Category: International

MUMBAI: Greg Silverman has been elevated to the newly created position of executive vice-president of creative development and production at Warner Bros.

Effective January 1, next year, Silverman will assume full oversight of development activities and budget and seek out fresh opportunities to diversify the slate. He will report to Warner Bros Pictures Group president Jeff Robinov.

Previously served Silverman as executive vice-president of production and contributed to the making of The Hangover, 300 and The Dark Knight, among others, as well as such upcoming releases as Inception from Christopher Nolan and Sucker Punch from Zack Synder.

Silverman initially joined Warner Bros in 1999 as a junior production executive, then left for Revolution Studios as senior vice-president of production before returning to Warner Bros in 2002 as vice-president of production. He was promoted to senior vice-president of production in 2004 and then executive vice-president of production in 2006.
 

MUMBAI: Director Yang Ik-june‘s Breathless won the grand prize and $11,560 (1million Yen) and the audience award at the tenth Tokyo Filmex that ran from 21-29 November.

The film was singled out by a competition jury headed by Japanese director Yoichi Sai. The prizes add to previous accolades including major awards at Rotterdam, the New York Asian Film Festival and Montreal‘s Fantasia.

Yang made his feature directorial debut on Breathless. He stars as a brutal loan shark who bonds with a female high school student enduring an abusive household. The film is set for a domestic release in March 2010 through Bitters End.

The special jury prize and $8,000 in Kodak colour film stock went to Bahman Ghobadi‘s No One Knows About Persian Cats.

For its tenth anniversary Tokyo Filmex had as many as 61 titles in its line-up including a retrospective on French director Jean-Pierre Melville and a concurrent Korean Film Showcase.
 

MUMBAI: Summit Entertainment, that distributed New Moon in the US, must be very happy, for its film maintained its number one position at the US box-office with a record collection of $190 million.

The Chris Weitz directed film remained on top for the second consecutive weekend in spite of a 70 per cent plunge from its opening weekend receipts. New Moon roped in an additional $42.5 million this weekend and crossed the $200 million mark last Friday, exceeding the total gross of 2008‘s Twilight that amassed $192.8 million.

Said Summit Entertainment president, domestic distribution, Richie Fay, “It‘s been a real snowball effect – once the midnight showing numbers came in, we kind of knew what we had.”

On the No. 2 spot was Sandra Bullock‘s The Blind Side that recorded a rise of 17 per cent to $40.1 million. Warner Bros. distribution chief Dan Fellman said, “Due to the sensational opening of New Moon, 70 per cent of the audience of the film‘s opening-weekend were older than 25. But this weekend, the young people came flocking in.”

MUMBAI: Michael Jackson documentary This I s It is set for release on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on 26 January.

The film has garnered $71 million in the US box-office since its release on 28 October.

Both the DVD and high-definition versions of the documentary will include several mini-docs and other special features. Blu-ray Discs also will include two versions each of the Jackson music videos Smooth Criminal and Thriller.

While the DVD of This Is It will have a price tag of $28.96, the Blu-ray version will cost $39.95. Along with, a PlayStation portable disc is also planned, at $24.94.

MUMBAI: Warner Home Video is in plans to bring out a Clint Eastwood DVD collection.

The collection contains Eastwood films from Where Eagles Dare till last year‘s Gran Torino. The collection will also carry a feature documentary on the filmmaker by Time magazine critic and film historian Richard Schickel.

“I‘ve known Clint for most of the time he‘s been at Warner Bros.,” Schickel said. “I was fortunate to be able to wander around the Warner lot with him and hear his reminiscences. To be able to show him in the places where he works and lives and feels most comfortable is, I think, a unique opportunity.”

“I‘ve known Clint for most of the time he‘s been at Warner Bros.,” Schickel said. “I was fortunate to be able to wander around the Warner lot with him and hear his reminiscences. To be able to show him in the places where he works and lives and feels most comfortable is, I think, a unique opportunity.”

The collection includes films in which Eastwood has acted, acted and directed, or helmed. Other materials in the box set include a biographical booklet.

Priced at $179.98, the 19-disc ‘Clint Eastwood: 35 Films, 35 Years at Warner Bros.‘ is set to hit the circuit on 16 February.

MUMBAI: Paramount Pictures has paid a seven figure sum to Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli for the US rights of the filmmaker‘s alien thriller Area 51.

