ITALY: Movie star John Malkovich and actress Cameron Diaz take centre stage at the Venice film festival

Record ID: 853790

  • Title: ITALY: Movie star John Malkovich and actress Cameron Diaz take centre stage at the Venice film festival
  • Date: 3rd September 1999
  • Summary: (REUTERS TV) (VENICE, ITALY) GRAND CANAL AND ST. MARK'S SQ. BELL TOWER, VENICE CAMERON DIAZ ARRIVES ON THE VENICE LIDO BY WATER TAXI
  • Embargoed: 18th September 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VENICE, ITALY
  • City:
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics:
  • Reuters ID: LVAE3I1CSTOCQAC0I52M2MHHPSLY
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  • Story Text: Cult US movie star John Malkovich and actress Cameron Diaz took centre stage at the Venice Film festival today promoting the comedy fantasy 'Being John Malkovitch,' a surreal journey through Malkovitch's brain! And all eyes were wide open when Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman spoke movingly of the late Stanley Kubrick when they attended the festival's opening night screening of 'Eyes Wide Shut.' John Malkovich and Cameron Diaz took a 'turn' at Venice today - promoting 'Being John Malkovich,' Spike Jonze's surrealist low-budget comedy featuring the eponymous star.
    The action trawls through the slimy subconscious of the cult actor, a journey undertaken by John Cusack, playing a down at heel filing clerk who suddenly discovers he can plumb into the great actor's mind - indeed he can BE John Malkovich with all the great man's trials and tribulations.
    Who else could play John Malkovich than Malkovich The film also boasts the gorgeous Miss Diaz - although the stunning actress who lit up 'The Mask' and 'Something about Mary' is barely recognisable in the movie as the down-trodden wife of Cusack.
    It's a script that was kicking around LA for four years and finally Malkovich, star of 'Dangerous Liasons,' 'In The Line of Fire,' and 'Con Air' himself got to read it - thinking initially the title was a one-line joke.
    "I was in Los Angeles," Malkovich said in Venice today, "and the flights were so late getting there that I read everything that I had to read.I was only there three or four days so I called my partner there in our office and asked if there was anything there I needed to read and he said 'I'll send you something to read.' So - if I even looked at the title I thought it was a one-line joke - then I came to find it was a one-hundred and ten page joke.I really like the quality of the writing very much and found it provocative, amusing, extremely well written and very enjoyable and of course I hoped it would never get made or even circulated but that happens in life when we have to take the blows."
    Director Spike Jonze makes his directorial debut with this movie.His previous award-winning work being mainly in pop videos and tv commercials.
    Diaz took a major pay-cut to work with Jonze, having long admired his work.
    Jonze HAD considered trying to make his movie WITHOUT Malkovich - but figured nobody else could substitute.
    It's certainly a curio - it's potential success at the box-office remains to be seen.
    'Being John Malkovich' is not in competition in Venice this year.Neither is the opening blockbuster 'Eyes Wide Shut' but all eyes are wide open on the movie's stars, Hollywood golden couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
    They opened the festival before an audience that included the late Stanley Kubrick's widow Christiane and spoke of their delight at its selection and of their sadness that Kubrick himself wasn't there.
    At a screening at the Venice Lido's Grand Hall' Kidman said "It's a great honour and its such an emotional experience for us to see all these people who loved Stanley Kubrick and love his films and they're here to celebrate not just Eyes Wide Shut but his career and also just to see film enthusiasts in general.It's beautiful.
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