ITV

Category: Movies

  • Reliance MediaWorks steps out to UK, snaps up iLabs

    MUMBAI: Reliance MediaWorks Ltd. has gobbled up the assets of iLabs UK, one of only two film processing facilities operating in London‘s SOHO, for an undisclosed amount.


    The acquisition will help the Reliance ADA Group company to offer its services to the filmmakers and broadcasters in UK, one of the world‘s leading post-production markets. Reliance MediaWorks already has a facility in the US through its LA-based subsidiary Lowry Digital.


    iLabs does high-end processing work for film, television, commercial and shorts productions. The dedicated film and media services facility in London will, thus, help Reliance MediaWorks offer front-end, processing, restoration, 2D to 3D conversion and post-production services to broadcasters and studios.


    Says Reliance MediaWorks CEO Anil Arjun, “Our expansion is growing at a remarkable pace and we are happy to now be offering our services in UK. Through Reliance MediaWorks UK we would provide next generation services for the local film makers and broadcasters, while also catering to Hollywood and Hindi film businesses. We look forward to the creative synergies that integrating of UK operations would bring to the entire film and media services value chain that Reliance MediaWorks has developed across continents.” .


    Lowry Digital has handled projects for leading studios like Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures, MGM and 20th Century Fox and entertainment leaders like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and James Cameron. Also recently, Lowry Digital has handled the restoration of footage sent back to Earth from Apollo 11, as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the mission for NASA.


    To further enhance the synergy between the services offered by Reliance MediaWorks across India, the US and UK, the company has established an optical fibre network through Reliance Globalcom’s Ethernet Private Line. This network has already been used for close to a year for distributing digital cinema releases of Indian films from Mumbai to the US.


    In the past year, iLabs has worked on high-end film originated Drama Series for the BBC. Apart from tying in with Reliance MediaWorks‘ lab facility in Mumbai, it will be able to offer lab, rushes and transfer services to the many Indian films that are shot on location in London and UK each year.


    Reliance MediaWorks currently has a comprehensive presence in film services: motion picture processing; visual effects; film restoration and image enhancement; digital mastering: studios and equipment rentals with facilities located at US and India.


    Reliance MediaWorks operates Big Cinemas, India‘s largest cinema chain with currently 500 screens spread across India, US, Malaysia and Netherlands.
     

  • Saeed Jaffrey gets lifetime achievement award at Pravasi Film Festival

    NEW DELHI: Veteran actor Saeed Jaffrey was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in absentia at the first-ever Pravasi Film Festival in the country that concluded in Delhi today.


    The feature ‘Life Goes on’ by Sangeeta Dutta from the United Kingdom bagged the award for the best feature film award at The short fiction ‘Shor’ by D K Krishna and Raj Nidimoru received the best short fiction award while ‘Flying Sikh’ by Navdeep Kandola got the best short non-fiction award. Both filmmakers come from the United States.


    According to the feature film jury, ‘Life Goes on’ – which had been the opening film of the Festival – received the award for an emphatic rendition of characters and situations and heartfelt performances. Sangeeta Dutta was the only recipient who was present to receive her award.


    A large number of eminent personalities were present at the function, which concluded with the screening of the film ‘Chehere’ by Rohit Kaushik starring Manisha Koirala and Divya Dutta among others.


    Those present included Uttarakhand Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur, Mauritian High Commissioner Mookeshwar Choonee, Mauritian Culture Minister Dr Vasant K Bunwaree, and Mauritian National Assembly Deputy Speaker Etienne Sinatambou.


    Choonee expressed happiness that his country was a partner country for this Festival and hoped this would lead to some fruitful results. He said Mauritius had always been a favourite shooting site for Indian filmmakers.


    Jury member and senior filmmaker Rahul Rawail called upon the film industry in India to support the Pravasi Film Festival initiative and referred to the affinity in themes. He added that women appeared to be doing very well as far as NRI filmmaker went, with Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta, Gurinder Chadha, and now Sangeeta Dutta.


    Festival Director Anil Joshi said this first venture was only at a take-off stage and added that it could help create a market for films by NRI filmmakers. He recalled that the Mauritian President Sir Anerood Jugnauth accompanied by his wife Sarojini Jugnauth had unveiled the awards to be given away at the Festival in a ceremony on 1st December.


