MUMBAI: Alice in Wonderland and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World will be among the seven remaining films in consideration for a visual effects Oscar nomination. Earlier, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Hereafter, Inception, Iron Man 2, and Tron: Legacy also made the shortlist.
The next procedure is that members of the Academy‘s visual effects branch will screen 15-minute excerpts from the films on 20 January before the final five nominees will be announced on 25 January.
MUMBAI: T-Series head honcho Bhushan Kumar is leaving no stone unturned to make his upcoming Salman Khan-Asin starrer Ready a hit.
The production company has roped in Thai action director Seelum Pradit who had earlier earned international laurels for his work in Mountain Tiger, Treasure Island, Rescue Dawn, The Magnificent Five and Marine 2 to action choreograph the film.
Along with Mahendra Verma, the Thai action team headed by Seelum Pradit will work towards achieving international levels of action sequences.
The Thai action team has expertise in rigging, flying effects and high-end stunts. They also understand the Indian sensibilities and the kind of action that would appeal to our masses since earlier Pradit has also worked on a Thumbs Up ad.
Ready has lots of humour, action and dramatic sequences.
MUMBAI: Almost a year after the release of My Name Is Khan, Karan Johar is set to direct a young tale titled Student of The Year.
Though the movie will not feature Shah Rukh Khan, it will be a joint venture between Khan and Johar.
Talking about the film, Johar says, “Student of the Year will have everything that I love about movies. It will have songs, dances, happiness, fun and frolic all around.”
The film will bring to the fore the era of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, albeit in the 21st century avatar. The film talks about adult relationships despite having songs and dances.
Avers Johar, “It‘s a happy song and dance film with the tone and syntax being that of a holiday outing. Still from the emotional energy perspective, the entire team will go all out to make it one super cool young flick.”
The film would serve as the launch pad of three newcomers including Varun Dhawan (son of David Dhawan), Alia Bhatt (Daughter of Mahesh Bhatt) and Siddharth Malhotra.
MUMBAI: The Copyright Act issue has brought two of the film industry‘s big unions – the Film Federation of India (FFI) and the Film and TV Producers Guild – at loggerheads on who should officially speak for the industry.
In a letter to the Guild, FFI president TP Aggrawal has asked it to desist from speaking or making any commitment on behalf of the film industry. His contention: since the Guild is not a member of the FFI, it would not abide by their decisions.
“We don‘t agree on the Guild‘s contention that there should be an increase in royalty to lyricists and music directors. After them, there would be many others who would follow like the directors and so on. Since the FFI is an apex body, the Guild would have to follow our rules,” asserts Aggrawal.
Mukesh Bhatt, vice-president of the Guild, however, disagrees. “Since we are not members of the FFI, there was no need to reply to the letter,” he says.
Both Aggrawal and Bhatt, however, rule out a split in the production segment.
MUMBAI: George Clooney will star in The Monster of Florence, an adaptation of a best-selling nonfiction book about a serial killer who roamed the Italian city. The film will be produced by Clooney and business partner Grant Heslov along with Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen who had earlier made the American Beauty.
Usual Suspects scribe Christopher McQuarrie will adapt the book by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi‘s book.
At one point, Tom Cruise optioned the rights and set up the project at United Artists, which he was running at the time. It was Cruise who brought McQuarrie aboard.
MUMBAI: Matt Damon, Jennifer Lopez and Twilight star Robert Pattinson will present awards at the 68th Annual Golden Globes awards. Damon will present the Cecil B. DeMille Award to Robert De Niro at the ceremony in Los Angeles.
On Tuesday evening, Sony announced on Twitter that Garrett Hedlund and Leighton Meester — co-stars in Country Strong — will co-present at the Globes.
The Golden Globes would be broadcast nationwide on 16 January on NBC.
MUMBAI: Ekta Kapoor has put on hold Dream Sequence to be directed by Vishal Bhardwaj.
Initially, Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone were to play the lead. But first Khan and later Padukone distanced themselves from the project. Later it was heard that Abhay Deol would fill in for Khan who showed a renewed interest but later backed out.
While the producer was hunting for actors, Bhardwaj was offered to helm the adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s Two States. Since Kapoor’s film that was go on the floors got delayed, Bhardwaj allotted all his dates to Khan, thus putting Dream Sequence on hold.
Meanwhile, Kapoor’s romantic thriller, Ragini MMS, is being made in Telugu too. The bilingual, currently being shot simultaneously in both the languages, will be released at the same time.
