Category: International

MUMBAI: IFC Films has acquired the US rights of Bahman Ghobadi‘s No One Knows About Persian Cats which it plans to release in April.

The Iranian film had its North American premiere at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles last November. It will be screened in a special presentation at the upcoming SXSW Film Festival in March, and as part of a retrospective of Ghobadi‘s films at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in April.

Persian Cats explores Tehran‘s youth and underground music scene and its unapologetic desire for creative expression in the face of an oppressive government.
It had its world premiere in Un Certain Regard at last year‘s Cannes film festival, where it also won the special jury prize.
 

MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Classics has announced its deal for US and Latin American rights of David Michod‘s Animal Kingdom.

Rena Ronson of UTA notched the North American rights after fielding several offers following the first screenings last month in Park City.

The Melbourne-set gangster saga stars Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, Luke Ford, Jacki Weaver, Sullivan Stapleton and James Frecheville.

E1 Entertainment International is handling the foreign sales of the film and has licensed to Optimum Releasing in the UK, ARP in France, Mikado on Italy, Scanbox in Scandinavia, and Film Deport for the CIS.

Animal Kingdom was financed in association with Screen Australia, Porchlight Films, Film Victoria, Screen NSW, Fulcrum Finance and Showtime Australia and E1 Entertainment.
 

MUMBAI: Fish Tank picked up four awards at the 30th Annual London Film Critics‘ Circle Awards including best British film, whilst Jacques Audiard‘s A Prophet was named film of the year.

While Arnold was named best British director, the best supporting actor award went to Michael Fassbender. Newcomer Katie Jarvis received the NSPCC Award for young British performer of the year.

Oscar nominees Colin Firth and Carey Mulligan scooped the British actor and actress of the year awards for their respective roles in A Single Man and An Education.

Mo‘Nique was named actress of the year for her performance in Lee Daniels‘ Precious, while Christoph Waltz was named best actor for Inglourious Basterds.

MKathryn Bigelow took the director of the year award for her Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker; while Swedish horror Let the Right one In won the foreign language film of the year.

Quentin Tarantino, who attended the ceremony at the Landmark Hotel in London, won the Dilys Powell Award for excellence in cinema. The awards were held in aid of the National Society For The Protection.

Said London Film Critics Circle , chairman Jason Solomin, “This was a brilliant night for both British and international cinema. It‘s hugely significant that the London critics awarded film of the year to the French film A Prophet.

“This is a victory for world cinema and shows a refreshing open-mindedness to judge all film on equal footing, from giant Hollywood blockbusters to classy European prison movies.”

MUMBAI: Production on the first Italian-made 3D feature is due to start soon when its shooting will get underway in Canada.

The $7.3m film, called Hidden, is an Italy-Canada co-production and will be made in English. The film is being produced by Andrea Marotti for ReDark with Andre Rouleau for Montreal-based Caramel Films.

The horror-thriller is about an abandoned experimental medical centre that harbours a deadly secret. It only becomes known when a restoration project begins.

Canada will provide 80 per cent of the financing while the remaining will come from private equity sources in Italy.
The effects team for Hidden boasts of John Sheele among other Hollywood productions. Sheele is credited as 3D supervisor for the project. John Attard will supervise the visual effects.

Casting is set and made up of largely unknown talents while a directorial duo from Italy and Canada will be announced very soon.
 

MUMBAI: With a want of a likely buyer, there is increasing likelihood that MGM will undergo a bankruptcy reorganization.

Six suitors are conducting additional due diligence that includes management presentations of detailed financial information about the studio. But a deadline on second-round bids hasn‘t been set following receipt last month of a dozen non-binding offers in an initial round of bidding best described as underwhelming.

MGM consultant Moelis & Co. invited just half of those making first-round offers to participate in the next phase of the process, including Time Warner, Lionsgate and Access Industries, with Qualia Capital still circling but not actively involved.

Time Warner is considered a favourite to win the competition with a top bid, but it‘s far from certain that the Warner Bros. parent will be motivated to offer top money for the studio whose $3.7 billion debt load prompted the search for a buyer.

With MGM debt recently trading at 60 cents on the dollar, it would mean that MGM would have to sell for more than $2.2 billion to fully pay-off lenders.

But the Lion fetching that sort of money is ruled out.

If a top bid for MGM fails to find enough support among its more than 140 lenders, the only other option would be a debt restructuring. That probably would include a prepackaged bankruptcy reorganization by which lenders would morph into owners and present owners would see their stakes heavily diluted.

MGM owners include Providence Equity, TPG Capital, Sony, Comcast, DLJ Merchant and Quadrangle.
 

MUMBAI: Quentin Tarantino is the new landlord of Los Angeles‘s New Beverly Cinema, that was till yet the prestigious property of the Torgan family.
The cinema hall has been the business of the Torgan family since 1978. But for the intervention of Tarantino, it would be have been just another chain franchise.

