BBC - Films -news article - High Noon

		Lethal Career Move Lethal Weapon maestro Richard Donner is scraping the bottom of the movie barrell with talk of a fifth outing for Gibbo and Glover as the wisecracking cop duo. Donner says: "I have the story in my head for a fifth and final Lethal Weapon, but it's all up to Mel Gibson. It would be 24 hours in the lives of Riggs [Mel Gibson] and Murtaugh [Danny Glover]." As both stars flirt with the big 5-0, High Noon expects the action would be less hard-nosed and more rubber-hipped. But according to Donner, old blue eyes is giving the pitch some serious thought. "It really seemed he [Gibson] was interested in doing one more. I really want to put the franchise to bed properly." With a spoonful of cod liver oil and a nice cup of Horlicks.

		American Dream Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan has won the top audience award at the AFI Festival in Los Angeles for his latest opus, In America. The movie, starring Samantha Morton and Paddy Considine, is inspired by Sheridan's own experience of moving to New York in the 80s, with Morton's character being loosely based on Sheridan's wife. But Morton, who got the role after Kate Winslet dropped out, credits Sheridan with allowing her the freedom to make the character of Sarah her own. She gushes: "I think what Sheridan really graciously did was write this brilliant, brilliant script, and then he gave Paddy and I the opportunity to interpret it as we felt." Brilliant.

		Blethyn Dives In Brenda Blethyn has jumped aboard Kevin Spacey vehicle Beyond The Sea, currently shooting in Berlin. It's the biopic of bow-tied crooner Bobby Darin, who had a string of hits during the 60s and 70s before his death in 1973 from complications after heart surgery (he was only only 37). As well as starring in the title role, movie smoothie Kevin Spacey is also directing from his own screenplay. Filling out the cast are John Goodman, Bob Hoskins, Greta Scacchi and Kate Bosworth (Blue Crush). Watertight.

		And The Award Goes To... High Noon is still coming to terms with that Best Picture win for Chicago, and Awards Season is upon us once more. The 61st annual Golden Globe Awards taking place on January 25th 2004 will see Michael Douglas receive the Cecil B DeMille Award voted for by The Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Douglas, getting a pat on the back for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field", is the first second-generation honoree. (Kirk Douglas received the DeMille gong in 1968.) Mr CZJ most recently produced and starred in One Night At McCool's, um The Ghost And The Darkness, and er, It Runs In The Family. Can't wait for the montage.

		Dawn Of The Dead Wake The Dead is the next comic book series to be brought to life for the silver screen. Screenwriter Michael Dougherty, hot off the success of X-Men 2, has just been hired to pen the adaptation of Steven Niles' comic creation, described as Flatliners meets Frankenstein. Apparently, Niles is all the rage in Hollywood right now, with projects 30 Days Of Night being set up at Columbia Pictures, and Criminal Macabre being packaged by MGM. Meanwhile, High Noon awaits the big screen incarnation of Dandy's Desperate Dan. Come on, Hollywood, wake up and smell the cow pie!

		Definitely Dead Nobody's smiling in Walt Disneyworld today as production has been shut down on its spooky tooner A Few Good Ghosts, implying more than a few layoffs at its animation facility in Florida. The project was buried due to "creative differences", with one Disney representative saying the studio brass had decided it was not "universally appealing". The film was set to feature Dolly Parton as one of a group of ghosts who inhabit a collection of folk-art dolls and put together a bluegrass band. Enough said.