ITV

Category: Movies

  • DreamWorks eyes View-Master film

    MUMBAI: DreamWorks is in negotiations to acquire movie rights of View-Master from Mattel (which owns Fisher-Price) and has asked Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci to do some Transformers-style magic on it.

    The View-Master deal, which has not yet been signed has been brewing for some time. One time-consuming element has been getting Kurtzman and Orci on board. The two writer-producers — whose work on Star Trek, The Proposal and Transformers has contributed to more than $1 billion to the worldwide box-office — are very much in demand. Ironically, with Hasbro hoping to continue working with the duo beyond this summer‘s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Kurtzman and Orci could end up working on movies for two rival toy companies.


    Brad Caleb Kane, who worked as a writer-producer on the duo‘s Fox series Fringe is on board to write the screenplay which Kurtzman and Orci would produce.


    The story specifics are being kept under wraps, though Kane, who tweeted his involvement during the holiday weekend, said, “It‘ll be like the old ‘80s Amblin movies: Goonies, Young Sherlock … in that vein.”

  • Maine film festival to honour director Arthur Penn

    MUMBAI: The Maine International Film Festival gets underway this Friday in Waterville.

    Director Arthur Penn who has worked in films like Bonnie and Clyde and The Miracle Worker will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.


    The festival that is growing in popularity had an attendance of 9,400 people in the auditorium. Now in its 12th year, the festival will feature about 100 films from around the world at two venues — the Waterville Opera House and Railroad Square Cinema.

  • French actress Huppert receives award at Czech film festival

    MUMBAI: French film and theatre actress Isabelle Huppert accepted the Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at the 44th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival last Sunday.

    Huppert was awarded the prize before the screening of the film Villa Amalia by French director Benoit Jacquot in the festival‘s main competition. In Villa Amalia she played the main role.


    56-year-old Huppert has appeared in over 80 films and held more than 30 acting awards. She is highly acclaimed by critics for her playing the parts of complicated, often ambiguous characters.


    In 1978 she won the best actress award at the Cannes International Film Festival for the role of a young murderess in the film Violette Noziere. In 2001 she repeated her success in Cannes with the main role in The Pianist directed by Michael Haneke and based on the controversial novel by Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek.


    Incidentally, Huppert chaired the Cannes festival‘s grand jury this year.

  • Brad Garrett sets animated series

    MUMBAI: Brad Garrett, star of the Fox comedy series Til Death is developing Dumb Bunny and Jackass, a half-hour animated comedy series for Sony Pictures TV, the studio behind Death.

    The R-rated project, which is targeted for cable, is based on characters created by Bill Kopp (Eek! The Cat, Toonsylvania) and follows the lives of the most popular cartoon duo in history after their fall from stardom.


    Garrett is attached to voice one of the two leads as well as executive produce the show through his banner, Mope Prods. Also exec producing are Glenn Robbins and Doug Wald; Kopp is on board as co-executive producer.


    Emmy winner Garrett has been expanding into producing in partnership with Sony. He serves as an executive producer on “Death,” which returns for a fourth season in the fall.


    Additionally, last year he starred in and executive produced Dating Brad Garrett, an online reality show also produced by Sony TV.

  • Hawley in a deal with ABC Studios

    MUMBAI: ABC will stay in business with The Unusuals creator Noah Hawley, who has inked a blind deal with sister ABC Studios to write two new projects.

    First off the New York native joined a rock band as a singer-guitarist and did a series of gigs on the East Coast. “I was gonna be a rock star but got tired of living in a van with three filthy, penniless men,” he said.

    Disillusioned with the music business, where success has “so little to do with the quality of the music,” Hawley, who was also the band‘s songwriter, decided he wanted to write more in-depth stories.

    So he switched to books, publishing his first novel, A Conspiracy of Tall Men in 1997. That was followed by two more, “Other People‘s Weddings” in 2003 and The Punch in 2007.

    In between the first two books, both of which were optioned by Paramount, he wrote a feature script that became the 2006 film The Alibi starring Steve Coogan.


    The ABC Studios then approached Hawley about a deal. For his encore Hawley is looking to employ some of the storytelling elements he used on Unusuals where stories with different characters often intersected in unexpected ways. Also, he plans to continue mixing comedy and drama.

    On the feature side, Hawley, repped by CAA and McKuin Frankel Whitehead, has two feature scripts he wrote with his twin brother Alexi — Dead in the Water and Home Free — in contention at Touchstone.


  • Bateman resigns from SAG’s national board

    MUMBAI: Justine Bateman has resigned from the Screen Actors Guild‘s (SAG) national board of directors, blasting the moderates who control the board and repeating her characterization of AFTRA as a “scumbag” union.

    In a letter made public Friday, Bateman also expressed frustration over SAG members not sharing her views and their recent 78% approval of the feature-primetime contract.


    “They rarely expressed the correct anger at AFTRA low-balling contracts over the years that affected their ability to provide for themselves,” she said. “They then ignored, seemingly, ALL the news about the migration from Old Media to New Media and recently took from the AMPTP the worst deal I have ever seen. For nothing.”


    Bateman and other opponents insisted during the anti-ratification campaign that the migration of programming to digital platforms required that actors receive sweeter terms than those contained in the two-year deal.