Said Tarantino, “The cinema hall was going to be turned into a Super Cuts. I had been coming to the New Beverly ever since I was old enough to drive there from the South Bay since 1982. So, I couldn‘t let that happen.”

Built in 1929 as a first-run cinema hall, the Torgan family moved into the property and turned it into a 200-seat venue for classic, independent and foreign films.
The cinema hall on Beverly hit hard times in the mid-2000s as the DVD market started eating into its ticket sales. And since then, Sherman Torgan, the family patriarch and the operator of the hall was facing serious financial troubles.

“Since I‘m a print collector and I screen movies at my home, I heard from other collectors and projectionists that Sherman might have to close down,” Tarantino said.
After that, the director got in touch and asked Torgan how much money he needed a month to keep up the theatre. “The answer was about $5,000. So, I just started paying him that per month. I considered it a contribution to cinema,” Tarantino said.

Torgan passed away unexpectedly in 2007, leaving his family and friends of the New Beverly in mourning and the future of the theatre in doubt.

“Within a week of my father‘s death, the landlord had a buyer bidding for the theater space,” said Michael Torgan, Sherman‘s son.

Desperate to prevent the loss of the family business, the Torgans began considering all options. “Fortunately, I found a copy of our original lease, and it said that the family had the right of first refusal if we could find another buyer.”

“My father had just expired, so it wasn‘t a good time for our family,” Michael recalled.
“We thought we might lose the theatre. My mother reached out to Tarantino and explained to him that we were in trouble.”

Then, Tarantino decided to buy the space outright.

MUMBAI: As the race for the best documentary feature Oscar is tough, many believe that it‘s a battle between two tales of animal abuse and threats to human health.

The films Robert Kenner‘s Food, Inc. and Louie Psihoyos‘ The Cove are exactly the kind of accessible, socially conscious filmmaking the Academy often endorses with the Oscar.

Magnolia Pictures, distributor of Food, has been toasting the film for voters at bicoastal parties. But the honours Cove received from the producers and directors guilds possibly position it for an Oscar win.

The other nominees include Judith Ehrlich‘s The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, Anders Ostergaard‘s Burma VJ and Rebecca Camissa‘s Which Way Home.
 

MUMBAI: For the first time in Oscar history, artistes behind the year‘s five nominated songs will not perform during the Oscar telecast.

Instead, the nominated songs will be showcased with clips from the films that featured them.

Nominees for an Oscar in the original song category are Randy Newman‘s Almost There and Down in New Orleans from The Princess and the Frog, + from Paris 36 by Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas, Maury Yeston‘s Take It All from Nine and The Weary Kind from Crazy Heart by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.
 

MUMBAI: Disney/Pixar‘s Up is one of three features along with DreamWorks/Nickelodeon‘s Hotel for Dogs and Overture/Smokehouse‘s The Men Who Stare at Goats that have been nominated for Genesis Awards.

Presented by the Humane Society of the United States, the 24th annual awards, to be handed out on 20 March at the Beverly Hilton, recognize films, TV shows and news reports that spotlight animal-protection issues.

In the feature documentary category, Oscar nominees The Cove and Food, Inc. will compete against The End of the Line.

“This is truly a benchmark year for feature and documentary films, with animal-protection messages breaking through to mass audiences and garnering Academy Award recognition,” said Beverly Kaskey, senior director of the Hollywood office of the HSUS and executive producer of the awards.
“The Cove which earned its director Louie Psihoyos a DGA award, is proof that even a tough animal issue like Japan‘s dolphin slaughter can resonate with audiences when it‘s the basis of thrilling, cinematic storytelling.”

Two animated series came up in the TV comedy category: An episode of Family Guy titled Dog Gone and a South Park instalment dubbed Whale Whores. Rounding out the group is the Monk episode Mr. Monk and the Dog.

On the TV drama series side, an episode of “Bones” titled “The Tough Man in the Tender Chicken” will compete with multiple episodes of “The Closer.”

Among TV talk shows, Ellen DeGeneres earned a nom for focusing on Jonathan Safran Foer‘s book “Eating Animals,” and Larry King was included for a show on Alaska‘s aerial wolf hunt.

MUMBAI: Warner Bros Pictures International (WBPI) has teamed up with Odeon cinemas to help speed up the conversion to digital cinema across all of Odeon‘s sites in the UK.

Under the agreement, Warner Bros will supply digital feature films to DCI-compliant digital projection systems installed at all UK Odeon sites, as well as making financial contributions towards the digital conversion.

Rupert Gavin, chief executive of Odeon and UCI Cinemas Group said: “While we are starting with the UK, this deal clearly presages deals we are now working on with our other European territories. We look forward to bringing fully digital cinemas to guests in all seven of the markets Odeon and UCI Cinemas Group serves by the end of 2010.”

Kwan Rubinek, president of distribution for WBPI, added: “We are thrilled to have concluded a digital partnership with Odeon, who share a common commitment to enhancing the theatrical experience.”