Benigni in Iraq

AFTER the Oscar-winning Life Is Beautiful, Italian director Roberto Benigni is set to begin work on a comedy set against the backdrop of war-torn Iraq.

Scripted by Benigni himself, the film called La Tigre E La Neve will be set in the Iraq of last March when the US launched an attack on the Saddam-Hussein regime.

In the film, he would be playing a poet who gets caught up in the war.

Hoping that the film would stir the same magic as his previous comedy on the Holocaust, he told Italian radio, "War naturally is the background of the film and my character gets directly involved in it after this poet lands up in Iraq by pure chance.

After signing Amitabh Bachchan for Sarkar, the Hindi remake of The Godfather, Ram Gopal Varma says he’s becoming addicted to working with the megastar and will be doing a horror film with him next.

The filmmaker and the actor will work together in Darna Zaroori Hai, the sequel to the episodic horror film Darna Manaa Hai.

Amitabh Bachchan, who has just returned from Amsterdam after attending a festival of his films, confirms the encore with Varma.

"Yes, I’m doing a story in Darna Zaroori Hai. It’s just two days’ work.

I’ll be in and out of it. Working with Ramu in Sarkar has been a rewarding experience. I don’t mind working repeatedly with him," he says, returning the compliment.

About the film, Varma says, "It will shock people.

Bachchan will scare the hell out of audiences... It’ll have just a couple of other actors. I haven’t decided on the rest of the cast, but I’ll shoot in November."

And he adds candidly, "Everyone is wondering if we’ve lost our heads to make a sequel to a film that has flopped." Varma, who’s now completing Naach, starring junior Bachchan, for a Diwali release, has already shot two stories for the sequel to Darna Manaa Hai, one directed by veejay Sajid Khan.

007 to pen memoirs

Veteran actor Sean Connery has abruptly withdrawn from 20th Century Fox’s film Josiah’s Canon to write his autobiography, sparking off rumours about him retiring.

According to Variety, the James Bond star had lost his enthusiasm after the many tribulations he faced during the shooting of big-budget films, including his last The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, during which he had had a clash with director Stephen Norrington.

He would now be penning his autobiography for HarperCollins.

In Josiah’s Canon, a dramatic heist story, for which he had landed a $75-million role, he was set to play a Holocaust survivor who leads the world’s foremost team of bank robbers to rob a heavily guarded bank in Switzerland, believed to house money deposited by Jews prior to the Holocaust. The film’s bosses are now reportedly in a fit, struggling to find a replacement, as shooting is slated to begin in Prague in February.

The 74-year-old Oscar-winner actor, who has starred as the legendary Jams Bond in six films, is often touted as the most talented actor in Hollywood today.

Having featured in several memorable films during his career spanning 46 years, the Scotsman, voted as the ‘sexiest man alive’ by People magazine, is still known to wear tattoos reading "Mom and Dad" and "Scotland Forever". — IANS

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