May 19th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Indian billionaire Anil Ambani has announced a series of Hollywood deals worth $1 billion, the biggest ‘invasion’ by an Indian company to date. His entertainment studio Reliance Big has made deals with production companies of people like Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Nicolas Cage. Ambani expects to generate 30 scripts, with about 10 movies going into production.
India still has one of the fastest growing film markets. And while they sell twice as many tickets as in Hollywood, the low prices keep the Indian companies from making ‘Hollywood money.’ But the market is growing fast. It grew 25% in 2007 compared to 2006 and is expected to grow 18% per year the next five years. This is why studios like Disney are already setting foot in Bollywood, before it will take over Hollywood as the number one market.
May 19th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
 | | Just one day after his big breakthrough with ‘Prince Caspian,’ Ben Barnes lands a new leading role in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray.’ It’s based on the book by Oscar Wilde, which is considered as one of the last classic horror stories. Just as ‘King Lear’ earlier today, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ has been adapted for the big screen a couple of times before.
It’s a story of vanity, where Dorian Gray gets a painting of himself from an adoring painter. And when Dorian’s beauty faints, he soon wishes the painting would age instead of himself. His wish is granted, but it doesn’t come without a price.
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May 19th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
No, stars aren’t wearing headsets on the red carpet (yet), but Skype (http://www.skype.com) is making an interesting move in this direction. The company is using its video conferencing program to connect the Cannes Film Festival to the stars who sadly couldn’t be there. American Pavilion will be using Skype in their ‘In Conversation’ and ‘Industry In Focus’ series, in which filmmakers have daily discussions about different aspects of the film industry. They can practically give an interview from the set they’re currently filming on.
Director James Cameron will be one of the people using Skype for the interviews at Cannes. I reckon he’s busy enough with post-production on ‘Avatar’ as it is, so I assume this is why he opted for a little video call. Or he’s just lazy, but I wouldn’t dare to call a man with the highest grossing movie of all time (’Titanic’) lazy. By using Skype, he will be able to talk to the audience on a big screen at Cannes, which I imagine would be just as impressive as the real thing.
It’s good to see the film industry embracing the internet. Not only are they creating ways to get legal content out there, but they’re also connecting to their audience in a new way. Like Guillermo del Toro’s internet chat session about ‘The Hobbit’ next weekend. Or all the movie production blogs in recent years. It seems like moderated video chats with the big stars are just around the corner. Instead of traveling all over the world to promote their movie, they could just take a couple of video calls. Where do I sign up?
