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"World of Cinema" is courtesy of Darius Kadivar
HOLLYWOOD FILMS BEFORE COMPUTER GRAPHICS
Meryl Streep to play role of Iranian artist Mokarrameh Qanbari
TEHRAN, Feb. 24 (Mehr News Agency) – Meryl Streep has agreed to play the role of recently deceased Iranian artist Mokarrameh Qanbari in an upcoming Fox Film production, the Persian service of CHN reported on Friday. The Fox Film Corporation has purchased the rights to make a biographical film about Mokarrameh Qanbari and wants to shoot some of the scenes on location in her home village of Darikandeh near Babol in northern Iran. Fox Film executives became familiar with Qanbari and her works during her exhibition in Los Angeles and proposed to make a film of her life. The contract was signed in early spring before the artist's death. Meryl Streep has played in several movies including "The Deer Hunter", "The River Wild", "Sophie's Choice", and "The Hours". According to Qanbari's son, the biography has been completed and the screenplay is being written. The film is to be directed by Iranian filmmaker Essy Niknejad, who currently resides in California. Fox will shoot some scenes of the film on location in Darikandeh if the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance issues a license. Otherwise, those scenes will be shot in Hollywood.
Mokarrameh was born in the village of Darikandeh near Babol, Mazandaran Province, and despite her great talent, she never received any formal training in painting. She accidentally began painting at the age of 63 when she came across some artist's paint her son had left at her home. She continued her painting using bright, original colors inspired by the beautiful natural surroundings of her neighborhood, and within a few years her works were noticed by painters in Iran and overseas. She held her first exhibition at the Seyhun Gallery in 1995. The artist also participated in ten other exhibitions and was awarded the jury prize at the Roshd Film Festival and another award at the Rural Artistic-Literary Festival. In 2001, she was awarded an honorary certificate at the Conference of the Foundation of Iranian Women's Studies in Stockholm and was named the year's exemplary woman. In addition, she was named the "Female Painter of 2001" by the Swedish National Museum. Iranian filmmaker Ebrahim Mokhtari has made a documentary film about the life and works of the artist entitled "Mokarrameh, Her Memories and Dreams". She died at the age of 77 on October 24, 2005 and was buried in the courtyard of her house.
Clooney modest about Oscar hopes BBC
"I don't think we're going to win any," said Clooney, who has been nominated for three Oscars, including best director for Good Night, and Good Luck. "The hope is that people will see this film - I don't know about wins." "There's been a lot of Brokeback Mountain stuff," added the actor, also shortlisted for original screenplay. His screenplay nomination, for Good Night, and Good Luck, pits him directly against Syriana director Stephen Gaghan, a previous Academy Award winner for Traffic in 2000. Clooney gained 35 pounds to play Bob Barnes in Syriana, a veteran CIA agent assigned to assassinate the heir to the throne in an oil-rich Persian Gulf country.
George Clooney in Syriana "I put it on so quickly I was anxious to get it off," said the 44-year-old, who is shortlisted for best supporting actor alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Giamatti, Matt Dillon and William Hurt. "The depressing thing was that I could put on 35 pounds (16 kilograms) in 30 days." Syriana is based on the 2002 memoir of real-life CIA agent Robert Baer, who joined Clooney and Gaghan at the press conference in Berlin. Baer said he and the director toured the Middle East for two months as part of their research of the multi-layered film. "It did get it right," he said of the film. "All those figures in this movie, I can associate with somebody real, a real political player."
Jane Fonda book signing event at Vroman's in Pasadena, August 31, 2005 Jane Fonda and Iranian Fans Jane Fonda and Iranian Fans
Bond girl revealed
THE makers of upcoming James Bond movie Casino Royale have cast little-known French actress Eva Green as the next femme fatale to pair up with British agent 007, distributor Columbia Pictures said today. Green, 25, who made her 2003 film debut in The Dreamers, about a French brother and sister who befriend a young American during the Paris student riots of 1968, will play the enticing Vesper Lynd opposite English actor Daniel Craig in his first performance as Bond. Last year, she appeared in the big-screen crusades drama Kingdom of Heaven. In landing the coveted role of the next Bond girl, the French actress edged out a list of contenders reported in the Hollywood trade press to have included Oscar winner Charlize Theron, as well as Thandie Newton, Olivia Wilde and Kimberly Davies. The Sony Corp.-owned studio also announced that Danish-born actor Mads Mikkelsen had signed on to play Bond's villainous nemesis Le Chiffre. American actor Jeffrey Wright, who co-starred in Syriana, has joined the Casino Royale cast as undercover CIA agent Felix Leiter. Production on the film, the 21st movie in the multibillion-dollar Bond film franchise that began with Dr No in 1962, started on January 21 in Prague, and the movie is slated for release in November. Other production locations will include the Bahamas, Italy and Britain. The film, directed by Martin Campbell, is being adapted from the 1953 Ian Fleming novel that introduced the Bond character. Craig, the latest actor to fill the tuxedo of the British spy with a license to kill, was named in October to assume the role from Pierce Brosnan, who starred in the last four Bond movies. The most recent film, 2002's Die Another Day, which paired Brosnan with actress Halle Berry, grossed more than $425 million in worldwide ticket sales.
