Stories from Heartlands
Well, I had the lengthy slumber I needed last night, so I'm feeling chipper again today. The weather isn't so great, but duty calls.
The day started with the press conference for Heartlands which premiered last night at the UGC. Where would we be without the UGC, eh?
Producer and former band-member of The Skids, Richard Jobson, actor Michael Sheen, writer Paul Fraser - making his second appearance for the Film Festival (he also happened to co-write Once Upon a Time in the Midlands) - and director Damien O' Donnell were all on hand to answer questions.
This is O' Donnell' s second feature film, you may remember his first a little comedy called East is East. He told us incidentally that although asked, he has no intentions of making a sequel to East is East. In fact he is keen to steer clear of comedy, and hence this movie Heartlands came about.
Director never reads scripts
Richard Jobson defines it as "a film with a big heart". After directing East is East, O' Donnell inevitably received countless scripts to direct, but he admitted to us that he absolutely hates reading scripts - finds it so excruciatingly boring - and actually pays someone to do it for him!
Michael Sheen divulged that originally he wasn't going to get the part as he was flatteringly told that he was far too good-looking for it!
So in the end, he troughed away, and put on an incredible amount of weight which dismayed the wardrobe people no end. They in turn played a joke on him by tightening his clothes one day so that he would get alarmed enough into hopefully shedding some of those excess pounds!
Evening shows
Press conference over, there were a couple of interesting premieres tonight.
First up was The Last Great Wilderness, which I told you about yesterday. A collaboration of Mackenzie brothers David and Alistair.
Irish superstar DJ David Holmes was also talking about writing music scores, most notably Ocean's Eleven, in a "Reel Life" event.
So, I'm off - I have a major day tomorrow. Bollywood's and my favourite young man, Shah Rukh Khan will be in town. I need my forty winks.
A demain,
Weegeet xx
