The horror mania grips audiences

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: Time for Pottermania to battle a bit of competition. The audience is seemingly hungry for more blood these days—horror is in—anticipation about the screen adaptation of the Stephanie Meyer teen vampire romance novel, Twilight, has hit an all-time high. While the final book is a sell-out, according to The Internet Movie Database, its upcoming cinematic version has been in and around the top ten most popular searches for the past five months or so. Incidentally, the film’s release has been pre-poned from December 12 to November 21, recently vacated by Warners’ much-hyped Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Heath Ledger’s presence in The Dark Knight helped to propel the film to the top of the box-office but contrary to popular belief that was not the departed actor’s last film. He has an unreleased fantasy-adventure mystery flick, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus lying unsold in a number of markets. So it’s not a major studio picture but distributors are wary of acquiring the film as its director Terry Gilliam does not have a particularly successful track record. Even the presence of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Collin Farrell, introduced (post Ledger’s demise) to portray transformed versions of his character while traveling through a magical realm, has not helped in building radical excitement within the trade. Well, not yet.

Singh is really King

Predictably, Singh Is Kinng has broken domestic and international box-office records to emerge the biggest hit of 2008 and the most significant in its protagonist Akshay Kumar’s two decade-long career. So far-reaching was its impact that even international trades like Variety and Hollywood Reporter reviewed it (and reviewed it well); so also mainstream publications like New York Times and The Times UK. Interestingly, Kumar has had the two biggest hits of his tenure (Welcome and Singh Is Kinng) within eight months of each other, never mind a Tashan in between. Can his screen journey from Chandni Chowk to China outdo his journey from Punjab to Australia? We will have an answer later this year when the Warner Brothers step on Bollywood turf.

Acid test

Call it his uncle’s (Aamir Khan) charisma, AR Rahman’s stunning soundtrack or sheer luck, Imran Khan has been the only newcomer to pull in the numbers this year with his launch vehicle, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. If not the box-office moolah, Harman Baweja and Ranbir Kapoor were successful in bagging audience appreciation and industry acceptance in their recent outings. Imran’s acid test comes up in the form of Kidnap, his Eid release, co-starring Sanjay Dutt.

Bombed out

Jag Mundhra’s English language feature, Shoot On Sight, based on the London Underground bombings, releases in cinemas this week. I saw the film a while back, and did not mind it, to be honest. In the UK, the makers are trying to position it as a mainstream title in the marketplace with heavy P&A on unconventional media. Let’s hope the gamble pays off.