Richard Armitage Joins Pilgrimage

EMPIRE
23 March 2015  |  Written by James White  |  Source: Screen International



The story of a group of monks transporting a holy relic might not sound like the basis for an action thriller. But throw Richard Armitage, Jon Bernthal and Tom Holland into the mix, plus the possibility of trouble from barbarians on the road to Rome, and you have a good chance of a little violence ahead. That’s the basic set-up behind Pilgrimage.

Brendan Muldowney is set to start directing the film next mouth, working from a script by Jamie Hannigan. The basic story, as mentioned, finds a group of 13th century monks who must escort a monastery’s holiest relic to Rome and find their faith severely tested en route.

With assistance from the Irish Film Board and Creative Europe, Muldowney and primary producers Conor Barry and John Keville have tracked down the cash for a shoot that will take in the West Coast of Ireland and Ardennes in Belgium.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=43774

Hear love poems recited by Richard Armitage – for free

THE NATIONAL
February 10, 2015



With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, what better way to get you in the mood than to have some of the world’s great love poems read aloud – for free?

Audible Inc, the world’s largest seller of download­able audiobooks, is offering a 30-minute collection of some of the most cherished love poems narrated by actor Richard Armitage, including Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare and Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress.

The 15 poems are now available as a free download.

The list also includes She Walks in Beauty by Byron, How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Maud by Alfred Tennyson, Bright Star by John Keats, Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe, I Carry Your Heart by E E Cummings and Love’s Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

“These are some of the most beautiful and most romantic verses ever written in the English language,” said Armitage, a stage and film actor who played dwarf leader Thorin Oakensheld in The Hobbit trilogy.

Richard Armitage reads The Night Watch

(This may not be one of the romantic poems offered, but the voice is... unbelievable ** Karen Wasylowski)

READ MORE HERE: http://www.thenational.ae/arts-lifestyle/celebrities/hear-love-poems-recited-by-richard-armitage--for-free

‘Hobbit’ Star Richard Armitage to Play Toothy Killer on NBC’s ‘Hannibal’

THE WRAP
TV | By Travis Reilly on January 13, 2015 @ 12:34 pm

“The Hobbit” star Richard Armitage has joined the cast of NBC’s “Hannibal,” a spokesperson for the network told TheWrap.

He will play Francis Dolarhyde, a.k.a. the Tooth Fairy, on Season 3 of the psychological horror series, adapted from Thomas Harris’s popular novels “Hannibal,” “Hannibal Rising” and “The Red Dragon.” He is slated for a six-episode run.

“The Hobbit” star Richard Armitage has joined the cast of NBC’s “Hannibal,” a spokesperson for the network told TheWrap.

He will play Francis Dolarhyde, a.k.a. the Tooth Fairy, on Season 3 of the psychological horror series, adapted from Thomas Harris’s popular novels “Hannibal,” “Hannibal Rising” and “The Red Dragon.” He is slated for a six-episode run.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.thewrap.com/hobbit-star-richard-armitage-to-play-toothy-killer-on-nbcs-hannibal/

Keeley Hawes: There is life in TV for mature women

THE TELEGRAPH
By Patrick Sawer and Hannah Furness
8:00AM GMT 25 Jan 2015



Keeley Hawes is a woman whose time has come. Or to put it less dramatically, the actress who starred in Ashes to Ashes, Line of Duty and Upstairs Downstairs has come of age.

This might seem a strange thing to say, given that she has been on our screens since her mid-teens, when she appeared in the likes of Dennis Potter’s Karaoke. But as Hawes herself points out, there has never been a better time to be an actress of certain years.

Hawes, who turns 39 next month, said: “I think that you only have to look at our TV screens at the moment to see maybe there is a change happening, with Olivia Colman in Broadchurch, Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Honourable Woman and Gillian Anderson in The Fall. These aren’t 20-year-olds. These are women with a bit of life experience.”

