
Timothee Chalamet has 'big surprise' in store for Marty Supreme, says cinematographer
He's worked with everyone from Timothee Chalamet to Taylor Swift, and from Morgan Freeman to Madonna, but Darius Khondji is not one for celebrity egos. 'I don't get intimidated,' says the Iranian-born, French-raised cinematographer. Well, most of the time. 'I get intimidated if people really want me to be intimidated. And then I become very intimidated.' Khondji is speaking from Qatar, where the 69-year-old has arrived to take part in Qumra. The annual Doha Film Institute event brings together master filmmakers with fresh talent from the Mena region. With a career stretching back to the 1990s, shooting films like Delicatessen and David Fincher's seminal serial killer thriller Se7en, Khondji has worked with the best of the best. He recently wrapped Marty Supreme, the new movie from Josh Safdie, with whom he worked on the nerve-jangling Uncut Gems, with Adam Sandler. Little has been revealed so far about the film, which stars the hugely popular Chalamet. He plays a fictionalised version of Marty Reisman, a prominent figure in the table tennis community in 1950s New York. But according to Khondji, audiences should raise expectations for the upcoming movie. The cinematographer is effusive about the project, speaking high praise while wearing a baseball cap with the film's title stitched on it. 'The character, he's a ping-pong champion,' he explains to The National. 'It's a true story about an American ping-pong champion in the 1950s. It's a fantastic experience. You'll see. 'It's going to be a big thing, a big surprise when it comes out. There are lot of unknown actors around two or three well known actors, like Timothee, Gwyneth Paltrow. The rest are people like filmmakers or friends or great characters they found on the street.' Before that, he has Eddington, due to premiere in Cannes next month. It stars Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone in a story set in a small town in New Mexico. It marks Khondji's first time with director Ari Aster, who made such intense, provocative movies as Hereditary, Midsommar and Beau is Afraid. 'He's a fascinating director, a director I think you're going to hear more and more about. For me as a cameraman, it was a major encounter,' says Khondji. Loyal to a tee, Khondji loves a good reunion. Most recently, Bong Joon-ho, for Mickey 17, now playing in UAE cinemas. It's their second collaboration following 2017's Okja. But while that starred a CGI pig, Mickey 17 is considerably more complex. This big-budget take on Edward Ashton's sci-fi novel stars Robert Pattinson and … well, Robert Pattinson. Pattinson's Mickey is an 'expendable' clone, used to test out the dangers of space exploration. Until No. 17 survives death and confronts his replacement. Bong's first movie since his Oscar-winning Parasite, the film has been bankrolled by Warner Bros, making it the director's most expensive movie to date. But in Khondji's eyes, that didn't matter. 'Bong manages to make it a very personal film, which I admire him for. He didn't want to give in, to change anything. That's why he had final cut. Even though it was a big-budget film, he could make it the way he wanted, and not to try to do it for the studio.' Khondji has also worked with the cream of the music industry, including videos for Madonna (Frozen) and Lady Gaga (Marry the Night). 'Madonna was really exciting to film. Lady Gaga, it was really exciting to work with her. She gives herself a lot to a project.' What about Taylor Swift? The video for Look What You Made Me Do is one of her most epic, featuring multiple incarnations of the singer, including as a zombie. 'Taylor Swift? I don't know,' he sighs. 'It was a different. It was more distanced. She was already a very, very big name. Maybe I didn't do the right video. I don't know.' He says he's only seen the promo once. 'After it came out, I just watched it because it got so many hits. It's a fun, big American music video.' Twice Oscar-nominated (for Evita, again with Madonna, and Alejandro González Iñárritu's Bardo), Khondji is increasingly aware that he needs to get his selections right. 'I've always been very picky,' he says. 'What you really realise with time is that you don't have that many years ahead of you. The movies you do, you have to be very sure.' Maybe he should clone himself: Darius 17. He's indifferent to the proposition.
