RANDOM NOTES

Dream team's short film gathers dust (Daily Telegraph, 5/6/00)

If you wanted to pick a team to make your dream film, I don't suppose you could go far wrong with Kenneth Branagh, Courtney Cox and Heather Graham up front, mighty Miramax and the team that produced Trainspotting and The Beach behind you, and then Danny Boyle in the director's chair. Well, such a film has been made. Slightly astonishingly, it languishes gathering dust.

Alien Love Triangle, a wacky sci-fi comedy, was shot two years ago. The problem is that it is only 30 minutes long. It was made as the first part of a trilogy for Miramax.

Branagh, the great Shakespearian actor, played a physics lecturer who makes the unsettling discovery that his wife, played by Cox, is really an alien, if you can believe it, from the planet Nulark. Worse still, she is actually a male alien whose wife, played by Graham, arrives to take her home.

Boyle directed the film in Bedfordshire and Elstree Studios over 14 days in February 1998 at a cost of more than $2 million but the project fizzled out before the other two parts were shot.

Miramax's Harvey Weinstein recently decided to spin out the second part into a full-length feature starring Madeleine Stowe and Gary Sinise, with Gary Fleder directing.

Nobody now knows what to do with the half-hour film that Branagh and Boyle regard as one of the best things either of them has done. Busy schedules make it unlikely that the film could be turned into a full-lengther.

Graham, who has since become a very hot babe in Hollywood after playing Felicity Shagwell in Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me, is now seeking more serious roles.

Alien Love Triangle's producer Andrew Macdonald confirmed this week that he still wants the film to be seen. Ideas buzzing around include a video or internet release, or cinema release at cut-price admission.

Shakespeare in Hollywood 1929-1956 excerpt by Robert F Wilson, Jr
*thanks to Virginia W

By far the most exciting and successful of the independent directors is Kenneth Branagh, and in his body of work one can glimpse a fruitful union of Shakespeare and film. Like Olivier who inspired him, Branagh comes from the English stage and brings viable credentials as a classical actor who nevertheless has attempted to produce "accessible" Shakespeare. Unlike Olivier, however, he is also a skilled filmmaker, capable of employing visual techniques that are the stuff of filmic convention. His Henry V (1989) marks the movement of the play into a genuinely cinematic world in a self-referential way: Derek Jacobi as the Chorus strikes a match to reveal what looks not like a stage but a film studio; he then opens two large doors and enters, with us, the medieval world of the play. Using close and midshots, rather than Olivier's deep-focus shots, and employing such conventions as flashbacks and jump cuts, Branagh concentrates on Hal's struggle with the personal sacrifices and demands of kingship. The long tracking shot at the film's end, tracing the hero's trek across a corpse-strewn battlefield carrying the body of his page, comments not only on Hal's journey toward maturity but, especially meaningful for post-Vietnam audiences, the terrible carnage of war.

Branagh followed this success with a spirited, luxuriant production of Much Ado About Nothing (1993). The film distances Branagh even farther from Olivier, who was reluctant to try his hand at filming Shakespearean comedy. As Benedict and Beatrice, Branagh and his then wife Emma Thompson, herself acclaimed for stage and film roles, breathe life and appeal into these battling lovers. Shot in Tuscany, the film also invites the viewer into a warm, rich Italian landscape. In particular ways, this comedy invokes standard Hollywood practices more than any production since the 1950s. Branagh induced "hot" movie stars like Denzel Washington, Robert Sean Leonard, and Keanu Reeves to play key parts. Recalling the casting approach to the mechanicals in Rein-hardt's Dream, especially the choice of Joe E. Brown for Flute, Branagh selected Michael Keaton (Night Shift [1982], Mr. Mom [1983], Beetlejuice [1988]) for the role of the clownish Dogberry. While Keaton's performance was not memorable, his choice showed that Branagh was willing to experiment with movie actors who were not classically trained stage performers. The casting, musical scoring, and production values of Much Ado, as well as those in Branagh's 1995 film Hamlet, demonstrate that Hollywood Shakespeare can be revived and improved by someone sensitive both to the plays' poetry and their popular appeal. Whether any more talented actor-directors with the ability and financial backing of a Branagh will emerge to accept the challenge is a question only time will answer. Little doubt exists, however, that Golden Age Hollywood, when moguls ruled and movies came off rapidly turning production lines, is gone forever. Gone too are the conditions that turned out the expensive, stylized, and reverent Shakespearean adaptations described in this book. Ironically, because of the technology that has created videos rented and purchased all over the world, these significant contributions to the field of Shakespeare on film are being seen by audiences never dreamed of by the Thalbergs and Mayers.

Love's Labour's Lost UK premiere report
March 15, 2000

Before the film started Ken made a short speech, from notes (his fingers shaking slightly), talking about how important it was to raise money for RADA. He said that many people were raising money for many things, but that this was an important cause too. He said that RADA needed a further 3 million pounds to add to the 8 million pounds already raised. He talked about how important assistance with student funding was, adding something like "some of us wouldn't be here without it". He also talked about housing in London, saying "and we all know how expensive that is." He then asked the cast members to join him on stage, introducing them individually. Most of the cast seemed to be there, exceptions included Richard Briers and Nathan Lane (and possibly one or two others). All eight romantic leads were present, including Adrian Lester with a funky new hairdo, as well as Geraldine McEwan and Timothy Spall. Patrick Doyle was there too.

