ITV

Category: International

  • Universal creates new unit


    MUMBAI: In a move at integrating the studio‘s brand management


    and promotional partnerships, Universal Pictures has combined the studio‘s Consumer Products Group with its Universal Studios Partnerships division to form Universal Partnerships and Licensing.


    Stephanie Sperber, who currently heads USP, will run the new division and assume the title executive vice-president, Universal Partnerships and Licensing (UP&L).


    UP&L will now have oversight over all of the studio‘s consumer product licensing, film and home entertainment promotions and corporate alliances for the studio‘s theatrical, home entertainment, theme parks and stage productions.


    “By putting our brand management efforts under one roof, we provide more effective servicing for our corporate partners and our studio,” said Universal chairman Marc Shmuger.


    Under the new organisation, senior vice-president Amy Taylor will oversee UP&L‘s North American promotions, worldwide licensing and retail development. (She and her team are currently spearheading sales for upcoming Universal Pictures feature films such as Land of the Lost and are handling promotional activities for films developed around Hasbro products such as Stretch Armstrong.)


    David O‘Connor will also oversee marketing for UP&L, reporting to both Sperber and Universal‘s president of marketing and distribution Adam Fogelson. O‘Connor will continue to be responsible for developing content ideas and integration with NBC and its related entities and Universal theme parks.


    Stephanie Testa will head UP&L‘s corporate alliances practice, which oversees long-term partnerships for Universal‘s film, home entertainment, theme park and stage production business units. She is responsible for the acquisition of new brand partners as well as managing relationships with the existing partners.

  • ‘Shadow of the Colossus’ to be made a film

    MUMBAI: It is generally seen Shadow of the Colossus is heading to the big screen. The popular video game is being developed as a feature by producer Kevin Misher, who has set the project up at Sony.

    Justin Marks, the go-to young scribe who‘s writing 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for McG at Disney, is attached to pen the script.


    Colossus which was developed for the PlayStation 2 was released in the U.S. in 2005. It quickly became a huge hit as well as a critical favourite. The game centers on the character Wander, who along with his horse Agro travels across a Western-style landscape to defeat enemies known as Collosi, with Wander‘s larger aim to save the girl Mono.


    Unlike many other games, Colossus is dominated by a minimalist landscape and lacks ensemble characters; instead, the challenge lies in locating the remote Colossi and uncovering their weaknesses through a series of puzzle-like challenges. Its scenes as well as its soundtrack are regarded by many as highly cinematic.

  • Al Pacino mulling Kevorkian biopic

    MUMBAI: Al Pacino is in negotiations to star in an HBO Films biopic about Dr. Jack Kevorkian titled You Don‘t Know Jack 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.

  • Timetable for the 82nd Academy Awards

    MUMBAI: The timetable for the 82nd Academy Awards presentation has been announced. Official screen credits forms are due on December 1, the nomination ballots would be mailed on December 28, the nomination polls close on January 23, 2010 while the nominations would be announced on February 2 at Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

    February 10 will see the final ballots mailed. The scientific and technical achievement awards would be presented on February 20. Final polls will close at 5 p.m. on March 2 and on March 7 the 82nd Annual Academy Awards presentation will take place.

  • Mike Tyson loses 4-year old daughter Exodus

    MUMBAI: The Arizona police have confirmed that Mike Tyson‘s 4-year-old daughter, Exodus has died, a day after accidentally hanging herself on a piece of exercise equipment.

    “I was just advised by investigators that Exodus Tyson was pronounced dead at 11:45 a.m. today at the hospital,” said Sgt. Andy Hill of the Phoenix Police Department. “Our sympathies go out to the family.”


    “There are no words to describe the tragic loss of our beloved Exodus,” Tyson‘s family said in a statement. “We ask you now to please respect our need at this very difficult time for privacy to grieve and try to help each other heal.”


    Exodus‘ mother 34-year-old Sol Xochitl, no longer lives with Tyson but they are still a couple.

  • Schwarzenegger vouches for legalisation of gay marriage

    MUMBAI: State governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger who opposed last year‘s ballot initiative that made gay marriage illegal-a result upheld today by California‘s Supreme Court-has reaffirmed that the fight certainly wasn‘t over for same-sex couples.

    “I think they‘re going to be back,” Schwarzenegger said.


    “In another year or two they will be back again with another initiative trying to get [gay marriage relegalised]. And you know, eventually it‘s going to be overturned, I‘m sure of that.”


    The opposition was out in full force tonight, anyway. Thousands of dissenters, including celebs such as Emmy Rossum, Pete Wentz and Kathy Griffin, marched in West Hollywood to support the right for same-sex couples to marry.

  • ‘Buffy’ coming back to the big screen

    MUMBAI: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is coming back to the big screen with a new film based on the hit franchise.

    The character, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar in the hit TV series, was originally introduced in a 1992 film of the same name starring Kristy Swanson. So interesting was the show that it ran for six years before being wound up in 2003.


    The blood-sucking series could be heading back to the big screen with a brand-new vampire slayer. Director Fran Rubel Kuzui who directed the original film and executive produced the TV series owns the rights to the Buffy brand and is planning to reboot the franchise for theatres.

  • Andy Hallet dies of heart failure

    MUMBAI: Andy Hallett, (33) who came to the limelight as Lorne in The Host in the TV series Angel died of heart failure last night with his father Dave Hallett by his side.

    The actor passed away at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles after a five-year battle with heart disease.

    Hallett had appeared in more than 70 episodes of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff, Angel, between 2000 and 2004.

    The actor was also a musician and sang two songs (‘Lady Marmalade‘ and ‘It‘s Not Easy Being Green‘) in the Angel: Live Fast, Die Never soundtrack.

    Hallett has spent his post-Angel years working on his music career, playing shows around the country. He had been admitted a couple of times to a hospital in the past few years for his heart condition.

    A private funeral service will be held for family and close friends in Cape Cod, most likely over this weekend.

  • Ben Stiller kayoes Terminator Salvation

    MUMBAI: Ben Stiller‘s Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian ran away from the latest Terminator film, and the rest of the box-office pack, grossing an estimated $70 million from Friday-Monday.
    Salvation bowed in second, taking in $53.8 million over the same four-day period, and falling short of expectations.

    “I think most people felt Terminator was going to win the weekend,” said Chris Aronson, an exec for Smithsonian‘s Fox. “I think it‘s a testament to comedy is king.”

    Salvation, meanwhile, might be a testament to what a good job Star Trek is doing.

  • Mel Gibson expecting child from girlfriend Oksana

    MUMBAI: The soon to be divorced Mel Gibson is expecting a child with girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva it is understood.
    Apparently Gibson shared the news with pal Jay Leno during a recent Tonight Show taping for an episode that will air this week-Leno‘s last at the helm of the NBC chatfest.

    Not that this is the first we‘ve heard of a possible Gibson-Grigorieva baby. Such a news has been rampant for several weeks, ever since the two stepped out publicly as a couple last month at the X-Men Origins: Wolverine premiere in Los Angeles.