English Entertainment
Hallmark gets adventurous with ‘King Solomon’s Mines’
MUMBAI: Hallmark is looking at the adventure genre to hook viewers. It will air a sprawling version of H Rider Haggard’s classic novel King Solomon’s Mines.
The four-hour film airs in two parts on 23 and 24 September at 9.45 pm. This story revolves around safari hunter Allan Quatermain played by Patrick Swayze of Ghost fame. He has given up the life of an adventurer, vowing to leave the natural splendor of Africa to its own people and leave its destruction to the likes of his mercenary former partner, Bruce McNabb .
However, Quatermain accepts an handsome offer to lead an expedition to find a woman’s missing father. He had disappeared in Africa while searching for the infamous King Solomon’s Mines.
Quatermain knows that no-one who has dared to seek the treasure has ever returned alive. But for him and his game comrade of the jungle, Sir Henry played by Ian Roberts, The Power of One, no challenge is too great or too dangerous.
The film is a part of Hallmark’s ongoing programme initiative Marathon. It comprises 54 hours of mini series featuring 19 different stories.
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.
