Category: International

MUMBAI: Oscar winner Jeremy Irons will receive the Ischia legend award at the Ischia Global Film and Music Festival on 13 July.

Irons will join the likes of Ben Kingsley, Dennis Hopper, Vanessa Redgrave, Hilary Swank and Stefania Sandrelli who had earlier won the award.

The British actor was nominated for a Golden Globe for The Mission that also featured Robert De Niro. He also won a BAFTA for The French Lieutenant‘s Woman that starred Meryl Streep.

The Festival that will open on 11 July with the premiere of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps will go on till 18 July.
 

MUMBAI: This year the Edinburg Film Festival (EIFF) will celebrate the 80th birthday of Sir Sean Connery when it screens Connery‘s The Man Who Would be King on 20 June.

Connery who has been patron of the festival since 1992, will be attending a special gala of one of his best-loved films in the festival sponsored by our newest supporter, Bank of Scotland.

The gala will give the audience at the festival, the opportunity to show their appreciation for Connery‘s stellar career, his support of the EIFF and his upcoming birthday celebration in August.

Avers EIFF artistic director Hannah McGill, “This event is a fitting way to celebrate Sir Sean‘s 80 years – almost twenty of which he has given to support EIFF as Patron.

“He is a great friend of the Festival and we look forward to celebrating this amid the glitter of the Festival Theatre. We are immensely grateful to Bank of Scotland for their support and are delighted to welcome them on board.”

The gala will also give an opportunity for the public audience to spend a glamorous evening in the company of Sir Connery.

MUMBAI: Universal Pictures has entered into a five-year distribution deal with Media Rights Capital (MRC) in which the former has agreed to distribute twenty films that MRC would produce in the next five years beginning from 2011.

Under the terms of the deal, Universal has committed to release the films domestically. Both the companies have also agreed to partner each other on worldwide release of individual titles.

Under the deal, MRC will pay Universal a distribution fee for handling distribution and marketing of four titles a year to Universal‘s release slate. Universal, will continue to produce and distribute an equal number of films every year.

Both Universal and MRC had earlier collaborated on Sacha Baron Cohen‘s Bruno, the to-be released The Adjustment Bureau written and directed by George Nolfi and M. Night Shyamalan horror thriller Devil.”
 

MUMBAI: MTV has announced that Sandra Bullock will be presented with the MTV Generation Award when she attends the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheater in Los Angeles on 6 June.

The 45-year-old actress will be the first woman to receive the award. Past recipients include Tom Cruise, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Mike Myers and Jim Carrey.

The award ceremony would be presented by the likes of Adam Sandler, Tom Cruise, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Chris Rock, Steve Carell and Cameron Diaz.

Hosted by Aziz Ansari, the MTV Movie Awards will be broadcast live from the venue.
 

MUMBAI: Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi jailed for nearly three months was released on Tuesday on a bail of $200,000, nine days after he went on a hunger strike. Soon after his release, Panahi was taken to a hospital for a checkup.

Though the charges against the 49-year old filmmaker were never made clear, his case was before the Revolutionary Court because the charges said to be security related.
 

At the time of his detention, the authorities had said he had been arrested for “plans” to make a film about the protests that followed the disputed presidential election last summer. In all Panahi spent 86 days in prison.

Panahi‘s name was raised frequently at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival. Iranian artistes, activists and journalists had also called for his release in recent weeks.

MUMBAI: Drifting, a film made by RMIT University, Australia student David Ludlow, is being considered to be sent to film festivals around the world including Toronto, Sundance, Melbourne, Telluride and Slamdance.

Ludlow developed the idea that he further wrote, produced, directed and starred in the lead role. He also cinematographed the film and took on roles of the casting director, costume designer and built a custom lighting rig at home to use during the filming.

The film was shot on digital format and completed in 18 days for AUD 2,000.
 

MUMBAI: After its negotiations with Weisteins and its investor Ron Burkle were called off, Disney is set to renew talks with the Gores Brothers for the acquisition of Miramax.

The Gores had reportedly bid around $600 million for Miramax, but the amount was below the $625 million offered by the Weinstein/Burkle group and the $650 million bid by Pangea Group CEO David Bergstein.

Regarding the Weinstein talks, Burkle apparently decided that $ 625 million was too high and asked for a reduction. That‘s when talks broke down and Disney, which sought $700 million for Miramax called off the exclusive negotiating period.

Meanwhile, the Gores also are moving ahead with a bid of about $ 300 to acquire Overture Films and its related assets including the Anchor Bay home entertainment arm and animation companies, from Liberty Media.

The Gores‘ vision is to use the Overture management, pay TV slots, home video and other distribution capability to launch a company that could hit the ground running and maximise the value of the Miramax assets.

One reason the Weinsteins‘ backers believe they aren‘t done with Miramax is that whoever buys it will have to deal with Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who retained certain rights when they sold the company to Disney.
 

MUMBAI: Tim Burton‘s Alice in Wonderland will soon become the sixth film in recent times to cross the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box-office.

The adventure fantasy from the Disney stable that was recently released on home video, continues to play in theatres having grossed more than $332 million domestically and $667 million internationally.

The film is Disney‘s second-biggest film to date behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man‘s Chest that grossed $1.07 billion globally in 2006.

Other films in the billion-dollar club are Avatar Titanic, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man‘s Chest and The Dark Knight.
 

MUMBAI: The Regional Branch Division (RBD) board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has endorsed the creation of a single union to cover all performers.

The RBD board held its annual meeting in Washington, D.C. over the weekend.

The possibility of creating one union from the members of SAG and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) has once again been inching back on to the entertainment labour agenda.

60 per cent of members in both unions must vote in favor in order to make the merger of SAG and AFTRA effective. While AFTRA‘s members have been favouring the merger, members of SAG have repeatedly defeated attempts to unite the organizations.

The RBD includes 20 branches from Boston to Hawaii.
 

MUMBAI: Disney Pictures‘ Toy Story 3 will have its premiere at this year‘s Taormina Film Festival that is due to commence on 12 June and end on 18 June.

The film‘s premiere will help solidify the 56-year-old film festival‘s reputation as a major launch pad for big-budget films.

In the recent past, the festival has served as the starting point for Michael Bay‘s Transformers and John Woo‘s Mission Impossible II. But the screening of Toy Story 3 will be unlike those two screenings. The film will have a world premiere, with the festival screening preceding any other public screenings of the Disney film.