Category: International

MUMBAI: Maggie Grace in all probability will join Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in an yet untitled Fox‘s spy thriller to be directed by James Mangold.

The film is being produced by Mangold‘s partner Cathy Konrad along with Todd Garner, Steve Pink and Joe Roth.

The project centers on a lonely woman (Diaz) whose seemingly harmless blind date suddenly turns her life upside-down when a super spy (Cruise) takes her on a violent worldwide journey to protect a powerful battery that holds the key to an infinite power source.

MUMBAI: After DreamWorks Studios acquired its filming rights, Steven Spielberg has decided to produce the late Michael Crichton‘s unpublished novel Pirate Latitudes and may even direct it.

Spielberg is reuniting with screenwriter David Koepp on the high profile project after both of them worked together in Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, War Of The Worlds and Jurassic Park.

The late Crichton was in the process of writing Pirate Latitudes before his death last November. And when his assistant found the manuscript, he approached Harper Collins who is publishing the novel. It will be released on November 24 this year.

Spielberg turned Crichton‘s Jurassic Park and The Lost World into hit films and he also worked with the late author on the TV series E.R.

MUMBAI: The 2009 edition of the Venice Film Festival will run at Venice Lido from 2 to 12 September. The opening ceremony, hosted by Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta, will be followed by the world premiere of Giuseppe Tornatore‘s Baar?a, one of the movies in competition.

The official line-up of the 66th Festival includes six different sections – Venezia 66, Out of Competition, Orizzonti, Controcampo italiano, Corto Cortissimo and Questi Fantasmi – and two independent and parallel sections which are International Critics‘ Week – a series of 7 or 8 films, debut works, independently selected by a special commission nominated by the National Syndicate of Italian Film Critics – and Giornate degli Autori – Venice Days – a series of 10-12 films independently organized by a commission nominated by the Italian Association of filmmakers and by the Association of Independent Directors and Producers.

Five international juries will assign the official awards to producers coming from every corner of the world, in fact, all countries are represented during the Festival, with international directors who participate in order to show their works to an international audience.

This year a pre-opening night has been organized that will take place on 1 September in the Campo San Polo Arena, with the screening of the Mario Monicelli‘s film La Grande Guerra (The Great War, 1959).

The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote all the various aspects of international cinema in all its forms, as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and tolerance.

MUMBAI: Director Quentin Tarantino will receive the 2009 Kirk Douglas Award for excellence in film at an event at the 2010 Santa Barbara International Film Festival in California.

The award will be presented to Tarantino by Douglas himself on 22 October.

MUMBAI: The names of the judges who will be officiating for this year‘s Hollywood World Awards at the 13th Annual Hollywood Film Festival have been announced.
Mike Goodridge, editor of Screen International (US) will chair the panel, which has film critics Dan Fainaru, Jonathan Romney,Allan Hunter, Derek Malcolm, Lee Marshall and Howard Feinstein, Sarajevo Film Festival programmer; Sandra Hebron, artistic director of The Times BFI London Film Festival, Despina Mouzaki, director of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Jacob Neiiendam, director of the CPH:PIX-Copenhagen Film Festivals and Clare Stewart, director of the Sydney Film Festival.

The nominees will be announced on 30 September. The award for world film of the year will be presented on 26 October the culmination day of the festival.
Qualifying films must have their world premieres between 1 October, 2008 and 1 October this year.

MUMBAI: Andrew Herwitz‘s Film Sales Company has acquired the worldwide distribution rights of Carl Bessai‘s drama Cole. This move further enhances Film Sales Company‘s Toronto slate.
Richard De Klerk and Kandyse McClure star in the coming of age story about a young man from a small town who tries to reconcile personal ambition and forbidden love with the expectations of a traditional upbringing.

“Frankly, I was surprised by how much my entire staff and I responded to the film, given that the team that brought the film to fruition is relatively unknown, until now,” Herwitz said.

Rampart Films and Jason James produced and Irene Nelson served as executive producer. Herwitz‘s Toronto slate includes My Dog Tulip and Joan Baez: How Sweet The Sound.

 MUMBAI: The principal shooting of Mike Leigh‘s Untitled 09 has commenced in London.

The film stars Michele Austin, David Bradley, Jim Broadbent, Phil Davis, Karina Fernandez, Oliver Maltman, Lesley Manville, Stuart McQuarrie, Martin Savage, Ruth Sheen, Imelda Staunton and Peter Wight. Of the cast of twelve, only David Bradley and Stuart McQuarrie are working with Leigh for the first time.

The crew of the film includes Leigh regulars like cinematographer Dick Pope, editor Jon Gregory, casting director Nina Gold, costume designer Jacqueline Durran and hair and make-up supervisor Chrissie Blundell.

MUMBAI: Jet Li will soon star in a Chinese-language drama Ocean Heaven to be directed by Xue Xiaolu. This film marks the actor‘s first non-action project.

Set in the harbour city of Qingdao, the film is jointly financed by Beijing-based companies BDI Films, Beijing Harmony and Harvest Media and Jiaxuan. Hong Kong-based Edko Films will distribute in mainland China and Hong Kong.

Taiwanese actress Kuei Lun-mei and Chinese actor Wen Zhang will co-star with Li in the drama about father-son relationships. Jet Li will portray a father and Wen Zhang will play his son who suffers from autism. Kuei will portray a stage performer at Qingdao‘s Polar Ocean World, which is the main location of the film.

Director Xue Xiaolu, who was the scriptwriter on Chen Kaige‘s drama Together, will also script Ocean Heaven. Christopher Doyle will handle cinematography while Hai Chung-man (Curse Of The Golden Flowers) will serve as art director of the film. The release date is set for spring 2010.

MUMBAI: The San Sebastian Film Festival has announced its line-up of Latin American projects for the ‘Films In Progress‘ section including works from upcoming Uruguayan talents like Federico Veiroj and Daniel Hendler.

The line-up includes Veiroj‘s new project La Vida Util, starring Jorge Jellinek who plays a middle age man going through a crisis after he loses his job. The film is backed by leading Uruguayan producers Control Z Films who had also supported Veiroj‘s least film Acne.

MUMBAI: IFC Films, in a deal, has acquired Marco Bellochio‘s Vincere which it will distribute in North America. The film that had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival is about Mussolini‘s rise to political power and the lengths he went to in order to cover up his marriage and fatherhood.

Filippo Timi stars in a dual role as Mussolini and his illegitimate son, while Giovanna Mezzogiorno plays Dalser.