ANNALILA: Top notch producer wants to make Anna film with Aamir in lead!

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zeenews.india.com / updated on Sunday, August 28, 2011, 19:16.

Zeenews Bureau

Mumbai: After a dramatic turnout of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption crusade, Bollywood producers are rallying for films inspired by the Septuagenarians’ revolutionary movement. Buzz has it that the well known filmmaker Madhu Mantena has bought rights to an anti-graft film for Rs 10 crore and plans to cast Aamir in the role of the anti-corruption crusader.

It has emerged that Mantena has purchased the rights of an old Telugu film that revolves around the anti-corruption theme. Titled ‘Tagore’, the film was made in 2003. But the film then didn’t hold as much significance then as it holds today. Sources revealed, the producers of ‘Tagore’ jacked up the remake rights of the film to a staggering Rs 10 crore.

Owing to high demands of the remake right, it is believed that Mantena has paid up the amount.

Rest at,

http://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/articles/story95165.htm

                       

BANNED: Iran’s Controversial New Lesbian Film - a Review!

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David Ansen, thedailybeast.com / Aug 25, 2011 12:00 AM EDT.

Banned in Iran, a winner at Sundance, Maryam Keshavarz’s film ‘Circumstance’ stunningly captures the love affair of two 16-year-old Iranian girls. She details the film’s troubled gestation to David Ansen.

Maryam Keshavarz's stunning, sensual Circumstance has already been denounced, sight unseen, by the Iranian government, which got wind of it after the movie won the Audience Award at this year's Sundance film festival. The film, set in contemporary Tehran (though shot in Lebanon), will never be released in Iran, though you can be sure pirated DVDs will be a hot item on the black market. The Iranian-American writer and director, 36, who spent her childhood shuttling back and forth between the U.S. and the country of her parent's birth, knew even as she was writing it that making this movie would mean she could never return to Iran. Actually, that's not quite true, she explains with a laugh. "I can go back. I just can't leave."

The first but certainly not the only thing about Circumstance that the Islamic regime objects to is the love story at the center of the movie, between two beautiful, Westernized 16-year-old schoolgirls. Iran is a country, as we all know, where homosexuality doesn't exist—President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said so himself—so to depict a frankly erotic lesbian amour fou is a treasonable fantasy in itself.

Then again, it doesn't take much to break the law in Iran. Listening to pop music will do the trick. Circumstance shows us how anyone who goes against the fundamentalist grain is forced to lead a double life. In public, in the daytime, at school, Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri) and Shireen (Sarah Kazemy) cover their hair in scarves and their bodies in drab clothes, rendering them indistinguishable from the other schoolgirls. At night, with their friends, the girls avail themselves of Tehran's many secret underground clubs. With the right password, you go behind a nondescript storefront and enter the city's youthful, strobe-lit counterculture. The girls shed their robes to reveal sparkling minidresses, the coke flows, the dance floor fills, and the party goes deep into the night—if it isn't raided by the self-appointed morality police.

Rest at,

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/25/maryam-kesharvarz-s-film-circumstance-tackles-iranian-repression.html

 Circumstance

BOLLYWOOD BUZZ: Bipasha Basu comes aboard on the Bhatt camp again with ‘Raaz 3’!

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zeenews.india.com / Updated on Saturday, August 20, 2011, 14:30.

Spicezee Bureau

Mumbai: Bipasha Basu’s claim to fame was her two films that came from the Bhatt camp in the beginning of her career- ‘Jism’ and ‘Raaz’.

But reportedly the Bong bombshell had angered Mukesh Bhatt after refusing the lead role in ‘Murder 2’ which was later given to Jacqueline Fernandes.

Apparently the reason behind her not being able to take up the offer was date issues, she even refused to squeeze out dates for an item number.

However the differences have been sorted now. And their team is all set to make a comeback with ‘Raaz 3’.

Bipasha signed for the lead role in Raaz 3. The film will be directed by Raaz director Vikram Bhatt and will be made in 4D.

Mukesh Bhatt said to a daily, "It is a homecoming for both Bipasha and Vikram. Yes, we did have issues earlier but, in a family, there are always different point of views that arise till the members realise that amendments need to be made."

"This is where they started and this film brought recognition to both Vikram and Bipasha," he added.