Once they were on stage together, he mentioned how the film had been a big challenge for all cast members (ie. the singing and dancing bit). He also paid tribute to Esther Williams (who was in the audience), saying that she was an inspiration for some of the work in the film, although he added that "we won't hold a candle to her". She stood up and recieved much applause. Before ending his introduction he admitted he was very nervous because "you're all about to see our film". And then said something like "Please enjoy Love's Labour's Lost", a vaguely pleading note in his voice it seemed.

The audience took a short while to warm up, but were soon laughing and clapping, particularly after each of the musical numbers. A big clap went out as Berowne shifted from "Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony..." into "Heaven, I'm in heaven". And a roar of laughter followed as the scene progressed (see the film and you'll know why). After one number a middle-aged American gentleman (who had an air of importance) exclaimed several times "This is great", "This is really great stuff". After Geraldine McEwan's number he also said "she's just great". And at the end he repeated a little mantra of: "That was really superb". When the credits ended - the audience having been instructed to stay in there seats - an enthusiastic rustle of whispers seem to spread throughout the auditorium. One mature gentleman, who is a senior figure within the RADA Associates, described the film as "a little piece of magic". It can safely be said that the audience seemed to enjoy themselves enormously, and there was a happy clatter of chatter as people slowly made their way out.

How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog test screening report 2

Dear Ngoc:

I saw your posting about the screening, so I went down and got in again! I live in Westwood so it wasn't really that difficult. But when I showed up last night, they were turning people away.

Anway, I enjoyed the film just as much, if not more, the second time. I didn't notice much difference from the first time, so I don't know if any changes were made or if this was a just a second screening of the same film.

The audience last night again seemed to really like the film. I'm a huge Branagh fan, so I'm prejudiced, but afterwards some of us were talking about it and a few people said they didn't know he could be so funny.

It was nice seeing it a second time because there were things I missed the first time that came as nice little surprises. My favorite parts of the movie are still his scenes with the little next door girl; really very touching and fun.

One last note. I saw you mentioned about would they change the title. I hope they don't (and I have 2 dogs!). The title doesn't mean what you think it does and I really liked how Branagh's character, Peter, has to face the consequences of what happens in the film. Anyway, the majority of the audience seemed to understand that.

I will definitely go again when they release this film in its final form. All the Branagh fans, as well as those who aren't as fanatical as the rest of, are really going to love him in this.

2,500 TICKETS TO SEE BRANAGH'S NEW FILM
*thanks to Catherine Kerrigan

The Mail on Sunday Review has joined with Pathe Distribution to give readers a fabulous opportunity to be the first to see one of the best films of the spring, Kenneth Branagh's enchanting production of William Shakespeare's
Love's Labour's Lost.

We have 2,500 FREE tickets to offer for special screenings across the country.

The film (Cert U) is Branagh's most magical yet, blending some of the Bard's wittiest and gentlest poetry with some of the greatest songs of all time from composers including Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and
George Gershwin.

Directing and starring in an impressive line-up, Branagh transports this story of young love to wartime France and dots the classic text with songs from Hollywood musicals: I Won't Dance, Cheek to Cheek, I've Got A Crush On
You.

Alicia Silverstone, Natascha McElhone, Carmen Ejogo and Emily Mortimer are the girls whose charms tempt Branagh, Adrian Lester, Matthew Lillard and Alessandro Nivola away from their sworn oaths to devote themselves to study, while Timothy Spall, Geraldine McEwan and Richard Briers are among those playing the comic characters looking on.

Review's screenings are on March 19, two weeks before the film goes on national release. You won't spend a more charming time at the cinema this year.

The screenings will take place in Aberdeen, Belfast, Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Sheffield, Southampton and York. Tickets will be awarded on a first come, first served basis. To apply for a pair, send a postcard with your address and the cinema location of your choice to the following address:

Love's Labour's Lost Screening
P O Box 951
Gerrards Cross
Buckinghamshire SL9 9UN

If you have not received your tickets by March 15, you have not been successful on this occasion.

Natascha Faces the Music, Mail on Sunday, February 27 2000
*thanks to Catherine Kerrigan

Caption: The British-born actress Natascha McElhone may be more famous in the States than in her home country but, says Adriaane Pelou, that could all be about to change when she steps into the limelight in Kenneth Branagh's Hollywood musical of Love's Labour's Lost.

The night I have to see Kenneth Branagh's new film Love's Labour's Lost, a Hollywood musical version, it's cold and raining and I'm not at all inspired to sit through anything demanding. An hour and a half later, though, emerging exhilarated, I am wishing there was a flight of steps I could tap dance down.

I'm still humming "Let's Face the Music and Dance" when I meet Natascha McElhone a few days later. Alicia Silverstone of Clueless is supposed to be the star of this, along with Ken, but she's rather too Californian for her part as the Queen of France. Instead, it's 28-year-old Natascha, with her gorgeous, grown-up beauty - "a face sculptured (sic) by the fingers of God", as an Italian journalist put it - who shines most luminously, playing Rosalind to Kenneth Branagh's Berowne.

"Lovely film", I say to break the ice as she runs a thin little finger down the menu. "Although I did think tubby old Ken was panting a bit in some of his numbers."

