Category: International

MUMBAI: Dear John, the romantic drama directed by Lasse Hallström, has taken over James Cameron‘s Avatar in its seventh week at the US box-office to earn $32.4 million.

Starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried, the film shows the life of a young woman (Amanda Seyfried) after she falls in love with a soldier (Channing Tatum). They decide to exchange letters to each other after he is deployed to the war.

The movie opens with John Tyree, a young soldier from the Army Special Forces, lying on the ground in his army gear with gunshot wounds. Coins begin to fall over him as he remembers a childhood trip to the U.S. Coin mint. He goes on to state that he is a coin in the United States of America‘s army, and that the last thing he thought about before he blacked out, was you.
 

MUMBAI: Cameron Diaz has been roped in to be cast opposite Lucy Punch in the black comedy Bad Teacher.

Directed by Jake Kasdan, the movie is being produced by Columbia.

The original screenplay has been written by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg.

Lucy Punch (born 30 December 1977 in London) is an award-winning English actress, best known for her roles in both the television show Doc Martin on ITV as Practice Receptionist Elaine Denham and for her starring role on the United States programme The Class, on CBS.

MUMBAI: 90-year-old Norman Katz, a founder of the American Film Market and a former president of Warner Bros. International, died on 25 January.

Katz joined Warner Bros. in 1953 to complete his 20-year stint with the company.

Later, he worked as president of Cinema Arts from 1974-79 and American Cinema from 1979-82.

Katz is survived by wife, Dorothea, children Raissa, Jonathan, Phillip, Theodore and Stacey, 14 grandchildren; and two great grandchildren.

MUMBAI: The Weinstein Co has acquired the rights to The Tillman Story, a documentary produced by A&E IndieFilms.

The acquisition was made post the premiere of the docu at the Sundance Film Festival two weeks ago.

The deal was brokered by Molly Thompson and Robert Sharenow from A&E Network.

As per the deal, The Weinstein Co will have the North American theatrical, DVD and pay TV rights to the Amir Bar-Lev-directed product.

The Weinstein Co. also procured all rights in English-language territories for the documentary.

MUMBAI: Emma Watson, of Harry Potter fame, has been named as the highest paid actress and actor for 2009, reveals the Vanity Fair‘s list of 40 top Hollywood earners.

Watson seems to have earned over $31 million in 2009 and is said to have made more monies than established actors including Angelina Jolie, Sarah Jessica Parker and Cameron Diaz.

According to the magazine, the 19-year-old actress is the youngest to feature in the list.

The Vanity Fair list was topped by Transformers director Michael Bay.
 

MUMBAI: Fox Searchlight has roped in Larry Baldauf as executive vice president – marketing.

As part of his new mandate, Baldauf will jointly manage all aspects of the specialty film unit‘s marketing along with with fellow executive VP marketing Michelle Hooper.

Prior to this, Baldauf was with advertising agency Acme Trailer. He was the founding partner of Acme Trailer along with Mike Camp, Stephen Grzymala, Bob Thompson and Scott Walls.

MUMBAI: Perth-based Internet service provider (ISP) iiNet has finally won its long legal battle against a group of Hollywood studios after the Federal Court established that the ISP was not liable for the downloading habits of its customers.

The group of Hollywood studios was represented by AFACT which held iiNet users responsible violating the copyright act. The studios argued that the ISP didn‘t take proper steps to curb piracy and was in turn encouraging this act.

However, post listening to both the parties and investigating into the case further, the Federal Court reached the conclusion that iiNet did not have control on the peer to peer file sharing system called BitTorrent and therefore, couldn‘t be held responsible.

The judge dismissed the case and asked the group of Hollywood studios to pay the court the costs.

MUMBAI: Motion Picture and Television Fund (MPTF) president and CEO David Tillman has resigned after a 10- year stint at the nonprofit organisation.

In a statement, Tillman said, “I am taking this action in my own best interests as well as in the best interest of the Fund.”

Last year, MPTF was in controversy when it announced the plans to close a hospital and long-term care facility that had served Hollywood‘s stars, camera operators and makeup artists for decades. 

The closure, which is still under way, affected 290 jobs and moved 100 elderly patients to nearby long-term-care centers.

MPTF has appointed Bob Beitcher, a board member since 2007 and former president and CEO of Panavision and Technicolor Creative Services as interim CEO.

In a joint statement, MPTF Corporate and Fund Boards chairmen Frank Mancuso and Joe Fischer said, “We are grateful to Tillman for his stewardship of the Fund. He has presided over a vast and complex health care and social service organisation during challenging times with loyalty and dedication.”
 

MUMBAI: Following a banner year for bad movies, voting members of The Golden Raspberry Award Foundation have shifted through the cinematic rubble and selected what they consider to be last year’s Berry Worst Achievements in Film.

In addition to 2009’s top under-achievers, The Gala 30th Annual Razzie Awards will dis-honour The Worst of the “Uh-Ohs,” with special awards for the worst picture, actor and actress of the decade in ceremonies scheduled on 6 March 2010.

In addition to being nominated for an Oscar for The Blindside, Sandra Bullock has been nominated for a Razzie for All About Steve. She could win both.

Leading the pack among this year’s Razzie contenders are one of the year’s biggest money-makers and the year’s biggest money-loser, each with seven nods. Repeat Offender Michael Bay helped lead the over-loud, over-long, uber-stupid Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen to a huge box office take…and to a huge haul of Razzie nominations as well. In addition to worst director and worst picture, the film is up for worst remake, rip-off or sequel, worst screenplay, worst supporting actress (Julie White as the stoned, screaming mother of Shia Le Bouf), worst screen couple (Le Bouf and either Megan Fox or Any Transformer) and worst actress (Fox again, dually nominated for this film and Jennifer‘s Body).

The biggest box office failure Land Of The Lost, also got seven shots at taking home spray-painted gold. The film‘s star Will Ferrell is listed in both worst actor and worst screen couple (Ferrell and any co-star, creature or “Comic Riff”) and the film itself is also nominated for worst picture, worst director, worst screenplay, worst remake, rip-off or sequel and worst supporting actor (the screaching Jorma Taccone as the monkeylike Cha-Ka). Rounding out the worst picture list are the Disney dud Old Dogs, the awful ‘action-figures-come-to-life‘ nine-year-old-boy-movie G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra and the previously mentioned “So-Good-It-Was-Held-Back-from-Release-for-two-Years comedy” All About Steve.

Other well-known names shamed as being last year’s worst include this year‘s Oscar co-host Steve Martin (worst actor for Pink Panther 2), Beyonce (worst actress for Obsessed), worst actor of the decade contenders Eddie Murphy (up for worst actor of 2009 in Imagine That) and John Travolta (worst actor of 2009 for Old Dogs) as well as the twitty Dizz-Knee ’tween idols Miley Cyrus (worst actress for Hannah Montana: The Movie) and any two or more of the Jonas Brothers, nominated jointly for worst actor and worst screen couple — for their documentary Jonas Bros. A 3-D Concert Experience.