I've added 2 new pics from the upcoming film 'Eden Lake' in gallery 2 here.

MORE SCARES AS FILM4 RENEWS DEAL WITH FRIGHTFEST

"The line up for the FILM4 FrightFest 2008 is coming along nicely and will be posted here on Friday 27th of June at 2.00 p.m., just before the tickets for the event go on sale. However, we can announce that Eden Lake has been chosen as the opening night film and will receive its world premier on Thursday the 21st of August. Destined to be one of the most controversial British movies of the year, this ‘hoodie horror’ is written and directed by first-timer James Watkins, and stars Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender as a holidaying couple who cross paths with a gang of local kids – with chilling consequences."

http://www.frightfest.co.uk/films.html

MORE SCARES AS FILM4 RENEWS DEAL WITH FRIGHTFEST

Film4 have agreed a further one-year deal with FrightFest to remain the horror and fantasy film festival’s headline sponsor for the third year running. 2009 will be the 10th year anniversary year for the UK’s premiere genre event and the partnership will further expand with major on-air and off-air initiatives. The deal for this year’s event (Odeon West End, Aug 21-25) will include a proposed late night FrightFest season on Film4, on-air trails across all four channels, a fully supported website and a tie-up with Channel 4’s new initiative, Generation Next.

Katie Hayes, Marketing Manager Drama, Acquisitions and Film4, says: “Film4 is delighted to continue its sponsorship of Frightfest. We remain committed to the genre through our strand Saturday Night Shocks and through this festival. Film4 Frightfest is also the perfect place to discover and show new talent both in front of and behind the camera”.

Alan Jones, joint director of FrightFest added: “"FrightFest is committed to showcasing new talent and trends, giving our audiences the full range of exciting discovery within the genre they love. We showcase the names to watch well before they appear on anyone else's radar. Film4’s forward-looking thinking in cinematic and production areas mean we are the perfect fit".

This year British horror is given the thumbs-up as Eden Lake is chosen as the Opening night film and will receive its world premier on Thursday Aug 21. Distributed by Optimum Releasing, Eden Lake is destined to be one of the most controversial British movies of the year. The ‘hoodie horror’ is directed by first-timer James Watkins, and stars Kelly Reilly (Pride & Prejudice, Othello at the Donmar Warehouse) and Michael Fassbender (300, Hunger) as a holidaying couple who cross paths with a gang of local kids – with chilling consequences.

The five-day festival, which showcases over 25 new films from across the world, is seen as the UK’s leading genre event; helping to launch the careers of directors such as Christopher Smith (Creep, Severance), Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel) and Simon Hunter (Mutant Chronicles).

More info on Frightfest here

Epic earner

No fewer than 2 506 locals are appearing as extras in a four-part BBC mini-series, the splendidly titled The Devil's Whore, being filmed in and around Cape Town.

t's an epic production in other ways, too. Thousands of costumes have kept sewing machines whirring throughout the Cape and a three-storey plywood and plaster replica of a 17th century manor house has been constructed on a Grabouw farm.

The drama revolves around the life of a fictional character called Angelica Fanshawe at the time of the Civil War.

Oliver Cromwell can never have imagined that his exploits would provide a significant boost to the economy of the Western Cape early in the 21st century.

For info on The Devil's Whore, Go to Company Pictures website here

From The TimesJune 26, 2008

Watch out for Donkey Punch, Eden Lake and Better Things: starring the new villains of the big screen

The new cinema baddie looks very familiar. Our correspondent discovers how the hoody skulked to the big screenKevin Maher

One of the most terrifying movie moments of 2008 occurs early in the new British thriller Eden Lake. Kindly, middle-class thirtysomething Steve (Michael Fassbender) is lounging by the titular Midlands lake with his girlfriend and prospective fiancée Jenny (Kelly Reilly). Their tranquillity is disturbed by the deafening boom-box and roaming Rottweiler of five local hard-knock teens. Steve decides to do the unthinkable – ask them to turn their music down! It’s a heart-stopper of a scene and, as he walks tentatively over to the stony-faced gang, every fibre in the being of every single audience member screams out: “No, Steve, don’t do it! Leave them alone!”

That Steve ends up beaten by the gang, tied, gruesomely tortured and has his “happy-stabbing” recorded on their mobile phones is testament both to the power of slick horror film-making and that the best contemporary screen villains are now not psychopaths and mutant zombies but contemporary British youth. The hoody has made it to the big screen and we should be scared.

“This is a film that has hit its moment,” says Richard Holmes, the producer of Eden Lake. “It has resonance with a youth crime phenomenon that’s not going to fade away. We are probably the first film out there of this type, although there’s quite a few in the pipeline.”

The movies that Holmes is referring to are Donkey Punch and Better Things. The former focuses on a group of hedonistic youths who turn a drug-fuelled sex orgy into a homicidal killing spree; the latter is about heroin-addicted teens in the Cotswolds. They are movies that, if not quite demonising youth culture, certainly express a profound unease with what they see around them. And they are films that seem to mainline scandalous

“Facebook teen orgy” headlines and daily knife crime tragedies directly into their narratives. Indeed, the Eden Lake scenario has an eerie and disturbing similarity to the murder last year of Gary Newlove, the Warrington man kicked to death after intervening in teen vandalism.

