BBC - Films -news article - High Noon

		Dirty Cleans Up Stephen Frears' thriller Dirty Pretty Things nabbed four gongs at the British Independent Film Awards on Tuesday night. The acclaimed helmer grabbed Best Director, Steve Knight Best Screenplay and Chiwetel Ejiofor Best Actor. Things also beat In This World to Best Picture, although Michael Winterbottom's migration drama won for Technical Achievement (in editing) and Achievement In Production (for its arduous, on-the-hoof shoot). Other winners included Olivia Williams as Best Actress, for her performance in The Heart Of Me, and Richard Jobson, who received the Douglas Hickox Award for a debut director, for Sixteen Years Of Alcohol. Ian McKellen was named Variety UK Personality Of The Year, while veteran thesp John Hurt received the lifetime achievement award, named after Richard Harris.

		Neeson Feels Heat Liam Neeson and Laura Linney are prepared for controversy over sexually explicit biopic Kinsey. The Bill Condon-directed project sees Neeson play sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, and Linney his wife Clara. "It's going to be quite controversial because he was quite a controversial man," Neeson told US TV. "He was a sex researcher, so we leave no stone unturned in his life and times." Linney, who appears with Neeson in Richard Curtis' Love Actually, said Kinsey "will be shocking in the best possible way. Let me just say that this movie deals with sex in a very honest way and in a way you don't see in most movies."

		Spall In Sunset/Snicket Timothy Spall has been approached to star in Waterloo Sunset, a London-set comedy from The Full Monty scribe Simon Beaufoy. If he seals the deal, he'll play an Irish builder whose family is falling apart. He has also agreed to appear in Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events, alongside Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep, and Jude Law. He'll play Mr Poe, guardian of the orphaned young heroes in Daniel Handler's novels.

		Watts The Story? Mulholland Drive star Naomi Watts won't confirm whether she'll be a Scream Queen for Peter Jackson in the director's remake of King Kong. She is full of praise for the Kiwi helmer, though, saying "I've always admired him, even before The Lord Of The Rings. And the King Kong story is so iconic. There's something really simple, beautiful and heartbreaking about it and he would take it to a whole new level."

		Samuel L xXx Jackson Samuel L Jackson has inked to appear alongside Ice Cube in xXx2. The Pulp Fiction star will reprise his role as Special Agent Augustus Gibbons in the Lee Tamahori-directed sequel, which is set for a 2005 release. After original star Vin Diesel declined to return, the producers decided to give the series continuity through Jackson's recruiter, who will tap Cube's rebel to help save the world.

		Altman's Paint Veteran auteur Robert Altman has named the leads in his next ensemble drama, Paint. According to the Gosford Park director, "Salma Hayek and James Franco are all set for it." Hayek will play a New York art dealer and Franco an up'n'coming artist. The script is by Jeff Lewis, and several real-life artists are expected to appear as themselves on screen.

		Ring Changes Gore Verbinski will not direct the sequel to sleeper hit The Ring, with commericals helmer Noam Murro stepping in. Original scripter (well, as original as a remake writer can be) Ehren Kruger remains aboard.

		Dark Arts For Weintraub Ocean's Eleven producer Jerry Weintraub has optioned an article by Black Hawk Down scribe Mark Bowden. Atlantic Monthly cover story The Dark Art Of Interrogation focuses on the interrogation rooms at Guantanamo Bay, where US agents are questioning/torturing ("You say potato...") suspected terrorists/Arabs ("...I say potato"). Weintraub's production company plans to develop the piece into a thriller along the lines of Crimson Tide.