THE three cinema Dublin arthouse, the Screen at D'Olier Street, is to close next Thursday for a complete renovation. The existing auditoria will be replaced by five custom built cinemas with new and bigger screens, state of the art sound and new seating, according to Paul Ward of the Dublin Cinema Group which owns the cinema.
The venue also will incorporate a cafe/bar and a foyer which will feat tire a hall of fame devoted to film makers who visit the cinema far public interviews, of which the cinema plans to hold many more in the future. And the venue will have a new name, which has yet to be decided.
"All that will remain is our friend, the Millennium Man," says Paul Ward in reference to the torch bearing figure outside the cinema. "We decided on the expansion to deal with our ongoing problems with lack of screen space," he told Reel News.
"We have had to take off a number of successful films at times when they were attracting very good audiences far example Hamlet, Flirting With Disaster and Looking For Richard - and with five screens we can give films longer runs. The development is a sign of our faith in the growth of art cinema in the city centre. It hasn't worked in the multiplexes, but the Screen has been very successful and we feel it's only the start. And we believe that there is plenty of art cinema to go round, and plenty far the IFC which has a different remit."
The new five screen complex is scheduled to open in December.
CONGRATULATIONS to Mick Hannigan, programmer of Cork Film Festival and director of the city's Kino cinema, on his appointment to the board of Bord Scannan na hEireann. His appointment and that of the very busy Irish actor and producer, Gabriel Byrne, were made to fill two vacancies on the board. Mick Hannigan has also announced that the closing date for entries for the 42nd Murphys Cork Film Festival is July 11th, and he is encouraging young and emerging film talent, in particular, to enter. The festival, which will run from October 12th to 19th, may be contacted at Haffield House, Tobin Street, Cork.
Meanwhile Galway Film Fleadh, which runs from July 8th to 13th, has announced that Anthony Minghella, the Oscarwinning director of The English Patient, will give a masterclass in film directing during this year's event at a date yet to be finalised. The event marks a return to Galway for Minghella, who directed his own play, A Little Like Drowning, at Druid in 1989.
WES Craven's Scream was voted film of the year at the 1997 MTV Movie Awards, announced in Santa Monica, California, last Monday night. Tom Cruise was named best actor for Jerry Maguire, with best actress going to Claire Danes for Romeo And Juliet. Matthew McConaughy got best breakthrough performance for his role in A Time To Kill, Jim Carrey was named both best villain and best comedic performer for The Cable Guy, and Nicolas Cage and Sean Cannery got best on screen duo for The Rock.
The other awards included best screen kiss to Will Smith and Viveca A. Fox in Independence Day; best movie sang to Bush's Machinehead from Fear; best new film maker to Doug Liman for Swingers; best fight to Fairuza Balk and Robin Tunney in The Craft; and best action sequence to Twister far the scene in which a truck drives through farm equipment. The lifetime achievement award, presented by Carrie Fisher, went to Chewbacca for the Star Wars trilogy. No kidding!
BRENDA BLETHYN, an Oscar nominee this year for Secrets & Lies, has just finished working on Nick Hurran's Girls Night, a comedy in which she and Julie Walters play close friends from Manchester who go to Las Vegas on the proceeds of a win at the bingo. Kris Kristofferson also stars.
The three time Oscarwinning studio, Aardman Animations, is about to begin its first animated feature film, Chicken Run, to be codirected by Nick Park and Peter Lord.
One of the most unexpected major hits of recent years, Babe, has spawned a sequel now shooting at the new Fox Studios in Australia. Chris Noonan earned an Oscar nomination for directing the original, but the sequel will be directed by George Miller, who produced the original.
And Al Pacino is to star in the remake of the 1965 Steve McQueen movie, The Cincinnati Kid, which will be scripted by David Mamet.
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