Source: Roberto Ellero

The superhero Zebraman will be the protagonist of two Midnight films at the 67^th Venice International Film Festival: Zebraman (2004) and the highly anticipated sequel Zebraman: Zebra City no gyakushu (Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City) (2010) from visionary Japanese director Miike Takashi.

The first of two films Zebraman, released in Japan in 2004, will be screened Out of Competition on September 8^th (at 00:15 am, Sala Perla), the second, Zebraman: Zebra City no gyakushu (Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City) will be screened Out of Competition on September 9^th (at 00:30 am, Sala Grande) following 13 Assassins (world premiere screening in Competition), closing therefore an entire evening devoted to the genius of one of the most innovating directors of world-wide cinema.

Miike Takashi’s work, is very characterized by the excessiveness of courageous cruelty (like Audition or Ichi the Killer or the censored Imprint) and exemplary in its sole fecundity (more than 70 films a twenty-years career), it is not new to Venice.

Five years after attending the Venetian festival out of the competition with the “fantastic” The Great Yokai War (Venice 2005) a bizarre story that can immerse itself in local legends of eternal struggle between good and evil, and three years after presenting at Venice the unrivaled Sukiyaki Western Django (Venice 2007), a unique example of “macaroni westerns in Japanese sauce,” Venice could but enter again Miike’s universe.

Miike’s is an extravagant universe dominated by a grotesque and anarchic style, which shows absolute indifference to both film genres – he experimented with them all “subverting” and “reinventing” their rules – and to the hierarchy between A and B movies. A totally free area of expression, the birth and definition of which is undoubtedly one of the defining moments in recent years cinema.

Takashi Miike has made genre films differently from any other director, and the superhero genre is no exception. The two Zebraman films fall into this category and in contrast to Hollywood films, they do not have a dark nor a metaphoric tone, but are noisy, impertinent, overflowing with imaginativeness and mystery, dominated by mutant creatures, gags, references to the culture of 1970’s with spicy choreographies or, more explicitly sensual. Both Zebraman, scripted by the eccentric Kudo Kankuro, tell the story of an everyman’s victory over evil, a high school teacher who’s fascinated by the tv-series, “Zebraman”, finds out he possess the same magical powers of his television idol (to fight the aliens) wearing his costume.

In the second episode, Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City, set in 2025, the protagonist (the now hoary Aikawa Show) wakes up after 15 years in a new Tokyo named Zebra City. In this city on the border between good and evil, the powerful ones at force have decided that for five minutes twice a day, in “Zebra Time”, the police masked and dressed in leather can kill anyone on the streets as “prevention” of crimes. It’s in this apocalyptic scenario that Zebraman will begin the counterattack.

With the screening of these two Zebraman films at Midnight, the bound between the Venice Film Festival and the Udine Far East Film Festival has become stronger. A bound that had previously resulted in the night screenings of two surprising Asian genre films: bizarre and parodying Guilala gyakushu – Samitto kiki ippatsu! (Monster X Strikes Back: Attack The G8 Summit!) from Japanese director Minoru Kawasaki and epic “Salgarian” pirate film Puen-yai-jom-sa-lad (Queens of Langkasuka) by Nonzee Nimibutr, the most ambitious (and onerous) Thai film production over the past years.

Miike Takashi has been one of the most acclaimed guest at the recent editions of the Udine Far East Film Festival.  In 2002 with Ichi The Killer, in 2003 with Shangri-la and Graveyard Of Honour, in 2006 with Imprint, an episode from the Masters of Horror series, and in 2009 with Yatterman, the adaptation of popular cartoon Yattaman.

The ceremony awarding John Woo the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 67^th Venice International Film Festival will take place on the Lido Friday 3 September at 9:30 PM in the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema).

As an introductory screening to the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement evening, on Thursday 2 two films will be screened: one of John Woo’s masterpieces, The Killer (1989) in the restored version by Weinstein Company, and Mujeokja, the Korean remake of his masterpiece A Better Tomorrow (1985), which is being finished in these days in Seoul by Hae-sung Song, starring the national superstars Jin-mo Joo, Seung-hun Song, Kang Woo Kim, Han Sun Jo.

The award ceremony on Friday 3^rd will be followed by the world premiere gala screening, Out of Competition of Jianyu (Reign of Assassins), the film by Su Chao-Pin, produced by Terence Chang, and co-directed by John Woo. Jianyu (Reign of Assassins) boasts a cast including the queen of Asian action films Michelle Yeoh, the Korean superstar Jung Woo Sung, Chinese and Taiwanese stars Barbie Hsu, Wang Xueqi, Kelly Lin, and Angeles Woo.