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Zawya
2 hours ago
- Zawya
Warner Bros Discovery splits streaming from cable TV in latest media shakeup
LOS ANGELES - Warner Bros Discovery said it would split into two publicly traded companies, separating its studios and streaming business from its fading cable television networks as the parent of HBO and CNN looks to compete better in the streaming era. The breakup is the latest unraveling of decades of media consolidation that created global conglomerates spanning content creation, distribution and in some cases, telecommunications. It unwinds WarnerMedia and Discovery's 2022 merger, aiming to grow the streaming and studios business without the drag of the declining networks unit. The new streaming-and-studios company will include Warner Bros, DC Studios and HBO Max - the crown jewels of WBD's entertainment library. The networks unit, which will hold up to a 20% stake in its counterpart, will house CNN, TNT Sports and Bleacher Report. CEO David Zaslav will lead the streaming and studios unit, while CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels will head the networks unit. The separation will be structured as a tax-free transaction and is expected to be completed by mid-2026. "We've continued to analyze how our industry is evolving," Zaslav told investors. "The right path forward became increasingly clear ... to separate global networks and streaming and studios into two independent, publicly traded companies." Most of the company's debt would be held by the global networks company. WBD had gross debt of $38 billion as of March. The company said it secured a $17.5 billion bridge loan from J.P. Morgan that it would use to restructure its debt. Creditors of WBD are consulting advisers after the entertainment company proposed banning investor cooperation pacts as part of its plan to split, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld is organizing bondholders to push back against WBD's proposal and negotiate better terms, the WSJ report added, citing people familiar with the matter. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. Shares fell almost 3% at midday, reversing the 13% gain that came in the hours after the announcement. WBD's stock remains down nearly 60% since the merger, hurt by cable subscriber loss, tough streaming competition and investor concerns over the debt-laden company's direction. Brian Wieser, CEO of Madison and Wall, an advisory firm for media, technology and other companies, said the split will not fix underlying WBD's weakness. "If anything, (it) could make them worse off by favoring financial engineering over focusing on improving existing operations or pursuing new opportunities for growth...a deal like this can hamstring both sides of the company until the transactions are closed," said Wieser. Media executives had initially anticipated a wave of consolidation under President Donald Trump's administration, though that has not come to pass. "For a series of reasons, that proved harder than anyone thought," said Jonathan Miller, a veteran media executive who now serves as chief executive of Integrated Media. "It looks like the characteristic of this year will be how do we get our house in order, and do what we can that's under our control." Comcast is spinning off most of its NBCUniversal cable networks portfolio into a separate company, Versant. Lionsgate Entertainment completed the separation of its Starz cable network from its film and television studio in May. Last week, about 59% of WBD shareholders at the annual meeting voted against executive pay packages, including Zaslav's $51.9 million 2024 compensation, in an advisory vote that signaled dissatisfaction. Like other entertainment companies, WBD is struggling with declining ratings and revenue at its cable networks. Consumers have been dropping pay-television subscriptions in favor of streaming services. "WBD is a hotchpotch of businesses which have failed to win over the market," said AJ Bell analyst Dan Coatsworth. The split gives Warner Bros "a better chance to gain broader investor interest and focus management on fewer things." In December, WBD announced a separation of streaming and studio operations. The company has been positioning its streaming service as a premium destination with titles such as "The Last of Us" and "Hacks," after initially betting that a blend of HBO dramas and Discovery's lifestyle content would broaden its appeal. It revived the HBO Max branding last month to drive a renewed emphasis on premium content, and aid global expansion. The streaming service had about 122 million subscribers as of March. It expects its subscriber base to exceed 150 million by the end of 2026, which would still trail Netflix's more than 300 million subscribers and the combined 181 million subscribers of Disney+ and Hulu. MORE DEALS Some analysts now expect more deals in the media sector, pointing to Comcast's plan to spin off most of its cable networks, including MSNBC and CNBC. "The outlook for the cable network business broadly is pretty ugly and I assume there will be consolidation there," said Jeff Wlodarczak, analyst at Pivotal Research Group. He said WBD's cable networks could be a logical fit for Comcast's upcoming cable spinoff, while its streaming and studios business might combine with another player such as Comcast's Peacock. Any merger will require approval from U.S. antitrust regulators who have signaled they intend to focus on mergers that reduce competition in ways that harm consumers or workers. Industry observers say consolidation would likely increase consumer prices. The trend has already begun, as streaming services look to turn a profit. Zaslav has said he expects a more deal-friendly environment under Trump. During his first term, Trump repeatedly attacked CNN, and his Department of Justice moved to block the AT&T–Time Warner merger. The pending Paramount Global-Skydance Media merger has yet to gain regulatory approval, as Trump presses his civil suit against Paramount's CBS News for its "60 Minutes" interview last October with his Democratic rival for the White House, former Vice President Kamala Harris. J.P. Morgan and Evercore are advising WBD on the deal, while Kirkland & Ellis is serving as legal counsel.


