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Tag: Django Unchained

  • aha unveils its content line-up, 40 titles in plan for May

    aha unveils its content line-up, 40 titles in plan for May

    Mumbai: The regional OTT platform, aha has announced on Thursday a stellar content slate for the month of May, which includes 40 titles for their Telugu section.

    The new titles will provide 100 percent local entertainment to the people globally. The slate, directed by some of the industry’s best filmmakers, will include regional programming as well as the most popular Hollywood films, which will be available in the Telugu section of aha. Viewers will be able to watch international titles, which include,  Sam Raimi’s Spiderman series, the Men in Black series, Django Unchained, Black Hawk Down and others.

    Overall, the platform will make over 30 Hollywood films available in Telugu to their audience.The launch of the regional slate in May also ensures that the platform maintains the innovative and diverse content library with the continuation of Telugu Indian Idol, one of the emerging local talent shows hosted by Sree Ram Chandra, with actress Nithya Menon, music composer Thaman, and singer Karthik as its judges.

    The other high profile reality show that will continue in the month of May will be the second season of the super hit reality game show Sarkaar, hosted by Pradeep Machiraju. The season started on 29 April.

    Fahad Fasil’s Thondimuthalum Drikasakshiyum, a national winning film is set to premiere as “Dongata”. The film will exclusively premiere on the platform this week on 6 May from 12 am.

    Speaking on the launch for the month, aha’s ceo Ajit Thakur said, “We at aha are focused on offering diverse content that appeals to all age groups. The platform is expanding and diversifying itself by creating an original slate and streaming highly popular Hollywood films in the local language. We have recently launched a stunning Tamil slate in association with immensely talented creators. However, our stint in curating and creating Telugu content for the local audience has already made aha, a reliable platform for accessing Telugu entertainment.”

  • Sony Liv adds Hollywood blockbusters for subscribers

    Sony Liv adds Hollywood blockbusters for subscribers

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks’ (SPN) VOD service Sony LIV has announced the launch of a cinematic extravaganza for all movie fans with its Hollywood library. Besides a wide range of TV shows, sports properties, Bollywood flicks, songs and original web content, cinema aficionados can now enjoy instant access to internationally celebrated movies anytime and anywhere.

    Sony Liv is going the extra mile to enhance the entertainment experiences for its viewers wherein the biggest upcoming Hollywood blockbusters will premiere on the platform before their television airing.

    Sony Liv EVP and head for digital business Uday Sodhi said, “At Sony Liv, we are committed to continuously enhance the entertainment experience of our viewers. After receiving an overwhelming response for our Bollywood library, we are now extending our catalogue to allow English movie buffs to catch up with their Hollywood dose of entertainment- right from award-winning favourites to unseen gems. Our endeavour is to make an entire bouquet of eclectic yet engaging cinematic properties accessible at ease since Sony Liv is a complete digital entertainment destination that consumers can turn to for riveting content of every kind.”  

    The library gives viewers a chance to access a wide selection of hugely popular American movies on their own preferred digital devices. The platform claims to offer comprehensive and attractive for its discerning digital audience through its Hollywood library.

    Liv already offers an extensive Bollywood library with over 1,000 films from across genres. It already has a portfolio of critically acclaimed films like The Pursuit of Happyness, Django Unchained, The Da Vinci Code, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Angels and Demons and the Spiderman series, etc.

    The platform also rolled out a web-series for the online platform called #LoveBytes. It has also rolled out a digital film entitled Chhoti Khushito support a social media campaign, #LIVThisDiwali.

  • Sony Liv adds Hollywood blockbusters for subscribers

    Sony Liv adds Hollywood blockbusters for subscribers

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks’ (SPN) VOD service Sony LIV has announced the launch of a cinematic extravaganza for all movie fans with its Hollywood library. Besides a wide range of TV shows, sports properties, Bollywood flicks, songs and original web content, cinema aficionados can now enjoy instant access to internationally celebrated movies anytime and anywhere.