His murder happened after the film was made, says James Watkins, the writer-director of Eden Lake, but he feels that his movie is tapping into something that’s in the ether. It’s ultimately a fear of children, he says. And it’s everywhere. “Recently, some kids passed my place with a pitbull terrier,” he says, “and it crapped right outside my house. I was pretty much standing there in front of them, and I thought: ‘Should I say something?’ And I didn’t because it wasn’t worth it. And it was probably the right decision. But when did standing up for common decency become the wrong decision?”

Similarly, David Bloom, the co-writer of Donkey Punch, says that his film was inspired by looking at youth culture and seeing “a change in sexual morality and behaviour that I just didn’t understand”.

His film’s title refers to a mythical sex act, derived equally from the internet and from playground chatter, in which a sexual partner is surprised, mid-coitus, by a punch to the back of the neck, thereby inducing involuntary muscular spasms and limitless pleasure all round. In the film, it is committed by young English thrill-seekers on a yacht off the coast of Spain, but with fatal consequences. The resulting chaos, like a cross between Dead Calm and Lord of the Flies, shows the remaining party kids, male and female (including Jaime Winstone and Nichola Burley) turning on each other ever more gruesomely.

“We weren’t trying to scandalise,” Bloom says. “We didn’t want people to go, ‘Oh my goodness, look at those awful kids!’ We just wanted to make a film that showed how it’s a complicated thing to be young now.”

Better Things, the debut feature from the writer-director Duane Hopkins, also takes a hard look at life in smalltown England, and of how disaffected teens have turned to Class A drugs to overcome the lack of love in their lives. It opens with a fatal overdose and doesn’t get any brighter.

But isn’t there a danger that these movies will appear crass and opportunistic, piggybacking on media obsessions for the sake of cheap thrills? Watkins thinks so. “I’m nervous that there are all these horrible things going on around us and that we’ll be seen as glibly exploiting them,” he says. “But I hope that I’ve made a film that plays to wide audiences but will also be troubling to them. And it should be. I’ve seen people come out of it looking quite battered.”

On the other hand, Angus Lamont, the producer of Donkey Punch, says that his movie is just holding up a mirror to society. “We’re representing something that’s already here, rather than creating it,” he says, and adds that the notion of rebellious youth is hardly a new one. “There’s always been a degree of moral panic, where older people are scared of younger people,” he says. “I think young people have always been demonised. But I don’t see our film in that category. It’s a genre film.”

The irony, of course, is that these films work precisely because of their social context, and not despite it. They are beautifully shot and intensely acted, yes, but it’s their queasy approach to youth culture that gives them their fascinating attraction. We’ve had troubled youth movies in the past, everything from The Blackboard Jungle to Clockwork Orange to Kidulthood, but this bold marriage of topicality and slick genre for-matting is startling and defiantly unHollywood.

“You can’t just walk away from our film and go, ‘Oh it’s just a monster movie’,” Watkins says. “It has a sense of reality about it, and it’s English. And I don’t want to sound like I’m being preachy, but if people discover a moral voice in the movie then that’s fantastic, because it’s in there too.”

Hollywood, meanwhile, ever averse to reality and moral voices, continues to peddle teenage delusion in the form of loveable wiseacres such as Charlie Bartlett and Juno – the latter’s Oscar spoils seems to hint at a certain kind of wish-fulfilment within the American Establishment. It’s hardly surprising, then, that Hollywood is behind that other teen talking point of the British summer season, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. Adapted from the Louise Rennison’s novels, funded by Paramount Pictures, and set in an England of chaste teen kissers, it is as authentic as Beverly Hills and as English as Madonna.

But lest you think it’s all gloom, and that these new homegrown movies are luxuriating in their own nihilism, Watkins at least feels that Eden Lake offers a note of hope, or instruction, for the nation’s generation of adolescent sociopaths. “I don’t want to overstate any of this,” he says, “but it’s very deliberate that in the film the very first and the very last act of violence that you see on screen is a slap perpetrated by a parent on a child.”

Thus, in a closing twist worthy of a genre thriller itself, the real villains are not the hoodies, the heroin addicts, the hedonists and the donkey-punchers taking to our screens, but their negligent parents. Holmes agrees. “It’s not about messages or lessons or political statements,” he says. “It’s about how you bring up your kids. Basically, we’re saying: ‘Know where they are’.”

Donkey Punch opens on July 18. Eden Lake opens on Sept 5. Better Things is released later this year

'Hunger' Set For UK Release On October 31

'Hunger', the winner of the Camera d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival and the directorial debut of acclaimed British visual artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen, is to be released in cinemas on October 31, Pathé Distribution has announced.

'Hunger' is an intimate portrayal of life in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison at the time of the 1981 IRA hunger strike, led by Bobby Sands.

The film explores what happens when the morality of people, whether prisoners or prison guards, is tested to the limit, when the body itself is used as a weapon for people not being heard.

