MUMBAI: It is believed that Russell Crowe is in talks to star in forthcoming Dracula re-imagining Harker.
The 47-year-old is in talks to appear in the re-imagining of Bram Stoker‘s Dracula as a tough London detective on the hunt for the ghoulish figure behind a string of gory murders, reported Contactmusic.
The film, produced by Warner Bros, will be directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio.
Crowe is currently working on Superman: Man of Steel.
MUMBAI: Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum Valentine‘s Day romantic drama The Vow opened to a sizable $41.7 million followed closely by the Denzel Washington-Ryan Reynolds action-thriller Safe House with $39.3 million.
The Vow, directed by Michael Stucsy and costing $30 million to produce, opened in 20 markets overseas, grossing $9.7 million for a worldwide opening take of $52.4 million.
One advantage Safe House had was an A- CinemaScore, versus a B CinemaScore for The Vow. Safe House played far better than expected among females, who made up 50 percent of the audience.
The films vastly over-performed, driving the weekend up more than 30 per cent from the same period last year. In the best showing for a non-holiday weekend in February, the overall revenue hit a staggering $190 million.
The superb opening of The Vow and Universal‘s Safe House wasn‘t the only surprise. Warner Bros. and New Line‘s Journey 2: The Mysterious Island raced past 20th Century Fox’s 3D rerelease of George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode 1 — The Phantom Menace to gross $27.6 million while Phantom Menace opened to $23 million.
This is the first time four films, outside of a holiday weekend, have crossed $20 million. In 2011, domestic box-office revenue tumbled and attendance slipped. On the same day last year, revenue went north by more than 11 per cent compared to last year while attendance has increased by 11 per cent.
The revenue incurred by Journey 2 was evidenced by the fact that it was up an astonishing 94 percent on Saturday, compared to 9 per cent for The Vow and 19 per cent for Safe House.
Journey 2 did big business in Imax theaters that generated $3.8 million of the film‘s gross, or 14 percent, according to IMAX senior vp worldwide distribution Phil Groves.
MUMBAI: The representatives from the Department of Tourism, Thailand Film Office have called for increased regional cooperation among film commissions in the Asean countries during the recently concluded Asian Film Commissions Network (AFCnet), ASEAN – ROK Cooperation Project in Vietnam and Myanmar.
“AFCnet efforts at encouraging film commissions in the region to share their expertise and co-venture with one another is a way to expand our business efforts in a very competitive international environment,” said Thailand Film Office Film Business Promotion Section chief Worateera Suvarnsorn,.
Suvarnsorn along with Ubolwan Sucharitakul, Chief of the Thailand Film Office Shooting Permit Consideration Section ,had presented a Thailand Case Study titled “Invigorating Tourism Through Films” at the event.
Citing several of Thailand’s high profile foreign productions filmed in the Kingdom, such as 20th Century Fox’s The Beach (2000), and Warner Bros‘ The Hangover Part II (2011), Sucharitakul called for coordinated film tourism routes to be promoted which will facilitate increased tourism between neighboring countries.
The Seminar, a series of information and networking meetings sponsored by AFCnet and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea, was held with film commission representatives of Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and the Philippines in preparation for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) which will come into effect in 2015.
MUMBAI: Washington DC-based digital film distributor SnagFilms has closed a $7 million equity and debt financing deal as part of its ambitious plans to accelerate the company‘s growth.
In addition to new equity, the company has arranged its first debt facility with Silicon Valley Bank. The deal will see veteran media and Internet executive Terry Semel and David Fialkow, co-founder and managing director of General Catalyst Partners joining the company as new investors.
Semel, who is also the former chairman of Former Yahoo Inc. and Warner Bros, will also join the company‘s board.
The new funding will be used by SnagFilms to extend a library of high-quality independent films that now numbers over 3000 titles and includes fictional films in addition to documentaries; to continue its technology development to provide films across all digital platforms and devices; and to market its films in all channels.
SnagFilms had expanded its library last besides increasing its presence on over 100 devices, including 95 per cent of all tablets, all Android smartphones, OTT devices and connected TVs, and throughout the web world on its website and extensive digital network of affiliated sites and blogs.
The company also significantly expanded its transactional platform distribution with Comcast and FiOS video on demand and with digital pay-on-demand platforms iTunes, Hulu, Amazon, YouTube Movies, and will soon launch on DirecTV and digital streaming providers Vudu, Samsung Media Hub and XBOX Live.
