ITV

Category: Movies

  • SAG approves feature-primetime deal

    MUMBAI: In a clear move toward moderation, Screen Actors Guild members have overwhelming ratified a two-year feature-primetime contract with a 78% yes vote.

    The vote brought down the curtain on a year-long drama that‘s left the guild mired in acrimony and the town dogged by uncertainty.


    “This decisive vote gets our members back to work with immediate pay raises and puts SAG in a strong position for the future,” said David White, interim national exec director.


    Turnout among the 110,000 eligible members was a higher-than-normal 35%. And the vote also represented a stinging rebuke to SAG president Alan Rosenberg and his allies who have insisted on holding out for a better deal – and going on strike if the congloms failed to comply.


    “It may be due to fatigue, fear and the economy,” Rosenberg said. “This contract will have a devastating impact.”


    Despite allowing the SAG master contract to expire a year ago, guild leaders wound up with essentially the same deal signed last year by the DGA, WGA and AFTRA. After the moderates fired Doug Allen for allegedly botching the negotiations, the only concession that White and chief negotiator John McGuire got from the congloms was a two-year term – placing SAG‘s June 30, 2011 termination in synch with the other unions.

  • Neil Patrick Harris books two films

    MUMBAI: Neil Patrick Harris has snagged two feature film roles: a starring gig in the indie farce The Best and the Brightest and a supporting role in CBS Films‘ Beastly.

    Co-written and directed by Josh Shelov, Best revolves around a couple from Delaware who move to New York‘s Upper East Side and enter the world of the city‘s private kindergartens.


    Harris is playing the husband, who is not worried about his social status. Bonnie Somerville is on board as the class-aware wife. Also cast are Amy Sedaris, John Hodgman, Peter Serafinowicz, Bridget Regan, Kate Mulgrew and Christopher McDonald. Robert and Patricia Weiser are reteaming with Richard Schiffrin — with whom they collaborated on the steroid documentary “Bigger Stronger Faster” — to produce along with Nicholas Simon.


    Shelov, who penned Green Street Hooligans and created the ESPN series Mayne Street, wrote the script with Michael Jaeger. Shooting began recently in Philadelphia.

  • Three sign on for ‘Pillars of the Earth’

    MUMBAI: A new TV maxi-series is trying to buck the trend and bring back appointment viewing for fictional sagas, a la The Thorn Birds or, more recently and modestly, Angels in America or Broken Trail. Most of the big Euro stations have lined up to air The Pillars of the Earth, but so far there are no broadcast takers in the U.S. or the U.K.

    A Germany-Canada co-production spearheaded by Munich-based Tandem Communications and Montreal-based Muse Entertainment, the eight-hour saga, based on Ken Follett‘s best-seller, will be directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, who has helmed episodes of Heroes and Saving Grace and was Steven Spielberg‘s first assistant director on Saving Private Ryan and Schindler‘s List.


    Pillars starts shooting on June 22 in Hungary and Austria. The premiere is set for the second half of 2010.


    Ian McShane, who starred on HBO‘s Deadwood, will play Waleran; Donald Sutherland takes the role as Bartholomew; and Rufus Sewell, who recently headlined Eleventh Hour, plays Tom Builder. Others who have signed on for the shoot include Matthew Macfadyen (Frost/Nixon) as Prior Philip, Sarah Parish (The Holiday) as Regan Hamleigh, Hayley Atwell (Brideshead Revisited) as Aliena, Eddie Redmayne (The Other Boleyn Girl) as Jack and Gordon Pinsent (Away from Her) as the Archbishop.


    “It‘s a new world order,” Scott Free TV president David Zucker said in describing the strategy of putting together financing abroad and then backing into a broadcast deal stateside. “Yes, there is more risk at the top, but there‘s more latitude on the creative side. It‘s not dissimilar to the indie film biz in this respect. Given how difficult the economy became here, we decided to plow ahead and get funding and casting done before trying to do a licensing deal in the States.”


    Zucker said there was “a lot of interest” among yank broadcasters, cablers and pay cablers but did not specify how close to a deal the producers were.


