Cinema

Hollywood and Bollywood, two of the largest film industries in the world, agreed to strengthen their cooperation Wednesday with the signing of a historic agreement. As part of the pact signed Wednesday, Hollywood and Bollywood have agreed to “develop and strengthen motion picture production, distribution, technology, content protection and commercial cooperation.” The two industries also supported the creation of a Los Angeles-India Film Council to encourage Indian film production in Los Angeles...

There are films that you wouldn't want to see a second time. There are ones that you would like to walk out of. And there are those that you should give a go-by after reading a review. Hisss is one such film. And you should thank the reviewer too for having endured it in the first place and passed on the good word to you. Hisss is indisputably the worst film I have seen in recent times. Wait, make that "in a long time." Yes, the much-awaited snake-flick is as bad as that. I am not getting paid...

A painting said to be of Sir Sean Connery posing for an art class wearing only a thong is slated to go on public display soon. Robert Webster, known as Rab, painted the actor in 1951 while a student at the Edinburgh College of Art. The previously unseen oil painting shows bare back of Sir Sean, now 80, with his head turned to one side and wearing a thong. Webster died last month aged 83, according to BBC News. The painting was made long before Dr No (1962) was to make Connery a film legend. Nick...

The first names in the cast of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit have been announced. Martin Freeman will play Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit whose adventures and discovery of the One Ring led to The Lord of the Rings. He replaces Sir Ian Holm. "Despite the various rumors and speculation surround this role, there has only ever been one Bilbo Baggins for us," Peter Jackson told Deadline.com. "There are a few times in your career when you come across an actor who you know was born to play a role, but that was...

The Sanjay Dutt starrer Knock Out may have been released on Friday, but the Bombay High Court's judgment that eventually allowed Sohail Maklai Entertainment (SME) to release the film has been landmark in its own way. This the first time that an Indian court has admitted that Bollywood infringed a Hollywood copyright. That much, for sure, is landmark. Thursday had been a day of high drama. First, a single judge bench of the High Court of Justice Roshan Dalvi restrained the producers from...

Matt Damon is out of the next Bourne film. And so is ― believe it ― Jason Bourne himself. Director-screenwriter Tony Gilroy has said Damon’s character, Jason Bourne, will not feature in The Bourne Legacy, which is due to be released in 2012. Gilroy told Hollywood Elsewhere: "This is not a reboot or a recast or a prequel. No one's replacing Matt Damon. There will be a whole new hero, a whole new chapter … this is a stand-alone project. Jason Bourne will not be in this film, but he's very much...

The film based on JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit is all set to become the most expensive film ever made. Sir Peter Jackson’s cinematic rendition, the two-part precursor to The Lord of the Rings biopic trilogy, will cost $500 million. The entire three-part The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King – had cost $281 million in contrast. If all goes according to plan, the first part of The Hobbit will open in December 2012, with the second following a...

The controversy over the 'Zandu Balm' song in the film Dabangg and the subsequent rapprochement between the ointment manufacturer and the film producer is a classic example of a farce being played out in full public glare. It was a farce all right. But such a poor one that it couldn't even make one laugh. The contending parties of course have started sleeping together. Happily so. Dabangg has been one of the biggest hits in recent times. Its first weekend box office collections of Rs 48 crore...

The Sahara India Pariwar, an Indian conglomerate with deep pockets in the real estate and media sectors, is in talks about buying the debt of struggling film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $1.5 billion to $2 billion, according to news reports. Reuters reported that the talks are still in a preliminary stage. One source told the news agency that the Sahara group is contemplating a nearly $2 billion, all-cash deal for MGM's debt. Another source put the deal at roughly $1.5 billion. It was unclear...

Out there every film critic worth his or her salt is writing about the fifty years of Jean-Luc Godard’s À bout de soufflé ( Breathless), including those in Hollywood which has suddenly remembered that the French filmmaker deserves an honorary Oscar. Back home anyone with half a glass cinematic eye is celebrating the golden anniversary of Ritwik Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara ( The Cloud-capped Star), his biggest commercial success at that time. Both, needless to say, were landmark films. But there...