Category: Movies

MUMBAI: Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd has bought the all–India theatrical rights of Subhash Ghai‘s Hindi feature film Yuvvraaj from Eros International.

Mukta Arts had earlier sold the distribution, TV, home video and music rights of Yuvvraaj for Rs 650 million. While Eros had bagged the distribution and TV rights as part of a Rs 730 million three-movie deal, T-Series had got the music and Ultra the home video rights.

Eros continues to hold the overseas and satellite rights of the film.

The Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Zayed Khan and Katrina Kaif starrer Yuvvraaj is slated for November release.

MUMBAI: Fashion, co-produced by UTV and Madhur Bhandarkar, has garnered Rs 90 million from in-film advertisements and co-promotions alone.

“We have got close to Rs 90 million from in-film endorsements and co-branding. This is a substantial amount as the production cost of the movie is around Rs 180-200 million,” UTV Motion Pictures director Siddhartha Roy Kapur tells Indiantelevision.com.

The brands include Kimaya, Lenovo, Reebok and Sunsilk.

UTV Motion Pictures is also planning to go heavy on promoting the film. Says Kapur, “The promotional costs will be 40-50 per cent of the amount that we have spent on producing the movie. We will be promoting Fashion in print as well as the TV medium.”

The company is also set to release Fashion across 750 theaters worldwide. To tap more viewers during the festival time, Fashion will be released on Wednesday (29 October) across 630 screens nationwide.

Says Kapur, “With the Diwali festival around, we get a long extended weekend. So we have decided to release the film on a Wednesday.”

The movie will be released soon after in another 120 screens across 16 countries. Fashion will be screened on 30 October in US and the Middle East while the other international markets will be able to watch the movie from 31 October.

Apart from theatrical release, the film will see multiple premieres and screenings. On 24 October, Fashion will be premiered at the South Asian International Film Festival in New York. This will be followed by promotions held by the Citibank NRI division inviting their clients for select Fashion screenings on 29 October across six US cities – New York, New Jersey, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco and Chicago.

Besides, Dubai will host the ‘Fashion Red Carpet Premiere‘ on 29 October, in association with Star TV Middle East.

Australia and New Zealand will host the ‘Fashion Nights‘ contest across five cities – Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Auckland – wherein the winners, crowned as Ms ‘Fashion Australia‘, will be rewarded with certificates attested by director Madhur Bhandarkar and Priyanka Chopra.

MUMBAI: Paramount Pictures has announced that it has reduced its release target from 25 to 20 films per year.

The comapny said that the move is to “compete effectively in the changing marketplace and to realise the maximum financial benefit of the series of new operating efficiencies achieved by the studio.”

Paramount Pictures Corporation chairman and CEO Brad Grey said, “We at Paramount are taking steps to ensure our business and creative plans are sound and viable for the long term.”

Media reports said Paramount would save $50 million per year from these measures. This follows Steven Spielberg‘s split from the studio.

As per the plan, Paramount is planning to release 12 homegrown films, including those under the MTV and Nickelodeon banners, plus four from Paramount Vantage and as many as four more from DreamWorks Animation and Marvel Studios.

Also, the company has announced that Adam Goodman will be moving from DreamWorks to Paramount Pictures as president of production, overseeing a creative staff who will manage the current DreamWorks projects and creative relationships, as well as new development for Paramount.

Brad Weston will continue as president of production for Paramount Pictures, and will supervise existing creative staff overseeing their ongoing development, talent relationships and new development.

Goodman will report to Paramount Film Group president John Lesher on creative areas.

Also Read: Spielberg signs distribution deal with Universal

MUMBAI

: Bhushan Kumar‘s Karzzzz have been selected for screening at the Middle East International Film Festival. The movie will be premiered at the ‘Emirates Palace‘ in Abu Dhabi on 17 October at 9.30 pm.

TSeries head honcho Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Tulsi Kumar, Ajay Kapoor, Vinod Bhanushali, Gulshan Grover, Satish Kaushik, Shweta Kumar, Dino Morea, and the international media will be present on the occasion.

Bhushan Kumar said, “It is a privilege to have Karzzzz selected as the only Hindi film to be premiered at the Abu Dhabi film fest. I am sure this is just the beginning for Karzzzz. We still have a long way to go.”

Karzzzz is a remake of the 1980 Subhash Ghai hit Karz. The film is produced by Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar, directed by Satish Kaushik and stars Himesh Reshammiya, Urmila Matondkar, debutante Shweta Kumar, Gulshan Grover, Raj Babbar and Danny Denzongpa.

MUMBAI: US film studios Lakeshore Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM) have announced the freshman class of Fame. This is a reinvention of the original Oscar -winning film that spawned a franchise, including hit television shows, stage shows and music.

