Film news from MICHAEL DWYER

Which Antichrist for Ireland?

Although Lars von Trier's penchant for calculated shock tactics is taken to gruesome extremes in Antichrist, he's covering his options. Von Trier has already prepared a toned- down version that excludes the scenes of sexual penetration, bloody ejaculation and genital mutilation that stirred up such a rumpus at Cannes last week.

Peter Aalbæk Jensen of Zentropa, which produced the film, says distributors have the choice between what he calls the “nice Catholic” version, in which the four most extreme sequences have been excised, and “the naughty Protestant one” shown at Cannes.

According to Jensen, Antichrist achieved "one of the highest prices we have got in many years" from Artificial Eye for the UK and Irish distribution rights to the film. Given that its shock value is the talking point of Antichrist, it seems highly unlikely that Artificial Eye will have paid such a sum for the "nice Catholic" version.

Lighthouse locates Eric

Eric Cantona is coming to Dublin next Tuesday night for the Irish premiere of Looking for Ericat the Light House Cinema. He will be joined by Steve Evets, his co-star in the engaging serious comedy, along with director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty.

Cantona will next co-star with his wife, Rachida Brackni, in The Pelvis Moves, which starts shooting in the autumn. They play a martial arts student and a dreamer who longs to have a child in what's described as "a burlesque tragic action movie".

Mad about Condoleeza

Dublin-based Monster Distributes was in Cannes selling international rights on the intriguing Courting Condi,billed as "the first ever musical docu-tragi- comedy". It features Devin Ratray, a musician and former child actor who played Buzz in the first two Home Alonemovies, as he becomes besotted with Condoleeza Rice during her tenure as US secretary of state.

Travelling the country to visit landmarks from her life and career, and writing love songs dedicated to Rice, Ratray gleans information about her that cools his ardour, and the film turns from musical romantic comedy to hard-hitting political documentary.

Directors Guild chooses winner

Screen Directors Guild of Ireland (SDGI) has chosen Ken Wardrop as the winner of its 2009 Directors Finders series. The award-winning director of short films makes his feature debut with His and Hers, an innovative hybrid between documentary and fiction observing the lives of Irishwomen from the Midlands.

The SDGI will celebrate Wardrop's work at an event in Dublin in July, to be hosted by Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan, and at a US film industry presentation of His and Hers, which Wardrop will attend, at the Directors Guild of America theatre in Los Angeles.

mdwyer@irishtimes.com