Father Geek here with Edgard's Euro-AICN column for this week...

Buuuuut first, this late, but very interesting bit just came in to Geek Headquarters here in Austin, Texas from Edgard and our Paris office...

While Irish actor Colin Farrell’s publicist had confirmed to ShowBizIreland.com that the actor has got engaged to English actress Amelia Warner another more seasoned Irish actor had been getting ready to attack Hollywood again. Irish press reports claim that the Dublin actor Gabriel Byrne has signed a multi million pound deal for the lead role in a new Hollywood blockbuster based on the life of the gangster Pretty Boy Floyd. Controversial director Ken Russell (73) is aiming to team Gabriel Byrne and Matt LeBlanc in the American gangster movie about Pretty Boy Floyd. The £20M movie, titled Pretty Boy, will focus on the rise and fall of the flamboyant criminal during the Depression era. Russell hopes to tempt Friends star LeBlanc into playing a police chief who tracks down Floyd and offers him freedom. Actresses Claire Danes and Reese Witherspoon are the front runners to play Floyd’s high school sweetheart.

This news is real Deja Vu for ol' Father Geek. I just got through watching the old B&W classic PRETTY BOY FLOYD from 1960 on TV this Saturday night. It starred John Ericson in a damn good interpretation of the infamous 20's-30's bank robber/killer. Pretty Boy was number one on the FBI's most wanted list for a while. And you may remember Ericson from such superior films as BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK, or SEVEN FACES OF DOCTOR LAO, but more than likely most of you, if you know him at all, think of his TV roles in HONEY WEST and later GENERAL HOSPITAL. This film also showcased a young Peter Falk, Jason "Brain That Wouldn't Die" Evers, and introduced Al "Grandpaw Munster" Lewis as the cowardly Machine Gun Manny.

This subject was covered by Hollywood again in 1970 with A BULLET FOR PRETTY BOY starring "pretty boy" teen idol Fabian, "biker god" Adam Roarke, and Morgan Fairchild in her first pro acting job, although she did double for Faye Dunaway in 1967's BONNIE AND CLYDE. This version's pretty lame, though.

Six other actors have played Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd on the big screen that Father Geek can think of: Doug Wilson in 57's GUNS DON'T ARGUE, Robert Conrad in 65's YOUNG DILLINGER, Steve Kanaly in 73's DILLINGER, Bo Hopkins in 75's KANSAS CITY MASSACRE, Andrew Robinson in 87's VERNE MILLER STORY, and David Ngoombujarra in 93's DAY OF THE DOG. His death was shown in 1959's THE FBI STORY, but Father Geek can't come up with a name for the actor in that role.

Now on to Edgard's column...

EURO AICN

Hello, hello... Edgard here... Let me apologize for the disappearance of last week's Euro AICN but things are pretty hectic in my life right now (unfortunately for professional reason, meaning a ton of work is waiting for me still)... anyway sorry also for this week's column that I'm rushing to you as fast as I can to make sure you - dear faithful readers - get in time... so I will not waste your time with a long & boring intro as usual, let's get straight to the facts : this week you will get a link to REIGN OF FIRE set pictures, some news on the next Edinburgh Festival (with a UK premiere of AMELIE), some words on Danny Boyle's next (.. and I thought he was doing a bomb movie in real time... did I dream that ??), two angry Serbian looks at PEARL HARBOR and one quite happy norwegian look at TOMB RAIDER... roll it...

GERMANY

* According to unconfirmed rumors director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin co-operate nevertheless again! Emmerichs production company " Centropolis Entertainment " acquired the rights at the futuristic SF romance " Cyber Love Story ". Devlin had recently left Centropolis to found "Electic Entertainment", his own production company. " Cyber Love Story " will now be the first large-scale project of the new Devlin company - hopefully with Emmerich in the direction chair and financed by Columbia Tristar. But if the rumors should acknowledge themselves however, i'm quite not sure what happened or will happen with Emmerichs planned Mystery Thriller about the murder at the Egyptian Pharaoh " Tutanchamun ". Out and over? Before or after "Cyber Love Story"? Or will Emmerich only be the producer but not the director (just like the "The 13th Floor"-project)? Sorry, i don't know... Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich are since Emmerichs first hollywood production " Moon 44 " a unique duo in the film business. With Devlin as a producer and Emmerich in the director's chair the created such great movies like " Independence Day ", " Godzilla " and " Stargate " - they're all milestones in the world of science fiction movies. Their latest coop-projects where "The Patriot" and the tv-series "Visitor".

