Rising Stars

None of them is new to movies, but each of these four actors is on their way up and worth watching in 1999.

Natalie Portman

The 17 year-old Israeli-born Portman has already been favourably compared to Audrey Hepburn.

Her first movie appearance came in 1994, and since then she's been seen in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You, as well as Beautiful Girls and Mars Attacks!.

You can bet her name will become much better known in coming months, as later this year, she'll be in the much-anticipated Star Wars: Episode I.

Joseph Fiennes

Talk about fast rising careers! The 28-year-old English-born Fiennes started his acting career on the stage, including a couple of seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is, of course, the brother of actor Ralph Fiennes and director Martha Fiennes and the son of the late novelist Jini Fiennes (who was also known as Jennifer Lash).

Joseph Fiennes had his first movie role in 1996 and already has piled up credits in Stealing Beauty, Elizabeth and Shakespeare in Love.

For 1999, he'll appear in the interestingly-titled Rancid Aluminum and next month he will start shooting Forever Mine (written and directed by Paul Schrader, who wrote Taxi Driver and directed American Gigolo and Cat People).

Patricia Arquette

She's a veteran on the screen, with 30 roles to her credit in films and television. Pretty impressive for someone who's just turned 30. Arquette has four siblings who are also active in the acting game (Richmond, Alexis , David and Rosanna), not to mention a father (Lewis) who's been in some 45 productions, and a performing grandfather (you knew Cliff Arquette as Charley Weaver on the old Hollywood Squares and a bunch of other 1950s and '60s television shows).

Among many other productions, Patricia Arquette has been in True Romance, Ed Wood and Flirting With Disaster.

Big things are ahead for Arquette, with 1999 roles in Martin Scorsese's Toby's Story (co-starring with her husband, Nicolas Cage), Bringing Out the Dead, and In the Boom Boom Room, which starts filming soon.

Elijah Wood

Wood turns 18 later this month, and although he won't turn 20 until we're into the new millennium, he already has a decade-long acting career.

Wood's first role was in Back to the Future Part II. Since then, his credits have included North, The Ice Storm and Deep Impact.

The coming year could be a big one, as he'll be seen in The Bumblebee Flies Away with Janeane Garofalo and Black and White with a well-known cast including Robert Downey, Jr., Ben Stiller and Brooke Shields.