ROMAN POLANSKI - POLANSKI FINISHING MOVIE IN JAIL

POLANSKI FINISHING MOVIE IN JAIL

Director Roman Polanski is continuing to work on his last film, The Ghost, from his jail cell in Switzerland, published reports said Wednesday. Robert Harris, who wrote the screenplay, was quoted as remarking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in England Wednesday that while Polanski is unable to make phone calls, "he can communicate." Harris said that Polanski is eager to complete the film so that it can premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February. He added, "What people think of the film is another matter. Whether the film can rise above the circumstances in which the director now finds himself I don't know. We will test to the upper limits the notion that there's no such thing as bad publicity." (Polanski, who has been a fugitive for the past 20 years after pleading guilty to charges of unlawfully engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl, is currently fighting attempts by authorities in California to have him extradited. On Wednesday his lawyer said that Polanski would agree to remain in Switzerland under house arrest if released on bail and would put up his villa in Gstaad as part of the bail. He also said that Polanski would agree to wear an ankle bracelet and make daily visits to police.

15/10/2009