Father Geek here deep in the heart of The Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin Texas, with another report from our Bush Doctor/Editor Dr. SOTHA and his trusty assistants Head Nurse Hollis, and the always uber-literate and thought provoking Rigobert Song... buuuuut first here a related story sent to me directly...

Robert D here in Seattle.

I see on another site that the Cleopatra Jones remake is on. (See below.)

Thanks.

Your site is addictive like chocolate crack. Go Here

• Title: Cleopatra Jones
• Log Line: A US Special Agent is assigned to crack down on drug trafficking in the U.S. and abroad.
• Writer: Henry Pincus
• Agent: Principato-Young and UTA
• Buyer: Warner Bros.
• Genre: Drama
• Logged: 11/27/01 >
• More: Andrew Lazar will produce this remake of the 1973 blaxploitation film.

RED

Father Geek back... I wonder who they've got in mind for Cleo... That will make ALL the difference... Now here's this little bit...

Chuck here in Minot North Dakota!!

"HEY!! HEY!! HEY!!!"

Just heard on the Radio that Bill "THE COS" Cosby is working on a Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids Movie.

He'll be doing all the voices, Rudy, Mushmouth, Donald, Bill, Weird Harold Russell, and Fat Albert, and narrate as only the Cos can.

KEWL!!!

I run a day care, and I'm a foster parent along with my wife, so that is good stuff for us with all this kids, and me being the biggest kid of all.

Thanks big guy!!!

All our love Chuck, Flea, and all the kids... ....and Bingo the wonder dog!!

Now here's SOTHA and his crew...

DR.SOTHA back after 2 weeks incognito in the Cape Town outback. No way of communicating when you’re up to your ass in tumbleweed and red sand in the desolate Karoo.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, it ain’t easy being a famous Doctor on the run. Cops still want me bad for foliage murder, Nurse Hollis is probably worried sick about me, and I can’t get to any high powered generators to capitalize on my new rodent reactor technology. Sometimes I think of just packing it all in. Sometimes I think being a Doctor is not all it’s cracked up to be. And just when I’m in the most suicidal of moods, something comes along and gives me a new purpose.

Today it was this Armadillo I found on this long stretch of shrub. This may not be strange to most, but Armadillo’s don’t exist in South Africa. No shit. This was a real live Armadillo. After sharing a few spiritual moments with the creature, it gave me an idea for a new nasal serum I had been stuck on. If you ask me there ain’t enough of those little fuckers to go around.

Send me your best Armadillo experiences to africaaicn@hotmail.com

And Nurse Hollis if you’re reading this, I’m okay. Forget plan B, and go straight to plan C, take out the witness…

SOUTH AFRICA

* Internet Solutions founder Ronnie Apteker of South Africa has written and produced a Hollywood film starring Mia Farrow (Rosemary's Baby), Hal Holbrook (Wall Street), Peter Coyote and Paul Reiser (Mad About You). The script of Purpose is based on Apteker's own career experience in the IT industry.

* The controversial and top-rated SABC1 series, Yizo Yizo (produced by Bomb), has won the Japan Prize, one of the world's most prestigious awards for educational television media. Yizo Yizo producer Angus Gibson was flown to Tokyo by NHK, Japan's national public broadcaster, especially for the award ceremony. SABC1 commissioning editor Siven Maslamoney said: "There were some important people in South Africa who criticized us for not being educational. It is therefore wonderful to be recognized as one of the world's best educational programmes by other educational broadcasters." In awarding the prize, the jury said: "Yizo Yizo uses the medium of television drama to examine a range of social and educational issues facing South African high school students. These issues are integrated in the drama and arise out of characters and situations that are familiar to South African students and with which they can identify."

