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Tag: Ang Lee

  • ‘Lincoln’, ‘Life Of Pi’ top Oscar nominations

    ‘Lincoln’, ‘Life Of Pi’ top Oscar nominations

    MUMBAI: ‘Lincoln‘ continued to gain strong momentum in the Hollywood awards season. The Steven Spielberg biopic got 12 nominations. Just behind is Ang Lee‘s ‘Life of Pi‘ with 11 nominations.

     

    Both are among the nine pictures nominated for best film. The others are ‘Argo‘, ‘Silver Linings Playbook‘, ‘Amour‘, ‘Zero Dark Thirty‘, ‘Beasts Of The Southern Wild‘, ‘Django Unchained‘ and ‘Les Miserables‘. Missing from the list are ‘Skyfall‘, ‘The Master‘ and ‘Moonrise Kingdom‘.

     

    But the big surprise is in best director. Apart from Lee and Spielberg none of the other three directors who were nominated for the DGA have gotten in. This includes Kathryn Bigelow who helmed critics favourite ‘Zero Dark Thirty‘ and Ben Affleck for ‘Argo‘. That seriously hurts both these films‘ chances of winning the best picture Oscar. The last time a film won best picture without its director being nominated was ‘Driving Miss Daisy‘ way back in 1989.

     

    Apart from Lee and Spielberg, the directors competing for an Oscar are Michael Hanecke for ‘, Benh Zeitlin for ‘Beasts Of The southern Wild‘ and David O Russell for ‘Silver Linings Playbook‘.Amour

     

    Another big surprise is in foreign language film. The nominees do not include ‘The Intouchables‘. ‘Amour‘ is the favourite to win here. The other nominees are ‘Kon-Tiki‘, ‘No‘, ‘A Royal Affair‘ and ‘War Witch.

     

    The best actress category has the oldest ever nominee Emannuelle Riva for ‘Amour‘ and the youngest ever in Quvenzhané Wallis in “Beasts of the Southern Wild”. But the race is probably a shootout between Jessica Chastain for ‘Zero Dark Thirty‘ and Jennifer Lawrence for ‘Silver Linings Playbook‘. Naomi Watts in ‘The Impossible‘ has also made the cut.

     

    Lawrence has a bit of an edge in that ‘Silver Linings Playbook‘ did better than expected. It got eight nominations including one in supporting actress for Jackie Weaver. It is the only movie to have been nominated in all the acting categories. ‘Les Miserables‘ also got eight nominations, though more were expected. Its helmer Tom Hooper has been left out.

  • Visual Effects Society set to honour Ang Lee

    Visual Effects Society set to honour Ang Lee

    MUMBAI: The Visual Effects Society is all set to honour filmmaker Ang Lee with the Visionary Award at the Visual Effects Awards here next month.

    In a bid to bring his films to life over the years, the director has employed various techniques in his earlier films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and creating a life-like tiger for his new adventure film Life of Pi.

    Said Executive of Visual Effects Society Jeff Okun, “Lee pushed the envelope of creation of visual effects for telling a story. In our generation, only Star Wars did that.”

    The 58-year-old will be feted for all his hard work with the award on 5 February.

    The inaugural trophy was handed to Inception director Christopher Nolan last year.

