Is Anzac Day a good time to release an Australian war film? The distributors of Aaron Wilson’s Canopy, a drama with Khan Chittenden as a young pilot shot down in the Singapore jungle during World War II, are mulling over an April 25 opening date, following the release of Kokoda a few years back on the same date. Wilson says Canopy is not an epic battle film but "one man’s journey, told from a collection of true stories".

London calling for Big Picture Film Festival

First Tropfest became a global event. Now the Big Picture Film Festival is expanding to London and possibly New York next year. The Reverend Bill Crews launched the festival in Sydney last year to inspire audiences to get involved in social justice causes. Now the Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square wants its own version in September; it will be launched at Australia House in May. ''We're beset by social issues and in many ways governments are becoming paralysed,'' Crews says. ''The only way a lot of these issues are going to be looked at is by ordinary people wanting to take some action.'' The festival, which runs in Sydney until Sunday, has featured the historical slavery drama Belle, the Nigerian civil war drama Half Of A Yellow Sun and the Australian documentaries Rise of the Eco Warriors and Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls.

Dismal weekend for new releases

Last weekend was dismal for Australian cinemas. Only The Monuments Men took more than $1 million, with disappointing openings for the buddy comedy Ride Along ($927,000), the action epic Pompeii ($634,000), the comedy Cuban Fury ($314,000), the Saudi art-house drama Wadjda ($94,000) and a downright awful opening for Stuart Beattie's gothic action fantasy I, Frankenstein ($183,000). In brighter news, Wolf Creek 2 is now up to $9.6 million. No doubt cinema executives hope Noah, The Lego Movie and Captain America: The Winter Soldier reignite ticket sales over the next fortnight.

No Kidman yet, but Strangerland rockets into production

While Nicole Kidman has yet to arrive, shooting starts on her next film in Sydney this week. Kim Farrant's mystery thriller Strangerland has Kidman and Joseph Fiennes (brother of Ralp, and star of Shakespeare In Love and Elizabeth), who replaces Guy Pearce, as a couple whose lives unravel when their two teenage children go missing in the desert. Hugo Weaving plays a policeman leading the investigation. The shoot starts in Sydney then moves to Canowindra and Broken Hill.

Making new Lego characters far from child's play

Creating new characters for The Lego Movie, which has now taken more than $420 million around the world, was an intricate job. Production designer Grant Freckelton says the team at Animal Logic followed a Lego style guide as thick as the Yellow Pages that even specified "ab detailing and appropriate nipple placement". In Sydney, key Animal Logic crew will be speaking at Q&A screening organised by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts at Event's Bondi Junction cinemas on April 2. AACTA also has special screenings at the cinema lined up for Noah on April 9 then two new Australian films – the drama 52 Tuesdays on May 5 and the apocalyptic thriller These Final Hours on June 2.

Grand business for Grand Budapest Hotel

Fox will be bullish about releasing Wes Anderson’s latest movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel, after quite exceptional box office on limited release in the US. A beautifully art-directed comic confection about the owner of a great hotel and his bellboy, it jumped from 66 to 304 cinemas in the US and still averaged $US22,000 a screen on its third weekend. Taking $US13.6 million so far, The Grand Budapest Hotel is now widening to 800 screens. That suggests bright prospects when the movie from the director of Moonrise Kingdom, The Fantastic Mr Fox and The Darjeeling Limited opens in Australia on April 10.

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