Howdy folks from Deep In The Heart Of Texas and the Austin Film Society's presentation of Quentin Tarantino's 4th hosted Film Festival in our fair city. FATHER GEEK here with Euro-AICN's weekly column, buuuuuut first a word about whats going on here this week.

Since Friday I've seen 14 motion pictures, 5 cartoons (including a Pepe LePew with both French and German sub-titles), and probably 60 trailers all from QT's private collection and there's still 7 full days to go. Quentin has personally introduced each and every one of his collection's gems. Other notables in attendance in the Alamo's intimate 230 seat theater for the laid-back event have included Richard Linklater, Mike Judge, Robert Rodriguez, Tobe Hooper, Amanda Plummer, etc... AICN crew on hand as included off and on, the LA OFFICE'S Moriarty, Johnny Wad, Dorothy Parker, Tom Joad, Capt. Blood, Annette Kellerman, Quint, The Mouth, Copernicus, Clair Standish, El Cosmico, and of course Harry and myself among others.

The fest this year has a decided international flavor with Quentin showing already: Mexico's 1957 VAMPIRE'S COFFIN starring "Mexico's Chris Lee" the phantastic German Robles, The Phillipine's THE MUTHERS by Cirio Santiago, Italy's THE MASTER'S TOUCH by Lupo, Argento's masterwork SUSPIRIA, LIGHTNING BOLT (produced with Spain), and Lucio Fuici's outstanding THE PSYCHIC, and 3 of Japan's and Ishiro Honda's best THE MYSTERIANS, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, MOTHRA, plus GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER. We also saw the very Euro-flavored flicks: Alvin Sargent's smartly written GAMBIT which was nom. for 3 Acad. Awards and 3 other Golden Globes, HAMMERHEAD, and KISS THE GIRLS AND MAKE THEM DIE, a very snappy and fun Italian/USA production which was shot in Brazil.

On the lineup for tonight is award winning Spanish filmmaker Jesus Franco's German produced erotic opus THE SUCCUBUS, tomorrow we have Italy's SHOOT FIRST-DIE LATER, one of Fernando DiLeo's absolute best, and WIPEOUT, then Wednesday its THE HUNS featuring Tanya Queen of the Tartars and THE GIANT OF METROPOLIS, a tale of godless Atlantis. Thursday is Spagetti Western night, Friday we see THE CHINESE MACK with a terrific Chan Wei-Min performance, and Sunday we are treated to England's rarely seen performance film from 1965; GO GO MANIA and later that day Hong Kong's DRAGON VS SNAKEFIST, DRAGON VS NEEDLE DEATH, and SNAKEFIST IN EAGLE SHADOW (Jackie Chan's break-out role). And that's just some of the international fare set for the coming week.

Soooooo ol' Father Geek is really earning his name this next 7 days. By the way TEXAS CHAINSAW'S Tobe Hooper and the amazingly approachable Amanda Plummer have sat through every single flick so far along with Harry, myself, Johnny Wad, and of course the films' owner Tarantino. Saturday's program started at Noon and ran till 10:30 Sunday morning, a real geek endurance test they passed with flying colors. Now on to Edgard and Euro-AICN's regular weekly column...

EURO AICN

Hello everyone !! Edgard here with the new edition of the Euro AICN news... This week we have some tiny news from Luc Besson, info from Denmark, UK and THe Netherlands... and all the extra's like the Ozymandias Corner (check this weird Melanie Griffith/Julia Roberts story), the question of the week (not a quizz, just a question) and a review of "Hollow Man" from Ethan who wants to hear from you... Let's not wait more... here it is...

FRANCE

* I know there are some fans of Laetitia Casta out there (you know the only person you wanted to look at in ASTERIX), so here are some news about her : Laetitia should play a prostitute from the 20's in a movie directed by Patrice Leconte (THE GIRL ON THE BRIDGE). Daniel Auteuil (who was already in THE GIRL...) and Patrick Timsit will also star.

