ITV

Category: International

  • Keanu Reeves‘ globally acclaimed ‘Side By Side’ to open 0110 International Digital Film Festival

    Keanu Reeves‘ globally acclaimed ‘Side By Side’ to open 0110 International Digital Film Festival

    NEW DELHI: The globally acclaimed documentary ‘Side by Side’ produced by Keanu Reeves and directed by Christopher Kenneally will be the opening film at the 0110 International Digital Film Festival 2013 (IDDF 2013).

    A high profile jury including Kabir Khan, Vinay Pathak and Sudhir Mishra among other eminent names will adjudge the films.

    The fifth edition of this festival will be held from 26 January to 1 February at The India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, where the focus would be more on movie screenings, and then travel to Whistling Woods¸ Mumbai, from 2 February till 8 February, where there would also be a week long itinerary of industry workshops and seminars in addition to the screenings.

    This year, like in the previous editions, the festival is slated to draw big names including industry figureheads such as Sudhir Mishra, Anurag Kashyap, Q (Qaushik Mukherjee – director of Gandu), Roysten Able, Vikram Bhatt and renowned Hollywood producer Jason Kilot, amongst others.

    Festival director Madhureeta Anand said: “The festival is not limited to competing and screening of cinema, it is a destination for genuine cinema centric education with interactive workshops and seminars headed by some of the most prominent names of the fraternity. 0110 IDFF’s core aim is to promote the all pervasive digital medium of cinema but more importantly to bridge the gap between indigenous and international cinema. Creating a common platform for liberal interactions and exchange, broadening the horizon of Indian cinema and film makers as a whole.” Anand conceived the festival.

    “The success of any endeavour lies in the amalgamation of the new and the old” she added.

    An annual event, 0110 IDFF is a platform which upholds the format of digital film making and acknowledges the fact that digital format has metamorphosed in to a well-accepted medium from a limited medium of film making. It continues to be an exclusive medium of interaction between global filmmakers using the digital medium. The festival is categorized in such a way that that it touches all faculties of digital cinema which includes feature films, documentaries, films made by students, films shot on mobiles, digital art installations and animation and special effects.

  • Batman car gets under the hammer, goes for $4.6 million

    Batman car gets under the hammer, goes for $4.6 million

    MUMBAI: The famous car used in the 1960s ABC Batman TV series that starred Adam West has gone under the hammer for USD 4.6 million, it has been reported.

    The iconic car was 19 feet long and built from a one-of-a-kind 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car. Incidentally, the car had then cost 1 dollar only.

    The owner, King of Kustomizers George Barris created the vehicle in three weeks at a cost of $15,000 funded by 20th Century Fox. The bubbly-windowed car uses a V8 engine, automatic gearbox and features a Batphone and an oil squirter created from lawn sprinklers.

    It also has a fake jet exhaust, created from a painted 10-gallon bucket, in the back and two packed parachutes that actually work to effect a Bat turn. It‘s road-legal as well.

    The winning bidder was Rick Champagne, who has been attending the Barrett-Jackson auctions for the last 15 years.

  • Brian De Palma to direct Al Pacino in next project

    Brian De Palma to direct Al Pacino in next project

    MUMBAI: Veteran director Brian De Palma is all set to realign with his Scarface actor Al Pacino for his upcoming project, a Joe Paterno biopic to be titled Happy Valley.

    The story of the film to be produced by Edward R Pressman and Pacino`s manager Rick Nicita will be based on the bestselling book Paterno by Joe Posnanski while Dave McKenna will pen the script.

    “Incidentally, Happy Valley will be only the third film that reunites Pacino and De Palma and I can`t think of a better duo to tell this story of a complex, intensely righteous man who was brought down by his own tragic flaw,” Pressman has been quoted to have said.

    Joe Paterno is a former Penn State head football coach who became the winningest coach in the history of college football. He built a powerhouse football program that turns him into a campus deity.

    The 72-year old Palma is best known for his suspense and crime thriller films such as Carrie, Mission: Impossible, Femme Fatale and The Black Dahlia among others.His most recent work was last year`s Passion that starred Noomi Rapace and Rachel McAdams.

  • Al Pacino to team up with Brian De Palma for the third instance

    Al Pacino to team up with Brian De Palma for the third instance

    MUMBAI: Veteran actor Al Pacino and director Brian De Palma are all set to team up once-again for a new film titled Happy Valley that is about a disgraced American football coach Joe Paterno.

    The duo, who were last seen in Scarface are coming together for a true story film about Penn State football coach, who was a well respected coach until a child sex abuse scandal surrounding his former assistant coach ended his career, it is reported.

