Category: International

MUMBAI: After a bone-crushing football career, Baltimore Raven‘s linebacker Ray Lewis has revealed his plans for a sports-themed entertainment center in Hunt Valley that could be the first in a national chain.

The project, called MVP Entertainment, will be built at Hunt Valley Towne Centre in which Lewis has a majority stake while his business adviser, Marc Rosen and Rosen‘s wife Laura, are minority partners.

Lewis and the Rosen laid out an ambitious vision for MVP Entertainment, which is to be completed by next year.

The entertainment center will feature tiered bowling lanes, a 100-foot-wide video wall, a 150-seat restaurant and sushi bar, private event rooms, a quick-service restaurant, golf simulators, an arcade, a radio broadcast center, and a sports memorabilia and bowling pro shop.

MUMBAI: World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. Chief Executive Linda McMahon has stepped down from her post a day after joining the Republican field wanting to run against Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd.

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon will assume the additional duties of CEO, supported by “the seasoned executive management team already in place,” the wresting entertainment and media company said.

The announcement came as WWE grapples with the weak economy and competition from sports such as kickboxing. Still, WWE‘s profit nearly tripled in the latest quarter amid cost cuts as revenue rose 7%.

Ms. McMahon is the fourth Republican to declare her candidacy, following former Rep. Rob Simmons, state Sen. Sam Caligiuri and former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Tom Foley.

MUMBAI: Hong Kong-based Media Asia Distribution sealed several deals on Soi Cheang‘s Accident that recently premiered in competition at Venice.

The film, produced by Johnnie To for Media Asia, stars Louis Koo as a hitman who specialises in making assassinations look like unfortunate accidents. The film also stars Richie Jen and Michelle Ye.

France‘s ARP took all rights of the film for France, while Palisades took the entire US rights. While Dream Movies took Australian theatrical rights, Sky City Cinema took theatrical rights for New Zealand.

In addition, Media Asia also sold Lu Chuan‘s war drama City Of Life And Death to Spain‘s Karma Films and Russia‘s Carmen Video. The black-and-white film, which was a big hit in China

earlier this year, was sold to the UK‘s Highfliers during Cannes.

Meanwhile, Rialto also acquired Australia and New Zealand rights to Media Asia‘s Fire of Conscience, while Dream Movies took Australia and New Zealand rights to Once a Gangster.

MUMBAI: British screenwriter, Troy Kennedy Martin, whose credits include The Italian Job, TV series Z-Cars died of Cancer yesterday. He was 77.

The award-winning writer began his career at the BBC in 1958 and wrote several plays for the broadcaster before creating his first series, Storyboard, in 1961. His most famous TV creation was Liverpool-based police drama Z-Cars, which ran for 15 years although he was only involved in the first two series.

Martin moved into feature films in the early 1970s with the original screenplay for Peter Collinson‘s The Italian Job that starred Noel Coward and Michael Caine. He followed it up with Kelly‘s Heroes, The Jerusalem File and Sweeney 2, based on the popular TV series, The Sweeney, created by his brother Ian Kennedy Martin. He also co-wrote the screenplay for Red Heat with director Walter Hill in 1988 and Red Dust, directed by Tom Hooper, in 2004.

Though he was best known for his work in both TV and films, he also penned a novel, Beating The Damask Drum, published in 1959.

MUMBAI: In the first major deal that happened at the Toronto Film Festival, IFC Films has bought US distribution rights of Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Viking action-adventure Valhalla Rising.

It is stated that Focus Features, Miramax and The Weinstein Company were interested in the Tom Ford‘s directorial debut.

Meanwhile international rights holder IM Global closed multiple territory deals in a frantic night of deal making.

Elsewhere, Submarine‘s Josh Braun is understood to have received several bids for Don Argott‘s documentary The Art Of The Steal while UTA agents were in negotiations with buyers for Cracks.

IFC‘s Arianna Bocco negotiated the Valhalla Rising deal with Carole Baraton from Wild Bunch. This is Mikkelson‘s third film with Refn after the first two instalments of Refn‘s Pusher trilogy.

IFC Films plans to release the film in 2010 via its IFC In-theaters theatrical and VOD day-and-date platform.

