Tag: Lucy Liu

  • AXN upgrades weekend entertainment with Limitless and season 4 of Elementary

    AXN upgrades weekend entertainment with Limitless and season 4 of Elementary

    MUMBAI: AXN, the English entertainment channel, is bringing two new shows for its ‘Fresh From The U.S.’ slot -Limitless and season 4 of Elementary. Limitless will premiere on 21 November 2015 and can be seen every Saturday at 11 pm and Elementary will air on 22 November at 10 pm.

     

    Talking about the two new shows, Sony PIX & AXN India executive vice-president and business head Saurabh Yagnik said, “In order to cater to the TG who seeks new and latest content that airs day-and-date with the U.S., we had created a specific slot – ‘Fresh From The U.S.’ – wherein we have been programming the freshest shows and their latest seasons over the weekends. This exclusive slot is a perfect getaway for viewers to experience new, fresh stories, never-seen-before on Indian television. With premieres of iconic shows like Limitless and Elementary (Season 4), we continue to live up to the brand promise of providing a thrilling entertainment experience.”

     

    Elementary stars Jonny Lee Miller as detective Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as Dr. Joan Watson. Elementary is the modern-day drama about a crime-solving duo that cracks NYPD’s most impossible cases. In this season, Holmes and Watson must rely upon one another to rebuild their lives, notwithstanding the untimely return of Sherlock’s estranged but wealthy father, Morland Holmes. 

     

    Limitless a spinoff of the 2011 thriller of the same name, features Jake McDorman and Jennifer Carpenter as the leads and is produced by Bradley Cooper, the original main character from the film, plays U.S. Senator Eddie Morra. In the show, protagonist Brian Finch, played by Jake McDorman, is seen discovering the brain-boosting power of the mysterious drug NZT. He is then forced by the FBI into using his extraordinary cognitive abilities to solve complex cases for them. 

     

    Limitless debuted in the US on September 22, 2015. On October 23, 2015, CBS picked up Limitless for a full season of 22 episodes. It airs on CBS every Tuesday night. 

  • It’s a first! Watch 4 Hollywood premieres on &pictures

    It’s a first! Watch 4 Hollywood premieres on &pictures

    MUMBAI: As the month of December approaches, the air is filled with hearty celebrations and entertainment galore. In keeping with the festive spirit and continuing to provide its audiences with fresh and clutter-breaking content, &pictures, India’s premium Hindi movie channel will soon premiere an amalgamation of four blockbuster action-packed Hollywood movies for the first time ever on Hindi television! Airing under its popular band ‘Hollywood Sundays’, the channel will also offer its viewers an exciting movie experience as the mega-hit movies premieres will be simulcast on &pictures as well as &pictures HD every Sunday at 12 noon from 7 December.

     

    &pictures will showcase an exciting line-up of superhit Hollywood blockbusters, starting with Charlie’s Angels- Full Throttle, starring Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz in the lead. The story revolves around the action packed life of three angels who investigate a series of murders which occur after the theft of a witness protection profile database. Next in the line-up on December 14th is Transformers starring Shia Labeouf, Megan Fox and Josh Duhamel, a science fiction action film based on the Transformers toy line. The film combines computer animation with live-action. The next movie on 21st December is Mission Impossible 3 starring Tom Cruise, Michelle Monaghan and Ving Rhames. The story follows the action-packed mission of Ethan Hunt who comes face to face with a dangerous and sadistic arms dealer while trying to keep his identity secret in order to protect his girlfriend. Culminating the festive programming is the light hearted, fast-moving animation film Kung Fu Panda on 28th December, a movie that fits every age group and has been exceedingly loved and adored by all.

     

    Speaking of the festive line-up, Ruchir Tiwari, Deputy Business Head, Hindi Movie Channels, ZEEL, stated, “This festive season, we want to give our viewers a complete family entertainment with a mix of action, comedy and animated movies on Hollywood Sundays. We have hand-picked the best of Hollywood titles and are certain that our audiences will enjoy watching them.”

