ITV

Category: Movies

  • Sex games kill Hollywood actor

    MUMBAI: Star of the 1970s TV series Kung Fu and the Kill Bill movies, David Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok hotel yesterday in what Thai police initially said was a suicide, but now suspect to be a tragic accident.

    Police said 72-year-old Carradine was found with lengths of cord wrapped around his neck and other parts of his body, including his penis. The revelations have given rise to speculation the actor died from erotic asphyxiation, a practice that instigates sexual arousal by depriving the brain of oxygen.


    The US embassy in the Thai capital confirmed the death. Carradinem was in Thailand to shoot a film called Stretch.


    “He was found in his hotel room in Bangkok but the cause of death has not yet been established,” an embassy official said. Carradine‘s manager Chuck Binder described the death as “accidental”.


    Police said Carradine‘s body was found around 11:30am local time on 4th June, hanging by his neck in the closet of his hotel room. An initial report suggested he had been in rigor mortis(“dead”) for at least 12 hours. Local police officer Pirom Janthapirom said security cameras showed footage of no-one else going in or out of Carradine‘s hotel room.
    The death came just three days before the end of filming for the movie.


    Carradine was the son of prominent actor John Carradine and part of an acting family that includes brothers Keith Carradine and Robert Carradine. Born on December 8, 1936, during Hollywood‘s Golden Age of cinema, he first entered showbusiness via musical theatre on New York‘s Broadway.


    While best known for his role as the fugitive half-Chinese Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s TV drama Kung Fu, Carradine had a long a varied career in film. He appeared in Martin Scorsese‘s Boxcar Bertha in 1972, and played legendary folk singer



    Woody Guthrie in the 1976 film Bound for Glory, that garnered him a Golden Globe nomination.


  • Maverick Productions ventures into Malayalam films

    MUMBAI: After successfully releasing its first Hindi film Aloo Chaat that recently celebrated 50 days and also making a Kannada film Housefull, actor Anuj Saxena‘ production house Maverick Productions is to present a Malayalam film soon.


    Titled Gulumaal, the film is expected to go on floors in the second half of June. It stars Jayasoorya, V.k.Prakash, Jagathy, Chackochan, Suraj, Salim Kumar and Biju Kuttan,


    Says Saxena, “Maverick is a full-fledged entertainment company producing, films, ads, events and documentaries. After producing a Kannada film, foraying into Malayalam Cinema is a natural progression as regional cinema has a huge market. We will soon venture into other language films also.”


    It may be noted that Maverick has till-date produced more than 20 advertising films, the prominent ones being that of Tiger Balm, Blistix Lip Care Balm, A.M. Mouth Wash and Fair One Fairness Cream.


    It has also produced a TV soap Kulvaddhu for Sony, a comedy show Gupshup Coffee Shop featuring Navniit Nishan on Sab, a game show Khiladi No. 1 on Zee Smile and various documentaries.


    Maverick‘s independent production titled Chase, starring Anuj Saxena and Udita Goswami and directed by Jag Mohan Mundhra, is currently on the floors.

  • Continuing fall in co-productions creates a slump in UK filmdom

    MUMBAI: It‘s quiet out there, too damn quiet as this year‘s first quarter for film production collapsed in on itself here, according to statistics from the UK Film Council.

    Figures from the government-backed organization make for uncomfortable reading for indie producers with just 19 pictures with budgets over ?500,000 ($800,000) going into production in the first three months of 2009, compared to 31 in the same period last year.


    The collapse in movies being made comes — according to the Council and indie observers alike — on the back of a continuing fall in co-productions here and a slump in movies backed overseas coming to the UK to shoot.


    The research shows that only two co-productions mounted shoots in the first quarter, compared to seven in 2008.


    But the factoids from inward investment projects — those titles which include pictures backed by the U.S. studios — will provide a fillip for those producers working with Hollywood.


    While half the number of projects landed here in Q1 this year — just four compared to eight during 2008‘s first quarter — the combined U.K. spend of ?185.7 million ($300 million) this year outshone January to March‘s tally in 2008 of ?142.6 million.


    The uptick in spend is down to big budget spends from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Ridley Scott‘s Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett starrer Robin Hood



    .


  • Bertelsmann denies 10,000 jobs under threat

    MUMBAI: Bertelsmann, which controls European TV giant RTL Group, has shown a €94 million ($134 million) net loss in the first quarter of this year. The company‘s debt climbed to €6.7 billion ($9.5 billion).

    The company has dismissed as “pure speculation” media reports that it plans to cut some 10,000 jobs this year but confirmed some redundancies are likely as the German media giant adjusts to the global economic crisis.


    CEO, Hartmut Ostrowski has said the company will have to chop “hundreds of millions of Euros” from its debit column this year in what he has termed “the largest cost cutting program in (Bertelsmann‘s) history.”


    So far Bertelsmann has been careful not to say where the cuts will come. CFO Thomas Rabe has started a top-to-bottom analysis of every department in the transnational conglomerate. Results are expected by late summer. Bertelsmann says job cuts are not its “top priority” but has not yet ruled anything out.


    Bertelsmann employs around 100,000 people worldwide.

  • Carradine’s death forces recast of ‘Portland’

    MUMBAI

    : The death of David Carradine has forced a recast of what was to be his next project, the indie drama “Portland,” on the eve of principal photography in Portland, Ore., Los Angeles and along the Pacific coast.

    “Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time,” executive producers Adrian Salpeter and Elizabeth Levine of Vancouver-based Random Bench Prods. said in a statement.


    Carradine, who was found dead in a Bangkok hotel room two days ago, was to co-star in the feature about the death of a young wanderer that connects a trio of damaged souls. The ensemble cast includes Erin Daniels, Jonathan Caouette, Steven Martini, Renee Victor and Alex Schemmer.


