The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

Russia lures Hollywood, raising bar for local film

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 03:39 AM PDT

Actors Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz pose for photographers in front of the Kremlin during a news conference in Moscow in this file photo of May 11, 2011. Hollywood has been flying silver screen stars to Moscow for red carpet events, to the delight of avid Russian fans. – Reuters pic

MOSCOW, July 18 – Russia may not become the next Hollywood, but Tinseltown is definitely coming to Russia, where audience numbers are growing fast and US blockbusters are gaining greater popularity over domestic films.

Recognising Russia's potential as a rapidly emerging film market, Hollywood has been flying silver screen stars to Moscow for red carpet events, to the delight of avid Russian fans.

Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz visited Moscow for the Russian premiere of "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" in May, while the world premiere of Hollywood 3D blockbuster "Transformers: The Dark of the Moon" attracted 80 Hollywood names including director Michael Bay.

"Moscow is an emerging market, it plays a very important international role," Bay said before the premiere. The film made US$22 million (RM66.33 million) in Russia in its first week, 3.4 per cent of the global box office take so far.

Cinema-going is booming in Russia two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union put a night out at the movies out of reach for many. Cinemas made a record US$1 billion in sales last year on the back of 15.2 per cent audience growth.

"We're seeing a solidly positive trend, which shows that people feel comfortable. Russians are adopting the lifestyles and consumer behaviours of the developed nations," said Yevgeny Nadorshin, an economist and former government adviser.

Foreign movies became Russian favourites two years ago, when their Russian returns first outperformed those of domestic films. Last year, US productions made almost five times as much as the Russian ones.

The latest high-profile Russian film "Tired with the Sun-2: The Citadel", heavily promoted at last year's Cannes festival by veteran actor-director Nikita Mikhalkov, flopped, earning less than 4 per cent of its US$34-million budget in its first two weeks.

"The problem with producers here is they don't co-produce well with other countries, or with each other, and a lot of them get money too easily. They are not as hungry as foreign producers are, they churn out movies with very little quality," said Russian-based independent film director Johnny O'Reilly.

The Russian government invested a record 4.5 billion roubles (US$159 million) in the film industry in 2010, nearly twice as much as the previous year.

A similar amount will be put into the industry in 2011, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said earlier this year,. However, the investment will primarily go on doubling the number of cinemas from 2,246, instead of supporting individual production companies as before.

Independent industry research firm Movie Research forecasts that even if the project boosts ticket sales by a third, domestic filmmakers may still struggle to find funding.

Russian World Studios, Russia's largest independent TV production company, last week obtained a US$42 million loan from ING bank and Sberbank , using its library content as collateral, in the first such funding deal in Russia.

And production group Bazelevs launched a fund with broker Troika Dialog last month to raise funds for cartoon film "Smeshariki", which is due for release in December.

"This is the first opportunity in the history of the (Russian) film industry when filmmakers can offer their projects to investors directly," Nikita Trynkin, chief executive at Bazelevs, said.

But seeking financial backing, especially from foreigners, will not prove an easy task in Russia.

Overseas film financiers are used to making money from DVD sales, which have never been great in Russia as most viewers illegally download films online for free. – Reuters

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Ivanka Trump, husband welcome new baby girl

Posted: 17 Jul 2011 09:40 PM PDT

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump pose at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit celebrating the opening of ''American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity'' in New York May 3, 2010. — Reuters pic

NEW YORK, July 18 — Ivanka Trump, daughter of Donald and a judge on his TV show "The Apprentice," has taken on another role — that of mother — as the former model gave birth on Sunday to a baby girl in New York City.

Trump, 29, announced the birth of her daughter via Twitter, sharing that she and husband Jared Kushner "welcomed a beautiful and healthy little girl into the world."

"We feel incredibly grateful and blessed. Thank you all for your support and well wishes!," read the tweet.

Trump and Kushner married in October 2009. The name of the baby has not yet been announced. — Reuters

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Isnin, 18 Julai 2011

The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

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