ITV

Category: Movies

  • Chennai International Film Festival from 16 December

    MUMBAI: The seventh Chennai International Film Festival that will be held from 16 December will have films from over 140 countries.


    The festival would be inaugurated by the Union Minister of State for Information Jaghathratchagan.


    The opening film of Spain‘s Broken Embraces is directed by Pedro Amodovar.


    The jury for the Tamil film section comprises actress Revathy, cinematographer-director B Kannan and journalist Bharath (News Today). The movies competing for honours at the festival include Achamundu Achamundu, Kandaswamy, Pasanga, Nadodigal, Ayan, Pokkisham, Eesa and Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru.


    The jury will announce the winners on 24 December.


    Other films to be screened at the festival include those from countries like Albania, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Romania, China and Japan.


    For the first time a competition for Tamil films has also been arranged.
     

  • Peter Webber de-attaches himself from Wuthering Heights

    MUMBAI: Peter Webber will no longer direct Ecosse Films‘ film Wuthering Heights.


    Speaking to reporters, Webber‘s agent confirmed that the Girl With The Pearl Earring director “is no longer involved with the film” that is set to star Gemma Arterton and Ed Westwick as lovers Cathy and Heathcliffe.


    The film is being scripted by Olivia Hetreed, who teamed up with Webber on Girl With a Pearl Earring. Ecosse Films‘ Robert Bernstein is producing with HanWay Films handling worldwide sales.


     
    On the other hand, it is learnt that Webber is still directing The Spider‘s House, an adaptation of Paul Bowles‘ novel set in Morocco.


    Webber signed on to the project in May this year although it was previously reported that John Maybury who directed Francis Bacon biopic Love Is The Devil will direct the film.

  • 15 films in semi-final stage of Oscar effects awards

    MUMBAI: Fifteen films including Avatar and Angels & Demons have been selected as semi-finalists for the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences‘ achievement in visual effects award.


    Other films in the race are Coraline; Disney‘s A Christmas Carol; District 9; G-Force; G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra; Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince; Sherlock Holmes; Star Trek; Terminator Salvation; Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen; 2012; Watchmen and Where The Wild Things Are.


     
    The list will come down to seven when members of the Academy‘s visual effects branch will sit and shorten the list in early January.


    All the members of the visual effects branch will be invited to view 15-minute excerpts of each of the seven shortlisted films on January 21 and will vote after the screenings to nominate three films for final Oscar consideration.


    The nominations will be announced on 2 February.

  • Dubai fest Aids gala set to raise $1m

    MUMBAI: The second day of the Dubai Film Festival saw celebrities like Matt Dillon, Christina Ricci and Mandy Moore turning out for the Cinema Against Aids gala that has targeted to raise more than US$1 million (Dh3.67m) for Aids research.


    They were joined by the chorus girls from the musical Nine, bringing glamour for a good cause – the Foundation for Aids Research (amfAR).


    Dillon, who was hosting the event with Ricci, called Aids “a universal condition”. While the UAE has a policy of repatriating people infected with HIV, the Aids virus, who try to gain residency.


     
    Dillon pointed out that his own country had had a 22-year travel ban on visitors with HIV, one that was lifted by President Barack Obama only in October. “There are challenges around the epidemic in every part of the world,” he said.


    For Moore, a singer and actress from the US, it was the second time on the red carpet in as many days.


    Ricci said that she had a huge respect for amfAR‘s research projects adding.


    “I think we have become a little de-sensitized to Aids and really need to keep up awareness of it.”

  • Summit to release The Ghost Writer in US

    MUMBAI: Summit Entertainment is all set to release Roman Polanski‘s retitled The Ghost Writer in North America in the first half of 2010.


    The distribution house acquired rights from ICM and is intimately familiar with the project having handled foreign sales through Summit International. The film will have its world premiere at the Berlinale in February.


     
    Based on Robert Harris‘ novel The Ghost, the thriller stars Ewan McGregor who plays a professional ghostwriter who uncovers political and sexual intrigue when he is sent to the Eastern seaboard to help the former UK Prime Minister complete his memoirs after the leader‘s aide drowns.


    Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams, Kim Cattrall, Jim Belushi, Robert Pugh and Tom Wilkinson star in the film.

  • Shoreline acquires global rights of Bolivian Oscar entry Zona Sur

    MUMBAI: LA-based Shoreline Entertainment has acquired worldwide sales rights of Juan Carlos‘ Valvidia‘s Bolivian foreign language Oscar and Golden Globes submission Zona Sur (Southern District).


    Zona Sur that chronicles the life of an upper-class family in the southern district of La Paz at a time of fundamental social change in the country, will have its North American premiere in competition at the Sundance fest in January.


     
    Shoreline‘s director of acquisitions Brandon Paine and executive vice-president Sam Eigen negotiated the deal with Valvidia at the Ventana Sur market in Buenos Aires.