There are also some news about Emmerich's former crew members Volker Engel, Benedikt Niemann and Mark Weigel. They were together responsible for the effects in most of Emmerich's blockbusters but now they seem to go their own ways: They are involved into the Pre-Production of the upcoming adventure-action film "Coronado". This film comes along with huge budget and complex Special Effects as well as a to all appearances stretching fantastic Storyline. It's the first own production of the Emmerich's former special effects supervisor Volker Engel. This fact acknowledged SFX specialist Niemann recently on a congress in Stuttgart. There he also showed a few pre-rendered storyboard-scenes from the movie: There where collaboratig bridges, missle launches, marching armies and burning palaces in Afghanistan (i think it was afghanistan, but i'm quite unsure - it might be any other one of those adventurous countries). I tell you, this movie will kick your ass (with missels)! Sorry for my bad English, but i think it's worth for this news.

If you know some German, just check out my article about "Coronado" on www.myFanguide.de: Just Click Here to check it out.

Greetings from Germany,

cu, 'Pawel'

IRELAND

* Check this out - two sets of smouldering pics from REIGN OF FIRE !! One is of a fire ravaged Castle in the Wickow Moutains here in Ireland from the movie set of Reign of Fire. This will give you an idea of the scale and mood of the set...

Full Story and photo: Just click here, or you could Go to here

UK

* From Screendaily : Fox Searchlight Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to 28 Days Later, the next film from director Danny Boyle and producer Andrew Macdonald, continuing 20th Century Fox's relationship with the British film-making duo after A Life Less Ordinary (1997) and The Beach (2000). The $15m film is to be co-financed by Searchlight and The Film Council via DNA Films, the UK lottery franchise holder which Macdonald heads with Duncan Kenworthy. Universal Pictures, with which DNA has a worldwide distribution deal, is understood to have passed on the film, which is the story of a deadly virus which sweeps the planet, leaving a handful of survivors to salvage a future from the apocalypse. It was written by Alex Garland, the novelist who wrote The Beach. Universal’s specialised label Universal Focus has so far released only one DNA film, the poorly received Beautiful Creatures although it has Strictly Sinatra, which premieres at the Seattle International Film Festival this week, scheduled for release in July. No dates are yet established for DNA’s other nearly completed films The Final Curtain or The Parole Officer. “We are pleased to have found a home for 28 Days Later with Fox Searchlight because of the company’s commitment to and respect for the filmmaker's voice,” said Macdonald in a statement. “Through our past days with Peter Rice, president of Fox Searchlight, we have found him to be a studio head with tremendous vision.” Prior to taking over Searchlight, Rice was the creative executive who worked with Boyle and Macdonald on The Beach.

* Still from Screendaily : Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie is to open this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, which runs August 12-26. Amelie, released as Amelie From Montmartre in France, is set for UK release on October 5 through Momentum, which picked up the film earlier this year. The story of a naive waitress who eventually finds love after helping those around her was a critical and commercial smash on its recent release in its home territory, amassing more than $28m in six weeks. David Kosse, managing director of Momentum Pictures, said: "We have very high hopes for Amelie. It has been an enormous hit in France and we believe it has a very strong cross-over potential in the UK. Edinburgh is the perfect platform from which to introduce this very special film to the British public." Lizzie Francke, departing artistic director of the festival, said: "I can’t think of a happier note to open on and a better one to set the tone for the following two weeks." This year’s festival - the 55th - will also feature a Werner Herzog retrospective, focusing entirely on the German film-maker’s documentary output. A closing film has yet to be announced, while the full festival line-up is to be unveiled in mid-July.

