Saturday, March 10, 2012
Period Dramas - Over the Rainbow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKyuz76Fw2s
looney29
This is so lovely and so romantic. Happy Saturday night to you all.
DOWNTON ABBEY SCOOP: Season 3 Spoilers, Cast & Crew Updates: (ENTV)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48uDzMNEDyA
Interesting video - however, they failed to mention that Maggie Smith hasn't signed on for Season 4 and 5 also.
CLIVE OWEN UNVEILS IRA THRILLER AT BERLIN FEST (7 NEWS)
BERLIN (AFP) - Britain's Clive Owen plays an MI5 officer trying to protect an informant who is spying on her own IRA family in "Shadow Dancer", a taut thriller that premiered Sunday at the Berlin film festival.
Directed by Oscar-winning film-maker James Marsh and written by Tom Bradby, a journalist who covered the long-running "troubles" in Northern Ireland, the film revives the terror and paranoia of the era's sectarian violence.
"I think that if you're brought up in England and you're my age, it was something that was kind of on the news every day, the troubles in Ireland, and you kind of lived with it," said Owen, 47. "I remember going to Belfast for a while during the troubles. You forget how recently it was a rough place, it was a war zone really."
Owen's MI5 officer Mac interrogates single mother Collette, a Republican living in Belfast with her mother and IRA militant brothers, when she is captured for her part in an aborted bomb plot on the London Tube.
He presents her with a choice: go to prison or inform on her own family. She agrees to spy for the British but when a secret IRA operation goes awry, suspicion falls on her and she fears for her life.
Read further: http://au.news.yahoo.com/entertainment/a/-/entertainment/12884649/clive-owen-unveils-ira-thriller-at-berlin-fest/
Alan Rickman: Wait, What? ‘Galaxy Quest’ Was Initially R-Rated (GEEKS OF DOOM)
Speaking with Lindsey Collins—producer of the massive Disney blockbuster that hit theaters this weekend, John Carter—recently, Collider’s Steve Weintraub was informed of some long-lost buried treasure of sorts.
Apparently Galaxy Quest, the fantastic 1999 sci-fi comedy starring Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Sam Rockwell, Tony Shalhoub, and Daryl Mitchell (as well as a slew of other familiar faces) as the stars of an old sci-fi TV series (a la Star Trek) who inadvertently find themselves beamed out to space to help very real aliens put an end to the ongoing threats of an evil being named Sarris and his crew, was initially an R-rated comedy before being cut down to the PG version fans know and love.
Collins explained how she came to find out this information while dining with Weaver: “We had lunch with Sigourney, who was telling us that there actually used to be an R-rated version of that movie which was awesome. It was the director’s cut and it was R-rated and everybody was swearing and there were sex scenes, and the whole thing. They didn’t know what to do with it, so they had to re-edit the whole thing and made it what it is today. We were like, ‘How do we get our hands on the R-rated version of Galaxy Quest?’ She said ‘I don’t know!’ and we were like, ‘Come on, Sigourney!’”
Read Further: http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2012/03/10/wait-what-galaxy-quest-was-initially-r-rated/
Colin Firth: Signing autograph as he holds his Freeman plaque (STARGAZING)
Colin Firth signs an autograph as he holds a plaque given to him as a Freeman of the City of London at Guildhall in central London this week. The medieval term 'freeman' meant someone who was not the property of a feudal lord, but enjoyed privileges such as the right to own land - or win Oscars.
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/03/10/3480190/stargazing-elisabeth-moss-talks.html
Liam Neeson: Scene Last Night: Liam Neeson, Peter Rockefeller, Oysters (BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK)
By Amanda Gordon on March 09, 2012
Last night Liam Neeson attended the Museum of the City of New York’s Winter Ball at the Plaza, with guests including Peter Rockefeller, managing director at Berkshire Capital Corp. and the grandson of Nelson Rockefeller, former New York governor and U.S. vice president.
The event drew 500 guests and raised $250,000. A saltier crowd had gathered at the New York Yacht Club for a fundraiser for the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, including Brian McAllister, president of McAllister Towing & Transportation Co., a tugboat company his family founded in 1864.
Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-03-09/scene-last-night-liam-neeson-peter-rockefeller-oysters-helping-schools
David Tennant: Watch David Tennant in the recording studio for The Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists (RADIO TIMES)
If this video doesn't work here (and I can't seem to make it work) go to the original article. It is fun to watch David behind scenes doing his voice overs.
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-03-09/watch-david-tennant-in-the-recording-studio-for-the-pirates-in-an-adventure-with-scientists
Paul Jones 4:03 PM, 09 March 2012
Go behind the scenes as the former Doctor Who star voices Charles Darwin in the new Aardman animated film
Want to see David Tennant bouncing around behind a microphone, making faces and doing silly voices? Of course you do. So watch the video below, which goes inside the recording studio as DT takes on the role of Charles Darwin in the catchily titled The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
Read more: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-03-09/watch-david-tennant-in-the-recording-studio-for-the-pirates-in-an-adventure-with-scientists
DAME Judi Dench has said that a sense of humour is the most important thing to have in a co-actor. (EXPRESS.CO.UK)
The 77-year old actress who has worked with some of the greatest names in British film and Hollywood has said she would not work with anyone who did not have a sense of humour.
