Category: International

MUMBAI: Up is only Pixar‘s 10th feature film but it could well win the studio its fifth Oscar for animated feature. Before audiences see Up they are being shown a teaser trailer for next year‘s Pixar picture Toy Story 3.

All of the old toys are back – Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) and Hamm (John Ratzenberger) – along with newcomers Ken (Michael Keaton) and Barbie (Jodie Benson). The film is directed by Lee Unkrich who co-helmed Toy Story 2 with a script by Oscar winner Michael Arndt of Little Miss Sunshine fame.

Both the original Toy Story (1995) and the equally successful sequel Toy Story 2 (1999) predate the separate animated film category at the Oscars. Toy Story contended for best original screenplay (The Usual Suspect ) as well as song and musical/comedy score (Pocahantas).

Pixar does not intend to match the ramped-up output of DreamWorks Animation that promises at least eight new titles in the coming three years. Rather, the studio will stick to its proven schedule of one film every year or so.

MUMBAI: A transcript of the call made to the fire department number 911 when Mike Tyson‘s 4-year-old daughter was discovered unconscious in the family‘s home indicates the child‘s mom “did all that she could when this tragic accident occurred,” police said.

“She did what experts suggest,” Phoenix Police Sgt. Andy Hill said. “She called 911 immediately. She continued to do so until the police and firefighters arrived. The 911 operator did an outstanding job on this call, assisting the mother until help arrived on scene.”

Exodus, Tyson‘s daughter was pronounced dead last Tuesday morning, a day after she apparently got her head caught in a cord hanging from a treadmill and choked.
Per the 911 transcript, Xochitl first told the dispatcher her baby had choked from the treadmill.

MUMBAI: A grieved shutterbug has sued Britney Spears for rolling over his foot with her Mercedes convertible in 2007, a headline-grabber that was captured on video and was one of the three incidents in which a vehicle being driven by Spears left someone injured.

The photographer Ricardo Mendoza, who was employed by TMZ at the time, did not press charges; instead, he filed a lawsuit last Friday claiming negligence and assault.

Spears “intentionally, deliberately, wantonly, maliciously and with a conscious disregard for the rights, health, and safety of others” drove her car in a way that caused her to “drive, push, ram and/or barrel through a crowd of people…severely injuring plaintiff,” the complainant stated.

MUMBAI: Too much Salt is proving bad for Angelina Jolie‘s health. But in a move that would no doubt make Lara Croft proud, Jolie took a licking and kept on ticking this morning after sustaining a minor injury on the Long Island set of Salt the spy thriller.

33-year-old actress Angelina Jolie was briefly hospitalised after bumping her head and suffering a cut between her eyes while filming a stunt for Salt.

Columbia Pictures said in a statement, “This morning, while filming an action sequence during production of her new movie Salt, Angelina Jolie sustained a minor injury and as a precautionary measure, she was taken to a local hospital where she was examined and later released.She is now back on set and will resume shooting this afternoon.”

MUMBAI: British actress Lucy Punch wowed the writer-director with a screen test and secured the role in Allen‘s newest film that Kidman withdrew from.

The relatively unknown, who starred on the CBS series The Class and had roles in Hot Fuzz and Ella Enchanted joins Antonio Banderas, Freida Pinto, Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin and Anthony Hopkins in the yet untitled project.

It is reported that Punch will also appear in Young Americans a comedy scheduled for release in January.

MUMBAI: With the intent to choose at least one project per year to produce and finance, Hollywood filmmaker Larry Meistrich‘s GI Pictures, best known for producing the Oscar-winning film Sling Blade, is soliciting movie and TV pitches from active members of the military, veterans and their family members.

Beyond pitching, GI Pictures wants the projects to be made entirely by current and retired military personnel and family members, including writing, directing, producing acting and all crew members. Those with potential but no experience, he‘ll train. “My management team fits because we all have parents who were in the military,” Meistrich said.

“The skills acquired during a military career are very complementary to production,” he said. “The way a set runs is similar to a chain of command, but we‘re obviously not risking our lives.”

Although Meistrich acknowledges the “fertile ground for ideas” that come from military life and war, he says he‘s encouraging stories having nothing to do with either.

Meistrich revealed that his father was a captain in the U.S. Army and a veteran of the Vietnam War. “We wanted to support the troops with more than just a yellow ribbon,” he said of his incentive to create GI Pictures.

Dana Offenbach, a president of NEHST, will oversee productions at GI Pictures. Offenbach‘s credits include several independent films including the Miramax movie “Hav Plenty.”

