Mr Nice - Trailer for Howard Marks biopic starring Rhys Ifans

Mr. Nice trailer

Source: Quiet Earth

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Mr Nice - Photos of Rhys Ifans as Howard Marks

A while back I reported that Rhys Ifans was in talks to play the reformed drug smuggler, Howard Marks.

As you can see from these photos Ifans got the part and filming is well under way for the 2010 release of Mr Nice.

Bernard Rose is writing and directing the film, which is based on Marks's 1996 autobiography.
Chloe Sevigny stars as Howard's wife, Judy and
David Thewlis will play the IRA man with whom Marks conspired to traffic cannabis through Ireland and on to Britain.
Marks studied at Balliol College, Oxford in the 1960s before turning to drug dealing out of boredom. By the 1980s, he has 43 aliases, 89 phone lines and 25 worldwide companies trading as money-laundering vehicles for his dope business.
He was released from prison in April 1995 after serving seven years of his sentence, and claims he was never violent to anyone during his criminal career. He stood for parliament in 1997 on the issue of leglisation of cannabis.
During his 20-year career as a drug dealer, the Oxford graduate cultivated ties with members of the IRA and was apparently recruited as a spy by the British secret services.

Source: Quiet Earth & DavidThewlis.Net

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Danny Boyle cleans up at the 11th British Independent Film Awards. Could Slumdog Millionaire win him an Oscar?

After Trainspotting and zombies, a teaboy millionaire is tipped to win Boyle an Oscar: Happy-Go-Lucky and Hunger are big winners at independent film awards

In Bruges Best screenplay

Slumdog Millionaire Best film, best director, most promising newcomer

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Best actress

An uplifting yet grimly realistic tale of a young chai-wallah scraping a life out of poverty was last night being talked of as an Oscar contender after it took three awards at the British independent film awards (BIFAs).

Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, the story of a Mumbai teenage boy who astounds all around him by doing well on the Indian Who Wants To Be a Millionaire quiz show, won best film, best director and best newcomer for its British lead.

In a night when honours were spread about, there were also three wins for Hunger, Steve McQueen's unflinching portrait of Bobby Sands and the hunger strikes; two for Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky; and one for In Bruges, Martin McDonagh's comedy about two Irish assassins sent to Belgium.

But Boyle was the talk of the night. The former artistic director of the Royal Court theatre is already on many pundits' Oscar prediction lists after a film career which has seen him happily flip genres: from Edinburgh heroin addicts in Trainspotting to Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach to zombies in 28 Days Later.

Last night he was named best director at the BIFAs and Slumdog Millionaire was best film. The film's young lead, Harrow-born Dev Patel - best known to British audiences as Anwar in E4's Skins - won best newcomer.

Slumdog Millionaire, written by The Full Monty's Simon Beaufoy, tells the story of a Mumbai street child. As he does well on the quiz show, flashbacks chronicle his life, the realities of which Boyle does not flinch from showing.

Boyle's film, a third of which is spoken in Hindi, opens in the UK on January 9 but has already gone down well on the festival circuit and opened to fantastic reviews in the US.

A Rolling Stone critic said: "What I feel for this movie isn't just admiration, it's mad love."

USA Today was similarly won over: "The beautifully rendered and energetic tale celebrates resilience, the power of knowledge and the vitality of human experience. Horrifying, humorous and life-affirming, it is, above all, unforgettable." The Los Angeles Times declared it "the best old-fashioned audience picture of the year".

The Turner prize-winning artist Steve McQueen, who represents the UK at next year's Venice Biennale, won the best debut director award for Hunger and the film's cinematographer Sean Bobbit, won best technical achievement. Leading man Michael Fassbender won best actor for his astonishing - not least in the 33lbs of weight he had to lose - performance as Sands.

Hunger is not a film for a cheery romantic night out. It shows the reality of the dirty protests in the Maze prison in stomach-churning detail. Nothing from the Sands story is stepped away from: the brutality, the torture and the alarming effects starvation has on a man's body.

At the other end of the movie spectrum, Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, which follows a relentlessly cheerful London teacher called Poppy, won two acting awards. Eddie Marsan won best supporting actor for his role as the crazed racist driving instructor, and Alexis Zegerman won best supporting actress as Poppy's best mate, Zoe.

The well-fancied In Bruges, featuring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as a pair of chalk-and-cheese killers sent by their psychotic boss (Ralph Fiennes) to Bruges, came away with the best screenplay award for its writer and director Martin McDonagh. It was the playwright's film debut.

Vera Farmiga won best actress for her role in concentration camp drama The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas, while the Israeli animation Waltz With Bashir won best foreign film.

At the ceremony in Old Billingsgate Market, London, special awards were also given out. The actor David Thewlis was rewarded for his outstanding contribution to British film, while Michael Sheen - best known for being able to pass himself off as Kenneth Williams, Tony Blair and David Frost - was given the Variety award.

It was the 11th BIFA ceremony, with the awards seeming to grow in stature each year. Co-directors Johanna von Fischer and Tessa Collinson, said: "It's been another stellar year for independent film in Britain, as represented by the diverse spread of nominations across the board.

Source: The Guardian

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Rhys Ifans to be Mr Nice Guy in Howard Marks bio-pic

Andy D passed me this story from The Telegraph.

Rhys Ifans is to play the role of fellow Welshman Howard Marks in a British film about the life of the reformed drug smuggler.

The actor will star alongside Chloe Sevigny and David Thewlis the adaption of the former cannabis dealer's best-selling autobiography.

Ifans, 40, is in final negotiations to play the part of Marks, who spent seven years at Terre Haute jail in Indiana after his hashish empire was busted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

During his 20-year career as a drug dealer, the Oxford graduate cultivated ties with members of the IRA and was apparently recruited as a spy by the British secret services.

Bernard Rose is writing and directing the film, which is based on Marks's 1996 autobiography, Mr Nice.

Sevigny is in talks to play Marks' wife Judy, who lived with him for most of the time that he was dealing drugs. She was herself imprisoned for two years and separated from her three children as a result of her involvement in Marks' affairs. Thewlis will play the IRA man with whom Marks conspired to traffic cannabis through Ireland and on to Britain.

Marks said he was pleased at the news and disclosed Ifans had been a fan. "We met in the 1990s at a Super Furry Animals gig," he said. "I didn't have a clue who he was but he wanted by autograph. He brought over all these cigarette papers and asked me to sign them.

"I thought I was doing him a really big favour but since them he has become so famous it's like he's doing me one."

Marks studied at Balliol College, Oxford in the 1960s before turning to drug dealing out of boredom. By the 1980s, he has 43 aliases, 89 phone lines and 25 worldwide companies trading as money-laundering vehicles for his dope business.

He was released from prison in April 1995 after serving seven years of his sentence, and claims he was never violent to anyone during his criminal career. He stood for parliament in 1997 on the issue of leglisation of cannabis.

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