BBC - Films -news article - High Noon

		Tom Turns Japanese In an ongoing effort to grab that Best Actor Oscar, Tom Cruise speaks in Japanese for a good chunk of The Last Samurai, High Noon can exclusively reveal. For those of us in the English-speaking world, that means we'll be treated to the rare sight of a major Hollywood star subtitled. "I enjoyed it" he told High Noon. "I learned it phonetically but I knew what I was saying. It is me speaking, my voice, my words." Tom's Japanese co-stars helped him perfect his accent and Ken Watanabe, who plays Samurai leader Katsumoto in the East meets West epic, had nothing but praise for the Cruiser's potentially tongue-twisting efforts: "His Japanese is good. The language is so difficult... different pronunciations, different grammar. He studied hard". You can see Tom spouting his stuff in just a few months' time.

		Elf Is Big Will Ferrell comedy Elf, which opened here in Blightly last Friday, tops the US box office after taking $27+ million in its second week. Audiences preferred the Yuletide laffer, just, to Russell Crowe's excessively titled "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World", which took a sturdy $25.7 million. Meanwhile, word of mouth must be spreading about "The Matrix Revolutions" as it plunged a dizzying 66% from its opening weekend gross to $16 million. But with a worldwide take so far in excess of $200,000,000, High Noon is sure that Keanu, the Wachowskis et al are not losing sleep...

		Greece Is The Word Hollywood continues to be run by sheep. Not content with two Alexander the great epics in the works, the latest studio to go Greek is Columbia, announcing that Robert Rodat, who wrote Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot will script The First Olympics. Apparently, it's about an Athenian warrior who earns the right to leave the battlefield to compete against a Spartan in the pentathlon (that's the event where competitors do a bit of everything, this couch-bound High Noon hack thinks). Which lucky actor will get to do the running and the jumping is yet to be decided, but rest assured, seeing as its a Hollywood film, the 100 metres final will probably be won by an American...

		Steve's In The Pink... MGM's frankly bizarre desire to resurrect The Pink Panther franchise has received a boost with Steve Martin finally agreeing to play the hapless Inspector Clouseau after "careful consideration", Variety tells us. And who can blame him for that? The Birth of the Pink Panther (apparently a prequel, but to what? The 1964 original?), has Clouseau trying to solve the murder of a football manager and investigate the disappearance of the Pink Panther diamond. Er, right. That sound you can hear is tumbleweed blowing through empty cinemas... Burt Kwouk is waiting by the phone, hoping he'll be asked to reprise the role of Cato, while Alex Ferguson is dead cert to play the manager (maybe). Martin will be the fourth actor to don the hat and mac of France's most famous export. Aside from Peter Sellars, who made the role his own, the Inspector has been played by Alan Arkin in 1968's Inspector Clouseau, Ted Wass played a virtual clone of Clouseau in 1983's Curse of the Pink Panther, and madcap Italian Roberto Benigni failed miserably in Son of the Pink Panther a decade later.

		Disney Diss Santa Disney bosses are wondering if its close ties with Miramax are still such a good idea. After clenching their butts throughout the ultra-violent Kill Bill, Mouse House execs are wondering what ol' Walt would think of Miramax's Bad Santa. The film stars Billy Bob Thornton as a hard-drinking and womanising shopping mall Santa Claus. Billy Bob said, "I curse, like, literally every line of the movie. It’s the alternative Christmas movie..." A top source close to Disney Big Ears, Michael Eisner, said "Nothing appears sacred anymore, this is just not in the spirit of Walt Disney." Sounds full of Christmas cheer to us...