Author: SD

Low-budget Japanese feature A Samurai In Time has reached the ¥1bn ($6.65m) landmark at the local box office, cementing its position as one of the country’s biggest sleeper hits. The figure represents a significant milestone for the independent film, which was produced for a reported budget of just over $170,000 (¥26m). It follows a historic win for the feature at the 48th Japan Academy Prize on March 14, where it became the first independent film ever to win best picture at the annual awards. Winners of the award in recent years include Godzilla Minus One, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car…

British leading lights Olivia Colman, Jonathan Glazer, Riz Ahmed, and Jessie Buckley are among hundreds of Academy members who have signed a letter circulating on Friday in which they lambast the Oscar body’s response to the reported attack on and detention of No Other Land co-director Hamdan Ballal. The missive has been sent to Academy members and decries the Academy’s “indefensible” position, after CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang sent a letter to members on Thursday in which they condemned harm or suppression of artists based on their viewpoints, but did not mention Hallal by name, and implied the…

UK actor-director-producer Noel Clarke showed a film producer images of a naked woman on his mobile phone “to show that he could get actresses to do anything that he wanted”, London’s High Court has heard. Garry Moore said he was “a bit shocked” when Clarke showed him footage from a sex scene of an unreleased film at a meeting in London in 2014. Moore gave evidence today (March 26)  in the latest stage of Clarke’s libel battle against Guardian News and Media (GNM). Moore had met Clarke in 2014 to discuss the concept for a film, which involved sex scenes. The…

UK actor-director-producer Noel Clarke allegedly groped his colleague in an elevator and exposed himself to her in a car, according to testimony from a Guardian witness in Clarke’s libel claim against the UK newspaper today at London’s High Court. Gina Powell was part of Clarke’s production company Unstoppable between 2014 and 2017. She has accused Clarke of groping her in an elevator after a trip to Los Angeles in 2015. In a witness statement, Powell described the incident as “something I had to bear and carry every day”. “I was so shocked and heartbroken, someone I called my big brother,…

Silver Lake has finalised a $25bn deal to acquire Endeavor in a move that takes the parent of Hollywood agency WME private and sees founder Ari Emanuel move from CEO to executive chair. Mark Shapiro will lead the renamed WME Group. Private equity group Silver Lake and its co-investors have acquired 100% of the outstanding shares in Endeavor. The now privately held Endeavor Group Holdings retains its controlling ownership stake in sports and entertainment company TKO Group Holdings. Silver Lake said on Monday that when consolidating all of TKO’s value into Endeavor, the combined total enterprise value of $25bn at $27.50 per share…

UK-Ireland top five Mar 14-16 RankFilm (origin)DistributorMar 14-16 gross TotalWeek 1 Mickey 17  (US) Warner Bros £1.24m £4.5m  2 2  Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy  (UK-Fr-US) Universal £1.2m £42.9m   5 3  Black Bag  (US) Universal £897,744 £913,877  1 4  Marching Powder  (UK) True Brit £563,897 £2.1m  2 5  Captain America: Brave New World  (US) Disney £395,000 £17.4m  5 GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.30 Mickey 17 starring Robert Pattinson retained the UK-Ireland box office lead on its second weekend as Steven Soderbergh thriller Black Bag started…

Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 finally makes its bow as the Warner Bros title opens in 668 UK and Ireland cinemas this weekend. Robert Pattinson leads this sci-fi comedy as “expendable” on board a spaceship heading for the colonisation of another planet. Warner Bros will hope to capitalise on Pattinson’s strong box office career. The UK actor headlined the Twilight  films, which collectively brought in £135.5m across the five titles, while his more recent stint as The Batman opened on £13.5m in 2022. Bong has also had successes in the territory with his Oscar-winner Parasite opening on £1.1m in the UK and Ireland in February 2020…

Hope and optimism were in the air at the annual UK Cinema Association (UKCA) conference this week, attended by exhibitors buoyed by a strong start to the year thanks to the success of Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy. But after a challenging five years, it was agreed there was no time to be complacent.  “All of us need to do more than ever,” said Phil Clapp at the two-day event, which took place under the theme of ‘innovation’ at London’s Picturehouse Central.  Exhibtors packed out the event, representing venues of all shapes and sizes, from the multiplex giants of Odeon…

An actress has described feeling “humiliated and totally powerless” after Noel Clarke directed her in a production, in the latest testimony from a Guardian witness in Clarke’s libel claim against the UK newspaper. The woman, known as Mila for legal reasons, said she was acting in a scene that required waist-down nudity. Speaking in London’s High Court on Thursday, March 20, Mila said Clarke often asked her to “sit on his lap and made inappropriate sexual comments”, including telling her to bend over. Mila said she had been uncomfortable about the scene but accepted the role as she needed the…

The Florida city mayor who wanted to terminate the lease of an arthouse cinema and withold funding after it screened Oscar winner No Other Land has scrapped his proposal at a council meeting on Wednesday. Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner argued to terminate O Cinema’s lease and withhold city funding after describing the documentary to local residents as “a false, one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our city and residents”. However Meiner withdrew the proposal at what the Miami Herald described as a “raucous” Miami Beach City Commission meeting “where the…