She said: " I don't want to work with anybody who doesn't have a sense of humour. You work very hard but if someone has a great sense of humour you get great returns from it." The actress is currently starring alongside Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska in the latest adaptation of Jane Eyre, where she stars as warm housekeeper of Thornfield Hall, Mrs Fairfax.
She spoke of Fassbender, adding: "He is very refreshing, quite anarchic and very gentle on set. He has a great sense of humour."
Read more: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/307100/Dame-Judi-Dench-I-won-t-work-with-anyone-who-doesn-t-have-a-sense-of-humour
Charles Dickens: World's oldest surviving Charles Dickens film from 111-years ago found after going missing for half a century, 31 yrs after his death. (DAILY MAIL)
Film made in 1901, 31 years after Dickens' death Thought to have been inspired by Dickens' novel Bleak House
By RACHEL RICKARD STRAUS PUBLISHED: 06:09 EST, 9 March 2012 | UPDATED: 19:04 EST, 9 March 2012
The oldest surviving film based on the works of Charles Dickens has been discovered. The Death Of Poor Joe, inspired by Bleak House, dates back to March 1901 but lay unnoticed in an archive for decades. The minute-long clip, made by British film pioneer G.A. Smith, was given to the British Film Institute in 1954 by a collector, but was catalogued under the wrong name and date.
‘It’s wonderful to have discovered such a rare film so close to Dickens’s bicentennial,’ she said. ‘Not only does it survive, but it is the world’s earliest Dickensian film. It looks beautiful and is in excellent condition. 'This really is the icing on the cake of our current celebration of Dickens on Screen.' The film beats the previous record holder, Scrooge; or, Marley’s Ghost, by several months. It depicts the crossing-sweeper from Bleak House – played by Smith’s wife Laura Bayley – being found by a nightwatchman as she freezes to death in the winter snow.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2112542/Charles-Dickens-film-111-years-ago-going-missing-half-century.html
Drama at Downton Abbey as Dame Maggie Smith looks set to quit the show (MAIL ON LINE)
y GEORGINA LITTLEJOHN UPDATED: 06:18 EST, 7 March 2012
She is the formidable and witty matriarch who is beloved by the tens of millions of fans of Downton Abbey. But Dame Maggie Smith, who plays Dowager Countess of Grantham, has panicked the bosses of the popular period drama by not signing a new contract. Dame Maggie, 77, has yet to put pen to paper to secure her future on the show which is currently filming its third series.
In doubt: ITV bosses are believed to be panicking about the future of Downton Abbey as Dame Maggie Smith, who plays Dowager Grantham, has yet to sign a new contract Bosses are already looking ahead to the fourth and possibly fifth series and Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary, and Hugh Bonneville, who plays Earl Grantham, have reportedly already signed contracts guaranteeing they will be in the upcoming seasons.
They join Elizabeth McGovern who plays Cora, Countess of Grantham, Joanne Froggatt, who stars as housemaid Anna, and Brendan Coyle who plays valet John Bates, who have also said they are returning. But Dame Maggie, along with Dan Stevens, who plays Matthew Crawley, have yet to sign on the dotted line and, according to the Mirror, bosses are concerned that they may be ready to quit the show.
Read the rest of the article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2110826/Downton-Abbey-Dame-Maggie-Smith-looks-set-quit.html
Benedict Cumberbatch: It's Sherlock v Sherlock in the battle of the Holmes experts Supporters of the BBC series face off against fans of the Warner Bros franchise in the second annual debate (RADIO TIMES)
Paul Jones 2:11 PM, 09 March 2012
They're united in their passion for Sherlock Holmes but divided by their views on the two (soon to be three) modern takes on the great detective. And this March, the opposing camps will join battle in The Great Sherlock Holmes Debate... 2!
The first event, in November last year, drew live online participants from 23 countries around the world, creating millions of pages of comments on social networking sites.
Since then, the BBC's Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, has returned for an even more highly acclaimed second series, while the action-packed Warner Bros movie franchise, directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Robert Downey Jr as Holmes, has proved it has staying power with the hugely successful release of its second instalment, A Game of Shadows.
On 18 March, 25 of the world's top Holmes experts, including actors, directors, historians and writers involved in each of the franchises, will meet in person to once again argue over which is the best Holmes adaptation – and to share their thoughts on Elementary, the controversial modern-day take on Sherlock from US TV network CBS, set to star Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu.
Read more: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-03-09/it's-sherlock-v-sherlock-in-the-battle-of-the-holmes-experts
SEAN BEAN IS RELISHING NEW FILM ROLE (EXPRESS CO. UK)
By Lizzie Catt with Lisa Higgins and Jack Teague
SEAN BEAN is relishing his new role. The burly Yorkshireman, 52, plays an intelligence agent in terrorist film Cleanskin and says he enjoyed feeling super-macho on set when battling against a suicide bomber called Ash, played by young actor Abhin Galeya.
“It’s good fun, especially having fights with Ash. It’s always good fun to have fights. There’s some good violence in there but there’s no wallowing in gore, it’s more an extension of the characters’ raw emotions.”