    The project from writer-director Matthew Mishory will go ahead, with Iconoclastic Features and Random Bench co-producing the U.S./U.K./Canada feature.

  • Spears settles lawsuit with manager

    MUMBAI: Britney Spears has one less legal scuffle to come home to. Attorneys for the touring poptart have settled a lawsuit brought by a manger Spears worked with in the early aughts who complained that she broke her agreement to pay him commissions until 2008.

    The “Toxic” singer worked with Johnny Wright until 2003, according to the suit, and she stopped cutting him checks at the end of 2006.


    Also in court today, Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Reva Goetz, who has been overseeing Spears‘ conservatorship and approving money exchanges right and left, signed off on another $193,000 in legal fees to be paid by Spears‘ estate mainly to the attorneys who handled this case.


    Meanwhile, Spears had the night off Friday in between shows at London‘s O2 Arena, where she‘s set to perform eight times before moving the Circus to Manchester‘s M.E.N. Arena on June 17.

  • Strike ends, Bollywood films to release in multiplexes

    MUMBAI: The standoff between producers and multiplexes that had put the Bollywood industry under financial stress has finally ended.

    The all-important meeting yesterday saw the film producers and distributors body UPDF make headway with multiplex owners in resolving the dispute over revenue-share, making way for the two-month long strike to end.


    New films



    will start releasing in all national multiplex chains from 12 June, Mukesh Bhatt tells Indiantelevision.com.



    Film producers will have to streamline supply and avoid the clutter of film releases which had halted since 4 April.


    “Didn’t I tell you yesterday that we will give you good news tomorrow,” Bhatt further avers. “The strike has ended and the best part is all the plexes have agreed on our terms and have signed the agreement making way for exhibition of films from 12 June.”


    Under the terms that have been amicably agreed upon, producers and multiplexes will split revenue equally in the first week of the film‘s release. Producers will get 42.5 per cent for the second week, 37.5 per cent in the third week, and 30 per cent for the fourth week and beyond.


    There is also a rider. Multiplex owners had demanded a performance-linked fee structure and they have got their way. “In case a film grosses Rs 175 million or above at the top six multiplex chains in the first week, producers would get an additional 2.5 per cent of revenue share for the first two weeks,” says Reliance Entertainment chairman Amit Khanna, who had been spearheading the truce march on behalf of the multiplexes.


    If the film grosses less than Rs 90 million, multiplex owners will get an increase of 2.5 per cent share in revenues.


    With regards to distribution, another hot area of dispute, multiplexes have agreed that the release plan in theatres would be decided by the distributors for films that are released above 500 screens. In case of below 500 screens, distributors will supply prints to the extent of 5 per cent to the national chain of multiplexes. The print and freight costs will, however, be absorbed by the multiplexes.


    Now that the strike has been called off, the first film that will release in all multiplexes will be Vashu Bhagnani’s Kal Kisne Dekha.

    Indiantelevision.com has estimated the multiplex losses to be Rs 2 billion because of the Bollywood strike.

  • UTV movies to be showcased at MoMa

    MUMBAI: UTV Motion Pictures‘ films Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, A Wednesday and Jodha Akhbar will be showcased at the Indian Cinema Exhibition, scheduled to be held at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York from 8-17 June.

    The films will be lined up for the exhibition titled, The New India.


    While Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, will be premiered on 8 and 13 June, A Wednesday will be screened on 10 and 11 June. Jodha Akhbar, meanwhile, is slated for a premiere on 17th June.


    Said UTV Motion Pictures Siddharth Roy Kapur, “The movies to be presented, A Wednesday, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and Jodha Akhbar, are truly representative of the incredible diversity of genres that contemporary Indian cinema has begun to explore. We are very proud of these movies and happy that they will have the chance to be watched by cinema enthusiasts looking to discover voices from the next generation of Indian cinema.”

  • Shemaroo releases ‘Chandni Chowk To China‘ on home video

    MUMBAI: Shemaroo Entertainment has released Warner Bros‘ first Bollywood foray Chandni Chowk To China on home video.

    Chandni Chowk To China was extensively shot in China – the country well known for one of the wonders of the world ‘The Great Wall‘ where for the first time, the Chinese government allowed a fight sequence to be shot for this movie.


    The film stars Akshay Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty and Deepika Padukone. Gordon Liu, who has acted in Hollywood martial art movies like Kill Bill and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, is also a part of the star cast. He plays a smuggler in the film.


    The DVD also has about 30 minutes of special features which has deleted scenes and the theatrical promos. The VCDs and DVDs are priced at Rs 99 and Rs 199 respectively.

  • Kung Fu star Carradine found dead

    MUMBAI

    : Kung Fu star David Carradine has been found dead in a Bangkok hotel room on Thursday. Thai police told the BBC a hotel maid found the 72-year-old naked in a wardrobe with a cord around his neck and other parts of his body.


    The US star was in Thailand filming his latest film, Stretch, according to his personal manager Chuck Binder.


    Mr Binder said the news was “shocking”, adding: “He was full of life, always wanting to work… a great person.”
    Police said the actor‘s body was found in a suite at the 5-star Swissotel Nai Lert Park hotel.


    A US embassy official confirmed the actor‘s death, but added that the cause of death had not yet been established.
    However, Thai newspaper The Nation reported that police believe the actor took his own life, and preliminary investigations found that he hanged himself.

    Carradine was part of an acting dynasty which included his father, John Carradine, and brothers Bruce, Keith and Robert. The star was best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s TV series Kung Fu, that has sequels in the ‘80s and ‘90s.