Category: International

MUMBAI: Sony is on loggerheads with director Sam Raimi over which direction to go with the villains for the latest instalment of Spiderman-4 an impasse that has made the studio delay its scheduled spring production‘s start. This would also result in delaying the release of the film from its 11 May, 2011 release slot.

While Raimi wants to have a criminal known as the Vulture act as the primary antagonist in the film, the studio that dislikes the idea of the winged wrongdoer has been pushing for a romantic sub-plot involving a burglar named the Black Cat in addition to another villain.

A lot of effort to have the two parties coming to a solution has had no effect till date. 

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire was hired to pen a key version of the screenplay in October 2008. Last year, Sony brought in Gary Ross who was nominated for the Oscar for his adapted script on 2003‘s Seabiscuit that he also helmed. Now, Alvin Sargent is penning the film.

Word of the Sony-Raimi conflict first surfaced mid-December on genre Web site IESB, but at the time Sony denied the report, saying tweaking of the script was “nothing unusual.”

The differing views about the villain have their origins in the making of Spider-Man 3.

Spider-Man 3, while garnering $890 million in its worldwide web, turned out to be reviled by both the fan boy community and by many critics. In addition to a hefty paycheck, Raimi purportedly returned to helm the fourth instalment in order to leave the series on a high note.

MUMBAI: British director Sam Mendes is in negotiations to direct the 23rd instalment of the James Bond franchise.
Production could begin in June with an eye towards a possible 2011 release. This move despite the talk of a possible sale of MGM.

Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, Bond regulars, are writing the script along with Frost/Nixon writer Peter Morgan.
The film produced by Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli will have Daniel Craig essay James Bond.

The film will be Mendes‘ first action-heavy project, although his 2005 effort Jarhead was set amid US war in Kuwait.
His last directorial effort, the road-trip dramedy Away We Go grossed $10 million domestically last summer.

Marc Forster directed the last Bond film Quantum of Solace that grossed $586 million worldwide.

MUMBAI: Two months after leaving Miramax, Daniel Battsek is preparing to take over as president of National Geographic Films as the current president takes over a producer‘s role, it is reported.

The news follows Battsek‘s resignation from his post as president of Disney-owned Miramax Films last November.

In a statement National Geographic Entertainment president David Beal said, “After six incredible years of setting the strategic course for National Geographic Films, Adam Leipzig‘s relationship transitions to executive producer of two in-process National Geographic Entertainment projects, Peter Weir‘s The Way Back and the mini-series Undaunted Courage with HBO.”

Leipzig will remain continue in his post until mid-March. During his six-year tenure as president Leipzig presided over a quality slate, most notably the 2006 Oscar winning documentary and box-office hit The March Of The Penguins.

He was also instrumental in closing a $100m film fund with Imagenation Abu Dhabi to develop, produce, finance and acquire 10 to 15 films in five years.

MUMBAI: Screen Media Films has acquired the entire North American rights of James Ivory‘s The City Of Your Final Destination based on the 2002 novel of the same name by Peter Cameron.

Ivory‘s long-time collaborator Ruth Jhabvala wrote the screenplay and Paul Bradley and Pierre Proner produced.
“The City Of Your Final Destination takes you into to another world and the characters are so intriguing you feel can‘t help but go on the journey with them,” Screen media president Robert Baruc said.

Baruc and executive vice-president David Fannon negotiated the deal with Barry Babock and Ron Levin of Babock and Levin behalf of the film.

The film has Anthony Hopkins starring alongside Laura Linney, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Omar Metwally, Alexandra Maria Lara, Norma Aleandro and Hiroyuki Sanada in the story of the battle to write an authorised biography of a celebrated late Uruguayan novelist.

Screen Media will release the film theatrically in March 2010.

MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Company has invested $2.5 million in Stan Lee‘s POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment for a 10 per cent stake.

POW! has had a first-look deal with Walt Disney Studios since 2007.

Said POW! chairman and chief creative officer Lee, “Disney has been a great partner for us and we look forward to working closely with them in the coming years. In addition to the huge creative opportunity this affords us, it also provides for the next positive stage in the expansion of the company itself.”

With the new deal, Walt Disney Studios has enhanced rights to POW!‘s creative output as well as certain exclusive consulting services.

The news of the investment in POW! came just as Disney completed its acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, where Lee co-created Spider-Man, X-Men and a range of other legendary franchises.

MUMBAI: Erica Motley has been appointed as international acquisitions consultant of Icon Entertainment International.

She will report to the company‘s new chief executive Stewart Till. She will work closely with Chloe Sizer, head of development, and Toby Hill, head of UK acquisitions, to acquire new projects for international sales.

Her appointment is part of Icon‘s first moves since it was acquired by New York-based Access Industries last November.