"After a phenomenal year of growth in 2011, SnagFilms is poised for even greater success in 2012," stated Ted Leonsis, SnagFilms‘ founder and chairman. "This new investment by all our current investors, along with new funding from two tech and media-savvy newcomers, are true testaments to our strong belief in SnagFilms‘ tremendous potential for long term success. Digital delivery isn‘t just the wave of the future — it is the driving force now for filmmakers to reach large audiences and spread their passion, and to create new revenue streams that make their next film possible."
"I have spent a long time at the intersection of films and new media," said Terry Semel, former Co-CEO and Co-Chair of Warner Bros and CEO and Chairman of Yahoo. "Movie studios don‘t have a monopoly on great stories, yet small distribution companies struggle to assemble the footprint necessary to reach a scale audience. SnagFilms has that base — the necessary contracts and relationships to distribute thousands of great stories, with the capital required to lead its field."
MUMBAI: DC Entertainment, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company and home tobrands DC Comics, Vertigo and Mad, has revealed a new brand identity.
The new identity is reflective of the company‘s mission to fully realise the value of a rich portfolio of brands, stories and characters, distinguished by incredible breadth and depth across publishing, media and merchandise. A new logo for DC Comics was also introduced, closely aligning with DC Entertainment‘s new mark.
DC Entertainment executive VP of sales, marketing and business development John Rood said, “It‘s a new era at DC Entertainment and the new look reflects a dynamic, bold approach while at the same time celebrates the company‘s rich heritage and robust portfolio of characters. It was just a few months ago that Superman, Batman and many of our other Super Heroes were updated when we launched DC Comics – The New 52 and now it‘s time to do the same for the company‘s identity while remaining true to the power of storytelling which is still at the heart of DC Entertainment.”
DC Entertainment worked with Landor Associates, a brand consulting and design firm to develop an identity that creates a visual connection among the company, its three brands (DC Comics, Vertigo and Mad) and its array of properties as well as celebrates the power of the company‘s stories and characters.
The design of the new DC Entertainment identity uses a “peel” effect – the D is strategically placed over the C with the upper right-hand portion of the D peeling back to unveil the hidden C – symbolizing the duality of the iconic characters that are present within DC Entertainment‘s portfolio.
Landor‘s San Francisco office executive creative director Nicolas Aparicio said, “It was our goal to capture DC Entertainment in a dynamic and provocative identity. Our solution is a living expression which changes and adapts to the characters, story lines and the ways fans are consuming content. The new identity is built for the digital age, and can easily be animated and customised to take full advantage of the interactivity offered across all media platforms.”
The new brand identity will come to life across all consumer touch points in order to create a clear and consistent message in support of DC Entertainment.
The new identity will begin to appear on comic books and graphic novels as well as new websites in March. Consumers will also see the new identity rolled out over time on other DC Entertainment products from Warner Bros. including film, television, interactive games and merchandise.
DC Entertainment senior VP of franchise management Amit Desai said, “We believe our new brand identity will strongly resonate with our loyal fans who will want to proudly express their affinity for DC Entertainment and their passion for their favorite stories and characters, this new look allows them to easily do this. In addition we were excited to update our identity, it‘s not often a company gets to revisit something as important as its brand and we took the opportunity to make sure it represented the multi-media business we set out to build with the formation of DC Entertainment”.
MUMBAI: Kate Beckinsale’s latest Underworld movie Underworld Awakening opened at No. 1 this weekend after making an estimated $25.4 million, it is understood.
While this is the fourth film in the vampire action saga, Beckinsale starred in the first two films as the warrior Selene. After taking a reprieve for part three, she returns for this latest installment.
Underworld Awakening was shown for the first time in 3D as well as on IMAX screens, where it made $3.8 million or in short 15 per cent of the film‘s weekend gross.
Distributor Sony Screen Gems had hoped the film would end up in the low-$20 million range. But according to the studio‘s president of worldwide distribution Rory Bruer the film did even better despite a snow storm that hit much of the Midwest and East Coast.
Opening in second place was Red Tails from executive producer George Lucas, about the Tuskegee Airmen who were the first black fighter pilots to serve in World War II. The film made an estimated $19.1 million, according to 20th Century Fox, which was well above expectations.
Last week‘s No. 1 film, the Universal smuggling thriller ‘Contraband‘ starring Mark Wahlberg, dropped to the No. 3 spot with $12.2 million. It‘s now made $46.1 million in two weeks.
The 9/11 drama from Warner Bros., starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, came in fourth place with $10.5 million.
Meanwhile, Steven Soderbergh‘s international action film Haywire from Relativity Media, starring mixed martial arts superstar Gina Carano in her first film role, opened in fifth place with $9 million.
