Recently by Graham Young

IT WAS all meant be done quietly - an in through the back door entrance for a private, invitation only Q&A.

But things have changed overnight.

Slumdog Millionaire stars Dev Patel and Bollywood's own George Clooney legend Anil Kapur will now be going in through the front door of the New Street Odeon tonight anytime from 5.30pm to 6.30pm.

And that means everyone will have a chance to see them on the red carpet.

Their new film, directed by Danny Boyle, will still have an invitation-only screening at 6.30pm and the two stars will then have an audience Q&A from 8.30pm.

Rated 15, Slumdog Millionaire goes on general release from tomorrow when it will be reviewed in the Mail. Look out for our coverage of the premiere, too!

DIRECTOR Danny Boyle is back in cinemas on Friday with what is easily his most vibrant film since Trainspotting.

Set in Mumbai, Slumdog Millionaire cleverly combines the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire with romance and thriller elements in an extraordinary cityscape setting.

But, four years ago this May, I took Danny on a walk round Birmingham to see what sort of film could be made here.

His thoughts might surprise you. Click on this link to read more.

WRITER, producer and director Anthony Minghella should have been celebrating his 55th birthday today were it not for the sad fact that he died almost a year ago.

The Reader, out this week in cinemas, closed with a tribute 'in loving memory of' notice to both him and colleague Sydney Pollack who died a few weeks later in May last year.

Yet there is more to come from Minghella. Nine, which he adapted from the book by Arthur L Kopit stars Daniel Day-Lewis in a film directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago).

The exceptional cast includes Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson and Sophia Loren.

Currently in post-production, Nine is set for release in December.

Minghella was also an executive producer on Margaret, a forthcoming film starring Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Jean Reno and Mark Ruffalo.

I CAUGHT up with The Reader today following its release on January 2 and I'll be reviewing it in the Mail on Friday, January 9.

The Kate Winslet film has been released by Entertainment, which makes a habit of not providing regional press shows. Which is a great pity.

All critics want to provide the best service possible - and that, essentially, means seeing new films in time to let readers make up their own minds as to whether they feel a particular movie will be worth their hard-earned cash.

For the record, it's 11 years this month since Kate Winslet starred in Titanic, which has only just lost its UK box office record to Mamma Mia!

Both of these movies were given regional press shows, the original and still the best way of promoting a new release.

I like to think that, as well as my many hard-working regional colleagues around the country, both of my five-star, detailed reviews - which included criticisms as well as praise - will have helped Titanic and Mamma Mia! to maximise their potential on the cinema screen.

When a film company gets its product right, punters will always turn up to cinemas in their droves. And worries about piracy will diminish accordingly.

As for The Reader... I think it's going to have to be three stars. Find out more on Friday.

I SAW the impressive likely Oscar contender Frost / Nixon at Broad Street Cineworld today, followed by a Q&A with writer Peter Morgan and star Michael Sheen (who plays David Frost).

Filmed at the Curzon Mayfair in London, this Q&A was beamed into 36 cinemas nationwide 'from Aberdeen to Brighton and everywhere in between'.

I had assumed the film would be a factual account of David Frost's interviews with Richard Nixon.

Interestingly, Morgan revealed two key ways in which the film is heavily fictionalised - which then affected by entire view of what I'd just seen.

Now then, do I give these points away in my review on January 23 in order to help illuminate viewers' knowledge?

Or do I keep it, er, zipped?

Mmmm. One to think about in the days ahead - but, unusually, I'm inclined to spill the beans since Frost/Nixon is supposed to be, at least in part, a film about truth and justice.

GREETINGS one and all... and a Happy New Year!

That doesn't mean to say that anybody can put their feet up. Far from it.

Today, many cinema staff will be getting ready for another busy day at work just like any other, so do remember that when you go along in the next few days.

In my experience they are amongst the most humble, loyal and hard working people around.

Don't forget to say 'Hello', smile and, while they scoop up your popcorn or ice cream, ask them what their favourite movie is at the moment.

Chances are they won't have had the time - or the energy - to see one recently after working all day, but they'll enjoy talking about them regardless.

Today's major new release is The Spirit (12A) starring Samuel L Jackson who could do with a big hit.

It's another comic book adaptation and has been directed by Frank Miller, who is working on directing two new Sin City films and is also writing a sequel to 300.

If The Spirit also takes off that's him just about guaranteed employment for the rest of his life!

Alas, because of Christmas and one thing and another (hopefully not the fact that it's going to be really bad which is often the real excuse), there have been absolutely no preview screenings of The Spirit.

Luckily, today's opening date means we can still see it and review the movie in time for tomorrow's Birmingham Mail.