* Benoît Jacquot (SADE, out now) has started to shoot his new film in UK : an adaptation of Puccini's opera "La Tosca". The actors/singers are Angela Georghiu (Tosca), Roberto Alagna (Mario Cavaradossi) and Ruggero Raimondi (Scarpia). The film will be a co-production between France, Italy and Germany.

* Luc Besson's next project could be WW3.COM, a thriller about a massive cyber-terrorist attack against the US of A. At least Fox would like Besson to take care of it and start production before next Summer... Could be interesting to follow that one....

DENMARK

* From Screendaily : A new children's film festival will take place in Copenhagen for five days from November 28. The Copenhagen International Children's Film Festival will screen more than 50 features from around the world and hand out a prize to the best film, the Buster Grand Prix. The festival is headed by Ola Tedin, former director of the BUFF children's festival in Malmo, Sweden. Director Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, whose credits include "Mifune" and several children's films including "The Island On Bird Street", is president of the festival's board. The festival's jury will comprise 20 children, who will be selected with the help of national broadcaster Danmarks Radio (DR). Other partners include Nordisk Film, The Danish Film Institute and the Danish Film School. The main prize at the festival is named after both silent film legend Buster Keaton and Bille August’s award-winning children’s film "Buster’s World" (1984).

UK

* I guess everyone knows now that HARRY POTTER has been cast, but still X-Mole sent us this link from the BBC website with a picture and article on this future event movie : Click Here .

* From Empire website here's some news on the future plans of Mr. Vinnie Jones : There's been a lot of gossip linking Jones to the various movies, so Empire Online takes the opportunity to set the record straight on a few of them. First off, the prison-football drama "Mean Machine", 'It's Guys and Matthew's company that's producing it,' Vinnie told us. 'I'll be doing that in January and February. Next up - "The Guv'nor", based on the life story of bareknuckle boxer Lenny McClean and Vinnie's happy to confirm this too. 'Well the offer's on the table, it's just a matter of crossing the Ts and dotting the Is.' It's not a stretch from this admission to asking Vinnie whether he worries about being typecast as the hard man of British film. ''I don't think you can run before you can walk - you've got to be careful. But I have just done a small movie in America which is different (with Farrah Fawcett) and then the new movie I'm doing with Travolta is different and Mean Machine's different again so it'll only be then if I come back and do The Guv'nor that I'll be doing that role again. A recent Omnibus documentary on Vinnie showed the footballer turned actor boasting that he could see himself starring in $20 million movies and he's still keen to see himself eventually as a new Mel Gibson. 'I'd like to play William Wallace in "Braveheart", that kind of role. That's what know I cando, that's what I want the chance to do,' he told us. 'Those roles like Daniel Day Lewis in "Last of the Mohicans", those roles make the hairs at the back of your neck stand up. But to do that you can't go from A to Z. I've still got a lot to learn.' Last, but not least, Vinnie's working on his own movie - a comedy. 'Guy's read it and it made him laugh,' he says. 'I've made [the lead character] a boxer and I think he's going to go to the Olympics. But it's really about the working lads that come into the pub and their view of him and growing up with him. It's their view of having a mate as a celebrity and their characters rather than the lead character.' America, it seems has been good for Vinnie both professionally and creatively. ''In America you can take a breath out there more than I can here with all the tension I create here one way and another.' So is making movies better than football? 'Yeah, you haven't got so many people making decisions on life, the FA that sort of thing. You're your own man. As long as I keep working hard and keep my head down.'

* Happy Birthday to Sir Sean Connery who turned 70 this past Friday... (I know, I know... this isn't real news, but I like the old man)

THE NETHERLANDS

* The Slightly Wicked Witch sent us some more info on the Dutch film OCEAN WARRIOR : According to the Dutch magazine FEM de Week, director John Badham has left the movie, due to a conflict about how to shoot crucial footage of a clash between two ships. Apparently this could not be done by CGI, and the schedule demanded it would have to done in winter, something the director and some of his crew didn't think was feasible with the available budget of roughly $50 million (NLG 114 million, the biggest budget ever for a Dutch film project) and was deamed too risky on top of that. Apart from director John Badham, marine coordinator Michael Turk, line producer Bill Cartlidge, production manager Rick Nish and production accountant Andy Birmingham have left as well. The new appointed director is Stephen Hopkins (Lost in Space, Under Suspicion), and the new marine coordinator (name not mentioned) has indicated that the required ocean shooting in winter should not be a problem.

