English Entertainment
Star Movies presents X-MEN Special
Mumbai, May 17, 2006: X’treme action fans are in for a treat this Sunday. Star Movies gives you the perfect way to end your weekend with the X-Men Special! Star Movies builds the excitement with the back-to-back airing of X-Men and X-2: X Men United to get your adrenaline rushing. If that’s not enough, it presents a sneak peek into the much-awaited X-Men 3: The Last Stand, the final chapter in the X-Men motion picture trilogy. So don’t forget to tune in to the X-Men Special, from 3:50 pm onwards this Sunday evening, 21 May only on Star Movies!
For starters, tune in to X-Men at 3:50 p.m. to watch unusual children born with an added twist to their genetic code- the “X-factor” which allows them to perform extraordinary feats. At 5:50 p.m. watch X 2, in which the X-Men band together to find a mutant assassin who has made an attempt on the president’s life. To end the perfect evening, Star Movies presents a dream come true for any “X-Men” fan with Opening Night. Watch some never seen before footage and special glimpses of the making of X-Men 3: The Last Stand at 8:30 p.m.
Opening Night will not only showcase clippings of the unreleased movie, but will also take you behind the scenes where you can watch Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry and the rest of the cast talk about their experiences while shooting this most ambitious work of the trilogy. They discuss how it required complex strategic maneuvering to bring the entire cast back for this project, due to their busy schedules and how their participation was never in doubt as it was key to the story and character relationships, and important to the fans who love these films. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby discuss how it never occurred to them forty years ago that the characters created by them for Marvel Comics would result in such magnificent movies. In this film the characters undergo significant changes and the action is taken to a whole new level.
X-Men 3: The Last Stand, a “cure” for mutancy threatens to alter the course of history. For the first time, mutants have a choice: retain their uniqueness, though it isolates and alienates them, or give up their powers and become human. The opposing viewpoints of mutant leaders Charles Xavier, who preaches tolerance and Magneto, who believes in the survival of the fittest, are put to the ultimate test – triggering the war to end all wars.
Presented by rising star Terence Yin (Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life, New Police Story), Opening Night gives you an up-close and intimate view of the most anticipated films before their general release. Previous episodes of this hit show has featured Hollywood blockbusters like Pink Panther, Ice Age 2, Chicken Little, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Fantastic Four, Robots, Ocean’s Twelve, I- Robot, Ladder 49, Lemony Snickets: A series of unfortunate events, Kingdom of Heaven, The Goal and King Kong.
So don’t forget to tune in to Star Movies on Sunday, May 21st for X-Men Special from 3:50 p.m. onwards, with the back to back airing of X-Men and X-2, followed by an exclusive sneak peek into the making of X -Men 3: The Last Stand.
About Star
STAR is a leading media and entertainment company in Asia. STAR broadcasts over 50 television services in nine languages to more than 300 million viewers across 53 Asian countries. STAR channels cover all genres including general entertainment (Star Plus, Xing Kong, Star Chinese Channel, Star One, Star Utsav, Star World, Vijay, Phoenix Chinese), sports (ESPN, Star Sports), movies (Star Chinese Movies, Star Gold, Star Movies), music (Channel [V]), and news and current affairs (Star News, Star Ananda, Phoenix InfoNews Channel). STAR controls over 20,000 hours of Indian and Chinese programming and also owns the world’s largest contemporary Chinese film library, with more than 600 titles, featuring superstars including Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat and Bruce Lee. In partnership with leading companies in Asia, STAR businesses extend to filmed entertainment, television production, cable systems, direct-to-home services, terrestrial TV broadcasting, wireless and digital services. STAR is a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corporation. www.startv.com
For further information please contact:
In Mumbai
Zeenat Khan Shiraz Bhavnani / Aditi Chada
Asst. Vice President – Publicity Vaishnavi Corporate Communications
STAR (India) Ltd. Tel: 91-22-5656 8787
Tel No. 91-22-56305555 Fax: 91-22-5656 8788
Email :sbhavnani@vccpl.com / achada@vccpl.com
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.