  • Universal appoints Debbie Liebling as president of production

    MUMBAI: Universal Pictures has appointed former Fox production executive vice-president Debbie Liebling as its president of production.


    Liebling, who occupies her post in January will report to Langley. Her production team features executive vice-presidents Peter Cramer and Tracy Falco and senior vice-presidents Jeff Kirschenbaum and Scott Bernstein.


    Said Langley, “Debbie‘s fresh perspective and years of experience in the industry perfectly complement our seasoned production team. Her keen instincts and close relationships with film-makers and talent make her the right person to help us shape future Universal film slates.”


     
    Earlier, Liebling had shepherded the creative direction of Borat and Dodgeball at Fox. She previously served as president of production at the now defunct Fox Atomic. As chief programming executive for Comedy Central she developed and supervised South Park.


    Universal‘s 2010 slate includes Paul Greengrass‘ The Green Zone with Matt Damon, Ridley Scott‘s Robin Hood adventure starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, the third entry in the Meet The Fockers franchise starring Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro, and the Saturday Night Live spin-off MacGruber with Will Forte and Kristen Wiig.

  • Santa Barbara’s Montecito Award to Julianne Moore

    MUMBAI: A strong Oscar contender for her performance opposite Colin Firth in A Single Man,Julianne Moore will receive the 25th Santa Barbara International Film Festival‘s Montecito Award.


    The four-time Academy Award nominee will collect the award on 1 February.


     
    The Montecito Award was created to recognise a series of “classic and standout performances” in a career. Previous recipients include Kate Winslet, Javier Bardem, Naomi Watts and Annette Bening.


    The festival runs from 4 to 14 February.

  • America’s Democratic Legacy Award for Spielberg

    MUMBAI: The Anti-Defamation League bestowed its highest honor on Steven Spielberg by presenting the America‘s Democratic Legacy Award to Steven Speilberg on Wednesday.


    Praising Spielberg‘s ability, ADL national director Abraham Foxman said.


    “Steven, we honour you for your exceptional contributions to the well-being and security of the Jewish people. Your masterpiece, Schindler‘s List literally changed the way we teach about Jewish history and the Holocaust and it arrived at exactly the time when we started to see a startling rise in Holocaust denial.”


    Accepting the honour, Spielberg spoke of the importance of pausing amid the distractions of the digital age to face such enduring evils as xenophobia, bigotry, racism and anti-Semitism that have found a new home in cyberspace.


    “I don‘t believe that intolerance is encoded in the DNA of human kind. Bigotry is an acquired condition that can only be eradicated through education, experience and through mindfulness.”


    The proceedings, that raised more than $2 million for the ADL, kicked off with Adam Lambert singing an a capella version of The Star-Spangled Banner and Noa Dori performing the Israeli anthem.


    Previous winners of the prestigious award range from US presidents (from Harry Truman through Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan) to Hollywood moguls Darryl Zanuck and Dore Schary.


     

  • World Cupp 2011 readies for release on 18 December

    MUMBAI: World Cupp 2011, a movie based on match-fixing in cricket and starring two former cricketers Saba Karim and Nikhil Chopra, is being released on 18 December with 500 prints.


    Producer-director Ravi Kapoor who also plays the central role told indiantelevision.com that he had taken actual situations and given the real names of 15 bookies and members of the underworld in Mumbai.


    As a result, he had received a threatening call from gangster Ravi Pujari who has accused him of working at the behest of Chhota Rajan. The charge is that Kapoor has shown Pujari’s wife Padma as part of the betting.


    Similarly, he had used the name Shobhan for the main bookie, knowing fully well that there is a match-fixer of that name operating in Mumbai. Karim and Chopra are playing themselves in the film.


    Kapoor said his film will trace the genesis of match-fixing as a cornered underworld finds a new source of revenue after their weekly income from dance bars stopped when these were banned.


     
    He said that he had not spared parties like the Shiv Sena which had made a lot of hue and cry about cheerleaders, but said nothing about match-fixing.


    Asked about the title, he said he had been advised by a numerologist to spell Cup with a double ‘p’ for luck.


    Asked what inspired him to make the film, he said that when India lost to Bangladesh in the 2007 World Cup, he was convinced that the standard of the ‘Men in Blue‘ could not have fallen so low after a defeat against Australia. He, therefore, suspected match-fixing to be the cause of this.


    He said the research on the subject had taken him two years. He met a lot of bookies and also police personnel and sat with bookies when they were accepting betting.


    He said he had noticed times when a team which was 100 for no loss was suddenly all out for 120. He said if the excuse was that the pitch was turning, why was it that it suddenly became placid when the other side came in to play.


    Asked why he wanted to start his career with such a risky theme, he said “I wanted to start my career with a realistic subject.”