English Entertainment
‘Hulk’ is HBO’s first ‘Big One’ for 2005
Mumbai: HBO has announced that the Ang Lee action adventure film Hulk will be the first film to air in 2005 under its Big One block. The film airs on 28 January at 9 pm.
The film stars Eric Bana in the title role along with oscar winner Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind), Sam Elliott and Nick Nolte. Based on Marvel comic character and a TV series, Hulk made the leap to a full-fledged feature film a couple of years ago.
It tells the story of geneticist Bruce Banner played by Bana. He gets cursed by an experimental accident to become a powerful giant green brute. Bruce harbours a dark secret. It seems his father David played by Nolte had been performing genetic experiments on him since he was a young boy – memories Bruce tries hard to erase.
An accident in Bruce’s laboratory exposes him to intense gamma radiation that alters him physically and mentally, turning him into a raging green monster when confronted by deep emotions. Fellow scientist and ex-girlfriend Betty Ross played by Connelly tries hard to help Bruce deal with his inner demons. Misunderstood and feared, the Hulk goes on the rampage against the elements that seek to bring him down. Bruce must now face his father, who can transform himself into anything he touches and save Betty and the world, from his evil power.
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.
