On the trail of Lesbian Vampire Killers

BBC News website readers voted for Lesbian Vampire Killers as the film in Cannes they wanted to know more about. We pick up the trail.

Two young men decide to escape their problems and head to Wales for a weekend in a small village.

They arrive to find a coach-load of Swedish females and a cursed hamlet under the spell of vampires of a specific sexual persuasion.

Welcome to Lesbian Vampire Killers, a comedy horror film project from British firm AV Pictures.

Currently, Lesbian Vampire Killers is little more than a series of glossy posters and a tag-line straight from the Carry On tradition: "Two no-hopers. A Cursed Village. One hell of a night!"

Sat on his balcony in Cannes, AV Pictures managing director Vic Bateman says: "It's a great poster."

Audience expectations

Acting talent is still being put together, but Mr Bateman promises surprises. He says the film has already done deals in Europe, with America and the UK expected to follow.

Producer Bateman has a career in film-making going back 38 years, including The Krays, Staggered and DVD hit, Dog Soldiers.

The film market is bulging at the seams with titles, but Mr Bateman says he is confident that AV Pictures knows what the audience wants.

"We keep telling our directors: 'Make films for an audience not for yourself'.

Vic Bateman
Producer Vic Bateman has worked in film for 38 years

Sky HDTV launch runs into trouble

Sky has delayed the installation of high-definition TV (HDTV) in 17,000 homes because its supplier has failed to deliver enough set-top boxes.

The satellite operator's HD service is launching with channels showing films, sport and entertainment.

But many subscribers have been told they must wait several weeks for installation.

Sky said "more than enough" boxes were ordered but not all had arrived, and it was "very sorry" to let people down.

Anyone requesting installation on Monday, launch day, will be told that they must wait until early August, meaning they will miss the World Cup - which begins on 9 June - in HD.

The issue has surfaced on internet discussion forums with users saying their installation date has been moved from this week to June or July.

'Supplies to double'

But Sky said all customers whose installation date was changing were being offered a new date within three weeks of the original date.

"We're working hard to resolve the situation," said Robert Fraser, Sky's head of corporate press.

"Thousands of customers will have their HD box this week and many more will be installed in time for the start of the World Cup."

Those who had ordered first would receive their equipment first, he added, saying the quantity of set-top boxes delivered to the company was expected to double in the next three weeks.

By 1730 BST on Monday about 2,500 HD installations had been carried out.

Ewan McGregor in Star Wars movie Revenge of the Sith
Sky plans to show Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith in HD

Sky had previously said 40,000 advance orders were received in the first three weeks of bookings, which had opened on 13 April.

It had a total of 8.1 million subscribers in the last quarter of 2005.

HDTV promises higher quality pictures and audio through a compatible television set.

Sky is showing HD versions of its film and sports channels - Sky Movies and Sky Sports - plus the selected output of broadcasters such as the BBC.

The Star Wars movie Revenge of the Sith, US real-time drama 24 and live coverage of England's second cricket Test with Sri Lanka are planned for the first week of transmissions.

HDTV is also available on cable through the Telewest platform, and there is a limited trial through normal aerials for 500 selected Freeview users in the London area.

Jowell praises UK film at Cannes

British films have doubled their share of the global box office in the last two years, according to new figures.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell,in Cannes for the annual film festival, said this was a "fantastic success story" for the industry.

In 2005, the 10 best-performing British films grossed $2,599m.

Also at the festival, director Nanni Moretti has defended his decision to release controversial film Il Caimano ahead of the recent Italian elections.

The Film Council figures show that UK films, with US co-production status, enjoyed a 15.8% market share in the US.


TOP 10 UK FILMS WORLDWIDE
1. Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire
2. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
3. Batman Begins
4. Kingdom of Heaven
5. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
6. Sahara
7.The Corpse Bride
8. The Phantom of the Opera
9. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
10. The Brothers Grimm

However, UK projects made without US involvement had just a 0.8% share of that market.

