Father Geek back again with another Tuesday morning Latin-AICN column from LOBO and Coffin Joe. This edition also has a great section from El Chango down in Mexico City. I'm glad to hear that COLLATERAL DAMAGE is finally actually IN production. I took Harry down to travel the Mexican Gulf Coast for about 5 weeks when he was 9 or 10 and we spent alot of time in the state of Veracruz, we visited El Tajin and saw the Flying Men, hung out on a 12,000 hectores rancho covered with coffee y vainilla beans, and rode horses along jungle trails. It was a beautiful place I'll never forget. I hope Arnold and company take the time to do a little exploring while they're there. Well, enough of Father Geek's time tripping, here's LOBO...

Que paksa CineLocozzz .. LOBO here with more cool stuff from the Latin Film industry ..Vamos !!

QUICKIES / RAPIDINES

*** This is something for that CineRaza that likes the Kung-Fu stuff..JET LI will be in the movie called "The One" directed by James Wong and written by Womg and Glenn Morgan, where he will do two characters..like Jackie did in Twin dragons..in this movie there is going to be a lot of science fiction and Li will play the role of a Police officer.and maybe this will moved the making of "The Green Hornet".

*** Jennifer Love Hewitt will be working in the movie "The Devil and Daniel Webster" where she will play the role of the Devil and this pretty diablita is going to be working next to Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin..SCARY..mucho miedo...

*** This is a quickie for someone interested in buying a movie place here in Austin, I would actually like this to get to the ears of Edward James Olmos and let him know that there is more places available now for him and Santana to start their chain of movie theaters with Spanish movies....There is 4 places available...$

COLLATERAL DAMAGE...

Finally this movie is actually started here in Mexico after all of those problems it had, but now people that lives in the towns where the movie has being shot, have complain about it for different reasons, they say that the movie crew wasn't letting them watch the action and cut scenes because they were getting in the way and the crew wanted less CUUUTT..AGAAAAIINN...AAAACTION..but I don't really care, the thing is that ARNOLD said that he is having a great time doing this movie and that he enjoys making the movie in real places and not that many green screens shots, they have being so far in two towns down in the state of Veracruz and they have one more to go, so this is good time for them to learn some Spanish and get to know the cool places there are down there like "EL TAJIN" for example where sometimes they have shows with the "VOLADORES DE PAPANTLA" and this is a group of 5 guys that climb to the top of a wooden post that is about 48-72 feet high and once they get to the top one of them starts playing a flute and a little drum in the center, while the other ones get ready tying a rope around their feet and slowly sit down, lean back and start to swing to make the platform spin, so after this, the guy in the center at the top starts a dance going in circles as the plattform does it to and the other 4 guys start to go down flying around the post along with the force caused by gravity, this is really cool to see and is one of the traditional things to see down there..... Anyways the places used in Veracruz are playing the part of a jungle in Colombia and after they get done with the filming down there they are moving to L.A. for extra shots.

IN THE TIME OF THE BUTTERFLIES...

This is another movie that is about to start filming in Mexico, this one in particular as I mentioned before had SALMA HAYEK playing the role of one of the four sisters called "Las Mariposas" (The Butterflies) that confronted Rafael Trujillo , a dictator from the Republica Dominicana in the 50's.To this ads the colaboration of MIA MAESTRO from Argentina who had previously worked in movies like "Tango" by Carlos Saura and "The Venice Project" , so MIA and SALMA get to be sisters for a while in this flick that will start filming next month.

This is from our cuate ....EL CHANGO...let's check it out..

Hey, Lobo... I’ve got a couple of quick news, so let’s start…

MEXICO

Benjamin Cann’s film, ‘Crónica de un Desayuno’ will finally open in Mexican theatres on November 2. The film was a modest success during last year’s Guadalajara Film Festival, and also on the Muestra de Cine Internacional in México.

This week the Latin American Film Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington continues. On October 14 and 15 the festival will feature Rito terminal (Oscar Urrutia). The other Mexican films showing at the event were Un dulce olor a muerte (Gabriel Retes), Ave María (Eduardo Rossoff).

Last week, on October 6, film producer Carlos Amador passed away from kidney problems. He was 80 years old. He was well respected by the entertainment medium in Mexico, although in my opinion, he was one of the last living symbols of the mediocrity of the film and TV industries of the 60’s and 70’s. He began his career while in his teens as a radio announcer and worked his way up, working as an actor and finally as a producer.

Cuco Sánchez, an important musician who also worked as an actor, died on October 5 at the age of 79. His known mainly because of his songs (‘Fallaste Corazón’ and ‘La Cama de Piedra’ being probably the most important ones) but also worked in a lot of movies in the 50’s and 60’s.In a strange decision, the Association of Iberoamerican Film Festivals (AFCI) is planning to expel three of its members, the festivals held in Guadalajara (México), Huesca (Spain) and Setubal (Portugal). The reason is that this festivals don’t have programs that feature exclusively Spanish and latinamerican films.

SPAIN

Celebrating 15 years of Orson Welles’ death, Canal + presents ORSON WELLES EN EL PAIS DE DON QUIJOTE (Orson Welles in the land of Don Quixote), a documentary about the relationship of the director with Spain.

Joaquin Oristell directs SIN VERGUENZA, a black comedy about showbusiness.

The cast includes Verónica Forqué, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Candela Peña, Rosa María Sardá, Carmen Balagué and Jorge Sanz. Another project that starts shooting son in Moroco is EL DESEO DE SER PIEL ROJA, a spanish production directed by Alfonso Ungría starring José Sancho, Marta Belaustegui and Miguel Hermoso Arnao. The story centers around two guys that plan to blow up a nuclear power station.

