Category: International

MUMBAI: French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has been signed to appear in a new Woody Allen film that is due to roll this summer in Paris.

The film that also stars French Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, has Hollywood actors Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams in the cast.

Bruni-Sarkozy‘s role in the film is expected to be announced later this week.

Allen, one of America‘s most prolific film writers and directors, said last year that he would like to use the former supermodel in one of his films but then he did not have a story for her.

Bruni-Sarkozy, 42, who married French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008, appeared briefly on the big screen as herself in Robert Altman‘s 1994 fashion satire Pret-a-Porter. She is also a successful singer-songwriter with a string of albums.

Allen, who has made a film almost every year since 1971, won an Oscar for his film Annie Hall starring Diane Keaton.

MUMBAI: New York-based marketing executive MT Carney, most likely, will be named as Disney Studio‘s new head of marketing.

Disney has been without a marketing head since Jim Gallagher was ousted as marketing president in the fall, and Ross had indicated that he was looking for a replacement.

Carney is a Scotland-born former account planner at Ogilvy & Mather in New York. She was tapped by London-based Naked Communications in 2006 to launch and co-head Naked Communications New York.

With Carney‘s appointment, Ross will have completed the overhaul of the studio would be complete, having early on appointed Bob Chapek as incharge of distribution and also named Sean Bailey as head of production.
 

MUMBAI: Chinese filmmaker Teddy Chen will co-produce and direct his next two films with Hong Kong-based Chinese entertainment company Celestial Pictures.

While the first film will be a remake of a classic title from the Shaw Brothers Film Library owned by Celestial Pictures, the second project will be a modern action film inspired by current events.

Both projects are currently under development. Comments Celestial Pictures senior VP Theatrical Distribution Peter Poon, “Celestial Pictures is thrilled to partner with Teddy Chen on his next two directorial projects. He is well-known among international audiences for thrilling and edgy action films and unique dramas.

“His vision and dedication to the highest quality filmmaking certainly places him in the company of the top global producers and directors of feature films. Following his enormous success with Bodyguards and Assassins, Celestial Pictures looks forward to collaborating with Teddy to bringing to life his next two films”.

In addition to the two films, Celestial Pictures also announced that it has inked a multi-year agreement for the exclusive worldwide theatrical, television, mobile and new media distribution rights of The Enchanter the upcoming film from Chen‘s Sum-Wood Productions outside China.

The Enchanter will be directed by Derek Kwok Tsz-kin who recently won an HAF Award for a project originating in Hong Kong.

MUMBAI: The continuing uncertainty surrounding the future of MGM and the failure to close a sale of MGM, the work on the next Bond film Bond 23 has been put on hold indefinitely.

This came to light when Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli of EON Productions Ltd., producer of the long-running James Bond franchise issued a statement saying that development work on the next 007 film had been suspended because of financial difficulties at MGM.

Solicitations of offers to buy the studio resulted in a couple rounds of underwhelming bidding by studio companies such as Lionsgate, Warner Bros. and Fox.

More recently, News Corp. and others were into discussions of possible limited investments in the studio that has been cash-strapped and burdened by a big debt load.

After sharing Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace with Sony, MGM recently regained full control of the Bond franchise. The films together amassed $1.18 billion at the worldwide box-office.
 

MUMBAI: Film editor Dede Allen who bagged three Academy award nominations for her work in film died last Saturday after suffering a stroke earlier in the week. She was 86.

In 1967, Allen became the first film editor to receive sole credit on a film — in addition to garnering an Academy Award nomination — for her work on the classic Bonnie and Clyde. Long regarded as one of Hollywood‘s most creative film editors, the Ohio native also earned Oscar noms for her work on 1975‘s Dog Day Afternoon, Reds and most recently for Wonder Boys which marked her return to editing following a nearly eight-year stint as head of post-production at Warner Bros.

Allen began her career at Columbia Pictures was mentored by director-producer-editor Robert Wise who edited Citizen Kane. She brought in ground breaking stylistic elements to her work, including pioneering the use of audio overlays and using sound to help seamlessly segue scenes.

Allen is survived by husband Stephen E. Fleischman, son Tom Fleischman and daughter Ramey Ward.
 

MUMBAI: For a third straight weekend, Warner‘s Clash of the Titans maintained its No. 1 position at the box-office in the foreign theatrical circuit.