Only one of the top 20 biggest-earning UK films of 2005 - The Constant Gardener - was funded without any money from the US.

The most successful UK film of 2005 was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which earned $808m (£431m) worldwide.

"This is, by general consent, the result of combined efforts of favourable tax regime, but also the broader efforts to promote British culture through film," said Ms Jowell.

She said she believed a "simplified" tax credit system, due to be passed into law later this year, would lead to further growth in investment in the UK in future years.

Ms Jowell would not be drawn on calls for the UK government to respond to issues raised by Palme D'Or contender The Wind That Shakes The Barley.

Darko director's follow-up falters

Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly says his latest film Southland Tales is a work of "political pop art" - but it has received a mixed reception at Cannes.

Richard Kelly (left) directed The Rock and Sarah Michelle Gellar
Richard Kelly (left) directed The Rock and Sarah Michelle Gellar
On being told that people had walked out of his movie during a press screening, the director said he hoped Southland Tales would "push people's buttons".

"I look forward to all the discussion about the film," he said.

Southland Tales imagines the impact a terrorist nuclear attack could have on the United States.

"The film is meant to be a tapestry of ideas all related to some of the biggest issues that we are facing right now -whether it is homeland security or alternative fuel or our increasing obsession with celebrity," he said.

Often surreal and mixing many different film styles, the movie is in competition for the prestigious Palme d'Or.

Southland Tales
Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a porn star in the film
It stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and The Rock, who were both in Cannes with Kelly to support the movie.

Gellar, who plays a porn star in the film, said she was concerned that some of the predictions made in the film were beginning to come true.

"We thought it was the most ridiculous idea - a porn star who has a drink line and has a talk show and reality show," she said.

"I have watched specifically America change to this crazy height of celebrity. What seemed ridiculous to us three years ago has slowly evolved into something real."

Early reaction to the film has been decidedly mixed, with some critics damning Kelly's follow-up to the enormously successful Donnie Darko.


Southland Tales director Richard Kelly
It's pop art but political - it's aggressive and confrontational and we need more art like that
Richard Kelly
Kelly said he wanted the film to be confrontational and aggressive, using a lot of gallows humour.

"I tried to use humour to talk about some very serious issues we are facing as a country and a planet," he said.

"It's pop art but political. It's aggressive and confrontational and we need more art like that."

Kelly said the film was meant to be viewed like a puzzle.

"This is a film that needs to be experienced in more than one viewing to fully comprehend the intricacies of the puzzle," he added.

The film, like Donnie Darko before it, uses a lot of pop music throughout.

The success of Darko in the UK led to the film's climactic song, a version of Tears for Fears' Mad World, hitting number one at Christmas in 2003.

Pop star Justin Timberlake appears in the film as a crazed Iraq war veteran selling a spiritual drug to people in Los Angeles.

"I think you will see Justin do extraordinary work in the rest of his career as an actor," said Kelly, who said Timberlake's character was the "spiritual centre of the film".

Southland Tales
Southland Tales is in the running for the prestigious Palme d'Or
Gellar and Kelly also backed film-making in Los Angeles, where it is set.

"It is the greatest city on earth," said Kelly.

"It's an under-photographed city. We sacrificed a lot of money to shoot the film in Los Angeles. Someone told us to recreate LA in Canada - nothing against Canada but 'no'."

Gellar added: "In terms of Hollywood, it is supposed to be the epicentre of where we make films. Yet we constantly run our films out of the country and it is depressing.

"I know a lot of people I work with are losing their health insurance and benefits because we constantly recreate every American city in Canada.

"I was really proud to be able to show the LA film-making community how easy it actually it was to shoot in Los Angeles."

Cannes director urges CCTV debate

The British director of CCTV movie Red Road has said the future of 24-hour surveillance of society needs to be debated.

Andrea Arnold is in Cannes with her first feature film, which is in competition for the Palme d'Or.