Dubai Eye
7 hours ago
- Dubai Eye
Frederick Forsyth, 'Day of the Jackal' author, dies at 86
British novelist Frederick Forsyth, who authored best-selling thrillers such as 'The Day of the Jackal' and 'The Dogs of War', has died aged 86, his publisher said. A former correspondent for Reuters and the BBC, and an informant for Britain's MI6 foreign spy agency, Forsyth made his name by using his experiences as a reporter in Paris to pen the story of a failed assassination plot on Charles de Gaulle. The Day of the Jackal, in which an English assassin, played in the film by Edward Fox, is hired by French paramilitaries angry at de Gaulle's withdrawal from Algeria, was published in 1971 after Forsyth found himself penniless in London. Written in just 35 days, the book was rejected by a host of publishers who worried that the story was flawed and would not sell as de Gaulle had not been assassinated. De Gaulle died in 1970 from a ruptured aorta while playing Solitaire. But Forsyth's hurricane-paced thriller complete with journalistic-style detail and brutal sub-plots of lust, betrayal and murder was an instant hit. The once poor journalist became a wealthy writer of fiction. "I never intended to be a writer at all," Forsyth later wrote in his memoir, The Outsider - My Life in Intrigue. "After all, writers are odd creatures, and if they try to make a living at it, even more so." So influential was the novel that Venezuelan militant revolutionary Illich Ramirez Sanchez, was dubbed 'Carlos the Jackal'. Forsyth presented himself as a cross between Ernest Hemingway and John le Carre - both action man and Cold War spy - but delighted in turning around the insult that he was a literary lightweight. "I am lightweight but popular. My books sell," he once said. His books, fantastical plots that almost rejoiced in the cynicism of an underworld of spies, criminals, hackers and killers, sold more than 75 million copies. Behind the swashbuckling bravado, though, there were hints of sadness. He later spoke of turning inwards to his imagination as a lonely only child during and after World War Two. The isolated Forsyth discovered a talent for languages: he claimed to be a native French speaker by the age of 12 and a native German speaker by the age of 16, largely due to exchanges. He went to Tonbridge School, one of England's ancient fee-paying schools, and learned Russian from two emigre Georgian princesses in Paris. He added Spanish by the age of 18. He also learned to fly and did his national service in the Royal Air Force where he flew fighters such as a single seater version of the de Havilland Vampire. Impressing Reuters' editors with his languages and knowledge that Bujumbura was a city in Burundi, he was offered a job at the news agency in 1961 and sent to Paris and then East Berlin where the Stasi secret police kept close tabs on him. He left Reuters for the BBC but soon became disillusioned by its bureaucracy and what he saw as the corporation's failure to cover Nigeria properly due to the government's incompetent post-colonial views on Africa. It was in 1968 that Forsyth was approached by the Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, and asked by an officer named "Ronnie" to inform on what was really going on in Biafra. By his own account, he would keep contacts with the MI6, which he called "the Firm", for many years. His novels showed extensive knowledge of the world of spies and he even edited out bits of The Fourth Protocol (1984), he said, so that militants would not know how to detonate an atomic bomb. His writing was sometimes cruel, such as when the Jackal kills his lover after she discovers he is an assassin. "He looked down at her, and for the first time she noticed that the grey flecks in his eyes had spread and clouded over the whole expression, which had become dead and lifeless like a machine staring down at her." After finally finding a publisher for The Day of the Jackal, he was offered a three-novel contract by Harold Harris of Hutchinson. Next came The Odessa File in 1972, the story of a young German freelance journalist who tries to track down SS man Eduard Roschmann, or The Butcher of Riga. After that, The Dogs of War in 1974 is about a group of white mercenaries hired by a British mining magnate to kill the mad dictator of an African republic - based on Equatorial Guinea's Francisco Macias Nguema - and replace him with a puppet. The New York Times said at the time that the novel was "pitched at the level of a suburban Saturday night movie audience" and that it was "informed with a kind of post‐imperial condescension toward the black man". Divorced from Carole Cunningham in 1988, he married Sandy Molloy in 1994. But he lost a fortune in an investment scam and had to write more novels to support himself. He had two sons - Stuart and Shane - with his first wife. His later novels variously cast hackers, Russians, Al Qaeda militants and cocaine smugglers against the forces of good - broadly Britain and the West. But the novels never quite reached the level of the Jackal. A supporter of the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, Forsyth scolded Britain's elites for what he cast as their treachery and naivety. In columns for The Daily Express, he gave a host of withering assessments of the modern world from an intellectual right-wing perspective. The world, he said, worried too much about "the oriental pandemic" (known to most as COVID-19), Donald Trump was "deranged", Vladimir Putin "a tyrant" and "liberal luvvies of the West" were wrong on most things. He was, to the end, a reporter who wrote novels. "In a world that increasingly obsesses over the gods of power, money and fame, a journalist and a writer must remain detached," he wrote. "It is our job to hold power to account."


Al Etihad
14 hours ago
- Al Etihad
'The Day of The Jackal' author Frederick Forsyth dies aged 86
9 June 2025 22:31 LONDON (AFP)Prolific British thriller writer Frederick Forsyth, who instantly became a global bestselling author when his book 'The Day of the Jackal' was published in 1971, died on Monday aged 86, his literary agents Curtis Brown famously penned his most famous work, about a fictional assassination attempt on French president Charles de Gaulle by right-wing extremists, in just 35 days after falling on hard times."The Jackal" went on to be made into a hit film starring Edward Fox as the assassin.A Netflix remake last year with Eddie Redmayne in the lead role was released last year."We mourn the passing of one of the world's greatest thriller writers," his agent Jonathan Lloyd died at home surrounded by his family following a brief illness, according to Curtis former journalist and pilot wrote over 25 books including 'The Odessa File' (1972) and 'The Dogs of War' (1974), and sold over 75 million copies of his novels were also turned into films. Forsyth attributed much of his success to "luck", recalling how a bullet narrowly missed him while he was covering the Biafra civil war between 1967 and 1970.