ITV

Category: Movies

  • Sony & CFC partner for Chinese remake of ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’

    Sony & CFC partner for Chinese remake of ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures and China Film Co. (CFC) have joined hands to co-produce the Chinese remake of My Best Friend’s Wedding.

     

    The film, slated for release in China on Valentine’s Day 2016, features Shu Qi, Feng Shaofen, Song Qian aka Chinese singer and actress Victoria Song and Ye Qing.

     

    Sony’s original film, which released in 1997, starred Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz, Dermot Mulroney and Rupert Everett.

     

    Shooting will begin in late July this year in London, Italy and Beijing.

     

    Alexi Tan will direct and produce the Chinese remake his company, Play Productions.

     

    In the film, Journalists Gu Jia and Lin Ran have grown up together as best friends. One day, Lin Ran calls Gu Jia from the UK telling her that he is getting married to someone he only just met, a wealthy Chinese girl who has been studying in the UK, and asks Gu Jia to be his “best man.” Gu Jia finally realizes that she loves him, not just as a friend, and sets out for London a few days before the wedding determined to win him back.

     

    Hong Jiu, Fu Linran and Alexi Tan wrote the script. Jiu has published several popular online novels including We Live Together.

     

    “We are delighted to be collaborating with Columbia Pictures on this exciting remake of what has become an international comedy classic,” said China Film Co., Ltd executive Ling Hong.

     

    Sony Pictures China head of production and strategic development Dede Nickerson added, “We are thrilled to be working with our partner China Film, Alexi and this incredible cast to create what is sure to be a hilarious and touching film for the Chinese audience.”

     

    Columbia Pictures is also currently in post-production on director Chen Kaige’s dark comedy Monk Comes Down the Mountain starring Wang Baoqiang, Aaron Kwok, Chang Chen, Chiling Lin, VanNess Wu and Fan Wei, based on the novel of the same name by Xu Haofeng. The film is currently in post-production and scheduled for release on 3 July, 2015.

     

    Sony has previously co-produced Kung Fu Hustle (2004) and Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). 

  • Amitabh Bachchan & family invest $71 million in Ziddu.com

    Amitabh Bachchan & family invest $71 million in Ziddu.com

    MUMBAI: Amitabh Bachchan along with his family have made their first significant equity investment in an overseas company. The Bachchans have invested $71 million (approx Rs 450 crore) in acquiring a minority stake in Singapore’s Meridian Tech Pte Ltd, which owns Ziddu.com.

     

    Ziddu.com is a free cloud storage, global wallet, social commerce and social gaming platform startup. 

     

    The firm, which also offers a micro payment platform, was founded five years ago by Venkata Srinivas Meenavalli. 

     

    “Mr Amitabh Bachchan and his family have invested in Ziddu.com at a valuation of around $71 million,” said Meenavalli.

     

    “I’m very happy and excited that they have reposed confidence and trust in Ziddu.com,” he added. 

     

    According to Google Analytics, Ziddu is among the top five file-sharing sites across the world, generating 1.2 billion page views with visitors from more than 225 countries. The company logged revenues of $20 million in calendar year 2014. 

     

    The deal was executed on 18 May, 2015.

  • Eros International looks to back content driven cinema

    Eros International looks to back content driven cinema

    NEW DELHI: Eros International’s Krishika Lulla, who is the producer of Tanu Weds Manu Returns, has always had an eye for content driven cinema. Lulla is bullish on supporting strong scripts irrespective of the cast.

     

    At a press meet to promote Tanu Weds Manu Returns, Lulla said that Eros International has always backed projects with genres ranging from rom-com to a slice of life, romance drama, and dark thriller.

     

    Lulla is hopeful that the movie will entertain audiences across the country.

     

    The film, which releases on 22 May, stars Kangana Ranaut and R. Madhavan in the main lead. Directed by Aanand L Rai, the film also stars Jimmy Shergill.

     

    Lulla added, “Content is king and as a producer I strongly believe the audience is ready for a variety of cinema that caters to different sensibilities. Keeping that in mind, I’m confident Tanu Weds Manu Returns will do everything it has set out to and is a genuine film with a heart and a soul that will stay with audiences much after its release.”

