PARIS – “Alien” creator Ridley Scott said Thursday that he was convinced that they were aliens out there — and one day they will come for us.
The veteran director said he believed in higher beings as he prepared to release the sixth episode of the sci-fi horror series, “Alien: Covenant”, next month.
“I believe in superior beings. I think it is certainly likely. An expert I was talking to at NASA said to me, ‘Have you ever looked in the sky at night? You mean to tell me we are it?’ That’s ridiculous.
“The experts have now put a number on it having assessed what is out there. They say that there are between 100 and 200 entities that could be having a similar evolution to us right now.
“So when you see a big thing in the sky, run for it,” he joked.
“Because they are a lot smarter than we are, and if you are stupid enough to challenge them you will be taken out in three seconds.”
“Alien: Covenant” the second of the prequel films, is set in 2104 on board a spaceship carrying 2,000 cryogenically frozen colonists to a distant planet when they chance upon an uncharted paradise.
But their voyage soon turns into a gory nightmare that makes “Alien”‘s original “chestbuster” scene seem tame in comparison.
The “neomorph” aliens in the new film are based on the goblin shark “which has a jaw which hinges in two ways. It’s scary, hideous beyond belief actually,” Scott said.
The 79-year-old British-born director — who was also the brains behind “Blade Runner” — said he never tired or scaring people out of their skins.
“When I did the first ‘Alien’ I had to get a sense of responsibility because the reaction to the kitchen (“chestbuser”) scene with John Hurt was beyond anything I expected — and it was not good,” he told AFP.
“But the film was very successful because people are perverse.”
He said he could not believe the terror he had created when he went to see people watching the film. “Everybody was half underneath the seat watching by the time you get to the kitchen scene. There was a woman underneath the seat with her husband holding her. I said this is not healthy.”
“Nothing scares me. I have a 9mm (pistol),” he said.
“If there is a problem I tend to close down into calm. When you walk in in the morning on a film and 600 people turn and all look at you, that is scary,” he said.
“Alien: Covenant” has a religious subtext, the director insisted.
He said he was “agnostic”, but this did not stop him making a film about Moses, “Exodus: Gods and Kings”, in 2014.
“Either religion is the greatest trick played on mankind. Or it is not, and that poses some great questions, and this film is a great context for those,” he said.
Scott, who was knighted in 2003, is about to make a film about the Battle of Britain during World War II, when the Royal Air Force fought off the German Luftwaffe.
“Alien: Covenant” opens across the world from May 10.
“Basic Instinct” director Paul Verhoeven is making a film about a lesbian nun with miraculous powers who falls in love with another sister, his producers said Wednesday.
The veteran Dutch film-maker — whose controversial twisted rape thriller “Elle” starring Isabelle Huppert was a huge critical hit — is working on a drama called the “Blessed Virgin”.
The producers said it is based on the life of 17th-century Italian nun Benedetta Carlini, who caused a sensation when she claimed to see visions of Jesus Christ.
Verhoeven will present the project at the Cannes film festival next month, production company SBS International told AFP.
Verhoeven premiered “Elle” at the festival last year. It has since won nearly 60 international awards as well as an Oscar nomination for French star Huppert.
The new film, adapted from “Immodest Acts — The Life of a lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy” by the American historian Judith Brown, will star Belgian actress Virginie Efira.
PHUKET, Thailand – A relative of the Thai baby whose murder was shown on Facebook Live earlier this week said he was too distraught and intent on getting police to the crime scene to worry about getting the horrific videos taken down.
The gruesome incident this week highlights how those most affected by offensive content are usually too distracted to report it to the authorities.
It also exposes the challenges that live streaming content poses to both governments monitoring for offensive material on the internet and the companies that host online content.
On Monday, in an abandoned building in the Thai seaside resort of Phuket, 20-year-old Wuttisan Wongtalay turned on Facebook Live from his mobile phone.
Then he picked up his 11-month-old daughter in her pink dress, tied a rope around her neck and hanged her.
A second short video briefly shows her lifeless body.
After that, he turned off the camera and killed himself.
