Big names for Galway Film Fleadh

The full programme for the 17th Galway Film Fleadh, which runs from July 5th to 10th, won't be unveiled until Wednesday, but it's already shaping up as one of the most attractive editions to date, with some key figures in US independent cinema now confirmed to attend, writes Michael Dwyer

Paul Schrader, the gifted director of Mishima, American Gigolo, Blue Collar and Affliction, will give the screenwriting masterclass in Galway on July 6th after the screening of a new print of Martin Scorsese's masterpiece, Taxi Driver, which Schrader scripted before he started to direct his own movies.

Two fine actors, Patricia Clarkson and Campbell Scott (a director in his own right) will give the acting masterclass on July 9th, and the fleadh will screen several of their films. These include the under-rated Pieces of April, with Clarkson's Oscar-nominated performance, and Roger Dodger, starring Scott in a bravura portrayal of an unrepentant womaniser. They co-star together in the Irish premiere of a new film by Craig Lucas, The Dying Gaul. See master classes@ galwayfilmfleadh.com.

The very busy fleadh schedule on July 9th will also feature the directing masterclass given by Luis Mandoki, the Mexican-born director of White Palace, When a Man Loves a Woman and the recent Innocent Voices, which is set in mid-1980s El Salvador. Innocent Voices received the audience award last Sunday at the 31st Seattle International Film Festival - where Antrim native Gary McKendry's Oscar-nominated Northern Ireland drama, Everything in This Country Must, took the prize for best short film.

Film board trawling for chief

One hot topic at Galway is certain to be the new chief executive officer of the Irish Film Board. He or she will succeed Mark Woods, who leaves at the end of the month for Sydney, his base for the previous 15 years, where he will head the national film commission. The job was advertised in this newspaper and in trade paper Screen International last Friday, and in the the Guardian on Monday.

Return of evil Idi Amin

The brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, the subject of several movies and documentaries in the 1970s, re-surfaced in two projects this week: as the subject of the History channel documentary, Idi Amin: The Man Who Ate His Archbishop's Liver; and of the movie, The Last King of Scotland, which started shooting last Sunday. Directed by Kevin Macdonald, who made Touching the Void and the Oscar-winning documentary One Day in September, it features Forest Whitaker as Amin, who died in 2003, and James McAvoy (from Inside I'm Dancing and Shameless) as the Scottish doctor who unwittingly becomes his closest advisor.

Dusting off more mouldy TV

Yet another old TV series is to be turned into a feature film. Ben Stiller and Steve Coogan will play the leading roles in The Persuaders, based on the 1971 British series following the adventures of a couple of rich playboys (Tony Curtis and Roger Moore).

Other TV spin-offs on the way include The Dukes of Hazzard and Bewitched, both opening here in August, followed in September by The Honeymooners, set in the US but shot mostly in Dublin, and poorly received by reviewers when it opened to weak business in the US last weekend.

Meanwhile, the remake of the hit 1972 disaster movie, The Poseidon Adventure, starts shooting tomorrow in Los Angeles, with Wolfgang Petersen directing a cast led by Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss, Josh Lucas and Emmy Rossum. Set aboard a cruise ship capsized by a tidal wave, the original featured Gene Hackman, Shelley Winters and Ernest Borgnine.

Kruise krazy Katie

As the dizzyingly whirlwind romance between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes continues unabated comes the news that Holmes, a Catholic, is switching to Cruise's religion, Scientology. Meanwhile, a new website, FreeKatie.net, declares itself dedicated to "the movement to liberate Katie, a young, gifted actress held captive by forces we may never understand. Even one summer of captivity is too long for one so bright!"