Remarked Balaji Motion Pictures CEO Tanuj Garg, “The genre and theme of Ragini MMS lend themselves well to the palate of the Telugu-speaking audiences. Furthermore, creation of two negatives on a tight budget ensures enhanced monetisation of the project as a whole.”
Ragini MMS is expected to release in March this year.
MUMBAI: The Pune International Film Festival, to be held from 6 to 13 January, will open with the Russian film Silent Souls ( Ovsyanki).
While Chashme Buddoor will be screened as a tribute to the late Ravi Baswani, Bandit Queen will be presented as a tribute to Nirmal Pandey.
Dashavatharam will be screened in retrospective of Kamal Hassan.
The Government of Maharashtra has decided to present the Prabhat Best International Film award comprising $20,000 and Prabhat Best International Film Director $10,000.
The other awards to be given away at the festival are: Government of Maharashtra’s Sant Tukaram best international Marathi film (Rs 5 lakh); Akhil Bhartiya Chitrapat Maha Mandal’s award to the best Marathi film director (Rs.25,000); Akhil Bhartiya Chitrapat Maha Mandal’s award to the best Marathi film actor( Rs.25,000); and Akhil Bhartiya Chitrapat Maha Mandal’s best screenplay award of Rs.25,000.
Life Time Achievement Awards will also be presented for outstanding contribution to Indian cinema.
For the Whistling Woods International Student Competition, the awards are: Best Film ($ 2000), best director ($ 1000) and best screenplay (US $ 1000). There is a special award for student cinematographers: the ARRI Promising Indian Student Cinematographer Award, instituted by Whistling Woods International in association with ARRI.
The winning student cinematographer will be awarded free use of an ARRI highly advanced High Definition Motion Picture Camera for a period of 150 days. This award is open to students of Indian nationality or those studying in a Film Institute in India only.
The festival will honour Whistling Woods chairman and founder, Subhash Ghai with a ‘Special Achievement Award’ in recognition of his setting up a world-class film and multimedia institute in Mumbai along with his remarkable career as a writer, director and producer that made he being referred as the ‘The Showman’.
There is also an award for best animation film of $ 1000.
Japan is the country in focus in the ninth edition of the festival that was launchedin 2002.
MUMBAI: The eighth annual touring film exhibition, organised by MoMA (Museum of Modern Arts, New York City), has selected Sidharth Srinivasan‘s Pairon Talle (Soul of Sand) to be part of it.
Pairon Talle is among the nine films developed with grants from Global Film Initiative (GFI) to be presented in this exhibition. “Accomplished, entertaining, and thought-provoking, the films are also deeply rooted in the social and political realities of the countries where their talented and resourceful makers live and set their stories”, states a press release from the organisers.
Other films to be part of the exhibition are: Federico Veiroj‘s La Vida Útil (A Useful Life), Uruguay; Sérgio Bianchi‘s Os Inquilinos (The Tenants), Brazil; Diego Lerman‘s La Mirada Invisible (The Invisible Eye), Argentina; Aktan Arym Kubat‘s Svet-Ake (The Light Thief), Kyrgyzstan; Mohammad Rasoulof‘s Kestzar Haye Sepid (The White Meadows), Iran; Zhang Lu‘s Dooman River, China; Levan Koguashvili‘s Quchis Dgeebi (Street Days), Georgia; and Ahmed Imamovic‘s Belvedere, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The exhibition, to be held in collaboration with GFI, will be held between 13 to 28 January.
MUMBAI: Sanjay Dutt Productions and Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision are co-producing the sequel of Raj Sippy‘s Satte Pe Satta.
The two entities have acquired the rights of the original from Raj and Romu Sippy, the original producers of the film.
The sequel, to be directed by Soham, will have Sanjay Dutt essay the very role that Amitabh Bachchan played in the original.
Satte Pe Satta was the story of seven brothers living in a large farmhouse. Parentless and lacking basic human manners, they grew up under their eldest brother Ravi (Amitabh Bachchan).
Released in 1982, Satte Pe Satta featured Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin, Shakti Kapoor, Paintal, Kanwaljit Singh, Sudhir and Inderjeet. The sequel will have the likes of Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor, Ashish Chowdhury, Arya Babbar, Kunal Khemu and Ravi Kissen.
While Hema Malini, Ranjeeta Kaur, Sarika, Prema Narayan and Kalpana Iyer played the love interests in the original, it is heard that Bipasha Basu is being tipped to play the character played by Ranjeeta while the others are still being finalised.
It may be recollected that Raj Sippy who directed the original, wanted to remake the film and had titled it Seven. Similarly, Sohail Khan also wanted to remake the film but things didn‘t transpire.
Slated to go on floors in April, the film is expected to release next Diwali.