In the Catalogue of the 2010 Venice Film Festival Marco Mueller has written: “When watching one of his films, you have to forget about judging the quality of the written page – the stylised sets and the shots have contradicted it and burned it forever. Woo is not interested in the translation of a sequence into images or the mere description of an action: he is interested in the rhythm and the cadences, searching for the exact syllable on which the accent falls in order to render the lyricism (…). And yet, even if he knows better than anyone how to choreograph death and destruction, the characters in Woo’s films react morally from the outset to the conclusion of the story, and his filmmaking ethic is manifest: in every important film, he chooses to transcend the initial material with a precise moral adhesion to the reality of the set; the production thus becomes the test of how much truth is contained within that project”.

An epic martial arts thriller, Jianyu (Reign of Assassins) is set in ancient China, with the expert swordswoman Michelle Yeoh on a mission to bring the remains of a Buddhist monk to their place of eternal rest. Legend has it that the corpse of the holy monk has secret powers. Along the way, the protagonist falls in love with Jiang, whose father was killed by the sect the girl belongs to. Love blossoms between the two, though the girl does not know that Jiang too is an expert in martial arts. Soon however the tension rises between the two, when the truth about the girl’s past begins to emerge. A lethal triangle begins to form between her, Jiang and the band of assassins that is looking for the remains of the monk. Jianyu (Reign of Assassins) is distributed internationally by Fortissimo Films.

A Taiwanese director with versatile talent, Su Chao-Pin won early success as a screenwriter. The Cabbie (2000) won a nomination for best screenplay at the Golden Horse Awards that year, whereas Double Vision (Shuang tong, 2002) was the biggest hit among Chinese-language films in 2002. The episode written by Su in Three: Going Home (Saam gaang 2002), produced and directed by Peter Chan, won great public acclaim throughout Asia. In 2002 Su Chao-Pin wrote and directed his first film Better than Sex (Aiqing Lingyao, 2002), a comedy with a peculiar style, encompassing elements of humour, imagination and fantasy. The film captured the interest of the public and became the fourth greatest success of all time in Taiwanese film. In 2005, Su Chao-Pin directed his second film, Silk (Guisi), which he also wrote, and which brought together the creative talents of the best actors and producers in Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong. Both Tunneling and Silk (Guisi, 2005) won the award for Best Screenplay from the Office of Information, Taiwan’s “Ministry of Culture”.

The Killer (Die xue shuang siong, 1989), a revisitation of the neo-noir films by Jean-Pierre Melville, crosses the stylized hyperbole of violence and a dizzying pace of production with melancholy and melodramatic atmospheres, action-painting with psychological investigation. The film is considered a masterpiece of action film, and the first summa of the poetic filmmaking of its director, John Woo. The film tells the story of a hit-man (played by Yun-Fat Chow, the director’s icon-actor), overcome by feelings of guilt after accidentally injuring young singer Jennie during a gunfight. Jong accepts his last commission as a killer in order to earn the money that Jennie needs for surgery. But the commission is extremely arduous and will lead the protagonist into a journey of no return; between acts of betrayal and redemption, it reaches its climax in a final gunfight with a tragic outcome. A milestone for the international distribution of Hong Kong cinema, The Killer owes its well-deserved fame to the innovative action sequences, which have produced countless attempts at imitation. In them, the revolutionary use of editing allows the hyper-realistic violence of the gunfights to be choreographed with the elegance and grace of a ballet.

“Since the success of Diphuet seunghung/The Killer – the Venice Film Festival Director has also written – John Woo has contributed more than anyone to changing the international image of Hong Kong cinema, which has managed to garner the enduring attention of international audiences and critics (…) becoming in turn a reference figure for the continually renewed trends of genre cinema in Hong Kong and South Korea at the end of the 1980s”.

This bond never ended: in this weeks the post-production of Mujeokja, the Korean remake of Yinghung boonsik/A Better Tomorrow (1985), directed by Hae-sung Song is being completed.

Hyuk and Chul are two brothers who have been separated since childhood. Hyuk, the older one, has now become a weapon smuggling gang boss, while Chul has become a policeman. Hyuk and Young-chun share 10 years of friendship while leading the gang as two aces, but their tight friendship becomes damaged because of a dirty trick played by Tae-min, one of the gangsters, while Hyuk wants to escape from the band of gangs. 

Chul wants to get rid of the gangs. Young-chun wants to reestablish himself. Their relationship gets tangled with deep wounds and misunderstanding. With Tae-min’s plot to take hold of everything, their destiny heads for an unexpected ending.