  • Twlight Saga romps in $ 48.8 million in third consecutive weekend

    Twlight Saga romps in $ 48.8 million in third consecutive weekend

    MUMBAI: Thanks to a $48.8 million weekend at some 11,800 locations in 73 territories, Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 has now become the biggest-grossing franchise title overseas boosting its foreign gross total to $447.8 million.
    The fifth and final title based on Stephenie Meyer‘s series of novels about a young woman (Kristen Stewart) in love with a vampire (Robert Pattinson) has roped in $16.9 million more than the franchise‘s previous all-time offshore box office champ The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 that collected $430.9 million last year.
    Breaking Dawn Part 2 dominated a generally lacklustre box office session overseas by clinging to the No. 1 spot for the third consecutive week with hold over titles for the most part registering diminishing returns.
    Worldwide, the film has grossed $702.4 million. Lionsgate International, which is handling foreign distribution of the Summit Ent. co-production had earlier said that Breaking Dawn Part 2‘s enormously big action helped lift the distributor‘s 2012 total foreign box office past the $1-billion mark.
    Finishing No. 2 once again was Sony/MGM‘s Skyfall, the 23rd installment of the James Bond franchise that collected $34 million from 7,600 spots in 84 markets handled by Sony and licensees of co-distributor MGM.
    Since its overseas opening on 26 OCtober, Skyfall has accumulated nearly $200 million more that the $432.2 total foreign gross of the previous franchise record holder, 2006‘s Casino Royale, also starring Craig.
    A No. 1 Japan opening provided $5.9 million from 587 situations, which Sony said was 51 per cent bigger than the opening market gross of 2008‘s Quantum of Solace, which grossed a total of $407.7 overseas. A No. 1 bow in South Africa ($800,000 from 128 spots) was also recorded for Skyfall.
    Making No. 1 debuts in Spain, Singapore and Malaysia was Twentieth Century Fox‘s release of Life of Pi, the film version of Yann Martel‘s novel of the same name about a young castaway and a Bengal tiger.
    Directed by Taiwanese-born Ang Lee, the Fox 2000 co-production drew $21.5 million on the weekend overall playing a total of 5,678 in 11 markets, the best of of which were China ($11 million in second round at 3,800 site for a market cume of $38.5 million) and Taiwan ($2.6 million at 165 locations, a rousing 47 per cent increase from the opening weekend). In spite of its relatively limited foreign release, the film has generated a total of $61.1 million in just two rounds.

  • MPSE to honour Ang Lee

    MPSE to honour Ang Lee

    MUMBAI: Life of Pi director Ang Lee will be receiving the 2013 Filmmaker Award from the Motion Picture Sound Editors at the 60th MPSE Golden Reel Awards on 17 February at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles.
     
    “Ang Lee is a fascinating innovator. He continually breaks ground through the use of the latest technology both visually and sonically. That continues with Life of Pi where his use of Dolby Atmos guides audiences into the emotional intimacy of the sound experience,” MPSE president Bobbi Banks was quoted by the Hollywood Reporter.
     
    Lee‘s other films include The Wedding Banquet, Taking Woodstock, Lust, Caution, Hulk, Ride with the Devil, The Ice Storm and Sense and Sensibility. His film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, received Academy Award nominations for best picture and best director in 2001 and he won the Oscar for best director in 2006 for Brokeback Mountain.
     
    The MPSE Golden Reel Awards acknowledge work in editing dialogue, ADR, sound effects, Foley and music.

  • Life of Pi works its magic; SOS battles it out

    Life of Pi works its magic; SOS battles it out

    MUMBAI: Hollywood director Ang Lee‘s Life Of Pi did well at the elite multiplexes in metros in its opening weekend collecting Rs 136.5 million.

    Yash Chopra‘s last directorial venture Jab Tak Hai Jaan seems to have made the most of the post Diwali holidays, especially at the multiplexes to complete its ten-day first week with Rs 984.1 million. The collections, however, tapered down from Monday (Rs 53.6 million on Monday and Rs 35.4 million on Thursday). The film collected Rs 113 million in its second weekend as the shows were reduced at most screens.

    Ajay Devgn-starrer Son Of Sardar, which had been deprived of the better patronised single screens, went on to collect Rs 812 million in its first ten-day week.

    1920 – Evil Returns could not sustain in front of two major releases despite Diwali holidays.

    Student Of The Year added about Rs one million in its fifth week to take its total tally to Rs 609 million.

