English Entertainment
Warner to release ‘Batman Begins’ in Imax
MUMBAI: Imax Corporation and Warner Bros. Pictures have announced that the upcoming blockbuster Batman Begins will be simultaneously released to Imax and on conventional 35mm theatres globally on 17 June 2005.
The film explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight’s emergence as a force for good in Gotham. It will be digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The Imax Experience with proprietary Imax Digital Re-mastering (DMR) technology for the Imax release.
Last year Warner had a simultaneous Imax release for Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban as well as The Polar Express. The announcement marks the eight venture between Warner and Imax.
Imax co-chairmen and co-CEOs Richard L. Gelfond and Bradley J. Wechsler said, “This film will be the latest in a series of fantastic Warner Bros. Pictures releases which have helped change the way moviegoers experience Hollywood movies. Warner Bros. Pictures has been an instrumental partner in establishing this trend and advancing the Imax theatre network as the newest distribution platform for Hollywood content.”
Christian Bale will don the mantle of the caped crusader. The story finds the disillusioned industrial heir Bruce Wayne in the wake of his parents’ murder, traveling the world to seek the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful.
He returns to Gotham and unveils his alter-ego: Batman, a masked crusader who uses his strength, intellect and an array of high tech deceptions to fight the
sinister forces that threaten the city.
Michael Caine plays Bruce Wayne / Batman’s trusted butler, Alfred. Liam Neeson plays Wayne’s mentor; Katie Holmes stars as Rachel Dawes, a childhood friend of Wayne’s.
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.
