Blog | FunStylers

GUTHRIE — The young mother on the couch with the 6-year-old boy bore little resemblance to the glamorously windblown blonde in the yellow chiffon Dior dress who recently graced the cover of Elle magazine.
She was now a brunette, for one thing, and she was costumed in a ’50s-style sleeveless plaid blouse and denim pedal pushers. But it was Kate Hudson all right. The sweet and wholesomely sexy smile was unmistakable.
She was dressed for the part of the schoolteacher she plays in “The Killer Inside Me,” the $13 million theatrical motion picture that completed 6½ weeks of filming in Oklahoma last week.
“I love the South, always,” Hudson said in an interview with The Oklahoman during the first week of shooting in Guthrie. “The air smells different. It does. It really does.”
Hudson, 30, is more accustomed to smoggy Los Angeles, where she lives with her son, Ryder, who’s not shy about speaking up when he has an opinion.
“I’m not into it,” the blond-headed boy said of his mother’s new hair color.
“He doesn’t like it,” Hudson laughed. “That’s OK, it can’t last forever. It’s just a wash.”
The tint was as temporary as their two-week stay in Oklahoma, where the actress was co-starring with Jessica Alba and Casey Affleck in a film based on a 1952 pulp crime novel by Anadarko-born author Jim Thompson.
At the moment, Hudson was between scenes, sitting in an upstairs room of an old two-story house that was serving as a location base/dressing room on Noble Street, where much of the movie was being shot under the direction of British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom.
Other scenes would be shot later in Cordell, Enid, Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
“It’s actually not my first time (in Oklahoma), because I’ve been here on the road with his dad a couple of times,” Hudson said, referring to ex-husband Chris Robinson, lead singer of the Black Crowes.
While producers said they chose Oklahoma for its scenery — and the production expenditure rebate program offered through the Oklahoma Film & Music Office — the story is actually set in west Texas, circa 1957.
Affleck plays a small town deputy sheriff with a sinister past who is constantly struggling to suppress his homicidal urges. Alba plays a prostitute who becomes involved with the deputy, while Hudson plays his more innocent girlfriend.
It’s a role that required more than just a dye job for Hudson. It also necessitated some coaching to affect a specific regional drawl.
“West Texas isn’t as drawn out as the other ones,” she said. “It’s kind of sharp. I was surprised. It’s not like, you know, Tennessee Williams.”
That day’s shooting would also require Hudson to do a bedroom scene with Affleck and soak in a hot bath while he looked on, but such tasks are just part of the acting profession, which she’s watched mom Goldie Hawn practice for years.
Besides, Affleck’s an old friend from two previous movies they made together, “Desert Blue” (1998) and “200 Cigarettes” (1999), which was one reason Hudson was attracted to “The Killer Inside Me.”
“I love to work with him,” she said.
The other attraction was Thompson’s story, which is much darker than the romantic comedies for which she’s become known.
“I have a great character,” Hudson said, “and obviously the novel is famous. … I didn’t know about the novel until I got the script, and I kind of looked into it and read about how phenomenal the novel was for its time. I mean it’s out there. … Scary book. Scary. It’s brutal.”
The shooting schedule up to that point had been brutal, too, which Hudson credited to Winterbottom, best known for directing “A Mighty Heart.”
“He’s a worker,” she said. “And it’s really intense. We did a six-page scene yesterday, and he kind of shuts everybody out of the room and it’s just all of us (actors and limited crew). It’s like a play. It’s pretty great. It’s really different.”
Hudson did manage to break away long enough to dine in Bricktown one night, and Ryder has been entertained as well.
“You had a good meatball at Nonna’s,” she said to her son, who nodded in agreement. “You went to a lot of museums while I was working. You went to the cowboy museum, and then you really liked the science museum, that was fun. And what did you get at the science museum that was so good?”
“Oh, I got space food,” Ryder said.
“It’s really a nice lookin’ city,” Hudson said, starting to sound a bit Southwestern.
Source

Pakistani actress/producer/director Reema Khan has made it a habit of shooting her films in Malaysia.
SHE is Pakistan’s most popular modern-day actress and has been compared to top Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai. But Reema Khan does more than act. Reema is also a producer and director and she was in Malaysia recently where she wrapped up the production for her new movie Kitne Haseen Hai Zindagi (Life Is So Beautiful) in which she starred, directed and produced.
Reema and her crew spent 22 days shooting in locations in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Port Dickson, Langkawi, Malacca and Cameron Highlands.

