English Entertainment
Discovery to air special series on Egypt
MUMBAI: Discovery will premiere a special series Egypt Week, from 24-27 April at 8 pm.
The show will revisit the absorbing controversies surrounding Egypt’s history, and their foregone conclusions. It will also investigate using new facts, discoveries and scientific techniques.
A team of investigators, egyptologists, historians, archaeologists and toxicologists together examine the theories and present new possibilities on controversies. These include the death of Cleopatra, the riddle of the Sphinx, life along the Nile, and, based on a recent discovery in an Egyptian tomb, a 3,000-year-old mystery that could have ties to the story of Exodus
On 24 April Rameses: Wrath Of God Or Man airs. It features the discovery of a skull that could have ties to the biblical story of Exodus. Rameses, one of Egypt’s greatest kings, has long been considered the pharaoh described in the book of Exodus. His firstborn son may have been struck down by God during the 10 deadly plagues, when Moses asked the ruler to free Hebrew slaves for the Exodus.
From remains recently found in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, egyptologist Kent Weeks attempts to determine whether he does have the skull of Rameses’ firstborn son. And, investigative reporter Charles Sennott tracks the highlights of Exodus at the Nile Delta, the dry deserts of southern Egypt and Mt. Sinai on the edge of the Red Sea.
The Mysterious Death Of Cleopatra which airs on 25 April tackles a cold case of royal proportions. Cleopatra inherited the throne of Egypt at age 17, before dodging assassination to rule for more than 20 years. Her life is filled with the enigmatic and the unexplained as is her untimely death.
For two millennia, only one cause has been recorded – suicide by snakebite. Now, using techniques of 21st century criminal investigations, criminal profiler Pat Brown and a team of experts, including an underwater archaeologist and a toxicologist, re-examine the circumstances of her alleged suicide. Meanwhile Sphinx Unmasked strives to unlock the true origins, purpose and identity of the largest freestanding stone sculpture on Earth. For its 4,500 years of existence, the Sphinx has been shrouded in mystery.
Now Egyptologist and old Kingdom expert Dr. Vassil Dobrev of the French Institute in Cairo is on the verge of cracking its riddles. As Dobrev’s plot unfolds, carefully crafted dramatisations complemented by computer generated imagery from a special effects team, resurrect the Sphinx in all its former painted glory and answer questions that have baffled Egyptologists for centuries.
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.
