Having cast an arthouse favourite, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, as the villain in Casino Royale, the producers of the 22nd James Bond movie have chosen another, versatile French actor Mathieu Amalric, to play the baddie in the as-yet-untitled 007 adventure.
Amalric (42) won César awards for his performances in Arnaud Desplechin's Ma Vie Sexuelle (1996) and Rois et Reine (2004). He is riveting in the difficult role of paralysed stroke victim Jean-Dominique Bauby in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, an Oscar contender set to open here next month.
Jeffrey Wright, who played CIA agent Felix Leitner in Casino Royale, reprises that role in the new Bond film, which is now shooting. Gemma Arterton (St Trinian's) and Ukrainian actress Olga Kurylenko (Hitman, Paris, Je t'Aime) have joined the cast. Marc Forster, whose credits include The Kite Runner, Finding Neverland and Stranger Than Fiction, is directing the movie, scheduled for international release on November 7th.
Art imitates life
Ben Affleck's gritty directing debut Gone Baby Gone, released in the US last October, remains postponed indefinitely in the UK and Ireland because of some similarities between its fictional story of the search for an abducted four-year-old girl in Boston and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal last May. Nevertheless, Clarence Mitchell, the spokesman for Gerry and Kate McCann, has confirmed that discussions are under way with a leading production company to make a film based on the case, even though it remains unsolved.
"If in theory a large film were to be made, our lawyers would make sure our commercial interests are protected," Mitchell said. "Madeleine's Fund is just over £1m. The money is going on investigators and advertising. It's dwindling. It's not going to last the year unless we get more money in."
Disc appeal
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the imminent death of DVD are greatly exaggerated. Despite the hoopla around the Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats, the paying public is in no hurry to switch over. Figures issued by the British Video Association show that DVD sales in the UK during 2007 were up by 10 per cent, from 229 million units in 2006 to 250 million. UK sales on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD amounted to just one million in 2007. Having switched over from VHS to DVD in recent years, consumers appear unwilling to convert to either of the rival new formats quite so soon.
Talking trophies (1)
Despite the cancellation of Sunday's Golden Globes event, (the winners will now be announced at a press conference in Los Angeles at 6pm on Sunday, or 2am Monday GMT) the awards season continues unabated. Armagh native Seamus McGarvey has been nominated by his peers in the annual awards presented by the American Society of Cinematographers, to be announced on January 26th. Chosen for his striking work on Atonement, McGarvey is nominated along with Janusz Kaminski (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood), and Roger Deakins, for both The Assassination of Jesse James and No Country for Old Men.
Seamus McGarvey also features on the longlists for the Bafta nominations, where Atonement leads the field with 17 placings, one of them for Carlow resident Saoirse Ronan as best supporting actress. Four movies have 13 placings each: There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and American Gangster.
Dublin musical Once features on three longlists, for best actress (Markéta Irglová), original screenplay (John Carney), and music (Glen Hansard and Irglová). The longlists, which generally run to 15 in each category, will be narrowed down to five for each award in the second round of voting.
Talking trophies (2)
Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood swept the board when the US National Society of Film Critics voted in New York last weekend. Anderson's powerful drama collected four awards: best film, director, actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and cinematography (Robert Elswit). And Anderson was runner-up for the best screenplay award, which went to Tamara Jenkins for The Savages.
Julie Christie was named best actress for Away from Her, with Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James) taking the best supporting actor award and Cate Blanchett voted best supporting actress for I'm Not There.
Charles Ferguson's critical chronicle of the Iraq war, No End in Sight, was chosen as best documentary. The foreign- language film award was given to 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days.
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