Mujeokja (2010) is an International coproduction of Korea, Thailand, Japan and Hong Kong, produced by Fingerprint Pictures (South-Korea) with Hong Kong’s Fortune Star Entertainment and Thailand’s Zuzac. Fingerprint will distribute the film in Asia (excluding China and Japan) and CJ Entertainment will distribute the film for the rest of the world, including China.

Biographical Notes

John Woo

John Woo’s career began in the Seventies in Hong Kong, where for two decades he remained at the centre of its flourishing film industry, directing twenty-six feature-length films. Known primarily as a specialist in comedy until the mid-Eighties, he later earned recognition for a series of inspired gangster dramas that unexpectedly shattered all box-office records, and brought him international fame.

Wu Yusen (John Woo) was born on May 1 1946 in Guangzhou, China, to a very poor family that moved to Hong Kong when he was only four years old. His father grew ill with tuberculosis and his mother had to support the family in a shantytown. Today Woo states that he owes her everything. Thanks to the help of an American family, who adopted him long distance, he was educated at the Lutheran Matteo Ricci College. But he also grew up “thriving” on Western film: first musicals, then the films of Peckinpah, Melville, Truffaut, Leone, Scorsese, and the beloved Kurosawa.

Following his irresistible passion, he soon wound up at the court of Zhang Che (Chang Cheh), the master of martial arts films.  He trained in the field as a screenwriter and director (he first worked at Cathay Film as supervisor of screenplays, then at Shaw Brothers as assistant director), and in 1967 created an association that not only produced amateur films, but also organized seminars and discussion groups, thereby contributing to the formation of the new generation of Hong Kong filmmakers, a creative workshop where Asia and the West contaminated one another.

He made his debut in 1973 at the age of twenty-six (he was the youngest director in Hong Kong), with Farewell Buddy, a martial arts films that the stylization of the violence – experimented with from the start in its most radical forms, and brought to a level of paroxysm – condemned to be held up by censorship for two years (it was cut and re-edited in 1975  for release under the name The Young Dragons).

Woo then shifted towards musical films and comedy, where he refined his choreographic conception of production with the Cantonese opera film Princess Chang Ping (1975), followed by Follow the Star, a tribute to the films of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and the farce Money Crazy (both filmed in 1977). In the years following, he alternated comedies and martial arts films, with incursions into fantasy films. He is the “internal” director for series productions, where he proved to be a genius at mixing and mastering different film genres.

He came out of it when Tsui Hark, an established director and producer (who got his first job in a studio – the Golden Harvest Studio – thanks to Woo), returned the favour by financing an ambitious project in 1985, a sort of family saga similar to The Godfather: the gangster film A Better Tomorrow (with Chow Yun-fat, who has been Woo’s iconic actor in Hong Kong ever since) was a box-office hit and Woo defined his highly personal style, melodramatic and violent, paroxysmal and at the same time poignant and romantic.

In 1987, in A Better Tomorrow II, the director succeeded in exceeding the previous film: the long (20’) final sequence is a textbook case, similar to the scene in The Wild Bunch by Sam Peckinpah, one of the directors he idolizes.

Woo’s style was now mature in terms of expressive power. In 1989, he filmed The Killer, a revisitation of the neo-noir films by Jean-Pierre Melville, which crosses the stylized hyperbole of violence and a dizzying pace of production with melancholy and melodramatic atmospheres, action-painting with psychological investigation. His next film, Bullet in the Head (1990), is his “cursed” masterpiece, a war film set during the war in Vietnam, which the censorship by the British colony, and by the action film market itself, would cut by at least one third. 

After yet another success – in Hong Kong and on the international markets – Hard Boiled (1991) became a cult film for all the “Cormanesque” filmmakers who have contributed to changing American film (all of them, from Jonathan Demme to John Landis, are unconditional admirers of the director), Woo left Hong Kong (in 1992) and moved to Hollywood. There, in 1993, he filmed Hard Target, an action film with Jean-Claude Van Damme, considered halfway between an arthouse and a commercial film. But a number of cuts and changes were made to the film, which Woo was forced to accept during post-production.

The theft of two nuclear warheads was the subject of Broken Arrow (1996), with John Travolta and Christian Slater, where Woo retrieves his personal style and pays tribute to the directors of his “canon”, Sergio Leone first and foremost, with “a work for art lovers, for aesthetes, not even for the most hardcore of film lovers: this way or nothing” (Enrico Ghezzi).

