JON AMIEL - DIRECTOR KEEN TO SAVE THE CORE

Movie-maker JON AMIEL is attempting to save his end-of-the-world disaster film THE CORE from being shelved - due to the war in Iraq.

The apocalyptic flick has already had its release date put back once - from last autumn (02) - to allow for new special effects to be added.

And when the Columbia space shuttle crash landed earlier this year (03), it was felt the film would be held up again because it features scenes of a shuttle disaster.

But Amiel is hopeful the film will be released on 28 March (03) as planned - even after the break out of war in the Middle East.

He says, "When the shuttle crashed it was a shock and we thought seriously about what we should do.

"We finally felt that in our sequence, you not only see the crew surviving, but many other lives saved by their heroism. We felt our show needed to go on.

"As for the war, we all feel that there is something in this film both for those who feel strongly anti-war and for those who feel, as I do, profoundly against this.

"There's an inspirational message about how much damage the world does to itself when it develops weapons in preparation for global conflict."