English Entertainment
Its checkmate time with ‘Pawn Sacrifice’ on MN+ on last day of 2016
MUMBAI: Times Network’s premium HD English movie channel MN+ is to premiere the biographical drama film Pawn Sacrifice 31 December at 1 pm with a repeat telecast at 9 pm.
The inspiring movie tells the story of the first American world chess champion Bobby Fisher and his biggest championship battle at the height of the Cold War.
Directed by Edward Zwick, the movie is a gritty nail-biting drama that portrays the story of a genius who took the chess world by storm in the second half of the twentieth century.
Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, Pawn Sacrifice narrates the tale of the greatest chess match of all time between Russian Grandmaster Boris Spassky played by Liev Schreiber and Fischer played by Tobey Maguire.
Fischer not only fights the Soviet player, but also battles with his inner demons as he finds himself caught between two superpowers with national glory on the line.
The film draws parallels between sport and politics as the world championship match is a reflection of the simmering political tensions between the United States and Russia.
While chess is an alienating game, the film makes for compelling viewing as it poignantly illustrates the world of chess in a never before seen manner.
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.
