Awards, Espanol style
This year, if it’s not in Spanish, it had better star Helen Mirren or you’re not going anywhere awards-wise. Nowhere is that more true than Madrid last night, where Penelope Cruz picked up the Best Actress award at Spain’s Goyas (insert obligatory and faintly patronising “Spain’s equivalent of the Oscars” reference here), as Volver, Pedro Almodovar’s latest film, picked up five awards including Director and Film. The biggest overall winner was Pan’s Labyrinth, which bagged Guillermo del Toro the Best Original Screenplay award, and six others including Best Breakthrough Actress for Ivana Baquero and Best Cinematography. The Queen won Best European film, further proving our point. And at least this is one ceremony where Cruz had a chance of outrunning the Mirren juggernaut.
Bond 22 News Already?
It’s been about five minutes since it hit cinemas, and already word of the sequel is gathering such pace that rumours are having to be debunked. So it is that The Trades talked to Bond screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, and learned that it is not based on Ian Fleming short story Risico, and probably won’t have Q or Moneypenny in it either. “You know there’s still unfinished business for Bond,” said Wade. “He may say, 'The name's Bond, James Bond,' but there's still a lot of stuff churning up inside him. So if you're going to explore that, and we’ve got this great actor to do that with, what you don’t want to do is suddenly clamp it down with all these familiar elements that keep your focus off him. He's the great asset." The plan is to start shooting at the beginning of 2008. There’s no confirmation of a director yet, although Giancarlo Giannini says that he’ll be returning, but Wade had no comment on the suggestion that Vesper Lynd’s Algerian boyfriend might play a role.
Fischer Walks Hard
Jenna Fischer, from the US version of The Office, has signed up to appear opposite John C. Reilly in Walk Hard, the Jake Kasdan-directed comedy (written by Kasdan along with comedy director Judd Apatow) about a fictional troubled music legend. Fischer will play the June Carter-Cash figure to Reilly’s Cash-type artist, and even gets to play harmonica and sing. Multi-talented, eh?
Whedon Working In The Office?
Staying with Office news, Joss “Godlike Genius” Whedon has taken time out from preparing Goners and Wonder Woman (damn slacker) to direct an episode of The Office (the US version). Yes, the man-who-should-be-home-working-on-Astonishing-X-Men-comics has been getting out and about, “giggling like a girl” as he watches filming on the show and being an “absolute dream” to work with, according to cast member Jenna Fischer’s blog. Who’s clearly trying to take over this column, but we’re going to stop her evil plans by, er, stopping. So there.