English Entertainment
This November HBO turns the heat on with a line up of mega blockbusters
Mumbai: India’s No.1 and the world’s leading English movie channel, HBO under the banner of HBO The Big One, The Big Saturday, Friday Blockbuster as well as HBO Originals, brings to you an inimitable collection of movies cutting across several genres including action, drama, horror and suspense, with a promise of great entertainment in the month of November.
On 27th November, HBO will telecast the most exciting of Blockbuster’s, HBO The Big One: “The Last Samurai” at 9 pm.
The movie was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Ken Watanabe. This well-crafted, poignant period drama is set in 19th century Japan. The movie stars Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe. Captain Nathan Algren (Cruise) is a troubled soldier, haunted by the past. Katsumoto (Watanabe, T.R.Y.) is the last leader of an age- old line of warriors and seeks the survival of the way of the samurai in the advent of railroads and firearms. The paths of these two fighters clash, and spark off a fierce battle.
On 12th November, HBO gives a taste of the best of Hollywood action-packed movies by presenting HBO The Big Saturday: “Cradle 2 The Grave”.
Starring Jet Li, DMX, Mark Dacascos, Kelly Hu, this martial arts thriller showcases some spectacularly choreographed fight sequences. When master thief Tony Fait (DMX) and his henchmen make the score of a lifetime, bagging a cache of black diamonds, he realizes that’s he’s done the dirty work for someone else. If that’s not enough of an insult, here’s the injury to add to it – ruthless criminal Ling’s (Dacascos) has Tony’s daughter hostage and the diamonds are the price of her freedom. But Tony’s only bargaining chip gets stolen, and Ling’s not known for sticking to fair trade agreements. Tony then teams up with Taiwanese government agent Su (action superstar Li, Unleashed, Hero), who has some unfinished business with Ling to free his daughter.
Livening up your Saturdays at 9:00 pm, HBO guarantees the best of entertainment on HBO Saturday Nights. Starting with the action and adventure packed movie “Showtime” (starring Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, Rene Russo) and following it with “Wimbledon” (starring Kirsten Dunst, Paul Bettany) and “Bloodwork” (starring Clint Eastwood, Jeff Daniels, Anjelica Huston).
HBO brightens up Sunday Nights with a heady line up of impressive movies. Roll in your seat with laughter as HBO presents “Along Came Polly” (starring Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alec Baldwin) on 6th November at 8 pm. HBO also brings two action movies “The Jackal” on 13th November (starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier) and “Cyborg” on 20th November (starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Deborah Richter, Vincent Klyn).
HBO brings the best of Hollywood by premiering the top blockbuster movies on television first in South Asia through exclusive licensing deals with four major Hollywood studios – Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment (Columbia/ TriStar), Universal and Warner Bros.
Prime time viewing on HBO includes HBO The Big One, a special television event that premieres a mega blockbuster movie, HBO Big Saturdays, showcases mega blockbusters that have generated huge worldwide box office receipts, HBO Saturday Nights, which premieres a new box office hit each week throughout the year; HBO Superstar Sunday, which showcases outstanding performances by Hollywood’s hottest stars in their most memorable roles. In addition, HBO features at least 3- 4 new movie showcases every month to offer viewers an interesting mix of Hollywood movies based on exciting themes.
For further information, please contact:
Aparna Arora, Communications HBO Asia
Tel: 011 – 51668405/
-mail: arora_aparna@hboasia.com.sg
Nimisha Bhargava, CMCG India
Tel-fax: 022- 24450991-6
Email: nimisha.bhargava@cmcgindia.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.