When Mukesh was asked who made the first move, he said, "Being in the same business, we keep bumping into each other. Bipasha expressed a desire to work with us again and she loved the Raaz 3 script. It is a very challenging and powerful role for her."

Vikram, who will be directing the said, "Bipasha is a very important part of the team that created Raaz as a brand. I am happy to be working with her again and hope to create the same magic with the already heady pair of Emi (Emraan Hashmi) and Jackie (Jacqueline Fernandes)."

Full Story at,

http://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/articles/story94607.htm

FILM REVIEW: 'Bad Teacher' is a fun!

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Rajeev Masand, CNN-IBN / Updated Aug 20, 2011 at 01:26am IST.

Cast: Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel and Justin Timberlake

Director: Jake Kasdan

Thirteen years ago when she innocently reached out for that 'hair gel' hanging off Ben Stiller's ear in There's Something About Mary, Cameron Diaz was anointed the funniest girl in the movies. After all, she could make the crudest jokes appear cute and harmless. Who better then to cast as a smoking, drinking, potty-mouthed academician in a comedy whose title tells you everything you need to know about the film?

Diaz, who's now pushing 40 but still flaunts a body of a 20-something-year-old, stars in 'Bad Teacher' as a woman who hates kids and the very idea of teaching, and is relieved to finally dump her job at a middle school when she is engaged to a rich guy she intends to live off for the rest of her life. When those plans go horribly wrong, she's forced to go back to her teaching job, but she sets her sights on a millionaire substitute teacher (played by Justin Timberlake) whom she hopes to entice with a breast-enlargement surgery. To fund the new boobs, she demands cash from parents in exchange for private tuitions, steals from the school's charity car wash where she parades about in her skimpiest clothes, and even seduces a state official so she can steal the answers to an exam and win a cash prize for Best Teacher.

As Diaz shamelessly goes about her mission to gather the money, she locks horns with a rival teacher (played by the excellent Lucy Punch) who is determined to take her down. Meanwhile, she's also pursued by the schlubby gym teacher (played by Jason Segal) who sees her for the opportunist she is, but likes her anyway. Her best scenes in fact are with Segal and particularly the kids, whom she insults and puts down repeatedly, until she surprisingly takes pity on one nerdish youngster.

Full Story at,

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/masand-bad-teacher-is-a-funny-movie/177016-47-84.html

FILM REVIEW: 'The Devil's Double' a thrilling potboiler!

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Rajeev Masand, CNN-IBN / Posted on Aug 20, 2011 at 01:25am IST.

Set in Baghdad in the late eighties, during the build-up to the 1990 Gulf War, the film stars Dominic Cooper as Iraqi lieutenant Latif who is summoned by his former classmate Uday (also played by Cooper) who he is unfortunate enough to somewhat resemble. Uday asks Latif to be his stand-in, to dress and act like him when the occasion requires, to renounce his own identity, and to immerse himself into his new role. In exchange, Latif can share everything that belongs to Uday – his expensive clothes, his fancy cars, the debauched lifestyle… The catch is Latif can't say no. If he does, Uday will have his family killed.

Left with no choice, Latif accepts his duties but becomes increasingly disgusted by Uday's shocking behavior, which includes everything from picking underage schoolgirls off the street and raping them, to openly killing one of his father's trusted henchmen at a crowded party. It's when Latif starts a secret relationship with one of Uday's mistresses that he finds himself in serious danger.

Treating the film like a lurid thriller, director Lee Tamahori goes for an audacious tone and a breakneck pace, grabbing your attention from the very word go. The violence is visceral and repulsive and yet you can't help watching, transfixed as you are by Uday's terrifyingly unpredictable personality. On the flip side, despite a knockout 'dual' performance by Dominic Cooper – who plays Uday as a power-crazy psychopath, and Latif as a petrified pawn – 'The Devil's Double' runs out of steam towards the end, and feels at least fifteen minutes too long.

Full Story at,

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/masand-the-devils-double-a-thrilling-potboiler/177017-47-84.html

TERROR ON NORWAY: Breivik 'Filmed' Norway Island Massacre!

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news.sky.com / 8:12pm UK, Wednesday August 10, 2011.

Breivik is also suspected of planting a bomb near government buildings in Oslo.

Norwegian terror suspect Anders Behring Breivik may have filmed his massacre of 69 people on Utoya island, Norwegian police have said.