"Panting?" she echoes, putting down the menu in astonishment. "Ken wasn't panting. How can you criticise Kenneth Branagh? He is brilliant. he is so intellignet, so enthusiastic, so entrepreneurial. He is the most loved person I have ever worked with. The way he keeps everyone feeling light-hearted and individually quite special is truly amazing."

All right, I concede. I forgive him for having no lips. [Large snip]

Last spring she did Love's Labour's Lost. "Ken called it a musical boot camp. Hard work but I loved it: being busy is a lot better than sitting in a film." [Large snip]

She puts down her fork, smiles her dazzling smile and you can almost hear the waiters sigh in adoration. If only Ken were here. The band would strike up 'Let's Face the Music and Dance' - and she could twirl rather than just prosaically walk out of the restaurant.

Norwegian film festival screening of Love's Labour's Lost - February 21 2000
*sent by Lars

Backdrop : The film festival "Årets filmdager i Oslo"!

(which translates into something like "The annual film days in Oslo").

The festival started on February 18th and it lasts until the 24th (7 days).

Love's Labour's Lost was shown twice: Monday the 21st at 18.15 and Tuesday the 22nd at 13.00. Kenneth Branagh and Alicia Silverstone attended Monday. I don't think they attended Tuesday (today), but I can't be absolutely sure.

I thought it was likely that there would be some kind of introduction up front, so I bought front row seats. The 21st arrived, and my girlfriend and I brought one big red rose each. To avoid confusion at the crucial moment, we decided that she would give hers to Kenneth Branagh and I would give mine to Alicia Silverstone.

Outside the theatre everything was quite chaotic, with people crowding all over. We went inside, and the foyer was even more crowded. So we entered the theatre itself and took our seats in the front row. A few minutes later Kenneth Branagh and Alicia Silverstone arrived, surrounded by press photographers, making their way down the left side aisle! We decided to act fast, walked right up to them and gave them the (wrapped) flowers. They seemed very pleased and both responded with a "Thank you!"

The director of the Oslo cinema spoke to the audience partly in English and partly in Norwegian, to much amusement, it seemed, for the two guests. She first gave an account of Branagh's Shakespearean efforts over the years, and then proceeded to introduce Alicia Silverstone mentioning her role in Clueless, and then as Batgirl... suddenly the contrast between the two actors seemed hysterically funny, and it really seemed to crack them up for a moment, and the audience went wild!

The director was proud to tell that all (?) of Branagh's Shakespeare films have had their Norwegian opening in the very theatre in which he was now standing! The theatre is called Filmteatret (the film theatre) and is an old theatre that was restored and turned into a cinema in the 80's. The interior is fabulous, it still looks like a classic theatre, with a stage and balcony and lots of decorations.

Kenneth Branagh then spoke to the audience, joking wildly about how his sponsors had been skeptical to the project: A Shakespeare play that had not been performed for 200 years (?) And it did not seem to calm them when he told them he would do it as a musical, a movie concept that hadn't worked for the last 40 years :-)

Alicia Silverstone then spoke, she told us what an amazing time she had making the film.

And then the film itself! I am not sure if you have seen it (?) but let me just say that it vas very VERY funny! Branagh's on-screen comic talents almost had the audience rolling in the aisles.

Today I read in a newspaper that Kenneth Branagh went back to the hotel after the introduction, while Alicia Silverstone actually took a seat and stayed in the theatre throughout the movie! We did not see her, so I can't confirm for certain that she was there, but if she was, I am certain she had a good time. The response was great with a big applause afterwards.

On the "aftenposten.no" site (a Norwegian newspaper) I found one picture taken inside the Filmteatret foyer. I also enclose some (small) images of the theatre's interior and exterior.

I have not seen any Branagh interviews so far, but there have been a couple of really good ones with Alicia Silverstone.

Hmmm... it seems unbelievable, but right now as I'm typing this Branagh and Silverstone are on Norwegian televison, talking about the film! Branagh says Shakespeare often had music and dancing in his plays. Silverstone says she wants to make more films with Branagh, even if she has to work for free! :-)

A final note: Love's Labour's Lost has a translated title in Norway! It is called "Danser med Shakespeare"(which translates into "Dances with Shakespeare" - a quite clever title, actually!)

All the Best
Lars

Alicia Silverstone interview, Mail on Sunday, February 20 2000
*thanks to Catherine Kerrigan

Front cover: Labours of love - Alicia Silverstone on divorcing her parents, Kenneth Branagh and her animal passions.

Index: Alicia Silverstone - Why the 23-year-old actress can't stop talking about Shakespeare - and Kenneth Branagh

Alicia Silverstone describes herself as passionate, selfless and deep. Now, after starring opposite Kenneth Branagh in his new Shakespeare epic, she thinks she's found a kindred spirit.

ME, MYSELF, AND KENNETH

The young woman who walks into the vegan restaurant in midtown Los Angeles, wearing blue shirt, jeans, and acuffed sneakers, appeares utterly unremarkable. [large snip]

Alicia Silverstone's latest film is Love's Labour's Lost, Kenneth Branagh's reworking of Shakespeare's arguably most accessible comedy. The film is set in the 1930s with the action interrupted 10 or so times by songs - 'Let's Face the Music and Dance' for instance, and 'Fancy Free' - more familiarly found in Fred and Ginger movies.

