Father Geek here with Edgard and our Easter edition of Euro-AICN on the anniversery of the sinking of the TITANIC in 1912.

I just found out that Joey Ramone one of the leaders of the Punk Music revolution, namesake of The Ramones, and sometimes moviestar [Final Rinse (1999), We're Outta Here! (1997), Hard Core Logo (1996), 1991: The Year Punk Broke (1992), Roadkill (1989), Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)] has just died. He will be missed even though the band brokeup 5 years ago.

The Ramones were the first punk rock band. There may have been other bands, such as the Stooges and the New York Dolls, that came before them and set the stage and aesthetic for punk and bands that immediately followed, such as the Sex Pistols, that made the latent violence of the music more explicit, but the Ramones crystallized the musical ideals of the genre. By cutting rock & roll down to its bare essentials and speeding up the tempo, the Ramones created something that was rooted in early '60s, pre-Beatles rock & roll, but sounded and felt revolutionary. The band's first four albums set the blueprint for punk, especially American punk, for the next two decades. And the Ramones themselves were major figures for the next twenty years, playing essentially the same music without changing their style much at all. Based in the Forest Hills section of Queens, New York, Joey and the others formed together in 1974.

Ol' Father Geek is fortunate enough to have seen the RAMONES live in concert several times back in the late 70's when they played Austin. Those guys, and especially Joey, really knew how to put on a show, I'll never forget those nights when raw, edgy punk was first invading Texas... people like Joey can die... the rage never will! HERE TODAY,GONE TOMORROW!

Now on to Edgard's regular report...

EURO AICN - HAPPY EASTER

Hello folks... Edgard here and Happy Easter to everyone !! This is for me a long long week-end out of my job... at home... enjoying a few days off...

Anyway here's our Euro news... On the Easter menu you will get some words on GANGS OF NEW-YORK; a remake of LE DINER DE CONS; A HARD DAY'S NIGHT; DOUBLE DOWN; REIGN OF FIRE and - now in its second week - the Ethan's Corner... If you have been reading EURO AICN for a while now (if not, you should be ashamed) you must know that Ethan is one of the only one around defending Renny Harlin with so much passion... To be honnest, I don't really know how I feel about that director... I like DIE HARD 2 and CLIFFHANGER a lot ... I think THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT is an underrated film, it's much better than what I read about in different "R. Harlin trashing talk-backs" on this site... but CUTTHROAT ISLAND was really disappointing; and DEEP BLUE SEA was just a pure Summer film, not bad, but certainly not great... still I never thought Harlin was a master or a genius; just a talented craftsman... no more, no less... but I know there're many of you out there who hate the guy, so come on in the Talk-Back's and let's discuss that once again...

ITALY

We've seen another stuff from GANGS OF NEW-YORK. This time we describe a scene shooted at Villa Borghese, the most famous park in Rome, where two months ago occurred an incident and two extras were injured. In this occasion, we can see a group of men arranged in semicircle. It seems, by the mood of the people involved, a funeral (maybe the funeral of Father Vallon/Liam Neeson?) or something like that. More: a scene shooted by Victor Armstrong, with Daniel Day Lewis killing various men with a knife and an axe. By seeing these bloody images, we understand why he is called "The Butcher". Last but not least, a scene in a church. DiCaprio enters with his men. One of them is black. There is a man who prays. The gang surrounds him. He doesn't seem afraid and starts screaming at DiCaprio: "How do you dare to take a black man to the Church?". Of course, a violent fight starts.

You can read the full report at: This Location

Bye

Robert

FRANCE

* After this week's wonderful interview with JP Jeunet, Grozilla sent us a few news from France :

- Southwest of France seems at last to seduce American productions. After Peter Hyams' "D'Artagnan" mainly shot in my town, Toulouse, the next Gillan Armstrong' project, "Charlotte Gray" was shot around there, precisely in St Antonin Nobleval, a small village. Cate Blanchett & Billy Crudup surely enjoyed the "douceur de vivre" of Gers, the true land of Armagnac, duck meat and Pâté (the english name for our Foie Gras, one of the finest french meal... Funny, for us, "Pâté" means kind of spam...). I've just heard that the French shooting of "Charlotte Gray" has in fact been wrapped last week. Unfortunately, this english production hasn't allowed French press to be on the set...

