ITV

Category: International

  • Rome Fest to honour Tarantino with lifetime award

    Rome Fest to honour Tarantino with lifetime award

    MUMBAI: The 7th Rome Film Festival has decided to confer its Lifetime Achievement Award on director Quentin Tarantino.

    Tarantino will receive the award on 4 January at the hands of celebrated film-composer Ennio Morricone. The occasion will also mark the screening of his new film Django Unchained that stars Jamie Foxx, Leonardo Di Caprio, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington.

    The American director, screenwriter, actor, and producer, who has directed cult films such as Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill:Vol.1, Kill Bill:Vol.2 and Inglourious Basterds, won an Oscar earlier for Pulp Fiction.

    Said Rome Film Festival artistic director Marco Müller, "Quentin Tarantino‘s vision has radically influenced our collective imagery over the past twenty years . He is a profoundly American yet very European filmmaker, because the relationship he has established with cinema and its history is as analytical as it is passionate.

    He has cultivated a coherent project of mise-en-scene, an authorial project that has grown richer thanks, to his experimentation with language and also to constant cinematic cross-references. As a result his films are both alive and vivacious to the extreme, they blast away the codes and conventions of film genres but each of them does express the spirit of his time."

    In Quentin Tarantino‘s new film, Django Unchained, Jamie Foxx stars as Django, a plantation slave who partners with Christoph Waltz‘s (Inglourious Basterds) bounty hunter to seek vengeance on his former owners and rescue his wife (Kerry Washington.

  • Tarantino mulls film on mistreatment of black soldiers in US Army

    Tarantino mulls film on mistreatment of black soldiers in US Army

    MUMBAI: Quentin Tarantino has expressed that he could make a new film that would feature black soldiers fighting back against mistreatment in the US Army.

    The director of Django Unchained said that the revenge plan, on which the film is in plans, was long in the works.

    In his first historical rewrite Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino set a unit of Jewish soldiers off to kill Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany. According to him, the final product was just a fraction of what he had intended initially to be a miniseries. Now, the remaining parts of the original project could make for a whole new film.

    "My original idea for Inglourious Basterds way back when was that this [would be] a huge story that included the [smaller] story that you saw in the film but also followed a bunch of black troops, and they had been f—ed over by the American military and kind of go apeshit," Tarantino has been reported to have said.

    "They basically — the way Lt. Aldo Raines [Brad Pitt] and the Basterds are having an ‘Apache resistance‘ — [the] black troops go on an Apache warpath and kill a bunch of white soldiers and white officers on a military base and are just making a warpath to Switzerland," he added. 

  • PVR to release Zero Dark Thirty and Midnight’s Children in Feb

    PVR to release Zero Dark Thirty and Midnight’s Children in Feb

    MUMBAI: PVR Pictures, the flagship film production and distribution arm of PVR Group, announced the release dates of two big films in February 2013.

    The first is Kathryn Bigelow‘s Zero Dark Thirty. The film is the story of history‘s greatest manhunt for the world‘s most dangerous man. It is slated to release in India on the 15 February.

    Zero Dark Thirty is a chronicle of the decade-long hunt for the al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden following the 11 September attacks of 2001, and his death at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs in May 2011.

    The film has bagged four nominations at the 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards. These include Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) – Jessica Chastain, Best Director (Motion Picture) – Kathryn Bigelow and Best Screenplay (Motion Picture) – Mark Boal.

    Directed by Oscar winning director Kathryn Bigelow; the film stars Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Chriss Pratt, James Gandolfini, Edgar Ramirez and Mark Strong.

    Deepa Mehta‘s Midnight‘s Children based on the Booker Prize winning novel by Salman Rushdie is slated to release on 1 February.

    The film features Satya Bhabha, Shahana Goswami, Rajat Kapoor, Seema Biswas, Shriya Saran, Siddharth, Ronit Roy, Rahul Bose, Anupam Kher, Darsheel Safary, Soha Ali Khan, Shabana Azmi and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.

    Other films releasing under the PVR banner include The Impossible, Now You See Me and Broken City among others.

