Father Geek here with our man in Rome Robert Bernocchi for another edition of the Euro-AICN weekly column... Here's Robert...
Hi people. Even if this week we donot have many items, there is anyway some interesting stuff. For example, news about a possible sequel to the Nicole Kidman – Lars Von Trier flick "Dogville", the record revenues of the Spider-Man home video release, pics and informations about "Pendragon" flicks and a complete list of actual contenders to the Academy Awards in the best foreign movie category. Moreover, two reviews of Possession and 28 Days Later, the latest work of Trainspotting director Danny Boyle. Enjoy!!!
News from Screendaily
News from Screendaily
Trier to take Kidman to Manderlay
Danish maverick Lars von Trier has been so pleased with the results of his highly anticipated new film Dogville, that he has started to write a sequel called Manderlay - in what will be the second part of a new 'U.S.A. Trilogy' - specially for Nicole Kidman.
http://www.screendaily.com/story.asp?storyid=10147
Spider-Man VHS & DVD sales spin $190m record revenues
Sony Pictures Entertainment has estimated retail revenues of $190m for the first three days of Spider-Man's release on video and DVD - making it the biggest three-day gross of all time for any film in any medium.
http://www.screendaily.com/story.asp?storyid=10072
I received this press release from Pendragon Pictures. Meanwhile, you can see two great pics from both these movies Just By Clicking Here
PENDRAGON PICTURES NEWS
Pendragon Pictures announces that it is upping the planned release date of WAR OF THE WORLDS, its feature motion picture production of H.G. Wells' classic novel, from summer 2005 to summer 2004.
Having just completed live-action photography of his sci-fi action movie CHROME, director Timothy Hines explains the WAR OF THE WORLDS schedule change. "For me, CHROME opened up better ways to make a large-scope fantasy film. On the CHROME shoot we had partial characters, virtual characters and miniature characters, all composited into amazing fantasy settings of the future. We took advantage of the new technologies for special effects and pushed the boundaries. What we discovered in making CHROME, we are applying to WAR OF THE WORLDS, allowing a streamlining of the production and bringing us there sooner than we had originally planned."
Visual Effects Supervisor Karl Cottle agrees, "The enormous slate of effects in CHROME has made us ready to face WAR OF THE WORLDS. It's a challenge I'm very excited about."
Set in England at the turn-of-the-century as in the book, Pendragon Pictures production of WAR OF THE WORLDS will be an accurate translation to the screen. Their previous modern-day version of WAR OF THE WORLDS was abandoned due to the events of September 11th. The majority of fans supported Pendragon Pictures' actions, though some were displeased.
"Some people wrote us to say they thought we were giving in to the terrorists by shutting the picture down," reflects producer Susan Goforth. "What they didn't know is that our updated version had scenes with people jumping from burning buildings and planes falling out of the sky. Portions of the script were so close to the WTC attack, I don't think the world would ever have accepted that version. There is a staggering amount of interest from all over the world in our production of WAR OF THE WORLDS. Overwhelmingly people are supporting our decision to set the picture in the correct time."
Director Timothy Hines adds, "In light of recent and ongoing world events, and with the urging of respected Wells supporters like Charles Keller, director of the Wells Society, I am convinced it's the only way to do it. It was the first extraterrestrial story and still, over a hundred years later, the most revered by the world.
"There is a great deal of responsibility in getting it right. WAR OF THE WORLDS is the perfect egg of a story. It has everything--suspense, terror, action, alien invaders and the test of humanity's ability to survive under unimaginable opposition and aggressive force. I will not get in the way of the material. A studio executive expounded at length to me how the story needed modern changes and would require some amount of 'derivative homage' to the previous film version. WAR OF THE WORLDS doesn't need to be rewritten or embellished. Those who think that are missing the story somehow or haven't read it. It has held up over a hundred years for a reason. It works. Period."
Timothy Hines is being tight lipped about the cast of WAR OF THE WORLDS at this time, stating only, "A few pleasant surprises are coming down the pike with the cast."