Work has begun for EL GRAN MARCIANO, a mockumentary film about all the participants of the Spanish version of the TV show Big Brother.Alejandro Amenabar’s film ABRE LOS OJOS is finally being remade… Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz are getting ready to shoot VANILLA SKY, helmed by Cameron Crowe. This project has developed pretty quickly… Cruise wanted to do it last year, but Amenabar convinced Cruise to do THE OTHERS with Nicole Kidman instead. Now according to a lot of sources the film is in production.

Alex de la Iglesia’s LA COMUNIDAD had a great start in Spanish box office. It hasn’t been a good year for Spanish cinema, but with AÑO MARIANO –the first hit of the year- and LA COMUNIDAD things are starting to look good. Tomorrow opens Antonio Cuadri’s first film, LA GRAN VIDA, with Salma Hayek and Carmelo Gomez.

The Catalunya Film Festival held in Sitges continues this week… among the most expected films, FAUST, the adaptation of the comic book, directed by Brian Yuzna, ANIMAL FACTORY by Steve Buscemi, SABOTAGE! By José Miguel and Esteban Ibarretxe –one of the most promising new Spanish films- and SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE, directed by Elias Merhige and starring William Dafoe and John Malkovich. Last week the special guests were Tony Curtis and Terry Gilliam, who announced the start of the production of his new film, THE MAN WHO SHOT DON QUIXOTE, currently shooting in Spain with Johnny Deep.

And of course… I’ve got to see Guillermo del Toro’s cameo in BULLFIGHTER!!!

Father Geek note: I've seen BULLFIGHTER and had alot of fun with it, great art direction, and both Director Del Toro and Director Robert Rodriguez play hitmen in cameo roles. Guillermo's death scene is especially satisfactory... worth the price of the ticket by itself. This flick is like a "lite" Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), very tongue in cheek.

Well, Lobo… that’s pretty much it for now. I just want to tell all Latin-AICN readers, that if they want to discuss Latin American films, in Spanish or English, they can do so in a forum called ALUCINE… the address is Right Here , so I’ll see you there.

EL CHANGO SE RETIRA POR LA IZQUIERDA!

CHILE & CAIOZZI...

The Director SILVIO CAIOZZI from Chile, is getting ready for his next project "El Pianista del Silencio", the story of a pianist from the 30's and situations that took place 70 years ago and that had to do with the silent movie era and the arrival of the new movies with sound and color. SILVIO CAIOZZI just got an award in the MONTREAL FILM FESTIVAL for best Director with his movie "Coronacion" and he might work again with the writer Jose Donoso as he did in "Coronacion" and "La luna en el Espejo"..and with nothing else to say SILVIO also got the best of luck from Pedro Almodovar in San Sebastian for this project..

A picture from the movie "Coronacion"

Well niños & niñas that's all from LOBO this week I hope you liked the stuff..see you all next time and 'til then vayan con Dios...!! see ya!!.

Brazil & Coffin Joe...

Coffin Joe here , with more Brazilian movie news , hope you dig it . Before we begin I gotta tell you guys to pick up a copy of any of the recent issues of Detective Comics , ( yeah the Batman comic book published by DC ) , ´cause Greg Rucka and the artists on the book ( including Phil Hester , who will be doing Kevin Smith´s Green Arrow book , and Shawn Martinbrough ) have been doing a swell job . Hard-boiled noir dialogue , complex characters and plots , a cool color scheme , and great artwork . What more can you ask for ? Read this baby while these guys are on board , it´s worth it . On to the news :

-Apparently Cao Hamburguer , the director of Castelo Rá-Tim-Bum ( a movie I told you guys about in one of our weekly columns as the genre guy to look forward down here because his Castelo Rá-Tim-Bum movie was the best kiddie fantasy flick I´ve ever seen ) , has left Brazil . He is in England , working with one of the producers of the Teletubbies , and basically he will be developing his stuff , probably a new TV show ( Castelo Rá-Tim-Bum was originally a TV show before being translated to the big screen ) . This is sad , sad news and I really think the future of genre filmmaking down here is looking less and less promising .

-On a happier note there´s a CGI animated TV show called " Blur 3000 " being done over here by the giant Globo TV network . The show was created and is produced by one of Globo´s executive producers , José Dias , and it is set in Rio around the year 3000 , with characters that are half man , half machine ( sorry details are pretty sketchy at this point ) . Plans are for both a TV run of 25 episodes of 22 minutes and a feature film for theatrical release which will have more or less 75 minutes . They hope to get the film made by the end of 2001 , and about 26 minutes of it have been done . Sounds good to me , so let´s keep our fingers crossed .

-A few Brazilian films will be shown at the 15th edition of the Latin-American Cinema Festival in Trieste , Italy , which will happen between October 21st and 29th . The event is the creation of of Argentinean filmmaker Fernando Birri , and it is one of the most important festivals in Europe dedicated to Latin-American film productions . The three Brazilian movies , among fourteen other films that will be running for the top honors , are : " Mauá , O Imperador e o Rei " , directed by Sérgio Rezende ; " Estorvo " ( also known as " Turbulence " ) directed by Ruy Guerra ; and " Oriundi " directed by Ricardo Bravo . On a side note there´s also going to be a showcase of Brazilian films from the 80s .

Well that´s my part of the Latin-AICN column for this week amigos , my job here´s done .

Coffin Joe says : Bye .