ITV

Category: Movies

  • Cameron to merge two parts of Avatar into one

    MUMBAI: James Cameron is focused on finishing his Avatar novel before starting to work on its sequel.


    The director hinted that the final two parts of the planned trilogy could be made into a single film. “We‘re actually talking about that. That‘s not a decision yet,” he said. 


    “That is something that makes a lot of sense, given the nature of these productions, because we can shoot the entire motion capture and then go back and do cameras over a period of time,” Cameron added.


    News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch had earlier said that Fox Studio was eyeing a sequel. He later held talks on the same with Cameron about financial and other details.
     

  • Spyglass Entertainment likely to take control of MGM

    MUMBAI: Spyglass Entertainment is in the last lap of coming to an agreement to take control of debt-ridden Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).


    Both MGM and Spyglass have agreed on major points including how much Spyglass founders Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum would be compensated in management fees and equity, but a few issues still need to be resolved. Barber and Birnbaum would receive an ownership stake of 4 to 5 per cent in the restructured MGM, it is believed.


    According to a plan that Spyglass presented to leading creditors of MGM, Barber and Birnbaum would run a scaled-back version of the studio as co-chief executives. Under a restructuring plan, the creditors would swap their debt for equity.


    However, a major point, of a breakup fee that Spyglass would be paid if MGM decides to back out of the arrangement, is still to be decided.


    Spyglass, however, would remain a separate company and will continue to produce its own slate of movies. If the deal goes through, a part of the Spyglass library of about 15 films like The Sixth Sense and Seabiscuit, personally owned by Barber and Birnbaum, would become a part of MGM‘s own catalogue of 4,000 films.


    Barber and Birnbaum have conveyed to MGM authorities that they plan to slash overhead costs and produce a few films on a yearly basis including James Bond sequels and two planned films with Warner Bros.‘ New Line Cinema.


    MGM creditors have been weighing several options for survival as a stand-alone company. They are considering the proposed mergers with Summit Entertainment and Lions Gate Entertainment. They are also looking into Time Warner Inc’s long-standing $1.5 billion bid to acquire MGM.
     

  • J P Dutta to complete war triology

    MUMBAI: As if the tribute to his brother Deepak who was a squadron leader in the Indian Air Force was not enough in his earlier films like Border and LOC, J P Dutta wishes to repeat that theme again. He is soon starting work on the final film that will complete his war trilogy.


    Dutta’s film will feature the likes of Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan and Naseeruddin Shah. The director is also in talks with Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan and Abhishek Bachchan.


    Dutta had subconsciously dedicated all his war films to brother Deepak who died while on duty. In fact Dutta’s first film as a director, Sarhad, was in memory of his brother but it could never be completed.


    Despite the belief that war films don’t work these days, Dutta seems optimistic as he describes his new war film “as the most challenging one he has ever made” as it’s going to be a very expensive project.


    Presently, Dutta is busy meeting officials of various ministries of the Indian government to attain permission to shoot the film in war-sensitive areas. Admits Dutta, “While I was making Border and LOC, the Indian government was very kind to me as they co-operated a lot with me. They probably think that I know what I am doing when I’m dealing with the topic of war.”
    Dutta is hopeful of receiving the same level of support from the government as he did with his previous projects.
     

  • Lionsgate reports first quarter loss of $64 million

    MUMBAI: Lionsgate has reported a first-quarter loss of $64.1 million compared to the net income of $36.3 million it had recorded in the same period last year.


    It is said that reduced theatrical slate coupled with increased marketing costs for titles brought down the company‘s entertainment revenue by 22 per cent to $117.1 million, from $151 million a year ago. Overall studio revenues declined by 16 per cent to $326.6 million, from $388 million.


    Said Lionsgate co-chairman and CEO Jon Feltheimer in a statement, “Our first quarter was affected by marketing costs for three of our wide releases, timing of television deliveries and the underperformance of our theatrical release Killers.”


    The action-comedy, made on a budget of $ 75 million, generated less than $47 million domestically and $75.5 million globally at the box office.


    The loss and missed earnings comes at a time when Lionsgate remains under siege from investor Carl Icahn who is making a hostile bid to takeover the board and company.

