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.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
7:14 AM PDT 9/7/2013 by David Rooney
Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman play a husband and wife forced to revisit the trauma of his WWII past in Jonathan Teplitzky's drama based on the true story of Eddie Lomax.
An old-fashioned war drama stuffed into a cumbersomely choppy time structure, The Railway Man is well-acted and handsomely produced, but its honorable intentions are not matched with sustained emotional impact or psychological suspense. The film boasts committed work from Colin Firth as a British train enthusiast profoundly damaged by his experience as a prisoner of war, along with tearful support from Nicole Kidman as his wife. But despite those deluxe elements, it never quite transcends its stodgy approach.
Directed by Jonathan Teplitzky (Burning Man), the co-production from Australia and the U.K. superficially recalls Bruce Beresford’s Paradise Road in its setting against the backdrop of the fall of Singapore in 1942. Screenwriters Frank Cottrell Boyce and Andy Paterson bring more timid reverence than inspiration to their adaptation of former British Army officer Eric Lomax’s memoir. Dropping in references to Brief Encounter and The Bridge on the River Kwai merely underlines how far short they fall of their classic models.
Firth holds nothing back in his painful depiction of stiff-upper-lip moral fiber at war against mental instability and festering hatred. The actor does everything that’s required of him, and yet Eric remains an emotionally remote protagonist for such a harrowing story. Still, his portrayal of PTSD will resonate with anyone touched by war and its fallout. Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) also gives it his all as the young Eric.
While she’s lovely in her early scenes, Kidman’s role becomes a thankless one, called upon largely just to react with moist-eyed, agonized concern. Given that Eric’s ultimate course of action is driven as much by love as by the need to close an awful chapter in his life, their relationship could have benefited from more establishing screen time. It's no doubt intended, but those 1980 scenes have an awfully starchy feel that belongs to an earlier period.
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.
THE TELEGRAPH
By Dalya Alberge1:30PM BST 06 Sep 2013
As a British prisoner of war, Eric Lomax endured unspeakable torture and terror at the hands of his Japanese captors. Forced to stand for hours in the burning sun, he was half-drowned by a water-hose placed in his nose and mouth, his arms were broken and his ribs cracked in savage beatings, and he was made to sleep in a cage covered in excrement. That was his punishment for being caught with a radio that he helped to build. Two fellow prisoners similarly accused did not survive the beatings.
Almost a year after his death aged 93, the harrowing but inspirational story of atrocities that he and thousands of British servicemen suffered in captivity and on the notorious Thai/Burma “Death Railway” is now told in a major British film. The Railway Man receives its world premiere this weekend at the Toronto Film Festival, attended by his widow, Patti, and its Oscar-winning stars, Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman.
But its producer and co-writer, Andy Paterson, doubts that Lomax would have joined them had he been alive. He believes that, after a lifetime of nightmares and flashbacks, Lomax would have found the film’s portrayal too realistic. The horrors remained raw – even after facing his demons, both psychological and real, in confronting, then forgiving Takashi Nagase, the interpreter who presided over his torture.
After the war, like many POWs, he was unable to talk about his experiences. But he realised that future generations needed to be told and, in 1995, he published his powerful memoir – The Railway Man – a bestseller that reminded the world of the sacrifices of the “forgotten army”.
Paterson observes: “He was able to make sense of it – not just for himself, but so others might comprehend it … But we still occasionally glimpsed what Patti called ‘the shutters coming down’. If you [probed] … too deep, you’d encounter the silence.” At his home, Paterson and Firth noted the absence of a radio. Paterson recalls. “He looked at us and said ‘I think I’m allergic to radios’.”
They worked extremely closely “to understand what he went through … very different from writing down events,” Paterson adds. They wanted the script “right” and “there was a moment when he said, ‘this is what it felt like’. Then we knew the script was right.”