    “SAG‘s members themselves have now voted up a contract that will cause about 50% of the working members to leave the business, but now that you‘re all ‘back to work‘ you‘re probably too busy to read this,” she said in the letter.


    Bateman‘s slot on the board will be filled by an appointed rep from the Hollywood Division board, then become one of the seats up for election in September. The exit of Bateman will make it more difficult for that group to regain control of the board from the moderate coalition

  • DFF plans unique tribute to Shakti Samanta

    NEW DELHI: An unique three-day tribute to the late filmmaker Shakti Samanta put together by the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) will be inaugurated by Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni on 10 July at Sirifort Auditorium – II.

    On the occasion, six popular films of Samanta will be screened. Samanta passed away earlier this year on 9 April.



    The three-day event will see the screening of Howrah Bridge(1958), Kati Patang (1971), Amanush(1975), Kashmir ki Kali (1964) and Anurag(1972). Apart from helping a large number of actors, the films also left behind a large repository of memorable music.


    Ashim Samanta, the filmmaker’s son will be the keynote speaker at the inauguration and the opening film will be the romantic blockbuster Amar Prem which catapulted stars like Rajesh Khanna, Sharmila Tagore and Sujit Kumar to new heights and left some memorable music for connoisseurs.


    Born in Burdwan West Bengal, Samanta received his education at Dehradun, staying with his uncle. He graduated in 1944 from Calcutta University.



    Wanting to become an actor in the Hindi film industry, Samanta moved closer to the city. He took a school teacher‘s job in Dapoli about 200 kilometres from Mumbai. He eventually joined the film industry in 1948 as an assistant director to directors like Gyan Mukherjee, Satish Nigam and Phani Majumdar at Bombay Talkies.



    Samanta directed his first feature film Bahu in 1954 that starred Karan Dewan, Usha Kiron, Shashikala and Pran,



    Samanta‘s other films include Sheroo (1956), Detective (1957) and Hill Station (1957).


    He started his own production company by the name of Shakti Films in 1957 and the first release of this banner was the murder-mystery Howrah Bridge that starred Ashok Kumar and Madhubala as the lead.



    In all, Samanta directed 43 feature films including 37 in Hindi 6 in Bengal. His best known films include Howrah Bridge, China Town,Kashmir Ki Kali and An Evening in Paris. He is credited for starting the trend of making double version films in Hindi and Bengali with Amanush in 1974 and also made the first co-produced film between India and Bangladesh in 1984.

  • Clooney snaps partnership with Warner Bros.

    MUMBAI: George Clooney has ended his long-standing business partnership with Warner Bros. movie studios and has instead joined hands with Sony.

    The Ocean‘s Eleven star is moving his Smokehouse Pictures company to Sony. Clooney found initial fame after starring in hit medical drama ER, a TV show produced by Warner Bros. in 1994.


    Later, he went on to set up his production firm with pal Grant Heslov in 2006. However, after a three-year alliance with Warner Bros., the pair has decided to move on and has inked a new deal with Sony.


    But Clooney has claimed that the decision is amicable, and credited his “family” at the movie giant for all their hard work.


    “Warner Bros. has been a great place to work, and I‘ve felt like part of a family for almost 20 years. So in moving on, I‘m leaving a terrific company and a lot of dear friends. They‘re a class act,” the Daily Star quoted him as saying.

  • ‘Transformers,’ ‘Ice Age’ battle for top spot

    MUMBAI: Paramount‘s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Twentieth Century Fox‘s 3-D toon Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ended in a photo finish last Thursday at the US box office, with Transformers 2 narrowly winning.

    Transformers 2 grossed $11.5 million from 4,234 runs, putting its domestic cume at $250.9 million in its 9th day in release. Ice Age 3 grossed $11.1 million from 4,032 for a two-day cume of $24.9 million in its second day in release. Of its total theatre count, roughly 1,606 are 3-D screens.


    Johnny Depp topliner Public Enemies which grossed $6.6 million from 3,319 for a two-day cume of $14.8 million. One studio executive said that the Box-Office is poised for a very solid holiday weekend, pointing out there is “something for everyone,” whether action tent pole, family fare or adult drama.


    Ice Age 3 and Public Enemies opened mid-week in order to get a jump on the holiday weekend, when traffic could be slowed because of 4 July falling on a Saturday. Box office observers say Ice Age 3 and Transformers 2 could remain in a dead heat over the weekend.

  • Plan for Jackson service unveiled

    MUMBAI: Details of next Tuesday‘s public memorial for Michael Jackson have been released in Los Angeles by the owners of Staples Center.

    Tim Leiweke of Staples Center boss said that 17,500 tickets free tickets will be provided. There also will be a free worldwide video feed.


    He also said that 11,000 tickets will be for seats inside Staples Center and 6,500 will be for seats in the adjacent Nokia Theater where fans will watch a simulcast.


    People who want tickets must register on the web at Staplescenter.com. After 6 p.m. Saturday, 8,750 names will be randomly selected to receive two tickets each.


    Notifications will go out on Sunday. Those selected will obtain their tickets via Ticketmaster on Monday.
    No details of the memorial service have yet been released.