  • Latest issue of Spiderman has Peter Parker dying at the hands of Dr Octopus

    Latest issue of Spiderman has Peter Parker dying at the hands of Dr Octopus

    MUMBAI: In a news that will break the hearts of many Spider-Man followers, who kept themselves hooked to his exploits in New York for close to 50 years, Spider-Man‘s geeky alter-ego, Peter Parker, dies in a major battle with his rival Doctor Octopus in the latest issue of the popular comic series.

    Parker loses a major battle with Doctor Octopus, who spent the last year fighting to destroy the world as his own body slowly died in the latest issue. However, this doesn‘t spell the end for the legacy of Spider-Man.

    In a moment of clarity, Dr Octopus realises that his longtime nemesis was a force for good. Having swapped his mind into Parker‘s body, Octopus takes on the life and exploits of the superhero for himself.

    Marvel writer Dan Slott, who wrote the finale of the comic series set to explain the transformation thus, "This is Moriarty in the head of Sherlock. This is Prince John inside of Robin Hood. This is the greatest villain inside the body of the greatest hero and trying to do good. This is a guy who was a couple steps way from a bucket list, and now he‘s got a whole new lease on life. That‘s really going to change him."

    However, Spider-Man fans need not lose heart as the world of comics is an uncertain one where superheroes have a way of returning from their graves.

  • 37-year old Kate Winslet marries for the third time

    37-year old Kate Winslet marries for the third time

    MUMBAI: The lovely Kate Winslet who reached the ultimate with her breathtaking performance as Rise in Titanic has entered into matrimony with her boy friend Ned Rocknroll at a secret ceremony in New York.

    Winslet, 37, who has been dating billionaire businessman Richard Branson‘s nephew for just over a year, exchanged vows in a secret ceremony, reported the Huffington Post.

    "I can confirm that Kate Winslet married Ned Rock‘nRoll in NY earlier this month in a private ceremony attended by her two children and a very few friends and family. The couple had been engaged since the summer," said her representative confirming the news.

    This is not the first time that Winslet has wed in secret. In 2003, she married Sam Mendes, her second husband, on an island in the Caribbean with just her daughter Mia and three friends beside her. Later, the actress split from the director, who is the father of her son Joe, in March last year. The couple is now divorced.

    In 2001, Winslet split from her first husband and father of her daughter Jim Threapleton, after three years of togetherness. Ned, who changed his name by deed poll from Abel Smith, has also been married before. He met Winslet after separating from his wife, 23-year-old Eliza Cowdray, whom he wed in 2009.

  • Kirsteen Stewart to sell her sheer dress for charity

    Kirsteen Stewart to sell her sheer dress for charity

    MUMBAI: Kristen Stewart has decided to sell the sheer dress that she wore at the premiere of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 for charity.
    The actress is giving away the Erdem frock to a CharityBuzz auction that would benefit the Robin Hood Foundation‘s Sandy Relief Fund that provides long-term support to those affected by the storm.
    The current high bid on her garment, which has an estimated value of 7,500 dollars, is 3,750 dollars but it may increase.

  • Jackie Chan in Stallone’s Expendables 3

    Jackie Chan in Stallone’s Expendables 3

    MUMBAI: Jackie Chan will play a substantial role in Sylvester Stallone‘s Expendables 3.
    Confirming his appearance in the film, Chan has been quoted as saying that the film "is more than a minor role. Sly had invited me to be in Expendables 2 but I was too busy filming CZ12 and couldn‘t make a commitment to the film. But, he did extend his invitation to the third installment which I agreed on the condition that I will be appearing as more than just a minor role with a few scenes."
    Chan also revealed that he might soon be reunited with Chris Tucker in a buddy comedy tentatively titled Skip Tracer. The film will be along the lines of the three Rush Hour films they co-starred in. The project is tentatively titled ‘Skip Tracer‘, according to Chan.
    "The script is currently being viewed by Chris Tucker. Personally, I feel that if he were to pick it up, it would be better if we turned it into Rush Hour 4 but I do think that three movies for the franchise is a perfect ending. It would be better to start a new buddy movie with someone new," Chan added.

