Hopkins honor highlights final CineVegas weekend

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Anthony Hopkins filmed part of “Slipstream,” his second big-screen directorial effort, in the California desert.

So it seems appropriate that he returns to the desert today to accept the CineVegas film festival’s highest honor, the Marquee Award.

Hopkins will discuss “Slipstream” prior to a screening of the movie at one of the marquee events during CineVegas’ final two days.

In “Slipstream,” Hopkins plays a screenwriter trying to separate real from reel.

But there was no denying reality when, while shooting “Slipstream,” Hopkins injured his Achilles tendon and was forced into a wheelchair.

“I proved to myself I’ve got endurance,” Hopkins says. “I’m a survivor.”

And while some actors find directing an intensive challenge — especially when they’re directing themselves — Hopkins takes a more relaxed view.

“I don’t find any of it intense,” he says. “There are so many intense people in Hollywood, I think they think it’s a badge of honor to be intense.”

Also today, another Oscar-winner — Charlize Theron — is scheduled to accept CineVegas’ Half-Life Award and comment on clips from “Ferris Wheel,” which she produced and stars in. Among her co-stars: Dennis Hopper, who chairs CineVegas’ creative advisory board.

Other highlights today include the U.S. premiere of the contemporary fairy tale “Penelope,” with Christina Ricci; the world premiere of the documentary “Mr. Untouchable,” about a ’70s Harlem drug kingpin; and “In the Land of Merry Misfits,” an alternate-universe comedy.

Producer Maria Menounos describes “Misfits” as “a triumphant story of people who had no idea what they were doing and endured the craziest things” during a 10-year production odyssey.

The festival wraps Saturday with another knighted Oscar-winner, Ben Kingsley, accepting a Vanguard Actor Award, followed by CineVegas’ closing-night attraction, “You Kill Me,” in which Kingsley plays an alcoholic hit man trying to sober up — by working in a mortuary.

Clearly, it’s a dark comedy, explains director John Dahl (“Rounders,” “The Last Seduction”), a Montana native whose affinity for Nevada’s wide-open spaces began with “Kill Me Again,” his 1989 directorial debut.

“It’s really hard to get black comedies made,” Dahl acknowledges. “They’re not a huge moneymaker for Hollywood.” But for “a hard-core cinema fan at heart” like him, “there’s something so seductive about those kinds of films.”

Another director comfortable with both comedy and drama, Britain’s Mike Newell (“Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Donnie Brasco”), looks forward — and back — Sunday afternoon, accepting a Vanguard Director Award while sharing clips from the upcoming adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “Love in the Time of Cholera.”