  • Cannes Film Festival stumbles over ‘Flatgate’ controversy

    Cannes Film Festival stumbles over ‘Flatgate’ controversy

    NEW DELHI: A day after actress Salma Hayek appeared on a panel at the 68th Cannes International Film Festival to talk about misogyny in Hollywood, the festival’s organizers banned women from wearing anything other than high heels on the red carpet.

     

    A group of women, who arrived at a screening for Cate Blanchett’s latest film, Carol, were reportedly turned away because of their flat shoes, according to Screen Daily.

     

    The New York Magazine in a tweet said this immediately set off a #showmeyourflats hashtag in solidarity.

     

    It noted that actress Emily Blunt put it best, “Everyone should wear flats to be honest. We should not be wearing high heels anyways. That is my point of view. I just prefer wearing Converse sneakers.”

     

    Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan had also stressed on gender equality with Hayek at the discussion organized by UN Women. Aishwarya also did a shoot for L’Oréal Paris with Eva Longoria, Natasha Poly and Li Bingbing for L’Oreal.

     

    The Cannes film festival began on 13 May and will conclude on 24 May.

     

    Indian contingent at Cannes

     

    Meanwhile, the red carpet for Gurvinder Singh’s Punjabi film Chauthi Koot and Neeraj Ghaywan’s debut feature Masaan, which are the Indian films in the official UnCertain Regard, was graced by Indian ambassadors of L’Oreal Paris — Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor and Katrina Kaif. Nandita Das was also present.

     

    Film and theater veteran Shabana Azmi noted on how fashion was taking away the attention from cinema at the 68th Cannes International Film Festival. She said a film festival should be treated seriously and not as a fashion parade ground.

     

    Azmi used her Twitter handle on 15 May to remind her fans and followers about the main motive behind holding a film festival. “2day Cannes seems to b a clothes parade! It’s a serious film festival guys not a fashion event. Hw abt focusing on films n filmakers (sic),”

  • Hollywood teen flick ‘The Duff’ to hit Indian theatres on 5 June

    Hollywood teen flick ‘The Duff’ to hit Indian theatres on 5 June

    MUMBAI: High school teen flick The Duff is all set to hit theatres across India on 5 June, 2015. Multivision Multimedia will release the movie here.

     

     The Duff was a great success at the US Box office with an opening weekend of $10.8 million and total US collection of $34 million.

     

    Directed by Ari Sandel, The Duff stars Mae Whitman, Robbie Amell and Bella Thorne in the lead. The film is produced by McG, Mary Viola, and Susan Cartsonis. It is a CBS Films presentation a Wonderland Sound and Vision / Vast Entertainment production.

     

    Talking about the India release, Whitman said, “I have been told that Indian youth are ardent followers of US movies and television. India is known to have a thriving English speaking population and are in sync with western culture. It’s a great place for The Duff to release”

     

    Director Sandel added, “India is becoming an increasingly important territory for Hollywood films. High schools are the same everywhere and I am sure so are the problems, even across the world. I hope that the audience will connect with and enjoy our movie.”

  • Argentinean animation filmmaker feted at first Animation Day at Cannes

    Argentinean animation filmmaker feted at first Animation Day at Cannes

    NEW DELHI: Animation producers, filmmakers and animation lovers shared news around their work while attending a panel discussion and a screening of their best films from Montreal International Animation Film Festival 2015 at the first Animation Day at the Cannes Film Festival.

     

    The event was held at the Horyou Village located at the grounds of Le Grand Hotel Cannes.

     

    Among the films screened were The Best Short Film Winner Aubade directed by Mauro Carraro (Switzerland), Castillo y el Armado, directed by Pedro Harres (Brazil) and Last Dance on the Main by Aristofanis Soulikias.

     

    The Animation Day concluded with a reception to Maria Veronica Ramirez (Argentina), who had won the Best Feature Film Award for Anima Bueno Aires at MIAFF 2015 last month.

     

    Argentinean delegates were present in large numbers at the reception.

     

    MIAFF Director Laurie Gordon announced the creation of the Ryan Larkin Foundation, one of the festival’s initiatives, which was accompanied by the screening of a short clip from her film Spare Change.  

