Father Geek here with a pretty short Latin-AICN column for this week. There's no report from Ulysses and Argentina, or from LOBO and Mexican cinema, but ol' Coffin Joe and Father Geek dug up a couple of interesting bits relating to the Latino cine scene. Our first report concerns that Hispanic tough guy from all of director Robert Rodriguez's films, Danny Trejo. It seems Danny's has jumped into a full-fledged old fashioned Screwball comedy. Here's the report as it came to me this morning...

QUICKIES / RAPIDINES

*Noticed the other day you mentioned how much you like watching Danny Trejo. Turns out he's in a movie I'm working on called Bubble Boy. He plays a biker named Slim who takes our innocent Bubble Boy to Vegas and an Ozzy concert, and then chases the Bright and Shiny people across the country to Niagra Falls. Sound silly? Oh, it is. Hilariously so. Anyway, just thought you might be interested. Oh, almost forgot. Today we filmed a scene that involved Susan Hawke (of Survivor fame) portraying a waitress. Looks like she'll be the first of the group to make it to the big screen (albeit for the briefest of moments), and not Colleen. Okay, gotta get some sleep now, tomorrow we start blowing up the diner she was waitressing at. Too much fun.

Knight of Ni!

The following reports come from Elston Gunn...

* Danny Huston will direct his late father John Huston's long-lost screenplay AMPARO about a screenwriter with writer's block who travels to Mexico for inspiration. There, he falls for a young Latina prostitute named Amparo during a "Day of the Dead" festival in a rural village.

* Gustavo Mosquera (MOEBIUS) will direct THE LONG HELLO AND SHORT GOODBYE for Lion Rock Prods. and Newmarket Group. Jeff Vintar scripted the RASHOMON-esque style story that begins with a roomful of corpses and flashes back to how each character ended up there.

* Production has temporarily ceased for Terry Gilliam's THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE due to pending surgery for its star Jean Rochefort. Production began Sept. 25 in Spain. Johnny Depp stars also.

* Mexican director Antonio Serrano (SEX, SHAME AND TEARS) will direct the thriller LA HIJA DEL CANIBAL (THE CANNIBAL'S DAUGHTER) based on the novel by Rosa Montero.

* Nicole Kidman has temporarily dropped out of shooting on THE OTHERS in Spain due to a recurrence of a knee injury she received while filming MOULIN ROUGE.

Edgard's report on a film in SPAIN

* Okay... this one seems too crazy to be true, but why not ?? I found it on allocine.fr, a really cool French website on cinema : it seems that John Travolta will play "the mother" (don't ask) of Laetitia Casta in the next film of Pedro Almodovar : UN AMOR... OTRA VEZ. French actress Bernadette Laffont could also join the cast. Jean-Paul Gaultier will take care of the costumes (he worked already with Almodovar in KIKA) and Madonna could sing one of the songs of the movie (while the Gipsy Kings could take care of the soundtrack). Coooool.

Coffin Joe's report from BRAZIL...

Hey Father Geek , Coffin Joe here , back again.

The São Paulo film fest is going strong , lots of movies , Friday I got to see Wong Kar-Wai´s " In the Mood for Love " and Saturday I caught a screening of Tsui Hark´s " Time and Tide " . Both from Hong Kong , but that´s about the only thing these movies have in common ( well gorgeous cinematography too ) .

-IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE

" In the Mood for Love " deals with a restrained and sweet relationship between a guy ( played by Tony Leung ) and a gal ( Maggie Cheung ) , who live in the same building .

Well I think " In the Mood for Love " is a bit more mainstream than Wong Kar-Wai´s other films . It´s still stylish , lots of the stuff he is known for like the camera moves and color scheme , all really carefully staged , but it just seems like he held back . " Chungking Express " has interesting characters and relationships , as does " In the Mood for Love " , the thing is Chungking had a more energetic , livelier pace , and the visuals hit you over the head without a warning . Here he indulges in a nifty montage like every ten minutes , but the rest of the time it feels like he just isn´t there . You expect him to do it every five seconds and he refuses to do so , taking his time . I guess he´s older , wiser , maybe he felt like doing something a little more conventional , I don´t know . It´s like he´s behind the curtains working his magic , but you only see glimpses of the genius , like he´s in a cloud of fog . Maybe I´m being a moron , it´s nonetheless a near-masterpiece of a love story , but it´s not the hardcore Wong kar-Wai , kinda like the M:I-2 John Woo , not as edgy as he was in his early years . Still a must-see , so check it out . ( Watch for THE music to kick in and witness the old Wong Kar-Wai in some cool as hell montage sequences )

-TIME AND TIDE

" Time and Tide " is a comeback for Tsui Hark after the stuff he did with the midget from Brussels ( although " The Blade " , one of the last flicks he did in HK is quite a classic ) . This movie moves at a blistering pace , and sometimes , you can´t quite follow what the fuck is going on as far as plot goes , but you´re so caught up with the stuff you´re seeing on the screen , you forget about logic , coherence , narrative , that sort of thing . There´s actually a plot involving a bag of money , two pregnant ladies ( one of them is a lesbian , who slept with the main character ) , a gang of Brazilian bad dudes ( who spoke Spanish !? ) and other stuff as well , problem is I didn´t really understand the whole conspiracy plot , why people were killed or much else in terms of story . It looked so fuckin´cool and it was so crisply edited and shot ( and I knew I was watching a Tsui Hark HK action flick ) , that I just didn´t really care wether or not I understood everything that was happening as far as the storyline goes . I was there for the visual candy , the action , the kick ass gunplay , you know the HK works . That´s it . Guess what ? I got it in spades . It rules . Kudos to the guy who found the locations they shot at ( some decaying buildings looked straight out of Frank Miller´s Sin City )

There are some cool CGI shots that look a lot like those in " Fight Club " and " The Matrix " ( there´s even a fire sequence in a kitchen just like in Fight Club , where the frame freezes and you see the room as the explosion goes off , with everything flying around in the middle of the fire ) and the camera moves in some truly inventive and unique ways ( remember the tennis shoe cam from " Knock Off " ? Here Mr.Hark tops that in his sleep ) . Lots of weird Raimi-esque POVs .

I can´t say enough good things about this film . It´s old-school HK , a return to those days , coolness all around . Enjoy .

-One last thing : the movie that has been chosen to represent Brazil in next year´s Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film is " Me , You , Them " . It has distribution locked for the U.S. , by Sony Pictures Classics , which is always a good thing when they are trying to get a nomination . Good luck to director Andrucha Waddington and his team over at Conspiração Filmes in Rio .

Coffin Joe says : bye