And keen to show off his warrior body, heart-throb Sean almost got carried away at the premiere of the film at London’s Mayfair Hotel, asking photographers: “Shall I take my top off?” Rest assured cold towels were provided to ladies in the crowd.
http://www.express.co.uk/features/view/307124/Sean-Bean-is-relishing-new-film-role
Friday, March 9, 2012
Hugh Grant: I’m not posh (FILM NEWS)
Hugh Grant may “talk posh” but he had “zero money growing up”.
The Bridget Jones star was born and raised in London, UK. He is keen to point out he didn’t have an extravagant upbringing and had to work hard for his success, although he knows his voice makes many suspect otherwise.
“We had absolutely zero money growing up,” he told the April edition of the UK’s Empire magazine. “We never had foreign holidays or anything like that. I just talk posh. And my parents always have done. There used to be adverts in The Daily Telegraph for ‘distressed gentlefolk’ and I think that is what my parents are.”
Hugh has risen to fame and wealth after appearing in hit films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Two Weeks Notice. However the 51-year-old fell into acting 30 years ago and has been planning to quit ever since. “That’s been the pattern for 30 years,” he said.
“There are all these other things I want to do then usually… it was, ‘I was so bad in that, I am going to do one more to show people that I am not that bad.’ That went on for quite long time.”
Read further: http://www.film-news.co.uk/show-news.asp?H=Hugh-Grant:-I%E2%80%99m-not-posh&nItemID=10302
Colin Firth Racks Up Another Old-Timey Acting Honor (E ON LINE)
Colin Firth Racks Up Another Old-Timey Acting Honor
Fri., Mar. 09, 2012 10:31 AM PST
by Gina Serpe
The Oscar winner yesterday was named a Freeman of the City of London, accepting the recognition given to people who've made a significant impact in their field of work—in Firth's case, acting. "London is my home and I'm hugely touched and honored by this gesture," The King's Speech star said when accepting the honor, which once (but no longer) carried with it such privileges as the ability to be drunk and disorderly in public without fear of arrest.
Read further: http://www.eonline.com/redcarpet/2012/premieres/news/colin-firth-racks-up-another-old-timey-acting-honor/300002
Tom Hardy has signed up to star in a biker movie set in the 1960s. (NME)
The British actor will also producer the as-yet-untitled motorcycle gang film for Warner Bros, with The Hole screenwriter Mark L Smith writing the script. According to Variety, Hardy will play a Vietnam veteran who returns to San Francisco and forms a gang. Hardy recently starred in mixed martial arts film Warrior and spy comedy This Means War. But his highest profile role to date will be as supervillain Bane in Christopher Nolan's Batman sequel The Dark Knight Rises.
Read more: http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/tom-hardy-to-star-in-60s-biker-movie/262437
Gerard Butler Weight Loss Picture: Before and After (ZIMBIO)
My personal opinion - he looked better with the weight
By Adam Wenger on March 9, 2012
Butler shed a noticeable amount of weight to play a surfer in the flick Mavericks. The 41-year-old star joked that he slimmed down because "[he] ate my last meal in October, and [he's] run about 40 miles a day," but really he just did tons of cardio and stuck to a strict diet. He also "stopped lifting big weights" and took up yoga.
For a man who has struggled with alcoholism, we're very happy to see he has the ability to maintain a healthy lifestyle when need be.
Read more: http://www.zimbio.com/Gerard+Butler+Weight+Loss/articles/Nz0DJm-x-EN/Gerard+Butler+Weight+Loss+Picture+Before+After
Keira Knightly: "Anna Karenina" Oscar contender for 2013? (THELMA ADAMS)
“Anna Karenina” For those who thought Keira Knightley was robbed when she wasn’t nominated for her central turn in David Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method,” it’s payback time. She’s the title character in this oft-adapted Leo Tolstoy classic (Greta Garbo nailed the role in 1935), opposite Jude Law as her inattentive husband and Aaron Johnson as the love of her life, Count Vronsky. Expect a gallery of tortured, passionate looks and longing sighs. Toss in “Atonement” director Joe Wright and a script from the great playwright Tom Stoppard, and we have ourselves an Oscar party.
http://thelmadams.com/wordpress/?p=2324
'Downton Abbey': Shirley MacLaine wraps Season 3 shooting (ZAP 2 IT)
The venerable Shirley MacLaine was cast as Lady Cora's American mother, Martha Levinson, for Season 3 of "Downton Abbey," the British import show that has captured American audiences - but it sound as though she has wrapped filming just about three weeks into shooting the season.
"I'm back in the States now and catching up with my other projects," tweets MacLaine. Of course, we're sure it went swimmingly - the actors have had nothing but raves for her. Allen Leech, who plays Tom Branson, the former chauffer and Lady Sybil's husband on the show, tweets that having MacLaine as part of the Downton family is "amazeballs."
Read more: http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2012/03/downton-abbey-shirley-maclaine-wraps-season-3-shooting.html
Cleanskin Movie Review (IRISHTIMES.COM)
Clearskin Directed by Hadi Hajaig. Starring Sean Bean, Abhin Galeya, Charlotte Rampling, James Fox, Peter Polycarpou 16 cert, general release, 108 min
Hajaig wants to make the British Parallax View and he’s halfway there.
