MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) will release Michael Haneke‘s Palme d‘Or winner Amour on 9 December for a limited release.
The film will initially open in New York and Los Angeles putting it square in the awards season. The move makes the film eligible for consideration in all the major categories.
Amour revolves around an octogenarian couple whose love is tested as they face mortality.
SPC had lso released Haneke‘s Cache in 2005 and The White Ribbon in 2009.
MUMBAI: Harrison Ford is set to appear in the sequel of Blade Runner to be directed by Ridley Scott.
The 69-year-old actor was persuaded by Scott to make a cameo appearance in the follow up to the 1982 sci-fi movie. The director believes that Ford would be an amusing addition to the upcoming film.
“I don‘‘t think it‘ll be Harrison (starring). But I‘ve got to have him in it somewhere. That‘d be amusing,” Scott said.
Scott has lined up the original Blade Runner screenwriter Hampton Fancher to pen the script for the forthcoming film that will focus on a female protagonist. “I‘ve started my first meetings on the Blade Runner sequel. We have a very good take on it. And we will definitely be featuring a female protagonist,” he added.
In the original, Ford starred as the titular character, Rick Deckard. The film also starred Daryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer and Sean Young.
MUMBAI: Mexican director Michel Franco has won the top prize in the Cannes Film Festival‘s sidebar competition, Un Certain Regard for his film After Lucia. The film was chosen from a slate of twenty films by a jury headed by actor Tim Roth.
The jury’s second prize went to Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern’s French film Le Grand Soir while a special distinction citation was presented to Bosnian film Djeca by Aida Begic.
Un Certain Regard focuses on new and emerging filmmakers.
It has been earlier reported that the top prize, the Palme d‘Or was bagged by Michael Haneke‘s Amour.
MUMBAI: Mexican exhibitor Cinepolis, the world‘s fourth largest multiplex chain will invest more than $300 million to digitize its entire chain by 2013. So far it has converted 61 per cent of its theatres to digital in Mexico where it operates more than 2,400 screens.
The multiplex chain‘s goal is to become the first exhibitor in Latin America to go 100 per cent digital. An advantage in doing so is that in addition to state-of-the-art film screenings it can also project alternative content such as live and pre-recorded concerts and sporting events, according to Cinepolis.
Cinepolis owns 2,800-plus screens in Latin America and India and has recently cracked the US market with two luxury cinema complexes in Southern California.
Cinepolis dominates Mexico with a 62 per cent market share in box office revenue. In recent years, the Mexican exhibitor has shown growing interest in India where it has launched 32 screens and has plans to build more.
MUMBAI: Upon release, Men In Black 3, took over the reigns of the foreign box office grossing $132 million opening at 22,435 venues in 103 territories. Thus it dislodged The Avengers as the No. 1 film overseas.
Co-starring Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin, the film premiered at No. 1 in 101 markets with China leading the list with $20.6 million drawn from 6,073 screens while Russia came in second with an intake of $18.8 million from 1,547 sites.
According to Sony, MIB 3 grossed more than $52.2 million in Asia. Japan ($7.98 million at 980 venues) and South Korea ($8.53 million at 950 spots). In the UK, the film‘s intake was $4.96 million from 1,242 locations while in France, the film roped in $5.64 million from 889 situations.
IMAX screens playing MIB 3 drew $6.1 million from 195 screens through Monday, said IMAX senior vp worldwide distribution, Phil Groves. IMAX‘s international box-office total is expected to be $7 million.
MUMBAI: Michael Haneke won the top prize for his stark film about love and death Amour. The Austrian director‘s powerful and understated film stars two acting icons from France – 85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva and 81-year-old Jean-Louis Trintignant. They play an elderly couple coping with the wife‘s worsening health.
"I experienced something in my family that touched me." He thanked his wife and – in a rare personal comment – said he had promised her "we would never leave each other, like in the film," Haneke has been quoted to have said. The director said his reputation for delivering shocks was unjust.
Over the years, 10 films of Haneke has made it to the Cannes including Funny Games and Hidden. He previously won the Palme in 2009 for The White Ribbon and is only the seventh director to take the top prize twice.