Following a protracted negotiation process that had dragged on for close to a month, IM Global CEO Stuart Ford, CAA, Incentive Filmed Entertainment chairman David Molner and attorneys Linda Lichter and Jamie Feldman closed the deal with the studio last week.

By paying the highest sum, Paramount beat rival bids from DreamWorks and Lionsgate. It is understood that Summit Entertainment was also in the race but withdrew earlier.

IM Global had recently sold out international rights of Area 51 at the American Film Market, where buyers scarcely needed the incentive of an imminent domestic deal to drive business in the wake of Paranormal Activity‘s stunning US box-office.

The company licensed Area 51 to Momentum for UK, Concorde for Germany, Euro TV for France, Zelta for Spain, Village Roadshow for Australia and New Zealand, PlayArte for Latin America and Alliance for Canada.

Right now, Area 51 is in post-production and it is understood that Paramount is eager to schedule a release in early 2010.
With $18 million and a three-week total collection of $138.8 million, Sony‘s 2012 stood at the third spot.

The John Travolta and Robin Williams starrer Disney‘s Old Dogs took the No. 4 spot with an estimated $16.8 million. Though the film was criticized by critics, moviegoers seem to have liked it.

At No. 5 was Disney‘s A Christmas Carol that amassed $16 million, up 30 per cent from the $12.3 million that it grossed last week.

Ninja Assassin opened at No. 6 with a collection of $13.1 million.

MUMBAI: Into its second weekend, New Moon is the clear favourite to retain the overseas crown and will sweep past $200m with launches in nearly 30 territories.

Among the new territories set to bring in good results are Japan and Germany besides Portugal, Austria and South Africa.

The film will have a string of impressive second weekends in the UK, France, Spain, Australia, Italy, Mexico and Brazil among other countries that might help to propel the current total beyond its $165million plus tally.

Sony Pictures Releasing International‘s disaster movie 2012 is also creating a storm at the box-office and has reached $375.5m in less than three weeks. The disaster movie is slated to join a select band when it crosses $400m by the end of the weekend.

MUMBAI: Sam Taylor-Wood‘s Nowhere Boy and British gangster film 44 Inch Chest are among a number of films that will receive a funding boost from the UK Film Council.

Icon Film Distribution has received $246,124 (?150,000) to eas the distribution of Nowhere Boy, while Momentum Pictures has been awarded $180,491 (?110,000) to boost publicity of Malcolm Venville‘s 44 Inch Chest. 

Meanwhile, the UKFC has also sanctioned $8,250 (?5,000) to help widen the distribution of seventeen titles including Alexis Do Santos‘s Unmade Beds, Yoijiro Takita‘s Departures, Lu Chuan‘s City Of Life And Death and Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment‘s micro-budget horror film Colin.

MUMBAI: Taiwanese film The Song Of Siren annexed the top prize at the Film and TV Project Promotion (FTPP) of the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival. The award consists of development funds of $30,900 (NT$1m).

Tsai Yue-hsun‘s Black And White and Sky Silence by Leon Dai were also major winners at the FTPP.

The Song Of Siren, which is Shen‘s first feature film, is being produced by Taipei-based Flash Forward Entertainment that also produced Shen‘s recent documentary Baseball Boys. 

Adapted from the novel by the same name by Malaysian-Chinese novelist Zhang Guixing, the film is coming-of-age love story set in the rainforest.

The project also won a post-production award from Taipei-based Modern Cinema Laboratory, worth $6,000 (NT$200,000) in post-production services.

Tsai‘s Black And White, the film version of the Taiwanese TV drama of the same name, won the post-production service prizes from Taipei Post-production and Leader Asia Pacific Creativity Center.

The action film revolves around two cops working together to bring down a multinational organised crime gang.

MUMBAI: Oscar -nominated film music composer Marc Shaiman will serve as music director for the 82nd Academy Awards, telecast producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic said.

Says Mechanic, “With Marc on board, we are sure to have some great musical and, hopefully, hysterical moments.”

Shankman adds, “Marc was my inspiration and musical partner on Hairspray and he has been responsible for some of the most memorable moments in Oscar history, like Will Ferrell and Jack Black‘s comedy numbers. He‘s a genius! And he‘d be the first to tell you!”

Shaiman has earned five Academy Award nominations for his work on films including The American President, The First Wives Club and Patch Adams.

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on 2 February next year. The ceremony takes place on 7 March, 2010 and will air in India on Star Movies.