Category: International

MUMBAI

: Ross Pollack has decided to quit Sony Pictures Television‘s (SPT) Asian distribution operations to assume the post of CEO of Celestial Pictures. Pollack fills a position that has been empty since the departure of William Pfeiffer more than a year ago.

Hong Kong-based Celestial Pictures operates three Asian movies channels and an infotainment service, produces and acquires feature film and TV content and owns the acclaimed Shaw Brothers catalogue. Formerly senior VP of distribution for Asia at SPT, Pollack will focus on developing and implementing strategies that will create additional value for the Shaw Brothers film library and channel bouquet. He will also focus on the production and acquisition of new Chinese content for distribution on parent company Astro‘s platforms and into global markets.

His successor at SPT is Angel Orengo, who is relocating to Hong Kong from Miami, where he is currently SPT‘s senior VP of distribution for Latin America and the Caribbean. Reporting to Keith Le Goy, SPT‘s international distribution president, Orengo will oversee the distribution of the studio‘s catalogue across Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

MUMBAI: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the latest adventure of the teen wizard, has raked in $22.2 million in the US from midnight screenings, distributor Warner Brothers declared.

The sixth instalment in the Harry Potter franchise also topped this year‘s biggest hit Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which pulled in $16 million from midnight screenings on 24 June, its first day of release.

Incidentally, the latest Harry Potter film raked in $10 million more from midnight screenings than Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix did in 2007.

The two-year lag, since Order of the Phoenix, was the longest that fans have had to wait for a new Harry Potter film since the first film was released in 2001.

Warner had originally planned to release Half-Blood Prince last November but delayed the release to 2009 in order to take advantage of an open weekend in Hollywood‘s busy summer schedule.

The new movie has Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) trying to unravel a hidden memory from one of his teachers who holds key information about the wizard world‘s darkest enemy, Lord Voldemort.

MUMBAI: Jeff Wadlow and Summit Entertainment remain in business together, but they‘ve chosen a different project. Wadlow has been signed to direct Arena, a sci-fi action film.

Wadlow, who helmed the 2008 release Never Back Down for the studio, had been working on the prison-escape action project The Tomb for Summit but when the project got stalled, Summit moved him to Arena.

The film revolves around a group of modern-day soldiers transported to a shifting landscape, where they are forced to face off against the best warriors from different eras in gladitorial battle.

The film is being produced by Chris Bender and J.C. Spink of BenderSpink and Jim Thompson of Original Content along with Alex Franklin and Jonah Loop of Pangea Pictures.

Summit recently released Twilight, Push, Knowing and Next Day Air. It‘s horror film Pandorum is expected to hit theatres in September.

MUMBAI: The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has announced the contenders for the 2009 Primetime Emmy Awards. With 99, HBO has once again, has scored most nominations.

NBC followed with 67 nominations while ABC had 55, CBS 49 and FOX had 42.

In the cable space, HBO was well ahead of its closest competitor, Showtime which picked up 29 nods with AMC not far behind with 23.

HBO‘s Big Love received its first nomination in the category for outstanding drama series, where it will compete with AMC‘s Breaking Bad, FX‘s Damages, Showtime‘s Dexter, FOX‘s House, ABC‘s Lost and last year‘s winner, AMC‘s Mad Men which secured a total of 16 nominations this year, more than any other drama.

On the performance side, Jon Hamm (Mad Men) is up against Hugh Laurie of House, Michael C. Hall for Dexter, Bryan Cranston for Breaking Bad, Gabriel Byrne for HBO‘s In Treatment and Simon Baker of CBS‘s The Mentalist.

Lead actresses who have been nominated are Glenn Close for Damages, Sally Field for ABC‘s Brothers & Sisters, Mariska Hargitay of NBC‘s Law & Order: SVU, Holly Hunter of TNT‘s Saving Grace, Elisabeth Moss of Mad Men and Kyra Sedgwick for TNT‘s The Closer.

With a total of 17 nominations, HBO‘s Grey Gardens leads off the category of outstanding made-for-TV movie, along with fellow HBO contenders Into the Storm and Taking Chance, as well as Lifetime‘s Coco Chanel and Prayers for Bobby.

MUMBAI: Bridget Jones is coming back to the big screen. Renee Zellweger will reprise her role as the charmingly befuddled British publishing executive in the third instalment of the franchise, it is reported.

The script will, in all possibilities, be based on author Hele Fielding‘s columns for British paper The Independent about Bridget trying to have a baby and her continuing search for love.

