Colin Firth is About to Make His Fans Very, Very Happy

BBC AMERICA
By Leah Rozen | Posted on April 9th, 2014



Benedict Cumberbatch isn’t the only one who has been busy, busy, busy. So has fellow English actor Colin Firth.

The Oscar winning star, who has been absent from movie screens since the release of the little seen road movie Arthur Newman nearly a year ago, has a surfeit of new films opening in the next few weeks and months.

Colin Firth attends the New York premiere of The Railway Man on Monday, April 7, 2014. (Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

First up is The Railway Man, an inspirational drama based on a true story that arrives in movie theaters this Friday (April 12). Firth portrays Eric Lomax, a middle aged, British World War II vet who can’t put to rest his memories of being tortured by the Japanese when, as a soldier, he was a prisoner of war in Burma. Nicole Kidman plays the sympathetic woman he marries who helps him confront his past.

Here’s the scene where Firth and Kidman’s characters first meet:

Come May 9, Firth will play a Yank and a Southerner when he portrays a private investigator in Devil’s Knot. His character, based on a real person, volunteers to help the lawyers defending a teenager who, along with two other teens, was tried and convicted–many believe mistakenly–for the killing of three young boys in 1993 in a celebrated case that came to be known as the West Memphis Three. The film, which had its premiere last fall at the Toronto Film Festival, suffered in the estimation of most critics when compared with earlier, more thorough documentaries on the same topic.

Here’s a trailer:

READ MORE HERE: http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2014/04/colin-firth-make-fans-happy/

Colin Firth devastated when real life Railway Man died during production (exclusive)

YAHOO
By Mark Lankester | Yahoo UK Movies News – Thu, Jan 9, 2014 16:17 GMT

Colin Firth has revealed he was “devastated” when real life POW Eric Lomax, the man he plays in hard-hitting WWII drama ‘The Railway Man’, died midway through the film’s production in 2012.

Asked if it was a “dark day” for the film’s crew, Firth replied: “It was, yeah. It was devastating. [But] there’s also that sense of, in some ways, triumph; that he didn’t die in his early 20s - in 1943/44 - which he thought he was going to, and could easily have done. And it’s actually a miracle that he didn’t.”

 “I think if someone had told him then that he was going to die in Berwick, in the year 2012, I think he would have bean heartened by that,” he added, “And rather astonished.”

Watch the full interview below, exclusive to Yahoo Movies UK.


READ MORE HERE:http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/colin-firth-devastated-when-real-life-railway-man-died-during-production--exclusive--161732758.html

Colin Firth showers his wife Livia with affection as they attend the premiere of The Railway Man

MAIL ON LINE
By SOPHIA CHARALAMBOUS
PUBLISHED: 16:32 EST, 4 December 2013 | UPDATED: 07:49 EST, 5 December 2013




He may be one of Britain's most successful actors.

But Colin Firth still knows who comes first in his life as he showered his wife with affection on the red carpet on Wednesday evening.

The pair were spotted at the premiere of The Railway Man, at Odeon West End Cinema looking smart and sophisticated in similar suits.

Colin, 53, was dressed in a sharp, tailored blue suit, white shirt, polka dot tie and black brogues for the occasion.

The Bridget Jones's Diary actor slicked back his brunette tresses whilst appearing trim and and in shape for the prestigious evening.

Meanwhile his stunning Italian film producer wife, Livia Giuggoili, 44, opted for an androgynous look for the evening and dressed in tailored black suit, with slim cigarette pant-style trousers.

lLivia continued with her Green Carpet Challenge by wearing the eco-friendly tux by Paul Smith, first wearing the two-piece suit in 2012 to the BAFTA Awards.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2518347/Colin-Firth-showers-wife-Livia-affection-attend-premiere-The-Railway-Man.html#ixzz2pr3thtg7 
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Colin Firth, Jeremy Irvine: Audience stunned as stars attend showing

HERALD SCOTLAND
Monday 6 January 2014



OSCAR winner Colin Firth and rising star Jeremy Irvine stunned a cinema audience by walking on stage before the first screening of their new film The Railway Man.

They made a surprise appearance on Friday in Berwick-upon-Tweed and answered questions after the screening.

The film is based on Eric Lomax's book of the same name about his time as a Second World War POW on the Thai-Burma railway. The two actors play Lomax at different stages of his life.

Lomax lived in Berwick with his wife Patti, who is played by Nicole Kidman in the film. The widow was at the screening of the film, which runs for one week before a national release on January 10.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/audience-stunned-as-stars-attend-showing.23093194

Review and trailer: The Railway Man - Colin Firth puts in a mesmerising turn

THE DAILY STAR
By Andy Lea/Published 
4th January 2014

AS this film hasn't been released in America, Colin Firth can't win this years’ Best Actor Oscar for his latest turn as a tongue-tied Brit.

Which is a shame. Because the King’s Speech star puts in the performance of his career in this accomplished drama based on the memoirs of Eric Lomax.