    The novel has been adapted by John Pielmeier, who will also play the role of Cuthbert in the saga. His credits include The Memory Keeper‘s Daughter and Hitler: The Rise of Evil. The historical novel set in 12th century England involves war, religious strife and power struggles as well as two interwoven love stories.

  • Teen chef signs TV deal

    MUMBAI: Fourteen-year-old chef Greg Grossman has signed a production deal to develop and star in his own reality TV show.

    Grossman and New York-based Picture This Television (“Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List”) are teaming to land the professional teen chef a series.


    “The moment we met Greg, we knew he was a one-of-a-kind-talent,” said Picture This partner Bryan Scott. “It‘s not every day you encounter a kid who goes to junior high school during the day and cooks with some of the world‘s leading chefs at night.”


    Grossman was raised in East Hampton, N.Y., and started catering when he was 11 years old. His work has drawn media headlines and the interest of celebrity chefs.

  • Habib Tanvir no more

    MUMBAI: Habib Tanvir, one of the most popular Hindi playwrights, theatre director, poet and actor, pased away on 8 June at Bhopal after a three-week long illness. Writer of plays like Agra Bazar (1954) and Charandas Chor (1975), Tanvir was pioneer in Hindi theatre.

    Says seasoned writer Amrk Gill who‘s written films like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Machis, The Jungle Book and Ek Chadar Maili Si , “He was mostly known for his work with Chhattisgarhi tribals, at Naya Theatre, a theatre company he founded in 1959 in Bhopal.


    “Born on 1 September 1932, Tanvir had most of his education from England and Europe and was a learned person having learnt dramatics at the Royal Academy of dramatics. A great human being Tanvir was one of the founder members of IMPPA.


    A leftist by thought, Tanvir‘s plays were mostly based on the ideology. With his demise, an era has come to an end.”


    Incidentally, Tanvir was associated with plays like Gaon ka Naam Sasural, Mor Naam Damad and Kamdeo ka Apna Basant and Ritu ka Sapna.


    Tanvir was one of the most influential theatre personalities of our times and would always be remembered for reviving the folk theatre and folk art forms.

  • Wanted to release on 7 August

    MUMBAI: Boney Kapoor‘s latest production Wanted will hit the theatres pan India on 7 August.

    The film, staring Salman Khan, Ayesha Takia, Vinod Khanna, Mahesh Manjrekar, Mehak and South Indian star Prakash Raja, marks the directorial debut of choreographer/actor Prabhu Deva.


    The music of the film has been composed by the duo Sajid-Wajid.


    Meanwhile, the other two films from the Boney Kapoor production stable, Milenge Milenge and It‘s my life, are slated to release sometime in September-October.

  • AR Rahman to score ‘Couples Retreat’ for Universal Pictures

    MUMBAI: Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman will compose the score to the Universal Pictures‘ upcoming comedy Couples Retreat.

    This announcement marks Rahman‘s first foray into composing music for an American comedy film.



    Rahman won two Academy Awards for ‘Best Original Score‘ for his work on Slumdog Millionaire and ‘Best Original Song‘ for Jai Ho. Rahman also became the first Indian artist to win a Golden Globe for Best Original Score and took home numerous awards including the Critics Choice Award, Los Angeles Film Critics Award and a Bafta for Slumdog Millionaire.


    Couples Retreat is directed by Peter Billingsley and stars Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Jon Favreau, Malin Akerman, Kristin Davis, Kristen Bell and Faizon Love. Based on an original idea of Vaughn‘s, the comedy follows four Midwestern couples who embark on a journey to a tropical island resort.


    While one of the couples is there to work on their marriage, the other three set out to jet ski, spa and enjoy some fun in the sun. They soon discover that participation in the resort‘s couples therapy is not optional. Suddenly, their group-rate vacation comes at a price. What follows is a look at real world problems faced by all couples.

  • Disney gives ‘Ferb’ pickup, major push

    MUMBAI: Disney is getting serious about Phineas & Ferb, the animated TV show about a couple of brilliantly outlandish school kids. The show, on both the Disney Channel and Disney XD, not only got picked up for a third season, but a Christmas special and a music CD is in the works.