Co-written by Enda Walsh and Steve McQueen and produced by Laura Hastings-Smith and Robin Gutch, 'Hunger' stars Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, Liam Cunningham as Father Dominic Moran and Stuart Graham as prison officer Raymond Lohan.

The cast also includes Brian Milligan. Liam McMahon and Lalor Roddy.

'Hunger' is a Blast! Films production developed and majority funded by Film4 and Channel 4 and filmed on location in Northern Ireland with finance from Northern Ireland Screen.

'Hunger' also received support from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland 'Sound & Vision Fund') and the Wales Creative IP Fund.

'Hunger' received its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year where Steve McQueen won the prestigious Camera d'Or for best first feature. The film was also awarded the Fipresci International Critics Prize at the festival.

It also won the Sydney Film Prize at this year's Sydney Film Festival.

Site Update: More pics added !

I've just added more pics to gallery 2, so now we have all the caps up from Carla, William and Mary, Wedding Belles, Poirot and Michael's appearance on TRL Romania. View them here

Once i've finished uploading all the pics from the old site, each project will have it's own page , with maybe( not decided yet ), a synopsis and role info and i will also be putting a links page to all the pics up to make navigating to them easier.

He acquired a cult following on the back of TV series such as Band of Brothers, which launched his career in 2001, and Sky One's Hex, but Michael Fassbender's days of marginal fame are coming to an end.

In Cannes this year, excited commentators were calling him 'the British Brando' - disregarding the fact that the 31-year-old was born in Heidelberg, Germany, raised in Killarney, County Kerry, and speaks with a distinct Irish accent. The label was applied because of his performance as IRA hunger-striker Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen's Hunger (released on 31 October). Fassbender lost more than two stone in preparatio nuts, berries and sardines.

He was considerably more buff as Stelios ('Then we shall fight in the shade') in last year's muscle-porn epic 300, and his roles in two imminent releases show just how versatile an actor Fassbender is. In François Ozon's romance Angel, he is a painter of negligible talent who woos Romola Garai's novelist in Edwardian England. And in British shocker Eden Lake, he plays a man menaced by a gang of kids.

Other projects in the pipeline include a new version of Wuthering Heights from director John Maybury, in which Fassbender will play Heathcliff, a role tailor-made for the charismatic Irishman.

Angel is released on 25 August; Eden Lake on 5 September.

According to Variety.com Michael will be starring in a new film called 'Fishtank', playing a character called 'Connor' .

Fassbender plunges into 'Fish Tank'

Andrea Arnold shoots second feature

By ALI JAAFAR

Rising Brit thesp Michael Fassbender has boarded Andrea Arnold’s sophomore feature “Fish Tank.”

Other cast members include newcomer Katie Jarvis, who plays the lead role of Mia, a troubled 15-year-old excluded from school and ostracized by her friends.

Kierston Wareing (“It’s a Free World”), Rebecca Griffiths and Harry Treadaway (“Control”) complete the lineup.

Fassbender garnered plenty of critical kudos for his tragic portrayal of I.R.A. hunger striker Bobby Sands in Brit helmer Steve McQueen’s “Hunger,” which won the Camera d’Or at Cannes this year. Fassbender is also set to take on the iconic role of Heathcliff in a new version of Emily Bronte’s classic novel “Wuthering Heights.”

In “Fish Tank,” Fassbender takes on the role of a mysterious stranger who romances Mia’s mother.

“Fish Tank” is a BBC Films, U.K. Film Council and Limelight co-production.

Kees Kasander is producing for Kasander Films, with Ruby Films’ Paul Trijbits exec producing along with BBC Films’ Christine Langan and David M. Thompson.

Artificial Eye has already acquired U.K. theatrical rights. ContentFilm Intl. is handling worldwide sales.

Also, www.4rfv.co.uk have a piece about it also

28 July 2008

Principal Photography Commences On 'Fish Tank'

BBC Films, the UK Film Council and Limelight, have announced that principal photography has begin on 'Fish Tank', Academy-Award-winning writer and director Andrea Arnold's follow-up feature to Cannes' 'Prix du Jury' winner, 'Red Road'.

Artificial Eye has acquired the UK theatrical rights; ContentFilm International is handling worldwide sales.

Following his critically acclaimed performance in 'Hunger', Michael Faasbender ('300', 'Angel') takes the central role in 'Fish Tank', opposite talented newcomer Katie Jarvis. Rounding out the principal cast are BAFTA-nominated Kierston Wareing ('It's A Free World'), who is joined by Rebecca Griffiths and Harry Treadaway ('Control').

Produced by Kees Kasander ('Prospero's Books', 'The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover', 'The Pillow Book'), for Kasander Films, and executive produced by Paul Trijbits (Ruby Films) and Christine Langan and David M. Thompson for BBC Films, 'Fish Tank' will be shot entirely on location in the UK.

'Fish Tank' is the story of Mia (Katie Jarvis), a volatile 15-year-old who is always in trouble and who has become excluded from school and ostracized by her friends. One hot summer's day her mother (Kierston Wareing) brings home a mysterious stranger called Connor (Michael Fassbender) who promises to change everything and bring love into all their lives. Touching on the themes of her Academy Award-winning short 'Wasp', 'Fish Tank' is an original and unique modern tale of our times.

