MUMBAI: Director Niki Caro has been asked to helm Buttercup being produced by Michael London‘s Groundswell Productions. Brian Koppelman and David Levien who had written Ocean‘s Thirteen.
Despite the dramatic subject matter, the project contains elements of comedy that humanize the protagonists.
Earlier too London, Koppelman and Levien had got together for the The Illusionist. Recently, Koppelman and Levien directed Solitary Man.
MUMBAI: Paula Abdul has decided not to feature in American Idol for the new season that will be aired on Fox in January.
It is said that Abdul had been asking for a rise over and above $2 million she made last year.
Her decision came a day it was announced that Kara DioGuardi would return in the second season as a judge.
Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson have already confirmed their return to the talent show.
MUMBAI: Michael Raymond James will star opposite Donal Logue in Terriers, FX‘s hour-long comedy pilot to be directed by Shawn Ryan and Ted Griffin.
Terriers centers on Hank (Logue), an ex-cop who partners with his best friend Britt (James) to launch an unlicensed P.I. business in which the duo, both with maturity issues, solve crimes while trying to avoid danger and responsibility. The show will combine stand-alone episodes with overarching mystery.
After casting Logue, the producers were on the search for the right actor to play his partner. The search ended last Tuesday when the name of James was recommended.
MUMBAI: Academy Award-winner Budd Schulberg has expired. Schulberg died of natural causes at his home in Westhampton Beach, N.Y. He was taken to a nearby medical center, where efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. He was 95.Schulberg won the Oscars for his screenplay in On the Waterfront. He had also penned a portrait of a Hollywood hustler in his novel titled ‘What Makes Sammy Run?‘ He adapted his short story ‘Your Arkansas Traveler‘ about the rise and fall of a popular entertainer for the screen titled A Face in the Crowd which Elia Kazan directed in 1957.
Born Seymour Wilson Schulberg on 27 March, 1914 in Harlem, he was the son of movie producer Benjamin P. Schulberg. While a youngster, his family moved to the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles. The elder Schulberg partnered with Louis B. Mayer in an independent production company. But when B.P. Schulberg and Mayer dissolved their partnership, Schulberg‘s father went on to become production head of Paramount Studios.
MUMBAI: Excel Home Videos and Twentieth Century Fox has announced the release of Mirrors on DVD.
The DVD is priced at Rs 399.
The movie is a remake of Korean feature Geoul Sokeuro, directed by Alexandre Aja.
The horror flick that stars Kiefer Sutherland as Ben Carson, a disgraced former New York City cop, revolves a mysterious mirror that brings out the worst aspects of people whenever they look at themselves in it.
NEW DELHI: The Government has no plans to restructure the Films Division, but is adapting new technologies to keep it in line with the changing times.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told Parliament that the Division was digitising all its films to make them available easily to a larger audience. These will also be made available through newer technologies and different media like compact video discs and the Internet.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that the Division has digitised 7443 films out of a total of 8131 movies in its archives.
Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com that though the Expenditure Reforms Commission had recommended closure of the Division, the Ministry’s protest was considered by the Committee of Secretaries which in April 2004 recommended downsizing of the manpower in the Division.
Consequently, the strength of the Division was reduced by 336 from 1177 in May 2002 to 841 at present. The Finance Ministry also gave its approval to this move.
Meanwhile, the Division has launched a new scheme under the 11th Plan for production of documentary films with a plan allocation of Rs 200 million.
The Division has a total plan outlay of Rs 161.43 million for production of in-house and outside production, apart from a Plan allocation of Rs 47 million for the Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, short and animation films held every two years. The next one is being held from 3 to 9 February 2010. In addition, there is a separate plan allocation of Rs 420 million for the Museum of the Moving Image being set up within the premises of the Division in Peddar Road in Mumbai.
The annual allocation for the Division for the last three years was Rs 66.102 million in 2006-07, Rs 65.652 million in 2007-08, and Rs 53.257 million in 2008-09.
The Division produced 46 films and 15 news magazines during 2008-09, as compared to 57 films and 11 news magazines the year before, and 48 films and 16 news magazines in 2006-07.