The announcement was made jointly by Lakeshore Entertainment chairman and CEO Tom Rosenberg and MGM‘s Worldwide Motion Picture Group chairman Mary Parent.

Among those signed to Fame are Thomas Dekker, Kristy Flores, Paul Iacono and Paul McGill. As in the original 1980 film, the talented new cast comprises young, up-and-coming performers who will climb the steps of the High School for the Performing Arts to explore a wide variety of classic and contemporary artistic disciplines, including singing, acting, ballet, tap, jazz, modern dance, hip-hop, slam poetry, spoken word, traditional theater, and cinema.

Rosenberg says, “We have assembled a gifted group of actors, dancers and musicians who are just starting out and have a true affinity for the characters they’re playing. They are going through the same competition and artistic process in real-life as they strive to make a name for themselves. The original Fame premise is still vitally compelling.”

Parent says, “In many ways, the idea of pursuing a career in dance or music or acting is much more palpable now – anyone with a page on a social networking site is instantly ‘famous,’ and anyone with a digital camera is a potential filmmaker.

” The negotiation between fame and real talent is much more immediate and something with which audiences are familiar, and there’s a universal relatability to experiencing the trials and tribulations associated with pursuing one’s dream, regardless of the arena. We felt the timing was perfect to take this compelling story and update the music and dancing to make it more relevant to today‘s young adult audience”.

Caught up in the intense atmosphere of a performing arts high school in New York, the student artists in the film confront both the tantalising promise of success and the challenges of thriving in a highly competitive environment. Capturing the visceral excitement and explosive energy of young artists and performers struggling to prove their talent and find their own voice, Fame will mark the feature film directorial debut of choreographer Kevin Tancharoen.

ANTALYA: Even as the three-day Film Market Eurasia Production Platform came to a close at the Fourth International Eurasian Film Festival, Market MD Julie Bergenon expressed disappointment at the lukewarm response from India despite the large number of invitations sent out to filmmakers and film distributors.

Considering that India was one of the largest film producing countries in the world, she said that it was surprising that some delegates had confirmed participation but failed to come.

However, the festival saw a marginal increase of participation from India in terms of delegates to the market, with two stalls being put up for the first time. All the invited media delegates from India expressed confidence that the interest shown by many filmmakers from different countries would result in fruitful alliances.

Meanwhile, organisers claimed that deals had been finalised on four co-production ventures between Turkey and other countries. These included one for a documentary film Sobatei Zeri by David Silber in collaboration with Israel and Greece, feature Mixed Kebab by Guy Lee Thys of Belgium, Yes to War with Michael Stephens of New Zealand and Ellin Alimani’s Somebody’s German with Armin Kaiser of Germany. He added that talks were at an advanced stage for several other projects.

Deniz Ziya Temeltas, who was in charge of the second edition of the Eurasian Production Platform, said negotiations had been on for over 20 co-production ventures.

Bergenon said her aim had been to bring in some new participants while retaining some of those who have been coming for the past festivals. She said it was necessary to establish a link between a film festival and the film market if a festival had to succeed.

Answering a question, she said her target had been to get participants from Asia and Europe, but it was impossible to ignore Hollywood.

She said that a total of 54 countries had been represented at the Market, including four from India of which two had taken stalls. Of the total, there were 18 new companies this year.

She admitted that the ongoing Mipcom in Cannes also had its effect on the participation in the festival.

The Market had three delegates from India: Kamal Jain of Superfine Films, and Sashi B Kumar and Sudha Kumar of Mudra Arts, though the Market lists at least three others including Ultra’s S. Narayanan and Sunil Doshi of Alliance Media (which procures films for NDTV Lumiere).

While agreeing that the Market may result in new deals, Mumbai-based Sun Stone Entertainment headed by Sanjay Juman Jumani was critical of the authorities in India who failed to take advantage of such Markets. He also said the International Film Festival of India (being held in Goa next month) would not be able to put up a good market as the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) had failed to learn anything from other markets.

MUMBAI: After splitting from Paramount and stitching an equity deal with Reliance ADAG, Steven Spielberg‘s DreamWorks Studio has inked a seven-year distribution deal with Universal Studios.

According to the agreement, Universal will distribute the films created by DreamWorks.

Universal will receive an eight per cent fee for releasing about six films a year starting 2009 and it will bear the marketing costs. It will distribute the movies around the world except India where Reliance Big Entertainment will distribute them.

Spielberg made his early films, including ‘Jaws’ and ‘ET: The Extra-Terrestrial,’ for Universal.

In a statement, Speilberg said, “While it feels great to come home again, it feels like I never left.”