Paul Trijbits, Executive Producer, said: "Andrea is the UK's most exciting new female director whose work is embraced by audiences and festivals all over the world. Having commissioned both Andrea's Oscar-winner 'Wasp' and Cannes prize-winner 'Red Road', I am delighted to have been a part in putting Andrea's next film together."

Christine Langan, Executive Producer for BBC Films, said: "BBC Films prides itself in providing a home for some of the most distinctive talent working today. We are especially pleased to team up with Andrea once again and to help bring her unique vision to the screen."

David M. Thompson, Executive Producer for BBC Films, said: "We were delighted to be involved in Andrea's 'Red Road', which is one of the most startling films I have ever seen from a first time feature director. Naturally, we were thrilled at the opportunity to develop Andrea's next project, which we think will result in a highly distinctive and compelling film, from one of Britain's most exciting film talents."

Lenny Crooks, Head of the UK Film's New Cinema Fund, said: "Andrea has proved herself to be one of the most exciting filmmakers to have come out of the UK for years. She received international acclaim for her first feature and her shorts work and we are delighted that we can help her to progress her career."

BBC Films and the UK Film Council in association with Limelight present a Kees Kasander production.

(KMcA)

From the Daily Mail 1/8/08 -

THE high-profile movie production of Wuthering Heights has had more drama behind the scenes than the plot of Emily Bronte’s famous novel — and that’s before a single scene has been shot.

Natalie Portman was cast as the movie’s heroine Catherine Earnshaw, then withdrew under mysterious circumstances; Keira Knightley dismissed overtures because she didn’t want ‘sloppy seconds’; Sienna Miller was courted for about a minute but that dalliance was ditched on the Yorkshire Moors; and now I can reveal that the picture’s director John Maybury has withdrawn because, it’s claimed, he didn’t like the screenplay. The search is now on for another filmmaker to take hold of the literary classic. The new director, whoever he or she may be, will at least find actors in place to play the leading roles. Fast-rising thespian Michael Fassbender (pictured, right) is already signed to play the brooding Heathcliff, and Australian actress Abbie Cornish has agreed to play Cathy. In fact, they make an ideal cast to bring Bronte’s revered characters to life on celluloid. All they need now is a director to shout: ‘Action!’

It’s a shame about Maybury’s quitting because he would have injected a dangerous edginess to the costume drama, the producers must find a new director who possesses a visual flair and a sense of daring.

I hope Fassbender remains with the project because he is an exciting actor, and when I last spoke to him he was brimming with ideas on how he would bring Heathcliff to life.

Fassbender plays Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen’s recent Cannes Film Festival prize-winning Hunger, a magnificent and deeply felt drama about the IRA hunger protests at Maze Prison in Northern Ireland.

McQueen explores the incident not just from the prisoners’ perspective, but also from the viewpoint of the gaol’s guards, particularly one officer, played superbly by Stuart Graham, who seems like the loneliest man in the world.

Hunger, a work of cinematic art produced by Film 4, will demand an audience’s participation. To be sure, it’s harrowing, but I found it, strangely, a most fulfilling movie experience.

Hunger opens on October 31, but expect it to be in the Times BFI London Film Festival earlier that month.

Fassbender has a powerful screen presence — just what Wuthering Heights will need, whoever directs it.

For the full article with pic go to the Daily Mail site here

You will notice a new site banner which i finally made to go with the colour scheme and i've uploaded more audio clips of Michael to the player here , thanks to Lilian for these !! and also more pics have been added to gallery 3 here.

We have nearly finished uploading all the pics from the old site, so can then concentrate on organising them so that each project has it's own page.

I have also added a guestbook, so feel free to leave any feedback or comments if you wish. This is located here under the contact us heading on the menu bar.

From The Observer , 10/08/08

Stars to refight England's civil war in new TV drama

A passionate revolutionary saga will sweep across British television screens this autumn. The lavish four-part drama, The Devil's Whore, from the pen of Peter Flannery, creator of the hit serial Our Friends in the North, stars Dominic West, of The Wire, as Oliver Cromwell. Andrea Riseborough, fresh from her role as Margaret Thatcher in BBC4's The Long Walk to Finchley, will play alongside him as a young gentlewoman of the court, drawn into the English Civil War.

And right at the centre of this story of Roundhead versus Cavalier is a family legacy that has become increasingly personal to Martine Brant, co-writer of the £7m Channel 4 epic. Researching the screenplay for more than a decade, she discovered that her beautiful Oxfordshire home, Wytham Abbey, played a key part in the conflict that ripped England apart during the 17th century.

'Cromwell actually stayed here as he planned the siege of Oxford,' said Brant this weekend. 'It was originally a manor that belonged to Abingdon Abbey and provided fruit and veg for the monks. It then became the seat of the Earls of Abingdon, before being sequestrated during the Civil War.'

