Category: International

MUMBAI: Less than a week after resigning from The Weinstein Company, Tom Ortenberg has disclosed plans of his new venture- One Way Out Media. The company will be based in Santa Monica and operate as a film consultancy, financier and distribution entity serving the independent community.

For the past eight months, Ortenberg had served as head of theatrical for the Weinsteins and prior to that was president of theatrical films at Lionsgate.

Orteneberg served more than 12 years at Lionsgate Entertainment, opening their Los Angeles office in 1996 and serving as president of theatrical films until 2009. He left to serve in the same capacity for the Weinsteins, a short-lived partnership that resulted in a parting of the ways last week.

Hoped Ortenberg, “We might finance a lower budget film, pre-buy North American rights to a film with partial financing or foreign sales in place, provide finishing funds or P&A, find a diamond in the rough at a film festival and self-distribute a picture theatrically, or even partner with an existing studio on a production or acquisition.

“One Way Out Media will allow me to use my expertise and passion for film to work closely with film-makers in getting their movies successfully financed and produced, as well as properly marketed and distributed.”

Orteneberg started his film career at Columbia Pictures in 1985 as an assistant in the accounts receivables department and rising to the level of senior sales manager before leaving in 1989 to go to Hemdale Film Corporation, where he served as president of distribution and marketing

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MUMBAI: Film folks from France, Germany, Poland, Switzerland and Hollywood are terrified about last week‘s arrest of Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski when he flew into Zurich to receive an honorary award from the city‘s international film festival.

Several high profile industry names, such as Harvey Weinstein and Debra Winger, have come out in support of Polanski.

MUMBAI: The organisers of Stockholm International Film Festival are planning to have a giant ice screen for the twentieth annual film festival scheduled to take place in the Swedish capital from 18 to 29 November.

The screen will supposedly be nearly 5 meters (16.4 feet) wide and will weigh about 10 metric tons. It will be made from slabs of ice that were cut from the frozen Torne River in Sweden‘s far north back in March. The total cost of the project is estimated at approximately 500,000 Swedish crowns ($71,140).

Said festival spokesperson Emelie Klein, “We wanted to do something spectacular that has never been done before. It will be the first time a feature film is shown on an ice screen.”

The screen will be set up on 21 November in a still undisclosed location in central Stockholm. Festival organizers say that the ice screen will be used to show two classic movies, the names of which remains undisclosed.

The Stockholm International Film Festival takes place every year in November, with screenings of more than 170 films from more than 40 countries.

MUMBAI: Warner Home Video (WHV) will release the DVD game Harry Potter: Wizarding World on 1 December. This will be the second DVD game from the popular franchise.

Based on the films Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – the DVD game enables fans to extend the movie experience with activities that include escaping Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup, learning defensive magic in Dumbledore‘s Army, potion-mixing in Advanced Potions class and more.

MUMBAI: Paramount Pictures has announced that the ParanormalMovie.com website has been deluged with over 230,000 ‘demands‘ from coast-to-coast in the US.

This has prompted Paramount to expand the new thriller Paranormal Activity to 20-additional cities across the US from 2 October.

The cities with the highest demands include Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. The film will continue to play exclusively as a midnight-only showing.

MUMBAI: Peter Chernin is moving from being News Corp. executive to that of a producer at 20th Century Fox. His arrival at Fox is when several film projects are being developed by the studio.

The notable of the bunch being The Deep Blue Goodbye, an adaptation of the John D. MacDonald mystery novel series that has Leonardo DiCaprio playing the lead.

Chernin joins DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson as producers on a project that has a strong draft by Dana Stevens that is the centre of attraction of directors.

MUMBAI: Wang Zhonglei, the chief executive of China‘s leading filmmakers Huayi Brothers has said that the company‘s upcoming IPO would help other studios tap new funding for their productions.

The production house hopes to raise 620 million Chinese yuan ($91 million) by listing on ChiNext, a new board for smaller companies that‘s expected to launch on the southern Shenzhen Stock Exchange later this year.