    Sony Liv is going the extra mile to enhance the entertainment experiences for its viewers wherein the biggest upcoming Hollywood blockbusters will premiere on the platform before their television airing.

    Sony Liv EVP and head for digital business Uday Sodhi said, “At Sony Liv, we are committed to continuously enhance the entertainment experience of our viewers. After receiving an overwhelming response for our Bollywood library, we are now extending our catalogue to allow English movie buffs to catch up with their Hollywood dose of entertainment- right from award-winning favourites to unseen gems. Our endeavour is to make an entire bouquet of eclectic yet engaging cinematic properties accessible at ease since Sony Liv is a complete digital entertainment destination that consumers can turn to for riveting content of every kind.”  

    The library gives viewers a chance to access a wide selection of hugely popular American movies on their own preferred digital devices. The platform claims to offer comprehensive and attractive for its discerning digital audience through its Hollywood library.

    Liv already offers an extensive Bollywood library with over 1,000 films from across genres. It already has a portfolio of critically acclaimed films like The Pursuit of Happyness, Django Unchained, The Da Vinci Code, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Angels and Demons and the Spiderman series, etc.

    The platform also rolled out a web-series for the online platform called #LoveBytes. It has also rolled out a digital film entitled Chhoti Khushito support a social media campaign, #LIVThisDiwali.

  • David Hill & Reginald Hudlin tapped to produce 88th Oscars

    David Hill & Reginald Hudlin tapped to produce 88th Oscars

    MUMBAI: After this year’s ho-hum response to the Oscars show, which was hosted by Neil Patrick Harris and produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the Academy has named two new producers for the 2016 show.

     

    Emmy-winning live television producer David Hill and Oscar-nominated producer-director Reginald Hudlin have been tapped to produce the 88th Oscars telecast.

     

    It will be their first involvement with the Academy Awards, which will be held on 28 February, 2016.

     

    Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs said, “We’re delighted to have this talented team on board. David is a true innovator with a dynamic personality. His vast experience as a live events producer, coupled with Reggie’s energy, creativity and talent as a filmmaker, is sure to make this year’s Oscar telecast a memorable one.”

     

    “What a great and exciting honour! The quest is to honour the year in film, honour the art, and above all, make it fun,” said Hill.

     

    “I’m looking forward to working with the Academy again. I love every kind of film and this year’s awards will be a celebration of the total range of cinema,” said Hudlin.

     

    “We’re excited to work with David and Reggie. With their enthusiasm and breadth of experience, they will bring a fresh perspective to the Oscar show,” said Academy CEO Dawn Hudson.

     

    An executive with the Fox group of companies for more than 25 years, Hill most recently served as 21st Century Fox senior executive vice president, overseeing programming, digital initiatives, and other opportunities on five continents. He was previously Fox Sports Media Group chairman and CEO. Hill began his career with News Corporation in Great Britain, where he helped launch Sky Television, introduced the multilingual sports channel Eurosport, and created the subscription channel Sky Sports. He recently left Fox to start his own production company, Hilly, focusing on live and reality television. 

     

    On the other hand, writer, director, producer and executive, Hudlin received a 2012 Best Picture Oscar nomination as a producer of Django Unchained.  Hudlin’s film credits includeBoomerang, The Great White Hype and the award-winning comedy House Party, which he also wrote. He executive produced the TV series The Boondocks and The Black Panther; and has directed for Modern Family, Murder in The First, New Girl and The Office. Last year, Hudlin produced the Academy’s 6th Annual Governors Awards ceremony and has been the executive producer of the NAACP Image Awards since 2012. Hudlin was the first president of entertainment for BET Networks from 2005 to 2009. He is a partner in Milestone Media, a multi-ethnic comic book company distributed by DC Comics, as well as New Nation Networks, a premium content provider in partnership with Google.

  • Sony Pictures’ Amy Pascal steps down

    Sony Pictures’ Amy Pascal steps down

    MUMBAI: After being targeted by hacking group called ‘Guardians of Peace’, linked closely to North Korea, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Amy Pascal has decided to step down after her emails and conversations were made public. She will be resigning as the co-chairwoman of Sony Pictures Entertainment and chairwoman of Sony Motion Picture Group.