The movie, now in the post-production stage, is set for release here and Pakistan this November.

“The film is a mixture of comedy, romance and dance. It’s all about entertainment and relief. I want to make a sweet and positive film,” said Reema in Kuala Lumpur recently.

The Urdu-language film also features such stars as Muammar Rana, Ali Saleem, Johnny Lever and Malaysian newcomer Mariam.

This marks the second time Reema has shot and directed a movie in Malaysia. Her directorial debut Koi Tujh Sa Kahan (No One Is Like You) was also filmed in Malaysia in 2005. Her first film proved to be successful at the box-office back home and even garnered awards at the Lux Style Awards in 2006 in Pakistan.

As to why Reema keeps coming back to shoot her movies here, she revealed: “I have absolutely loved Malaysia ever since I came here for a commercial shoot in 2003 and I’ve been back here every year since then. Malaysia also has a lot of facilities for filmmakers and filmmaking.

“It’s not easy for me to shoot in Pakistan because people recognise me and they stop me and ask for autographs which is fine but there is too much to do (on a shoot) when you’re a producer, director and actor. People don’t recognise me so much in Malaysia so I can go ahead and do my work.”

Reema started acting at the early age of 14 and has starred in almost 200 films since she began her acting career in the early 1990s. She confessed that she is demanding when it comes to filmmaking especially since she started working behind the camera.

“I’m very fussy because I’m conscious about my work. I’m very strict with myself. As a director, I have to make sure the shots are right and then I go in front of the camera as an actor and I have to make sure that I fulfil the scene. It’s a balance between how to shoot and how to act. It’s a difficult job but I love it,” said the 29-year-old, who is currently based in Lahore, Pakistan.

The budget for Life Is So Beautiful is currently estimated at RM2mil and at the time of the interview, Reema said that she is still looking for a distributor in Malaysia.

“My movie helps promote Pakistan in Malaysia and it also promotes Malaysia overseas because my films are seen in Pakistan, Britain, United States and the Middle East. This is the first Pakistani film to be released in Malaysia and I want to show Pakistani talent as well,” she added.

As for her being compared to Aishwarya Rai, Reema takes it as a compliment and revealed how she got the comparison in the first place.

“It was the Indian press who compared me to Aishwarya Rai when I went over to India. We have a lot in common because we’re both leading actresses from our respective countries and I am the face of Pepsi while she is the face of Coca-Cola. She is the face of Lux and so am I.

“I guess that’s why they compared me to her,” said Reema.

Unlike Aishwarya who settled down in 2007, however, Reema is still single.

“I have no boyfriend and my family and friends have been asking me when I will get married … I will pursue it and find a husband once my new film is released.”
Source

Cast:Anupam Kher,Sharmila Tagore,Rajit Kapoor,Divya Dutta,Shayan Munshi,Nargis,Avika Gor

Morning Walk Synopsis
One morning walk in Joymohan’s life changes it all…
After suffering a heart-attack one morning, on his birthday, Joymohan (Anupam Kher) realizes that he needs to spend more time with his family - son (Rajit Kapoor), daughter-in-law (Divya Dutta) and grand-daughter (Avika Gor)… and mend broken bridges of the past.

It is during his ‘Morning Walk’ that his life changes forever. He meets his once-upon-a-time-student and friend Neelima (Sharmila Tagore), now a mother of two, who carries with her a strange but surreal truth.

Neelima’s bright and beautiful daughter, Anjali (Nargis), dreams of pursuing her doctorate from the USA, and is encouraged by her doting mother and boyfriend Ajay (Shayan Munshi), an upcoming singer who will go to any lengths to put a smile on her face.