By the third act we’re aware that no one in the world of black ops and terrorism cells can be trusted. (Who new?) In common with TV’s Spooks and current critical wow Homeland , Hajaig’s script incorporates sneaky nods to recent political scandals and conspiracies.
This is a big movie trapped inside a tiny one. Tussles over British- Islamic identity are seamlessly incorporated. A boorish Middle Eastern assassin with a fondness for diabolical jumpers and Mr Bean marks an audacious and deftly handled shift between dark Borat comedy and unvarnished horror.
There’s a lovely frisson between Bean and Rampling that makes you think what James Bond and M could be. Unhappily, budgetary constraints do tell on the finished product. Cleanskin works hard with make-do joins, library music and tiny interiors but can’t quite rise above them. As for that fake headline about Spurs winning the Champions League . . . Still, we can name 10 Hollywood attempts to grapple with the war on terror that don’t work nearly as well.
Read further: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/theticket/2012/0309/1224313046424.html
Sean Bean: "Cleanskin" interview video (WHATCULTURE)
Cleanskin Interviews With Sean Bean, Abhin Galeya & Director Hadi Hajaig
By Mark Clark
See more: http://whatculture.com/film/cleanskin-interviews-with-sean-bean-abhin-galeya-director-hadi-hajaig.php
By Mark Clark
See more: http://whatculture.com/film/cleanskin-interviews-with-sean-bean-abhin-galeya-director-hadi-hajaig.php
Henry Cavill, Tom Hardy: Casting for "The Lion Awakes" (NARNIAWEB)
NarniaWeb Interviews ‘The Lion Awakes’ Screenwriter
Posted March 8, 2012 11:59 pm by glumPuddle
We recently asked co-screenwriter Darren Scott Jacobs some questions about his upcoming film The Lion Awakes, which is currently scheduled for a 2013 release.
The story will center around C. S. Lewis’ early life, and mark the first time J. R. R. Tolkien has ever been portrayed in a feature film. For a more detailed synopsis, visit the official Facebook page. According to co-screenwriter Dr. Louis Markos, in the film we will see “through CGI and other things, the rich imagination of Lewis and Tolkien that is going to end up resulting in ‘Narnia’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings.’”
A few highlights from the interview:
- Darren hopes to begin filming late summer/early fall in Oxford University.
- Casting queries for the role of C. S. Lewis include Henry Cavill (who will play Superman in the upcoming reboot), and Tom Hardy (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises).
- He would love to be a part of the next Narnia film, and does not think they should skip “The Silver Chair.”
Read further: http://www.narniaweb.com/2012/03/narniaweb-interviews-the-lion-awakes-screenwriter/
John Carter Movie Review (VISALIA TIMES DELTA)
“John Carter” is one wacky movie. It features an unwieldy plot that throws in elements of “Flash Gordon,” “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones,” “Avatar” and “Conan the Barbarian” for good measure.
And even though it clocks in at well over two hours, the film feels over-stuffed and rushed because of all the disparate story lines. Still, in spite of its crazed plot and at-times bloated running time, it’s mostly entertaining.
This is a movie aimed at the 13-year-old boy with a healthy imagination and a thirst for action. “John Carter” features visits to other worlds, sword fights, gun battles, 12-foot-tall, four-armed green creatures with a propensity for violence and a scantily clad princess whose outfit would make even Princess Leia via “Return of the Jedi” blush.
The movie, directed by Andrew Stanton of Pixar “Finding Nemo” and “Wall-E” fame, is based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “John Carter of Mars” series, which was first published starting in 1912. The novels obviously influenced a wide swath of future sci-fi series, including the aforementioned “Flash Gordon” and “Star Wars.”
To describe the plot is almost a losing proposition. It revolves around a Civil War veteran transported to Mars, which is the middle of a civil war between the kingdom of Helium and the mobile city of Zodanga. Turns out the civil war in manipulated by malevolent spirit forces led by Matai Shang (Mark Strong).
To stop the civil war, Helium’s leader (Ciaran Hinds) agrees to marry his lovely daughter Princess Dejah (the scantily clad Lynne Collins) to the evil Zodanga warlord Sab Than (Dominic West).
Read further: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20120307/ENTERTAINMENT02/120307015
Jeremy Piven To Dominate Downton Abbey A New British Period Drama?? (PEREZ HILTON)
Fans of Downton Abbey, get ready to sink your anglophilic teeth into a new period-peice project starring…Jeremy Piven??!!
Our friends across the blue have penned a 10 episode series based on the life and ideas of American entrepreneur, Harry Gordon Selfridge, and they want the Piv to play Mr. Selfridge himself.
Ari Gold Jeremy Piven is currently in negotiations with ITV to play the eccentric visionary - a refreshing break from the ball-busting, short-tempered agent Piven has played for the last seven years on Entourage. For those of us without an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of British culture, Harry Selfridge was a pioneer in the shopping world, launching high street behemoth Selfridge’s in the early twentieth century, a time when women in the UK began enjoying unprecedented freedoms.
