- Title: ITALY: RICHARD GERE AND SHARON STONE ARRIVE FOR THE 57TH VENICE FILM FESTIVAL
- Date: 28th August 2000
- Summary: (MUSIC FROM THE FOUR SEASONS BY VIVALDI OVER PICTURES) WIDE OF SUNSET OVER VENICE LAGOON AND BOATS (5 SHOTS)
- Embargoed: 12th September 2000 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: VENICE, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA7YKMGSIOGY8VEEB0KXH5MOUBI
- Story Text: Hollywood Legend Clint Eastwood is set to open this year's Venice Film Festival returning to Italy where his career was launched in the early sixties in the spaghetti westerns.
Eastwood will receive a life-time achievement award and is one of a host of stars set to grace this year's festival - the 57th - in the comparable watery setting of the 'Serenissima' the most-serene city of Venice.
When Italian film director Sergio Leone first approached small-time American TV star Clint Eastwood to shoot in Italy and Spain a German-financed 'western' remake of a Japanese samurai film, little could both men have realised what they were starting.
'A Fistful of Dollars' gave birth to a genre quickly dubbed 'spaghetti westerns' in deference to Leone, and Eastwood embarked on a stellar Hollywood career that saw him become arguably the biggest movie star in the world, with a little help from Italy.
Now he's come full-circle and Italian cinema is set to grace him with one of its highest honours - the Golden Lion for life-time achievement at the Venice film festival.
Festival Director Alberto Barbera says, "I'm very proud of this because it is the first time that Clint Eastwood is in Venice he never came with a film before he's a great.
"He's one of the last great icons of the Hollywood cinema.
He's a total film-maker, he's not just a popular and successful actor - very well known worldwide - he's an original film maker and who was quite underestimated in the past. He is in his seventies and I think it is time to recognise that he is a great film-maker."
Eastwood has chosen to reciprocate by airing his latest acting and directorial venture 'Space Cowboys' at Venice, the story of a quartet of veteran astronauts who refer to themselves as 'The Ripe Stuff' brought out of retirement for one last 'save-the-world' mission.
Space Cowboys is not in competition at the festival but over twenty movies are from around the world.
Top-line talent expected to attend from Hollywood include Eastwood's 'Space Cowboys' co-stars Tommy Lee Jones, James Garner and and Donald Sutherland, Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer promoting 'What Lies Beneath' and Johnny Depp, Richard Gere and Guy Pearce.
Basic Instinct star Sharon Stone is also in town set to help promote an AIDS charity function and present Eastwood with his Golden Lion.
But before that all happens the Lido, the beautiful island across the lagoon from Venice, and scene for most festival activities, is sprucing itself up and dusting down the movie posters in preparation for another Biennale. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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