Her success in roles more suited to mature women than flighty teenagers or sultry twentysomethings – such as the hard-bitten and explosively violent policewoman Detective Inspector Lindsay Denton in BBC2’s Line of Duty – means she is less minded to complain about the parts offered to older actresses.

In an interview in next week’s Stella magazine, she says: “It would be an odd thing for me to bitch about, to be honest. And if that makes me not very feminist…”

But, she adds quickly: “I am a feminist, but I can’t bitch about something that I haven’t directly experienced. Of course, there are a lot of window-dressing roles and you make the best of what you can out of that. You are not going to turn work down when you have a family, when you have bills to pay, and you have to work. It would be all well and good to say, 'I’m not going to work unless it’s some big meaty part,’ but you would sit there for ever. You would be down the dole office.”

Her ability to accept “window-dressing roles” with grace, while excelling in more demanding parts, has made her one of the industry’s most appreciated figures, with fellow actors, directors and producers describing her as friendly, professional and modest.

It also means Hawes has been happy to play parts that do not call for a waif-like physique yet require some dressing down on the part of a naturally striking woman, such as the frumpy DI Denton.

“I’m not a size eight. I never have been,” she says. “In my youth I was somebody who didn’t leave home without a bit of mascara. That’s all out the window now; I am not that person. I’ve got three children and I really don’t care.”

Her ability to immerse herself in the decidedly unglamorous aspect of her roles can take those behind the camera by surprise.

She said: “I was asked to do a role once where I would have had to have worn really bad false teeth. The director literally couldn’t believe that I wouldn’t get there on the day and say, 'No, actually, forget it.’ But I couldn’t wait to not have any make-up. My vanity left me a long time ago.”


READ MORE HERE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11367885/Keeley-Hawes-There-is-life-in-TV-for-mature-women.html

Richard Armitage’s Journey From Musicals to Middle Earth

WALL STREET JOURNAL
Dec. 4, 2014 5:35 p.m. ET



RICHARD ARMITAGE IS known for his controlled and stoic performances, so it’s rather disconcerting—and funny—to get an excited and happy yelp out of the 43-year-old British actor.

“Ah, thank God, thank you, thank you,” he says with a deep laugh when told that his diverse roles over the years, from brooding John Thornton in “North & South,” the 2004 BBC dramatization of Elizabeth Gaskell ’s novel, to British spy Lucas North in the TV series “Spooks,” to Thorin Oakenshield, leader of the dwarves in Peter Jackson ’s “The Hobbit” trilogy, make it hard to typecast him—except, perhaps, as a heartthrob.

Born in Leicester, England, and an alum of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, the New York-based actor has had a busy year. He received rave reviews in London over the summer for his spellbinding performance as the tormented John Proctor in the Old Vic’s production of Arthur Miller ’s “The Crucible.” The production was so well-received, in fact, that it’s being screened in cinemas in the U.K. and Ireland next week, and other locations world-wide in February.

Mr. Armitage says playing John Proctor in the Old Vic’s production of ‘The Crucible’ gave him resilience. TRISTRAM KENTON/THE GUARDIAN

The actor was also on the silver screen this summer, in Steven Quale ’s disaster movie “Into the Storm,” and he filmed “Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew,” which is currently in postproduction and co-stars Anna Friel. In October, he began work on “Sleepwalker” with director Elliott Lester —which Mr. Armitage says is a psychological thriller along the lines of “Memento” or the Italian film “La Doppia Ora”—and he will also be making a cameo appearance in a new film adaptation of Lewis Carroll ’s second “Alice” book, “Through the Looking Glass,” alongside Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway .

In December, Mr. Armitage—who at the age of 17 joined a circus in Budapest to get his actor’s Equity card—will be busy promoting “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” the last in the blockbuster trilogy, which premiered in London this week. “I know Peter has made an extraordinary film, because it is his last visit to Middle Earth—he will certainly do it justice,” says Mr. Armitage. “It will be a great way to end the year.”

We spoke to him about the bohemian life of an actor, joining Twitter and why he’s not cut out for musical theater.