The Devil's Whore chronicles the life of the fictitious Angelica Fanshawe, who was born into the Royalist camp. The name is taken from that of the diarist Anne, Lady Fanshawe, a direct ancestor of Brant's three daughters through their paternal grandmother.

'The real Lady Fanshawe was the daughter of a wealthy merchant and part of the court entourage that travelled to Oxford, where she met her husband, Sir Richard,' said Brant. 'This was the kind of ancestry I had always wanted for myself. In my heart of hearts I had thought I must be a princess as a child, as many girls do, so the idea that my daughters are part of all this history is wonderful.'

The youngest, 15-year-old Miranda, will make her debut in the drama as Princess Elizabeth, grief-stricken daughter of the executed King Charles I, who is played by Peter Capaldi, the New Labour spin doctor in the hit BBC4 comedy The Thick of It

The Devil's Whore, which has been co-funded by the American network HBO, also stars Michael Fassbender as the political firebrand Thomas Rainsborough. Fassbender won acclaim at this summer's Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal of Bobby Sands in Hunger. John Simm, who starred as Sam Tyler in the BBC's popular Life on Mars, plays the Puritan anti-monarchist Edward Sexby.

For Flannery the opportunity to bring this period to life - and with such a cast - is long overdue. 'It is absolutely extraordinary how the English have forgotten their revolution and how under-dramatised it has been,' he said. 'There has been nothing on television that actually tells it as it happened. We killed a monarch, after all, and ours was the first revolution in Europe.'

Flannery argues that, if the revolution had played out differently, the country would not have returned to the monarchy. 'This movement went on to inspire the French and Soviet revolutions and we might have had an early Soviet-style government ourselves. In British history it is still referred to as the Interregnum, a blip... but it was much more than that.'

Although Fanshawe is at the centre of the story, Flannery did not want it to revolve around one figure. 'I almost consciously modelled it on Our Friends in the North. I didn't want it to be told from a single perspective,' he said. 'I wanted a group of characters to help explain a period of history, but we needed one character to take us through it. Both politically and emotionally, Angelica becomes attached to the other side, and this completely changes and radicalises her life. One of the important things about the revolution is that it gave women a voice.'

Fanshawe Manor is crucial to the plot and is modelled on Brant's home, but the production team had to re-create it in South Africa for cost reasons. 'We filmed entirely in South Africa, in a valley full of oak trees not far from the Cape,' said Flannery. 'It looks very dramatic and very like Wytham Woods.'

The cast visited Brant and her family to rehearse at Wytham Abbey, which is set in 3,000 acres of woodland now owned by Oxford University. 'When Dominic West walked through the main gate I said to him, "Cromwell would have ridden his horse in here",' said Brant. 'He just seemed to fill out and from that moment he took on the mantle of Cromwell, I think.'

The new poster for movie' Eden Lake' has been unveiled. I have put the pic in the Eden Lake gallery here . You can also see the pic and read an aticle here

View the new 'Eden Lake' movie trailer here

I've just made screencaps for Eden Lake and put them in gallery 3 here

Here's the link for the official Eden Lake website , although nothing up on it yet but the release date but you can view it here

According to www.francois-ozon.com

Angel will be released in UK cinemas by Lionsgate from August 29 2008. Ozon's website has been updated and also has a new movie poster which can be viewed here

Not sure if i have mentioned this article before but got this from the BBC Press office about 'Fish Tank', which Michael is currently "very busy" with according to dad Josef, whom i heard from a few days ago. Josef is also hoping Michael will win a prize for Hunger at the Toronto Film Festival , we hope he does too and are keeping our finger's tightly crossed !! heres the article below !!

BBC Films, the UK Film Council and Limelight are pleased to announce that principal photography has begun on Fish Tank, Academy Award-winning writer and director Andrea Arnold's follow-up feature to Cannes Prix du Jury winner, Red Road.

Artificial Eye has acquired the UK theatrical rights; ContentFilm International is handling worldwide sales.

Following his critically acclaimed performance in Hunger, Michael Fassbender (300, Angel) takes the central role in Fish Tank, opposite talented newcomer Katie Jarvis.

Rounding out the principal cast are BAFTA-nominated Kierston Wareing (It's A Free World), who is joined by Rebecca Griffiths and Harry Treadaway (Control). Produced by Kees Kasander (Prospero's Books, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover, The Pillow Book), for Kasander Films, and executive produced by Paul Trijbits (Ruby Films) and Christine Langan and David M Thompson for BBC Films, Fish Tank will be shot entirely on location in the UK.

Fish Tank is the story of Mia (Katie Jarvis), a volatile 15-year-old, who is always in trouble and who has become excluded from school and ostracized by her friends.One hot summer's day her mother (Kierston Wareing) brings home a mysterious stranger called Connor (Michael Fassbender), who promises to change everything and bring love into all their lives. Touching on the themes of Andrea Arnold's Academy Award-winning short Wasp, Fish Tank is an original and unique modern tale of our times. Paul Trijbits, Executive Producer, says: "Andrea is the UK's most exciting new female director, whose work is embraced by audiences and festivals all over the world.