     

    Seen as one of Hollywood’s top most female executives, she has been with the Group since 1996, when she was named as the president of the Columbia Pictures Unit, post her stint with Turner Pictures. Before joining Turner she was with Sony since 1988. Equating the company as her home, Pascal in a statement said, “I have spent almost my entire professional life at Sony Pictures, and I am energized to be starting this new chapter based at the company I call home,”

     

    The embarrassing emails contained her leaked conversations that had her discussing with other executives to halt the release of the humour based film, The Interview. The film is based on the assassination of North Korea’s current leader Kim Jong-un. Not limited to just that, the emails shared in the cyberspace also saw her cracking racially insensitive jokes with producer Scott Rudin about the viewing habits of US President Barack Obama. They both joked that the President’s favourite movies were black themed cinema like Django Unchained and 12 Years A Slave.

     

    Pascal later apologised in a statement which read, “The content of my emails to Scott were insensitive and inappropriate but are not an accurate reflection of who I am. Although this was a private communication that was stolen, I accept full responsibility for what I wrote and apologise to everyone who was offended.”

     

    Pascal who was worked with the studio for close to two decades, will now begin a production company that will see its launch in May 2015. The studio has decided to stand by her as it will fund her company for at least four years and will retain the distribution rights. Her successor is yet to be named.

  • ‘Pulp Fiction’ anniversary at Cannes, ‘Django’ television series planned

    ‘Pulp Fiction’ anniversary at Cannes, ‘Django’ television series planned

    MUMBAI: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the cult classic, maverick director Quentin Tarantino along with the stars of Pulp Fiction, John Travolta and Uma Thurman, treated the masses to a public screening of the cult classic on the beach at Cannes. Standing on a makeshift stage in front of a giant screen, Tarantino welcomed his two actors, who, one by one, walked down a sandy aisle before flanking their Pulp Fiction director.

     

    Pulp Fiction was the winner of the 1994 Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) from a jury presided over by Clint Eastwood; Pulp Fiction had its official world premiere at the Grand Theatre Lumiere on 19 May that year. However, although the film had been kept tightly under wraps and was screened for no one in the United States before its Cannes debut, a number of critics did get a secret sneak peek at it the night before.

     

    Prior to the screening, the cast and crew of Pulp Fiction were spot walking on the official red carpet at the Palais De Cannes and then attended a party hosted by Miramax Pictures.

     

    The Oscar-winning director told the audience at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday that he’s looking at a four-hour miniseries version of his acclaimed 2012 pre-Civil War Western Django Unchained.

     

     “I have about 90 minutes’ worth of material with Django [that] hasn’t been seen,” said Tarantino to USA Today. “My idea, frankly, is to cut together a four-hour version of Django Unchained… But I wouldn’t show it like a four-hour movie. I would cut it up into hour chapters. Like a four-part miniseries. And show it on cable television. Show it like an hour at a time, each chapter.”

     

    “We’d use all the material I have and it wouldn’t be an endurance test,” he added. “It would be a miniseries. And people love those.”

     

    Django earned a total of five Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture. It grabbed the golden statuette for Original Screenplay and Supporting Actor Christopher Waltz.

  • Quentin Tarantino to publish script of ‘The Hateful Eight’ after it gets leaked online

    Quentin Tarantino to publish script of ‘The Hateful Eight’ after it gets leaked online

    MUMBAI: Quentin Tarantino, who won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar last year for Django Unchained, is extremely upset that the script of The Hateful Eight has leaked online and now instead of making the film; he will publish the script.

     

    The filmmaker reportedly is “depressed” as he didn’t want to shoot it until next winter and had just given the first draft to six people from where it got out.

     

    Tarantino learned of the leak after his agent started getting calls from other agents trying to get their clients in the film. Tarantino doesn’t know who leaked the script, but he has his suspicions.

     

    But the filmmaker’s fans shouldn’t be upset as now they will have a well-published script from him.

