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Tuesday December 19, 2017 16 ENtertainment

THE latest “Star Wars” fi lm generated more than US$450 million in global ticket sales on its opening weekend.

The total for “The Last Jedi” includes US$220m from box offi ces in the U.S. and Canada, placing the fi lm second in the all-time list for North America.

It trails behind the 2015 release “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which opened with a record-breaking US$248 million.

But the sum dwarfs that of

its nearest rival, the computer-animated comedy Ferdinand which took US$13 million.

In third place, the Disney/Pixar animation “Coco” brought in just over US$10 millon during its fourth weekend in North American cinemas.

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is the eighth installment of the 40-year-old space saga and is directed by Rian Johnson, whose credits include “Brick and Looper.”

It sees Mark Hamill and the late Carrie Fisher reprise their

roles as Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.

British actors Daisy Ridley and John Boyega also return from “The Force Awakens.”

The fi lm has been widely praised by critics, and has a score of 93 percent on the fi lm review website Rotten Tomatoes.

Will Gompertz, the BBC’s Arts Editor, gave it four out of fi ve stars and said it was “packed with invention, wit, and action galore.”

(SD-Agencies)

‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ takes US$450m on opening weekend

“THE Square,” the art world satire that won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is one of nine titles in contention for 2018’s best foreign language fi lm Oscar.

Directed by Ruben Ostlund, the Swedish fi lm is one of nine to be put forward for the next stage of the contest.

The news follows the fi lm’s success at last weekend’s Euro-pean Film Awards in Berlin, where it won six prizes.

Others to progress include Hungary’s entrant “On Body and Soul,” which won the European actress award at that event.

Films from Chile, Germany and Israel are also among the nine-strong longlist, as are

titles from Lebanon, Russia and South Africa.

They include German entrant “In the Fade,” which won Diane Kruger a best actress award at Cannes, and Russian fi lm “Loveless,” which received the festival’s jury prize.

It’s good news for Senegal

too, whose fi rst submission for the award — Felicite, about a mother battling to survive in the Congolese capital Kin-shasa — remains in the Oscar race for now.

But there is no place for Michael Haneke’s “Happy End” or Angelina Jolie’s “First They Killed My Father,” put forward for the prize by Austria and Cambodia respectively.

A record number of 92 countries submitted a fi lm for the 2018 prize, among them the United Kingdom.

Iranian title “The Salesman” was named best foreign lan-guage fi lm at this year’s Oscars in February.

(SD-Agencies)

Oscars 2018: Palme d’Or winner ‘The Square’ among

foreign fi lm hopefuls

“The Last Jedi” had the second biggest grossing opening weekend in North America. SD-Agencies

Elisabeth Moss (L) and Claes Bang star in “The Square.” SD-Agencies

ACTRESS Mira Sorvino said she is “heartsick” after learn-ing she may have lost out on major roles because of Harvey Weinstein.

“Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson said both Sorvino and Ashley Judd were “black-listed” following conversations with Weinstein’s company.

Both actresses have claimed the media mogul sexually harassed them.

Weinstein has denied alle-gations of misconduct, and of blacklisting the actresses.

The “Lord of the Rings” tril-ogy was initially in development with Weinstein’s Miramax company, before being passed to New Line Cinema.

In an interview with Stuff.co.nz this week, Jackson said he was interested in casting both women in the blockbuster franchise.

“I recall Miramax telling us they were a nightmare to work with and we should avoid them at all costs. This was probably in 1998,” he told the site.

“At the time, we had no reason to question what these guys were telling us.”

“I now suspect we were fed false information about both of these talented women — and as a direct result their names were removed from our casting list.

“In hindsight, I realize that this was very likely the Miramax smear campaign in full swing,” Jackson said.

Sorvino said in a tweet: “Just seeing this after I awoke, I burst out crying.”

“There it is, confi rmation that Harvey Weinstein derailed my career, something I suspected but was unsure. Thank you Peter Jackson for being honest. I’m just heartsick.”

Judd, meanwhile, recalled how her involvement pro-gressed far enough to be invited by Jackson to see preparation work for the blockbuster tril-ogy.

“I remember this well,” she tweeted.

“They asked which of the two roles I preferred, and then I abruptly never heard from them again. I appreciate the truth coming out,” she said.

In a statement through a publicist, Weinstein denied the allegations that he was involved in blacklisting Sorvino and Judd, saying that the cast-ing for “Lord of the Rings” was carried out by New Line Cinema — not Miramax.

The statement said that Judd was cast in two other fi lms by Weinstein, and that “Sorvino was always considered for other fi lms as well.”

(SD-Agencies)

Weinstein ‘derailed my career’ — Sorvino says after

Peter Jackson claim

Peter Jackson says he was “fed false information” about “talented women.” SD-Agencies