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Category: Movies

  • Shemaroo’s Ishqiya gets ‘A’ certificate; to release on 29 January

    MUMBAI: The Censor Board has passed Shemaroo Entertainment‘s Ishqiya without any cuts with an ‘A‘ certificate.


    Set in western Uttar Pradesh, the film is a tale of romance between individuals caught in a web of crime, suspense, passion and deceit. Two thieves, Khalujan and Babban are on the run from their boss, Mushtaq (Salman Shahid).


    They tend to seek refuge with an old friend but instead meet his widow, Krishna (Vidya Balan). As they plan their escape, their time spent together draws the duo to her, Khalujan with his vision of old-fashioned love and Babban with his lascivious heart.


    The film, directed by Abhishek Chaubey, has Naseeruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi, Salman Shahid and Vidya Balan as the main protagonists of the film.


    Says Shemaroo director Hiren Gada, ‘‘ Being an adult subject, we were expecting an ‘A‘ certificate. At the same time, we were expecting some cuts that would seem objectionable to the Board.


    “But when we found that there was not a word on the language and neither was any cut effected, we knew that the Board was well aware of the language that was spoken in that region of UP.”


    The film is set to release on 29 January.

  • Erich Segal no more

    MUMBAI: Erich Segal, who attained fame as writer of the novel and movie Love Story, expired of a heart attack, his daughter Francesca Segal declared. He was 72.


    Francesca said yesterday that her father died on Sunday after suffering from Parkinson‘s disease for around 25 years. His funeral was held in London on Tuesday.


    Segal‘s novel published in 1970, Love Story was a weeper that concerned a young couple who fall in love marry and discover that she is dying of cancer. The novel sold a million copies that guaranteed to make readers cry and critics scream.


    The film version that starred Ryan O‘Neal and Ali MacGraw also had a lot many takers. Love Story bagged seven Oscar nominations–including one for Segal for writing the screenplay, as well as for best picture, best director and best actor and actress. It won one Oscar for best music.


    Segal also wrote a sequel, Oliver‘s Story, published in 1977, and made it into a film with O‘Neal again in the lead male role.

  • Marc Webb to direct next Spider-Man

    MUMBAI: Director Marc Webb, known for his Golden Globe best picture nominee 500 Days Of Summer, will direct the next instalment of Spider-Man.


    The film having screenplay by James Vanderbilt will start shooting later this year and will have a 2012 release, Columbia and Marvel Studios announced.


    Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal said, “At its core, Spider-Man is a small, intimate human story about an everyday teenager that takes place in an epic super-human world. The key for us as we sought a new director was to identify film-makers who could give sharp focus to Peter Parker‘s life… We believe Marc Webb is the perfect choice to bring us on that journey.”


    “Marc Webb will do for the new direction of the films what so many visionary storytellers have done with the comic books,” Arad and Ziskin added in a joint statement. “He is an incredibly talented film-maker and we look forward to working closely with him on this new adventure,” Pascal added.


    Last week Raimi and Tobey Maguire exited the franchise after Raimi expressed concern that the script would not be ready in time for a May 2011 release. Not to be outdone, Columbia had the Vanderbilt screenplay ready and moved on.

  • Ronald Harwood to write Martin Luther King biopic

    MUMBAI: Ronald Harwood will write the screenplay of DreamWorks‘ Martin Luther King Jr biopic that Steven Spielberg, Suzanne de Passe and Madison Jones will produce.


    The project marks the first theatrical feature to be authorised by The King Estate to use the intellectual property of the late Civil Rights leader, who copyrighted his speeches, books, and other works during his lifetime.


    DreamWorks‘ co-presidents of production Mark Sourian and Holly Bario said Harwood, who won the adapted screenplay Oscar in 2003 for The Pianist, was “particularly suited to portraying this deeply personal story.”


    Harwood had earlier won Academy Award nominations for The Dresser and The Diving Bell And The Butterfly.
    His other credits include Mandela and Cry The Beloved Country.
     

  • Pirates of the Caribbean to be shot in Hawaii

    MUMBAI: The fourth instalment of Pirates of the Caribbean will be shot in Hawaii. The film to be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer is to be directed by Rob Marshall.


    The film will have Johnny Depp return as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides that will begin shooting in the summer on Oahu and Kauai and be released in 2011.


    Lingle‘s office estimates the production will generate $85 million in spending in Hawaii.


    Pirates, incidentally will be the latest of three big-budget films being shot in the islands this year.
     

  • Double whammy for Fox as Avatar grosses Rs 950 million in India

    NEW DELHI: It was a weekend of twin celebrations for Fox Star Studios India as James Cameron‘s epic action adventure Avatar not only won two Golden Globes for the best motion picture (Drama) and best director, but the film also grossed a total collection of Rs 950 million to become the highest grossing Hollywood film in India.


    Avatar beat 2012‘s box-office collections to notch the No.1 position in India. Says Fox Star Studios India CEO Vijay Singh said, “It is a proud moment for Fox Star, as Avatar received two important honours at the Golden Globes and also became the No.1 Hollywood film in India. We believe that Avatar could close as the 2nd biggest film for 2009 after 3 Idiots.”


    The weekend victories at the awards have now made Avatar a strong contender for the forthcoming Oscars in March.
     

  • Dadasaheb Phalke award for cinematographer V K Murthy

    NEW DELHI: Legendary cinematographer V K Murthy, the cinematographer of all of Guru Dutt‘s films, will receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2008 for outstanding contribution to films.