MUMBAI: Warner Bros. has picked up the spec script Trans Am by Matt Johnson. The Southern-fried buddy action script centers on a disgraced sheriff‘s deputy and a repentant getaway driver who must elude a federal manhunt when they join forces to bring an escaped bank robber to justice. The action unfolds along the Mississippi River in the vein of a Deep South-set 48 HRS.

Matt Reilly will oversee the project for Warners.

Johnson was recently hired to adapt the Red 5 comic book Afterburn for Relativity and producers Neal Moritz and Tobey Maguire.

His credits include 2004‘s Warners thriller Torque and the 2005 Jessica Alba film Into the Blue.

Recently he penned the road-race adventure Baja 1000 for Spyglass.

MUMBAI: Dreamworks Animation has announced its slate of films through 2012 that includes:

How to Train Your Dragon: Written and directed by Chris Sanders and Den DeBlois and produced by Bonnie Arnold the film stars

Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera and Johan Hill. Set in the world of vikings and dragons, the film centers on an awkward teen who befriends an injured dragon. The film is set for a 26 March, 2010 release.
Shrek Forever After: Directed by Mike Mitchell and produced by Teresa Cheng and Gina Shay the film is slated to release on 21 May, 2010.

Oobermind: This film stars Robert Downey Jr. and Tina Fey in which Downey will voice a super-villain who finds life a little dull after vanquishing good-guy rival Metro Man in the superhero-themed film that is expected to open on 5 Nov., 2010.

Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom: The sequel to the 2008 hit with Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman returning to the voice cast is due to hit theaters on June 3, 2011.

The Guardians: Turning to a not-yet-published book series by William Joyce, whose work has previously inspired Disney‘s Meet the Robinsons and Rolie Polie Olie. The Guardians unites characters every child knows – Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost and the Sandman – to protect the world from a Bogeyman-like villain. The film is due to release on 4 November, 2011.

Puss in Boots: Puss in Boots imagines events before the popular character‘s appearance in Shrek 2, while introducing all-new characters. Antonio Banderas returns while Salma Hayek will lend her voice to love interest Kitty. Directed by Chris Miller director of Shrek the Third, the film is slated for release on 30 March 2012.

Madagascar 3: In May, 2012 director Eric Darnell offers the third instalment in the zoo-break series which would relocate the animals from Africa to Europe via a traveling circus.
The Croods: A caveman comedy

from directors Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, the film was once intended to be an Aardman collaboration. The film is among the few vying for a 12 November, 2012 release.

Truckers: Derived from Terry Pratchett‘s The Bromeliad Trilogy, with Simon Beaufoy adapting a story of miniature creatures stuck living in a department store. The film is also eying 12 November, release.

Super Secret Ghost Project: The film about what ghosts think about humans is also in the fray for a 12 Nov, 2012 release.

MUMBAI: Viking has acquired the world rights of Barbara Streisand‘s book A Passion for Design in which the performer focuses on the architecture and building of her latest home. The book is expected to release in 2010.

A Passion for Design will chronicle Streisand‘s previous residences, from her New York apartment to her Los Angeles townhouse and her homes along the California coast. It will contain many of her own photographs of rooms she has decorated, furniture and art she has collected, and flowers and vegetables she grows in her gardens.

The book that was acquired by Viking president Clare Ferraro will be edited by Viking executive editor Rick Kot. Robert Barnett of Williams & Connolly negotiated the acquisition for world rights and first serial.

MUMBAI: Burdened by a debt load totaling almost $4 billion, MGM executives were hoping to get enough hit movies into theatres quickly enough to solve its money woes internally, but with growing signs of restlessness among studio creditors

, the studio is on the look out for any sort of capital restructuring that can avert a forced Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganisation.

One big motivator: MGM‘s long-standing hold on the 007 franchise could come into play in a court-supervised reorganisation. To avoid that, MGM might consider giving up a sizable portion of their equity holdings.

MGM is owned by a consortium including Sony, Comcast, TPG Capital and Providence Equity. No one is suggesting that talks between the studio and its creditors have yielded a specific game plan. But some sort of voluntary restructuring could emerge in the absence of any obvious white-knight investor.

One scenario would see a creditors-led restructuring in which the lenders are allowed to swap a sizable portion of MGM debt for studio equity. Current debt-holders include Elliott Associates, a New York-based hedge fund closely tied to Hollywood producer Ryan Kavanaugh that‘s been buying up hundreds of millions in distressed MGM debt.