ITV

Category: Movies

  • Producers-plexes near to a solution

    MUMBAI: The core committee of the producers and distributors body met Reliance Big Entertainment chairman Amit Khanna yesterday but the talks remained inconclusive.

    Amit Khanna is spearheading the talks and wants both parties to arrive at an amicable solution at the earliest.


    The talks went of fine except for a few points on which there was some kind of disagreement. Says Mukesh Bhatt, We are very close to a solution and if all goes well we will be able to thrash out things by this evening.”


    Both sides are to meet later this evening.

  • Indian born filmmaker Karri plans ‘Mobster’

    MUMBAI: Indian born filmmaker Nagendra Karri, owner of Eternal Mind Production LLC in New York, has announced his next Rs 1.5 billion film ‘Mobster‘ to be shot on multiple locales including India.

    This announcement comes after the successful debut screening of his first directorial venture Where are you Sophia? – a suspenseful psychological thriller at the recently concluded Cannes Film festival.


    Where are you Sophia? is based on a true story of a local newspaper columnist from a rural town called Highlands where she mysteriously disappears and ends up meeting Charlie, a young handsome man from Jersey Shores. She takes him on a journey where he is introduced to the realms of the unknown which only he can unravel as he faces the mysterious forces in the evil town of Highlands.


    “Life has been very hard while making a feature film during a recession,” says Karri adding, “but it was worth every bit to make a suspenseful thriller like Where are you Sophia? which you believe in totally. Recession was not an excuse for me and I have done it.”


    The 96-minute psycho thriller will keep audiences on the edge-of-their seat with paranormal elements and characters with strange backgrounds and contradicting stories. The film received good reviews at the Cannes Film Festival.


    Karri is currently in India to finalise plans for the release of Where are you Sophia? and work out his new project Mobster. He is also likely to conduct audition for Mobster and talk to potential partners for his new project.

  • Inox forays into film production

    MUMBAI: Inox Leisure Ltd has ventured into film production to complete the full value chain of film exhibition and distribution. 


    The company has floated Inox Motion Pictures, a division that would engage in the film production business, and is releasing Morning Walk on 26 June.


    Morning Walk is a heart tugging tale of two families different from one another, yet connected through a special bond. Said to be the debut film of child actor Avika Gor of Balika Vadhu fame, the film directed by Arup Dutta stars Anupam Kher, Sharmila Tagore, Rajit Kapoor, Divya Dutta and model-turned-actor Shayan Munshi.


    “We launched Inox Motion Pictures with the thought of making films



    that offer quality entertainment to the people at large. Though Morning Walk marks our foray into production, there are others which are in the pipeline,” says Inox Motion Pictures director Alok Tandon.

    Given a situation if the film strike persists, will Inox go ahead and release the film at multiplexes besides single-screens? “Morning Walk being our own film, we will definitely release it at all our properties besides single-screens. We will talk to other multiplexes and if they agree, we will release the film at other multiplexes too,” quips Tandon.

    Till date, INOX has distributed films such as Fashion, Race, Jab We Met, Heyy Babyy, Om Shanti Om, Namastey London, Rang De Basanti, Garam Masala among others.


  • Lions Gate records a loss of $ 28.6 million

    MUMBAI: Despite a strong quarter at the box-office thanks to Tyler Perry‘s Madea Goes to Jail, My Bloody Valentine and The Haunting in Connecticut, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. recorded a loss of $28.6 million, or 25 cents a share, on revenue of $463.2 million, compared with a profit of $29.8 million in the year-earlier period.

    The stock of Lions Gate stock fell 5 per cent to $5.96 in after-hours trading Monday after closing at $6.26 up 6 cents. The Santa Monica company was scheduled to hold a conference call with analysts this morning.


    The disappointing fiscal fourth quarter caps off a rough 12 months for the independent studio, producer of the Tyler Perry movies and “Weeds” and “Mad Men” cable TV series.


    For its fiscal year ended March 31, Lions Gate reported a loss of $163 million on revenue of $1.47 billion. The loss is about $25 million more than it had told analysts to expect in February and more than double last year‘s loss of $74 million.


    The studio said disappointing releases in the second fiscal and third quarter were to blame as well as a $36.1million charge it took on its deal to distribute DVDs of Hit Entertainment, which produces videos for the family and children‘s market. Lions Gate also recorded higher movie marketing expenses than in earlier years.
    Like much of Hollywood, Lions Gate has been stung by the weakened DVD market, although its home video unit actually had a stronger-than-expected fourth quarter because of the release of titles Bangkok Dangerous and Punisher 2.

  • Jack Nicholson eyes Brooks comedy

    MUMBAI: Jack Nicholson may again work with James L. Brooks, the filmmaker who directed Nicholson to Oscar-winning performances in Terms of Endearment and As Good as It Gets. The veteran is in talks to join the cast of Brooks‘ latest project, an untitled romantic comedy that stars Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd and Owen Wilson.

    Written by Brooks, the story sees Witherspoon as a professional softball player torn between two men, a solid guy played by Rudd and a charming ball player with a 94-mile an hour fastball played by Wilson.


    Incidentally, Bill Murray was earlier in talks to play the role but ultimately lost interest. No sooner did Nicholson, who had been itching to be in front of the camera, hear about the project he called up Brooks and signed the film.