She has, she says, always been crazy about Shakespeare: 'He's my own little private addiction'. But she despairs of the intellect of the masses. 'He wrote as he did because that's how people talked and that's what they understood. Ordinary people were so much smarter than they are now. We've unlearned so much. People are getting dumber and dumber.'

Then, don't start her on Branagh. 'I could go on and on and on about him,' she says. And, indeed, does. 'He is so prepared when he goes into a project. He knows just what he's doing. He knew this baby of his, inside and out.' But she insists he's no control freak. 'He has this genius way of bouncing ideas around while remaining completely focused. It's like he can see the clear path ahead. I felt so safe with him - and stimulated, too. He challenges you to give your best performance. I love his dedication, his hard work, his rhythm.'

Alicia was, indeed, uncharacteristically in awe of the company she would be keeping throughout the 10-week shoot at Shepperton. Branagh had originally asked her to audition for the part of Rosalind in November 1998. She was sure she wouldn't get it, 'but there was no one in the world I'd sooner had a work-out with.'

A month later, he got in touch, asking if she would accept the (much larger) role of the Princess of France. 'Kenneth told me it was just an instinct he had. And as soon as I read her part, I connected to it in an even deeper
way. It was so dead-on.' (Natashca McElhone, first spotted in The Truman Show, was subsequently cast as Rosalind.) 'Then he told me to have a good Christmas and not to think about the film. As if!'

Before she got to Britain, she says in studiedly stagey inverted commas, 'I worked my butt off to master the text. I was going to be the only stupid American girl walking into this team of thespians.' As it turned out, Geraldine McEwan, Timothy Spall and Richard Briers took her to their bosom and, although she had pangs of homesickness when she thought of her best friends and her dogs, she was sad when it was time to return to LA. 'I felt like I never wanted to be parted from this club. Wasn't there a sweatshirt I could buy?'

Her fondest memory is of the three weeks of rehearsal before filming began. 'Screw shooting,' she says. 'I don't like hair and make-up. I don't like hanging around the set. What I love is creating the character. It felt like I was in Fame. It was just so cool.' And once she'd had lessons from singing teacher Ian Adams, she felt more confident about the film's big numbers. 'He was just so funny. He talked about muscle control and my pelvic floor. He told me he was going to make me into the best sex in town. I told him he reminded me of Austin Powers.'

[Large snip]

Now, she heads her own production compny, First Kiss, bankrolled by those few lucrative film parts she elects to accept. 'I think Kenneth picks projects that will move people's minds, and I want to do the same. I have
no wish to be any part of trash.'

The glitzy Empire line, Teletext February 19 2000

A touch of Oscar-like glitz touched London with the Empire 2000 Film Awards at the Park Lane Hotel.

Oliver Stone, Kenneth Branagh, Helena Bonham Carter, Minnie Driver and Michael Caine were just a few of the stars present.

As Bonham Carter went up to collect her Best British Actress Award, she gripped ex-lover Branagh's shoulder. He was sitting next to Alicia Silverstone, his co-star in Love's Labour's Lost.

Silverstone and Branagh deny being lovers but they clearly enjoy an affectionate relationship judging by their
body language at table.

She frequently touched his back. Meanwhile, his ex-lover Bonham Carter told Big Screen that she was surprised to get an award for Fight Club.

"I just thought I had a supporting girlfriend role to the male stars. I liked the film because I got to smoke and
lie by a hotel swimming pool."

Empire Award snippet from Empire Online

"The Empire Inspiration award is one of the special awards of the ceremony, voted for by Empire's editorial team. It has only been awarded twice before, to the Monty Python team and to Spike Lee and is inteded for true mavericks
of the cinema who change the rules. This year it was awarded to Kenneth Branagh, who accepted the award to whoops from the table where members of the cast of his latest movie Love's Labour Lost were assembed. 'I'm
astonished and I'm very, very touched and very, very grateful, thank you Empire.' "

Berlin Film Festival Notes, Boston Herald February 18 2000

The Berlin Film Festival saw the world premiere of Kenneth Branagh's "Love's Labour's Lost" this week. It's William Shakespeare meets Fred and Ginger.

Actress Alicia Silverstone gets to sing and dance on film for the first time. And she took the opportunity at the post-premiere party to treat Branagh and other cast and crew to something of a song and dance.

Silverstone, you see, is a strict vegan, and her associates were eating veal. "Disgusting," she said.

And the rant began.

"I've founded an animal organization to try to teach young people to be kinder with each other," Silverstone said. "It's now called AAH for Alicia's Animal Haven, but we're working on a new name. We had racism and now we have species-ism, and if we kill an animal only for our desire, that's not fair.

"The way they're kept and raised, it's so disgusting. They're feeling creatures and have the same needs as us. If you look into eyes of cows, that cow has beautiful eyes and they lick each other and they're friends. Lobsters hold hands when they're old to guide each other. It's a fact! It's proven. Deer, if they're blind, will lead another deer in the wild.

"We can learn so much from these open creatures," Silverstone concluded.

Branagh's reaction to Silverstone's attempt to become a new generation's Brigitte Bardot? "He told me to 'Shut up.'

As for "Love's Labour's Lost," it also stars Nathan Lane and Boston native Alessandro Nivola ("Mansfield Park") and is scheduled for a fall release.

