Film at Eleven

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s a sensitive soul. After having been criticised earlier this month by representatives from Graz, the Austrian town where he grew up, for his decision to deny clemency to death row inmate, Tookie Williams, the Governator has decided to cut all ties with his former home town.

Schwarzenegger’s initial response to the criticism was to demand that Graz stop using his name for a sports stadium and send back a “ring of honour” bestowed on him in 1999.

The Mayor of Graz, Siegfried Nagl, tried to mollify the Governator by blaming left-wing opposition parties for stoking the row and expressing the desire to hear the phrase “I’ll be back” again in the town. Which is probably not the most desirable thing to wish for given the amount of gunfire usually associated with the phrase.

And, on the subject of guns, Schwarzenegger stuck to his and, yesterday, the town of Graz complied with his demand to have his name removed from their local football stadium, which has now reverted to its original name of Liebenau Stadium. And, today, Graz has removed Schwarzenegger’s name from their websites.

Lordy! Cinematical is reporting that a German film company, Lux Digital Pictures, is working on a remake of Night of the Living Dead… in 3D.

With a script written by Robert Valding, producer/direcor Jeff Broadstreet describes the film as a “homage” to George Romero’s classic film.

Is it just me or does this have bad idea written all over it?

Cinematical reports that Super Size Me director, Morgan Spurlock, has optioned Chris Mooney’s The Republican War on Science as his next film project.

The book is…

A stinging indictment of how one party has placed politics over science and embraced politically motivated pseudoscience in its place Science has never been more crucial to deciding the political issues facing America. Yet science and scientists have less influence with the federal government than at any time since the Eisenhower administration. In the White House and Congress today, findings are reported in a politicized manner; spun or distorted to fit the speaker’s agenda; or, when they’re too inconvenient, ignored entirely. On a broad array of issues - stem cell research, climate change, missile defense, abstinence education, product safety, environmental regulation, and many others - the Bush administration’s positions fly in the face of overwhelming scientific consensus. Federal science agencies, once fiercely independent under both Republican and Democratic presidents, are increasingly staffed by political appointees and fringe theorists who know industry lobbyists and evangelical activists far better than they know the science. This is not unique to the Bush administration, but it is largely a Republican phenomenon, born of a conservative dislike of environmental, health, and safety regulation, and at the extremes, of evolution and legalized abortion. In The Republican War on Science, Chris Mooney ties together the disparate strands of the attack on science into a compelling and frightening account of the US government’s increasing unwillingness to distinguish between legitimate research and ideologically driven pseudoscience.

I can’t wait to see how the film turns out.

Redfield Arts‘ The Death of Poe - described as a journey into madness and fear - is to premiere at The Charles Theater in Baltimore, Maryland on January 18th.

In late September 1849, Edgar Allan Poe was bound on a trip to New York City. Mysteriously, he was discovered several days later, raving and incoherent in a Baltimore gutter. For three days he lay delirious in a hospital (renowned for bodysnatching) and there he died. To this day, the cause of his death remains a mystery… Mixing authentic recreations of Poe’s life and last days with terrifying imagery from his stories, The Death of Poe is a cinematic chronicle of the great writer’s final journey into madness and fear.

For more information, and tickets, go here.

The BBC reports that Dutch MP, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, has confirmed that she is going ahead with the third Submission film in which “God himself will answer their questions”.

The first film told the story of women who asked for Allah’s help after being raped, beaten and forced into marriage.

The sequel focused on homosexuality in Islam, but Ali said that using Allah in part three would be “the hardest part”.

“Who could play Allah? Also you need actors that are not afraid to take on the job,” she told Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer.

Ms Ali has already said that the director and all the actors in the short films will remain anonymous for their protection.

Dutch director, Theo Van Gogh was murdered following the release of the first Submission film.

Twitch reports that the fourth annual Short Metraje will be running in New York from 17th to 19th December.

ShortMetraje features, for the fourth year in New York, the most challenging Spanish short films from all regions in Spain . The series includes the latest work by 2005 Academy Award Nominated Nacho Vigalondo (7:35 in the morning) and the most recent collaboration between Daniel Sánchez Arévalo and Julio Medem (Sex and Lucia). Join us to celebrate the vitality of Spanish short films, most of them never seen in US before!. All films subtitled in English.

And it’s free!

I’m a little behind with my email at the moment, but still wanted to mention that Tartan Films released Calvaire in the UK on Friday.

Something tells me that Bandidas is going to do rather well when it opens in early 2006.

For anyone that managed to read beyond the headline, the film is an action-comedy, set in 1888 Mexico, in which two women – one a European-educated sophisticate, the other a rough-and-tumble peasant — reluctantly join forces to fight a ruthless enforcer… by becoming bank robbers.

European-films.net reports that Dutch writer-director Jean van de Velde is currently finishing the Dutch leg of the shoot of his new film Wild Romance, which follows the early years (1974 to 1979) of Dutch rocker Herman Brood.

And once he’s wrapped in Groningen and Amsterdam, Van de Velde will be haeading over to the US to shoot the rest of the film, starting in the beginning of next year.

The film will be released by Independent Films in November of 2006, five years after the death by suicide of Brood, who jumped of the roof of an Amsterdam hotel. This is also the month in which he would have turned 60.

According to the BBC, Sir Sean Connery is to come out of retirement from films to supply the voice of a vet in a low-budget Scottish cartoon.

Connery will play the title role in Sir Billi the Vet, which will be set in the Highlands.

Sir Billi, who looks a lot like Connery (a coincidence, I’m sure), a “distinguished gentleman” who lives in a remote village with his faithful companion, Gordon the Goat who will be voiced by Alan Cumming.

Gail Porter, Ruby Wax, Richard Briers and Miriam Margolyes also appear in the cast of the film, which is due to be finished by makers Glasgow Animation next summer.