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.
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
Despite the intense sunshine, we were hardly breaking a sweat as we cruised along the flat, dedicated bike lane, well protected from the heat by a canopy of trees. The electric assist on the bikes likely made a difference, too. Far removed from the bustle and noise of the Taichung traffic, we admired the serene rural scenery, making our way over rivers, alongside rice paddies and through pear orchards. Our route for the day covered two bike paths that connect in Fengyuan District (豐原) and are best done together. The Hou-Feng Bike Path (后豐鐵馬道) runs southward from Houli District (后里) while the
President William Lai’s (賴清德) March 13 national security speech marked a turning point. He signaled that the government was finally getting serious about a whole-of-society approach to defending the nation. The presidential office summarized his speech succinctly: “President Lai introduced 17 major strategies to respond to five major national security and united front threats Taiwan now faces: China’s threat to national sovereignty, its threats from infiltration and espionage activities targeting Taiwan’s military, its threats aimed at obscuring the national identity of the people of Taiwan, its threats from united front infiltration into Taiwanese society through cross-strait exchanges, and its threats from
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
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