ITV

Category: International

  • DreamWorks Studios bags the rights for Haig’s trilogy ‘The Fire Sermon’

    DreamWorks Studios bags the rights for Haig’s trilogy ‘The Fire Sermon’

    MUMBAI:DreamWorks has acquired the much coveted book series, The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig. The poet and short story writer, Haig has authored The Fire Sermon which is the first of a series that promises to pave the way for a successful trilogy series.

    The Big screen adaptation will be produced by Carla Hacken, one of her first deals as a producer for the studio.

    The plot of the Haig‘s book is unique and gripping; based on post nuclear apocalypse era with no technologies aiding the humans having twins. The bond between the twins is intriguing with one of each pair is physically perfect, and known as Alphas, while the other, the Omega, bears some mutation. The apartheid society forces the mutated twins to settlements, even though when one twin dies, so does the other.

    Deadline also reports that the author has penned two more books hoping for a trilogy series.

    The demand for the adaptation buzzed around Hollywood when over six publishers rushed for the UK publishing rights. It however landed up with Voyager, the fantasy imprint of HarperCollins that publishes George R.R. Martin‘s books. A US auction is also being scheduled by July 10.

  • Weekend Top Five blaze the box office with Pixar’s Monstr University at No 1e

    Weekend Top Five blaze the box office with Pixar’s Monstr University at No 1e

    MUMBAI: As the Hollywood Box office unleashed two new tentpoles, Roland Emmerich‘s White House Down and Paul Feig‘s The Heat, the top five grossing the weekend opening have changed. Although the new releases have taken over last weeks World War Z and Man of Steel, the animation dramaMonsters University seems to be sailing strong at the number One position. Sandra Bullock‘s comedy action The Heat confirms the second position followed closely byWhite House Down at number three.

    As per Fandango, Bullock‘s comedyThe Heat sold over 50 per cent more advance tickets than Feig‘s previous project, Bridesmaids. An interesting Fandango survey revealed that 88 per cent of ticket buyers wanted more female-oriented laughter. Based on the Thursday opening and Friday‘s weekend collections, Pixar‘s second highest grossing prequel Monsters University raked in nearly $17 million pushing its worldwide grossing to $173.7 million and counting. Sources from the industry predict the animation flick will cross the $200 million mark by this weekend. However the coming week looks bleak as Illumination Entertainment‘s sequel Despicable Me 2 hits the screens on 3 July.

    Over the two day run, The Heat minted nearly $41 million while Emmerich‘s catastrophic action White House Down grossed over $33.3 million.

    At the number four position, Brad‘s Zombie flick amasses a fair $32.5 million followed last by the red capped Kryptonian reboot Man of Steel at $ 21.5 million. The $225 million dollar high octane superhero flick has grossed nearly $450 million, however with stiff competition in the coming week, Man of Steel may be pushed out from the Top five.

  • Jeff Bridges’ ‘The Seventh Son’ release postponed to 17 January 2014

    Jeff Bridges’ ‘The Seventh Son’ release postponed to 17 January 2014

    MUMBAI: The severed tie between Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures has caused another delay for the fantasy action flick The Seventh Son starring Jeff Bridges, Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander. Warner Bros had previously planned the release on 15 February, 2013 but postponed it to 18 October 2013. However as per reports, the studio has further delayed the project‘s release to 17 January 2014 in both 2D and 3D format.

    The Seventh Son which was rechristened from its former name, The Spook‘s Appprentice is partially financed by Legendary Entertainment. Both Warner Bros and Legendary Entertainment had very recently cut their collaborative ties to produce movies together. It is speculated that the 8 year old break-up may be responsible for the delay, but none affirm to it. 

    The Seventh Son which is helmed by Sergei Bodrov is adapted from Joseph Delaney‘s young adult series about a teen who‘s the seventh son of a seventh son, and who learns about wizardry from a forbidding spook.

     

    Meanwhile the 17 January 2014 slot is already occupied by Fox‘s dramaThe Book Thief, Open Road‘s animated comedy The Nut Job and Universal‘s comedy Ride Along.

  • Django Unchained stars DiCaprio and Foxx come together again

    Django Unchained stars DiCaprio and Foxx come together again

    MUMBAI: After the recent restructuring at Warner Bros‘ worldwide feature production arm, Greg Silverman has struck his maiden big deal and acquired the rights of the upcoming Craig Zahler crime novel Mean Business On North Ganson Street. The production house is gearing to reunite the Django Unchained lead stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx for the big screen adaptation.

