| Floated new co, touched Malaysian shores: Pyramid Saimira | | Posted Tuesday, February 06, 2007 12:52:35 PM by Blog57 Team | | PS Saminathan, MD, Pyramid Saimira says that this would be the first company to venture outside India to create entertainment network abroad. He gives more details about the company's latest venture. Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with PS Saminathan: Q: What is this venture all about and what investment does it entail from you? A: This is the first time when an Asian company is venturing outside its shores to create entertainment network abroad, generally only Hollywood companies do that. And it is the first time an Asian company is going out there to popularize the business model and the way of operation and create an entertainment network. Yesterday, we signed a deal in Malaysia, which entitles us to create around 150 entertainment centres across the local contour of Malaysia, which includes multiplexes, sporting complexes and other forms of entertainment.... | |
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| | | In Hollywood, two companies battle over inflatable airheads | | Posted Sunday, December 24, 2006 2:55:53 PM by Blog57 Team | | A Hollywood dummy designer who filled "Rocky Balboa" and dozens of other big-budget films with inflatable extras is being sued by a pair of mannequin makers who say they were the first to come up with the idea of replacing humans with airheads. Plastic people-maker Crowd in a Box filed a patent infringement suit last week against The Inflatable Crowd and owner Joe Biggins for his use of "inflatable humanoid figures." "Joe Biggins made comments in various press reports that he was the inventor of these things ... but while he was using them, we were creating them and patenting them," Crowd in a Box co-owner Mark Woolpert told CourtTVnews.com. "There's nothing new about looking back in film history and seeing mannequins and humanoids in movies," Joe Biggins said when reached by phone at his Santa Monica office.... | |
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| | | 'Stolen' ideas big business in Hollywood | | Posted Saturday, November 11, 2006 11:03:26 AM by Blog57 Team | | "Pirates of the Caribbean." "The Matrix." "The Last Samurai." "Broken Flowers." "Amistad." Success isn't all these films have in common. Each was also challenged by a lawsuit claiming "idea theft" ? a common Hollywood problem that lawyers say is likely to continue as long as huge movie studios wield enormous power. .... | |
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| | | The political apathy of Thai films in 2006 | | Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 3:01:16 AM by Blog57 Team | | Apolitical inspirations To date, some 37 Thai films have been released this year, and seven more will hit the screens before Dec 31. In a year in which the country has experienced a series of political dramas, none of the local films have strayed close to the subject, emphasising the fact that Thai cinema has consciously been far removed from current social relevance. A number of Thai novelists, poets and painters _ though their arts have received criminally less publicity than those of the moviemakers' _ continue to produce works that hint at their political enthusiasm, whereas the movies remain staunchly apolitical. We have to go back to 2001, to Bandit Rittakol's 14 Tula Songkram Prachachon (The Moonhunter), to find the last film that proudly advertised its politics on the billboards. In fact, an inverse relationship can be noted: the more intense the political situation becomes, the less involved the movies want to be.... | |
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| | | "Borat' pulls fast 1 on Hollywood with $26.4 million debut | | Posted Tuesday, November 07, 2006 2:59:14 AM by Blog57 Team | | Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakh alter-ego Borat made glorious returns at the box office, surprising Hollywood with a No. 1 debut. "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," 20th Century Fox's big-screen incarnation of Cohen's Kazakh journalist from "Da Ali G Show," took in $26.4 million during its opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. .... | |
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| | | Tom Cruise, partner to run United Artists | | Posted Thursday, November 02, 2006 11:04:39 PM by Blog57 Team | | LOS ANGELES -- Tom Cruise and producing partner Paula Wagner have been put in charge of United Artists, a film studio that was formed by Hollywood actors including Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford. Wagner will serve as chief executive of the company, which is owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. Cruise will appear in UA films, but also be allowed to star in films from rival studios, MGM announced Thursday. The development is a major comeback for Cruise and Wagner. They were unceremoniously dumped in August from their 14-year producing deal at Paramount Studios after Sumner Redstone, chairman of Paramount parent company Viacom Inc., blamed Cruise's public antics for hurting the box office performance of "Mission:Impossible III." Cruise/Wagner Productions said then that it had secured financing from two unidentified hedge funds to back future projects.... | |
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| | | 'Rambo' warned not to destroy Thailand's environment during shooting | | Posted Sunday, October 29, 2006 3:00:40 PM by Blog57 Team | | Washington, Oct 28(AN): Though Thailand's new military installed government is thrilled to welcome Hollywood heavyweights like Sylvester Stallone and Denzel Washington to shoot films in the country, they have asked producers to make sure that violent scenes do not harm the environment, nor target ethnic minorities. Stallone will spend several weeks in Thailand early next year, shooting for his comeback movie 'Rambo IV: In the Serpent's Eye' in the country's lush, mountainous northern provinces. In the latest sequel, John Rambo is pulled out of retirement in Bangkok to help find missionary aid workers, who disappeared while delivering supplies to ethnic minorities in neighbouring Myanmar. The country is heavily dependant on tourism and has already faced some damage because of the recent coup.... | |
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| | | Hollywood studios step up battle against pirates | | Posted Wednesday, October 25, 2006 10:58:43 AM by Blog57 Team | | ORLANDO,: The trade group for the major Hollywood studios began the international rollout of its anti-camcording website during the first day of the ShowEast convention of cinema owners Monday. The site, initially set up to educate theatre employees in North America on how to deal with illegal camcording, now has a Spanish-language version targeted to Mexico. Motion Picture Association of America president Bob Pisano said 90 per cent of pirated films worldwide are the result of camcording. They contributed to an $18.2 billion loss for the worldwide motion picture industry last year. "As we've shut off other sources of bootleg films, including postproduction and marketing houses, the quality of camcorders has become better in resolution and sensitivity to motion," he said during the event at the Orlando World Centre Marriott.... | |
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| | | Welsh films set festival record | | Posted Saturday, October 21, 2006 6:54:48 AM by Blog57 Team | | A record eight new Welsh films will be shown alongside Hollywood movies tipped for Oscars in this year's Cardiff Film Festival. The wealth of talent in the Welsh film industry has ensured that features made at home and by Welsh directors will take centre stage. More than 150 films from all over the world will be shown at the festival next month, but organisers believe the homegrown work is good enough to feature. Sarah Howells, artistic director for Cardiff Film Festival, said, 'It's very unusual that we have so many Welsh films. In the past it has been only one or two. 'While it is different for the international films as they have big distributors and a massive budget, we do not have that privilege in Wales. We are funded but not to that degree. However, I am happy to present these films alongside the bigger international films.' .... | |
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| | | Travel Back in Time to a Story You Already Know | | Posted Wednesday, October 18, 2006 12:53:09 PM by Blog57 Team | | "Sweet Land," opening today at Cinema Village, concludes with a scroll of contact information for Amnesty International and various other worthy organizations with missions that are, as far as I could tell, totally unrelated to the film's content. Like everything else in the picture, this coda is emblematic of the seemingly inexhaustible good intentions the filmmakers brought to their project. It's also a fitting finish for a movie that works hard to make a fresh and truthful point about America's present via its past, but almost completely fails to make clear what that point is. "Sweet Land" begins with a threetiered flashback through the history of southern Minnesota that starts in 2004 and pauses in the late 1960s before settling in the early 1920s for the bulk of the film.... | |
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