Hollywood Producer to Star in Indian Reality Show

I've had the pleasure of lunching with Ashok Amritraj, the CEO of Hyde Park (which has a first-look deal with Fox) and the producer of films such as Shop Girl, Raising Helen, and Bringing Down the House, a couple of times, and from the first moment you meet him, it's clear that he's not lacking when it comes to charm, confidence and charisma. And like his brothers Vijay and Anand, he's also one hell of a tennis player. So I was hardly surprised when I saw that he was going to star in a reality TV show in his native India with 18 aspiring filmmakers. Amritraj will certainly have no trouble in front of the camera. Let's just hope that the show's format is better than Mark Burnett and Steven Spielberg's On the Lot. From Variety:

Amritraj, chairman-CEO of Hyde Park Entertainment, will take on the Donald Trump role in new reality series "Gateway," to be broadcast on PIX, a specialty movie net operated by Sony Entertainment Television.

Show will pitch 18 young filmmakers into a contest that aims to demystify the craft. During 13 one-hour episodes, Amritraj and a jury of industry experts will eliminate contenders. One will win an eight-week internship with Hyde Park Entertainment and a guarantee of a helming role on a Hyde Park-produced pic.

"Gateway" will be "different from 'The Apprentice' as we don't send them off to make a movie each week," Amritraj said Tuesday. "Rather, we pull back the screen on how a movie is made....This show is not about making cross-over movies, rather it is about finding cross-over talent. How many other shows offer the chance to direct a Hollywood movie right out of the gate?"