ITV

Category: Movies

  • Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgn in Santoshi‘s crime thriller

    MUMBAI: Firoze Nadiawala‘s The Outsider, directed by Raj Kumar Santoshi, has been postponed for lack of proper permission to shoot at the wanted location in the US.


    Rather than allowing Amitabh Bachchan‘s dates to go to waste, Santoshi has designed a new mega project. He will soon embark on a crime thriller under the same banner that will also feature Ajay Devgn and Sanjay Dutt in stellar roles.


    Explaining the overnight shift in plot location and project Santoshi said, “The other project, The Outsider, was not working out on time. It has become very difficult for Indian filmmakers to shoot in the US. Rather than allow the dates to go to waste, I put forward the new project. It‘s a thriller about a vigilante. And yes Devgn and Dutt are also part of the project.”


    The shooting starts in the next couple of months to coincide with the dates that Bachchan had allotted for the other project.


    This is the first time that Santoshi would be working with Sanjay Dutt. They were to collaborate on a historical about the Partition. But since period films don‘t work these days, the project had to be shelved.


    Remarked Santoshi, “The responsibility of doing justice to Amitji and Ajay, whom I‘ve worked with earlier, and Dutt with whom I‘m working with for the first time, is the same.”
     

  • Mee Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy remake in Bengali

    MUMBAI: Dar Motion Pictures has announced the remake of Mahesh Manjrekar‘s Mee Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy in Bengali.


    The film that is still in its pre-production stage is part of the three-film deal that Dar Motion Pictures had earlier struck with director Mahesh Manjrekar.


    The director who has so far directed films in Hindi and Marathi, is now trying his hand in Bengali films.


    In the Bengali film, Mithun Chakraborty will essay the role that Sachin Khedekar had essayed in the Marathi film.


    Manjrekar had himself essayed the pivotal role of Shivaji Maharaj in the Marathi version.
     

  • Hollywood seeks release of Jafar Panahi

    MUMBAI: A number of Hollywood celebrities including Steven Spielberg, Robert De Niro and Francis Ford Coppola, in a signed petition, have demanded the release of jailed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi.


    “We … stand in solidarity with a fellow filmmaker, condemn this detention, and strongly urge the Iranian government to release Mr. Panahi immediately,” read the petition.


    The petition also signed by Michael Moore, Robert Redford, Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese wants Iran‘s filmmakers be “celebrated and not censored.”


    Panahi was taken away by security forces on 1 March after they raided his home during a dinner party.


    The director is known for his socially critical films such as Crimson Gold and The Circle, that annexed the Golden Lion in at the 2000 Venice Film Festival. Panahi also won the Silver Bear and a grand jury prize at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2006 for Offside, which concerned a group of female soccer fans who sneak in to see a men‘s match.


    Several countries, including Canada, have called for his release.

  • Negative cutter Donah Bassett no more

    MUMBAI: Donah Bassett, a negative cutter in Hollywood for more than forty years expired on Tuesday. She was 83.


    Bassett took a job as a film technician at Technicolor Film Laboratory in 1954 and established her own company known as Donah Bassett and Associates in 1976, worked on more than 200 films including classics such as Raging Bull, Reds, The Natural, Amadeus, Blue Velvet, Wall Street, A League of Their Own and Legends of the Fall.


    She retired in 1996 and two years later moved to Arizona to study oil painting at local workshops and the Scottsdale Art School. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions and galleries in California and Arizona.


    Bassett is survived by her brother, Charles Taft; children Chris Scudder, Cathy Bassett Goldman and Craig Bassett; six grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

  • Part III of Twilight Saga to premiere at LA fest

    MUMBAI: Eclipse, the third instalment of the The Twilight Saga will have its world premiere on June 24 at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The film stars Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart.


    Directed by David Slade, the third person to helm a Twilight film, the movie will be a part of the 16th annual Los Angeles Film Festival, and will screen at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.

  • The coming of 4th Idiot

    MUMBAI: If there was 3 Idiots, why not 4th Idiot? Yes, this is the name of an animated film produced and directed by Guinness world record holder for strong memory and maximum push-ups, Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury.


    Made at a budget of Rs.20 million, the film will be screened in World Unity Convention Center in Lucknow.


    The film starts where 3 Idiots ends – at the school of Phunsuk Wangdu. It gives an insight that if Phunsuk Wangdu was the school principal, then what will that school be like? 


