ITV

Category: International

  • ‘Argo’ gathers momentum with WGA win

    ‘Argo’ gathers momentum with WGA win

    MUMBAI: ‘Argo‘ has solidified itself as the film to beat for the Best Picture Oscar. The Ben Affleck directed film has won the Writers Guild of America (WGA) award for best adapted screenplay.

    It beat out competition that included ‘Lincoln‘ which was written by Tony Kushner and ‘Silver Linings Playbook‘ which was written and directed by David O Russell.

    The award for Best Original Screenplay went to Mark Boal who wrote ‘Zero Dark Thirty‘. It is about how America hunted Osama Bin Laden.

    Malik Bendjelloul won for best documentary for ‘Searching for Sugar Man‘. On the television side ‘Breaking Bad‘ won for television drama and comedian Louis C.K.‘s FX series, ‘Louie‘ won for best comedy series.

    The HBO comedy ‘Girls‘ won for best new series.

    History Channel‘s ‘Hatfields And McCoys‘ won for best original television long form writing and HBO‘s ‘Game Change‘ won for best adapted television long form.

    The IFC series ‘Portlandia‘ took the prize for comedy/variety series and ‘The 66th Annual Tony Awards‘ won for best comedy/variety special. ‘The Simpsons‘ won for TV animation.

  • Sacha Baron Cohen edges out Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt to be Britain‘s highest-paid star

    Sacha Baron Cohen edges out Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt to be Britain‘s highest-paid star

    MUMBAI: Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who played President Prime Minister Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen, in the 2012 film The Dictator has been named Britain‘s highest paid Hollywood star.

    He drew over 20 million pounds in 2012 thanks to box office success of The Dictator and Les Miserables.

    The 41-year-old also added to his earnings with payment for his role as the voice of the lemur King Julien in Madagascar 3. This helped him earn more than fellow countryman Robert Pattinson.

    The actor outran Tom Hanks (17 million pounds) and Brad Pitt (16 million pounds).

    The list was topped by the 50-year-old Tom Cruise whose films like Jack Reacher and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol earned him 48 million pounds in 2012.

  • Berlinale 2013: The Broken Circle Breakdown and The Act of Killing bag The Panorama Audience Awards

    Berlinale 2013: The Broken Circle Breakdown and The Act of Killing bag The Panorama Audience Awards

    MUMBAI: The public has cast its votes. The Broken Circle Breakdown and The Act of Killing have bagged the 15th Panorama Audience Awards for fiction film and documentary respectively.

    The official award ceremony will be held on Berlinale Kinotag, 17 February. The awards will be presented by Panorama director Wieland Speck, radioeins programme director Robert Skuppin und tip film editor Robert Weixlbaumer. Radioeins film expert Knut Elstermann will host the event. Directly after the award ceremony, the winning fictional film will be shown.

    The Panorama Audience Award has been given since 1999. Since 2011, both the best fiction film and the best documentary receive awards. Berlin artist Christian Bilger created the statuette.

    During the Berlinale, movie-goers were asked to rate the films shown in the Panorama section, either on cards received after the screenings or online. Altogether over 28,000 votes were cast and counted.

    This year the Panorama presented 52 productions from 33 countries, of which 20 screened in the Panorama Dokumente series. While in the category fictional films The Broken Circle Breakdown took the lead early on and won by a clear margin, with the documentaries it remained exciting until the very end.

  • DreamWorks Animation and Regions GC to develop theme parks in Russia

    DreamWorks Animation and Regions GC to develop theme parks in Russia

    MUMBAI: Guests of all ages can anticipate an all-new entertainment experience unlike any other as DreamWorks Animation and Regions Group of Companies have signed a licensing agreement to develop Europe‘s largest indoor theme parks, and the first to feature the franchises of DreamWorks Animation in major cities throughout Russia.

    The theme parks, scheduled to open in 2015, will be located in St Petersburg, Moscow, and Yekaterinburg. Regions Group of Companies will design, build and manage all properties.

    The DreamWorks Animation theme parks will be Europe‘s largest year-round indoor entertainment zones, and in each instance will be part of a larger entertainment development featuring a mixed-use movie and concert hall, 4D movie theater, three-star 400-room hotel, and a retail center with 11,000 parking spaces. The height of each park will be 35 meters, comparable to a 13-floor building, giving visitors the sense of being outdoors.

    Each park will feature immersive environments, state-of-the-art attractions, and character entertainment bringing to life DreamWorks Animation‘s beloved franchises including: Shrek, Madagascar, How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda, in addition to yet-to-be released DreamWorks Animation feature films including Turbo, which is set for its worldwide debut in Russia on July 11 before arriving in US theaters on July 19.

    “DreamWorks Animation parks are ambitious projects unprecedented in Russia and the rest of the world. The foundation of our success lies in the DreamWorks team‘s wealth of experience in the field of entertainment and the experience of the REGIONS Group of Companies in developing and managing retail and entertainment centers,” commented Regions GC Member of the Board of Directors Amiran Mutsoev.

    Madagascar 3: Europe‘s Most Wanted – the third installment in the blockbuster hit franchise about the adventures of Alex the Lion and his friends from the Central Park Zoo- is currently the second highest-grossing animated film in Russia‘s box office history and the fourth highest-grossing film of all time in Russia. Six of the top 10 animated films of all time in Russia are DreamWorks Animation pictures: Madagascar 3: Europe‘s Most Wanted, Shrek Forever After, Puss In Boots, Madagascar Escape 2 Africa, Kung Fu Panda 2 and How to Train Your Dragon.