While the second Grand Prize went to Matteo Garrone‘s Italian satire Reality, Ken Loach‘s The Angels‘ Share won the Jury Prize. Incidentally, both have won awards at the Cannes earlier – Garrone took the Grand Prize for Gomorrah in 2008 while Loach won the Palme d‘Or for The Wind That Shakes the Barley in 2006.
Mexico‘s Carlos Reygadas was named best director for Post Tenebras Lux.
The best actor prize went to Mads Mikkelsen for The Hunt, while the best actress award was won jointly by Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan, as friends separated by faith in the Romanian film Beyond the Hills.
The prize winners were chosen from among 22 contenders by a jury, led by Italian director Nanni Moretti, that included actors Ewan McGregor and Diane Kruger, director Alexander Payne and fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier.
MUMBAI: Australian actor Grant Bowler will essay the role of Richard Buton in the Elizabeth Taylor biopic Liz and Dick. Lindsay Lohan plays Taylor.
The biopic, being made into a TV film for Lifetime, will follow Richard Burton and Taylor‘s infamous romance that started on the set of Cleopatra and saw the couple marry twice.
Incidentally, Bowler has landed the role beating A-list actors like George Clooney, who Lohan previously expressed her desire to see in the role, it is understood.
Bowler, who made it big in the US with films like True Blood and Ugly Betty, is best known in his country for films like All Saints, Outrageous Fortune and Blue Heelers.
MUMBAI: Shirley MacLaine will be presented with the American Film Institute (AFI)‘s 40th Life Achievement Award (America‘s highest honour for a career in film) on 7 June. The elder actress will be recognized for her breadth of talents as an actress, songstress, author, director and producer.
Meryl Streep will do the honour. Incidentally, Streep, who was honoured with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2004, played MacLaine‘s daughter in Postcards From The Edge (1990). Luminaries from across the film community will join Streep to celebrate the career of MacLaine, one of America‘s treasured motion picture artistes.
Said AFI president, CEO Bob Gazzale, "The world loves Shirley MacLaine. AFI‘s challenge will be how to fit it all into one evening because hers is a life that spans from movies to television to Broadway, books and beyond. Perhaps more than any other recipient, with Shirley I would underline the word life in Life Achievement Award. Her‘s is a story more than just movies. It‘s an epic journey, and she has invited all of us to come along for the ride."
Incidentally, both MacLaine and Streep have also won Oscar Awards. Streep was nominated a record 17 times, including for Postcards From The Edge, won her third Oscar this year for The Iron Lady. While MacLaine was nominated six times, she won the Oscar once for Terms Of Endearment (1983).
The show will air on US cable network TV Land on 24 June.
MUMBAI: Universal Pictures International has acquired international distribution rights of Kathryn Bigelow’s yet untitled feature film about the killing of Osama bin Laden. It will distribute the film in the UK, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Scandinavia, South Africa and Spain.
The project from Annapurna Pictures was written by Mark Boal, who had earlier teamed with Bigelow for The Hurt Locker.
Bigelow and Boal will produce alongside Megan Ellison of Annapurna. Greg Shapiro, Ted Schipper and Colin Wilson will serve as executive producers.
A few days ago, the Obama administration had arranged to get special access to government officials involved in the operation that killed Osama bin Laden for Bigelow and Boal.
MUMBAI: Will Smith’s Men in Black 3 is expected to garner anywhere around $80 million-$90 million in the domestic circuit. Sony is looking to dominate the Memorial Day holiday weekend with Men in Black 3.
The big-budget 3D film costing close to $230 million is widely expected to topple The Avengers from the top spot at the domestic box office with a solid four-day gross. MIB 3, which also opens around the world, is predicted to clear $200 million globally till Monday.
Meawhile, Avengers continues to run riot nearly a month into its run and will become the No. 3 film of all time at the worldwide box office by the end of the weekend or early next week.
The film has acquired a global total of $1.22 billion till last Wednesday putting it at No. 4 behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($1.33 billion).
MIB 3 opens one week after Universal and Hasbro Entertainment‘s big-budget Battleship debuted to a dismal $25.5 million domestically.
The first Men in Black, that released in 1997, was a runaway success earning $587 million worldwide. But the sequel Men in Black II, that opened in July 2002 was a critical disappointment after it gathered $441 million.