    The project is due to go on the floor later in June.

  • Al Pacino mulls Kevorkian biopic

    MUMBAI: Al Pacino is in negotiations to star in You Don‘t Know Jack a HBO Films biopic about Dr. Jack Kevorkian that Barry Levinson will direct.

    Kevorkian, also known as Dr. Death, assisted in more than 150 cases of suicide and had beaten the state court system in Michigan numerous times, but was finally convicted after he willingly sent a videotape of himself euthanizing a terminally ill man to 60 Minutes. He was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 and is serving his sentence in a maximum-security prison in Michigan.


    The film will trace his rise as he builds his infamous Mercy Machine, conducts his first assisted suicide, and starts a media frenzy with his epic legal battles defending a patient‘s right to die.


    The project has been in development for some time with Ben Kingsley once rumoured to play Kevorkian.

  • Jeff Nathanson signed to helm Houdini biopic

    MUMBAI: Jeff Nathanson has signed to write and direct the adaptation of William Kalush and Larry Sloman‘s Harry Houdini biography The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America‘s First Superhero for Summit Entertainment.

    The book, published in 2006 by Atria Books, made waves at the time for insinuating that Houdini was a spy for Britain and was asked to be an adviser to Czar Nicholas II‘s court in pre-revolutionary Russia. The book also portrayed the master escape artist and magician as a debunker of con artists who pretended to be spiritualists, leading to the theory that his death was caused by the spiritual movement as payback.


    The production house hoping to capitalize on worldwide recognition of Houdini‘s name while potentially launching a franchise, is looking to take a more action-adventure tack — similar to the one taken by the upcoming Guy Ritchie-Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movie.


    Nathanson has the right mix of adventure and character in his credits. One of the town‘s more in-demand scribes, he has worked on two Rush Hour movies and Steven Spielberg‘s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” He also wrote Spielberg character pieces Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal.


    Nathanson, repped by CAA, is adapting the children‘s book series The 39 Clues for DreamWorks. He made his directorial debut with indie crime caper The Last Shot.

  • Next producer-multiplex meet on 3 June

    MUMBAI: After a cold last week, a meeting between the film producers and the multiplex operators is scheduled to take place on 3 June.

    Confirming the news to indiantelevision.com, Mukesh Bhatt averred, “No, we are not meeting today as was previously determined. But as many of our members are out of town, we had to postpone the meet. We will now be meeting tomorrow to take a decision.”


    Reliance Big Entertainment Chairman Amit Khanna also affirmed that the United Producers and Distributors Forum (UPDF) would meet at 8 pm on Wednesday.

    It is interesting to note that while Big Cinemas, in principle, has reached a middle-path with producers and distributors, none of the other multiplex chains seem to find this acceptable.


    “It was being speculated since yesterday that PVR Cinemas was supposed to agree to the terms today but since the meeting is not happening, things are in a quandary. Inox is also not in agreement with these terms,” says analyst NP Yadav.


    PVR Cinemas and Inox Leisure jointly control 53 multiplexes with a total of 202 screens spread across India. Big Cinemas, on the other hand, has 78 properties with 198 screens.


    At present, there are approximately 850 screens in India and releasing movies in single-screens along with the Big Cinemas chain is not likely to be commercially viable.



  • People Pictures ’99’ grosses 150 million in 17 days

    MUMBAI: People Pictures‘ 99 has collected Rs 150 million during its first three weeks at the box office.

    Made on a budget of Rs 80 million, the film garnered Rs 126.2 million in the first two weeks of release (15 May) and then went on to pocket Rs 25.2 million in the third weekend.


    Released at a time when the producer-plex tug-of-war is still on, approximately 70 per cent of the film‘s footfall has come from multiplexes.


    Commenting on the film‘s performance, producers Anupam Mittal and Aditya Shastri say, “We are extremely happy that the film has been accepted by audiences. The way our film has been faring at the box-office makes us firmly believe that success lies in the conviction of People Pictures that good stories told well will always work well.”


    99 is a story inspired by real events between 1999 and 2000. It is as much “what could have been” as it is “what really happened.” In other words, it is a historical action. It spans a few genres and is slick, fast-paced, realistic and importantly very funny.

  • Karma – Crime, Passion, Reincarnation to show at Shanghai Film Festival

    MUMBAI: Even though the film is still to release in India, Karma – Crime, Passion, Reincarnation, a Golden Ticket Films & Picture Perfect production, has been selected as an official entry to the International Panorama of the 12th Shanghai International Film Festival. The event will be held in Shanghai from 13 to 21 June.

    Produced by Vivek Singhania, Dhiraj Kotkar and Sanjiv Potnis, the film has been directed by MR Shahjahan and revolves around the theme of reincarnation.


    Karma – Crime, Passion, Reincarnation has Indian as well as international star cast comprising Alma Saraci, Carlucci Weyant, Vijayendra S Ghatge, Claudia Ciesla, Shanda Renee, DJ Perry and Smita Hai.

    After winning awards in Marbella International Film Festival, Spain and Corinthian International Film Festival, Greece, Karma – Crime, Passion, Reincarnation is ready to release soon in India in both English and Hindi versions.