English Entertainment
AXN starts online flick contest
AXN, the action programming channel is running a contest on its site to promote the Oscar winning martial arts stunner Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
The film airs on AXN on 16 December. The My AXN contest which started on 1 December concludes on 30 December.
Contestants who have to register as AXN Asia members, have to decide whether the flick stars Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi or Chang Chen. The top three correct entries will collect a Limited Edition model size version of the Green Destiny Sword that is wielded during the course of the film.
The winner will be chosen by an AXN Asia representative. The three lucky winners, who will be notified through telephone, email or mail, will have to respond within ten days after intimation. The contest is valid only in those countries in Asia where the channel is available.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has been directed by Ang Lee (The Ice Storm) and won several Oscars in March this year, including best foreign language film and best score.
The question now is just a matter of answering a simple question.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