While WAR OF THE WORLDS moves into pre-production, Pendragon Pictures' CHROME is currently shifting into post-production. Mark Wolf of Wolf Entertainment Media and Cinema Production Services, (currently creating miniatures for LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN), are being brought on board to create miniatures and perform post-production motion control work. The Wolf team includes miniature expert Mike Joyce (RUSH HOUR 2, TERMINATOR 2, BATMAN RETURNS, INDEPENDENCE DAY), and motion control expert Dave Hardberger (LORD OF THE RINGS, BLADERUNNER, RETURN OF THE JEDI).
Pendragon Pictures is in talks with Randy Rogel (BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, BATMAN & MR. FREEZE: SUBZERO, THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, ANIMANIACS) to score the film.
Susan Goforth enthusiastically comments, "Randy is an amazing composer and a phenomenal talent. Because he's also a screenwriter, he's well rounded and understands the structure of a movie and the role of the characters. He brings a depth to his music lacking in other composers."
CHROME, starring Katie Tomlinson, was called, "Part SPARTACUS, part ROBIN HOOD, part SCHINDLER'S LIST only with robots in the future," by Guy Haley in issue #95 of SFX magazine.
"I think that's pretty dead on," states an amused Timothy Hines. "People will be stunned when they see what we're doing."
CHROME will hit the theaters in 2003, WAR OF THE WORLDS in 2004.
Last week, I pointed out an article about the contenders for the best foreign movie Oscar. Now, I have an update, thanks to the great Sijmen, who runs a site dedicated to Oscar predictions. Take a look at his marvellous site by clicking here: And read what he has to say below…
Hi Rob,
Some time next week, or maybe the week after that, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the official list of submissions for this year's Best Film in a Foreign Language Oscar. But we don't have to wait untill then, since most countries all ready have announced their choice. So here's the list so far:
Argentina: Kamchatka, directed by Marcelo Pineyro
(centres on the viewpoint of a 10 year old living under General Pinochet's military dictatorship in the 70s. Ricardo Darin, who was the lead star in last year's nominee Son Of The Bride, and Cecilia Roth who starred in Pedro Almodovar's Oscar-winning All About My Mother, play his parents.Ã
Belgium: Le Fils, (The Son) directed by Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
(won the best actor award at Cannes, and is said to be even more radical than the Dardennes's Palme d'Or winner Rosetta)
Brazil: City of God, directed by Kátia Lund and Fernando Meirelles Big Contender!
(tough and unsentimental two-decade chronicle of drug and gun warfare within the slums of Rio de Janeiro. Extreme violence included. The new Amores Perros?)
China: Hero, directed by Zhang Yimou Big Contender!
(top Asian talent including Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Zhang Ziyi, accessible genre, historical setting, Miramax backing. A Crouching Tiger wannabee?)
Czech Republic: Wild Bees, directed by Bohdan Slama
(recently won a Tiger Award at 2002's International Film Festival of Rotterdam.)
Denmark: Open Hearts, directed by Susanne Bier Big Contender!
(a hot item on the festival circuits with screenings in Toronto and San Sebastian, receiving rave reviews everywhere it came. Though the Danish Dogme films have won acclaim and awards across the world, none of them has yet received an Oscar nomination.)
Finland: The Man Without a Past, directed by Aki Kaurismäki
(droll and disarming comedy, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes, the Fripesci Film of the Year Award at San Sebastian and the Grand Prize at Ghent Film Festival.)
France: 8 Femmes (8 Women), directed by Francois Ozon Big Contender!
(an all-female camp whodunnit, featuring some of France's most glamorous actresses including Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Beart and Fanny Ardant, whose director Ozon (Sitcom, Under the Sand) has a growing following outside of France.)
Germany: Nowhere In Africa, directed by Caroline Link Big Contender!
(Multiple award-winning story of a German-Jewish family in exile. Link's feature debut Beyond Silence (Jenseits Der Stille) was also nominated into the final five)
Hungary: Hukkle, directed by Gyorgy Palfi
(winner of the New Directors Award at this year's San Sebastian Film Festival.)
