UNITED KINGDOM: All eyes on Madonna and family at premiere of "Arthur and the Invisibles"

Hundreds of fans braved the cold on Thursday (January 25) to catch a glimpse of Madonna for the premiere of her latest movie "Arthur and the Invisibles". Director Luc Besson, and fellow actor Freddie Highmore hardly got noticed as the crowd erupted in cheers as soon as the material girl accompanied by husband Guy Ritchie and children Rocco and Lola stepped out of the car. In "Arthur and the Invisibles" Madonna plays Princess Selenia. The animated adventure follows a boy's journey to save his family home from real estate developers. Arthur stumbles upon clues to his deceased grandfather's treasure and meets some mysterious little people along the way. Madonna says she admires her character's role in the film. The movie is written and directed by French film director Luc Besson and is based on the best selling children's book "Arthur and the Minimoys". Besson is best known for his action films including "Leon", "La Femme Nikita" and "The Fifth Element". About attracting Madonna to the project Besson said: "When you're an artist and then you call another artist it's simpler, I've known her for fifteen years and I just called and said, I have this book, do you want to play a princess, I don't know anyone who'll refuse to play a princess anyway." As for Freddie Highmore, he hadn't met Madonna yet but said he was looking forward to do so at the London premiere. "I've never met Madonna, Snoop Dogg, or David Bowie so I suppose doing scenes with them was kind of odd although I suppose it might have been a bit tricky getting married to Madonna," he joked. "Arthur and the Invisibles" stars Mia Farrow and Freddie Highmore and features the voices of Jason Bateman, David Bowie, Robert DeNiro, Emilio Estevez, Jimmy Fallon, Harvey Keitel, Chazz Palminteri, and Snoop Dogg. The movie opens in the UK on Friday (January 26).

ITN Source | January 31, 2007

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