THE OZYMANDIAS CORNER

* Our friends at Empire Online (www.empireonline.co.uk) have done a wonderful job of covering the Harry Potter presser in London last Wednesday : Members of the world's press yesterday met the three child stars of the Harry Potter movie and within minutes there was no question that the casting agents had done a brilliant job. Daniel Radcliffe, a shy and gawky 11 year-old wearing Harry Potter glasses, was the reluctant star, admitting that he hadn't read all the Potter books. Having cried when he heard he'd won the role, the youngster - whose mother is a casting director - seemed thoroughly unfazed by his good luck and felt that he was a 'tiny bit like Harry - I'd like to have an owl'. Hockey-playing Emma Watson said that while that she's not a 'top-of-the-form, goody two shoes,' she felt she looked like her character. Certainly Emma's cut-glass accent and general self-confidence left no-one in any doubt that this was a perfect Hermione. 'I'm pretty excited,' she told the assembled journalists, 'and I'm really looking forward to filming.' Finally there was red-haired Rupert Grint, who is in his own words, 'scarily like my character' - he comes from a family of seven children - who all turned up to the conference yesterday prompting one journalist to note that the Weasleys had arrived. Quizzed on what he wanted to do with his star salary, Grint quipped that, 'Speaking as a wizard, I'm going to be paid in muggle money and I don't really understand it!' Director Christopher Columbus said that his main concern for his young stars were that they didn't go down the same road as child star Macaulay Culkin, who he worked with in Home Alone. Columbus, who hasn't spoken to Culkin for the last eight years, said he was 'concerned when I got this job that when we dealt with the children who would eventually get these roles that we would also make absolutely certain that the parents were wonderful parents as well.' Talking about the search for Harry, Columbus said he had seen thousands of kids and, despite rumours to the contrary, it had always been his intention that every member of the cast would be British and went on the confirm several new cast members - Richard Griffiths and Fiona Shaw as Harry's Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia and Ian Hart as Professor Quirrell. The movie, which begins filming in London next month will be shot mainly in the capital, Columbus confirmed, with the crew going outside London to shoot in various imposing buildings including Gloucester Cathedral. Commenting on the recent protests by Christians about the filming at the cathedral, Columbus called it 'all a bit silly'. Two versions of the movie will be shot - one called The Sorceror's Stone for the US market and The Philosopher's Stone for the UK with the cast shooting alternate takes for the six or seven times the title is mentioned in the film. Asked whether Daniel, Emma and Rupert were signed up for more than one movie, Columbus said that he intends to 'examine the possibilities of an ongoing film series. Obviously the complexities of the books in terms of special effects and the amount of preparation and planning makes it a little difficult to do one of these films a year, so there will probably be a point when the children outgrow the roles. So I couldn't really tell you how many films we can do with this particular cast.' The special effects for the film are being spread out over a number of companies including ILM and Jim Henson's Creature Shop, with Nick Dougman - who was responsible for The Phantom Menace - doing the prosthetics work.Columbus intends to work closely with Potter author JK Rowling during the course of filming for one good reason, 'I wanted to have the opportunity to call or email her and say; "What colour are the wings of the Golden Snitch? Or how many uses are there for dragon blood?"'