India: Devdas, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali
(The three-hour musical extravaganza cost $10.3 million to make -- the most expensive Indian film ever. It also was the first mainstream Bollywood picture to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival.)
Mexico: El Crimen del Padre Amaro (The Crime of Father Amaro), directed by Carlos Carrera
(controversial box-office hit about a priest who seduces a 16-year-old girl, starring Gael Garcia from Amores Perros fame)
The Netherlands: Zus & Zo, directed by Paula van der Oest
(this not very acclaimed film is loosely based on the play Three Women by Checkov and depicts the relationship between three sisters and their younger brother.)
Phillipines: Mga Munting Tinig (Small Voices), directed by Gil Portes
(A teacher enters her students in a singing competition to combat corrupt teachers and the stigma attached to attending school.)
Poland: Edi, directed by Piotr Trzaskalski
(Winner of the first "New Films, New Directors" competition at the Warsaw International Film Festival.)
Portugal: O Delfim, directed by Fernando Lopes
(this tragic love story set in tumultuous late-1960's Portugal, was presented in the Official Competition section of the recent Montreal World Film Festival.)
Romania: Occident, directed by Cristian Mungiu
(a glib and black comedy about migration - especially about those who stay behind - which screened in the Director's Fortnight section at Cannes.)
Russia: Dom Durakov (House of Fools), directed by Andrei Konchalovsky Big Contender!
(Venice fest prize winner, set in a madhouse during the first Chechen war in the 1990s. It will be distributed domestically by Paramount Classics.)
Slovenia: Zvenenje v glavi (Headnoise), directed by Andrej Kosak
(never heard of it)
South Korea: Oasis, directed by Lee Chang-dong
(an unconventional love story about a slightly retarded ex-convict and a woman with cerebral palsy, was recently awarded the Best Director, FIPRESCI, and Best Young Actor awards at the Venice Film Festival.)
Sweden: Lilja 4-Ever, directed Lukas Moodysson and Fernando Meirelles Big Contender!
(Moodysson's critically-acclaimed follow-up to hit black comedy Together a sex-trafficking tale of a 14-year-old girl who moves from the former Soviet Union to Sweden with her boyfriend. The film is selected despite being almost entirely in Russian.)
Taiwan: The Best Of Times, directed by Chang Tso-Chi
(The film, which screened in competition at this year's Venice Film Festival, tells the story of two teenage boys who become mixed up with a local gang in the Taipei suburbs.)
Thailand: Mon-rak Transistor, directed by Pen-ek Ratanaruang
(a genre-defying tale of an aspiring folk singer who is forced to abandon the love of his life in pursuit of stardom. The film screened in the Director's Fortnight section of this year's Cannes Film Festival.)
From Belgium with Love
Sijmen
http://www.geocities.com/ps971100/
Our great James Bartlett sent me a review of Possession, the latest Neil La Bute flick with Aaron Eckhart and Gwyneth Paltrow…
Possession... d. Neil LaBute Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam, Jennifer Ehle
Based on the best-selling book by AS Byatt, Possession looks at two love affairs that take place in two difference centuries.
In the present we have rough-and-ready American researcher Roland Michell (Aaron Eckhart,) who comes across an undiscovered letter from Victorian poet Laureate Randolph Henry Ash in a book. The letter - if it is genuine - is absolute dynamite, as it hints that Ash, famous for his love poems to his wife and their long-lasting marriage, may have had an affair.
He nicks the letter and ends up going to see Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow,) an expert on Christabel La Motte, the woman that Roland thinks Ash was writing to in the letters, though Maud pooh-poohs the idea straight away, as Christabel lived with another woman all her life.
Running parallel to Maud and Roland as they chase the paper trail of the letters from the British Museum to old houses and eventually to a seaside hotel, we constantly switch back and forth between today and nearly 150 years ago to the time of Ash (Jeremy Northam) and Christabel (Jennifer Ehle,) where we see how their story actually happened.
It's a clever idea, as we get drawn in to the mystery just as Maud and Roland do; we find out information the moment they do. And of course, we do end up wondering whether they are going to get together themselves as Ash and Christabel did - though it seems as unlikely because Maud is a snobby, icy broad and Roland is an American - enough said.