Review of HTKYND from Ain't It Cool News

**MINOR SPOILERS**

Cricket sets out to tell us HOW TO KILL YOUR NEIGHBOR'S DOG

Harry here, and man... ya know what? This has one of the cooler titles I've heard in quite some time. I once had a friend who was obsessively plotting to kill his neighbors' dogs... He even bought this sonic rifle thing that he could aim at the dog from across the street, and it would send this ultra-sonic sound into the doggie's ears to make it cease barking. And at one point I heard rumors that he was attempting to acquire cyanide for the pups... So I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the plot of this film, but I do know that it's directed by the screenwriter of PRIVATE PARTS... Michael Kalesniko, so that may mean this has potential... But then the review says that as well....
---------------
I recently caught a rough cut of "How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog", starring Kenneth Branagh and Robin Wright. I have no idea who made this movie, as there were no big credits other than the actors' names.

In this witty comedy about, among other things, identity, Kenneth plays Peter McGowen, a British playwright living in Los Angeles whose wife (played by Wright) wants to have a baby. But Peter's life is his writing - he abhores children, to the point of running away from them when they're nearby. Not only does his wife pressure him, but he's been struggling with his current play, which is in rehearsals. Apparently, the director the actors feel that the "child character" doesn't sound enough like a kid.

During the course of the movie, several things happen that make Peter's life a hell of a lot worse. An eight year old girl named Amy and her mother move in next door to Peter, and begins hanging around the house (to Peter's dismay). Also, a mysterious man has ben roaming around the neighborhood at night impersonating Peter, and causing lots of trouble. As Peter spends more time with Amy, he starts to warm up to the idea of having a kid around.

It may sound a bit scattered and plotless, but the film is a wonderful ride. The story flows from scene to scene, the dialogue is witty as hell, and thew characters are rich and realistic. They say good writers write the truth. In this movie, nothing at all appears contrived, phony or far-fetched (except maybe one scene with Peter's supposedly senile mother-in-law in which she gives him a piece of advice about life that could only have come from the mind of Dostoevsky).

It will be interesting to see how they are going to market this film. It will be tough, especially considering the title (which I love, but may mislead people). The movie should pull in the Branagh fans, at least. [Er, Ken picking lint off his jacket for 2 hours would pull us in ;)] All in all, it's a comedy reminiscent of a good Woody Allen flick. It's smart, and insightful. -Cricket

Matthew Lillard interview snippet (Evening Standard, 2/12/00)
*thanks to Catherine Kerrigan

[snip]
In fact, since, if it were added gravitas he was looking for, he got that sewn up with a part in Kenneth Branagh's Love' Labour's Lost, which he's ust finished filming. Branagh seems to turn even the sturdiest actors into
gushing messes, and Lillard is no exception.

"I can say without any hesitation that Ken is the most wonderful and giving film director I've ever worked with. It was brilliant." He waxed lyrical about Shakespeare for a bit, too, in rather a surprised way. "That play, it's coming back into fashion because it's actually very well written. There are loads of really good characters."

Still, Love's Labour's Lost isn't the film to see Lillard refashioned as a serious contender. By all accounts, there's too much singing, dacning and Branagh-ish Elizabethan carousing for that.

Matthew Lillard interview snippet (Empire magazine, March 2000)
*thanks to Catherine Kerrigan

Scream's homicidal geek gets his dancing shoes on for Kenneth Branagh's Love's Labour's Lost.

'I haven't done a teenage part since Scream, really,' says Matthew Lillard. 'I did play a college guy in She's All That, but I'm definitely trying to get into a new world.' Which presmuably why the 6' 4" 29-year-old was so keen to appear opposite Alicia Silverstone and Nathan Lane in Kenneth Branagh's all-singing, all-dancing update of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost.

Lillard plays Longaville who, along with his king and two of his mates, decides to swear off women for three years so he can concentrate on improving his mind. The only problem being that the day they make their pact, the future queen rolls up with three of her friends.

He's no stranger to the Bard, having both trained and taught at New York's Circle In The Square Theatre, but this is no ordinary Shakespeare adaptation; Branagh has turned it into a 1930's-style musical and he set the tone by making the cast watch Top Hat (1935), the classic Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie, before shooting started.

'I don't sing for shit, not even a note,' admits Lillard cheerfully. 'When I met Ken - and for an American coming to Shakespeare, that's like playing basketball with Michael Jordan - I had to audition, but he never asked if I could sing or dance. So I never told him.'

As it is, he doesn't have to croon on his own anyway. Instead, the gangly and amiable Lillard, who's still best known for his role as one of the two high scholl maniacs trying to off Neve Campbell (who was his then girlfriend
in real life) in Scream, concentrated on enjoying the Shepperton shoot.

''I embraced the whole English thing. We had a revolving schedule so I loved going to the pub at lunch - that's fantastic.' Then there was the footie on Sunday. 'I played every weekend in Regent's Park, which was great. I threw my back out, a sure sign I'm getting old.' His only problem was finding drinking companions for those long London nights. 'I always had places to go and kick it, but it was really strange because we had the English cast and the American cast and the two didn't mix. It was a cohesive group during the day, but at night the English went home and that left me, Alicia and Alessandro Nivola. Alessandro fell in love and Alicia was working all the time, so she'd go home and sleep, and I'd be in my room wanting to go the pub.' "

Alessandro Nivola interview snippet (Rough Cut)

Are you getting frustrated?

