MUMBAI: Anne Dudek has been signed to co-star opposite Piper Perabo in USA Network‘s pilot Covert Affairs.”
The film centers on Annie Walker (Perabo), a multilingual CIA trainee who joins the agency while still reeling from a mysterious ex-boyfriend who appears to be of particular interest to her bosses. Dudek will play her sister.
Dudek, best known for her role as Dr. Amber Volakis in Fox‘s House also had featured in HBO‘s Big Love and AMC‘s Mad Men.
MUMBAI: At the Locarno Film Festival‘s 2009 Open Doors Factory, Eleven Flowers, a film directed by Wang Xiaoshuai and produced by Isabelle Glachant, was awarded a grant of $46,000 (50,000 swiss francs) by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), has also given development grants to two other projects namely Bus No. 8 and Don‘t Expect Praises. The two grants were each worth $14,000 (15,000 swiss francs).
The four-day Open Doors co-production lab, which features a different filmmaking region each year, this year focused on Greater China with 12 projects selected out of 114 applications from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
BANGALORE: Members of the Kannada Film Producers Association (KFPA) staged a protest before the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) in Bangalore and have threatened an intense agitation if their issues have not been addressed within one month by the government and the KFCC.
Among other things, Kannada film producers are demanding the re-implementation of the seven-week ban of release of films of other languages in the state. In 2004, the Karnataka state government had passed an order banning the release of other language films for seven weeks from the date of first release under tremendous pressure from the Kannada film industry. The Supreme Court had stayed the government order restricting the films on the basis of language.
Most Kannada films are made on small budgets – about Rs 50 million or so each, as opposed to the Rs 500 million plus per film spent on producing Tamil and Telugu movies. Kannada film producers cannot compete with big bucks of this kind and fear that they will be wiped out.
The producers’ fraternity was protesting the last Friday’s release of a Telugu blockbuster ‘Magadheera’ in 32 theaters – 26 in Bangalore and 6 in other parts of Karnataka. The distributor of the Telugu film is KFCC treasurer KV Vijaykumar. Besides expelling him from the chamber, the KFCC has directed Vijaykumar to restrict the film to 21 theaters only from this Friday onwards.
‘Magadheera’ stars politician and Bollywood and Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi’s 32-year-old son Ram Charan Teja in the main lead. The film is produced by Allu Aravind and directed by Rajamouli.
MUMBAI: Adlabs Films Limited has approved raising up to Rs 6 billion via rights issue of shares.
The funds would be utilised for expanding its exhibition screens to over 570 in the next one year, setting up art studios, buying equipment and for setting up media business process outsourcing units.
Says Adlabs CEO Anil Arjun, “The proposed rights offering will facilitate the company to build on its strengths in the film and media space and provide an opportunity to the existing shareholders to participate in the growth.”
Indiantelevision.com had earlier reported that Adlabs had plans to invest Rs 2 billion in FY‘10 including Rs 800 million for studio and was considering a rights issue to raise long term resources.
Adlabs is setting up a 200,000 sq. ft. studio at Film City in Mumbai. The company is also establishing a 1200-member media BPO, specialising in content processing, image enhancement and restoration services. The screen count will go up from 428 screens in April ‘09 to over 570 screens in the next one year.
“The funds raised through rights Issue will be used for expansion and growth opportunities including investment in various projects in India as well as overseas,” Adlabs said.
The promoter group has offered to subscribe to any shares remaining unsubscribed by the shareholders.
Adlabs has a presence across the segments of exhibition, film and media Services and television software.
MUMBAI: After Pune, the Maharashtra government has ordered multiplex and theatre owners of Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai to keep their shutters down till Monday due to the swine flu scare.
Movies that were slated to release this Friday – UTV Motion Pictures‘ Kaminey and Indian Film
Says UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur, “We are going ahead with the worldwide release of Kaminey as per schedule. In Mumbai, we are following the government directives and will release the film as and when cinemas are permitted to screen.”
This weekend would have been ideal for box office as the collections may have soared with the two big films and national holiday on 15 August. Love Aaj Kal has been already ruling at the box office.
As per industry estimates, this shutdown would translate into a loss of approximately Rs 310- 350 million.
“Since the swine flu scare, footfalls had started reducing but since the last two days, we have seen just between five to seven per cent occupancy,” Fun Cinemas CEO Vishal Kapur tells Indiantelevision.com.
