Movie News & Gossip

PARIS - Filmmaker Roman Polanski says letters from supporters that he received in a Swiss prison and while under house arrest at his Alpine chalet have been "full of comfort and reason to hope."

Polanski's first public comments since his Sept. 26 arrest at Zurich airport came in a letter transmitted to French philosopher and friend Bernard-Henri Levy, who put them online Sunday at the director's request.

LOS ANGELES - In a case that has polarized public passions, director Roman Polanski did not win his freedom Monday for a 32-year-old sex offense, but an appeals court said in a strongly worded opinion there was probable judicial and prosecutorial misconduct in his case.

The opinion criticized Polanski for fleeing to his native France in 1978 but suggested two legal options that could lead to his freedom now — file a motion to be sentenced in absentia, or drop his extradition fight, return to the United States and be sentenced in person, most likely not resulting in additional jail time.

LOS ANGELES - A California appeals court on Monday rejected Roman Polanski's bid to have his 32-year-old sex case dismissed, but cited grave concerns over possible judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.

The California 2nd District Court of Appeal announced it had denied the petition, with justices saying they are "deeply concerned" about the probable misconduct by a now-deceased judge and a retired prosecutor who advised him.

GENEVA - Roman Polanski is finishing the edit of his latest movie "Ghost" from his house arrest in Switzerland, surrounded by family and bombarded by telephone calls of support, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy said in an interview.

Levy, a friend of the 76-year-old director, told the Lausanne-based weekly Le Matin Dimanche that he visited Polanski in his chalet in the luxury Swiss resort of Gstaad about 10 days ago and found him like "a rock," working and confident, even though his family is worried about the U.S. extradition request hanging over him.

BERLIN (Hollywood Reporter) - Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island" and Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer" will have their world premieres at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.

"Shutter Island," a horror-thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio, will screen out of competition ahead of its February 19 release in North America via Paramount. But embattled director Polanski's pairing of Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan will be in the running for Berlin's Golden Bear. Summit will release the thriller domestically during the first half of 2010.

BERLIN - Roman Polanski's latest movie, "The Ghost Writer," will have its world premiere at the Berlin film festival in February, organizers said Tuesday.

Polanski's movie was among a first batch of entries in the festival's main program that was announced Tuesday — among them a premiere of Martin Scorsese's thriller "Shutter Island."

BERLIN (Reuters) - Director Roman Polanski's new movie "The Ghost Writer" will be in competition at the Berlin film festival in February, organizers said on Tuesday. The French-born Oscar winner is under house arrest in Switzerland after he was held in September to face charges of having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in the United States in 1977.

Polanski, 76, had been putting the finishing touches to The Ghost Writer when he was arrested in Zurich. His arrest and detention means he is unlikely to be able to travel to Berlin for the red carpet world premiere.

BERLIN -- "The Ghost Writer," the new film from incarcerated director Roman Polanski, will premiere in competition at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival.

The thriller, which Polanski shot in Studio Babelsberg outside Berlin and finished while in prison in Switzerland, stars Ewan McGregor as an author hired to ghostwrite the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister (Pierce Brosnan) who discovers a dark secret that puts his life in danger.