Russians to see 'authentic' version of Doctor Zhivago
(Independent News and Media) - Russia is reclaiming the love story that Hollywood purloined from its literary canon more than 40 years ago and has produced its first home-grown film version of Boris Pasternak's epic tale of love and revolution, Doctor Zhivago. Anxious to correct what it perceives to be numerous cultural and stylistic inaccuracies in the late Sir David Lean's 1965 MGM film, an 11-part television feature has been made in Moscow with some of Russia's best actors and will be shown from May. The idea is to "de-Westernise" the most famous work of one of only three Russian writers to have won a Nobel Prize for literature and give a Russian audience an authentic take on a book banned by the Communist authorities until the late 1980s. The "original" US film defined for many in the West what Russia was all about: snow, romantic sleigh rides, rolling landscapes, feel-good folk music and revolution. But the Russians argue that Lean got some, if not all of it, badly wrong. Though the Russians are gracious about the famous English-directed, US-financed film that won five Oscars, they are adamant that it was a peculiarly Western version of a quintessentially Russian work of literature. In the Hollywood film, Omar Sharif plays the protagonist, Yuri Zhivago, a doctor and poet from a wealthy Siberian family who strives to find love against the brutal backdrop of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The cast included Julie Christie as Lara, one of his two romantic interests, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness and Ralph Richardson. Its haunting soundtrack by Maurice Jarre, and particularly the recurring " Lara's Theme", stuck in the mind of a generation at least in the West. The film was acclaimed as one of Lean's best. But for Aleksander Proshkin, the director of the Russian Doctor Zhivago,
many details in the film were wrong. In an interview with The Independent,
lists a slew of inaccuracies and cultural misconceptions and argued
that an " authentic" Russian version was sorely needed.
"It is a wonderful US film that belongs to its time," he
said of the Lean version. "But it is American. It does not portray
the reality of Russia. It is Russia through Anglo-Saxon eyes. In fact,
it's neither Russia nor Pasternak." But what is really missing, he argues, is an authentic portrayal of the Russian soul. "It's like when our actors play an American or an Englishman. There are certain things that just can't be captured." Ironically, he notes that the character of Lara was not the classic Russian heroine that Hollywood made her out to be but of French and Belgian parents, a fact that made her "freer" and "different". Proshkin is careful not to be rude about the Hollywood film and quick to say that it was made at a time when the Cold War was raging and Russia was all but closed to foreigners. Hence it was filmed in Spain and Finland rather than in Moscow and Siberia. He also criticises the Hollywood approach of making everything "black and white" and of dividing the novel's characters into good and bad. He argues that Pasternak's characters are more richly textured. The scale and budget of the Russian production, which stars Oleg Menshikov, one of Russia's most popular actors, is not comparable to Hollywood but Proshkin feels his is more faithful. "This is a key novel when it comes to understanding Russia," he says. "Along with Quiet Flows the Don and the Gulag Archipelago it is one of just three Russian novels that has won the Nobel Prize. It is not the best or most perfect of novels but all of Russia is in it."
Jeff Nathanson's script draft is reportedly finished and approved
by both Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.
Filming to start on fifth 'Potter' Thursday, February 2, 2006; LONDON, England (Reuters) -- The three teenage stars of the Harry Potter movies are to reunite for the fifth film in the wizard saga. Warner Bros. announced on Thursday that filming will begin next week of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint reprising their roles as teenage wizards. Britain's David Yates is making his debut as a Potter director and among the new faces in the cast will be "Vera Drake" star Imelda Staunton as the new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School. The film is expected to be released next year. Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner, which is also the parent company of CNN.