A beautiful and heart-tugging tale of two families who are so different from one another, yet connected through a special bond.
Source

Flim:London Dreams Director:Vipul Shah ,Cast: Salman khan Asin Ajay Devgan
What:A lavishly mounted love triangle that runs across countries
Why: The Namastey London maker teams up with the Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam men and Ghajini lady.
London Dreams is an upcoming Bollywood film directed by Vipul Amrutlal Shah. The film stars Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan in lead roles. According to media reports, Tamil Cinema actress Asin is doing the lead role, replacing Priyanka Chopra and Katrina Kaif.
Source

New Delhi, June 29 (IANS) Making a comedy became a sure-shot success formula at the box office in 2008, but it hasn’t worked well for filmmakers so far this year with biggies like “Chandni Chowk To China” and “Billu” biting the dust at the ticket window.

But many still feel that the genre hasn’t lost its charm and will prove its worth with upcoming films like “Kambakkht Ishq” and “Dil Bole Hadippa”.

Comic capers became box office favourites in 2008 when big-budget, multi-starrers like “Dostana”, “Golmaal Retuns” and “Singh Is Kinng”, small fry “Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye” and even the non-commercial “Welcome To Sajjanpur” turned into top grossers at the ticket window.

But none of the comedies released in 2009 have been able to do repeat the success story. When Akshay Kumar-starrer “Chandni Chowk To China” was released, trade pundits expected it to carry forward the trend and fans too anticipated another heavy dose of fun and frolic. But the film didn’t live up to expectations and fell flat at the box office.

Similarly, Shah Rukh Khan’s much-hyped home production “Billu”, starring Lara Dutta and Irrfan Khan along with special appearances by Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone, too flopped.

Others that saw the same fate were films like Soha Ali Khan’s “Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge”, Fardeen Khan-starrer “Jai Veeru”, a film based on the Parsi community “Little Zizou”, Aftab Shivdasani’s “Aloo Chaat”, Vinay Pathak and Gul Panag-starrer “Straight” and “99″, which had Kunal Khemu and Cyrus Broacha in key roles.

Despite comedies flopping left, right and centre, filmmakers have not lost faith in the genre. Vipul Amrutlal Shah, who produced last year’s blockbuster “Singh is Kinng”, had told IANS that humour has to change it’s form to hit the bull’s eye.

“Slapstick, mindless humour will not work anymore, but intelligent comedy will make audiences laugh,” Shah said.

Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who returned to comedy after 33 years with “Welcome to Sajjanpur”, feels comedies will be successful in the future because of a sociological reason.

“There is a sociological reason behind the success of the genre. Comedies work well when circumstances around us are grim. In such a situation, comedies play an effective role in providing people momentary escape from the harsh realities,” said Benegal.

The failure of the genre in the first half of the year has proved that it is not a cakewalk making a comedy that is crafted to amuse, entertain and provide enjoyment to all classes of people.

“People feel it’s easy to make a comedy, but that’s a myth. It’s very difficult to make people laugh. Plus in this age of cinematic experience, you have to take care of so many things like the look of the film,” said Rohit Shetty, director of last year’s hit laugh riot “Golmaal Returns”.

According to film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh, Bollywood churns out at least 20 comedies a year, some of them with a big star cast, but not all taste success at the box office because “audiences have learnt to separate the wheat from the chaff”.

“Just because you insert a few laughs, doesn’t mean you have a successful film on hand,” he said.

Now all eyes are on Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor’s lavishly shot romantic comedy “Kambakkht Ishq” and Akshaye Khanna and Arshad Warsi’s “Short Kut - The Con Is On”.

Other comedies that are scheduled to hit the screens later this year include big banner films like Ashutosh Gowariker’s Priyanka Chopra-starrer “Whats Your Rashee?”, Yash Raj Films’ “Dil Bole Hadippa” that features Rani Mukerji and Shahid Kapoor, Akshay and Katrina Kaif’s “De Dana Dan” and David Dhawan’s “Do Knot Disturb”.
Source

Film: “Runway”
Cast: Amarjeet Shukla, Tulip Joshi, Lucky Ali, Deepal Shaw, Shahwar Ali, Sharat Saxena, Vida Samadzai
Director: Suniel-Praful
Rating: *

When a filmmaker doesn’t have any story to tell, he tries to perk up the narrative by using jump cuts, freeze frames and other technical wizardry - last year it was seen in “Woodstock Villa”, this year it’s in “Runway”.

“Runway” sets the message right at the very beginning that it is an exercise in futility.

