ITV

Category: International

  • Shooting of The Eagle of the Ninth rolls in Hungary

    MUMBAI: The shooting of Kevin Macdonald‘s Roman epic The Eagle Of The Ninth has begun. The 12-week schedule started on 25 August in Hungary.

    The film, which will also be shot in Scotland stars Channing Tatum, Donald Sutherland and Jamie Bell and tells the story of centurion Marcus Aquila (Tatum), who crosses Hadrian‘s Wall into savage Caledonia to solve the mystery of the Ninth Legion, which disappeared 20 years earlier.


    Co-financed by Film4 and Focus Features, The Eagle of the Ninth has already sold in virtually every territory after a successful Cannes showcase earlier this year.


    Among Macdonald‘s previous films are The Last King of Scotland and Kevin Macdonald‘s Roman epic The Eagle Of The Ninth Touching the Void. The film sees Macdonald‘s reuniting with Jeremy Brock who had earlier written the screenplay of The Last King of Scotland.

  • Fortissimo Films acquires worldwide rights ‘Shock Labyrinth’

    MUMBAI: In a deal, Fortissimo Films has acquired worldwide rights of live-action 3D thriller The Shock Labyrinth, directed by Takashi Shimizu and produced by Japan‘s Asmik Ace.

    The acquisition marks Fortissimo‘s first foray into the world of 3D cinema and follows its recent acquisition of another horror-thriller in Pang Ho Cheung‘s Dream Home.


    The Shock Labyrinth, which is Japan‘s first live-action 3D film, is currently in post-production stage.


    Set in an attraction at the Fuji-Q High Land amusement park, known as the Senritsu Meiyu (literal translation: The Shock Labyrinth), the film follows a group of teenagers dealing with the surprise return of a friend who disappeared more than a decade ago.


    Shimizu previously directed Japanese horror films Juon and Juon 2 along with their US remakes The Grudge and The Grudge 2.


    The deal was brokered by Fortissimo chairman Michael J. Werner and Asmik Ace manager, international production and marketing, Joe Ikeda.

  • Adam Fierro and Glen Mazzara to pen ‘Hancock‘ sequel

    MUMBAI: Columbia has hired Adam Fierro and Glen Mazzara to pen the sequel to the Will Smith superhero movie Hancock that grossed $624 million worldwide last year.
    Though the plot details have been kept under wraps, the scribes will work with Smith and director Peter Berg to build on the story.


    The original starred Smith as a boozy, irresponsible superhero who undergoes an image makeover by a public relations man. It is later revealed that the hero is part of a line of immortal beings who have been around for more than 3,000 years and begin to lose their powers when in proximity to fellow immortals.


    Hancock, originally titled Tonight He Comes took more than 12 years to make it to the screen. But the sequel will be on a faster track.

  • Mammie Gummer in Carpenter‘s ‘The Ward‘

    MUMBAI: Mamie Gummer is joining Amber Heard and Jared Harris in Echo Lake Entertainment and A Bigger Boat‘s psychological thriller The Ward that has been directed by John Carpenter.Heard plays a young woman who wakes up in a mental institution with no memory of who she is or why she is there, only to find herself terrorised by a ghost. Gummer plays a troubled patient who becomes an ally to Heard‘s character.


    Gummer‘s credits include Evening and the HBO award-winning mini-series John Adams. She appears in Ang Lee‘s Taking Woodstock that was released recently in North America.

    Carpenter has directed films like Halloween, Escape From New York, The Fog, and Christine.



     

  • Beineix to head Pusan jury

    MUMBAI: The Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) has announced that Jean-Jacques Beineix has been appointed to head its jury for the New Currents competition which involves emerging Asian filmmakers.Jean-Jacques Beineix will be joined on the jury by Turkish director Yesim Ustaoglu, Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Taiwanese actress Terri Kwan and Korean cinematographer Kim Hyungkoo.

    Te jury for the newly created Flash Forward Award, which focuses on non-Asian directors, includes producer Marianne Slot (Dancer In The Dark); Frederic Boyer, artistic director of Cannes‘ Directors‘ Fortnight and Alissa Simon, programmer of the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

    On the list of jurors for the Sonje Award for short films in the Wide Angle section are Korean actor and director You Jitae, Finnish producer Simojukka Ruippo, and Malaysian director Tan Chui Mui.

    The 14th PIFF will take place from 8 to 16 October while the Asian Film Market runs from 11 to 14 October. The jury will present the two winners of the New Currents award with a cash prize of $30,000.

  • ‘Slice of Pie‘ bags major slice of St. Louis‘ awards

    MUMBAI: Producer Rick Hall‘s Slice of Pie has won several awards at the recent St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase awards. The awards annexed by the film include Best Relationship/Romance short over 10 minutes, best screenplay (Rick Hall), best actor (Rick Hall) and best actress (Kelly McLeod).