But it was above all his masterpiece Face/Off (1997), a spectacular variation on the theme of the double – starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage – that consecrated the international triumph of his stylistic and thematic universe: the constant play of mirrors in the battle between good and evil, the nostalgia for lost affections, the fear of loneliness.

After the extraordinary success of Face/Off, John Woo was chosen by producer/actor Tom Cruise to direct the sequel to Mission:Impossible. In Mission:Impossible 2 (2000), overwhelming in its incredible sequence of frames, Woo succeeded in humanizing the spy Ethan Hunt, given the adventure greater breadth beyond the action.

In 2002 Woo brought Windtalkers to the big screen: starring Nicolas Cage, it was set during the battle of Saipan, focusing on yet another of his most personal themes: the friendship and the conflict/relationship between two men who are profoundly different in character and life choices.

In 2003, for Paramount, he filmed the science fiction thriller Paycheck (2003), with Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman. Based on a story by Philip K.Dick, the film is also a tribute to Hitchcock (it recalls the atmospheres of North by Northwest).

In 2006, he made Song Song and Little Cat, which was part of the film in episodes All the Invisible Children, presented Out of Competition at the Venice Film Festival.

After so many action films, Woo moved into the world of videogames and animation, bringing with him his unmistakable visual style. His first videogame, Stranglehold (modeled after Hard Boiled) was an instant success. He also produced the “anime” Ex Machina, part of the Appleseed saga. In addition to animation and videogames, Woo worked with Virgin Comics to produce his first series of comic books, 7 Brothers, published in 2007.

Starting in the early 2000s, Woo traveled more and more frequently to China, until he felt ready to tackle the colossal project Red Cliff (2008), his first great production in his native land, a martial saga that sought to reinterpret ancient political history to find elements that help to understand more recent history. This was the most expensive film – 80 million dollars – ever made in China, a superb approach to spectacular art film (but not “à la Zhang Yimou”), which the director from Hong Kong elaborates into a complex, refined and cerebral film, creating a saga drawn from history and classical literature. The story is set in the year 208 A.D., the era of the Warring States and is based on a series of intrigues and plots that the Emperor Han Xiandi will repress in bloodshed, thus unifying the Middle Kingdom.

Woo’s most recent effort is the co-direction and production of Jianyu jianghu (Rain of Swords), a cloak and dagger film starring Michelle Yeoh and Angeles Woo (the director’s younger daughter), which is currently being filmed in the studios at Hengdian, the largest production facility in the world. With producer Terence Chang (his accomplice throughout most of his career), he runs his production company Lion Rock (from the name of a mountain in Hong Kong), which has offices in Los Angeles, Beijing and Hong Kong. This year at the 67^th Venice International Film Festival he will present, Out of Competition, Jianyu (Reign of Assassins), co-directed with Su Chao-Pin.

La Commedia, the new film produced and directed by Amos Poe, one of the protagonists of  the “No Wave Cinema” – the  underground film movement based in New York, and father of the American Indie cinema, will be concluded in time for the 67^th Venice International Film Festival.

The film will have its world premiere on Friday September 3^rd, at Midnight in the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema), Out of Competition. The readings of the verses by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri are by Roberto Benigni (Paradiso), Alfonso Santagata (Inferno), Sandro Lombardi (Purgatorio). Loretta Mugnai is the metaphorical Beatrice Portinari. Music by Debbie Harry, Decay of Angels, Hayley Moss, Peter Gordon, Muchael Duclos, Brenda Elthon, Paraphilia, Dave Mitchell, Riccardo Moretti, and Andres Nazrala.

The 67^th Venice International Film Festival will take place on the Lido from September 1 through 1  2010, directed by Marco Mueller and organized by la Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta.

Amos Poe’s La Commedia is inspired by Dante Alighieri’s literary masterpiece The Divine Comedy and Eadweard Muybridge’s 19th century breakthrough The Horse in Motion, arguably the first“motion picture”. The key element of this film is the idea of a journey in motion, our life’s journey from hell, to purgatory to paradise – a pattern of events. Amos and Dante are two middle-aged “travellers” that have to confront themselves while undergoing a mid-life crisis. “Midway upon the journey of our life | I found myself within a forest dark…” so begins the Inferno. La Commedia is conceived as a cinema-verite document of Poe’s exile in Italy and France and especially Florence. It deals primarily with the perception of motion in a motion picture, whatever “narrative” we find is completely subjective. It’s composed of 20,000 animated still images divided into three cinematic sequences (100 minutes, like Dante’s 100 “canti”) that remind us of Dante Alighieri’s allegorical journey in search of Beatrice through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven – a kind of re-invention of the Commedia for the 21st Century, seven centuries after Alighieri’s revolutionary masterpiece. Poe carves a new “lingua vulgare” on the movie screen – a “dolce stil novo” of poetry.

