Congratulations to Irish costume designer Consolata Boyle, writes Michael Dwyer, on her nomination for the Emmy (the television equivalent of the Oscars) for The Lion in Winter, which collected five other nominations, including best TV film, best direction (Andrei Konchalovsky) and best actress (Glenn Close).
It's the first Emmy nomination for Boyle, a Dubliner who has worked three times with Stephen Frears, on The Snapper, The Van and Mary Reilly, along with Thaddeus O'Sullivan on December Bride and Nothing Personal, Alan Parker on Angela's Ashes, David Mamet on The Winslow Boy, Mike Newell on Into the West, and Pat Murphy on Nora. Her most recent film is David Mackenzie's Asylum, starring Natasha Richardson and Ian McKellen.
Written by James Goldman, The Lion in Winter deals with the tensions between King Henry II (Patrick Stewart) and his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine (Glenn Close), and their three sons. It was first filmed in Ireland in 1968 with Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn, and won Oscars for best actress, best screenplay and best music. Russian director Konchalovsky shot his film at a Budapest studio and on location in Slovakia. "Getting to the set each day was a feat of endurance," Boyle says. "It was in the depths of winter and we had to travel through mountains of snow, but it was all worth it." The Emmys will be presented in Los Angeles on September 12th.
Return of the cuckoo
US actor Christian Slater takes to the stage at the Edinburgh festival next month in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, playing the rebellious Randle P. McMurphy, the role that won Jack Nicholson his first Oscar in the 1975 film version. Adapted by Dale Wasserman from Ken Kesey's novel and directed by Guy Masterson, the play features Frances Barber as the intimidating Nurse Ratched and Mackenzie Crook (from The Office) as patient Billy Bibbitt, with Irish comedians Owen O'Neill and Ian Coppinger.
Harry's game for replay
Although it did not make much impact when released three years ago, the Belfast-set comedy Wild About Harry is set for a US remake. Scripted by Colin Bateman and directed by Declan Lowney, it featured Brendan Gleeson as a TV chef who is mean-spirited and adulterous off-screen. Attacked by a mugger, he goes into a coma and can't remember any of his life since he was 18. Paramount Pictures is backing the remake, to be co-produced by Guy Walks Into a Bar, which made the recent hit Elf, and Vertigo Entertainment, which has US remakes of two Japanese horror movies, Dark Water and The Grudge, in post-production. Producer Jon Berg says that Wild About Harry has "all the hallmarks of a great Hollywood story and is exactly the kind of hilarious and redemptive movie that we want to make."
Third adaptation for Atom
Alison Lohman, Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth will star in Atom Egoyan's next film, Where the Truth Lies. Adapted by Egoyan from the novel by Rupert Holmes, it is described as "a seductive film noir exploring the underbelly of fame, fortune and the mores of sexual convention." It features Lohman as a young celebrity journalist who tracks down a showbiz duo driven apart by a bizarre death in which one of them may have been the murderer. Shooting starts next month. This is Egoyan's 10th feature, and his third adapted from a novel, following his adaptations of Russell Banks's The Sweet Hereafter (1997) and William Trevor's Felicia's Journey (1999).
Variety is the spite of life
Headline of the week, from Variety, on the end of a legal battle by Imelda Marcos to prevent a film about her going on release in the Philippines: "'Imelda' is a shoo-in for release."