Lomax, who died last year, was a railway enthusiast who was subjected to unspeakable horrors at a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Burma. The film starts some decades later when he falls for Nicole Kidman’s vivacious divorcee Patti on the romantic setting of the north-west mainline. At first, Firth is in full Mr Darcy mode delivering killer chat-up lines like: “If you think Warrington's exciting, wait till we get to Preston."

But soon after their hurried wedding, Patti realizes that Eric is still fighting his own Second World War. Lomax can’t bring himself to talk about his experiences but sudden rages, horrible nightmares and long bouts of depression, suggest he’s suffering from what we would now call post-traumatic stress syndrome.

As Patti learns his story from Lomax’s curiously accented wartime pal Finlay (a miscast Stellan Skarsgård), the film takes us back to the hells of Burma. Here we see the full horrors heaped on the young soldier (played by a great Jeremy Irvine) by a young Japanese officer.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/movies/358822/Review-and-trailer-The-Railway-Man-15-Colin-Firth-puts-in-a-mesmerising-turn

Video: Actor Colin Firth doesn't feel very British

BELFAST TELEGRAPH UK
Thursday, 2 January, 2014

Belfast Telegraph

Movie starring Colin Firth tells remarkable story of late Scots soldier Eric Lomax who was tortured at the notorious Changi camp

DAILY RECORD
By Amber Wilkinson
October 1, 2013

HIS story is the inspiration for a new film about the building of the Thai/Burma railway during World War II, starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman.

But the director of The Railway Man feels the late Scots soldier Eric Lomax would have found the depiction of his life as a ­prisoner of war too difficult to watch.

Its based on Eric’s memoir and relives his horrific experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war, his post-traumatic stress and what happened when he met his former tormentor Nagase Takashi years later.

Eric and a group of friends were subjected to brutal torture after being caught with a ­contraband radio at the ­notorious Changi camp.

The camp housed soldiers who worked on the Thailand to Burma “Death Railway”.

During the making of the movie, Eric became good friends with Firth, who plays him after the war. War Horse actor Jeremy Irvine portrays him in his younger years.

But the former PoW died, aged 93, in May 2012, before the movie was finished.



Speaking after the film screened at San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain, Australian director Jonathan Teplitzky said: “It’s bittersweet in the fact that he’s not here but it’s also a film I don’t think he would have sat down and watched.

“He was utterly thrilled that it was being made. He came on set a couple of times and he saw a lot of still photos and he had a close relationship with Colin.

“But he would have loved his wife Patti to have come home and told him about the reception of the film.

“He didn’t need to watch it – that’s the important thing. The events that are depicted in the film, he worked a whole lifetime to leave behind and he probably didn’t need to see those things triggered again.

“But he would have loved to have known and his book is being rereleased as a result. He would have been thrilled with that too.”

Eric grew up in Edinburgh and lived with Patti, 76, in Berwick-upon-Tweed until his death.

She is played by Kidman in the film, which charts not only the brutality of war but also how the pair fell in love after a chance meeting on a train.

Jonathan says Patti helped Eric come to terms with post-traumatic stress, even though she only has two mentions in Eric’s book.

“Nicole loved the script and what it was saying about what it took to love a man,” said Jonathan.

“We cast her very quickly. Patti is a selfless role – it’s not following her life, it’s about what happened to Eric and her emotional response to it.

“We built up the role of Patti from talking to them and realizing she played such a significant role in what Eric went through.”

The film was partly shot in Thailand, Perth and East Lothian, which Jonathan believes helped paint an authentic picture.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/movies/movie-news/movie-starring-colin-firth-tells-2326093

Nicole Kidman & Colin Firth: 'Railway Man' TIFF Premiere! (video)

 

 JUST JARED

September 6, 2013

Nicole Kidman suits up for the premiere of her new film The Railway Man held during the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival on Friday evening (September 6) at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, Canada.

The 46-year-old actress was joined by her co-stars Jeremy Irvine and Colin Firth, whose wife Livia Giuggioli was by his side at the premiere.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.justjared.com/photo-gallery/2945368/nicole-kidman-colin-firth-railway-man-tiff-premiere-17/

New Look at Colin Firth in TIFF Bound 'The Railway Man'

A tale of survival, love and redemption

ROPE OF SILICON

BRAD BREVET 

PUBLISHED: WEDNESDAY, JULY 24TH 2013 AT 8:30 AM

I still have a lot of new pictures to preview from the films that will be premiering at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival and I'm hoping to get to a lot of them today and first up is The Railway Man from director Jonathan Teplitzky (Burning Man) and starring Colin Firth, Jeremy Irvine (War Horse), Nicole Kidman, Stellan Skarsgård and Hiroyuki Sanada. And just above is a new look at Firth in the film which was shot by Garry Phillips.

The film is without a domestic distributor so its premiere in Toronto is going to be an important one.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/new-look-at-colin-firth-in-tiff-bound-the-railway-man/