BBC - Films - High Noon - 8th March 2004

		It's Hammer Time! How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days star Matthew McConaughey will slip into the driver's seat for Hammer Down. Pic is about a disgraced NASCAR driver (is there any other kind?) who gets involved in a heist in the hope that it will revive his flagging career (Only In The Movies, part 253). The Texan will shoot Hammer Down (change the title!) this summer, after working on Clive Cussler adaptation Sahara and Don Cheadle's directorial debut, Tishomingo Blues.

		Passion Play The Passion Of The Christ continued its remarkable assault on the US box office at the weekend, retaining the No.1 slot ahead of Starsky & Hutch. Mel Gibson's movie grossed $51.4 million in its second week on release, giving it a total gross to date of $212 million. Jesus wept... after realising he's not got any points in the deal. The Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson pic couldn't get close to the religious pic, taking $29 million. Surprisingly, that's less than Stiller's distinctly average romantic comedy Along Came Polly managed in January. The other new release was the Viggo Mortensen horse epic Hidalgo. Like Starsky & Hutch, Hidalgo received mixed reviews, with the jury still out on whether Lord Of The Rings star Mortensen can carry a movie. The family pic grossed a respectable $19.6 million.

		Christ Almighty The box office success of The Passion Of The Christ has inevitably created Hollywood interest in this Jesus guy. For example, there's Lamb, The Gospel According To Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. The screen rights for the Christopher Moore novel have just been bought, with Nick Pustay working on the adaptation. According to Variety, the novel tells the tale of Biff, "Christ's cantakerous but likeable best friend, who is resurrected for the purpose of writing a new gospel to help recapture the youth market". Hey, it works for us.

		Dreaming Of Manderlay Lars von Trier has attracted another stellar cast for Manderlay, his follow-up to Dogville. Danny Glover, John C Reilly, and Jeremy Davies will line up alongside Bryce Dallas Howard in the 50s-set movie, which deals with the repression of blacks (which, looking at the cast list, has already happened). Dogville stars Lauren Bacall, Chloë Sevigny, Jean-Marc Barr, and Udo Kier were sufficiently untraumatised by the experience of working with von Trier that they've returned for seconds. Manderlay is currently shooting in Sweden.

		Ship Shape... Irish director John Crowley is in talks to direct an adaptation of Joseph O'Connor's historical yarn Star Of The Sea. The novel is set in 1847 and charts a boat's journey as it ferries hundreds of Irish refugees from Ireland to New York (not a potato in site, presumably). Crowley made his feature debut last year with the overrated (in our humble opinion) Intermission.

		Almost Famous Hands up those who saw the Belgian comedy (you read that right) Everybody Famous!. No, us neither, despite the film being Oscar-nominated in the best foreign language film category in 2001. Well, now Miramax is to remake the movie, about a middle-aged factory worker who kidnaps a pop star in order to fulfil his own music dreams - it's The King Of Comedy meets Stars In Their Eyes! The remake is being written by Scott Fifer (no, us neither).

		No Bull American Splendor star Hope Davis and Greg Kinnear (Stuck On You) have signed up for the black comedy Matador, opposite Pierce Brosnan. The film - written and directed by Richard Shepard - focuses on an assassin (Brosnan) and a naive young couple from Denver (Davis, Kinnear). Matador starts shooting in Mexico City in April.

		Indian Summer Anyone looking for proof of Terrence Malick's fickle nature should read on. The notoriously work-shy director has temporarily dropped out of the Ché Guevara biopic starring Benicio del Toro. He's not idling around, however. Oh no. Instead he's set to direct The New World, a drama about Pocahontas (yep, the same Native American who was the source for the Disney cartoon). Malick now plans to return to Ché after shooting The New World. Given that he has made three movies in the previous 31 years, you should expect to see Ché sometime in the 2020s.

		Mountain High Michelle Williams will co-star in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain. The film, based on a short story by E Annie Proulx, is about the long-standing love affair between two ranchers (played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal)... The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King will hit DVD on 25th May. The Oscar-winning pic will also receive the extended edition treatment (more endings!) towards the end of 2004. Peter Jackson is currently at work on his King Kong remake... Maggie Gyllenhaal has signed up for two more roles. The Mona Lisa Smile star will appear in low-budget digital pic The Great New Wonderful, alongside Tony Shalhoub and Edie Falco, before segueing to Don Roos' Happy Endings... Get Over It director Tommy O'Haver will helm Magick. The movie is being described as a body-swap comedy in which a man and woman switch identities. Great, we needed another one of those.