Fan Fare

Shah Rukh Khan braves freezing Berlin

No thermal underwear for Shah Rukh Khan.

The 44-year-old Bollywood megastar is used to warmer climes, but has had to brave snow, ice and sub-zero temperatures during his visit to Berlin where his latest movie “My Name Is Khan” had its premiere on Friday.

Oozing charm, and making some in the audience at the movie’s press conference practically swoon, Khan bluntly stated: “Death before long johns. I am too macho for this.”

But Khan’s charm wore off with some esteemed colleagues who were made to wait for more than two hours for interviews with the actor only to be told that they had been called off. As of the time of writing, the interviews were back on again, but boy it’s been a long, cold day for those journalists.

Khan’s limousine is usually parked straight outside the building, as befits one of the most famous men on the planet. We mere mortals, however, must slip slide along treacherous pavements as we navigate our way from screening to press conference to interview to eatery. Welcome to the world of film festivals.

from Global News Journal:

Pusan International Film Festival unveils line up

The Pusan International Film Festival opens its 14th edition with “Good Morning President”, a movie taking a warm-hearted look at the ruthless and cold-blooded world of South Korean politics.

The festival is Asia largest and runs from October 8-16 in the South Korean port city of Busan. Organisers on Tuesday unveiled the line-up for the festival where 355 films from 70 countries will be screened, including 98 that will be world premieres.

The festival has its red carpet where several of South Korea’s and Asia’s biggest stars parade before the cameras but it pales in comparison to the glamorous showings in Cannes or Venice. What the Pusan fest does best is celebrate and promote Asian films. It is also one of the biggest film markets in the region where producers from, say, Malaysia can pick up distribution deals in Japan.

Influential Bollywood director and producer Yash Chopra will be honoured as filmmaker of the year at the festival, which is considered one of the top cinema honours in Asia.

The festival will have a special programme celebrating Hong Kong’s Johnnie To, called “The Hood in the City”, while French director Jean-Jacques Beineix will heads the jury for the New Currents award that honours new Asian directors.

from Africa News blog:

Is African film industry losing its light?

Something isn’t sitting quite right at this year’s fantastic, dust-filled pan-African FESPACO film festival.

For a start, it’s less “pan-African” than it might be: of 19 feature films competing for the shiny statue of Princess Yennenga riding her golden stallion -- Africa's very own Oscar -- only one is from east Africa and none from Nigeria, whose video industry is third only to Hollywood and India’s Bollywood. By far the majority are from French-speaking countries.

Not only that, but the prized 35mm category in which feature films compete is beyond the reach of many African filmmakers. Only a clutch of the films competing for the top gong were actually shot on 35mm film, and many projectors have long since lost the ability to show them.

Most films are instead shot on digital, meaning filmmakers must pay in the region of 50,000 euros to transfer their digital prints onto film in order to compete. Not only is digital cheaper, easier and quicker, but it can also means film can be edited in their home countries, and easily brought to local audiences with digital projectors. Currently only north Africa and South Africa have studios equipped for 35mm.

It means many filmmakers can afford to work only with the aid of donors, and even then they can’t secure distribution to make sure their stories reach an African audience and make money too, especially since DVD piracy is rife and cinemas are closing down across the continent.

Burkina Faso, which hosts the festival, was once home to 55 working screens; today it has ten. Cameroon said goodbye to its final three already shaky screens in January, while Congo Brazzaville’s only working screen is hosted by the French Cultural Centre.

“Africa really has to change its way of making films,” said Selome Gerima, associate producer of Teza, a movie about the Red Terror in Ethiopia. “I don’t believe in going and begging to the donors; they will not take us anywhere. We have to unite and have some kind of African film bank, to sell scripts, make loans, find outlets, so we can be independent.”

Stallone, Schwarzenegger in Bollywood? Not both.

Action star Sylvester Stallone will make a cameo appearance in a Bollywood movie, but movie fans hoping Sly would share the screen with action hero-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will have to keep waiting. And maybe for a long time.

Aaron McLean, Schwarzenegger’s spokesman in the California governor’s office, dismissed recent media reports that the “Terminator” star will appear in the Bollywood movie “Incredible Love.”

“He is not involved in that picture,” McLean said.

But Stallone, star of the “Rocky” and “Rambo” films, will make an appearance in “Incredible Love,” which will be shot at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

“I will confirm that Mr. Stallone is doing a cameo,” said his spokeswoman Michelle Bega. 

“Incredible Love” is the story of an Indian stuntman in Hollywood, and it features Bollywood star Akshay Kumar. The New York Daily News reports the movie’s $21 million budget will be the most spent on any Bollywood picture.

Stallone, 61, and Schwarzenegger, 60, have never starred together on screen, but in 2002 they performed voice work for animated series “Liberty’s Kids: Est. 1776,” about the American revolution. Stallone played Paul Revere and Schwarzenegger had the role of Baron von Steuben.