READ MORE HERE; http://online.wsj.com/articles/richard-armitages-journey-from-musicals-to-middle-earth-1417732548

Richard Armitage Dresses Like James Bond For 'Da Man' Cover

JUST JARED
SUN, 30 NOVEMBER 2014 AT 6:20 AM

Richard Armitage is the perfect gentleman in a tuxedo on the cover of Da Man magazine’s December 2014/January 2015 issue, out on newsstands now!

Here’s what the 43-year-old English actor had to share with the mag:

On his upcoming film The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies: “It’s the last piece of Peter Jackson’s explorations of Tolkien’s works about Middle Earth, so expect the big finale before the curtain falls. There is a big clue in the title, but rest assured that a pretty spectacular battle is coming your way. As for my character Thorin, he is spiraling downwards but will rise again like all the best tragic heroes in literature.”

READ MORE HERE: http://www.justjared.com/2014/11/30/richard-armitage-dresses-like-james-bond-for-da-man-cover/

Ahna O’Reilly, Richard Armitage Rise To Thriller ‘Sleepwalker’

DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD
by Jen Yamato
November 18, 2014 2:45pm



EXCLUSIVE: The Help’s Ahna O’Reilly and The Hobbit’s Richard Armitage are in the midst of filming Sleepwalker, a psychological thriller from writer Jack Olsen and director Elliott Lester (Nightingale). O’Reilly leads the cast as a grad student who goes to a campus sleep clinic to treat her insomnia and nightmares, but instead starts experiencing unsettling changes in her waking reality every time she wakes up. With the help of a doctor, she attempts to find her way back to normalcy by unraveling the tangled knot of her dreams, reality, and shockingly tragic past.

English actor Armitage is hot off of ruling Middle Earth under heavy beard and armor in Peter Jackson’s nearly-completed Hobbit trilogy. He stars in Sleepwalker as the handsome sleep researcher who develops a unique relationship with O’Reilly. After leading New Line’s summer disaster actioner Into The Storm, Armitage returns to theaters this December as the dwarf king Thorin in finale The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies.

READ MORE HERE: http://deadline.com/2014/11/richard-armitage-ahna-oreilly-cast-sleepwalker-haley-joel-osment-1201288242/

10 Years Later, ‘North & South’ Remains the Greatest Period-Drama Miniseries of All Time

FLAVORWIRE
By Sarah Seltzer on Nov 14, 2014 12:00pm




Ten years ago tonight, the BBC premiered a four-part miniseries, North & South (not to be confused with the Patrick Swayze-starring civil war drama of the same name), adapted from Elizabeth Gaskell’s 19th-century novel of cross-class romance in the industrial North of England. The BBC didn’t harbor huge expectations for the series, coming as it did in the midst of a glorious decade of nonstop adaptations of major works by Austen, Brontë, and Dickens. But then, a few weeks later, the fourth installment of North & South ended with a tender, long-awaited kiss (now known to viewers as “The Kiss”). Immediately, so many people flooded the BBC’s online message boards that they crashed and shut down. It’s been enshrined in fangirl lore as “the infamous night that period drama fans broke (a small part of) the BBC (dot com).”

Richard Armitage, who played the brooding hero John Thornton, became a star and heartthrob — move over Colin Firth! — and the show was enshrined as a fan favorite.

I had a similar reaction to those first viewers’ when I watched North & South on DVD across the pond a few years later. I tracked down an email I sent eight years ago after a binge-watching frenzy:

“We watched the final three hours of North and South... you must must must must watch it. I literally couldn’t breathe at the end it was so good.

Literally. I literally couldn’t breathe! Yet somehow I lived! In all seriousness, what about the miniseries sends so many viewers into apoplexy the moment it ends? It’s hard to see at first: North & South has the marriage plot of an Austen adaptation but with no witty repartee, and the social strife and coughing deathbeds of a Dickens adaptation yet without any broad humor. In addition, it’s filmed in a mostly muted register of colors to signify the dark, industrial vibe of “Milton” (a stand-in for Manchester). We enter very few polished drawing rooms, witness not a single ball or country dance, and everyone speaks with accurately indecipherable Northern English accents. Over the course of four installments, quite a few main characters die of various lingering illnesses. The downtrodden working people of Milton get supplanted by even more desperate, literally starving Irish strike-breakers, and then they almost murder the strike-breakers, which is not something you see very often on TV. It’s bleaker than Bleak House.

