ITV

Category: International

  • Michael Jackson scene cut from ‘Bruno’

    MUMBAI: The unexpected death of Michael Jackson has prompted a series of discussions at Universal Pictures that resulted in the studio cutting a Jackson-related sketch from Bruno hours before the film‘s premiere at Los Angeles.

    The studio removed a scene in which Bruno, the flamboyant Austrian journalist played by Sacha Baron Cohen, interviews an unsuspecting LaToya Jackson about a number of topics, including her brother.


    There was a joke about the King of Pop‘s high-pitched voice as well as a reference to his trademark white glove all done in Baron Cohen‘s characteristically absurdist tone.


    The scene played at press screenings earlier in the week, where it did not stand out as unusually outrageous in the context of Baron Cohen‘s other antics.


    But after Jackson‘s demise, the studio and filmmakers decided to delete the scene for the premiere screening out of sensitivity to the Jackson family.


    On Friday, the studio confirmed that the scene would be out of the theatrical version of the film and said that removing it won‘t be expensive because the prints have not yet been made or shipped.

  • Michael Bay in ‘I Am Number Four’ deal

    MUMBAI: Director Michael Bay and DreamWorks are getting back into business together.

    Yesterday, the studio finalised a deal to purchase pre-emptively the film rights to I Am Number Four, an unpublished science fiction book for Bay to produce and possibly direct too.


    It is the first in a planned six-volume series co-written by A Million Little Pieces author James Frey.


    The storyline of the film involves nine alien teens assimilating to high school on Earth after their planet is destroyed by an enemy species. The fourth of the group discovers that the enemy is now after him on Earth.


    Bay approved of the concept enough to take the manuscript to DreamWorks principals Stacey Snider and Steven Spielberg with whom he made Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and they leapt at the chance to team up once more.


    Spielberg‘s influence was heavy on the two Transformers films — he is credited as an executive producer — and he is expected to have a similar involvement with Four.

  • Academy shifting testimonial awards to November

    MUMBAI: In a move that will further alter the shape of the annual Oscar broadcast, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that it is moving its testimonial awards to another event to be held in November.

    Academy honours — like the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (which recognizes producers), the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and Honorary Awards – had traditionally been given out during the Oscar telecast.


    Moving forward, they will be handed out instead at a new, black-tie dinner event for about 500 invitees, which will include film clips as well as remarks from the honorees‘ colleagues.


    The Academy‘s board of governors approved the change Tuesday night at its monthly meeting, where it also approved the idea of nominating 10, rather than five, movies for best picture.


    In previous years, the honorees were chosen in December. Under the new process, they will now be selected by the board of governors in September.


    While the Academy said the honorees will also be acknowledged during the broadcast, presumably the show will not spend as much time highlighting their careers — which, in turn, would make room for shifting the spotlight to the bigger list of best picture nominees.


    “For some years now, the board has struggled to balance the desire to truly honor worthy individuals with the time limitations that the Oscar telecast imposes on these honours,” Academy president Sid Ganis said while announcing the change.


    “By creating a separate event for recognising these outstanding people in the movie industry, we‘re ensuring that each honoree will be given his or her full due, without compromise.”


    While the move may have the effect of streamlining the Oscar show a bit, it also could lead to the loss of some of the emotional highlights such as the Honorary Award presentation to Sidney Poitier in 2002, which led to Denzel Washington‘s heartfelt salute to Poitier when Washington accepted his best actor trophy for Training Day.


    Other recent recipients of the awards were Jerry Lewis who was presented with the Hersholt Award last February, art director Robert Boyle who received an Honorary Award in 2008 and Dino De Laurentiis, who was honoured with the Thalberg Award in 2001.

  • Academy doubles ‘Best Picture’ shortlist

    MUMBAI: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has doubled the number of films vying for the Best Picture category to ten for next year‘s Academy Awards, slated for March 7, 2010 and airing live on ABC.
    The Academy‘s president, Sid Ganis, noted, “After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year. The final outcome, of course, will be the same-one Best Picture winner-but the race to the finish line will feature ten, not just five, great movies from 2009.”

    He continued, “Having ten Best Picture nominees is going allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize. I can‘t wait to see what that list of ten looks like when the nominees are announced in February.”

    The nominations for the Oscars will be announced on February 2.

  • Movie theatre operators upbeat

    MUMBAI: Despite the global recession, movie theater operators were in festive mood during Cinema Expo, which ended its four-day run at the RAI convention center on Thursday — and why not? As in the U.S., box-office is booming in most international territories.

    The credit crunch has stalled many digital screen conversions. But exhibs came away pleased with sneak peeks of films screened throughout the week, and most believe d-cinema and 3-D projection will spread through the marketplace eventually, further bolstering business.


    “It‘s been a really great week, with many exciting movies and exciting lineups,” said Peter Janovsky of Hollywood Megaplex, which operates 48 screens in five Austrian theaters. “In 2009, we have had a very good year — the best in three years — and the future looks positive.”


    Studio participation also remained strong, though as with recent domestic confabs, Universal sat out Cinema Expo this year. Film distribs are clearly cognizant that foreign receipts now account for half of the boxoffice, and on many pics, international grosses outpace domestic coin.


    That was the case as far back as 1997-98, when James Cameron‘s Titanic rang up twice as much box-office overseas as in the U.S. and Canada. So it was fitting that the clear highlight of this year‘s confab was Tuesday‘s presentation of a 24-minute clip of first-ever public footage from Cameron‘s Avatar set for worldwide release by Fox on Dec. 18.

