ITV

Category: Movies

  • Law has German broadcasters contribute to GFFB

    MUMBAI: Dori Media Group is to sell off its 50 per cent interest in the Argentine production facility Dori Media Central Studios to its partner in the venture to Celina Amadeo and Marcelo Octavio Amadeo for $850,000.


    Pending approval by Argentina‘s Labour Ministry, the deal is expected to close next month.


    In late 2007, Dori became a partner in the company, then known as Central Park Productions. The company says its new show Ciega a Citas (Date Blind) will continue to be filmed at the studio until mid-2010.


    Dori Media Group president and CEO Nadav Palti said, “Buying a stake in Dori Media Central Studios was part of a larger strategy, and this strategy hasn‘t changed. Dori Media Group is now examining new opportunities and ways to invest in new ventures in Latin America.


    In addition, the group will continue its traditional productions in Argentina, producing high quality titles, with international appeal, and sell them worldwide such as the current successful production of Ciega a Citas.”

  • Lenders extend MGM interest payment deadline to 31 March

    MUMBAI: About 150 lenders of MGM had given a 31 January deadline on a big interest payment relating to $3.7 billion in studio debt. But MGM avers that the lenders had extended the deadline to 31 March to accommodate a continued solicitation of offers to buy the studio.


    “The lenders took this action in support of the company‘s efforts to strengthen its financial position and to facilitate the company‘s ongoing process of exploring strategic alternatives which include continuing to operate as a standalone entity and evaluating a potential sale of the company,” the studio said adding, “MGM appreciates the continued support of its lender group.”


    The studio said it had begun a second phase of the solicitation process. The first round brought roughly 10 non-binding offers to buy the studio but all below $2 billion.


    It is said that about half the first-round bidders will be invited for the second round of due diligence. “This phase of the process is expected to run for the next several weeks,” MGM said.


    Warner Bros., Lionsgate, Liberty Media, AT&T, Summit Entertainment, Reliance Big Entertainment, and Elliott Management, a stakeholder in Relativity Media have put in their bids while Fox is still reviewing financial data while mulling a possible offer.


    MGM‘s current ownership group includes Providence Equity, TPG Capital, Sony, Comcast, DLJ Merchant and Quadrangle.

  • Reliance MediaWorks Q3 net loss at Rs 273 mn

    MUMBAI: Reliance MediaWorks Ltd (formerly known as Adlabs Films) has posted a consolidated net loss (after minority interest) of Rs 273.39 million for the quarter ended 31 December.


    Revenue of the company stood at Rs 2.08 billion, while expenses were at Rs 2.06 billion in the quarter under review.


    “As a result of the continued investments, the interest and depreciation charge was significantly higher this quarter and the company has recorded a net loss,” company said in a result,” the company said in a statement.


    Reliance MediaWorks said the previous year‘s numbers are not comparable as it has demerged the radio business.


    On a standalone basis, the net loss for the quarter was Rs 160.54 million. Total income of the company for the quarter was Rs 1.44 billion, while expenses were at Rs 1.29 billion.


    Reliance MediaWorks CEO Anil Arjun commented, “As a result of our strategic transformation, Reliance MediaWorks has shown strong performance in all its business segments in this quarter and we have been able to consistently deliver superior value to our clients and stakeholders. Being an integrated player across the entire film and media services value chain, Reliance MediaWorks is well poised to make the most of current growth opportunities that have resulted due to the sharp upswing that the entertainment industry is witnessing in India and Internationally.”


    In the segment-wise results, theatrical business reported a revenue of Rs 1.53 billion, a jump of 51.75 per cent from previous year’s Rs 1.01 billion. The strong revenue growth on the back of good movies also helped the company post an operational profit of Rs 56.14 million (Rs 40.15 million operational loss in the previous year).


    Total capital investment in the theatrical exhibition segment stands at Rs 10.88 billion.


    Big Cinemas crossed the 500 screen milestone with the opening of its multiplex at Kedah, Malaysia. It also launched its F&B brand ‘Movie Munchies’ with 22 product varieties developed for sale at Big Cinemas.


    From the film production services segment, the company has earned a revenue of Rs 462.86 million, as compared to Rs 375.66 million in the previous quarter. It also posted an operating profit of Rs 115.39 million during the quarter under review (from previous year’s Rs 69.75 million).


    However, in the TV/Film production and distribution segment, the revenue dropped to Rs 123.07 million from Rs 329.71 million a year ago. The company suffered an operating loss from the segment of Rs 9.84 million, as against a profit of Rs 40.15 million for Q3 FY ’09.

  • Prosenjit is chairman of Film and TV Producers Guild

    NEW DELHI: Matinee idol and actor-turned producer Prosenjit Chatterjee has been named the first chairman of the Kolkata chapter of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India which was launched earlier this week in the presence of luminaries from the Bengali entertainment diaspora.


    Expressing his pleasure at being accorded this responsibility, Chatterjee expressed his desire to summon a meeting shortly to discuss the modus operandi of kick-starting the activities of the Guild Kolkata Chapter.


    Mrinal Sen, a living legend of Indian cinema and member of the Guild expressed satisfaction that on his completion of 60 years in the Indian entertainment industry, such a constructive initiative had been undertaken by the Guild.


    Other Guild members who attended the conclave included Arijit Dutta and Tapan Biswas.


    The Kolkata Chapter of the Guild has been formulated with the principal objective of encompassing large domains of the Indian entertainment industry and to project it as an All India body in the altruistic sense of the term.


    The Guild was established in 1954 by the stalwarts of the Indian film industry.
     

  • Excel releases ’12 Rounds’ on DVD

    MUMBAI: Excel home videos has partnered with Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has released the DVD and Blu-ray disc of action film 12 Rounds.


