INDEPENDENT distributor Artificial Eye has acquired the UK and Irish rights to Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, which is set for release on September 29th. The documentary opened across France on the day of its world premiere at Cannes in May and is already on DVD release.
Directed by artists Douglas Gordon (a Turner Prize winner in 1996) and Philippe Parreno, the documentary was shot over a single day - April 23rd, 2005 - as Zizou captains Real Madrid in a game with Villareal. Employing 17 cameras under the supervision of gifted cinematographer Darius Khondji (Se7en, Evita), the film keeps its focus entirely on Zidane throughout the match, which ends topically enough with the superstar getting a red card and making his way alone into the tunnel.
Super Quinns back in Ireland
Aidan Quinn will play one of the leading roles in 32A, the first feature to be written and directed by his sister, Marian Quinn. The production begins a five-week shoot on Monday, with locations in Dublin, Sligo and Roscommon.
Newcomer Ailish McCarthy has been cast in the central role of the film, a coming-of-age story dealing with a 13-year-old girl from Dublin. The cast also features Jared Harris, Orla Brady, and Quinn as the girl's father.
In 1998 Quinn starred in This Is My Father, which was directed by his brother Paul, lit by their cinematographer brother Declan and featured Marian in a supporting role. Her long-in-gestation screenplay for 32A won the Irish Film Institute's Tiernan MacBride Screen- writing Award in 2002.
Tales of two Henrys
While Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays the young king Henry VIII in The Tudors, the TV series now well into a 20-week shoot in Ireland, Australian actor Eric Bana (from Chopper, Troy and Munich) is set to play the same king in The Other Boleyn Girl, which starts shooting in London this autumn.
Based on Phillippa Gregory's historical novel, The Other Boleyn Girl concentrates on the rivalry between sisters Mary and Anne Boleyn (played by Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman) for the attentions of the king. The BBC filmed the story in 2003 with Natascha McElhone and Jodhi May as the Boleyns and Jared Harris as the king.
A hackneyed hack tale
Edison, which was the closing film at the Toronto film festival last autumn, has been consigned directly to DVD release in the US, despite boasting a cast that features Kevin Spacey, Justin Timberlake, Morgan Freeman, Dylan McDermott, LL Cool J and Piper Perado. In a blankly inexpressive acting debut, Timberlake plays a dogged young freesheet journalist intent on unravelling and exposing a stinking web of police corruption.
I saw Edison in Toronto and can understand why it has been bypassed for US cinema release. It's a rehash of tired movie cliches, and most of the cast have little to do but overact - John Heard, in particular, chews the scenery bare - in a movie sunk by rafts of risible dialogue. What's most puzzling is that such an implausible picture of newspaper reporters could emanate from a former journalist, the movie's writer-director David J Burke.
Streep gets a free pass
Admirers of the marvellous Meryl Streep will have the opportunity to see her on stage - and for free - in New York next month. Streep will star in the Public Theater's production of Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, adapted by Tony Kushner, at the Delcacorte Theatre in Central Park for four weeks from August 8th. The play reunites Streep with Kevin Kline, her Sophie's Choice co-star, who also joined her in the Public Theater's 2001 production of The Seagull.
Tickets will be available free from 1pm on the day of of performance. See www.publictheater.org
Animal lust in a cold climate
Samuel L Jackson is the narrator of Farce of the Penguins, a spoof on this year's Oscar winner for best documentary. The voice cast also includes Jason Biggs, Christina Applegate and Drea De Matteo, and the film is set for release later this year. Directed by Bob Saget, Farce features live-action nature footage with what's described as "R-rated commentary" on one penguin's quest for love during a libidinous 70-mile trek to his annual mating ground.
mdwyer@irish-times.ie
