Two new stories of mine on Screen Daily today: First, yet another movie comes to shoot in Prague, this one a sappy sounding romantic comedy with Julia Stiles about a college freshman falling in love with a prince, imaginatively entitled The Prince and the Freshman. La-dee-dah, except this means 2003 will probably be the busiest year ever for the Prague film industry.

The second story is more interesting, and cribs an interview with director Jan Svìrák from Saturday's Mlada Fronta about his forthcoming film called Returnable Bottles. Svìrák is the most popular Czech filmmaker, and deservedly so, in my opinion. He has a knack for making convincing historico-political metaphors out of catchy material, as in the cutesy Oscar winner Kolja and the far superior Elementary School(Obecná škola). His next movie, Returnable Bottles, will be the first of his major films to take place in the present day -- and appropriately, it takes place in a Czech supermarket. A step back to reality from Dark Blue World, which I heard was an aesthetic (if not a commercial) disaster. I'm looking forward to Returnable Bottles.