Like other veterans, Lomax was critical of David Lean’s fictionalised film, The Bridge on the River Kwai. He criticised the well-fed POWs. The Railway Man went out of its way to find thin extras, and Jeremy Irvine, who made his name in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, lost two stone to play a young Lomax. Firth portrays the older man.
BRITISH ACTOR JEREMY IRVINE AND SPANISH MODEL/ACTRESS BLANCA SUAREZ POSED ALONGSIDE COLIN FIRTH WITH THE 2013 CHOPARD TROPHY AS PART OF THE 66TH CANNES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE ON 16 MAY 2013.
British actor and Hollywood superstar Colin Firth was chosen to be the 2013 patron of the Chopard (a Swiss luxury jewelry brand) Awards at the 66th Cannes Film Festival. On Day 2 of the festival, Mr Firth had the pleasure of awarding fellow Brit Jeremy Irvine with one of the prizes.
The Chopard awards are given out each year to actors deemed to be "emerging talents". The other winner this year was Spanish actress Blanca Suarez.
Interestingly, Jeremy is set to appear in a film that also boasts Cannes jury member on the cast list titled The Railway Man.
You'll have to be patient however as it isn't due to be released until 2014.
Jeremy Irvine is having the year of his life. No sooner had he made his film debut as the lead in Steven Spielberg's War Horse in January than he found himself being asked by director Mike Newell to play Pip in his adaptation of the Dickens classic Great Expectations, now on release in cinemas.
And then he was in demand yet again when Colin Firth wanted Irvine to play his younger self in upcoming war drama The Railway Man.
In The Railway Man - due out in 2013 (no UK release date has yet been announced) - Irvine plays the young Eric Lomax, a British army officer sent to a Japanese prison camp during World War Two and forced to work on the infamous Death Railway from Thailand to Burma. Firth portrays the older Lomax.
"I met Colin Firth and had dinner with him and he was the one that actually got me the role, which was nice," says the 22-year-old rising star.
"We kind of share the movie and he was so generous. We'd rehearse in his living room and I was thinking 'My God, this is the kind of acting masterclass you can only dream of when you're at drama school'.
"At the time, you're just working with someone who's really good at what they do and really interesting, and of course afterwards you go 'Wow, that was really kind of him'."
Jeremy Irvine is having the year of his life. No sooner had he made his film debut as the lead in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse in January than he found himself being asked by director Mike Newell to play Pip in his adaptation of Great Expectations – then Colin Firth wanted him to play his younger self in upcoming war drama The Railway Man.
“Sometimes you read a script and spend a long time saying, ‘Oh well, maybe it could work this way’, but this was just such as ‘I’ve got to do this movie’ moment,” the 22-year-old says earnestly.
“I met Colin Firth and had dinner with him and he was the one that actually got me the role, which was nice.”
Irvine plays the young Eric Lomax, a British army officer who was sent to a Japanese prisoner of war camp during the Second World War and forced to work on the infamous ‘Death Railway’ from Thailand to Burma. The film is based on his memoir of the same title, and Firth plays the older Lomax.
“We kind of share the movie and he was so generous,” says Irvine. “We’d rehearse in his living room and I was thinking, ‘My God, this is the kind of acting masterclass you can only dream of when you’re at drama school’.
“At the time, you’re just working with someone who’s really good at what they do and really interesting, and of course afterwards you go, ‘Wow, that was really kind of him’.”
Mike Newell's take on Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" makes its world premiere at TIFF in September, and the first international trailer for the movie has dropped giving a rather substantial peek at what's in store. Featuring a pretty strong cast with veterans Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter and Robbie Coltrane starring alongside rising talents like Jeremy Irvine and Holliday Grainger, the David Nicholls' penned film will hopefully do something to make it stand out from the countless versions that have come before. Certainly, the strong ensemble is a good way to start, and while it looks compelling, we'll see if its one worthy of distinction soon enough.
There is no stateside distributor for this yet, but it will open in the U.K. on November 30th. Watch below.