"Having commissioned both Andrea's Oscar-winner Wasp and Cannes prize-winner Red Road, I am delighted to have been a part in putting Andrea's next film together."Christine Langan, Executive Producer for BBC Films, says: "BBC Films prides itself in providing a home for some of the most distinctive talent working today."We are especially pleased to team up with Andrea once again and to help bring her unique vision to the screen."David M Thompson, Executive Producer for BBC Films, says: "We were delighted to be involved in Andrea's Red Road, which is one of the most startling films I have ever seen from a first-time feature director. "Naturally we were thrilled at the opportunity to develop Andrea's next project, which we think will result in a highly distinctive and compelling film, from one of Britain's most exciting film talents." Lenny Crooks, Head of the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund, says: "Andrea has proved herself to be one of the most exciting film-makers to have come out of the UK for years. "She received international acclaim for her first feature and her shorts work and we are delighted that we can help her to progress her career.”

BBC Films and the UK Film Council in association with Limelight present a Kees Kasander production.

Michael Fassbender has climbed aboard Quentin Tarantino's latest project, Inglorious Bastards.

According to Variety, Simon Pegg had been in talks for the role (Lt. Archie Hicox), but was forced to ankle after what he described on his website as "insurmountable scheduling difficulties."

Brad Pitt has signed on for the lead role as a Tennessee hillbilly who assembles a team of eight Jewish-American soldiers to take on the Nazis. Also on board are Mike Myers and Eli Roth. Tarantino is courting Nastassja Kinski, David Krumholtz and B.J. Novak.

The role would arguably be the highest-profile yet for Fassbender, who has begun to draw comparisons to Daniel Day-Lewis for his intense dedication to his work. The actor emaciated himself to play Sands in the latter stages of his hunger strike.

Production is said to begin on October 14 in Germany.

Shocktilyoudrop.com has some new hi res images from Eden Lake on their site which can be viewed here.

The new Eden Lake website is now up and running with trailers , synopsis , gallery and cast details, to view go here

according to Variety.com

Fox Searchlight has arrested production on Brit cop thriller "The Sweeney" following concerns about its international prospects.

Project was being produced by DNA Films, the U.K. venture backed by Fox Searchlight, and had been set to start lensing in the next few weeks.

DNA reps said Fox execs are believed to have had doubts the $16 million pic, while looking a sure-fire hit in Blighty because it's based on a cult 1970s TV series, would sell elsewhere without a major star.

Thesps being considered for the main roles of a seasoned detective and his younger partner were Ray Winstone and the up-and-coming Michael Fassbender.

Rather than continue with pre-production in the hopes of nabbing a big name at the last minute, Fox and DNA mutually agreed to step back and wait. They are still hoping to go into production next year. Cult writer-director Nick Love remains attached to direct.

Pic is about the Flying Squad, a London police unit dedicated to fighting violent crime. The TV show, starring John Thaw and Dennis Waterman, was to U.K. auds what "Miami Vice" was to U.S. viewers.

The unit was known locally by the Cockney rhyming slang term for Flying Squad -- Sweeney Todd.

The seminal show, created by Ian Kennedy Martin who is involved in the pic, helped invent the blueprint for gritty cop dramas in the U.K., with its salty dialogue and tough action scenes.

"We're confident we'll get the film made next year," DNA production chief Allon Reich told Daily Variety.

Read the full article at:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117990901.html

I've added new images to the Eden Lake gallery here

Monster's and critics.com have a new extreme 'Eden Lake' trailer up on their site, view it here !

Lilian has added 3 more videos to our extensive video collection on our YouTube channel, 2 from Frighfest 2008 and 1 from a Talking Movies Hunger special, which can be viewed here .

Northern Ireland shot features ‘Hunger’ and ‘Fifty Dead Men Walking’ have been selected for the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival which runs 4-13 September.

The Toronto Film Festival is considered on a par with other premier world film festivals such as Cannes, Venice and Berlin, and has a highly competitive selection process. It is considered a great launch pad for the North American market.

‘Hunger’, directed by Steve McQueen will compete in the Discovery section for Best Feature Film which is a showcase for new and emerging filmmakers. Starring Michael Fassbender (300, François Ozon’s Angel), and Liam Cunningham (The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Breakfast on Pluto), the film is an interpretation of the last six weeks in the life of Bobby Sands (Fassbender), during the 1981 IRA hunger strike at the notorious Maze prison.

‘Hunger’ has already won the prestigious Camera d’Or and the Critics Award at the Cannes Film Festival as well as Best Film at both the Sydney and Jerusalem festivals. Produced by Laura Hastings-Smith from Blast! Films and executive produced by Robin Gutch, the film will be released in Ireland on 31st October.

‘Fifty Dead Men Walking’ will enjoy a Gala Screening at Toronto along with other high profile Canadian and international films. Produced by Future Films Ltd and directed by Kari Skogland (The Stone Angel), the film set in the 1980s Northern Ireland stars Jim Sturgess (21, The Other Boleyn Girl) and Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Schindler’s List). Based on a true story, the follows nineteen year-old Marty McGartland, who was recruited by the British police to spy on the IRA and subsequently lives his life on the run after being discovered.