Well, no, because I keep getting great jobs, and this one seems to really have the studio behind it. And the one that I did after this, the new Kenneth Branagh Shakespeare film, seems to have support from Miramax as well. I think I've landed with a good studio here because they seem to know how to release these kinds of movies in a way
that is effective.

Branagh's new movie is Love's Labour's Lost. What can you tell me about it?

The Branagh movie is just as light and innocent and sweet and romantic and broadly comic as it gets. It's a musical.

Which I find real strange since it's based on Shakespeare.

It's actually just totally traditional. It's trying to imitate Fred Astaire/Busby Berkeley films almost to the T. Since it's one of Shakespeare's early comedies, it's thematically similar to those thirties romantic comedies. It's just about the kind of way that people behave foolishly in love. And the language in some ways is sort of heightened in a way that you're almost singing when you're just speaking the language. So the music is kind of just an extension of the line in some way. He's chosen all of these great songs from the thirties, like "Cheek to Cheek," he's chosen songs that
seem as though they're an extension of the scene so that they deal with the subject matter of whatever given scene in the play.

Road to El Dorado screening (USA Today, 2/02/00)
*thanks to Marilyn Mosher

Rosie Perez was constricted by a neck brace and walking with a cane, but she turned up for Monday's screening of DreamWorks' animated The Road to El Dorado, in which she has a voice.

"I was too excited - I couldn't pass up Elton John," said Perez, who bruised some bones and suffered a severe neck sprain in a Manhattan sledding accident last week . "I went down the hill first, and then my husband went down the hill, and he couldn't stop and he ran over me. But he didn't mean it."

John, who does the movie's songs, did a few as surprise guest at the Osteria del Circo restaurant party. It was a treat to hear him perform in such an intimate space. (The soundtrack is out March 14; the movie opens March 31.)

Perez is the voice of a feisty South American lass involved with two genial con men (Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh) seeking the fabled gold of El Dorado. At the party, she could have given a little more grief to DreamWorks honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg about the well-muscled legs of her girl.

"I was actually very upset about that. I had a long debate about her ankles. I thought they were too wide, and Jeffrey goes, 'You're going to get vain and ego with me over an animated character?'" Well, Perez decided, "when you put it that way . . . "

And Katzenberg is sending her to another doctor for her neck. He said, "She looks like she's in so much pain. I feel so bad, and back injuries are scary."

Kline, Branagh, and other voices Armand Assante (a high priest) and Edward James Olmos (a tribal chief) gave Katzenberg more good-natured grief about "gold" they didn't get. "It was the longest project any of us have ever taken part in with so little remuneration," said Kline - more than three years because the story kept changing. So the actors were chased around the globe to re-record. Of the cast and their pay, Katzenberg said, "They all did it as a
favor. I think it's good teasing, well-deserved."

Olmos and Branagh had never done animation, and they relished the experience."They were doing something unusual, based on the idea of friendship, not the conventional boy-girl adventure," Branagh explained. "They wanted to do sort of a buddy movie, try to find whether that could be touching, the idea of the two guys who love each other so much, potentially splitting up, and friendship winning out."

Branagh watched it recently in England "with my next-door neighbors' kids and my nieces, and I realized what fun it is to see it with kids."

Next, he's promoting his "Shakespearean musical," Love's Labour's Lost, which Miramax has moved to this summer as counterprogramming. His ex-wife, Emma Thompson, recently had a baby with Greg Wise. Branagh hasn't seen the little girl, but "I'm delighted that it's happened for them. We've been in contact."

Olmos, who is Mexican-American and created Americanos, a major film/book/music project on Latino life in the USA, had serious words about the Elian Gonzalez controversy.

"It's a tragedy of immense proportions for the United States," he said. "I wonder what would happen if one of our children were, say, in Cuba, and we couldn't get him out, and, say, his father was here and wanted the child back.
I think we would be very upset.

"We haven't thoroughly understood what we've done. A parent is much more than just a political agenda" about differences over the human condition in Cuba or China or elsewhere, he said. If the United States wanted to "try to save the children of Cuba, if we really felt that, we'd probably lift the embargo and help the kids immensely."

Branagh's Charitable Intentions (Empire)
25/01/2000

Award winning actor and director Kenneth Branagh is helping those less fortunate by supporting the charity The Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association.

Ken starred in last year’s The Theory of Flight, the story of a man who helps a woman severely crippled with MND, played by ex-girlfriend Helena Bonham Carter, to lose her virginity.

At a charity screening of the film last night, Ken said 'It’s an ongoing fight to deal with this condition. My own experience of meeting people who have MND is fantastic guts, real courage. Not only the people who suffer from it, but all the people around, the carers, and the loved ones. It’s an absolute swine of an illness.'

Ken had nothing but praise for Bonham Carter’s performance. 'One of the moving things was that several people with MND who helped Helena with her performance saw it and felt that she portrayed condition accurately and involved. 'It reminds you how privileged one is to be able-bodied and well.'

Golden Quill Advertisement *thanks to Marilyn Courtney

"On January 16th, we'll salute the artistry of Kenneth Branagh in a gala London presentation of the 2000 Gielgud Award with Sir John himself in attendance for a Theatre Royal Haymarket ceremony to be highlighted by such previous Golden Quill laureates such as Dame Judi Dench and Sir Derek Jacobi. You're invited to a genuinely historic occasion."

