There Will Be Blood, one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year, had been mooted as a candidate for Cannes, and then for Venice and Toronto. It was finally unveiled last weekend as the surprise film at a much smaller festival, Fantastic Fest 3 in Austin, Texas, which specialises in fantasy, crime and sci-fi movies.
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood fits into none of those categories. It deals with greed and power in the early years of the US oil industry, and is based in part on Sinclair Upton's book, Oil! Reports from Austin have compared it to Citizen Kane and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The original score by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood is said to feature "some uniquely haunting orchestral arrangements" and to be "essential to the movie".
The film opens in the US in December to qualify for Oscar consideration and will be released here in February. Bring it on.
Lens master in for Dublin festival
The outstanding Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle will reflect on his work and cultural experiences in a one-man performance, What I Do When I'm Where I Am, as part of this year's Dublin Electronic Arts Festival. It will take place on October 27th at the Korean restaurant Hophouse (aka Kim Chi) on Parnell Street.
Doyle's many notable credits include Phillip Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence and The Quiet American, Gus Van Sant's Psycho and Paranoid Park, and the Wong Kar-wai movies, Chunking Express, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love and 2046. www.deafireland.com
Disturbed in the burbs
Writer-director Gerry Stembridge makes a welcome return to feature films with Alarm, which begins a five-week shoot next month. Described as a psychological thriller set inside Dublin's commuter belt, it will star Ruth Bradley as a young woman who moves out of the city to a housing estate where her idyllic suburban life soon unravels. It will be the third cinema feature for Stembridge, following Guiltrip (1995) and Young Adam (2000).
The reign of Jane
Is there no end to the Jane Austen movie industry? She wrote six novels before dying 190 years ago, and there has been a succession of film and TV adaptations of her books. In addition, Anne Hathaway (below) recently played the young Austen in Becoming Jane, and Olivia Williams portrays her in her final years in the imminent BBC film, Miss Austen Regrets. And The Jane Austen Book Club, set among her present-day admirers in California, opens here shortly.
Next up is Jane Austen Handheld, a comic spoof on Pride & Prejudice that shoots in the spring and Carrie Fisher, Stephen Fry, Lily Allen and Russell Brand star.
From the Pole vault
The second AIB Polish Film Festival begins next Friday at the IFI in Dublin and runs for nine days with a packed programme of features, shorts and documentaries. The opening film is Michal Kwiecinski's comedy Extras/Staysci, in which a Chinese crew attempts to make an epic tragedy in a small Polish town. Kinga Preis, who plays the crew's translator, will attend the event. Director Juliusz Machulski will introduce the screening of his cultish 1984 hit, Sex-Mission. And Witold Giersz, Polish cinema's leading animation director, will present a number of workshops during the festival. www.irishfilm.ie
Strange tales of the city
Sam Riley, who stars in Control (see cover story overleaf and review, page 12), has been signed to co-star with Ryan Phillippe and Eva Green in Franklyn, a futuristic London-set thriller. The latest production from Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas, it marks the feature film debut of director Gerald McMorrow. The cast also includes Bernard Hill, Susannah York and Art Malik.
Get out the vote
Best known for directing comedies (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents), Jay Roach is getting political with Recount, which dramatises the controversial Florida ballot count in the 2000 US presidential election.
Shooting begins in Florida this month with a cast including Kevin Spacey, Laura Dern, Denis Leary, John Hurt, Ed Begley Jr and Bob Balaban. HBO will broadcast the movie at the height of the 2008 election campaign next autumn.