    Pravasi Today group Chief Editor Padmesh Gupta and Festival Co-Director Pankaj Dubey were also present.


    The competitive Festival had been organized by the Pravasi Today Group in association with the Mauritius government at India Habitat Center from 3rd to 6th January. Around 35 films from different countries were screened at the Festival and a large number of the filmmakers have come to India to attend the event.


    The feature film jury was headed by veteran filmmaker Basu Chatterjee and the non-feature jury by renowned critic Latika Padgaonkar. Other members of the feature film jury were filmmakers Rahul Rawail and Sanjay Singh, Festival advisor and senior critic Aruna Vasudev and critic Namrata Joshi. The other short film jury members were film historian Lalit Mohan Joshi, and senior critic Utpal Borpujari.


    The Festival was inaugurated on 3rd January by renowned filmmaker Deepa Mehta who expressed the views of the NRI filmmakers when she said “we are like children who have left their mother and gone away. And we keep coming back because the mother is so good and pulls us back.”


    Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahay, Central Board of Film Certification and veteran film actress Sharmila Tagore, actresses Soha Ali Khan, Pooja Kumar and Purva Bedi, Ashok Malhotra who is Secretary General of the Group of People of India Origin (GOPIO), American Yoga expert Dhananjay Kumar, Dr Nikhil Kaushik who is a doctor and also a filmmaker from the United Kingdom, British filmmaker Sangeeta Dutta, and Avantika Hari, filmmaker Patricia Mohammed from the Trinidad and Tobago were present on the occasion.


    The festival also saw the presence of other film personalities from the Diaspora like Mira Nair and Manoj Bajpai, Nasreen Munni Kabir, Karan Razdan, Dr Nikhil Kaushik, and Dr Shiv Pande.


    Apart from over 30 feature and non-features from the Diaspora and India, there were several panel discussions on subjects like ‘Mauritius – an attractive destination for filmmakers’, ‘India on my mind’; ‘Commerce of NRI Films’, ‘Filmmaking – a question of identity’, and ‘NRI films – the road ahead’.
     

  • Studio 18 to release ‘Rann’ in US, UK

    MUMBAI: Studio18 has partnered with Ram Gopal Varma‘s keenly awaited drama-thriller Rann to distribute the film is the US, UK and UAE.


    Rann is slated for a 29 January release and stars Amitabh Bachchan along with Paresh Rawal, Riteish Deshmukh, Rajat Kapoor and Mohnish Bahl. 


    In Rann, Bachchan plays an upright media baron whose channel is sinking with the rapid emergence of a rival channel that creates sensationalised news.

  • Raj TV forays into movie distribution biz

    MUMBAI: Raj Television Network has announced its entry into the movie distribution business.


    The company, which already has a presence in the broadcasting and film production space, has acquired the exclusive distribution rights of an upcoming Tamil movie Kutty, starring Tamil star Dhanus, for some specified areas in Tamil Nadu.


    The move is part of Raj TV‘s potential external growth strategy. 


    The company feels that it can manage to recover its investments in the few weeks of release of the movie. There is also substantial scope to grow further as the Tamil movie market is expanding both geographically and economically across the world.


    Shares of Raj TV closed on the BSE at Rs 63.05 on Wednesday, up 0.75 per cent from the previous day‘s close.

  • Sony Sam Raimi feud delays Spiderman- 4

    MUMBAI: Sony is on loggerheads with director Sam Raimi over which direction to go with the villains for the latest instalment of Spiderman-4 an impasse that has made the studio delay its scheduled spring production‘s start. This would also result in delaying the release of the film from its 11 May, 2011 release slot.


    While Raimi wants to have a criminal known as the Vulture act as the primary antagonist in the film, the studio that dislikes the idea of the winged wrongdoer has been pushing for a romantic sub-plot involving a burglar named the Black Cat in addition to another villain.


    A lot of effort to have the two parties coming to a solution has had no effect till date. 


    Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire was hired to pen a key version of the screenplay in October 2008. Last year, Sony brought in Gary Ross who was nominated for the Oscar for his adapted script on 2003‘s Seabiscuit that he also helmed. Now, Alvin Sargent is penning the film.


    Word of the Sony-Raimi conflict first surfaced mid-December on genre Web site IESB, but at the time Sony denied the report, saying tweaking of the script was “nothing unusual.”


    The differing views about the villain have their origins in the making of Spider-Man 3.


