Category: International

MUMBAI: Beverly Hills and New York-based Hollywood Studios International (HSI) has appointed Eric Christenson as president of acquisitions and distribution.

Christenson, who most recently consulted for Voltage Pictures and had previously handled international sales for Graham King, said he was busy lining up his initial roster and would announce executive appointments shortly.

He will attend Sundance and Berlin to scout for possible titles and meet buyers and plans to officially launch the sales push in Cannes. HSI will provide completion funds on projects where appropriate.

Said HSI CEO Sir Steven Saxton, “We are delighted to add Eric to our senior management team, “His exceptional talent and proven track record gives us the ability to aggressively discover and develop new opportunities around the globe.

“I am very excited to be working with Sir Steven and the amazingly talented and energetic people at Hollywood Studios International as we launch our new venture,” Christenson said.

“HSI is a privately funded entertainment holding company with subsidiaries Artist International, Models International, iCreate and Hollywood Studios China.
 

MUMBAI: Erich Segal, who attained fame as writer of the novel and movie Love Story, expired of a heart attack, his daughter Francesca Segal declared. He was 72.

Francesca said yesterday that her father died on Sunday after suffering from Parkinson‘s disease for around 25 years. His funeral was held in London on Tuesday.

Segal‘s novel published in 1970, Love Story was a weeper that concerned a young couple who fall in love marry and discover that she is dying of cancer. The novel sold a million copies that guaranteed to make readers cry and critics scream.

The film version that starred Ryan O‘Neal and Ali MacGraw also had a lot many takers. Love Story bagged seven Oscar nominations–including one for Segal for writing the screenplay, as well as for best picture, best director and best actor and actress. It won one Oscar for best music.

Segal also wrote a sequel, Oliver‘s Story, published in 1977, and made it into a film with O‘Neal again in the lead male role.

MUMBAI: Director Marc Webb, known for his Golden Globe best picture nominee 500 Days Of Summer, will direct the next instalment of Spider-Man.

The film having screenplay by James Vanderbilt will start shooting later this year and will have a 2012 release, Columbia and Marvel Studios announced.

Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal said, “At its core, Spider-Man is a small, intimate human story about an everyday teenager that takes place in an epic super-human world. The key for us as we sought a new director was to identify film-makers who could give sharp focus to Peter Parker‘s life… We believe Marc Webb is the perfect choice to bring us on that journey.”

“Marc Webb will do for the new direction of the films what so many visionary storytellers have done with the comic books,” Arad and Ziskin added in a joint statement. “He is an incredibly talented film-maker and we look forward to working closely with him on this new adventure,” Pascal added.

Last week Raimi and Tobey Maguire exited the franchise after Raimi expressed concern that the script would not be ready in time for a May 2011 release. Not to be outdone, Columbia had the Vanderbilt screenplay ready and moved on.

MUMBAI: Ronald Harwood will write the screenplay of DreamWorks‘ Martin Luther King Jr biopic that Steven Spielberg, Suzanne de Passe and Madison Jones will produce.

The project marks the first theatrical feature to be authorised by The King Estate to use the intellectual property of the late Civil Rights leader, who copyrighted his speeches, books, and other works during his lifetime.

DreamWorks‘ co-presidents of production Mark Sourian and Holly Bario said Harwood, who won the adapted screenplay Oscar in 2003 for The Pianist, was “particularly suited to portraying this deeply personal story.”

Harwood had earlier won Academy Award nominations for The Dresser and The Diving Bell And The Butterfly.
His other credits include Mandela and Cry The Beloved Country.
 

MUMBAI: The fourth instalment of Pirates of the Caribbean will be shot in Hawaii. The film to be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer is to be directed by Rob Marshall.

The film will have Johnny Depp return as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides that will begin shooting in the summer on Oahu and Kauai and be released in 2011.

Lingle‘s office estimates the production will generate $85 million in spending in Hawaii.

Pirates, incidentally will be the latest of three big-budget films being shot in the islands this year.
 

MUMBAI: The Visual Effects Society has announced its nominations for its upcoming awards due to be held on 28 February in Los Angeles.

James Cameron‘s Avatar led the list of nominations by bagging up 11 nominations. Another 3D film Coraline followed with four nominations.
New Zealand-based Weta Digital, which worked on Avatar led the company noms with nine.

For visual effects in an effects-driven motion picture feature, the nominees are 2012, Avatar, District 9, Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. 

Nominations for supporting visual effects in a movie went to Angels & Demons, The Box, Invictus, The Road and Sherlock Holmes. 9, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Up were nominated for outstanding animation in an animated feature.

VES nominations in twenty categories, covering films, animation, TV, commercials and video games were chosen by blue-ribbon panels of VES members that met in Burbank, San Francisco and London.

As previously announced, Cameron will be honored with the VES Lifetime Achievement Award and Pixar‘s Ed Catmull with the Georges Melies Award for pioneering.