The claim comes amid a series of revelations about the killings, with police admitting they could have taken a much quicker route to the island.

Oslo police chief of staff Johan Fredriksen also conceded officers could have called on a rescue helicopter.

But he denied claims the aircraft could have transported snipers in time to make a difference or that it would have ensured a faster arrival on the island for specialist terror police.

Oslo police lawyer Christian Hatlo said Breivik had made references to having filmed his entire 72-minute killing spree.

The shootings came just hours after a bomb blast in the capital he is also suspected of, which left 10 people dead.

Full Story at,

http://news.sky.com/home/article/16047634

Security Man sacked for filming sleeping boss!

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August 8, 2011 / IANS, London / DC.

A security guard in Britain was axed after he filmed his supervisor asleep on the job. The supervisor, however, claims she was just ‘resting’ her eyes.

Security guard Darrell Welsh posted the 30 second film clip on Facebook, The Sun reported.

The supervisor kept her job after she said she was not really sleeping, but just ‘resting’ her tired eyes.

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http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/world/europe/man-sacked-filming-sleeping-boss-329

The Real-Life 'Whistleblower' - Bosnian exposes sex trafficking!

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Jessica Bennett, thedailybeast.com / Aug 5, 2011 3:38 AM EDT.

Rachel Weisz plays Kathryn Bolkovac, a United Nations peacekeeping officer, in “The Whistleblower.”, Sophie Giraud / Samuel Goldwyn Films.

In ‘The Whistleblower’ which opens this weekend, Rachel Weisz portrays a U.N. peacekeeper who exposes sex trafficking involving peacekeepers in Bosnia. Jessica Bennett talks with Kathryn Bolkovac, the woman who inspired the film.

They were peacekeepers: sent to Bosnia in the aftermath of the Balkans war, tasked with overseeing the local police force and restoring calm. In blue United Nations uniforms, they arrived from countries all over the world, roaming the hills near Sarajevo and Ilidza, trying to maintain order in a nation battered by civil conflict.

But as we learn in the first minutes of The Whistleblower, which opens in select theaters this weekend and stars Oscar winner Rachel Weisz, many of these men and women were ill-trained and unsupervised.

They landed in a foreign land with no clear mandate, and at times, little understanding of what they were there to accomplish. "No one knew what authority they had," says Kathryn Bolkovac, the Nebraska-cop-turned-U.N.-peacekeeper who inspired the film. "It was ridiculous."

Ultimately, when Bolkovac discovers that the men with "IPTF"—short for INTERNATIONAL POLICE TASK FORCE—stitched across their shoulders are involved in the brutal trafficking of underage girls, the response by a high agency commander in the film is: “Those girls are whores of war. It happens.”

Full Story at,

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/05/kathryn-bolkovac-the-real-whistleblower-on-human-trafficking-in-bosnia.html

Alfred Hitchcock's Earliest Surviving Film Found!

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by Mike Barnes, hollywoodreporter.com / 1:00 AM 8/3/2011.

Three reels of 1924’s "The White Shadow" have been discovered in New Zealand.

Just in time for the filmmaker’s 112th birthday, archivists and preservationists in New Zealand have announced the discovery of the first half of a 1924 film thought to be Alfred Hitchcock’s earliest surviving feature.

For The White Shadow, an atmospheric British melodrama picked up for international distribution by Hollywood’s Lewis J. Selznick Enterprises, Hitchcock is credited as assistant director, art director, editor and writer. He was 24 when he worked on the film; his feature directorial debut would come soon afterward on The Pleasure Garden (1925).

The film, which stars Betty Compson in a dual role as twin sisters — one angelic and the other “without a soul” — turned up among the cache of unidentified American nitrate prints safeguarded at the New Zealand Film Archive in Wellington. The first three reels of the six-reel feature were found; no other copy is known to exist.

“These first three reels of The White Shadow — more than half the film — offer a priceless opportunity to study [Hitchcock’s] visual and narrative ideas when they were first taking shape,” said David Sterritt, chairman of the National Society of Film Critics and author of The Films of Alfred Hitchcock.

The title will be preserved at Park Road Post Production in New Zealand, and a new preservation master and exhibition print will be sent to the U.S. Plans for a “re-premiere” screening will be announced this week.