  • Life of Pi would have been incomplete without 3D: Ang Lee

    Life of Pi would have been incomplete without 3D: Ang Lee

    MUMBAI: Director Ang Lee has said that his latest offering Life of Pi would have been incomplete had it not been in 3D format.
    “It may have been cheap in 2D, but the output would‘ve been unsatisfactory. Thanks to 3D, I managed to take this film beyond imagination and new possibilities,” Lee said when promoting his film.
    To be released on 21 November, the film is based on the novel of the same name by Canadian writer Yann Martel. Its story tells the tale of a young boy named Pi, who is the only person to survive a sinking cargo ship. He finds himself on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a Bengal tiger.
    Delhi-based Indian boy Suraj Sharma plays young Pi in the film while Tabu and Irrfan Khan feature in key roles.

  • Oscar winning director Ang Lee to visit India for ‘Life Of Pi’

    Oscar winning director Ang Lee to visit India for ‘Life Of Pi’

    NEW DELHI: Academy Award Winning Director Ang Lee is coming to India as part of a grand promotional tour for 20th Century Fox’s Oscar buzz generating festive release ‘Life Of Pi’ directed by him.

    Fox Star Studios have earlier hosted eminent personalities such as Danny Boyle, Hugh Jackman and Titanic‘s Jon Landau in India.

    India will be the first country to be visited by Lee – the film has an Indian angle since it stars Suraj Sharma, Tabu and Irrfan Khan.

    Lee will also be presenting exclusive and unseen 20 minutes of the film in stunning 3D to media and prominent Bollywood personalities to showcase the extraordinary experience of watching the celebrated novel come to life onscreen.

    The man behind some of the most prestigious and acclaimed films such as Sense and Sensibility (1995), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film), Hulk (2003), and Brokeback Mountain (for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director), Ang Lee will visit Mumbai and Chennai along with David Lee (Co-Producer of Life Of Pi), main lead and debutante Suraj Sharma, Tabu and Irrfan Khan.

    Fox Star Studios CEO Vijay Singh said, “Ang is scheduled to arrive in India on 28 October 2012 for a two-city Mumbai-Chennai visit where he will also showcase exclusive visuals from the film for a select audience. This visit will also kick start the extravagant scale of activities planned, building on the excitement and anticipation that has been growing for ‘Life of Pi‘ since its trailer launch. Not only is it a stunning showcase of the immense acting talent and breathtaking locales of our country, it is also one of those rare works of cinema that transcends boundaries with its universal appeal.”

    ‘Life of Pi’ 3D release is scheduled on 23 November in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

    The film showcases stunning scenes with Sharma, and veterans Tabu and Khan in the film along with breathtakingly vibrant colours of Pondicherry and Munnar where the film was extensively shot.

    From the Oscar winning director, Life of Pi 3D is the visually stunning tale of a boy who is adrift at sea in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger after his family is drowned in a shipwreck. The Indian appeal of Ang Lee’s magnum opus is visible with every scene of the film right from the star cast to the locales and magical elements that combine to make this a special festive treat for fans!

    The theatrical promo also featured the Indian stars, and the trailer immediately went viral with laudatory reactions pouring in on various social networking sites.

    The film centers on Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) who is raised in Pondicherry India with his family who run a zoo. They decide to immigrate to Canada, taking their animals along with them and set off on a huge freighter ship, steaming from India across the Pacific. But a terrible storm destroys the ship. The family and most of the animals perish. Pi survives, stranded on a lifeboat with several animals. Ultimately it is just Pi and a Bengal tiger who miraculously survive 227 days at sea.

    Lee has shot ‘Life of Pi’ in 3D, utilising groundbreaking techniques to capture the story’s epic scope. India had much to rejoice when Lee chose 17-year-old newcomer Suraj Sharma to essay the role of Pi. Sharma lives with his mathematician parents in Delhi. He has no previous acting experience and was cast following an extensive, months-long search. Over 3000 young men auditioned for the part.

