NOEL Pearson, the Oscar-nominated producer of My Left Foot, has lined up a strong cast for his next production, How About You?, which starts shooting on October 24th. The film is based on a Maeve Binchy short story, Hardcore, which has been adapted for the screen by Jean Pasley and is set in a retirement home over 10 days at Christmas.
Vanessa Redgrave plays a retired movie star who worked in Ireland early in her career, with Imelda Staunton and Brenda Fricker as two sisters from an upper-class background who are staying in the same home, and Joss Ackland as a fellow resident, a retired judge. Orla Brady plays the owner, with Hayley Atwell (from the TV series The Line of Beauty) as her younger sister, the manager.
"The story builds to a head-on class between the generations," Pearson told Reel News. "It's an actor-driven piece, and very funny, and it could be really special."
The director is Anthony Byrne, who demonstrated his visual flair in his first feature, Short Order, released here earlier this year and featuring Redgrave in a cameo role. How About You? shoots for six weeks at Mount Usher Gardens in Ashford, Co Wicklow, followed by a week in Rostrevor, Co Down.
Fingal's free movies
Four notable feature films will be screened free of charge tomorrow as part of a community event organised by Fingal County Council in Dublin. The venue is Leitrim County Council's mobile cinema, which will be parked at the Civic Buildings Plaza in the Blanchardstown Centre. The programme includes Perry Ogden's Irish Traveller film, Pavee Lackeen (10.30am), Polish period picture Pan Tadeusz (12.15pm), Bollywood epic Devdas (2.30pm) and the Oscar-winning South African drama Tsotsi (6pm).
Jamie jumps ship
Jamie Lee Curtis says she has retired from movies to concentrate on writing books for children. "I'm not an actor anymore," she said on TV series Access Hollywood this week while promoting her new book, Is There a Human Race? "I really don't imagine I'll do that again."
Curtis, the daughter of actors Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, is married to Best in Show and For Your Consideration actor-director Christopher Guest. At the age of 20 she made her feature debut in John Carpenter's cult shocker Halloween (1978) and has since appeared in more than 50 films, including Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda, True Lies, Halloween H20, The Tailor of Panama and Freaky Friday.
Coincidentally, Luc Besson, who directed The Big Blue, Léon and The Fifth Element, also anounced his retirement from movies this year at the age of 49, so that he, to, could devote his time to writing children's books. However, attending the Frankfurt Book Fair, Besson said he will reconsider his decision if he gets "a good script". His 11th and supposedly final film as a director, Arthur and the Minimoys, an animated feature based on one of his books, opens in France in December.
Faithful 'Departed'
Andrew Lau, who co-directed the 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, gives credit to Martin Scorsese for his transposition of the scenario to a Boston criminal milieu in The Departed. "Of course, I think the version I did was better," Lau told Hong Kong newspaper The Apple Daily. "But the Hollywood version is pretty good, too. Scorsese made the Hollywood version more attuned to American culture."
When a child is born
Director Catherine Hardwicke follows the gritty Thirteen with The Nativity Story, a Biblical picture featuring Keisha Castle-Hughes and Oscar Isaac as Mary and Joseph before they go to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus. However, as international distributors finalise their marketing campaigns for the film's Christmas release, they have learned that Castle-Hughes, who is 16, is expecting her own child in the spring. The father is her boyfriend of three years, Bradley Hull.
A surprise best actress Oscar nominee three years ago for the New Zealand movie Whale Rider, Castle-Hughes played the Queen of Naboo in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.
