July 31, 2002
- This is for the US fans: Forever Mine will be shown on "Love Stories" a Starz Encore Channel on the following days during the month of August (all EST):
Thurs. Aug. l - 8:00 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 2 - 3:45 a.m.
Sat. Aug. 10 - 11:35 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 23 - 10:00 p.m.
Wed. Aug. 28 - 8:00 p.m.
July 30, 2002
- Total Film September 2002 (Rough Cut Section) takes a swat at KMS:
Scanner/peculiar blips on the movie radar
(This note is accompanying a film poster of KMS with the quote from Company magazine)Praise Be!
Company magazine scored a major coup by seeing a different cut of this film to everyone else. Their version was a "jump a minute thriller," as opposed to the "laugh a minute" movie the rest of us saw.
Good Work people!
July 27, 2002
- This is for the UK fans: Stealing Beauty will be shown on Friday, 2 August on BBC 2 at 11.35 pm.
July 26, 2002
- More specific locations mentioned in this article about The Great Raid at The Courier News (Australia):
Lights, camera and war action on Bribie
Des Partridge
20jul02The canvas tents aren't of the type usually seen at reserves on Bribie Island, north of Brisbane.
These are replica World War II army tents under synthetic palms, made by the art department engaged for the $70 million drama The Great Raid, being filmed for Village Roadshow and Miramax companies.
This week around 600 crew and actors have been on the vast set spread over the sandy beaches near the landmark of Skirmish Point.
Set in the Philippines in 1945, it's a true story about the rescue of more than 500 Americans from a Japanese prisoner of war camp at Cabanatuan on the island of Luzon.
Directed by Los Angeles-based John Dahl, The Great Raid will star Benjamin Bratt, James Franco and Joseph Fiennes. The best-known Australians in the cast are Sam Worthington, Robert Mammone and Craig McLachlan.
The location will move to Pimpama near the Gold Coast next week for scenes involving the PoW camp, with shooting extending through to October. Dozens of local extras have been cast in non-speaking roles as prisoners of the Japanese.
July 25, 2002
- Found at The Age (Australian) Newspaper site:
Hollywood 'declares war' on Queensland island
By Christine Sams
July 21 2002A Queensland island has turned into a bloody war zone, but only because of a Hollywood film.
Bribie Island, about an hour's drive north of Brisbane, was invaded by an army of Hollywood actors, extras and crew last week for filming of The Great Raid.
It stars Benjamin Bratt (former boyfriend of Julia Roberts), Joseph Fiennes and Australian actor Craig McLachlan. Bratt is best known for his role in the TV drama Law And Order, and he starred in Miss Congeniality alongside Sandra Bullock.
This is McLachlan's first role in a major American film. Other Australians involved include Robert Mammone, Sam Worthington and Natalie Mendoza.
The Great Raid centres on the true story of American prisoners of war who had been captured by Japanese forces in the Philippines during World War II. More than 500 soldiers were rescued from the Japanese camp in a mission lead by Colonel Mucci, played in the film by Bratt.
In his bid to recreate the harrowing war story, director John Dahl has converted the sand dunes at Bribie Island into a prison camp, with warplanes flying overhead.
The production has been backed by American film giants Miramax and Village Roadshow.
More than 550 Queenslanders scored roles as prisoners of war in the film after an advertisement for "skinny people" was published in local newspapers.
The Great Raid will be shot in Queensland for the next three months, before filming moves to Shanghai. The movie is due for release next year.
- Joseph Fiennes has joined the cast of The Great Raid according to Greg's Previews of Upcomping Movies. Go here to read about the movie.
- A bit on Musician Richard Harvey's page states:
The shooting of yet another film set in the first half of the sixteenth century Luther is now under way in Germany. Richard has been busy writing songs for Luther (Joseph Fiennes) to play and sing. In life Martin Luther was a great and influential musician who may well have changed the course of western music along with his reformation of the church. Representing him musically is a task which is being handled "respectfully and with care!". (Can't wait to hear Joe sing!!)
