MUMBAI: Director Martin Scorsese has been sued by Cecchi Gori Pictures for going back on his promise of making a film project that he agreed to do 22 years ago.
According to the production house, the 69-year-old had entered into an agreement to make a film titled Silence way back in 1990. But, it was put on the back burner so that he could work on three of his films — The Departed, Shutter Island and Hugo.
The director had reportedly signed a new agreement to make Silence again in 2004 but kept delaying the project to make Wolf of Wall Street.
It is said that Scorsese paid for the right to do each of those films before Silence but never paid the hefty fee for Hugo.
The suit alleges the director owing Cecchi Gori Pictures a fee of $1.5 million, plus the value of his producer title on ‘Hugo‘ + 20 perc ent of his back-end on ‘Hugo‘.
Meanwhile, Martin Scorsese‘s representatives expressed shock that that Cecchi Gori Pictures has sued the famed director.
"It is shocking to us that the lawyers for Cecchi Gori Pictures would file a suit pursuing such absurd claims considering the amicable working relationship existing between Martin Scorsese and the principals of Cecchi Gori Pictures," Scorsese‘s representatives said in a statement.
"Mr. Scorsese is confident that he will prevail in court should Cecchi Gori Pictures actually pursue this meritless action," the statement added.
Tag: Hugo
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Martin Scorsese faces lawsuit for delayed project
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‘The Artist’, ‘Hugo’ win five Oscars each
MUMBAI: Silent black and white film ‘The Artist‘ and Martin Scorcese‘s 3D children‘s film ‘Hugo‘ bagged five Oscar Awards each this morning. The 84th edition of the show aired live on Star Movies.
While ‘Hugo‘ dominated the technical categories winning in areas like sound, the Artist took home the big awards for picture, director and actor. It also won a couple of technical awards in score and costume design.
The biggest applause, though, was reserved for Meryl Streep who won an Oscar after 29 years playing Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron Lady‘. She said, “When they called my name, I had this feeling I could hear half of America go, ‘Oh, no, why her again?‘ But whatever.
“I really understand I‘ll never be up here again. I really want to think all my colleagues, my friends. I look out here and I see my life before my eyes, my old friends, my new friends.
Really, this is such a great honour but the think that counts the most with me is the friendship and the love and the sheer job we‘ve shared making moves together”.After ‘The Artist‘ won, the director Michel Hazanavicius thanked Hollywood great Billy Wilder thrice showing the influence that old Hollywood had on the film.
Streep received a standing ovation as did a tearful Octavia Spencer who won for ‘The Help‘ and Christopher Plummer who won for ‘Beginners‘. Plummer and Streep‘s awards could be seen as a reward for a lifetime of excellent work.
It was a triumphant night for Harvey Weinstein who is back in the Oscar race with a big bang. Last year ‘The Kings Speech‘ which he championed took home best picture. This time he bought the rights to distribute the Artist. The Weinstein Company had also gone into overdrive pushing Streep for a long awaited win. Its documentary film ‘Undefeated‘ also won for best documentary.
In the foreign language category, Iran‘s ‘A Separation‘ won. Woody Allen was a no show, although he won for Best Original Screenplay for Midnight In Paris. The George Clooney starrer, ‘The Descendants‘, was rewarded with Best Adapted Screenplay.
Meanwhile ‘War Horse‘, the Steven Spielberg and Anil Ambani co-production, went home empty handed as did ‘The Tree Of Life‘ and ‘Moneyball‘. One of the highlights was a performance by Cirque Du Soleil. The show‘s host Billy crystal did a crisp job and the show finished in just over three hours. It was shorter in duration than most of the previous editions of the Oscar Awards ceremony Awards.
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‘Hugo’, ‘The Artist’ top Oscar nominations
MUMBAI: Martin Scorcese‘ 3D family film ‘Hugo‘ has got 11 Oscar nominations while the silent black and white film ‘The Artist‘ got 10 nominations for the 84th annual Oscar Awards, making it a clear two- horse race.
The show will air on Star Movies on 27 February.
‘The Artist‘ is the first black and white film to get a best picture nomination since ‘Good Night and Good Luck‘ in 2005. ‘Hugo is the fourth film released in 3D to score a best picture nomination, after ‘Avatar‘, ‘Up‘ and ‘Toy Story 3‘. If it is able to stop ‘The Artist‘s momentum, then it would be the first 3D film to win best picture.
This year nine films have been nominated for best picture the most surprising being ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close‘. Another surprise was ‘The Tree Of Life‘ which among other things got nominated for picture and director Terrance Mallick despite having been previously ignored during the Oscar season.