  • No takers for Lucy Liu’s film Meena in India

    No takers for Lucy Liu’s film Meena in India

    MUMBAI: Charlie’s Angels star Lucy Liu’s ready to release film Meena is not finding any buyers in the country. Distributors here feel that a serious film like this doesn’t have a market in the country.

    The 30-minute narrative-style feature tracks the true story of a real-life sex worker Meena Hasina, as shown in the book, Half The Sky by Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

    In actuality, Hasina was abducted from her village in Bihar at the age of 10 and brought to Mumbai where she grew up in a brothel. After escaping from the brothel, she made it her life’s mission to help as many of her sex-worker colleagues to escape from a life of prostitution as possible.

    The film has been shot mainly in the narrow alleys of Versova Village and at a bungalow in Andheri.

    Back in 2010, Liu visited India discreetly to shoot her directorial debut film Meena that is also one of six features that make up the US tele-series, Half the Sky.

  • MTV Network’s fourth annual presentation addresses industry needs

    MTV Network’s fourth annual presentation addresses industry needs

    MUMBAI: At its fourth annual joint upfront presentation, MTV Networks (MTVN) presented the advertising community with a multi-platform message underscoring how the company’s brands –MTV, MTV2, Vh1, Comedy Central, CMT, Logo, Nick at Nite, Spike TV, The N and TV Land — are best positioned to feed the needs of both consumers and advertisers in the digital media age.

    The presentation, led by MTVN chairman and CEO Judy McGrath, focused on how the company’s multiple platforms, global reach and unrivalled brand strength connect to audiences worldwide offer advertisers many opportunities to reach viewers of all ages and demographics.
    Held on 2 May in New York City, the event was highlighted by exclusive musical performances and special guest appearances by some of the biggest names in entertainment.

    Among those featured were Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jerry Seinfeld, Kanye West, Jamie Foxx, Lucy Liu, Jessica Alba, Jon Stewart, Mr. T, Miss America Jennifer Berry, The Hogans, Jesse McCartney, Miranda Lambert, Carlos Mencia, Chris Kattan, Ludacris, Stephen Colbert and Sarah Silverman among others, informs an official release.

    “MTV Networks is all about developing original content specifically for every platform, for television, wireless and broadband,” said McGrath. “In a lot of ways, the technology has finally caught up with us. We are the only pure play content company with a global footprint and a multi-media playbook.”

    Through its 122 channels, more than 100 Web sites, broadband channels and mobile content spanning 171 countries and territories, MTVN continues to set the standard for creating relevant content that connects with target audiences throughout the demographic spectrum and across the digital landscape.

    MTVN’s portfolio of brands is reaching its highest audience levels ever, at a time when more than 61 per cent of its core viewers consume their entertainment content on multiple screens.

    McGrath continued, “We have the most loyal and digitally wired audiences in the world, the very consumers who are driving the digital revolution. Our portfolio of brands is enjoying record audience levels because wherever our viewers are, we know how best to connect to them with original and relevant content. Our advertisers know this, and they can count on us to reach every demographic across the trusted and influential environments we create worldwide.”

    MTV Networks president and COO Michael Wolf remarked, “If there’s one thing that has become clear in this multiplatform world, it’s that brands matter, and we know that our audiences look to MTVN as the navigator through their choices. Because we listen to them, they’ve led us to other businesses that they find relevant, which means MTVN now has even more touch points for advertisers. We know that our audiences are into user-generated content, social networking and gaming, so we’ve made strategic acquisitions like IFilm, GameTrailers, NeoPets and, just last week, XFire.”

    MTVN’s 2006 Upfront presentation also took a look at the company’s first-of-its-kind Multiplatform Engagement and Transference Study. The study was a survey providing new insight into the effectiveness of advertising and the impact of entertainment brands that live across multiple platforms.