The film focuses on a Glasgow council official who monitors the city's CCTV network helping to crack down on crime.

Arnold said: "You can see why it is there but we should consider what it means for our future."

The depiction of a city under almost constant and blanket surveillance surprised some non-British film critics and shocked others.

Britain reportedly has 4.2 million cameras, 20% of the world's CCTV, and one camera for every 14 people.

Changed behaviour

At a press conference for the film one reporter asked if the "Orwellian" depiction of a city under constant watch was real or not.

Cast members of the film admitted they had changed their behaviour since making the film, which cost £1.2m and was funded by lottery money and BBC Films.

"It's unsettling," said lead actress Kate Dickie, whose character monitors the CCTV cameras.

"I used to find it creepy. But having spent time in a centre with the people who do the monitoring and see how much they care, and how much they help people, I am torn."

Arnold said: "There are cameras in big cities, in my local park where there are kids playing and the teenagers will go there at night and kiss.

"So I tell the teenagers not to go there because it's not a good place to kiss anymore.

"I know Britain has spent a huge amount of money on surveillance and I have been fascinated with it for some while, wondering who is behind the cameras, who is watching.

"They are amazing these cameras, they can zoom into your handbag."

Director of photography Robbie Ryan said he had been surprised by the quality of actual CCTV cameras, which could show action in high quality and were used in the film.

"They are very, very good cameras. We thought they would be black and white and fuzzy images.

"But they were high colour with good focus."

Mr Ryan admitted they had to make the CCTV footage in the film "look rough".

Linklater serves up meaty offering

US director Richard Linklater is a Cannes rarity - a film-maker with two movies showing in different sections of the festival.

Richard Linklater
Ten films in, Linklater says he feels his career is "just starting"
Towards the end of Fast Food Nation, his entry in the main competition, two characters walk through the killing floor of a giant meat-packing factory, surrounded on all sides by mechanised slaughter and cattle carcasses.

It is a disturbing and emotive climax to his film; a scene which Linklater describes as the hardest filming of his life.

"It was a lot like being a soldier and seeing your buddies on either side of you being shot," he tells the BBC News website. "You can't feel at that moment."

Sat in the Grand Salon in Cannes' Carlton Hotel, he has the crumpled look of someone with jet lag who only received his wake-up call 30 minutes earlier.

But he also seems remarkably at ease for a man in Cannes for the first time and facing a gruelling day of interviews.

And he is clearly enjoying having two movies - A Scanner Darkly is in the Un Certain Regard section - to show off: "I am making up for lost time."

How to unlock the goggle box

Regular columnist Bill Thompson considers the changes the net is making to how and when we watch our favourite TV shows.

More than three million people have watched episodes of Lost, Desperate Housewives, Alias and Commander-in-Chief on their computers since US television network ABC launched the service at the start of May.

The shows are free, but come with a sponsor's message at the start and three commercial breaks that can't be skipped over.

But this does not seem to have deterred US viewers who grow up watching many more ads than we get over here.

The downloads are part of an experiment by Disney, which owns the network, and complement the paid-for and ad-free versions of the same shows available from Apple's iTunes Music Store.

Just as you can choose to watch a movie with ads on ITV or without on FilmFour, so you can choose how you want to watch shows on your PC.

Watching brief

ABC is not the only ones dipping its toes into online distribution. Warner Brothers has attracted a lot of attention with its announcement that it will begin to use the BitTorrent peer-to-peer network to distribute DVD-quality movies.

This is a radical step, only spoiled by the fact that it plans to charge the same price to download as it does for a DVD even though there is no physical disc and no packaging (and, I suspect, no extras).


Bill Thompson
Perhaps ABC, Warner and the other mainstream entertainment companies can be encouraged to experiment a little with more open and flexible distribution, so that we can see what will really happen if content is freely available
In addition Warner is so worried by unauthorised copying that the movie will only be playable on the PC to which it is downloaded. So no burning it to DVD to watch on your flat-screen TV or even taking a copy to your mate's house to watch together.