* And don't forget to check the brand new Empire website at www.empireonline.co.uk/

NORWAY

* Still Screendaily :Norwegian director Knut Erik Jensen has received the Norwegian Aamot Award in Oslo, Norway. The annual award given by Norway's theatre managers and distributors was bestowed on Jensen for "his ability to capture the life and history of Norway’s northernmost regions in a poetical way". Jensen is the director of the surprise box-office hit Cool And Crazy, which has sold 500,000 tickets since its January release in Norway, a country with only 4.2 million inhabitants. The film is now the fifth most popular Norwegian film ever. Cool And Crazy is a portrait of a male voice choir from Berlevag, a remote town inside the Arctic circle with a population of just 1,200. With its blend of humour and melancholia, the documentary has become a symbol for the regional rebellion against the political negligence of Norway’s government towards its northern regions. Jensen also directed the critically acclaimed Stella Polaris and Burnt By Frost. However, his last effort, Passing Darkness, only attracted 8,000 admissions. "I presume this means that the audiences want me to continue. I hope I can make even smaller films in the future," the director said upon being handed the award by author Linn Ullmann, daughter of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann. For some 30 years, the Aamot Award was the only major film award in Norway. Actress/director Liv Ullmann was the last recipient.

ETHAN'S CORNER

I`ve just seen PEARL HARBOR. Oh, boy this movie insulted me on many levels. First of all, it insulted me as a moviegoer because it is made as a barely competent compilation of cinema`s landmarks. Then it insulted on purely historical level since it presents twisted facts from the past. And last but not least, it insults me as a Christian. I really have no reason to emphatize with Americans because US bombs devastated my hometown many times but as a human being I am disgusted by the fact that Bay and Bruckeheimer exploited the truly touching fate of many Americans and Japanese that died in Pearl Harbor. It is a very slippery subject when you make a period popcorn movie. But it is utterly disusting when you make a idiotic one about the situation when many people faced their demise in the most brutal way.

Since Harry said he even enjoyed PEARL HARBOR I suggest that we should just forget his ROLLERBALL preview. Let`s wait and see for ourselves. Harry`s review reveals certain shortcomings that may as well turn into virtues of this flick. For example, he said that Rollerball players have no motives besides earning money and getting laid. Well, if you run from law and end up playing Rollerball in Russia your game definitely isn`t about friendship, health and Olympic Spirit. Then, he said that you can`t follow the score. Modern sports aren`t about following the score. Look at the NBA. We all know who`s going to win. All you do is look at the highlights and flashy moves. And I`m talking about basketball which is basically a really competitive sport. McTiernan`s hard R also means a lot. It sems hard Rs are back in town and I`m glad about it. So, nevermind the previews let us all face McT`s wrath!

MGM got to do NOSEBLEED the new Jackie Chan project. This project was in development with my favourite director in my favourite studio. I hope MGM will continue where Renny Harlin and New Line left-off. If Renny gets on board in this MGM incarnation it will be great. But MGM has a record of wrong directors doing wrong projects. Look at this RED DRAGON travesty. I loved Michael Mann`s original and I think that he did all that can be done to Thomas Harris prose. But bringing Michael Bay and Brett Ratner around is definitely sick. The only weirder MGM occurance is bringing Ratner to do new Bond. It is really weird how MGM makes all the worst moves. Remember SUPERNOVA? I hated HANNIBAL and I just hope that RED DRAGON won`t suck that much. Maybe they should bring Curtis Hanson and let Bay direct Eminem instead.

Francis Veber`s LE PLACARD is the new flagrant example of how French cinema went to hell. It is a tired and not particularly funny comedy that managed to communicate with the audience. The problem with this film is that it isn`t radical enough to put a smile on anyone`s face while it can`t compete as a drama. On the level of ideology it makes great sense. It is a very sane account on modern society. It is even interesting if you try to research the speed of getting laid in contemporary cinema. In the seventies` movies people get laid after two scenes. When Cameron Crowe surfaced it took the an hour of screen time to get laid. In LE PLACARD it takes them the whole movie while in the mean time the guy has to pretend he`s gay. Peculiar. With movies like this French cinema won`t regain its position from the past. Rare masterpieces like Gilles Mimouni`s L`APPARTEMENT are just incidents. France needs cinematic strategy.