For the family of little Natalie Triratana, removing the videos was the last thing on their minds when they first popped up on Wuttisan’s Facebook feed at around 4.50 p.m. on Monday.
Her mother’s cousin, Suksan Buachanit, said he called Thailand’s 191 police hotline to ask for help locating the building.
By the time police and relatives found it, it was too late.
“A local reporter told me to report it (to Facebook) but we were all occupied at the scene,” Suksan told Reuters in Phuket.
It took more than a day – and 370,000 views – before Facebook removed those few minutes of video.
CLEVELAND SHOOTING
Others that Reuters spoke to in Phuket who had seen the videos, including friends and relatives of the dead girl’s parents, said they were too preoccupied by the tragedy to report the incident to Facebook.
For the social media company, with nearly 2 billion users, it was yet another case that exposed the challenges of quickly spotting and removing offensive content.
The killing of the baby in Thailand followed the live broadcast shooting of an elderly man in Cleveland, Ohio.
In that incident, it took two hours to remove the video, bringing intense criticism on the social media giant and prompting it to promise “ways that new technologies can help us make sure Facebook is a safe environment”.
It was unclear how many viewers alerted Facebook to the killing of the baby. Facebook did not respond to questions.
But by the morning the baby’s murder had been reported in local media and was one of the most talked about stories in Thailand.
Several local and international journalists told Reuters they had reported the videos to Facebook and asked the company for comment.
The head of Thailand’s police’s Technology Crime Suppression Division, Supachet Chokchai, said he was alerted to the baby murder videos by police in Phuket but he declined to say when that was.
The division monitors online content ranging from anti-monarchy content to fraudulent websites.
It also has a hotline for the public to call in tip-offs about offensive content.
Nor would Supachet say when police then asked the digital ministry to get in touch with Facebook.
The ministry said by the time police reported the videos on Tuesday afternoon it had already heard about them from an anonymous tip-off and had told Facebook.
The ministry contacted Facebook through a “direct channel” at noon on Tuesday, according to Somsak Khaosuwan, the ministry’s deputy permanent secretary.
He did not elaborate on what the direct channel was or say whom the ministry contacted at Facebook.
It was only just after 5.00 p.m. – about five hours later and more than a full day after the videos were first streamed – that Facebook took them down.
ILLEGAL AND HARMFUL CONTENT
A Facebook statement called the incident “appalling” and said there was “absolutely no place for content of this kind” on the network.
It did not respond to Reuters questions as to why it took so long to remove the videos.
Thai police said they would review ways to take down online content after the killing.
Police blamed the delay partly on the time difference between the United States, where Facebook is headquartered, and Thailand.
They did not explain at exactly which stage the time difference had proved problematic, however.
A spokesman for the police also said the force was tight on staffing.
Thailand, along with other authoritarian governments in Asia, is more geared up to monitor politically sensitive content online.
Censorship has been ramped up since a 2014 coup and hundreds of websites have been blocked or shut down for content deemed inappropriate or offensive.
Thailand is further tightening controls on internet users.
This week, Thailand’s national telecoms regulator ordered all internet service providers to block web content deemed illegal by the courts within a week or face having their licenses revoked.
Thailand is also working on a cyber security bill that would allow the state to conduct large-scale surveillance in the name of national security by wiretapping telephones and computers without the need for court approval.
THIMPHU – In the past three years, Passang Tshering and his team of over 1,000 volunteers have cleaned up more than 60 public toilets and built temporary bathrooms at a dozen events in Bhutan.
Passang decided to take matters into his own hands after spotting a huge gap in sanitation provision in the tiny Himalayan state, launching the Bhutan Toilet Organisation in 2014.
“Everybody seemed to complain about toilets everywhere, but there was no governing body to listen and find solutions,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The goal of Passang and his young team is to rid the country of the practice of open defecation. “It is not even seen as a problem,” said the former computer teacher.
Traditionally, Bhutanese families built toilets on the first floor of their dwellings, with a pig sty underneath so that the human waste could serve as fodder.
