Archive for the ‘Hollywood’ Category

Coen BrothersThe Brothers are back! what a joy! Aha..we just love them. Name any film of theirs and we bet, we can  watch it one more time. And give us Miller’s Crossing some million times, we still would not get bored.

The first trailer of A Serious Man is out. Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. This one looks like Coen Brothers’ version of Synecdoche, New York. Dark, funny, insane. And how often a film’s trailer is cut on the sound of a man’s head being slammed across a wall. We are loving it!

And here is the synopsis of the film, according to Slashfilm…

A Serious Man is the story of an ordinary man’s search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and “F-Troop” is on TV. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous colleagues, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), who seems to her a more substantial person than the feckless Larry.

While his wife and Sy Ableman blithely make new domestic arrangements, and his brother becomes more and more of a burden, an anonymous hostile letter-writer is trying to sabotage Larry’s chances for tenure at the university. Struggling for equilibrium, Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis. Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions and become a righteous person – a mensch – a serious man? 

cinemaWe are the world, if we go by the mind-boggling numbers regarding Indian cinema. Chew on and see if you can digest!

We hav tried to simplify the numbers as mentioned in Focus 2009 – World Film Market Trend, a report by  European Audiovisual Observatory, a public service body gathering and distributing information on the audiovisual industry. ( figures according to 2007-2008 releases)

 – The Indian film industry produced 1132 feature films in 2007. In comparison, the American film industry in 2008 produced 520 feature films, Japan 418 and China 400.

– India also has the cheapest movie tickets for any major film producing nation.

 – For theatre admissions, India’s count was 3.3 billion for 2008 and was higher than the combined total of the next nine biggest film producing countries. The US was the only other country to have more than a billion admissions.

– India has the cheapest ticket price averaging $0.5 (Rs 22). The average price of a ticket in the nine other big film producing countries ranges between $2.2 in China and $11.7 in Japan.

– The low ticket price accounts for the fact that gross box office collections of the Indian film industry – $1.8 billion in 2007 – are behind those of the US and Japan. With $9.7 billion collected at the American box offices in 2008, the US tops the charts followed by Japan with $1.9 billion.

– Among the major film markets, India is the only one in which Hollywood blockbusters, even after being dubbed in various local languages, have not managed to give local movies a serious challenge.

 – Not one of the top 10 films in India ranked by admissions or box office collections was from the US. In contrast, 8 of the top 10 films in the UK and Spain originated from America, Germany had 7 US films in its top 10, Korea and Italy 6 each, Japan 4, France 3 and China 2.

– In terms of multiplex screens – USA has over 29,000 screens, India has only 850, ahead only of Korea among the top 10 film markets of the world.

Aha…the melodrama in our DNA……we, the billion plus!

The HangoverAges ago, we told you so! Here is the post where we wrote about how bollywood biggies are desperate to remake The Hangover.

And according to Mumbai Mirror, Firoz Nadiadwala has purchased the remake rights of the film. But according to our sources, the final deal is still not done and negotiation is on. Papers not signed yet.

The remake will be directed by Anees Bazmee. Abhishek Bachchan will play Bradley Cooper’s role and Paresh Rawal will step into the shoes of Zach Galifianakis. Ritesh Deshmukh, Sanjay Dutt and Katrina Kaif might join the gang too. The 4o plus actor whom we mentioned in our earlier post is Sanju Baba who is damn interested to get the remake rights for his production house.  

All we can say is what happens in Las Vegas, should stay in Las Vegas. And should never come to bollywood! 

My Name Is Khan2Yes, its confirmed. Since its inception, Fox Star Studios, a joint venture between 20th Century Fox and STAR Network, hasn’t been much active. It started business with the big one Slumdog Millionaire. But could not manage much business because the whole world had already seen the film by the time they decided to release it in the theatres in India.

Recently Fox Star Studios signed the deal with Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions for rights of My Name is Khan for a whopping 100 crore. The figure is not yet confirmed but thats the number doing the rounds. Earlier this year, Karan Johar tied up with UTV for his other two productions, Qurbaan ( Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi ) and Wake Up Sid ( Ranbir Kapoor, Konkona Sen Sharma). And now the deal with the Fox Star Studios. Seems like its the end of Yashraj films-Dharma Productions’ dostana, who earlier used to distribute all of Karan Johar’s films.