    Disney ordered 35 more episodes, which will take the show to 100 total episodes. The third season also features a new recurring cast member: Jack McBrayer, the actor who plays Kenneth the page on “30 Rock.”


    Phineas & Ferb, which also stars Ashley Tisdale, is about a couple of stepbrothers who spend their 104-day summer vacation masterminding one grandiose scheme after another. Tisdale plays the boy‘s sister, Candace, whose mission is to tattle on her precocious little brothers.


    Co-created by Dan Povenmire and Jeff Swampy Marsh, it‘s the top-rated primetime animated show for children 6-11 and 9-14. Disney Channel entertainment president Gary Marsh hinted during the Licensing International Expo in Las Vegas recently that bigger things were in store for the property.


    “I am telling you all now, Phineas & Ferb is going to be our next worldwide sensation,” he said.

  • Neil Patrick Harris books two films

    MUMBAI: Neil Patrick Harris has snagged two feature film roles: a starring gig in the indie farce The Best and the Brightest and a supporting role in CBS Films‘ Beastly.

    Co-written and directed by Josh Shelov, Best revolves around a couple from Delaware who move to New York‘s Upper East Side and enter the world of the city‘s private kindergartens.


    Harris is playing the husband, who is not worried about his social status. Bonnie Somerville is on board as the class-aware wife. Also cast are Amy Sedaris, John Hodgman, Peter Serafinowicz, Bridget Regan, Kate Mulgrew and Christopher McDonald. Robert and Patricia Weiser are reteaming with Richard Schiffrin — with whom they collaborated on the steroid documentary Bigger Stronger Faster — to produce along with Nicholas Simon.


    Shelov, who penned Green Street Hooligans and created the ESPN series “Mayne Street, wrote the script with Michael Jaeger. Shooting recently began in Philadelphia.


    In “Beastly, a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Harris is playing a blind tutor who helps and bonds with a teen (Alex Pettyfer) who is shell-shocked from being turned into a hideous young man. Vanessa Hudgens and Mary-Kate Olsen also star in the adaptation of the Alex Finn novel, being directed by Daniel Barnz. The movie is in a pre-production stage.


    Paradigm-repped Harris, who hosted Sunday‘s Tony Awards, has been twice nominated for an Emmy for his work in the TV series “How I Met Your Mother.” Both movies will done on Harris‘ summer hiatus from the show.

  • Masi Oka project set at DreamWorks

    MUMBAI: DreamWorks has picked up The Defenders, a family adventure project conceived by Heroes actor Masi Oka to be produced by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. D.J. Caruso is in negotiations to direct, and Gary Whitta is on board to write the script.

    The story centers on a group of mostly teenagers from around the world who are involved in a multiplayer video game, each unaware of who they really are behind the cover of their consoles and avatars. They are forced to come together for a real adventure, becoming inadvertent heroes in the process. DreamWorks will develop a video game simultaneously with the feature.


    Oka, who is the executive producer, came up with idea while playing massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), in that world‘s parlance.


    “You can be whoever you want to be,” he said. “The question came to me: What if you had to live up to the person you created in the virtual world?”


    Oka had met Kurtzman and Orci, whose Kurtzman/Orci Prods. is based at DreamWorks, at parties and taken a couple of meetings with them, hoping to score a role in one of their movies.


    The pair was looking for “the kinds of movies that Amblin used to do, that combined an innocence with the adventure,” Orci said.


    Once Oka, also a fan of those movies — epitomized by “The Goonies” — learned that, he pitched Kurtzman and Orci his idea. The duo went for it, and Oka has honed the concept for the past year, collaborating with them as they worked on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Kurtzman/Orci‘s Mandy Safavi also helped develop Defenders and will oversee for the company.


    Oka and Whitta, who also plays online games, bonded over their love of the medium‘s World of Warcraft. Kurtzman and Orci ensnared Caruso, with whom they worked on the 2008 thriller Eagle Eye.