Category: International

MUMBAI: Summit Entertainment is all set to release Roman Polanski‘s retitled The Ghost Writer in North America in the first half of 2010.

The distribution house acquired rights from ICM and is intimately familiar with the project having handled foreign sales through Summit International. The film will have its world premiere at the Berlinale in February.

 
Based on Robert Harris‘ novel The Ghost, the thriller stars Ewan McGregor who plays a professional ghostwriter who uncovers political and sexual intrigue when he is sent to the Eastern seaboard to help the former UK Prime Minister complete his memoirs after the leader‘s aide drowns.

Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams, Kim Cattrall, Jim Belushi, Robert Pugh and Tom Wilkinson star in the film.

MUMBAI: LA-based Shoreline Entertainment has acquired worldwide sales rights of Juan Carlos‘ Valvidia‘s Bolivian foreign language Oscar and Golden Globes submission Zona Sur (Southern District).

Zona Sur that chronicles the life of an upper-class family in the southern district of La Paz at a time of fundamental social change in the country, will have its North American premiere in competition at the Sundance fest in January.

 
Shoreline‘s director of acquisitions Brandon Paine and executive vice-president Sam Eigen negotiated the deal with Valvidia at the Ventana Sur market in Buenos Aires.

MUMBAI: Universal Pictures has appointed former Fox production executive vice-president Debbie Liebling as its president of production.

Liebling, who occupies her post in January will report to Langley. Her production team features executive vice-presidents Peter Cramer and Tracy Falco and senior vice-presidents Jeff Kirschenbaum and Scott Bernstein.

Said Langley, “Debbie‘s fresh perspective and years of experience in the industry perfectly complement our seasoned production team. Her keen instincts and close relationships with film-makers and talent make her the right person to help us shape future Universal film slates.”

 
Earlier, Liebling had shepherded the creative direction of Borat and Dodgeball at Fox. She previously served as president of production at the now defunct Fox Atomic. As chief programming executive for Comedy Central she developed and supervised South Park.

Universal‘s 2010 slate includes Paul Greengrass‘ The Green Zone with Matt Damon, Ridley Scott‘s Robin Hood adventure starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, the third entry in the Meet The Fockers franchise starring Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro, and the Saturday Night Live spin-off MacGruber with Will Forte and Kristen Wiig.

MUMBAI: A strong Oscar contender for her performance opposite Colin Firth in A Single Man,Julianne Moore will receive the 25th Santa Barbara International Film Festival‘s Montecito Award.

The four-time Academy Award nominee will collect the award on 1 February.

 
The Montecito Award was created to recognise a series of “classic and standout performances” in a career. Previous recipients include Kate Winslet, Javier Bardem, Naomi Watts and Annette Bening.

The festival runs from 4 to 14 February.

MUMBAI: The Anti-Defamation League bestowed its highest honor on Steven Spielberg by presenting the America‘s Democratic Legacy Award to Steven Speilberg on Wednesday.

Praising Spielberg‘s ability, ADL national director Abraham Foxman said.

“Steven, we honour you for your exceptional contributions to the well-being and security of the Jewish people. Your masterpiece, Schindler‘s List literally changed the way we teach about Jewish history and the Holocaust and it arrived at exactly the time when we started to see a startling rise in Holocaust denial.”

Accepting the honour, Spielberg spoke of the importance of pausing amid the distractions of the digital age to face such enduring evils as xenophobia, bigotry, racism and anti-Semitism that have found a new home in cyberspace.

“I don‘t believe that intolerance is encoded in the DNA of human kind. Bigotry is an acquired condition that can only be eradicated through education, experience and through mindfulness.”

The proceedings, that raised more than $2 million for the ADL, kicked off with Adam Lambert singing an a capella version of The Star-Spangled Banner and Noa Dori performing the Israeli anthem.

Previous winners of the prestigious award range from US presidents (from Harry Truman through Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan) to Hollywood moguls Darryl Zanuck and Dore Schary.

MUMBAI: Boutique media and entertainment financing and strategy company, Entertainment Capital Advisors (ECA), has been appointed to advise on strategy and raise capital by the recently launched film investment company, Regal Entertainment Group.

The Group launched by American Israeli businessman Adi Cohen, is seeking to build a pan-European media company with a focus on film production and distribution. It aims to aid smaller budget film-makers by creating access to talent, soft funding and subsidies in individual regions.

Cohen is a venture capitalist with a background in high risk, security high-tech stocks but the for the past two years has been managing director of GC Corporation, a private venture capital fund that invests in media and entertainment.

