EuroAICN#15

By Darth Bond & Edgard

France

*Luc Besson is said to be writing and producing the next Jet Li movie which will be in the style of Leon/The Professional. Apparently Luc is doing this because he is a friend of Jet Li's. I don't know how much truth is in this since it is said that producer Joel Silver has just signed up Jet Li for the next two Matrix movies -hence Li might be too busy. Luc Besson's last production effort was Taxi2 which did nicely at the French box office.

Ireland

(aka Ozymandias' corner)

Hey guys, Twas only a matter of time - it took a little while for my Irish posse to warm up but now the mails are up to a steady trickle from my compatriots (remember of you have anything on the Irish or UK movie industry I want to hear it!!! Mail ozymandias@ireland.com) and today the first review from one of my boys. I didn't make it to the press screening of When The Sky Falls but my man Santa did and here's what he thought......

Hey Oz, I take the time out from my rather hectic schedule because I rather enjoyed this film, but the trailer (accompanied by Sinead O’Connor wailing softly in the background) does it no favours. WHEN THE SKY FALLS is based on a number of events that led up to the death of the crime journalist Veronica Guerin - mostly the rise to power of major drug dealers operating in Dublin city. Apart from Joan Allen, the film also features Patrick Bergin, Liam Cunningham,, Jimmy Smallthorne, Jason Barry and (very briefly) Pete Postlethwaite. I remember reading some of Talkback comments about this about half a year ago - complaining that it sounded about as exciting as watching bears going into the woods and taking turns at watching the grass grow. These same people would probably have been delighted by the fact that at one point, Jerry Bruckheimer had expressed an interest in the story - "SHE’S A WOMAN WHO’S GOING IT HER OWN WAY, in a number of ALL-MALE ENVIRONMENTS! CRIME! JOURNALISM THE POLICE!" And no doubt, this would have been shite. Well packaged, slick-as- hell, shite. A Gaelic Erin Brockovich, as it were. On the other hand, does anyone actually like BASED ON A TRUE STORY stories? The real-life Veronica Guerin kept on writing inside stories on Irish gangsters until she was murdered for it. WHEN THE SKY FALLS side-steps certain legal problems by turning her into Sinead Hamilton, drugs czar John Gilligan becomes Dave Hackett, the Sunday Independent becomes the Sunday Globe and so on. As many of the real-life locations as possible were used, as was the use of locals as extras in crowd scenes. But before you stop reading, beating your own skull off the table, cursing Santa for wasting your miserable time, let me tell you who directed this Based On Real Events, Family Woman against the Odds, Irish Underworld thing. John MacKenizie. For those of you that said "Who?" or "Quit Following Me", yis are getting nothing in your stockings this year. John MacKenzie was responsible for THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY, very likely the finest British Gangster film ever made. LOCK, STOCK? GANGSTER NO.1? - "I SHIT ‘EM…" as Bob Hoskins so aptly said. And WHEN THE SKY FALLS, despite its true-life veneer, is very much a thriller. Quite a good thriller, as it happens. And this is where the review starts proper. First off, the cinematography: first-rate - brilliant, even. Seamus Deasey had previously worked on John Boorman’s THE GENERAL, but while that film gave us a dreamy B&W Dublin where even the most brutal acts of violence had a spark of beauty, WHEN THE SKY FALLS is a VERY dark and gritty snapshot of 1990s Dublin. It’s sometimes pretty, sometimes repugnant, but to anyone who’s visited the city, VERY familiar. The music is by one Pól Brennan, founder member of Clannad… and in my learned critical opinion… it’s fine. And that’s it. The script is solid enough: apparently, Guerin herself had a hand in it, in the form of a collaboration with Michael Sheridan. Press notes stolen from those lovely people at 20th Century Fox tell me that it started out back in 1995, just months before Guerin’s murder. Originally, it focused on Irish gangsters in general, before evolving into its current incarnation and using a female journalist as its key protagonist. One of the script’s strengths lie in its relatively unbiased judgements on characters. Sure, the drug dealers are depicted as back-stabbing, murderous thugs… but the "Ordinary Decent Criminals" are no angels either - dealing with militant loyalists, breaking open cop’s faces with golf clubs. And the police… well, it’s hard to imagine a more suspicious-looking individual than Patrick Bergin, with long greasy hair and a Gestapo coat buttoned up to the neck. He has no compunctions about planting evidence, beating up suspects, and all manner of dubious "I AM THE LAW!" activities. His colleague is Jason Barry, last seen playing Leonardo Di Caprio’s "Rowdy Irish Friend" in some James Cameron film about a boat… Their enthusiasm lets you forget how strange they look - Barry (who by the way, would make a SUPERB Cassidy if the PREACHER film was ever green-lit) in particular, seems a little too young to have made it so far in the notoriously conservative Gardai. This aside, the film hinges on Joan Allen who passes the trial-by- fire Irish ritual of getting away with a convincing accent. At one point I heard Winona Ryder and Jodie Foster linked to this role, but it’s impossible, having seen her in this, to imagine ANYONE else but Allen giving the role the justice it deserves. She’s utterly believable as a woman driven to keep writing stories despite the mounting dangers, and she deserves every accolade that labels her as one of the finest contemporary American actresses. And to the faults… WHEN THE SKY FALLS balances a tenuous line between honouring the courageous work of Veronica Guerin and fulfilling it’s role as a thriller. MacKenizie keeps a very taut pace for most of the film helped by a script that keeps just enough distance from real- life events to maintain a fast-moving narrative. Remember when Bob Hoskins near the end of THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY, stabbing a traitorous former friend with a broken bottle - over and over and over again? The violence in WHEN THE SKY FALLS works in a similar way: sharp, brutal and unflinching. There’s a scene in nightclub bathroom that sticks in the memory: a pathetic junkie getting beaten again and again into an enamel sink, until the force has broken it from the wall. The film’s biggest surprise lies in its effectiveness as a thriller. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the weakest scenes surround Hamilton’s home- life. Happily married, a young son and beautiful home, yet she goes out to write about the dregs of society. Why? Working with the pace of a thriller, we never get a feel for the character, outside of the unbridled charm that Allen gives her. The husband has little charisma and the five-year-old son is lumbered with terribly manipulative lines that have no effect on you whatsoever. The disparity between representing fact within the boundaries of fiction become most apparent towards the end, though not enough to put you off I’m keeping this as short as I can. Sky Pictures have a hand with Fox in distributing AS THE SKY FALLS, so this’ll probably get a brief showing on one of the Sky Movie channels in the UK in the next few months. To sum up, trailer bad, film pretty decent. Just don’t eat the yellow snow. SANTA out. We'll be expecting more presents from Santa in the future...... ;-)