* This one's been bubbling around hre for a while - our friends at Showbizireland.com have the scoop! My thoughts? Well at least she has the breasts for it...... : Hollywood's Melanie Griffith is to play the role of her fellow Hollywood actress Julia Roberts in the true story about the relationship between Roberts and an Irish Chauffeur. ShowBizIreland.com has got confirmation from Griffith's agent that she has signed on the dotted line for the movie which starts shooting in Ireland towards the end of September, start of October. The story (an Irish and true version of Notting Hill) is based on the life of the actress and the Irish celeb chauffeur Mick Devine who took care of her at one of the lowest points in her life. Called The Limo Man the movie stems from the July 1991 meeting between Devine and Julia Roberts when she called him at two in the morning and asked him to pick her up from the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin where she had just broken up with Kiefer Suderland. In his own words Mick says that he hasn't talked to the actress about the movie yet but speaking to her on the phone she did say she would be back in Ireland in October for a holiday. According to Devine when Julia broke up with Sutherland there was only one place he could take her: "The only place I could bring her was to my home in the Dublin suburbs. There was no where-else I could think of taking her. So, I took her home to the wife. Since then we have become great friends. We even went over and stayed in her house in Hollywood. She is always on the phone and always sends me letters from all over the world." One of 1999 biggest movie hits was Notting Hill which stared Julia as a Hollywood star who fell for a normal non-famous guy (Hugh Grant). In The Limo Man Melanie Griffith has signed to play Julia while producers are chasing Irish actor Brendan Gleeson who looks set to play Devine in a script written by Barry Devlin.

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

THE QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Someone asked us at Euro AICN if we knew about a film with Faye Dunaway, called THE BIOGRAPHER and directed by Philip Saville. That person would like to know when it will be released. So does any AICN reader know the answer ? Anyone can help ?

REVIEW... DEBATE?

Our faithful friend Ethan sent me a review of HOLLOW MAN... I know that usually we don't put a film review on the site after it has been released in the States. But as Ethan seemed so much in love with the film, as it is not as succesful as hoped in the States and as it's coming in Europe in the next few weeks, I thought why not ?... So here's Ethan's review of HOLLOW MAN... For those who liked it, or disliked it, or even for those who feel like dropping a line, Ethan waits for your comments in the Talk-Back...

Paul Verhoeven belongs to the group of Hollywood authors that try hard to widen the expectations and criteria of the audience.Sadly,the industry isn`t always ready to support such intentions.The movies became too expensive and studios do a lot of formulaic pics just to be sure that they`ll get their money back.Verhoeven managed to avoid such studio limitations in his movies.Maybe because Hollywood owes so much to the `Crazy Dutch`?

Verhoeven defined the legacy of the modern Hollywood.With `RoboCop` he made the ultimate action SF comic-book cross-over that has a large ammount of satire.`Total Recall` turned the action SF mould into a new shape e.g. plotty scripts with twists were the written backing for energetic visceral action.Check `Total Recall` once again these days- look how Verhoeven made it,dig how he shot Scwarzenegger,try to imagine seeing such a movie today (in the year 2000)...They simply don`t make movies like that anymore.`Basic Instinct` shaped the form of the postmodern erotic thriller.This genre has the greatest representative in this movie.The picture turned this genre into a potent moneymaking well for the studios.At the same time `Basic Instinct` launched Sharon Stone into stardom that was exclusively built on this Verhoven pic (remember that Sharon failed to repeat such commercial or pop-cultural success afterwards).

With `Starship Troopers` Verhoeven ventured into the deeply intellectual vein of his Hollywood career.This movie was an explicit satire of the American civilisation.Verhoeven`s stylish direction made it look like a straight `gung ho`war movie but there were layers of subversion beneath.Even Ed Neumeier`s script failed to remain straight faced all the way-it went spoofy toward the climax.This movie flopped on the box-office but it also developed a strong fandom.Unfortunately most of the fans liked the pic because of Verhoeven`s energetic staging of battles.Only a minority understood how important and perverse was a movie where TV actors in Nazi uniforms blow bugs away.

