English Entertainment
Anil Kapoor acquires ‘Prison Break’ rights; moots Indian version
NEW DELHIi: Versatile actor Anil Kapoor, who is currently busy finishing the second series of his television series 24, has acquired the rights of another American TV series Prison Break.
The actor, who had earlier taken the rights of Modern Family, said he normally went with a gut feeling that Indians would love a story when he acquires it to adapt it to Indian situation.
Prison Break, of which the fifth season is about to commence, revolves around two brothers. One has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit while the other devises an elaborate plan to help him escape and clear his name. The actor said he had only acquired the rights of the first season.
In a statement, Kapoor said: “The show is about sibling love. It has just the right amount of emotions and of course some mind blowing action. In the past, films like Do Aankhen Barah Haath and Umar Qaid, which revolved around jailbreak, have been appreciated by the audience.”
The actor-producer is not yet sure whether he will be on the show himself as he says he is concentrating on the second season of 24 which had been telecast on Colors in the first season.
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.
