MOVIES and TELEVISION

AUSTRALIAN-MADE SEX SLAVE MOVIE A HIT

[SMH, August 17, 2007]

It was turned down by government funding bodies and rejected by every film distributor in the country, and was poised to make a low-key debut on the shelves of video stores. Now The Jammed, a provocative feature film about the sex slave trade, is shaping up as one of the hottest Australian movies of the year.

The film's fortunes were transformed on Wednesday night, when the hosts of the ABC's At the Movies both gave it a four-star rating. Describing the movie as a "fabulous taut thriller," Margaret Pomeranz decried the lack of interest from funding boards and distributors as "shocking." A rave review appeared in The Age the next day, and suddenly the producers of the film no one wanted were bombarded with calls from distributors anxious to screen it. A bidding war is now a real possibility and the producers are hoping to delay the DVD release to allow it to be shown in cinemas across the country.

The film's executive producer, Andrea Buck, described the superlative reviews as "way better than we could have expected -- it felt life-changing. We've dealt for so long with lukewarm, negative responses. To have someone say 'I love your movie' with such passion and conviction is overwhelming." None of this seemed possible a few days ago, when the film's producers were preparing for last night's low-key premiere at an independent cinema in Melbourne. They secured a modest two-week season -- designed to promote the release of a DVD on September 5 -- by agreeing to pay the cinema's marketing costs and sharing any profits.

"The motivation for having the theatrical screening was really to give the cast and crew an opportunity to celebrate," Buck said. The Jammed was written, directed and co-produced by South African-born Dee McLachlan. She researched her screenplay by reading court transcripts and attending the trials of those accused of forcing women into prostitution. The story of a Chinese mother searching for her missing daughter, it features a cast of up-and-coming young actors including Sydney's Emma Lung, Saskia Burmeister and Sun Park.

"Demand for this film was coming from the ground up," Buck said. "People were demanding to see this."

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HUGH HEFNER

[Reuters, June 25, 2007]

PLAYBOY MAGAZINE founder Hugh Hefner's wild life is being turned into a feature film that will look at his social activism as well as his sexual exploits, Daily Variety reported today. Playboy, the movie, will be directed by Brett Ratner, the filmmaker behind the Rush Hour movies, the trade paper said. It is being produced for Universal Pictures by Brian Grazer, who won the best picture Academy Award for A Beautiful Mind.

Hefner, 81, who sold his life rights to Grazer several years ago, approved the duo's vision for the project last week, Daily Variety said. The paper said a script is being written now.

"Hef came from a puritanical upbringing and reinvented himself to be the godfather of the sexual revolution," Daily Variety quoted Ratner as saying. "He broke all kinds of taboos, especially in sexuality. I want to show it all, from the First Amendment (guaranteeing free speech) struggles to his first orgy to the stroke in the 1980s that almost killed him."

Hefner founded Playboy in 1953, turning a $US 600 ($AU 710) investment and a picture of Marilyn Monroe into one of the most successful publishing empires in history. He coaxed along the sexual revolution of the 1960s and used the pages of his magazine to write lengthy articles fighting censorship and promoting various other libertarian causes.

Playboy magazine is owned by Playboy Enterprises Inc. Universal Pictures is a unit of General Electric Co's NBC Universal Inc.

RUSSELL CROWE TO CO-STAR WITH DiCAPRIO IN AL-QAEDA MOVIE

[SMH, June 29, 2007]

Oscar-winner Russell Crowe is to star alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in a new thriller about a hunt for an al-Qaeda bomber, entertainment press reported today. New Zealand-born Crowe will play a manipulative CIA spymaster who teams up with an agent played by DiCaprio in the film Body of Lies, which will be directed by Ridley Scott, reports said. The film is an adaptation of a novel by David Ignatius. Filming will get underway later this year, according to Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter.

Crowe, who won an Oscar in 2001 for his performance in Gladiator, has worked regularly with director Scott in recent years. As well as Gladiator, the 43-year-old has just completed Scott's American Gangster, due out later this year, and will also team with the director in a revisionist Robin Hood movie Nottingham.

MICHAEL MOORE'S "SICKO" PLAYS TO PACKED HOUSE AT CANNES

[Agence France-Presse, May 19, 2007]

Michael Moore unveiled his latest attack on America's shortcomings at Cannes today with Sicko, a scathing documentary that exposes the dark side of the US health system and its powerful insurance lobby. The film played to a packed-out crowd in the film festival's biggest, 2000-seat theatre.

It was also the first of two non-fiction US films shown -- A-list star Leonardo DiCaprio was on hand to present his own pet project, the documentary The 11th Hour, about man's impact on the environment.

In Sicko, Moore flays a health system that, he shows, leaves 50 million Americans without access to medical care -- and which even cruelly pulls the rug out from under many of those who mistakenly think they are properly covered. The documentary fires off side shots at US President George W. Bush, the follow-up to the September 11, 2001 attacks and the Iraq war - all subjects of predilection for Moore, who won Cannes's Palme d'Or in 2004 for Fahrenheit 9/11.

This time, the filmmaker has landed in hot water for a stunt in Sicko in which he takes a group of ailing September 11 emergency workers to Cuba, where they receive medical treatment. The US Government has opened a probe into the trip, which potentially breaches its laws restricting US citizens from visiting the communist island.

“I don't know why the Bush administration is taking this action,” Moore told journalists after the screening. It's hard to get into their heads about why they do anything... This is an administration that flaunts the law, flaunts the Constitution. The point was not to go to Cuba, it was to go to American soil, to Guantanamo Bay and to take 9/11 rescue workers there to receive the same medical care given to the Al-Qaeda detainees."