* New Africa Media Films (NAMFilms) has announced that shooting of its feature film, Slash (under director Neal Sundstrom), is on schedule with only two more evenings of night shoots before the changeover to daytime filming. This Scream-type horror movie is being filmed on location at the FJ Bezuidenhout farm just outside Heidelberg. The farmhouse dates back to 1906 and is a national monument. It is filled with décor details specially imported from Europe by the original FJ Bezuidenhout, a successful Johannesburg businessman and philanthropist. Sharing several interesting parallels with the farmhouse in the film storyline - including the fact that it has been in the same family for some five generations - NAMFilms is also featuring some of the barns and fields for key scenes. Chief executive of NAMFilms, Amy Moore observed that the rushes showed a macabre aspect to the property entirely in keeping with the tone of Slash, which is turning out as an entert! aining film with high production values that bodes well for its international release.

* In Hollywood, product placement is a major part of filnmmaking but although the South African market has adopted product placement into its television programme arena, the trend is virtually non-existent in locally made movies. Cinevation's latest offering is product placement advertising opportunities in a local movie titled, If Mandela was a Taxi Driver. Production of the movie is planned for early in 2002 and Ster-Kinekor Pictures will be releasing the film towards the end of the year. Backed by intensive marketing and public relations activities across all major media, Ster-Kinekor has guaranteed a minimum release of 25 prints throughout the country. The film is a romantic comedy for the whole family and was written by multi-award winning copywriter, Cindy Lee. Producers are Moonyeenn Lee and Jason Xenopoulous, who have recently completed shooting the digital feature, Promised Land.

* The latest cinema audience attendance report issued by CineMARK clearly indicates cinema attendance in South Africa has increased by as much as 35.1% for October 2001 against the same month last year. Cinema attendance has gradually increased during the past six months (May to October 2001) and indicates a 5% increase against last year during the same period, while the 12 month moving average shows an overall increase of 1.8% for the months of November 2000 to October 2001.

* Behind The Badge, a 13 x 24-minute "high-octane" police action drama series created by Vision International Productions (VIP), will commence principle photography this coming February for broadcast on SABC1 in June 2002. Executive producer for the series, VIP's Shane Mohabier, created the concept for Behind The Badge. The scripts were developed and written by one of South Africa's most internationally acclaimed and important contemporary novelists, Professor Zakes Mda, and are currently being edited by Anthony Akerman and Brent Quinn.

* Cape Town based production company The Imaginarium and its associate company the South African Film Finance Corporation (SAFFCO) have secured a co-production deal with UK based Focus Films for a US$3-million feature movie, Sandmother. The second project is a US$24-million scifi/drama series, Charlie Jade, a co-production between The Imaginarium and Toronto based Jonsworth Productions. Sandmother will be directed by South African born Jason Wulfsohn, with Chris Roland of The Imaginarium and David Puppkewitz as producers. SAFFCO's Izidore Codron is Executive Producer. According to Roland, Sandmother is an "intelligent" horror story which will be distributed by First Look Media in Los Angeles.

* The life of Josia Thugwane, South Africa's first black Olympic gold medal winner is to be portrayed in a film. Masa Films, a Northern Province based production company has been given the exclusive rights to make an international movie on marathon runner Thugwane. The movie will be co-produced by Masa Films, the newly established company Umpumelelo Productions Enterprises (of which Thugwane is a shareholder) and American producers.

* The Annual Grierson Award for the Best British Documentary - the leading and most coveted documentary award in Britain - has been won by two South Africans. Clifford Bestall and Pearlie Joubert's BBC's television production, Correspondent: Killers Don't Cry, dominated this year's Grierson Awards held last week in London. The programme, from reporter Allan Little focuses on ruthless gangs that terrorise and kill in South Africa's prisons and the counter measures the prisons are taking. Bestall and Joubert beat top UK filmmakers like John Pilger and Sir Richard Attenborough. Killers Don't Cry has been renamed Cage of Dreams for local SABC broadcast. The film, which was made at the beginning of the year, had already won a Finalist Award at the 35th New York EXPOsition of Short Film and Video and was short-listed for the IBC's Nombre d'Or in Amsterdam.