Amarjeet Shukla, the lead protagonist in the film, becomes a contract killer to save the life of his lady love Deepal Shaw, who is dying due to drug usage. He comes in touch with people like Sharat Saxena who plays underworld English speaking kingpin who wears dark shades, is surrounded by those 80s style left over blue-n-white drums and announces - ‘I am not interested in your love story; I want brave people’.

Amarjeet’s friend, who introduces him to the Don also warns him - ‘He is a man of commitment, so be careful.’

It’s just that the ‘man of commitment’ himself is nowhere to be seen in the entire second half as his henchman pairs up with Amarjeet to do rest of the killing. Worse, one doesn’t quite understand who is killing whom and what’s the purpose behind that?

So Amarjeet presses the trigger for the first time and just when he gets hold on a fake passport to fly back into India, courtesy Tulip, he decides to skip his flight and return to the mean streets.

By the way, Tulip plays a girl in a dance bar who ‘cannot be afforded’, as stated by one of her junior colleagues. She sings ‘bhojpuri’ songs, speaks English, lives in Mauritius, fears a Pakistani don and falls in love with an Indian. A true ambassador of globalisation.

Talking about Mauritius, one needs to give a rap on the knuckles of the person who created that fancy software that plays on Amarjeet’s laptop. Mauritius is spelt as ‘Muritus’ along with at least a couple of more English errors that is embarrassingly displayed on the big screen. Moreover, the film’s tagline ‘Love Among Gun Shots’ isn’t syntactically correct either! But then who would have cared about such minor things when there are bigger and far more glaring loopholes in the films.

So what one gets to see is biggest contract killer in the entire globe, Lucky Ali, driving a bike on the streets of Mauritus and firing openly on poor Amarjeet.

If that wasn’t heroic enough, he also removes his helmet, proudly flaunts his revolver and keeps searching him on foot even as the entire marketplace makes way for him. He enters people’s households and hotel rooms unannounced, kills them in quick successions, always leaves Tulip unscathed and misses his target whenever Amarjeet comes in sight.

However, one chance and Amarjeet shoots him in a split second motion. Quite a feat, especially with a Mauritian super cop, who announces that ‘he won’t allow gang war to break in his city’, is left hardly impressed that a ‘common Indian’ has managed to do what Interpol couldn’t for all these years.

At the end, he turns out to be even more powerful as he knocks down Amarjeet with three (or were they four?) bullets. Well, not bad.

Now if only he would have found him at the airport in the film’s beginning itself and done the honours there and then. That would have been some relief for a poor viewer who all this while was thinking of ‘running away’ from this trash affair.
Source

Remember Oscar winning Ellen Page starrer Juno that talk about teenage pregnancy? Well, that’s what Satish Kaushik’s forthcoming film Tere Sang is also about teenage pregnancy. But the filmmaker is quick to deny that his film is not a copy. He insists that he wrote Tere Sang much before Juno hit the theatres in 2007. Based on the theme of teen pregnancy Satish Kaushik is ready to release his serious flick Tere Sang.
‘Tere Sang’, the 17-year-old hero, played by Ruslaan Mumtaaz, gets his 15-year-old girlfriend (Sheena Shahabadi) pregnant. And the girl refuses to abort the baby.
Source

Directed by: Peter and Michael Spierig
Produced by: Chris Brown, Sean Furst, Bryan Furst
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill, Willem Dafoe, Claudia Karvan, Vince Colosimo, Isabel Lucas

Synopsis:
Starring two times Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke and Sam Neil, Peter and Michael Spierig have come up with their new production ‘Daybreakers‘. Slated to release on January 8, 2010, the frame of the film is set in 2019 when a plague transforms almost every existing human on this earth into a vampire. With very few humans left, the blood supply for the vampires starts diminishing culminating into circumstances where their existence is getting threatened. The vampires need to trap and farm every human on this earth or else find a substitute for blood. However, an undercover group of vampires make a discovery that has the potency to save the human race from extinction.
Source

The Protagonist Parag Dixit was the King of his own World… A great job, a lovely house, a night out with friends at some suburban watering hole after a hard day’s job… life just couldn’t get better for him, Parag Dixit is living a dream life his loving girlfriend Maansi!