People would use leaves, sticks and stones to clean up after themselves, while flushing was rare due to a lack of piped water.
Modern toilets have now become popular in cities and towns. But with the majority of Bhutanese people still living in remote hamlets, poor sanitation remains a major issue in large parts of the country.
Reports of typhoid cases due to water contamination are common during the monsoon that runs from May through September.
According to records from the health ministry, nearly 20,000 children under five are treated for diarrhoeal disease annually.
Other health problems exacerbated by a lack of sanitation and hygiene include skin infections, conjunctivitis, dengue and malaria.
However, in the past few years, deaths linked to diarrhoeal disease in young children have dropped significantly.
Bhutan managed to achieve a global goal to reduce the mortality rate of under-fives by two thirds between 1990 and 2015, partly thanks to improvements in drinking water and sanitation.
Still, experts say more progress is needed on raising public awareness and providing clean drinking water, reliable water supplies and proper sanitation facilities, especially in rural communities.
The government is working with UN agencies and international aid groups to educate villagers in how to pursue and maintain better health and hygiene.
Meanwhile, motivated individuals like Passang are changing mindsets too.
Since launching a “Clean Toilets for All” campaign online in November 2014, he has created a vibrant community of sanitation activists, including young student volunteers and civil servants.
The group plans to build toilet facilities along highways and upgrade existing public toilets, ensuring they are friendly to women and people with disabilities.
The volunteers also set up portable toilets at public events, and are lobbying for mandatory toilets in parks, low-income housing estates, construction sites, garages and bus stops.
‘BEST THING’
“We used to openly defecate when I visited my village,” recalled 15-year-old Tandin Zam, who is glad a toilet has now been built at her family home in Paro, some 70 km from the capital Thimphu where she lives.
Infectious diseases linked to water and sanitation account for almost 30 per cent of health problems in remote areas.
That is why the health ministry is backing a nationwide campaign to build toilets in every locality, funded by international organisations.
The proportion of Bhutan’s population with access to improved sanitation now stands at 70 per cent, up from 58 per cent in 2010.
“My clean modern toilet is the best thing that has happened in my lifetime,” said 72-year-old Jigme Choden of Thorshong Gonpa village in Mongar, one of Bhutan’s fastest-developing districts.
Communities are supposed to maintain their own facilities, but illiteracy, the mountainous terrain and lack of water connectivity have often led to improper usage.
Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organisation who visited Bhutan four years ago, said schools in the South Asian nation lacked adequate lavatories.
“The teachers had nice toilets but the facilities for the student were in a bad condition,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Bhutan needs to promote improvement in design of toilets and training for cleaners.”
The government should also work with the private sector to install toilets at tourist sites, he added.
The Buddhist kingdom has a number of important festivals where thousands of locals and foreigners flock to ancient fortresses and monasteries – and the shortage of toilets at these locations has always been a concern.
TOILET CLUBS
Where there are toilets, they do not have enough staff to keep them clean, said Passang. But when bathrooms are modern and in good condition, people show more respect, he added.
“They contribute their share by flushing, and ensuring their footprints are not left behind on the tiles,” he said.
“To make a complete change in the toilet habits of our people, we must give them great toilets.” His organisation plans to train cleaners and assign people to man public toilets.
It has set up “Toilet Clubs” in around 10 colleges to manage sanitation facilities, while universities have decided to observe Oct. 8 as University Toilet Day each year.
The group is also keen to tackle issues relating to sewage and wastewater management, as well as the pollution of river and groundwater.
“We want to ensure that no sewer flows into the stream or river system, and we will also push for mandatory connections to the main sewer system,” said Passang.
It almost seems like a dream come true. Finally, there’s a place in Singapore where you can send your beloved sneakers to be cleaned up, restoring it to its former glory.
That’s what local startup Holystic Sneaker Laundry offers from their small store that operates from Wheelock Place.
Owners of all-expensive and exclusive shoes from the usual streetwear brands can send in their footwear after a consultation over the counter and collect it thereafter once they’re done servicing the shoe. Sounds straightforward enough right?