  • Eros International inks multiple film deals in China

    Eros International inks multiple film deals in China

    MUMBAI: Eros International has inked as many as three deals with China’s state owned film and entertainment companies to promote, co-produce, distribute and unlock value in respective intellectual properties for Sino-Indian films across all platforms in both the countries.

    After signing a co-production deal with China Film Group Corporation (CFGC), Eros has now signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with Shanghai Film Group Corporation (SFG) and Fudan University.

    The collaboration with the Shanghai Film Group Corporation incorporates exploitation of intellectual property rights owned by each party in their respective markets, development, co-production and distribution of film projects for both India and China. The treaty paves the way for Eros to become the preferred Indian film partner in China.

    Eros has also entered into an association with Fudan University, which includes the ability for Eros to license Fudan’s IP for remakes or co-productions in India. Fudan will also assist Eros in obtaining publishing licenses for the promotion and distribution of the films from the Eros library in China across various platforms including dubbing them or remaking them to suit local audience tastes.

    The MoUs were signed by Eros International managing director Sunil Lulla at the recently concluded India-China Business Forum in Shanghai, attended by Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi.

     
    Lulla said, “This is a very proud moment for us at Eros to be associated with the biggest and most-respected Chinese media companies. We are humbled by the gestures that make us the most preferred partner in the field of media and entertainment and we are committed to helping both countries expand their market and audience instantly to over 2.5 billion people. We are really excited about the possibilities and the potential and making films together is just the tip of the ice-berg as we hope to extend these partnerships across all platforms including online.”

    China Film Group Corporation chairman La Peking said, “Wish India and China collaboration will be more and more fruitful.”

    Shanghai Film Group Corporation president Ren Zhonglun added, “Eros is a very respectable company, which we always looked forward to working with. This strategic partnership MoU between Eros and SFG fits into the general background of the collaboration between two countries – India and China. It is also the fruit of collaborative effort on resource sharing by filmmakers from two countries. China and India together have 2.5 billion population with great market potential. As Asian countries, we share a lot of similarities in terms of culture, religion and art. There is big space in movie co-operation. We expect to visit back to India and Eros in the near future to further our collaboration.”

    As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, Eros International signed its first ever Sino-Indian co-production deal with Chinese state owned production company CFGC to co-produce the movie Da Tang Xuan Zang (Monk Xuan Zang) based on the life of a Chinese monk.

     

    The Chinese movie market is sized at $4.8 billion, second only to the US, and grew 34 per cent in 2014. China produced over 600 films in 2014. The number of theatre screens in China has also quadrupled since 2010 with 5,397 screens added in 2014 alone, taking their screen count to 23,600. As per industry projections in the next five years, China is expected to surpass the US to be the world’s largest box office. In comparison, India’s widest release to date has been across just 5,000 screens.

     

  • ‘Bombay Velvet’ collects Rs 15.8 crore in opening weekend; ‘Piku’ picks up

    ‘Bombay Velvet’ collects Rs 15.8 crore in opening weekend; ‘Piku’ picks up

    MUMBAI: Bombay Velvet has turned out to be the disaster it was predicted to be. From casting Ranbir Kapoor as a Tommy gun totting criminal to the way the film’s promotion was handled, especially the publicity material, went against it. From the film’s posters to promos, nothing inspired viewer confidence or curiosity.

     

    The film’s opening weekend collections are a terribly poor at Rs 15.8 crore. Kapoor has his fan following and, to an extent, so does Anushka Sharma, yet the film failed to garner decent footfalls on its opening day. The emerging word of mouth publicity from those who caught the movie early happened to be so negative that the film failed to better its Friday figures even on Saturday, which is a normal trend howsoever bad a film may be. It is strange that thanks to social media discussions, those who still went to watch the film thereafter did so mainly out of curiosity as to what was so wrong with this film?

     

    On the other hand, Piku is going great guns. Having had a lukewarm response with the opening day reporting a mere Rs 5.32 crore, the film went to double its opening day figures with Rs 11.2 crore on its first Sunday and continued the good run through the rest of the week till Thursday to put together a first week tally of Rs 41.42 crore. The film added another Rs 14.6 crore for its second week to take its 10-day total to Rs 56.02 crore.