- Hong Kong's going to get a strong presence in Cannes, follows an e-mail I received from some press office : HK will be in Cannes this year : there will be a press junket May 12th in the morning. Will be present : Chow Yun Fat - Michelle Yeoh - Andy Lau - Samo Hung - Shu Qui - Fan Shiu Wong - Michelle Reis - Ekin Cheng - Cecilia Cheng - Jade Leung - Stanley Tong - Peter Chan - Fruit Chan - Yon Fan - Tsui Hark - Wong Jing To be confirmed : Jackie Chan - Stephen Chiau Shing Chi - Tony Leung - Wong Kar Wai

* While JUST VISITING, US remake of the French comedy LES VISITEURS is not a big success; another remake has been in the works for a while now, the remake of LE DINER DE CONS (released in the States - and available on DVD - as "The Dinner Game"). Try to see it if you can, this is certainly French comedy as its best. Mr Peur from Montreal reports for us :

Hi ! Dont know if it is of interest but in last saturday edition of La Presse, a Montreal newspaper there was an interview with Francis Veber, the man who wrote and directed a lot of hit french comedies, such as "La Cage aux Folles", "Les Trois Fugitifs", "La Chèvre", "un Grand Blond avec une Chaussure Noire" etc... A few years ago "Le Diner de Cons" was big hit in France, so big that Spielberg and Dreamworks bought the rights to an American version in which Kevin Kline is rumored to take over Thierry Lhermitte's role. Veber said he will direct the american version and that Woody Allen approached him and told him he was a big fan of the movie and that if he wanted to make an american version, he would play the Schmuck anytime. Veber, and I agree, said that he would just be perfect in that role. Dreamworks, are they the ones behind Antz ???, told him that Woody Allen is yesterdays news and that he doenst fill the theatres anymore. One other sad exemple that proves that Hollywood dont make movies to tell stories, they make them to seel tickets. Thats pathetic, here you have a wonderful actor cast as a wonderful character and... no it dowsnt meet our financial expectations about the movie. Oh well do with it what you wish !

Mr Peur

* For the last few years, French television has been producing bigger and bigger TV films; most of them having in common Gérard Depardiu by the way. After LES MISERABLES, it's now NAPOLEON that will become a TV serie (4 episodes; produced by France 2). Although a French production, the cast will be international : Christian Clavier (now André le Pâté in JUST VISITING) will play the Emperor; Kenneth Branagh will be the Tsar Alexandre; and they will be joined by Gérard Depardieu - of course - and John Malkovich. Yves Simoneau will direct. Shooting starts May 21st.

IRELAND

* Ozymandias sent us this story from WiteWulf on A HARD DAY'S NIGHT :

Hey Ozy, last night I went to see the classic Beatles flick, A Hard Day's Night, pristine in it's new print and with digitally restored audio. The film was being shown as part of Nottingham's International Film & Television Archive Festival, Out Of Sight, at the Broadway cinema and we were told by the woman introducing the film that we were only minutes behind the world premiere that was going on in Liverpool that same night. She thanked Miramax and Buena Vista for allowing them to show it before the general release date. The show was obviously a sell out, I've never seen the Broadway that full before except for a midnight showing of The Blair Witch Project, and what an anti-climax THAT was....

For those of you who haven't seen the film before, it was made in 1964 by the 'father of the pop video', Richard Lester and basically follows the Fab Four (accompanied by Paul's Grandad, for some unexplained reason) on a trip to London where they're going to play a gig for some TV show or other. The lads, mostly spurred on by John Lennon, take every opportunity they can to disappear and have some fun, much to the alarm of their manager, Norm (Norman Rossington) and the show's director (Victor Spinetti, who was allegedly in the audience last night as he's currently in a play in Nottingham). The film is very fast paced and although I can't say I never stopped laughing, I've never spent that long (125mins) smiling so hard. The film was a joy to watch, seeing all the screaming 15 year old girls and thinking 'they're all the same age as my mum now'. One wierd thing, I kept feeling as if I ought to be applauding at the end of every song, there was a real 'concert' atmosphere in the cinema, almost as if you were really there in the TV studio watching the show get recorded. At the end of the night we got to let go as the film got a healthy round of applause from the audience.

This is just the first of a string of great movies that will be showing as part of the festival and I heartily recommend anyone in the UK to get over to Nottingham for some of the showings. Check out Broadway's website at http://www.broadway.org.uk and the site for the festival itself is http://www.outofsight.org.uk

I'll certainly be getting tickets in advance for Breakfast At Tiffany's, The Wicker Man, To The Devil A Daughter, You Can Count On Me, A Great Day In Harlem and Annie Hall, so expect some more reviews of at least some of these to be forth coming.

