BBC - Films -news article - High Noon

		The Matrix Is Loaded The Matrix Revolutions scored $43.1m across 96 countries (that's about £25m) in first day receipts. While that sounds like a lot (about $43m more than High Noon gets paid to tell you about it), box office analysts had expected a slightly higher figure, given the number of prints distributed. Takings in the UK added up to a so-so $3.07m (£1.8m), only the 4th biggest opening for a Warner Bros film on this side of the pond. Distributors blame Guy Fawkes for the 'lower than expected' receipts. Ooh... Aaah... etc.

		Blethyn Joins Jim Oscar-winning Brit Brenda Blethyn and (non-Oscar winner) Hugh Bonneville (Mansfield Park, Notting Hill) will join Sam Rockwell, Tom Wilkinson and Amanda Peet (Identity, Igby Goes Down) in prestige comedy Piccadilly Jim, a re-telling of the PG Wodehouse novel about the comic misadventures of an American playboy (Rockwell) in 30s London. The film is set to start shooting in the UK any day now, with John McKay at the helm. McKay recently helmed two instalments of the BBC's re-working of The Canterbury Tales.

		Hell Schnell Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Mimic, Blade II) is putting the final touches to comic horror Hellboy, about a demon persecuted by Nazis who uses his super powers as a force for good. Ron Perlman stars alongside John Hurt and Selma Blair in what sounds unnervingly like Schindler's List meets Blade. He told us: "Hellboy is in the last stages of editing and I love it! I just love everything about it. It's the favourite movie I've done, emotionally and artistically." And what's next for the horror helmer? He reveals: "I'm developing an as yet untitled ghost story, very, very Victorian and totally Gothic. You know, I have always mixed the Gothic with something else. This time it's going to be pure, 100%, 19th century scary movie!" We're afraid. We're very afraid.

		Bullitt Shoots Again? Rumour has it that classic Steve McQueen thriller Bullitt is being inked for a remake. Hollywood whisperings are that Wolfgang Petersen, currently shooting sword 'n' sandals epic Troy, will helm the project with his Achilles, Brad Pitt, in the McQueen role. McQueen's son Chad McQueen is expected to produce the movie. Brad Pitt following in Steve McQueen's footsteps? High Noon reckons Pitt's gonna need bigger shoes.

		Osama Wins Siddiq Barmak's Osama, the first film to come out of Afghanistan since the toppling of the Taliban, scooped The Sutherland Prize. That's the gong for best new director at the London Film Festival in case you didn't know. The LFF's artistic director Sandra Hebron told Variety: "Osama is a timely and distinctive piece of filmmaking, bringing a major new talent to the international filmmaking community." And there's more. She reckons: "The film combines skillful storytelling with striking visuals and strong performances throughout, to powerful and moving effect." It's not just political tokenism, honest!

		Murphy's Happy Days 28 Days Later star Cillian Murphy looks set to ride the Hollywood gravy train after Danny Boyle's low-budget horror scored big across the pond. His next film, Girl With A Pearl Earring, will open in January. He tells us: "It was great to work with all those people. Colin Firth is a fine actor as is Scarlett (Johansson, of Eight Legged Freaks fame). I had a great time working with Scarlett in particular. She's a great actress. It was interesting. I had a nice big wig in it so it was good." Regarding the success of hair-raiser 28 Days Later he says: "It's been good. People saw it which is always very helpful to an actor, because then people have seen you in something. And people seem to like it." Enlightening. So what's Murphy up to next, we hear you cry. "I'm going back to Ireland to do some theatre and then probably I'll be coming back here next year to do a movie. I'm just looking for a good script, for something that interests me and that's different."

		Tinseltown Tidbits David Arquette, Barbara Hershey, Erika Christensen, and Jonathan Jackson will star in Halloween thriller Riding The Bullet, adapted from Stephen King's popular supernatural (what else?) e-book... Philip Seymour Hoffman announced his first feature under the banner of his newly-formed Cooper's Town Productions. The psychological thriller One Split Second concerns the wife of a terminally ill man who must pay an unexpected price for keeping him alive. No casting decisions yet.... Plus, Thora Birch has inked for the lead in indie rock 'n' roll feature Vinyl, about the wife of a rockstar (no roles for women in Hollywood - pah!) who's on the verge of breakout success. The cameras are set to roll, and indeed rock, in mid-2004.

		London Film Festival Closes This year's London Film Festival concluded on Thursday night with the world premiere of Sylvia. It's a drama exploring the tortured relationship between poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, and we caught up with the film's stars - Daniel Craig and Gwyneth Paltrow. You can also see writer/director Peter Hedges talking about his Katie Holmes pic Pieces Of April; Phil Kaufman discussing Johnny Knoxville playing him in Grand Theft Parsons; and festival director Sandra Hebron chatting about this year's event.