After months of testing new 24-frame progressive high definition digital cameras, George Lucas has confirmed that he will shoot the next episode of Star Wars digitally. The decision was made after his companies, Lucasfilm Ltd and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), compared the new Sony-modified Panavision cameras with tests made on motion picture film.
"The tests have convinced me that the familiar look and feel of motion picture film are fully present in this digital 24P system and that the picture quality between the two is indistinguishable on the large screen," Lucas explained in a press statement. "It's an exciting step that we are taking, and working with Sony and Panavision, we plan to further advance this system over the coming years."
Star Wars producer Rick McCallum adds: "This is the exciting dawn of a new era in moviemaking. There is no turning back. We intend to cut through all of the industry angst, and thrust 24P digital HD squarely onto the moviemaking stage. Star Wars Episode 2 will do just that.
"We start shooting Episode 2 in Australia in June. In August, the shooting will move to Italy and to Tunisia. We will shoot for a total of three months and then we plan to spend about 18 months in post-production."
A big-budget feature film based on the Alexandre Dumas story, The Count of Monte Cristo, is set to go before the cameras in Ireland in late July. The film will be made by the Disney-based company, Spyglass Entertainment, and it will be directed by Kevin Reynolds, who made the infamous Waterworld. The screenplay by Jay Wolper deals with a sailor sent to an island fortress after being falsely accused of treason. The sailor will be played by Jim Caviezel, who made his mark in Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line and Ride With the Devil.
Two Irish actors have been cast to play rival actors in the new British show-business comedy, The Final Curtain. Peter O'Toole will play a veteran thespian with Aidan Gillen (from Some Mother's Son and Queer As Folk) as an upstart newcomer in the film which has been scripted by John Hodge, the screenwriter of Trainspotting and The Beach. The film will mark the directing debut of Patrick Harkins.
Despite the controversy surrounding Mary Harron's film of American Psycho - in which Christian Bale plays the homicidal yuppie Patrick Bateman - a series of sequels is already being planned by Lions Gate Films, who are distributing the film in the US. They are in negotiations with the book's author, Bret Easton Ellis, to buy the rights to make several more films featuring the character of Bateman.
The company has already reportedly recouped its investment in American Psycho, which cost relatively little to make, from international distribution sales. "It's like a Pink Panther series," is how Ellis views the planned sequels. "I'm not kidding. I've been pressured and Lions Gate have been in negotiations with my agency." He said he intends to have nothing to do with any sequels.
American Psycho, which was released in the US last week and in Britain yesterday, is not due to open in Ireland until June 2nd.
The Galway-based Power Pictures won two of the main awards at the 21st Celtic Film and Television Festival held in Aberystwyth, Wales this month. The company received the Best Documentary award for A Year 'Til Sunday, Pat Comer's punchy chronicle of the Galway senior football team's journey to All-Ireland glory in 1998.
The festival's jury award went to Michael Hartnett: Necklace of Wrens, a poignant portrait of the late poet Michael Hartnett in his own words. It was directed by Pat Collins. Both films were produced by David Power of Power Pictures.
The Parallel Films production, A Love Divided, added to its festival prizes when it took the award for Best Feature-Length Drama at Aberystwyth.
Michael Dwyer can be contacted at mdwyer@irish-times.ie