L8r, Ozymandias

ozymandias@ireland.com

UK

*For Lara Croft fans: According to IMDB, the London-based Casting Collective has declared that it is looking for extras to appear as "international diplomats" in the making of the Tomb Raider movie , starring Angelina -are those lips for real?- Jolie, who btw, will be speaking with a Brit accent in this flick. Lara Croft is now filming in the U.K. Although IMDB said that it is particularly looking for Japanese businessmen look-alikes, wishful Brit extras should send their applications to: enquiries@castingcollective.co.uk.

*Michael Caine is being appreciated more in the UK: As said by the Sun, a palace spokesperson claimed that Caine was to be named in the Queen's Birthday honours this past Saturday.

*Honest, the film by Dave Stewart starring three of All Saints, has had an awful failure at the box office. On the opening weekend it only took in £111,309. Even though it was over-hyped for having the Saints in it the critics bashed it, and the 18 certificate didn't help. Pathe, said they were, "very disappointed" with the result of the £4.2 million movie which will probably not make any profit whatsoever.

Germany

*Cirdan has some stuff from TV about LOTR at his website:

I have something for all the German speaking LORD OF THE RINGS fans! A TV-report from the Bavarian TV BR is now online at my site http://www.herr-der-ringe-film..de You can search for it or use the direct linkt to download it (5,1 MB!!): http://lords.rogerisland.de/KinoKinoHdR1.zip The report is about the internet-preview and the lotr-fans in the internet. Landscapes of NZ are shown and the TV-Team wants to get on the set, but the NZ-army prevent this. So they film the sets from the distance. After this they show the filming of a battle scene at Helms Deep, a extras-casting and the little city where the Crew lives during the production. An interview with the editor of the local newspaper is shown and some more landscapes :))

-Cirdan

Denmark

*We got a press release from LEGO which will surely make someone out there very happy: Danish toy-maker LEGO has just released a three new collectors’ sets, the TIE InterceptorÔ , the X-Wing FighterÔ and the Millennium Falcon, all made with Lego parts, all very nice, all very expensive (well, they are! 80 quid or more for a Lego? C'mon! What kid can afford that?! It would have to be a very spoiled posh brat to be able to afford just one of the sets! Oh-oh, I just made the LEGO PR people very mad at me….)

Before I say goodbye I just wanted to ask a favour, if one of you out there has the Wall Street Journal article were EuroAICN was mentioned could you please send it to us (as we haven't seen it yet!), thanks. Remember that you can send any Swag, Scoops, Scripts, or Sexy Promo Photos you might have to our HQ in Paris at Our Contact Page address, etc... Until next time, have a good one. Darth Bond