Motley previously worked with Till at United International Pictures, where she was vice-president of international acquisitions when Till was chief executive. At UIP, she was part of a worldwide distribution team and involved in such projects Elite Squad, Torrente3 and Old Boy.

Commenting on Motley‘s appointment, Till said, “She has fantastic relations with the US filmmaking community and will be a great asset to the company. In her role she will be the point of contact for all US-based producers, agents and financiers.”

Motley began her film career as an international acquisition executive at HBO. She later joined Fox, where she launched channels and negotiated deals with film studios, international sales agents and independent producers.

Most recently, she has been working as the packaging and distribution consultant for the American Film Company on Robert Redford‘s The Conspirator.

MUMBAI: Avatar has become the highest grossing worldwide IMAX release, as the opening day in China combined with global holdovers pushed its box-office tally past the $71million mark set by The Polar Express.

The film grossed approximately $12.7 million over the weekend and boosted the tally to $67 million as Avatar surpassed The Dark Knight‘s $65 million haul to become the highest initial worldwide release.

The Polar Express reached $71 million after several re-releases. However Avatar overtook that figure yesterday and is set to cross $100 million later this month. Initial reports from IMAX said that midnight shows at all 11 Chinese screens were sold out. 

Avatar currently stands at $20 million internationally from 71 screens (rising to 82 including China) and $47.1 million from 179 North American screens. The film added $8.7 million domestically over the weekend, accounting for 12 per cent of the total $68.3 million domestic weekend gross from 3 per cent of the screens.

The international take was $4 million and that amount included a record international single day on Saturday of $1.425 million.

In further good news for the company, the extraordinary pace of IMAX ticket sales for Avatar powered IMAX Corporation to its first $100 million global box-office quarter for the period ending 31 December, last year.

The company said this result marked an approximately 225 per cent increase on the fourth quarter from a year before, when global box office amounted to roughly $31 million.

Approximately $54 million of the $100 million came from Avatar in 2009. Gross box office of Hollywood films shown on 230 IMAX screens around the world in 2009 climbed 108 per cent to a record $270 million compared to $130 million in fiscal 2008.

MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) will release Nicole Holofcener‘s Please Give on 23 April.

The film will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival later this month.

Please Give is about a husband and wife who buy the neighbouring apartment but must wait for the cranky elderly woman who lives in it to die before they can commence refurbishment.

SPC owns worldwide rights of the New York-set comedy starring Catherine Keener, Amanda Peet, Rebecca Hall, Oliver Platt and Thomas Ian Nicholas.

MUMBAI: A Los Angeles judge has scheduled hearing in the Roman Polanski‘s criminal case on Wednesday.

It‘s the first time the 30-year-old sex case will be back in Court since a state appeals court rejected Polanski‘s bid to have it dismissed last month.

Polanski who was arrested late September on a fugitive warrant is under house arrest at his Swiss chalet.

Swiss authorities have not yet ruled on whether to extradite Polanski to Los Angeles. Polanski fled the US in 1978 on the eve of sentencing after pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor in 1977.

MUMBAI: The Hurt Locker earned three of The National Society Of Film Critics‘ top 2009 honours when it claimed the best picture, best director for Kathryn Bigelow and best actor for Jeremy Renner.

The Society‘s 64 members voted using a weighted ballot system and awarded the best picture award to the Iraq war tale by a clear margin. It earned 64 votes, followed by Olivier Assayas‘ Summer Hours with 23 and Quentin Tarantino‘s Inglourious Basterds with 17.

Summer Hours topped the foreign language category with 61 votes followed by Jan Troell‘s Everlasting Moments on 21, Corneliu Porumboiu‘s Police, Adjective and Claire Denis‘ 35 Shots Of Rum on 20 apiece.

Bigelow was the clear winner in the director‘s category on 85 votes followed by Assayas with 23 and Wes Anderson with 18 for Fantastic Mr Fox.

Jeremy Renner won a closely-contested best actor contest bagging 30 votes above 24 for Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart and 15 for Nicolas Cage for Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans.

Yolande Moreau won the best actress award with twenty two votes for her performance in Seraphine followed by Meryl Streep on 21 for Julie & Julia and Fantastic Mr Fox and Abbie Cornish in third place with 19 for Bright Star.

Anges Varda‘s The Beaches Of Agnes won best non-fiction film, Joel and Ethan Coen took the screenplay prize for A Serious Man, Christian Berger won for his cinematography on The White Ribbon and Nelson Lowry took top honours for his production design on Fantastic Mr Fox.

The Film Heritage Award went to the restoration of Rashomon by the Academy Film Archive, the National Film Center of The National Museum Of Modern Art, Tokyo, and Kadokawa Pictures, Inc.