    As reported, Zahler will be penning the script while DiCaprio and his Appian Way partner Jennifer Davisson Killoran will be financially backing the project as producers. Sarah Schechter is navigating the project for the studio.

    The adaptation of the book which is in the process of being shopped to publishers will feature Dicaprio as the tough sleuth who is tipped off by a man about his missing wife and that she is a hooker who disappeared with his money. The story further takes course when the man commits a desperate tragic act right in the squad room and the disgraced detective is sent to a conflagration belt town called Victory, Missouri, where violent crime is skyrocketing. Partnered with an equally bad-assed detective who was demoted for publicly brutalizing a suspect (Foxx), the new partners get to do some real work. Police officers start showing up dead execution-style, and the cops think it might be open season on Victory‘s police department.

    Foxx will recently be seen opposite Channing Tatum in the Roland Emmerich-directed White House Down, while DiCaprio next stars in the Martin Scorsese-directed The Wolf Of Wall Street. Foxx is repped by CAA, and he, DiCaprio and Appian Way are repped by LBI Entertainment.

  • Arnold‘s back as Terminator in its rebooted franchise slated for June 2015

    Arnold‘s back as Terminator in its rebooted franchise slated for June 2015

    MUMBAI: The formula of rebooting seems to have worked well at the Box office with The Amazing Spiderman raking in over $750 million and the latest Superman reboot Man of Steel amassing over $400 million worldwide.

    Clarifying all speculations behind the ($ 1 billion) Terminator franchise reboot, Paramount has confirmed the release for 26 June 2015. The studio is in works to co-finance and distribute the reboot of James Cameron‘s Terminator franchise that originally hit the theatres in 1984.

    Highbrow picture maker Megan Ellison has reportedly spent over $20 million for the rights of the super-hit franchise in 2011. However the project didn‘t move forward until Megan Ellison and her Annapurna Pictures joined forces with brother David Ellison, whose Skydance Productions has a deal with Paramount and makes popcorn movies. 

    While the script is being penned by Avatar‘s executive producer Laeta Kalogridis and Drive Angry‘s editor Patrick Lussier, Dana Goldberg and Paul Schwake of Skydance will serve as executive producers. Arnold Schwarzenegger will return as the emotionless robot in the title role.

    Looking ahead, Paramount is hoping to get at least two movies done before North American copyright reverts back to Cameron.

  • Good and bad times unfold for Pinewood Shepperton

    Good and bad times unfold for Pinewood Shepperton

    MUMBAI: In what seems to be a mixed bag of news for Pinewood Shepperton, the group which has posted fair financials for the fiscal year 2012-13 currently faces a potential production crisis.

    The studio provider which has played home to a number of blockbuster Hollywood features including the James Bond franchise has posted revenues at ?63million ($96.3M) for the financial year 2012-2013 with healthy operating profits of $8.25 million versus $4.13 million in the previous period. The only blight on the balance sheet was the performance of the TV division, which made revenues of ?5.2m ($ 7.94). Net debt was ?44.7m ($ 68.28m) at 31 March, down from ?50.4m ($76.98) a year ago. The company paid a final dividend of 1.5p per share; whereas in 2011 it did not pay one.

    However Pinewood is still facing a hindrance from the stubborn South Buckinghamshire district council that rejected Pinewood‘s second planning application to secure a ?200m Hollywood-style expansion plan, last month. A public inquiry into the decision scheduled to start on 19 November.

    The studio‘s filt attempt in 2011, called Project Pinewood, also failed to gain clearance and ultimately cost ?7.1m – pushing the company into pre-tax loss in 2011.

    The studio business revealed that it has already spent almost ?2m on its latest attempt to convince authorities to affirm the ambitious project to double the size of its presence in Buckinghamshire.

    CEO Ivan Dunleavy said that he did not expect the second planning application to cost as much, but that Pinewood was fully committed to winning clearance for the plan.

    “We are reusing a lot of the work we invested in the first time around, like environmental analysis. The proposal for adding more capacity is clearly a simpler one than Project Pinewood and we don‘t anticipate anything the costs rising like it previously. However, our shareholders are supportive of those sorts of sums for something as critically important to the future as this.”

    Among the recent films to be shot at Pinewood are The Muppets… Again! And Maleficient. Lining up are Kenneth Branagh‘s Cinderella, Marvel‘s Guardians Of The Galaxy and J.J Abrams‘ Star Wars: Episode VII.

