More big names added to bill as Dubai Comedy Festival tickets go on sale

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Courtesy Venice Film Festival

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The bill for the highly anticipated inaugural Dubai Comedy Festival – at a purpose-built, 4,500-seat venue the Dubai Marina from October 15 to 24 –has grown with the addition of acclaimed American comedians Hannibal Buress and Jerrod Carmichael, who will perform on October 16. UAE-based Indian comedian Nitin Mirani has also been added to the festival's homegrown talent programme. He will headline a "Desi Invasion" show on October 17, alongside Atul Khatri, Abish Mathew, Kenneth Sebastian and Neeti Palta. They join the previously announced headliners, Hollywood funnyman Dave Chappelle and new Daily Show, host Trevor Noah. Tickets for the highly anticipated inaugural Dubai Comedy Festival are on sale now. Also on the bill are Saudi comic and YouTube sensation Bader Saleh, American comic and magician Mac King and Emirati stand-up comedian Ali Al Sayed. The Comedy Strip at Jumeirah Beach Residence Walk will host comedy nights and free street performances. More details and tickets, visit www.dubaicomedyfest.ae. -

The National Staff

A R Rahman ‘meant no offence’ with music for film about the Prophet

Hugely popular Indian musician and composer A R Rahman has said that he did not intend to offend anyone when he wrote the music for an Iranian film about the life of the Prophet Mohammed. Rahman was responding to a religious edict, or fatwa, by a Muslim organisation against him and the Iranian director of the film. In a message on his Facebook page, Rahman says his decision to compose the music was made in good faith, with no intention of causing offence. The Raza Academy in Mumbai has ordered Rahman to reaffirm his faith by reciting the tenets of Muslim belief and repeating his marriage vows, to re-establish his status as a Muslim. In the fatwa, issued last week, the Academy also demanded that the Indian government ban the screening of the film, which tells the story of the Prophet's life from birth to the age of 13. His face is never seen on screen. The film was released in Iran and screened at the Montreal Film Festival last month. Rahman has composed music and background scores for about 130 Indian films. In 2009, he received Academy awards for best song and original score for the film Slumdog Millionaire. The 48-year-old musician was born a Hindu, but converted to Islam in 1989 and adopted the name Allah Rakha Rahman. – AP

AIB to launch Daily Show-style TV show

Indian stand-up comedy troupe All Indian Bakchod has posted a teaser trailer for a new TV project, hinting at a news satire show. The YouTube video features AIB members Tanmay Bhat, Gursimran Khamba, Rohan Joshi and Ashish Shakya, suggest that the show will have similar format to Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, which returns in the US this month with new host Trevor Noah replacing Jon Stewart, and HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Describing it as their most ambitious project yet, AIB’s untitled show will be broadcast on online channel Hotstar, Star Plus and Star World. AIB has more than 1.33million subscribers on YouTube. Their spoofs and sketches often feature Bollywood actors and directors, including Irrfan Khan, Alia Bhatt and Karan Johan. The comedy collective was recently in the spotlight for a controversial Roast poking fun at Bollywood actors Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor, hosted by filmmaker Karan Johar. The troupe had to take down the video, which went viral, after Hindu organisations filed police complaints on the grounds of obscenity. – The National staff

Rachel McAdams joins Cumberbatch in Marvel’s Doctor Strange

The cast of upcoming Marvel comics movie Doctor Strange is filling out. Rachel McAdams revealed while attending the Toronto International Film Festival that she will be joining Benedict Cumberbatch. He takes the title role, as the mysterious sorcerer, and the cast also includes Tilda Swinton and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Mads Mikkelsen, the Danish star of TV's recently cancelled serial-killer drama Hannibal, is reportedly in talks to take a villainous role. McAdams said she was excited to be working with Cumberbatch, the star of BBC TV's Sherlock and acclaimed movie The Imitation Game, in Marvel's psychedelic comic book movie, but that she could not reveal anything about her character. Scott Derrickson will direct the film, which is sue to start shooting in November, with a release planned for the same month next year. – The National staff

Orson Welles’s personal Citizen Kane scripts go on sale

Film legend Orson Welles' personal manuscripts for Citizen Kane are going up for sale at auction. The three sopies of the screenplay, including the final revised shooting script, being offered by Profiles in History on September 30 illustrate the evolution of the masterpiece, a landmark in the history of film for its innovative cinematic, lighting and narrative techniques. Welles, who co-wrote, directed and starred in the film – about the rise and fall of a publishing tycoon – was 25 when the movie was released in 1941. A first draft of American – the working title for Citizen Kane – written in 1940 by Welles' collaborator Herman Mankiewicz is estimated to fetch up to US$30,000 as part of the California auctioneer's three-day sale of Hollywood memorabilia. The next draft is a fuller evolution of the script, with the principal plot elements in place. The final, revised 156-page shooting script, dated "7/16/40" includes Welles' handwritten annotations, directing notes and camera-angle diagrams and is signed by most of the main cast. Also on sale is a typed manuscript with Welles' handwritten directorial notes for a proposed television adaptation of Citizen Kane in the 1950s. – AP

Sanad-funded film honoured at Venice Film Festival

Abu Dhabi's Sanad film fund was celebrating success this week after director Leyla Bouzid's As I Open My Eyes received the BNL People's Choice Award at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival. The film, about the effect of the Arab Spring on Tunisian youth, was also named Best European Film and will receive the support of a European Union financial incentive for the Europa Cinemas network of cinemas to promote and include the film in their programming schedule. Another Sanad-funded film, Merzak Allouache's Madame Courage, was selected to participate in the Orrizonti Competition of the festival and was well received by the audience, judges and media. – The National staff

Justin Timberlake takes hair-raising role as a singing troll

Award-winning singer, actor and heartthrob Justin Timberlake will star in “Trolls”, a DreamWorks animated musical movie about the spiky-haired Danish dolls. He will play Branch, a “hilariously hardcore survivalist”, alongside Anna Kendrick as Princess Poppy in the first film based on the Danish toys, which had cameos roles in Pixar’s Toy Story movies. The dolls, with colourful spiky hairdos, were inspired by Scandinavian troll folklore. They were first crafted in 1959 by Danish woodcutter Thomas Dam, who was too poor to afford a Christmas present for his daughter, and grew in popularity in the 1960s. The movie will be directed by Mike Mitchell, who worked on DreamWorks’ Shrek movies. It will be released in November 2016 by 20th Century Fox. – Reuters