The Directors said: “I was looking for a film to make and was looking for a good writer. Dante came to mind. La Commedia grew organically from my readings of The Divine Comedy, falling in love with a Florentine, my fascination with the roots of cinema as a movable poetic feast, and the help of thousands of fans on Facebook. My hope is that the viewer will be equally entertained by what is going on on the screen as by what’s happening in her or his head and heart. I believe that the magic of cinema lies in the interaction between the two narratives, the one that occurs in front of us and the one inside our soul”.

The film is an avant-garde production. While predicated on the prolific support of social networks such as YouTube, Facebook and Kickstarter – thus pushing the envelope of filmmaking today – it was produced by its author, in collaboration with producers Elena Santamaria, Ben Bindra, JR Skola and Victoria Bousis. 

Biographical notes:

Amos Poe – (Tel Aviv, Israel, 1950), considered the father of American Indie Cinema, is  also one of the founders of the No Wave Cinema movement along with Jim Jarmusch, Eric Mitchell, James Nares, John Lurie, and Richard Kern. He soon embraced B-movies, the avant-garde and the Nouvelle Vague, creating an innovative and vibrant style of cinema. He made his debut in 1975 directing Night Lunch with Ivan Kral. The following year he produced, edited and shot The Blank Generation (1976), regarded as the definitive manifesto of punk film, chronicling the seminal performances of Patti Smith, Blondie, Ramones, Talking Heads, Heartbreakers and many others. His next work, Unmade Beds (1976), which he wrote, produced and directed, was his debut feature-length film, a tribute to the French Nouvelle Vague and Godard’s A bout de souffle (1960).

In 1977 Poe wrote, produced and directed The Foreigner (1978), with Eric Mitchell and Debbie Harry, considered one of his most influential works. Subway Riders (1981) completes his underground trilogy, a series of bohemian-style films interpreted by artists, musicians and poets from downtown New York. In 1983-84, Poe co-wrote and directed Alphabet City, his first 35mm film, and directed many music videos (Run DMC, Animotion, Anthrax, Juice Newton, etc.). Subsequently he wrote Rocket Gibraltar (1988) directed by Daniel Petrie and in the late Eighties he worked on several screenplays. The year 1990 marked Poe’s return to film direction with Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole (1991) presented at the Berlin Festival. The following year the filmmaker produced Joey Breaker by Steven Starr, before his return to screenwriting with Tar Baby (from the novel by Toni Morrison), Kid Killer, La Pacifica (translated into a graphic novel by DC Comics), The Guitar and many other titles.  In 1994 he directed Dead Weekend, the sci-fi inspired by Ed Wood. In the late 1990s he wrote and directed the neo-noir Frogs for Snakes (1998). In 1999 he began to teach film at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, while between 2002 and 2003 he produced and directed Steve Earle: Just An American Boy, a portrait of the American singer-songwriter. In 2007 he attended the 64^th Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti Eventi section with the experimental underground-style documentary Empire II, which filmed New York out of a window for a year, inspired by Empire (1964) by Andy Warhol. In 2008 Poe worked on other projects, including the screenplay for The Guitar, the directing debut of Amy Redford presented at the Sundance Film Festival, and www.pianospecs.com, a platform for filmmakers, designers and artists. The following year, Poe was back at Venice as Jury president for the Corto Cortissimo section. Amos Poe lives between New York and Florence. Currently he is working on a series of cinematic projects to be developed in Italy.

On Tuesday 8^th March 2011, the last day of the Venetian Carnival and International Women’s Day, at a prestigious location in Venice, a unique and once-in-a-lifetime event will take place.

A theatrical extravaganza of queens, historical queens,

Queens from myth & legend.

Adorned with breathtaking costumes;

Creations inspired by the Passions & Dreams

Of women who have shaped history

And our imaginations.

Costumes of beauty and splendour,

Lovingly designed and handcrafted by Antonia Sautter,

Will glitter and sparkle down the catwalk.

The queens will be heralded, accompanied and fêted

By sublime singing, captivating dancing

And virtuoso musical performances.

And you too can take part in this exclusive and unique event: a costume show to mark the end of the Venetian Carnival and celebrate International Women’s Day inspired by the Queens of the past, of legend, myth and the imagination and dedicated to all women whose strength, passion, compassion and wisdom make them Queens at heart.

