MUMBAI: Hollywood actor Dustin Hoffman will be honoured with a special lifetime achievement award by Spain‘s top film festival, the San Sebastian International Film Festival. The festival will take place from 21 to 29 September.
Seventy five year old Hoffman will receive the Donostia award marking the 60th anniversary of the festival in northern Spain, the oldest and most prestigious event of its kind in the Spanish-speaking world.
“The award will be a tribute to one of Hollywood‘s greatest actors, winner of two Academy Awards and a brilliant career behind him,” according to a statement from the festival organisers.
Hoffman has starred in films like The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, Straw Dogs, All the President‘s Men, Marathon Man, Kramer vs. Kramer, Tootsie and Rain Man. Hoffman will also show his directorial sensibilities at the San Sebastian festival where he will present his directorial debut Quartet; a film set in a home for retired opera singers.
The film centers around three of the residents organise a concert every year to celebrate Giuseppe Verdi‘s birthday. But their peaceful life is disrupted by the arrival of one of the trio‘s ex-wife, and the potential of her expanding their group to a quartet.
Others to be honoured with awards during the festival are director Oliver Stone, John Travolta, Tommy Lee Jones and Scottish actor Ewan McGregor.
Category: International
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Dustin Hoffman to receive Donostia award at Spanish film fest
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Daniel Craig signs two more Bond films
MUMBAI: Daniel Craig is set to become the longest serving James Bond on screen as he reportedly signed two more movies in the James Bond franchise.
The nest Bond offering, Skyfall is Craig‘s third film as the protagonist spy James Bond since he replaced Pierce Brosnan in 2006 as 007 in Casino Royale. His second film in the role was The Quantum of Solace released in 2008. Skyfall hits theatres on 9 November.
It has also been reported that Sony has re-upped its deal to co-finance the film with MGM.
The film received a huge promotional push during the London Olympics, with Craig participating in a taped sketch with Queen Elizabeth during the opening ceremony. -
Assange biopic to screen at Toronto fest on Saturday
MUMBAI: Audiences will get a sneak peek into Julian Assange‘s early life in the Australian TV film Underground: The Julian Assange Story, that would premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, 8th September.
The Australian TV film, that chronicles Assange`s life as a teenage computer hacker, will have the rare honour for an Australia made television film to be a part of an international film festival.
Newcomer Alex Williams plays Assange, with Rachel Griffiths, who plays the role of his activist mother Christine, Laura Wheelwright plays his girlfriend, and Anthony LaPaglia plays the cop who investigates the case.
The film written and directed by Robert Connolly, is based on the 1997 novel `Underground: Tales Of Hacking, Madness And Obsession On The Electronic Frontier` by Suelette Dreyfus.
Assange is currently holed up in the London embassy of Ecuador, which has granted him asylum. He is attempting to avoid arrest and subsequent extradition to Sweden, where he faces questioning over rape and sexual assault claims. -
Academy to screen Spielberg’s ET as part of 30th anniversary of the film
MUMBAI: As a part of celebrating the 30th anniversary of Steven Spielberg‘s science-fiction masterpiece ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has arranged a special screening.
The Science and Technology Council of the Academy has teamed up with the Palo Alto International Film Festival (PAIFF) to present a screening of the 1992 release on 28 September at the Outdoor Festival Village Stage in Palo Alto, it is understood.
Termed as Spielberg‘s “most personal film” and considered by many as a benchmark in the science fiction genre, ET continues to delight audiences with its emotional story of the intense relationship between the young Elliott (Henry Thomas) and the lovable alien who is trying to return to his home planet.
The film, also starring Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Peter Coyote in prominent roles, was nominated for nine Academy Awards but won four. -
Dejected Robert Pattinson plans to quit Hollywood
MUMBAI: Feeling dejected following revelations that his ex-girlfriend Kristen Stewart cheated on him with director Rupert Sanders, Robert Pattinson is planning to quit Hollywood.
“Rob has always had a love-hate relationship with his career. He loves earning millions from acting, but he hates the constant intrusion into his private life,” it has been said.
“He has more than enough money to live very comfortably for the rest of his life. Quitting Hollywood is something he has talked about. When he found out Kristen had cheated, he opened his eyes – people in showbiz just aren‘t very nice,” said a friend of Pattinson. -
Ongoing Toronto fest dedicates entire section to Bollywood films
MUMBAI: The 37th Toronto International Film Festival that began today has dedicated an entire section to films from Mumbai. This would include the gala premiere of Sridevi‘s comeback film English Vinglish.
With the spotlight on Indian cinema this year, the North-American cinema event, which has gained importance over the years for its ability to create Oscar-buzz, is offering a rich bouquet of 15 films from India in which two of its biggest attractions are Deepa Mehta‘s Midnight‘s Children and Mira Nair‘s Reluctant Fundamentalist.