Zhonglei told the press that he hopes the share sale will open up new funding sources in an industry that usually takes a longer time to recover initial investments.

Wang said that the lack of capital is the biggest challenge for the booming Chinese entertainment industry. Government statistics show the Chinese box office surged from 920 million yuan in 2003 to 4.3 billion yuan ($630 million) in 2008 – compared to $9.8 billion in the U.S. last year.

Founded in 1994 by Wang and his older brother Wang Zhongjun, Huayi Brothers is best known in the West for its 2008 kung fu movie The Forbidden Kingdom, a co-production with Hollywood that was the first on-screen collaboration between action stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

MUMBAI: Danis Tanovic‘s Triage will open this year‘s Rome International Film Festival (RIFF) on 15 October which the film‘s stars Colin Farrell and Paz Vega are expected to attend.

Having recently having its world premiere screening at the Toronto Film Festival in Canada, this event will be Traige‘s European premiere.

The film tells the story of the impact of post-traumatic stress syndrome on a war photographer who returns to Ireland to be hit with the fact that his best friend has failed to come home.

The Rome International Film Festival, now in its fourth season, will feature 12 films in competition. Triage will contend with other films such as Michael Hoffman‘s The Last Station, a dramatic exploration of Leo Tolstoy‘s wife starring Helen Mirren and James McAvoy and Jason Reitman‘s Up in the Air starring George Clooney.

The Rome International Film Festival will run from the 15 to 23 October.

MUMBAI: Drew Barrymore makes her directorial debut with Whip It, based on a novel by Shauna Cross.

The film that has already won recognition during the Toronto International Film Festival is a story about a girl who deviates from the path set by her beauty queen mother by joining a roller-derby team finding that she‘s a natural skater.
“I have a tumultuous relationship with my mother, so obviously that story had a deep emotional interest to me – about women who are empowered and can be athletic and capable and kick ass out on the track and be their own heroes, and I think finding your tribe is everything,” said Barrymore.

MUMBAI: Fox International Productions (FIP), Star Television Asia Limited (STAR) and China-based Huayi Brothers Media have announced a collaboration to produce and distribute a Chinese-language romantic comedy, Hot Summer Days.

Hot Summer Days is co-directed by first time directors Wing Shya, an internationally renowned cinematographer and fashion photographer and screenwriter Tony Chan and screenwriter Tony Chan. Director Fruit Chan and veteran filmmaker Paul Cheng are co-producers.

The film brings together acclaimed actors and pop stars from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, including Jacky Cheung (Perhaps Love), Nicholas Tse (Bodyguards and Assassins), Daniel Wu (Protege), Rene Liu (A World Without Thieves), Vivian Hsu (If You Are the One), Barbie Hsu (On His Majesty‘s Secret Service), Angelababy, Jing Boran, Duan Yihong (The Message), Fu Xinbo, and Gordon Liu (Kill Bill).

“We are very excited to be making Hot Summer Days,” said Fox International Productions president Sanford Panitch adding, “China is undoubtedly one of the most exciting markets in the world today and we hope this is just the beginning for Fox to make movies in the region.”

Set during a summer of record-breaking temperatures, Hot Summer Days tells six intertwined stories in which several people discover the myriad facets of love.

Said Star director Daniel Cheung, “We are thrilled to be part of this joint film production featuring the hottest talent across Greater China. As a media company that owns the largest contemporary Chinese movie library and two popular Chinese movie channels, Star is a strong supporter of the Chinese film industry. Our participation in this film production is further testament of our commitment.”

The principal photography of film began on 12 August and is shooting on locations in Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. It will wrap production in October and is scheduled for an early 2010 release in China by Huayi Brothers and by Twentieth Century Fox in all territories outside of Mainland China.

Huayi Brothers‘ president James Wang says, “Huayi Brothers highly values the partnership. We admire Fox‘s courage and decision in going into a mainstream romantic comedy. With a superb story, high production values and star-studded cast from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Hot Summer Days will sure become the hottest movie for the Chinese New Year and Valentine‘s Day period.”