Sometimes you can just stumble up a great film when you least expect it. Summer season began and instead of great entertainment we work our way through disgusting PEARL HARBOR and bite our nails thinking about ROLLERBALL remake. At the same time, hidden gems wait for you on the video store shelf. Life is too short to go through all those editions. But if we all make a unified front and try to watch direct to video stuff systematically, we can make quite a few discoveries. A couple of days ago, my screenwriting teacher called me and asked me about some movie he watched on TV. The only things he knew about it was that C. Thomas Howell was the star and that Roger Corman produced the feature. He asked me to show my geekness and find out about the film. This challenge was like waving a red flag in front of the young bull so after 15 minutes of IMDBing I found out about the movie. It was Phil Jackobson`s SUSPECT DEVICE, alleged TV movie. I found it at the video store because teacher needed a copy. Oh, boy he was so on target about this one. In some evil mindset you can treat this one as Corman-produced TOTAL RECALL rip-off. This definition may sum it up. As a rabid TOTAL RECALL fan I must admit that every author should be proud when his movie evokes any kind of link to Verhoeven`s masterpiece. SUSPECT DEVICE feels like TOTAL RECALL. However it has its` own postmodern touch that allows the author to transcend the budget and create authentic adrenaline rush. First of all, SUSPECT DEVICE has a smart script with a hooky narrative and competent plotting. The story starts off as THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR paranoia thriller with oniric element and takes a turn and becomes very smart in a Philip K. Dick kind of way. It tells us about Dan Jericho, C-class operative in the secret government agency that falls asleep one day in his office, enters a nightmare about his colleagues getting slaughtered and wakes up realizing they were really killed. Afterwards it turns into a twisty ride. This low-budget exploitation flick is unbelievably relevant by today`s terms. It even manages to tackle the so-called SF sociology and makes a sharp comment on the former hippies that work for the system while pretending to be off the hook. Howell`s acting is very decent and it really works in movie`s entriety. Jackobson`s direction is efficient and precise. Calmer scenes are well-made, steamy sex is extremely vivid and shooting is staged with the use of conservative slow-motion technique. Fistfights are a bit awkward even for the standards that existed before wire fu. Nevertheless you must cut some slack to such a low-budget movie. IMDB says that Jackobson worked on a couple of movies for Corman and he is now trapped as Sam Raimi`s TV hack. Maybe, Jackobson will rise to theatrical production one day because Hollywood really needs conservative action and thriller directors. Today`s Hollywood is too freak reliant and a couple of crafty professionals could revamp it. SUSPECT DEVICE is a hard-R and it was made in 1995. Go check it out.

God bless, Ethan

TOMB RAIDER EUROPEAN REVIEW, From Koola (Norway)

(Note : this review was sent to me & Harry last week already, but never made it to the AICN website... so here it is late, and sorry to Koola about this)

From the way of an icecold norwegian comes these lure words of Koola. It is only 4 minutes since I left the press screening of TOMB RAIDER here in Oslo, Norway. I returned to my office, and hit the keyboard instantly. It probably won’t be a surprise to y’all that we don’t get the chance to see big movies like this one before you guys overseas… But with short notice, and no subtitles, we got the chance to see this flick. And I did rejoice! I’ve looked upon this project with only one great expectation, Angelina Jolie, so here is what I saw.

TOMB RAIDER is not a kick-ass movie. The opening sequence was disturbingly dull, considering the importance of this in a movie like this. The TOMB RAIDER-logo unveils in a bit fancy way, but when you’ve seen things ten times better in other films, you get this downfall from your already high-on-stake expectations. Then follows an action scene, and the show has begun. Y’all know this story, and if you don’t, you have no use of it. The story is simple, easy, predictable and dialogue-slim. But this is not the movie. You don’t see TOMB RAIDER to get a intellectual travel in pure genius and great writing. It’s based on a computer-game, and that is what you get. As i have not played any of those games, i do not know if the story in the movie follows any of the stories from the games…. But it certainly feels that way.

I Read about the re-makin of the score, and it is easy to hear… This score is really unoriginal, and can in no way build up under the scenes, nor create any extra tension or humor. But actually… screw that! That is not your focus.

Then we got this Lara Croft-chick. Angelina Jolie is in my eyes perfect for this part. PER-FECT. Eventhough the opening scene is nervous and actually quite amateurish, she picks it up and unveils a great-looking, high-kicking character. I love it! And I believe she makes this movie worth seeing. It’s a diffcult movie to actually love or truly hate, ’cause it’s disturbingly unfinished in some scenes, and blessingly cool in other. They did though not get this as good as it could have been. Especially the bad-guy does not frighten me, not even make me believe him. And the sub-plot-thing with Angelina, uh… I mean LARA, and her father……… poorly written… almost embarassing. But I fear this is connected to the game.. somehow. Correct?They should have made this movie more like a non-stop archelogical action and dropped the cheesy sentimental shit that Lara has to ”tackle” from time to time. Yuck… You sit there, and wait for some more action to come… and when it gets there… thank god, I did forget all about the shit I didn’t like.