English Vinglish which marks Sridevi‘s return to films after a gap of 15 years, has been directed by debutante Gauri Shinde, wife of R Balki who had earlier directed Cheeni Kum and Paa. A funny and touching story about an Indian woman‘s struggle to learn English in America, the film will be screened on 14 September.
Midnight‘s Children, an adaptation of Salman Rushdie‘s Booker award-winning novel of the same name, boasts of a huge Indian star cast. The fantasy film tells the strange story of midnight children. Born on the cusp of India‘s independence from Britain, these children are endowed with strange, magical abilities.
Reluctant Fundamentalist, on the other hand, tells the story of a young Pakistani‘s disillusionment with the great American dream in the post 9/11 era. The film, partly shot in India, stars Shabana Azmi and Om Puri apart from its international star cast.
National-award-winning filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli‘s The Tortoise, An Incarnation will be screened in the ‘Contemporary World Cinema’ section of the festival. -
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug releasing on 13 December, 2013
MUMBAI: The final installment of Peter Jackson‘s Hobbit trilogy, officially titled The Hobbit: There and Back Again will release in July 2014.
The film will open in two years time, just seven months after the release of the second film, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, it is understood.
“We wanted to have a shorter gap between the second and third films. Opening in July affords us not only the perfect summer tentpole, but fans will have less time to wait for the finale of this epic adventure,” Warner Bros President of domestic distribution Dan Fellman has been quoted to have said.
Averred president of international distribution Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, “The Hobbit: There and Back Again will be an action spectacle and an emotional conclusion for this already much-anticipated trilogy. Opening in the summer will maximise playability for what promises to be an event film for fans the world over.”
The much anticipated adaptation of JRR Tolkien‘s epic novels about the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, which are set 60 years before The Lord of the Rings, will begin with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug on 13 December, 2013.
The film boasts an all-star cast including Martin Freeman, Sir Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett and Orlando Bloom.
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Ridley Scott resumes shooting of The Counsellor
MUMBAI: After a small break, director Ridley Scott returned to the sets for the first time since his brother Tony Scott committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. It is still a mystery why he committed suicide, with claims he had terminal brain cancer denied by his family.
It is said that the 74-year-old Gladiator helmer looked strained and tired as he walked around the sets of his new film The Counsellor.
The Counsellor consists of a star-studded cast that includes Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz.
After it emerged that Tony Scott had plunged to his death from a harbour bridge in Los Angeles last month, Ridley Scott had immediately called a halt to the production.
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Tom Hanks starrer Cloud Atlas to hit theatres in October ’12
MUMBAI: Integrated media and entertainment company PVR Limited is all set to bring adventure-drama multi-starrer ‘Cloud Atlas‘ to the big screen in India. The film stars Tom Hanks and Halle Berry in the lead along with Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, James D‘Arcy, Zhou Xun, Keith David and David Gyasi.
The film is set for an October release in the US and India. Cloud Atlas is an adaptation of the eponymous 2004 novel by David Mitchell. The movie has been written and directed by Lana Wachowski and Andy Wachowski along with Tom Tykwer.
Cloud Atlas is a story of humankind in which the actions and consequences of everyone‘s lives impact one another throughout the past, present and future. This is exemplified in its caption ‘Everything is connected‘. The film shows how one soul is shaped, across lifetimes, from a murderer into a saviour and a single act of kindness ripples out for centuries to inspire a revolution. Each member of the ensemble appears in multiple roles as the story moves through time.
PVR Pictures president Kamal Gianchandani said, “Cloud Atlas boasts of a great ensemble cast consisting of Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon, Hugo Weaving and many others which almost guarantees a great experience in itself. This is one of the most awaited Hollywood movies of this year and PVR is proud to be at the forefront in bringing great cinema, much like Cloud Atlas, from the world over to India. We are positive the Indian audience will appreciate this offering as they have done in the past.” -
Michael Clarke Duncan passes away
MUMBAI: Michael Clarke Duncan, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of a death row inmate in the 1999 film The Green Mile, expired on Monday less than eight weeks after suffering a heart attack. He was 54.
Duncan died in Los Angeles, Announcing his demise, his fiancé and reality television star Omarosa Manigault, said in a statement that Duncan suffered from a heart attack on 13 July but “never fully recovered.” The actors came at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles.
Duncan‘s deep voice and hulking 6-foot-5 (1.96-metre) frame gave him a commanding screen presence. Having once dug ditches for a gas company in his native Chicago, Duncan hen moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career as an actor.
He worked as a bodyguard and bouncer and played a few roles of that kind in both films and televisions before landing a small part in the 1998 film Armageddon.
That led him to bag a much larger role in the 1999 prison drama The Green Mile with Tom Hanks. The film had the actor play an inmate with magical powers who is put to death for two murders he did not commit.