US falls for unlikely `chick magnet'

In reviews which have described it as "Guinness noir" (New York Post) and "like an Irish Down By Law" (Village Voice), Paddy Breathnach's I Went Down has been well received in New York where it went on release last week. The Variety summary of key critical reaction notes that it received 11 positive reviews and one negative. The negative one came from the New York Observer, while the positive commentators included the New York Times, Daily News, Entertainment Weekly, Village Voice and Rolling Stone.

Janey Maslin, chief film critic of the New York Times, noted the "boisterous flamboyance" of Brendan Gleeson's performance, Conor McPherson's "ever-piquant dialogue" and that the film is "handsomely though not picturesquely photographed, with Irish settings that depart from the prettily familiar". In the Daily News's Jami Bernard found the film "a picareqsue comedy" and wrote that "Gleeson turns the ridiculous Bunny into one of the most interesting screen characters of the season, an improbable chick magnet with silly sideburns". Finding the film "alluring", Amy Taubin in the Village Voice noted "the flawless cast", including "the handsome and droll (Peter) McDonald."

In addition to praising "the dry, ribald humour in Conor McPherson's ingenious script", Newsday critic Gene Seymour wrote: "For all its quirky impudence, I Went Down is no Tarantino-esque pastiche of film noir references, but a cooly ingratiating, beautifully paced amalgam of road movie, comic melodrama and character study. Imagine what would happen if Elmore Leonard wandered into Roddy Doyle's neighbourhood by accident."

Bated breath

When I interviewed Anne Heche in London last week, she proved remarkably candid on any number of projects - except one, Gus Van Sant's imminent remake of Alfred Hitchock's classic, Psycho. It is a fact that she will take the Janet Leigh role, Marion Crane, in the remake, which will feature Julianne Moore as the concerned sister who meets a grisly end, William H. Macy as the ill-fated detective on the case, and Vince Vaughn (from Swingers and The Lost World) as Norman Bates.

All Heche would add is that the movie starts shooting next Monday, July 5th; Universal Pictures have already set it for a December 4th release in the US. Is it a frame-by-frame remake, as we have heard? Heche shrugged her shoulders and smiled mysteriously, saying "That's a secret". Will it be in colour or in black-and-white? "That's a secret, too," she said. Well, surely she gets to take a shower in it? "I said I don't know," she replied. "Maybe it's a bath."

She did reply when I asked her if she was daunted by taking on one of the great screen classics. "Oh, I am, kind of," she said. "But at the same time we're only doing it because we're celebrating it. It's not like we believe we can do it better."

Meanwhile Heche, who co-stars with Harrison Ford in Six Days, Seven Nights, which opens here today, will be on our screens later this year in another remake, Return To Eden, Joe Ruben's new version of Force Majeuere, in which she is joined by her Psycho co-star, Vince Vaughn, along with Jada Pinkett and Joaquin Phoenix.

And Heche is set to play the title role in the next Alan Rudolph movie, Trixie. "It's a very offbeat comedy," she said. "I play this woman who is a security guard and wants to be a private detective, and she's so, so bad at it."

Going for the bundle

The prolific director, Michael Winterbottom - whose output in recent years has included Roddy Doyle's television series, Family, along with the movies, Go Now, Butterfly Kiss, Jude, Welcome To Sarajevo and the yet-to-be-released I Want You - has started shooting the romantic comedy, Old New Borrowed Blue in London and Liverpool. The production moves to Belfast for 11 days from July 8th.

The film stars Dervla Kirwan (from Ballykissangel) and Christopher Eccleston (from Jude) as a couple whose relationship is strained by their unsuccessful attempts to have a baby. Matters are further complicated when the woman's long-time French penpal, who she has never met, pays them a visit. He is played by Yvan Attal, who featured in Autobus, Les Patriots, Portraits Chinois and Love, etc. The screenplay is by John Forte who is making his directing debut with Mad About Mambo, now shooting in Dublin.

Biopic bonanza

The recently knighted Ian Holm is to play J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, in Andrew Birkin's film, The Boy Castaways. The screenplay has been adapted by Birkin from his own 1979 book, J.M. Barrie And The Lost Boys, which itself was spawned from Birkin's award-winning BBC serial, The Lost Boys. Ian Holm won the Genie award for best actor in this year's Canadian film awards for his superb performance in Atom Egoyan's film, The Sweet Hereafter, and he recently returned to Canada to join Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Willem Dafoe, Christoper Eccleston and Sarah Polley in the cast of David Cronenberg's eXistenZ.

Andrew Birkin won the best director award at the Berlin Film Festival in 1992 for The Cement Garden. He has written over 20 screenplays, including Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1986 film of Umberto Eco's The Name Of The Rose, and Luc Besson's Joan Of Arc, now shooting with Milla Jovovich in the title role.

More biopics on the way include one on the motorcycle daredevil, Evel Knievel, with Matthew McConaughey in the lead and Marco Brambilla directing, and Isn't She Great, the story of Valley Of The Dolls author Jacqueline Susann. Bette Midler, John Cleese, Nathan Lane and David Hyde Pierce head the cast, with Andrew Bregman directing.

Films shorts

Peter Chelsom, who made Hear My Song and Funny Bones, has lined up a stellar cast for the romantic comedy, Town And Country: Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Gerard Depardieu, Andie McDowell and Goldie Hawn. Chelsom's latest film, The Mighty, which stars Sharon Stone, opens here in the autumn.

Jane Campion reunites with Harvey Keitel, who was her male lead in The Piano, for Holy Smoke, which has started shooting in Australia. Campion's first film since The Portrait Of A Lady, it co-stars Kate Winslet, with Pam Grier, who made a notable comeback earlier this year in Jackie Brown, in the other key role.

The latest in a very long of actors to turn director is Frank Whaley (from The Doors and Swimming With Sharks), who has lined up Val Kilmer, Ethan Hawke, John Leguizamo and Karen Young for Pleasant View Avenue, Whaley's first outing as a writer-director.

Norman Jewison's smart and very entertaining 1968 movie, The Thomas Crown Affair, is to get the remake treatment from action movie specialist John McTiernan. Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo have taken on the task of filling the roles played with such cool wit in the original by Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway.

Following the success of the Oscar-nominated short film, Dance Lexie Dance, producer Pearse Mooree has started work on a new short film shooting in and around Derry. Surfing With William is described as "a spirit of the times film, the story of Bronagh, a young girl caught up in a virtual fantasy and her gradual awakening to womanhood and romance in the real world." The film is funded by the Northern Ireland Film Commission, UTV and Belfast City Council with the participation of British Screen.