Supposedly, Harry wanted to make a woman’s shopping experience as exciting as a sexual romp. He also wished to empower the women of the British isles and celebrate their innate feminine charms (Ooo this show definitely has some steamy potential!
To read more: http://perezhilton.com/2012-03-08-jeremy-piven-in-talks-to-star-in-itvs-mr-selfridge#.T1ogpTEgfiY
Martin Clunes adopted chicken is killed (MERCURY 24)
A FOX put paid to a school’s chicken adoption scheme when it massacred a group of hens which had been let out of their coop by someone who broke into the school.
Hans Price Academy in Marchfields Way had offered people the chance to sponsor one of its eight chickens for £5 a year. The scheme had proven a big success, and even earned celebrity backing from Men Behaving Badly star Martin Clunes.
But an intruder climbed over the school’s wall and let the chickens out on Friday night, leading to all but one of the animals being killed by a fox. Hans Price’s Helen Bliss said: “The kids are devastated because they raised them. “We are offering people the chance to get their money back but everyone has been very understanding and told us to keep it. We are hoping to put it towards new chickens, so people can sponsor them instead. “I want to thank everyone for their help. We have had a really good response, and lots of friends of hens on Facebook.”
She said if new chickens are bought, they will be kept in a more secure place.
http://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/news/education/martin_clunes_chicken_killed_1_1231731
Emily Blunt is a big fish in acting pond with 3 films due (USA TODAY)
NEW YORK – Emily Blunt's arsenal of gifts is enviable. She makes a mean British beef roast and specializes in Italian cuisine. She's able to nimbly traverse Manhattan in "serious" red suede Christian Louboutin booties that can best be described as perilous.
But most of all, as her friends will tell you, she's a deft mimic and an ace at accents. Here's her uncannily precise imitation of a particularly memorable interview recently conducted at a film festival. Blunt's proper, crisp British accent vanishes as she assumes the guttural voice of the reporter in question. " 'What's the most amazing thing about John?' " she demands, before switching back to herself. "Oh, I don't really talk about that. 'Well, can you just be specific? Please be specific.' No, I won't."
The John in question is her husband, actor John Krasinski, whom she wed July 10, 2010, in a private ceremony. Blunt understands the interest in her personal life, but adroitly steers questions about her better half toward other topics. She won't tell you how they met because "that is so our story. People just want to know something, anything. It's all the stuff you never want to talk about, the private stuff," she says. The two tend to not discuss each other in interviews.
"It wasn't a strategic decision. It's just how we are. I think it's the best way to be," says Blunt, 29. "I find it quite hard to sum up my relationship in a sound bite. I feel that it trivializes it for other people's pleasure. It's an adventure."
Instead, Blunt explores romantic entanglements of various natures in three films opening back-to-back this spring and summer. In Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, opening today, she's an unflappable, driven and focused London executive charged with opening a fishery in the desert.
On April 27, she's Jason Segel's betrothed, Violet, in the comedy The Five-Year Engagement, a whimsical, sweet look at the circuitous road one couple takes to the altar. In the June 15 IFC release Your Sister's Sister, she finds herself in a very unique sort of love triangle involving a grieving best friend (Mark Duplass) and a sibling (Rosemarie DeWitt) desperate to have a baby.
Oh, and that's her you see in the lush ads for Yves Saint Laurent's Opium, as the new face of the fragrance. "People are going to be like, 'Her again?' The films are different enough. But it's like an overload," Blunt quips.
To read the full article: http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/story/2012-03-08/Emily-Blunt/53420818/1
Michael Fassbender: Jeremy Renner And Javier Bardem Still In The Running For Ridley Scott's The Counselor, Natalie Portman Too? (CINEMA BLEND)
2012-03-08 19:25:28
Author: Eric Eisenberg
A couple weeks ago there was a report that both Jeremy Renner, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt were expressing interest in joining Michael Fassbender in the Cormac McCarthy-scripted Counselor , the new film from director Ridley Scott. While it seems that Pitt is no longer available, the other two are still gunning for the part, and, what's more, another A-list actor may be looking at the project as well.
According to Twitch, Renner, Bardem and Natalie Portman are all now in early talks for roles in the upcoming thriller.
The plot centers on a lawyer (Fassbender), who believes that he can dip a toe in the drug game, make some quick cash, and get out untouched. Everything starts going wrong, however, and he finds himself fighting to survive. What's interesting about this story is that Renner and Bardem are still going after the same character, the central villain known as Reiner. The article also says that Bardem has an edge over Renner, as he previously starred in the McCarthy adaptation No Country For Old Men and won an Oscar for his performance.
Read further: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Jeremy-Renner-Javier-Bardem-Still-Running-Ridley-Scott-Counselor-Natalie-Portman-Too-29873.html
The Raven: Movie Review (THE SUN)
By ALEX ZANE and GRANT ROLLINGS
JOHN Cusack takes on the role of author Edgar Allan Poe in this period detective story that uses the real-life mystery surrounding his death as its jumping-off point. Set in 19th Century Baltimore, the film begins with Poe's last moments before telling a fictional account of the last few days of his life. We see him team up with a young detective (Luke Evans) in an attempt to solve a series of murders that are mirroring his macabre stories
While it initially appears to be heading down the route of an enjoyably grim period-piece – especially during a delightfully gruesome death scene using Poe's The Pit And The Pendulum apparatus (a giant swinging axe with a victim strapped to a table) – this soon loses its way.
