German director Volker Schlondorff 's film Pope Joan is to continue without him. Constantin Film fired him on his return from Galway Film Fleadh for speaking out against the growing fad of simultaneously filming extended TV versions of feature films.

"Constantin Excommunicates Director, " headlined Variety.

Production chief Martin Moskowicz claims Schlondorff 's outspoken comments could make it more difficult to finance the film. Franka Potente, Matt Damon's girlfriend in the first two Bourne films, was set to portray a woman who, according to medieval legend, disguised herself as a man and became pope in the 850s.

'Whitnail' director set to run again

Bruce Robinson, who wrote and directed cult film Whitnail And I and scripted The Killing Fields, is making a comeback with The Run Diary. Johnny Depp plays a freelance journalist running a newspaper in Puerto Rico in the 1950s. Meanwhile, now the Harry Potter franchise is approaching an end, The Chronicles Of Narnia seem set to fill the void. Prince Caspian, the second instalment of CS Lewis's series, is set for release in May 2008, and producer Mark Johnson has announced there'll be a Narnia film every year thereafter.

ALL IRELAND TOP FIVE (weekend 3-5 August)
1 (1) The Simpsons Movie (David Silverman) 1,029,869 ( 5,290,578 )
2 (2) Transformers (Michael Bay ) 566,512 ( 2,525,636)
3 (-) Evan Almighty (Tom Shadyac) 286,499 (-)
4 (3) Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (David Yates) 141,000 ( 4,780,000)
5 (6) Shrek 3 (Chris Miller/Raman Hui) 72,736 ( 7,090299 )

Compliled from Sunday Tribune industry sources

US TOP FIVE MOVIES (weekend 3-5 August)
1 (-) The Bourne Ultimatum (Paul Greengrass) $69.3m (-)
2 (1) The Simpsons Movie (David Silverman) $25.1m ($128m)
3 (-) Underdog $11.6m (-)
4 (2) I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (Denis Dugan) $10.6m ($91.8m)
5 (3) Harry Potter And The Order Of the Phoenix (David Yates) $9.5m ($261m)