I've had to be sedated and strapped down in chains ready for a family meal today, but I'll catch up with it soon.

In the meantime, you can still read my colleague Roz Law's expert review tomorrow along with her brilliant feature about the day she met the stars of the film in London just before Christmas.

Get in The Spirit.... and order your copy of tomorrow's Birmingham Mail today!

SO here it is. December 31, 2008. The last day. The year's finished. No more movies.

Well, not till tomorrow!

To help you to remember just how many films there have been this year, here's a reasonably definitive list of the good, the bad and the very, very ugly.

There's something for everyone to enjoy and quite a few for everyone to avoid.

But, it was ever thus.

For every ten films released, only one will be outstanding and then the rest start to grade themselves quite naturally.

Click on the link below and enjoy the round up.

In the meantime, here's to many more movies in 2009!

GET ready, Bat fans, for one of the silver screen treats of 2009!

Customers were travelling to Millennium Point from as far afield as Devon, Cardiff and London when The Dark Knight opened at the enormous IMAX in late July.

And why not, given that our stupendous screen improved the whole movie by some 20 per cent.

Hot on the heels of this success, Birmingham's IMAX cinema is hoping to go one better in the New Year.

From 7.30pm on January 30 and 31 you'll be able to see Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins at the IMAX for the first time, with The Dark Knight set to follow at the rather late time of 22.15.

Me thinks the Sunday, February 1 screening will be the most popular, with Batman Begins at 4pm followed by The Dark Knight at 6.45pm.

Now that's what I call a Bat Fest!

Book your tickets now! Call 0121 202 2222 or visit www.imax.ac

THE clock starts ticking from midnight tonight... towards the centenary celebrations of the UK's oldest working cinema.

The Electric Cinema on Station Street in Birmingham showed its first performance on December 30, 1909.

After a period of real uncertainty a decade ago, current owner Tom Lawes has to be congratulated for what he has achieved since he bought the cinema in 2004 ready to relaunch it.

Tom has modernised the building to a degree, while remaining faithful ot its more eclectic period touches so that people who wouldn't be seen dead in a mulitplex will still feel most at home here.

For a few dollars more, you can now share a sofa at the back of Screen 1 (something the Odeon New Street should have been willing to try in Screen 8) or you can just watch your film in the old fashioned way.

Upstairs in Screen 2, what is still the best proportioned screen in the whole of the city has also reopened as a digital screen.

Tom has also spent a few bob making the ground floor loo into one suitable for disabled access (but do try to call in advance so they can get the outside ramp in place just so that you can enter the building).

On top of all this, the Electric is now showing an increasingly varies and voluminous mixture of films.

And Tom's band is amazingly good at reproducing classic movie hits like Live and Let Die.

The only things the Electric needs now is to find a way of masking the still distracting emergency exit signs beneath the screen, a telegram for its 100th birthday from the Queen...

And, of course, a reel-ly good birthday cake ready for next year's celebrations!

For more information, visit the cinema's excellent website at www.theelectric.co.uk which includes the following brief summary of its history:

1909 On the 30th of December the cinema shows its first performance.
1922 Renamed 'Select Cinema'.
1931 On the 14th of November the cinema closed and became an amusement arcade.
1937 The building added a gallery upstairs (now screen 2) and became the 399 seat Tatler News Theatre
1970 The cinema becomes 'The Jacey'
1980 A second screen is added upstairs and the cinema becomes 'The Classic'.
1984 The 'Tivoli' opens on a strict diet of soft porn and horror.
1993 The cinema is renamed back to The Electric and becomes a two screen repertory theatre.
2004 Cinema bought by Thomas Lawes Media Ltd and undergoes conversion to a centre for film making and exhibition.

Members of Friction Theatre were have been in mourning this weekend following the death of playwright Harold Pinter on Christmas Eve. He was 78.

Birmingham's newest professional theatre company put on The Homecoming at the Crescent Theatre in November.

And then it staged two more Pinter productions, The Lovers and Landscape, at the Old Joint Stock in December.

Member Geoff Poole says: "I am so glad that I was in The Homecoming and that our little company did those two one acters.

"Pinter was a British force in the various screen plays that he did and I think he will be a great loss on many levels."

Harold Pinter was nominated twice at the Academy Awards, in 1982 for The French Lieutenant's Woman and two years later for Betrayal.

These two films also earned BAFTA nominations along with Accident, The Quiller Memorandum and The Servant.

He did win two BAFTAS, in 1972 for The Go-Between and in 1965 for The Pumpkin Eater.

Perhaps if he hadn't done so much theatre work, acting and campaigning, he might have won an Oscar.

But, if you're good at both, why not do both - especially as you are more likely to be in control of a stage play than you ever are working in the movies.