  • Quentin Tarantino’s next: ‘The Hateful Eight’

    Quentin Tarantino’s next: ‘The Hateful Eight’

    MUMBAI: Right around the time of the Golden Globe, rumor has it that Quentin Tarantino will complete his new script, which will be a western; the working title of the film right now is The Hateful Eight. “I had so much fun doing Django, and I love westerns so much that after I taught myself how to make one, it’s like ‘OK! Let me make another one now that I know what I’m doing,’” Tarantino told Jay Leno in November when he appeared on The Tonight Show.

     

    Tarantino has finished a draft, and is in the process of showing it to a handful of actors he wants for the picture. Nothing has been confirmed yet, however the title suggests Tarantino could be stepping up his game, playing off the title of John Sturges’ 1960 film The Magnificent Seven, which in turn was a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 Seven Samurai.

     

    No one has been cast yet, but Tarantino has reached out to veteran casting director Victoria Thomas, who worked on Django, to work with him on casting for the flick, say several insiders. A part has been written for Christoph Waltz, who starred in Tarantino’s Django and Inglourious Basterds. As rumor has it, another part has been written for Hollywood veteran Bruce Dern who, at the age of 77 and after a career worth of distinguished mostly supporting performances, has emerged as a Best Actor frontrunner in Alexander Payne‘s Nebraska.

     

    Pilar Savone, who served as a producer on Django and was also an associate producer on Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and Death Proof after being his assistant, is producing Hateful Eight.

  • Hriday responds to Woody Allen’s decision on Blue Jasmine India release

    Hriday responds to Woody Allen’s decision on Blue Jasmine India release

    MUMBAI: Woody Allen directed Blue Jasmine was set to be released in India two weeks ago but in the last moment was called off since the director did not want to comply with anti- smoking regulations of the country.

     

    Now NGO Hriday (Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth) has responded to Allen’s claim that smoking messages in the movie distracts people. In the letter addressed to Allen, they said that many big movies have complied with the norms and have done well at the box office including The Hobbit, Django Unchained as well as Bollywood production houses like UTV motion pictures and Karan Johar productions also started complying with the rules as soon as they came into effect.

     

    They also said that a study conducted by them showed that youngsters exposed to smoking scenes in movies were twice as likely to try it. They also said that ‘several countries require censor of contents before screening films to confirm to their laws and cultural sensitivities globally’.

     

    Blue Jasmine was to be released by PVR Pictures. The movie has been critically acclaimed regarding Kate Blanchett’s performance. Let’s see whether Allen responds to the mail and consents to release the movie so that Indians don’t have to miss a good one.

  • Django Unchained stars DiCaprio and Foxx come together again

    Django Unchained stars DiCaprio and Foxx come together again

    MUMBAI: After the recent restructuring at Warner Bros‘ worldwide feature production arm, Greg Silverman has struck his maiden big deal and acquired the rights of the upcoming Craig Zahler crime novel Mean Business On North Ganson Street. The production house is gearing to reunite the Django Unchained lead stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx for the big screen adaptation.

    As reported, Zahler will be penning the script while DiCaprio and his Appian Way partner Jennifer Davisson Killoran will be financially backing the project as producers. Sarah Schechter is navigating the project for the studio.

    The adaptation of the book which is in the process of being shopped to publishers will feature Dicaprio as the tough sleuth who is tipped off by a man about his missing wife and that she is a hooker who disappeared with his money. The story further takes course when the man commits a desperate tragic act right in the squad room and the disgraced detective is sent to a conflagration belt town called Victory, Missouri, where violent crime is skyrocketing. Partnered with an equally bad-assed detective who was demoted for publicly brutalizing a suspect (Foxx), the new partners get to do some real work. Police officers start showing up dead execution-style, and the cops think it might be open season on Victory‘s police department.

    Foxx will recently be seen opposite Channing Tatum in the Roland Emmerich-directed White House Down, while DiCaprio next stars in the Martin Scorsese-directed The Wolf Of Wall Street. Foxx is repped by CAA, and he, DiCaprio and Appian Way are repped by LBI Entertainment.