For ticket information and costumes:

Antonia Sautter Creations & Events
San Marco 1286
30124 Venice
info@ballodeldoge.com
www.ilballodeldoge.com
Tel. boutique + 39 041 5224426 (every day from 10am to 8pm)
Fax boutique + 39 041 5287543
Tel. office & atelier + 39 041 2413802 (Monday to Friday from 10.30am to 7.30pm)
Fax office  & atelier + 39 041 2413802
To arrange a costume fitting, please call the office during the week or the boutique during the weekend.

The “Club Orizzonti” will be created to accompany the Venice International Film Festival’s most innovative section, a veritable documentary array of contemporary cinema in all it’s forms of expression.

Orizzonti has been renewed and restructured, so that a wider spectrum of filmmakers can interact with the rest of the program. It was important for the Venice International Film Festival to offer a very special space to an area of film which, now more than ever, offers a lively take on all the arts, on all expressive languages.

And this experiment could only be accompanied by new features in the organization: for the film delegations and their principal contacts, the new “Club Orizzonti” will be fitted out on the first floor of the Palazzo del Casinò (Venice Lido).  

This will be a space for meetings and discussions, complete with an eating and relaxation area, which is being offered to all the filmmakers, producers and artistic collaborators of the films selected for the Orizzonti Competition. Here they will be able to meet the journalists and critics, market professionals and accredited university students at the 67^th Venice International Film Festival who are interested in the works presented in this program section.

The “Club Orizzonti” will be open to all accredited visitors to the 67^th Venice Film Festival following each screening of the Orizzonti films, which will begin at 11.30 AM, 2:30 PM and 5:15 PM in the adjacent Sala Perla (also located on the first floor of the Palazzo del Casinò). Each screening will in fact be followed by a meeting (scheduled for 1:00 PM, 4:30 PM and 7:00 PM) with the delegations of the Orizzonti film shown at those times.

The Orizzonti section is competitive. The international Orizzonti Jury will be chaired by Shirin Neshat (Iran, director, president). The other jury members are Raja Amari (Tunisia, director), Lav Diaz (Philippines, director), Alexander Horwath (Austria, critic), Pietro Marcello (Italy, director).

The Jury will attribute the Orizzonti Award (reserved for feature-length films); the Special Orizzonti Jury Prize (reserved for feature-length films); the Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film; the Orizzonti Award for Best Medium-Length Film.

Essential Killing, the new film by Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski, starring Vincent Gallo and Emmanuelle Seigner, will be finished just in time for Venice. This is the last title, presented in its world premiere screening, in Competition at the 67^th Venice International Film Festival.

The 67^th Venice International Film Festival will take place on the Lido from September 1 through 11 2010, directed by Marco Mueller and organized by la Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta.

Essential Killing is a provocative thriller (almost entirely without dialogue) that confirms the excellent form of the enfant terrible of New Eastern European Film, Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski. The film tells the story of an Afghan man, captured by American forces in Kabul, who finds himself transported to a nameless European country. He manages to escape into the vast frozen woodland, a world away from the desert home he knew. Forced into extreme survival mode, he must kill anyone who strays into his path.

Vincent Gallo is the lead in Essential Killing, with French actress Emmanuelle Seigner (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – 2007, La Vie En Rose - 2007, The Ninth Gate – 1999).

The script was written by Skolimowski and Ewa Piaskowska, and produced by Skopia Film. Essential Killing is a Polish/Irish/Norwegian/Hungarian co-production, with the involvement of the Polish Film Institute and Canal + Cyfrowy, Ireland’s Element Pictures, Cylinder Productions in Norway, Hungary’s Mythberg Films, and the support of Eurimages. HanWay Films is handling international sales. Essential Killing sees the Polish director reunite with Jeremy Thomas, who in 1978 produced his film The Shout, which went on to win the Grand Prix of the Jury at Cannes.

In recent years, Jerzy Skolimowski has participated several times in the Venetian Festival: as director he successfully presented Na samym dnie (Deep End, 1970), The Lightship (in competition at the 42^nd Venice Film Festival in 1985 and Special Jury Prize), and Ferdydurke (1991, in competition at Venice 48). In 2001 he was a member of the Venice 58 international jury, but he also starred in the film Zakonnica, and was the director of the film Oko Wykol, both presented in the retrospective dedicated that year to Andrzej Munk. In 2000 he was in the cast of Before Night Falls, directed by Julian Schnabel and presented in Competition at Venice 57.

