ITV

Category: Movies

  • Zee Studio’s film club to air ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’

    MUMBAI: Zee Studio‘s film club, Shut Up and Watch (SAW), is to make its third nationwide tour with its latest set of free movie screenings for cinema buffs across four metros. This month, the club will screen The Good, The Bad And The Ugly starring Clint Eastwood across Oxford Bookstore outlets in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata starting 16 July. In New Delhi, the film will be shown on 16 July, in Mumbai and Bangalore 17 July and in Kolkata on 22 July. All shows will be at 6 pm.


    SAW marked its beginning on 6 February this year at the Oxford Bookstore in Mumbai with an inaugural screening of Paris Je T‘aime. This was followed up with a screening of Madame Bovary on Women‘s Day, the screening of Che Guevara‘s classic Motorcycle Diaries across Oxford Bookstore outlets in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata in May. June saw the screening of The Basketball Diaries featuring Leonardo Di Caprio across the country.


    Said Zee Studio Business Head Sujay Kutty, “We look at ‘Shut Up and Watch‘ as a platform for celebrating quality cinema and leaving the audience with a memorable Zee Studio experience. The response to the movie screenings has been overwhelming over the past 4 months, motivating us to keep the film club going. What started off as a screening in Mumbai has flowered into a successful national initiative across the 4 metros. Month- after-month, the club will continue to bring remarkable film experiences to the audience.”


    Zee Studio has partnered with Oxford Bookstore with the purpose of connecting with the right segment of the target audience. Patrons visiting such places are the kind of viewers who appreciate quality English cinema.

  • Hugh Jackman in ‘Avon Man’

    MUMBAI: Wolverine star Hugh Jackman will star in the Full Monty-ish comedy Avon Man from 20th Century Fox, according to sources.The story follows men who are laid off from their jobs at a car dealership, and Jackman, in all certainty becomes an Avon salesman.

    It is said that the character eventually becomes a top seller due to his charm and good looks, and manages to coerce his buddies to join him in the endeavour to win a regional sales contest.

  • M2B launches ‘Hollywood Entertainment News‘ on WOWtv

    MUMBAI: M2B World Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of US-based Amaru, Inc (AMRU) and Asia‘s leading broadband entertainment provider, have signed an agreement with FCCE Asia Pacific to make available videos of Hollywood‘s latest entertainment news

    on WOWtv websites.

    In the two-year agreement, M2B will license FCCE‘s content to be showcased via IPTV and broadcast through an on-demand TV delivered over the internet, set- top-boxes and portable handheld devices. The licensed territories include Singapore, China, Malaysia and Indonesia.


    FCCE‘s three programme series – Films


    & Stars, Hollywood Buzz and Kids Flix are currently being offered on WOWtv‘s Singapore site (http://sg.wowtv.com) and will soon be available to viewers on WOWtv‘s China site ( http://cn.wowtv.com ). The programmes are currently available on a pay-per-view basis on WOWtv Singapore with new episodes updated every week.

    Films & Stars is a sneak preview of Hollywood‘s hottest new films and the stars that make them, presented in an entertaining half-hour weekly magazine. Some of the stars regularly featured here are among the movie industry‘s creme de la creme such as Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Christian Bale, Tom Hanks, Kate Winslet and many more.


    Hollywood Buzz is a half-hour weekly magazine packed with the latest entertainment headlines and hottest celebrity profiles. Kids Flix is a fast-paced weekly show aimed at keeping kids up to date on the hottest new movies, DVDs and games.


    “As one of the region‘s first and leading broadband television providers, M2B is consistently delivering new and quality entertainment to our viewers. With the addition of FCCE‘s shows to our comprehensive range of content, M2B will continue to be the one-stop online entertainment hub for our viewers,” said M2B World Asia Pacific president and CEO Colin Binny.


    “We are very pleased to be able to launch our top quality shows in the Asia Pacific region on M2B‘s WOWtv platforms. We look forward to growing our business in this region with M2B as one of our partners,” said FCCE Distribution‘s Chief Commercial Officer, Justus A.G. Verkerk.


    M2B engineered Singapore‘s first broadband TV service with an extensive premium content library in July 2006. To date, its US-listed parent company Amaru Inc. has invested more than US$20 million in building and developing M2B‘s content library and broadband infrastructure in Singapore.

  • Denzel Washington exits Pittsburgh movie project


    MUMBAI: Denzel Washington has decided to quit the Tony Scott-directed runaway train movie Unstoppable that is slated to be filmed in Pittsburgh.


    The Academy Award-winning actor has formally decided to pull out of Unstoppable after signing for the project in April.









    It has been reported that the Scott-helmed film has been haggling over the Unstoppable budget with Fox which sought to shave Washington‘s emolument and reduce the overall budget from $109 million to $90 million.


    A Fox spokesman confirmed that Washington has opted out of “Unstoppable” and emphasized that the production is still in development.