    The film is to be produced by Edward R Press who had earlier made Wall Street. Observed Press, “Happy Valley reunites the Scarface and Carlito‘s Way team of De Palma and Pacino for the third time and I can‘t think of a better duo to tell this story of a complex, intensely righteous man who was brought down by his own tragic flaw.”

    Pacino has earlier enacted the role of a troubled football coach Tony D‘Amato in Any Given Sunday made in 1999

  • Russell Crowe keen on ‘Les Miserables’ opening in India

    Russell Crowe keen on ‘Les Miserables’ opening in India

    MUMBAI: Actor Russell Crowe will no doubt be delighted at the fact that the musical ‘Les Miserables‘ releases today in India. The film won three Golden Globe Awards and has been nominated for eight Oscar Awards.

    A few days ago on Twitter Crowe wrote, “Will #LesMis be released in India? On what date? Never been to India.

    “Despite the odd press I get there, fictional “e-mail Interviews” etc, it is a place that holds a great fascination for me.”

    Perhaps the distributors of the film in India missed a trick in not getting Crowe down to promote the film‘s release. It will be interesting to see how Indians react to a film that is mostly sung.

    This is not the only film with Crowe that is releasing this week. The thriller ‘Broken City‘ where Crowe plays a Mayor also releases today. So Crowe‘s fans have a lot to look forward to.

    In December 2011 Tom Cruise made a big splash in Mumbai when he came down to promote ‘Mission Impossible 4‘. More recently Ang Lee had come down to promote ‘Life of Pi‘ which was shot in India.

  • DreamWorks acquires film rights for ‘The Good Luck of Right Now’

    DreamWorks acquires film rights for ‘The Good Luck of Right Now’

    MUMBAI: DreamWorks Studios has acquired the film rights to Matthew Quick‘s latest work entitled ‘The Good Luck of Right Now‘.

    The story follows the intertwined lives of four people, who are all outsiders in their own right. However, in the wake of grieving over pain and loss in their lives, they come together to form the most unlikely family.

    Harper-Collins pre-empted the manuscript for publishing in the US and Canada. They are targeting Spring 2014 to launch the book.

    “We immediately sparked to Matthew Quick‘s book and the heart and humor which is infused in his storytelling,” said DreamWorks Studios President of Production Holly Bario. “All of us at DreamWorks are excited to begin developing this story and look to make it a priority at the studio.”

    The studio has also acquired the rights of Quick‘s young adult novels ‘Boy 21‘, ‘Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock‘, and ‘Sorta Like a Rock Star‘.

    Matthew Quick is represented by CAA in conjunction with Douglas Stewart of Sterling Lord Literistic, who simultaneously negotiated the publishing rights for the book to Harper Collins.

  • Anne Hathaway to star in Taming of the Shrew adaptation

    Anne Hathaway to star in Taming of the Shrew adaptation

    MUMBAI: Anne Hathaway, who was seen in both the editions of Les Miserables and The Dark Knight Rises, is all set to star in an adaptation of William Shakespeare‘s Taming of the Shrew, it is understood.

    The adaptation of the film will be handled by Abi Morgan, who scripted The Iron Lady and Shame while the project will be produced by Debra Hayward and Working Title.

    Hayward, a former Working Title executive, left the company in June of 2011 to start her own production company, Monumental Pictures. She promptly signed a first-look deal with Working Title. …Shrew will be the first film made under that agreement.

    Universal and Working Title, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner‘s British production outfit responsible for Fargo and Billy Elliot have a longstanding production relationship dating to 1999. Their current first-look deal runs through 2015. This means that Universal would get the first chance to distribute the film.

    Earlier, the two companies did collaborate on films such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Atonement and Les Miserables.

    It is only last Sunday that Hathaway won a Golden Globe for her performance as Fantine in Les Miserables. She is considered the frontrunner for a supporting actress Oscar award as well.

  • Metallica’s 3D film to arrive on the big screen in August this year

    Metallica’s 3D film to arrive on the big screen in August this year

    MUMBAI: Heavy metal band Metallica has announced that their 3D film Metallica Through The Never would finally open in August this year.

    The band comprising of James Hetfield Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo confirmed on their official site that the film would release in the theatres in US on 9 August.

    Directed and written by Nimrod Antal, the film will be distributed by independent film marketing and distribution company Picturehouse.

    The New York-based company, founded by Bob Berney, was the same one behind Oscar-winning Pan‘s Labyrinth and La Vie en Rose. The film will mark Picturehouse‘s first new release after the company was re-launched this year.

    The upcoming film will star Dane DeHaan, who has recently lapped up a role as Harry Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. He will play a young band crew member who is sent out on an urgent mission while the band is playing a rousing live set in front of a sold-out crowd and unexpectedly finds his world turned completely upside down.

