Studs on show at Dublin festival

FANS OF Paul Mercier's riotous play Studs will be delighted to hear that the film version, long discussed, now finally in the can, will open the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival on February 17th. Mercier directed Brendan Gleeson, David Wilmot, Eanna Mac Liam and Liam Carney in this tale of an amateur football team's hopeful cup run.

Other films confirmed for DIFF, which runs until February 26th, include the Dardenne brothers' Palme d'Or winner L'Enfant, the heavily Oscar-napped Capote and Richard Shepard's The Matador, in which Pierce Brosnan triumphantly shakes off the Bond mantle. The complete festival programme will be available from February 2nd and the box office will open the following day. Details from www.dubliniff.com.

Channel wants sports shorts

The Setanta Sports Channel, that fine institution which enables Australians to keep up with the hurling, has announced plans to screen the work of student film-makers. The Setanta Sports Shorts Series invites submissions on a sporting theme from tyros currently on broadcasting courses in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland.

The winning short will secure a sponsorship prize for the successful entrant's college and a bursary for the film-makers. For further details email shorts@setanta.com.

Pluto's Negga sees stars

Ruth Negga, burning up screens from today in Breakfast on Pluto, has been named as the 2006 Irish Shooting Star at the Berlin Film Festival. "Irish actors are highly regarded on the international stage and have achieved considerable success both in Europe and in Hollywood. Ruth clearly has the talent to follow in the steps of Ireland's leading stars," said Simon Perry, CEO of the Irish Film Board.

The Shooting Star programme recognises the talents of up-and-coming young actors from 21 European countries at the festival. Neggaphiles can catch their idol later this year in Billy O'Brien's Irish chiller, Isolation.

Saucy Jack strikes again

Readers still reeling from the news, revealed elsewhere on this page, that Graham Norton is a homosexual will be equally shocked to hear that Jack Nicholson allegedly fathered a lovechild some 24 years ago. Honey Hollman, who has claimed that her conception was the result of a liaison between Jack and Winnie Hollman, a model, says that she regularly visits her supposed father in Los Angeles.

"My dad's never been a stranger," Honey, a Danish national, says. "When I was a kid, my mom took me to see him and when I got older I went on my own. I think we have a regular father-daughter relationship. We have similar facial features and my mom says I have the same temper as him."

No Mountain pure enough

As Brokeback Mountain, winner of a Critics' Choice award this week, continues to garner acclaim, readers could be forgiven for wondering what has become of the right-wing American backlash. Wonder no more. A cinema in Utah, one of the more conservative states in the union, appears to have banned Ang Lee's magnificent gay love story.

The managers of the unimaginatively named Megaplex in Salt Lake City have refused to explain why the film was pulled, but local gay groups believe the sensitive subject matter may have caused the exhibitors some concern. "It's just a shame that such a beautiful and award-winning film, with so much buzz about it, is not being made available to a broad Utah audience because of personal bias," Mike Thompson, executive director of local gay rights group Equality Utah, said.

Where wild wee things are

Two popular literary phenomena, both hungrily circled by film studios for some time, finally acquired hot directors last week. Sam Raimi, the man behind Spider-Man and The Evil Dead, is set to helm an adaptation of Terry Pratchett's The Wee Free Men. One of 12 squillion episodes in the author's Discworld series, the story could provide Raimi and Sony Pictures with the launching pad for one mighty franchise.

Over at Warner Brothers, it was confirmed that Spike Jonze is to direct a version of Maurice Sendak's classic children's story Where the Wild Things Are. Cynics who feel that the director - praised for his treatment of Charlie Kaufmann's scripts for Adaptation and Being John Malkovich - needs a trendy writer on board can rest easy in their beds. Where the Wild Things Are is to be written by Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

Cool, you say? Like Vladivostok, my friend.

dclarke@irish-times.ie