  • Seth Gordon in talks to helm ‘King Dork’

    MUMBAI: Seth Gordon, the Four Christmases director is in talks to direct King Dork the high school dramedy based on Frank Portman‘s young-adult novel.

    Will Ferrell and Adam McKay‘s Gary Sanchez Prods., which is producing Dork had set up the project at Par Vantage. But with the dissolution of that unit, the project has migrated to Sony.


    Published in 2006, Dork centers on teenage misfit Tom Henderson, a student who is tormented by all sorts of cliques and seeks refuge in music. He also attempts to uncover the truth about his late father who died under hazy circumstances while combing through some books.


    Gordon has also been signed on to direct Suicide Squad that talks about a heist gone wrong at the Kentucky Derby; the male-centric comedy Mr. Romance and a feature adaptation of Kong that is under development.

  • Paul Schrader to direct Anubhav Sinha film on Mumbai slums

    MUMBAI: After Slumdog Millionaire, it‘s Paul Schrader‘s turn to do a hardcore film based in Mumbai for producer Anubhav Sinha.

    Paul Schrader, who had earlier directed noted films like Adam Resurrected, The Walker and Dominion, is finalising his script for Extreme City which will be shot in and around the slums of Dharavi.


    Mumbai, already under global scrutiny after Danny Boyle‘s Slumdog Millionaire, is expected to get a further boost with Sinha‘s new film.


    Schrader earlier had scriptural collaborations with Martin Scorcese in Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and his hugely influential directorial ventures like American Gigolo, Cat People, Mishima and Hardcore.


    Extreme City will be shot largely in Mumbai. The film will be an English-language film, but the Indian characters will speak in Hindi.



  • Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Guzarish’ on the floors from 20 July

    MUMBAI: Sanjay Leela Bhansali is all set to give a go to his latest film Guzarish, for which the director will start shooting on 20 July with his lead pair Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

    It is understood that bulk dates of the two actors have already been secured. The film will be shot in Mumbai and two other outdoor locations.


    Guzarish, a love story, will be Bhansali‘s fifth film, his last being the Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam starrer Saawariya.

    Sources say that Hrithik will start shooting from 22 July. The actor has taken a long break from his film shooting after finishing shooting for Kites. Likewise, Aishwarya also has taken a break recently after she finished the talkie portions of Vipul Shah‘s Action Replay.

  • Disney eyes teen star Bridgit Mendler

    MUMBAI: It‘s too early to compare 16-year-old Bridgit Mendler to Miley Cyrus or Vanessa Hudgens, but Disney Channel has given her the lead role in a new sitcom called Good Luck Charlie.

    “We just fell in love with her,” said Adam Bonnett, senior vice president original programming at Disney Channel. “She has all the attributes of a Disney star.”


    Disney Channel first cast Mendler on freshman comedy “Jonas,” where she appeared in two episodes playing a love interest for Nick Jonas.


    That was followed by a four-episode stint on Wizards of Waverly Place. In the upcoming arc, Mendler plays “an everyday girl with a sunny disposition who is a blood-sucking vampire,” Bonnett said.


    In her first starring role on Charlie, slated to debut next year on Disney Channels worldwide, Mendler plays Teddy Holliday alongside Disney Channel regular Jason Dolley, who plays her brother Casey. When their parents go back to work full time after having a baby, the care and feeding of their new sister — nicknamed Charlie — falls to the teenage siblings.

  • Keegan Michael Key in ‘Gary’

    MUMBAI: Keegan Michael Key has joined the cast of CBS‘ comedy series Gary Unmarried” as a regular.

    Gary, which returns in the fall for its second season, stars Jay Mohr as Gary, a newly divorced painting contractor juggling custody of his two children, a controlling ex-wife and his hot new girlfriend.


    Keegan will essay the role of Clean, Gary‘s old high school friend, a former minor-league baseball player who had a promising career until sidelined by a knee injury. Gary and Clean reconnect and pick up their friendship where it left off, alternating between best buddies and competitors.


    Season 2 of Gary premieres on 23 September

  • ‘The Crooked Eye’ darling of festival circuit

    MUMBAI: Scheduled to screen at five short film festivals in Los Angeles, D.C. D.C.Douglas‘ The Crooked Eye is quickly becoming a hit of the festival circuit in Tinsel Town.

    Having recently shown at Laemmle‘s Sunset Five theatres on the Sunset Strip in the Dances With Films Festival, the film will now return to the same theatres for the LA Shorts Fest on July 27, as well as the West Hollywood International Film Festival and HollyShorts Film Festival in early August.


    Additionally, the film will screen in the SSG Summer ShortsFest at the state-of-the-art Wilshire Screening Rooms in Beverly Hills at the end of July and the Malibu International Film Festival in early August.


    Narrated by Academy Award winner Linda Hunt and starring Fay Masterson and Katherine Boecher The Crooked Eye follows a day in the life of Sharon (Masterson) as she struggles with a recent divorce and a current perception problem.


    The Crooked Eye is based on the short story of the same name, written by Betty Malicoat.