ITV

Category: Movies

  • Carl Icahn ups stake in MGM’s takeover bid

    MUMBAI: Billionaire financier Carl Icahn has upped his offer to buy the entire debts of MGM. That amounts to a 8 cent premium above the debt‘s current trading value and a similar rise from Icahn‘s offer last week.MGM owes more than 100 debt holders almost $4 billion and has been seeking approval from the creditors of a company-proposed financial reorganisation plan. MGM has been seeking ways of restructuring its finances for more than a year.


    The “prepackaged” bankruptcy plan would turn outstanding debt into lender equity and hand operating reins of the studio to Spyglass Entertainment co- toppers Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum.


    But Icahn is backing a rival proposal by Lionsgate, that seeks the merger of Lionsgate and MGM to give the former a 45 per cent stake in the new entity. Lionsgate‘s biggest shareholder, Icahn already has accumulated more than $400
    million in MGM debt.


    MGM lenders have, till Friday, to vote to approve or reject the Spyglass-proposed MGM reorganisation. An MGM source said there is little chance of a second extension of the voting deadline; the first deadline had been set for last Friday.


    MGMs current owners — including Providence Equity, TPG Capital, Sony, Comcast, DLJ Merchant and Quadrangle — would see their equity positions in the studio wiped out in virtually any MGM restructuring.
     

  • MAMI to close with PVR’s Red

    MUMBAI: MAMI’s 12th Annual Film Festival will close the week-long festival with PVR Pictures’ forthcoming release Red (Retired, Extremely Dangerous).


    Red, a film that stars A-list academy award-winning stars like Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich, is scheduled to hit theatres in India on 12 November.


    Commenting on the selection, PVR Pictures President Kamal Gianchandani said, “It is our constant endeavour to bring international blockbusters and entertaining films like Rwd to Indian theatre-going audiences. I feel honored that this film has been chosen as the closing film of MAMI’s 12th annual Mumbai Film Festival that showcases the best in Indian as well as international cinema. Red is the highly explosive action cult film that will have you glued to your seat. It has a dream cast and a fantastic story that we are confident will be loved by Indian audiences.”


    Red is based on the D.C. Comics graphic novel by Warren Ellis and Cully Hammer.

  • Tannishta Chatterjee in APSA jury

    MUMBAI: Brick Lane and Road, Movie fame starlet Tannishtha Chatterjee has been appointed to the International Jury of the fourth annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA).


    Said APSA chairman Des Power, “We are deeply honored to have Tannishtha join our Jury. She follows in the footsteps of her fellow Indian filmmakers Shabana Azmi, Aparna Sen and Pryas Gupta who have all served on previous APSA juries. Tannishtha’s impressive career, both in India and in the international scenario will bring a wealth of experience to the task of determining this year’s APSA winners. I warmly welcome Tannishtha to our jury which will be led this year by our Jury President Lord David Puttnam and I look forward to welcoming her and her fellow jurors to the Gold Coast next month.”


    The full line-up of the jury will be announced by APSA in the coming weeks, ahead of their arrival on Australia’s Gold Coast on 22 November where they will view the nominated films and determine the winners for the Asia-Pacific’s highest accolade in film.


    In all, 31 documentary, animated, children’s and feature films from 15 countries and areas have been nominated including five nominations for Indian films – Tesjaswini Pandit for best performance by an actress for her performance in Mee Sindhutai Sakpal (I am Sindhutai Sakpal); Atul Kulkarni for best performance by an actor for Natarang; achievement in cinematography for The Well (Vihir), Sudhir Palsane; achievement in cinematography for Raavan, Santosh Sivan and V. Manikandan; and Udaan, nominated in the best children’s feature film category.
     

  • Hisss director disowns film

    MUMBAI: The Mallika Sherawat starrer Hisss has been getting all kinds of negative reviews. This has resulted in the film on the verge of sinking at the box-office.


    Definitely, this is the time for blame-game. Jennifer Lynch who helmed the project says that the film was ‘taken away‘ from her in the editing stages itself and that she has no idea of how the film has shaped up like.


    Rumours have it that the ‘end product‘ is very different than the ‘original‘. The ‘original‘ here refers to the film that Jennifer shot, while the ‘end product‘ refers to the deeds of film‘s co-producer Govind Menon who put together the final material of the film.


    Lynch adds that the film that she had perceived and wanted to be made as a love story eventually took the shape of a ‘horror film‘. Even the songs were done away with.


    What one fails to understand is if Lynch had to disown the film after it failed miserably at the box office, why was she appearing on different channels and promoting the film.

  • PVR, Cinepolis win at India Retail Forum

    MUMBAI: Cinema theatre chains PVR and Cinepolis have bagged awards at the India Retail Forum.


    PVR was awarded ‘The most admired retailer of the year’ award in the multiplex category. Other cinemas nominated in the category were Big Cinemas, Inox, Fun Cinemas, Cinemax and Fame Cinemas.


    Cinépolis, on the other hand, took home the “Most admired retail launch of the year” award.


    Said PVR CEO and group president Pramod Arora, “We strive to provide the PVR experience to the masses; therefore, we have PVR Gold class in tier I and PVR Talkies in tier II and tier III cities. We further plan to expand the PVR brand into other aspects of entertainment formats and become an integrated retail and film entertainment company.”


    PVR currently has 142 screens spread across 18 key cities in India. 


    For Cinepolis, the world‘s 4th largest movie theatre chain, the award acknowledged its flawless rollout, the high quality of service delivery and a world-class theatrical viewing experience that has instantly resonated with the audiences.


    Said Cinépolis India managing director and country head Milan Saini, “The award acknowledges the successful entry of brand Cinépolis in India, and the new standards of excellence we are trying to establish. We appreciate this great honour and look forward to taking our innovative cinema concept to all the major cities across India.”


