Category: Movies

MUMBAI: Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar has been presented with a PhD degree at the 46th convocation of the Assumption University in Ontario, Canada.

The actor was conferred the honorary doctor of law degree for his film and charity work.

Apart from Akshay, Carl S Cohen and Aubrey Dan also received their PhD degrees.

While Dan produces plays on Broadway and Toronto, Cohen is a lawyer by profession.

Assumption is a privately operated, autonomous university which is also an integral part of the University of Windsor. It has the power to grant degrees that also include honorary degrees and graduates students within the area of theology.

MUMBAI: The 10th Osian‘s-Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema has announced the winners of the prestigious lifetime achievement awards.

While the Osian‘s lifetime achievement award for contribution to cinema is being awarded to Indian filmmaker Mrinal Sen, the Aruna Vasudev lifetime achievement award for writing on cinema will be conferred on Jose “Pete” F. Lacaba.

Mrinal Sen, a pioneer of the alternative cinema movement, is also a recipient of the Padma Bhushan and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.

Jose F. Lacaba poet, journalist, editor, translator, and screenwriter, is a bilingual writer who writes both in English and Filipino. He is the author of six poetry collections in Filipino and a collection of journalistic reportage in English, Days of Disquiet and Nights of Rage.

The winners of the lifetime achievement ward will be presented with Rs 8,00,000 each.

Osian‘s Cinefan joint festival director said, “We are delighted to honour two eminent personalities from the world of cinema. Both have contributed in a seminal way to the seventh art and both have placed on their works an individual and creative stamp”.

The 10-day event, which begins on 10 July this year, will be held in New Delhi.

Also, a curtain raiser to the festival will be held in Mumbai on 13 and 14 June.

NEW DELHI: Producers from the United Kingdom and India would be able to make films reflecting the diversity of culture and heritage of both the countries and enjoy national status in the two places, according to the Annex to the Indo-UK Film Co-Production signed today.
The Annex was signed by Joint Secretary (Films) in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry VB Pyarelal and Deputy British High Commissioner Creon Butler.

The Annex elaborates the various requirements for Film Co-production under the Agreement signed in December 2005 between the two countries. It also provides rules of procedure for operationalisation of the Agreement.

The Annex has been finalized after negotiation with the British Government and consultation with the Indian film industry. The aim is to ensure that benefits accrue to the co-producers of both the countries. The Annex shall come into force as soon as the parties have notified each other on the completion of their respective legal and constitutional procedures.

The co-produced films would gain better market access in some other countries also. The Indian community in the UK represents the single largest ethnic segment of the country’s population. As a sizeable percentage of the population in UK is Asian, films produced under this segment would have a ready audience.

It is expected that the cost-competitive Indian film industry including the post production sector will stand to gain from the agreement. Some of the benefits that will accrue from this agreement include shared financial risks as well as larger audience base. The pact could lead to greater use of Indian locales and their promotion abroad. For this sector, UK could also act as a gateway to many countries in the European region.

India also has similar co-production agreements with Germany, Italy, and Brazil, and agreements are also be signed shortly with some other countries including France, Canada, South Africa, Hungary, and China among others.

India already has an existing protocol on cinema with the French Government signed in 1985. The Ministry now wants to re-write the protocol/agreement according to the requirements of today.

Italy was the first country to have signed a co-production agreement with India for producing films. The purpose of this agreement was to increasingly use Italian locations for Indian movies, to increase collaboration in animation and post-production and to foster transfer of know-how in the field of old film restoration.

India and Brazil signed an Audio-Visual Co-production Agreement in June last year under which many film and television companies from Brazil would be able to work with Indian companies to outsource work in different spheres of film production under an Audio-Visual Co-production signed between the two countries.

This will include work relating to special effects, graphics and animation and producers from both countries get an opportunity to pool their creative/artistic/technical, financial and marketing resources to co-produce film and television programmes.

Under the Agreement, more Indian locales can be utilized for shooting films, thus raising the visibility of India as a shooting destination. With the liberalization of shooting guidelines for foreigners shooting films in India, there has been a marked increase in films being shot in India.

Risks also get shared and there is wider natural audience base. The post- production sector of the Indian film industry will also gain from such an agreement.

MUMBAI: No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo and Vilmos is set to premiere as an official selection of Cannes Classics at the 61st Annual Cannes International Film Festival on 22 May.

No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo and Vilmos is a documentary that tracks the 50-year journey of legendary cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs (Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces) and Vilmos Zsigmond (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Deer Hunter).

While NC Motion Pictures has financed the film, Anka Malatynska is the cinematographer and Elisa Bonora its editor and co-producer.

The documentary‘s producer-director James Chressanthis said, “There is poetic justice in this film premiering at Cannes. Laszlo shot Easy Rider, an ultra-low budget, counterculture film that was a favourite with critics and fans at Cannes in 1969. That was the film which finally opened doors for Laszlo in Hollywood. I am overjoyed that our film will screen at Cannes. It
is a perfect return to the place that launched the career of Laszlo Kovacs and then, in turn, his artistic brother Vilmos Zsigmond. They became legends in their own time.”

