Hollywood
Mark Ruffalo to visit MAMI this year
MUMBAI: Avengers: Age of Ultron star Mark Ruffalo, who plays Hulk in the movie, is likely to be a part of the Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI) this year.
Ruffalo said, “I received an invitation a couple of days ago and am figuring out the dates. I’m really excited about the festival. I have heard a lot about Bollywood and it’d be great if I could visit Mumbai.”
Ruffalo will reprise his role of The Hulk and he was excited to be on set with his fellow Avengers actors and experience again the camaraderie that had formed among all of them. “We all as actors went on this journey together, through this wild thing that became The Avengersand this successful thing and then everyone going off and having all these other successes that spun out of it, and there’s a lot of goodwill between us. So coming back after being away and seeing each other was a very sweet reunion and working together was a lot of fun. There’s a lot of goofing around and a lot of playfulness and digging in when it’s time to dig in on it, so I think that some of the best, most exciting stuff is when they are all together,” he said.
Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Age of Ultron stars Robert Downey Jr., who returns as Iron Man, along with Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Ruffalo as Hulk and Chris Evans as Captain America. Together with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and with the additional support of Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine, Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, Stellan Skarsg?rd as Erik Selvig and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, the team must reassemble to defeat James Spader as Ultron, a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction. Along the way, they confront two mysterious and powerful newcomers, Pietro Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen and meet an old friend in a new form when Paul Bettany becomes Vision.
Written and directed by Joss Whedon and produced by Kevin Feige,Avengers: Age of Ultron is based on the Marvel comic book series The Avengers, first published in 1963. The movie is set to release on 24 April, 2015.
Hollywood
WBD sets April 23 vote on $110bn Paramount Skydance merger
Investor approval key step, but regulators loom over mega media deal
NEW YORK: Warner Bros. Discovery has set April 23 as the date for shareholders to vote on its proposed $110 billion merger with Paramount Skydance, marking a crucial step in one of the biggest media deals in recent years.
The all-cash transaction offers WBD shareholders $31 per share, a hefty 147 per cent premium to its unaffected stock price, signalling strong intent to push the deal across the finish line. The company’s board has unanimously backed the merger and is urging investors to vote in favour.
Even if shareholders give the green light, the deal is far from done. Regulators in the United States and Europe are expected to scrutinise the merger closely, weighing concerns around competition and potential price impacts for consumers.
To keep investors on side, WBD has built in a safety net. If the deal is not completed by September 30, shareholders will receive a quarterly “ticking fee” of $0.25 per share until closure.
The proposed merger would significantly reshape the media landscape, combining the assets of Warner Bros. Discovery with those linked to Paramount Global and Skydance Media. It would also cement the growing influence of David Ellison, who has been steering Skydance’s aggressive expansion strategy.
“The WBD Board has been guided by the singular principle of securing a transaction that maximises the value of our iconic assets and delivers as much certainty as possible to our shareholders,” said Warner Bros. Discovery board chair Samuel A. Di Piazza Jr.. “This historic transaction will expand consumer choice and create new opportunities for creative talent.”
Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive officer David Zaslav added that the company is working closely with its counterpart to close the deal and unlock value for stakeholders.
With investor backing likely but regulatory hurdles ahead, the proposed merger is shaping up to be a defining moment for the global entertainment industry, where scale, content and competition are increasingly intertwined.
