Category: International

MUMBAI: Thirty-two year, Brittany Murphy, the actress who made a name for herself in he debut film Clueless and rose to stardom in 8 Mile expired in Los Angeles. However, the cause of her death is not known.

Born 10 November, 1977 in Atlanta, Murphy grew up in New Jersey and later moved with her mother to Los Angeles to pursue acting. 

Her career started in the early 1990s with small roles in television series, commercials and movies. She is best known for parts in “Girl, Interrupted,” Clueless and 8 Mile.

She dated Ashton Kutcher, who co-starred with Murphy in 2003‘s romantic comedy Just Married.

In his condolence message, Kutcher said, “today, the world has lost a little piece of sunshine.”

MUMBAI: Filming of Hallmark‘s film Class that stars Jodi Lynn O‘Keefe, Justin Bruening, Constance Marie and Eric Roberts is now in progress.

The film follows a well-to-do law student Bruening who is given an assignment to help a disadvantaged single mother (O‘Keefe, Prison Break) find a job. 

His professor makes this assignment as his requirement for Bruening to graduate. A series of incidents and unexpected events lead them to realize that they‘re more alike than they had at first thought and they come to understand that they have a lot to learn from each another.

Class being produced under the banner of Larry Levinson Productions by Erik Heiberg and Lincoln Lageson is being directed by Dave Cass from a script written by Pam Wallace.

MUMBAI: Jermaine Jackson‘s ambitious global tribute to his brother Michael Jackson has been scrapped for the second time.

It may be recalled that organisers at World Awards Media led by Jermaine cancelled a Austria concert in September this year after they failed to secure stars to perform at the event. The show was later re-scheduled for London, it is reported. 

The recent concert appeared to be in trouble after an executive decision to dissolve the company behind the project was taken last month. “The company cannot sign any new contracts and will certainly not plan any new events,” liquidator for the organisers Martin Schneider said.

However, Jermaine has declined to go ahead with the show that was to feature Mary J Blige, Chris Brown and veteran singer Natalie Cole.

MUMBAI: Paranormal Activity took the top spot of the British box-office on its second weekend of release.

The film is the story of a young couple trying to capture video evidence of a supernatural presence in their home made 1.83 million pounds ($2.99 million) to climb up from second place. 

The standing of Walt Disney‘s high-tech adaptation of Charles Dickens‘ A Christmas Carol also went up one spot to rank second.
Last week‘s chart-topper The Twilight Saga: New Moon went down to third place while Planet 51 claimed the number four spot.
Law Abiding Citizen stood at number five while 2012 slipped to the sixth spot.

Nativity, was down one at seven, just above The Box. Horror thriller The Descent: Part 2 came in at nine while A Serious Man maintained the number 10 spot
 

MUMBAI: Friday‘s performance of James Cameron‘s epic sci-fi Avatar raked in an estimated $3.5 million in domestic box-office in the United States.

With a running time of more than 2 1/2 hours, the film unspooled in a mix of 3D and 2D venues amid mostly positive reviews and expectations of a first-weekend haul exceeding $80 million.

The current record-holder for midnight openings, Summit Entertainment‘s The Twilight Saga: New Moon grossed $26.3 million in its opening night last month.
Avatar, which unlike the Summit film was not based on a book but an original concept and screenplay was never likely to set a midnight record.

Avatar played on about 2,000 mostly 3D screens for its earliest show times but will boast about 3,000 3D screens the rest of the weekend and an equal number of 2D auditoriums. Its domestic theater count is more than 3,400.

Fox is also opening the film in a mix of motion-capture animation and live-action — in many foreign territories this week but refused to release any estimates of its international box-office until Sunday.

Avatar opens in Japan on Wednesday, in China on 2 January and in Italy on 15 January.

MUMBAI: Magnet Releasing has lapped up the US rights of George A Romero‘s Survival Of The Dead.

The distribution house will release the film in spring under its Ultra video-on- demand programme that involves a nationwide VOD launch one month before the theatrical release.

The film premiered at Venice and Toronto and continues the story left off in Diary Of The Dead, as a group of survivors arrive on an island in the grip of a civilisation clash between the living and the dead.

Said Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles, “George A Romero is an undisputed cinematic legend, and we‘re honored to be bringing another installment of this incredible series of films to horror fans. Survival is smart, extremely fun and a worthy addition to the ‘Of the Dead‘ franchise.”
 

MUMBAI: 63-year old Dan O‘Bannon, the sci-fi screenwriter and quirky horror specialist behind the Alien film franchise expired on 17 December at Santa Monica after a 30-year battle with Crohn‘s disease (an inflammatory disease of the intestines that may affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract causing a wide variety of symptoms).