Cusack, adept at the comic potential of Poe's eccentricities, never delivers much in the way of tension, even when his sweetheart Emily (Alice Eve) becomes a target for the killer. But ultimately the problem is that James McTeigue's film inhabits a middle ground of being too morose for a crowd-pleaser in the style of Sherlock Holmes yet not dark enough for those wanting a seriously disturbing serial killer pic.
RATING: TWO OUT OF FIVE
Read further: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/sftw/4181930/Alex-Zane-reviews-The-Raven-Bel-Ami-Trishna-Cleanskin-and-Payback-Season.html
David Tennant: Movie Review, "The Decoy Bride" (THE GUARDIAN)
The Decoy Bride – review
This cheerfully absurd and laid-back comedy-farce comes from a TV director and is co-written by Sally Phillips, formerly of Smack the Pony and I'm Alan Partridge. It pokes gentle fun at the traditional Richard Curtis romcom.
A writer called James (David Tennant) finds himself in a media firestorm on getting engaged to preening superstar Lara (Alice Eve). They try to avoid the press by marrying on a remote Scottish island, and pay a "decoy bride" to put the paparazzi off.
This is a lonely, feisty local girl Katie, played by Kelly Macdonald. James and Katie find themselves spending time together, at first quarrelling and then … well, you know. It's indulgent, but Macdonald's performance is attractive and relaxed
Read further: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/mar/08/the-decoy-bride-review?newsfeed=true
This cheerfully absurd and laid-back comedy-farce comes from a TV director and is co-written by Sally Phillips, formerly of Smack the Pony and I'm Alan Partridge. It pokes gentle fun at the traditional Richard Curtis romcom.
A writer called James (David Tennant) finds himself in a media firestorm on getting engaged to preening superstar Lara (Alice Eve). They try to avoid the press by marrying on a remote Scottish island, and pay a "decoy bride" to put the paparazzi off.
This is a lonely, feisty local girl Katie, played by Kelly Macdonald. James and Katie find themselves spending time together, at first quarrelling and then … well, you know. It's indulgent, but Macdonald's performance is attractive and relaxed
Read further: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/mar/08/the-decoy-bride-review?newsfeed=true
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Colin Firth receives London honor (ABC36)
Actor Colin Firth attends a photocall as he is made a Freeman of the City of London at Guildhall Art Gallery on March 8, 2012 in London, England. (Tim Whitby, Getty Images)
Oscar-winning star Colin Firth has been awarded the Freedom of the City of London for his stellar acting career.
The actor was given the honor at a ceremony in the U.K. capital. It traditionally permits the recipient to be drunk and disorderly on the streets of the city without fearing arrest, and to drive sheep over London Bridge - but these privileges are mainly symbolic in modern times.
Speaking ahead of the ceremony, The King's Speech star told the BBC, "London is my home and I'm hugely touched and honored by this gesture." Previous recipients of the traditional honor include writer Rudyard Kipling.
Read more: http://www.wtvq.com/entertainment/story/Firth-receives-London-honor/L-QPV-obpkW1G4VsldRKmg.cspx
Tom's Hardy by name and hardy by nature (CAMBRIDGE NEWS)
Alice Hutton
Actor Tom Hardy might soon be bursting onto cinema screens as the villain in the new Batman movie, but he has just returned from braving icy winds in Siberia to raise £30,000 for a Cambridge homeless charity. The 34-year-old London-born actor has been a patron of Cambridge charity Flack since it was founded.
The charity, originally known as Willow Walker, provided homeless extras for the BBC dramatisation of Alexander Master’s book Stuart: A Life Backwards, which starred Hardy as Cambridge man Stuart Shorter.
The role was pivotal to the actor’s career – he was nominated for a Bafta – and he became a staunch advocate of the group, which supports the homeless in the city by publishing a listings magazine. But after a mammoth campaign to raise £45,000 for Flack in December last year, the actor signed up to cross the Siberian Steppes to boost its coffers.
He returned on February 25 with £15,235 in the bank and now he is urging the county’s residents to dig deeper and help him reach his total of £30,000. Mr Hardy, who is a recovered drug addict, said he was inspired to take on the journey by the stories of the people he met. He added: “I’m incredibly proud to be patron of Flack.
Read further: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Cambridge/Toms-Hardy-by-name-and-hardy-by-nature-08032012.htm
Downton Abbey: Steven Waddington was nearly Mr. Bates (MAIL ON LINE)
One of the standout performers in ITV’s new big-budget drama Titanic is Steven Waddington (right) as brave second officer Charles Lightoller. But he was nearly cast as Mr Bates in Julian Fellowes’s other major TV drama, Downton Abbey. When the part eventually went to Brendan Coyle, Tudors star Steven was given the Titanic role as a more than decent consolation prize. Though he tells me he hasn’t given up on his Downton dream.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2112337/Britain-s-Got-Talent-2012-Will-Alesha-Dixon-Simon-Cowells-vote-again.html
KATY PERRY WENT ON A DATE WITH GERARD BUTLER? (I thought they just said it was Jennifer Aniston) (SUGARSCOPE)
IF THIS IS TRUE, THERE IS NO NEED TO LOOK SO BLUE KATY
Katy Perry and Russell Brand may have filed for a divorce, but it sounds like Pezza might still have a bit of a thing for the Brits and it's rumoured that she might even have gone on a date with hunky Scottish actor Gerard Butler.
