Jonathan has been popping up on Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, and Inside Edition all because of “Elvis”. Keep an eye out on all of the entertainment news programs as we get closer to May. Good news about “Prozac Nation”. It’s finally getting a release date in the US… on cable that is. It will premiere on the Starz! network on March 19 at 9pm. According to their website, Starz! will be airing the film on these dates and times:
Sat, Mar 19 9:00pm
Sun, Mar 20 4:15am
Tue, Mar 22 9:00pm
Wed, Mar 23 4:00am
Sat, Mar 26 1:20am
Wed, Mar 30 10:45pm
Miramax plans to release the film on DVD eventually but no word when.
“Prozac Nation” and “The Lion in Winter” are now out on DVD in Russia. First Look Home Entertainment no longer holds the rights to “The Tesseract” and has pushed back “Octane” for a mid-July release (thanks to Caroline for this new info). “The Tesseract” is making the film festival rounds. It recently screened at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and is scheduled to be part of the Method Fest. That festival will be held in Burbank, California during the week of April 2-8. You can now view a trailer for “The Tesseract” at the Japanese official website. Jonathan will be in Japan at the end of this month for promotion for the film. The premiere is not yet set but will be towards the end of May or beginning of June in Tokyo.
Lastly, for those trying to track down Homme Numéro, you can purchase a copy online (thanks Daisy). It helps to know some French.
Lots of movie news to report. First up, “Prozac Nation” is now out on DVD in Japan. “The Tesseract” will finally be released in Japanese theatres this spring. There is an official website up with a few new images. According to First Look Home Entertainment, both “The Tesseract” and “Octane” will be out on DVD and video April 2004. No word when exactly or in what formats.
“Alexander” has finished production in Thailand. Jonathan recently attended the 2004 Bangkok International Film Festival in support of “Alexander” with fellow cast members. “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” has been making the rounds of many U.S. film festivals including the Santa Barbara Film Festival and the Portland International Film Festival. It’s set for a limited U.S. release June 11. And lastly, “The Lion in Winter” will air this May on the Showtime cable network in the U.S.
“Bend It Like Beckham” is now out on DVD in the US today. The DVD features commentary by director Gurinder Chadha and co-writer Paul Mayeda Berges, theatrical trailers, 10 deleted/extended scenes, “Who Wants to Cook Aloo Gobi?” featurette, “The Making of Bend It Like Beckham” featurette, Music video for “Hot Hot Hot”, Aloo Gobi recipe, and the film is presented in widescreen anamorphic format. You can order it through Amazon today.
In other news, Oliver Stone’s “Alexander” began principal photography on September 22 in Marrakesh, Morocco. The project will then shoot interiors in London and more location shooting in Thailand. Warner Bros. Pictures has scheduled to release the film in the US in November 2004.
More release date news… “Prozac Nation” is now out in theatres in Japan. “Octane” is set for release in the UK on November 14. “The Tesseract” recently played at the Toronto Film Festival (along with “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead”), where Momentum Pictures picked up the UK distribution rights. No word on any release date but the film is getting very good buzz.
Lastly, there’s rumors of a possible new film project for Jonathan:
Rhys-Meyers in talks on horror pic
Source: rte.ie, 22/08/2003
Irish actor and ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ star Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is in talks about a role in a new horror movie. Variety reports that vampire film ‘Perfect Creature’ will be shot in New Zealand. Should Rhys-Meyers sign up for the movie, he will play the villain. Dougray Scott will play the lead with actress Saffron Burrows also in talks about a role.
Nothing is confirmed on this one.
Jonathan was featured in a fabulous photo spread in the June issue of US GQ magazine. Photos from this spread are now featured in the August issue of UK GQ magazine. Jonathan is rumored to have been cast as Cassander in Oliver Stone’s upcoming project “Alexander”. More details on that soon.
The official website for I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead is now up, though no content yet. It’s scheduled for release in 2004 in the US.
There is still no word on any official release of “Prozac Nation” from Miramax. You can watch a nice high quality version of the trailer over on Apple.com.
“Bend It Like Beckham” is now out in limited release in the US! Unfortunately, “Prozac Nation” is not coming out this Friday. Instead it is looking like it will be released in June instead according to Miramax’s website. Let’s hope Mixamax does not push back this film once again and that it might finally make it to theatres.
Lots of cool news to report… First off, Jonathan has another movie to add to this credits. This time it’s a Hallmark Entertainment produced remake of “The Lion In Winter” that will air on the US cable network Showtime in late 2003. Jonathan stars as King Philip of France (Timothy Dalton played this role in the original award winning film). The movie also stars Glenn Close and Patrick Stewart. You can found out more information at an unofficial website for the original film and at the Hallmark Entertainment website. The character Jonathan plays is described as “venomous” in the synopsis on the Hallmark website.
