Father Geek here, with an ice cold Foster's in hand, to post another informative edition of our tag-team (Tamsin & Norman) AICN-Downunder Column for this Wednesday (USA Time) morning. Buuuuuuut First this bit of breaking Star Wars news...

The USA release of "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" is set for Thursday, May 16, a little earlier than was expected, Variety reports!

Father Geek back, its seems they will attempt to pull off a half-assed version of the LOTR type release, opening all (not really) over the world at approx. that same time, a little over a week before the American Memorial Day holiday, however Japan and most of Latin America, and Africa too I suspect, will have to grin-and-bare-it till as late as mid-summer for some insane and unfair (to those viewers) reason. Oh well, good news for Europe, Canada, Australia, and the USA at least.

Now here's Tamsin and her part of our column for this week...

DOWNUNDER REPORT #13

By Tamsin

AUSSIE NAOMI WATTS TO STAR IN THE HOLLYWOOD REMAKE OF THE RING

Aussie actress, Naomi Watts, who has starred in many films including the just released MULHOLLAND DRIVE, GROSS MISCONDUCT, TANK GIRL and STRANGE PLANET, has beaten out tough competition to land the lead role in the Hollywood re-make of the Japanese horror flick, THE RING.

DreamWorks plan a remake of the 1998 Japanese horror film THE RING, which was originally based on a series of novels by Suzuki Koji about a journalist who is investigating an urban legend about a cursed videotape said to kill anyone who views it.

After the film broke Japanese box office records DreamWorks shelled out $US1million to outbid Disney for the rights.

It will be directed by Gore Verbinski who made the DreamWorks comedy THE MEXICAN.

LORD OF THE RINGS PROPS EXHIBIT

About 200 props and costumes from the set of LORD OF THE RINGS were exhibited on October 31 - 1st November, in the hilltop castle of Casa Loma in Toronto. Attendance records were broken, with more than 4000 admissions in one day and 500 people turned away.

Frank Mendicino, vice-president at Alliance Atlantis, the Canadian distribution company, has said, "It's a big film, so we wanted to do something special in Toronto allowing the fans who are in love with this story to look behind the scenes."

"We made over 50,000 props for the movie, and everything is really realistic. The director Peter Jackson didn't want anything looking like it had been made for a movie," assistant set dresser Judith Alley told Reuters.

The exhibit, titled "A Journey to Middle Earth," also displays a Hobbit's doll house with clay mugs and ancient-looking metal tools, elaborate jewellery and leather work, strange weapons, wooden curved furniture and a torture chamber.

A gallery of portraits and still photographs taken on the set, as well as drawings and sketches by Alan Lee and John Howe, who illustrated a "Lord of the Rings" book and collaborated on the film, offer an early glimpse of the movie.

NIC NEWS

Aussie Nicole Kidman is in negotiations with Hollywood's Revolution Studios to star in its new project, THE FORGOTTEN. The story follows a man and woman in their 30s who join forces to search for answers to the unsolved abductions of their children. Kidman will earn up to $20 million for the role.

RUSS TO PRESENT AT AFI AWARDS

Good old Russ will present at the Australian Film Industry (AFI) Awards, to be held in Melbourne on Friday the 16th. Last year's best actor winner, Eric Bana (CHOPPER), Rachel Griffiths, Toni Collette, Hugo Weaving, Jacqueline McKenzie, Alex Dimitriades and one of this year's nominees, Anthony LaPaglia, will present awards.

THE AUSSIES IN LANTANA : ATTACK OF THE CLONES

Some of the Australian and New Zealand actors who will feature in EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES are David Bowers (as Mas Amedda), Matt Rowan (as Orn Free Taa), Jay Laga'aia (Captain Typho) and Leeanna Walsman (Zam Wessel). They joined other Australian actors including Rose Byrne, Graeme Blundell, Jack Thompson, Susie Porter and Claudia Karvan and Joel Edgerton to shoot the film at Sydney's Fox Studios.

LANTANA WINS A HEAP OF IF AWARDS

LANTANA was the big winner at the IF Awards over the weekend winning five trophies including best film and best director for Ray Lawrence. MOULIN ROUGE won three prizes for cinematography, music and box office achievement. FACING THE MUSIC was named best documentary and Andrew Lancaster top rising talent.