     

    Kuch Kuch Locha Hai saw poor collections of Rs 3.55 crore for its opening week.

     

    Gabbar Is Back held well in face of little opposition and managed to collect a handsome Rs 18.1 crore in its second week to settle at Rs 74.5 crore after its second week run.

     

    Margarita With A Straw added about Rs 15 lakh in its fourth week to take its four-week tally to Rs 5.95 crore.

  • Matt Bomer cast in ‘The Magnificent Seven’ remake

    Matt Bomer cast in ‘The Magnificent Seven’ remake

    NEW DELHI: Actor Matt Bomer, who starred in films like The Normal Heart, Magic Mike and White Collar is reportedly joining the cast of MGM’s The Magnificent Seven, which is being directed by Antoine Fuqua.

     

    According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie, which is due to release on 13 January, 2017, is a remake of the 1960 movie by the same name. Bomer will be joining the likes of Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Wagner Moura, Haley Bennett and Jason Momoa, who have also been cast in the movie.

     

    John Lee Hancock and Nic Pizzolatto have penned the movie’s script. The report mentions that the story of the new version kicks off when a woman (Bennett) hires a disparate group of gunslingers to protect her town from rampaging bandits that are led by a robber baron. Bomer is set to be play the woman’s husband, a man who tries to stand up to the robber baron.

     

    Roger Birnbaum and Todd Black are producing the movie, while Walter Mirisch and Fuqua are executive producers.

     

    The MGM remake of The Magnificent Seven will be set in a victimised mining town, taken over by a gold baron, rather than the Mexican village, which is periodically raided by bandits.

  • NYIFF: ‘Labour of Love’ wins best film; Nawazuddin & Kalki bag best actor awards

    NYIFF: ‘Labour of Love’ wins best film; Nawazuddin & Kalki bag best actor awards

    NEW DELHI: Labour of Love written and directed by Aditya Vikram Sengupta won awards for best film, best screenplay and best director award at the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF).

     

    On the other hand, actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui got the Best Actor award for Haraamkhor, whereas Kalki Koechlin won the Best Actress award for her performance in

     

    In Haraamkhor, which is directed by Shlok Sharma, Siddiqui plays a married teacher in love with his student, essayed by Shweta Tripathi. In Margarita, With a Straw,directed by Shonali Bose, Koechlin is seen as Laila, an outgoing wheelchair bound teenager with cerebral palsy who is absolutely determined to have a normal life despite her challenges.

     

    The week-long 15th annual festival ended earlier this month with the New York premiere of Dum Laga Ke Haisha, a Yash Raj production starring Ayushmann Khurrana and debutante Bhumi Pednekar, directed by Sharat Katariya.

     

    Set in the crumbling environs of Calcutta, the film Labour of Love tells the story of two ordinary lives suspended in the duress of a spiraling recession. They are married to a cycle of work and domesticroutine and long stretch of waiting in the silence of an empty house; they share each other’s solitude in pursuit of a distant dream that visits them briefly every morning.

     

    Vignesh and Ramesh received the Best Child Actor award for the Tamil film Kaakaa Muttai. Directed by Manikandan M, the film tells the story about how two slum boys are consumed by the desire to taste a pizza after the opening of a pizza parlour on their old playground. Realizing that one pizza costs more than their family’s monthly income, they begin to plot ways to earn more money – inadvertently beginning an adventure that will involve the entire city.

     

    Seek and Hide, a short film directed by Manoj K. Nitharwal starring Mohan Agashe, Seema Biswas, Shalva Kinja Wadekar, Suleman, Khushboo Upadhyay, and Shabnam Sukhdev, won the Best Short film award. 

     

    Daughters of Mother India directed by Vibha Bakshi won the Best Documentary award. The documentary is a filmmaker’s journey through the aftermath of the horrific rape and murder of a 23 year old medical intern in Delhi on 16 December, 2012. For weeks mass protests filled the streets of India and the country witnessed ‘gender consciousness’ and extraordinary solidarity by the ordinary citizens – like never before.

     

    Filmmakers like Vishal Bharadwaj, Hansal Mehta, Shonali Bose, Dev Benegal and actors including Koechlin, Agashe, Samrat Chakraborty and others walked the red carpet.