Seems like the good fathers (I mean that as an oxymoron) of the Catholic Church in Brazil are tripping over the hems of their gilt-edged cassocks regarding the cinematic destruction of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Roland Emmerich’s 2012 movie. The Church is not cross because of the desecration of Christ’s image, [...]

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Films of the Millenium from Paul Proulx. It’s location, location, location, isn’t it?
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There’s a fascinating article at the New York Times about the Sandra Bullock surprise hit “The Blind Side” – a true tale about a wealthy white woman who adopts a black teenager and helps him to become a football star. Made with $35 million (including $5.5 mill of Georgia state incentives), the movie is currently [...]

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Fox has officially confirmed that Avatar passed Titanic in global box office takings this week. Avatar’s new world-wide total gross is $1,858,866,889. Yes, that’s billion….

But did you know that the production budget of the film was partly raised courtesy of a UK scheme whereby investors can defer their (not inconsiderable) income tax and capital gains [...]

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It’s been reported that the Creative Workers Union of South Africa (CWUSA) is braying about the casting of Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson as ANC MP, convicted kidnapper and Mother-of-the-Nation, Winnie Madikizela Mandela in a movie about her turbulent life. As part of their mobilisation, CWUSA is demanding the reinstatement of work permits for international producers [...]

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Caught this briefly on CNN: Andy Garcia is in Tbilisi this week, playing President Saakashvili in Renny Harlin’s “anti-war” movie Georgia.

This story from the UK Independent sites “fears that it could be a vehicle for the Georgian government’s version of events,” a view it says is reinforced by the fact that the government has put [...]

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How not to work with the local community: embarrassed officials said that when the crew of Julia Robert’s new movie, “Eat, Pray, Love“, rocked up in Bali’s Bentuyung village a month ahead of schedule, locals blocked roads and demanded 32,000 dollars……..

“There was a misunderstanding. The crew came in 20 trucks… earlier than their scheduled shooting [...]

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District 9 finally opened in South Africa. What a bizarre experience: watching a Hollywood movie play out with South African accents and attitudes and familiar locations. Even the movie’s star, Sharlto Copley, is a friend of mine, and though I can be accused of bias for saying so, he’s really astoundingly good in this. The [...]

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Having trashed the lack of thought (and science) in Terminator Salvation, I was more than pleasantly surprised to come across this new South African SciFi movie District 9.
Based on a creepy short film called Alive in Joburg, it’s produced by Peter Jackson (yes, he of Lord of the Rings fame) and features a clever story [...]

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June 2009 sees the completion of the Durban and KZN Film Industry review, which has been conducted by Martin Cuff Consulting on behalf of the eThekwini Municipality / Durban Film Office and Department of Economic Development of the Province of KZN. The six month review was intended to revisit the province’s performance as a film [...]

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