Paddy Breathnach's Man About Dog was passed over in all categories at the Irish Film and Television Awards last weekend, even though it had 10 nominations, more than any other film.
The low-budget comedy didn't fare much better with Irish reviewers when it opened here, but after six weeks on release it's showing remarkable stamina at the box-office. Man About Dog now looks poised to be among the top 10 films of the year at the Irish box-office and certainly will be the most commercially successful Irish film here this year.
According to Brendan McCaul of Buena Vista International (Ireland), Man About Dog passed €1.5 million in box-office takings by last Monday night. If the results are as strong in Northern Ireland, where it opens on 22 screens a fortnight from today, it could surpass Intermission, which made €2.5 million, north and south, when released by BVI last year.
Studios duel over Tru stories
Just as Baz Luhrmann abandoned his plans for a movie on Alexander the Great because of Oliver Stone's rival version, a new battle has commenced between studios with rival movies on author Truman Capote. This time, however, both films are going ahead in production, and both deal specifically with the bond formed between Capote and convicted murderer Perry Smith, one of the subjects of Capote's seminal book, In Cold Blood.
United Artsists has started shooting its film, which is still untitled and features Philip Seymour Hoffman as Capote and Chris Collins Jr as Smith, along with Chris Cooper and Catherine Keener. The director is Bennett Miller, and the screenplay by actor Dan Futterman draws on Gerald Clarke's book, Capote: A Biography.
Undaunted, Warner Independent Pictures has set a January starting date for its project, Every Word Is True, written and to be directed by Doug McGrath. Toby Jones, who plays Smee in Finding Neverland, has been cast as Capote, with Mark Ruffalo as Smith. The cast also includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Sandra Bullock, Sigourney Weaver, Ashley Judd and Alan Cumming.
Ironically, Robert Blake, who played Perry Smith in the 1967 film of In Cold Blood, is about to be tried in the US on charges of murdering his wife in 2001.
Jagger takes on 'Women'
Mick Jagger is producing a remake of George Cukor's scintillating 1939 classic, The Women, through his company, Jagged Films, and will also supervise the movie's soundtrack. Diane English, who has written the screenplay, will make her directing debut with the film, which features Annette Bening as the wronged woman originally played by Norma Shearer, and Uma Thurman in Joan Crawford's husband-stealer role. Meg Ryan, Sandra Bullock and Ashley Judd will play composites of characters from the original, which is re-issued in a new print at the IFI in Dublin from December 17th.
Byrne supersizes for new film
Irish director Anthony Byrne makes his feature film début with Short Order, which is now filming in Hamburg after three weeks at Ardmore Studios. The film, set in a fast food outlet, is described as "a tale of culinary seduction and fantasy".
The international cast includes John Hurt, Vanessa Redgrave, Jack Dee, Emma de Caunes, Cosma Shiva Hagen, Rade Serbedzija, Paschal Friel, Tatianna Ouliankina, Paul Kaye and Jon Polito. The producer is Brian Willis, who worked with Byrne on his imaginative and award-winning short film, Meeting Che Guevara and the Man From Maybury Hill, which also featured Hurt.
Clean sweep for Oz release
In an unprecedented sweep of the board, Cate Shortland's Somersault won every available prize at last week's Australian Film Institute 2004 awards ceremony in Melbourne, winning in all 13 categories. The only category it did not win was for best foreign film, for which it was not eligible (that prize went to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King). Screened at the recent Cork Film Festival, Somersault opens here at the end of February.
Theatre history in the raw
Irish singer and actress Camille O'Sullivan joins Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins, Christopher Guest, Kelly Reilly and Pop Idol winner Will Young in the cast of the new Stephen Frears film, Mrs Henderson Presents. Now shooting in London, the factually based movie is set in the 1930s, when Mrs Laura Henderson (Dench), the owner of the Windmill Theatre in Soho, takes advantage of a legal loophole which allows the theatre to show nude models on stage - provided they don't move a muscle.
