Thanks to Emma at the forum:

2/6/05 -- The news of Clive's move has made the national press. This article is in today's Sunday Express:

The NY Times 6/21/02 - The Fine Points of a Murder

June 21, 2002 -- By PETER M. NICHOLS

With his "Gosford Park" due on Tuesday on VHS and DVD from Universal, Robert Altman sounded more ready than eager. "A lot more people are going to see this work on video and DVD than in theaters, so I can't ignore it," he said this week. "So the whole idea is to make it fit your film better."

In this case, video allows a second chance, so to speak. With 35 characters coursing through a slyly constructed murder mystery, it is easy to lose track. When the film was in theaters, a second viewing was recommended, and video more readily affords that chance. "It's an "attention' picture," Mr. Altman said. "People can visit parts of it for another look." Or stop it and go back. If clues and characters give you the slip, follow one character for a while, then backtrack and follow another over the same stretch.

In his commentary on the DVD, Mr. Altman relishes the murder case, especially all its red herrings, but says it isn't that hard to figure out if you follow closely, and not that breathtakingly ingenious to begin with. In fact, he adds, viewers could be excused for skipping that element altogether and settling into the film as a meticulously produced and splendidly performed slice of English high life in 1932.

Upstairs, Michael Gambon heads an elaborate country household as the snake-tempered Sir William McCordle. Maggie Smith helped give the film its early reputation with her performance as the oblivious Countess of Trentham. Downstairs, Helen Mirren and Alan Bates, as Mrs. Wilson and Jennings, head a large and very active servants' contingent that in finely realized ways manipulates the titled crowd above.

It pays to sit through Mr. Altman's DVD commentaries, although he doesn't enjoy the exercise. "I hate them," he said this week. "I don't know what my mandate is. I feel like a real-estate agent: `This is the kitchen, the living room; notice the wallpaper.' I don't know who I'm addressing or why."

Still, one senses he would have a hard time being uninteresting. Here he is joined by Stephen Altman, the production designer and a son of the director, and David Levy, one of the producers. Dispensing large amounts of information was a challenge, Robert Altman says, requiring the cameras to be always on the move through corridors and rooms and large gatherings of weekend guests. Actors were not to take turns according to script but talk as if in real conversation. "It's ensemble acting," he says, "everybody's doing something."

Research was rigorous. Mr. Altman says the downstairs set is the best he's ever had on any film. As for performances, Jeremy Northam's as the actor and songwriter Ivor Novello is among the best he's ever seen. He is also especially high on Kelly Macdonald as a maid and unofficial detective who, if we watch carefully, takes us through the case.

Mr. Altman is also proud of the movie's R rating, which took several purposeful repetitions of a strong obscenity to earn. "I didn't want kids to see this film, especially boys," he says. "They wouldn't appreciate it." Thanks, Chris T

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Thanks to CTighe

Variety, April 15, 2002 - April 21, 2002

HEADLINE: THE FAST LANE
BYLINE: Marc Graser

BMW reaps benefits of 'Hire' education

It appears BMW's attempt to win over Netizens with a series of short films helmed by Hollywood heavyweights and created for the Internet sped past everyone's expectations.
The five-part series, dubbed "The Hire," featured six- to eight-minute films centered around a hired driver (British thesp Clive Owen) who appears in a host of dangerous, comedic or mysterious situations. Pics, directed by John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie, Wong Kar-Wai and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, and produced by David Fincher, have attracted more than 12 million viewers since bowing last April. One year later, the pics still attract 15,000 viewers per day.

The series raised questions as to whether using Hollywood and the Web to promote BMW brand would pay off when so many entertainment-based Netcasters had failed to attract auds.

"We asked ourselves if we could get 1 million (people) to watch these films and make it as cost-effective as a traditional broadcast TV campaign," James McDowell, BMW of North America's veep of marketing, said at the NAB confab in Las Vegas last week. It was the first time the carmaker released any hard numbers on the campaign's viewership. The
online effort, budgeted at an estimated $ 9 million, paid off, giving BMW an estimated $ 20 million worth of promotion.

McDowell said that BMW was targeting tech-savvy buyers who are willing to try new things.
"It was a great experiment," McDowell said of the campaign. "And peoplekeep on coming every day."

Coventry Evening Telegraph, April 13, 2002

April 13, 2002, Saturday

SHOOTING STARS; COULD CLIVE OWEN REALLY BE THE NEW FACE OF JAMES BOND? THE STAR LEADS THE WAY AS LOCAL ACTORS STEP IN TO THE LIMELIGHT

BYLINE: Marion Mcmullen A LICENCE TO THRILL: Bookies are taking bets on actor Clive Owen stepping in to the shoes of the suave 007

THERE'S a galaxy of star quality around in Coventry and Warwickshire and local performers are taking the lead in movies, on telly and on the stage. TV writer MARION McMULLEN checks out some of the top roles attracting the area's celebrities.

THE name's Owen, Clive Owen. Yes, bookies are currently taking bets on the Coventry acting star becoming the new James Bond. 007 actor Pierce Brosnan himself has even been quoted as saying the city lad would make a good Bond.

But the father-of-two is not rushing to order a vodka martini, shaken not stirred, just yet.
Instead he is happily carving out a name for himself in Hollywood. The movie Croupier was a surprise hit in the States and in the film Greenfingers he played a jailbird who became a star gardener.

He also starred alongside Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith in Oscar hit Gosford Park and has been filming Beyond Romance Borders with Lara Croft actress Angelina Jolie.

Clive is set to work with Matt Damon later this year in the movie Bourne Identity and recently returned to the London stage in A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg directed by fellow Coventry contemporary Laurence Boswell.

"My looks are not what I depend on," says Clive, "I have been around for so long now that I think people employ me because they think I can act."