ITV

Category: Movies

  • Excel and Fox releases ‘Moulin Rouge’, ‘Romeo Juliet’ on DVD

    MUMBAI: Excel Home Videos has partnered with Fox Home Entertainment to release Moulin Rouge (2001) and Romeo Juliet (1996) on DVD.

    Directed by Baz Luhrmann, the DVDs are priced at Rs 399.


    Romeo Juliet features Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo and Juliet as Claire Danes. It gives a modern Californian twist to the classic tale of feuding families and star-crossed young lovers.


    Moulin Rouge, a musical love story, features Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman.


    Luhrman uses the term ‘Red Carpet‘ to promote audience participation, featuring an emphasis on heightened worlds, musical elements and comic tragedy.

  • Network18 snaps up majority in AIM-listed Indian Film Company

    MUMBAI: Network18 Holdings, a subsidiary of Raghav Bahl-promoted Network18 Media & Investments, has taken a majority stake in the AIM-listed Indian Film Company (IFC).

    Network18 has acquired 14.2 per cent equity, or 7.8 million shares, through an offer that it made to shareholders


    of IFC.



    Post offer, Network18 holds 50.2 per cent stake, or 27.6 million shares, in the movie company.


    Network18 had recently increased its stake in IFC to 35.99 per cent, following which it had to make a mandatory offer for all the remaining shares not owned by it.



    Network18 said Wednesday the condition to the mandatory offer has now been satisfied and the offer has become unconditional to acceptances.


    The offer will remain open for acceptance and will lapse if the acquisition of IFC is referred to the competition commission before 24 August.



    “The offer will remain open for acceptance until further notice. IFC shareholders who wish to accept the offer but have not yet done so are urged to submit their acceptance as soon as possible,” IFC said.

  • ION Television adds 49 new films in kitty

    MUMBAI: Following new package deals with NBC Universal (NBCU) Domestic Television and Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distributors, ION Television has bagged more than 40 new feature films. These films will begin airing later this month and continue till 2010.

    The NBCU package covers The Break Up, Miami Vice, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, the Back to the Future



    trilogy, Inside Man and The Hitcher among others.


    The network has also expanded on its existing agreement with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. The 30-plus new films in the package include March of the Penguins, Troy, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Matrix Revolutions and Taking Lives.

    “As ION Television continues to build its schedule, these first-rate theatrical features are the perfect complement to our growing lineup of original and acquired series,” said ION Media Networks executive VP of programming Leslie Chesloff.

  • MGM CEO Sloan exits post

    MUMBAI: Harry Sloan, CEO of MGM has quit his post but he will officiate as the chairman. He is due to form an ‘Office of the CEO‘.


    The newly created Office of the CEO, reporting to the MGM Board of Directors, includes Mary Parent, the chairperson for the worldwide motion picture group; Bedi A. Singh, the president of finance and administration and CFO; and Stephen F. Cooper, the newly appointed vice chairman.
    According to a MGM announcement, Cooper‘s main role would be to explore options to improve the studio‘s balance sheet.


    A statement from the MGM Board said, “Both Mary and Bedi have demonstrated strong leadership during their respective tenures at MGM, and we are confident in their ability to ensure the company continues to aggressively pursue its business objectives. We welcome Steve, who brings unique expertise working with a wide variety of companies to improve their financial position.


    “This leadership team offers MGM the ideal combination of talent to best position the company for the long term: industry experience, management continuity and the addition of a proven professional with expertise in strengthening capital structures. We look forward to working together to maximize MGM‘s long-term value.”


    The restructuring move comes as MGM copes with its $3.7 billion debt, much of it a remnant of the 2005 buyout of the studio by Providence Equity Partners, TPG, Sony Corporation of America, Comcast, DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group.



  • Pusan Intl film fest to honour Johnnie To

    MUMBAI: The upcoming Pusan International Film Festival will honour Hong Kong director Johnnie To with a 10-film retrospective.


    The festival depicts To as one of the last bastions of a Hong Kong cinema that began to dissolve after the territory‘s handover from Britain to China. It will also look at his influence on the careers of major Hong Kong stars including Chow Yun-fat and Andy Lau.


    The films that will be shown at the festival include The Enigmatic Case, All About Ah-Long,Running Out of Time, Needing You, Running on Karma, Breaking News, Election, Election 2, Exiled and Vengeance. In addition to the screening series, festival organizers and the Pusan National University will host a To master class.