    The award carries a cash prize of Rs one million, a Swarna Kamal and a shawl.


    Murthy would be the 56th recipient of the award that will be presented to him along with the awards for the best films for 2008 by President Pratibha Patil.


    This is the first time ever in the history of the Dadasaheb Phalke awards that a cinematographer has been chosen to receive the nation‘s highest award in cinema.


    Interestingly, the father of Indian cinema Dadasaheb Phalke after whom the award is named, was himself a cinematographer besides being producer, director and actor.


    Murthy has provided some of Indian Cinema‘s most breathtaking visual moments. He broke new grounds, ushered in modern and highly sophisticated techniques, and brought in rich visual artistry into Indian cinema.


    Murthy shot India‘s first cinemascope movie Kagaz Ke Phool and is also one of the pioneers of colour cinematography. His picturisation of the title song of Chaudavin ka Chand mesmerised the audience.


    Classics like Kagaz Ke Phool and Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam won him Filmfare Awards.


    Born in 1923 in Mysore, Murthy earned his Diploma in Cinematography from SJ Polytechnic, Bangalore in its very first batch 1943-46. As a student, he also took part in India‘s freedom struggle and was jailed in 1943 and is a recipient of freedom fighter‘s pension. Having spent nearly five decades in Mumbai, the ace cinematographer is now based in Bangalore.


    He was a recipient of the IIFA Lifetime Achievement Award at Amsterdam in 2005.
     

  • Avatar’ scoops with eleven Visual Effects Society nominations

    MUMBAI: The Visual Effects Society has announced its nominations for its upcoming awards due to be held on 28 February in Los Angeles.


    James Cameron‘s Avatar led the list of nominations by bagging up 11 nominations. Another 3D film Coraline followed with four nominations.
    New Zealand-based Weta Digital, which worked on Avatar led the company noms with nine.


    For visual effects in an effects-driven motion picture feature, the nominees are 2012, Avatar, District 9, Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. 


    Nominations for supporting visual effects in a movie went to Angels & Demons, The Box, Invictus, The Road and Sherlock Holmes. 9, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Up were nominated for outstanding animation in an animated feature.


    VES nominations in twenty categories, covering films, animation, TV, commercials and video games were chosen by blue-ribbon panels of VES members that met in Burbank, San Francisco and London.


    As previously announced, Cameron will be honored with the VES Lifetime Achievement Award and Pixar‘s Ed Catmull with the Georges Melies Award for pioneering.

  • Guwahati film festival begins

    MUMBAI: Guwahati is hosting the Guwahati festival that went underway from yesterday after it was inaugurated by Assam governor J B Patnaik.


    Organized by Cine Arts Society, Assam (CineASA) for the second consecutive year, the festival will showcase nearly 40 films from the international arena for filmgoers of the region.


    The Second CineASA Guwahati International Film Festival 2010 will be inaugurated on January 18 by the Assam Governor JB Patnaik.


    The Sri Lankan film Akasha Kusum was the inaugural film. The director of the film, Prasanna Vithange graced the inaugural session.
    Other important films to be screened in different venues including Rabindra Bhawan, Gauhati University, IIT Guwahati, Janokee Panjabari, include film works by Pedro Almodover, Christian Mungio, Jean Luc Godard, Francois Troufaut, Mahsin Makhmalbaf, Kiarostemi, Kim Ki Duk etc.


    The festival will also have a retrospective section comprising films by Pedro Almodovar, a tribute section for film works by Kim Ki Duk and a focus section for the movies by Mahsin Makhmalbaf, Samira Makhmalbaf, Mazid Mazidi, Abbas Kiarostemi and Bahman Ghobadi, informed the organizer.


    A package of Asian films which had won awards in Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Locarno, Pusan, London festival will also be screened.


    Similarly, the Indian panorama section will include Golabi Talkies by Girish Kasarvalli, Frozen by Shivajee Chandrabhushan, Houseful by Bapaditya Banerjee and Mohandas by Mazhar Kamran.


    Aai Kot Nai by Manju Bora and Dhunia Tirutabor by Pradyut Kumar Deka will be the Assamese entry to the festival. The festival will end with The Other Bank by George Ovashvili.

  • Brazil’s box-office sees 33 per cent hike signaling economic recovery

    MUMBAI: Brazil‘s box-office registered a 33.3 per cent rise last year with ticket sales getting close to R$1 billion mark for the first time.


    According to figures released by film company and market researcher Filme B, revenue climbed to R$970 million ($549m) and admissions totaled 112.6 million that was 25.7 per cent ahead of 2008 levels.


    The box-office record can be partially attributed to the Brazilian economic growth and the fact it is as one of the first economies to recover from the recession.


    Said Filme B‘s editor Pedro Butcher, “The new Brazilian films with commercial potential and the release of blockbusters ‘out of season‘, such as 2012 and New Moon, that came out in November, not a school holiday season, helped the
    box-office growth as well.‘‘


    With a total of 84 titles released, 16 million people saw Brazilian films that accounted for a market share of 14.2 per cent, the best figure seen since 2004.


    The local champion was Daniel Filho‘ Se Eu Fosse Voce 2, a sequel to the 2006 romantic comedy released through Fox. By selling 5.7 million tickets last year (now it is more than 6.1million), the comedy became the highest domestic-grossing film since the Brazilian renaissance, beating Breno Silveira‘s Two Sons Of Francisco, which 5.3 million people saw in 2005.


    Se Eu Fosse Voce 2 grossed R$47.5 ($26.8m), taking the second spot in the 2009 ranking behind Fox‘s Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs.