Hans thanks ARR for his contribution to 'The Dark Knight Rises'

The Dark Knight Rises' graces screens come Friday and boy oh boy, are audiences excited about it! One of the most celebrated Hollywood series; this is the third outing in Nolan's Batman trilogy.

The film's music composer Hans Zimmer has thanked AR Rahman along with a host of others for contributing to the film's music. ARR has contributed to the music of this film although it's not very clear of what he composed or worked on. Remember, ARR and Hans earlier worked together in Oscar Sangamam.

The Dark Knight Rises takes place 8 years after the events of the second part, The Dark Knight, and introduces to the audience the characters of Selina Kyle and Bane played by Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy.

Actor Kamal Haasan to Direct Hollywood Film

That Kamal Haasan is Hollywood bound is not news anymore because it has been well-publicized already. The news now is that the Ulaga Nayagan will be penning the script and directing a Hollywood film. The star released the trailer of Viswaroopam at the 13th Indian International Film Awards 2012 held recently and it has received rave reviews.

Viswaroopam has also caught the attention of Hollywood producer Barrie Osborne and he will be producing Kamal’s venture, say sources.

Barrie, incidentally, is the producer of Hollywood blockbusters such as Face Off, Lord of the Rings and Matrix.

Actor Salman Khan , Jackie Chan in a Tamil film ?

Aascar Ravichandran, known for his grand projects produced at mammoth scales, has once again pulled a casting coup of sorts.

According to sources from tinsel town, Bollywood star Salman Khan has been roped in for Ravi’s multi-starrer, multi-lingual film with Hollywood star Jackie Chan.
In an earlier interview to this newspaper, Ravi had said that the movie, which could be the sequel to Chan’s blockbuster Armour of God, would be produced at a staggering Rs 400 crore.
He had also revealed that it would have a B-town star and a Tamil ‘mass’ hero sharing screen space with Chan.
When DC contacted Ravi, he confirmed the news saying, “I have been discussing it with Jackie Chan for the last few years. The script has a global theme with an Indian connection. Yes, talks are on with Salman Khan.
Hopefully, we will seal the deal in a week’s time. But we are yet to fix the Tamil star for the project.” When asked if the K-town star would be the likes of Rajini and Kamal, the producer refused to divulge any further details.
However, his close aides say that neither ‘Superstar’ nor ‘Ulaganayagan’ will be roped in, as they are looking at relatively a younger actor for the high-action entertainment. Meanwhile, some sources say that Suriya is being considered.

Oscars 2012: Best film ‘The Artist’ sweeps five Oscars

French love story "The Artist" became the first silent film to win the best picture Oscar in 83 years as it scooped five honours at the Academy awards where veteran Meryl Streep was crowned the best actress.
   
The Academy paid tribute to its own roots by awarding the black and white film, which triumphed over the big names like Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen, to win the top award. The last silent film to win the best picture Oscar was "Wings" in 1929.
   
Director Michel Hazanavicius and Jean Dujardin walked away with the best director and actor trophies.
   
"I am the happiest director in the world. I want to thank the financier, the crazy person who put money in the movie," said Hazanavicius, 44.
   
"The Artist" beat eight rivals for the top prize, including Martin Scorsese's "Hugo", Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" and "The Help". Scorsese's "Hugo" tied up with "The Artist" by winning five trophies in technical categories on Sunday night.
   
Streep, the most nominated actress in the Academy history with 17 nods, looked dazzling as she accepted her third Oscar and her first in the last 30 years for her portrayal of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady."
   
The 62-year-old star previously won for 1979 film "Kramer vs Kramer" and 1982's "Sophie's Choice".
   
"Oh my God! thank you so much. When they called my name, I had the feeling I could hear half of America going, 'oh, come on, her again?," Streep said while accepting the statuette to a standing ovation.
   
"I really understand I'll never be up here again," Streep said as she thanked her husband, make-up artist and friends.
   
Dujardin, who plays silent hero George Valentin who fades as talkies make their presence felt in Hollywood, beat George Clooney and Brad Pitt to win the best actor honour.
   
"Oh! thank you. I love your country," said 39-year-old Dujardin as he thanked silent movie star Douglas Fairbanks for inspiration. © http://post.jagran.com/

Oscar 2012: Winners

Best Motion Picture: The Artist

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
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Best Actor in a Leading Role: Jean Dujardin for The Artist
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Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
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Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christopher Plummer for The Beginners © AP

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Octavia Spencer for The Help
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Best Costume Design: Mark Bridges for The Artist
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Best Art Direction: Dante Ferretti (Production Design); Francesca Lo Schiavo (Set Decoration) for Hugo
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Best Film Editing: Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

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Achievement in Cinematography: Robert Richardson for Hugo
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Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation from Iran, directed by Asghar Farhadi
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Best Sound Editing: Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty for Hugo

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Best Sound Mixing: Tom Fleischman and John Midgley for Hugo

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Best Documentary Feature: TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Rich Middlemas for Undefeated

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Best Visual Effects: Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann and Alex Henning for Hugo

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Best Original Song: Bret McKenzie for Man or Muppet from The Muppets

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Best Original Screenplay: Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris

Best Documentary Short Subject: Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy for Saving Face
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Best Animated Short Film: William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg for The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

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Best Live Action Short Film: Terry George and Oorlagh George for The Shore

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Best Make Up: Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland for The Iron Lady© AP

Best Animated Feature Film: Rango© AP

Ambuli 3D – 2 to Go on Floors

Following the good reception for 3D venture Ambuli, the producers KTVR Creative Reels have chosen to do a sequel to it.

The movie would be directed by the same duo – Hari Shankar and Hareesh Narayanan. Satheesh G would be cranking the camera for the sequel too.
‘It would be a 3D special and it would be made using state-of-the-art technology. A popular actor would be roped in to do a key role’.
Also plan are on use new methods in film-makig for the sequel, they added.

Mission Impossible Climax Shoot at Sun TV Office

The Sun Network office is transformed into a server room to reprogramme the satellite in Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol film

'3 Idiots' goes international

The eye-opener movie which impressed one and all nationwide will soon be seen on an international scale...

Talks are that Vidhu Vinod Chopra's 2009 blockbuster '3 Idiots' is going to have a Hollywood remake. According the producer they are discussing the deal for the remake with three studios in Hollywood and one company in Italy. As matter of fact, '3 Idiots' is releasing next week in China and surprisingly, nearly 900 prints! Considering it to be first for a Hindi film to release so many prints in China, Vidhu added further, "It is also being adapted into a stage musical in Taiwan. The film has already made about USD 3 million dollars in Hong Kong."

Besides, the film is being remade in Chinese by 'Kung Fu Hustle' filmmaker Stephen Chow.

Commenting over such worldwide recognition, a thrilled Vidhu quoted, "My films are made with universal values, so they connect with audiences all over the world."

Directed by Rajkumar Hirani, '3 Idiots' stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Omi Vaidya, Kareena Kapoor and Boman Irani among others. The film, which became the highest grosser in Bollywood, was an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's bestseller 'Five Point Someone'.

The film is currently remade in Tamil as 'Nanban' by helmer S. Shankar and features Vijay (Aamir Khan), Jeeva (Sharman Joshi), Srikanth (Madhavan), Sathyaraj (Boman Irani) and Ileana D'Cruz (Kareena Kapoor) in lead.

The first Hollywood film for the Superstar!

Bollywood Superstar Amitabh Bachchan has signed up his first Hollywood flick! To be directed by Baz Luhrmann, the film has been titled The Great Gatsby. The shooting of this 3D flick, which is made on a budget of $125 million, is now in progress in Australia.
Leonardo DiCaprio will play the title role in The Great Gatsby. Others in the star cast are Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher and Jason Clarke. The Big B will play Meyer Wolfsheim. As the title of the film indicates, it is an adaptation of the novel penned by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Hangover 2 Receives Grand Opening in Chennai

Released on last Friday, ‘Hangover2’ has become the most talked about film of this season. With big tickets ofTamil film industry keeping itself on hold, the Chennaites have gone gaga overthe league of Hollywood flicks. Fast and Furious 5 that was released before 3weeks is still running house packed due to repeat audiences while ‘Pirates ofthe Caribbean’ overshadowed some of the Tamil releases itself.

But what attracted Chennaites a lot is Hangover 2? The prequel witnessed an incredulous success in Chennai as it crossed 100 days in some multiplexes. It is noteworthy that Venkat Prabhu had designed the looks of his brother Premji Amaran in ‘Goa’ inspired from Zack Galifianakis.

‘Hangover 2’ that is directed and produced by Todd Philips in collaboration with some leading production house of Hollywood has Bradley Cooper, Zack Galifianakis and Ed Helms in lead role. Though the film’s concept remains the same as its prequel, it has grabbed everyone’s attraction with an ease.

The film is running house-packed in almost all the theatres of Chennai and this is the first time a comedy movie from Hollywood is having a grand reception much as action and fantasy flicks.

Shah Rukh & Leonardo to play Don & Cop

The movie buffs had been excited to know the coming together of two screen icons – Shah Rukh Khan and Leonardo Di Caprio – in Paul Schrader’s Indo-Hollywood venture ‘Xtrme City’. Now here’s what our birdies got on hand of late…. It is said that in the film SRK will be playing a Don while Leonardo will feature in a cop’s role. According to the film’s scriptwriter Mushtaq Shiekh, ‘Xtrme City’ is a cross-cultural thriller designed for both Bollywood and Hollywood. He feels that if things fall in places then the film will be an attempt at a true global entertainment. Talking about the film’s story to sources, Mushtaq revealed that it’s about an Indian (Shah Rukh) and an American (Leo) from radically different worlds, who both served in the UN peacekeeping force in Somalia during the 90's. The American saves the Indian's life; in the aftermath they become indebted to each other then go their own separate ways. The American becomes a cop in New York, the Indian a ‘bhai’ (similar to 'don' in Hindi) in Mumbai. Many years later the American has a burdensome family obligation, which compels him to return to India to seek help from the Indian, but becomes deeper and deeper drawn into an alien world. Adding that the story has a very emotional essence Mushtaq said, "This is a pre-dominantly desi concept that to my knowledge has never been played out before on the screen, in true emotional terms, between an Indian and a foreigner, certainly never been attempted on a top tier international icon star level." 'Xtrme City' will be produced under SRK’s banner Red Chillies and legendary filmmaker-actor Martin Scorsese’s Sikelia Productions. The film’s shooting is expected to start its shoot next year.

Popular English film dubbed in Tamil

Cashing in on the popularity of English films dubbed into Tamil, yet another film follows suit. This time, the 2009 horror film Infestation directed by Kyle Rankin is being dubbed to Tamil and is distributed by Sri Raghavendra Film Circuit. Their previous dubbed distribution venture, Apocalypto was a huge success due to the rich, vast filming and visual effects. Infestation is titled Aayiram Poochigal in Tamil and is all set to release on the 4^th of March and the movie is known for its visual effects. Being a story about a bug infesting itself and wrecking havoc in the city, this film is hoping to repeat the success of Jurassic Park and others in the Tamil Nadu box office.

The Oscars begin!

The 83^rd Oscar Awards ceremony, which is hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway, is underway at the Kodak Theater, Los Angeles. Interestingly, the 28-year-old Hathaway happens to be the youngest host at the Oscar ceremony so far.
Two hot favorites that are tipped to sweep the Oscars this year are The King’s Speech and The Social Network. While David Seidler won the Best Original Screenplay award for the former, Aaron Sorkin will take home the Oscar statuette for the Best Adapted Screenplay award for the latter.
The Kings Speech has 12 nominations and The Social Network has 8 nominations in all.

Spider Man to ‘Amaze’ in July 3 2012

The friendly neighborhood spider man in its third establishment will be known as ‘The Amazing Spider Man’. Columbia Pictures announced the title of the next Spider-Man film yesterday.

The studio simultaneously released a photo of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man, the first shot of Garfield in the famous full mask and suit.See the picture.

The film, which is now in production and is being shot entirely in 3D, will be released on July 3, 2012.  The film stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, and Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan, with Martin Sheen, and Sally Field.

The film is directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt and Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Matt Tolmach are producing the Marvel Entertainment production for Columbia Pictures.

The executive producers are Stan Lee, Kevin Feige, and Michael Grillo.

Watch this space for more….

The Kings Speech Won 6 BAFTA awards

The King's Speech received yet more accolades at last night's Baftas ceremony with a best actor award for Colin Firth and supporting actor gongs for Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush. The film is a dramatisation of the months running up to and after King George VI's ascension to the throne in 1936 and the effects of his stammer. Lionel Logue, played by Rush, is the Australian who employs unorthodox techniques to help the King (Firth) overcome his fear of public speaking.

The new face of Superman

It is always considered a privilege when it comes to donning the roles of super heroes. Be it Batman, Spiderman, James Bond or Superman. Talks are abuzz in Hollywood that a new face has been chosen to don the Superman’s cape.

The role has gone to UK-based actor Henry Cavill who will soon be up, up and away!

The next Superman film, which is in the pre-production stage, will be produced by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film which has not yet been named will be directed by Zack Snyder. Reports indicate that the director is quite happy with the choice of the hero for this film. The Superman fiction is slated for release by the end of 2012.

Sources reveal that, Mr. Cavill who is a relatively low-profile actor, was earlier considered for roles such as James Bond and Batman but for reasons unknown didn’t make it.

Henry Cavill has starred in ‘The Tudors’ as Charles Brandon the first Duke of Suffolk.

We sure look forward to see the new face of Superman, but it sure is gonna be a long wait!

‘I Am Number Four’ on Feb 18

Looks like the biggies of Hollywood have lined up for a February release. Feb 18 will see the release of the Steven Spielberg film ‘I Am Number Four’. The film which has been conceptualized from the book bearing the same name belongs to the sci-fi genre.

The book ‘I Am Number Four’ is a young teen science fiction novel written by James Frey and Jobie Hughes.

The story deals with the story of John Smith, a 15 year old alien from the planet Lorien, and his guardian, Henri. The story describes their escape from the Mogadorians, another race of aliens that are hunting down John and the other 8 teenage Loriens who have been sent to Earth to escape their destroyers. The teenagers are protected by a charm, which only allows them to be killed in a set order. John is Number Four.

This novel is said to be the first of its series in a six-book series.

The director of this film is D.J. Caruso. Dreamworks Pictures got the rights for this film in June 2009. This Spielberg flick is being presented by Dreamworks Pictures and Reliance Big Entertainment.

Alex Pettyfer plays John’s role in the film. The female lead role will be essayed by Dianna Agron who appeared in the television serial ‘Glee’.

'The Green Hornet' – Action Packed Entertainer

Experience the edge-seated action packed entertainer with 3D visuals. ‘The Green Hornet’ has been the most common term used in USA. It has been a familiar word in radio channels, Televisions and even comic books. Now the producers of Columbia Pictures have produced a film with the same title that features famous Seth Rogen, Cameron Diaz and Christopher Waltz in lead roles.

The film had a grand opening internationally on January 14 and will hit screens in Chennai on January 28.

The film revolves around Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), who takes over the job of new publisher of famous Los Angeles Newspaper ‘The Daily Sentinel’ after the demise of his father. Britt’s life takes a turn when he and his team stop a robbery. Now he takes up the new avatar of a superhero named ‘The Green Hornet’ and starts fighting against the crime.

The film is directed by Michel Gondry and is produced by Neal Moritz while Sony Pictures is releasing it.

Yuvan Shankar Raja wants to compose music for Hollywood films

Music composer Yuvan Shankar Raja has recently mentioned that he has a desire to compose music for Hollywood films and he is making efforts to reach that destination.

While speaking about this to the media, he said," I am joining with Selvaraghavan once again. I am composing music for a film titled Irandam Ulagam directed by him. Dhanush and Andrea are in the lead roles. I have given hit songs along with Selvaraghavan.

Now I am happy that I am joining with him once again. This year, the music which I have composed for the songs in the films Paiyya, Naan Mahan Alla and Boss Engira Bhaskaran have topped the charts.

Though I like all the songs composed by me, the song Iragai Pola from the film Naan Mahan Alla is my favourite. Many are asking me that how long I am going to be alone. I am planning to get married next year."

Jennifer Aniston And Robert Pattinson Rumors

Jennifer Aniston has now dismissed all the rumors that she was interested in filming intimate scenes with Robert from a remake of the movie “The Graduate”. ”The Graduate” had Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft as the lead pair. a source from Aniston’s side has added that there is no truth in the rumors.

Reports were doing the rounds that Jennifer was looking forward to work with Robert in an upcoming movie an even asked her agents to fix up a meeting. Daily Star also added fuel to the fire by stating that Jennifer was keen to be in a relationship with the Brit hunk. Various tabloids also added that “The Graduate” was a favorite film of Jennifer and she wanted to do a film based on similar lines. Jennifer is a fan of Robert for his good looks and his accent. Jen also felt that Rob and her chemistry would ignite the passion required to play the role. Well it seems that Jennifer has finally come back to her senses for not creating another serious controversy. Jen is single and it is media’s favorite past time to link her up with stars. So be careful Jen!