English Entertainment
Pix to air first series next month
MUMBAI: Sony’s English movie channel Pix has announced that it will air its first show Inside The Actors Studio next month.
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com on this initiative Pix programming head Gitanjali Murari says that the show is in line with the channel’s tagline of We Tell Stories.
“This is an interview based show hosted by James Lipton. He has sat down with some of the world’s most accomplished actors and directors for interviews. What is unqiue about the show is that it is taped in front of students at The Actors Studio Drama School. In addition to his duties as host, Lipton is also the dean of the school.
“The students are learning to become actors and filmmakers. So, each show will see the actor or director talk about how they approach their roles and why they chose to enter the world of filmmaking. Lipton’s studious research and enlightened curiosity inspires his guests to open up and confess their deepest thoughts about the art of acting. Viewers will get a personal insight into each guest which might otherwise not be possible.”
Lipton has been hosting the show for eight years now. His guests have included Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Hugh Grant, director Spike Lee and Julia Roberts.
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.
