Nic Roeg Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Funding for Roeg's Next
Filed under: Drama », Casting », Deals », Mystery & Suspense », Newsstand »
The ageless Nicolas Roeg (ok, he's not really ageless, just 78 and still going strong) received government funding last week for his latest film, an adaptation of Fay Weldon's 1980 novel Puffball that is already in post-production. According to a report in Screen Daily, Roeg got just over $1 million from the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund to help finance the film, which stars Kelly Reilly, Miranda Richardson and Donald Sutherland. Though a look at Amazon suggest that the British Weldon isn't too well-known in the US, she's established in the UK, and her books have been quite successful there. The one in question, Puffball, is "a tale of witchcraft and childbirth" in which a pregnant woman is abandoned by her husband, and then find herself the target of assorted spells cast by a neighbor who, for some reason, "believes that the baby ... should rightfully be in her." Erm, ok. The only summary I can find describes the novel as "by turns hilarious and frightening," and Weldon has a reputation of touching on feminist issues in her work. So, basically, it's impossible to imagine what the tone of this one might be, but Roeg has successfully told very odd stories before, so his presence (along with that of Richardson, who plays the witchy neighbor) is an encouraging one.
The View from Abroad: Screen Daily in 60 Seconds
Filed under: Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », Cannes », Newsstand », Cinematical Indie »
Sir Richard Attenborough, John Boorman and Nic Roeg are all scrambling to get new films into production in Ireland
before the end of the month. On March 31, the tax-friendly UK-Ireland and Canada-Ireland coproduction agreements under
which their films are being made is scheduled to expire, and a renewal of the deals isn't assured. Hey, even fake
royalty like to save a buck when they can.
- Pedro Almodovar's highly anticipated Volver was screened for critics in Madrid this weekend, and has also been submitted for competition at Cannes. While the responses in at the screening were immediate - if someone called my film "a gift", I'd be pretty stoked - the director won't hear from Cannes until next month. The film, which tells the story of two sisters whose mother returns as a ghost to solve the problems among the three of them, is described as being lighter in tone that Almodovar's recent work, as well as a return to his earlier focus on female characters. And, boys, in case you're unsure about seeing a foreign chick flick, Penelope Cruz is "spellbinding as Volver's undeniable protagonist, oozing a mid-century glamour and sex appeal modeled on the young Sophia Loren." Yowzers.
- The lineup for the Sofia meetings portion of the ongoing Sofia International Film Festival has been set, and
includes 10 projects (half of them by women) from countries as diverse as Germany, France, and Kazakhstan. The meetings
will take place this weekend, and are two days during which the 10 "filmmakers...have an opportunity to pitch to
more than 50 international producers and film funds." All of the directors involved this year are seeking funding
for their second features.
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