No Subtitles Necessary includes excerpts from approximately 50 hours of interviews with Kovacs, Zsigmond and 70 individuals whose lives they touched, including actress Sandra Bullock, director Richard Donner, actor Dennis Hopper and film music composer John Williams.

Kovacs and Zsigmond were born and raised in small towns in Hungary during a repressive communist regime.

MUMBAI: BBC Films has announced that John Maybury‘s film The Edge Of Love, starring Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys, will have its World Premiere as the Opening Night film for this year‘s Edinburgh International Film Festival on 18 June 2008.

A love story, telling the story of two feisty, free-spirited women, Caitlin Thomas and Vera Killick, Vera‘s husband William Killick, and the brilliant, charismatic poet Dylan Thomas who loves both women, The Edge Of Love, produced by Sarah Radclyffeand Rebekah Gilbertson, will open in London on 20 June.

BBC Films has also announced that currently shooting in London, New York and Washington DC is Armando Iannucci‘s political comedy In The Loop, starring Tom Hollander, James Gandolfini, Chris Addison, Peter Capaldi, Gina McKee and Steve Coogan.

Also shooting in London is Jane Campion‘s Bright Star. Starring Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish, this is an exploration of the two-year relationship between the 18-year-old Fanny Brawne and 23-year-old romantic poet John Keats.

Lone Scherfig‘s An Education, starring Peter Sarsgaard, Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina, Rosamund Pike and Emma Thompson, has just wrapped.

Nick Hornby wrote the script about a 17-year-old girl who meets an older man in Sixties London. Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey are going to produce, with Odyssey Entertainment handling worldwide sales.

Set to start principal photography in late May is Tom Hooper‘s The Damned United, from a screenplay by Peter Morgan, which tells the passionate and dramatic story of controversial and gifted football manager Brian Clough and his turbulent 44-day period in 1974 in charge of Leeds United.

Michael Sheen will star as Clough. Andy Harries produces with Sony Pictures Entertainment taking worldwide rights and Screen Yorkshire co-producing.

BBC Films‘ co-productions set for release later this summer and early Autumn include Saul Dibb‘s The Duchess starring Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Hayley Atwell, Charlotte Rampling and Dominic Cooper.

It is a contemporary tale of fame, notoriety and the search for love, based around that female icon of her time, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Producers are Michael Kuhn and Gabrielle Tana.

Mark Herman‘s The Boy In Striped Pyjamas which is a co-production with Disney has been adapted by Herman from the best-selling book by John Boyne. This is a tale about what happens when innocence is confronted by monstrous evil. The cast includes Vera Falmiga and David Thewlis.

BBC Films also has a list of projects in post production. The most anticipated one is Sam Mendes‘ Revolutionary Road, based on the novel by Richard Yates. This re-unites five-time Oscar nominee Kate Winslet and three-time Oscar nominee Leonardo di Caprio for the first time since Titanic to play the leading roles in this story of thwarted passion and the search for fulfilment.

Jamie Thraves‘ psychological thriller Cry Of The Owl is an adaptation of the classic bestseller by Patricia Highsmith. It tells the story of Robert Forester (Paddy Considine), who moves to a small New York suburb in an attempt to escape the wreckage of his recent divorce. But everything changes when he begins to stalk his neighbour, Jenny Thierolf (Julia Stiles).

MUMBAI: Miles from Home, a film, produced by writer/director, Ty Hodges, cinematographer/editor Todd Segal, Meagan
Good and Marlon Ollivierre, will make its international debut at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.

The film has been screened at festivals across
the US. Miles From Home has received awards from the 2006 International Black Film Festival, 2006 Washington D.C. Independent Film Festiva), San Francisco Film Festival and the
Film Life and HBO American Film Festival.

Miles from Home is a tale of lost innocence. Miles Conway, (Ty Hodges), 17, is forced to fend for himself after his mother‘s drug addiction causes the family to lose everything they own. Abandoned also by his older brother, Miles is introduced to a group of teenage prostitutes and is seduced into a world of sex, money, and drugs. Miles is torn between his two worlds after he meets Natasha Freeman, (Meagan Good), a 19 year-old free-spirited college student who shows Miles there‘s still beauty to this world despite one‘s circumstances. Miles finds out that he has contracted HIV and starts to confront his inner demons and reevaluates the meaning of his life.

The film has recently been acquired by FarCor Studios, which is based in Los Angeles and run by producer Ralph Farquhar and his business partner Dwayne Corbitt. Farquhar says, “Miles from Home is a captivating Arthouse film that speaks to audiences of all age groups. It has a unique voice and touches on important and unspoken realities of today‘s generation”.

