Li’l Ze Strikes Back

City of God was Empire's top film of 2003, and for good reason. A searing account of life in one of Rio de Janeiro's most notorious slums, the film cast local, non-professional actors as the children growing up into poverty, crime and drugs, producing a level of authenticity to put any Method actor to shame. Now the news has emerged that a sequel, City of Men, will begin filming in 2006. There's quite a gap between now and then, unfortunately, but it's still something to look forward to. The sequel is likely to be directed by Paulo Morelli, who is a partner in 02 Filmes (that's a production company, not a phone company) with original co-director Fernando Meirelles, who will produce. City of Men is also, confusingly, the name of a mini-series already made by the same people since the success of the first film. When we spoke to Fernando Meirelles a few months ago, he told us all about it. "After we finished the film we created a school for actors, an NGO school with all the boys and did workshops with cameras and editing. So with this group we did a project for Brazilian television, and the television bought four episodes. It was a huge success." There's still no word on whether we'll ever see that on terrestrial British TV, but if anyone out there is in charge of TV scheduling, this has got to be a better option than, say, I'm A Celebrity. Likewise, this film is not just another sequel