Film on Aids poised to become a big global success
Directed by Carl Seaton, the movie, One Week, is about a soon-to-be groom who takes an HIV test a week before the wedding. After a seven-day wait, he turns out to be HIV-positive, showing how a reckless night can change a person's life.
Critics and film-makers have called it "the most important movie" made in a while. It is also among the few HIV/Aids movies to be released for public screening. Most of them are issued for awareness programmes for educators in the health sector.
The first Aids-themed movie for theatrical release was Philadelphia, which won an Oscar award for Tom Hanks and critical acclaim for Denzel Washington, who played the supporting role. At the acceptance, Hanks stirred controversy when he paid tribute to his high school teacher who was gay and, in a clear reference to homosexuals who had succumbed to the infection, he used the moment to pay homage to all those other angels in heaven at a time when HIV/Aids was largely linked to homosexuality.
Another production based on Aids was the TV series, Life Goes On, about a teenage high schoolgirl and her HIV- infected lover.
But, on the whole, the subject of Aids is not a hot seller in the film circles and Seaton's production has filled a vacuum that is commercially risky in a world dominated by action.
Meanwhile, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King carried the top honours at last weekend's 15th annual Producers Guild of America awards, placing it on course for a possible Academy award in March. Traditionally, the winners of this award have gone on to win the Oscar and only in four times have the results differed.
The US-based Screen Actors Guild Awards nominated Clint Eastwood's movie, Mystic River, and also its main actors Tim Robbins and Sean Penn for this year's awards.
The movie is also nominated by film critics as the year's best film with Eastwood being cited in an unusual role as composer.
The battle for Oscars will most likely be fought between Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and Cold Mountain.
Cold Mountain, which is about a lovelorn army deserter, took 13 nominations � one more than its rival at the Orange British Academy Film awards.
On producers, the next of the Harry Potter movies becomes the costliest movie production so far with a budget of $170 million.
The movie, to be produced by Mike Newell, will be shot in Paris later in the year.
Explaining the high budget, Newell told the Scottish newspaper Sunday Mail: " These things are not like ordinary movies, they are events. I have millions of 10-year-olds who cannot be disappointed."
It will be the fourth from the Harry Potter series.
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