‘War Horse‘ from Dreamworks and Reliance Entertainment got six nominations including best picture.Spielberg has been left off the director‘s list. However Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg now have the record for most best picture nominations for a producer with seven, passing Stanley Kramer.
‘The Descendants‘, which was earlier considered one of the front runners, only got five nominations making it virtually impossible for it to win Best Picture. However George Clooney is the favourite to win best actor for his role as a father trying to cope with grief over the fact that his wife is in a coma.
Clooney‘s competition includes Gary Oldman who finally scored his first Oscar nomination for ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy‘, Surprisingly Leonardo DiCaprio has been left in the cold for his turn as former FBI director J Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood‘s ‘J. Edgar‘.
In best actress, it is a two-way fight between Meryl Streep playing Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron Lady‘ and Viola Davis for ‘The Help‘. ‘The Help‘ is another best picture nominee and means that Dreamworks is the only studio to have two films competing for best film.Like ‘War Horse‘, ‘Moneyball‘ has also got six nominations including for best picture and for its stars Brad Pitt and Jonah hill. It is a serious threat for adapted screenplay.
Woody Allen‘s ‘Midnight In Paris‘ scored four nominations including two for Allen for directing and writing. It has been over two decades since Allen last won an Oscar. He could win for original screenplay unless ‘The Artist‘ does a sweep.
John Williams got two nominations for his scores for the two Spielberg films ‘War Horse‘ and ‘The Adventures of Tintin‘. He has now been nominated 47 times. Allen has now been nominated 23 times. Interestingly while ‘Hugo‘, ‘Midnight in Paris‘, ‘The Tree of Life‘ and ‘War Horse‘ got best picture nominations they did not get any acting nominations. Apart from Dicaprio other surprising omissions include ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo‘, ‘Drive‘, which are not on the best picture list.
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10 films shortlisted for Oscar VFX category
MUMBAI: Members of the Visual Effects Branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have shortlisted ten films for the ‘Visual Effects‘ category.
Among the films that have been shortlisted are Hugo, The Tree of Life, Captain America: The First Avenger, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Real Steel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and X-Men: First Class.
All members of the visual effects branch of the Academy will view 10-minute excerpts from each of the 10 shortlisted films on January 19 and vote for five final nominees for the award.
The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on January 24.
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Scorcese to receive Critics’ Choice award
MUMBAI: Martin Scorcese has been named recepient of the second Music+Film Award by the Broadcast Film Critics‘ Association. The award will be presented to Scorcese at the Critics‘ Choice Movie Awards on January 12.
The award, according to a BFCA press release, “honours a single filmmaker who has touched audiences through cinematic storytelling, and has heightened the impact of films through the brilliant use of source and original music.” The inaugural Music+Film Award was given to Quentin Tarantino.
Scorcese, whose latest film is Hugo, is known for his use of rock songs in films like Mean Streets, GoodFellas and The Departed. He has also directed a string of concert films and rock documentaries, from The Last Waltz and Shine A Light to documentaries like No Direction Home and George Harrison: Living In The Material World.
With a voting body of more than 250 television, radio and online critics, the show is known to be a reliable predictor of Academy Award winners.
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15 films in Academy’s visual effects list
MUMBAI: Narrowing the race for films in the ‘Visual Effects‘ category, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has declared the names of fifteen films that would view to be among the finalists.
The films that have been selected are Captain America: The First Avenger,Cowboys & Aliens, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Hugo, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Real Steel,Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Sucker Punch, Super 8,Thor, Transformers: Dark of the Moon,The Tree of Life and X-Men: First Class.
Going by the quality of the visual effects, films like Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Hugo, Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon and Harry Potter and the Death Hallows, Part 2 would definitely be among the finalists.
The next step is that in early January, members connected to the Academy‘s Visual Effects, who selected the abovementioned films, will narrow the list to 10. All members of the Visual Effects branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the 10 short listed films on January 19 and after the screenings, the members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.
The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on January 24 next year.
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NYFF screens unfinished version of Scorsese’ Hugo
MUMBAI: The New York Film Festival (NYFF) recently screened an unfinished version of Martin Scorsese‘s Hugo.
The film screened as a mystery booking at NYFF, which announced last week that it would be showing a new work-in-progress by a master director. By the weekend, all interested parties had essentially figured out that the movie would be “Hugo.”
The film tells the story of a young boy who lives in a 1930s Paris train station and whose life intersects with that of the pioneering French director Georges Melies.
Hugo is based on Brian Selznick‘s book The Invention of Hugo Cabret and according to viewers, it is less of a children‘s film than Scorsese‘s cinematic history lesson, and his valentine to the early days of cinema.
Before the screening, Scorsese told the audience that his film still needed color correction, some visual effects and additional work on music and sound.