EXPANDED this year to accommodate 47 screenings workshops, the Seventh Junior Dublin Film Festival opens on Sunday, November 24th with Danny DeVito's well regarded Roald Dahl adaptation, Matilda, and closes on Thursday December 5th with the wonderful 1939 classic, The Wizard Of Oz. Three Irish made feature films are on the varied international programme - Martin Duffy's The Boy From Mercury, Chris Bould's Joe, My Friend and John Sayles's The Secret Of Roan Inish - and there are features from Iran Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Norway, Denmark, France, and from Germany for Babe fans, Rudi, The Racing Pig.
The festival's brochure grades each film as regards its suitability for different age groups. Among the speakers confirmed to present workshops at the festival are Jim Sheridan (on directing), Donald Taylor Black (documentary), Roddy Doyle (screenwriting), Ed Guiney (production) and Paddy Breathnach (post production). For further information, call 01 671 4095.
TEN years after he made Full Metal Jacket, Stanley Kubrick is finally back behind the camera. His new film, Eyes Wi de Shut, went into production last week and is shooting at Pinewood Studios and on location in and around London. The screenplay by Frederic Raphael is described by Warner Bros as a story of jealousy and sexual obsession". Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman take the leading roles, and they are joined in the cast by Jennifer Jason Leigh and Harvey Keitel.
THE latest Wim Wenders movie, The Brothers Skladanowsky, will have its first Irish screening at the Goethe Institut, 37 Merrion Square, Dublin on Wednesday, November 20th at 8 p.m. Based on the story of Max Skladanowsky and his invention of the Bioscope, the film combines some of his early films, his daughters' memories, and recreations derived from early cinema into an imaginative fictional construction. Wenders made the film with a team from the Munich Film School. Admission to this one off screening is free.
PAULINE COLLINS, who received an Oscar nomination for Shirley Valentine, is to play a fictitious British ambassador to Dublin in a major new BBC 1 television series, The Ambassador, which starts shooting early next year. The series has been devised by Russell Lewis, a veteran of Inspector Morse, Kavanagh QC and Sharpe. The Collins character, Harriet Smith is described as "a high flying diplomat with a reputation for getting Britain out of trouble when it matters". Robert Cooper, head of drama for BBC Northern Ireland, says that the series is both a highly idea and an exciting original collaboration of talent. It fields the strongest possible team of writers with the exceptional acting skills of Pauline Collins all set in the most vibrant capital city in Europe.
BLUR singer Damon Albarn makes his acting debut in Face, the new film by Priest director Antonia Bird. Robert Carlyle from Priest, Trainspotting and Hamish Macbeth, co stars with Albarn in the movie, a gangster drama about a heist that goes awry. The film is now shooting in London, as is another BBC production, The James Gang, about a poverty stricken family who go on a robbery spree. Toni Collette and John Hannah head the cast and the film is directed by Mike Barker and produced by Andrew Eaton, who produced Roddy Doyle's Family and the recent Jude.
The BBC is also filming the amusingly titled Bring Me The Head Of Mavis Davis, a black comedy about a manager who decides to kill a singer in order to boost her record sales. It stars Jane Horrocks Danny Aiello and Rik Mayall and is directed by John Henderson. Henderson, who made the recent Loch Ness, has been replaced as director on the imminent Irish production Banjaxed, by Robert Young. Written by Hugh Leonard, Banjaxed will star Mirrow and goes into production in Ireland in the spring.
AN exhibition telling the story of the first 100 years of Dublin's is now on display at Rathmines Public Library in Dublin, where it continues until November 23rd. The exhibition, Now Showing, features photographs, film stills, posters and other memorabilia, and it was researched and designed by Dublin Corporation Public Libraries.
EMILY WATSON, who makes in such a striking debut in Breaking The Waves, joins Christian Bale and Lee Ross in the cast of Philip Savile's film of the Julian Barnes novel, Metroland, now filming in London and Paris ... Ralph Fiennes and Australian actress Cate Blanchett take the leading roles in Oscar And Lucinda Gillian Armstrong's film of the Peter Carey novel ... Vincent Perez, Rachel Weisz, Kathy Bates and Inn McKellen head the cast of Beebnn Kidron's Amy Foster, based on the Joseph Conrad short story ... The next John Grisham adaptation will be Francis Ford Coppola's film of The Rainmaker, now shooting in Memphis and featuring Matt Damon, Claire Danes, Danny DeVito, Jon Voight, Teresa Wright, Mickey Rourke and Virginia Madsen.
IN the latest round of MEDIA II develoment results, project development loans have been awarded to Apollo Films (Mothership), Little Bird (The Devouring), Merlin Films Group (Hay Fever), Power Pictures (Long Shot), Razor Productions (Northsider) and Samson Films (Eclipsed). Company development loans went to Hummingbird and Little Bird.
MARIANNE FAITHFULL has interesting casting ideas for members of the Rolling Stones in the proposed movie of her biography, Faithfull: "Willem Dafoe is a very fine actor and a very fine man and he would be perfect for Mick," she says, "and Keith would have to be played by Daniel Day Lewis."
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