  • Paramount nabs ‘Hellified’ spec

    MUMBAI: Breathing life into a quiet spec market, Paramount has picked up Hellified a supernatural action script by Andy Burg, with Dan Bradley attached to direct. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, whose “Transformers” sequel is blowing up the boxoffice, is on board to produce.

    Hellified is known to be a supernatural action film involving a journey to hell.


    Di Bonaventura Pictures president Mark Vahradian brought the ICM-packaged script to Paramount‘s Geoff Stier and Adam Goodman, who promptly made a pre-emptive purchase. The deal was made before Goodman‘s ascension to film group president.


    The script and the accompanying six-figure deal mark a return to Hollywood for Burg, a comedy and family-film writer who has worked on such movies as 1989‘s K-9 and 1996‘s Alaska. During the early 2000s, he got attached to the internet fashioning himself as a web entrepreneur.


    With Hellified, the scribe hopes to begin a new act as an action writer. Burg is repped by ICM and Justin Silvera Management.


    Di Bonaventura‘s next outing is G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which Paramount is set to open Aug. 7.

  • ‘Drake’s Fortune’ set for big screen

    MUMBAI: Columbia is developing the action-adventure video game for a feature film, setting Kyle Ward to pen the adaptation that would be produced by Avi Arad, Charles Roven, Ari Arad and Alex Gartner.

    The story follows a descendent of explorer Sir Francis Drake, a treasure hunter named Nate Drake who believes he has learned the whereabouts of El Dorado, the fabled South American golden city, from a cursed golden statue.


    The search becomes competitive when a rival hunter joins the fray, then is racheted up several notches when creatures — actually mutated descendants of Spaniards and Nazis — begin attacking those hoping to learn the treasure‘s true secrets.


    The game, from Sony Computer Entertainment, sold 1 million copies in the first 10 weeks of its release at the end of 2007.

  • ‘Monster’ pair doing another female-themed film

    MUMBAI: The producer and cinematographer of Monster are taking on another female-themed drama.

    Clark Peterson, who produced the Charlize Theron‘s Oscar winner and Steven Bernstein, who served as its DP, will collaborate on Decoding Annie Parker, a story of the discovery of the breast-cancer gene. Peterson will produce and Bernstein will make his directorial debut.


    The movie centers on Parker, a real-life breast-cancer patient who believed her illness had a genetic component, and weaves in the story of the researchers whose mission it was to determine the role DNA plays in the deadly disease.


    Doctors dismissed Parker‘s beliefs, but she was ahead of her time: The group‘s research eventually led to the discovery of BRCA1, which is associated with breast and ovarian cancer.


    Screenwriter Michael Moss, a doctor who knew of Parker‘s story from medical circles, is penning the screenplay. Tom Berry‘s Reel One Entertainment is financing, with Berry exec producing.


    Peterson, who made his name with Monster, recently wrapped Dear Mr. Gacy, a story about a real-life college student who became obsessed with notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy. The film is expected to make the rounds at film festivals in the fall.


    Bernstein has served as a director of photography on a wide range of pictures and genres: He was the cinematographer on art house hit Like Water for Chocolate and on mainstream Hollywood comedies Scary Movie 2 and White Chicks.

  • Ross to pen CBS Films thriller

    MUMBAI: Michael Ross has been signed by Irwin Winkler who had earlier produced Home of the Brave to write Disavowed– an action thriller for CBS Films.

    Originally written by Philip Shelby, the film is about a group of military prisoners in the U.S. secretly dispatched to the African nation of Eritrea to retrieve a bio-chemical weapon that has gone missing. If the group is successful in keeping it out of the wrong hands, the convicts‘ prison sentences will be commuted.


    “It‘s a really exciting and simple premise,” said Ross. “I want to honor that and make a really fun and engaging action movie



    . That‘s the goal, is to make it moment-to-moment exciting, take advantage of the location and the simplicity of the plot and the opportunity to work within a really fun genre, which is the man-on-a-mission movie.”



    Ross is also is working on the script for the remake of the thriller Jar City for Overture Films.


    Ross has also scripts for the political thriller Cartagena in development with 2929 Prods. The film is the remake of Near Dark in development with Rogue Pictures and an untitled Chernobyl action thriller in development at Summit.

  • AMC Greenlights Warner Horizon Thriller

    MUMBAI: AMC has given the go-ahead to Rubicon, a new 12-episode thriller from Warner Horizon Television starring James Badge Dale, Lili Taylor and Miranda Richardson.

    This is AMC‘s third original series order, following the critically acclaimed Mad Men and Breaking Bad. It comes from Jason Horwitch (Pentagon Papers, Medical Investigation) and follows an analyst at a New York City think-tank whose work leads him to uncover a hidden clue that points to an unfolding global conspiracy.


    “This script is an iconic project for us in that it underscores AMC‘s brand promise of Story Matters Here, combining great story-telling with a world that hasn‘t been explored on television before,” said Joel Stillerman, the senior VP of original programming, production and digital content at AMC.


    “Think tanks are inherently mysterious places with murky agendas, and it‘s a great setting for a show like this. Jason‘s understanding of the conspiracy thriller genre is evident in a plot reminiscent of some great films like Three Days of the Condor and The Parallax View. We‘re thrilled to have a world class cast, director, and production team to bring this series to life.