A very happy Father Geek here, today marks the beginning of a new column to regularly appear each Monday here at AICN. This is something that Harry and I have wanted to have happen for some time now, a weekly column devoted to film news from across the Atlantic. We have almost a million daily readers on the continent and while they are interested in what's going on in Hollywood we realised that we were lacking a news feature that regularly covered what was happening in those readers own backyard. Alot of good, even great motion pictures are turned out each year in Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, England, and other countries than just the United States, and AICN has a worldwide following. We began quitely searching for a writer or two to edit this feature and after several months we found them, but they will need your help uncovering the Euro-scoops. Our Euro-AICN headquarters has been established in Paris, however we need news from across the continent so send your info, offers of set visits, premier dates, etc... directly to our Euro-editors at: EuroAICN@yahoo.com. They are your own Aint-it-Cool-News reporter/editors and you should treat them just as you would Harry, Moriarty, Robogeek, or myself ol' Father Geek. In return they will keep your identity secret if you wish, assigning you "spy" names just as we do here at our Austin Headquarters. This is a great opportunity for all of us here at AICN and for all of you that live on the Eastern shores of the Atlantic, an opportunity to greatly expand our International Film coverage. Its starting as a modest once a week column, but if you our Euro-readers give these guys the news, invite them to tour your sets and studios, give them the passes to your festivals just as though they were one of our top American editors/writers then this will grow. I can see a future where Euro-news could have it's own daily section of the site, but you have to help it work. Now enough of Father Geek... here's the premier of Euro-AICN...
This is a great opportunity for all of us here at AICN and for all of you that live on the Eastern shores of the Atlantic, an opportunity to greatly expand our International Film coverage. Its starting as a modest once a week column, but if you our Euro-readers give these guys the news, invite them to tour your sets and studios, give them the passes to your festivals just as though they were one of our top American editors/writers then this will grow. I can see a future where Euro-news could have it's own daily section of the site, but you have to help it work. Now enough of Father Geek... here's the premier of Euro-AICN...
Ladies and Gentlemen, everyone is interested in the future, for it is there where we'll be spending the rest of our lives, incidentally some of us will also spend the rest of our lives in Euro-land. Which brings us to tonight's topic... that's right! You heard the rumours, you seen the talk backs, you saw Edgard becoming a lethal waffle, you read Darth Bond's top ten lists........ ladies and gentlemen, we can't hide this any longer, presenting....
EURO AICN #1
By Edgard & Darth Bond
-Run Lola Run actress, Franka Potente (we all love her red hair -DB) has cut her hair short (Nooooo!) to star in "Anatomie", a German horror/thriller movie about med. students who study corpses. The movie also stars Benno Fürmann.
-British actor, Michael Caine is to star against Sandra Bullock in "Miss Congeniality". Caine will play an image consultant (how ironic -DB) called Vic
-Cannes 2000 (from May 10th to May 21st) - We know for sure that Luc Besson (director of Nikita, Leon, The Fifth Element and The Messenger) will be the President of the Jury. Here are the rumours about the possible movies going to be shown there :
* The Yards (second film of James Gray, after Little Odessa, with Mark Wahlberg, James Caan, Joaquin Phoenix and Charlize Theron)
* O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coen Brothers, George Clooney, John Torronto... you all know about that one and its smashed cow now -Ed)
* Dancer in the Dark (the new Lars Von Trier movie - not a Dogma style movie, but a musical - with Catherine Deneuve, the singer Bjork, Udo Kier, Stellan Skarsgard and Jean-Marc Barr (The Big Blue))
* Vatel (from Roland Joffé, with Gérard Depardieu, Uma Thurman and Tim Roth)
* Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (from Ang Lee, and with Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-Fat)
* Bread and Roses (Ken Loach makes his first movie in America, with Jim Caviezel)
* Taboo (from Nagisa Oshima, with Takeshi Kitano)
* Beijing Summer (temporary title) from Wong Kar-Wai, with Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung.
Luc Besson, has also being getting heat from insinuations that he has allegedly plagiarised the story of The Messenger and Taxi (action/comedy smash hit he produced in 1998 -Ed), Taxi 2 is to be released later this month in France.
-After the popular Le Dîner de Cons (The Dinner Game - DreamWorks wants to produce the American remake), Francis Veber (also director of Three Fugitives) will direct Le Placard with Daniel Auteuil. Gérard Depardieu and Thierry Lhermitte could have a part in it too. This comedy tells the story of an employee (Auteuil) who should get fired; but after the rumours he's gay his boss changes his mind to avoid being perceived as homophobic. (that's what we call 'French Political Correctness' -Ed)
-For his next movie The Pianist, Roman Polanski will go back to Poland. This movie will tell the story of a pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman, living in very hard conditions in Warsaw during WW2.
-Andrzej Zulawski is making his fourth movie with Sophie Marceau, La Fidélité. Pascal Gregory (The Messenger) and Guillaume Canet (The Beach) are also in.
-Vincent Gallo stars with Tricia Vessey (Ghost Dog) in Every Day (directed by Claire Denis). The story of an American on honeymoon in Paris looking for a doctor who could relieve him from a mysterious pain.