Both initiatives, however flawed, show that the relationship between content - whether a movie or a TV show - and the screen is starting to change, on big and small displays.

And although take-up of TV on mobile phones has been slow it may well take off as the two great sporting contests of the modern age get under way.

With little overlap between audiences, the football World Cup and Big Brother between them could quickly establish the mobile TV habit in large numbers of people, so that by the autumn it will be commonplace to see people catching up on soaps and scorelines at bus stops.

The tension between the desire on the part of TV and film studios to find new ways to reach audiences, and their fear that their content will be copied and distributed outside their control is a serious matter, and serious people are involved in the struggle.

Star Trek props under the hammer

Star Trek fans are being offered a "once in a lifetime" opportunity to buy props, models and sets from the show, auction house Christie's has said.

More than 1,000 items will be sold at auction in New York in October to mark the show's 40th anniversary.

The memorabilia up for grabs includes a pair of phaser guns and a detailed model of the Starship Enterprise.

The lots, from TV company CBS and film studio Paramount, come from all six TV versions and 10 Star Trek films.

Christie's director of special collections Cathy Elkies said she was able to take her pick of props from the companies' archives.

"They really gave us the ability to go in and carve out a sale that tells the whole story of the series," she said.

Starship Enterprise
A model of the Starship Enterprise is expected to fetch $20,000
"It was one of those things where you went in there and thought 'Oh my god, I have to have this'."

The most valuable lot is a replica of Captain Kirk's chair, which was made for the series Deep Space Nine in 1996.

The chair, which featured in an episode called Trials and Tribble-ations, has an estimated price of $15,000 (£8,000).

Fans can also bid for costumes worn by Spock, Uhura and Captain Picard.

Previous items of Star Trek memorabilia to be sold at auction include a pair of Mr Spock's ears, which raised $3,290 (£1,740) at Christie's in Los Angeles in 2000.

Last year, actor William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk, sold his kidney stone for $25,000 (£14,000) to an online casino to raise money for a housing charity.

Before the auction, potential buyers can see the collection as it tours Star Trek conventions around the world this summer

The Da Vinci Code: Press views

Film critics in the US and UK have delivered their verdicts on the hugely-hyped movie adaptation of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code.

VARIETY - Todd McCarthy

A pulpy page-turner in its original incarnation as a huge international best-seller has become a stodgy, grim thing in the exceedingly literal-minded film version of The Da Vinci Code.

Director Ron Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman have conspired to drain any sense of fun out of the melodrama, leaving expectant audiences with an oppressively talky film that isn't exactly dull, but comes as close to it as one could imagine with such provocative material.

[The] result is perhaps the best thing the project's critics could have hoped for.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER - Kirk Honeycutt

The movie really only catches fire after an hour, when Ian McKellen hobbles on the scene as the story's Sphinx-like Sir Leigh Teabing. Here is the one actor having fun with his role and playing a character rather than a piece to a puzzle.

Howard proves a smart choice as a director because his middlebrow tastes inspire him to go for broad strokes and forget making any real sense of these logic-busters.

But why did he allow such a solid, attractive cast to turn in such stiff, unappealing performances?

Da Vinci never rises to the level of a guilty pleasure. Too much guilt. Not enough pleasure.

LOS ANGELES TIMES - Kenneth Turan

If Brown's novel has something of the excitement of a nervy leap into the void, the script by Goldsman has some of the paint-by-numbers qualities of a Classics Illustrated comic book.

Though there has been some monkeying with plot details, especially at the end, plus some noteworthy thematic exclusions and additions, the two hour and 32 minute film is careful to be as faithful as it feels it can be to all of the book's major plot elements.

As to director Howard, he too comes off as a kind of emcee, intent on not getting in the way of this juggernaut of a story.

Loach revisits Irish struggle

British film-maker Ken Loach is in Cannes to promote his movie The Wind That Shakes The Barley, which is in the running for the Palme d'Or.