O‘Bannon is survived by his wife, Diane Lindley O‘Bannon, and son Adam. A memorial service is pending.

His work on various films ranging from 1983‘s Blue Thunder to Lifeforce and the mid-1980s low-budget Invaders From Mars to 1990‘s Paul Verhoeven-Arnold Schwarzenegger blockbuster Total Recall made him an influential figure in the genre world.

But it was Alien with which he made a name for himself, helping to create characters and monsters that are still around today.

The St. Louis-born O‘Bannon met John Carpenter at USC, where the two wrote a short film – Carpenter‘s thesis film – that turned into the cosmic low-budget comedy Dark Star. O‘Bannon co-wrote the film with Carpenter, who also directed.

O‘Bannon was hired by George Lucas to do some effects work on Star Wars in 1977, then set Alien on its course into space with his and Ronald Shusett‘s bug-filled action spec script The Star Beast.

He also worked on the script and co-wrote AVP: Alien vs. Predator.

274 features eligible for the year‘s best picture Oscar award
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences has announced that it has picked up two hundred seventy four features eligible for the 2009 best picture Oscar award.

To be eligible for 82nd Academy Awards consideration, features must open in a commercial theatre in Los Angeles County by midnight December 31 and begin a minimum run of seven consecutive days.

Under Academy rules, a feature must have a running time of more than 40 minutes and must have been exhibited theatrically on 35mm or 70mm film, or in a qualifying digital format.

Features that receive their first public exhibition or distribution in any manner other than as a theatrical motion picture release are not eligible for Academy Awards in any category.

The Oscar nominations will be announced on 2 February. The awards ceremony will be held on 7 March.

MUMBAI: Martin Scorsese‘s horror-thriller Shutter Island will join Roman Polanski‘s The Ghost Writer at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.

The fourth film by the acclaimed director starring actor Leonardo DiCaprio, will make its debut at the Berlinale. The premiere comes just before the film‘s 19 February North American release.

It is said that Polanski‘s Ghost Writer, a political thriller starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan, would have its premiere in Berlin.

While the Scorsese film will not be vying for the festival‘s coveted Golden Bear prize, The Ghost Writer will be in competition.

Other competiting films by European art-house directors include Bal (Honey), Der Rauber (The Robber), Na Putu (On the Path) and Shekarchi (The Hunter), dir. Rafi Pitts (Germany/Iran).

Altogether, organizers will select 26 films for the festival‘s competition lineup. Further titles will be announced in January.

The 60th Berlin International Film Festival takes place Feb. 11-21.

The awards closed a muted DIFF, which opened weeks after it was revealed the city is facing a major debt crisis. The event cut back in many areas including the number of high profile celebrities flown in for event although Matt Dillon, Mandy.

This year saw more local distributors attending with a view to buying more local fare, which has been a key aim for the festival and market since launching in 2003.
 

MUMBAI: Tax credit-based financier Film Production Capital (FPC), owned by Will French, has opened its office in Australia to capitalise on growing government tax incentives behind the boom in Australian film and television production.

The company has begun the search to hire a local head of operations and is currently finalising plans for a syndicate of US and Australian banks to provide a credit facility that FPC will then use to lend against two schemes.

The schemes are the Producer Offset programme, a refundable offset of up to 40 per cent of the Australian production spend for films with significant Australian content and the Location Offset programme, a refundable offset of up to 15 per cent of the Australian production spend for any producer shooting in Australia, regardless of the film‘s Australian content.

FPC launched in Louisiana in 2003 and till date sources close to the company said it had financed or acquired tax credits for nearly 70 productions including the upcoming The Expendables, Stone and Father Of Invention as well as previous releases such as Premonition and Ray.

FPC also has branches in Arizona, Georgia, Massachusetts and Michigan and currently has 12 films in various stages of production.

MUMBAI: UCF Film Professor Christopher Harris‘experimental film,28.IV.81 (Bedouin Spark) will screen at the 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam that will be underway from 27 January to 7 February.

The film is the first instalment of an ongoing series of films collectively titled The Angle of Dust. The series is dedicated to poet Nathaniel Mackey and inspired by a volume of his prose composition, “Bedouin Hornbook.” Each film in the series is a single 100-foot roll of film that is edited in-camera and improvised as it is shot.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam offers a quality selection of worldwide independent, innovative and experimental cinema, as well as a series of film-related visual arts exhibitions and live performances.

The festival is devoted to actively supporting independent filmmaking from around the globe. During the festival, hundreds of filmmakers and other artistes will present their work to audiences at 24 screening venues located within central Rotterdam, The Netherlands.