You would think that it’s been all smooth-sailing since their opening, but apparently some have found their shoes in less than desirable conditions after dropping them off at the store.
The Holystic Mishap
The Playbook highlighted some cases in an article earlier today where they spoke to a few customers, as well as highlighted posts that were going viral when the Holystic experience went wrong.
First is the case of Benedict Yeo and his Adidas NMD Nice Kicks.
Photo: Instagram
These are what the shoes (should) look like.
To put into context the gravity of how valuable these shoes are, they are going for way more than $3,700 on eBay alone, and there are very limited number of pairs in the world.
Photo: Facebook/Benedict Yeo
He had sent in his pair for both Holy Detail Clean and Holy Restoration services. Here’s what he got back the first time round:
Photo: Facebook/Benedict Yeo
There were obvious discolourations on the pull tab of his shoes when he collected it. Unsatisfied, he paid for another round of restoration fee to correct it.
Photo: Facebook/Benedict Yeo
The second time he got back his shoes, there were shoddy attempts at masking the earlier mistake with what can be seen as marker ink.
Nothing Customers Can Do, And Others Speak Up
Photo: Facebook
A comment on his post shows the contract that customers have to sign before engaging Holystic’s services, and one particular line stood out:
“in no event, will Holystic Sneaker Laundry be held liable for any consequential… loss or damages whether or not Holystic knew and should have known of the likelihood of any loss or damage”
It is not uncommon for even dry-cleaners to make you sign contracts that state the terms for use of their services, but this line is a first.
What this basically means is that Holystic takes no responsibility for anything that happens after they have rendered their ‘service’.
The Playbook also spoke to several other customers on their experiences, and the responses so far have been less than desirable.
At the time of writing, Holystic has since responded to The Playbook’s article and also mentioned that they will be in contact with Benedict to resolve the matter.
Photo: Facebook/Vulcan Post
[UPDATE: Responding to our article, Holystic said that it has gotten in touch with Benedict and they are “committed” to compensating his sneaker.
It wrote: “We have never indicated to Benedict that it was not our fault or at anytime refuse to compensate. In fact, we have been trying to get him on his mobile the first thing when we are alerted of the matter.”]
Photo: Facebook/Vulcan Post
[LATEST UPDATE: As of 5.15pm, Benedict has agreed to accept Holystic’s offer to “get him a new pair of Adidas Nice Kicks”. Benedict will reserve the right to choose the “sneaker of his choice, at the site of his choice”.]
So what can we learn here? Well for one, those who render their services need to be more accountable for their actions and perform some form of recovery services to resolve the issue and appease the customer. When a dissatisfied customer posts on social media (and it blows up), it will be too late by then.
As a company who has apparently seen their fair share of Yeezys and Christian Louboutins, one would think that the people behind the business would be treating these high-end goods with the same high standards.
If anything, Holystic still has a chance at redemption if they handle the situation right.
Just look at A Better Florist. They are still around after their Valentine’s Day fiasco.
Vulcan Post is all about living life with a digital edge, up and coming startups, and people who inspire conversations. Visit Vulcan Post for more stories.
SINGAPORE – A new ERP gantry will be operational from May 8, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said in a statement on Friday (April 28).
The gantry, located at the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE), on the southbound route after Defu Flyover, will be activated during morning peak hours from 7am to 9.30am.
The rate for this gantry will be S$2. (click below to enlarge)
The rates for the gantry at the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE), after North Buona Vista Road towards Tuas, will also be increased from S$1 to S$2 from 6pm to 6.30pm. (click below to enlarge)
These revisions were announced after the LTA completed its quarterly review of traffic conditions on road roads and expressways.
According to the authority, ERP gantries were constructed as part of the KPE to provide the option of road pricing should traffic conditions along the north-east corridor worsen with future development.
The LTA said it had been reviewing the need for ERP to manage traffic congestion along the stretch of the southbound KPE between Tampines Expressway (TPE) and Airport Road during the morning peak hours on weekdays.