Jeremy Irvine, left, and Colin Firth, right, pose on set in front of a steam train at Hualamphong train station in Bangkok, Thailand. Both actors play former POW Eric Lomax at different stages in his life
The prisoners of war were at breaking point. All day long they had been kept at a Thai railway marshalling yard in the tropical heat, covered in grime, drenched in sweat, prodded and pushed by Japanese guards shouting from the tops of cattle trucks that the prisoners were expected to board.
The wagons were there to transport them to the infamous Death Railway running from Thailand to Burma – but the prisoners couldn’t take any more.
The Mail on Sunday has been told that, ignoring shouts of ‘Wait’ and ‘Hold on’, they walked off... the film set.
Extras standing along the train lines at the Bangsue train yard in Bangkok, Thailand on the set of The Railway Man. They ultmately refused to do overtime and left the crew with a few, mainly Iranian extras posing as European POW's
And just as it had affected the real Second World War prisoners on the Burma-Siam railway – also the subject of David Lean’s 1957 Oscar-winner The Bridge On The River Kwai – The Mail on Sunday has been told that the tropical heat, lack of food and relentless orders were too much for many of the 100 extras playing British victims of Japanese brutality on set in Bangkok.
It’s said most just walked off, leaving only 17 Iranians and a handful of backpackers to finish shooting in the Bangkok darkness.
The last straw came with an announcement by German production manager Ralf Eisenmann that overtime would be paid at 200 baht (£4) an hour and extras would get just half that for transport home after midnight.
It’s said to have made many extras unwilling to continue despite pleas by managers.
Fortunately for the film-makers, enough extras in British PoW uniforms remained to complete the final scene.
Extras playing the Japanese guards were too polite to complain.
STARGAZERS will be out and about in Ipswich this week.
Filming for one of 2013's Hollywood blockbusters, The Railway Man, is due to begin in Ipswich.
Heart-throb Colin Firth, together with Swedish icon Stellan Skarsgard and War Horse star Jeremy Irvine, will be on location at the Railway Workshops from the middle of the week, according to the film's publicist Tracey Mair.
Aussie actor Nicole Kidman will not join her male co-stars.
Firth is best known for his roles in Bridget Jones' Diary, The King's Speech, Mamma Mia! and Pride and Prejudice.
FILMING for one of 2013's Hollywood blockbusters is due to begin in Ipswich next week, The Queensland Times can reveal.
Heart-throb Colin Firth, together with Swedish icon Stellan Skarsgard and War Horse star Jeremy Irvine will be on location at the city's railway workshops from the middle of the week, according to the film's publicist Tracey Mair.
But Ms Mair said that Aussie screen legend Nicole Kidman would not joining her male co-stars in the city, after having previously said all the leads would be travelling to Ipswich.
"Kidman's scenes were actually completed in Scotland, the UK and Thailand, but the rest of the cast, including Firth, will be filming on the Gold Coast and in Ipswich mid-next week," Ms Mair said.
Since The Queensland Times first revealed The Railway Man would be filmed in Ipswich, a major online news site dubbed the city an "unlikely location" for the filming of a major movie.
Australian-UK co-production The Railway Man will reunite actor Colin Firth with producer Andy Paterson after almost 10 years.
Firth, best known for winning an Academy Award for his portrayal of King George VI in The King’s Speech, last worked with Paterson on Girl With A Pearl Earring in 2003. The film received several gongs and nods on the circuit, mainly for cinematography (Eduardo Serra).
Since 2003, the UK-based Paterson has produced three films – Beyond the Sea (2004), Incendiary (2008) and last year’s dark tale Burning Man. The latter’s director – Jonathan Teplitzky – will also be reunited with Paterson on The Railway Man and will sit in the director’s chair.
“Jonathan’s a great guy and he’s perfect for it – he brings a kind of perception and energy to the whole project which is very exciting,” said Australian producer Chris Brown, who is undertaking producing duties alongside Paterson and Bill Curbishley.
