Daily Briefing 

Producing and directing are two very different skills. To succeed at the former, you need to know how to hustle. Your daily routine is likely to consist of negotiating contracts, streamlining budgets and endlessly pressing flesh. You create the environment in which the filmmaker can work. Veteran British producer Jeremy Thomas has spent 20 years doing just that. His credits include films with Nicolas Roeg (Bad Timing, Eureka), Nagisa Oshima (Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence) and Bertolucci (The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky.) Now, relatively late in his career, he has "put the day job aside" to become a director for the very first time. His debut feature, All The Little Animals, screens in Un Certain Regard today. 

Not since the heady days of the Nouvelle Vague, when Godard, Truffaut and co. were railing against Le Cinema Du Papa, have filmmakers been bold enough to issue manifestos about what they do and why. One can't help but admire the chutzpah of Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg (whose new film Festen screens in competition today). In their 1995 Vow Of Chastity, they listed their own version of the 10 commandments for filmmakers. Be warned: good taste is out... Geoffrey Macnab

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Sophie Marceau
Gallic beauty – and primarily dramatic actress – Sophie Marceau has been signed to her first American comedy, Lost and Found, according to Alcon Entertainment.

Marceau, who began her career as a child actress in the French cult children's show, La boume, and who is most recognisable to overseas audiences through her roles in Braveheart and Anna Karenina, is paired with the film's diminutive co-star, David Spade, who has been enjoying renewed success with NBC's Just Shoot Me which has been given the coveted slot once held by hit comedy show, Seinfeld.

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David Duchovny
British indie distributor Blue Dolphin has picked up UK rights to Playing God, in which David Duchovny (X-Files) plays a surgeon who has been struck off for drug abuse and finds himself working as a private doctor for a powerful gangster, played by Tim Hutton.

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US BOX OFFICE 

On the day Buena Vista unveils first footage of Michael Bay's Armageddon, comets remain a hot property in the US, with Mimi Leder's Deep Impact earning an estimated $23.3 million over the weekend for Paramount, according to studio estimates issued Sunday. After 10 days, the picture has earned about $74 million.  

Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer opened in second with $14 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period for Buena Vista, with Warner's animated feature Quest for Camelot, third with $6.4 million. CP