"In the end this is a story we couldn't avoid," Loach says.

Facing a packed press conference in Cannes, his film is one of two UK movies in the main competition at the festival.

The film recounts the early days of the Irish Republican Army in the 1920s and the struggle for independence from Britain.

It is unashamedly one-eyed, told entirely from the perspective of the Irish who turn to armed struggle after witnessing countless acts of brutality by British soldiers, who are seen to be indiscriminately violent.

Showing Senegal's WWII heroes

The star of a new film which centres on a group of Senegalese soldiers defending a family from the German army in World War II has said that he hopes the film can help "correct" French history to highlight the role African people played in the conflict.

Les Enfants Du Pays tells the story of an elderly man and his two grandchildren, who are the only three people left in a village in the Ardennes as the Germans prepare to invade France in 1940. A group of soldiers from Senegal - at the time a French colony - are sent to protect them.

Acclaimed actor William Nadylam - who plays the leader of the soldiers, known as the Tirailleurs Senegalais - told BBC World Service's On Screen programme that he felt France does not currently give enough credit to the role Africans played.

"The problem is that each black actor has to carry that burden of being a little bit of a historian," he said.

"Of course, I knew the story - it is part of my own personal story, people in my family fought in these wars, and we still live with the fact that French history doesn't mention that enough.

"It doesn't recognise us - the atrocities that were committed, and the sacrifices of these people."

Cannes opens with Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code director Ron Howard has told people not to see his new film if they fear it will upset them.

Howard was flanked by his cast at a press conference for the movie at the start of the Cannes film festival.

"Given the controversial nature of this story there's no question the film is likely to be upsetting to some people.

"My advice is not to see the film if you think it will upset you," said Howard, who previously directed A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13.

"Wait and speak to someone who has seen it and then form an opinion."

He added: "This is supposed to be entertainment. It is not theology. It should not be misunderstood as such.

Conspiracy theorists down but not out

The release of new video pictures of the Pentagon being attacked on 9/11 will not quell the endless claims in the world of conspiracy theorists that a missile or military aircraft hit the building instead.

The theorists do not believe eyewitnesses, physical evidence, engineering studies or even the claims of Osama Bin Laden, so it is unlikely that they will be convinced by grainy video frames.

The latest pictures are the missing frames from a series taken from two cameras at a filling station.

If you look closely, you do see what could be a plane, flying very low and then hitting the building, causing a huge fireball. It is consistent with the official account.

However, the new frames do not absolutely without doubt show that this was American Airlines 77 in its final moments, so hope will spring eternal for the conspiracists that they have not been knocked out.

And even if the pictures did clearly show the doomed airliner, the theorists would probably just change their charge.

After all, in the case of the Twin Towers, they argued that the attacks were carried out by, or tolerated by, the US government. The Pentagon could easily be fitted into that category as well.

Film set to fan Da Vinci furore

The eagerly awaited film of The Da Vinci Code is the most controversial Hollywood movie since Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou in The Da Vinci Code
Tom Hanks co-stars in the film with French actress Audrey Tautou
But what can Ron Howard's adaptation add to the furore that has surrounded Dan Brown's best-selling novel since it first arrived in bookstores in 2003?

For a book revolving around a labyrinthine mystery, it is remarkable how many of its "surprise" elements have become common knowledge.

Indeed, even those who have not read the novel probably know more than they care to about its contents.

For the record, they involve a centuries-old cover-up to conceal the true nature of the Holy Grail, the clues to which are hidden in the works of Leonardo Da Vinci.

It is these that lead Harvard professor Robert Langdon on a cryptic quest that takes him from the Louvre in Paris and Westminster Abbey in London to Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland.

It is there the film reveals the secret behind the Code - a revelation that will already be known to many of this website's readers.

Bennett play nominated for Tonys

Alan Bennett's play The History Boys is in the running for some of Broadway's biggest prizes after receiving seven Tony Award nominations.

