A problem with censorship is the reason behind the late cancellation of the world premiere of Stephen Bradley's comic horror movie Boy Eats Girl, at Galway Film Fleadh last weekend. The film censor, John Kelleher, told Reel News that he has requested a cut in the film, but declined to elaborate further as the distributors, Abbey Films, have indicated that they will lodge an appeal against his decision.
Ed Guiney of Element Films, which produced the movie, said: "We are waiting for the appeals board to see the film. Until that process is complete, there is nothing else for us to say." Boy Eats Girl, which stars Samantha Mumba and David Leon, deals with zombies on the rampage in the suburbs of Dublin.
Commitments issues
In an online poll that attracted over 10,000 responses, Alan Parker's The Commitments was voted the best film ever made in Ireland. Another Roddy Doyle adaptation, The Snapper, directed by Stephen Frears, took fifth place. And films directed by Jim Sheridan took three places on the top 10: My Left Foot (second), In the Name of the Father (third) and The Field (seventh).
The results of the poll, organised by Jameson Irish Whiskey and monthly magazine The Dubliner, were announced last night. The voting weighed heavily towards movies made in Ireland over the past 16 years, with only one film of an earlier vintage in the top 10 - John Ford's 1952 classic, The Quiet Man, in fourth place.
The remaining places on the top 10 were taken by Neil Jordan's Michael Collins (sixth), John Crowley's Intermission (eighth), Joel Schumacher's Veronica Guerin (ninth) and Damien O'Donnell's Inside I'm Dancing (10th)
Countess Dracula in Dublin
Ingrid Pitt, the queen of 1970s British horror movies, will be guest of honour at the Bram Stoker International Summer School at West Wood on Clontarf Road in Dublin next Friday night. She will take questions from the audience after a screening of Robin Hardy's powerfully eerie 1973 movie, The Wicker Man, which is pointlessly being remade by Neil LaBute.
Born Ingoushka Petrov in Poland in 1937, Pitt made an early appearance as an undercover agent in Where Eagles Dare (1968) before turning to the horror genre two years later in The Vampire Lovers, a huge hit in Ireland, not least because of its nude lesbian scenes which somehow slipped past the censor at the time. She went on to star in The House That Dripped Blood (with Jon Pertwee) and Countess Dracula, in which she bathed in the blood of young virgins to preserve her youth.
After a long absence, Pitt returned to the genre for The Asylum (2000) and the recent Minotaur. She's also written several books. (01-8057824, www.thebram stokerdraculaexperience.com)
Clint hoists the flag
Clint Eastwood, who turned 75 in May, is set to follow his Oscar-winning Million Dollar Baby with a wartime drama, Flags of our Fathers, which starts shooting next month. Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford and Adam Beach head the cast of the film, which is based on the book Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima by James Bradley and Ron Powers. Paul Haggis, who scripted Million Dollar Baby, has adapted the book for the screen.
The story is told from the point of view of Bradley's father, one of the six soldiers who raised the American flag at the battle of Iwo Jima. Steven Spielberg is producing the film with Eastwood.
Return to the trough
The first movie to pass the £1 million mark at the Irish box-office was the crude 1982 Canadian sex comedy, Porky's. Ironically, it came close to not getting a release here, as it was banned by the film censor at the time, but then passed by the Film Appeals Board.
Made on a low budget with a cast of unknowns (including future star Kim Cattrall), it became a hugely profitable international success and spawned two equally lowbrow hit sequels, Porky's II: The Next Day (1983) and Porky's Revenge (1985). The bad news is that the formula is being dusted off for a remake, and even worse, shock-jock Howard Stern is producing it.
Modestly, he has titled the new movie Howard Stern's Porky's.