Catherine Zeta Jones' Very First Movie: 1001 Nights http://www.dvdcritiques.com/critiques/dvd_visu.aspx?dvd=2224
LA based Producer wants to make a film on Bam called Bam 6.6
OMID DJALILI's Jason and the Argonauts DVD
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cast-crew/B00004U28P/ref=imdbdppd_castcrew_1/104-463
READY TO CONQUER HELEN OF TROY's HEART ? ANOTHER DVD
I love the old Version a Franco-Italian Sword and Sandal Epic directed
by Robert Wise (Sound of Music) starring Rosanna Podesta, Brigitte
Bardot (BB) and Jacques Sernas. Brad Pitts Troy was excellent also.
Here is a TV version on one of the most epic adventure stories of
all time which comes powerfully to life in this original four-hour
epic-series. Filmed in exotic locales with an international cast and
featuring state-of-the-art special effects, Helen of Troy depicts
one of the greatest battles ever fought to win the love of the world's
most beautiful woman. Though married to Menelaus, King of Sparta,
Helen (Sienna Guillory) falls madly in love with Paris (Matthew Marsden)
a handsome Trojan prince. Together, the lovers flee to Troy, where
they are given safe haven by Paris' father, King Priam (John Rhys-Davies).
Bent on bringing Helen back, the king's ruthless brother Agememnon
(Rufus Sewell) leads the skilled Spartan army to the shores of the
fabled city. There the Greeks lay siege to Troy, thus beginning one
of history's most legendary wars which would ultimately decide the
destinies of two empires.
Robert Hossein starts Ben Hur Promotion tour in France
SAG WINNERS: Crash cast wins over Brokeback Mountain
"Crash" cast members (from left) Sandra Bullock, Thandie Newton, Matt Dillon and Jennifer Esposito.
Yasmina Reza play in Paris Gabriel Garran mise sur ses acteurs dans les "Conversations"
de Yasmina Reza
I came across this picture of Catherine Bell clearly in an Audrey Hepburn look.
BBC new Series on Queen Elisabeth I: The Virgin Queen (BBC) Starts Sunday 22nd January, BBC
Paula Milne's powerfully authored drama explores the full sweep of the long and eventful life of England's iconic Queen. It starts with her days of fear, as a potential victim of her sister's terror; through her great love affair, her years of triumph, and finally her old age and her last enigmatic relationship.
Actress Shelley Winters dead at 85
Shelley Winters, the forceful, outspoken star who graduated from blond bombshell parts to dramas, winning Academy Awards as supporting actress in "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "A Patch of Blue," has died. She was 85. Winters died of heart failure early Saturday at The Rehabilitation Centre of Beverly Hills, her publicist Dale Olson said. She had been hospitalized in October after suffering a heart attack. The actress sustained her long career by repeatedly reinventing herself. Starting as a nightclub chorus girl, advanced to supporting roles in New York plays, then became famous as a Hollywood sexpot. (Watch scenes from Winters' career -- 1:46) A devotee of the Actors Studio, she switched to serious roles as she matured. Her Oscars were for her portrayal of mothers. Still working well into her 70s, she had a recurring role as Roseanne's grandmother on the 1990s TV show "Roseanne." In 1959's "The Diary of Anne Frank," she was Petronella Van Daan, mother of Peter Van Daan and one of eight real-life Jewish refugees in World War II Holland who hid for more than a year in cramped quarters until they were betrayed and sent to Nazi death camps. The socially conscious Winters donated her Oscar statuette to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. In 1965's "Patch of Blue," she portrayed a hateful, foul-mouthed mother who tries to keep her blind daughter, who is white, apart from the kind black man who has befriended her. Ever vocal on social and political matters, Winters was a favored guest on television talk shows, and she demonstrated her frankness in two autobiographies: "Shelley, Also Known as Shirley" (1980) and "Shelley II: The Middle of My Century" (1989). She wrote openly in them of her romances with Burt Lancaster, William Holden, Marlon Brando, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable and other leading men. "I've had it all," she exulted after her first book became a best seller. "I'm excited about the literary aspects of my career. My concentration is there now." Typically Winters, she also had a complaint about her literary fame: While reviewers treated her book as a serious human document, she said, talk show hosts Phil Donohue and Johnny Carson "only want to know about my love affairs." Winters, whose given name was Shirley Schrift, was appearing in the Broadway hit "Rosalinda" when Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn offered her a screen test. A Columbia contact and a new name -- Shelley Winters -- followed, but all the good roles at the studio were going to Jean Arthur in those days. Winters' early films included such light fare as "Knickerbocker Holiday," "Sailor's