How green is the film industry? Well, recycling is top of the agenda with a slew of remakes on the way.
HandMade Films, co-founded by the late ex-Beatle George Harrison, plans new treatments of two of its 1980s successes that starred Bob Hoskins. Larry Clark ( Kids) will direct a New York-set remake of Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa, with Hayden Christensen as a younger version of the minder played by Hoskins, and Paul WS Anderson ( Death Race) will direct a Miami-based remake of The Long Good Friday.
Jaden Smith (10) takes on the role played by Ralph Macchio in three 1980s movies, in a new version of The Karate Kid, to be set in Beijing. Jaden's dad, Will Smith, and Steven Spielberg are planning a US production of Park Chan-wook's powerfully sinister South Korean thriller, Oldboy(2003).
And Quantum of Solacedirector Marc Forster is to direct a Manhattan-set reworking of the Korean gangster drama Die Bad(2000).
Pierce Brosnan wants Charlize Theron as his co-star for the imminent sequel to the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. Theron and Tom Cruise are teaming up in Bharat Nalluri's version of French thriller Anthony Zimmer(2005).
In the oddest development of all, Steven Soderbergh is planning a 3D musical reworking of Cleopatrawith Catherine Zeta-Jones as the eponymous queen and Hugh Jackman as Marc Antony.
Ardal and Ewan's Kildare movie
Ardal O'Hanlon and Ewan Bremner star as slackers in the comedy Wide Open Spaces, which started shooting this week in various Kildare locations. Written by Arthur Mathews ( Father Ted) and directed by Tom Hall ( Bachelors Walk), it's the third feature this year from busy Dublin-based company Grand Pictures. Earlier this month, the company wrapped production on Andre Nebe's coming-of- age picture The Race. It stars newcomer Niamh McGirr as a 13-year-old whose parents (Colm Meaney and Susan Lynch) disapprove of her ambitions as a go-cart racer.
Now in post-production, Grand's Situations Vacantis a comedy with Diarmuid Noyes, Sean Dunne and Sam Peter Corry as young men in post-Celtic Tiger Dublin. It marks the cinema debut of director Lisa Mulcahy. And Grand has produced School Run, a two-part comedy-drama for transmission by TV3 next month. It's set in a Gael Scoil on Dublin's southside as pupils and parents struggle to stage a nativity play. Directed by Neasa Hardiman, it features Carrie Crowley, Katherine Igoe, Conor Mullen, Barry McGovern and singer Linda Martin.
Hunger up for Euro awards
Michael Fassbender's riveting portrayal of Bobby Sands in Hungerhas earned him a nomination as European Actor 2008, and Steve McQueen is shortlisted as European Director 2008 for that movie at the European Film Awards, to be presented in Copenhagen next month.
Two Irish productions are in contention for the short film award: Darren Thornton's Frankieand Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor's Joy.
Chatroom: The Movie
In an intriguing collaboration, Hideo Nakata, the Japanese director of the Ringuhorror movies, will make the film version of Irish writer Enda Walsh's play Chatroom, which was staged at the recent Dublin Theatre Festival. Walsh has written the screen adaptation of this psychological thriller in which teens urge each other to engage in destructive behaviour.
Access and Light House split gong
Europa Cinemas, which supports the programming of European productions, will share its 2008 award for Best Entrepreneur between two Irish ventures, Access Cinema, which co-ordinates screenings of international cinema at film clubs across the country, and Dublin's Light House Cinema. The awards will be presented in Paris this weekend.
Val for guv
Actor Val Kilmer intends to run for state governor of New Mexico, where he owns a huge ranch, and he is seeking advice from another actor-turned-governor. "I plan to sit down with Arnold Schwarzenegger," he says. "I'm approaching this as a serious endeavour."
"Once in a lifetime, a script comes along which is beautiful, devastating and life-changing" - Director Dylan Leiner who added that hisCorporate Zombie Killers is "none of these"
