MUMBAI: John Travolta has evinced interest in remaking of John Woo‘s film The Killer, as well as star in a biopic of legendary American football coach Vince Lombardi. Incidentally, Woo is set to produce the re-boot of his iconic 1989 action film The Killer that starred Chow Yun Fat. John H Lee will direct the film from a script by Josh Campbell.
The film will reportedly be shot in 3D, with producers Essential Entertainment and Lion Rock Productions (Woo and Terence Chang) behind it.
Travolta said the film about notorious crime boss John Gotti, in which Travolta has been attached in the titular role, is still in development. “The script still isn‘t right yet,” he said.
Earlier, Woo and Travolta have collaborated successfully on Face/Off and Broken Arrow.
“I‘m also considering doing a US film about the football coach Vince Lombardi, who coached my dad [Salvatore Travolta] before he went professional,” Travolta quipped. “I would play Vince Lombardi,” he added.
Legendary coach Lombardi is best known as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s when he led them to three straight league championships and the first two Super Bowls.
The Super Bowl trophy is named in his honour.
Category: International
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Travolta in remake of The Killer; also in Vince Lombardi biopic
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Daniel Craig, Tarantino to be handed BAFTA awards on 7 November
MUMBAI: The British Academy of Film and Television Arts Los Angeles has announced the winners of this year‘s Britannia Awards, to be handed out in a ceremony on November 7.
The winners of this year‘s prizes include Daniel Craig (the latest James Bond) and director Quentin Tarantino, whose Western Django Unchained is soon to hit theaters.
The creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, will receive the prestigious Charlie Chaplin Britannia award for Excellence in Comedy.
In the world of video games, Will Wright, the brain behind SimCity and The Sims, will be honoured.
BBC and BBC America will both broadcast the ceremony. -
Michael Bay invites wannabe filmmakers to be part of his next via competition
MUMBAI: Director Michael Bay has teamed up with his bosses at Doritos to launch Crash the Super Bowl, a contest that will allow wannabe moviemakers to create advertisements for the snack brand, it is understood.
The two top commercials will air during the Super Bowl broadcast in January next year after which fans will be asked to vote for their favourite in an online poll.
“When you find out where these guys came from… It‘s great. If you want to get noticed, this is the way to do it… When I was a film student, I would have killed for this kind of opportunity. When you‘re on the set, you get to see it all go down,” Bay said.
Bay, who started off his career with commercials before transitioning into Hollywood, will invite the director behind the advert with the highest score to work for him on the next instalment of Transformers.
The fourth installment of Transformers is due to hit theatres in June 2014. -
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon making Race to the South Pole
Mumbai: Real life friends Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are producing the 1900s set drama Race to the South Pole under their Pearl Street banner.
The film depicts the true story of two explorers in the early 1900s and their pursuit to be the first person to reach the South Pole — the last uncharted territory on the planet.
Englishman Robert Falcon Scott and Norwegian Roald Amundsen were explorers from antithetical countries: one from the era‘s most powerful empire, the other from a country that had just achieved independence.
Their race, seen as heroic during a golden age of exploration, sparked international interest and galvanized the world to see who would reach Earth‘s southernmost point first.
Meanwhile, Affleck is gearing up for the release of his latest directorial work Argo which is already creating Oscar buzz. Damon, on the other hand, recently wrapped Promised Land, a Gus Van Sant-directed drama that he co-wrote, stars and produces. -
Anupam Kher’s Hollywood film gets People’s Choice Award
MUMBAI: Anupam Kher‘s well-applauded Hollywood film David Russell‘s Silver Linings Playbook has won the prestigious ‘People‘s Choice‘ award at the Toronto Film Festival.
Kher‘s role in Silver Linings Playbook is the most substantial role by an Indian actor in a Hollywood film. Taking things cool, Kher says, “I‘m not saying anything about my role. I neither want to raise expectations of my audience back home nor play down my part. I know what it is. And I am very happy.”
“The profile of my part is what matters. I could be in Woody Allen‘s You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger or I could be in Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum. I enjoyed doing both. I‘ve done more than 450 films so far. I was only 26 when I played a 67-year old man in Saaraansh. From then on, I have tried to break the mould in Indian films. No one has helped me get where I am. I did it on my own, fearlessly.” -
Imax CEO doesn’t expect Hollywood films in a lot in China
Mumbai: Imax CEO Richard Gelfond doesn‘t expect many Hollywood films to clash at local multiplexes in China. He told the Goldman Sachs‘ Communacopia conference that Chinese authorities directing screen traffic in the Asian market weren‘t impressed with the results when Warner Bros.‘ The Dark Knight Rises and Columbia Pictures‘ The Amazing Spider-Man opened simultaneously in China on Imax screens on 27 August.