Holiday," "Cover Girl," "Tonight and Every Night" and "Red River." When her contract ended, Winters returned to New York as Ado Annie in "Oklahoma!" She would soon be called back and signed to a seven-year contract at Universal, where she was transformed into a blonde bombshell. She vamped her way through a number of potboilers for the studio, including "South Sea Sinner," with Liberace as her dance-hall pianist, and "Frenchie," as wild saloon owner Frenchie Fontaine, out to avenge her father's murder. The only hint of her future as an actress came in 1948's "A Double Life" as a trashy waitress strangled by a Shakespearian actor, Ronald Colman. The role won Colman an Oscar. "A Place in the Sun" in 1951 brought her first Oscar nomination and established her as a serious actress. She desperately sought the role of the pregnant factory girl drowned by Montgomery Clift so he could marry Elizabeth Taylor. The director, George Stevens, rejected her at first for being too sexy. "So I scrubbed off all my makeup, pulled my hair back and sat next to him at the Hollywood Athletic Club without his even recognizing me because I looked so plain. That got me the part," she recalled in a 1962 interview. Winters received her final Oscar nomination, for 1972's "The Poseidon Adventure," in which she was one of a handful of passengers scrambling desperately to survive aboard an ocean liner turned upside down by a tidal wave. By then she had put on a good deal of weight, and following a scene in which her character must swim frantically she charmed audiences with the line: "In the water I'm a very skinny lady." Although she was in demand as a character actress, Winters continued to study her craft. She attended Charles Laughton's Shakespeare classes and worked at the Actors Studio, both as student and teacher. She appeared on Broadway as the distraught wife of a drug addict in "A Hatful of Rain" and as the Marx Brothers' mother in "Minnie's Boys." Among her other notable films: "Night of the Hunter," "Executive Suite," "I Am a Camera," "The Big Knife," "Odds Against Tomorrow," "The Young Savages," "Lolita," "The Chapman Report," "The Greatest Story Ever Told," "A House Is Not a Home," "Alfie," "Harper," "Pete's Dragon," "Stepping Out" and "Over the Brooklyn Bridge." During her 50 years as a widely known personality, Winters was rarely out of the news. Her stormy marriages, her romances with famous stars, her forays into politics and feminist causes kept her name before the public. She delighted in giving provocative interviews and seemed to have an opinion on everything. Robert Mitchum once told her: "Shelley, arguing with you is like trying to hold a conversation with a swarm of bumblebees." The revelations in her autobiographies provided endless material for interviewers and gossip writers. She wrote of an enchanted evening when she and Burt Lancaster attended "South Pacific" in New York, dined elegantly, then retired to his hotel room. "This chance meeting proved to be the beginning of a long but painful romance," she wrote. "Despite the immediate and powerful chemistry between us, the love and the friendship, some wise part of me knew that he would never abandon his children while they were young and needed him." She also told of a dalliance with William Holden after a studio Christmas party. In a glamorous, real-life version of the play "Same Time, Next Year," they continued their annual Yuletide rendezvous for seven years. She wrote that despite their intimacy, they continued to refer to each other as "Mr. Holden" and "Miss Winters," and when they met on the set of the 1981 film "S.O.B." she said, "Hello, Mr. Holden." He smiled and replied, "Shelley, after your book, I think you should call me Bill." Shirley Schrift was born on August 18, 1920, and grew up New York, where she appeared in high school plays. "My childhood is a blur of memories," she wrote in the first of her autobiographies. "Money was so scarce in my family that at the age of 9 I was selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door. "It was during this stage of my life that I developed a whole fantasy world; reality was too unbearable. Every chance I got, I was at the movies. I adored them." Working as a chorus girl and garment district model helped finance her drama studies. She gained practical training by appearing in plays and musicals on the summer Borscht Circuit in the Catskill mountains. During the Detroit run of a musical revue, she married businessman Paul "Mack" Mayer on Jan. 1, 1942. He entered the Army Air Corps, and after the war, the pair found they had little in common. They divorced in 1948. Winters' second and third marriages were brief and tempestuous: to Vittorio Gassman (1952-1954) and Anthony Franciosa (1957-1960). The combination of a Jewish Brooklynite and Italian actors seemed destined to produce fireworks, and both unions resulted in headlines. A daughter, Vittoria, resulted from the marriage to Gassman. She became a successful physician.