The production website for the upcoming live-action adaptation of The Last Unicorn and IMDB have now listed Jonathan as part of the cast. Here’s what the production website had to say about Jonathan: “We have also the pleasure to announce that Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is willing to be Schmendrick the Magician. His incredible versatile and inspired acting style will add to the character humour, depth, passion and unforgettable moments.” The film is not scheduled to start production until this June with a possibly release date in December 2004. Christopher Lee and Mia Farrow are also to star. If you have not read this classic fantasy book, Schmendrick the Magician is one of the main roles and Jonathan is perfectly cast for this.
Fox Searchlight has finally put up an official website for Bend It Like Beckham. It opens March 12 in 6 theatres but will be opening in more theatres gradually. To find out where it will be playing, visit the Fox Searchlight website. It has also been confirmed that the film has not been dubbed. Only the trailer was altered.
“Prozac Nation” is also due for release March 14th. Nothing new has been posted on the Miramax website in months… but plenty of websites have the release date listed. Check out Moviefone to keep an eye on what theatres it may play in.
You can now view the trailer for Prozac Nation. Considering that Jonathan’s character is apparently not in the film that much, he is featured quite a bit in this excellent trailer. Thanks to The Williams Center for this link.
In other random bits of news, Jonathan has been attending various events in London in recent weeks… along with the premieres of “The Importance of Being Ernest” and “Lilo and Stitch”, he went to the launch of a Versace exhibit. There is also no official word yet on the status of “The Last Unicorn”.
Some good and bad news… First, the bad… the release date for “Prozac Nation” has apparently been pushed back to January 24, 2003.
Now on to some good… “Bend It Like Beckham” is due in theatres in the UK on April 12, not April 19. So those in the UK get to see this even sooner. There is going to possibly be a premiere for the film in Leicester Square, London on April 11. No further details are known. For a peek at a couple of trailers, visit Cinemas Online. They have a plot summary and two different trailers available online. Both contain some nice bits with Jonathan. Randomly, according to Amazon.co.uk, they are going to release a movie tie-in novel April 18.
So far “Bend It Like Beckham” has been getting fairly good reviews. The BBC gave it 4 out of 5 stars:
Following on from the success of her earlier comedies “Bhaji on the Beach” and “What’s Cooking?”, Gurinder Chadha turns this British-Asian film about a clash between traditional values and the modern world into a fantastic feel-good movie. Chock full of wonderful characters - Jess’ long-suffering mother, her slapper sister, and her fellow teammates - “Beckham” is a real crowd pleaser.
Although it’s set up as an Asian comedy in the “East is East” mould, it’s also a great football movie, with some hilariously surreal on-pitch moments…
It’s sweet without ever becoming schmaltzy and finishes by tying up every loose end. The only fault is that it runs on too long, if the ref had blown her whistle earlier, it would have been absolutely perfect. But since it’s the kind of film that’ll have the whole audience clapping by the time the credit sequence outtakes appear, it’s easy to forgive that minor fault. Mr Beckham ought to be proud to have his name on such a great film.
Good news about “Prozac Nation”. It’s been picked up by Miramax for distribution. And from showbizireland.com comes the following (note Jonathan was questioned, not arrested and this hopefully confirms he will be in Minatour as well as a new film based on an Alex Garland novel):
Rhys Meyers talks to ShowBiz Ireland…
Cork actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers was arrested and detained last week in Italy due to security measures after the terrorist attacks in America.The actor, who has stared in such films as Michael Collins and Velvet Goldmine as well as taking the lead role in the hit TV show Gormanghast, was on his way to Morocco when he was arrested by police before boarding a flight in Milan last week.
‘I have an apartment in Morocco and was flying from Italy. But, when I was checking in at the desk for Morocco it was next to the United Airlines desk. I guess they just saw a guy on his own with a one steel case and thought they should check me out. So, they took me away and questioned me for three hours. Finally they let me go when they realized I was Irish and not one of Bin Laden’s boys. So I got on the next Royal Air Morocco flight down to my place.’
Jonathan also told ShowBizIreland.com that he has recently got engaged to his girlfriend of two years Sasha Singe, a student of anthropology from D4. ‘We are madly in love and got engaged ages ago but we kept it quiet as we just like to keep things to ourselves. We have no current wedding plans. I’m going to the UK to film Minatore and then doing a movie version of an Alex Garland novel. So, we will have immediate plans for the wedding.’ The actor currently lives between his hometown of Cork, his apartment in Dublin and his place in Morocco. Before Sasha, Jonathan dated the actress Toni Colette, star of Murials Wedding and The Sixth Sense.
Congratulations to Jonathan on his engagement!
In other news, thanks to the ever amazing alec757 for sending along news about Jonathan attending the launch of the Foyle Film Festival in Derry, Northern Ireland. The festival will be held from November 9 - 18. The Belfast Telegraph has an interview with Jonathan that I’ve put in the Press section of the site that also mentions Jonathan will be going to Bangkok in January to work on a new film based on an Alex Garland novel. Currently, Alex Garland only has two novels. One (The Beach) has been made into a film already. The other is The Tesseract. While there is a film being made currently based on an Alex Garland screenplay, that is supposedly being filmed in London right now so The Tesseract seems like the one Jonny is going to do. Visit Amazon.com for more details about the novel.