The 1920s musical The Drowsy Chaperone is leading the field with 13 nominations, followed by Oprah Winfrey's The Color Purple.

Other nominated shows include The Pajama Game and Sweeney Todd.

British actors in the running include Richard Griffiths for The History Boys and Ralph Fiennes for Faith Healer.

Lynn Redgrave and co-star Kate Burton have been nominated for best leading actress in a play for The Constant Wife, while Zoe Wanamaker and Frances de la Tour are also shortlisted.

Other actors in contention include Scot Ian McDiarmid, who found a new generation of fans in the latest Star Wars films, Cagney and Lacey actress Tyne Daly and British actor Jim Dale, best known for his Carry On movies and his role as the voice of the Harry Potter audio books in the US.

Da Vinci film protests stepped up

Christian groups in many Asian nations have stepped up their protests against The Da Vinci Code film ahead of its planned global release this week.

Its release in India is likely to be delayed after a furore that has seen Islamic clerics in Mumbai (Bombay) back a call by Catholics for a boycott.

South Korea's Christian Council has unsuccessfully tried to ban the film.

And Thai censors want to cut the last 10 minutes, having been persuaded by critics that they are "blasphemous".

The film is adapted from Dan Brown's best-seller, which revolves around the theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and their descendants survive today.

The blockbuster has caused outrage among many Christian organisations, including senior officials at the Vatican.

In India, which is home to 18 million Catholics, the head of the Catholic Secular Forum has begun a "hunger strike until death".

Christian activist Joseph Dias
Activist Joseph Dias says his hunger strike will continue "until death"
Joseph Dias said he wanted others to join him and pledged to continue until the film was banned.

His organisation has described The Da Vinci Code as "offensive" because it breaches "certain basic foundations of the religion".

The Indian government has temporarily halted the film's release, saying it must address concerns before the movie is screened.

The country's information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said he had received more than 200 complaints.

He has requested a special screening, which may delay the original release date "by a day or two", he said. The film is due to come out around the world on Friday.

"We are a secular country," he said. "On any sensitive issue, we should take action after we examine every aspect. We have to be careful."

Forty years of The Money Programme

Forty years old. It's quite an age for a television programme.

In fact there's only a handful of programmes on British TV that are older - like Panorama, Horizon, Top of the Pops and the Sky at Night.

Grandstand has of course sadly just fallen at the last hurdle.

But then in the fickle world of British TV today you're lucky to make your fourth series, let alone your fortieth.

Cruise keeps grip on film chart

Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible III is at the top of the UK and Ireland box office chart for a second week.

The action movie, starring Tom Cruise as secret agent Ethan Hunt, took ticket receipts of £2.75m between Friday and Sunday.

Romantic comedy Prime, starring Uma Thurman, entered the chart in second place with takings of £853,000.

Horror movie When A Stranger Calls was the other new entry in the top five, at number three, taking £494,000.

Friends TV spin-off Joey scrapped

TV sitcom Joey has been cancelled by broadcaster NBC after failing to recapture the popularity of Friends.

Joey, a spin-off from the long-running TV favourite, featured Matt LeBlanc's character after a move to Hollywood.

The series was put on hold in March after just four million people tuned in - down from the 18.6 million who watched its debut in 2004.

NBC has also announced a new series from The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

It is billed as a behind-the-scenes drama about a late-night comedy show and features former friends star Matthew Perry, The West Wing's Bradley Whitford and Amanda Peet.

The Apprentice spin-off featuring "domestic goddess" Martha Stewart as the host has been axed after one series after failing to capture the audience of Donald Trump's original show.

The Da Vinci phobe's guide

The Da Vinci Code is one of the greatest phenomena in the history of fiction publishing and the juggernaut rolls on with the arrival of the movie version. But why are we so profoundly obsessed with a thriller about the Church?

It has sold more than 40 million copies across the world, transforming author Dan Brown into a spectacularly wealthy man.