MUMBAI: After Cinemax and Adlabs Films, it is Inox Leisure’s turn to slip into the red as first-quarter revenues went for a toss on account of the row with film producers.
Inox posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 40.1 million for the quarter ended 30 June, as against a net profit of Rs 36.8 million a year ago, as it was hurt by low occupancy.
Total revenue stood at Rs 345.1 million, down 33.67 per cent as producers froze their content to the multiplexes against a revenue-share dispute.
Inox curtailed its expenses by 15.81 per cent to Rs 400.5 million, down from Rs 475.7 million in the prior-year quarter.
The multiplex business segment had an operating loss of Rs 55.8 million, compared to an operating profit of Rs 48.3 million in the first quarter of FY‘09. Revenue from this segment was Rs 344.4 million, down from Rs 517 million. The capital deployed in the segment is Rs 3.27 billion.
The film distribution segment, on the other hand, reduced the operating loss to Rs 1.7 million, from Rs 7.8 million in the same quarter of the previous fiscal. Revenue, however, dipped to Rs 1 million, from Rs 11.4 million a year ago.
MUMBAI: A film made by the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune has made it to the Venice International Film Festival. The last film that was showed at the festival was Sant Tukaram in 1937.
Aadmi Ki Aurat Aur Anya Kahaniyan (The man‘s woman and other stories) directed by Amit Dutta, an FTII graduate of the 2004 batch will premiere at the 66th edition of the festival to be held from 2 -12 September.
Dutta has earlier won a number of awards for his short films including FIPRESCI Award at the Oberhausen Film Festival in Germany, the Gold Mikaldi at Bilbao in Spain and two National Awards from the Government of India, among others. Some of his earlier films include the diploma film Kramasha that earned him the Golden Conch at the Mumbai International Film Festival and the film Kshya Tra Ghya that won him the special jury award and the best audiography award at the National Awards in 2005-06.
Aadmi Ki Aurat Aur Anya Kahaniyan the fourth in the series of films made after the revival of the acting course in 2005-06 has been selected in the competition section of Horizon.
MUMBAI: Sony studios is producing The Experiment, a remake of Oliver Hirschbiegel‘s 2001 German hit, that debuts Paul Scheuring as a director. Sony will distribute the movie in the U.S. Travis Fimmel has joined the cast playing the role that had to go to Elijah Wood.
Fimmel had earlier starred in A&E‘s The Beast and also appeared in the 2008 comedy Surfer, Dude.
The story of the film is based on an incident at Stanford University in 1971 in which an experiment that sought to find out how ordinary people would react in a prison situation went horribly awry.
Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker star in the psychological thriller in which Brody plays the leader of the prisoners while Whitaker is the lead guard.
Jeanette Buerling and Maggie Monteith are producing the film under their Magnet Media Group banner along with Bill Johnson of Inferno Distribution which will handle the distribution of the film overseas.
The project, which is being currently being shot in Lowa is likely to release next year.
MUMBAI: Writer-producer Peter Tolan is soon launching a TV production company
that will be based at Sony Pictures TV according to a three-year overall deal. Tolan will be partnered by his agent-turned-producer Michael Wimer.
For the last five years, Tolan has had close ties with Sony TV through FX‘s drama Rescue Me which was Sony TV had produced. He co-created the series with Denis Leary and serves as an executive producer. It is for this relation that the new unnamed company landed at Sony after talking to several studios.
Tolan started off with sitcoms like Murphy Brown and Home Improvement before moving into darker territory with comedies like The Larry Sanders Show — for which he won a writing Emmy — and The Job and darkly comic drama Rescue Me.
“After six to seven years shooting for Rescue Me in fire and smoke on the streets of New York, I‘m looking to go back to a soundstage to do a multi-camera comedy series so I can relax a little bit,” he said.
Tolan is already working on several comedy and drama ideas targeted for broadcast. He is also developing a drama earmarked for FX as a potential replacement for Rescue Me which is slated for a sixth and final season next year.