BBC - Films - High Noon - 27th February 2004

		Monster Pay Day For Theron Crime clearly pays for actress Charlize Theron. The South African model-turned-actress was Oscar-nominated for her turn in upcoming serial killer biopic Monster, and she'll now earn $10 million to star in Aeon Flux. A sci-fi thriller, the awkwardly titled Aeon Flux is based on an MTV cartoon and is set 400 years in the future, where mankind has been decimated by a virus and lives in a dome-encased city. Theron will play an athletic woman who's hired to kill the leader of the government, who's been tapping the private conversations of the head of the UN. Oh, hang on, ignore that last bit. Aeon Flux will be directed by Karyn Kusama (Girlfight) and starts shooting in Berlin this July.

		Hallelujah! Hollywood executives will be ordering their minions to buy the rights to "those Old Testament sequels" following the remarkable success of The Passion Of The Christ in America on Wednesday. Mel Gibson's bloody religious epic took $26.6 million on its opening day, making it the third highest ever Wednesday opener of all time (behind The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers and The Matrix Revolutions). Critical reaction to the drama has been mixed. Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan voiced a common criticism when he called the film "so narrowly focused as to be inaccessible for all but the devout". The Christian Science Monitor, meanwhile, says it's a "well-crafted film, a merciless excursion into motion-picture ultraviolence, and a regrettably cramped historical account that stays doggedly on the surface of its overwhelmingly important subject". Finally, a parish priest criticised the film's black and white approach, noting: "One theological adviser... and all those hair stylist credits at the end!" The Passion Of The Christ is released in the UK on Friday 26th March. The hair's very authentic, by the way.

		Batman: Year Zero The fifth Batman movie finally has an official name... Batman Begins. This lays to rest the rumours that the movie was going to be called either Batman: Intimidation or Batman: Intimidation Game, which were being used purely to throw net geeks off the scent. As the title suggests, Batman Begins will chronicle Bruce Wayne's journey from multi-millionare businessman to the Caped Crusader. Our guess is it starts when he misses a couple of sessions with his therapist. Batman Begins starts shooting in Iceland and London in March, with Christian Bale in the title role. The cast also includes Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, and Ken Watanabe.

		Jackman Diving Into Fountain? Two years after Brad Pitt dropped out, plunging the production into seemingly eternal darkness, there's fresh hope for Darren Aronofsky's sci-fi pic The Fountain. X-Men star Hugh Jackman is eyeing up the lead role in the epic, which follows a man on his perilous psychological journey. The movie was originally set to shoot in Australia in autumn 2002, with Pitt and Cate Blanchett in the lead roles. Pitt dropped out at the last minute, however, leaving a series of sets unused and a lot of people jobless. Aronofsky has since reworked the script, making it a far cheaper proposition (around $40 million, as opposed to the original $75 million). Hugh Jackman has been taking a break from movies of late, starring as Aussie crooner Peter Allen in the Broadway show The Boy From Oz. He'll next be seen on your screens in SFX spectacular Van Helsing, out here on 14th May.

		Capital Punishment Comic book adaptation The Punisher doesn't hit cinemas for another couple of months, but a sequel is currently in the works. Thomas Jane plays the title role in the Marvel comic book adaptation, and he's already been lined up for The Punisher II. It's a risky proposition, given that an earlier film version of The Punisher (starring Dolph Lundgren!) bombed at cinemas in 1989. The new Punisher - co-starring John Travolta and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos - opens in the UK on 7th May.

		The Wedding's Off... Again! Director Kevin Smith has removed a Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez wedding scene from his upcoming film Jersey Girl. It's the latest move by Smith to distance his movie from the box office disaster that was Gigli. "I didn't know if it was right to leave it in," Smith tells US Weekly magazine. "People might forget they're watching a picture, like, "Wait, didn't these two not get married?"." Jersey Girl is set to open here in June.

		Face Fits For Penn Oscar nominee Sean Penn will star opposite his wife, Robin Wright Penn, in the drama The Last Face. The $20 million-budgeted movie is about two humanitarian doctors who fall in love whilst working in war-torn Africa (yep, it's another laugh-fest from Mr Penn). Javier Bardem will play the other doctor, while Erin Dignam directs from her own script. Penn has attracted rave reviews of late for his performances in Mystic River and 21 Grams, which opens in the UK on 5th March.

		Lane Gets Fierce Unfaithful star Diane Lane will star alongside Donald Sutherland in the drama Fierce People, to be directed by Griffin Dunne (Addicted To Love)... South Korean thriller Old Boy is the latest Asian pic to catch Hollywood's eye. Universal Pictures has bought the remake rights to the pic, about a man who's kidnapped and held in the same room for 15 years. When he's released, he begins a quest to uncover the truth... Alan Parker is to step down as chair of the UK Film Council. Parker held the position for five years. Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha, meanwhile, has been co-opted onto the Film Council board.