Richard Williams, Chief Executive of Northern Ireland Screen who help fund both films states: “The inclusion of ‘Hunger’ and ‘Fifty Dead Men Walking’ in one of the world’s most prestigious film festivals is fantastic news and we send our congratulations to everyone involved. The film and television sector has strong support in Northern Ireland – not least through the substantial investment from Invest NI.”

Artist Steve McQueen has won a prize at the Venice Film Festival for his film Hunger, about IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands' final days in the Maze prison.

McQueen was awarded the Gucci Group Award - which honours film-makers from other fields.

The film, directed by McQueen, stars Michael Fassbender as Sands, who died in 1981 at the Northern Ireland jail at the age of 27.

The film also won the Camera d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

"We're living in a time and age where it is all about putting our cards on the table and going for it," McQueen said as he accepted his award at a ceremony at the Palazzo Grassi.

Actor Fassbender went on a medically-supervised diet to play Sands who refused food for 66 days in an attempt to be recognised as a political prisoner.

McQueen told the BBC earlier this year he had been inspired by his memory of seeing Sands on TV news bulletins as an 11-year-old.

Fassbender and McQueen launched the film in Cannes earlier this year

McQueen, who won the Turner Prize in 1999 for a collection of films including a silent movie stunt, beat fellow Brit nominee Isaac Julien.

London-based photographer Julien was nominated for directing Derek - a film about late director Derek Jarman - written and narrated by actress Tilda Swinton.

Adam Yauch, of hip-hop outfit the Beastie Boys, was also nominated for directing Gunnin' for that No1 Spot, a documentary about high school basketball players.

And artist Julian Schnabel, who won the award last year, was nominated again for directing Berlin - the film of singer Lou Reed performing his concept album of the same name.

Quentin Tarantino has picked up three more Inglorious Bastards.Well, we say three more, but of the three actors to sign on for QT’s eagerly-awaited World War II movie, only one will actually be playing one of the Jewish soldiers wreaking merry havoc behind enemy lines in occupied France. That actor is Paul Rust, although we’re not sure which of the Bastards he’ll be playing. But he joins Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, B.J. Novak and Samm Levine as the standout members of the hard-bitten troupe. The other two actors to sign on are Diane Kruger, who will be taking on the role that we thought Nastassja Kinski had been earmarked for. Kruger will play Bridget Von Hammersmark, a German movie idol who becomes involved with the Bastards and their plan to… no, wait for the movie. But she has at least a couple of nail-biting sequences, including a sequence with a British officer (Michael Fassbender, in the role that Simon Pegg had to pass on) that promises to be one of the best of Tarantino’s career. (And if you’re wondering, yes, we’ve read the script that was floating around online; who hasn’t at this stage?)It’s a cracking role, though – while many might have thought that Bastards would be a sausage-fest, with no real roles for actresses, QT has actually written at least two storming parts for females. Von Hammersmark is one, while the other – Jewish heroine Shoshanna – has yet to be cast. And the third cast member? That’s German actor Christoph Waltz, who will play the movie’s bad guy, Colonel Landa, a Nazi officer so fearsome that he has earned the sobriquet, The Jew Hunter. Landa is a dream of a part – urbane, psychotic and highly intelligent, he’s the kind of guy who dominates the action even when he’s not onscreen, and it’s interesting to see that Tarantino has plumped for a German to play him, as this was the role that Leonardo DiCaprio had originally been circling. Filming starts on October 13 in Germany, with Tarantino aiming to have Inglorious Bastards premiere at Cannes next year. Chris Hewitt

Franois Ozon’s first full English-language feature is an affectionate tribute to the ‘Women’s Picture’ of the ’40s and ’50s. Thankfully, those cinemagoers who couldn’t tell Douglas Sirk’s oeuvre from the back end of a donkey have nothing to fear – in fact, they’ll probably enjoy this more thanks to their ignorance. Set in Edwardian England, it stars Atonement’s Romola Garai as Angel, a teenage writer of torrid romances who’s moulded into a literary darling by her publisher (Sam Neill). Like Ozon’s 8 Women, the costumes are magnificent and Angel’s mansion is a shrine to the gods of bad taste. All that’s missing is a heroine worthy of Bette Davis in her heyday. Garai is perfectly bratty as young Angel, but she never matures into a stronger, ballsier, more sympathetic woman. The Grande Dame would have eaten her alive...

Busy Irish actor Michael Fassbender looks set to join the cast of Inglorious Bastards , Quentin Tarantino's war movie set in Nazi-occupied France. Brad Pitt stars in the film, which also features Mike Myers, Hostel directors El Roth (who was in Tarantino's Death Proof ), BJ Novak (from the US TV version of The Office ) and, it is rumoured, Simon Pegg and Nastassja Kinski. The movie starts shooting in mid-October.Born in Heidelberg, Germany, Fassbender was raised in Killarney, where his parents moved when he was two years old. He received rave reviews at Cannes this year for his portrayal of dying IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in Hunger , which opens here on October 31st.Fassbender also features with Romola Garai and Sam Neill in Franois Ozon's Angel , which opens in the UK today, and with Kelly Reilly and Thomas Turgoose in the British thriller Eden Lake , which will be released here on September 12th.Fassbender, who played Stelios in 300 last year, is now working on Fish Tank , from Red Road writer- director Andrea Arnold. He plays an enigmatic stranger who moves in with the mother (Kierston Wareing) of a volatile 15-year-old girl. And Fassbender remains committed to playing Heathcliff in John Maybury's imminent screen treatment of Wuthering Heights .