Regal currently owns a 75 per cent stake in Barcelona-based production company, Zip Films, and a majority shareholding in its distribution and management subsidiaries. It is in advanced negotiations to acquire a large stake in publicy-listed German company, VCL Film + Medien.

If the deal goes ahead, Regal intends to build the theatrical capabilities of VCL and further strengthen its core business of DVD distribution. It is also close to buying two Spanish cinema exhibitors with a total of 190 screens.

The group said that it believes the difficult global economic conditions have created an opportunity for investors seeking to build “businesses for the future”, and that the changing landscape in film has increased the gap between the major blockbuster productions and smaller budget films, which require local production and distribution model.

Regal is looking for a listing on the London Alternative Investment Market (AIM) during the course 2010 but is currently backed by private and institutional investors from Spain, Germany, Israel and the US, including Cayman Islands-based venture capital fund CA Capital Markets and Jordi Rediu, the owner of Zip Films.

MUMBAI: This year‘s Marrakech International Film Festival that got underway on 4 December will have climate change as its limelight.

The nine-day festival devoted all of Sunday to environmental issues wuill screen three documentaries on the dangers of climate change. Three films titled Home directed by France‘s Yann-Arthus Bertrand was screened in Djemaâ El Fna Square. An Inconvenient Truth from American Davis Guggenheim and The Titanic Syndrome made by Albert Li?vre and Nicolas Hulot were shown on Sunday.

The festival began with a tribute to American actor Christopher Walken and a shines the limelight on and offers tributes to stars and directors such as Morocco‘s Said Taghmaoui.

Actor Sir Ben Kingsley, Moroccan actor Sa?d Taghmaoui and Serbian director Emir Kusturica will also be feted at the festival, which is marking its ninth year.

A total number of 100 films will be screened during the festival. Of these, 15 films from eight countries are in the running for the festival‘s grand prize, the Etoile d‘Or. Eight of the films competing are the first works of their respective directors.

MUMBAI: Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson‘s Warner Bros-based Alcon Entertainment will finance and co-produce A Dolphin Tale with Richard Ingber.

Charles Martin Smith will write and direct the story about a young boy who befriends an injured dolphin who loses her tail in a crab trap and inspires his community to help the afflicted animal.

Alcon Entertainment‘s Steve Wegner developed the story written by Smith. David Fierson secured the rights from Clearwater Marine Aquarium and David Yates.

The film will be released through Alcon‘s output deal with Warner Bros.

MUMBAI: Michael Corbett, director of Piedmont Community College‘s Film and Video Production Technology programme, received a first place gold Peak Award at the Peak City International Film Festival‘s Filmmakers Awards Gala on 21 November.

Corbett was cited for a television commercial, Trains Don‘t Trespass. He served as pro bono director of photography on the North Carolina-produced commercial that presents the dangers associated with crossing railroad tracks without proper attention to safety precautions.

Corbett has been directing PCC‘s award-winning films and videos since 2000. He is active in the Piedmont Triad Film Commission and works to promote the film industry in North Carolina.

In addition to Corbett‘s award, several PCC film students were credited at the premier showing of The Rusty Bucket Kids Club: the Adventure of the Magic Glasses on 20 November during the Apex festival.

Students Robert Corbett, Jacques Shy II, Darron Slagle, Darren Thompson and Joseph Wyatt along with PCC graduate Karen Harris were cited for their work on the premiere episode, a pilot for a children‘s television series. PCC also received special recognition for its support of the production.

At the sold-out gala, held at the Halle Cultural Arts Center, Jerry Mathers of the Leave It to Beaver television series received a Continuing Lifetime Achievement Award just prior to the showing of The Rusty Bucket Kids Club.

MUMBAI: Warner Bros. Pictures has named Paul Broucek as its president of music. Broucek will assume control of overall creative direction of music operations and oversee administrative, production and day-to-day business functions.

Broucek, a long time music executive and producer who headed the New Line Cinema creative music team for 12 years, will report to Warner Bros Pictures Group president Jeff Robinov.

He will also oversee New Line Records, serving as its president, and reporting to New Line Cinema president Toby Emmerich regarding that business.

Most recently, Broucek launched Common Market, a music consulting, production and publishing company that specializes in productions of films, television, records, online, commercials, games and new media.

He also formed a creative partnership with record producer Salaam Remi for a lineup of film projects such as Sex And The City 2 and before that worked with Fairlight Instruments of Australia and Record Plant in Los Angeles.