BBC - Films - High Noon - 16th December 2003

		And The Winner Is... Following the annual gong-giving of the Boston Film Critics (see yesterday's High Noon), The New York and San Francisco Film Critics Circles have held their annual back-slappers. This time the East Coast crowd doled out top gong to The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King, and named Sofia Coppola Best Director for her (quite fantastic) Lost In Translation. Incidentally that's only the second time the prize has gone to a woman, with Jane Campion scoring for The Piano way back in 1993. On the West Coast there was a complete role reversal, with Peter Jackson awarded Best Director and Lost In Translation picking up Best Picture - for which both the hip Frisco crowd and their New York counterparts agreed Bill Murray should be named Best Actor. Also note-worthy is SF's pick for Best Actress: Charlize Theron for her turn as real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster. The NYFCC reckoned Hope Davis was better, for her work in American Splendor and The Secret Lives Of Dentists.

		Pope's Hope High Noon just wouldn't be the same without at least one mention of the controversy surrounding Mel Gibson's The Passion Of Christ - so here goes... Word from the Vatican is that Pope John Paul II has viewed a rough cut of the film. While there's no official word from The Big P, Vatican voice Father Augustine Di Noia told Variety: "Gibson's film is going to be a success because of its intrinsic power, both religiously and artistically" - adding that the music was unfinished and there were jump cuts in the editing. Um. That's why they call it a rough cut, pops. Aside from the silly nitpicking, Di Noia refuted allegations that the film is anti-Semitic, saying that "Jews come out as ordinary human beings who thought that Jesus was dangerous." He continues: "When you put them [the Jews] in the context of what the Roman soldiers do, it's nothing." Ordinary human beings, eh? Who'd have thought it?

		Foxx Force Apparently he's quite big in America, but to be frank, if it weren't such a dry day for news we wouldn't bother mentioning it. Oh well. Funnyman (allegedly) Jamie Foxx has inked to star alongside Josh Lucas and Jessica Biel in action bunkum Stealth, about a trio of pilots who must intercept a deadly robot-piloted aircraft. Foxx will take flight after wrapping Tom Cruise vehicle Collateral. By the way, that's Foxx's second film with Michael Mann following his bout in Ali as the boxer's spiritual adviser Bundini Brown. So now you know.

		Deep Diesel Vin Diesel is getting revved up over his Pitch Black sequel, The Chronicles Of Riddick. It sees him do battle with a group of crusading religious fanatics led by an evil tyrant (Colm Feore, from National Security). Speaking from the set of the film, he enthuses: "We're not making a movie, we're making a universe." And you thought Mel Gibson had a God complex. "What's so interesting about Riddick is that he has to struggle just to understand the purpose or relevance of heroism." Diesel goes on to say/preach: "It's about existing your whole life without any sense of identity, and not knowing where you come from, and not knowing who you are, or why you exist." That's like profound, dude. Or a sign you need to lay off the reefer.