* Endemol Productions' daily drama series for SABC3, Isidingo, has committed itself to the growth and training of up and coming black writers. Headed by executive producer Hilary Blecher, the Isidingo team went in search of promising black writers and approached bodies like Wits, The Newtown Film School, The South African School of Film and TV, The South African Scriptwriters Association (SASWA), and the Market Theatre Laboratory. Once a wide selection of scripts had been sorted through, 12 individuals were offered a place in an intensive training workshop. Currently running until 6 December, the workshops deal with all aspects of scriptwriting. Guest speakers were Yizo Yizo's Angus Gibson and Teboho Mahlatsi, Isidingo's executive head writer, Richard Beynon, as well as Malcolm Purkey, Mitzi Booysens and Gray Hofmeyr. The ultimate aim of this workshop is to give a number of promising writers a step-up and a foot-in-the-door into the industry.

* The South African School of Film, TV & Dramatic Art (AFDA) has received sufficient funding from the Hubert Bals Fund to complete post production on Soldiers Of The Rock, its 35mm feature film produced in conjunction with Sasani and pay-TV broadcaster, M-Net. AFDA's Garth Holmes was advised by SA / Dutch filmmaker Ian Kerkhof to apply to the Hubert Bals Fund, an organisation entirely geared towards supporting film in third world countries. Although Soldiers Of The Rock (written and directed by Norman Maake) finished shooting in December 2000, the ending will now be re-shot as well as a few pick-ups. The current state of the film is an 80-minute rough cut, which will be taken to 120 minutes, before the final cut-back to 90 minutes. There are some digital effects required and The Film Lab has donated three minutes of screen CGI time. Also on Kerhof's advice, the entire film (which has English, Xhosa and Zulu) will be subtitled, to cater for internatio! nal audiences. Holmes is looking to complete post production at the end of March. While M-Net retains the broadcast rights across Africa, Sasani will initially handle overseas theatrical distribution. AFDA, armed with a promo, will be selling the film at the Rotterdam Film Market in January. "We will need to raise more money for marketing the film and to send it on the international Festival circuit", said Holmes.

* More South African Box Office for those starved of laughter: The tarmac saga, The Fast And The Furious (Vin Diesel) has revved its way to the top of the South African box office in its first week, having made R2 403 928 (about the price of a corn dog in North America – DR.SOTHA). The Julia Roberts / John Cusack / Catherine Zeta Jones release, America's Sweethearts is in second place with total earnings of R5 147 621. This is followed by Moulin Rouge, Evil Woman and Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

NORTH AFRICA

* Here’s your hit of Rigobert Song:

Hello readers. Though this review isn’t exactly from an African film, it still taps into the prejudices, fears and hopes facing all African people around the world. It’s about any minority group still grappling with baseless ideas and stereotypes. It’s really quite wonderful, and I implore you all to try and find it at your nearest video store. Remember to email me at rigobertsong@hotmail.com with your African film thoughts.

Nuyorican Dream

Produced by Laurie Collyer, Julia Pimsleur and Katy Chevigny – Directed by Laurie Collyer -- Executive Produced by John Leguizamo and Jellybean Benitez -- 82 minutes

Nuyorican Dream follows five years in the life of a New York Puerto Rican family struggling against poverty, drug addiction, and incarceration- the flip side of the American Dream. Eldest of five children, Robert Torres is the only family member to finish high school and graduate from college. He works as a teacher and administrator at a bilingual alternative school he co-founded. Throughout the documentary, he offers blunt observations and statistics about the legacy of colonialism, inadequate inner-city educational systems and discrimination. Robert, who is also gay, presents an example of how a professional with his background can "give back" to his community as well as! the personal contradictions he lives with as a member of two worlds.

The rest of Robert's family is still crammed into his weary mother Marta's Brooklyn flat, where she tries valiantly to raise her own children's children on welfare. Robert's sister, Betty, vanishes for long stretches, strung out on crack and heroin. Another sister, Tati, moves to Florida to try to get off drugs, but remains addicted. Younger brother Danny, who has spent half his life bouncing in and out of prison, says he's determined to abandon armed robbery as a way of life, but limited job prospects fail to materialize. Robert is anxious to make sure youngest sibling Millie, still untouched by pregnancy or addiction, stays out of harm's way.

