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7-5-2000CATE PROJECTS
rom the World Entertainment News Network comes this article, adding more detail to a story we covered earlier:
F Cate Blanchett Cooks Up A Bombay Dream
Cate Blanchett has teamed up with "Elizabeth" (1998) director Shekhar Kapur to star in and co-produce a film version of "Bombay Dream". The Indian-born director is currently putting the finishing touches to a stage version of the musical, "Bombay Dream", which he co-wrote with Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The musical will hit London's West End later this year. Blanchett, who has wanted to work with Kapur again since the filming of Oscar nominated "Elizabeth" , is to turn her hand to producing, singing and acting in the tale of a native woman's struggle to survive in India.
Kapur says, "Cate is going to co-produce and star in this film. She can sing and not many people know that about her... I believe we will start work on the project very soon... The film will be set in India and Cate will be playing a native".
And, in very exciting news that seemed but a rumour just a couple of weeks ago comes this update via Screen Daily as reported by Mike Goodridge in Los Angeles:
Tykwer to direct Kieslowski's "Heaven" for Miramax
White-hot German director Tom Tykwer will make his English-language debut directing "Heaven", a Miramax co-production that will form the first in a planned trilogy of films based on screenplays by late great Polish film-maker Krzysztof Kieslowski and his writing partner Krzysztof Piesiewicz. Cate Blanchett is in talks to star in the $11m film which is scheduled to start shooting in July on locations in Italy and Germany.
Miramax Films has worldwide rights to "Heaven" excluding German-speaking territories which are held by co-producer X-Filme. Miramax International will debut the film to foreign buyers at Cannes. In the film, Blanchett would play a Scottish woman who moves to Tuscany and begins a relationship with a young Italian man.
Anthony Minghella, one of Miramax's stable of top directors, is expected to take an executive producer credit on the film which is being produced by Cedomir Kolar of Paris-based Noe Productions. Noe picked up the rights to the trilogy last year from Marin Karmitz's MK2 - producer of Kieslowski's celebrated Trois Colours (Blue, White and Red) trio of classic films - which had backed the development of the new scripts in 1995. However momentum slowed down following Kieslowski's sudden death in March 1996. Noe itself financed the acquisition of the rights for which it has since been reimbursed by Miramax.
Noe hopes to set up the second film in this latest Kieslowski/Piesiewicz trilogy - "Hell" - in the same way as "Heaven", although there is some doubt as to the status of the final instalment, "Purgatory".
The film marks Tykwer's first film with Miramax following a deal struck in Dec 1998 between Miramax and his Berlin-based film collective X-Filme Creative Pool of which Tykwer is a founder member. Under the agreement, X-Filme provides Miramax with an exclusive first look at all properties owned, controlled or written by its members, while Miramax submits projects to X-Filme for its members to direct. "Heaven" is an example of the latter.
Miramax had a strong relationship with Kieslowski, distributing "Bleu", "Blanc" and "Rouge" in the US. Company co-chairman Harvey Weinstein had personally lobbied the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to change the rules for the Foreign Language Film Oscar so that Kieslowski's multi-national co-production "Rouge/Red" could qualify in 1994. Eventually, in an Oscar twist typical of Miramax, Kieslowski secured a Best Director nomination.
Tykwer has just finished shooting "The Princess And The Warrior", a drama starring Franka Potente ("Run Lola Run") and Benno Fuhrmann about two people overcoming obstacles in order to fall in love. Le Studio Canal Plus is handling international distribution outside North America and Germany.
Blanchett, who recently completed both Sally Potter's "The Man Who Cried" with Johnny Depp, John Turturro and Christina Ricci, and Sam Raimi's "The Gift" alongside Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes and Hilary Swank is currently in New Zealand filming her part as Galadriel in Peter Jackson's "The Lord Of The Rings".
She would then film "Heaven", followed by a starring role opposite Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton in Barry Levinson's "Outlaws" before segueing into the title role in "Charlotte Gray" directed by Gillian Armstrong ("Oscar and Lucinda").
MINGHELLA UPDATE
eeping with our mission to keep our readers updated on the activities of those directors lucky enough to have worked with our Cate in the past, we look to the future by way of this article from the UK's Empire:
K Minghella and Parker Team Up
The British film industry received a double boost today from the US and from within the UK. Hard on the heels of news breaking that Anthony Minghella is setting up shop in London came the first announcement from the new British Film Council in which chairman Alan Parker promised to make bigger and better British films.
Minghella's move comes as a result of the director joining the American film company Mirage, which was founded in 1985 by Minghella's producer chum Sydney Pollack. Minghella is said to be keen to open an office in London, both as a European base for himself and Pollack and as a company which would embrace filmmakers. 'We look forward to substantiating Mirage's reputation as a filmmaker-driven group, offering the same rigorous shelter and encouragement to other writers and directors that I have found so valuable,' Minghella told Variety.
Minghella and Pollack are next due to work with each other on the film version of "Cold Mountain" (***for which Minghella is actively pursuing Cate).
In a separate, but equally important announcement, director Alan Parker unveiled his plans for the newly relaunched British Film Council. In an interview with BBC radio, the director explained how scripts would be the key to ensuring that lottery money wasn't mispent. 'If you don't have a good script, you are not going to have a good film. So we are going to put a considerable amount of money- probably more than ever before...into the area of screenplay development.'
Parker will have some £150 million to spend on movies over the next three years, but will have to bear in mind that of the many movies subsidised over the last few years from lottery money, precious few have made a profit - 1997's "Shooting Fish" being one of the few examples.
CATE'S HOME
ate arrived in Sydney on Saturday morning to attend Fashion week which is on for the next couple of weeks. She is also home to celebrate her birthday with family and catch up with friends. Also while back in Oz Cate will guest edit the Fashion Week issue of Harpers bazaar. After her small break, Cate is then heading off to New Zealand to commence filming Lord of The Rings in June.
C And finally, we would direct your attention, as always, to our companion news page, Lord of the Rings News, to keep up to date on all the latest regarding Cate's current film shoot. Plus, if you get a kick out of industry trade ads as much as we do, you can get your first glimpse at an LOTR trade which we discovered in our issue of Variety this week.
Until then, there's a chance we may be on hiatus the next couple of weeks. If so, we will take this opportunity to wish you all the best, and hope you'll join us in a big rousing cheer of "HAPPY BIRTHDAY CATE!!!" come May 14, as well as it being ACBO's first birthday online. So let's all call out with great gusto, "PLAY A VOLTA!".
See you next time, Blanchetteers!
