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The youngest of Bollywood’s famous Kapoor brothers, he did not have their one defining and enduring cinematic image – Raj’s naive "tramp" identity in the Charlie Chaplin tradition or Shammi’s Elvis-like jiving, rebellious "playboy" persona, but went to surpass both in sheer diversity of his acting.

With his copybook good looks, rakish smile, infectious charm, toothy grin and languid drawl, or the air of earnestness, playing romantic roles, be they of businessmen, police inspectors, college students, et al came naturally to him, but Shashi Kapoor went on to play more ‘common man’ roles, decadent princes, aging poets and even angels with the same charm and intensity.

Born on March 18, 1938 in the then Calcutta to Prithviraj Kapoor and Ramsarn ‘Rama’ Devi, Balbir Raj ‘Shashi’ Kapoor was destined to walk in his family’s footsteps on the silver screen.

Though he first appeared on screen as a child artiste in...

Bill Gavin in Cannes in 1988 (Photo credit: © Richard Blanshard).

Former producer, exhibitor and sales agent Bill Gavin has died in Auckland after a short illness, aged 83.

“Bill Gavin’s long career touched on almost every aspect of the screen industry and he was great friend to the many filmmakers whose careers benefited from his touch,” the New Zealand Film Commission said.

A former journalist who covered motor racing in Auckland and internationally, his entrée into filmmaking came when he wrote the narration for John Frankenheimer’s sports drama Grand Prix, which starred James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Brian Bedford and Jessica Walter, in 1966.

In the early 1970s he moved into the music business, joining Gto in the UK where he managed a number of acts including Sweet and The New Seekers.

At Gto he helped set up Gto Films to make movies promoting its musical acts and later into distribution,...

Bill Gavin, the former Goldcrest executive and general manager of Australia’s Hoyts Theatres, has died at the age of 83 at his home in Auckland, New Zealand, after a short illness.

Gavin moved to the UK in the early 1960s after securing a contract to cover New Zealand’s then highly successful Formula One drivers, going on to write a biography of UK driver Jim Clark. He segued initially into the music business and established Gto Films to promote glam rock acts, the company then branched into distribution and worked on the UK release of Weir’s classic Picnic At Hanging Rock and the original version of Swept Away.

In 1978 he moved to Australia to become general manager of Hoyts Theatres and spearheaded the company’s entry into distribution. His down under success distributing the first Muppet Movie caught the eye of Lew Grade, who invited him to join Itc Films’ sales team in London.

Totally relaxed in his Ritz-Carleton suite on Central Park South, his arms spread wide on a rather tasteful couch, Stephen Frears held court not at all like the monarch in his biggest success, The Queen, (2006). His press conference for his latest effort, Florence Foster Jenkins, will take place one hour later with about 40 journalists in attendance. His stars -- Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, and The Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helberg -- would then be asked 95% of the questions. Not surprising. Directors, for the most, part do not drive traffic to web sites, sadly, even ones as near legendary as Frears.

Besides helming six of his past female leads to Academy-Award-nominated performances (Michelle Pfeiffer and Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons, Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening in The Grifters, plus Judi Dench in both Philomena and Mrs. Henderson Presents) and one Oscar win (Helen Mirren as the aforementioned queen), Frears has...

Working Title Films to make Victoria and Abdul; Focus Features, Universal to distribute.

Nearly 20 years after her Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning performance as Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown, Dame Judi Dench is to return to the role for a film directed by Stephen Frears.

Victoria and Abdul will tell the true story of an unexpected friendship in the later years of Queen Victoria’s reign.

Working Title Films will make the film, set to go into production this year for a 2017 release, to which Focus Features will hold worldwide rights.

Focus will release the movie domestically and Universal Pictures International will distribute the film around the world. Victoria and Abdul is being co-financed by Focus in association with BBC Films.

The screenplay is by Lee Hall, an Academy Award nominee and Tony Award winner for Billy Elliot; and is based on Shrabani Basu’s book Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closest Confidant.

The feature...

Director of The Queen, Philomena and the upcoming Lance Armstrong biopic to receive honour at BFI London Film Festival.

British director Stephen Frears is to receive a BFI Fellowship on Oct 18, ahead of the close of the 58th BFI London Film Festival.

The BFI Fellowship is awarded to individuals in recognition of their outstanding contribution to film or television and is the highest honour bestowed by the organisation.

BFI chairman Greg Dyke described Frears as one of the UK’s most important directors.

“Throughout his extraordinary career, Stephen has produced a body of work which never fails to surprise – from sweeping costume drama to powerful social realism, his films strike a perfect balance between drama, humour and pathos helping to make them a hit with audiences and critics alike,” added Dyke.

Frears said he was “thrilled” to be receiving the honour. “I’ve spent much of my life in the cinema and quite a lot of it at...

Studiocanal and Working Title Films have announced the start of principal photography on October 18th for the untitled Cycling Project, reuniting Academy Award nominated director Stephen Frears (Philomena, The Queen) and Working Title Films.