Meanwhile, shares of listed multiplex companies dipped on news that cinema theatres would down their shutters due to swine flu scare. Shares of PVR declined by 7 per cent to close at Rs 111, Inox fell 3.22 per cent to Rs 51.05, Cinemax by 2.81 per cent to Rs 51.95 and Fame India 1.80 per cent to Rs 19.10 on the BSE.
MUMBAI: Knox Entertainment has launched the music of its forthcoming multi-starrer, Toss – A Flip of Destiny.
The film, directed by Ramesh Khatkar, is slated for a nationwide release on 28 August.
Says Khatkar, “The music in this film is not like what you see in others films. I have interpreted music with narrative. For example the theme song ‘Rupaiya‘ has a cup of tea featured in it and the music narrates the feelings and emotions of the cup. There is another song in which I asked the actors to sing because everyone sings to describe their emotions and for that one dosen‘t have to be a professional singer.”
The film has music by Sandesh Shandilya and Siddhartha Suhas. The star cast of the film includes Rannvijay Singh, Ashmit Patel, Prashant Raj, Aarti Chabria, Shruti Gera, Madhurima and Ramesh Khatkar.
MUMBAI: Percept Picture Company (PPC) will release Pritish Nandy Communication‘s Raat Gayi Baat Gayi in theatres.
The film, an outlandish comedy directed by Saurabh Shukla, stars Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Dalip Tahil, Irawati, Harshe Mayadev, Anu Menon, Navniit Nisshan, Aamir Bashir, Neha Dhupia, Ranvir Shorey, Makarand Deshpande and Sudhir Mishra.
Says PPC Director – IPR Management Ashok Ahuja, “Raat Gayi Baat Gayi, that is planned to be released on 9 October, will be offering differentiated entertainment to the discerning audiences. This will be PPC‘s second project with PNC after Ugly aur Pagli.”
MUMBAI: Shemaroo Entertainment has released 8 x 10 Tasveer on home video.
The DVD has bonus features that include ‘Making of the Film‘ and ‘Theatrical Promos.‘
The VCDs and DVDs are priced at Rs. 99 and Rs. 299 respectively.
Produced by Percept Picture Company (PPC), the film is a story about Jai Puri, (Akshay Kumar), who possesses supernatural powers, is of Indian origin and works as a forest ranger in Canada. His life is shattered by a loss of a very important person in his life. This personal tragedy leads him to use his unique supernatural power to unravel the mystery behind the murder.
Besides starring Akshay Kumar, the film has Ayesha Takia, Javed Jaffery, Rushad Rana and Girish Karnad and Sharmila Tagore.
MUMBAI: Leading independent filmed entertainment studio Lions Gate has, through a five-year deal, agreed to supply rental kiosk company Redbox with movie discs on the same day they are offered for retail sale.
The deal, running from 1 September to 31 August 2014, will help Lions Gate‘s business by getting its DVDs into the market early without hurting its traditional DVD sales. Lions Gate, however, has the option of exiting the deal after two years.
Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. now becomes the latest film studio to agree to supply DVDs at $1-per-night to Redbox. With the deal in place, Redbox, which rents DVDs from more than 17,000 bright-red automated kiosks at grocery stores and other storefronts across the United States, should gross about $200-300 million in revenue over its lifetime, according to Lions Gate President Steve Beeks.
It is estimated that Redbox will pay Lions Gate $158 million over the period of the deal.
Hoping to preserve demand for higher-priced DVD purchases, other Hollywood studios including News Corp‘s 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures have asked Lions Gate to desist supplying DVDs to the kiosk unless it agrees to delay rentals for more than a month after DVDs are put up on the shelves for sale.
MUMBAI: Shangri-La Pictures has stitched a $100 million film fund deal to finance a number of English commercial films for global distribution over the next three years.
As part of the agreement, a joint venture company based in Singapore has been formed between Shangri-La Pictures and Upside Down Entertainment. The venture will be financed by US-based Quixotic Media Group. The production of all projects in the film slate will be spearheaded by Shangri-La Pictures.
The first project to be produced through the fund will be SIN-JIN, a modern day action hero / adventure story, adapted from a comic book of the same name.
SIN-JIN will be directed by award winning director / cinematographer John Radel and produced by Singaporean producer Calvin Tan. The film is scheduled for a late 2010 worldwide release.
Said SIN-JIN director and Shangri-La Pictures co-director John Radel, “The aim of the fund is to create films set in Asia that can sell to international audiences, and we feel now is the right time to take the Asian films and target the mainstream audiences.”
Some of the projects that the company will distribute include My Life With You, Reason To Live, Dying To Believe and Return To Shangri-La.