Category: International

MUMBAI: If James Cameron‘s box-office hit Avatar manages to beat this week‘s competitors like Denzel Washington‘s The Book of ElI and the Jackie Chan starrer The Spy Next Door, prospects of it cruising past Titanic in the books of history.

Industrites feel it is possible for Avatar to beat the $1.84 billion worldwide collection of Titantic, a record that‘s stood since 1998.

Last weekend, Avatar shrugged three releases in posting the first four-peat performance since The Dark Knight. If the James Cameron film wins again, it would be the first to top the rankings for five consecutive weeks since Disney‘s horror film The Sixth Sense in 1999.

Meanwhile, it is being widely talked that Fox intends to release Avatar on DVD in April.

As for its weekend prospects, the sci-fi epic could fall 25 to 30 per cent this session.

Though it slid 27 per cent last weekend, it could still ring up about $36 million while last Monday‘s haul could produce a collection of $40 million-plus for the holiday-stretched frame. That likely would be enough to beat the newcomers.
 

MUMBAI: With its bid to get into films, special effects and makeup house Drac Studios has entered motion picture production and has opened Drac Studios Louisiana and has also gone into pre-production on its first live-action feature, Dead in the Water.

The film written by Si Dunn will be produced by Drac president Harvey Lowry and directed by Rob Walker.

Said Lowry, “With all of the indie and studio films being shot in Louisiana, it was an easy decision to open a facility in the state.Now we can offer other producers the Louisiana tax incentives for our special effects and makeup effects as well as take advantage of them ourselves for our own productions.”

The company has leased a space in Baton Rouge‘s Raleigh Studios Celtic Media Center.

The creative team behind Drac — Lowry, Todd Tucker and Ron Halvas, with creative direction by Greg Cannom — has won Oscars for Bram Stoker‘s Dracula, Mrs. Doubtfire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and been nominated for Titanic and The Passion of the Christ among other films.

Drac had been doing effects for Louisiana productions The Mortician directed by Gareth Maxwell Roberts and Area 51 being produced by Courtney Solomon and Moshe Diamant that are in pre-production stage.

MUMBAI: New York-based production company Likely Story and media entrepreneur John S Johnson have purchased a 33 per cent interest in graphic novel publisher Top Shelf Productions.

Under the terms of the investment deal, Johnson will join the board of Top Shelf and Likely Story will get a first-look deal of all new Top Shelf publications.

The first project due for development through Likely Story is Alex Robinson‘s Too Cool To Be Forgotten that was named one of Amazon.com‘s top ten graphic novels of the year.

Too Cool To Be Forgotten tells of a 40-something father of two who undergoes hypnotherapy to quit smoking, only to be transported back to his teenage existence in 1985.

Forced to relive his high school life, the man must discover whether he can make amends for his past life or will be condmened to repeat prior mistakes.

Bregman introduced Johnson to Top Shelf partner Chris Staros several years ago and the relationship grew from there.
Staros joined Top Shelf founder as a partner in 1997, two years after Brett Warnock founded the company. The stable of more than 200 titles includes Alan Moore‘s From Hell and The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Craig Thompson‘s Blankets and Jeffrey Brown‘s Clumsy & Unlikely.

Among other initiatives Johnson founded the philanthropic Pacific Foundation that funds innovation in the arts, environment and social justice.
 

MUMBAI: Paramount Pictures International (PPI) has roped in Lauren Miller as executive vice-president of finance.

Miller will be responsible for all financial aspects across Paramount‘s global international theatrical businesses and previously served in senior financial and strategic roles at Levi Strauss & Co and most recently at Warner Bros, where she was vice-president of finance at Warner Home Video International.

“[Miller] brings over 20 years of business and financial management experience to us,” Paramount Pictures CFO Mark Badagliacca, who made the announcement with PPI president Andrew Cripps, said.

“Her financial acumen, leadership and interpersonal skills and industry experience will be very important to our building a stronger and more robust business in 2010 and beyond.‘

MUMBAI: Klaus Haro‘s Letters To Father Jacob (Postia Pappi Jaakobille) has bagged nine nominations, including best film and best direction at Finland‘s Jussi Awards 2009.

The film is also Finland‘s entry for the foriegn-language Academy Awards. 

The nominations would be announced on 2 February.
Jorn Donner‘s The Interrogation (Kuulustelu) and JP Valeapaa‘s The Visitor (Muukalainen) both received six nominations each.

The winners will be announced at a gala evening in Helsinki on 31 January.

MUMBAI: The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has named David Lynch‘s Mullholland Dr as the best film of the last decade.

Announcing its choice, the organization said, “Lynch‘s film stands as both a cautionary tale and a mascot for the triumph of art and personal vision in an industry that, from where we sit, often seems actively devoted to the suppression of both.”

Mulholland beat 189 other selected titles that were chosen by 41 LAFCA members who participated in the vote.

In 2001, Mulholland Dr. was the group‘s runner-up for best picture that placed Todd Fields‘ In the Bedroom to second spot.