    “Russia is one of the most important markets in the world for us,” said DreamWorks Animation‘s Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Katzenberg. “All of us at DWA are extremely excited to work with REGIONS CG to be the first Hollywood studio to create not just one, but three theme parks in Russia. These parks are going to be groundbreaking cultural hubs that will give families the chance to truly enter the world of DreamWorks.”

  • Kingsley to play big bro to Jennifer Aniston in yet untitled film

    Kingsley to play big bro to Jennifer Aniston in yet untitled film

    MUMBAI: Ben Kingsley will star alongside Jennifer Aniston and Mark Duplass in a yet untitled film about the invention of the five-sided box, a revolution in the wrapping world which threatens the world‘s balance.

    Aniston will play Kingsley‘s sister Abby while the Gandhi actor will play a leading storage producer who is enraged at the brother and sister‘s success. The film will be directed by Justin Reardon.

    The film has been billed as similar to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich.

  • Aus govt to give tax rebates of AUS$ 20 mn to Walt Disney

    Aus govt to give tax rebates of AUS$ 20 mn to Walt Disney

    MUMBAI: The Australian government has agreed to offer Disney a locations rebate worth about AUS$20 million ($19.2 million) to shoot its remake of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea: Captain Nemo.

    It is said that Disney executives will meet federal arts minister Simon Crean in Canberra on Thursday to finalise details of the incentive before the studio green lights the production. The minister has reportedly given government approval to the deal.

    Disney location scouts are said to be considering the Village Roadshow Studios in Queensland, where Terra Nova was shot and Fox Studios in Sydney.

    The remake of the 1954 Jules Verne classic which is being developed by David Fincher is expected to exceed the 2,000 local jobs created during the recent filming of The Wolverine that generated $80 million in local investment and contracted 850 local companies.

    The Australian locations incentive currently gives a tax rebate of 16.5 per cent for foreign productions but the government provided The Wolverine with a 30 per cent incentive to shoot in the country last year in a one-off arrangement.

  • Berry, Bullock, Kidman and Witherspoon join list of Oscar presenters

    Berry, Bullock, Kidman and Witherspoon join list of Oscar presenters

    MUMBAI: Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon will present at this year‘s Academy Awards on 24 February.

    With this announcement, the four join a list of previously announced Oscar presenters including Mark Wahlberg, the cast members of The Avengers like Robert Downey Jr, Samuel L Jackson, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo.

    Last year‘s winners Jean Dujardin, Christopher Plummer, Octavia Spencer and Meryl Streep will also present at the ceremony.

    Others on the list are the cast of Chicago namely Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones, special guests Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Daniel Radcliffe, Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron.

    Berry won an Oscar for her performance in Monster‘s Ball in 2001, Bullock for The Blind Side in 2009, Kidman for The Hours in 2002 and Witherspoon for Walk the Line in 2005.

  • Helena Bonham Carter to play Elizabeth Taylor

    Helena Bonham Carter to play Elizabeth Taylor

    MUMBAI: Helena Bonham Carter, who is better known for her role in Les Miserables, will be essaying Elizabeth Taylor in a new BBC drama that will explore her torrid romance with Richard Burton.

    “Elizabeth was 51, still every inch a star, still beautiful and they still needed each other, but this was professional. They were doing Noel Coward‘s Private Lives on stage, playing a couple who used to be married. People wondered if they were still in love and whether they‘d be playing themselves or their characters,” Carter observed.

    The 43-year-old will play Taylor in Burton & Taylor that will tell the story of their appearance in a 1983 revival of Noel Coward‘s play Private Lives, reported Daily Express.

    The pair gripped filmgoers in the sixties and seventies with their stormy marriages, the first of which lasted from 1964 to 1974. But just 16 months after divorcing they remarried, only to split up again in 1976.

    A BBC spokesman said Burton & Taylor would offer viewers an insight into one of the most fascinating, glamorous and tempestuous relationships of the 20th century.

  • Sandra Bullock to play Scarlet Overkill in Minions

    Sandra Bullock to play Scarlet Overkill in Minions

    MUMBAI: Sandra Bullock is all set to voice villain Scarlet Overkill in Universal Pictures‘ animated spin-off of 2010 film Despicable Me titled Minions that follows the yellow henchmen from Despicable Me on their quest for a new leader in the 1960s.

    The actress will play the evil antagonist Scarlet Overkill, who is described as “Audrey Hepburn-like” and driven by world domination.

    The film will establish the history of the yellow henchmen who have existed since the beginning of time and follow their journey in the 1960s to find a new evil master after they have destroyed all of the bad guys who were previously a threat.

    Minions is to be directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balfa and produced by Janet Healy and Chris Meledandri with Chris Renaud serving as executive producer.

    The film has been scheduled for a December 2014 release.

    Incidentally, this July will see the release of Despicable Me 2 that stars Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews and Will Arnett returning to voice their characters. New additions that have been added include Steve Carrell, Kristen Wiig and Al Pacino.

  • Clive Owen joins star cast of psychological thriller Blue Angel

    Clive Owen joins star cast of psychological thriller Blue Angel

    MUMBAI: 48-year-old Clive Owen will play the lead role in the adaptation of Francine Prose‘s novel Vlue Angel.

    Blue Angel centers around Swenson, a washed up professor in a New England creative writing programme. When a new student joins his class, he finds the inspiration he has been lacking for years until their relationship takes a sinister turn.

    Richard Levine has been given the responsibility of writing and directing the psychological roller coaster ride between sex, seduction and emotional manipulation.

    Owen was most recently seen as Ernest Hemingway in the television miniseries Hemingway and Gellhorn.