ITV

Category: Movies

  • Ex-Fox chief William Self dead

    MUMBAI: Hollywood actor turned producer and executive William Self who transformed 20th Century Fox into a top television supplier of the 1960s expire after suffering a heart attack recently. He was 89.


    At Fox for fifteen years, Self headed groundbreaking series like Peyton Place, the first primetime soap opera; Batman, the first series based on a comic book to air in primetime, Julia, the first weekly series to star an African-American woman and M*A*S*H.


    He also produced the pilot for The Twilight Zone in the late 1950s during the first of his two stints at CBS, and his company produced The Shootist (1976), John Wayne‘s final film.


    A native of Dayton, Ohio, Self appeared as an actor in more than two dozen films from 1949-53, including I Was a Male War Bride (1949), Operation Pacific (1951), The Thing From Another World (1951) and Pat and Mike (1952). Along the way, he forged a friendship with Spencer Tracy.


    Self then turned to production and made more than 200 episodes of Schlitz Playhouse of Stars as well as The Frank Sinatra Show in 1957. He later joined CBS as a program executive, then moved to Fox.


    Other notable Fox series under his watch were Daniel Boone, Twelve O‘Clock High, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Green Hornet, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, Land of the Giants and Room 222.


    Self was eventually named president of 20th Century Fox Television and then vice-president of 20th Century Fox Film Corp.


    He exited Fox in 1975 to partner with Mike Frankovich. Their short-lived arrangement produced The Shootist as well as From Noon Till Three (1976), starring Charles Bronson.
    Self is survived by his daughter Barbara; son Edwin; sister Jean; four grandchildren; and six great grandchildren.
     

  • CineAsia trade show to honour Lotte Cinemas

    MUMBAI: The annual CineAsia trade show will honour Lotte Cinemas with the DLP Cinema Marketing Achievement Award on 9 December at Hong Kong.


    Seoul-based Lotte Cinema, that currently operates 62 multiplexes with 462 screens and 162 3D systems is in the midst of an expansion beyond the South Korean market.


    The company has launched three multiplexes in Vietnam and its first China location, in the northeastern city of Shenyang, is scheduled to be open at the end of this year In 2011, it will expand its multiplex business with 17 new domestic locations and 14 foreign locations.
     
    As China‘s box office boom continues, jumping over 80% in the first half of this year, the rapidly expanding exhibition sector sees a rush of new players coming into the market to compete.


    To stay ahead, Lotte, in 2009, introduced the world‘s first robot cinema usher, called Ciromi, and gave its customer base a ticket-booking Smartphone application.


    From their cinemas‘ free Wi-fi Internet zones, to their 13.1-channel sound systems and 4D auditoriums Lotte Cinemas is pioneering change in Korea‘s multiplex industry.
     

  • Sri Lankan to make Bengali film

    MUMBAI: Paying a tribute to Satyajit Ray and Rithwik Ghatak, Sri Lankan filmmaker Vimukthi Jaysundara has decided to make a Bengali film.


    “Yes, I am making a Bengali film that you can say is my tribute to Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. Today, I stand as a director because of their films. Their films have inspired me in many ways,” Jayasundara said on the sidelines of the 16th Kolkata Film Festival where his film Between Two Worlds was screened. “My film is my last war movie. After this, I will make a couple of movies based on a ‘character‘, he added.


    Jayasundara will start his new experiment with a Bengali film and will shoot the film at various locations of north Kolkata and Rajarhat. “In the Bengali film, I will portray a character who is an architect and stays out of Bengal but comes back to the state after several years,‘ averred Jayasundara.


    Jayasundara, known for making films on the impact of the civil war in Sri Lanka between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan Army, has received international acclaim, one from the Cannes Film Festival 2005 and the other from the Venice Film Festival.
     

  • Robert De Niro institutes $25,000 award for painters

    MUMBAI: Robert De Niro has instituted a new 25,000 annual award, the Robert De Niro Sr. Prize that will honour American artists for achievement in painting.


    The prize will be administered by the Tribeca Film Institute said the Tribeca Film Institute co-chairman De Niro. He was joined by Megan Fox Kelly and Jeffrey Hoffeld, advisors to the estate.


    A committee of distinguished individuals in the art world will be appointed annually to nominate and select three finalists and the prize recipient.


