ITV

Category: International

  • Jack Nicholson eyes Brooks comedy

    MUMBAI: Jack Nicholson may again work with James L. Brooks, the filmmaker who directed Nicholson to Oscar-winning performances in Terms of Endearment and As Good as It Gets. The veteran is in talks to join the cast of Brooks‘ latest project, an untitled romantic comedy that stars Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd and Owen Wilson.

    Written by Brooks, the story sees Witherspoon as a professional softball player torn between two men, a solid guy played by Rudd and a charming ball player with a 94-mile an hour fastball played by Wilson.


    Incidentally, Bill Murray was earlier in talks to play the role but ultimately lost interest. No sooner did Nicholson, who had been itching to be in front of the camera, hear about the project he called up Brooks and signed the film.


    The project is due to go on the floor later in June.

  • Al Pacino mulls Kevorkian biopic

    MUMBAI: Al Pacino is in negotiations to star in You Don‘t Know Jack a HBO Films biopic about Dr. Jack Kevorkian that Barry Levinson will direct.

    Kevorkian, also known as Dr. Death, assisted in more than 150 cases of suicide and had beaten the state court system in Michigan numerous times, but was finally convicted after he willingly sent a videotape of himself euthanizing a terminally ill man to 60 Minutes. He was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 and is serving his sentence in a maximum-security prison in Michigan.


    The film will trace his rise as he builds his infamous Mercy Machine, conducts his first assisted suicide, and starts a media frenzy with his epic legal battles defending a patient‘s right to die.


    The project has been in development for some time with Ben Kingsley once rumoured to play Kevorkian.

  • Jeff Nathanson signed to helm Houdini biopic

    MUMBAI: Jeff Nathanson has signed to write and direct the adaptation of William Kalush and Larry Sloman‘s Harry Houdini biography The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America‘s First Superhero for Summit Entertainment.

    The book, published in 2006 by Atria Books, made waves at the time for insinuating that Houdini was a spy for Britain and was asked to be an adviser to Czar Nicholas II‘s court in pre-revolutionary Russia. The book also portrayed the master escape artist and magician as a debunker of con artists who pretended to be spiritualists, leading to the theory that his death was caused by the spiritual movement as payback.


    The production house hoping to capitalize on worldwide recognition of Houdini‘s name while potentially launching a franchise, is looking to take a more action-adventure tack — similar to the one taken by the upcoming Guy Ritchie-Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movie.


    Nathanson has the right mix of adventure and character in his credits. One of the town‘s more in-demand scribes, he has worked on two Rush Hour movies and Steven Spielberg‘s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” He also wrote Spielberg character pieces Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal.


    Nathanson, repped by CAA, is adapting the children‘s book series The 39 Clues for DreamWorks. He made his directorial debut with indie crime caper The Last Shot.

  • Insurance co. sues Cameroon

    MUMBAI: Western General Insurance Company is suing James Cameron and one of his employees, Oscar Escalante.
    According to the suit, the employee was driving a car registered at Cameron‘s address when he drove into a light pole and smashed it knocking out power the business in the town for three whole days.

    The company is suing the employee and Cameron for negligence, claiming the accident cost it nearly $125,000 while the power was out.

  • Hollywood studio hires help for debt

    MUMBAI: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has hired investment bank Moelis & Co to help it restructure mammoth debts of about $3.7 billion, several media reports say. The studio behind classics such as the James Bond films and The Wizard of Oz is paying almost $300 million a year in interest, and must make a $1 billion repayment in 2011.

    The revered studio was bought by a group of investors in 2004 for about $5 billion but the global credit crunch and recession has stymied efforts to raise equity in order to reduce its debts.


    MGM funds its movie production through its massive film library, which boasts about 4000 titles and more than 10,000 television episodes, an archive which earns the company about $500 million annually.

  • Lanny Noveck joins ICM

    MUMBAI: Lanny Noveck, head of scripted television at WMA has joined ICM where he will be an agent in the TV lit department. However it isn‘t clear as to how many of his clients will follow him to ICM, where he starts working today.

    Noveck, a 30-year WMA veteran, was one of the 100 or so agency staffers laid off a couple weeks ago as fallout of WMA‘s merger with Endeavor. He led WMA‘s TV literary department for 15 years before being named head of scripted packaging in 2005.