MUMBAI: Guwahati is hosting the Guwahati festival that went underway from yesterday after it was inaugurated by Assam governor J B Patnaik.

Organized by Cine Arts Society, Assam (CineASA) for the second consecutive year, the festival will showcase nearly 40 films from the international arena for filmgoers of the region.

The Second CineASA Guwahati International Film Festival 2010 will be inaugurated on January 18 by the Assam Governor JB Patnaik.

The Sri Lankan film Akasha Kusum was the inaugural film. The director of the film, Prasanna Vithange graced the inaugural session.
Other important films to be screened in different venues including Rabindra Bhawan, Gauhati University, IIT Guwahati, Janokee Panjabari, include film works by Pedro Almodover, Christian Mungio, Jean Luc Godard, Francois Troufaut, Mahsin Makhmalbaf, Kiarostemi, Kim Ki Duk etc.

The festival will also have a retrospective section comprising films by Pedro Almodovar, a tribute section for film works by Kim Ki Duk and a focus section for the movies by Mahsin Makhmalbaf, Samira Makhmalbaf, Mazid Mazidi, Abbas Kiarostemi and Bahman Ghobadi, informed the organizer.

A package of Asian films which had won awards in Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Locarno, Pusan, London festival will also be screened.

Similarly, the Indian panorama section will include Golabi Talkies by Girish Kasarvalli, Frozen by Shivajee Chandrabhushan, Houseful by Bapaditya Banerjee and Mohandas by Mazhar Kamran.

Aai Kot Nai by Manju Bora and Dhunia Tirutabor by Pradyut Kumar Deka will be the Assamese entry to the festival. The festival will end with The Other Bank by George Ovashvili.

MUMBAI: Brazil‘s box-office registered a 33.3 per cent rise last year with ticket sales getting close to R$1 billion mark for the first time.

According to figures released by film company and market researcher Filme B, revenue climbed to R$970 million ($549m) and admissions totaled 112.6 million that was 25.7 per cent ahead of 2008 levels.

The box-office record can be partially attributed to the Brazilian economic growth and the fact it is as one of the first economies to recover from the recession.

Said Filme B‘s editor Pedro Butcher, “The new Brazilian films with commercial potential and the release of blockbusters ‘out of season‘, such as 2012 and New Moon, that came out in November, not a school holiday season, helped the
box-office growth as well.‘‘

With a total of 84 titles released, 16 million people saw Brazilian films that accounted for a market share of 14.2 per cent, the best figure seen since 2004.

The local champion was Daniel Filho‘ Se Eu Fosse Voce 2, a sequel to the 2006 romantic comedy released through Fox. By selling 5.7 million tickets last year (now it is more than 6.1million), the comedy became the highest domestic-grossing film since the Brazilian renaissance, beating Breno Silveira‘s Two Sons Of Francisco, which 5.3 million people saw in 2005.

Se Eu Fosse Voce 2 grossed R$47.5 ($26.8m), taking the second spot in the 2009 ranking behind Fox‘s Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs.
 

MUMBAI: Desert Flower producer Peter Herrmann and Dietmar Güntsche and producer Wolfgang Behr who made Der Grosse Kater, shared the best producer prize at the 31st Bavarian Film Awards held over the weekend.

The prize comes with a $287,644 that will be shared with a tag that it must be invested in new film productions.

Sherry Hormann‘s Desert Flower that attracted more than 1 miillion cinemagoers in Germany and has grossed $9.8 million since its release last September.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Heisenberg was awarded the newcomer director prize ahead of the world premiere of his second feature The Robber (Der Räuber) in the Berlinale‘s competition next month. 

The honours for best newcomer actor went to Friedrich Mücke for his performance in Markus Goller‘s drama Friendship!, that was released by Sony Pictures Releasing on 14 January.

Katharina Schüttler was named best newcomer actress for her role as the daughter of a former terrorist in Susanne Schneider‘s drama The Day Will Come (Es Kommt Der Tag).

Barbara Sukowa bagged the best actress award for her portrayal of Hildegard von Bingen in Margarethe von Trotta‘s Vision while Mark Waschke took best actor for playing the lead role in Juraj Herz‘s second World War drama Habermann that also won best director.

Other films recognised include Vickie The Viking and Petra Seeger‘s In Search Of Memory that won the best documentary award.
 

MUMBAI: After the phenomenal success of Avatar, James Cameron is all set to make Australia his next stop. The Golden Globe-winner is presently involved in a 30-million psychological thriller Sanctum that is being shot in Gold Coast. 

The Titanic filmmaker, serving as executive producer, praised Australian director Alister Grierson for his talent with the lens. “I am actually coming down to the set in a couple of weeks and I am going to stay there through the underwater shoot,” Cameron is reported as saying.

“They are doing great. Alister is a really talented director – his first film was Kokoda. I would be proud if that was my third film,” he added.