IT'S HARDLY SURPRISING that on the day her latest, no-nonsense film hits Australian cinemas, English rose Gemma Arterton has been hitting the headlines with gusto. In this case, it's her being hotly tipped to star in Ridley Scott's Alien prequels.
If the male populus of the world was understandably salivating at the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time star 'doing a Ripley' with Ridley, the reality is, sadly, a resounding 'Nope'. For, as her publicist made plain to MTV yesterday, "There's no truth to that" in reference to The Sunday Times story.
This in spite of its director telling The Independent last Friday that his prequel plans "will be really tough, really nasty. It's the dark side of the moon. We are talking about gods and engineers. Engineers of space. And were the aliens designed as a form of biological warfare? Or biology that would go in and clean up a planet?"
This in spite of its director telling The Independent last Friday that his prequel plans "will be really tough, really nasty. It's the dark side of the moon. We are talking about gods and engineers. Engineers of space. And were the aliens designed as a form of biological warfare? Or biology that would go in and clean up a planet?"
Arterton would surely be a godsend for humanity, much like Sigourney Weaver was years later. And if anyone be doubting it, just watch her kick serious ass in her latest outing, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, out now in cinemas across Australia.
In this astonishing film, from first-timer J Blakeson, Arterton plays victim to a pair of ex cons -- played by character actors Eddie Marsan and Martin Compston (who's pictured above, with Arterton) -- who meticulously set up a house as padded cell before grabbing the poor lass and sticking her in the back of the van. Swiftly holed up in the sound-proof 'cell', Alice is faced with a stark choice: Get Daddy to cough up a king's ransom, or face god-knows-what at the hands of her captors.
The film -- which boasts several whopping plot twists -- has caused a massive stir in the UK, with its scenes of gratuitous nudity and violence. What ultimately unfolds, though -- and what really makes this film swing -- is Arterton. The 24-year-old is a revelation as the would-be victim who fights back, much to the dismay of her mismatched tormentors. That she is, in real life, a working-class lass who's scored such major notices through sheer hard graft, only adds to her star power.
The Disappearance of Alice Creed is anything but your typical 'cockney-barrel-of-bleedin'-monkeys' English crime yarn, as championed by writer-director Guy Ritchie. The former Mr Madonna is, most likely, looking on with envy, in fact, as his one-time RocknRola star singlehandedly gives the genre a right royal boot up the backside, with a performance that's ballsy and unrelenting.
Arterton is one busy lady, too. She's currently wowing audiences in the UK with her new film, Tamara Drew (pictured, top) from The Queen director Stephen Frears, and is set to repeat her performance as Lo in the Clash of the Titans 2. But for now, brace yourself for the one-time Bond girl (remember Agent Strawberry Fields, pictured above, in The Quantum of Solace?) and her jaw-dropping, tour-de-force turn as Alice Creed. You'd be a bleedin' monkey to miss it.
The Disappearance of Alice Creed is on general release now.
ED GIBBS
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