Category: International

MUMBAI: To invite public comment on Japan‘s nationalist opposition to The Cove that resulted in theatres cancelling the screening of the film in Japan, Niwango Inc., an Internet service company has decided to show The Cove free of charge this Friday.

The service provider that shows streaming video on the internet said that it‘s inviting people to write opinions via Twitter and e-mail for an open exchange of views on the Oscar-winning documentary.

About 20 theatres in Japan had planned to show the film but canceled after protesters made threatening phone calls and screamed slogans outside the distributor‘s offices.

Nationalists oppose the film as a denigration of Japanese culture. It has been shown at the Tokyo International Film Festival and other more private screenings but has not been seen by the Japanese public.

MUMBAI: The Chicago International Film Festival recently presented Ron Howard with a Career Achievement Award.

Howard will be in Chicago for the next several months working for an untitled comedy that also stars Vince Vaughn, Winona Ryder, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany.

Actor (and Chicagoan) Said actor Vince Vaughan that the director‘s bald head was the real reward for all the great films he made in his career. Noted films of Howards include Splash, Backdraft, Apollo 13, Frost/Nixon and A Beautiful Mind for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.
 

MUMBAI: Nicolas Cage is all set to star in a sequel of Ghost Rider called Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

Johnny Blaze (Cage) is a stunt motorcyclist who, in order to save the life of a loved one, makes a deal with the devil. His soul is twinned with that of a demon after which he becomes a flaming-skulled man driving a motorcycle from hell.

Similar to Cage, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, both known for their action stunts in Jason Statham‘s action films Crank and Crank: High Voltage are in talks to direct the Columbia Studio project.

Ghost Rider written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson grossed almost $230 million worldwide after opening in February 2007.

Columbia faced a scenario in which rights would have reverted to Marvel if it didn‘t come out with a sequel soon.
The plot details of the film are under wraps and it is not known if any characters from the original would return in the sequel.
 

MUMBAI: In its first of its kind in East Africa, Ethiopia will play host to an international film festival, the first of its kind to be staged in East Africa. The festival, scheduled to take place in Addis Ababa from 14 to 19 June will feature 100 short films from various countries.

The five-day event will be inaugurated by President Girma Woldegiorgisse.

The announcement comes only days after three Ethiopian films won major awards at the 7th African Film Festival in Tarifa, Spain.

Among the films to be shown at the festival include Liya Kebede‘s Desert Flower, a film based on the true story of a former African supermodel who rose from a nomadic life to the top of the international modeling business.
 

MUMBAI: At a film festival forum at the ongoing Shanghai Film Festival, Technicolor and the Shanghai Film Group (SFG) formed a joint venture company in order to serve the increasing demand in China for post-production services both in filmed entertainment and advertising.

The agreement was signed by Technicolor CEO Frédéric Rose and Ren Zhonglun, president of SFG. The joint-venture comes at a time when many Western media companies are looking to set shop in the East for new market opportunities.

Technicolor and state-run SMG will offer China‘s film, TV, animation and advertising producers‘ digital post-production services ranging from the visual effects increasingly seen in box-office hits and TV commercials, to the forensic watermarking used to try to limit widespread copyright infringement.

The Shanghai-based joint-venture will set up its office in the coming months with a few employees.

It is Technicolor‘s second operation in China; the first was established in Beijing in 2008.

MUMBAI: World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Studios has announced that actors Kevin Corrigan American Gangster, Ariel Winter Modern Family and Annabeth Gish The West Wing have joined WWE Superstar Paul ‘Triple H‘ Levesque in the cast of the studios’ upcoming comedy, The Chaperone.

The film has begun principal photography in and around New Orleans, Louisiana.

Stephen Herek will direct the film from a screenplay by playwright SJ Roth. The Chaperone is produced by WWE Studios executive VP Michael Pavone and executive produced by WWE Studios VP David Calloway.

In the film, the title character Ray Bradstone played by Levesque is the best “wheel man in the business,” but he is determined to go straight and be the best parent he can be to his daughter, Sally, played by Winter and make amends with his ex-wife played by Gish. As he struggles to find honest work, his old bank-robbing crew, led by Phillip Larue played by Corrigan, offers him one last job. He agrees at first, but changes his mind at the last second leaving the crew without a driver.