But the group doesn't enter the Guantanamo US military base, and instead gets good care from Cuban doctors in a hospital.

Moore also heads to other countries -- Canada, Britain and France -- to show how their national state-run health systems, often derided as “socialist” in the US, offer a far superior level of care than the US one.

The problem in America is that private Health Maintenance Organisations run the system (under legislation brought in by president Richard Nixon) - and they do so by limiting coverage and payments, and by “buying off” politicians, the documentary alleges. “They are legally required to maximise profits for their shareholders,” Moore noted, adding that he feared any reform that might come in under a new president could simply end up putting “tax dollars in the hands of private companies.”

The real solution, he opined, was to “steal” what worked in other Western countries and apply that to the US. Asked whether he was prepared for the inevitable backlash from the deep-pocketed US medical insurance companies, Moore admitted “they may be a scarier force than Karl Rove or George Bush” but added: “It is my profound hope that people will listen to this film.”

Moore said he declined to have his film shown in the line up vying for the Palme d'Or this year. “I already have the Palme d'Or. What do I want? Another Palme d'Or?” asked the filmmaker, who also picked up an Oscar in 2002 for Bowling for Columbine.

Stephen Schaefer, a US critic for the Boston Globe newspaper, hailed the new movie and predicted it might do even bigger US box office business than Fahrenheit 9/11. While the facts Sicko laid out make him "sad as an American,” Schaefer said it was “a very strong and very honest documentary about a health system that's totally corrupt and that is without any care for its patients”.

CHINA TO PRODUCE TV SERIES ABOUT BRUCE LEE

[Reuters, Beijing, April 11, 2007]

China state television has started shooting a 40-part television series about U.S.-born kung-fu icon Bruce Lee, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.

"The Legend of Bruce Lee," with a budget of just $6.4 million, started production at the weekend in the southern province of Guangdong.

Lee made 46 kung-fu movies and brought Hong Kong movie making to the world's attention. He died at age 32 in 1973, while starring in and directing "Game of Death" in Hong Kong.

Chan Kwok-kwan, who plays Lee in the TV series, said he had mixed feelings about playing the role of an icon. "I'm nervous and also excited, but I will do my best," Xinhua quoted him as saying.

BERESFORD TO WRITE AND DIRECT FILM ON "BATTLE OF LONG TAN" IN VIETNAM

[AAP, August 20, 2006]

Bruce Beresford has signed up to write and direct a big-budget Australian film based on the Vietnam war's Battle of Long Tan.

Long Tan, to be produced by Martin Walsh, will have a budget of up to $42 million, depending on casting and production specifications. Beresford is currently researching and writing the script with production likely to begin early next year.

"All of the ingredients are there -- a gripping true story, young and diverse characters filled with hope and resolve in the face of overwhelming odds, stunning visual opportunities, epic action sequences, and the opportunity to showcase a high-profile ensemble cast," said Beresford, who recently finished shooting The Contract with Morgan Freeman in the lead role.

"There's this incredible mix of drama, tragedy and heroism tempered with laconic Australian humour in the heat of battle."

The announcement comes just a couple of days after commemorative services were held around the country to mark the 40th anniversary of the battle of Long Tan, Australia's bloodiest engagement in Vietnam. Eighteen soldiers died on August 18, 1966, as a tiny force of just 108 men fought off some 2500 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops in a rubber plantation, inflicting hundreds of enemy casualties.

"This is a film that is long overdue, and will see us put one of Australia's most heroic battles on the world stage for the first time," said Walsh.

Beresford was first choice to direct the project, he said. His film credits include such Australian classics as Puberty Blues, Breaker Morant, and The Fringe Dwellers.

"It has been decades since Australia made a feature film remotely like this," said Walsh. "Action films are rare, largely due to their cost -- and the majority of our film export product falls into either the drama or comedy category."

Walsh was also involved in Foxtel's History Channel documentary, The Battle of Long Tan, which premiered last week. For the film, Walsh has enlisted the help of Lieutenant Colonel Harry Smith, officer commanding D Company, 6RAR, at Long Tan, and six other former commanders.

"The commanders have entrusted an important legacy to Martin Walsh and Bruce Beresford but we are confident the story of Long Tan will be told in the most accurate, but ultimately in the most widely appealing, way," Smith said.

The film will feature a strong Australian cast with actors such as Bryan Brown, Sam Neill, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Sam Worthington and Eric Bana believed to have been approached. The film is likely to be shot in Sydney and north Queensland and is slated to be released around Anzac Day 2008.

TOM CRUISE TO PRODUCE MOVIE ABOUT SCIENTOLOGY

[BANG Showbiz, December 19, 2006]

VICTORIA Beckham is reportedly set to star in Tom Cruise's new Scientology film. The ex-Spice Girl has apparently been lined up to play an alien bride in The Thetan - based on the religion, which believes in alien life forms.

Victoria is said to be "thrilled" about getting her big Hollywood break. A source told Britain's Daily Star newspaper: "Victoria is really hoping to make a go of it in Hollywood. "This could be the perfect start for her, with good pal Tom Cruise in charge."

The 32-year-old -- who made her first attempt at acting in the 1997 Spice Girls movie Spice World -- will play the bride of an alien leader called a thetan, which Scientologists claim is an immortal spiritual being, present in all humans.

Cruise -- who is bankrolling the project himself after it was rejected by all the major film studios -- is said to have picked Victoria for the role after being impressed by her "comic genius."

Victoria -- who is married to soccer superstar David Beckham -- is currently looking to buy a property in Los Angeles after recently landing a presenting role on a new US fashion programme.