Well this just in to Father Geek stranded here at AICN Headquarters in Austin while our lucky Euro-crew gets to party down on the continent, but they're earning it cranking out report after report on the hottest Film Fest in the world for those of us stuck at home and office...
Edgard here with... News from Cannes... My intro will be quick because I
am in a kind of a hurry (romantic evening ahead).
Today a new reporter joins us from Cannes, Eva... but
first let's hear what Grozilla saw today...
Hello, before the reviews of BRUISER (average but interesting), FAST FOOD FAST WOMEN (Excellent) and COMME UN AIMANT (a MEAN STREETS from Marseille !), here are some news or buzz heard from here and there... enjoy...
- Chen Kaige (FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE) prepares his first film in English; KILLING ME SOFTLY will star Heather Graham, she will be a scientist leaving her boyfriend for hotter sexual adventures...
- Screamin'Jay Hawkins, recently deceased will be the subject of a biopic : BLACK, NAKED & UGLY.
- Carlos Saura will direct a biography of Luis Bunuel; BUNUEL AND THE KING'S SALOMON TABLE will look at some episodes in the life of the surrealist film-maker. And Gran Wyoming , comic star from Spain has been contacted to play Bunuel young while Francesco Rabal will play him older. Catherine Deneuve, who was in different movie from Don Luis (BELLE DE JOUR, TRISTANA) might also take part in this film that will be shot in Toléde and Aragon from next October.
- Chris Noonan, director from BABE, will adapt "Rule of the Bone", the Russel Banks novel, initiation travel of a young guy smoking pots, going from New York to the Caribean islands.
- In TRAIN-TRAIN, French actor Fabrice Luchini will take the train to Venise. His wife, her lover and his mistress will buy him a trip in the Orient-Express for Valentine's Day. Nathalie Baye and Marie Gillain will come on board this first film from Bruno Chiche.
- Adrian Brody (BREAD & ROSES) will join Christopher Walken and Hilary Swank in THE AFFAIR OF THE NECKLACE, a period film about a criminal case in 18th century France. Charles Shyer (FATHER OF THE BRIDE) directs.
- Lars Von Trier news : Peter Aalbaek Jensen, co-creator of Zentropa, says that the director "finished a cycle (BREAKING THE WAVES; IDIOTS; DANCER...) on women and their sacrifices. He plans now to make a film about men and have fun about it." This comedy could be shooting in June 2001. Jensen also confirmed that the next project from Von Trier would be a porn film.
Grozilla
And now, our new reporter : Eva !!
This is Eva reporting to you from the madness that is the Cannes Film Festival. I don't have much time but I'll do my best in terms of films. First: VIRIDIANA which won the Palme D'Or here in 1961. They showed last night after a parade from drummers of calanda where Bunuel was born. The film is wonderful and intelligent as usual and surpringsingly modern. The "premiere" was attended by Gilles Jacob (in charge of the Cannes Festival for years) who gave a little speech in the beginning. Almodovar was there and was given a standing ovation and cheers as soon as he came in. He was graceful and blew kisses back. Then Catherine Deneuve, who was chain smoking and could care less how much people clapped. Angela Molina was also there, Bunuel's two sons and Serge Libermann who produced many of Bunuel's last films.
I don't have time for much so really quickly: Liv Ullman's movie - I believe its INFIDELE - premiered last night. Its 2 and a half hours and it is boring as hell. I say that as a Bergam and Ullman admirer. People were walking out left and right and laughing out right at the film.
That's it for now. Tonight I am going to see Dave Stewart's film.
Eva
And now, as always, the unmissable... OZY NEWS !!!
- British actress Kate Winslet and US Oscar winner Nicolas Cage are providing voice-overs for a new film of "A Christmas Carol" featuring a combination of live action and animation. Pregnant "Titanic" actress Winslet, 24, and "Leaving Las Vegas" star Cage are joining "Notting Hill"'s Rhys Ifans on the British project, according to a report in Variety magazine. Scrooge will be played by UK stage veteran Simon Callow, whose films include "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "A Room with a View". The movie should be completed next summer. Combining hand-drawn animation with live action sequences involving Callow, the finished film is provisionally set for release around Christmas 2001.
- David Twohy (PITCH BLACK) has inked to write and direct PROTEUS as the first of a three-picture deal with Miramax Films and its Dimension Films genre banner. PROTEUS is a suspenser about the American crew of a haunted World War II submarine in enemy waters, fighting Nazi destroyers from above and ghosts lurking down below.
- Jason Schwartzman (RUSHMORE) is set to star in DONNIE DARKO a teenage drama to be executive produced by Drew Barrymore through her Flower Films banner. The story centers on a 16-year-old who, after miraculously escaping death in a freak accident, is granted 28 more days of life before he must relive the same accident. Shooting is set to begin in July.
- Isabelle Adjani is returning to the big screen after a four-year absence to star in THE REPENTANT directed by Laetitia Masson. Her last movie was 1996's DIABOLIQUE with Sharon Stone. REPENTANT will begin shooting in March.
- Producer Brian Grazer says he is keen for comic star Jim Carrey to portray Hugh Hefner in his forthcoming film about the Playboy millionaire. "Hef has made it clear he wants someone with humour and Carrey would be great," said Grazer, who worked with the actor on "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Carrey is believed to have a gap in his film schedule since he decided not to go ahead with plans to star in a remake of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty".
- Outraged distributors have stormed out of the screening of a British-made film incorporating genuine footage of shootings and hangings. COLD FISH, the debut film by commercial photographer David Fairman, tells the story of an aspiring reporter who uncovers the world of video artists who record real-life acts of violence. To convey the depravity of the video nasties and their makers, Fairman has used archive footage of violent deaths, including Russian soldiers being hanged by the Nazis and Los Angeles Police Department officers watching a man shoot himself. Fairman, who has already courted controversy by posting images from the film on a web site, says his aim is to raise questions about the portrayal of violence in the media. But at its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, his tactics proved too much for some cinema-goers. After the screening, which saw a handful of film buyers and distributors walk out after less than half an hour, a spokesman for producers Opus Pictures said: "The film is shocking and may not be to everyone's taste, but it raises some serious issues. "We hope people will see them in the light that they are intended." (...)
- And to finish, it seems that the BIGGLES project we discuss yesterday found a director : Russel Mulcahy... (note from Edgard : I just hope Russel made it as good as the first HIGHLANDER and not as bad as all his other films...)
