ITALY: Sandra Bullock and Toby Jones on the red carpet in Venice for the premiere the Truman Capote story, "Infamous"

Truman Capote returns to the big screen with a new star-packed Hollywood film about the brilliant but conflicted writer and a kiss between its two main male characters. Douglas McGrath's "Infamous", presented at the Venice Film Festival, comes hard on the heels of Bennett Miller's critically acclaimed "Capote", which won Philip Seymour Hoffman an Oscar as best actor for his portrait of the fey, elfin-like author. Both films, which were virtually shot at the same time, tell the story of how Capote came to write "In Cold Blood", the book that made him the most celebrated writer in America but ultimately destroyed his life. "Infamous" had its premiere in Venice in Thursday (August 31). McGrath picked British theatre actor Toby Jones, who bears a striking physical resemblance with Capote, to play the writer alongside a star-studded cast including Sandra Bullock, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sigourney Weaver, Jeff Daniels and Daniel Craig. The film chronicles the painful six years it took Capote to write "In Cold Blood," the tale of how two drifters brutally murdered a family of four in a Kansas farmhouse in 1959. Capote spent months researching his book in Kansas, where his transparently gay manners and high-pitched voice initially met with widespread hostility. As he gradually became friends with many of those involved in the case, he developed an intense, tortured relationship with one of the murderers, Perry Smith, played in the film by Craig, the new face of James Bond. At one point in the film the two kiss in a prison cell and Jones described the experience on Thursday (August 31). "I've never dreamt that I would kiss James Bond, it's not something I have ever aspired to. Now I've done it, I can say that I hope I am the first of many," Jones told reporters. American actress Sandra Bullock, known for her versatility in character roles including action-thrillers, comedies and drama, talked about her roles and what attracts her to a particular film. "I... strive for roles that I love and that expand what I know I can do and tell stories with a group of actors that I think will inspire for two hours or an hour and thirty nine minutes and tell an incredible journey so whatever package that comes in, hopefully, I will be able enough to go after that," she said.

ITN Source | September 4, 2006

Tags:. .cold. .painful. .characters. .blood. .writer