MUMBAI: As part of the promotion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at the Oscars, Warner Bros has launched a campaign to have the film recognized at the Academy Awards.
In the decade since their inception, Harry Potter movies have made around 5 billion pounds and won critical acclaim but an Oscar has always eluded them.
Warner Bros is now making one last push to break the spell by lobbying Academy voters to nominate Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in a dozen categories including best picture and best director.
It is also trying to get Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson nominated in the best actor and actress categories respectively.
The most likely chance of success comes in the best supporting actor category with Alan Rickman‘s performance as Professor Severus Snape
Till date, Harry Potter films have been nominated for nine Oscars but have failed to win any. The categories for which the films have been nominated include best art direction, best score and best cinematography. The studio is running special trailers and advertising campaigns in the film‘s honour.
The ballot closes on January 13 and the nominations will be announced on January 24.
MUMBAI: Taking the crown away from Warner Bros, that was on a winning streak for the last five years, Paramount ranked No. 1 in market share at the domestic box office in 2011 with a global total to $5.17 billion.
Among Paramount‘s 2011 titles, Dark of the Moon grossed $1.123 billion worldwide followed by DreamWorks Animation‘s Kung Fu Panda 2 with $665.7 million. The Paranormal Activity threequel grossed $203 million — after only costing $5 million to make. Ghost Protocol, on the other hand that released around Christmas, has grossed $366.5 million worldwide in less than three weeks.
Overseas too, Paramount became the first studio in history to jump the $3 billion mark with its titles earning $3.21 billion. Paramount is credited for its fine-tuned marketing and distribution units, as well as for a focused development slate.
Compared to Paramount, Warner Bros.‘ films took in $2.86 billion overseas for a global total of $4.67 billion, the second-best showing after Paramount among the Hollywood studios.
“Over the last six years, we‘ve achieved everything we hoped we would,” Paramount chairman and CEO Brad Grey has been reported as saying.
“We had three major franchise titles in 2011, Michael Bay‘s Dark of the Moon, Paranormal Activity 3 and the recalibration of Mission: Impossible–Ghost Protocol, with Tom Cruise doing a great job.”
Paramount has also revealed its 2012 slate that will include films like Paranormal Activity 4, Brad Pitt’s World War Z, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and The Dictator.
MUMBAI: Having grossed an estimated $6.4 million for a cume of $32.4 million and worldwide total of $128.4 million, Paramount Studio‘s Tom Cruise starrer Mission: Impossible–Ghost Protocol continued to be at the top the domestic box office on Thursday.
The Brad Bird-directed film has earned $96 million internationally since its release last week. The film is expected to post a first-place gross of $40 to $45 million for the Wednesday-Sunday stretch.
After three weekends of woe at the box office, traffic has picked up this week as Christmas approaches. But the real test will be the week between Christmas and New Year when movie going escalates.
With Christmas day falling on a Sunday this year, Saturday will be a wash at the multiplex because of Christmas Eve. Christmas itself can be a strong day after presents are opened.
Commanding the No. 2 position on Thursday was Warner Bros.‘ Sherlock Holmes–A Game of Shadows that grossed $4.8 million for a seven-day domestic cume of $58.8 million.
After children flocked to see Fox‘s Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, the film moved up the chart to No. 3 grossing $4 million for a seven-day domestic cume of $36.9 million.
On the other hand, Steven Spielberg‘s 3D family film The Adventures of Tintin came in No. 5 on Thursday at the domestic box office preceded by Sony‘s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at No. 4 in its second day of full play, grossing $3.3 million for a cume of $8.4 million.
MUMBAI: Warner Bros. Pictures India is all set to release Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows on 29 December. The film, directed by Guy Ritchie, has Robert Downey Jr essaying the role of the world‘s most famous detective, while Jude Law returns as his formidable colleague Dr Watson.
When the Crown Prince of Austria is found dead, the evidence, as construed by Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan), points to suicide. But Holmes assumes that the prince has been the victim of murder, a murder that is only one piece of a larger and much more portentous puzzle, designed by Professor Moriarty, a criminal mastermind at large.
Mixing business with pleasure, Holmes tracks the clues to an underground gentlemen‘s club, where he and his brother, Mycroft Holmes (Stephen Fry) are toasting Dr. Watson on his last night of bachelorhood.
It is there that Holmes encounters Sim (Noomi Rapace), a Gypsy fortune teller who sees more than she is telling and whose unwitting involvement in the prince‘s murder makes her the killer‘s next target. Holmes barely manages to save her life and, in return, she reluctantly agrees to help him.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, a Silver Pictures Production and .