BBC - Films - High Noon - 29th December 2003

		Tower Of Strength! Film 2003 viewers have chosen The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers as their top film of the year. Peter Jackson's movie triumphed over Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume 1; ironicallly, both men could be back next year with The Return Of The King and Kill Bill: Volume 2. Here's the complete top ten... 1 The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers 2 Kill Bill: Volume 1 3 Pirates Of The Caribbean 4 City Of God 5 Finding Nemo 6 Love Actually 7 Master And Commander 8 Spirited Away 9 X-Men 2 10 Gangs Of New York

		Handsome Return More good news for Peter Jackson: the final part of his Lord Of The Rings trilogy has become the second-fastest film ever to take $200 million at the US box office. The Return Of The King passed the landmark after 11 days, two days longer than Spider-Man took in 2002. King has now taken $223.7 million in the States, and should at least equal the $340 million gross of The Two Towers. The other big box office winner Stateside was Steve Martin's Cheaper By The Dozen. The Disney remake (about a father and his - who knew?! - 12 kids - grossed $28.2 million for second place; it's Martin's second hit of the year following Bringing Down The House. The biggest disappointment was Peter Pan, which flew into a lowly seventh place with $11.4 million. We guess audiences weren't, er, hooked by this latest attempt to bring JM Barrie's evergreen character to the big screen.

		Towne Takes Steps High Noon doesn't know what to make of the news that Robert Towne is to write and direct a new version of The 39 Steps. Here's our problem: Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 take on the John Buchan thriller (starring the wonderful Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll) is one of our favourite films. But Robert Towne's Chinatown script is also one of the finest ever penned, so we have to give him the benefit of the doubt on everything he does (the exception being 1983's shockingly awful Personal Best, which we blame on Class A drugs). "It's not much of an exaggeration to say that all contemporary escapist entertainment begins with The 39 Steps," Towne tells Variety, in an exaggeration we're happy to go along with. "I look forward to having it in my future, and just wish that Personal Best wasn't in my past," he adds (OK, we've embellished a little). The 39 Steps has been remade twice over the years, with Kenneth More and Robert Powell playing the Richard Hannay character in 1959 and 1978 versions respectively. The company behind the new venture, Carlton International Media, is also planning TV remakes of The Boys From Brazil and Capricorn One.

		Alan Bates: RIP Sir Alan Bates died at a London hospital on Saturday 27th December, of pancreatic cancer. The Derbyshire-born actor first came to prominence in the early 60s, starring in 'angry young man' dramas The Entertainer and A Kind Of Loving, and as the Christ-like stranger in Bryan Forbes' Whistle Down The Wind. He found an international audience with Zorba The Greek (1964) and Thomas Hardy adaptation Far From The Madding Crowd (1967), and received his only Oscar nomination in 1969 for the John Frankenheimer pic The Fixer. The same year, he achieved notoriety for his naked fireside wrestling scene with Oliver Reed in Ken Russell's Women In Love. Bates' best performances in recent years tended to come on the small screen, with the actor winning a BAFTA for his performance as Cambridge spy Guy Burgess in An Englishman Abroad in 1983. Subsequent BAFTA nominations followed for Unnatural Pursuits (1993) and Love In A Cold Climate (2002). He was seen on cinema screens most recently in The Sum Of All Fears (an autopsy may well find traces of scenery in his stomach). He'll be seen for the final time opposite Michael Caine in Norman Jewison's The Statement, which opens in the UK on 27th February 2004. For a full obit on the great man, read the BBC News story here.

		Laurie Flies To Phoenix Stuart Little star Hugh Laurie is the latest to join the cast of The Flight Of The Phoenix. The movie, directed by John (Behind Enemy Lines) Moore, is a remake of the 1965 Robert Aldrich thriller, about a plane which crashes in the Mongolian desert. The remake stars Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi, Miranda Otto, and Tyrese. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Laurie will play a "corporate type who goes hysterical when the plane crashes". We can see an Airplane!-esque line of actors waiting to slap him about. In other casting news, Brad Renfro will star alongside Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley in the appallingly-titled The Jacket (did The Tuxedo teach these people nothing?). The John Maybury-directed pic is about a convicted murderer who begins to suspect that he is a time traveller. As you do. Renfro is best known for his role in controversial Stephen King adaptation Apt Pupil.

		Betting Slip Ups As there's so little movie news at this time of year, we're reduced to telling you that the odds on Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez getting divorced in 2004 are 7-1. Ladbrokes are offering the odds despite the gruesome twosome not even, you know, being married yet. If you're really interested in this crap, you may also like to know that Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher are 1/3 on to get wed, with Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz just behind at 2/1. If you're looking for a long shot, allow us to recommend George Clooney and Matt Damon at 1000-1.