Universal Studios president and COO Ron Meyer said, “We couldn‘t be more pleased to welcome the DreamWorks team back to Universal and our long history of success together will continue.”

However, DreamWorks still has contractual obligations to complete around 33 pending projects with former Paramount. But Universal could share domestic distribution on some of those films.

In September this year Spielberg and Snider had signed a $1.5 billion deal with Reliance ADAG.

MUMBAI

: BigFlix COO Kamal Gianchandani is taking up the additional charge of heading the distribution business of Big Pictures, the movie production and distribution arm of Reliance Big Entertainment.

Gianchandani replaces Manoj Chauhan, who has quit the organisation.

In his new role, Gianchandani will look after the domestic film distribution for Big Pictures. He has prior experience in this area as the COO (Pictures) of PVR Pictures Ltd.

The film production activities of Big Pictures fall under COO Mahesh Ramanathan.

ANTALYA: The Fourth Eurasian Film Festival has seen a marginal increase of participation from India in terms of delegates.

The festival did not have a single entry from India against at least one last year (Frozen by Shivajee Chandrabhushan). In fact, the festival last year also had greater Indian participation, at least three other films– Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth – the Golden Era, Asif Kapadia’s Far North and A Mighty Heart.

The festival this year has one Indian – Osian’s Raman Chawla – in the jury of the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) and for the first time has an Indian distributor – Sun Stone Entertainment of Mumbai headed by Sanjay Jumani – who has put up a stall in the three-day Film Market.

In addition, the market has three delegates including Kamal Jain of Superfine Films and Sashi B Kumar of Mudra Arts. Though in the the market, three others including Ultra’s S Narayanan and Sunil Doshi of Alliance Media (which procures films for NDTV Lumiere), failed to turn up.

Interestingly, Spierfilms of the United Kingdom which also has a stall in the market, has been marketing some Indian films like those by Priyadarshan.

The one Indian film which was slated for a Gala Screening here – Hindi thriller Mission Istanbul directed by Apoorva Lakhia – was cancelled because of what a festival spokesperson described as a break of communication between the Indian distributor and the festival authorities.

While the large gathering at the inaugural venue was held spell-bound by the highly popular singer Candan Encetin who performed for almost two hours, several senior personalities of Turkish cinema were honoured for their contributions. They included actress Hulya Avsar who received an award as a successful star, honorary award went to SESAM (Union of Professional Owners of Cinema Works) President Yilmaz Atadeniz, renowned actor Musfit Kenter who received the Yildrim Onal Memorial Award, and actress Filiz Akin who received a special medallion of the Golden Orange.

The 9-member jury headed by actor Tuncel Kurtiz will adjudge the Turkish feature films, a five member jury headed by director Selim Demirdelen will adjudge the National Short film competition and another five member jury headed by Günes Karabuda – Director (Jury President) will examine the entries for documentaries. There is also a jury for script development.

ANTALYA: A day after the 45th Altin Portakal (Golden Orange) Film Festival got underway, the Fourth International Eurasian Film Festival commenced here with the presentation of lifetime achivement awards to some renowned personalities of world cinema and the screening of the opening film.

Conducted by actress Azra Akin, awards were presented to renowned genius storyteller and master director Paul Verhoeven, actor Michael York and Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner.

The inaugural ceremony commenced with a concert by renowned musicians Barbaros Erköse and Ilhan Ersahin. It ended with the screening of the opening film, the Turkish-Italian co-production A Perfect Day by Ferzan Özpetek.

Speaking at the ceremony, Engin Yigitgil who is President of the TURSAK Foundation which organizes the Festival, said the festival was a passionate journey for cinema under the banner of a festival which reconciled three continents.

The Festival’s Honorary President and the Mayor of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality Menderes Türel said the festival had led to greater competition and improvement of the standard of Turkish films and also covered a large geographical area in terms of countries participating.

Paul Verhoeven who is also heading the Grand Jury at the Festival said he was working on a film set in Turkey and had already been looking for locations in Antalya and Istanbul.

The other members of the Grand Competition Jury, the NETPAC Jury, the Critics’ Award jury and the SIYAD juries were also announced. Majid Majidi, 2008 Golden Bear nominee with his latest movie The Song of Sparrows, and Cameron Bailey, co-director of Toronto International Film Festival are also members of the jury which will vote for the “Best Film” and the “Best Director” categories of the competition section.

Tuna Erdem of Turkey and Raman Chawla of India are members of the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) jury, while the critics jury are Engin Ertan, Asli Selçuk, Burcu Aykar Sirin, and Ceylan Ozçelik.

The Grand jury will be presenting two awards: $ 75,000 for the “Best Film” and $ 25,000 for the “Best Director”.