Showing posts with label The Count Of Monte Cristo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Count Of Monte Cristo. Show all posts
Film on The Count of Monte Cristo starring Saif gets shelved
8:52 AM
Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 3, 2014)
Saif Ali Khan had opted out of Abbas-Mustan's Indianised cinematic take of Alexandre Dumas's classic The Count of Monte Cristo. The film was to be produced by Sunil Khetrapal.
The latest is that the film now will never be made. This decision was taken last week.
Confirming the same, Khetrapal told Mirror, "We have decided to scrap the film. The script didn't reach its logical conclusion. Kabhi kabhi aisa hota hai."
The film was designed to be an action thriller, not unlike the director duo's other films, including the Race franchise. That was precisely the reason Saif had second thoughts of doing the film after giving it the nod. There had been too many versions of the novel for him to attempt one that didn't offer something new.
Added Khetrapal, "Saif and Abbas-Mustan will remain on board but I will make different films with them. It's just that this combo is not happening for me, neither is the desi adaptation of The Count Of Monte Cristo."
Saif Ali Khan’s desi adaptation of novel pushed ahead due to sudden outbreak of clones?
8:06 AM
Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 5, 2014)
On March 20, Mirror broke the news that the Nawab of Pataudi would play the Count in a desi adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas' 1844 literary classic, The Count of Monte Cristo. The film about love, treachery and revenge was to be directed by Abbas-Mustan and produced by Sunir Kheterpal's Azure Entertainment.
Pointing out that the story and screenplay would not follow the novel to a tee, Mustan had revealed that they had given Saif Ali Khan a one-and-a-half hour narration before he left for Mauritius to shoot Humshakals and upon his return presented him with a bound script. They were waiting for the actor to return to Mumbai from 's Chandigarh schedule, to decide on the leading lady and work out the other details.
But now it seems that the yet-untitled project, which was to release in 2015, will only roll next year. Sunir confirmed this saying, “Yes, the project has been pushed forward because Saif has a couple of films lined up which he has to wrap up first. There was a date issue over his ongoing commitments and hence we’ve decided to start only next year.”
So is this the end of the Count story? Not yet. Buzz is, a TV adaptation of the Dumas novel is in the offing and this has thrown a spanner in the film. Also, with Edmond Dantès’s story also being scripted by Michael Robert Johnson for Constantin Film’s (they had earlier adapted Dumas’s The Three Musketeers) Hollywood production to be directed by Batman writer David Goyer, the subject already seems over-exploited.
As of now, Abbas-Mustaan will probably concentrate on a murder mystery starring Big B and leave the Nawab and the Count for another day.
Saif and Abbas-Mustan chose not to respond to our message.
Abbas-Mustan to direct Saif Ali Khan in The Count of Monte Cristo remake
7:49 AM
Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 21, 2014)
Alexandre Dumas’s 1844 literary classic, The Count Of Monte Cristo, has anchored on Bollywood shores after numerous international adaptations.
The story of a wronged man, who unearths a treasure on his way to revenge and true love, will be directed by Abbas-Mustan and produced by Sunir Kheterpal of Azure Entertainment.
A source close to the developments told Mirror, “Saif Ali Khan will be playing a businessman in this film. There will be two heroines opposite him; one will be a younger actress and another six years older than him.”
Kheterpal confirmed the news saying, “Yes, we are working on an adaptation of the novel with Saif in the lead. The revenge drama is right up Abbas-Mustan’s alley. The film is still untitled and will release in 2015.”
Mustan added that film will not be an outand-out adaptation as the story and screenplay are their own and different from that of the novel’s.
“We gave Saif a one-and-a-half hour narration before he left for Mauritius for the shoot of Humshakals. He liked it and after he returned we met him with a bound script,” says the filmmaker who’s waiting for the actor to return to Mumbai from Phantom’s Chandigarh schedule, to work out the film’s details.
The director duo has worked with the actor earlier in Main Khiladi Tu Anari and the Race franchise. But as Mustan points out, the first one was a two-hero film with Akshay Kumar and in Race and Race 2 too he shared the screen with two heroes—Akshaye Khanna and Anil Kapoor in the first and Anil and John Abraham in the second.
“This is a solo hero project. Tentatively, we should roll in October, after Phantom opens on October 2. But there could be a two-three months time lag,” Mustan says.
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