By APA Staff

Deepa Mehta adapts Midnight Children, Japan turns Sideways, and Tulpan takes home another award. All this and more in the latest edition of News from Abroad.

Deepa Mehta to adapt Salman Rusdie's Midnight Children

Deepa Mehta, director of the Fire/Water/Earth films as well as the latest Preity Zinta film Heaven on Earth, has announced a couple more projects in the works. It was announced earlier this week that she will be adapting Salman Rushdie's critically acclaimed novel Midnight Children into a film. Winner of the Booker Prize in 1981, Midnight Children is an epic Indian novel that spans sixty years, taking place around the independence and partition of India. Rushdie is on board to co-write the screenplay, and actors Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das have been asked to star. Also, in the nearer future, Mehta is working on Komagata Maru, her upcoming project about Mewa Singh, the Sikh man who assasinated William Charles Hopkinson, the principal conspirator against the refugees of Komagata Maru. Although Singh was hung for his crime, he is seen as a martyr and hero. Mehta has recently cast newcomer Vinay Virmani for the lead role. Akshay Kumar is also starring, and the film is being co-produced by his company, Hariom Entertainment, and her company, Hamilton-Mehta Productions, Inc. --Ada Tseng

Japan turns Sideways

As if we haven't seen enough American remakes through Japanese horror films and variety shows, Japan takes a shot at turning an American classic into one of their own. As a collaborative project between Fuji TV and 20th Century Fox, the 2004 film Sideways will be shot in the United States, but will star Japanese actors. Usually billed as a supporting actor, Fumiyo Kohinata (last seen in the Fuji TV drama Taiyo to Umi no Kyoushitsu, as the school's director) will receive his first starring film role as he takes on Paul Giamatti's character. Joining Kohinata will also be Katsuhisa Namase, Rinko Kikuchi, and Kyoka Suzuki. The film is headed by new director Cellin Gluck and is tentatively scheduled for a Fall 2009 release. –-Kanara Ty

Kazakh film Takes Film Festival Top Honors

A young Kazakh nomad, Asa, returns from his service in the navy and is back to a life of herding sheep and chasing girls. In particular, Asa is in search of a wife, and the only other unmarried suitor is a free-willed Tulpan from a neighboring shepherd family. Directing his first feature film, Kazakhstan documentary filmmaker Sergey Dvortsevoy's Tulpan is hot among international film circuits and festivals. Beating out films like Men Jeuk (Sparrow) and Bollywood's Om Shanti Om, the film took top honors at the second annual Asia-Pacific Screen Awards. At the 21st Annual Tokyo Film Festival, Tulpan received the highest award this year, the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix. --LiAnn Ishizuka


For Jay Chou, Victory Tastes Best in 3's

The annual World Music Awards took place on November 10th in Monte Carlo. In the presence of other highly successful music artists such as Beyonce and Mariah Carey, Taiwan's very own Jay Chou took home the award for China's Best Selling Artist of 2008, claming his title for the third consecutive year in a row. This beats Hong Kong's Jacky Cheung, who had previously won two years in a row in 1996 and 1997. Jay Chou's previous album I'm Very Busy also won China's Best Selling Artist for 2008. --Kristie Hang


Oh My God! Shah Rukh Khan is middle-aged!
 
Wanting to show that "it is special to be ordinary," Shah Rukh Khan, 43, decided to abandon his king of suave persona to play a government employee of his real age. Inspired by a contestant he met on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Khan is embracing the change in Aditya Chopra's Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Rumor has it that the movie is going to be a love story, and Khan will play a younger version of his role at some point (so all is not lost yet!). It seems like India's #1 stud is up for a makeover, but are his fans ready to let Raj and Rahul go? Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is slated to release in December 12th. --Winghei Kwok


Seoul Drama Festival 2008 Winners

Proudly asserting itself as the world's first television drama award show, the diverse field of nominees proved that the organizers weren't exaggerating. The three day event took place from October 11-14 and was hosted by Seoul Drama Awards Organizing Committee and Korean Broadcasters Association. With entrees from South Africa, Iran, Israel, France, Afghanistan, and of course Korea, the festival provided a glimpse of the best the world had to offer, and they showed that there's more to dramas than a blind, terminally ill girl getting hit by a bus on a snowy day.The Asian nominees included China's Hero Without A Name, Korea's Jungle Fish, and Taiwan's Artemisia.  But it was Spain's Patricia Marcos: Missing that the proved to be the biggest tear jerker, the winner of the festival's grand prize award. --William Hong

Avex's Tetsuya Komuro arrested for fraud

Reknowned Japanese  producer and musician Tetsuya Komuro was arrested recently on charges of fraud.  Following his arrest, Avex cancelled two upcoming singles from globe, Komuro's pop group with his wife KEIKO. In 2006, Komuro met with private investor to sell the copyrights to 806 songs, in which he produced: the total reportedly amounting to 1 billion yen. The investor put 500 million yen up front, but later learned that the songs did not belong to Komuro, but to Komuro's label, Avex, as well as other companies. The investor took legal action after learning his money was not going to be returned to him. Earlier this year, Komuro lost the civil suit and failed to pay the 600 million dollar fine by the deadline, which prompted the Osaka District Court to send a warrant out for his arrest. In addition to Komuro's arrest, two of his other employees at his event planning company were arrested as well for being involved with the fraud. Komuro could face up to 10-15 years in prison. --Kanara Ty


Morning Musume graduates turn into gothic punk felines

Collaborating with Japanese punk and gothic Lolita clothing line h.NAOTO, Up-Frong Works agency revealed the formation of a new pop-punk duo, Hangry and Angry, who are two characters from the h.NAOTO fashion line of the same name. Morning Musume graduates Hitomi Yoshizawa and Rika Ishikawa was chosen as the two faces of Hangry and Angry, taking the roles of two  time-traveling cats with the will the save the world. Come November 19th, the duo will release their first mini-album, Kiss Me Kill Me, which will be sold as a limited edition special package – only 10,000 will be available for sale. JapanFiles will also distribute the Japanese standard release and digital downloads available in North America through their website on the same day as the Japanese release date. The pop-punk unit will make their live debut in Shibuya on November 28, the same day as the new store opening of the Hangry and Angry fashion line. --Kanara Ty



 

Published: Friday, November 14, 2008