    This year‘s Pusan Pusan festival will be held between 8 to 16 October.

  • Rome Film Festival to open 11 September

    MUMBAI: Film personalities across the world will assemble in Rome this September for the Rome International Film Festival that will take place on 11 to 12 September. The event that is scheduled at the DeSoto Theatre and Heritage Hall will feature 86 different films from across the world, including Spain, Australia and Canada.


    The film festival will feature films from two minutes long to two hours long in duration and will touch on a variety of subjects.


    It is because of budget cuts for the festival, the event will take place over two days, rather than the entire weekend. Tickets are priced at $50 for a two-day festival pass, $30 for a one day festival pass, $7.50 for an evening ticket and $5 for a matinee ticket.

  • Spielberg, Reliance close $825 mn funding

    MUMBAI: DreamWorks and Reliance Big Entertainment have locked the first phase of financing, sealing an amount of $825 million that would allow the joint venture to make six films annually.

    The final piece was the $325 million tied up by JP Morgan in a syndicated financing arrangement with a clutch of banks that include Bank of America, City National Bank, Union Bank of California and Israel Discount Bank.




    Reliance Big Entertainment is putting in a matching amount as equity financing while distribution partner Walt Disney Studios has committed $175 million. The funding will allow DreamWorks’ Steven Spielberg to start shooting his first film project this year.


    DreamWorks had struck a joint venture arrangement with Reliance Big Entertainment after exiting from Paramount. The global economic downturn had delayed Spielberg’s efforts to find financial partners to back up his slate of film projects.

    Reliance ADAG chairman Anil Ambani aims to build a film empire that has interests across the globe. The partnership with DreamWorks is crucial to his Hollywood strategy.

    The first film scheduled for release is 2010.

  • UTV World Movies to screen ‘Queens’ on 19 August

    MUMBAI: UTV World Movies has organised the screening of Spanish film Queens on 19 August at Café Goa, Bandra at 7.30 pm. Prior to the screening, a live performance of Shaa‘ir and Func has also been arranged.

    Shaa‘ir and Func‘s live shows have always been high on energy, performance and costuming. After the success of their debut album, New Day – The Love Album, the duo released their new record entitled ‘Light Tribe‘ in May last on Blue Frog Records.


    Following the duo‘s performance, will be the screening of Queens. The film is Manuel Gómez Pereira‘s comedy about five mothers who must cope with their gay sons‘ (and their own) romantic problems as they all get ready for Spain‘s first mass gay wedding ceremony.

  • Japanese distributor Xanadeux goes out of business

    MUMBAI: Distributor Xanadeux has turned out to be one of Japan‘s small to medium-sized distributors to go out of business. This follows a contraction in the territory‘s independent film and DVD markets.

    Founded in 1996, Xanadeux gained notice for the Tamil-language release Muthu (aka The Dancing Maharaja) in 1998, which grossed $2m of its $6m worldwide box office in Japan and made Tamil superstar Rajnikant famous amongst the people of Japan.

    Other Xanadeux releases included The Limey, Rob Zombie‘s 2007 Halloween remake, Yoichi Sai‘s Blood And Bones and J-horror releases Juon and Juon 2, on which it also served as production company.

    Xanadeux was set to co-distribute director Sabu‘s The Crab Cannery Ship (Kanikosen) but left IMJ Entertainment, the film‘s producer, to handle distribution duties despite its lack of such operations. Upcoming releases including omnibus New York, I Love You are in limbo.

    Several more small-to-medium sized companies are in financial trouble.

  • McAvoy, Holofcener in cancer comedy

    MUMBAI: James McAvoy is in the principal cast will star of Mandate Pictures‘ untitled comedy previously titled I‘m With Cancer that will be directed by Nicole Holofcener.

    The film based on the life of the project‘s screenwriter Will Reiser is being produced by Seth Rogen.

    The film that will go on the floors in January next year will have McAvoy playing a 25-year-old who comes to know that he has cancer.


    Ironically, Reiser was diagnosed with cancer in his mid-20s but successfully battled the disease for several years.

    McAvoy had previously starred in Wanted, Atonement and The Last King Of Scotland while Holofcener had earlier directed Lovely And Amazing and Friends With Money.