Irish films top box office

FOR the first time, three Irish films were in the top four at the Irish box office last weekend. Powering away at the top of the chart was Michael Collins, followed by The Van in second and The Last Of The High Kings in fourth. Third place went to The Long Kiss Goodnight.

Since it opened on November 8th, Michael Collins has taken £2.6 million at the Irish box office, putting it within a half million of the all time record held by Jurassic Park. The Jordan movie looks certain to eclipse the Spielberg film by New Year's Eve, if not earlier.

In the US, Michael Collins is beginning to slide down the box office charts, having taken more than $10 million. However, it is likely to get a new lease of life should it figure prominently in the end of year round ups by the US critics and in the nominations for the Golden Globes and Oscars.

Although it featured on the shortlist for European Film of the Year at this year's European Film Awards, Michael Collins has not made it into the final list of three nominees. The contenders are Kolya, Breaking The Waves and Secrets & Lies. However, Terry George's Some Mother's Son has made it into the final three nominees for Young European Film of the Year, along with Beautiful Thing and Lea. The two acting awards have already been decided, with best actress going to Emily Watson for Breaking the Waves and best, actor to Ian McKellen for Richard III. The European Film Awards will be presented in Berlin on Sunday night.

FILM Base is holding its Christmas Film Quiz on Monday, December 16th, at 7.30 p.m. in the upstairs function room of the Norseman in Temple Bar, Dublin, with myself as quizmaster for the evening. Admission is £20 per table and team tables are limited, so advance booking is recommended. All proceeds go towards upgrading Film Base's essential equipment. To reserve a table, call Teresa Bolton on (01) 679-6716.

WHO will play the legendary Hunter S. Thompson now that his hallucination laced journalism classic, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, finally nears production 25 years after the book was published?

Johnny Depp - no better man - is now in negotiations to play Thompson, and Alex Cox - who made Sid And Nancy - will direct the movie which he has scripted with Tod Davies.

NOW shooting on location in Wicklow, The Nephew marks, the producing debut of its star, Pierce Brosnan, and of its Dublin born director, Eugene Brady. Set on an island off the coast of Ireland, it features Donal McCann as a farmer and Brosnan as his arch rival.

When the farmer's sister dies in America, her son returns home with her ashes and, to everyone's amazement, the son is black. He is played by Hill Harper, who is in the new Spike Lee movie, Get On The Bus.

The £3 million film is a co production between Morgan O'Sullivan's company, World 2000, and Brosnan's company, Irish Dreamtime. World 2000 plans to make The Demon Barber a movie based on the Sweeney Todd story, in Ireland next year with John Schlesinger directing.

PLAYWRIGHT and theatre director Paul Mercier makes his film debut as writer and director this month, with the half hour film Before I Sleep. It will be shot on Dublin locations for 10 days, beginning next Monday.

The film is described as an odyssey through the city by a recently unemployed middle class, man (played by Brendan Gleeson). The producers are Fiach and Cuan MacConghail and the lighting cameraman is John T. Davis.

APPLICATIONS are now invited for Fastlane, the film executive development programme introduced by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment in association with the EU MEDIA Programme. Fastlane is designed to help European professionals to develop essential business skills, experience and, contacts.

Candidates will need to have been significantly involved in a feature film that has been theatrically released in at least one country, or a feature length television drama that has been broadcast nationally. Application forms are available from the Fastlane programme director on fax (0044) 171-747-4424. MODEST, unassuming writer director Barbra Streisand is being accused of narcissism again with the US release of her new movie, The Mirror Has Two Faces. Entertainment Weekly claims there are 16 shots in which "her fabulous fingernails are prominently displayed", five shots of her nails running along a man's body, two of her nails running along her own body, eight in which "her fabulous legs are prominently displayed", nine in which "her cleavage is prominently displayed" and one in which her co star Jeff Bridges calls the 54 year old diva "pretty girl".

Even more unkind folk have rudely re titled the movie as The Cinema Has Two Customers. QUOTE of the week: Neil Jordan on his film of Patrick McCabe's The Butcher Boy in the latest Screen International: "It's a cross between Huckleberry Finn and Silence Of The Lambs. It's about the imagination gone insane."