According to Now, the couple were seen out enjoying several "low-key" dinners together last month, before Gerard checked into rehab to try and sort out his addiction to painkillers.
In an interview with Now, a source said: "Gerard's always had a soft spot for her. As soon as he heard about her split from Russell Brand he got in touch. It was actually on her advice that he went to rehab."
When Gerard finished treatment, the pair apparently met up again at a pre-Oscars party. It's even rumoured that Katy was so keen to meet up with the Scottish hottie that she left Elton John's legendary Oscar bash to see Gerard at a rival party.
"They're planning to meet up again," the source added. It might not be plain sailing for the couple though, as apparently Katy's friends are concerned that the relationship is not the best thing for her right now. The source said: "Her friends are worried she's heading for trouble, but she thinks he'd be a great way to mend her broken heart."
Read further: http://www.sugarscape.com/main-topics/celebrities/702118/katy-perry-went-date-gerard-butler
David Oakes will have cameo on Pillars of the Earth Sequel - World Without End (DAVID OAKES)
Channel 4 has acquired the rights to World Without End, the follow-up to medieval drama Pillars of the Earth, which it showed in late 2010.
The eight-part series adapted from Ken Follett’s sequel is set 150 years later in the same fictional town of Kingsbridge, and features some of the descendants of the original characters from Pillars of the Earth. Miranda Richardson stars alongside Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon and Spooks’s Peter Firth.
The co-production between Tandem, Take 5 and Galafilm is made in association with director Ridley Scott’s production company Scott Free Films.
Read further: http://david-oakes.co.uk/content/world-without-end-channel-4-acquires-rights
Henry Cavill Up For The Great Wall But will he leap it in a single bound? (VARIETY) (EMPIRE)
| Written by James White | Source: Variety
After becoming a heroic warrior in Immortals and slipping into Superman’s suit for Man Of Steel, it would appear that Henry Cavill is ready to come back to Earth for a bit.
He’s now in talks to star in The Great Wall. As announced last August, Love And Other Drugs director Ed Zwick has co-written the script with regular scribbling pal Marshall Herskovitz, and it’ll look at the mystery behind how China’s famous wall was built over years and under different rulers.
The original idea for the film was hatched by Legendary Pictures founder Thomas Tull and World War Z novelist Max Brooks, with Tull handing it over to the China-based Legendary East to shove into production.
Read more: http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=33098
(Thank you again Henry Cavill Fanpage)
Colin Firth becomes a Freeman in the City of London (BBC NEWS)
Firth said he was 'hugely touched'
Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth has been given the Freedom of the City of London for services to acting.
Firth accepted the honour at the Guildhall by reading the Declaration of a Freeman, which allows him to carry out his trade.
Ahead of the ceremony the actor said: "London is my home and I'm hugely touched and honoured by this gesture."
Author Rudyard Kipling and former prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and Robert Peel count as former recipients.
The title, thought to have begun in 1237, came with several traditional privileges, such as driving sheep over London Bridge, being drunk and disorderly without fear of arrest, or, if sentenced to death, being hanged with a silken rope.
Read further: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17300320
Benedict Cumberbatch: The Doctor’s Master? (KASTERBOROUS)
BY MEREDITH BURDETT – MARCH 7, 2012
Recently, rumours have started up that Benedict Cumberbatch, the leading man from Steven Moffat’s other successful BBC TV series, would be donning the nefarious black cape to resurrect the Master.
The actor that was at one time in consideration to play the role of the Eleventh Doctor may now play his polar opposite.I say bring it on.
Cumberbatch would be brilliant, he would be cold, he would be calculating and above all he would embody the role of the Master. Since Matt Smith was going to try and play his best friend in Sherlock by auditioning for the part of Doctor Watson it seems ironic that these two should finally get to play at being friends in an altogether different way.
And what about including this new Master in the 50th anniversary? If the Doctor is going to have a massive party, it only seems right to invite his bosom buddy. But don’t stop at Cumberbatch; bring back all the surviving Masters to have a pop at the Doc! We’re all so concerned about seeing the Doctor’s previous incarnations at his birthday, what about seeing multiple Masters?
Read the entire article: http://www.kasterborous.com/wordpress/2012/03/the-doctors-master/
Hugh Grant prefers politics to acting (UK SCREEN)
Posted by: Husam Asi on 2012-03-08
As I wait for Huge Grant in a room in Las Vegas’s Treasure Island Hotel, I hear a commotion in the outside hall. Stepping out of the room to investigate, I see a bemused Huge Grant surrounded by a crowd of excited middle-age women, who have apparently stormed out of their breast cancer conference when they glimpsed him passing by.
