro circling each other in John Curran‘s psychological thriller Stone and Ben Affleck, who has directed himself in the Boston crime drama, The Town which Warner Bros. will release domestically on 17 September.

French actress Catherine Deneuve will be seen in two features: Francois Ozon‘s Potiche and Eric Lartigau‘s melodrama The Big Picture. Helen Mirren will also will get plenty of exposure from her appearances in John Madden‘s thriller The Debt and Rowan Joffe‘s adaptation of Graham Greene‘s novel Brighton Rock.

MUMBAI: The National Association of Theatre Owners has revealed that Americans paid an average of $7.88 per ticket in the second quarter down from $7.95 in the first three months of the year.

The decline reflects the enormous first-quarter box-office collections for Avatar and the premium ticket prices movie theatre owners charge patrons for the privilege of viewing such fare. Theatres generally charge more than $3 for tickets to 3D movies.

Avatar opened 18 December and roped in $457 million of its record $750 million in North America from 1 January to March 30. Also pumping up the first-quarter average was a $334 million domestic grosser Alice in Wonderland that released on 5 March and collected $299 million by 30 March while How to Train Your Dragon registered $53 million of its $218 million by the month‘s end after releasing on 26 March.

The second quarter featured just two 3D releases. Toy Story 3 opened on 18 June and raked in $251 million of its $380 million by 30 June while Shrek Forever After fetched $231 million of its total collection of $235 million after releasing on 21 May.

The average ticket price of $7.90 for the first half means the industry‘s $6.48 billion in year-to-date box-office works out to roughly 820 million movie-theatre admissions.

MUMBAI: In April, Michael G. Wilson and his half sister and fellow Bond producer, Barbara Broccoli had announced that development of the next 007 feature called Bond 23 was suspended “indefinitely.”

Financial woes at MGM, which owns rights to Bond, is saddled with a crushing $4 billion in debt. There is no doubt, however that Bond will be back but the questions remain about how the new film will find its financing. It is also being questioned whether the open-ended delay will slow the momentum the franchise had rediscovered with Daniel Craig on the saddle.

Though Broccoli and Wilson declined to comment, but are said to be deeply concerned about the effect of an indefinite delay. Broccoli is hoping for a sale to Time Warner. Broccoli and Wilson also continue to push for Sony Pictures to be involved in the matter.

As 007 sits on the sidelines, Bond hardly is the only game in town. The spy marketplace is filled with competing secret agents crowding multiplexes and those are in competition with the slew of comic book characters seeking a big slice of Bond‘s audience.

GoldenEye veterans Dixon and Campbell have teamed on the upcoming DC Comics creation Green Lantern.
 

MUMBAI: Will Eisner‘s graphic novel ‘A Contract With God‘ is being made into a live-action feature by writer-producer Darren Dean. The film recounts Eisner‘s memories of growing up in a New York City tenement and four directors, who will each helm one chapter of the tale, have lined up to bring it to the screen.

The quartet includes Alex Rivera, Tze Chun, Barry Jenkins and Sean Baker.

Dean, who also co-wrote and produced Prince of Broadway will produce the adaptation under the auspices of the Eisner estate.

Bob Schreck and Michael Ruggiero will serve as co-executive producers with Tommy Oliver as co-producer and Mark Rabinowitz as associate producer.
 

MUMBAI: Pushing its overseas gross total to $351 million, Pixar/Disney‘s Toy Story 3 roped in $62 million in the last weekend from 3,897 screens in 43 locations.

Following Toy Story, was Warner Bros.‘ Inception which drew $56.7 million from 5,840 venues in 38 territories. Director Christopher Nolan‘s sci-fi-thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio had No. 1 debuts in Japan ($8.9 million from 523 screens), France ($8.1 million from 717 locations), Russia ($6.75 million from 906 locales) and Australia ($6.4 million from 413 situations). 

Sony‘s SALT grossed $5.1 million overseas day-and-date release with its domestic release at 779 screens in 17 secondary markets to end its opening weekend tally at $5.1 million.

Director Phillip Noyce‘s Cold War thriller starring Angelina Jolie as a suspect CIA agent premiered No. 1 in Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. It finished second in India, the best opening in the market for a Jolie title. Brazil, Japan, Korea and Russia openings are due this week.

The 3D version of Toy Story 3 had record openings in UK and Spain. While the animation threequel grossed a huge $30.6 million (including previews) in the UK, in Spain the debut tally was $7.9 million.

The film‘s foreign earnings qualifies the title as Disney‘s sixth biggest-grossing animation title ever offshore. With a worldwide gross total of $730.5 million, makes it the seventh biggest-grossing animation title of all time from any distributor.
 

MUMBAI: Singapore struck its fourth film co-production deal with China on Friday. The signing took place as part of the 7th China-Singapore Joint Council for Bilateral Co-operation currently being held in Beijing.

China was represented by vice minister Zhang Pimin of China‘s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), while Singapore‘s parliamentary secretary for Trade and Industry and Information, Communications and the Arts, Sam Tan signed on behalf of his country.

The deal covers theatrical feature films and telemovies, across live-action, animation and documentaries. Qualifying films made under the agreement will be eligible for funding and incentives as do productions in their home country, and will similarly qualify as domestic films under censorship regimes in each nation.

SARFT will oversee the agreement on the Chinese side, while the Media Development Authority will supervise it for Singapore.

Singapore had earlier signed such co-production deals with Australia, Canada and New Zealand

France and China signed a co-production treaty in May but so far no films have gone into production under its terms.

Australia and China signed a co-production treaty in 2007 but only one feature has been made under that agreement, “Children of Huang Shi,” directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Chow Yun-fat and Jonathan Rhys-Myers.