Category: Movies

MUMBAI: Reliance ADA Group has signed a deal with DreamWorks SKG to start a new $1.5 billion company, completing Steven Spielberg‘s exit from Paramount Pictures and providing Indian billionaire Anil Ambani a foothold in Hollywood.

The deal is expected to finance a minimum slate of 32 movies over six years, says a source in Reliance. “The $1.5 billion amount is being raised through a mix of equity and debt,” he adds.

Reliance will pump in $550 million as equity investment while JPMorgan Chase & Co. will lead the debt financing.

When contacted, Reliance Big Entertainment president Rajesh Sawhney refused to offer his comments.

Meanwhile, Paramount said in a statement it will let Spielberg and DreamWorks chief Stacey Snider join the new company immediately.

Reliance had earlier announced it would produce a slate of 69 movies in nine languages over two years. The list included developing and co-producing movies with Hollywood stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Jay Roach, Nicholas Cage and Chris Columbus.

“It is a big step for Reliance which has already lined up a rich slate of Bollywood films. Hollywood, after all, dominates the film business across the world. Reliance already has a strong presence in the multiplex and FM radio business and plans to enter the broadcasting arena by the year-end,” says an analyst who tracks the company.

MUMBAI: The historic Hollywood cinema El Capitan is up for sale for $ 31 million.

Located opposite the Kodak theatre on Hollywood Boulevard where the Oscars ceremony is held every year, the cinema was built in the 1920. It showed plays between 1926 -1936. Orson Welles‘ 1941 classic, Citizen Kane, was premiered at the E1 Capitan.

After suffering severe damages in an earthquake in 1994, the CUNA insurance group acquired it and leased it to Walt Disney which uses it to showcase its new films.

MUMBAI: Studio 18, the international distributors of Kidnap, has advanced the release date of the film to Wednesday, 1 October in the UK/Ireland, US/Canada and the Middle East.

Kidnap was earlier slated to release on 2 October.

The date was advanced with an aim to coincide the theatrical release of the Sanjay Dutt-Imran Khan starrer with Eid, which in all likelihood, will be celebrated internationally on 1 October.

The film has been directed by Sanjay Gadhvi and features music by Pritam.

MUMBAI: Eros International has already invested over $200 million in approximately 60 content deals.

The company anticipates further content deals including expanding beyond Hindi and Tamil to other languages.

Eros also said it would continue to make select acquisitions during the current financial year.

During the fiscal, Eros has entered into content deals with Lionsgate, Hungama Mobile and Star TV.

Eros is set to release Drona on 2 October. Other releases over the next few months include Heroes, Yuvvraj, Aladin and Billo Barber.

MUMBAI: Mukta Arts has acquired 51 per cent controlling stake in the Chennai-based VAS (value added service) company, Coruscant Tec.

The deal also allows Mukta Arts the option of acquiring the balance 49 per cent.

Coruscant will provide a platform for Mukta Arts‘ short content created by Whistling Woods students and its audio and film content.

Founded in 2003 by Ajay Adiseshann and Probir Roy, Coruscant Tec claims to be one of the first companies to provide content and applications related to the mobile value added services space (MVAS). These cover ringtones, wallpapers, Video on Demand, applications, m-comics, mobizines, mobiepisodes and java games.

Coruscant Tec already has several tie-ups in place for content aggregation as well as for distribution of content through major telcos.

Coruscant is undercapitalised and was seeking investors who could create and aggregate content which is the key to this business, Mukta Arts said.

MUMBAI: Actress Nicole Kidman has signed up to produce and star in a new action film, The Eighth Wonder.

The movie is based on an action adventure around an archaeological discovery.

The Eighth Wonder is being produced by 20th Century Fox. The movie is writted by the writer of Mr and Mrs Smith, Simon Kinberg.

Kinberg has also worked for Jumper, X-Men: The Last Stand and Ben Stiller‘s upcoming sequel, Night at the Museum 2.

Kidman‘s latest film, Australia, will open in United Kingdom in December.