Remarkably, the star of Bridget Jones Diaries, who’s known of his disdain of the culture of celebrity, poses cheerfully for photographs with his swooning fans as his face is showered by their flashing cameras. Grant has been making bold headlines recently, not for starring in movies, but for his relentless campaign against the British tabloids and becoming the unofficial spokesman for the universal outrage directed at them.
After a decades-long combative, and sometimes litigious, relationship with the tabloid press, Grant turned the table against them by discreetly recording incriminating admissions by former journalist, Paul McMullen, which he penned in an article for The New Statesman last April. Titled “The Bugger, Bugged”, the article exposed long-standing ethical violations, including phone hacking, committed by the News of the World and other media outlets, allegedly with the knowledge of politicians and even the police.
“All the phone hacking stuff has been swept under the carpet because everyone’s been too frightened either politically or in terms of their personal reputation to confront the power of those tabloid beasts,” he says.
Read further: http://www.ukscreen.com/article.htm?article_id=40924
Sean Bean Interview: Terrorism Around Us, How He Relaxes And Finding His Groove (HUFFINGTON POST)
If I could have a penny for every time I've watched Sean Bean pick up a gun (or bow and arrow if he's got his toga on for Game of Thrones/Lord of the Rings/anything with Sharpe in it), look meaningfully into the semi-distance and plot a one-man revenge for the way the world has turned against him, I'd... be able to buy Patriot Games on DVD. Twice.
Everything Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham have learnt, the original British tough man has already forgotten.
Why never a romantic lead, I wonder? "I like what I do, and it appears to be working out," he chuckles. Which is fair enough, when you think how many millions he must have made from bulked-up, narrow-eyed appearances in everything from Lord of the Rings to Sharpe, via Patriot Games and Lady Chatterley's Lover (the last one a bit worryingly romantic, but ultimately doomed, thankfully).
So it comes as something of a surprise to find him, in person, disarmingly gentle, full of northern shyness and an apparently authentic humility. No middle-distance, shrewd appraisals, or any of the suspicion on which he has built a substantial career of two decades and counting. My respect for him as an actor just went up.
He's here to talk about his latest - guess what - terrorist thriller, filmed on the streets of London and concerning the security services' worst nightmare, a crime about to occur, but attributable to someone nowhere on their files - a 'Cleanskin'.
Read further: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/03/07/sean-bean-interview-cleanskin_n_1326601.html?ref=uk
Everything Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham have learnt, the original British tough man has already forgotten.
Why never a romantic lead, I wonder? "I like what I do, and it appears to be working out," he chuckles. Which is fair enough, when you think how many millions he must have made from bulked-up, narrow-eyed appearances in everything from Lord of the Rings to Sharpe, via Patriot Games and Lady Chatterley's Lover (the last one a bit worryingly romantic, but ultimately doomed, thankfully).
So it comes as something of a surprise to find him, in person, disarmingly gentle, full of northern shyness and an apparently authentic humility. No middle-distance, shrewd appraisals, or any of the suspicion on which he has built a substantial career of two decades and counting. My respect for him as an actor just went up.
He's here to talk about his latest - guess what - terrorist thriller, filmed on the streets of London and concerning the security services' worst nightmare, a crime about to occur, but attributable to someone nowhere on their files - a 'Cleanskin'.
Read further: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/03/07/sean-bean-interview-cleanskin_n_1326601.html?ref=uk
Colin Firth and King George VI (BBC NEWS IN PICTURES)
Colin Firth, who earned a Bafta and an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of George VI, said file footage of the stammering king was useful, "not so much as material to imitate, but because I saw something in the quality of the man. There's a humanity and an unassuming decency about him which I tried to focus on".
Helena Bonham Carter played Elizabeth, the future Queen Mother.Firth told the BBC: "One of the things that was most painful to observe about George VI is that if you read what he wrote, this is a man with a subtle, elegant mind. He had wit, a strong sense of irony and was judged as dull-witted because he couldn't express all that."
Read further: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17293377
'Downton Abbey' actor Dan Stevens going back in time again for new movie (STAR TRIBUNE)
Article by: LOUISE DIXON and HILARY FOX , Associated Press Updated: March 7, 2012 - 1:28 PMLONDON -
"Downton Abbey" star Dan Stevens has been spending twice as much time in the past.
Along with shooting the third season of the 1920s-set Golden-Globe-winning TV show, he's been filming and executive producing another period project in London, playing one side of an Edwardian love triangle in the movie, "Summer in February."
The tight schedule means Stevens is the earnest Matthew Crawley amid the upper crust of Downtown Abbey one day — then a 1913 land agent who finds himself in a community of unconventional artists the next. "It's been a bit of a headache, but fortunately they're not too far apart in terms of period, which is one good thing," Stevens told The Associated Press on the set of his new film in Twickenham, outside London. Jumping between two sets is not something he'd do again, but "Summer in February" is a a passion project for the 29-year-old.
The film is based on a book by a teacher from his old school, Jonathan Smith, who also adapted the screenplay, and they had been talking about the project since the actor was a teenager. "The book came out around the time that I met him and he always joked that if it got made into a film or TV show, that I'd make a good Gilbert," he said.
Read further: http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/celebrities/141744763.html
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