FILM: movie watch

High flyer

News comes that Steven Spielberg is to follow Schindler's List and Amistad with another historical epic. Undaunted by Amistad's mediocre box office, the Oscar-winning director went through his DreamWorks studio to purchase the rights to Lindbergh, A. Scott Berg's biography of the the pioneering American aviator. Berg's book will be published later this year, but is already expected to be the most far-reaching examination of the American icon. Spielberg himself plans to direct the biopic.

Rough with a view

Up at the Villa, based on W. Somerset Maugham's novella, will portray the romantic and political entanglements of a British widow living in Florence, played by Kristin Scott Thomas. So far, so period, but who is the English rose set to play against when filming starts in a couple of months? Sean Penn - how about that for a bit of inspired casting?

Sink the Titanic

After 15 weeks at the top of the US Box Office, Titanic has finally been holed. And what better to knock the shipwreck epic off the top spot than yet another tale of marooned mariners. Lost in Space finally sank Cameron's multi-Oscar winner with a record April opening weekend of $20.1 million. Titanic limped into port with a mere $11.5 million.