But all these qualities make North & South so unforgettable, too. Like the best “prestige TV,” its concerns are with social justice, moral ambiguity, and individual responsibility. Everyone is rendered sympathetically, to some degree, even those who stand in opposition to each other. Surrounded by the conflicts of this complex world, we have the love story between Thornton, who transcended his modest background to become a mill owner (a boss with principles, but a boss nonetheless), and the refined, socially liberal Margaret Hale (played by a radiant Daniella Denby-Ashe), who comes from the gentler South and thinks him an oppressive brute. It’s one of the most explosive, chemistry-rich misunderstanding-laden romances that’s ever graced the small screen. Their courtship has a structure that clearly imitates Pride and Prejudice, but each step along the way is ten times as dramatic.

READ MORE HERE: http://flavorwire.com/488347/10-year-later-north-south-remains-the-greatest-period-drama-miniseries-of-all-time

Keeley Hawes: TV's toughest detective

LONDON EVENING STANDARD
STEPHEN ARMSTRONG
Published: 18 September 2014



One of the downsides to being Keeley Hawes is getting pulled over by the police. At the end of last year, for instance, she was buying a burrito in Covent Garden when a burly squad in full blue serge piled out of a riot-proofed patrol van to confront her.

‘It looked like I was a major terrorist,’ she laughs. ‘But then they said, “Can we get a picture?” They all got out their handcuffs and posed. Eventually one said, “Come on, we’re going to lose our jobs.” ’ She laughs again. ‘Having said that, this was after Ashes to Ashes and before Line of Duty. I wonder what would happen now…’

It’s easy to see why the boys in blue love Keeley — she’s been adding glamour to the force as Zoe Reynolds in Spooks, Alex ‘Bollyknickers’ Drake in Ashes to Ashes and DSI Martha Lawson in ITV’s Identity. However, as the twisted, lonely DI Lindsay Denton in Line of Duty… well, not so much.

Line of Duty is all about dodgy cops — Jed Mercurio’s internal investigations thriller follows a fictional anti-corruption unit. Denton was its target in this year’s second season, suspected of having set up her colleagues in a fatal ambush. As suspicions mounted, Denton was bogwashed and beaten up by fellow officers, thrown in jail where wardens and inmates did the same, all along protesting her innocence and uncovering even bigger scandals. In terms of water-cooler moments, Line of Duty ranks alongside The Honourable Woman and The Fall as part of the new wave of Brit TV that’s finally making US producers jealous again.

And Hawes — like Maggie Gyllenhaal and Gillian Anderson in Woman and The Fall — was a revelation. She evoked such energy and raw emotion that even the disparaging TV critic AA Gill has put her among our best actresses, alongside Judi Dench and Maggie Smith.

Today, however, she’s just a 38-year-old Londoner. We meet at an outdoor restaurant near Richmond Park on one of the last sunny days of summer. She rummages through the menu, wondering about the healthy options. ‘I’ve got a shoot in a minute,’ she explains, before quickly adding, ‘I don’t feel the pressure any more, though. I honestly don’t give a shit. Two days of dieting isn’t going to happen. I have a ten-year-old daughter and I’ve got far too much responsibility to be seen to be picking around with bits of food.’

Who knew Keeley Hawes was a laugh? Any fears of an ice queen quickly melt away as she riffs on her Marylebone upbringing — riding around her council estate on the back of her brother’s Chopper, playing run-outs, and her mum shouting, ‘Dinner!’ across the blocks. Her dad and her two older brothers are cab drivers and she grew up near the Lisson Grove Estate, in a block that’s since become luxury flats.