“My guess is they‘re going to rethink that,” Gelfond told investors.
Gelfond argued the cannibalisation was less about reducing slots for Hollywood movies than opening up screen time for Chinese films to bring the ratio of local and foreign movies in China more into balance.
“Instead of two Hollywood films stretching out over two months, they wanted one month for Chinese films,” Gelfond said while speaking on creating black-out periods for non-domestic films by bunching Hollywood titles.
Gelfond, who was in China last week,as part to hold discussions with government authorities, said the arms-length China Film Group, that charges a fee to import foreign titles, makes less money when Hollywood films don‘t follow one after the other.
And Chinese exhibitors make less money as well, and are more interested in attracting consumers to their shopping malls by building multiplexes, than protecting local films. -
Robin Swicord on board of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Mumbai: Robin Swicord, who earned an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay for 2008‘s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, has been elected to the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Here, she will represent the writer‘s branch. Her election was held to fill the seat left open by the death of Frank Pierson last July.
Swicord will join Bill Condon and Phil Robinson, who also represent the writer‘s branch on the board. Under the Academy‘s bylaws, she will remain on the board until the next regularly scheduled election scheduled in June, next year.
Swicord ‘s credits also include Memoirs of a Geisha, Matilda, Little Women and The Jane Austen Book Club that she also directed. -
Reliance Big Ent buys filming rights of Tom Rachman novel The Imperfectionists
MUMBAI: Brad Pitt‘s production company Plan B Entertainment, under its creative partnership with Reliance BIG Entertainment, has acquired the screen rights of Tom Rachman‘s novel, The Imperfectionists.
The Imperfectionists centers on the quirky, maddening, endearing people who write and read an international newspaper based in Rome: from the obituary reporter who will do anything to avoid work, to the young freelancer who is manipulated by an egocentric war correspondent, to the dog-obsessed publisher who seems less interested in his struggling newspaper than in his magnificent basset hound.
Commenting on the acquisition, Reliance BIG Entertainment‘s Chairman Amit Khanna said, ‘”The Imperfectionists is a compliment to our slate with Plan B Entertainment. It will make a commercial and extremely relevant film which will play well to an international audience.” -
Arbitrage to open Abu Dhabi Film Fest
Mumbai: Nicholas Jarecki‘s Arbitrage, that stars Richard Gere and Nate Parker, will open this year‘s Abu Dhabi Film Festival that runs from 11 to 20 October. The film, brought to the screen by Saudi film producer Mohammed Al Turki, is a thriller set against the backdrop of hedge fund manipulation.
Al Turki, Jarecki, Gere and Parker are all expected to be on hand for the red carpet event to herald the start of the festival, organizers said.
Now in its sixth year, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival will be staged at the Emirates Palace Hotel, one of Abu Dhabi‘s landmarks.?The festival aims to position the emirate event as a showcase for Arab cinema and a way of supporting emerging and established Arabic filmmakers.
“Abu Dhabi will once again be the center of attention for filmmakers and cinema lovers in the region and for followers of Arab cinema around the world,” said festival director Ali Al Jabri.
This is the first year the Abu Dhabi Film Festival will be presented under the management of twofour54 as part of the plan to strategically align the festival alongside Abu Dhabi‘s other media initiatives and related events that will reinforce Abu Dhabi as a creative hub for the region.
This year‘s festival includes a special program of Algerian films to mark the 50th anniversary of Algerian independence. -
Resident Evil…tops b-o market globally
MUMBAI: Paul W.S. Anderson‘s Resident Evil Retribution starring Milla Jovovich that opened in 65 markets at as many as 8,110 venues, grossed $50 million finishing at the numero uno spot in some 30 territories and easily taking the top spot internationally.
The action/sci-fi sequel opened in Asia particularly well in Japan (with a gross of $10.3 million drawn from 780 locations) and in Taiwan ($4.4 million from 226 spots). Russia drew in $8.6 million drawn from 3,300 sites while the film grossed $3.5 million Brazil from 396 locales.
Imax reported a $3.1 million weekend tally for Retribution at its 93 offshore locations.
Anderson‘s four previous Resident Evil titles have fared extremely well at the foreign box office with 2010‘s Resident Evil: Afterlife grossing $236.1 million, nearly four times the offshore total of the 2002 franchise original Resident Evil ($63.8 million). 2004‘s Resident Evil: Apocalypse drew $78.2 million overseas while 2007‘s Resident Evil: Extinction grossed $95.5 million.
Disney reported that its 3D converted animation film Finding Nemo drew a total of $5.1 million in seven offshore markets of which $1.3 million was registered on the weekend. (Original Nemo release racked up $527.9 million overseas.) Updated worldwide gross total for the title stands at $890.2 million.