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A German film, The Lives of Others, about a secret policeman in the former East Germany, has won best film at the European Film Awards in Warsaw, Poland.

It beat the Spanish film Volver by Pedro Almodovar - which still took five awards, including best director and best actress for Penelope Cruz.

It is the first time the ceremony was held in an eastern European country.

Filmmaker Roman Polanski returned to his homeland to receive a lifetime achievement award.

The Lives of Others is a drama about how East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi, destroyed the lives of ordinary people.

Director Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck told the audience it meant a lot to win the award in Poland, "since my father was born in this country".

Another director returning to his roots was Roman Polanski.

The Oscar-winning director said it was a moving experience for him to return to Poland.

He dedicated the award to Penelope Cruz and her co-stars, actresses who he said represented "the incredible women that surrounded me when I was a child".

via BBC.

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN — A leading Kazakh writer has nominated actor Sacha Baron Cohen for a national award for popularizing Kazakhstan. Novelist Sapabek Asip-uly called on the Kazakh Club of Art Patrons to give Baron Cohen its annual award, according to a letter published by the Vremya newspaper Thursday.

Baron Cohen’s fictional character Borat "has managed to spark an immense interest of the whole world in Kazakhstan, something our authorities could not do during the years of independence," said Asip-uly.

Government officials in the former Soviet republic have been enraged by Borat’s unflattering portrayal of Kazakh life in the spoof documentary, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."

"If state officials completely lack a sense of humor, their country becomes a laughing stock," Asip-uly said.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said earlier this week that Borat has helped to make Kazakhstan better known in the West and he invited Baron Cohen to visit the Central Asian state.

The film, which follows Borat on a trip across the U.S. to report back to his homeland on American culture and lifestyle, has become a runaway hit while generating controversy for scenes depicting misogyny and racism.

"I truly hope my initiative will be supported for the benefit of the glorious nation of Kazakhstan," Asip-uly said.

Asip-uly is known for several novels describing the Russian colonization of Kazakh lands and the Stalinist purges against Kazakhstan’s political and cultural elite in the 1930s.

© 2006 The Associated Press.

HOLLYWOOD - A sequel to the blockbuster movie adaptation The Da Vinci Code is in the works.
 
Scriptwriter Akiva Goldsman, who adapted the Dan Brown novel for the screen, has reportedly been paid $3.8 million to write the sequel.

However, it’s said the sequel will not be an original story, but will actually be based on Angels and Demons, the book which precedes The Da Vinci Code.

Sources claim the plot, which sees cryptologist Robert Langdon, played by Tom Hanks, help a woman to discover the links between her father’s death and secret society conspiracies, will be altered so that it can follow on from the first film.

It is expected the movie will be released in 2008.

via Hollywood.com

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — ‘’Rambo'’ is preparing to return from retirement in Thailand early next year, and Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington will also come here next month to play a drug lord in the upcoming film ‘’American Gangster,'’ a Thai film official said Thursday.

Sylvester Stallone will spend several weeks in Thailand early next year, shooting ‘’Rambo IV: In the Serpent’s Eye'’ in the country’s lush, mountainous northern provinces, said Wanasiri Morakul, director of the Thailand Film Office.

In the latest sequel, John Rambo is pulled out of retirement in Bangkok to help find missionary aid workers who disappear as they’re delivering supplies to ethnic minorities in neighboring Myanmar.

About 70 to 80 percent of the movie will be shot in Thailand — in Bangkok and the northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai — earning Thailand more than 200 million baht (US$5 million, euro4 million), Wanasiri told The Associated Press by telephone.

She said that after a committee read the ‘’Rambo'’ script, they gave the green light for the shoot in Thailand, but voiced concern that violence in the movie could reflect badly on ethnic minorities on the Thai-Myanmar border.

‘’Some scenes might be a little bit violent, so we asked them not to make it too violent because if we say that the ethnic minorities are violent, it might be inappropriate,'’ she said. ‘’We did not forbid them — we just asked them to be careful.'’

She also wanted the filmmakers to assure villagers and environmentalists that any bombing scenes — ‘’in that ‘Rambo’ style'’ — would not harm the environment.

Activists were up in arms over the ‘’The Beach,'’ shot in 2000 and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, complaining a beach in a Thai national park was damaged during the shooting. The filmmakers denied it.

Washington will come to Thailand Nov. 8-13 to play Harlem heroin kingpin Frank Lucas in ‘’American Gangster,'’ about drugs smuggled to New York in the 1970s inside the coffins of American soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.

Only about 5 percent of the movie will be shot in Thailand — in the capital Bangkok and in the mountainous north — employing about 250 Thais and bringing the country at least 60 million baht (US$1.6 million, euro1.3 million), Wanasiri said.

Thailand has touted itself as an ideal film location and had a total of 372 shoots this year for foreign movies, TV series, ads and music videos, worth 1.38 billion baht (US$37 million, euro29 million).

Recent blockbusters shot partially in Thailand include ‘’Alexander'’ and ‘’Star Wars Episode III.'’

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rock ‘n’ roll legend Elvis Presley ceded his crown to Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain on Forbes.com’s list as the top-earning dead celebrity.

The list, published on Tuesday, said grunge rocker Cobain earned $50 million between October 2005 and October 2006. Presley wound up in the No. 2 slot with $42 million, down from last year’s $45 million.

Forbes.com bases its dollar amounts on licensing deals for using the deceased celebrities’ work or image in advertising or elsewhere.

This was Cobain’s first time on the list in its six years of publication. Presley has ruled the roost since its inception, said Forbes.com staff writer Lacey Rose.

Cobain’s coup was due to his widow, actress and singer Courtney Love, who sold a 25-percent stake in the Seattle grunge group’s song catalog to New York music publishing company PrimeWave.

Ranked after Presley is "Peanuts" cartoon strip creator Charles Schulz at $35 million.

Rounding out the top five were Beatle John Lennon at $24 million and groundbreaking physicist Albert Einstein at $20 million, whose estate profited from such licensing deals as the popular "Baby Einstein" educational videos.

Other celebrities on the list include Theodore Geisel, better known as children’s book author Dr. Seuss; rhythm & blues pioneer Ray Charles, silver screen legend Marilyn Monroe and reggae superstar Bob Marley.

Past top earners include songwriter Irving Berlin and actor Marlon Brando.