The prolific English filmmaker Michael Winterbottom will give the Directors' Masterclass at next month's Galway Film Fleadh, and his new movie, Wonderland, which had its world premiere at Cannes last month, has been added to the fleadh's programme. The Directors' Masterclass in Galway was given by Anthony Minghella in 1997 and by Walter Salles last year, and Winterbottom's master-class will be held on Saturday afternoon, July 10th.
Winterbottom's credits include Butterfly Kiss, Jude, Welcome to Sarajevo, I Want You, and the imminent Old New Borrowed Blue. Wonderland, his latest film, weaves together the interconnected experiences of 13 characters over four days in London. Shot with a minimal crew and a hand-held camera, and without lights or extras, Wonderland is accompanied by a gorgeous, swelling Michael Nyman score and features a strong ensemble that includes Molly Parker, Kika Markham, John Simm, Gina McKee, Ian Hart, Shirley Henderson and Stuart Townsend.
Written applications for the master-class should be sent to Michael Winterbottom Masterclass, Galway Film Fleadh, Cluain Mhuire, Monivea Road, Galway. Tel: (091) 751655.
Meanwhile, Agnes Browne, Anjelica Huston's film of Brendan O'Carroll's novel, The Mammy, which also had its world premiere at Cannes, has been selected as Galway Film Fleadh's opening night presentation on July 6th. Huston directs the movie and takes the title role, and it also features Marion O'Dwyer, Arno Chevrier, Ray Winstone and Tom Jones.
The film fleadh will feature a strand on new films made in the digital format, with a workshop on digital film-making, and screenings of the first three Scandinavian films made under the Dogma 95 initiative - Thomas Vinterberg's Festen, Lars von Trier's The Idiots and Soren Kragh-Jaconsen's Mifune. The fleadh will also screen the acclaimed recent Swedish hit, Fucking Amal, directed by Lukas Moodyson.
Further additions to the Galway programme are Tony Bui's Sundance prize-winner, Three Sea- sons, starring Harvey Keitel; Sun- burn, featuring Cillian Murphy and Barry Ward as Irish students with summer jobs on Long Island; the Irish premiere of South Park - The Movie; and the world premiere of Liam O'Mochain's low-budget road movie, The Book That Wrote Itself, which features O'Mochain as an Irish writer travelling around the country, with narration by Michael D. Higgins.
Coinciding with the visit of the European Film Academy (EFA) to Dublin this weekend, MEDIA Desk Ireland, the Film Institute of Ireland and the EFA have organised a symposium on the theme, Copyright: Who Owns the Film?, to be held in the IFC tomorrow at 11 a.m. It will be chaired by James Hickey of Matheson Ormsby Prentice, and the panellists will include Susan Dormer, secretary general of the Directors' and Producers' Rights Society; Hugh Duffy, chief executive, Irish Music Rights Organisation; Vibeke Windewlov of Zentropa Productions, which made Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves and The Idiots; and Sharon McGarry, 20th Century Fox's new general manager in Ireland.
Producer Dino De Laurentiis is in negotiation with Ridley Scott to direct the movie of Thomas Harris's Hannibal, the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, which was filmed by Jonathan Demme. Demme bowed out of the sequel because he found the material too violent - and he wanted to make changes which Harris would not allow.
Scott Frank, who showed his skill for adaptation with his screenplay based on Elmore Leonard's Out of Sight, has been signed to adapt Hannibal for the screen. Universal Pictures spent a record $9 million to acquire the film rights to the novel.
The next Film Base film quiz will be held in the Life bar on Lower Abbey Street, Dublin, on Wednesday, June 30th at 7.30 p.m. I will be asking the questions, and there will be two video rounds along the lines of the very imaginative and witty video rounds shown at the Christmas film quiz. Money raised will go towards Film Base projects for Irish filmmakers.
The charge per table of four is £24 and advance booking is strongly recommended. To book call Sara at Film Base on (01) 6796716, or email bookings to filmbase@iol.ie
Having taken over $50 million at the US box-office, Aus- tin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is shaping up as one of the biggest hits of the year. It opens here on July 30th; however, the final cut of the film is not as naughty as director Jay Roach and star Mike Myers intended. Apparently Robert Wagner, who reprises his role as the evil Number 2 in the sequel, originally ended up coupled nude in bed with Rob Lowe, who plays a younger version of Number 2 in the new movie. "It's not cheating, is it?" said one to the other in one of several gags which ended the film. Not any more, though - the scene was deemed too racy to qualify for a PG-13 rating and it was cut out.
Christopher McQuarrie, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Usual Suspects, turns director with The Way of the Gun, which will star Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro. Meanwhile, Bryan Singer, who directed The Usual Suspects, is about to make X-Men, based on the Marvel Comics series. The movie reunites Singer with his Apt Pupil star, Ian McKellen, who will play the villain, Magneto, Master of Magneticism.
TWO rival movie projects on the Marquis de Sade are being whipped into shape for shooting this summer. Daniel Auteuil will play the lead in Sade, which is set during the bloodiest period of the French Revolution, and Geoffrey Rush will play the role in Philip Kaufman's Quills, which will co-star Kate Winslet.
In another real-life portrayal, Jeremy Irons will play Giacomo Puccini in Irvin Kershner's big-budget Cecilia.
Nicole Kidman teams up with Ben Chaplin, who was so impressive in The Thin Red Line, for Birthday Girl, which is now shooting in Australia and the UK. Directed by Jez Butterworth, who made Mojo, it features Chaplin as a mild-mannered bank worker who orders a Russian bride through the Internet. Kidman plays the enigmatic woman who turns up at his door - followed by two young men claiming to be her cousins. They are played by Mathieu Kassovitz and Vincent Cassel, respectively director and star of La Haine.
Director Sally Potter follows Orlando and The Tango Lesson with The Man Who Cried, which deals with the romances of a Russian dancer in war-torn Europe and will star Cate Blanchett and Robert De Niro. And Robbie Williams is to make his film debut with a cameo role in the football rites-of-passage movie, There's Only One Jimmy Grimble, to be directed by John Hay and to star Robert Carlyle and Ray Winstone.
