The threat of an actors' strike in the months ahead has put movie studios in a tenuous situation. Filmmakers are reluctant to launch any production that cannot be completed before the expiration of the Screen Actors Guild's (SAG) major film and TV contract ends on June 30.
"The studios for the most part are not greenlighting any movies that would have to be in production after that (June 30) deadline," said an insider at one leading talent agency.
Labor jitters have even prompted Hollywood's leading insurance carrier, Fireman's Fund Insurance Co, to offer a first-of-its-kind "strike expense" policy for studios.
PHOTO: AP
In light of strike concerns, Steven Spielberg has called off the April start to a DreamWorks film about the trial of the 1968 anti-war activists, the Chicago Seven, according to Variety.
Michael Bay, director of Transformers, is keeping his fingers crossed as he sticks to an early June start date for a sequel to the movie.
India's Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted state bans on the screening of Jodhaa Akbar, a blockbuster film about the love between a Muslim emperor and his Hindu wife.
Several states last month prohibited cinemas from showing the film after it sparked protests by Hindu Rajputs - a traditional warrior caste - against a "wrong interpretation" of history.
But the court lifted the bans until March 14, when a hearing will receive a petition from the Bollywood film's producers, who say the protests have cost them heavy losses.
Cinemas in western Rajasthan state were the first to refuse to screen the film after threats came from the Rajput community, which says it is grossly inaccurate.
The film - one of the most expensive Bollywood productions with an estimated budget of US$10 million - depicts a romance between the 16th-century Mughal ruler Akbar and Rajput princess Jodha Bai.
Former Miss World Aishwarya Rai portrays Jodha while Akbar is played by Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik Roshan.
In Hollywood, some insiders are scratching their heads over comments by French Oscar winner Marion Cotillard.
"I think we're lied to about a lot of things," Cotillard said during a television program first broadcast last year, which has resurfaced on the Internet.
The actress, who picked up her award for playing Edith Piaf in the French film La Vie en Rose, cited the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 as one example, adding: "I tend to believe in the conspiracy theory."
Cotillard's lawyer Vincent Toledano said she had "never intended to contest nor question the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and regrets the way old remarks have been taken out of context."
Paul Raymond, the porn baron and multi-millionaire property developer credited with staging the first live striptease show in London, has died, his company said Monday. He was 82.
Raymond, who amassed an estimated US$1.2 billion fortune, was once dubbed the "King of Soho" for his businesses, including Raymond's Revue Bar, in the London nightlife district.
His stable of top-shelf magazines, overseen by his company, the Paul Raymond Organisation, included Razzle, Men's World and Mayfair. Born Geoffrey Anthony Quinn, the son of a haulage contractor, Raymond left school at 15 vowing to make his name in show business. He started out with a mind-reading act, before becoming producer for a touring vaudeville show.
For many commentators he brought erotica into the mainstream, hosting a ground-breaking live striptease in 1958, before going on to make a vast fortune by buying and developing property in Soho and west London.
He was also described as a British version of Playboy founder Hugh Heffner in the US.
Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis (Welcome to the Land of the Ch'tis), a French comedy mocking national stereotypes about the country's north, usually depicted as a bleak, depressed land of beer-swilling brutes, looks set to be the movie of the year in France after smashing box office records.
Released last Wednesday, it has already overtaken France's most costly film ever, Asterix at the Olympic Games, which came out in January.
Films and novels about the area, which is a stark contrast to the glamour of Paris or the sunny mountains and coast of the Riviera, often feature coal mining, unemployment, rain or heavy drinking.
This grim social realist tradition can be traced back to the 19th-century writer Emile Zola and his bleak mining novel Germinal.
But Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis, written and directed by comedian Danny Boon, a Ch'ti himself who also stars in the movie, satirizes the prejudices about the area to reveal the warmth and big hearts of its people.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and the country’s other political groups dare not offend religious groups, says Chen Lih-ming (陳立民), founder of the Taiwan Anti-Religion Alliance (台灣反宗教者聯盟). “It’s the same in other democracies, of course, but because political struggles in Taiwan are extraordinarily fierce, you’ll see candidates visiting several temples each day ahead of elections. That adds impetus to religion here,” says the retired college lecturer. In Japan’s most recent election, the Liberal Democratic Party lost many votes because of its ties to the Unification Church (“the Moonies”). Chen contrasts the progress made by anti-religion movements in
Taiwan doesn’t have a lot of railways, but its network has plenty of history. The government-owned entity that last year became the Taiwan Railway Corp (TRC) has been operating trains since 1891. During the 1895-1945 period of Japanese rule, the colonial government made huge investments in rail infrastructure. The northern port city of Keelung was connected to Kaohsiung in the south. New lines appeared in Pingtung, Yilan and the Hualien-Taitung region. Railway enthusiasts exploring Taiwan will find plenty to amuse themselves. Taipei will soon gain its second rail-themed museum. Elsewhere there’s a number of endearing branch lines and rolling-stock collections, some
Last week the State Department made several small changes to its Web information on Taiwan. First, it removed a statement saying that the US “does not support Taiwan independence.” The current statement now reads: “We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the Strait.” In 2022 the administration of Joe Biden also removed that verbiage, but after a month of pressure from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), reinstated it. The American
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus convener Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) and some in the deep blue camp seem determined to ensure many of the recall campaigns against their lawmakers succeed. Widely known as the “King of Hualien,” Fu also appears to have become the king of the KMT. In theory, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) outranks him, but Han is supposed to be even-handed in negotiations between party caucuses — the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) says he is not — and Fu has been outright ignoring Han. Party Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) isn’t taking the lead on anything while Fu
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