News: Gillian Anderson

The former X-Files star has been turning up in some very unexpected places of late – who, after all, would have expected Scully to appear in a relatively low-budget political biopic like this week’s The Last King of Scotland, or a big BBC costume drama series like last year’s Bleak House adaptation? It seems her move to the UK has done her artistic credibility some good – though will it be maintained with her upcoming projects?

Anderson currently has two films in the pipeline, both British. First, due in April in the UK, Straightheads revolves around a middle-class couple who, after being attacked by a vicious gang, decide to have their own bit of violent fun – if you want to find out more, check out the film’s rather fun blog. After that, she’ll be cropping up alongside the very British likes of Brenda Blethyn, Jane Horrocks and John Hurt in the comic tale of blackmail in a seaside town that is No One Gets Off In This Town. Sounds decidedly Carry On – which may or may not be a good thing…

News: Guillermo del Toro

The Mexican horror maestro has outdone himself with this week’s Pan’s Labyrinth
, the Golden Palm-nominated adult fairy tale which should be a shoe-in for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars, at the very least. For his next project, though, he will be returning to Hollywood for a sequel to his interesting (if flawed) 2004 comic book adaptation Hellboy. Hellboy 2: The Golden Army will see the return of the big red crime-fighting demon, as played by the heavily made-up Ron Perlman, along with the object of his affection, Selma Blair.

Set for release in 2008, if you can’t wait that long, try to track down the made for TV cartoon spin-offs Hellboy: Sword of Storms and Hellboy: Blood and Iron – del Toro may only have acted as Consultant Producer, but pretty much all the stars of the first film – Perlman, Blair and even the top-notch John Hurt – have lent their voices to the two feature-length animations.

After Hellboy 2, del Toro seems to be set to return to Spain and the impact of the Spanish Civil War, the setting for both Pan’s Labyrinth and 2001’s The Devil’s Backbone, for 1990s-set 3993, described by del Toro as

“a movie that, if I do it, would close the trilogy of Spanish Civil War movies, because it’s about a character in 1993 who believes that civil war is a thing of the past. And something from 1939 comes to life and proves that it’s not — that it’s pretty much alive.”

Sounds interesting, at least, should it happen – but if it does, don’t expect it to arrive much before 2009.