Steve McQueen has won the Gucci Group award for crossover film-makers at Venice for a film about the hunger strikes at the Maze prison in Northern Ireland

A film about the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands' final days in the Maze prison has won a special prize at the Venice film festival.

Hunger, which is directed by Steve McQueen, won the Gucci Group award for artists from other disciplines who have crossed over into film-making. It stars Michael Fassbender as Sands, who led the 1981 hunger strikes at the Maze prison in Northern Ireland, and eventually died less than a month after being elected to the British parliament on a wave of pro-Republican support.

Accepting the award during a ceremony at Venice's Palazzo Grassi, McQueen said: "We're living in a time and age where it is all about putting our cards on the table and going for it."

Hunger also won the Caméra d'Or prize at the Cannes film festival in May. It features an emaciated Fassbender, who went on a special diet in consultation with medical experts. Sands survived 66 days without food in his efforts to be recognised as a political prisoner. There were riots in Belfast after he died and protests took place around the world against the British government.

McQueen beat off competition from artist Julian Schnabel, photographer Isaac Julien and rapper Adam Yauch, of the Beastie Boys, to win the award. Julien's entry was Derek, a film about the late director Derek Jarman which was written and narrated by Tilda Swinton. Yauch's offering was Gunnin' for that No 1 Spot, a documentary about high school basketball players. Schnabel, who won the award last year for his film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, was nominated for his feature about Lou Reed performing his concept album Berlin.

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I've added 11 images from Michael's appearance at Fright Fest 2008 in the Appearance gallery here

Lilian as added new clips to our Youtube channel and included is the extreme Eden Lake trailer which can be viewed here

I've just added 7 pages of the script from Quentin Tarantino's 'Inglorious Bastards', which show Michael's part , which is Lt. Archie Hicox. view it here

I've added a new Hunger review and a Times interview with Kelly Reilly about Eden Lake to the news page here

I've just added a new interview with Michael to the Interviews and Articles page from Issue 10 of Curzon Cinema's Sept/ Oct Magazine. There are also pics of these in the scanned articles section to the right of the same page here

Check out the news page here as i've added lots of reviews for Hunger and Eden Lake !!

Hunger will be shown at The Times BFI London Film Festival on the 19th and 20th October.

For more details check out the official website here or our News page which has all the details and more !

Lilian has put the new UK 'Hunger ' trailer up on our Youtube channel , check it out here

I've added more news and reviws in the news section here

I've added 13 screencaps from Michaels' interview that he did on 'Itv at the Movies' which was shown on tv on 12/9/08. You can view the screencaps in the Appearances gallery here

I've put the video of the ITV AT THE MOVIES Eden Lake interview up on our Youtube channel it's just over 4 minutes long and well worth a look and includes quite a few clips from the movie. You can view it here

I've added 3 new pics of Michael taken by photographer Matt Carr at the Toronto film festival, to the Photo shoot gallery here.

Special thanks go to Matt for letting us use these !!

Lilian has put 7 new clips from Hunger up on our Youtube channel , which you can view here

We also have all the screencaps from the movie , over 300 of them which i'll be hopefully putting up in the gallery later tonight. So watch this space !!

I've just added a few news articles to the news page and also a new interview with Michael about his role in Inglorius Bastards to the Interviews and Articles section here

I've just added 6 new pics from the San Sebastian Film Festival to the appearances gallery here and also more Hunger screencaps to the Hunger gallery, with more to follow.

I've just added some set pics from Inglorious Bastards in the Inglorious Bastards gallery here, courtesy of www.tarantino.info

Zack Snyder has confirmed there will be a '300' sequel.

The 'Watchmen' director - who helmed the movie adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel in 2006 - has confirmed the author is penning and drawing a new story on which the film follow-up will be based.

According to IESB.net, Snyder revealed he had been in touch with Miller, who is now working on the follow-up, but admitted he would have to wait until the book is finished before he starts working alongside Miller on a script for the next instalment.

Snyder also said the new movie will focus on the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Plataea, where narrator Dilios is while telling the story of King Leonidas, played by Gerard Butler, to a group of warriors at the end of the first film.

It is unknown whether Gerard and co-stars Lena Headey, Dominic West and Michael Fassbender will return for the sequel.

Lilian has added a new video clip of The Devil's Whore to our Youtube channel which you can view here

The Times online have a new interview with Michael and Liam Cunningham about filming on 'Hunger ' which can be read here or on our own news page .

The official 'Hunger' website is now online, go to http://www.hungerthemovie.co.uk/ to view.