By By Min Lee, Entertainment Writer
HONG KONG (AP) --Twentieth Century Fox said Wednesday it has established an Asian unit specializing in local productions, starting with India, becoming the latest Hollywood studio to venture into the region.
The new studio will be a joint venture with the Asian satellite broadcaster STAR, called Fox STAR Studios, the two companies said in a joint statement.
Both companies are units of media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
Fox STAR Studios will start out making Bollywood films in Hindi as well in other regional Indian dialects.
STAR India president for strategy and corporate development Vijay Singh will lead the Indian operation.
“We are in discussion for producing not only traditional Bollywood films but also innovating and targeting emerging genres,” Singh said in the statement.
Fox STAR Studios will also branch into the Chinese-language and southeast Asian markets soon, the statement said.
STAR spokeswoman Jannie Poon said Fox STAR Studios will operate from several locations, with its first unit based in India’s Mumbai, home of the Bollywood industry.
Other major Hollywood studios producing Asian movies include Sony Pictures Entertainment with its Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, which invested in Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning kung fu hit “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
Warner Bros. Pictures set up a joint venture with China’s state-run China Film Group and Hengdian Group in 2004, and has invested in Hindi films.
The Walt Disney Co. last year released a Chinese-language children’s movie that mixed live action and computer animation. It has also teamed up with Indian studio Yash Raj Films to make computer-animated movies.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More