Movie shorts
Pierce Brosnan has confirmed he will be in at least one more 007 movie after the one he's currently shooting: "I would certainly like to do another one. After that? Who knows ...."
Meanwhile it's clearly getting hard to find suitable baddies for James Bond to tackle. There are plenty around the place but some are, apparently, just too bad, even for the super special agent. Osama Bin Laden was considered for the 20th outing of our hero but Brosnan says: "It's a good idea, but not this time."
This time, it's the North Koreans who will form the opposition in the as-yet untitled movie (though Beyond the Ice has been suggested as the possible title).
Oscar-winners Ben Affleck and Matt Damon came up with the idea for Stolen Summer - starring Aidan Quinn and Pevin Pollack - by holding a script competition and giving the winner $1m (€1.14m) to make the movie, a coming-of-age story with a religious undercurrent. It's been likened to the Irish-set Angela's Ashes and has already been dismissed by some critics as "worthy but dull!"
Affleck, meanwhile, takes on the role of Tom Clancy's special agent Jack Ryan - previously played by Harrison Ford - in The Sum of All Fears, in which our hero tackles neo-Nazis trying to blow up the Superbowl.
Good news for cat lovers ... Garfield, the fat striped cat of the popular Jim Davis strip-cartoon, is to become a big screen star. Garfield has been featured in an animated TV series but the plans are for a live-action movie, to be written by Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow, who penned the smash-hit, Toy Story.
A Spring release has been scheduled for Colin Farrell's $10m (€11.4m) thriller, Phone Booth, helmed by Joel Schumacher. It's a reunion for the Irish actor and American director, they did Tigerland together. In Phone Booth, Farrell answers a ringing telephone on a New York street and is told he'll be shot if he hangs up!
Farrell will also be seen in the July release of the Steven Spielberg-directed futuristic thriller, Minority Report, alongside Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep. And the busy lad will be seen in the April release of Hart's War, the WW2 PoW drama which co-stars Bruce Willis.
Richard Harris will be seen next month in the latest screen outing for The Count of Monte Cristo, made in Ireland. Kevin Reynolds directs Harris, Jim Cavaziel and Guy Pearce in the classic swash-buckler from Alexandre Dumas.
Shot last year in Ireland, stand by for the fantasy Reign of Fire in July. The special F/X futuristic drama stars Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale.
Oscar is big ... but this time it isn't the little statuette, it's our own literary giant, Mr Wilde. Reese Witherspoon and Rupert Everett are to star in The Importance of Being Earnest, adapted by Oliver Parker, who did An Ideal Husband.