A REPORT FROM THE SET OF CRACKERJACK

FROM CLINT AT MOVIEHOLE

re : Set Report from CRACKERJACK- Moviehole

Today Tosia and I spent the day on the set of new film CRACKERJACK It's filming in Central Melbourne, at a Bowling Club, with stars Mick Molloy, Samuel Johnston, Bil Hunter and Judith Lucy. Most of our visit was watching some of the scenes being filmed. The cast and crew were 157 Take's in by the time we arrived today, and it was obvious they were still filming some of the film's early scenes. The two most-worked on scenes of today that we witnessed were of Molloy's character, Jack, mixing with the older lawn bowler players. Then, Jack rolling a sorry excuse of a bowl right into the gutter. "Right in the Ditch", suggests Bill Hunter's character. Obviously, the older characters are taking the mickey out of the younger player. Samuel Johnston (THE SECRET LIFE OF US) also stars in the movie, and we had the opportunity to get to the bottom of his role and it's length. "I play Jack's best friend", he confirms. "It's a 17 week shot and we're filming here (at this particular bowling club) for about 3 weeks. We've only been here about 8 days so far". Johnston says he is loving the experience of working on the movie. "We smoke ciggies and drink piss - when we're not filming what could be better", he jokes. He also gave us a bit of insight into what the movie is actually about "Crackerjack could mean either two things, it's a type of bowl polish, or it could be something to do with Mick's character being named Jack". Johnston is relatively new to feature films, he has been working on TV and in dozens of commercials. "I'm overexposed" he jokes, about his endless run of voice-over work. He also drops some goss on what's going on with his TV series THE SECRET LIFE OF US. There is 3 episodes to go until it winds down on TV here this season. We have filmed 22 episodes though, and are about to start shooting Series 2". One of Johnston's co-stars in the show, Joel Edgerton, is about to become a little more famous. "He's playing Uncle Owen in 'Star Wars'", he says. "So he's only doing 8 episodes of the next season. He's going to be huge!", says Samuel. "He's also just filmed some $10 Million dollar thing with Guy Pearce. I mean he's the most popular 'Secret Life' star in the U.K". It's been great weather for "Crackerjack", nice and sunny, which helps when you're filming an outside Lawn Bowls movie, but sometimes those damn clouds can hover in. Here's hoping for some good weather for the rest of the shoot. The film sounds, and looks promising.

Clint-----Moviehole.net

AND SOME MORE NEWS FROM CLINT RE: HAMLET UNPLUGGED, WHEN WE WERE MODERN and OCCAMS RAZOR

Another Version of HAMLET - Moviehole

After the failure of the Ethan Hawke headed version of "Hamlet" last year, one wonders why any film maker would want to do a version of "Hamlet" again. Hmm. Regardless, The Age reports that Australian film-maker Phillippe Mora is moving ahead with plans to make HAMLET UNPLUGGED, believed to be a modern day version of the Bard classic. Vince Vaughan has been cast in the lead role with supporting parts going to Angus MacFadyen (SECOND SKIN) and Penelope Ann Miller.

The film maker is going to have a busy year, as well as the new HAMLET he will work on two other movies, "When We Were Modern" and a Sci/fic parody. WHEN WE WERE MODERN is a $5.5 million feature set in the 1940's that centers on the world of the Heide group of artists. It will star Susie Porter (Star Wars Episode II) and Rachel Ward (Against all Odds), and in searching for more actors to fill the roles. OCCAMS RAZOR is a mock-umentary about people who believe they've been abducted by aliens. It features Marcel Marceau, Tiriel Mora (Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles) and Austen Tayshus.

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

SENSITIVE NEW AGE KILLER (SNAK)

The key creatives behind the low budget Aussie film, SENSITIVE NEW AGE KILLER, have produced a wonderful web-site to accompany the film. It certainly takes a novel approach to promotion by not only offering readers behind the scenes info about the film, but the opportunity to "Perform A Hit" on an enemy or "Win a Date with The Lead Actress".

Check it out at: This Location By Clicking Here.

That's all for this week.

Until next time,

Tamsin

tamsin@aintitcoolmail.com

Father Geek back to post Norman's part of this week's AICN Downunder Report...

SWIMMING DOWN RIVER

I hoped - prayed - more than a year ago that young Aussie soap hack Jesse Spencer would get the gig as the young Anakin Skywalker. He had the superficial qualities of prettiness and brattiness that seemed to be the prime requisites for consideration at the time - whether he was really in the running for the role I guess we'll have to wait for the Episode 2 DVD. (And then George will probably run his audition in poor natural light with crappy source sound and later on despite the fine audition we'll see him mutter to his casting director "some kids always test well"). Anyway anyway anyway, Jesse has won his first major film role in SWIMMING UPSTREAM, the story of an swimmer struggling to make the Olympics despite his overbearing parents. Geoffrey Rush plays the Papa Helfgott - sorry, parent - role, along with Judy Davis. The film is directed by Russell Mulcahy (HIGHLANDER), who appears to be trying to pull a mid-career genre shift ala Wes Craven. Literally bucketloads of inspiration are expected. Surprisingly, the Hallmark Channel is not involved.