    Spider-Man 3, while garnering $890 million in its worldwide web, turned out to be reviled by both the fan boy community and by many critics. In addition to a hefty paycheck, Raimi purportedly returned to helm the fourth instalment in order to leave the series on a high note.

  • Sam Mendes to helm new James Bond film

    MUMBAI: British director Sam Mendes is in negotiations to direct the 23rd instalment of the James Bond franchise.
    Production could begin in June with an eye towards a possible 2011 release. This move despite the talk of a possible sale of MGM.


    Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, Bond regulars, are writing the script along with Frost/Nixon writer Peter Morgan.
    The film produced by Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli will have Daniel Craig essay James Bond.


    The film will be Mendes‘ first action-heavy project, although his 2005 effort Jarhead was set amid US war in Kuwait.
    His last directorial effort, the road-trip dramedy Away We Go grossed $10 million domestically last summer.


    Marc Forster directed the last Bond film Quantum of Solace that grossed $586 million worldwide.

  • Daniel Battsek to take over as National Geographic Films Head!

    MUMBAI: Two months after leaving Miramax, Daniel Battsek is preparing to take over as president of National Geographic Films as the current president takes over a producer‘s role, it is reported.


    The news follows Battsek‘s resignation from his post as president of Disney-owned Miramax Films last November.


    In a statement National Geographic Entertainment president David Beal said, “After six incredible years of setting the strategic course for National Geographic Films, Adam Leipzig‘s relationship transitions to executive producer of two in-process National Geographic Entertainment projects, Peter Weir‘s The Way Back and the mini-series Undaunted Courage with HBO.”


    Leipzig will remain continue in his post until mid-March. During his six-year tenure as president Leipzig presided over a quality slate, most notably the 2006 Oscar winning documentary and box-office hit The March Of The Penguins.


    He was also instrumental in closing a $100m film fund with Imagenation Abu Dhabi to develop, produce, finance and acquire 10 to 15 films in five years.

  • Screen Media bags North American rights of The City Of Your Final Destination

    MUMBAI: Screen Media Films has acquired the entire North American rights of James Ivory‘s The City Of Your Final Destination based on the 2002 novel of the same name by Peter Cameron.


    Ivory‘s long-time collaborator Ruth Jhabvala wrote the screenplay and Paul Bradley and Pierre Proner produced.
    “The City Of Your Final Destination takes you into to another world and the characters are so intriguing you feel can‘t help but go on the journey with them,” Screen media president Robert Baruc said.


    Baruc and executive vice-president David Fannon negotiated the deal with Barry Babock and Ron Levin of Babock and Levin behalf of the film.


    The film has Anthony Hopkins starring alongside Laura Linney, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Omar Metwally, Alexandra Maria Lara, Norma Aleandro and Hiroyuki Sanada in the story of the battle to write an authorised biography of a celebrated late Uruguayan novelist.


    Screen Media will release the film theatrically in March 2010.

  • Warner Bros Pictures India promotes George John as marketing director

    MUMBAI: Warner Bros Pictures India has elevated George John to director – marketing (theatrical).


    Says John, “I am honoured to accept this new role and challenge with Warner Bros. I look forward to continue working on the exciting lineup of both Hollywood and Bollywood films and developing 360 degree marketing solutions for each of our products.”


    Adds Warner Bros. Pictures Deputy Managing Director (theatrical) Denzil Dias, “Over the years that George John has worked at Warner Bros, he has shown an unparalleled ability to assess demanding situations, understand market dynamics and communicate and implement the marketing strategies of our films.”


    John has been with the motion pictures studio in India for the last 15 years. He was earlier senior marketing manager at the company.

  • Walt Disney invests $2.5 million in POW!

    MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Company has invested $2.5 million in Stan Lee‘s POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment for a 10 per cent stake.


    POW! has had a first-look deal with Walt Disney Studios since 2007.


    Said POW! chairman and chief creative officer Lee, “Disney has been a great partner for us and we look forward to working closely with them in the coming years. In addition to the huge creative opportunity this affords us, it also provides for the next positive stage in the expansion of the company itself.”


    With the new deal, Walt Disney Studios has enhanced rights to POW!‘s creative output as well as certain exclusive consulting services.


    The news of the investment in POW! came just as Disney completed its acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, where Lee co-created Spider-Man, X-Men and a range of other legendary franchises.