    The estate will also host a group exhibition for the finalists at which the winner will be announced.


    De Niro will fund the prize, which is among the first to celebrate and shine a light on midcareer artists. The first prize will be awarded in 2011.

  • Rory Peck honours Channel 4’s doc on Mumbai children

    MUMBAI: A documentary titled The Slumdog Children of Mumbai commissioned by UK‘s Channel 4 about the lives of children who live in Mumbai slums was among the honorees at the Rory Peck Awards in London recently. The documentary was made along with Oscar-winner Slumdog Millionaire.


    The film lapped up the Sony Professional Impact Award that honours freelance camerawork in either news or current affairs that raises humanitarian issues and whose broadcast has had an international impact or contributed to a change in perception or policy.


    Shot over three months through the Monsoon, the film follows the lives of four children: 7-year-old Deepa, who lives next to an open dump and runs barefoot through traffic selling flowers to help support her family; 11-year-old Salaam, who, a few weeks after running away from his abusive stepmother, lives outside the main railway station; and twins Hussan and Hussein, also 11, who risk cholera and infection fishing for scraps in a filthy canal so they can earn money to eat.


    According to the director Nick Read, “The documentary was designed to be a complement to Slumdog Millionaire and a counterpoint to the movie.”


    Rory Peck Awards, the annual international competition honours the skill, courage and enterprise of freelance news and current affairs cameramen and camerawomen.

  • Maverick to produce a Marathi film

    BANGALORE: Anuj Saxena’s Maverick Productions is likely to produce a Marathi film, the plans for which will be drawn up shortly. This was revealed by Saxena to www.indiantelevision.com on the sidelines of a press conference to announce the ‘2nd BeYu Fashion Awards’ to honour fashion designers for their contribution to global fashion in Bangalore.


    Maverick has had a number of film releases- mainly regional films, under its belt– Aloo Chat and Houseful (Kannada) Gulumal (Malayalam) in 2009 and Chase in 2010. It had announced a Gujarati film, Naatheyo, in October 2009. On the anvil is the under production Hindi film ‘One and Only’ starring Kangana Ranaut and debutante Chirag Paswan.


    A Malayalam film ‘Best of Luck’ starring Manmooty is slated for release this month. The production house says that it has five films in various stages of production and a number of advertising films in its show-reel, besides which it is planning to produce a few documentaries.


    Saxena is the managing director of the Rs 1 billion Elder Healthcare that is a part of the Rs 7 billion Elder Group of Companies. Elder Healthcare spends large part of its revenues towards mass media communications and marketing revealed Saxena. Last year it spent Rs 300 million towards advertising and brand building of the number of healthcare product brands that its portfolio contains. These include Fuel, ‘Just for Men’ hair color, Fair One, Tiger Balm, AM PM, Be Yu and Blistex.


    The BeYu fashion event will run in Bangalore for two days, starting 19 November. BeYu is a premium German cosmetic brand in Saxena’s Elder Healthcare Ltd. Portfolio.



    Saxena is also an actor and has performed in television soaps such as Kkusum and a few Bollywood movies.
     

  • ESG ties up with 16 brands for IFFI Indiantelevision.com Team

    MUMBAI: The Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) has tied up with Kingfisher Airlines, UB Group, Big 92.7FM, Qatar Airways, HPCL, BSNL, Rupa, The Lalit, Corporation bank, GIDC, EDC, HDFC Bank, Bright Advertising, Lokmat, the Leela and Macroman M-Series for the ensuing International Film Festival of India (IFFI).


    Said Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) CEO Manoj Srivastava, “We have partnered with 16 leading brands so far who will work together for IFFI 2010. We have resolved to work collectively by pooling in our resources to make the film festival IFFI Goa 2010 a resounding success.” 


    IFFI, the country’s most prestigious film festival, offers ample branding opportunities.


    Kingfisher and Qatar Airways will set up a number of lounges – for actors, delegates, Goa Cinephile members and celebrities at the venue. “With the assistance of our partners we would like to extend facilities to everyone who is a part of IFFI 2010” added Srivastava.


    UB Group divisional vice president and chief executive Govind Tiwari added, “Having worked together before we have developed a strong working relationship. We are extremely happy to partner with ESG for IFFI 2010 and will continue to do so. Kingfisher’s in – flight magazine and in-flight television will promote ESG’s initiatives and IFFI 2010 throughout the festival.”


    Canacona based Intercontinental – The Lalit’s General Manager Shrikant stated that even through their property was based over 80 km away from the venue of the film festival, they have partnered with ESG. “Our CMD Jyotsna Suri was extremely keen that we support ESG in whatever way required,” he added.


    Commenting on the association with IFFI 2010 Kingfisher Airlines Limited VP – Agency and Sales (Western and South India) Bhanu Kaila averred , “IFFI is a premier film festival of the country. As it celebrates its 41st edition in Goa, we are delighted that Kingfisher Airlines is associated with this marquee event as the official airline partners. Travelers will now be able to enjoy the award winning Kingfisher experience”.


    Established by the Government of Goa in 2004 as the nodal agency in the organisation of IFFI, the main objective of ESG is to frame an entertainment policy to help cultivate Goa into a world-class international entertainment nerve center of the country.
     

  • 30 films to vie for prize money of Rs 1 mn at IFFI

    MUMBAI: Thirty films will vie for prize money worth over Rs1 million at the short film centre (SFC) at the 41st International Film Festival of India (IFFI), starting in Panaji from 22 November.


    It is said that the international competition section at the SFC will have 20 short films from India, Australia, US, Spain, Mexico, Iran, Britain, UAE and China.


    The winner in the international competition section wins a prize of Rs 500,000 as part of the Golden Lamp Tree award, while the silver lamp tree award will carry a cash prize of Rs 300,000.


    The environment competition will have ten films from India that will vie for the coveted Vasudha award, which is India‘s only government award for an environmental film. The Vasudha award will carry a purse of Rs 300,000.


    The films will be judged by a jury comprising Green Oscar winner Naresh Bedi (chairman of the jury), documentary filmmaker Romulus Whitaker and founder and director of the International Film Festival of Innsbruck Helmut Groschup.


    The jury for the SFC‘s international competition comprises Indian director Goutam Ghose, Russian actress Oxana Federova, French producer Patrick Jorge, actress Helene Cardona and founder of the London Film Academy Daisy Gili.


    More than 8,500 delegates from across the world will take part in the 10-day film festival that ends on 2 December.
     

  • Cinematix prediction: Guzaarish to have lukewarm opening

    MUMBAI: Going by Cinematix, the weekly tracking tool that measures the awareness and interest to watch upcoming releases, Sanjay Leela Bhansali‘s Guzaarish is set to have a lukewarm opening at the box office.


    In the week before its launch, the film scored lower than Hrithik Roshan’s last film Kites on Unaided Awareness (42% vs. 55%) and Interest (58% vs. 71%).


    As per the predictive model, Guzaarish will have a net opening weekend collection of Rs. 170 to 180 million assuming that the film releases across 850 cinemas. This would mean that the movie will not feature in the list of the top 10 opening weekend grossers of this year.


    The predictive model takes into account the film’s performance across the four Cinematix parameters – Unaided Awareness, Total Awareness, Appeal and Interest.


    Data over the last six months has been used to predict a film‘s opening weekend net collection on the basis of its Cinematix scores. The model can predict the opening weekend collections of a film with an error margin of less than 15 per cent.


    Films currently in the Cinematix track include Break Ke Baad, Rakta Charitra 2, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey, Band Baaja Baaraat, Yamla Pagla Deewana, Run Bhola Run, Dhobi Ghat, Toonpur Ka Superhero, Tees Maar Khan, No Problem etc.


    Developed and run by media research and consulting firm Ormax Media, the weekly Cinematix track is conducted across the key theatrical revenue markets – Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Indore
     

  • Palm Springs fest to honour Javier Bardem

    MUMBAI: The International Palm Springs Film Festival will be presenting its International Star Award to Spanish actor Javier Bardem. The award will be given out at an awards gala on 8 January next year.


    Bardem is an award-winning actor, and among his awards is an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in the Cohen Brother‘s film No Country for Old Men. This last summer women swooned by Bardem‘s performance as Julia Roberts‘ lover in Eat Pray Love.


    The International Star Award recognises an actor or actress who has both critically and commercially made the successful cross over from foreign-language films to mainstream international recognition.


    The film festival will run from 6 to 17 January.