    12 Rounds, directed by Renny Harlin of Die Hard 2 fame, stars WWE wrestler John Cena who made his debut with Marine.


    New Orleans Police Officer Danny Fisher (John Cena) and his partner bump into the getaway car of Jackson and his Fiancée (Taylor Cole). After Danny chases the car on foot, he manages to stop them.


    Jackson‘s girlfriend is, however, killed, when she is struck down by a truck after trying to make a run for it. A year later, and Danny and his partner have been promoted to detectives. Jackson has escaped prison and planned his revenge on Fisher in a game he calls 12 Rounds.


    He kidnaps Fisher‘s girlfriend Molly Porter (Ashley Scott) and forces him into a series of dangerous games, carefully plotted throughout the streets of New Orleans. Fisher struggles to keep focus while the obvious ticking clocks and crude consequences that accompany each one of the “rounds” do their best to derail him from rescuing the love of his life before it‘s too late.


    The DVD and the Blu-Ray is available at all stores across the country at Rs 499 and Rs 1299 respectively.
     

  • Sony’s ‘Maut Ke Farishtey’ to release on 5 February

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures‘ Maut Ke Farishtey, the Hindi dubbed version of the post-apocalyptic film Legion, will release on 5 March along with the original English version.


    The film will also be dubbed in Tamil and Telugu, the release dates of which will be announced later. Judging by the response to the dubbed versions of the apocalyptic blockbuster 2012, this action-packed special effects heavy film is expected to strike a chord with Indian audiences as well. 


    When God loses faith in mankind, he sends his legion of angels to bring on the apocalypse. Humanity‘s only hope lies in a group of strangers trapped in a desert diner and the archangel Michael (Paul Bettany).


    Directed by Scott Stewart, the movie stars Paul Bettany, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson, Adriana Palicki, Charles S Dutton, Jon Tenney, Kevin Durand, Willa Holland with Kate Walsh and Dennis Quaid.


    Legion opened in the US on 22 January at the second spot behind Avatar.
     

  • Cinematheque award for Matt Damon

    MUMBAI: Matt Damon will receive the 24th American Cinematheque Award on 27 March. The ceremony is to be aired on broadcast TV by ABC as a special dubbed ‘Hollywood Salutes Matt Damon: An American Cineamatheque Tribute‘.


    Earlier, the award was aired on cable outlets like TNT and AMC.


    The annual fundraiser recognizes an artist — actor, director or writer — who is in the midst of a career “making a significant contribution to the art of the motion picture.”


    Damon who got an Oscar in 1998 for writing Good Will Hunting with Ben Affleck and was also nominated as best actor for that film. He‘s appeared in the Ocean‘s and Bourne franchises and is lending his voice to the upcoming, animated Happy Feet sequel.


    He is currently shooting for Clint Eastwood‘s Invictus and will be seen in the director‘s next film Hereafter also.


    Damon‘s other upcoming films include Green Zone, Margaret, The Adjustment Bureau and True Grit.

  • Faith helped me survive: Travolta

    MUMBAI: John Travolta has revealed that faith helped him survive the tragic death of his 16-year-old son, Jett. The actor, a noted Scientologist, was in New York with wife Kelly Preston to promote his new film From Paris With Love.


    “We work hard every day with our Church on healing,” Travolta said adding, “Kelly, me and Ella have all been working very hard and they‘ve been helping us,” he said, referring himself, Preston and their daughter.


    Jett Travolta died year after a seizure at the family‘s vacation home in the Bahamas.


    Asked what gave him the strength to return to his movie career, Travolta avered, “Once you get yourself stable, then you‘re able to reach out again, you know, and I think this whole year every day we‘ve been working on stabilizing ourselves and it‘s been successful so far.”


    Travolta flew a jetliner earlier this week carrying relief supplies, doctors and ministers from the Church of Scientology to Port-au-Prince, Haiti for the cause of helping survivors of that country‘s devastating earthquake.

  • Slamdance fest’s award to Snow and Ashes

    MUMBAI: The 16th Slamdance Film Festival presented grand jury awards to Charles-Olivier Michaud‘s narrative film Snow and Ashes and Mark Claywell‘s documentary American Jihadist.


    The audience awards went to Alexandre Franchi‘s narrative The Wild Hunt and Adam Barker‘s documentary Mind of the Demon: The Larry Linkogle Story.


    The audience award winning films will be screened in several domestic venues throughout the year including the IFC Center in New York.


    Robert Person‘s General Orders No. 9 annexed the Kodak Vision Award for best cinematography, Wallace Cotten‘s Nothing But Everything scored the Dos Equis Most Interesting Film Award and Gia Milani‘s script for All the Wrong Reasons lapped up the 1st Script Accessible Screenplay Award.

  • John Malone set to increase stake in Live Nation

    MUMBAI: A day after the merger of concert industry giants Ticketmaster Entertainment and Live Nation gained regulatory approval, cable mogul John Malone has moved to greatly increase his stake in the newly-formed colossus.


    Malone‘s Liberty Media Corp. had put in a tender offer last Tuesday to acquire 34.5 million shares of Live Nation Entertainment for $12 each. If fully subscribed, Liberty‘s stake in the company would more than double to 35 per cent.


    The move strengthens the alignment of Malone and Live Nation Entertainment Chairman Barry Diller, who had before two years battled over plans to split Internet conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp into five companies.


    Liberty Media portrays the investment as simply an endorsement of a business combination that united Live Nation, the world‘s largest concert promoter, with Ticketmaster, the dominant seller of tickets and a leading artist management company.


    The merger closed late Monday after the companies agreed to concessions required by the Justice Department and 17 state attorneys general to protect competition in the market for ticket sales.