Short Cuts

The finale of the LFF, the future of 'Watchmen', the appearance of Bacon and some unexpected Indiana Jones news

Nov  4 2004

Tonight marks the closing night of the 48th London Film Festival with a screening of David O. Russell's brilliant 'I ♥ Huckabees' at the Odeon Leicester Square. Reading like a who's who of the British film industry, guests scheduled to attend include Anthony Minghella, Stephen Frears, Michael Winterbottom, Michael Gambon, Gurinder Chadha and Joely Richardson, and it will be followed by a reception at Just St James. The film, an exuberant existential comedy about coincidence, life, love and everything else, stars Jason Schwartzman, Mark Wahlberg, Jude Law, Naomi Watts, Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin, and is released nationwide on November 26.

While Spielberg, Lucas and Ford press on with plans to make a fourth Indiana Jones movie (misguided plans in our opinion, with Harrison looking all of his 62 years these days), cartoonist/screenwriter Daniel Clowes is about to start work on a far more interesting project based on the franchise. Clowes, who was Oscar-nominated for his work on 'Ghost World', has been signed up to write 'Backyard Resistance' the true story of three youngsters who decided to make a shot-for-shot re-make of 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark' way back in 1982. Yes, while the rest of us were playing on swings, see-saws and slides, this advanced trio were busy working out ways to commandeer submarines and train Nazi monkeys. Seven eventful and disaster-strewn years later they had created 'Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation', and their film has been building up something of a cult following ever since. Following the publication of an entertaining article on the subject in Vanity Fair, producer Scott Rudin snapped up the rights to their remarkable story, and Clowes is set to start work on the script sometime soon.

The Odeon West End was treated to six degrees of Kevin Bacon on Saturday night as, along with wife Kyra Sedgwick, he promoted 'The Woodsman', which he executive produced and starred in alongside his missus. Bacon plays a convicted paedophile trying to integrate back into society, and his Q&A, like the film, was refreshingly free of Hollywood gush: 'When you first read a script as an actor you think this’ll be a good day, this will be a bad day,' he said. 'With this film every day sucked.'

A mixture of good and bad news for fans of Alan Moore's brilliant graphic novel 'Watchmen'. The film of the book was due to go into production next year, with the brilliant Darren Aronofsky ('Requiem for a Dream', 'Pi') at the helm. However, due to his long-delayed sci-fi epic 'The Fountain' finally getting back on track, with principal photography due to start any day now, Paramount have decided that they can’t waste any more time with the project. So while Alan Moore’s amazing story of a plot to discredit and kill the world's former superheroes should still be hitting screens sometime in 2006, we're heavy-hearted to report that Aronofsky won’t be directing. Paramount are at this moment on the hunt for talent to take over the project, and while there's no clue yet as to who they’ll plump for, we've all got our collective fingers and toes crossed that it won’t be Paul W.S. Anderson.

And finally, word has reached us that there are plans to make a film about the life of Diego Maradona, the chubby Argentinean midget who cheated England out of the World Cup in 1986. Not only that, but the name Gael Garcia Bernal has been bandied about for the lead. Shocked, stunned and dismayed at such a thought, we pray that it never happens and trust that the brilliant Bernal would not go anywhere near such an appalling project.

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