Just wanted to add one thing here folks, HARRY HERE, below there is talk about a project referred to as OLD ROME, this is not a title, but merely the wy people that are not "in" are using to describe the project. While in London I found out that Ridley Scott is in a deal with DREAMWORKS (ie Spielberg and crew) to make a film set in Old Rome entitled GLADIATORS. The project is pretty dang exciting and is to take over the stages being used by THE MUMMY when that project wraps (sorry) up. The only problem I've heard thus far is that they haven't come up with a script yet that floats everyone's boat. Most of the scripts have been getting the thumbs down before being fed to lions. Hopefully this is temporary and the project will get a great script. I just hope Steve Reeves gets a cameo...
Well folks here's some voodoo whodoo from beautiful Venice. NO!, not the one in Southern California. Our long time spy from the Balkans reports in with
whats happening in the city of canals and romance.
It's been a while since I last wrote. Remember your sprained ankle a year ago? You called me a Bosnian Witch Doctor and made a weird connection between me and Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Go figure...
Anyway, I'm an accredited journalist here at the Lido in Venice, wading my way through the acid green canali to whatever is shown at the magnificent theaters here. I see you have absolutely noone reporting from here, which is a crying shame: although much of the festival consists of European premieres of American films that you have already seen, the Hollywood people have arrived in the usual big numbers, and are willing to talk. At the press conferences, at least.
So what I could do is give you a short review of stuff that happened here... If you want it. It will, of course, not be very heavy on scoops, but hopefully you could use some info on non-American movies shown here. From Merchant-Ivory stuff (Ismail and James are such nice people, really) to Tadjikistan films (I'm really curious about those, too). So just drop me a note to say you are interested, OK? It's not all that easy for me to access the Net here in a manner that would not be exposed to prying eyes, and I do not want to compromise my credentials. After all, I'm just a poor journalist from Croatia... NOT Bosnia.
And the quality of scoops here go as follows... people who obviously read your site asked Spielberg on Thursday whether he would indeed make his Roman Empire movie here at the Cinecitta. He said no, only confirming his plans to do Memoirs of a Geisha, but stated that SKG is indeed considering making an ancient Rome picture with Ridley Scott at the helm. And he added, in his usual Benign God chuckling manner, that "a decent Old Rome film hasn't been made for what, thirty years - especially one without Steve Reeves in it". Which drew a laugh, although everyone in the room was a bit hysterical, sitting as they were in front of him and Hanks and Brown and Sizemore. Matt Damon did not appear till today, to promote Rounders, but his pun - on having two hundred people in front of him like this at his house every day since he became a star - did not really cross over well with the international press. But he, too, is such a nice young boy. Even if he can't imagine writing another script without his old pal Ben.
The Bosnian Witch Doctor