Jerzy Skolimowski (Lodz, 1938), Polish director, scriptwriter, and actor, had his artistic training with Andrzej Wajda and Roman Polanski. In his early youth, he collaborated with Wajda on the screenplay of Niewinni czarodzieje (Innocent Sorcerers, 1960) and with Polanski on the screenplay of Knife in the Water (Nóz w wodzie, 1962), a film-manifesto of new Polish cinema. A witness of two different worlds and cultures, constantly balanced between Eastern and Western Europe, Jerzy Skolimowski has directed over twenty films, winning the highest acknowledgments in the most important international festivals, including the Golden Berlin Bear for Le départ (1967) and the Award for Best Screenplay at Cannes for his black comedy Moonlighting (1982). As an actor Skolimowski also starred in Eastern Promises (2007) by David Cronenberg. In 2008 he presented at Cannes Festival Four Nights With Anna, a much appreciated “return to his origins”.

Vincent Gallo gained attention for his standout performances in Arizona Dream (1993) by Emir Kusturica and Palookaville by Alan Taylor (presented in the Corsia di Sorpasso section at the 52^nd Venice International Film Festival in 1995). In 1998 he wrote, directed, and starred in the indie favourite Buffalo 66. Cast as the protagonist in Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro, presented at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Cannes in 2009, this year Vincent Gallo comes back to Venice as a director with his film Promises Written in Water, in Competition, and with the short film The Agent, presented in the Orizzonti program line.

Machete, Robert Rodriguez’ highly anticipated new action film, conceived as an expansion of the faux Grindhouse trailer, directed by Rodriguez with Ethan Maniquis, will have its world premiere at the Lido as the Midnight film, on Opening Night of the 67^th Venice International Film Festival.

The 67^th Venice International Film Festival will take place September 1 through 11, 2010, directed by Marco Mueller and organized by la Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta.

To be released on September 3, 2010 in the United States, Machete will have its world premiere public screening (all festival badges admitted as well) at the 67^th Mostra del cinema, on Wednesday September 1 2010, in the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema).

Rodriguez, the man who wrote a new chapter in the history of action films – from El Mariachi (1992) to From Dusk ‘Till Dawn (1996), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) and Sin City (2005) – here  directs an incredible cast, led by Danny Trejo (star of the original faux trailer) in the role of the legendary avenger Machete Cortez. At his side Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Cheech Marin, Steven Seagal, Jeff Fahey, Don Johnson, Lindsay Lohan and Robert De Niro, in the role of the corrupt Senator McLaughlin. Filmed in the fall of 2009, the film was also written by Robert Rodriguez, produced by Robert Rodriguez, Elizabeth Avellan, Aaron Kaufman, Iliana Nikolic and Rick Schwartz, and will be released in the United States by 20th Century Fox.

Left for dead after clashing with notorious drug kingpin Torrez Mexican ex-federal Machete escapes to Texas looking to disappear and forget his tragic past, but what he finds is a web of corruption and deceit that leaves a bullet in a Senator and Machete a wanted man. Machete sets out to clear his name and expose a deep conspiracy. Standing in his way are Booth – a ruthless businessman with an endless payroll of killers, Von – a twisted border vigilante leading a small army, and Sartana Rivera – a beautiful immigrations officer torn between enforcing the law and doing what is right. Helping Machete even the odds are Luz – a sexy taco-truck lady with a rebellious spirit and revolutionary heart, and Padre, a priest who’s good with blessings, but better with guns. Carving a path of bullets, blood, and broken hearts, Machete’s quest ultimately leads him back to Torrez for an epic battle of revenge and redemption.

The International Jury for the Competition at the 67^th Venice International Film Festival has been selected, with American director and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino as president.

The Jury will award the official prizes of the 67^th Venice International Film Festival, which will take place on the Lido from September 1 through 11 2010, directed by Marco Mueller and organized by la Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta.

The personalities selected to compose the Jury are:

The Mexican Guillermo Arriaga, considered one of the most influential Latin-American writers (his most famous novels include , include The Night Buffalo, A Sweet Smell of Death, and Guillotine Squad), scriptwriter for the acclaimed films by Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel, he made his debut as a director in The Burning Plain, in Competition at Venice in 2008;

Lithuan actress Ingeborga Dapk?nait?, one of the most talented actresses of the Soviet Union who thanks to her  acclaimed work on stage and screen (Burnt by the Sun, Moskva) has often joined Hollywood productions (Mission: Impossible, Seven Years in Tibet);

French director and screenwriter Arnaud Desplechin, considered one of the finest heirs to the Nouvelle Vague, often in competition at Cannes, and in Competition at Venice in 2004 with Kings and Queen (Rois et Reine), a film that won all-round acclaim, returning to the Lido in 2007 with his documentary The Beloved (L’Aimée);