For the few who don't know, it is a thriller telling the story of a race to uncover a massive conspiracy engineered by the Catholic Church to obscure the feminine nature of early Christianity and a shocking secret about Jesus and the Holy Grail.

The Da Vinci Code has been assaulted in equal measures by both historians and theologians, while the critics have sought to emphasise the role of the book's clever marketing to explain the mind-boggling success of a seemingly humdrum thriller.

But as cunning as its marketing has been, Brown's real success has been to effortlessly generate a wave of press coverage and internet discussion.

As Giles Elliott, charts editor of industry magazine the Bookseller, notes, the book has benefited from the Holy Grail of publishing, word-of-mouth.

Muslims join Da Vinci criticism

Roman Catholics in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) have received Muslim support in protests against the release of the movie, The Da Vinci Code.

Film censors have cleared the movie for release in India on 19 May.

An umbrella organisation of Islamic clerics in Mumbai have labelled the film as "blasphemous" because it spreads "lies" about Jesus Christ.

One Roman Catholic activist has gone on what he says is a "hunger strike until death" unless the film is banned.

'Violent protests'

"The Holy Koran recognises Jesus as a prophet. What the book says is an insult to both Christians and Muslims," Maulana Mansoor Ali Khan, general secretary of the All-India Sunni Jamiyat-ul-Ulema, told the Reuters news agency.

Poseidon director judges remake

Poseidon, the big-budget remake of cult 1972 hit The Poseidon Adventure, opens in the United States this weekend.

Ronald Neame
Neame's films include The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Scrooge
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, the German film-maker behind Troy and The Perfect Storm, the film retells the story of a luxury ocean liner that capsizes under a freak wave.

The original film, which starred Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine and Shelley Winters, suffered a mauling by the critics but was a box-office sensation.

Over the decades it has endured as a classic disaster flick, thanks in part to its larger-than-life characters and campy humour.

"It's a complete mystery to me," says director Ronald Neame when asked to explain his film's appeal.

"I never believed that it was more than just an average picture."

Produced by Irwin Allen, the film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning one for best song.

'Codswallop'

Neame, who recently celebrated his 95th birthday, believes the film may have succeeded because it was aimed at a very young audience.

"It was directed at 10- to 15-year olds and they loved it," says the Beverly Hills resident.

Khan 'keen to film in Pakistan'

Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan has said he would like to produce a film in Pakistan.

In an exclusive interview on the BBC Asian Network's show, Gagan Grewal, the actor said that he would love to act in Pakistani movies if he was offered the right script.

Gagan Grewal is a new show in Hindi and Urdu and launches on Monday.

"There's a lot of talent both in India and Pakistan," he said. "I think the talent in both these two countries should come together and entertain the world audience.

"If the right offer and opportunity comes my way, I'd love to do a movie in Pakistan," he added.

Indian films have been banned in Pakistan since 1965, but Islamabad has recently eased its stance and allowed a couple of Bollywood films to be released in cinemas.

Iconic actor

Khan was born into a film-industry family and began his career as a child-actor in his father's film Yaadon Ki Baraat (1973).

The iconic actor's career has spanned more than three decades, making him one of Bollywood's biggest and most successful actors.

Vinnie Jones in new Carry On film

Former footballer Vinnie Jones and ex-EastEnders actor Shane Richie are to star in a new Carry On film - the first to be made since 1992.

Carry On London focuses on a limousine company - Lenny's Limos - which takes celebrities to a parody of the Oscars ceremony known as the Herberts.

The creators promise to revive the innuendo and slapstick humour seen in the previous 31 Carry On movies.

Production has been delayed for three years by financial problems.

Work had been scheduled to begin in 2003 but the original cast, which included former EastEnders star Danniella Westbrook and Shaun Williamson, dropped out.

A new producer, writing team and film company have now been recruited. Peter Richardson, best known for TV comedy The Comic Strip Presents..., will direct.