Turtles defeat Guardians in box-office battle of the comic book heroes
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles karate-kicked Guardians of the Galaxy off the top of the box office at the weekend. Marvel's team of unlikely space heroes racked up an impressive US$41.5million (Dh1.5bn) in North America during its second weekend on release after its beyond-all-expectations $94m opening weekend triumph. But the reboot of the Turtles franchise – the first film in 20 years – earned $65m, according to studio estimates. That was enough for Paramount Pictures to announce a sequel – scheduled for release on June 3, 2016 – to the comic-book adaptation, which stars Megan Fox, Will Arnett and William Fichtner alongside computer-generated renditions of the superheroes. Megan Colligan, Paramount's head of domestic marketing and distribution, said the success of the film was thanks to two distinct audiences – grown men who fondly remembered the 1980s and 1990s franchise, and youngsters familiar with a newer Nickelodeon animated TV series. "It's odd when you have 25- to 35-year-olds and then 7- to 12-year-olds really excited about the same film," she said. – AP
Mad Max director’s sadness over fall of Mel Gibson
The Mad Max director George Miller was "heart-broken" over Mel Gibson's string of scandals in recent years, and said plans for a new trilogy prompted him to pick a younger actor for revisiting the post-apocalyptic auto-action franchise. The 69-year-old Australian director helped launch Gibson to stardom three decades ago in the trilogy featuring stark desert landscapes and intense car chases. Miller had originally hoped to bring Gibson back for a fourth film, Mad Max: Fury Road, in the role of Max Rockatansky. But a series of delays led to recasting, with Tom Hardy stepping into the road warrior's black boots. "I have a great affection for Mel. I was really heartbroken to see him go into that," Miller said in a recent interview. – AP
Police officer faces backlash for dancing with SRK
A female police officer who danced alongside Shah Rukh Khan has been criticised by politicians. Sub-inspector Sampa Haldar was seen dancing as top police officers and the West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, watched at Jai Ho, the Kolkata Police’s annual cultural programme at the Netaji Indoor Stadium on Saturday. The former city police commissioner Nirupam Som said: “During my tenure, I would not have allowed any officer to dance like that and belittle the sanctity of the uniform.” The former IPS officer Samir Gangopadhyay said the police regulations did not allow any personnel to dance in uniform. The State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury accused Banerjee of defying the constitution by allowing the officer to dance in uniform. – IANS