- First Look Media online reports (another look at the press release of May 18):
Los Angeles, CA (May XX, 2002) Robbie Little, Co-Chairman of First Look Media (OTC BB: FRST; http://www.firstlookmedia.com), announced today that First Look Media has acquired international rights excluding Germany to the film Luther, a film about the man most people consider one of the most important historical figures in the past 1,000 years, Martin Luther. The film is currently shooting in Central Germany, Bavaria, Italy and the Czech Republic.The film stars Joseph Fiennes (Elizabeth, Shakespeare In Love), Alfred Molina (Chocolat, Prick Up Your Ears), Sir Peter Ustinov (Sparticus, Topkapi), and Bruno Ganz (Bread and Tulips, Wings Of Desire). Directed by Eric Till from a script by Camille Thomasson and Bart Garvigan, the film is produced by Alexander Thies, Brigitte Rochow and Christian Stehr.
Luther tells the story of a brilliant, God-fearing man who becomes a monk destined to recover and publicly interpret the fundamental truth of the bible. This realization gives Luther the conviction and passion necessary to challenge the tyranny of a monolithic church. Secure in his beliefs, Luther refuses to retract his confrontational writings, even as the world he was born into crumbles around him.
To read the entire article which includes more information about the film's sponsors go here.
July 16, 2002
- Sunday Telegraph Magazine 14 July 2002 reports:
The World of YogaHatha - The basis of all forms of yoga: breathing, meditation and postural exercises to unite body,mind and spirit.
Devotees: Rachel Weisz, Joseph Fiennes.
July 15, 2002
- Movie of hostage Keenan’s ordeal to be shot in Ireland
The Times Online
July 14, 2002
By Jan BattlesA FILM about Brian Keenan, the Irish man held hostage in Beirut by fundamentalists, is to be shot in Ireland later this year.
Blind Flight, based on the teacher’s book An Evil Cradling, was one of a number of movie projects cancelled or postponed in the wake of the terrorist attacks on America. Films involving fundamentalist terrorists or threats to America were considered distasteful in light of the attacks in New York and Washington last September. Keenan’s account of his captivity in Lebanon at the hands of fundamentalist Shi’ite militiamen was shelved late last year after some of the film’s financial backers pulled out. Producers have managed to secure new funding and the film is now set to begin shooting in November in Ireland. Sally Hibbin, the producer, said: “Some of our backers got nervous at one point last year.
“Some have been supportive of it throughout the period and we have got some new financial backers now.”
The €4.2m movie is being made by Parallax Independent in London and Samson Films, an Irish production company. It will be funded by a combination of English, Irish and Italian backers.
Ian Hart is to play the role of Keenan, the Belfast teacher who was held hostage for 4˝ years in the Middle East. The 51-year-old was imprisoned with John McCarthy, an English journalist, after they were snared by Arab fundamentalists in 1986.
Hart, 38, from Liverpool, was last seen on cinema screens as Professor Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and starred with Liam Neeson in Michael Collins. Joseph Fiennes, best known for Shakespeare in Love, will play McCarthy.
The majority of the movie’s six-week shoot will take place in Ireland. The interior scenes, of the two in captivity, will be recreated in the republic, with exterior locations filmed in Lebanon or Casablanca, in Morocco.
In 1986, Keenan went to Beirut on secondment as a teacher to an American college. He had intended to take only a short break there but was taken hostage shortly after his arrival. His captors were Islamic fundamentalists who hoped to use him and other western hostages as bargaining tools in a long and bloody civil war.
He spent much of his time in captivity with fellow hostage, McCarthy. Keenan was freed in August 1990. It was another year before McCarthy was released in August 1991. Keenan’s account of his imprisonment was an international bestseller when published in 1992. In it he tells of his ordeal in 17 different makeshift jails in Lebanon.
Keenan and McCarthy survived the physical and mental abuse they suffered at the hands of their captors by forging a close bond and maintaining their sense of humour.
They endured the humiliation of the beatings by their captors and lived in tiny filthy cells with toilets full of cockroaches and other insects. In many ways the two were opposites: McCarthy, a former public schoolboy, had been covering the story of Keenan’s kidnap when he himself was taken hostage. When he first met the Irishman, a socialist, working-class Protestant from Belfast, in their first cell Keenan was a ragged, wildly-bearded man.
The two have been closely involved in the movie. “Brian has been involved in the writing of the film script as has John McCarthy,” said Hibbin. “They are both very centrally involved.”
July 11, 2002
- KMS will be released in Belgium on August 14.