WiteWulf, out.....

* Some news brought to you by our friends from Showbiz Ireland :

- The Connamara born Irish actor Peter O'Toole, who has won seven Oscar nominations in his 50-year career, will never star in another film. The 68-year-old actor tells Entertainment Weekly magazine: "I don't have the appetite to take on and sustain the entire 20 weeks of a movie - and happily that's unlikely to come my way."

- While Brosnan is waiting for a script for the next James Bond film, he will star in the action-adventure film Defiance. Brosnan will also produce the film in which he will play the leader of a renegade band of soldiers battling a totalitarian government. He had been expected to star in the Renny Harlin-directed adaptation of Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder - but the script is being rewritten, leaving a gap in his schedule.

- English actor Ralph Fiennes has signed on for a cameo in the feature "Double Down" for Alliance Atlantis, Company of Wolves. The well known Irish film maker Neil Jordan is directing the project, which stars Nick Nolte, Tcheky Karyo, Said Taghmaoui, Gerard Darmon, Quassini Embarek, Mark Lavoine, Emir Kursturica and Nutsa Kukhianidze also have been cast. The film is shooting in the south of France at the moment. Earlier this year the film director confirmed he was to make three films after a slight spell in retirement when he told ShowBizIreland.com that he was writing a novel. Now, the director has secured the rights to not just his current project with Nick Nolte. His next film will is expected to be a controversial film called Lucrezia a period based drama telling the story of Italy's notorious Borgia, a family filled with corruption and wealth in the 1500's. The director has also in between these two project been planning a film on the life of the famous Australian robber Ned Kelly. The director recently beat off stiff competition to get the rights to the book by Peter Carey called The True Story of the Kelly Gang. Rolling Stone Mick Jagger played the lead role in a seventies film based on Ned Kelly. Jordan is believed to be looking at a young Irish or Australian actor to play the lead of Kelly who was skilled at the age of 25. In the meantime Brendan Gleeson has signed on to play the second male lead in "The Plague Season" alongside Kurt Russell for Intermedia Films and United Artists. Ron Shelton is set to direct.

Full stories: By Clicking Here

UK

* And some more news from Empire on Line this week :

- Having been de-fanged after finishing his turn as Dracula in Patrick Lussier’s Dracula 2001, Gerard Butler now spends his time dodging fireballs on the set of dragon-slaying epic Reign of Fire. “I’m over in Dublin until June doing Reign of Fire with Matthew McConaghey and Christian Bale,” Butler told Empire Online. “It’s this big, insane $95 million dollar beast of a movie.” The film tells the story of a group of human survivors living in a post-apocalyptic England plagued by huge fire-breathing dragons. “I play the best mate of Christian Bale, we live in this castle with a bunch of others and we’re just struggling to get by because everything is burned out and gone. Destroyed by the dragons.” With fully digital beasties, the film looks set to raise the already considerably impressive CGI standards set by Dragonheart and Dungeons & Dragons. “There’s going to be six months of CGI once we finish shooting, something like $33 million of the budget is on CGI.” With huge dragons fighting in the sky and razing London to ashes Reign of Fire is shaping up to be high on the list of must-see movies of 2002. “It’s going to be amazing, absolutely amazing.”

- Empire Online caught up with the lovely Carla Gugino at yesteday's Spy Kids premiere and pumped her for information on what she was up to, besides playing the world's No 1 Spy/Mum. First up will be The Center of the World - which has caused controversy in the States because of its sexually explicit content. 'My role's not that raunchy!' said Carla. 'Wayne Wang's film is an art film - there's elements of Last Tango in Paris...He really wanted to stir the pot a bit and with the subject matter like that, dealing with people's sexual relations, if there wasn't any controversy it would have been a bit odd - it might not have hit the mark.' Gugino is currently filming The One with Jet Li - and Britain's very own Jason Statham. 'It's along the lines of Blade Runner and The Matrix,' she explained. 'It's under the pretext that there are several different universes existing at the same time and we exist in some form in each of them so I play three different characters in each of the universes.' And what about her co-stars? 'Well Jet's doing a lot of amazing fighting and Jason plays one of the inter-universal agents, one of the agents that monitors people going back and forth between the universes.' Sadly, it seems that Jet's nabbed most of the good action, in the film which is being directed by James 'Final Destination' Wong. But Carla's fairly sanguine about her prospects. 'I get to detonate a bomb - but Jet gets to be very fluid. I get to do all the crass stuff!'

