All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 188
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News
London cherrypicks festival favourites for 2004 line-up
"They don't openthe London Film Festival with films like Vera Drake...but they donow!" Mike Leigh, fresh from his Golden Lion triumph in Venice, quippedyesterday at the official launch of this year's Festival programme.Speaking on the stage ofthe Odeon West End in Leicester Square, Leigh said he had been coming to ...
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Miike cooks up Soup as English debut
Cult Japanese director Takashi Miike - who unveiled hislatest bloodcurdling epic Izo in Venice last week - is to make the jumpinto English-language film-making.Miike hassigned up to direct Dragon's Fin Soup, an adaptation of the novella byThai writer S.P. Somtow for Paris-based production and distribution outfit, DesFilms. The film is ...
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Nair develops Namesake project
In Venice for the festival screening of Vanity Fair, Mira Nair has revealed details of her next project, an adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's 2001 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Namesake.The novel tells the story of a Calcutta family who leave India to come to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the US in ...
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Robbins speaks out against Bush at the Biennale
In Venice for the festival screening of Embedded Live (the film version of his play about the US march to war in Iraq), Oscar-winning actor-director Tim Robbins has again launched a ferocious attack on the Bush administration. Speaking yesterday to the international press, Robbins expressed his fears that George W. ...
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Reviews
Vanity Fair
Dir: Mira Nair US/UK2004 140 minsAdapting classic Nineteenth Century novels for the screenis invariably a thankless task. If filmmakers are too brutal paring down bookswhich run to hundreds of pages, they risk straining out the wealth of detailand description which makes the originals memorable in the first place. Ifthey're not ...
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Jayanti to direct Ellroy's Killer On The Road
Award-winning filmmaker Vikram Jayanti (Deep Blue, WhenWe Were Kings) is to direct a movie version of one of James Ellroy's mostgruesome novels, the gay serial killer/buddy novel, Killer On The Road.The film, scripted by former critic Chris Peachment, is dueto shoot next spring. It is being co-produced by Tartan Films ...
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Tartan adds five films to release slate
Prolific UK distributorTartan Films has picked up a string of films in advance of the early autumnfestival season.Titles Claire Denis's newfilm The Intruder (due to screen in Venice); Three...Extremes,the portmanteau horror picture featuring segments by Miike Takashi, Fruit Chanand Park Chan-Wook; horror pictureThe Eye 2 - the sequel/prequel to thePang ...
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Blackwell's Palm funds epic music documentary
Ondi Timoner (pictured), director of Sundance Jury GrandPrix documentary winner Dig!, is todirect a "History Of Jamaican Music" for Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures. Theepic documentary, which will encompass dub, ska and reggae, will be given atheatrical release.As the founder of Island Records, Jamaican-based Blackwellowns the rights to Bob Marley's music ...
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McDull embarks on martial arts extravaganza
McDull,the clumsy but lovable piglet first seen in hit Hong Kong animated feature, My Life As McDull, is to take up kungfu.Pre-productionhas already begun on martial arts extravaganza, McDull - Wudang, the third animated feature showcasing the pink-snoutedhero.Thenew project sees McDull travelling to China with his mother, Mrs McBing, awould-be ...
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Glenaan readies football project
Scottish director Kenny Glenaan (whose new feature Yasmin premieres in competition inLocarno today, prior to its screeningat the Edinburgh Film Festival) is shortly to go into pre-production on a filmabout the exploitative, cut-throat world of football agents.Ducain's Boys, asthe film is titled, will tell the story of agents who scour ...
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Chadha looks to cast $90m Jeannie
Anglo-Asian director Gurinder Chadha is shortly to start casting on Jeannie, her first big-budget studio film. An Arabian Nights-style fantasy adventure which is also a prequel to the long-running TV series, I Dream Of Jeannie, the film is set in Persia in 200 BC and in the contemporary US.The central ...
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Reviews
The Village
Dir/sc: M. NightShyamalan. US 2004. 107 minsOstensibly setin the late 19th Century (though the precise period is not specified until latein the final reel), The Village is anarch and eccentric affair. M. Night Shyamalan's craftsmanship and originalityare not in doubt, but his attempts to combine Blair Witch-like horror with ScarletLetter-style ...
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UK Film Council extends slate scheme deadline
The UK Film Council has extended its deadline forapplications for "super slate" development funding by three weeks,from September 10 to September 30 2004.This shift is seen by many asa direct response to the criticisms voiced by UK producers' organisationPACT about how the slate funding scheme was set up. Earlier this ...
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UK producers express Development concerns
The UK's production community has issued an urgentcall to public funding body the UK Film Council to revise its ambitious"Slate Development Scheme." A strongly worded statement circulated byproducers' trade body PACT has expressed fears that the Film Councilplans will "destabilise the market."PACT's release -issued after a special meeting of itsmembers ...
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Reviews
Stage Beauty
Dir:Richard Eyre. US-UK. 2004. 106minsLikeits cross-dressing hero Ned Kynaston (who makes his name playing female partson stage), Stage Beauty isn't entirely sure of its own identity. On theone hand, this is a bawdy and colourful Restoration-era romp, stuffed full ofpuns and sexual innuendo and propelled by some tremendous character turns. ...
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Thumbs up for inaugural UK Film Focus
Last week's inaugural UK London Film Focus (June 30-July 2)has received a qualified thumbs-up from the filmmakers, buyers and sales agentswho participated. Few deal memos were signed, some distributors questioned theoverall strength of the selection of British movies on display, but there hasbeen widespread praise of the way in which ...
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DVD specialist Anchor Bay goes theatrical
Anchor Bay UK is to take the plunge into British theatricaldistribution. The DVD company, which has built its reputation on the back ofits restorations of classic and cult pictures, has three titles already slatedfor release in British cinemas later this year.The Manson Family is out on July 23rd in London.Don ...
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Winslet drops out of Woody Allen project
Kate Winslet has dropped out of the new Woody Allen projectwhich is shooting in London, it was confirmed today (June 25).Winslet, who has had a busy schedule recently, reportedlywanted to spend more time with her family.A new female lead is expected to be announced on Monday.Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Emily ...
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Reviews
Ladies In Lavender
Dir/scr: Charles Dance.UK. 2004. 108minsCharles Dance's directorial debut is a stilted andold-fashioned romantic drama which would be heavy as suet were it not for thedeft and lively performances of its two Dames, Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. Inrecreating 1930s Cornwall, Dance throws in all the elements associated withBritish heritage cinema ...