Irish writer-director Rebecca Daly is one of six film-makers selected for the latest Cinéfondation Résidence programme in Paris, organised by the Festival de Cannes. Now under way, the four-month session enables directors to develop their first or second feature films with the help of experienced producers and directors.
Joyriders, which won Daly the Ifta award for best Irish short film last year, will be released at the new Light House Cinema in Smithfield, Dublin when the venue opens on May 9th. It will be shown with Nadine Labaki's feature film Caramel, set in a Beirut beauty salon where five Lebanese women confide in each other. Labaki is a former participant in the Cinéfondation Résidence programme.
Bringing the movies home
The Cinemobile is bringing three of the best recent US movies to Irish audiences without cinemas in their areas. Over the course of this month, the comfortable 100-seater mobile cinema will screen No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood and Juno, all Oscar winners this year, on its tour of: Ardee, Co Louth; Castleblaney, Co Monaghan; Castlepollard, Co Meath; Headford and Glenamaddy, Co Galway, and Doolin and Ballyvaughan in Co Clare. www.cinemobile.ie
Plummer, Mirren in Tolstoy biopic
Since he played Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, Christopher Plummer has portrayed a wide range of real-life characters, including Erwin Rommel (in The Night of the Generals), the Duke of Wellington (Waterloo), Rudyard Kipling (The Man Who Would Be King), Archduke Ferdinand (The Day That Shook the World), Franklin D Roosevelt (Winchell), TV presenter Mike Wallace (The Insider) and Aristotle (Alexander). He will next portray Leo Tolstoy (left) in Michael Hoffman's new film, which starts shooting in Germany on Monday.
The Last Station deals with the last year in the author's life and his troubled relationship with his wife Sofia Tolstoy, played by Helen Mirren, whose real-life roles have included three monarchs: Queen Charlotte (The Madness of King George), the title role in the TV miniseries Elizabeth I, and Elizabeth II in The Queen. The impressive cast of Hoffman's movie includes Paul Giamatti and off-screen couple James McAvoy and Anne-Marie-Duff.
Stone tackles Bush family saga
Josh Brolin, most recently seen in No Country for Old Men, will play President George W Bush in Oliver Stone's new movie. W, scheduled to start shooting at the end of April, follows the present incumbent of the White House through his formative years.
James Cromwell, who played Prince Philip in The Queen, is set to play former US president George HW Bush, with Ellen Burstyn, an Oscar winner for Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, as his wife Barbara. Elizabeth Banks (Definitely, Maybe) plays Laura Bush. The screenplay is by Stone's co-writer on Wall Street, Stanley Weiser.
A new blogger on the block
Pedro Almódovar is doubling as blogger while directing his new movie, Broken Hugs, starring Penelope Cruz. We are promised that his blog may be viewed in Spanish, French and English, and will provide stills, clips and his wry commentary on the ups and downs of making the film. Accessing the site this week revealed nothing but a blank page, but stay tuned . . . www.PedroAlmodovar.es
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