NEW DELHI: Children of the Pyre, a docu-feature shot in Varanasi by Delhi-based filmmaker Rajesh Jala, has been awarded the audience award for the Best Feature Documentary at the recently concluded Montreal World Film Festival.

The 74-minute film, that is about seven young boys who work at the Manikarnika Cremation Grounds on the banks of the Ganges, “created a stir at the festival right from the beginning”, Gautam Hooja of Indo-Canadian Films International told indiantelevision.com.

The award was given away at the closing ceremonies at the Theatre Maisonneuve.

Children of the Pyre has been nominated for competition in major well-known international film festivals in Pusan, Leipzig and Sao Paulo.

Rajesh Jala attended the Montreal Film Festival and was present on closing night to personally receive the prize, the only award at the festival for documentaries.

MUMBAI: Fox Star Studios, a recently set up joint venture company between Twentieth Century Fox and Asian media company Star, is set to distribute in India 15-18 movies from the international production house within one year.

To start with, Fox Star Studios will release The X Files: I Want To Believe, on 26 September.

“We will be releasing approximately 15-18 flicks from 20th Century over the next one year in India. While The X Files: I Want To Believe will see a 26 September release, we are looking at releasing Babylon A.D. on 10 October,” Fox Star Studios India CEO Vijay Singh tells Indiantelevision.com.

The company has plans to release the Hollywood movies in various regional languages as well.

“Apart from opening Babylan A.D. to Indian theatres in English, it will also be released in Hindi and Tamil. As part of our distribution strategy, we are looking at releasing in regional languages,” says Singh.

The X Files: I Want To Believe features series stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in the lead roles of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully under the direction of series creator Chris Carter, who co-wrote the screenplay with Frank Spotnitz. Other actors include Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, Alvin Joiner, Mitch Pileggi and Callum Keith Rennie.

The X-Files series premiered on Fox (TV) on 10 September, 1993, which chronicled the lives and adventures of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, two “disparate” FBI agents assigned to investigate unsolved cases within the Bureau.

Singh was not willing to discuss about the Bollywood film production plans of the JV as the projects were still at their initial stage.

“For Bollywood film production, we are still in talks with people. As for the forthcoming 20th Century releases, they will witness a day-and-a-date opening in India too,” confirms Singh.

Fox Star Studios aims to produce local language films in Asia for worldwide distribution and for the distribution of movies produced by Fox Studios, USA.

MUMBAI: The release date of Billoo Barber, Shahrukh Khan’s home production, has been postponed to February 2009 as some sequences and songs are yet to be shot.

In Billoo Barber, SRK will be seen working with director Priyadarshan for the first time. The film is a remake of Malayalam superhit Katha Parayumbol and stars Irrfan Khan in the pivotal role as a village barber and Lara Dutta as his wife.

Billoo Barber also casts Kareena Kapoor and Deepika Padukone in cameos.

The film was earlier slated for a Diwali release.

MUMBAI: Pyramid Saimira has launched its first theatre in China and plans to invest $30 million over six months through its local joint venture partner Longzhe Group.

Pyramid and Longzhe Culture and Theatre Limited (PLCTL), the JV company have set up the theatre in Huainan. The theatre is called Huainan Pyramid Longzhe Theatre Entertainment Tower.

PLCTL is supported by The China Society of Music Research Board (CSMRB).

Pyramid Saimira and CSMRB had signed a cultural cooperation agreement in March 2008. The group is set to launch 25 more theatres which are all in prominent locations, apart from seeding other facets of the entertainment business.

Says Pyramid Saimira COO of the Chinese joint venture Venkat, “We always knew that China was a huge potential market to tap and after signing the historic deal with CSMRB, we initiated work at a very brisk pace. Huainan Pyramid Longzhe Theatre Entertainment Tower is one in a series of six more entertainment towers which would be launched by PLCTL by December 2008.”

Huainan Pyramid Longzhe Theatre Entertainment Tower is a two-screen cineplex with a total seating capacity of 290 seats.