Mike Leigh's new movie, Vera Drake, which opens here today and is reviewed on page 7, seems assured of collecting at least one major Oscar nomination later this month, for leading actress Imelda Staunton. However, Leigh insists that he will never compromise his artistic vision in order to satisfy the demands of Hollywood studios. He says he has turned down offers from Hollywood major stars to act in his movies because, he believes, their presence would be pointless.
"The reality of Hollywood is non-negotiable and non-viable," he says. "My producer comes back and says, 'They don't mind that there is no script and they know you can do it, but they will insist on a name or two'. And that means having actors imposed upon me who have no reason to be there and who are not going to be disposed to my methods.
"The guys in Hollywood interfere at every stage because big dosh is at stake. It would be a nightmare. It's giving me the heebie-jeebies just talking about it."
Sequels and CGI dominate Irish box office
Sequels dominated the buoyant Irish box-office during 2004, according to figures supplied to Reel News for the full calendar year.
Four of the five biggest hits of the year were sequels, and No 8 was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which opened in the second half of December 2003 and amassed a total of €8.08 million at Irish cinemas.
In a remarkably successful year for animated movies, three were placed on the top 10, with Shrek 2 very comfortably ahead of every other movie released in Ireland during the year. By a long way the most commercially successful Irish movie of 2004 was Paddy Breathnach's Man About Dog, which earned over €2.1 million, enough to give it a place on the top 20 for the year. The full top 10 reads as follows:
1. Shrek 2 €7.79m
2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban €4.28m
3. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason €4.25m *
4. The Day After Tomorrow €3.69m
5. Spider-Man 2 €3.47m
6. Shark Tale €3.26m *
7. The Incredibles €3.18m *
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King €3.14m
9. The Passion of the Christ €2.96m
10. Troy €2.83m
* Still on release in Ireland
The Wachowski's 'Vendetta'
Brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski will follow their Matrix trilogy by producing the action thriller V Is for Vendetta, which will star Nathalie Portman. James McTeigue, the Wachowskis' longtime assistant director, will make his directing début on the adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic novel.
The story takes place in an alternate future in which Germany wins the second World War and Britain becomes a fascist state. A terrorist freedom fighter known only as V (a role yet to be cast) begins a violent guerrilla campaign to destroy those who have succumbed to totalitarianism, and recruits a young woman (Portman) he's rescued - or possibly kidnapped - from the secret police to join him.
McTeigue recently finished working as assistant director on Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, which features Portman.
Resisting the 'Dark' side
Chris Weitz has quit as director on New Line Cinema's Philip Pullman adaptation, His Dark Materials, due to the "technical challenges of making such an epic". The trilogy comprises The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
"Working on The Golden Compass has been an extraordinary high point of my career," Weitz says. "It will be an extraordinary film, but at this point in my life I am not the right director to bring it to pass. Though I remain honoured to continue serving as caretaker of Philip Pullman's work on the page as this project's screenwriter, the technical challenges of making such an epic are more than I can undertake at this point."
Weitz's latest movie, In Good Company, starring Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace and Scarlett Johansson, opens here next month.
A new Vaughn for 'Uncle'
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels producer Matthew Vaughn is in negotiations to follow his directing début, Layer Cake, with a movie based on the cult TV espionage series, The Man From UNCLE. The show, which ran from 1964-68, starred Robert Vaughn and David McCallum as Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, agents of the United Network Command for Law Enforcement (UNCLE), who fight the evil forces of THRUSH (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity).
Interviewed in The Irish Times recently, Matthew Vaughn confirmed that, contrary to media reports, he is not related to Robert Vaughn. "For the record," he said, "my real name is Matthew De Vere Drummond. My real father is George De Vere Drummond and not Robert Vaughn. And Vaughn is my professional name. It's all really complicated and beyond description.
"Someday my life may be made into a movie and everyone will say what a great fantasy it is!"