  • Fox Acquires Spec ‘Tranquility Base;’ Scott Free Producing

    Fox Acquires Spec ‘Tranquility Base;’ Scott Free Producing

    MUMBAI: In a mid-six figure deal, 20th Century Fox has pre-emptively bought Tranquility Base, a speculative screenplay by first-time scribe Daniel Turkewitz. Scott Free‘s Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer, Brooklyn Weaver and Jonathan Krauss will produce the big-scale science fiction film that supposedly has elements of Lord Of The Flies in outerspace.

    Key to the deal coming together were former Indian Paintbrush guys Mark Roybal and Michael Pruss. Roybal, who ran Indian Paintbrush for Steve Rales, became a Fox exec and Pruss moved over to Scott Free as an exec. Pruss will be exec producer and Rock Shaink will serve in a co-producing capacity on Tranquility Base.

  • Zero Gravity ropes in Mukunda Michael Dewil to helm psychological thriller ‘Wet House’

    Zero Gravity ropes in Mukunda Michael Dewil to helm psychological thriller ‘Wet House’

    MUMBAI: Fresh off the release of his Paul Walker thriller Vehicle 19, South African writer-director Mukunda Michael Dewil has been signed on to helm Wet House for Zero Gravity Entertainment.

    The elevated psychological thriller from scribe Jack Reher is about a psychologist who becomes entangled with the mysterious resident of a wet house, whose apparent psychic abilities help her aid the police in solving a string of grizzly, bath salt-fueled massacres.

    “I like the idea that everything is layered with this atmosphere of unnamed trepidation – nothing can be trusted at face value and that kind of foreboding really gives me a lot to work with when creating the world of this story,” Dewil said. Mark Holder and Christine Holder are producing and financing for Zero Gravity

    The film will shoot this fall in South Africa as the first of three features Zero Gravity plans to shoot there.

  • Christopher McQuarrie to finally helm the film adaptation of the miniseries ‘Unforgiven’

    Christopher McQuarrie to finally helm the film adaptation of the miniseries ‘Unforgiven’

    MUMBAI: The three-part British television drama series Unforgiven, written by Sally Wainwright in 2009 is being steered into a feature adaptation. Christopher McQuarrie has signed on to write, direct and produce the film adaptation of the miniseries, along with GK Films. Graham King, who‘s GK Films, has tried for several years to turn the television series into a film has finally got McQuarrie to return at the helm.

    Unforgiven which is a drama-thriller about the intrigue and violence that unfolds when the protagonist woman completes a 15-year prison stretch for the murder of two policemen who‘d come to evict her family from their farmhouse. Her hope is to live quietly and reunite with her troubled younger sister, but she unwittingly becomes a target for revenge.

    Suranne Jones played the lead in the mini, which was written by Sally Wainwright and directed by David Evans and was first broadcast on ITV & UTV in January 2009, and STV in 2012. The series won a British Royal Television Society award for Best Drama Serial in 2009 and a nomination for Jones as lead actress.

    McQuarrie who is represented by CAA, Key Creatives and attorney David Fox was originally going to direct the film adaptation after King bought it in 2010, with Angelina Jolie as the potential lead. However he left to direct Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher and the project was put on hold. Although McQuarrie is expected to direct Cruise in Mission: Impossible 5, Unforgiven has again become a priority project for him.

    Colin Vaines and Ken Kamins will be the executive producers alongside Nicola Shindler of Red Production Company and Wainwright of Sparkhouse Productions. Wainwright was also executive producer of the original mini.

  • Hoffman to feature in the film adaptation of Child 44 helmed by Daniel Espinosa

    Hoffman to feature in the film adaptation of Child 44 helmed by Daniel Espinosa

    MUMBAI: Philip Seymour Hoffman has been reportedly roped in Daniel Espinosa‘s film adaptation of Child 44. It is a thriller novel, one of Tom Rob Smith‘s bestseller and the first of the trilogy that revolves around a disgraced member of the Soviet Union military police during the Stalin era who investigates a series of child murders that connect to high members of the political party.

    Hoffman joins the extensive cast of Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman and Joel Kinnaman in the movie. However the specific roles each actor is set to play remain undisclosed. Summit Entertainment plans to release the film sometime in 2014.

    The film adaptation which is being penned by Richard Price is being produced by Ridley Scott‘s Scott Free Productions along with Michael Schaefer and Greg Shapiro. Worldview Entertainment is co-financing the project. Christopher Woodrow, Molly Conners, Maria Cestone and Sarah Johnson Redlich are on board as executive producers with Douglas Urbanski.