The latest quarterly review showed that traffic speeds along this stretch “consistently remained below the optimal speed range of 45kmh to 65kmh for the last 2.5 years”. These speeds also dipped to as low as 30 kmh.
The LTA added that the next ERP rate review will take place in May for the June school holidays.
It takes a brave filmmaker to take one of the darkest stories from his past and make it into a film for the whole world to see. But that’s exactly what director Saw Teong Hin has done with You Mean The World To Me.
The Hokkien-language film is a very personal, semi-autobiographical story based on Saw’s own family history as well as his estranged relationship with his late mother.
During a recent interview, it was clear that the subject is still one that really affects him emotionally.
As he spoke in depth about how the film came about, there was a distinct melancholy in his eyes, and he even sounded a little choked up at one point, as he struggled to keep his emotions in check.
“I’ve already said to myself that I won’t watch the movie during the media preview, so that I’ll be coherent for the press conference!” he joked during the interview at Menara Star, which also included two of the film’s stars, Frederick Lee and Chelsia Ng.
You Mean The World To Me is based on Saw’s own family, played here by (from left) Evan Chin, Eng Yee Min, Gregg Koay, Neo, Steve Yap, Tan and Ng.Photo: The Star/ Asia News Network
Set in Penang and filmed entirely in the Penang Hokkien dialect, You Mean The World To Me is about a Penang-born filmmaker named Sunny (played by Lee), who returns home to make a film about his dysfunctional family, which is linked to a shocking incident he witnessed as a boy and caused resentment towards his mother (Neo Swee Lin) and his older, mentally-disabled brother Boy (John Tan).
The cast also includes award-winning Malaysian actress Yeo Yann Yann, and cinematography by the internationally-acclaimed Christopher Doyle, who is best known for his work with Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai.
Saw first wrote the story in 2007 as a cathartic exercise to exorcise the darker parts of his past and confront his own feelings towards his family history.
Then, came an opportunity to stage it as a play during the 2014 George Town Festival.
After the success of the play, Saw began getting offers to turn it into a film. With the help of Astro Shaw, he finally began filming in 2015, and finished it in November last year (though the release was delayed to May 4 so it could coincide with this year’s Mother’s Day).
“Doing the play really helped the film,” said Saw, who is best known for films like Puteri Gunung Ledang and Jejak Warriors.
“The writing was crazy because it was the first time I was confronting the past and writing about it. That was the toughest time for me. The second time was during the rehearsals. When I saw the play being staged, every night, I was a mess,” he remembered.
(From left) Ng, Saw and Lee, have an easy camaraderie, having worked on You Mean The World To Me since it was a play.Photo: The Star/ Asia News Network
It was the same while doing the film, he said. “Every time we went to shoot, I said to myself that I would be objective and not let it get under my skin, but every time, invariably, it did.
“Even now, every time I watch it, it still affects me at a very deep level. It’s all still very raw for me,” he said.
The story is mainly about Saw’s relationship with his mother – who passed away in 1991 – and his brother, who died in 2003. He sees the movie as a way of honouring as well as apologising to them.
“As a kid, I was very selfish and worried about only what impacted me, and did not think about what others went through. Now, when I look back I realise that I could have done better,” he said.
“I wish I knew what I know now back when my mother and brother were still alive. Then, I could have been a better son and brother.
“I know I’ve made mistakes in the past, and it’s easy to say that I was young and did not know better back then. But how do you apologise to someone who is already dead?”
The Penang Hokkien connection
At this point, the sombre atmosphere was lifted by the sound of laughter, as his two stars entered the room. The three of them have a close, easy camaraderie that was quite apparent during our session, chatting and teasing one another in Hokkien and goofing around during the shoot.
Lee and Ng were also in the play, so it made sense that the three of them would be close friends.
Mother (Neo Swee Lin) and little Sunny (Gregg Koay) in You Mean The World To Me.Photo: The Star/Asia News Network
However, according to Ng, filming the movie was completely different to the stage version, as there were certain subtleties that just can’t be translated the same way as on stage.
However, she was grateful to Saw for believing in her.