If her accent seems a little crisp for a cabbie’s daughter, she points out, ‘I came from Central London, I wasn’t Cockney — my mother made sure we put the Ts on the end of words, and then I went to drama school.’ She pauses. ‘I do sound slightly posher, but listen, I’ve just been working with Tom Hiddleston and I feel very, very London talking to him.’

Next up there’s The Hollow Crown, the second part of the BBC’s ambitious attempt to screen all of Shakespeare’s history plays. She’s playing Queen Elizabeth in Henry VI part 2 and Richard III, alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and, terrifyingly, Judi Dench. ‘I haven’t done Shakespeare and I’ve told them I can’t do Shakespeare and they still employed me.’ She seems amazed. ‘We’re rehearsing and I feel like I’m in safe hands, but still… I mean, I’ll be doing it with Judi Dench…’

She trails off, looking genuinely worried, so I leaf through my notes, pull out the AA Gill quote comparing her to Dench and read it to her: ‘Hawes is one of a number of very good female actors we have, from Judi Dench and Maggie Smith down,’ I read. She is momentarily stunned, then her face flushes a deep, deep crimson and she stares at her hands.

‘Well, that’s ridiculous,’ she mumbles. ‘I mean, I don’t even know what to say about that…’ and then she thinks it through. ‘Although he doesn’t say exactly how far down, does he?’ and she looks up, her impish grin returning. ‘I’d say it was fairly far down — but I’d still put that in a frame…’ When it’s time for her to leave, I make a joke about her receiving an honour to match Maggie and Judi and she turns back briefly — ‘Dame Keeley…? I can’t quite hear a copper calling me that.’

Doctor Who is on BBC One Saturday night at 7.30pm


READ MORE HERE: http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/keeley-hawes-tvs-toughest-detective-9739507.html

I've had depression since I was 17, says Keeley Hawes: Actress, 38, believes she will never be completely free from its grip

EXPRESS
By: Kelby McNally
Published: Fri, September 5, 2014

The star - who once said she could relate to the dark detective character she plays in his BBC drama Line Of Duty - admitted that she believes she will find it hard to find a cure for her "chemical imbalance."

Speaking in a recent interview with Red magazine, the 38-year-old revealed that she has been suffering from the mental illness since she was 17 years old.

"[Therapy] hasn't worked for me. I've got a chemical imbalance that has to be managed. And then it's fine," she said.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.express.co.uk/news/showbiz/507342/Keeley-Hawes-discusses-her-fight-with-mental-illness

The Crucible starring Richard Armitage coming to cinemas later this year

WHAT'S ON STAGE
THEATER NEWS
By Ben Hewis • 5 Sep 2014 • London, Off-West End



The Old Vic has announced that Digital Theatre are to film their critically acclaimed production of The Crucible, directed by Yaël Farber, starring Richard Armitage. The production will be broadcast to cinemas around the world and available as a download, with dates and territories to be announced later this year.

Set in the town of Salem, Massachusetts, where in 1692, 19 adults and two dogs were hanged for witchcraft, and one man was pressed to death for refusing to plead. The Crucible tells the story of one man's fight to save his identity in a repressive Puritan community.

Arthur Miller's play was inspired by the actions of The House Committee on Un-American Activities of the McCarthy era, in front of which the playwright was invited to give evidence. It was most recently seen in London at the Open Air Theatre in 2010, with Patrick O'Kane as Proctor.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/richard-armitage-crucible-old-vic-film_35608.html

Richard Armitage earns praise for 'standout acting' in "Into the Storm"

FANSHARE
TV NEWS / DANIELLE WRIGHT
August 18, 2014



Richard Armitage is one of the lead actors in the film "Into the Storm" and his 'standout performance' is earning him accolades from social media entertainment critics such as Digital Spy. He plays a school vice principal in the film that is now in theatres and revolves around storm trackers, thrill-seekers, and everyday townspeople who videotape and document an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes touching down in the town of Silverton.

Critics such as Digital Spy online magazine note how he distinguished himself as a "stoic, reluctant hero" and his acting performance has resulted in greater scrutiny of this talented actor who has shown an enjoyment of keeping fans 'on the hook' with anticipation.

