English Entertainment
Leap into the world of robots and cyber terrorists as &flix brings the premiere of ‘Ghost in the Shell’
MUMBAI: &flix, the all-new destination for the most-awaited Hollywood hits, is all set to bring the Indian television premiere of the 2017 American sci-fi action film ‘Ghost in the Shell’, this Sunday, June 24 at 1 PM & 9 PM. The movie, which is part of the channel’s ‘Flix First Premiere’ property, is directed by Rupert Sanders and stars the talented Scarlett Johansson in the lead along with Takeshi Kitano, Michael Pitt, Pilou Asbaek, Chin Han and Juliette Binoche in key roles.
Based on the Japanese manga of the same name by Masamune Shirow, Ghost in the Shell is set in the near-future showcasing the amalgamation of humans and robots, owing to cyber-enhanced technologies. Major Motoko Kunsanagi (Johansson) is a first of her kind cyborg super soldier with a human brain implanted in a robot body. Having survived a terrible terrorist attack, Major Kusanagi is devoted to thwart the world’s most dangerous criminals, one of them being Kuze (Pitt), who can hack into human brains and control them. As she prepares for the deadly battle with Kuze, she soon learns about the experiments she was subjected to. With an aim to unravel the truth, she sets out on a mission to delve into her past and discover the secrets.
Will she be able to fight Kuze – the most dangerous of them all? What secrets does her past hold for her?
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.
