Actors Woody Harrelson and Michael York and directors Stephen Frears and Goran Paskaljevic are among the international guests already confirmed to attend the 12th Galway Film Fleadh, which runs from July 11th to 16th. Harrelson will introduce the fleadh's screening of Grass, Canadian director Ron Mann's documentary history of recreational marijuana use in the late 20th century.
Michael York will attend the Irish premiere of Peter Sheridan's film of The Borstal Boy, in which York is joined in the cast by Shawn Hatosy, Danny Dyer, and Eva Birthistle. Stephen Frears will be present for the screening of High Fidelity, his film of the Nick Hornby novel which stars John Cusack. Frears will also give the director's masterclass at Galway this year.
The Yugoslav director, Goran Paskaljevic, will be present for the fleadh's focus on his work which includes the recent award-winning drama, The Powder Keg (aka Cabaret Balkan), set over one turbulent night in Belgrade in 1995. This season will also include Days Pass By (1979) Special Treatment (1980), and Someone Else's America (1994).
Set to open this year's fleadh is the world premiere of Steve Barron's Rat, a black comedy written by Wesley Burrowes and starring Pete Postlethwaite (as a Dublin bread-delivery man who turns into a rat) along with Imelda Staunton, Frank Kelly, Peter Caffrey, David Wilmot. It joins the four new Irish features already announced for Galway - The Borstal Boy, Fintan Connolly's Flick, Conor McPherson's Salt- water, and the closing film, Kevin Liddy's Country.
Dominik Moll's stylish and intriguing Harry, Un Ami Vous Veut du Bien, shown in competition at Cannes last month, and Phillippe Garell's La Vent de la Nuit, have been added to Galway's strand of new French cinema. John Stephenson's new Irish-made film of Animal Farm is another programme addition.
Now confirmed for the fleadh's documentary section are Sinead O'Brien's film on playwright Brian Friel; Ian Graham's The Trials of Ulysses; Liam McGrath's Ahead of the Class, and Donal Haughey's Tales from Townland.
The Irish actor Stuart Townsend, who was originally cast to stay in Peter Jackson's epic trilogy of movies based on Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, feels he was "shafted" by Jackson, who sacked him two months after shooting started, Townsend told The Independent On Sunday this week. The young Dubliner dismissed his recent movie, The Venice Project - in which he is joined by Dennis Hopper, Linus Roache and Lauren Bacall - as "the worst piece of crap" he has ever seen.
However, Gerry Stembridge's About Adam, in which Townsend plays a seductive character involved with three sisters, is "my favourite thing I've done," he says. That film goes on release here in the autumn. Meanwhile, Townsend co-stars with Helen Mirren in Nicholas Hytner's production of the 1957 Tennessee Williams play, Orpheus Descending, which opens at the Donmar Warehouse in London next Tuesday.
In a surprising change of direction, Doug Liman, who made Swingers and Go, is to direct a big-budget film of Robert Ludlum's spy thriller novel, The Bourne Identity, for Universal Pictures. Matt Damon is in negotiations to star in Liman's film as the mysterious Bourne, a man with no memory of his past after his bullet-ridden body is found flushed out of the Mediterranean Sea.
Who wants to be a bloodsucker? Film directors appear to be finding it increasingly hard to find actors to play vampires these days. First, there was the departure of the young American Beauty star Wes Bentley from the role of Lestat in Queen of the Damned, Anne Rice's followup to Interview With the Vampire, which starts shooting in the autumn in Australia. Bentley has been replaced by Josh Hartnett from The Virgin Suicides. Now horror guru Wes Craven is seeking a star for his self-importantly titled Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000, to be directed by Craven's regular film editor Patrick Lussier. This yarn brings Bram Stoker's creation to Anne Rice's turf of present-day New Orleans, and the cast already includes Christopher Plummer, Jonny Lee Miller, Jennifer Esposito, and singer Vitamin C (aka Colleen Fitzpatrick).
"We're still scouring the earth for our vampire," Lussier says. "There's so much baggage that comes with the part. Dracula is one of the most filmed characters in cinematic history. But we have an origin for Dracula that was never resolved. It's very scary." Even scarier is making a movie titled Dracula 2000 and not having it ready for release in the eponymous year.