Laurie Collyer's feature-length, cinema verité documentary captures the emotional immediacy of a family in a free-fall without a social safety net. It makes clear that the heart-felt efforts of individuals like Robert Torres alone can never rescue this and subsequent generations from the knot of poverty. Nuyorican Dream celebrates elements of community life- solidarity, sharing of resources, cultural citizenship- which make day-to-day survival possible. The film also is a testimony of the central role played by Puerto Rican women in maintaining family and cultural ties.

Some quotes that help my argument:

"The dual perspective Robert Torres offers, of someone who belongs to the family yet sees beyond its insular world, lends the film wrenching authenticity." -New York Times

"Their refusal to lose hope, and Robert's high-principled influence, make Nuyorican Dream inspiring as well as frequently devastating. An outstanding work of verite observation." -Variety

AFRICAN AMERICAN

* Morris Chestnut will star opposite young rapper Lil' Bow Wow in 20th Century Fox's "Like Mike" for director John Schultz and producer Barry Josephson. Production is scheduled to start in January in Los Angeles. Written by Mike Elliot, "Mike" centers on a youngster (Lil' Bow Wow) who finds a pair of Michael Jordan sneakers that have magical powers and catapult him to an NBA team called the Knights. Chestnut will play Tracy, an edgy, tough basketball player who resents his 11-year-old teammate but comes to learn that they have a lot in common.

* After pairing on 20th Century Fox/Regency Enterprises' "Big Momma's House" and the upcoming "Black Knight," comedian Martin Lawrence and screenwriter Darryl Quarles are poised to team for a third time on the Warner Bros. comedy "The Bomb." Lawrence is in negotiations to star in the project, which is described as a black remake of the 1979 comedy "10" starring Bo Derek and Dudley Moore. Production on "Bomb" aims to begin in February after Lawrence wraps a cross-country stand-up comedy tour in January. "Bomb" is about a married record executive who has a midlife crisis and chases a model to the Caribbean. In the process, he loses his wife, the respect of his peers and the one client who could have saved his ailing record company. Adam Glass wrote the most recent draft of the script, with Quarles expected to come back for another rewrite. Paul Hall ("Shaft") is producing the project, with Warners executive vp production Kevin McCormick overseeing. Lawrenc! e and Quarles are both repped by UTA and the Firm. Lawrence next stars opposite Steve Zahn in Columbia Pictures' "National Security."

* Actor Danny Glover is appealing to the American government to keep suspected terrorist Osama Bin Laden alive. The Lethal Weapon star is against the death-penalty and made his controversial comment at Princeton University in New Jersey. Glover told the crowd, "When I say the death penalty is inhumane, I mean (it) whether that person is in a bird cage or bin Laden." The Californian announced his displeasure that United States officials had detained hundreds of immigrants after the September 11th atrocities. Glover says, "This clearly is a slippery slope. We must stand vigilant against President Bush in these times." (Glover can count himself lucky he doesn’t host his own show – Bill Maher anyone? – DR.SOTHA)

* A Michael Jackson concert -- which had not been expected to attract a big audience -- produced the best ratings CBS has seen on a Tuesday night since 1994 and enabled the network to tie NBC for the second full week of the November sweeps. (In fact, CBS edged out NBC in average viewers: 13.1 million to 12.9 million.) Both networks averaged an 8.6 rating and a 14 share. Once again, ABC failed to place a single show in the top ten, coming in third with a 7.5/12. (Even worse, it came in fourth among the target demo of 18-49-year-olds.) Fox placed fourth overall with a 6.0/9.

HOPE YOU ALL HAD A GOOD ‘AIDS’ DAY ON THE 1ST. USE A CONDOM PEOPLE.

DR.SOTHA REVO & OUT