The other film news stories of the week...
Richie ready to hail the King
Sherlock Holmesseemed to finally answer the troubling question: what are we going to do with Guy Ritchie? When invited to deconstruct an English icon, Ritchie suddenly rediscovered his long-lost mojo.
Guy appears to have taken the lesson to heart, and his next project – again written by somebody else – finds him tackling another key emblem of Albion. Varietyreports that Ritchie will direct John Hodge's script dealing with the trials of King Arthur.
The writer of Trainspottingand the director of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrelsteam up to tackle Camelot? Even if it's the film is a disaster, it's sure to be an interesting one.
Irish short gets a release
If you missed David O'Sullivan's smashing Moore Street Masalaat the recent Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, then be aware that the short – northside Dublin meets Bollywood – is playing in support of Zonadthroughout the country. The Masalaproducers received further good news recently when it was confirmed that the film will play at the Aspen film festival.
Zonadis one of four Irish films (joining My Brothers, Ondineand Snap) that will play at the Tribeca Film Festival in April. What will Bob De Niro make of it?
Fassbender in for Jane Eyre
Cary Fukunaga, director of Sin Nombre, has cast top Kerryman Michael Fassbender as Mr Rochester in his upcoming adaptation of Jane Eyre. Mia Wasikowska, now in Alice in Wonderland, is playing Jane, and Judi Dench inevitably essays Mrs Fairfax.
Elsewhere in Brontëland, Andrea Arnold remains close-lipped about the casting for her forthcoming Wuthering Heights.
Depp tumbles through the Door
Oh god, no. We all like Johnny Depp. But the actor's affection for teen-friendly post-beatnik prose (all that Hunter S Thompson stuff) does occasionally hint at a certain immaturity. Now, it has been revealed that Depp will read some of Jim Morrison's ghastly verse on the soundtrack to the (rather good) forthcoming Doors documentary, When You're Strange.
Older readers will recall that, back in 1978, the surviving Doors members unleashed an album, largely composed of Morrison's verse, called An American Prayer. Even the idiots who lurk pathetically round the late hulk's grave in Père Lachaise Cemetery have trouble pretending to like that particular monstrosity.
Three strikes and out for Batman?
Few issues trouble the internet more than gossip surrounding Christopher Nolan's Batmanfilms. It was thus no surprise that, when Nolan suggested that the third film in his franchise might be the last, the wires were a-buzz with distraught moans and entreaties.
“The key thing that makes the third film a great possibility for us is that we want to finish our story,” Nolan says. “And in viewing it as the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story.”
Nolan refused be drawn on casting, but we fancy Vanessa Redgrave as Catwoman. She'd have to actually flingcats at Christian Bale, mind.