The film grossed $53.6 million from some 10,400 screens in 57 markets. The film‘s overseas gross total generated $188.7 million.

Debuting at 2,207 screens in Latin American territories, including Mexico and Argentina, the 3D fantasy film generated $12.7 million with about half the action coming from 3D venues. 

In Mexico Titans drew $7.1 million from 1,343 screens, the equivalent of 80 per cent of the market‘s top five collective box-office films.

Particularly strong holdovers for the Warner film include Russia (No. 1 with $5.2 million from 923 locations for a $20 million market cume), France ($3.6 million from 640 sites, cume $12.7 million) and Germany (No. 1 with $2.7 million from 672 screens, cume $10.2 million).

Alice in Wonderland bounced back from a $18.4 million last weekend, to $34 million from 7,134 screens in 53 territories.

The weekend‘s No. 3 title was DreamWorks Animation‘s How to Train Your Dragon which boosted its overseas gross total to $176.5 million thanks to a $15.5 million weekend at 6,582 venues in 58 markets.

The animation title‘s distributor, Paramount, said about 65 per cent of the overall weekend gross came from 3D screens. Despite unseasonably warm weather in the U.K., Dragon managed to hold nicely with $2.1 million generated from 683 sites for a total income of $20 million.
 

MUMBAI: Writer-director Robert Saitzyk will write and direct The Last Beat a drama inspired by the last days of Jim Morrison, for Zero Gravity Management.

Shawn Andrews, who starred in Saitzyk‘s After the Flood will star in the film produced by Mark Holder and Christine Holder. The film will go on the floors in Paris in October.

A non-traditional biopic, Beat will track the final days of Jay Douglas, a famous American rock star in the early ‘70s, as he navigates his relationships with two women in Paris — a glamorous French Countess named Clemence and his California “soulmate,” Valerie Eason.

Saitzyk has also written and directed White of Winter and Godspeed.

Zero Gravity recently produced The Canyon and Malice in Wonderland that will premiere on DVD later this month.
 

MUMBAI: Countries negotiating a deal to curb trade in fake and pirated goods are likely to reach an agreement. They are in talks that have raised concerns among digital rights advocates.

Said Nefeterius McPherson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative‘s office, said in a statement,”The agreement can be concluded soon if other participants make it a priority to achieve such progress now.”

Digital rights advocates have feared the proposed anti-counterfeiting trade agreement could allow customs agents to confiscate laptop and music devices if they contain illegal downloads, while other groups have worried it could restrict trade in low-price generic drugs.

In a joint statement, negotiators from the U.S., the European Union, Japan and other countries that met this week in New Zealand said those fears were unjustified.

To further allay concerns, the countries have agreed to release a consolidated “bracketed text” on Wednesday.The brackets surround parts of the agreement that are still under negotiation and will be the focus of the next round of talks in June in Switzerland.
 

MUMBAI: In its bid to take over Miramax Films, the studio they founded in 1979 and sold to Walt Disney Co. in 1993 for $80 million, Weinstein brothers have fashioned a unique winning bid.

Harvey and Bob Weinstein had been building enough financial power to put together an offer of $600 million or thereabouts in its attempt to top bids from rival suitors like Alec and Tom Gores and Hollywood wheeler-dealer David Bergstein.

The Weinsteins have been in talks with billionaire financier Ron Burkle throughout the auction process. In addition to Burkle‘s Yucaipa Group, the duo‘s backers include hedge funds Fortress and Colbeck Capital.

In effect, Burkle and friends would be the official buyers, but the Weinsteins would effectively run the operation.

For months, Disney has been soliciting offers for the recently shut specialty-film unit and its 611-title library. However, there was no word on when an official announcement of the deal would be made as lawyers representing Disney were in the process of going through the financial details provided by the Weinsteins.
 

MUMBAI: HBO Documentary Films has lapped up the domestic TV rights of the feature-length documentary My Trip to Al Qaeda.

The film, directed by Oscar winner Alex Gibney, described as part documentary and part performance piece, is a joint venture of Gibney and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Lawrence Wright. 

Based on Wright‘s one-man play and developed from Wright‘s 2006 book ‘The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11‘ My Trip to Al Qaeda chronicles fundamentalist Islam‘s rise to power and the dilemma he faces as a writer in maintaining his objective.

The film, a 2010 Tribeca Film Festival selection and HBO‘s second collaboration with Gibney will be shown on HBO in fall 2010.