ITV

Tag: Sophie Okonedo

  • Tune in to the exclusive premiere of ‘Hotel Rwanda’ this Friday at 9 p.m. only on Star Movies

    MUMBAI: When a country descended into madness and the world turned its back, one man had to make a choice!!! This Friday night, Star Movies presents a true story of a man who fought impossible odds to save everyone he could and created a place where hope survived. Tune in to the Academy Award nominated blockbuster, Hotel Rwanda, starring Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo and Joaquin Phoenix, this Friday, February 16th at 9 p.m. only on Star Movies!

    Ten years ago some of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind took place in the country of Rwanda–and in an era of high-speed communication and round the clock news, the events went almost unnoticed by the rest of the world. In only three months, one million people were brutally murdered. In the face of these unspeakable actions, inspired by his love for his family, an ordinary man summons extraordinary courage to save the lives of over a thousand helpless refugees, by granting them shelter in the hotel he manages.

    Nominated for three Oscar Awards, Hotel Rwanda is the story of Paul Rusesabagina’s courage, which also captures the political events that occurred between April and September 1994. Cheadle gives a riveting performance as Rusesabagina, the manager of a European-owned hotel in Rwanda, who created a secret refugee camp for the Tutsi people during the brutal genocide committed against them by the Hutu people in 1994. His efforts helped to save 1200 lives out of close to a million who were killed.

    Powerful acting from all cast members, including throngs of children, makes this film touching and believable. Sophie Okonedo offers moving support as Rusesabagina’s wife Tatiana, Nick Nolte shows knowing machismo as an American UN officer, and Joaquin Phoenix turns in a heartfelt display as a TV journalist.

    Did you know?

    Because Hotel Rwanda was filmed mostly in South Africa, where road traffic drives on the left-hand side of the road, many of the vehicles are right-hand drive. Rwandans drive on the right side of the road, so the use of right-hand drive cars is incorrect for standard vehicles.

    The mistake is most obvious in the scenes involving buses, which have passenger doors on the left — in Rwanda, people using those buses would be stepping out into the middle of the road. However, some vehicles in Rwanda are right-hand drive.

    On a magazine rack in the lobby of the hotel, there is a copy of Time magazine’s 1992 Man of the Year with Bill Clinton on its cover.

    So don’t forget to tune in this Friday night at 9 p.m. for the exclusive premiere of ‘Hotel Rwanda’ only on Star Movies.

  • BBC Drama bags 10 nominations for Golden Globe Awards

    BBC Drama bags 10 nominations for Golden Globe Awards

    MUMBAI: BBC Drama productions has bagged 10 nominations at the Golden Globe Awards. Bleak House, a BBC/WGBH and Boston/Deep Indigo Production for BBC One, has been nominated in the category of Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for television in the Golden Globe Awards.

    Gillian Anderson is shortlisted for her role as the captivating Lady Deadlock in the Best Performance by an actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture mde for television.Adapted by writer Andrew Davies, the twice-weekly, 14-part drama has been produced by Nigel Stafford-Clark, asserts an official release.

    Gideon’s Daughter, a BBC America/TalkBack production for BBC One, has garnered two acting nominations in the Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for television for stars Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt who have been shortlisted in the supporting role category.

    Written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff, Gideon’s Daughter, is a companion piece to Friends and Crocodiles.Tsunami, The Aftermath, a HBO/Kudos Production for BBC Two by writer Abi Morgan, has received three nominations in the Golden Globes. Sophie Okonedo and Chiwetel Ejio for are shortlisted in the Best Performance by an Actor and Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for television.

    Toni Collette has been nominated in the supporting role category. Finally, Heroes, the new series from creator/writer Tim Kring – licensed by the BBC from NBC Universal International Television Distribution – is nominated in two categories: Best Television Series – Drama, and actor Masi Oka is shortlisted for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for television. The series is due to broadcast on BBC Two in 2007.

    BBC Fiction controller Jane Tranter said, “We’re all delighted that the talent behind our recent drama productions, combined with the best of British acting talent, have earned much deserved presitigious Golden Globe nominations.”

    The Golden Globe Awards will be held on 15 January in Los Angeles.

  • ‘Lost’, ‘Grey’s Anatomy, ‘Weeds’ competing at Golden Globe Awards

    ‘Lost’, ‘Grey’s Anatomy, ‘Weeds’ competing at Golden Globe Awards

    MUMBAI: Nominations for the 64th edition of the Golden Globes have been announced.

    ABC’s hospital soap Grey’s Anatomy and Showtime’s Weeds got four Golden Globe nominations, including best drama and best comedy, respectively.

    Keeping Grey’s Anatomy company for best drama are Lost, 24, Heroes, and Big Love. For comedy the nominees are Desperate Housewives, Weeds, Entourage, The Office and Ugly Betty. In India the Golden Globe Awards will air on Star World next month.

    HBO led the television categories with 14 nominations, followed by ABC with 11, NBC with nine and Showtime with six. HBO’s Elizabeth I and Mrs. Harris got nominated for best mini series or TV movie. Tsunami The Aftermath which will air in India on HBO on 26 December picked up acting nominations for Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sophie Okonedo and Toni Collette.

    On the film side Babel with its multiple narrative threads picked up six nominations along with Martin Scorcese’s gangster epic The Departed. Director Clint Eastwood got two nominations for directing the war films Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. So it is a Clint vs Marty showdown again. Leonardo Dicaprio got two nominations for acting in The Departed and Blood Diamond. On the actress side Helen Mirren is the favourite for the playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen.