The cast is led by Ben Foster (Kill Your Darlings, Ain’T Them Bodies Saints) as Lance Armstrong, and Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) as journalist David Walsh, with Guillaume Canet (Tell No One) and Jesse Plemons (TV’s Breaking Bad) in key supporting roles.

The film charts the thrilling rise of pro-cyclist Lance Armstrong through the 90s and early 2000s, battling cancer, as he and his fellow American teammates dominate and change the quintessentially European sport of cycling. Winning the Tour de France an unprecedented seven times, Lance retires as one of the great sporting heroes of our time, and worth millions of dollars.

David Walsh. The Armstrong Lie. Photo by Maryse Alberti, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

David Walsh,...

StudioCanal and Working Title Films reunite for the untitled ‘Cycling Project’ directed by Stephen Frears.

Principal photography on Stephen Frears’ untitled Cycling Project, which will chart the rise of former pro-cyclist Lance Armstrong, is to begin on Friday [Oct 18] and will shoot on location in France in the UK.

It will mark the fourth partnership between StudioCanal and Working Title Films after Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, I Give It A Year and The Two Faces Of January, of which the latter - a thriller from Hossein Amini starring Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen and Oscar Isaac - is currently in post production.

StudioCanal will fully finance, distribute in its territories, and handle international sales, which will start in Afm.

The cast is led by Ben Foster (Kill Your Darlings, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints) as Lance Armstrong, and Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) as journalist David Walsh, with Guillaume Canet (Tell No One) and Jesse Plemons (Breaking Bad) in key...

StudioCanal and Working Title Films reunite for the untitled ‘Cycling Project’ directed by Stephen Frears.

Principal photography on Stephen Frears’ untitled Cycling Project, which will chart the rise of former pro-cyclist Lance Armstrong, is to begin on Friday [Oct 18] and will shoot on location in France in the UK.

It will mark the fourth partnership between StudioCanal and Working Title Films after Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, I Give It A Year and The Two Faces Of January, of which the latter - a thriller from Hossein Amini starring Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen and Oscar Isaac - is currently in post production.

StudioCanal will fully finance, distribute in its territories, and handle international sales which will start in Afm.

The cast is led by Ben Foster (Kill Your Darlings, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints) as Lance Armstrong, and Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) as journalist David Walsh, with Guillaume Canet (Tell No One) and Jesse Plemons (Breaking Bad) in key...

Melancholia Tops European Film Awards, Lars von Trier Bypassed, Colin Firth Beats Jean Dujardin [Photo: Stephen Frears.] The Artist, a favorite for the 2012 Oscar, won a single Efa Award: Best European Composer, Ludovic Bource, who thanked the film's perky dog, Uggie, for providing the necessary inspiration. Writer-director Michel Hazanavicius wasn't even nominated; star Jean Dujardin lost to Colin Firth. Other Efa 2011 winners include Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne's screenplay for The Kid with a Bike; Wim Wenders' documentary Pina, Germany's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar; Tono Errando, Javier Mariscal, and Fernando Trueba's bolero-rhythmed animated feature and potential Oscar contender Chico & Rita; Terry Gilliam's short The Wholly Family, about an American family visiting Naples; and Hans Van Nuffel's Dutch-Belgian drama Oxygen, the European Discovery of 2011. Oxygen tells the story of two young men in love — and suffering from incurable illnesses. Efa winners of non-competitive awards were...

Twelve years on from the hugely acclaimed East Is East comes its sequel, West Is West. Sarfraz Manzoor examines the new directions British-Asian film-makers are taking

Ayub Khan-Din was in his first year at drama school in Salford when his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Khan-Din, the mixed-race son of a Pakistani Muslim father and a white Catholic mother, found that each time he came home, another slab of his mother's memory had disappeared. The past, with all its stories, was slipping into the void, and Khan-Din became determined to try to preserve his parents' history and his own experience of growing up.

Although he was studying to be an actor, Khan-Din started writing. At the time, Asians were rarely glimpsed on screen in the UK unless they were being beaten up by racist skinheads, running corner shops or fleeing arranged marriages. Khan-Din wanted to tell a different story...

Stephen Frears is an amused connoisseur. I can't dispute his estimate that the less money he's had at risk on a venture, the better it ends up

Inasmuch as he will be 70 next year, and is a national treasure, I suspect some honours list will notice Stephen Frears soon. Of course, it is possible in his humble, muttering self-effacement that he wouldn't hear of such a distinction (I think there's a republican in there). On the other hand, he did make The Queen (with writer Peter Morgan and pretender Helen Mirren), the most sophisticated public relations boost Hrh has had in 20 years, and all the more affectionate because it was wry and a bit of a tease.

By now, it is taken for granted that Frears – whom I count as a friend – gets away with nearly anything he cares to try, and as he grows older, he is less conventional and obvious.

A movie called Kick-Ass opens across the country today, and perhaps it's remarkable that the only folks who seem to be raising even half an eyebrow over that fact are local television news producers. Trust me, I know: I taped two separate reviews of the film for TV stations, one in New York, one for affiliates across the country, and in each case, the use of that title had to be vetted, fretted over, and solemnly approved. (For the affiliate version, geared to markets in the heartland, I was told that the title wasn't a problem…as long as I...