-Hollywood legend Marlene Dietrich came to life again on the big screen Tuesday during the premiere of a lavish film production on the native German's life. The film shows her stormy love life with men and women. Katja Flint, who has starred in several German television movies, plays Dietrich in the German film. Dietrich made her name by starring in the first German talking film "The Blue Angel" in 1929. She then moved to Hollywood to continue her career. The director attempted to capture the feel of the past by using Hollywood sets of the past, but some German critics have said the overall effort falls flat. "Marlene does not give the viewer the feeling of seeing Marlene Dietrich's life, but only seeing a bad remake of a Marlene Dietrich film," Der Spiegel wrote. She died in 1992.
-Claude Chabrol will start this month in his new movie (no title as of yet) with the actor/singer Jacques Dutronc and Isabelle Huppert. The only thing known about the plot is that it will tell the damaging effects of the devil in the Swiss upper class (apparently the devil doesn't mix well with the Swiss upper class -DB).
-Christophe Gans (Crying Freeman) is now making Le Pacte des Loups (The Wolves Pact). The tale of a knight, under the reign of Louis XV, facing the legendary beast of Gévaudan, which killed many women and children.
-After The messenger and The Million Dollar Hotel with Mel Gibson, Milla Jovovich will make a movie with Michael Winterbottom (because she's worth it -DB); Kingdom Come. Peter Mullan, Wes Bentley, Nastassje Kinski and Sarah Polley should take also part.
-After Shakespeare in Love, John Madden could direct St. Agnes Stand, a western involving outlaws and, erm, nuns.
-14 years after Betty Blue, Jean-Jacques Beinex will make another movie with Jean-Hughes Anglade (also seen in Killing Zoe and, er, Maximum Risk) called Mortel Transfert. The story of a psychoanalyst falling asleep during his sessions. One day he wakes up finding his patient dead (as you do -DB).
-Overbrook, Will Smith's production company, bought the right of Diva (JJ. Beinex) to produce a remake. Whitney Houston could star.
-Gérard Depardieu (Green Card) and Guillaume Canet (The Beach) will star in Vidocq (adapted from the TV series). Pitof (French SFX specialist) will direct and Marc Caro (City of Lost Children) will create the costumes.
-Kate Winslet will star in (and produce) an adaptation of Thérèse Raquin (adapted from a novel from Emile Zola) by first time director, David Leveaux.
-Cecilia Roth (All About my Mother) will star in A Night With Sabrina Love, the new movie from Argentina director Alejandro Agresti.
-Elie Chouraqui recently finished his third movie in English, Harrison's Flowers. It tells the story of a woman (Andie MacDowell) looking for her missing husband (David Staithairn), a photographer from Newsweek lost during the whole Yugoslavian conflict. Elias Koteas, Adrien Brody and Brendan Gleeson have joined the cast.
-James Ivory just finished a new adaptation from a Henry James novel, The Golden Bowl. Angelica Houston, Nick Nolte and Uma Thurman star.
-French comic books adaptation : A second Astérix movie should be made, Astérix et Cléopâtre will be directed by actor/director Alain Chabat (Didier) and a new film version of Lucky Luke could be made (a first "live" movie was made in 1991 by Terence Hill)
-Jean-Pierre Jeunet (City of Lost Children, Alien Resurrection) will start in March Amélie in Germany and in Paris. Mathieu Kassovitz (director of La Haine) and Dominique Pinon (Delicatessen, Alien Resurrection) will be part of the cast.
-Matthieu Kassovitz will also act along Vincent Cassel (The Messenger, La Haine, Dobermann) in Birthday Girl. Directed by Jez Butterworth, this romantic comedy tells how a banker (Ben Chaplin) meets his Russian wife (Nicole Kidman) on the Internet. Problems appear when the wife arrives from Russia with her two cousins (Kassovitz and Cassel).
-Paris Film Festival (March 27th - April 3rd). Faye Dunaway is the president of the Jury. "Bringing out the Dead" and "Any Given Sunday" will be screened at the Festival of Paris (.... that's all I got right now but we'll look for more -Ed)
-Julie Delpy (Killing Zoe, An American Werewolf in Paris) will appear in the comedy But I'm a Cheerleader directed by Jamie Babbit and with Natasha Lyonne. Lyonne will play a teenager sent by her parents in a "re-education camp" for homosexuals (! -Ed) to refrain her desires. Delpy will be a lesbian. Julie Delpy will then direct and star in Tell Me, the story of a young girl telling scary stories to a man to avoid being raped .
-Rowan Atkinson (Bean, Hot Shots 2) will be Johnny English in the comedy Touch of Weevel, the story of an english diplomat mistaken by his government for their best secret agent. No director or production dates yet.
-Pierce Brosnan (the second most preferred Bond after Sean) is to star in a biopic about legendary photographer Robert Capa,. Brosnan, is to co-produce the film which is based on a treatment by writers Alex Kershaw and David Bernath. The movie should tell how Capa made his name as a war photographer during the Spanish Civil war as well as WWII before documenting on 20th century icons such as Pablo Picasso and Truman Capote. He died tragically in 1954 on an assignment in Indochina, (possible spoiler coming up) killed by a landmine.
-Antonio Banderas has been tentatively picked to play the title role in the new screen version of The Phantom of the Opera, according to a recent statement by music composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. Shekhar Kapur ("Elizabeth") is set to direct -according to Variety.
EuroAICN quiz question of the week: When was Open your Eyes (Abre los Ojos) released in Spain and England (we just want the year, answers next week).
Written By Edgard & Darth Bond
Email us with any comments, euro-scoops, news from the continent, money, or flames to: EuroAICN@yahoo.com -you will be given credit for any info you can give us if you so desire.