  • Predators grosses Rs 53 million in opening weekend

    MUMBAI: It‘s the first time in the history of 20th Century Fox that the Indian market has featured in the top 10 International markets in the World, and with Predators it is three in a row for Fox Star.


    Racing ahead of Despicable Me that released on 6 February, Predators, a film distributed by Fox Star Studios in India, grossed Rs 53 million in its opening weekend. So much so, the opening of Predators was much better than the opening of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse that released last week.


    With its sophisticated special effects and thrilling action sequences, the film has already outperformed the lifetime collections of its predecessors – Predator and Alien vs. Predator series globally.


    Produced by Robert Rodriguez, Predators has also proved to be a hit with the vernacular audiences, with the film‘s Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions running to packed houses.


    In fact, the film‘s Tamil and Telugu versions have got one of the best openings for a Hollywood film so far this year, leading ahead of Inception, Salt and Iron Man.


    In single screens around the country, the movie‘s performance was much better than Aisha.


    The success of Predators marks a hat trick of hit films for Fox Star Studios India within two months with the studio‘s previous two releases – The A-Team that grossed Rs 110 million and Knight and Day that made Rs 160 million.


    Says Fox Star Studios India CEO Vijay Singh, “Predators has once again thrilled audiences and the response to the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions is exceptionally good. With important releases like Wall Street 2 and Narnia 3 in the pipeline, we look forward to further strengthening our No.1 position at the Indian box- office.”


    After Predators, Fox Star Studios will continue entertaining audiences with a string of interesting releases like Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (releases 24 September), Unstoppable (releases 2 November), 3D film The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader (releases 10 December) and Gulliver‘s Travels that releases on 31 December.
     

  • Masti sequel in the offing

    MUMBAI: Director Indra Kumar has expressed his desire to make the sequel of his rip-roarious comedy film Masti made in 2004.


    To be titled Phir Masti, the film will have Riteish Deshmukh, Vivek Oberoi, Aftab Shivdasani and Ajay Devgn.


    Talking about his decision to make a sequel to Masti, Kumar avers, “If there can be a sequel to Dhamaal, why can‘t we have a sequel to Masti?”


    Meanwhile, Kumar‘s Dhamaal 2 will start rolling by the end of August and by the time he finishes shooting for the film, the director believes that his team of writers can come up with ideas and concepts for Phir Masti.


    The 2004 release had Riteish Deshmukh, Vivek Oberoi, Aftab Shivdasani and Ajay Devgn along with Lara Dutt, Genelia D‘souza, Amrita Rao and Tara Sharma.

  • Udaan gets two awards at Giffoni Film Fest

    MUMBAI: After being selected in the ‘Un Certain Regard‘ category in the Cannes Film Festival, UTV Motion Pictures‘ Udaan has been awarded with the ‘Best Audience‘ and the ‘Best Music Score Award‘ by Music Conservatory of Salerno at the prestigious Giffoni Film Festival in Italy.


    With music composed by Amit Trivedi and lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya, Udaan has won the ‘Best Music Score Award‘ for reasons best cited at the award function “The music score of Udaan was able to bring together fusion and tonal music perfectly and to describe landscapes and characters with great gentleness and simplicity. Fusion music which also combined traditional Indian music and urban which proved to be an effective narrative bond.” 


    On winning the two awards, UTV Motion Pictures Senior Vice President- International Distribution and Syndication Amrita Pandey said, “Udaan, winning awards at the Giffoni Film Festival Awards is a matter of great pride and honour for us. This is certainly a great incentive for us to produce films of such intriguing and captivating nature in future. The film has scored extremely well with both critics and the audiences alike in India and even internationally. Apart from being showcased at Cannes, Udaan continues to make us proud with such awards.”


    The film also won the second place in the Campania Regional Council Award, an award that the artistic director has assigned to the films based on the results of the juror‘s votes.

  • Abbas Kiarostami to lead AFF to Pusan fest

    MUMBAI: Acclaimed Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami will lead the Asian Film Academy (AFA) in a series of film workshops, master classes and special seminars designed to share knowledge on the present film production environment offered by Pusan International Film Festival that starts on 7 October.


    Other faculty members of the AFA will include Japanese director Ogiganami Naoko and Korean cinematographer Kim Hyung-gu.


