BBC - Films -news article - High Noon

		Binoche Gets Buzz The only thing you can't catch on the Tube is a train, so thank London Undergound that today's High Noon is late, ill and bad-tempered. Don't expect much from either A) Us, or B) Bee Season, which will star Juliette Binoche as, in Variety's priceless American parlance, "a mom in an emotional spiral whose family is headed for dysfunction" (is that a place?). Richard Gere will play pop, who distracts himself from their marriage problems by obsessing over his daughter's involvement in a Spelling Bee (aka competition). The Deep End's Scott McGehee and David Siegel will direct. It can't possibly be better than Spellbound.

		Carney Shuffles Off Oscar-winning actor and TV star Art Carney has died. The 85-year-old performer was best known in America for playing Jackie Gleason's idiotic neighbour on The Honeymooners. He nabbed a best actor gong in 1974, though, proving his 'serious' acting chops as an old man who goes on a road trip with his cat, in Harry And Tonto. His last big-screen appearance was in Last Action Hero.

		Capa The Snapper The Pianist star Adrien Brody may woo Natalie Portman in a biopic of war photographer Robert Capa. The doe-eyed Oscar-winner has been offered the role of the intrepid snapper, with Portman lined up to play his lover, fellow photohound Gerda Taro. The pair's relationship bloomed while they were covering the Spanish Civil War - the period Menno 'Max' Meyjes' picture will focus on. Shooting starts in April.

		X Marks Spot/X-Citement, Etc Bryan Singer has surprised no one by saying he's up for directing a second X-Men sequel. "I would like to do it very much, so we'll see if we can work it out," he said, writing a list of his contract demands on the freshly-cured skin of a studio executive (probably). He's less enthusiastic about the rumoured Wolverine spin-off, though, saying, "I think an X-Men film is simultaneously a Wolverine film so in my opinion that's something that might happen afterwards." "But only if we really get desperate for cash or ideas and want to milk the franchise for all it's worth, which let's face it, we probably will," he didn't add.

		Have Sword, Will Travel Remember the big, Germanic fella in Gladiator who pals around a bit with Mr Crowe and is offed, if memory serves (which it rarely does), in a big scrap near the end? Right, well, his name's Ralf Moeller and he's up for a part in Ridley Scott's Crusades epic Kingdom Of Heaven. "I'm not signed yet," the cake-necked actor told BBCi Films. "I've just been talking to him and we're in contact right now. I know there's a big German character and I hope to get it. He's a man with a sword who takes justice in his hands but we will see. I will be on the phone now every day until I get the part!"

		Alexander The Late (Badaboom!) Baz Luhrmann won't shoot his Alexander The Great epic until next September, despite the fact that Oliver Stone's Alexander is forging ahead. "I think you might want to see that [Stone's film] but it's not much of a stretch of the imagination to imagine mine's going to be different," he told BBCi Films, adding, with a flick of his lovely Antipodean hair, "I never do anything on anyone else's schedule and I make things when I'm ready, basically." In the meantime he's directing what he calls "a one minute movie" and everyone else calls "a pretentious commercial" for a perfumer. It'll star Nicole Kidman.

		BBC Films Rule The World Everyone has a go at the BBC (including Uncle High Noon when he's been on the meths), but our beloved corporation has been flying the flag for Blighty in the European Film Awards. BBC Films productions Dirty Pretty Things, In This World, and The Mother nabbed nine nominations between them. The only other Brits recognised were Young Adam director David Mackenzie, who's up for the Prix Fassbinder (aka Best Newcomer), and Helen Mirren, who is competing as Best Actress for her turn in Calendar Girls. The winners will be announced on December 6th in Berlin, with German comedy Good Bye Lenin! favourite to clean up, given its five nominations.