He was recently interviewed about his upcoming projects and he decided to increase the interest in his projects by disclosing that he will be seen in a cameo role in a movie known to many but he would not disclose what movie it might be.

Immediately fans and some social media entertainment observers started speculating about what movies he might be in and at the moment fans and entertainment observers are thinking either "The Avengers: Age of Ultron" or "Spooks". 

 

He played the Nazi spy and assassin Heniz Kruger in "Captain America: The First Avenger" while others suspect he might show up in a flashback scene when the "Spooks" movie is released. 

 

The "Strike Back" star has shrewdly increased interest in his projects, past, present and future. Fans are looking back at his career to see what movies were 'hits' and have sequels and also looking at his current role on stage in the play "The Crucible" for hints as to what he may be preparing for in the future and that leads to interest in his new projects. 

READ MORE HERE:http://www.fansshare.com/news/richard-armitage-earns-praise-for-standout-acting-in-into-storm/ 

Is Richard Armitage's secret cameo in Avengers 2... or the Spooks movie?

DIGITAL SPY
By Emma Dibdin
Tuesday, Aug 19 2014, 4:10am



Interviewing Richard Armitage is never less than a pleasure, and our chat with him and on-screen son Max Deacon for Into the Storm was no exception.

But aside from finding out which Hobbit cast members Armitage would take with him into a real-life storm, this interview was also notable for an intriguing titbit towards the end.

"I'm doing another movie after I've finished on stage," Armitage told us. "But I can't tell you what it is. But you'll know!"

Intriguing, no? The fact that he's so cagey about details suggests that this is a role with some form of NDA attached, which immediately makes us think blockbuster. So we at Digital Spy have put our deerstalkers on for a spot of what we'll call deductive speculation.

Given that Armitage appeared in 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger as Nazi spy and assassin Heinz Kruger, our first thought was that he might crop up in The Avengers: Age of Ultron.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/news/a591143/is-richard-armitages-secret-cameo-in-avengers-2-or-the-spooks-movie.html

Actor Richard Armitage Joins Twitter but Won't Tweet Until His Birthday

HUFF POST
Posted: 08/22/2014 2:32 pm EDT
Updated: 08/22/2014 2:59 pm EDT

Twitter has a new celebrity member. Please welcome The Hobbit actor Richard Armitage to the Twitter-verse!

Most recently, Richard has been starring in The Crucible in London. He told me what finally got him onboard with Twitter was wanting to do more to support his charitable endeavors and to also interact with his fans who have been so supportive.

If you're waiting with bated breath for his first tweet, Richard told me he won't start tweeting until his birthday. Luckily his birthday is today so you won't have to wait too long!

(I think this is it: https://twitter.com/RCArmitage)

READ MORE HERE:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-morehouse/actor-richard-armitage-jo_b_5698000.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment&ir=Entertainment

Richard Armitage Talks Legacy

By Jack Phillips, Epoch Times | August 11, 2014



Richard Armitage, who plays Thorin Oakenshield, talked about what the legacy The Hobbit trilogy will have 10 years from now.

“I think when ‘The Lord of the Rings’ was made, it just felt like such a breakthrough in terms of cinematography. Since then, there’s been a huge shift in the technology. I think ‘The Hobbit’ has been a big experiment in technology,” he said, according to ScreenCrush.

Armitage also talked about method acting–or staying in character.

“And there was one day on The Hobbit when we were at the top of a mountain and we were left there all day in our costumes. So, we sort of stayed in character all day and we did helicopter shots and that was when I thought, ‘You know what? If I can stay with the character for 12 hours, maybe I’m inside of him? It doesn’t come and go,’” he said.