`Hollow Man` followed.It was released in a season when De Palma,Woo and Zemeckis made weak films.Movie buffs around the world wandered if one great era was drawing to a close.But then `Hollow Man` hit the screens. In `Hollow Man` Verhoeven is as vital as ever.This time he tackles the myth of the Invisible Man(that was initially invented by H.G.Wells). This mythology is great since it provides the author with limitless opportunities.It also easily uncovers author`s obsessions (I mean Wes Craven`s Invisible Man would be different from Sam Mendes`).This review will be full of spoilers both you are already familiar with the most of those plotlines and this movie is so great that you should see it neverminding the knowledge about the story. In Verhoeven`s `Hollow Man` the invisible guy is the monster.So if you take a simple look into the movie you can define it as the monster pic. The monster is opposed to heroes.The only Verhoeven`s touch is that monster isn`t too bad and heroes ain`t no good.

The monster is scientist Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon),a pure genius that invented invisibility serum.Heroes are his ex-girlfriend Linda and his friend Matt (who is also Linda`s current lover) who are also scientists (but underachievers compared to Sebastian).Sebastian is sexually frustrated but not in the sense of not getting any.He simply isn`t getting what he deserves (Sebastian is a much better guy than his ex-lover`s present boyfriend) so audience emphatizes with him.When he goes invisible he a)solves his sexual frustration (being in peace with your sexual instinct is extremely important said late Sigmund Freud) b)fights for his life and for `what he is` e.g.he kills officials and colleagues that try to eliminate him.While performing this he sins but overall he just tries to scratch his itches.Actually the pic is set as a fight between classy,decadent intellectual (Hollow Man) and his dumber friends that have a chance to obey in `melting pot` America. The described setting of `the monster` that isn`t so bad and the mentally inferior heroes seems kinky for some 80-million summer movies.

Verhoeven turns this picture into a landmark when he deploys all the idiomatic solutions of dialogue in the script.For example,the typical `come fight me like a man`line get a new flavour when it is being said by a mediocre person that covers the shallowness with dogmatic justice. Why would classy scientist like Caine accept this dumb challenge? I am not saying that this line doesn`t work.It is actually great but Verhoeven changes its tone by twisting the character set-up.When John McClane says that in `Die Hard` it is the symbol of the true American valor.In `Hollow Man` it is the symbol of a dumb guy trying to out-muscle the genius.

Verhoeven also uncovers the Hollywood manipulation with Christianity. Like in every monster movie heroes here whine about Godless nature of science.Most of these accusations are true but in `Hollow Man` heroes use this to simply cover their inabilty to think and invent like Caine.Most of the Godless nature of science in movies is connected to the cabalist myth of Golem. With this character manipulation Verhoeven aims the foundings of America-the movies.Let`s be real-people around the world see America only through movies.I can bet that most young and literate people around the globe know more about New York than about any town in their own fatherland.Well,this time Verhoeven messed with the powerful and influential institution of the Hollywood Movie.He showed how a talented and smart author can reinvent cliches.

`Hollow Man` script floated the Web for a long time.It was written by Andrew W.Marlowe (Air Force One,End of Days)and based on a story by Scott E.Anderson.Anyone who read the script sees that the studio and the MPAA messed with the picture.Even one early AICN review showed that the first 150-minute cut packed more punch than any recent release (the movie is 114 minutes long). Apparently MPAA have left out the kinky and explicit parts while studio retooled the movie by re-editing it in order to make Caine a pure but `by the numbers` villain.Thus they jeopardized the integrity of Verhoeven`s vision. Author`s direction is as stylish as ever.Verhoeven makes every smart viewer feel like a kid in the candy store and the use of CGI really creates the sense of awe and wonder.

Kevin Bacon did a great job.His role was a tough one since he isn`t visible for the most of the time.That`s why he had to achieve the illusion and expression only with his voice.Elizabeth Shue and Josh Brolin are great as an annoying couple of dogmatic underachievers that bond through averageness.If you look for hero quality in their roles you`re off the mark.

`Hollow Man` has flaws that are imposed by the studio and the MPAA.But if I don`t claim it to be a masterpiece I would betray the joy I felt watching it.

Ethan

Well that's it for this week.... remember to send us your questions, reviews, scoops or whatever you want to our EURO AICN Offices in Paris at euroaicn@yahoo.com .

Have a great week !

Edgard