Dublin discoveries

FEATURING a cast made up entirely of young Dublin actors - and with a number of horses featured significantly - Hooligans, an urban drama set in Dublin, finished shooting yesterday after six weeks on various locations in the city, from Dunsink to Meath Street to the Phoenix Park. It is co- produced by Nicholas O'Neill of the Irish company, Liquid Films - his second feature after the Russian venture, Micha - and Kees Kasander, who is Peter Greenaway's regular producer.

The screenplay is by James Mathers, an American actor who has lived in Ireland for the past six years, and the director is Paul Tickell, who made the BAFTA-winning television film, Zinky Boys Go Underground. The lighting cameraman is Reinier Van Brummelen and the production designer is Tom Conroy.

"It's a very fast movie," Nicholas O'Neill told Reel News. "The main character is Neal, and it follows him over three days and nights after he gets out of incarceration for something he didn't do. He gets his gang back together and seeks revenge, but things go wrong and they go on the run.

"It's a kind of western - a pony picture - and there's even a hanging in it. It's not a Ken Loach slice-of-life film. Although it's anchored in reality at the start, it has a mythic dimension to it, and it's very funny." He says that the young leading players are "all discoveries" and that newcomer Darren Healy, who plays Neal, is "sensational".

EIGHTEEN years after it was first released, the award-winning German film The Tin Drum has been declared obscene in America by an Oklahoma judge. As a result, Oklahnma police have seized copies of the film from video stores and the county district attorney, Bob Macy, said he will prosecute anyone caught with a copy of the film.

Directed by Volker Schlondorff and based on the novel by Gunther Grass, The Tin Drum won the Palme d'Or for best film at Cannes in 1979 and the Academy Award for best foreign-language film. It features David Bennent, who was 12 at the time in the central role of Oskar, a teenage boy who stopped growing at the age of three by an act of will, and it views Germany during the second World War through his eyes.

The scene deemed offensive by the Oklahoma district judge, Richard Freeman, features "a six or seven-year-old boy engaging in oral sex in a bathhouse with a teenage girl". The judge cited an Oklahoma law which defines obscenity as any portrayal of a person under 18 having sex or any depiction thereof. "Frankly, as long as the statute is the way it is, I couldn't do anything else," the judge commented.

Complaints had been filed against the film by the anti-pornography group, Oklahomans for Children and Families, who were angry that the movie was available from public libraries. Following the ruling last week, the police seized copies of the film from six video stores. The district attorney stated that he will not prosecute anyone who rented the film prior to the judge's ruling, but that he will prosecute anyone caught with the film after that date. Civil libertarians are calling for a federal investigation into the case.

THE Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas is making his debut as a director with All The Little Animals, which is shooting on locations in Cornwall, London and the Isle of Man. Adapted by Eski Thomas from the novel by Walker Hamilton, the film is described as "a contemporary thriller about betrayal, revenge and redemption in which a part-man, part-child faces dispossession and death at the hands of his stepfather".

Featured as the central character is Christian Bale (from Little Women and Portrait Of A Lady) and his brutal stepfather is played by Daniel Benzali, who played Ted Hoffman in the first Murder One series and stars in the thriller,

Murder At 1600, which opens here next Friday. The third principal role, a recluse who protects the young man, is played by John Hurt.

"I have wanted to direct All The Little Animals ever since I first read Walker Hamilton's novel over 20 years ago, says Jeremy Thomas. "It is a unique fusion of the traditional thriller and a classic morality tale and it touches on issues of ecology and animal rights which have become even more important and more topical today."

Among the films produced by Jeremy Thomas are Crash, Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, The Hit, The Shout, The Sheltering Sky, and The Last Emperor which won him his Oscar.

THE sequel to The Fugitive will be without the fugitive himself, Richard Kimble, who was played by Harrison Ford. The focus of the sequel, US Marshals, will be on his pursuer who will be played again by Tommy Lee Jones, and the cast also features Wesley Snipes, Robert Downey Jr, Joe Pantoliano, Kate Nelligan and Irene Jacob. The movie is now in production in Chicago, Tennessee and New York, with Stuart Baird (who made Executive Decision) as director.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Demmi has started filming his first film as a director since Philadelphia four years ago. Adapted by Richard LaGravenese from the novel by Toni Morrison, Beloved star Oprah, Winfrey, who is one of this movie's three producers, in the first major film role since The Cot or Purple 12 years ago. Her co stars are Danny Glover and Thandie Newton.