Web Exclusive

Film News - March

11th March 2007

Star Light, Star Bright, Stardust Looks Alright

Having just caught a glimpse (through a Russian website no less) of upcoming magical adventure 'Stardust' it seems that Michael Vaughan, most famous for Layer Cake, could have a whimsical epic on his hands. The cast of notables - Bobby De Niro, Ian McKellen, Rickey Gervais, Sienna Miller, Rupert Everett (you know the camera shy one from 'Comic Relief Does The Apprentice') to name a few - are set against a colourful backdrop as unknown lead Charlie Cox ventures forth to seek a fallen star to give to his beau before she marries another. So far so Lord of the Rings: The Chick Film but the novel by Neil Gaiman received notable acclaim before being snapped up and should definitely leave a blazing trail when it comes to screens in August.

As Sparta Falls What Now For Its Survivors?

Off the back of the 3-D epic 300, Zack Snyder looks set to turn anything you can find on paper into a picture and has made the first steps to putting Watchmen (if you put 'the Watchmen' expect a nerd to hit you) on the silver screen. Having snuck a sneaky frame of the character Rorschach in a 300 trailer, it would now seem that serious work on the project can begin after two decades of production hell - at any one time having one of Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass in the director's chair. With Tom Cruise denying reports of involvement expect 300's Gerard Butler or Hellboy's Ron Pearlman to feature somewhere when this finally emerges in 2008.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Go Back...to Eastern Europe

Empireonline.com is currently hosting a link to an Italian website (what's with the international flavour this week?) that sends you to an English-speaking clip of Hostel: Part II. Eli Roth's back-packer mutilating story from Easter of 2006 is set to get its return to the bound and gagged basements of the former Communist Bloc in June but, unfortunately, it doesn't so much look like a sequel but a parallel story to the original. The only news to have emerged is that the Elite Hunting Club from the first appears to be a chain across Europe and this time rather than All-American boys (and an Icelander) we get GAP-model females being cut up for your convenience. Talk of the third is already on the horizon but that's only if the second part actually offers something more appealing than the bloody carnage of the vapid first.

...And Something For Mother's Day

Fox Searchlight has picked up Sundance favourite Waitress, from the mind and eye of recently deceased Adrienne Shelly. Described as a 'bitter sweet love comedy' the small tale of a pregnant unfulfilled waitress echoes Mike White's The Good Girl (you know, the one where Jake Gyllenhall and Jennifer Aniston got naked with country accents) but it does seem to have a less bleak out-look. The trailer is currently up at aintitcool.com and raises a smile in the harshest cynic, as Jenna (Keri Russell) summarises her mood by baking a pie on that theme...that sounds weird but watch it and see. Headed to French and US screens in April, which works out somewhere in the 22nd century in Britain.

Chris Sloley