The Shakespeare Guild
presenter of the Golden Quill
the Sir John Gielgud Award for Excellence in the Dramatic Arts
2141 Wyoming Avenue, NW Suite 41
Washington DC 20008-3916
Tel (202) 483-8646

BEST OF BRITISH CHAMPION FILM World Entertainment News Network, Nov 19th

KENNETH BRANAGH, ANTHONY HOPKINS, KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS and CATHERINE ZETA JONES were named the new patrons of the BRITISH FILM OFFICE.

Their appointment comes hot on the heels of the launch of an interactive DVD and a tour of the top Hollywood studios by JANET ANDERSON, the British Minister for Film, Broadcasting and Tourism.

Anderson told Tinseltown, "We want to tell what we have in terms of locations, government support, in terms of special effects, postproduction. I have been around the major studios, and it is quite clear that they know this.

"While we will never be able to complete with Hollywood, with the DVD and celebrity help we can be a very good number two."

Tim Gives The Bard 'Tween' Appeal
*thanks to Catherine Kerrigan

At one point during Kenneth Branagh's delicious musical version of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, Timothy Spall launches into Cole Porter's I Get A Kick Out of You.

During the number Spall appears in several guises from Latin army officer to Maurice Chevalier-type crooner. Had my wife, son and me been the only people at this special screening of Branagh's movie we would have got up and danced. We're suckers for Porter and the Gershwins. Songs such as Just The Way You Look Tonight, I've Got A Crush On You and Cheek To Cheek are classic standards and it's cleve of Branagh to use them to further the action in a classic play.

Spall told me his teenage son loved the film, as did my 11-year-old, so much so he wants to read the Bard's work. There will probably be Shakespeare purists who will object violently to this interpretation of the play, but any film that can make a teenager, or a tween as they're called now, pick up Shakespeare's complete works is more than okay by me.

Baz Bamigboye, Daily Mail 15 Oct 99

Branagh Falls For Alluring Alicia
*thanks to Catherine K

Kenneth Branagh enjoyed much more than dancing cheek-to-cheek with Alicia Silverstone, leading lady of his movie Love's Labour's Lost.

Branagh, who broke up with Oscar-nominated actress Helena Bonham Carter during the summer after the breakdown of their five-year relationship, had a fling with Ms Silverstone during filming on his all-singing, all-dancing movie.

Ms Silverstone's representative insisted last night that she had no knowledge of a romance. 'That's a complete rumour and complete nonsense. I can confidently tell you that Ms Silverstone has a boyfriend in Los Angeles.'

However, when I enquired after the boyfriend, the spokesperson said: 'I'm sorry, I don't know his name and I have not met him.'

It's more than likely any 'fling' is over. In any case, Branagh has been flat on his back for weeks after an injury he got dancing in his film.

In Love's Labour's Lost Ms Silverstone plays the princess of France. Branagh is one of four high-born men who vow not to talk to women. However, when they catch sight of the princess and her ladies-in-waiting, they change their minds.

The movie is set during the war and uses music from Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and the Gershwins.

He met Ms Bonham Carter - who stars with Brad Pitt in the film The Fight Club - when they starred together in Frankenstein. He was married to Emma Thompson at the time. The Branagh/Bonham Carter relationship was unusual because they never lived together. They sometimes stayed in each other's homes, but never committed to living together.

Their romance 'petered out', partly because he was negative about her career, friends have told me.

Baz Bamigboye, Daily Mail Oct 22 1999


London Times Power 500 (thanks to Catherine Kerrigan)

Candidates for selection had to have a blend of different aspects of power:

- Overt executive power, wielded by poeple who have "proved themselves the most powerful" in fulfilling their contracts or simply doing their duty during the past year - power with responsibility.
- Reputational power - the degree of liking or respect that these people command.
The overt and covert aspects of power, demonstrated in the outcomes of decision-making over what were established as being the year's most critical issues.
Cultural power - its most elusive dimension, which rarely involves an explicit act of decision-making. It is transmitted through ideas, by active persuasion, or through values, expectations and codes of conduct that prevail in a community.

Top 20 in British Film

#14 Kenneth Branagh: Consistent power player after meteoric rise. Shows great breath of talent, enjoys unusual freedom. Recent films include Woody Allen's Celebrity. Narrated BBC's massive Cold War series. Directing film musical of Love's Labour's (sic) Lost.

Empire Magazine's 100 Most Important People in Film Today (thanks to Catherine K)

Kenneth Branagh - Actor/Director/Screenwriter/Producer

Renaissance Man

Boasting more strings to his bow than the London Symphony Orchestra string and bow dept, it is only mildly surprising that Kenneth Branagh - the man with enough balls to pen an autobiography aged 27 - hasn't added focus pulling to his litany of hyphenated talents. Leaving the new Olivier/lead luvvie sobriquets for dead, as a movie actor for hire, Branagh has plied trademark versatility - he's played a sozzled lawyer in The Gingerbread Man (1998), a Woody Allen clone in Celebrity (1999) and a legless villain in Wild Wild West (1999) - but is yet to find a worthy vehicle to demonstrate his command of performance. Yet it is perhaps as a filmmaker that his true talents lie. A man of the theatre - he precociously left the RSC to form his own company, Renaissance - who became equally at home with movies, Branagh's output swings from accessible, zestful adaptations of the Bard - Henry V (1991), the joyous Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Hamlet (1996) and the upcoming Love's Labour's (sic) Lost (1999) - to not entirely successful takes on Hollywood genre staples, be it Hitchcockian thriller Dead Again (1991), thirtysomething navel gazing Peter's Friends (1992) and classic horror Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994).