- If you're interested also to read about Antonio Banderas talking about working with Mick Jagger and Wayne Wang; or Robert Rodriguez on The Spy Kids sequel; Rachel Weisz joining About A Boy; American Psycho 2 or even Hugh Grant on working with Robert de Niro... check the news section of Empire Online at Their Site

ETHAN'S SERBIAN CORNER

There is obviously a curse in deals that authors sign with Miramax. Many of Hollywood`s exclusive talents simply lost their sharpness after leaving their signature on Miramax contracts. Look at Quentin Tarantino. I never took him too seriously but today he reached the lowest low of his career. He turned into the factory of coolness without any filmmaking flair. The same applies to Ehren Kruger who simply got swallowed by Miramax. His decline hurts me a lot since I regard ARLINGTON ROAD as a complete masterpiece. I hope that he will resurface with Gore Verbinski`s THE RING remake that is all set up at DreamWorks. The only Miramax guy still kicking ass is Robert Rodriguez. His movies are still funny and full of fanboy flair. Let`s hope someone ressurects the Miramax GoodFellas.

I can`t wait to see Darren Aronofsky`s upcoming Warner Brothers project. After years of rigid Daly / Semel rule, WB is gearing up to work with some of Hollywood`s hottest young talents. While Daly and Semel called all the shots WB was a fine franchise-driven studio that had its` typical directors and casting. It was great for a while but Richard Donner`s movies got tiresome. Casting of Mel Gibson and Clint Eastwood also go too predictable. Today, WB has a fine relationship with the explosive talents like Aronofsky, The Farrelly Brothers and of course The Magnificent Wachowskis. It will be a great refrshment for their ailing franchises if some of these guys tackle them not just as authors but alos as producers or writers. Imagine LETHAL WEAPON franchise healed by Renny Harlin and disinfected from all the sitcom disgrace Richard Donner brought? Imagine LETHAL WEAPON sequel shepherded by Aronofsky where we really get to see old Martin Riggs going futher down the spiral?

Renny Harlin is setting up the DEEP BLUE SEA sequel. Apparently it will deal with misfotrunes in some flooded town. This pitch sounds like pure genius to me since urban ruins feel like a perfect setting for underwater shark action. Since the original wasn`t character-driven we can count on some unpredictable casting and unexpected victims. Bad news is that Harlin won`t be directing. Renny stated that this time he`ll just bless the works from the shore.

John McTiernan`s ROLLERBALL remake has all the right ingredients to be a classic. I`m glad that the script is deprived of all the lame SF sociology. Designs look trashy and this brings the realistic feel to it since I don`t think that modern entertainers appreciate sophistication. Look at NBA jerseys! Chris Klein definitely worries me but I hope that McTiernan will make him work like he did with Bruce Willis in DIE HARD. MGM should have casted some bad ass fella or Jonathan`s role. someone like Russell Crowe or Vin Diesel. Supporting roles seem fine but I doubt that LL Cool J is better or tougher than Michael Madsen or Chow Yun Fat. Anyway, I`m glad that McTiernan is doing action again and I hope that he`ll fulfil promises given in all those smart and inspiring interviews.

Thomas Wiseman`s insightful book `Cinema` uncovers that Irving G. Thalberg, Hollywood`s most celebrated producer actually acted like a villain and anticipated the modern world of studio suits that cut movies and molest artists. This book unravels how Thalberg destroyed Erich Von Stroheim`s career and brutally humiliated the artist after assuming power in MGM (in an alleged `coup d`etat`). I suggest you check this book out not just because you can learn a lot about how mean Thalberg was but also because it contains a digested history of Hollywood.

In the end I would like to say just two things related to Sacramento not movies. I wish all the best to my compatriots playing ball in Kings and I hope they`ll make a big impact in NBA play-offs. Also I suggest you to download the mp.3 of Deftones covering Weezer`s `Say It Ain`t So`. That track rocks!

God bless, Ethan

Well that's about it for this Euro Week... don't forget to send your reports and reviews directly to the EURO AICN offices in Paris (we're hidden in the subway, like Lex Luthor) at euroaicn@yahoo.com and we'll post them up for the world to read.