  • Japanese director Nagisa Oshima leaves for eternity

    Japanese director Nagisa Oshima leaves for eternity

    MUMBAI: Japanese film director Nagisa Oshima, best known for his sexually explicit film In the Realm of the Senses and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence died of pneumonia in Fujisawa, south of Tokyo yesterday (Tuesday).

    The British Film Institute described Oshima as one of the important directors of the new wave of Japanese cinema in the 1960s, whose politically charged films were well acclaimed by the audience.

    A law graduate, Oshima started his filmmaking career at the age of 26 with the 1959 film A Town of Love and Hope. But fame came to him internationally with the 1976-made film In the Realm of the Senses that was a graphic portrayal of insatiable sexual desire between a hotel owner and one of his maids in Japan of the 1930s.

    Oshima won the best director award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1978 for his film Empire of Passion, another erotic tale.

    He later associated with British actor,singer David Bowie for the 1983 made film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence that was based on author Laurens van der Post‘s experiences as a prisoner of war in Japan during the second World War.

    In 1996, Oshima suffered a stroke but recovered soon to return briefly to filmmaking when he made his last film Taboo in 1999.

  • Picturehouse reopens doors with founder Bob Berney at the helm

    Picturehouse reopens doors with founder Bob Berney at the helm

    MUMBAI: Picturehouse, the full-service independent film marketing and distribution company started in 2005 and was shut down three years later is reopening its doors with founder Bob Berney at the helm.

    Berney will serve as CEO and Jeanne Berney will serve as president of the re-launched company, which will continue to be based in New York.

    Berney, who recently acquired the trademark and logo from Warner Bros said, “We are absolutely thrilled to be back in business under the Picturehouse banner. We worked very hard to build it into a brand known for acquiring exciting, challenging and entertaining films from the US and around the world, and helping them find their audiences.”

    Picturehouse‘s first new release will be ‘Metallica Through The Never‘, a film starring members of the iconic rock band and Dane DeHaan. DeHaan plays a young band crew member who is sent out on an urgent mission while the band is playing a rousing live set in front of a sold-out crowd and unexpectedly finds his world turned completely upside down. The film, written and directed by Nimród Antal is due in theaters on 9 August. One of the bestselling rock acts of all time, Metallica has sold over 105 million albums worldwide.

    Berney said, “Nim and the band have made a film that really captures the spirit of Metallica and their millions of loyal fans. “It‘s an entertaining genre film with a concert inside it, a fun ride featuring an exciting young actor, Dane DeHaan . It‘s a very cool project to reboot Picturehouse with.”

    Metallica drummer and founding member Lars Ulrich said,: “Metallica‘s way of doing things is to jump into unexplored creative endeavours with no safety net whatsoever. Putting this movie together for the last couple of years has been a pretty wild ride, and we‘ve definitely done our share of flying without a net! Bringing Bob and Jeanne and the new Picturehouse team in at this point provides us with a much needed level of security for the distribution of the film. Their spirit of independence and desire to work outside the box is something we can relate to in every way, and this makes them both a welcome addition and a natural fit in the Metallica family.”

    Picturehouse will acquire, market and theatrically distribute independent films from the US and around the world. The company expects to release two or three films this year, increasing its output to four or five in 2014 and six or seven in subsequent years.

    The company recently signed an exclusive, multi-year output deal with Netflix. Picturehouse films will come to Netflix exclusively in the US shortly after theatrical release.

    Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said, “Bob and Jeanne are legendary tastemakers and innovators who were early partners with Netflix in bringing amazing movies like ‘Pan‘s Labyrinth‘ and ‘La Vie en Rose‘ to our service. Netflix members love independent films and the Berneys have indisputably great taste.”

    In addition, Picturehouse has secured a first look relationship with Warner Bros. Pictures International for films to which it has international distribution rights.

    Berney headed the company when it was originally formed in April 2005 as a joint venture between HBO and New Line Cinema. Under his leadership, Picturehouse acquired and released films as Guillermo del Toro ‘s ‘Pan‘s Labyrinth‘ (winner of three Academy Awards); Olivier Dahan ‘s ‘La Vie en Rose‘ (winner of two Academy Awards, including best actress for Marion Cotillard); Sergei Bodrov ‘s ‘Mongol‘ and Robert Altman ‘s ‘A Prairie Home Companion‘. When Time Warner folded the operations of New Line and Picturehouse into the Warner Bros. family, the brand continued to live on through the home entertainment and television releases of the films.
     
    Berney, who has founded and operated independent film distribution and marketing companies has overseen the U.S. theatrical releases of blockbusters such as ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding‘ and ‘The Passion of the Christ‘ as well as.