The first two movies, Bridget Jones‘s Diary in 2001 and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason in 2004, were based on Fielding‘s best-selling books of the same titles.

The film will be produced by Working Title and is expected to go on the floors by the end of next year.

MUMBAI: Sarah Carter has joined CBS‘ crime drama CSI: NY. She will play a twenty plus forensic school graduate with aspirations to be a CSI who works as a crime scene clean up technician and has a secret up her sleeve.

The stint reunites Carter with CBS, the network, which aired Shark for two seasons.

On the legal drama, Carter played an young attorney assigned to the team of hot-shot lawyer-turned prosecutor Sebastian Stark (James Woods).

MUMBAI: Wolverine star Hugh Jackman will star in the Full Monty-ish comedy Avon Man from 20th Century Fox, according to sources.The story follows men who are laid off from their jobs at a car dealership, and Jackman, in all certainty becomes an Avon salesman.

It is said that the character eventually becomes a top seller due to his charm and good looks, and manages to coerce his buddies to join him in the endeavour to win a regional sales contest.

MUMBAI: M2B World Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of US-based Amaru, Inc (AMRU) and Asia‘s leading broadband entertainment provider, have signed an agreement with FCCE Asia Pacific to make available videos of Hollywood‘s latest entertainment news

on WOWtv websites.

In the two-year agreement, M2B will license FCCE‘s content to be showcased via IPTV and broadcast through an on-demand TV delivered over the internet, set- top-boxes and portable handheld devices. The licensed territories include Singapore, China, Malaysia and Indonesia.

FCCE‘s three programme series – Films

& Stars, Hollywood Buzz and Kids Flix are currently being offered on WOWtv‘s Singapore site (http://sg.wowtv.com) and will soon be available to viewers on WOWtv‘s China site ( http://cn.wowtv.com ). The programmes are currently available on a pay-per-view basis on WOWtv Singapore with new episodes updated every week.

Films & Stars is a sneak preview of Hollywood‘s hottest new films and the stars that make them, presented in an entertaining half-hour weekly magazine. Some of the stars regularly featured here are among the movie industry‘s creme de la creme such as Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Christian Bale, Tom Hanks, Kate Winslet and many more.

Hollywood Buzz is a half-hour weekly magazine packed with the latest entertainment headlines and hottest celebrity profiles. Kids Flix is a fast-paced weekly show aimed at keeping kids up to date on the hottest new movies, DVDs and games.

“As one of the region‘s first and leading broadband television providers, M2B is consistently delivering new and quality entertainment to our viewers. With the addition of FCCE‘s shows to our comprehensive range of content, M2B will continue to be the one-stop online entertainment hub for our viewers,” said M2B World Asia Pacific president and CEO Colin Binny.

“We are very pleased to be able to launch our top quality shows in the Asia Pacific region on M2B‘s WOWtv platforms. We look forward to growing our business in this region with M2B as one of our partners,” said FCCE Distribution‘s Chief Commercial Officer, Justus A.G. Verkerk.

M2B engineered Singapore‘s first broadband TV service with an extensive premium content library in July 2006. To date, its US-listed parent company Amaru Inc. has invested more than US$20 million in building and developing M2B‘s content library and broadband infrastructure in Singapore.

MUMBAI: Denzel Washington has decided to quit the Tony Scott-directed runaway train movie Unstoppable that is slated to be filmed in Pittsburgh.

The Academy Award-winning actor has formally decided to pull out of Unstoppable after signing for the project in April.

It has been reported that the Scott-helmed film has been haggling over the Unstoppable budget with Fox which sought to shave Washington‘s emolument and reduce the overall budget from $109 million to $90 million.

A Fox spokesman confirmed that Washington has opted out of “Unstoppable” and emphasized that the production is still in development.

MUMBAI: Seth Gordon, the Four Christmases director is in talks to direct King Dork the high school dramedy based on Frank Portman‘s young-adult novel.

Will Ferrell and Adam McKay‘s Gary Sanchez Prods., which is producing Dork had set up the project at Par Vantage. But with the dissolution of that unit, the project has migrated to Sony.

Published in 2006, Dork centers on teenage misfit Tom Henderson, a student who is tormented by all sorts of cliques and seeks refuge in music. He also attempts to uncover the truth about his late father who died under hazy circumstances while combing through some books.

Gordon has also been signed on to direct Suicide Squad that talks about a heist gone wrong at the Kentucky Derby; the male-centric comedy Mr. Romance and a feature adaptation of Kong that is under development.