After a solid week of 2-a-day reports our Euro-AICN crew can now settle back into their some what more regular routine and to start that all off on the right foot they've sent Father Geek their 11th regular Monday morning column and I've posted it for you below...

Hi ya, Darth Bond here with our 11th edition of our weekly column, the one, the only, the original. As you will see this edition of our Euro AICN has alittle less news than usually as the Festival of Cannes used most of our news these last ten days... So forgive us for the lack of fresh news... But we offer you reviews, a contest that replaces this weeks quiz, a nice picture and., of course, there is some news also... So enjoy !

EuroAICN#11

By Edgard & Darth Bond

* KINGDOM review

I had the chance to view a little movie you can only get on tape (or maybe on DVD... but that's not sure now). It was made by a little film company called Water On The Rock for 43,000 £ (approximately the same as 'Blair Witch'). Basically, it's about dragons and magic... The catchphrase is : "If dinosaurs became extinct 65 millions years ago... & fairies don't really exist... Why are dragons flying around the skies of Leeds ?". Watching this film, I felt pushed back 20 years ago when I was watching films on TV with my grandmother on Sunday's afternoons... It was really what we could enjoy both : adventures with kids, dragon, witch for me... and a nice little movie ("with no violence") for my grandmother... I haven't watched kid TV too much lately, but I have the feeling they don't make films like that anymore... (still the dragons are digital are well made... it does not hold against DRAGONHEART for sure, but it has a "rudimentary charm"...). My only critic would be that I thought the beginning was a bit slow and complicated (again I am talking for kids here) : lot of dialogues, no dragon, many characters... but all this go away after the first 20 minutes when dragons and the "mean woman" enter the film... Anybody can purchase "Kingdom" directly on-line... and if you want to know more about it, check : Right Here

* SAS Yo AICN readers, wanna be a cast director? Well today you can be, no training is apparently needed for this (hollywood movies, shh!). We just found out more about the still-in-the-works SAS movie (a james bond kinnda movie) and we want you to brainstorm about who could play a certain part in the movie. The one to make the best choice in talk-back will get a SAS book. So this week this is what we are doing instead of "Euro-Quiz of the Week" and hey, this week someone will get an actual prize!

What we are talking about here is a German Male CoStar/Supporting Player for SAS, and our blessedly-limited knowledge of the current German box office has but a few ideas as to whom we can turn to replace the soon-to-be-too-familiar Til Schweiger,... What makes this contest really difficult is its tough necessities.

The German-MaleStar must be a Star in Germany -- but virtually UNKNOWN anywhere else!? The young man who starred in RUN LOLA RUN qualifies because LOLA has been seen by only a small percentage of American [and worldwide] moviegoers,... while Jurgen Prochnow is definitely OUT...

The German-MaleStar must visually fit into a 007-style movie somewhere between Robert Shaw in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and Jean Reno in NIKITA,... yet his natural English must be 90%-comprehensible... As a "starter" here's a picture of a nice looking person who could well be in that SAS film... at least if our info is correct... see below...

NEWS FROM EUROPE

* For once, here are some positive European numbers of movie attendance in the European community : in 1999, 811 millions tickets have been sold... that is 1,1 % less than 1998 (but that was the year of the big sinking boat so...) and 6,2 % more since 1997. Among them, French bought the most (155,4 millions tickets), then Germany (149), UK (139,5) and Spain (131,3). And what do they want to see ? Well as usual American productions get 71 % of tickets sold (against 78 % in 1998)... Meanwhile let's be positive for Europe : the amount of films produced last year was up 10 % in the European community.

GERMANY

* From "M" : I don't have a scoop or anything but I would like to direct your attention to this site (in case you don't know it already): http://www.german-cinema.de/magazine/index.html It features English-language production reports and other information on upcoming German movies and is updated quarterly. To me the following films appear to be very promising: "Edelweisspiraten", "Gangster", "Lost Killers", "Pissed and Proud", "The Unscarred" (by Buddy Giovinazzo!) and "Was tun, wenn's brennt".

FRANCE

* Following the different reports on the first images of THE BROTHERHOOD OF WOLVES in Cannes, we got a lot of messages asking more on this film. So please check the official website to see the first teaser and images By Clicking Here

* Producer Claude Berri gave some more info during the Cannes Festival on the sequel of French mega hit ASTERIX & OBELIX. The title should be : AU SERVICE DE CLEOPATRE, and will be directed by actor/director Alain Chabat (who will play also César). Christian Clavier and Gérard Depardieu will be back as the two heroes; comedian Jamel Debbouze will be the architect Numérobis. No one has signed yet for Cléopatra (Berri confirmed it would NOT be Isabelle Adjani as it was rumoured). Shooting will start at the end of August in Malta, then will go to Ouarzazate in Morocco to end in a studio. The budget should be the same than for the first one (that means : big budget).

*Still with Claude Berri : his production company Renn Productions is developing two English-language titles - THE DEPUTY, to be directed by Costa-Gavras, and a cinematic version of Cinderella, to be directed by Bruno Aveillon. "The Deputy" is an adaptation of a novel by Rolf Hochhuth, scheduled to start shooting in February 2001. The film will be Costa-Gavras' first since MAD CITY in 1997.