    The film also earned an invitation to the St. Louis International Film Festival, that is scheduled to be held from 12 to 22 November.

    “We were in the Feel Good Film Festival last weekend, held at the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Boulevard,” Hall said.

    “We will be in the Temecula Valley (Calif.) International Film Festival on Aug. 26. We are rolling along. It was quite a treat to be recognized by the showcase in St. Louis,” she added.

  • Bahrani film ‘Plastic Bag’ to open Venice shorts section

    MUMBAI: The organisers of the Venice Film festival has announced the line up for the international short film competition in the upcoming 66th edition of the Venice Film Festival.The section will open with Man Push Cart and Goodbye Solo director Ramin Bahrani‘s eco-themed short Plastic Bag. The short traces an epic, existential journey of a plastic bag in a world of globalization concerns. The director, who was last in Venice with Goodbye Solo (2008) is also one among the Lion of the Future (first film) jury this year.

    Plastic Bag is the first of 26 shorts (18 of which are in competition) that were selected out of 1,600 submissions this year.

    The eighteen films competing in this year‘s Corto Cortissimo line up, represent 16 countries and include three Italian films including the debut of actor Adriano Giannini‘s The Game (Il gioco), ample Asian entries such as Kwang bok-Kim‘s Mom‘s Vacation (Umma-e-huga) and Japan‘s Edmund Yao‘s Kingo. Others titles hail from Brazil, such as Bliss (O teu sorriso) from Pedro Freire as well as titles from Eastern Europe, Europe, South Africa and the United States.

    The section closes with the Italian-Swiss co-production The It. Aliens by filmmakers Clemens Klopfenstein and Lucas Tiberio Klopfenstein, out of competition.


  • NBC’s pilot order of ‘Rex Is Not Your Lawyer’ in Universal lap

    MUMBAI: A pilot order of legal comedic drama Rex Is Not Your Lawyer has been handed by NBC to Universal Media Studios.

    Written by Andrew Leeds and David Lampson, the film centers on a lawyer who suffers panic attacks and takes up coaching clients to represent themselves in court.


    Rex was one of the first projects Berman and Lloyd developed after the 2007 launch of their company. They originally sold it to NBC that year under their first-look deal with NBC Universal. It first was sidelined by the writers strike; then NBC brass passed on it.


    But Berman and Braun remained high on the project and, after the recent regime change at the network with Angela Bromstad taking over as entertainment president and Laura Lancaster as head of drama, they took the script to them.


    Leeds and novelist Lampson got their break as TV writers in 2005 when their comedy script Stephen‘s Life.

  • Bruce Cohen to produce ‘Governors Awards’ ceremony for Academy

    MUMBAI: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that producer Bruce Cohen has been tapped to produce the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ inaugural Governors Awards event on 14 November,

    The event would be held at the Governors Ballroom at Hollywood and Highland Center. As announced earlier, it will be on this evening that one or more of the Academy‘s highest honours – the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and the Honorary Award – would be presented.


    Cohen says, “I want the evening to be an elegant, legendary night that the honorees and attendees alike will remember and cherish.”


    Cohen won a Best Picture Oscar for producing American Beauty



    and was nominated in the same category in 2008 for Milk both with his partner Dan Jinks.


  • James Cameron promoting 3D TV

    MUMBAI: With a desire to promote 3D TVs, James Cameron has recently signed a deal with Panasonic. The deal comes as Cameron and Twentieth Century Fox are aiming to break new ground with the release of Avatar, a film that is shot entirely in 3D.

    Parallely, Panasonic is trying to get consumers excited about three-dimensional viewing in the home — excited enough to buy new flat-panel sets and new Blu-ray disc players. Viewers will have to wear special glasses to experience the 3D effect. It‘s not clear how much 3D TVs would cost.


    Panasonic is planning to start selling 3D TVs next year. Sony, which has its own movie division and Samsung Electronics of South Korea have shown prototypes and may offer similar products.


    Several animation films are already being shown in the 3D format in theatres along with a handful of live-action movies. Avatar set for release 18 December will be the biggest Hollywood film to debut worldwide in both 2D and 3D.


    “I believe 3D is how we will experience movies, gaming and computing in the near future. 3D is not something you watch. It‘s a reality you feel you could step into,” Cameron said.


    Panasonic plans to have several trailer-vans driving around in the U.S. and Europe next month with large-screen 3D TVs inside showing Avatar. In Japan, footage from Avatar — a science-fiction romance set in a futuristic jungle inhabited by creatures will appear in ads for 3D TVs.