Ray decides instead to serve as a “chaperone” for Sally’s school field trip. When the robbery goes awry, Larue blames Ray and chases the school bus all the way to the Museum of Natural History in New Orleans. Ray must deal with Larue, while supervising Sally’s class on what becomes one of the craziest school trips ever.

MUMBAI: A Singapore short film Paper has been selected to be screened at the 32nd Moscow International Film Festival that is scheduled to be held from 17 to 26 June. The film will be part of the Fringe Showcase.

The film has been conceptualised and written by director Cheong Tze Heen over a period of almost a decade but the filming was completed in just three days on a personal budget.

The film stars local actor Sunny Pang and TV actress Patricia Mok as two unknown strangers who exist in a surreal realm where time and twilight are one.
 

MUMBAI: Celebrating the release of the film Robin Hood, the Britain-based film epic, VisitBritain, the national tourism agency of England, Scotland and Wales alongwith Universal Pictures and with other key tourism agencies have come together to maximise exposure of the film.

The idea behind the partnership is to invite travelers to visit the British sites. This partnership will take the world on an epic journey of Robin Hood’s Britain. 

VisitBritain has also launched a Robin Hood-themed microsite, www.visitbritain.us/robinhood that features in-depth itineraries, movie trailers, film locations, content regarding Britain so that visitors can follow in the footsteps of Robin Hood including a ‘Hood Trail’.

Robin Hood is an action-adventure film based on the Robin Hood legend, directed by Sir Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. The movie releases in India today 11 June, 2010. The movie is being distributed by Paramount Films of India.

In line with the film’s release, the VB partnership joined forces with Universal Pictures to invite tourists to become part of the motion picture experience at Robin Hood – The Movie, an exhibition of costumes, props and behind the scenes materials. The exhibition will also feature weaponry and props from the film itself and will be on display in Nottingham Castle and the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre.

VisitBritain CEO Sandie Dawe says, “Robin Hood is an internationally recognised icon around the world with an enduring interest in his story. We know that 40 per cent of our potential visitors would be ‘very likely’ to visit places from films and thoroughly enjoy visiting film locations they see on the big screen. Robin Hood is one of the few icons who has strong links to destination roots and many people from around the world can again associate the character with Nottingham.

The VB partnership is also running a contest in its 35 markets around the world. The winners will get a chance to banquet privately at Nottingham Castle with the Sheriff, along with one-on-one archery lessons at Sherwood Forest.

One can visit www.thenewsmarket.com/visitbritain – where there is B-Roll footage and images relating to Robin Hood and interviews with Crowe besides other attractions.
 

MUMBAI: Citing concerns that festival organisers could use the occasion to assert Beijing‘s sovereignty over the self-ruled island, Taiwan pulled out eight films from the Shanghai Film Festival beginning today.

The Taipei Film Commission withdrew the works from the Shanghai International Film Festival after noticing that organizers of a recent TV festival in the same Chinese city identified TV series from Taiwan as originating in ‘Taiwan, China‘. 

The eight films that have been pulled off include Monga, Au Revoir Taipei, Hear Me, More Than Close, Orz Boys, Yang Yang, Three Times and Tonight Nobody Goes Home.
 

MUMBAI: Queen Noor, the widow of King Hussein of Jordan is in Hollywood in connection of her documentary on nuclear bomb proliferation Countdown to Zero that will release in theatres in the US in July.

Countdown to Zero, a 90-minute documentary, explores the history of the atomic bomb and today‘s threat of nuclear proliferation. The film has been written and directed by Lucy Walker.

The documentary features interviews with the likes of former UK prime minister Tony Blair, ex-US President Jimmy Carter, one-time USSR General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and the late former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, among many others.

As founding leader of Global Zero, a movement aimed at phasing out nuclear weapons around the world, Queen Noor served as a special consultant on the film, her first foray into Hollywood moviemaking.

The Queen was joined by producers Lawrence Bender and Diane Weyermann of Participant Media, who were both part of the team that made the Oscar-winning global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth.