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Category: Movies

  • Academy nameplates to be affixed to trophies after Governors Ball

    MUMBAI: Breaking away from tradition, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences plans to attach the winners‘ engraved nameplates to their statuettes at the Governors Ball immediately after the ceremony that will be broadcast live by ABC on 7 March from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.


    The Academy hands out unmarked Oscars to the winners onstage. Previously, winners had to bring their trophies to the Academy so the personalised nameplates could be attached.
    This year, R.S. Owens, the company that manufactures the Oscar statuettes, will create 197 nameplates in advance, factoring in all the potential winners. Each engraving will include name, category, film title and year.


    At the ball, that takes place at the Hollywood and Highland Centre next door to the Kodak Theatre, winners will be invited into a specially designed area, where technicians will affix the nameplates to each Oscar.


    The unused nameplates will be recycled. “An Oscar statuette just isn‘t complete until a nameplate is attached,” Academy president Tom Sherak said, adding, “The Governors Ball is the perfect place for Oscar winners to add that final touch as they celebrate their accomplishment and the year‘s movies.”
     

  • Film on Attica uprising to be directed by Doug Liman

    MUMBAI: Director Doug Liman and screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher have come together to re-create the 1971 Attica state prison uprising.


    The four-day confrontation between prisoners and guards — described as a riot by some, a rebellion by others — inspired Al Pacino‘s famous chant of Attica! Attica!” in Dog Day Afternoon.


    Liman brings a personal connection to the independently financed project, since his late father, Arthur Liman, served as chief counsel to the New York State Special Commission on Attica Prison.


    In a recent blog posting, Limon described visiting the prison with Fletcher, an Oscar nominee for his Precious screenplay. He wrote, “The tour was astounding. We followed the steps the prisoners took as they overwhelmed the guards; saw the radiators they ripped off the walls and the gates they smashed open with them. We left with so many stories and names and contacts of people who were there to continue our research.”


    Liman, director of The Bourne Ultimatum and The Bourne Identity has earlier directed Fair Game starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts as Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame, which will be released this year.
     

  • Police raids My Name is Khan pirates

    MUMBAI: The SS Branch and Mumbai Police along with AA Khan & Associates raided and seized over 3000 pirated DVDs and CDs worth around Rs 4, 00,000 in Mumbai. The raid was conducted at Behram Baug, in a godown near Bandra Court.
    The pirated CDs and DVDs included those of My Name is Khan. The film released on 12 February.


    Among the other titles that were confiscated were those of Striker, The Wolfman and Law Abiding Citizen.


    Around 1000 blank DVDs, 21 DVD writers, one colour Xerox machine and 1000 CD covers were also seized from the location. 


    Said former IPS officer and ex ATS chief AA Khan, “Considering the big release this time was Shah Rukh Khan starrer My Name is Khan, any pirates attempting to copy or distribute this movie specially are on our radar for this week and the coming weeks that the movie would be running. Pirates should understand that we have a zero tolerance for their actions and that they will be raided and prosecuted for the crime they commit.‘‘


    In the last two months, AA Khan & Associates was instrumental in raiding around 25 locations in Mumbai and seizing goods worth lakhs of rupees.

  • Shemaroo releases ‘Best of Academy Award Winners’ DVD boxset

    MUMBAI: Shemaroo Entertainment has released the Best of Academy Award Winners Collection, an exclusive DVD boxset. The collection includes films that have been bestowed with the best in different categories of accolade from the Oscars panel.


    Among the films are Driving Miss Daisy, The Lion In Winter, The Graduate, Murder on the Orient Express and A River Runs Through It.


    Driving Miss Daisy won the best actress award in a leading role, best makeup, best picture and best writing awards whereas it got nominations for best actor in a leading role, best actor in a supporting role, best art direction, best costume design and best film editing.


    The Lion In Winter made in 1968 and directed by Anthony Harvey with stars like Anthony Hopkins, Peter O‘Toole, Katharine Hepburn and Timothy Dalton won Academy awards for best actress in a leading role, best music, best writing.


    This was the second time that Peter O‘Toole played King Henry II. The first time was in Becket (1964). He received Academy Award nominations for both performances.


    The Graduate directed by Mike Nichols had Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross and Brian Avery. The film won the Oscar award for best director.


    Director Sidney Lumet‘s Murder on the Orient Express starring Sean Connery, Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam and Richard Widmark won an Oscar award in the best actress in a supporting role category.


    A River Runs Through It directed by Robert Redford and starring Brad Pitt, Craig Sheffer, Tom Skerritt and Brenda Blethyn won an Oscar in the best cinematography category.


    The 5-DVD boxset is priced at Rs 999.

  • Scott Kosar to write screenplay for Summit’s Dracula film

    MUMBAI: Scott Kosar has been assigned to write the screenplay for Summit Entertainment‘s Vlad.


    The original script written by actor Charlie Hunnam takes an action-oriented look at Dracula, or Vlad the Impaler, as a young prince.


    Music video director and photographer Anthony Mandler will direct the project.


    While Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner are producing the film, Summit president of production Erik Feig and vice president production Meredith Milton are overseeing the project.


    It may be noted that Kosar is well-versed in storytelling. He wrote the script for the 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, the 2005 Amityville Horror remake and The Machinist. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the remake of George A. Romero‘s The Crazies, which Overture will release on 26 February.
     

  • Fox making Japanese remake of Affair to remember

    MUMBAI: Fox International Productions (FIP) is into development of a Japanese-language version of An Affair to Remember.


    The script is being written by Hiroshi Saito who has earlier penned some recent successful Japanese films like April Bride that grossed $32 million and 252: Signal of Life that amassed $19 million.


    Yukie Kito who had earlier produced Tokyo Sonata will produce the film. 


    The original 1957 English-language version, starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, followed a couple who fall in love and agree to meet six months later at the Empire State Building. Pic also served as the inspiration for the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan starrer Sleepless in Seattle.


    Asia has featured prominently in the Fox lineup thanks to the movie production, distribution and marketing pact inked with Star to form a joint venture called Fox Star Studios in September 2008.


    In January, FIP assigned Korean Director Na Hong-jin‘s new feature The Murderer along with Korean mini-major Showbox.


    The move marked the first time that Fox has invested in a Korean project and the first time a US major invested in a Korean project at the script stage.


    FIP‘s Shah Rukh Khan starrer My Name Is Khan that received its European premiere in Berlin, also opened over the weekend in India amid much controversy and big box-office.

  • Exam bags Spirit award at Santa Barbara Festival

    MUMBAI: Stuart Hazeldine‘s Exam has bagged the Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema at the 25th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Sunday.


    Starring Luke Mably and Nathalie Cox, the film is a psychological thriller about eight candidates competing for a job at a mysterious corporation.


    The best international film award went to the Finish feature Letters to Father Jacob that was directed by Klaus Haro. Ciro Guerra‘s The Wind Journeys took the Nueva Vision Award for best Spanish/Latin American film. The East Meets West Cinema Award went to South Korea‘s Mother (Madeo) directed by Bong Joon-ho while the Eastern Bloc award was awarded to Peter Strickland‘s Katalin Varga.


    Rob Lemkin‘s Enemies of the People which returns to the killing fields of Cambodia, was named the best documentary. The documentary also claimed the Fund for Santa Barbara Social Justice Award, that for a non-fiction film that addresses social issues.
     

  • Mel Gibson’s ‘Summer’ lands slew of sales

    MUMBAI: Multiple sales have been locked up of the Mel Gibson action movie How I Spent My Summer Vacation by Icon Entertainment International at the European Film Market.


    Summer is the first big pre-sale of the festival that could be a hopeful sign for other companies selling on scripts and unfinished films.


    Covering most of Europe, Icon has closed deals with the Telemunchen for Germany, Eagle for Italy, Metropolitan for France, Paradiso for Benelux, Revolutionary Releasing for Eastern Europe, Svensk for Scandinavia, Odeon for Greece, Ascot Elite for Switzerland, Lusomundo for Portugal and Fida for Turkey.


    Nu Metro picked up the film for South Africa while Prime Pictures snagged it for the Middle East.


    The film, directed by Adrian Grunberg and written by Gibson, Grunberg and Stacy Perskie, sees the actor as a career criminal sent to a vicious Mexican prison where he has learn to survive any way he can.
     

  • PVR terminates deal to acquire DLF’s cinema biz

    MUMBAI: Delhi-based cinema exhibition major PVR has terminated the deal to acquire DLF Group‘s cinema business, a reversal of its earlier plan to grow in size through the buyout of DT Cinemas.


    Blaming DLF for not meeting the conditions required for acquisition, PVR said Monday that both the parties have mutually agreed to end the deal. “The primary reason for us to call off the deal is that DT Cinemas has failed to comply with certain conditions, even after we extended the time till today,” PVR CFO Nitin Sood tells Indiantelevision.com.


    Another possible reason cited by analysts is that the shares of PVR soared as the market conditions improved, indirectly jacking up the price of the deal.


    PVR had signed the pact with DT Cinemas in November last year to acquire the company in a stock-and-cash deal. PVR was to issue 2.56 million shares to DT Cinemas representing 10 per cent of the fully diluted paid up share capital of PVR Ltd and make a payment of Rs 202 million to fund the acquisition.


    PVR is now trading at Rs 175 per share, up from Rs 138 at the time of the announcement of the deal.


    DT cinemas has a current portfolio of 29 screens with 26 screens currently operational and another three screens expected to commence operations in the next six months.


    PVR will, however, continue to aggressively look at acquisitions. “We are looking aggressively for inorganic opportunities,” says Sood.


    The multiplex industry is entering into a phase of consolidation as huge funds are required to spread the footprint across the country. Inox Leisure recently bought out the promoters and took a majority stake in Fame India, a move that made it the largest multiplex operator in terms of revenue.

  • Aamir, SRK in close fight over box-office

    MUMBAI: 2010 is surfacing as Aamir Khan‘s 3 Idiots vs Shah Rukh Khan‘s My Name Is Khan, the two movies that are painting an opposite story at the box-office from most of the flops that hit the Bollywood world in 2009.


    Amid Shiv Sena protests and a limited release, the SRK-starrer has gathered Rs 900 million in its worldwide opening weekend. 3 Idiots, in contrast, grossed Rs 1 billion in its first four-day run across the world.


    The movie has done exceptionally well in the US even as SRK and Kajol rang the bell at Nasdaq ahead of the release, a marketing gesture aimed at tapping audiences from the Indian diaspora.


    “The film garnered Rs 430 million from the domestic circuit while it grossed Rs 470 million from the overseas market. We have had fascinating Sunday numbers that is highest for any Bollywood film released in recent years while the film‘s overseas collections have been two times higher than that of any other recent release including 3 Idiots,” says Fox Star Studios CEO Vijay Singh.


    The movie is marketed and distributed in India by Fox Star Studios in India, in the US by its sister company Fox Searchlight and in the rest of the world by parent group 20th Century Fox International.


    The film features Shah Rukh as Rizvan Khan who embarks on a journey across America to win back the love of his life, played by Kajol. It shows how, along the way, his personality touches the lives of many and inspires a nation.