“A day before we started filming, he came to me and said, ‘I know you know your stuff, because you’ve done it before’. It was very reassuring to know that he completely trusted me with the character,” Ng said.
The story of You Mean The World To Me is set in two time periods, and Ng plays the aunty to the younger version of Sunny, the filmmaker who essentially represents Saw in the story.
Lee, who plays Sunny, said he was not under pressure to base the character on the director’s actual personality.
“At first I only knew that the story was about him, but the first time I saw the script, I got really nervous because I didn’t know whether I could do it justice,” said the 41-year-old actor. “But (Saw) gave me a lot of freedom to decide how to play the role. He basically just let me do what I wanted with it.”
Saw interjected: “What I liked about Lee’s performance is he came up with the characterisation of Sunny based on the script. He is not there to imitate me.”
Award-winning Malaysian actress Yeo appears in the film You Mean The World To Me. Photo: Astro Shaw
Filming the movie in Penang Hokkien was very important for Saw because of the whole context of the story and where it takes place. In fact, he has mentioned in earlier interviews that he turned down some offers to film You Mean The World To Me because he’d been asked to change the language to Mandarin.
“My parents spoke Penang Hokkien. All the characters speak Penang Hokkien. If you change that to Mandarin, you might as well be changing it to Tamil! It’s just not the same!” Saw stated.
The film’s Hokkien title is Hai Kinn Xin Loo (which literally means “new road by the sea front”), the old Hokkien name for Penang’s Victoria Street (now known as Lebuh Victoria), where Saw grew up.
Recreating his childhood home
The home he lived in was recreated for the film, and Saw was moved by how much the set looked like his old home.
“The first time I walked onto the film set, I felt a deep sadness … my old house is no more, and this was a confirmation of all the things that happened before.
“I could see vividly in my mind what happened in the living room, what happened in the airwell …” he said.
“In the beginning (of the shoot), I would go in early before anyone else and walk around … then I would have to go somewhere quiet to snap myself out of it and stop thinking about the past,” he revealed.
While he still has mixed feelings about putting such a personal story out there for the world to see, Saw has a very clear purpose for the film – to really drive it into people not to take their family for granted.
“If anybody watches this film and picks up their phone to call their mother after that … I think I would be a very happy person!” Saw said.
TAIPEI – Taiwan’s fears that it will become a bargaining chip between China and the United States worsened Friday after a snub by President Donald Trump, who said he would not do anything to upset Beijing.
Trump rattled China in December after taking a congratulatory call from the self-ruling island’s new Beijing-sceptic president Tsai Ing-wen after his election, smashing decades of diplomatic precedent.
But after Tsai suggested another call could take place in an interview with Reuters Thursday, Trump said he did not want to risk his newfound “personal relationship” with China’s president Xi Jinping.
“I think he’s doing an amazing job as a leader and I wouldn’t want to do anything that comes in the way of that. So I would certainly want to speak to him first,” Trump told Reuters in a separate interview.
Ties between Trump and Xi seem to have warmed recently after they met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida earlier this month.
Since then, Trump has praised China for helping pressure North Korea over its nuclear and missile programmes.
Taiwan’s presidential office stepped back from the idea of a call after Trump’s comments.
“We understand the priority of the US side in handling regional issues and have no current planning (for another call) at this stage,” it said in a statement Friday.
Opposition lawmaker Chiang Wan-an called Trump’s reaction an “embarrassment” for Taiwan.
“Trump and Xi appear to have established very good relations. Taiwan needs to tread very carefully and be alert,” he told AFP.
The comments were a “serious slap in the face” for Tsai, added political analyst Edward Chen of Tamkang University.
“Tsai is throwing the ball into Washington’s court and Washington is saying no,” he said.
However, lawmaker Chao Tien-lin of Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party said he thought Trump’s response was reasonable.
“Washington needs Beijing in handling the North Korea issue,” he said.
Concerns that Taiwan would become a bargaining chip were raised soon after Trump’s election, when he suggested he may abandon the “One China” policy that underpins US-China relations, unless he could strike better deals with Beijing.