Possession is a bit of a potboiler and a great story - if you like that kind of thing. Clearly aimed at a literate and mature audience, it is something that struggles to have mass appeal in any way; Paltrow and Eckhardt sparkle so little as the love detectives that it really takes the edge off the excitement that should be generated and it's a pretty plodding and thoughtful affair.
It is also a shame that Roland was changed to an American from a working class Brit; it would have presented another level of conflict between him and the posh Maud, rather than just has the story rely on easy anti-Yank jokes.
That said, it's well shot and makes great use of the English locations - though Paltrow's amazing appearing and disappearing tan was a big continuity error; (re-shoots anyone? or did she just go off and shoot something else - Possession was shot nearly 2 years ago).
Northham and Ehle are best in their Victorian garb and their story is actually the better one; I'm still not convinced by Paltrow, though fair play to LaBute and his regular actor Eckhardt for moving into another area, although the massive amounts of poetry and letter-reading does make the film almost like a talking book at some stages.
Apparently the book is a cracker.
James Bartlett
And, last but not least, a review of 28 DAYS LATER, the latest Danny Boyle pic, who opened this week in England grossing $2,35M…
Hi, Celtican here from London England. I've just seen "28 Days Later" and felt compelled to write a review.
From the opening moments it grips you by the throat like one of the zombies it features. The film begins with Irish lad Jim waking in a deserted hospital much like John Wyndhams 'The Day of the Triffids', after wandering around spectacular shots of a deserted London (reminiscent of The Stand) Jim trys to make sense of it all. Wandering to Picadilly circus he finds boards filled with missing nots and posters and eventually pieces together what has happened, thanks to the obligatory discarded newspaper.
This opening is particularly clever as it reflects the loneliness of living in a big city even when it is populated by millions.
Jim's wanderings take him all over central London from The Mall, Picadilly Circus to Bank and still he remains alone. American audiences have had this idea visualized many times before, seeing cities like New York and LA post-apocalyptic-ised. Seeing London in this way is a rare thing. Seeing the street where I work and the places I know and love like this bring home the nightmare even more.
Soon Jim comes face to face with the ‘residents’ of this other London and almost gets killed in the process. Rescued by two other survivors, the savvy Selena and Mark, Jim learns the whole truth about the desolation. It’s a virus known as Rage which spread by the ingestion of contaminated blood. The virus seems to induce psychopathic rage in its victims and has effect within 20 seconds. As Jim is introduced to the victims of Rage, they seem very interested in wanting him to join them. These zombies don’t walk around like extras from the Thriller video, they run and run fast! From then on we meet Frank and Hannah a father and daughter who welcome the other survivors with hope of a cure which lies north of Manchester.
The film delivers in terms of suspense, horror and pacing but does suffer from so below average performances from some of the supporting cast. Brendon Gleeson is excellent as cabbie Frank as is Christopher Eccleston as Major Henry West. The newcomers Cillian Murphy (Jim) and Naomie Harris (Selena) are very good and do a great job carrying the movie. Casting newcomers was quite a good idea as it gave the movie a more ‘documentary feel’, filmed entirely on DV and with unknown actors. There is no familiarity here, no previous baggage as you would have if the roles were played by someone like Jude Law et al.
The film has its genuinely touching moments and its funny moments. Jim’s farewell to his parents brought a tear to my eye and Frank’s shopping spree respectively. Granted there are a few holes, like the details of the virus and why are the roads deserted? Conveniently there seem to be a lot of cars in the tunnel! (The Stand anyone?). How does Jim a cycle courier evade and confuse a group of trained soldiers??? I’ll forget these little holes due to the fact that I genuinely loved this movie. At one point where Jim is suitably enraged I realized another major metaphor, that this virus is only one step away from the human condition at present. With road rage, airline rage, drive by shootings etc are we really that dissimilar to the ‘zombies’ already? Does Jim really need to become infected to display his naked primal rage when confronted by a hostile situation? Is this film a wake up call to the evolution of our species? Maybe, may! be not but I enjoyed every minute of it.