NORMAN'S SPECIAL FEATURE

IN PRAISE OF NICOLE KIDMAN - THE OTHERS

I never believe in Nicole Kidman. Never believed she was sexy in MOULINE ROUGE (too skinny, wrong shape, wrong person), never believed she was a brain surgeon in DAYS OF THUNDER, and despite Stanley Kubrick's best efforts, almost never believed she wasn't Nicole Kidman in EYES WIDE SHUT. Several moments of EYES WIDE SHUT - particularly the dream stories - Nicole knocked right out of the park. I can't argue she's got a heap of talent. I can't argue that a large part of my dislike for her film work is/was provoked by that nauseatingly shiny sham of a marriage she shared with Tom - but that's by the by. Last weekend after buying a $60 lime green and orange T-Shirt I took myself along to see THE OTHERS and dare myself once more to like Nicole Kidman. To hope she'd get back to that clean bright talent she showed in BMX BANDITS and DEAD CALM.

The hair got me first. That's almost the first thing you see, as Nicole wakes in fright, juddering towards screen. Perfect World War II hair, slightly bobbed, curling up at the edges, Vera Lynn and Betty Grable. The audience tittered a little - it was 2:30 on a Saturday afternoon, they were restless after seeing the LORD OF THE RINGS trailer - and then the sombre, quiet mood of the piece took their tongues away. Until the frights near the end.

Nicole has acted harsh before - it's almost the base tone of her craft, perfected through the brittle turn in TO DIE FOR, the dismissive sheen initially projected in MOULIN ROUGE, the cliched ice-cool psychiatrist in BATMAN FOREVER (Her summary failure to play against type in PRACTICAL MAGIC I see as reinforcing my argument). THE OTHERS is another riff on her strongest of qualities, but what makes it special in relation to Kidman's ouevre - what makes it work - is how writer/director Amenabar positions the audience in relation to Kidman. We are alternately suspecting and empathising with Kidman's sole mother, right to the end of the piece. Amenabar has realised that Kidman cannot sustain the sympathy of an audience till the end of the film - we can't get inside her... walk a mile in her shoes. It's part of her makeup. Amenabar's genius is utilising this unique Kidman appeal, fashioning it to service his story and heighten the drama.

Kidman has always been particularly good at suggesting a faint whirling hysteria behind her logical brow. In THE OTHERS this reaches a honed pitch that the warm, ghostly details of THE OTHERS - with its faint nostalgic echoes of past cinema - soften and set in a more flattering repose. Perhaps it's also that (the brilliantly groomed and costumed) Kidman is playing against child actors (also superb) and kindly old character actors, and rather plain but muysterious surrounds. Her clean bright flame is dimmed and softened, letting out the soft light of an old gas lantern.

On a more newsy note, Nicole Kidman is taking on another Kidman-esque role in THE HOURS this year - the daunting figure of Virginia Woolf. She joins the bloody impressive cast of Miranda Richardson, John Reilly, fellow Aussie Toni Collette, Claire Danes, Julianne Moore, and Meryl Streep, in the film.

MATRIX 2 NEWS

pilfered from rather fine ozfilmnews e-rag Filmnet was this Matrix2-related shooting report from ""Paul X"...

"yes they filmed all nite, right up till 0430 on Tuesday nite, and 0600 on Wednesday, which incidentally was a resounding success because it didn't rain as much. But that Lincoln Continental with the suicide doors has to be one of the most awesome looking cars I have ever had the privilege to see up close. But with therain came some inventive road drying techniques, luckily Stand-by had some flamers to heat the road for light reflections, rain really only reads on film when it is lit properly, so they did the flame action and got their shots. (that's what took up time) All in all it was a great two nites, 2nd Unit is always heaps off fun...even bumping out at 0700 after about 15 hour on my feet, and their still is another nite of filming to go...so might see you in the back of the unit truck...PaulX"

HEY HEY IT'S GARAGE DAYS

Yep, the website is now up for the Alex Proyas rock-n-roll film at "garagedaysthemovie.com" . As ever my modem didn't have quite enough grunt to actually take too much of a look at the darn thing, it looked pretty good - very flash-y and cartoony ala gorillaz. A last bit of shooting for GARAGE DAYS is still yet to be done, at the music festival HOMEBAKE in Sydney during late November (I think).

Anyway, that's Norman for the week kids. He's got a fine new job and is hoping to bring you some fine new news. But remember you have to keep on helping, ozfilmgirls and boys....

Norman Gunston out...