Anthony Franciosa dead at 77 Friday, January 20, 2006; Posted: 4:14 p.m. EST (21:14 GMT)
Franciosa Franciosa was once married to Winters, who died last weekend. From his first important film role as the brother of a drug addict in "A Hatful of Rain," Franciosa became known for his portrayals of complicated young men. He received a 1956 Tony nomination for his performance in the role he created on Broadway, then an Oscar nod. In 1957, the actor appeared in three other films, "This Could Be the Night," "A Face in the Crowd" and "Wild Is the Wind." Franciosa's career continued in high gear with such films as "The Long Hot Summer," "The Naked Maja" (as Goya), "The Story on Page One," "Period of Adjustment," "Rio Conchos" and "The Pleasure Seekers." The actor's behavior on movie productions became the subject of Hollywood gossip. The stories alleged fiery disputes with directors, sulks in his dressing room, outbursts with other actors. "I went out to Hollywood in the mid-1950s," he remarked in a 1996 interview, "and I would say I went there a little too early. It was an incredible amount of attention, and I wasn't quite mature enough psychologically and emotionally for it." Franciosa's assertive attitude extended beyond movie stages; in 1957 he served 10 days in the Los Angeles County jail for slugging a press photographer. His reputation contributed to the downturn in Hollywood offers, and his career veered to European-made films and television. His first TV series, "Valentine's Day," cast him as a swinging New York publishing executive involved in numerous romances. It lasted one season (1964-'65). In "The Name of the Game" (1968-71) Franciosa alternated with Gene Barry and Robert Stack as adventurous members of a Los Angeles publishing firm. In 1971 the producing company, Universal Pictures, fired him from the series, charging erratic behavior. He countered that the company had treated him badly and demanded that he take a pay cut. The film on which "The Name of the Game" was based, "Fame Is the Name of the Game" (1966), is generally considered the first made-for-TV movie. It also starred Franciosa. The 1975 TV series "Matt Helm," with Franciosa as a wisecracking detective, was canceled after half a season. He was born Anthony Papaleo in October 1928, in New York City. He was 1 when his father disappeared, and the boy grew up tough in Manhattan slums. "Getting in the first blow was something I learned in childhood," he said in an interview. After working in odd jobs and sometimes sleeping in flophouses, at 18 he attended an audition for actors at the YMCA. and was chosen for two plays. He later studied at the Actors Studio and the New School for Social Research. Adopting his mother's maiden name, Franciosa, he began getting roles in television and the theater. "A Hatful of Rain" made him a star. Besides Winters, Franciosa was married to writer Beatrice Bakalyar and real estate agent Judy Kanter, with whom he had a daughter, Nina. His lasting marriage was to Rita Thiel, a German fashion model. They had sons Christopher and Marco.
In "The Name of the Game" (1968-71) Franciosa (below) alternated with Gene Barry and Robert Stack as adventurous members of a Los Angeles publishing firm. http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/20/obit.franciosa.ap/index.html
Derakhshandeh criticizes female filmfest TEHRAN, Jan. 20 (Mehr News Agency) – Iranian filmmaker Puran Derakhshandeh has harshly criticized the organizers of Iran's First Female Filmmakers Festival, ISNA reported on Wednesday. She asked why no film by Tahmineh Milani was screened during a festival that was supposed to be dedicated to female filmmakers. Iran's First Female Filmmakers Festival was organized by the House of Iranian Women Artists and was held in Kish from January 14 to 18. Derakhshandeh said that none of her films were screened either, adding that she has objections to the festival itself. "It is not clear on what criteria the feature-length movies were selected," said the filmmaker, who was also a member of selection board for the short film section. "Leila", "Sara", and "Banu" by Dariush Mehrjuii, "Bashu, the Little Stranger" by Bahram Beizaii, "Gilaneh", "The Blue Scarf", and "Narges" by Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, "The Mare" by Ali Jakan, "Hemlock" by Behruz Afkhami, and "Ten" by Abbas Kiarostami were also selected by a panel of critics as the top ten Iranian films with themes based on women's issues produced since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Shatner kidney stone goes for $25,000
NEW FILM ON GORGI AFFFAIRE IN PARIS RELEASED
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