Category: International

MUMBAI: The Cruel Intentions star, Reese Witherspoon, has turned down the chance of makingLegally Blonde 3 because she isn‘t interested in reprising her role as lawyer, Elle Woods.

The 37-year-old actress had played the ditzy lawyer in Legally Blonde and Legally Blonde: Red, White and Blonde, but will not be part of the third installment as per media reports.

Jennifer Coolidge, who played Elle‘s friend Paulette in the films, said, “That was Reese‘s choice.” However, despite Witherspoon‘s reluctance to rejoin forces, Coolidge had nothing but praise for the star, claiming that she made the movie a success.

NEW DELHI: The dispute between the American film studios and China Film Group Corporation has been resolved with the Chinese side agreeing to pay the money due in full.

According to Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Christopher J Dodd, a controversial two per cent rise in taxation on luxury goods that came into nationwide effect on 1 August was the cause of the dispute.

Previously there was a 3.3 per cent tax on ticket sales, in addition to the controversial five per cent paid to the opaque government film fund. The internal dispute between CFG which is China distribution partner for American studios and the US studios has been over who will pay the newly introduced two per cent that the film industry has suddenly been burdened with.

According to the trade agreement signed between the (then) vice president’s Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in February 2012 — US studios was guaranteed 25 per cent of revenue on imported films after all taxes had been paid by China Film Group.

According to Film Business Asia, unverified reports state that the state-owned CFG receives about 14.5 per cent of revenue on imported films, compared to the 25 per cent that goes to the US studios on non-flat fee deals. Cinema owners take a fixed 57 per cent of box office revenue. But the 25 per cent deal was made at the highest level of government and was never at risk.

It has not yet been determined how the two per cent will be accounted for outside of the US studios 25 per cent. There could be a reduction in the film fund to three per cent. Any decision may need to be approved at the next meeting of the State Council. What has been made clear is that under the agreement signed by Xi and Biden — the US studios‘ post-taxation 25 per cent take will still be honoured.

MUMBAI: The Colin Farrell-fronted romance is set to debut in the competitive 14 February, 2014 slot, Warner Bros has announced.

Farrell stars opposite Downton Abbey‘s Jessica Brown Findlay in the tale of a dying woman (Findlay) who falls in love with the thief who breaks into her Manhattan home. The flick, set in a mythical NYC and spanning over a century from the 19th century to the present, marks Akiva Goldsman‘s directorial debut and is adapted from the novel by Mark Helprin. Jennifer Connelly, William Hurt, Eva Marie Saint and Russell Crowe form the rest of the cast.

Also currently set to open wide on Valentine’s Day 2014 are Sony/Screen Gems’ romcom About Last Night, Universal’s romance Endless Love, TWC’s Vampire Academy, Fox’s sci-fi thriller The Maze Runner, and Relativity’s actioner Three Days To Kill.

MUMBAI: Universal has set George Mastras to adapt the Dean Unkefer book ‘90 Church: the true story of the narcotics squad from hell‘ who has won an Emmy for Breaking Bad. Rupert Sanders will be helming the project.

Three people will be producing it: Joe Roth, Palak Patel and Deborah Giarratana. The name ‘90 Church‘ refers to the place of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in New York, when it was formed to tackle the increasing organised crime and drug traffic in the 1960s and 1970s. FBI agents used cunning tactics to stop the increasing numbers. The reputation of ‘90 Church‘ grew with the body count as well.

The book was a fiction story but was written by an agent himself who worked in the department. Mastras is repped by CAA and manager Dan Halsted.

MUMBAI: After getting some big names, a newcomer has joined the cast which already includes Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson and Antonio

Banderas. Powell will be playing a lead role. He will be playing a highly trained combat veteran, an expert hacker and a drone pilot.

Bruce Willis, who was in the first two movies had been struck off the cast list after demanding a higher price for his role. He had asked for $4 million as compared to $3 million that had been offered to him for a four day shoot.

Lionsgate has come up with a release date of 15 August 2014. Stallone will return as Barney Ross, who takes the team on yet another high octane mission. Patrick Hughes is directing. Screenplay is done by Stallone and Richard Wenk.

Jackie Chan and Nicholas Cage are also said to have small appearances. Powell has worked in The Dark Knight Rises and upcoming Red Wing. He is repped by Resolution and Untitled.

MUMBAI: Vin Diesel just might be Groot. The Fast and The Furious franchise actor is in negotiations to join Marvel‘s newest ensemble tent pole. If it all works out, Vin Diesel would play the tree-like alien in the James Gunn-directed Guardians Of The Galaxy.

Diesel posted a captionless pic of Groot up on his Facebook page. For a while the drawing from the GOTG comic stood as his cover page before being taken down and then disappeared all together from his public timeline.

The Groot character can absorb wood to gain strength and recover from injuries as well as control trees. While hyper-intelligent, the alien seems to only ever say the line “I am Groot” over and over to those who cannot hear his real voice.

MUMBAI: Paramount Pictures reports that World War Z had passed the $500 million worldwide gross mark, surpassing Troy‘s $497.3 million to become Brad Pitt‘s highest grossing film ever. One could argue that WWZ received the benefit of a higher ticket price particularly because of its 3D numbers. But considering how badly maligned this film was in the weeks before it bowed, hitting the half billion dollar plateau seems something to brag about, even for a movie that cost in the $220 million range.

According to Paramount (which co-financed with Skydance), WWZ has set several records for Pitt, whose Plan B produced. It set a personal best with a $66 million opening on 21 June, and a total of $197.4 million in US, both of which exceeded Mr. & Mrs. Smith‘s total domestic gross of $186.3 million and $50.3 million opening weekend. The film has earned $305.2 million at the international box office, to date.

This pales in comparison to the numbers put up by Johnny Depp and his Alice in Wonderland and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises, but Pitt has done a lot of cool movies that were never meant to be blockbusters, and this was his most mainstream film since Troy and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Passing the half billion dollar mark begs the question of whether Pitt returns for an encore.

MUMBAI: News is that Mel Gibson and Antonio Banderas have joined The Expendables 3 ensemble, the Millennium Entertainment pic that already picked up Harrison Ford to add to the cast that has begun to resemble the Old Timers Day game held annually at Yankee Stadium.

Recently Bruce Willis had a fallout with the franchise on grounds of demanding more remuneration for the assignment. Stallone took to Twitter to respond with Willis is lazy and greedy and will no longer be a part of the third installment.

Sylvester Stallone continues to bring in aging action muscle for the franchise he hatched back in 2010. The only action stars left to be added by Stallone and Millennium are Jeff Speakman and Brian Bosworth. They seem to be about the only action heroes who haven‘t joined the beefcake brigade, just yet?

MUMBAI: Phase 4 Films and Samuel Goldwyn Films will jointly release The Short Game on 20 September 2013. Directed by Josh Greenbaum, The Short Game won the SXSW 2013 Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.

It tells the story of eight of the best seven-year-old golfers in the world as they train for and compete in the World Championships of Junior Golf. The cast includes Allan Kournikova, Anna Kournikova‘s seven-year-old brother. Greenbaum also produces. John Battsek (The Imposter, Searching For Sugar Man) and David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada, Hope Springs) are exec producers for this project.