    The series he has helped package include The King of Queens and That ‘70s Show. In addition to Noveck, ICM took in another TV lit agent let go from WMA in the post-merger shuffle, Dan Norton. He joined ICM on 21 May. Three years ago Norton began his career at ICM before going over to WMA.

  • Richard Shepard to direct ‘The Angriest Man in Brookyln’

    MUMBAI: Richard Shepard has signed to helm Overture Films‘ dark comedy The Angriest Man in Brooklyn.

    The project, originally titled 92 Minutes and based on a 1997 Israeli film explores how a New York City man uses the last hour and a half of life he‘s been told he has left. Daniel Taplitz adapted the screenplay from writer-director Assi Dayan‘s original Mar Baum.


    Bob Cooper‘s Landscape Entertainment is producing the film with Daniel Walker of Force Majeure. Exec Lauren Kisilevsky is overseeing the project for Overture.
    “I love multi-toned films, and this is an extremely smart, unique and funny story,” Shepard said. “It is also very emotional, without an ounce of undue sentimentality.”


    Shepard, repped by Gersh and Industry Entertainment, wrote and directed The Matador and The Hunting Party. He also directed the pilots for Criminal Minds, In the Motherhood and Ugly Betty, for which he won an Emmy.


    Shepard‘s documentary about the late Godfather and Deer Hunter star John Cazale, I Knew It Was You premiered at Sundance in January and will air on HBO next year.

  • ‘Dark Knight’ tops Key Art noms

    MUMBAI: The Dark Knight earned 16 nominations, the most for any film, for The Hollywood Reporter‘s 38th annual Key Art Awards. Wall-E which garnered 15 nominations, just missed sharing the top spot with Knight.

    Ignition leads all agencies with 41 nominations while Warner Bros., Disney and Lionsgate each had very strong studio showings.


    Tropic Thunder with 10 nominations came in at No. 3 while Iron Man with 7 nominations rounded out the top four films receiving multiple noms.


    Winners will be announced June 12 during an awards ceremony at the Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

  • ‘Bruno’ gets cheeky with Eminem live on MTV


    MUMBAI: Eminem apparently has flown the coop from the MTV


    Movie Awards after a close encounter with Sacha Baron Cohen.

    In character as flamboyant fashion reporter “Bruno,” Baron Cohen flew in above Sunday‘s award show audience on a wire – and in a pair of feathery white wings and his rear end mostly exposed.



    But the comedian crashed into an overhead obstacle, and he was lowered into the audience – right into Eminem‘s lap, his bare hindquarters in the rapper‘s face. Eminem seemed visibly upset at the mishap. Or was it a joke he was in on?


    Winners from the MTV Movie Awards: Villain: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight, Female breakthrough performance: Ashley Tisdale, High School Musical 3: Senior Year,Fight: Robert Pattinson and Cam Gigandet, Twilight, Male breakthrough performance: Robert Pattinson, Twilight, male performance: Zac Efron, High School Musical 3: Senior Year,WTF Moment: Amy Poehler, Baby Mama, song from a film: The Climb by Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana: The Movie, female performance: Kristen Stewart, Twilight, comedic performance: Jim Carrey, Yes Ma and best film: Twilight.

  • ‘Smithsonian’ keeps itself on top overseas

    MUMBAI: Pixar/Disney‘s animation film Up dipped its animated toes in international waters during the weekend but it was Fox‘s Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian that claimed the top spot overseas for the first time with $37.2 million from 9,000 screens in 100 markets.

    The family comedy


    , a sequel to 2006‘s Night at the Museum opened at No. 1 in China grossing $7.4 million from 818 screens. The Ben Stiller starrer also finished first in at least 11 other territories, propelling its overseas gross past the $100 million mark ($106 million). Its worldwide gross to date is $211.3 million.

    After two stanzas atop the international circuit, Sony‘s Angels & Demons finished a close No. 2 this round, grossing $32.9 million from 10,145 screens in 101 territories. The follow-up to The Da Vinci Code ranked No. 1 in at least 14 markets, including Germany, where it tallied $4.8 for the weekend and Japan ($3.2 million). It has bagged $251.7 million overseas.


    Like DreamWorks Animation‘s Monsters vs. Aliens before it, Up the 10th title from Pixar/Disney, opened in Russia ahead of its domestic bow largely because of piracy concerns. It drew an animated $4.2 million from 560 screens, ranking No. 1 and marking the biggest weekend opening of a Pixar/Disney title in the territory.