Better than MUMMY RETURNS. I hope a lot of people go to see it and it WILL probably make shitloads of money…. so that they can make a franchise out of this… You see, you hate it, but you definately want more…. Now I have to wait until mid-july to see this when it’s opening here in Norway.

This is it from me here in Norway. Have a nice time with Lara, tell her I said hi…

Koola

PEARL HARBOR EUROPEAN REVIEW (Part III) by Cafeman; Written by Randall Wallace, Directed by Michael Bay

War is not something to be fucked with. War means pain, sorrow, horror. When someone is hit, you bet your ass he`s going to bleed. Cutting down war to a PG-13 is damn near spitting in the face of the parties involved. War is a dead serious matter and doing a movie about a war just so that you can use visually stunning effects is borderline repugnant. Kubrick, Stone and Dragojevic are the best examples of moviemakers that grasped what war is all about in their “Full Metal Jacket”, “Dr. Strangelove” (Kubrick), “Born on the 4th of July” (Stone) and “Pretty Village, Pretty Flame” (Dragojevic). If you`re looking for actually good war movies, try these. Their budget and income isn`t as high, but the quality is way higher.

Every time someone gets shot, every time someone falls down, every time a bed falls on someone along with the wall he`s leaning against, every one of those times, there`s going to be blood and death and pain. Instead of seeing those devastating effects, all we see is blurry filters. If you`re going to cover bombing, you have to take time to pay attention to each and every injury inflicted on each and every person involved. That is the only way this can have impact. Instead it`s cut down to PG-13. Why? So it can be a summer blockbuster? War might be a lot of things, but it is NOT entertainment. There were real people there that died and instead of emphasizing the tragedy, Bay is just trying to cash in on it.

There are two things that you can never do if you want to make a good war movie- (1) take sides and (2)show one or both sides as good. If there is one thing I`ve learned from the recent turbulent Balkan years I`ve had to live through, it`s that there are NO good sides in the war. Just the less bad ones. On these accounts, Bay makes both mistakes by saying that both of them were good and then taking sides by saying that only America is right. Guilty on both charges.

When Americans are attacking Tokyo and Alec Baldwin announces they`re going to bomb Tokyo as a retaliation for bombing Pearl Harbor, they start cheering. Obviously, we`re supposed to cheer along. Cheer for what? For the fact that they`re going avenge bombing innocent civilians by bombing some more innocent civilians? I`d hope to be more humane than that. Bomb them if you must, but don`t cheer for it, for God`s sake.

Even if all those things weren`t there, if Bay wasn`t trying to insult our feelings of right and wrong AND our intelligence, the movie would still be (a) too long, (b)full of absolutely unnecessary and pointless parts that only make the movie constipated, (c) seriously flawed in the facts department and (d) Japanese soldiers dialogue will send you into a laughing mayhem. From what we see, it would seem that Japanese soldiers think about a bunch of things they want to say and the say it all at once, using every sentence efficiently, never skipping a beat. Also, it would seem Japanese soldiers are morons, seeing as how they have to be explained even the very obvious things (of course, this is here only to explain those things to the audience, but Jesus, it could`ve been a little more subtle).

Bottom line, there is nothing in this movie that is less than an insult to every person with common sense. In the end, we see one of the survivors happy when his son tells him he wants to be a pilot. This is repulsive. Avoid this ugly movie at all costs. Randall Wallace has proved once again after the abysmally bad “Braveheart” that he is truly a horrible screenwriter. The success of movies based on his scripts just makes me wonder exactly how stupid can the audiences get.

More reviews from CafeMan at www.cineserb.8k.com

That's it for this week... sorry again for last week's silence and this week "sloppiness"... but life is quite busy for old Edgard right now... ayway have a good week all and send us your reports, reviews and questions to the Euro AICN offices in Paris at : euroaicn@yahoo.com