Father Geek here at Geek Headquarters in Austin, Texas with Dr. SOTHA's latest report from and/or concerning Africa and its film industry...

Hey there space monkeys. DR.SOTHA here a few days late from my post-Oscar hangover. I celebrated the 74th Annual Academy Awards with a couple of my East African compadres, lime-green grasshoppers. As a result of a cerebral implant I had initiated a few weeks ago, the hoppers were able to make their predictions about who they thought should win. Needless to say, they were pissed that Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson lost out for best Original Screenplay. One hopper exclaimed at the television, “There’s no one I’ve ever come across who can write about life with as much pathos and humour as those two.” That’s not all he can do, he can also bounce from one button to the next on my remote control.

To order personalized quotes from East African lime green hoppers email africaaicn@hotmail.com

SOUTH AFRICA

* African Redux Festival is a new informal film festival dedicated to South African production talent. It runs on the fifth day of every month in Cape Town at The Armchair Theatre in Observatory and had its first screenings in February. It showcases South African made doccies, films (shorts & features), music videos, animation pieces etc. The festival screenings have had a great response not only from young film makers in the industry but from the public itself who expressed surprise that South Africans were producing this kind of material. Informal Q&A takes place over drinks after the screenings. According to Margot Moses, Kryptonite Productions, who has attended two screening events "it is a great place to network with others". You can also catch a screening of Kryptonite's 26-minute film, ‘Azure’ about gang violence and homeless people at the NTVA's meeting in Cape Town in April. Azure was written and directed by Meg Richards and had an enthu! siastic response when it was screened at Sithengi and at two free screenings held at Ster-Kinekor's Cinema Nouveau. (Thanks to Jon at www.film-fix.com for sending the story – DR.SOTHA)

* Ridley Scott's Oscar contender, Black Hawk Down (about America's involvement in Somalia) has pushed Ocean's Eleven from the number one spot on the South African box office. In its opening week Black Hawk Down clocked up R1 519 497 in ticket sales (about the price of a loaf of brown bread in North America – DR.SOTHA). In third place is Gwyneth Paltrow's "fat girl" film, Shallow Hal, followed by Serendipity and Behind Enemy Lines. Mr Bones continues to hold onto its top 10 position and is at number six. It has made R31 133 402 to date.

* Charlize Theron has written to the South Korean government to appeal against the country's practice of boiling cats alive. The animal and human rights supporting actress took the action after reading reports that living cats are being boiled to extract their "juice" before being eaten. She wrote, "I urge the government of South Korea to ensure cats and dogs receive full protection from intentional cruelty and torture." Theron has also recently taken part in a controversial anti-rape campaign in her native South Africa.

* The new website of the South African Scriptwriter's Association (SASWA) breaks the loneliness of the writer by providing information, resources and interaction. The website aims to raise the standards of local screenwriting. In addition the website offers a forum in which screenwriters can post their opinions on controversial issues such as Writer's Fees and Government Film Funding. Click on www.saswa.org.za

NORTH AFRICA

Rigobert Song will return next week. He’s preparing for Easter. – DR.SOTHA

* Gabriel Mann is set to join John Frankenheimer's (Ronin) untitled prequel to "The Exorcist" for Morgan Creek Prods. Shooting begins in the spring in the United Kingdom and Spain. Mann takes on the role of Father William Francis, which actor Ryan Phillippe previously had been in final negotiations to play. A deal for Phillippe could not be reached, however, because of other commitments. Mann joins a cast that includes Liam Neeson (The Phantom Menace) and Australian actor Billy Crawford in the story of Father Merrin (Neeson) and his first encounter with the devil while doing missionary work in post-World War II Africa. While there, Merrin suffers from the horrors of war and loses his faith in God. When he meets the devil, he has to fight to save his belief! s. Father Francis is a young priest who does not understand how Merrin can lose his faith. Francis later faces the devil, with devastating consequences.

* Djibril Diop Mambéty's Hyènes (1992) has been selected by the well-known American critic Roger Ebert to be screened at his Roger Ebert's 4th Overlooked Film Festival (24 - 28 April, in Illinois). It is a posthumous honour for the African filmmaker and places his film in commercial cinematic context. For more details visit www.ebertfest.com

AFRICAN AMERICAN

* History was made at the 74th Annual Aacademy Awards when Halle Berry took home the best actress gong for her portrayal of a widow in ‘Monster’s Ball’. She became the first woman of color to ever win this award. Denzel Washington added another milestone by becoming only the second black man in Oscar’s history to win best Actor behind Sidney Poitier, who earned a lifetime achievement Award. To round this off Whoopi Goldberg, admittedly, did a half-decent job of hosting this year’s event.

* Classic British sixties movie ‘The Italian Job’ is getting a Hollywood make-over. F.Gary Gray will direct a new version of the cult 1969 heist movie, which starred Sir Michael Caine and Sir Noel Coward. The Paramount Pictures project is to start production on July 22nd, for a planned summer 2003 release. The original version featured one of the most famous car chase sequences in movie history, with a fleet of Coopers (a British car with a cult following) causing havoc in the streets of Turin, Italy. The new feature will start in Italy, but finish in Los Angeles. Gray's last venture was El Diablo, starring Vin Diesel. Fans of the original are hoping that Gray will not leave out the Coopers in the update.

