The fourth instalment of the Harry Potter movies will hit US cinemas Nov. 18, according to a statement from Warner Bros.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will be released simultaneously to both conventional theatres and in the big-screen IMAX format, the company said.
The franchise, based on the J.K. Rowling fantasy-adventure books, has already earned over US$2.6 billion worldwide and, with a returning cast featuring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, producers are hopeful for continued success.
PHOTO: REUTERS
South Korean director Hong Sang-soo has won a last-minute invite to join the race for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival with his film A Tale of the Cinema, organizers said Tuesday.
Twenty-one films will now compete for the coveted top prize at the May 11 to May 22 festival in the southern French resort, the organizers said in a statement.
Two additional films will join the "Un Certain Regard" section: Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachtani, by Japan's Aoyama Shinji, and Marock, by French director Laila Marrakchi.
The deaths of two horses last month during the filming of a remake of the 1943 film My Friend Flicka were unpreventable accidents, the American Humane Association said.
On April 11, a quarter horse broke one of its back legs while cantering at the Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley. The horse was put down after a vet determined the injury was untreatable.
Another horse died April 25 when it broke its neck after breaking away from handlers and tripping on its lead rope at the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center in the San Fernando Valley.
In a statement Tuesday, association spokeswoman Sara Spaulding said the fact that nothing could be done to save the horses ``does not lessen our sadness.'' She said the group is reviewing additional restrictions on horse action and will ``require an additional level of supervision when filming calls for intense animal action.''
The sci-fi comedy The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy thumbed its way to the top spot at the North American box office, raking in US$21.1 million on its opening weekend.
The big-screen adaptation of Douglas Adams' cult book took over the top spot from superstar Nicole Kidman's new thriller The Interpreter, which dropped to second place with earnings of US$13.8 million, said box office trackers Exhibitor Relations.
Hitchhiker's Guide, whose stars include Alan Rickman as a morbidly depressed robot, recounts the inter-galactic adventures of a man who escapes his bland life on Earth seconds before the planet is destroyed to make way for a cosmic highway.
The action thriller XXX: State of the Union, starring Samuel L. Jackson as a US intelligence agent who recruits an outsider, played by Ice Cube, for a dangerous
mission to foil a military splinter group, debuted in third place with US$12.7 million.
Fright flick The Amityville Horror took in US$7.9 million to grab the fourth spot, ahead of the desert adventure Sahara which grossed US$5.7 million.
The romantic comedy A Lot Like Love starring Ashton
Kutcher and Amanda Peet came in sixth with a weekend take of US$5.1 million, followed by Fever Pitch, the Jimmy Fallon romp about an obsessed baseball fan which earned US$3.5 million.
Director Stephen Chow's (
Rounding off the top-10 weekly ranking was another Ashton Kutcher romantic comedy, Guess Who, which posted ticket receipts of US$2.1 million.
Islamic militants in Pakistan have ordered hotels and shops to stop showing TV and selling movies or face dire consequences.
In a leaflet distributed overnight in Miranshah town and signed "from al Qaeda group and Taliban group," the militants gave businesses five days to stop showing movies and television.
"Remember this is not an idle threat. Do not dismiss it. Also stop showing sexy movies or else there will be a strict punishment after five days," the militants said in a hand-written leaflet.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not