Roll of Honour

1. Henry V (1991): combining massive battles with intimate drama, it is incredible to think this was Branagh's first movie as a director. His acting cuts the mustard.

2. Much Ado About Nothing (1993): with an opening that parodies The Magnificent Seven, sun kissed locations and a pace to match the best of Bruckenheimer, this is Shakespeare as feelgood date movie. Who else could've managed that?

3. In The Bleak Midwinter (1995): Branagh's affectionate love letter to both the Bard and the life of players. Exquisitely lensed in black and white, this is an often overlooked treat.

4. Hamlet (1996): It used to be long and boring. But Branagh's faithful adaptation of the Bard's magnum opus fairly fizzes due to epic vision and superlative acting, none better than Kate Winslet's made as a snake Ophelia.

Don't Mention

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994): supposedly returning to Shelley's literary source, Branagh's overblown, ponderous monster mish-mash is more silly than scary. A missed opportunity.

Shakespeare For Dummies: 10 Greatest Shakespeare Performers (thanks to Deborah Buckner)

1. Richard Burbage
2. David Garrick
3. Sarah Siddons
4. Edwin Booth
5. The Drew-Barrymore Family
6. Dame Ellen Terry
7. Dame Peggy Ashcroft
8. Lord Laurence Olivier
9. Sir John Gielgud
10. Many others - listing some of the "foremost Shakespearean performers today" and at the top of the list is:

Kenneth Branagh made his stage debut in London in 1982. He went on to perform in and direct several of Shakespeare's plays. He also helped spark a renewed interest in Shakespeare with his films, starting with Henry V in 1989 and later with Much Ado About Nothing in 1993. He continues to act in and direct Shakespeare films and formed a film company in 1998 to bring more of Shakespeare's plays to the cinema.

How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog blurb (Movieline, October 1999)
*thanks to Jude Tessel

Los Angeles has been taking it in the shorts more than usual lately, what with "Bowfinger" and "The Muse" sending up all the silliness on its sunny streets. But judging from the hilarity that these satires keep managing to inspire, the city's greatest cultural contribution to American life appears to be its willingness to lend itself out as the official butt of jokes. The newest come from a quite funny romantic comedy/drama written by Michael Kalesniko, "How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog", in which Kenneth Branagh plays Peter McGowen, who, though he may be "L.A.'s most successful playwright, if not L.A.'s only successful playwright," has nevertheless seen better days. With his new play in production and everything going very badly, he has gotten so cynical he's become impotent artistically and sexually, a situation dealt with humorously on both counts by his wife Melanie (Robin Wright Penn). The sparring between husband and wife is enlivened with terrific dialogue that gives Branagh a chance to be likeable. The winningly objectionable McGowen smokes incessantly, goes on dismissive rants about the surgeon general, and, when his ethnic neighbor's dog won't shut up, is given to saying things like, "I didn't realize multiculturalism had to be so loud." Branagh has the skill to bring off both the knee-slappers and the lower-key witticisms, and Wright Penn has the screen brights to bring her side off without being a mere foil. If the two have chemistry in the hands of Kalesniko, who also directs, the piece could be a lot of fun.

Laid-up Ken Branagh Cancels All Commitments (WENN, August 2 1999)

HOLLYWOOD, SHOWBIZ & PEOPLE NEWS - KENNETH BRANAGH has called off all immediate engagements after injuring his back.

Branagh is laid up at his home in England after slipping a disc, and has reportedly had to cancel his latest movie, due to begin filming next week.

The 38-year-old actor, whose girlfriend is actress HELENA BONHAM CARTER, had been due to present prizes awarded by the RENAISSANCE THEATRE COMPANY he set up 10 years ago in his native Belfast, Northern Ireland, but called off the engagement because of his illness.

A spokesperson for the BELFAST ARTS COUNCIL told ULSTER TELEVISION that Branagh had also cried off his latest movie due to begin filming next week.

In a letter apologising for his absence, Branagh told members of his theatre company, "Because of a slipped disc, my doctor said the only role I'm good for at this time is playing the lead in a radio version of RICHARD III."

Meanwhile, the HAMLET star has agreed to become a patron of the theatre.

Branagh Invited to Don His Soccer Studs (WENN, August 2 1999)

HOLLYWOOD, SHOWBIZ & PEOPLE NEWS - KENNETH BRANAGH has been invited to make the switch from SHAKESPEARE to soccer.

The HAMLET actor has admitted a long-lived passion for football - and says he would happily swap a life of acting to have the chance of becoming a professional player.

Now bosses at his home town club of Second Division team READING have offered Branagh a trial.

Club press officer ANDY WEST says, "Kenneth Branagh is a very successful man, he's obviously got what it takes to make it.

"If he wants to come and watch us at our impressive new stadium, I'm sure he would be impressed - and maybe we could give him a trial at the same time.

"The fans like to see local boys coming through into the team, but normally we would expect them to come from within the world of football."

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