In addition to Mulholland, LAFCA‘s top films of the decade include Paul Thomas Anderson‘s There Will Be Blood; Michael Gondry‘s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Ang Lee‘s Brokeback Mountain; Joel and Ethan Coen‘s No Country for Old Men, David Fincher‘s Zodiac; Edward Yang‘s Yi Yi; Cristian Mungiu‘s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Peter Jackson‘s The Lord of the Rings; Hayao Miyazaki‘s Spirited Away; Paul Greengrass‘ United 93, Alfonso Cuaron‘s Y Tu Mama Tambien and Alexander Payne‘s Sideways.

MUMBAI: The Vatican, through its newspaper and radio station, has criticized James Cameron‘s Avatar for flirting with the idea that worship of nature can replace religion — a notion the pope has warned against. It calls the film a simplistic and sappy tale, despite its awe-inspiring special effects.

“Not much behind the images” was how the Vatican newspaper, L‘Osservatore Romano, summed it up in a headline.

As the second highest-grossing film ever, Avatar is challenging the record set by Cameron‘s earlier film Titanic. Generally, the film has been critically acclaimed and is touted as a leading Oscar contender.

Bolivia‘s first indigenous president, Evo Morales, has praised the James Cameron film for what he calls its message of saving the environment from exploitation.

But the film has also drawn a number of critical voices. Some American conservative bloggers have decried its anti-militaristic message; a small group of people have said the movie contains racist themes.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said that while the movie reviews are just that — film criticism, not theological pronouncements — they do reflect Pope Benedict XVI‘s views on the dangers of turning nature into a “new divinity.”

In a recent World Day of Peace message, the pontiff warned against any notions that equate human beings with other living things in the name of a “supposedly egalitarian vision.”

He said such notions “open the way to a new pantheism tinged with neo-paganism, which would see the source of man‘s salvation in nature alone, understood in purely naturalistic terms.”
 

MUMBAI: Oren Aviv has resigned as president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production.

The studio, in a statement, said that a successor would be named “at an appropriate time.”

Rich Ross, who succeeded Dick Cook as chairman of Walt Disney Studios last October, is keen to build a modern transmedia empire with an emphasis on promoting properties across the corporation‘s multiple platforms.

He was instrumental to do away with Cook‘s most trusted lieutenants. Last November Mark Zoradi, a 29-year company veteran who oversaw global marketing and most recently served as president of Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, quit his post.

Since Disney wound up its specialty division this month, it was time for former Miramax president Daniel Battsek to leave also.

Among Ross‘ new appointees are president of distribution Bob Chapek, chief technology officer Greg Brandeau and studio franchise, post-production and Disneynature chief Alan Bergman.

Until his departure Aviv had also assumed oversight of physcial production. However it is understood he took the blame for box-office failures like Bedtime Stories, Confessions Of A Shopaholic, G-Force and more recently Old Dogs.

Said Aviv in a statement, “I have loved every day that I have been at the studio and feel incredibly privileged to have been part of a team that enriched my life for 20 years.

“I will miss all the amazing film-makers, the many talented actors and most importantly the lifelong friends I‘ve been so lucky to work with throughout my Disney career.lone, understood in purely naturalistic terms.”

MUMBAI: Blade director Stephen Norrington has been signed on to write and direct the super natural action thriller The Lost Patrol produced by Legendary Pictures.

Of the project, Norrington said that it takes place during the second world war, “hits all of my geek-buttons: hardware, heroes, grime, insane monsters.”

Norrington who is directing credits that include The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, is currently in development on The Crow.

Warner Bros will be releasing Legendary‘s 2010 releases like Clash Of The Titans, Due Date and Inception, with Jack The Giant Killer scheduled for 2011.

MUMBAI: James Thompson has been promoted to head of sales and marketing of New Zealand Film, the sales division of the NZ Film Commission (NZFC), with immediate effect.
Thompson was previously business affairs executive in the same division.

He replaces Kathleen Drumm, who left the organisation last September. Thompson worked closely with Drumm prior to her departure and has been doing the role in association with NZFC chief executive Graeme Mason.

Said Thompson that he and Mason shared the view that the agency needs to become more commercial. “Our remit is to promote New Zealand, New Zealand films and New Zealand filmmakers but there is a danger of spreading ourselves too thin. By default if we get our films to as many countries as possible we are promoting New Zealand,” he added.

He also said that the Cannes Film Festival and American Film Market will remain the two most important markets for New Zealand, followed by the Berlinale and Toronto International Film Festival.

“I will endeavour to continue the legacy left by Kathleen and previously Lindsay Shelton and to maintain close, cordial and collegiate relations with your buyers.”

He said that while the US market was not fundamental to the sale of all NZ Film‘s pictures it continues to influence the behaviour of other buyers.

His first international trip in his new role of head and sales and marketing will be to Sundance, where writer/director Taika Waititi‘s Boy (pictured) is in competition. Inspired by his Oscar-nominated short Two Cars, One Night, Boy is also in competition in Berlin. It is being released locally by Transmission.