A teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was partly filmed in Abu Dhabi this year, will be released on Friday, director JJ Abrams has announced. "A tiny peek at what we're working on – this Friday, in select theatres," he tweeted. He revealed that the trailer would be 88 seconds long and added: "Hope you enjoy, and have a most excellent Thanksgiving." The film, the seventh episode in the series, is due for release on December 18 next year. – AFP
Pharrell stars in Chanel video
Chanel has unveiled a sneak peek of a music video featuring the pop star Pharrell Williams and the British supermodel Cara Delevingne, portraying the origin of the fashion house's iconic jacket. The clip titled Reincarnation features Williams as Austrian emperor Franz Joseph waltzing in a dark and dreamy ballroom with his wife Sisi, played by Delevingne. He sings his new song CC The World in the full version of the eight-minute video, which was directed by designer Karl Lagerfeld and will debut at Chanel's fashion show in Austria on December 2. The fashion house founder Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel was staying at a hotel in Salzburg in 1954 when a lift operator's outfit gave her the idea for the piece of fashion history. – AFP
Brits win big at International Emmy Awards
British TV shows dominated the International Emmy Awards on Monday night, with three big wins at the ceremony honouring the best TV programming outside the United States. Utopia, a conspiracy thriller created by Dennis Kelly and directed by Marc Munden, took home the Best Drama award, while the Best Actor trophy went to Stephen Dillane for his role as police detective Karl Roebuck in crime drama The Tunnel. Educating Yorkshire, a documentary about life in a school in northern England, lifted the award for Non-Scripted Entertainment. The Best Actress award went to the Netherlands' Bianca Krijgsman for her role in De Nieuwe Wereld (The New World), about an airport cleaner's relationship with a West African refugee. The 42nd International Emmys were hosted in New York. – AFP
Hoffman wants a fine romance with Dame Judi Dench
Hollywood star Dustin Hoffman says he would love to make a romantic film with the "scrumptious" British actress Judi Dench. The Graduate actor was speaking after co-starring with Dench in an adaptation of Roald Dahl's Esio Trot made by British TV channel BBC One. Hoffman, 77, described Dench, 79, as "a scrumptious-looking woman" and said he had watched some of her early performances online. "I said to Judi, 'If I met you then, I wouldn't have let you get away,'" Hoffman said. "There must be a way to do a love story where we meet in our 20s but yet we're acting as we are now." In Esio Trot, Hoffman plays a bachelor in love with his neighbour, played by Dench, who showers all her love on her pet tortoise. The adaptation, by Notting Hill screenwriter Richard Curtis will be broadcast in the UK at Christmas. – AFP
Cher cancels tour dates
Veteran singer Cher has cancelled the rest of her tour as she recovers from a kidney illness. The 68 year old called off more than 20 concerts on her Dressed to Kill tour, including a show at New York’s Madison Square Garden. “I am totally devastated. Nothing like this has ever happened to me,” said Cher, whose tour features elaborate productions and repeated changes of wardrobe. “I cannot apologise enough to all the fans who bought tickets.” Cher also postponed several shows in September due to kidney problems. – AFP
García Màrquez archive bought by university
The University of Texas has bought Nobel-winning novelist Gabriel García Màrquez's manuscript for his masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude, along with a treasure trove of his other papers. A half-century worth of the acclaimed writer's original manuscripts and personal papers, mostly in Spanish, are among the documents in the archives, which are to be housed at the university's Harry Ransom Center. García Màrquez was born in Colombia and died in Mexico City in April at the age of 87. The Colombian government expressed regret that the papers would not remain in the author's home country, but said it respects the family's decision. The amount paid for the collection, which includes more than 2,000 letters, was not revealed. – AFP
Hollywood memorablia on auction
The upright piano from Rick's Cafe in the classic movie Casablanca fetched US $3.4 million (Dh12.4 million) at auction on Monday after a frenzied sale in New York.
The orange piano – on which Sam (Dooley Wilson) famously plays As Time Goes By – was among 200 items from Hollywood's golden age that went under the hammer at Bonham's in New York.
The piano featured prominently in the Oscar-winning 1942 romantic drama, with leading man Humphrey Bogart using it as a hiding place for the letters of transit that ultimately allow his former lover Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) to flee to the United States.
Dresses worn by Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland and Rita Hayworth were also auctioned, as well as a jacket worn by Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind.
The Lion costume worn by Bert Lahr in The Wizard of Oz was also up for sale.
Bidding for the opened at US$1.6 million and escalated rapidly before closing three minutes later at $3.4 million, including taxes.
The piano was specially adapted to allow Bogart’s character to perform his sleight of hand with the transit papers, hiding them in plain sight of the clientele at Rick’s.
The writers decided that the papers should be stashed in the top of the piano, but had to alter its lid to make it work on camera.
“The only way this works, however, is if the lid opens from the rear, otherwise Rick would have to reach over Sam’s shoulder to hide the papers, a hardly subtle move,” the auction house said.
Most likely made in 1927, the piano also has only 58 keys, 30 fewer than a classic piano. It had been owned by a dentist in Los Angeles since the 1980s.
The piano came with a signed photograph of Wilson and a copy of Casablanca – and even a wad of chewing gum found stuck beneath the keyboard. A faint outline of a fingerprint could be seen on the gum, but its owner was unknown.
Other items related to Casablanca proved popular at the auction, with a draft of the screenplay – titled "Everybody Come to Rick's" – fetching $106,250, well above its $40,000-$60,000 estimate.
The doors from the entrance of Rick’s Cafe sold for $115,000, also above their $75,000 to $100,000 estimate.
The letters of transit at the heart of the film sold for $118,750, while one of the chairs from the cafe fetched $5,000.
A gown worn by Garland in Easter Parade sold for $11,875 and another worn by Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were fetched $8,750. A gown worn by Hayworth in The Loves of Carmen fetched $6,000.
Meanwhile, a poster for the 1927 film London After Midnight, starring Lon Chaney, has sold for $478,000 at another auction, making it the most valuable movie poster ever sold.
Heritage Auctions in Dallas said it was it is the only known surviving poster for the film in which Chaney, a star of early cinema, appeared as a vampire.
The film was lost years ago and was reconstructed about 10 years ago using more than 200 still photos.
1932's The Mummy held the previous record for a poster's sale at public auction, fetching than $453,000 in 1997. – AFP & AP