MUMBAI: The Weinstein Co. has inked an exclusive home-entertainment distribution deal with Vivendi Entertainment covering all titles in its catalogue.

The arrangement effectively replaces Genius Products as a distributor of Weinstein catalogue though it has not yet announced an arrangement for future new-release titles.

The pact is expected to produce 20 direct-to-DVD releases in a year.

Universal Home Entertainment will handle distribution on Inglourious Basterds which Universal co-financed with Weinstein.

MUMBAI: The Houston-born Patrick Swayze who starred in hits like Ghost and Dirty Dancing has expired following a battle with pancreatic Cancer. He was 57.

Swayze enjoyed heartthrob status for his romantic performances in Ghost and Dirty Dancing and used his classical ballet training and experience as a Broadway

dancer to notable effect in Dirty Dancing.

He earned the respect of teenage males, too, with winning turns as the surfing bank robber in Kathryn Bigelow‘s thrill ride Point Break, as well as The Outsiders for Francis Ford Coppola and Red Dawn.

He is survived by his wife Lisa Niemi, brother Don, and his mother.

MUMBAI: Overture Films has acquired the distribution rights of Antoine Fuqua‘s crime thriller Brooklyn‘s Finest.

The deal was almost arrived at in Venice when the film‘s financier Avi Lerner along with former WMi head Cassian Elwes negotiated the transfer with Overture CEO Chris McGurk. McGurk is currently in Toronto with the North American premieres of The Men Who Stare At Goats and Michael Moore‘s Capitalism: A Love Story.

Overture had been one of the companies initially wanting to take over Brooklyn‘s Finest when it premiered in Sundance last January, before Senator‘s former president Mark Urman got into a deal worth around $3m plus a substantial P&A commitment.

Senator‘s difficulty in coming up with substantial P&A funds for its slate was a critical factor in the company‘s demise. Matters came to a head last spring with the ill-fated release of The Informers, which failed at the box-office and precipitated Urman‘s departure.

The former THINKFilm head is in Toronto scouting titles for his new venture Paladin.

MUMBAI: Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai has defended the right of filmmakers and artistes to protest a controversial Israeli film at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“If they protest, let them protest. We are for freedom of speech,” Huldai told a gathering of Israeli filmmakers in Toronto. The Israeli mayor took the high road as TIFF‘s spotlight on films and directors from Tel Aviv got under way in Toronto.

“To represent a democratic, pluralistic city, with a creativity and film community such as we have, if that‘s a shame, I take the blame,” Huldai added.

He was responding to a growing artiste-led protest over the Tel Aviv program in Toronto that includes support from actors Jane Fonda and Danny Glover, British director Ken Loach and around 1,000 signatories to an open letter to the Toronto festival.

Israeli filmmakers in Toronto to showcase their latest work expressed disappointment that the online protest was undermining the film festival and their premieres.

Other Israeli films in and out of the City-to-City spotlight in Toronto deal with war and religion that include Eytan Fox‘s The Bubble and the Venice award winner Lebanon, by Samuel Moaz, which has its North American premiere here on Monday.

MUMBAI: The 3D Entertainment Summit(TM) has announced its full speaker

list for the 2009 event that will be held at the Hilton Los Angeles in Universal City on 16 and 17 September.

The two-day conference will focus on all aspects of 3D business from the theatre to the home. Virtually all 3D films, consumer technologies and video games will be examined at this year‘s summit.

This year‘s event will open with a keynote discussion between David Cohen,features editor, Daily Variety and director and screenwriter Henry Selick and Academy award winning vfx supervisor Brian Van‘t Hul.

More than 70 speakers will present every aspect of 3D in the entertainment world from film, television, home entertainment, gaming and alternative programming. Presenters include: Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive officer and director of DreamWorks, animation SKG, Michael Lewis, chairman, CEO and co-founder, RealD, Sandy Climan, CEO, 3ality Digital, LLC, David Hill, A.M., chairman & CEO, Fox sports television group, Greg Foster, chairman and president, Filmed Entertainment, IMAX, Bob Dowling, co-producer and conference chairman, Peter Bart, Vice President and editorial director, Variety.

Topics that will be discussed will focus on a multitude of topics ranging from the financial impact of 3D on the entertainment industry, the status of the digital cinema roll-out and top trends in 3D gaming.