He later went on to say he would honour the policy, which acknowledges that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of it.
Taiwan is a self-ruling democracy but China sees it as part of its territory to be reunified, by force if necessary.
The US is the island’s most powerful ally and arms supplier, despite having no official relations with Taipei after switching recognition to Beijing in 1979.
Relations between Taipei and Beijing have rapidly deteriorated since Tsai took the reins almost a year ago, ending an eight-year cross-strait rapprochement.
Beijing has cut all official communication with Taipei.
For director Gurinder Chadha, a story is complete when the film ends.
“That’s why I never made a sequel to Bend It Like Beckham. I can’t see a sequel; the ending is the ending,” said Gurinder, 57. She was in Kuala Lumpur recently to give a talk titled Lifetime In Filming at APU University.
Gurinder wrote and directed the 2002 British film starring Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley and Archie Panjabi.
The film was a hit internationally, and gave the world its first glimpse of Knightley.
“I think it’s very important when you embark on a script to know what your ending is.
Where do you want to go with a story? At some point when you start writing and directing, it starts telling you what to do.
You don’t control it, it controls you. When you are open to this process, the characters and story start creating the film for you. You know what to do next,” the director added.
Bend It Like Beckham was made at a budget of US$6mil (S$8 million) and grossed US$76.5mil worldwide.
A stage musical version of the film – Bend It Like Beckham: The Musical – opened at London’s Phoenix Theatre in 2015.
Later this year, the musical travels to North America.
Gurinder’s new film, Viceroy’s House, is scheduled to open in Malaysia in August.
SINGAPORE: A fourth bus package under the Government Contracting Model was put up for tender on Friday (Apr 28), the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced in a news release.
The Bukit Merah bus package comprises 18 bus services, including cross-border services to Johor Baru.
These will be operated from the new Ulu Pandan bus depot, scheduled to be completed next year, and will primarily serve Bukit Merah town and the central business district. Buses will be deployed from the Bukit Merah, Harbourfront and Jurong East temporary bus interchanges, as well as Buona Vista, Marina Centre, New Bridge Road, Queen Street and Shenton Way bus terminals.
The Bukit Merah bus package is the fourth under the Government Contracting Model. (Map: Land Transport Authority)
The bus services included in the package are:
• Bukit Merah bus interchange: 5, 16, 57, 131/131M, 198, 272, 273 • Harbourfront bus interchange: 93, 123/123M • Jurong East temporary bus interchange: 160 • Buona Vista bus terminal: 145 • Marina Centre bus terminal: 195 • New Bridge Road bus terminal: 120, 121, 122 • Queen Street bus terminal: 170/170A • Shenton Way bus terminal: 400, 402
Both local and foreign bus operators can bid for the right to operate the package. All tender submissions will be evaluated through a two-envelope process for quality and price, with more weight given to the quality proposals submitted by the tenderers, LTA said.
The successful tenderer will operate these bus services for five years, with the possibility of a two-year extension for good performance.
The package will start with about 340 buses, growing to about 390 buses by the end of the contract in tandem with new developments and projected growth in ridership, LTA said.
The first bus package under the Government Contracting Model, at Bulim, was awarded to London-based Tower Transit after 11 bids were received. The second at Loyang was awarded to another UK transport operator, the Go-Ahead Group, after 10 bids were received. Local bus operator SBS Transit won the tender for the third bus package at Seletar with the lowest of the nine bids received.
The Bukit Merah bus package is the first of 11 negotiated packages under the bus contracting model to be put up for tender. These are bus packages currently operated by incumbent bus operators SBS Transit and SMRT Buses that are being gradually put out for competitive tendering.
In the news release, LTA said that bus services will be progressively implemented in four tranches from the fourth quarter of 2018 to allow sufficient time for the incoming operator to build up its resources, such as recruitment and training of bus captains and technicians.
The authority also stated that as each new tender or change in contract for bus services may result in the movement of bus employees from one employer to another, the public transport tripartite committee will continue to engage stakeholders to safeguard the welfare of employees in the sector. Source link
