U.S. actor John Malkovich has hit out at Sydney's famous Opera House, saying the acoustics were so hideous they "would do an aeroplane hangar a disservice".

The thespian and star of movies including "Burn After Reading" and "Dangerous Liaisons" performed at the iconic building in the 2011 Sydney Festival production "The Giacomo Variations", which was booed and critically savaged.

Shakespeare's 16th-century Padua is a far cry from Jean-Christophe Maillot's scintillating new "Taming of the Shrew" at the Moscow Bolshoi.

Instead, for his debut this month at the scandal-hit theater, the French-born choreographer has devised a sensual and modern version of the comedy, with a minimalist stage set and music woven together from film scores.

Once a deadpan radio announcer under the Taliban, Masood Sanjer has gained renown for being a thorn in the side of accountability-dodging Afghan officials, exemplifying hard-won media freedoms that are at stake in a pivotal year.

His radio talk show "Safai Shahar" (cleaning the city) is something of a cross between a public helpline and a kangaroo court, enabling callers around Afghanistan to vent their civic grievances over the airwaves -- from broken sewage drains to crime and corruption.

The owners of a Chinese nature park have filed a lawsuit against the makers of the latest Transformers film because it failed to include the park's logo, a court said on Friday.

The Transformers films are wildly popular in China, and Chinese companies from milk producers to banks have flocked to have their products endorsed in the latest installment.

An Indian investment banker turned wildly successful novelist is taking a career turn in Bollywood, with a screenplay he says will tackle social issues in the same vein as the books that made him a youth icon.

Chetan Bhagat shot to fame with his coming-of-age tale "Five Point Someone" in 2004 -- written at night while he kept up his financial day job -- which became a huge commercial hit and spawned a raft of Indian campus novels.

This year's Venice Film Festival will tackle topics from the financial crisis to drone warfare, and feature performances from Willem Dafoe, Al Pacino and Ethan Hawke.

Organizers on Thursday announced a 20-strong competition lineup that includes Ramin Bahrani's subprime mortgage drama "99 Homes," with Andrew Garfield and Laura Dern, and Andrew Niccol's "The Good Kill," starring Hawke as a dissatisfied drone operator.

Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio has raised more than $25 million (18 million euros) at a charity gala in France for his foundation which aims at protecting the environment and endangered species.

The fundraiser late Wednesday in the chic Riviera seaside resort of Saint-Tropez included an auction of Hollywood and rock and roll memorabilia and works by Damien Hirst and Pablo Picasso.

Like Batman responding to a beaming Bat signal in the sky, fans are streaming to San Diego for the 45th annual Comic-Con pop culture extravaganza.

The four-day festival celebrating film, TV, video games, comic books, costumes and other popular arts kicks off with a preview Wednesday night and goes full force Thursday at the San Diego Convention Center.

So let's start with the enticing premise of Luc Besson's "Lucy," starring Scarlett Johansson: Human beings only use 10 percent of their brain capacity. Imagine what it would be like if we could access all of it?

Well, wow. It would be sort of like ... nothing new. Because, it turns out, in real life, humans pretty much DO use their whole brains.

When film director Steve Faigenbaum grew up in Detroit, the city pulsated to the sound of Motown and car manufacturing.

Today, the once mighty city, which declared bankruptcy in 2013, is a nightmarish vision of urban decay that draws young people from all over the world to buy a house for $1,000.