    The study, done in partnership with OTX, focused on quantifying audience “Engagement” — defined as a deep consumer connection to a media brand’s content — and “Transference”- – the degree that consumers extend the positive feelings they have for media brands to the advertisers associated with them.

    Among the survey’s key findings were:
    * Engagement and Transference multiply when media and advertising embrace multiple platforms;
    * Regular viewers of MTV Networks are more strongly engaged with and influenced by the advertisements they see versus viewers of broadcast or other cable networks
    * The MTV Networks’ brand family offers the strongest Transference of positive brand feelings not only on television, but also on broadband
    and online platforms.

    “We set out to do an expansive study to find how consumers react to multiplatform media brands as content providers and advertising vehicles,” said MTVN executive VP research Colleen Fahey Rush.

    “As programmers looking to forge the strongest relationship we can with our consumers, we’ve deployed content on all platforms, on every screen.”

    Fahey Rush also said, “We know that advertisers and agencies are looking for a compass in navigating this emerging digital world. Associating themselves with the strongest brands that are creating terrific opportunities to reach consumers in a well-rounded, multiplatform way looks to be an effective strategy, as proven by this study.”

  • YouTube.com and Weinstein Co. to feature ‘Lucky Number Slevin’ content on Web

    YouTube.com and Weinstein Co. to feature ‘Lucky Number Slevin’ content on Web

    MUMBAI: Viral video site YouTube.com and the Weinstein Company will feature the first eight minutes of the thriller Lucky Number Slevin.

    Lucky Number Slevin is in theaters nationwide in US, which stars Josh Hartnett, Morgan Freeman, Lucy Liu and Bruce Willis. TWC is offering YouTube users an exclusive first glance of the first eight minutes of the movie on the web.

    In an official statement issued, this marks the first time that the opening of a feature film will be released specifically for the YouTube audience.

    The Weinstein Company executive vice president Gary Faber stated, “Audiences love the opening of Lucky Number Slevin — the twists and turns, all set up in this eight minute opening are one of the major reasons why word-of-mouth on the film has been so overwhelmingly positive. Deciding to partner with YouTube was a no-brainer — what better way to help fuel the film’s positive buzz than by partnering with the number one word-of-mouth website out there today.”

    “Bringing more entertaining and exclusive content to YouTube helps further our goal of providing the best video experience on the Internet,” said YouTube VP programming Kevin Donahue.

    “The Weinstein Company is one of the most progressive movie studios moving beyond traditional means to promote its films with original video programming on YouTube,” adds Donahue

    Lucky Number Slevin is a thriller that moves its way through an underworld of crime and revenge where nothing is as it seems. Set in New York City, a case of mistaken identity lands Slevin (Josh Hartnett) into the middle of a war being plotted by two of the city’s most rival crime bosses: The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley) and The Boss (Morgan Freeman).

    Slevin is under constant surveillance by relentless Detective Brikowski (Stanley Tucci) as well as the infamous assassin Goodkat (Bruce Willis) and finds himself having to hatch his own ingenious plot to escape the maze alive.

    Also starring Lucy Liu, Lucky Number Slevin is directed by Paul McGuigan and written by Jason Smilovic. The movie is a MGM release of a TWC presentation.

    In addition to Lucky Number Slevin, Deep Focus, the advertising agency for TWC, has reached YouTube’s audience to promote recent films by posting trailers for Scary Movie 4, which has been viewed nearly 1.5M times on YouTube, and Clerks II, which is gaining steam with more than 200,000 video views on the site, informs an official release.

    “Prior to YouTube, there was no other way to premiere the first few minutes of a movie in a viral way,” said Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer.

    “With help from the YouTube community, Scary Movie 4 had a record-breaking box office release. With the upcoming release of Clerks II and with Lucky Number Slevin in theaters nationwide, we are excited to continue to find cool, new ways to bring our movies to market,” said Schafer.