English Entertainment
MN+ to premiere ‘Rosewater’ on 19 June
MUMBAI: MN+ will premiere Rosewater, one of the most inspirational survival stories of recent times, on 19 June at 1 pm and 9 pm.
Maziar Bahari, the Iranian- Canadian journalist, narrated his dreadful experience in prison, in his book Then They Came For Me, where he wrote about his life when he was detained in Iran for 4 months in 2009. He was arrested under the suspicion of being an American spy. The movie Rosewater is an adaptation of Maziar Bahari’s book which details all the incidents that took place during his imprisonment. Maziar was always blindfolded and the only way he could recognize his captor was through the distinct smell of rosewater that came from him and hence the name of the film, Rosewater.
The film marks the debut of the famous host of The Daily Show, John Stewart, who turned director, producer and screenplay writer for this film. The role of Maziar was played by Gael Gercia bernal, Mexican actor who marked his niche in plays and short films; and the titular role of Rosewater (the captor) or Javadi as they call him in the film, was played by Kim Bodnia, an actor known for Nordic Noir films.
An interesting trivia about the movie is that the actual Maziar Bahari made a cameo appearance in the movie as the man sitting near the camera when his character in the film confesses to his crimes.
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.