My Name is Khan stars Shah Rukh Khan & Kajol and is directed by  Karan Johar. Its the story of Rizwan Khan, a man with asperger syndrome, whose son gets killed in a racial attack and he is branded as a terrorist. Rizwan then decides to  meet the President to clear his stand. Eventually it turns out to be a big campaign across the country and makes him famous. Rizwan’s punchline says it all – My Name is Khan & I am not terrorist! It has superhit written all over it. Seems like a good deal for Fox Star Studios.

Anil AmbaniAnil Ambani is all set to make all his hollywood debut.  He met with DreamWorks Studios partners Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider on wednesday and announced one of the biggest deals in recent times. We have simplified all the details for easy read.

– The new motion picture company formed between Reliance BIG Entertainment and DreamWorks has been functioning since November 2008 from DreamWorks’ office in Los Angeles, California.

Steven Spielberg– There will be an initial investment of $825 million, available for film production. $325 million would be Reliance’s contribution, $150 million from Disney and the rest would be from banks and financial institutions.

 – DreamWorks will eventually make 5-6 films per year with the funding.

–  The Walt Disney Company will handle marketing and distribution of the films around the world, except for India where Reliance BIG Entertainment will have the distribution rights.

 – DreamWorks will start the first film for the new studio later this year.

In India, Big Pictures has not been able to produce a single decent film so far. With deep pockets, they are willing to put money wherever they can spot a star. On their own, they havent developed any film/script/property. Few months back, they shut down their writing department as well and fired all the wrirters. A classic case of Big is NOT always better.

Mallika Sherawat is on a promotional over-drive for her film Hissss. And her mantra is twitter twitter! So she is twittering about every move, every pic, every bit of news and videos of her. And if its Mallika Sherawat, who would mind! Here’s a new pic of Mallika Sherawat from her forthcoming film Hissss. Mallika going back to basics! The eve era. Enjoy!

Mallika Sherawat

For more on Hissss which stars Mallika Sherwat & Irfan Khan and is directed by Jennifer Lynch, click here and here. It got  the story/plot/synopsis and the trailer.

The HangoverIts The Hangover. By plagiarising or by buying the official remake rights. Its the Death at a Funeral of 2009. It was the same scene with Death At A Funeral last year and Indra Kumar made it into Daddy Kool. Ofcourse by plagiarising and had to pay later on. Click here for full report.

Back to The Hangover. It got the star ratings and box office business too. Whoever has seen it, loved it. Its the current remake favourite of bollywood. Almost every producer wants to remake it because in bollywood, comedy is considered to be safe bet always. Wish we could just learn one lesson for them. How they delivered such a big hit without any big names attached to it. Few things we will never learn.

Also in the queue, is a fourty plus actor who made headlines for his marriage, re-marriage & politics recently. He is already talking to the producers of the film. But it seems Warner Brothers is not willing to give the remake rights to anyone. They want to produce the remake themselves.

Looking at Warner Brothers’ slate of film here, Saans Bahu Aur Sensex & Chandi Chowk To China, we suggest that its better to make some money by selling the remake rights, instead of delivering one more dud. 

BTW, we loved it! Its the rudest, crudest & funniest film of the year! Don’t miss it. The fat bearded Jesus is the show stealer.

Last time it was Dev Patel on the sets of Freida’s new film. This time Freida came to see Dev in Philadelphia where he is shooting for M Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender. Check out the pic & the video. Need we say more. Jaanam samjha karo.

Dev Patel & Freida Pinto

We are feeling lazy today. Blame it on the monsoons. So, instead of writing posts we are just uploading pics. Here is an exclusive pic of Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori with Michael Jackson. They met Jackson during the shoot of Anurag Basu’s Kites in LA.

Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori with Michael Jackson

The theatrical trailer of Mira Nair’s new film Amelia is out. It stars Hilary Swank, Richard Gere & Ewon McGregor.

Amelia is based on the life of legendary American pilot Amelia Earhart. She disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to make a flight around the world. For wiki link on her, click here.