    4th Idiot is the story of a boy, Pappu, who, by using the techniques taught by Ranchordas Chanchar in 3 Idiots, achieved his otherwise seemingly unachievable goals like topping in school, winning his dream girl and even going to the moon.
    With two melodious songs and narration by Omi Vaidya (Chatur Ramalingam of 3 Idiots), the film is supposed to be not only entertaining but also a journey to our brain to understand its hidden potential.


    Omi Vaidya has anchored the film.


    The premiere will be held on 9 May and the movie will be showcased to 100000 students where Vaidya, Chowdhury and the complete team of The 4th Idiot would be present.
     

  • Reliance Mediaworks to show its strength at Cannes

    MUMBAI: Reliance MediaWorks Ltd. will have a major presence in the Cannes Film Festival that is to be held from 12 to 23 May and will showcase its global team and advanced film and media services.


    At its office at the Relais de la Reine, the post-production unit is hosting an ‘open house’ throughout the Cannes International Film Festival, encouraging press and industry alike to meet the Global team. 


    The team will be showcasing technological demonstrations (3D and film restoration), announcing significant news, speaking on various festival panels and are available for interview to discuss 3D, emergency film work, global strategy, new film-making methodology, digital technology, film restoration and the future of digital film.


    Working with filmmkers from inception to release, Reliance MediaWorks helps take stories to screen as technology and filming-making practice changes. Reliance MediaWorks provided film support and the technology for Alice In Wonferland, Avatar, James Bond films, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and many other films.

  • Mrinal Sen’s Kandahar to show at Cannes Film Fest

    MUMBAI: As a tribute to Mrinal Sen, the Cannes International Film Festival will screen Kandahar (The Ruins), the filmmaker’s newly restored masterpiece, at the Cannes Film Festival that goes underway from 12 Mayto 23 May.


    The film will be screened in the ‘Cannes Classic‘ section. The section, which was introduced in Cannes in 2004, will screen 12 films by various filmmakers the world over including late Jean Renoir and Alfred Hitchcock.


    Sen‘s Kharij got the Cannes jury prize in 1983 and ‘Kandahar‘ got the special jury prize at the Montreal film fest in 1984.


    Most of Sen‘s film negatives, including the Kolkata trilogy namely Interview, Calcutta 71 and Padatik, were found to be in poor shape last year. As a result, a mini-retrospective of his films at 2009 Cannes could not take place.


    Following reports in the media about the poor condition of Sen‘s films last March, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to restore the classics. Seventeen of the films are now being restored at the Pune archives.


    The restoration of Kandahar starring Shabana Azmi has been completed by Reliance Mediaworks that had won the bid for restoration of hundreds of Indian classics from the National Film Archive.


    “They had undertaken a pristine restoration process removing dust, dirt and scratches frame by frame making it fit for screening at the section,” Sen said. Restoration work of Sen‘s 16 other films was also underway but in patches.
     

  • Gemma Arteton’s Creed proves a point

    MUMBAI: Though James Cameron’s Avatar, the world‘s most expensive film continues to break records, Gemma Arterton‘s latest feature The Disappearance Of Alice Creed has proved that you do not need a bountiful to impress film buffs. Thefilm was made on a shoestring budget by J Blakeson.


    Featuring a cast of just a few key players and set across a handful of locations, the film follows Alice, played by Gemma, who is kidnapped by a couple of ex-cons.


    Said Blakeson, “The character starts off as glamourous and then is put through this ordeal. Sometimes you see these films where people are put through an ordeal and they‘ve got perfect make-up and perfect hair and expensive designer clothes and you just don‘t believe it for a second.”
     

  • Spielberg set to direct War Horse

    MUMBAI: Steven Spielberg is all set to direct War Horse for DreamWorks Studios. The director will co-produce the film with Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Revel Guest.


    Lee Hall and Richard Curtis who wrote the screenplay for Billy Elliot and Pirate Radio respectively are adapting the screenplay from the 1982 novel by Michael Morpurgo and the recent stage adaptation by Nick Stafford.


    The epic is a tale of a friendship between a boy and his horse who separate but continue to be intertwined as they try to survive the horrors of World War I.


    Horse was a runner-up for the Whitbread Award in the UK where it also played onstage at the National Theatre and New London Theatre.