LOS ANGELES, July 18:  Universal Pictures has tapped Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan to oversee the relaunch of its classic monster movie franchises.
The studio is seeking to reboot and unify its many horror properties, reported Deadline.
These traditionally include ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Dracula’, ‘The Wolf Man’, ‘The Creature from the Black Lagoon’, ‘The Invisible Man’, ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ and ‘The Mummy’.
Kurtzman is best known as the writing and producing partner of Roberto Orci on properties including ‘Transformers’, ‘Star Trek’ and ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’. The pair recently announced their decision to work on separate projects.
Morgan wrote five of Universal’s popular ‘Fast and Furious’ films.
The first film will be ‘The Mummy’, which is planned for release on April 22, 2016. (PTI)

LONDON, July 18:  Opera star Katherine Jenkins has revealed that she will not be singing at her forthcoming wedding.
The 34-year-old singer recently got engaged to Andrew Levitas, reported Daily Mirror.
When asked if she would be singing at the ceremony, Jenkins said, “Can I have a day off for that? I’ve got some friends I can ask.”
Speaking about her engagement, Jenkins added that she’s “very, very happy and I’m starting to think about wedding plans and all of that.”
“I’m very lucky to have met such a lovely man, he’s from New York and proposed to me in the Hamptons… He went down on both knees – I think he got it wrong.”
Jenkins, who will soon release a new album titled Home Sweet Home, described the record as “an album of returning to my roots in all ways, back to the original company, back to more classical music and the style of my earlier albums.” (PTI)

LOS ANGELES, July 18:  Oscar-winning singer Adele is not planning a world tour in 2015, according to a senior executive at her record label.
Martin Mills, chief of Beggars Group, which owns Adele’s record label XL,- said that there was “no truth” in rumours that the singer would be returning to the live arena next year in support of her forthcoming third studio album, reported Billboard magazine.
The 26-year-old singer recently teased that the title of her new album will be titled 25, keeping in line with her previously records 19 and 21.
A message on the World Music Awards’ official Twitter feed had claimed that the award-winning star would take to the road next year in support of the new record.
Adele’s spokesperson refused to comment on the reports.
The singer has worked with Ryan Tedder for the new collection, with the OneRepublic frontman saying “she is sounding even better than ever”.
It will be the first new material released by Adele since her James Bond theme ‘Skyfall’ back in October 2012, which won her a Golden Globe, an Academy Award, a Brit Award and a Grammy Award. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, July 18:  The US has said the aftermath of last year’s Khobragade incident has led to the development of closer ties and closer communication with India.
“I think that despite the fact that we had this very uncomfortable and unfortunate situation that we had to work through, at the end of the day I think we have developed closer ties and closer communication with our two systems as a result,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal said.
We have certainly spent many, many long hours discussing with our Indian colleagues ways to ensure that we have greater understandings and greater clarity about our expectations of each other under each other’s laws and under each other’s systems, she said.
“I think that that has been time well spent. We’ve also focused a great deal on ensuring that we have more clear and transparent communication to ensure that we anticipate problems before they happen, that we clearly communicate those problems and that we resolve them,” she said.
Terming the Khobragade incident as a “real friction point”, Senator Tim Kaine said these kinds of things will come up but it almost seemed like the friction was more about the sort of communication and how it was handled than the initial incident, which could have been handled.
“Have we learned anything from that, both the US and India in the aftermath of that and can we put those lessons to use to avoid this kind of a friction in the future?” she asked.
Khobragade, a 1999 India Foreign Service officer and mother of two daughters has now returned to India. However, the US has still not withdrawn the allegations against her.
Both Khobragade and the Indian Government has denied those charges.
“Indo–US ties were strained in December 2013 when the US arrested Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade for underpaying her Indian maid while serving at the Indian consulate in New York,” Lisa Curtis of The Heritage Foundation said.
She said the details of Khobragade’s arrest, particularly reports that she was handcuffed in front of her children’s school and strip-searched while in detention, infuriated the Indian public.
“Washington, for its part, was taken aback by the fierce Indian reaction, which included withdrawing diplomatic privileges for US diplomats and removing security barriers at the US embassy in New Delhi,” she said.
“The BJP’s assumption of power offers an opportunity to move beyond the Khobragade episode and revive ties by focusing on building cooperation on defense, security, economic and trade, counterterrorism, and other issues of mutual concern,” she said.
The previous BJP-led government (1998–2004) was instrumental in elevating ties between Washington and New Delhi and in laying a solid foundation for a strategic partnership, she added. (PTI)