Speed… that’s what Parag’s life was all about and a certain impatience that came with it… to get on with the next step of life when a sudden veer thrown up by Fate destroys Parag’s utopia… Things take an ugly turn when after a series of unfortunate events he suddenly wakes up in jail; handcuffed slapped on his wrists, answering Cops, infrequently getting slapped or rammed in the stomach and randomly beaten up by the cops… all he can remember is his Mother’s worried face and his Girlfriend’s trying to be brave but failing … everything else was a blur, confused visuals, sounds emotions, events…

Parag is perplexed and in a place far from his utopian life. A place far removed from reality… a system that functions on its own rules, not so easy to comply… for some it is a life worse than hell… everything here is taken for granted, including one’s crime. Surrounded by the dregs of society… Parag is now a numbed soul… zombied, blank, unmoved… the new entrant to Barrack number 2 and its mini world within… a clear misfit and sitting target for anyone who had anything against clean cut, good looking, upper middle class boys… it’s a nightmare that’s only just begun … compounded by dirty, crowded spaces, inedible food, hostile cellmates, angry Policemen and weird rules of the place… no one believed Parag would survive this… for even a day… He tries hard to face away from the ugly truth and wish it’s all a bad dream but soon succumbs to the prison anarchy. The only salvation he finds is in Nawab, the Resident Supervising Convict (Warder) who believed in two things… one that Parag was innocent and another that his inner integrity would see him through…From the comfort of his numbness, soon Parag discovers the inner mechanism and the science responsible. He slowly steps out to actually see and understand the world around him, understands the wretched status inside the prison, the world of arrests, court cases, pending cases, years of waiting, broken hearts, shattered souls… some sad people in search of hope… and those who managed to find comfort amidst the four prison walls.

Slowly Parag lets himself feel the helplessness and the anger… rebelling, questioning, hurting himself to gradually learn to accept his Fate and begin to find a steely resolve within…He is left with a choice, to either live a life that controlled and exploited or fight against the system!

Why should he accept the helplessness that the system forces upon you when there were those for whom Jail was just an inconvenience… their powers not diminished by a degree and whose hawk eyes were constantly scanning for souls that could be broken in…? Souls like Parag… who were willing to accept any answer that seemed to quieten his questioning mind…

What begins now is a race to the finish between the powerful forces of the place that can offer Parag his freedom and Nawaab’s friendship that can only offer Faith and Hope…

In the end what would you choose…? Freedom or Hope?
Exploring life’s tough choices through Parag Dixit’s journey… Jail is a complex fabric of human emotions that is eventually a metaphor for life itself.
Source

Studio: Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies, MTV Films, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Blinding Edge Pictures

Produced, Directed and Written by: M. Night Shyamalan

Original Story: Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko

Starring: Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Dev Patel

Avatar: The Last Airbender that had caused such a tsunamic of craze amongst animation series fans will finally get to watch the big screen adaptations of their favorite characters by this summer. The film that is being produced, directed and written by M. Night Shyamalan includes the cast of Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Dev Patel, Jessica Jade Andres, Aasif Mandvi, Shaun Toub, Cliff Curtis and Keong Sim. The movie is the first film planned in The Last Airbender trilogy and plans to release on July 2, 2010.

Synopsis: The film is set in a fictitious world where human civilization is divided in to four parts with the backdrop of the elements comprising the Earth. Among all the civilizations: Water, Earth, Air and Fire; the Fire Nation initiates a tyrannical and destructive war against the remaining three nations.
The world’s “Avatar”, Aang (Noah Ringer) is the “The Last Airbender” who is prophesied to influence and bend all the four elements that bring the world together. It is now his duty to let the conflict come to an end and reinstate the balance of elements in the world destroyed by war. Assisting him on this sensitive journey is a waterbender named Katara (Nicola Peltz) and her bull headed brother Sokka (Jackson Rathbone).
Banished from the nation by his father, Prince Zuko (Dev Patel) of the Fire Nation and the fiery Fire Nation Admiral Zhao (Aasif Mandvi) are all set to block up Aang’s crusade and capture him to reclaim Zuko’s position to the throne.
In the midst of these central characters, are some important roles like Toub as Uncle Iroh, the surrogate father of Prince Zuko and a retired Fire Nation General. The cold-blooded ruler Fire Lord Ozai is all set to being played by Curtis while Keong Sim will become the Earthbending Father.
Source