A remake of the British boarding school comedy, St Trinian's, has been acquired by Sony Pictures Worldwide to screen on American television, Variety reports. The classic British series, which follows a dysfunctional British boarding school and its twisted group of teachers, will also be released in US theatres this summer by NeoClassics. The film is a remake of the 1950s Ealing title The Belles of St Trinian's, and was directed by Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson. Rupert Everett and Colin Firth star in the remake, which made more than $25 million (Dh91m) when it was released in the UK. Ealing Studios is working on a sequel, St Trinian's II: The Legend of Fritton's Gold, which is set to film in the UK this summer.
British filmmakers also hit the news this week with the announcement that the Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh has been hired to direct the independent football movie The Magnificent Eleven for Angry Badger Pictures. Set to shoot later this year, the film is a contemporary version of The Magnificent Seven and revolves around a group of amateur footballers.
A domestic release date of October 2, 2009 has been set for Michael Moore's untitled documentary about the fall of the world economy, The Hollywood Reporter writes. Set to be released through Paramount Vantage and Overture, the film is described as a "comical look at the corporate shenanigans" which lead to what Moore described as the "biggest robbery in the history of the US". At last year's Cannes Film Festival, Paramount and Overture announced that a new Moore film was in the works, but declined to specify on the subject. But the word was out when, in February, Moore posted an open letter on his website seeking a few brave individuals from Wall Street to help him "expose the biggest swindle in American history". Moore's last film was the 2006 hit Sicko, which took on the American health care system.
The French football star-turned-actor Eric Cantona has signed onto star in the new film from Herve P Gustave, otherwise known as HPG. The film centres on a relationship between two outsiders, a martial arts man and a young student who wishes to have a child. Cantona's wife, Rachida Brackni, will play the young woman in the film, which is set to shoot this fall. Cantona was front and centre at Cannes last week as the star of British director Ken Loach's festival film Looking for Eric. HPG is also no stranger to the festival with his 2006 film We Should Not Exist, which played in the Directors' Fortnight section in Cannes.
Sayed Kashua's novel Dancing Arabs is heading for the big screen with Katia Lund, the co-director of the Brazilian film City of God attached to direct the feature. Budgeted at $5 million (Dh18m), the film follows Kashua's story of his growing up as an Arab in Israel. Kashua will write the screenplay, Variety reports. The film is set to shoot later this year and is likely to use non-professional actors, which was also the case for City of God.
The former Paramount production chief Robert Evans is back in the fray with a feature film based on the British television series UFO, which the actor-turned-filmmaker is set to produce with ITV Globo. The series made its debut in 1970 and was set in 1980 at the Supreme Headquarters Defense Organization, which was a military unit charged with thwarting alien attacks on humans. The feature will be set in 2020. The Robert Evans Co has a first-look deal at Paramount, which will be first stop for the project, Variety reports.
Will Smith's Sony-based Overbrook Entertainment has secured the life rights to one of the heroes of Hurricane Katrina, the ex-marine John Keller. Keller saved 244 of his neighbours in New Orleans when their five-storey building was flooded during the 2005 hurricane, which wiped out New Orleans. John Lee Hancock (The Alamo) will direct from his own screenplay. Sony has also acquired a spec script on Keller's life written by Adetero Makinde. James Lassiter, Smith and Ken Stovitz will produce through Overbrook alongside Makinde.
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The specs
Engine: 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 715bhp
Torque: 900Nm
Price: Dh1,289,376
On sale: now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Sam Smith
Where: du Arena, Abu Dhabi
When: Saturday November 24
Rating: 4/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDeveloper%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ETribute%20Games%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dotemu%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EConsoles%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENintendo%20Switch%2C%20PlayStation%204%26amp%3B5%2C%20PC%20and%20Xbox%20One%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The Limehouse Golem
Director: Juan Carlos Medina
Cast: Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy, Douglas Booth
Three stars
LIKELY TEAMS
South Africa
Faf du Plessis (captain), Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock (wkt), Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel, Lungi Ngidi.
India (from)
Virat Kohli (captain), Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wkt), Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
Company profile
Company name: Nestrom
Started: 2017
Co-founders: Yousef Wadi, Kanaan Manasrah and Shadi Shalabi
Based: Jordan
Sector: Technology
Initial investment: Close to $100,000
Investors: Propeller, 500 Startups, Wamda Capital, Agrimatico, Techstars and some angel investors
States of Passion by Nihad Sirees,
Pushkin Press
'Skin'
Dir: Guy Nattiv
Starring: Jamie Bell, Danielle McDonald, Bill Camp, Vera Farmiga
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
If you go
Flight connections to Ulaanbaatar are available through a variety of hubs, including Seoul and Beijing, with airlines including Mongolian Airlines and Korean Air. While some nationalities, such as Americans, don’t need a tourist visa for Mongolia, others, including UAE citizens, can obtain a visa on arrival, while others including UK citizens, need to obtain a visa in advance. Contact the Mongolian Embassy in the UAE for more information.
Nomadic Road offers expedition-style trips to Mongolia in January and August, and other destinations during most other months. Its nine-day August 2020 Mongolia trip will cost from $5,250 per person based on two sharing, including airport transfers, two nights’ hotel accommodation in Ulaanbaatar, vehicle rental, fuel, third party vehicle liability insurance, the services of a guide and support team, accommodation, food and entrance fees; nomadicroad.com
A fully guided three-day, two-night itinerary at Three Camel Lodge costs from $2,420 per person based on two sharing, including airport transfers, accommodation, meals and excursions including the Yol Valley and Flaming Cliffs. A return internal flight from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad costs $300 per person and the flight takes 90 minutes each way; threecamellodge.com
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The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
3%20Body%20Problem
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