SPAIN

* French actor Guillaume Depardieu (son of Gérard) will play the lead in Spanish film LOVE, CURIOSITY, PROZAC AND DOUBTS (Amor, Curiosidad, Prozac Y Dudas) from Madrid-based Mate Productions. The film begins shooting in Spain next Monday "Love" is based on a novel by popular writer Lucia Echevarria, who also wrote the script. Miguel Santasmasas directs. Alongside Depardieu the film will star Pilar Ponzano, Rosa Mariscal, Silvia Marceau, Nancho Novo and Guillermo Toledo. Meanwhile, Mate Cantero, founder and head of Mate Productions, said that she has joined with Spanish production houses Impala and CPA to board Terry Gilliam's THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE. French majors Pathe and Le Studio Canal Plus are teaming up with French production outfit Hachette Premiere and German film fund KC Medien to finance, produce and distribute $30m film.

UK

* Newcomer Kenny Doughty is to star opposite Andie MacDowell in FilmFour's SAD FUCKERS CLUB (working title), the debut feature from director-producer team John McKay and Lee Thomas. Doughty is to play the young man who has an affair with MacDowell, who appears as one of three, single middle-aged women who meet once a week for gin, chocolate and to discuss who is the saddest. Doughty, whose credits include TITUS and ELIZABETH, is "a northern James Dean", said McKay. Also starring are Imelda Staunton and Anna Chancellor as the rest of the club, while Bill Patterson plays "the sensible alternative" to Doughty. Shooting starts next month on the romantic comedy in the Cotswolds, London and Paris. "Andie likes saying the title all the time," McKay added. "Her image as a wholesome girl should expand and develop somewhat. I think she is really excited about being naughty."

* The first trailer from Ben Elton's new romantic comedy MAYBE BABY is available on Empire Online. The movie has been adapted by Elton from his novel "Inconceivable" and stars Hugh Laurie and Joely Richardson as a couple trying desperately to have a child. Laurie wants to write a hit film but finds that conceiving is a full-time job, especially with all the quack fertility remedies Richardson insists upon trying. Elton's screenwriting career, meanwhile, seems to be cruising along very smoothly indeed with the news that he'll be penning the big-screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "Phantom of the Oper"a. Antonio Banderas is currently attached to star with "Elizabeth"'s Shekhar Kapur directing. Check the trailer at : This Site

*RobinP here from the suddenly sunny Welsh coast in the UK: They've announced on the Channel 4 teletext service today that the BBC has confirmed that they are hammering out a deal with the L.A based Mutual Film Co to bring Dr Who to the big screen. A BBC spokesman has said, and I qoute."We are in no hurry, we have to get it right......but we ARE committed to making it". No word yet as to who will portray the time lord this time around. Thought you'd like to know.

RobinP

DENMARK

* Danish director Ole Bornedal, who directed 1994 chiller NIGHTWATCH and its English-language remake for Miramax in 1996, is set to direct THE LADY AND THE THIEF with long-time collaborator Michael Obel of Thura Film producing. Obel says he is close to securing German, French and Danish co-producers on the $8m project, which is also likely to be backed by Danish Film Institute. The film is a romantic road movie about a high society woman who decides to run away from her life in London to the south of France with a thief who saves her from suicide. Bornedal is also developing an adaption of Norwegian novel Dina with Nordisk Film and original script Paradise In Pain for Obel.

EuroPick of the Week: Live Flesh

By Darth Bond (I'm always doing Spanish films so here's another one)

Before Almodovar filmed Todo Sobre Mi Madre, All About my Mother -that academy award winner, he did Live Flesh (Carne Tremula), based on a novel by Ruth Rendell. It's starts with three men, three guns and a woman who meet in a house. David (Javier Bardem) and Sancho are cops who come to the rescue of Elena: Her captor is a immature young man called Victor who only wants to be with Elena. A violent discussion ensues the characters, one of the guns is shoot and David is hit . Two years later he's the start of the basketball para-olimpic team in Barcelona '92 and married to Elena. Victor sees this on television from prison, where he's about to get out. The film also has to offer Penelope Cruz who only apperars for 5 mins playing a hooker who gives birth in a bus and good acting from all the cast, especially Bardem as a handicapped man. In conclusion, a good watch.

Well that just about wraps EuroAICN#11. It's been another hard week at our Paris HQ, specially with the Cannes. Edgard is taking a rightfully deserve 4 day vacation in Barcelona with his girlfriend, whom I only meet a few weeks ago, lovely girl. But you got to hand it to him, he's been working real hard to get you guys Cannes reports daily, translated and presentable, and yet he still found time to pile the news in this column, so lets hear it for Edgard, the man. Edgard: Enjoy Barcelona., job well done.

Anyhow, hope you readers have a nice week, remember that if you have any Euro news, scoops, etc please send them to EuroAICN@yahoo.com , until next week -check ya later.