    Cinépolis marked its entry into the Indian film exhibition industry with the launch of its first multiplex in Amritsar in December 2009. The multiplex chain plans to open 80 screens by the end of 2011 and 500 screens by 2016.
     

  • Tamil novelist Nadan petitions against Endhiran makers

    MUMBAI: A Tamil novelist, Amutha Tamil Nadan, working for Tamil magazine Nakeeran in a complaint lodged with Chennai city police commissioner T Rajendran has accused the producer and director of the Rajinikanth-starrer Endhiran of stealing the story idea of the film from his novel ‘Jugiba‘ , that was published in a magazine in 1996.


    Nadan, who is a deputy news editor with Nakeeran, submitted his petition to the police commissioner after having arrived at his office with his advocates G Edwig and L Sivakumar.


    “I had written a small novel ‘Jugiba‘ in a magazine called ‘Iniya Udhayam‘ , in 1996. My novel was repeated in ‘Dhik Dhik Dheepika‘ magazine in 2007 with my permission. Director Shankar and producer Kalanithi Maran stole the raw story from my novel and added ingredients to the film like songs, fights and graphics.


    “Many of my friends and relatives informed me about the movie. Earlier, I sent a legal notice to director Shankar and producer Kalanithi Maran but since I did not get any response from them, I have now approached the city police commissioner,” the complainant said in a statement.


    Nadan has been in the literary field since his school days.
     

  • US-China Film Summit in LA on 2 November

    MUMBAI: A large group of the Chinese government officials and private Chinese film industry leaders are expected to attend the US-China Film Summit in Los Angeles on 2 November.


    Organized by The Asia Society of Southern California and the state-run China Film Co-Production Corp, the timing of the gathering of senior Chinese filmmakers and policymakers with Hollywood producers focused firmly on China‘s growing movie market.


    Set to take place at the Writers Guild of America, the summit, subtitled Co-Production and Cooperation, will follow the29 October opening of Feng Xiaogang‘s Chinese hit Aftershock in select US theatres.


    While China‘s box-office is up 86 per cent so far, much of that can be tied to rising ticket prices and Hollywood imports such as Avatar despite imports being limited to 20 a year by Beijing.


    Talk of co-productions that skirt the government import cap as a means to growth is at a fever pitch, especially as France, New Zealand and Singapore all signed film treaties with China in the last eight months.
     

  • Jacko tops Forbes List

    MUMBAI: Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, made an astonishing $275 million in the last year that has put him on top the Forbes list of top-earning dead celebrities. The take was in the form of the worldwide box-office haul of the Sony film This Is it.


    Second on the list is Elvis Presley, who earned $60 million while at the third place is J.R.R. Tolkien, who sold a combined 500,000 copies of his The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books in the last year alone even though he died 37 years ago.


    Following is Peanuts creator Charles Schulz having earned $33 million while John Lennon is fifth at $17 million.


    The Forbes list includes thirteen names.

  • Vishesh Films plans sequel of Murder

    MUMBAI: Vishesh Films is planning to make a sequel of its 2004 hit movie Murder.


    Though Murder was directed by Anurag Basu, the sequel will be handled by Mohit Suri.


    Emraan Hashmi will continue play the male protagonist in the sequel. The search is on for the one who will play the female lead, earlier enacted by Mallika Sherawat.


    As for the story and script of the film, Suri avers, “Right now, I am adding the finishing touches to the script. I guess in about a week or two, it will be finished and only then will we be actually rounding the script to see if any modifications are needed.”


    After about three weeks for the script to get ready, the cast will be finalised.
     

  • This Hisss lacks fizz







    Directer: Jennifer Lynch
    Producer: Govind Menon, Vikram Singh, Ratan Jain, William Sees Keenan
    Starring : Malika Sherawat, Divya Dutta,
    Priyanka Rawat, Irrfan Khan, Jeff Doucette


    MUMBAI: It is a given fact that trespassing into one‘s territory or spoiling one‘s party often leads to violence. But what would creatures do if man violates all norms for his selfish motives? We have heard enough stories of leopards or other animals killing human beings after encroaching into human territory.


    Similar is the story of Jeniffer Lynch-directed Hisss. Both the male and the female snake are romancing deep inside the woods, when George States (Jeff Douchette) and his henchmen abduct the male snake, knowing well that the female snake (nagin) would follow. And that is the time when States would bring out the naagmani of the nagin that would make him immortal.


    Till here, the film is understandable. What follows is a series of absurdities like the nagin transforming herself into a stunningly beautiful and attractive woman (Mallika Sherawat) who now is on the trail of States. Along the way, she mercilessly kills people who try to rape or harm her. The film goes haywire as the climax arrives and results into a drab affair.


    Such stories have a high mythological value for Indians. But unfortunately, this film takes the mythological element away from the story. On the contrary, it tries to capitalise on the snake woman‘s sexy body.


    Going by the fact that Jennifer Lynch is the daughter of Oscar-winning director David Lynch and director of films like Boxing Helena and Surveillance, one was curious to see her handle a creature feature to her optimum best, but what comes out is a senseless film.


    The screenplay of Lynch is hackneyed with no one able to connect each frame from the other. The director seems clueless about the emotions ichchhadhari snakes evoke in Indians and she seems completely unaware about inter-personal relationships between family members in India. The film is devoid of drama, emotions, comedy or romance. The special effects are just about passable.


    After a long time, here is a film where no one needs to perform. Sherawat exposes very boldly and bares her body on several occasions. Irrfan Khan and Divya Dutt are passable.


    From the end-result of Hisss, it is clearly evident that in the absence of a good script a good director too becomes incapable. It‘s best to give this disjointed venture a miss for its lack of fizz.