  • Jackie Chan’s Chinese Zodiac to release in US in spring or summer

    Jackie Chan’s Chinese Zodiac to release in US in spring or summer

    MUMBAI: Jackie Chan‘s Chinese Zodiac is being readied to release in North America in either spring or summer next year, according to Ramy Choi, director of distribution and acquisition of the Hong Kong actor‘s company, Jackie & JJ International Limited. It will release in a few hundred screens.
    The film, that revolves around a Chan-led team hunting down Chinese national treasures auctioned off to international speculators, will also be released in Europe at the same time, Choi observed.
    The film, which also stars Korean actor Kwon Sang-woo and young Chinese actors Zhang Lanxin and Liao Fan as the relic-hunters and Oliver Platt as a villainous tycoon, already released in Chinese-speaking territories and also major Southeast Asian markets on 20 December.
    Choi said Chinese Zodiac topped box-office listings on mainland China (where the film‘s co-producers, Huayi Brothers, are distributing the film) on its opening day with earnings of 43.5 million yuan (US$7 million).
    She revealed the film‘s first-day gross also topped charts in Singapore (handled by Clover Films and Golden Village), Malaysia (Golden Screen Cinemas) and Thailand (Sahamongkolfilm International).
    The one territory which Chinese Zodiac failed to come out on top is Hong Kong where the film collected only HK$0.5 million (US$64,516), trailing behind both The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part Two (HK$2.2 million; US$283,870) and Wreck-it-Ralph (HKS1.7 million; US$219,355).

  • The Hobbit pushes Life of Pi to second spot collecting $ 91 million in second weekend

    The Hobbit pushes Life of Pi to second spot collecting $ 91 million in second weekend

    MUMBAI: Opening in 35 markets, New Line/MGM‘s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey swept the foreign theatrical circuit for the second consecutive weekend bagging $91 million in more than 18,600 screens in 59 markets. It thereby pushed Life of Pi to second place.
    The Hobbit drew a mighty opening gross in Russia ($16.8 million from 2,129 venues including previews), taking 75 per cent of the weekend market. Distributor Warner Bros said that in Russia, 65 per cent of the total box office came from 3D venues.
    To underscore the growth in recent years of the Russian territory, the distributor noted that the weekend debut paced 313 per cent ahead of the opening Russia gross of Jackson‘s Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, released in 2003 and the biggest foreign grosser of the LOTR titles.
    Director Peter Jackson‘s fantasy tale of the first installment of the director‘s $500 million trilogy based on the J R R Tolkien novel took a relatively small dip of 34 per cent from its opening round and has totaled a foreign gross intake to date of $284 million.
    Meanwhile, Paramount‘s latest Tom Cruise action title, Jack Reacher that premiered in seven offshore markets including Turkey, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Lebanon collected an estimated $2.5 million from 365 locations.
    Universal opened Les Miserables co-starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway in 348 locations in Japan for a weekend total of $4.2 million for a per-location average of more than $12,000.
    Universal also opened director Judd Apatow‘s comedy, This Is 40, in eight screens in Slovenia. Results is expected to be out today.

  • Paolo Virzi to head Turin Film Fest

    Paolo Virzi to head Turin Film Fest

    MUMBAI: The administrator of Turin Film Festival announced that Italian director Paolo Virzi will be its next artistic director. He will succeed director Gianni Amelio as the head of the festival.

    Virzi is the man behind Italian comedies like My Name is Tanino (2002), Tutta la vita davanti (Her Whole Life Ahead, 2008) and La prima cosa bella (The First Beautiful Thing, 2010). But he is still little known beyond Italy’s borders.
    Virzi has 11 nominations and two wins at Italy’s David di Donatello awards, and a special jury prize in Venice in 1997 for the comedy Ovosodo (Hardboiled Egg) to his credit.

    The Turin Film Festival is one of Italy’s most highly regarded film events and the only major Italian film festival to see ticket sales rise this year compared to 2011. The festival will take place from 25 December to 3 January in Turin.