Father Geek here posting our Ms. Tamsin's 14th weekly AICN-Downunder Column before Harry and I leave the Geek Headquarters Compound here in North Central Austin, Texas and trek northward about a mile and ahalf to enjoy a bountiful Thanksgiving meal at Sister Satan, KublaKhan, and Lobo's Quail Creek cave.

Dannie (S.S.) has been working on this feast since about noon Wednesday, sooooo ol' Father Geek can hardly wait. She's prepared an Apple-Walnut-Honey glazed smoked Turkey with an incredible veggie & fruit filled herb dressing, fresh Garlic-dill mashed potatos, Peas & Pearl Onions swimming in butter with fresh Rosemary, Asparagus smothered in a from scratch Hollandaise, 2 fresh baked breads one a braided poppyseed and the other a cheddar-jalapeno artisan style loaf, she's brewed up some Jasmine tea to ice down, finally there are 2 lipsmacking pies a deep dish Dutch Apple delight, and a Southern style Pecan Pie laced with a touch of Kentucky Whiskey. Oh yeah, Harry and I will be carting over a couple of chilled bottles of French Chablis from the Geek Headquarters' wine cellar.

This family feast will be a notable exception to Harry's and my more recent Thanksgivings. Last year for example, we were in LA as the guests at their wonderful LOSCON and ate Chinese with Orson Scott Card at a favorite spot of his in Malibu, the year before that we were all off in different places by ourselves, the same as the previous year.

I hope most of you can share this day with family, or close friends at the least. That IS what the day is all about after all. Being thankful for the year that is about to end and sharing that joy with those you care the most about.

Soooooooo, to all my AICN extended family out there; spies, reporters, international editors, and all you loyal readers too, we here at Geek Headquarters wish you the very best this THANKSGIVING DAY! Be Happy! Be Safe!

Here's a bit I received this morning on my trusty PC...

Hi,

My brother Michael and I have co-written, produced and directed a low budget interdependent Aussie Horror film currently entitled "Undead". We have been shooting for 45 days with another 5 more 2nd unit pick up days to go.

The tone of the film is very much similar to 'Brain Dead' or 'Evil Dead'. It is defiantly a comedy, I think it would be difficult now a days to make a zombie movie that was't. mind you 'Resident Evil' may prove me wrong. 'Undead' is also very much an action, adventure movie, probably more so than a zombie braining gore fest. although there is quite a bit of that.

Have a nice Thanksgiving...

Regards, I PETER

Zombies from Downunder, how appropriate. Now, here's Tamsin...

DOWNUNDER REPORT # 14

Tamsin here... First off, HAPPY THANKSGIVING Yanks! Now, on to...

THE AFI AWARDS...

Unless you have a film or show nominated, the Australian Film Institute Awards are only worth sitting through for the party afterwards. They were definitely not produced for a large audience, with only those in the front able to see all the lovely frocks. The Melbourne Exhibition Building is a huge space and there were no monitors or screens so there were times that many of us had no idea who was even speaking on stage. Further, because the telecast was not being fed back into the actual building, many of the visual jokes were missing and were not received warmly by the audience. The big winner of the night was LANTANA taking out best film, best director, best actress, best actor, best supporting actress and best adapted screenplay. MOULIN ROUGE won for best costume design, sound, editing, production design and cinematography. The others two awards went to LA SPAGNOLA (original music score) and THE BANK (original screenplay). The award for best foreign film was won by Ang Lee's CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. In the non-feature categories, Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson's FACING THE MUSIC, about a University of Sydney music professor, won best documentary as well as awards for best sound in a non-feature film. ONE NIGHT, THE MOON, directed by Rachel Perkins, picked up two prizes and Rachel Ward's prison drama THE BIG HOUSE scored in the best short fiction film category. In the special awards categories, film critic David Stratton was honored with the AFI Longford life achievement award for his "extraordinary contribution to the appreciation of cinema in Australia and the promotion of Australian films around the globe". Ian David was given the Byron Kennedy award for his screen-writing achievements, which include scripts for BLUE MURDER, JOH'S JURY and THE SONGLINES. YOLNGU BOY star John Sebastian Pilakui was presented with the young actor award.

