By Ruben V. NepalesInquirerPublished on Page F5 of the September 8, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer LOS ANGELES?“You didn’t mind the bus trip?”That was how Woody Allen greeted our press group when he recently allowed a very rare media visit to his set. After our “Rome” set visit (which we wrote about in our previous column), we flew to London to take up the master filmmaker’s unprecedented invitation to talk to him on location.After a pleasant one-hour bus ride through the countryside, we arrived in a town interestingly named Hoo, where Woody was filming scenes for his untitled movie now called the “Woody Allen Summer Project.” On this sunny day (The New Yorker dislikes bright days; he’d rather see grey skies.), we were at the Hoo Marina, a quiet harbor of boats and yachts where we observed him directing his hot actors, Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor.By previous agreement, the two leads were not going to be interviewed on this set since they wanted to concentrate on their scenes. But Colin walked to our group to say ‘hello’ and ‘welcome.’The details of this movie’s story are being kept top secret. We could only confirm that Colin and Ewan play brothers; the latter’s character falls for a girl played by a very lucky actress, Haley Atwell, who not only has Woody Allen directing her first movie but gets to act opposite two of Hollywood’s best actors; and Tom Wilkinson portrays the guys’ uncle.We got to talk to Haley, 24, lovely with silver hoop earrings and a newcomer’s enthusiasm, who shared a few more details: “I play Ewan McGregor’s love interest. I have a very little story with the brother (Colin’s character), only via Ewan’s character. I think my relationship with Ewan is very much a power game of knowing the effect that I’m having on him and kind of being a catalyst for his moral decline.”But we persisted and asked if her character does not get romantically involved with Colin’s character as well. “You’ll have to see. Maybe,” she answered us, affecting a mock coy stance but with a naughty twinkle in her eyes.Haley was more candid about her bed scene with Ewan, as directed by Woody. “It was incredibly un-erotic because it was just me wearing a flesh colored top and track suit bottoms underneath the sheet. And Ewan wore like three pairs of pants. He was kind of going, ‘Get your elbow out of my face. And you’re blocking my light; it’s all about you, isn’t it?’ And then me looking at a corner of the room and seeing Woody, sitting in the corner eating a tomato sandwich, not particularly interested in what was going on at all. So I was thinking, here I am in a sex scene with Ewan McGregor, in my first movie, and both men could not be more disinterested. But it was lovely and very funny.”Then it was time to walk back to the set. As we sat on the marina’s edge thinking that the water below is probably even dirtier than the Pasig River’s, we also discovered that Woody does not yell “Action!” or “Cut!” Instead, a crew member screamed “Rolling!” and then the acclaimed director merely said “Okay” to indicate a take’s end.Colin and Ewan rehearsed the scene a few times before the cameras actually rolled. Both men were casually dressed and had spiky hair but Colin’s looked almost like a pompadour. Colin was in a T-shirt, loose cargo pants and Converse shoes while Ewan wore athletic fit long-sleeved shirt, jeans and sneakers. Incidentally, Letty confirmed that yes, Woody knows that Colin does a good impersonation of him.Before the takes, an assistant handed a beat-up bomber leather jacket for Colin to wear. The actor was also given a six-pack Grolsch beer and a boom box to carry as he and Ewan, a backpack slung on his shoulder and clutching a jacket, walked from a gangplank to a boat. After two takes, Woody was satisfied. It was a refreshing change of pace. The day before, we were on the set of a huge, big-budget movie north of London where it took virtually a day and over 50 takes to shoot a single scene (as a result, we memorized all the lines and could mimic the cast, down to their different inflections).During lulls, Colin and Ewan chatted amiably as the former smoked his usual cigarettes. Sometimes they huddled with their director. In contrast, Woody was rather formally dressed for this dockside setting: neatly pressed blue shirt, chino pants and those well-worn shoes we’ve seen him wear at the “Match Point” premiere party in LA and in New York press cons.Woody talked to our group several times during the day, as the crew set up for the next takes. We clustered around him as he sat on a picnic bench. He was asked what he was discussing with Colin and Ewan when they were in a huddle. “Oh, I was just reminding them where we were in the story so they didn’t both get on the boat giggling or something,” he replied. “That would have been inappropriate for where they were in the script. So they have to look a little more agitated. This was a comparatively easy shot.”To read the rest of the article visit: www.showbizandstyle.inq7.net Thanks to Roberta and Kim for the link!

[b]Dates for release and premiere announced[/b]After sixteen months of hard work two big days are fast approaching.We are also pleased to announce that we have been offered the closing night at the Raindance Film Festival, London This means that the World premiere of Scenes of a Sexual nature will take place on the 8th October at Cineworld Haymarket, West End London.And with great jubilation we can say that [b]the film is going to be released nationwide in the UK from Friday 3rd of November 2006[/b]. It will be in about forty cinemas across the country. This will include The Vue, Leicester Square, West End London.We are starting major on-line campaign soon to encourage people to come to the opening weekend. More details will be announced soon.[b]Raindance 2006 nomination announced[/b]We are thrilled to announce Scenes of a Sexual Nature has been nominated for Best UK Feature Film, Raindance 2006.The results will be announced on the night of the 8th October at Cineworld Haymarket, London.Raindance is the largest independent film festival in the UK celebrating British film making.Source: Tin Pan Films

Moulin Rouge! is #25 in the AFI (American Film Institute) list:Finally, Baz Luhrmann’s epic 2001 tragicomedy Moulin Rouge! came in at 25. For better or worse, the musical, showcasing the vocal talents of Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, sparked a renewed interest in the musical genre, paving the way for the big-screen versions of Chicago, The Producers, Rent and the forthcoming Hairspray and Sweeney Todd, among others.The latest AFI list was winnowed down by a jury of 500 directors, screenwriters, actors, editors, composers, critics and historians solicited by the prestigious nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating and preserving cinema. Voters were asked to submit their choices from a ballot of 250 nominated films and were allowed to write in any movies they felt had been slighted.The honorees were revealed in a special presentation Sunday night at the Hollywood Bowl, during which director John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra performed excerpts of the winning musicals accompanied by projections of scenes of some of those films’ most iconic moments.The Greatest Movie Musicals list is considered a sidebar to AFI’s 100 Years. . . series.To read the rest of the article and see the complete list, visit: www.eonline.com