Spielberg Hauls Hall out of a Job
In a baffling series of decisions, Steven Spielberg has now axed Oscar nominated screenwriter Lee Hall from Dreamworks' Tulip Fever. After optioning the rights to Deborah Moggach's period piece in 1999 he then fired her from screenplay duties in January in favour of the Billy Elliot writer. Spielberg has now enlisted Dangerous Liaison scribe Christopher Hampton but Hall's agent could give no clue as to what he or his client did to prompt his dismissal "We were very proud of the script and it's upsetting when a new writer is brought on board. Lee put a lot of work into it and we have no idea why it didn't go ahead."

Captain Corelli's Banjo
John Madden defended the major alterations he made to Louis de Bernieres's Captain Corelli's Mandolin, which had its world premiere in London on Thursday. The extent of the changes nearly went as far as the rather lame title, Captain Corelli's Banjo, but fans of the best-seller about life on Cephallonia during WW2 may be thankful that the film bears so little resemblance to the text they hold so dear. The novel's enduring finale had to be changed, understandably, to which the British director explained "it is problematic on film although it works magnificently in the novel, as do many of the other narrative strands we had to do without". The deeply touching loyalty of closet homosexual Carlo, Corelli's lieutenant is also missing, an area that many believe would add depth and perspective to the central plot but the most controversial changes concern historical fact.
The film also 'corrects' the book's right wing tone by depicting wartime Greek partisans as heroes rather than sadistic ideologues. De Bernieres's initially disassociated himself from everything to do with the film and while he still declines interviews to plug it, but since viewing the film at the premiere he has somewhat relaxed his opinion.
Among other elements omitted from the Working Title, like Mandras' attempted rape of Pelagia on his return from the appalling front line shambles and the sensitive handling of the partisan's atrocities, which had the author castigated by Greek civil war veterans. Despite these seemingly damaging changes, the text contains enough to endure as a fine translation to film - let's hope it succeeds purely as a love story as the book has.

Stering things up
An astute Netribution reader noticed that, with the new 16 odd screen Ster Century multiplex that opened in Romford last Friday, despite the company being up for sale, the Odeon Romford is closing down on the same day. Here's where it gets interesting, staff at the Odeon Romford are handing out flyers saying "The Odeon Romford is closing on Friday, but if you want to go to the cinema, there's a new Ster Century opening". The observant reader went on to state, quite rightly, that this gesture by Richard Segal, MD of Odeon, or CinVen, which owns Odeon/ABC is a tad altruistic and definitely not in keeping with the company's normal practices. Makes you wonder who might be about to acquire Ster Century - which, by the way, was only established in order to get tax money out of South Africa...but that's another story.

Kes is in English Now?
Ken Loach’s 1969 critical hit Kes is the sole British title in a very broad Critics Week line-up that includes no other English-language films but concentrating instead on first and second films. Only a handful of English-language interested chief selector Jose Maria, there is only one French film, Bertrand Bonello’s sexually explicit Le Pornographe and their Canadian cousins are represented by Bernard Emond’s La Femme Qui Boit, the story of an out of control alcoholic.
Typically, the sidebar is chock full of debut features competing for the Golden Camera but opens with Michel Piccoli’s superb directorial debut La Plage Noire. The tribute to Loach, the section’s will include a filmmaking debate with the section’s other directors.

Czar Kenneth I
Kenneth Branagh has joined the weighty cast of the big budget French mini-series Napoleon, an English-language co-production that will begin shooting toward the end of next month. Branagh will play Russian czar Alexander, joins a cast already glittering with theatrical talent inluding Christian Clavier, John Malkovich, Isabella Rosselini as Josephine and Gerard Depardieu.
The four part Napoleon will be produced by French TV drama specialist GMT Productions with public broadcaster France 2 and Gerard Depardieu’s DD Productions. The purse is strengthened by UK’s Spice Factory, Germany’s KirchMedia, Italy’s RAI, Spain’s Canal 5, Canada’s Kekchi Films Productions and Hungary’s MA Films.
Directed by Canada’s Yves Simoneau the Ffr250m series is expected to find a rare niche on the US market like GMT’s previous productions Monte Cristo broadcast in the US by Bravo and English-language Les Miserables that was pre-bought by Fox Family Channel.

Show Me The Mail!
Sharon Maguire's Bridget Jones’s Diary became the biggest UK opener ever this week but she is already plotting her next film project. Mail is a modern-day comedy, inspired by Pride and Prejudice and set in Boston. The UK’s Archer Street will produce Wendy Wasserstein's script with FilmFour and Intermedia's backing. Apart from the gossip frothing up from Working Title's optioning of the Bridget sequel based on the book Bridget Jones: Edge Of Reason, Maguire was seemed content with her latest project, "At the end of the day, what I really want to get is a good story. That’s what makes you get up every morning."

Bridget's No Pussy
Bridget Jones's Diary has scored further hits in the US by finishing ahead of the teen flicks Joe Dirt and Josie and the Pussycats last week despite playing on under half the number of screens although. Miramax, planning to vastly expand the number of screens next weekend on a very wise staggered release, now holds the top two performers on weekly gross. The Working Title hit opened in third place behind Spy Kids and Along Came a Spider to hoard $10.7 million, a figure that will grow exponentially depending on the successes of next week's wide releases, Freddie Got Fingered Dirt and Croc Dundee in LA (only 2050 screens). Dirt debuted in fourth place with $8 million, while Josie tanked with only $4.6 million. A fourth debutante, the low-budget urban family film Kingdom Come, came on strong with $7.6 million for sixth place. In the UK it grabbed over $8m from only 417 screens during Easter weekend with a huge site average of $19,695.

Bobby and Jonny Paint it Black
Trainspotting stars Robert Carlyle and Jonny Lee Miller are going toe to toe for the role of rock martyr Brian Jones in Stoned, a £10m biopic of the blonde icon Stone. Jones drowned ingloriously but quite suitably in his swimming pool in 1969, at the peak of the Rolling Stones' fame, sealing his place in rockstar cast of saints. The film goes into production early next year and although neither actor seems to have taken the lead in the race to play Jones, it will take a convincing performance to pull off.

Flying Beatles on the Horizon
Film news site Dark Horizons has reported that Paul McCartney is now in the midst of promoting his new film Wingspan. The movie took three years to come together and follows the story of the Wings band, his late wife Linda will feature alongside the Beatle who will be discussing things like his arrest for drug possession in Tokyo. The film looks likely to be taken up by a UK broadcaster with interest in other territories though no news has been released to confirm this.

£5,000 Godiva? He Should Cocoa
Her Films, the Coventry based feature film development, financing and sales company, has selected Andrew Chaplin, also from Coventry, as the winner of their Feature Films Ideas Competition which was launched in February in association with Galaxy 102.2 and the Media Development Agency.
Conjuring up glorious images of hundreds of women riding naked through the streets of Coventry Daughters of Godiva was the one idea that appealed to the judges. Adding a new spin to the historical legend of Lady Godiva and the City of Coventry, Andrew’s screenplay is a contemporary comedy full of wit, and a touch of pathos, featuring a colourful collection of strong female characters.
The competition has been so successful with entries arriving from France and even the USA, that Her Films plans to run another next year.
Andrew scooped the £5,000 cash prize and will work in collaboration with the Coventry based outfit and a professional scriptwriter to develop’ into a full length feature film for theatrical release. For more info contact Christine Alderson of Her Films on 0207 586 5998 or email christine@herfilms.com