His interview comes just a few days after it was announced there would be an Extended Edition for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.” According to CNET, it adds about 25 minutes to the lengthy film.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/865431-hobbit-3-battle-of-the-five-armies-star-richard-armitage-talks-legacy/

2 New Clips From ‘Into The Storm’ – Starring Richard Armitage & Sarah Wayne Callies

FLICKS AND BITS



From Warner Bros. Pictures comes these two new clips from the tornado disaster film ‘Into the Storm.’ Opening on August 8th in the US and August 22nd in the UK, the Steven Quale-directed flick stars Richard Armitage, Sarah Wayne Callies, Matt Walsh, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Arlen Escarpeta, Max Deacon, Nathan Kress, Jeremy Sumpter, Kyle Davis, Jon Reep and Scott Lawrence.

In the span of a single day, the town of Silverton is ravaged by an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes. The entire town is at the mercy of the erratic and deadly cyclones, even as storm trackers predict the worst is yet to come. Most people seek shelter, while others run towards the vortex, testing how far a storm chaser will go for that once-in-a-lifetime shot. Told through the eyes and lenses of professional storm chasers, thrill-seeking amateurs, and courageous townspeople, “Into the Storm” throws you directly into the eye of the storm to experience Mother Nature at her most extreme.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.flicksandbits.com/2014/08/02/2-new-clips-from-into-the-storm-starring-richard-armitage-sarah-wayne-callies/74312/

Richard Armitage in THE CRUCIBLE

What a wonderful play.  Rich and I saw The Crucible at the Old Vic on July 14 (I think).  We had unbelievable seats - dress circle, first row, smack in the middle.  I had no idea what to expect, and was disappointed, at first, when I read on the side of the theater that it was in the round.  I hate theater in the round.  Usually I get distracted very easily - slight attention span problem there - and, I end up worrying about the actors or if they're going to fall or trip over someone's big feet.

(Actually, in this play, one had to be concerned about the sighing women in the audience with RA in the lead.  One very funny bit - when he removes his shirt to wash up - there was a drastic intake of breath causing a severe loss of breathable oxygen in the room!)

 But, I digress.  I said I hate in the round theater, but happily this was very different.  For one thing, the stage is rather foggy, so that the audience across from you looks more like other characters in the play somehow; almost as if they were sitting in judgement over the proceedings.  And the theater felt more oblong than in a round, with the rows of seats across from us facing ours, with the tiers of balcony seats reminding me of representations of the Globe theater.  Instead of sloping away, the different levels where stacked one directly over the other, giving the theater a more closed in feeling - absolutely perfect for this play.

Enough about all that! The play was wonderful, from the very first moment with the eeriness of Tituba's silent (nearly silent) walk around the stage.   Richard was really magnificent.  Even my husband, who had fallen fast asleep last year when we visited London and saw Perfect Nonsense, was captivated by the play, especially the second half which is magnificent.  The girls - oh, you just want to slap the lot of them - but, when they begin chanting in unison, it is incredibly creepy.

All of the actors were equally wonderful, with two standouts.  Richard, of course, and also Jack Ellis (I think that's his name - I was much too cheap to buy a program).  He played Deputy Governor Danforth, another person deserving a slap on the face.

The only thing that bothered me was RA's voice.  Normally it's such a soothing sound, but he sounded very hoarse here - and no wonder.  We saw the matinee show and then they did it all again for the evening show two hours after we left the theater.   Actors are wonderful.  How they can project such emotion, such heart wrenching tragedy, night after night, is amazing to me.

THE ANGLOPHILE CHANNEL

Anyway, what I really wanted to say was this.  At one moment during the play - don't ask me when because my mind froze up completely - RA exits the stage by walking up a staircase.  A staircase that led directly to where I was seated.  I watched his shadowed figure come up the steps, one at a time, very slowly - and he kept coming closer, and this dark figure kept getting larger and larger, until I thought he was going to jump over the dress circle wall I was grabbing onto in front of my seat.  I truly was smack dab in the middle, and there was a time in my life when that man would not have made it out of the theater alive.  As it was, the girl next to me began making strange hawking noises in the back of her throat.