The studio will oversee the final production stages of the film to include the development of the soundtrack, re-shoots, editing, distribution and marketing. FarCor Studios will debut the completed version of the film to invited international buyers and press on 21 May at the Palais Theatre J.

MUMBAI: Independent film studio Lionsgate has acquired the US distribution rights from QED International to W, a biopic about President George W. Bush directed by Oscar winner Oliver Stone Platoon.

Lionsgate will also distribute W in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The announcement was made by Lionsgate president of Theatrical Films Tom Ortenberg.

W will star Josh Brolin No Country For Old Men as George W. Bush, Elizabeth Banks Seabiscuit as Laura Bush, James Cromwell The Queen as George Herbert Walker Bush, Ellen Burstyn Requiem For A Dream as Barbara Bush, Thandie Newton Crash as Condoleezza Rice, Jeffrey Wright Syriana as Colin Powell, Scott Glenn as Donald Rumsfeld, and Ioan Gruffud as former UK PM Tony Blair.

W begins production today in Louisiana. Lionsgate is releasing the film on 17 October, 2008. Stone says, “The impact of George W. Bush‘s presidency will be felt for many years to come. Despite a meteoric, almost illogical rise to power, and a tremendous influence on the world, we don‘t really know much about Mr. Bush beyond the controlled images we‘ve been allowed to see on TV. This movie‘s taking a bold stab at looking behind that curtain. I‘m real pleased that Lionsgate has the independence necessary to bring this provocative story to an American audience.”

The studio adds that whether you love him or hate him, there is no question that George W. Bush is one of the most controversial public figures in recent memory. W will take viewers through Bush‘s eventful life — his struggles and triumphs, how he found both his wife and his faith, and of course the critical days leading up to Bush‘s decision to invade Iraq.

MUMBAI: US media conglomerate Time Warner has decided to cease the operations of its independent studios, Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures.

Warner Bros president and COO Alan Horn said, “With New Line now a key part of Warner Bros, we‘re able to handle films across the entire spectrum of genres and budgets without overlapping production, marketing and distribution infrastructures. After much painstaking analysis, this was a difficult decision to make, but it reflects the reality of a changing marketplace and our need to prudently run our businesses with increased efficiencies. We‘re confident that the spirit of independent filmmaking and the opportunity to find and give a voice to new talent will continue to have a presence at Warner Bros.”

Bob Berney has served as president Picturehouse and Polly Cohen as president Warner Independent Pictures. The management teams from both companies will be meeting in the weeks ahead with executives from the Warner Bros Pictures Group.

The meeting will be held to determine the status of projects in various stages of development and acquisition, as well as distribution of already-dated films.

Warner Bros Pictures Group president Jeff Robinov said, “Working with Polly and her team at Warner Independent has been great for me personally and a valuable experience for the company. I‘d like to thank everyone at Warner Independent for their passion and dedication to independent films and filmmakers. They were involved with some very important films and helped further the talents and careers of a number of writers and directors, and between Warner Bros Pictures and New Line, we‘ll continue to nurture those relationships and produce those types of films.”

Horn adds, “Bob is an incredibly talented film executive and made Picturehouse an important player in the world of independent film in a relatively short time. I‘m extremely grateful to Bob and the entire team at Picturehouse. Their accomplishments and the films they created speak volumes about their dedication to and understanding of the art of film.”

Upcoming Picturehouse films include Mongol, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl and The Women. Warner Independent‘s upcoming releases include Towelhead and Slumdog Millionaire.

MUMBAI: The Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSAs), along with Australian actor Jack Thompson, is set to launch its movie academy.

APSAs, held in collaboration with UNESCO, FIAPF International Federation of Film Producers Associations and CNN International, attempts to acknowledge the cinematic excellence of Asia-Pacific films that best reflect their cultural origins.

“One of the significant aims of the APSAs is to promote the films and filmmakers of the Asia-Pacific region to a global market and to develop new markets for their work,” said APSA chairman Des Power.

All 65 nominees of the inaugural 2007 APSAs will now be inducted into the academy, with a similar number from 2008 to be inducted later this year. With this induction process, APSAs aims to establish a world-class body of Asia-Pacific filmmakers. In time to come, Academy members will have a voting influence on the Awards.

“The Academy of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards is the next step in encouraging dialogue, collaboration and business opportunities for the region‘s filmmakers,” added Power.

MUMBAI: David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos, has inked a deal with Paramount Pictures to write, direct and produce his first feature film.

The Sopranos is an Emmy Award-winning American television drama series created by David Chase.

Paramount Studios chairman Brad Grey said, “David is one of the great storytellers of our time, and his debut as a filmmaker is both highly anticipated and long overdue. In truth, David has been creating cinematic-quality filmed drama for more than a decade – spanning nine seasons and 86 episodes of The Sopranos.”

As a writer, producer and director, Chase‘s television career spans three decades and includes critically lauded shows as The Rockford Files, I‘ll Fly Away and Northern Exposure, apart from the telefilm Off the Minnesota Strip.