There were two terrible choices made for the awards this year. The first was the appalling decision to place the Byron Kennedy Award into the Pre-Telecast Awards. This used to be considered an important "recognition" award presented by Dr. George Miller (MAD MAX) but, alas, no longer. Its place in the telecast was replaced with a new award. The First Annual Global Achievement Award was given, of course, to everyone's favourite adopted son, Russell Crowe. This award was created to recognise someone who is working overseas who promotes Australia through their success. There are many Australians who have been working overseas, winning Academy Awards and promoting Australian films who could have been considered for this award. Cinematographers Dean Semler (DANCES WITH WOLVES), John Seale (THE ENGLISH PATIENT, RAIN MAN, WITNESS), actors Geoffrey Rush (SHINE), Rachel Griffiths (HILARY and JACKIE, TULIP), Toni Collette (THE SIXTH SENSE), Anthony LaPaglia (LANTANA) directors Peter Weir (WITNESS, TRUMAN SHOW, DEAD POETS), Phil Noyce (DOUBLE JEOPARDY) and I could go on. There are so many Australians who have made major "global achievements", it is surprising that Russell was honoured first. I suppose they did have to work out a way to encourage him to participate in the awards.

There were reports that Russ couldn't handle some light ribbing by Best Actress Winner Kerry Armstrong. While he was in a post awards press conference, Kerry made a few jokes and Russell stormed off with bodyguards and refused to attend the afterparty. His loss.

SCRIPT FOR MAD MAX 4 IS FINISHED

News from Urban Cinefile is that George Miller has finished his screenplay for Mad Max 4 and casting is "in process". "Unfortunately," he said, "we won't be able to shoot in Australia, although I'd dearly love to. We need some real big stretches of desert where the cars don't get bogged; those deserts in South Australia would do but it's not practical for the cars. So we'll have to shoot elsewhere."

Mad Max 4 will be shot in 2002.

MORE MOULIN ROUGE AWARDS

MOULIN ROUGE will represent Australia at the prestigious European Film Awards, to be handed out in Germany next month. Variety magazine reports that Australian director Fred Schepisi is negotiating to direct Michael and Kirk Douglas in a comedy called SMACK IN THE PUSS. Billed as a black comedy about three generations of a dysfunctional family living in New York, the film will show the first onscreen pairing of the father and son actors, and may also feature Michael Douglas' son, Cameron. Michael Douglas' company Furthur Films will produce the film, which is expected to begin filming in February. Schepisi's latest film, LAST ORDERS, will be released in Australia next year.

AWARD FOR PERTH WRITER

Perth writer James Walker is visiting the US after winning the Bill Warnock Award for Screenwriters for his feature film proposal, SMALL TOWN THING, which tells the story of two brothers who hold up a community. As part of his award, Walker will attend the American Film Institute Film Festival and the Hollywood Screenwriters Conference. Walker, whose edits a mining magazine, was given the prize by a jury that includes film maker Alex Proyas, who described Walker's pitch as ``a snappy commercial piece with real potential for a wider Hollywood audience''. Walker is working on three featurelength screenplays and two short films (including a comedy for TropFest). He recently received funding from the Australian Film Commission for his short feature, LAST DAY DELIVERY, and his feature script CONVERSATION GOING NOWHERE (about two friends spending a day together in Perth) has attracted development support through the West Australian agency ScreenWest's new screenwriters scheme.

YOU CAN'T STOP THE MURDERS

YOU CAN'T STOP THE MURDERS, a comedy feature with a "Village People motif", is currently shooting in Sydney. The film's producer is Anastasia Sideris, working with director Anthony Mir, who wrote the script with Gary Eck and Akmal Saleh. The DOP is Justin Brickle. The film began production in Sydney on November 5 and will shoot until December 7.

Won't have any news for the next two weeks as I'll be off on an intensive 8 day film shoot. If the fifteen hour days don't kill me I'll be back in action in a couple of weeks. Until then...

Tamsin

tamsin@aintitcoolmail.com