    Not only is the film a global platform of Indian talent with its cast and crew, but some of India’s most scenic spots were tapped for the film, a first of its kind for a Hollywood film. Amidst racks of fabulous saris and colorful fabrics, many of which were used for the vibrant market scenes filmed in Pondicherry, India, where Pi spent his early years, there is a rich multicultural depth to the movie. One can see the countryside of Southern India in the hillside town of Munnar along with the French elegance of Pondicherry on 3D!

    The film is based on Yann Martel’s book, one of the biggest publishing events of the past decade. The book has sold over seven million copies worldwide and continues to sell over 1,000 copies per week and has won the prestigious Mann Booker Prize, and was a New York Times bestseller for over a year.

  • Ang Lee to helm Cleopatra with Angelina Jolie in lead

    Ang Lee to helm Cleopatra with Angelina Jolie in lead

    MUMBAI: Ang Lee, who is awaiting the release of his latest film Life of Pi will reportedly helm the Angelina Jolie-starrer Cleopatra after talks with filmmaker David Fincher broke off. It is said that Fincher was the third filmmaker who decided to pass on the project that was in development since 2010.
    In October last year, ‘Titanic‘ helmer James Cameron was attached to the project but he let it go because of his commitment to the Avatar film franchise. Later, Paul Greengrass, director of The Bourne Ultimatum was tapped but he too remained hesitant to take up the project.
    The film is an adaptation of Stacy Schiff`s book Cleopatra: A Life, the story of which sees Cleopatra as a firm ruler and military tactician who embarks on a ruthless rise to power. She twice married her brothers, killing each of them as well as a sister.
    Romantic alliances with the much-older Roman honchos Julius Caesar and Marc Antony helped Cleopatra solidify power, but her relations with Antony undid both of them.

  • Ang Lee’s Life of Pi will open New York film fest

    Ang Lee’s Life of Pi will open New York film fest

    MUMBAI: Ang Lee‘s big-screen adaptation of the bestselling Yann Martel novel Life of Pi 3D will open the New York film festival next month. The screening on 28 September, which raises the curtain on the festival‘s 50th edition, should help position Life of Pi for an awards season run.

    Martel‘s 2002 Man Booker prize-winning novel chronicles the travails of a shipwrecked teenage boy stuck on a life raft with only a female orangutan, an injured zebra, a hungry hyena and a brooding Bengal tiger for company. Suraj Sharma, a 17-year-old student from Delhi, takes the lead role in the film adaptation after beating more than 3,000 other challengers to the role last year.

    Lee, who opened the festival in 1997, with The Ice Storm, joins Robert Altman, Pedro Almodóvar and François Truffaut in the rank of filmmakers who opened the festival at least twice.

    “Life of Pi is a perfect combination of technological innovation and a strong artistic vision. Ang Lee has managed to make a deeply moving, engrossing work that will delight audiences as much as it will astonish them. We‘re enormously proud to have this film for our opening night for the 50th NYFF,” said Richard Pe?a of The Film Society of Lincoln Center, the festival‘s organising body.

    This year‘s New York film festival will run from 28 September to 14 October.

  • Ang Lee coming in December to promote ‘Life of Pi’

    Ang Lee coming in December to promote ‘Life of Pi’

    MUMBAI: Taking a cue from producer Jon Landau who came here to promote Titanic 3D,Taiwanese-American filmmaker Ang Lee will come to India sometime in December to promote his upcoming film Life of Pi.

    Confirming the same an officer from the press division of the Taiwan embassy said, “As far as we know, he is coming this year.”

    The novel, set in Puducherry of the 1970S, narrates the ordeals of a young Indian boy, the lone survivor of a shipwreck, sharing a life boat for over 200 days with a hyena, a zebra with a broken leg, a female orangutan and a 45-pound Royal Bengal tiger.

    The 57-year-old Lee had reportedly shot about 30 per cent of the film in Puducherry early last year after a six-month recce with his pre-production team.

    The 3D fantasy adventure, based on the Booker-winning novel of the same name by Yann Martel, also has Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Tobey Maguire and Gerard Depardieu.