Anyway, he did get almost eye level and then the steps head downward.  I don't think I took a breath the whole time.  All I remember is that my eyebrow began to twitch and get really, really itchy, but RA was walking straight toward me and I was afraid to move.   I finally went nuts and began gouging at my eyeball to scratch it during this very, very dramatic ascent.  He must have thought I was a looney bird.

Richard Armitage: Crucible is 'a full-body experience'

BBC NEWS
By Tim Masters
Arts and entertainment correspondent, BBC News
July 3, 2014



After 12 years away from the stage, making his name in Spooks and The Hobbit, Richard Armitage is back in a "visceral" new production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible at the Old Vic.

Three days before starting rehearsals, Armitage drove from his home in New York to Danvers, Massachusetts,

Originally known as Salem Village, Danvers is most associated with the famous witch trials of 1692 - the inspiration for Miller's classic play that draws parallels with McCarthy's anti-communist investigations in postwar America.

Armitage, in his dressing room before a preview performance at the Old Vic, explains that the trip was useful preparation for his role as the Puritan tragic hero John Proctor.

"I got this sense that they were real people who had experienced this terrible contagion. These were a tough frontier people who had very little concept of what was beyond their small realm. Because of their staunch religious nature they truly believed it was the Devil that would come for them."

Armitage first encountered Proctor when he played a scene from The Crucible at drama school some 20 years ago.

"I had no idea it was a three-hour 'opera'... it resonates now and it will resonate in 10 years."

The Crucible, directed by Yael Farber, is the latest play to be presented in the round at the Old Vic.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-28104957

Richard Armitage, interview: 'I think I'm quite a frightening person'

THE TELEGRAPH
By Chris Harvey5:00PM BST 25 Jun 2014

Richard Armitage photographed for the Telegraph, June 2014 

Photo: Dan Burn Forti

Richard Armitage arrives in the tiny, cluttered stage manager’s office of The Old Vic straight from rehearsals for Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. He’s bearded and dressed in thick shapeless trousers, heavy boots, and a rough collarless cotton shirt open at the neck to reveal a broad chest. He’s a tall and imposing physical presence. Anyone who knew the 42 year-old only as the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit films might have quite a shock. Television viewers who associate him with double agent Lucas North in Spooks, nasty Guy of Gisborne in Robin Hood, or the character based on SAS man Andy McNab in Sky One’s Strike Back would know different.

This role is a departure. Armitage is to play the tormented John Proctor in the playwright’s terrifying account of the 17th century Salem witch trials, in which Proctor’s adulterous relationship with a young woman sparks a vengeful chain of events that leads to the deaths of many.

He says he feels like he has been waiting for it all his life. “It’s such an epic role. It feels as big as Lear to me in terms of what that man goes through.”

The Crucible is an unfolding nightmare of accusatory spite that is seen as an allegory of the anti-Communist witch trials in Hollywood in the 1950s. Can it escape that allegory and find another, I ask him.

“It’s ultimately a timeless play, I think,” says Armitage. “It has lines that feel relevant in 1692, relevant in the Fifties, relevant today and relevant tomorrow, in 10 years, in 20 years, while we’re still destroying each other in the way that we do, in that insidious human way.”

He promises that acclaimed director Yael Farber’s production will be a full-blooded affair. “You can’t play this story without addressing sexuality in this particular society in this time, the masculinity of the men, the femininity of the women, the vulnerability of prepubescent girls. Yael is cooking something which at the moment feels like it’s - and should be - too hot to handle.”

Armitage is a noticeably calm presence but he talks with passion. I ask him how it feels to be facing The Crucible’s agonising climax over and over for the next couple of months. “It’s a big mountain to climb every night,” he says. “There’s a shattering of the character, and almost a reassembling of him towards the end.
“I leave the rehearsal room – and I carry him with me, I carry his thoughts, I dream his dreams a little bit.”

READ MORE HERE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-
features/10915442/Richard-Armitage-interview-I-think-Im-quite-a-frightening-person.html

PERSUASION, by Jane Austen, Starring Rupert Penry-Jones, Anthony Head, Sally Hawkins