    In the past years were celebrated directors including Taiwan‘s Hou Hsiao-Hsien (2005), Im Kown-taek (2006) and Japan‘s Kurosawa Kiyoshi (2009).


    Kiarostami gained international recognition when he won the Bronze Leopard award at the Locarno International Film Festival in 1989 with his film Where is the Friend‘s Home (1987). His film Certified Copy was invited to this year‘s Cannes for which the film‘s heroine Juliette Binoche won the Best Actress award.


    The Asian Film Academy started in 2005 in cooperation with PIFF and Dongseo University. Since then, the AFA has produced 123 graduates from 24 different Asian countries including emerging directors such as Boo Jun-Feng whose film Sandcastle was invited to this year‘s Cannes Film Festival.

  • Twilight Saga sweeps Teen Choice Awards

    MUMBAI: Twilight Saga swept this year‘s Teen Choice Awards grabbing a total of eleven awards.


    The film series based on Stephenie Meyer‘s novels was the biggest winner at the ceremony when it picked up the ‘Choice Movie: Liplock‘ for lead stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart‘s kiss in The Twilight Saga: New Moon. The film also won the Choice Movie: Chemistry trophy.


    Taylor Lautner, who plays werewolf Jacob Black in the film took home the Choice Fantasy: Movie Actor and Choice Male: Hottie awards. Pattinson and Stewart won the Choice Summer Movie Star: Male and Choice Summer Movie Star: Female accolades respectively.


    Hollywood star Sandra Bullock won the Choice Movie Actress: Drama award for her performance in The Blind Side, the role that also won her the Best Actress Oscar.


    Twilight was not the only vampire drama to dominate the event, which was hosted by California Gurls singer Katy Perry. Hit series The Vampire Diaries scooped seven awards in the television category, including Choice TV Show: Fantasy/Sci-Fi, while the show‘s leading couple Paul Wesley and Nina Dobrev won the Choice Actor and Choice Actress statuettes in the TV Fantasy/Sci-Fi category.

  • AACT acts hard to contain piracy

    MUMBAI: With video, music and now online piracy growing to unprecedented proportions, the film industry has been taking severe beating week-after-week.


    A study undertaken by the Motion Picture Distributors Association (MPDA) put India among the top ten countries in the world where piracy was the highest.


    On the other hand a report `Economic Contribution of Indian Film and Television Industry‘ by PricewaterhouseCoopers said that the film industry was in fact significantly impacted by online piracy. In 2008, piracy cost the Indian film industry $959 million and about 571,000 jobs. 


    For example, Vishal Bharadwaj‘s Kaminey was downloaded a record number of 350,000 times in India and abroad. The situation is equally bad for regional language films with 88 per cent of Telugu and 80 per cent of Tamil films being downloaded from the internet, the report noted.


    To counter piracy, a joint initiative between the Hollywood and Bollywood studios took shape in March this year in the precincts of the FICCI Convention. It was later named Alliance Against Copyright Theft (AACT).


    Reacting to the formation of the AACT, producer Mukesh Bhatt says, “I am very happy that some entity is doing something constructive instead of only talking. For so many years, we have heard people only talk about losses caused by losses but nobody took any corrective measures. It is a welcome sign that the industry has finally woken up and is doing something to control piracy rather than raise a hue and cry about it.”


    Initially, the AACT started conducting raids along with the social security wing of the Mumbai Police and A. A. Khan and Associates in the metropolis and suburbs and spread all over Maharashtra and Gujarat.


    Just recently, the AACT launched its toll free number and sought the help of citizens of Mumbai to report any kind of piracy activity. This initiative has paid results and last month the AACT seized 500,000 pirated discs.


    But still, several stalls selling pirated CDs and DVDs can be seen in various corners of the city. Avers, Shemaroo Entertainment director Hiren Gada, “The task to contain piracy is humongous and you cannot expect a result in a small period of time. I am happy to note that the AACT is doing something constructive and building some kind of infrastructure.”


    Details an AACT spokesperson, “We have undertaken to target all forms of piracy, both physical and online, affecting India. While hard goods (pirate DVD) enforcement will be a cornerstone to the coalition, AACT will also take steps to curb the growing Internet and camcord piracy problem in India.”