Directors Guild crowns Kings

The Screen Directors Guild of Ireland hosted a reception in Dublin last night to announce that Kings, Tom Collins's bilingual feature film, is the recipient of the guild's 2007 Directors Finders Series award. As a result, Kingswill have a special screening in Los Angeles before an audience of US distributors.

Dealing with Irish immigrants to Britain as they are reunited for the funeral of a friend, Kingsstars Colm Meaney, Donal O'Kelly and Brendan Conroy. It goes on release in Irish cinemas from September 21st.

Weinstein threatens blood on the tracks

Never a slouch at generating publicity, US distributor Harvey Weinstein has made a statement that is remarkable even by his hyperbolic standards. "I may be jumping the gun," he told the New York Timesthis week, "but if Cate Blanchett doesn't get nominated, I'll shoot myself."

He was referring to Blanchett's Oscar prospects for her performance as Bob Dylan in the Todd Haynes movie I'm Not There, which will be unveiled at the Venice and Toronto festivals.

Weinstein assiduously courted the Oscar electorate during his tenure at Miramax, amassing dozens of nominations and wins, including a best supporting actress statuette for Blanchett's portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator. Now running The Weinstein Co with his brother Bob, Harvey is actively promoting Haynes's movie featuring six actors as Dylan at various stages in his career: Blanchett for the Blonde on Blondeperiod, Heath Ledger for the John Wesley Harding phase, for example, along with Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw and 13-year-old black actor Marcus Carl Franklin.

Loach heads for TV

Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barleywon the Palme d'Or at Cannes and was one of the top three films at the Irish box-office last year, but his new film will not have a cinema release here or in the UK. It's a Free World . . .has its world premiere next week at the Venice Film Festival and will receive an international release. However, following a one-off London screening on September 13th, Channel 4, which financed the film, will broadcast it towards the end of the month.

Dealing with exploitation in the area of illegal employment, the film features newcomers Kierston Wareing and Juliet Ellis as two young women who set up a recruitment agency.

A dog's tale

Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston will co-star in the movie of Marley & Me, which topped the non-fiction bestsellers on both sides of the Atlantic. John Grogan's book follows the experiences of the author and his wife when they adopt an unruly but loveable Labrador retriever named Marley. David Frankel, who made The Devil Wears Prada, will direct the film.

Film in works on cool hand McQueen

The home entertainment division of New Line Cinema has acquired the film rights to My Husband, My Friend, Neile McQueen Toffel's book on her 16-year marriage to Steve McQueen, the 1960s superstar dubbed the King of Cool. McQueen died in 1980 at the age of 50, but his iconic status lives on. His 1963 Ferrari was sold at a California auction last week for $2.3 million.

But who, if anyone, is cool enough to play Steve McQueen on screen?

Big Apple to finally see John's Romance

John Turturro will distribute Romance & Cigarettesin New York next month at his own expense, following a legal tangle over the US distribution rights. Released here and in the UK last year, the 2004 film was directed, written and co-produced by Turturro, and stars Susan Sarandon, James Gandolfini, Kate Winslet, Steve Buscemi, Bobby Cannavale and Christopher Walken. Turturro gets all the key characters to burst into song and dance whenever the narrative flags, which is very often indeed in this threadbare tale of marital infidelity.

A shrill and shapeless karaoke melodrama, Romance & Cigarettesis wildly self-indulgent and stridently overacted.