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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/alfred-hitchcocks-earliest-surviving-film-218278

WENDI MURDOCH: Behind the Scenes of 'Snowflower'!

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Florence Low Sloan / thedailybeast.com / Aug 1, 2011 8:46 PM EDT.

Producer Florence Sloan works on a scene with the film's star, Li Bing Bing., Courtesy of Florence Sloan.


Hollywood newbies Wendi Murdoch and Florence Sloan flew to China to produce Snowflower and the Secret Fan, now in theatres. From casting drama to cold showers, Sloan on what she learned.

The plane touched down into Shanghai Pudong airport. My assistant, Xian, and I disembarked. We were met by official-looking men who whisked us through immigration and baggage and into a waiting car. Wow! I thought. This is great, this is new China! We arrived at the Peninsula Hotel, which is the best hotel in the city. I looked out of my suite to the perpetually gray skies of Shanghai and thought, This is amazing. Everything will turn out well.

I had signed on to produce my first feature film, Snowflower and the Secret Fan, after falling in love with the book by Lisa See. My partner, Wendi Murdoch (also a first-time producer) and I had been working on this since 2007. Wendi and I are close friends and during one of our regular meetings, we started talking about See’s book that we had read independently of each other. We both loved the book and connected over its compelling story, which centers around the universal theme of the bonds of friendship. We knew it should be made into a movie.

Now, we were finally in Shanghai since that fateful meeting 4 years ago. We had already faced changes in the script which led to three screenwriters, and had convinced the talented Wayne Wang to come onboard to direct. We went through a rigorous casting process, dealt with endless paperwork, and had to navigate the challenges of shooting in China, which meant wrangling permits and scouring locations.

I love movies, read voraciously, and was passionate about the Snowflower book—but I was about to learn in the weeks I spent in Shanghai that this ‘knowledge’ is not an entrée into movie producing. There are no shortcuts.

Battling jet lag, I met up with Wendi, who had flown in from New York. We went to meetings with Wayne Wang and Jessinta, our line producer. After listening to all the problems we faced, I thought, “Hmm—maybe this producing thing isn’t as simple as it looks.” After a few days spent in the luxury cocoon of the Peninsula Hotel, we were told that we have to go to Hengdian, the movie capital of Shanghai and the largest film studio in the world. I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive when we were told to bring our own bedsheets, towels, pillows. We loaded up the car and drove for 4 hours, battling intense traffic into Hengdian which is in Zhejiang province. When we arrived, we passed a full-scale replica of the Forbidden City, a Qin dynasty palace and various other amazing sets.

-------------------------------------------------------

Full Story at,

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/01/wendi-murdoch-and-florence-sloan-s-first-movie-snow-flower-and-the-secret-fan.html

FILM ON "RESERVATIONS": Protest against ‘Aarakshan' gathering strength!

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Staff Reporter / The Hindu / MUMBAI, July 28, 2011.

If a movie takes an anti-reservation stand, it is likely to fuel anti-quota propaganda: Bhujbal.

Even before its release, opinion on the Bollywood movie ‘Aarakshan' (Reservation) is gathering steam with political leaders warning of protests if the film's stand is found to be in conflict with the Constitutional provisions.

On Wednesday, Chhagan Bhujbal, Maharashtra Public Works Department Minister and a prominent Other Backward Classes leader from the Nationalist Congress Party, called for a clarification from the makers of ‘Aarakshan', directed by Prakash Jha.

“The provision for reservation is enshrined in the Constitution. The policy has the sanction of the country's Parliament, be it for the Dalits, adivasis, OBCs or women. Political parties are in favour of quotas. Various sections have waged protracted battles to secure reservation. In this context, if a movie takes an anti-reservation stand, it is likely to fuel anti-quota propaganda, and protests are bound to take place across the country,” Mr. Bhujbal told journalists here.

Mr. Bhujbal, who heads the All-India Mahatma Phule Samata Parishad, said his organisation would protest peacefully by staging a satyagraha if the movie argued against reservation.

Voices of opposition have already emerged from Jharkhand and other States. Pro-reservationists, including leaders such as Lalu Prasad, Sharad Yadav, Mayawati, Gopinath Munde of the Bharatiya Janata Party and leaders from the south are bound to come together to oppose the film, Mr. Bhujbal said.

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http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2300112.ece