* Critics are generally giving the vampire movie Blade II less biting reviews than they gave the original Blade. But that's not saying a whole lot. Liam Lacey in the Toronto Globe and Mail writes, for example: "Though superior to the original Blade II, the superiority is mostly in the myriad ways the 'suck-head' enemies can be blown up, melted and dismembered." Noting that "it's not quite the bloodbath" that the first Blade presented, Lou Lumenick in the New York Post adds that the movie "seems mainly aimed at hard-core comic book and action fans who check their brains at the popcorn stand." Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal begins his review by calling the film "mass-market junk" and remarking: "You may wonder why I'm giving it space on the front page of this august section." But the film is receiving quite a number of enthusiastic reviews as well. Elvis Mitchell in the New York Times calls the movie "a rocking, dexterous piece of genre-busting." Roger Ebert describes it as "a really rather brilliant vomitorium of viscera." And Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post, while conceding up-front that "there is no possible adult justification for the picture," goes on to say, "It is pure pagan glee, a raptor's flesh fest, a zesty paprika of cannibal stew, stylized toward almost total abstraction, beyond describing, beyond imagining except by its makers. And that is why it's so good."

* Spike Lee has claimed that he was passed over to direct ALI because of objections by the film's star, Will Smith. Interviewed by Ed Gordon on BET Tonight, Lee said, "I wanted to do it. Will didn't want me to direct it." He recalled that during a face-to-face meeting, "the first thing Will said was, 'So Spike, how can you expand your vision?' When he asked that, I knew I was out." Michael Mann was eventually named director of the film -- and later was the focus of most critical complaints that it failed to provide adequate insight into the title figure. "Few white directors can get our stuff right," Lee told Gordon, referring to the ALI movie. "I'm tired of other people documenting our history." (God Bless the always outspoken Spike Lee. He always gives me something to talk about – DR.SOTHA)

* Jonathan Lynn is in negotiations to direct Paramount Pictures/MTV Films' "The Fighting Temptations," starring Cuba Gooding Jr. The project is aimed to go into production in the summer. Lynn comes aboard the project after television helmer/producer Ken Kwapis was negotiating to come on board. But Kwapis' deal never closed. Described as "Soul Food" meets "The Full Monty," "Temptations" is the story of a Los Angeles hip-hop producer who travels to a small Southern town to collect an inheritance. As stipulated in the will, he must create a gospel choir and lead it to success before he can cash in. Handprint Entertainment also is producing the project. David Raynr wrote the most recent draft of the script. Lynn, repped by ICM, most recently directed the comedy "The Whole Nine Yards." His credits include "My Cousin Vinny," "Trial and Error" an! d "Sgt. Bilko."

* Jamie Kennedy, star of the WB Network hidden camera/sketch comedy series "JKX: The Jamie Kennedy Experiment," will bring one of his characters from the show, wannabe rapper Brad Gluckman, to the big screen in the comedy feature "Suckaz" for Warner Bros. Fax Bahr and Adam Small, who work with Kennedy on "JKX," will direct the film, which is aimed to go into production in mid-June. "Suckaz" will center on Gluckman (Kennedy), a white would-be rap star from Malibu who thinks he is from the ghetto. One day he finds out what being from the ghetto is really like. The film will co-star Nick Swardstrom as Gluckman's sidekick Mocha, who is often featured on "JKX."

* Blade star Wesley Snipes has a good reason to be distraught about the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11 - because he lost his home. The 39-year-old actor's fourth floor New York apartment suffered extensive structural damage, causing many of his precious belongings to be destroyed. Luckily, on the day of the devastating attacks, Snipes was at his other home in Marina del Ray, California, taking care of his third child Iset who arrived on her father's birthday on July 31st. He says, "My apartment got blown out. I lived right across the street from Ground Zero. The most damaged part of the building was where my baby boys slept. If my daughter hadn't been born, I would've been here. When I got back to New York, I was homeless for a while. No one believes me, but it's true."

* Oscar winner Halle Berry was so depressed after her 1997 divorce she was on the brink of committing suicide. Berry, who was also going to take the lives of her two dogs, was sitting in her car inhaling the deadly exhaust fumes when the thought of her mother made her see sense. She says, "I was going to sit in the car and asphyxiate myself. As I sat there sort of waiting for it to happen, and something was telling me on the right side of my brain, 'Girl, don't do it.' I thought, 'What is my mother going to think if she finds me dead in this car?' I couldn't do that to her. So I got out." Berry believes her suicidal thoughts came about because, "I was still using men and my mate to identify who I was. And when that was gone, then I was nothing." Now, though, the actress, remarried to singer Eric Benet after divorcing baseball star David Justice, feels, "more clear about who I am.! I like the woman that I've evolved into. And I would never harm her now." (Well that’s comforting David – DR.SOTHA)

* ABC has dropped My Wife and Kids, starring Damon Wayans, and the new Wayne Brady Show, from its Monday-night lineup. The two programs were among the few programs on the major networks to star African-American stars. The two show will be replaced by an hour-long All-Star Bloopers in the 8:00 p.m. period tonight and by a rerun of America's Home Videos next week, the network said. (Replacing a classic with a classic I see – DR.SOTHA)

* Bryant Gumbel host of CBS's The Early Show, has opened negotiations with CBS on a new contract. His current $5-million-a-year contract expires in May. Although the show remains a distant third in the ratings, behind NBC's Today and ABC's Good Morning America,"there's no indication [that CBS] wants to dump him," a source told the New York Post.

DR.SOTHA REVO & OUT