American musician and composer Danny Elfman, famous in the ‘70s with the Mystic Knights of Oingo-Boingo music band, and in the ‘80s became one of the most important composers of film soundtracks (60 scores to his credit) of his generation. In particular he is the author of the scores for Tim Burton’s films (he also is the voice of Jack Skellington) and for many other major Hollywood directors;

Italian director and screenwriter Luca Guadagnino, one of the most important in new Italian cinema, associated with Venice since his debut as a director (The Protagonists, 1999), and subsequently returning to the Lido three more times, last year with the extraordinary success of I am Love (Io sono l’amore), presented in the Orizzonti section, which is now winning great international acclaim, screened at many festivals and sold in 23 countries;

And director and screenwriter Gabriele Salvatores, Oscar recipient for Mediterraneo in 1991, among the Italian authors internationally more appreciated, and now enjoying great success once again for Happy Family, a choral comedy that has conquered the acclaim of audience and critics, here and in America.

On the closing night of the Venice Film Festival (September 11 2010), the International Jury of Venezia 67 will award the official prizes to the feature-length films in competition: the Golden Lion for Best Film, the Silver Lion for Best Director, the Special Jury Prize, the Coppa Volpi for Best Male Actor, the Coppa Volpi for Best Female Actress, the Premio Marcello Mastroianni for Best New Young Actor or Actress, the Osella for Best Technical Contribution, and the Osella for Best Screenplay.

American Director Julie Taymor’s The Tempest has been chosen as the closing night film (Out of Competition) for the 67^th Venice International Film Festival. The world premiere screening of The Tempest arrives on the cusp of the 400^th anniversary of Shakespeare’s spectacular fantasy. Through Taymor’s trademark visual flair and creative direction, the film presents even the most devoted Shakespeare fans an opportunity to experience one of the Bard’s most beloved works in a unique and exhilarating new production.

In Taymor’s The Tempest, the director brings an original dynamic to the story by changing the gender of the sorcerer Prospero into the sorceress – Prospera – portrayed by Oscar winner Helen Mirren.  Prospera’s journey spirals through vengeance to forgiveness as she reigns over a magical island, cares for her young daughter, Miranda, and unleashes her powers against shipwrecked enemies in this exciting, masterly mix of romance, treachery and the supernatural.

The screenplay for The Tempest was written by Taymor with original music by Oscar-winning composer, and Taymor’s long-time collaborator, Elliot Goldenthal.  Costumes were designed by three-time Oscar winner Sandy Powell.  The film was edited by Oscar winner Françoise Bonnot.

The world premiere screening of The Tempest will be presented in the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema) on Saturday, September 11, following the awards ceremony. The 67^th Venice International Film Festival will be held September 1 through 11, 2010, directed by Marco Mueller and organized by la Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta.

Distributed by Touchstone Pictures and produced by Julie Taymor, Lynn Hendee, Robert Chartoff, Jason K. Lau and Julia Taylor-Stanley, the film is set for a U.S. release in December 2010. Icon Entertainment International (IEI) is handling sales for international territories.

About Julie Taymor

A 1991 recipient of the MacArthur “genius” Fellowship, Julie Taymor has had an illustrious career that has spanned the worlds of film, opera, and theatre. Taymor’s three previous feature films have earned a total of eight Oscar and three Golden Globe nominations.

Her feature film debut, Titus, was based on her own off-Broadway stage production and starred Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange and Alan Cumming. In 2002, Taymor’s biographical film, Frida, earned six Academy Award nominations and won two. Taymor took on the music of the Beatles, and earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, in Across the Universe, brilliantly weaving together a tale of the tumultuous 1960’s with the group’s legendary music as a backdrop.

Beyond the silver screen, Taymor has directed five operas internationally including Oedipus Rex, which she turned into a film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Jury Award at the Montreal Festival of Films on Art. Taymor also directed Salome; The Flying Dutchman; Die Zauberflote which has been in repertory at The Met for six years; The Magic Flute which was the abridged English version of Die Zauberflote and inaugurated a new series on PBS television, Great Performances at The Met; and Grendel.

Taymor is best known as the visionary creator of theatrical productions that break barriers and expand horizons. In 1998 she became the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for her groundbreaking production of The Lion King on Broadway. Her previous stage successes include The Green Bird, which earned two Drama Desk award nominations, and Juan Darien, which received five Tony nominations and two Obie Awards. Taymor is set to take Broadway by storm again this year with the highly anticipated Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, an original musical with songs by U2’s Bono and The Edge.