Father Geek here with the latest from our Euro-AICN offices... First a little note from Edgard...

Hi guys...

Just to inform you I will be gone in Denmark for a few days... be back on Tuesday, meaning the next Euro AICN column will be delayed of one day... I can do it on Tuesday evening. Hope it's not too big trouble...

Edgard

Well, luckily ol' Ozy in Dublin sent in the following 3 reports to fill in until Edgard's regular column appears in a day or two. In addition Robert Bernocchi who filed all those wonderful reports for us from Venice has sent us an interview with Robert Englund about his coming projects. Now on to Ozy's reports...

Hey Gang... Ozymandias reporting in with some Euro-news...

Richard Harris and Harry Potter...

The vetern Irish actor and hellraiser Richard Harris is reported to have turned down a substancial salary to take on a role in the upcoming Harry Potter movie. The actor was expected to take the role in the upcoming movie as Profesor Dumbledore, Harry's headmaster. Like the late Sir Alec Guinness in Star Wars, Harris wanted his agent to get him a share in the movies profits which could have the actor millions...

O Brother, Where Art Thou? review...

I'm not really what you'd call a Coen Brothers fan. I liked Raising Arizona and Blood Simple, thought Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink and The Hudsucker Proxy were good, was quite impressed by Fargo but thought The Big Lebowski was highly overrated. Therefore it's all the more interesting that their latest effort O Brother, Where Art Thou? is one of the most astonishing, fascinating and brilliant films I've seen in ages.

I don't want to give too much away about the plot, as always, because I went to see the film pretty much cold (I knew the Coens wrote and directed, that George Clooney and their touchstone John Turturro were in it and that it was a chain gang escape movie set in the 30's and that was about it.) Suffice to say that their twin influences here are Preston Sturges (recently shown here in Dublin as part of a season at the IFC) sublime 1942 comedy Sullivan's Travels (the title of O Brother coming from the fictional flick that Joel McCrea's character wants to make in the Sturges movie and both films having common settings and plot elements - the hobo life of the 1930's, characters that are presumed dead but aren't, chain gangs, fast talking, wisecracking characters.) and the mythical adventures of Ulysses (Homer even gets a writing credit!) with appearances from sirens, Holly Hunter as Penelope and John Goodman's brilliant Cyclops turn as an eyepatch wearing bible salesman. It's a bizarre combination, beautifully crafted.

I really can't stress enough how truly entertaining I think the film is - it's really very funny, visually inventive (no surprises there) and with wonderful turns from Hunter, Goodman, Turturro, the fabulous Tim Blake-Nelson and the always underused Charles Durning. But it's O Brother, Where Art Thou? that's finally convinced me that George Clooney is more than just your average movie star. He plays Everett Ulysses McGill just one notch shy of Clark Gable circa It Happened One Night and blew me away through their unintentional brush with stardom as the "Soggy Bottom Boys" and their encounters with Babyface Nelson, Robert Johnson, and the KKK, amongst others. It's the best comedic performance I've seen anywhere this year.

O Brother is a rare gem, a top-drawer comedy and if you can find a tune in any movie this year catchier than the Soggy Bottom Boys "Man Of Constant Sorrow" then you're a better man than I.

Robert Englund...

The latest from our ever industrious man in the heart of Italia - this time with what looks like a real live genuine scoop on the Freddy Vs Jason movie!

Hey Oz,

We had an interview with Robert Englund a few days ago. We talked about Freddy vs. Jason and Cagliostro, an italian project for television. Great news about Freddy vs. Jason:

Robert Englund: "at first, Rob Bottin was hired to direct the movie. But Bottin had serious problems with New Line, that wanted to make the movie with a budget considered too low by Bottim. So Bottim finally left and New Line decided to hire David S. Goyer (screenwriter of Crow: City of Angels, Dark City and Blade) to rewrite and direct Freddy vs. Jason. After Bottim left, New Line thought at Guillermo Del Toro to be the director of the movie as well. Curiously, Guillermo Del Toro was later chosen as the director of Blade 2."

La Finestra sul Cortile: and what about Cagliostro?

Robert Englund: "that's a tv movie directed by Daniele Ciprì and Franco Maresco. Two years ago they made Totò who lived twice, a movie that was banned in Italy for a short time. Cagliostro will be a fake documentary as Blair Witch Project. The story begins when i arrive in Sicily in the fifties to be part of a movie about Cagliostro, the legendary italian alchemist of the 18th century. My character is an arrogant actor who decides to make an italian movie to relaunch his career in the States. But he is not Charlton Heston, who arrived in Italy to make Ben Hur, and he is in a poor b-movie. And then we make a break and we can see the same actor nowadays. I decided to act this part of the movie in a wheelchair as a tribute to the character played by Joseph Cotten in Citizen Kane. So, this is also an homage to Orson Welles, who interpreted Cagliostro in Black Magic".

You can also see the videointerview (in english) with Robert Englund at Our Site by clicking here right now.

Bye

Robert Bernocchi from La Finestra sul Cortile

L8r,

Ozymandias

Euro AICN Ireland/UK Office, Penthouse Suite, Ozymandias Towers, Dublin, Ireland.

If you're involved in the Irish or UK movie industries I want to hear from you!

Mail me at ozymandias@dublin.com