  • HBO to premiere “Tsunami: The Aftermath” in Asia

    HBO to premiere “Tsunami: The Aftermath” in Asia

    NEW DELHI: HBO channel today announced the Asia premiere of its latest original mini-series, Tsunami: The Aftermath, a film based on the experiences some tourists had on the two islands of Phuket and Khao Lak in Thailand on the fateful day of 26 December 2004.

    It is a film about how human beings faced personal tragedy and then fought back and rebuilt their lives.

    The film is being released to mark the second anniversary of the catastrophe that had shattered the lives of millions and shaken the world. Suitably, the show will not carry a single commercial, announced HBO country head Shruti Bajpai.

    Bajpai also said that HBO had had a very successful sixth year in India and that the theme for the year 2007 would be “bigger and better”, which she asserted, sans, of course, the revenue figures.

    The mini-series, based on the book of the same name by Morgan Abi, is directed by Bharat Nalluri, originally from Andhra Pradesh, and will have a lot of big names in the cast, including several Academy Award nominees like Tim Roth, Sophie Okonedo, Hugh Bonneville, Gina McKee and others.

    Though the subject had been extensively researched with interviews of survivors, government officials and rescue agencies, the film rotates around a fictional group of tourists. It also a central Thai character, a waiter at the hotel which is the scene of this film, whose own family entirely perishes but who works with the survivors helping them reach higher ground.

    Bajpai was on the defensive regarding no Indians being there in the film, but said that the film transcends national boundaries and represented the true genre of HBO Originals, which are quality productions that provoke thought.

    “One reason we are not running commercials is, we decided that thought this would be a big hit yet, you cannot have a commercial just after a scene of someone dying. There are things we do where we do not look for money. We have enough and more blockbusters and other programmes which get us the money,” she said.

    The key characters include a young couple of African origin searching for their little girl; the Thai waiter who later fights against realtors trying to take over his devastated village; a young journalist (who often gets the wrong end of the stick from survivors); a British official whose faith in the system breaks down, and a Thai meteorologist who had earlier predicted the disaster but had been ignored.

    Tsunami: The Aftermath, has been produced in association with BBC, Bajpai said.

    She also explained that the film was in line with similar, life-based programmes like Band of Brothers on World War II and other quality productions. She said that though this cannot be termed a docudrama, the style is as true to life as possible.

    Terming the channel’s run in India this year as “great”, she said that HBO’s motto for the next year would be “bigger and better.”

    “Bigger,” she explained, “because there would be many more blockbusters. And better because there would be many more such quality productions than in the past.”

    Among the blockbusters coming up on HBO in the first three months of 2007 are King Kong, Da Vinci Code, to be followed later by Batman, Pride and Prejudice, Constantine, a Julia Roberts festival, and Constant Gardner, a moving film on how drug companies exploit African people doing illegal human testing.

    She defended the noticeable reduction of classics from the channel, saying that research showed that there wasn’t too much viewership for that. “Still, we show such films under various themes, like war movies, romances, etc., and that trend shall continue,” she assured.

    There will be, as in every year past, special programmes on Holi, Diwali and other major Indian festivals.

    Refusing to discuss revenue, she said that the growth is about 20 to 25 per cent year-on-year.

    Regarding CAS and fixing of the price pr channel at Rs 5, she said: “We shall go by the orders of the government. The issue is that the whole system will create an environment of choice for the viewers. Our position is that when that when that choice is made, we should be part of that choice… people should say, ‘give us HBO, we shall pay for it’.”On the issue of which is the number one entertainment channel, Bajpai said that this never really works out, because on some occasions one channel is on top, the others are not, and then over the next few hours, the situation can reverse.

    “We can assert that we are among the top English entertainment channels, but if I say that we are always higher rated than our rivals, that may not be true all the time. But yes, in the English entertainment category, it is among the top two. The others are way behind.”

  • BBC. HBO to collaborate on ‘Tsunami’ drama

    BBC. HBO to collaborate on ‘Tsunami’ drama

    MUMBAI: Following the success of Rome, the BBC and HBO will collaborate on a two part drama that deals with the tsunami tragedy and the events that followed.

    Tim Roth, Toni Collette, Sophie Okonedo are among the actors that will star. The drama will focus on the aftermath of the cataclysmic natural disaster.

    Developed and written by Abi Morgan, Tsunami is a Kudos production for BBC Two and HBO Films and will air later this year.

    A tale of personal loss, Tsunami follows a group of fictitious characters whose lives are irrevocably transformed by the natural disaster. Based on extensive research and interviews, the drama explores how governments, the media and aid agencies respond, when without warning, they are tested by a natural disaster of this scale.

    The drama will also tackle the relationship between mankind and nature.

    Kudos has been collaborating with local communities and the piece will feature a variety of locations and landmarks affected by the tsunami. Filming on location in Phuket and Khao Lak has commenced.

    BBC controller of drama commissioning Jane Tranter says, “A thought provoking drama of loss, survival and hope, Tsunami is another example of BBC Drama’s commitment to deliver ambitious and distinctive projects that reflect the world in which we live by delving into the headlines and revealing the stories behind them.”

    Kudos executive producer and joint MD Jane Featherstone says, “The catastrophic events of Boxing day 2004 had a profound and lasting effect on people across the globe. Through meticulously researching real life events, real people and working closely with the survivor groups Abi has written a wonderful, powerful drama that purposely asks what mankind can learn from the event, as well as reflecting on the far reaching emotional and political repercussions of that fateful day.”

    BBC Two controller Roly Keating says, “It is a tribute to the power of Abi’s writing that such an extraordinary cast has come together for this important TV event.”