Brown, who just got back from Thailand after doing a location recce, said the script had been in development for a number of years. Paterson joined screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce (24 Hour Party People) to help write the script – based on Eric Lomax’s book of the same name – about two years ago.
The Pictures In Paradise/Archer Street production follows a man's experience as a prisoner of war, working the Japanese line from Thailand to Burma during World War II and his mission decades later to seek revenge on his tormentor.
War Horse’s Jeremy Irvine and Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz also star in the film, which is expected to start shooting in late-April/early-May.
The 10-week shoot will start in Thailand (for about a week) before moving on to the UK and Australia. In local circles, it will be shot in Queensland, with filming taking place in both Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Jeremy Irvine laughed off comparisons of his performances to those of Christian Bale.
The 21-year-old actor made his big screen debut in First World War drama War Horse and director Steven Spielberg drew comparisons with his performance to those of Christian Bale.
But despite laughing off comparisons, Irvine revealed his admiration for the Hollywood star.
He told the Press Association: "That's very sweet. Christian Bale is one of my favourite actors so I am hugely flattered. But it's ridiculous.
"I use Christian Bale a lot when I'm talking about careers I really admire. You struggle to find a film where he didn't do a fantastic job. He makes amazing choices. I thought The Fighter was one of the greatest films I have ever seen in the last five years."
War Horse director Steven Spielberg talks about Hollywood, history lessons and why his friend Clint Eastwood calls the shots when it comes to retirement.
Steven Spielberg and Jeremy Irvine at the UK premiere of War Horse Photo: GETTY
By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor
6:18PM GMT 09 Jan 2012
On making his first British film
"This [War Horse] could only have been shot in England. After I heard the reaction last night at the Odeon in Leicester Square, I realised that I'd made my first British film with War Horse. Through and through."
On history
"I think my regard for history is more of a European regard for history. Social media has taken over in America to such an extreme that to get my own kids to look back a week in their history is a miracle, let alone 100 years. Europe is closer to history."
On War Horse
"We did a lot of research behind the story of War Horse and the thing that struck me was the vast number of casualties among the horses, not just the men. This was the horse as an instrument of warfare. I hope the film raises awareness of the contribution animals make."
On casting newcomer Jeremy Irvine as Albert
"I looked at hundreds of potential Alberts. What made Jeremy stand out was that ineffable quality that certain people have, they just stand out and rise above the rest. Nobody had the heart or spirit or the communication skills that Jeremy had. Even in silence, even without speaking, every time I saw him and he tested five times, he just got better and better and better.
I’m very used to working with first time actors - you can just look back at E.T. with Drew Barrymore, and Christian Bale from Empire of the Sun, who'd never made a movie before. That's the career that could be in store for Jeremy."
On the War Horse stage play
"It made me cry, I loved it so much. My daughter said, 'You have to make War Horse, and you have to make it for me'."
On Joey the horse
“Joey represents common sense. If more people had the common horse sense of Joey, we wouldn’t be having wars.
On the English countryside
“There is nothing like the landscape of Devon. The location has some of the most natural wonders in all of England. We couldn’t believe it.
“The original script didn’t have the budget to go to Devon but we stretched it to go there and it was worth every penny. This is the first British film I’ve ever made and it could only have been made in your country.
“A question I’m asked quite often is, ‘How did you get the special effects on the sunsets?’ But not a single sky we had in there was through special effects.”
On his career
“The turning point in my career was Jaws. I was a director for hire before Jaws and after Jaws was such a big hit I could do anything I wanted. Hollywood wrote me a cheque. I wanted to do this crazy movie about flying saucers; I kept saying, 'Oh, this mothership comes down at the end, you're going to love it!' And people thought I was crazy and wouldn't give me the time of day.
"The second Jaws was a hit, people said, ‘What about that flying saucers movie you had? You still want to make that?’"
On movie-making in Hollywood
"So much ink is spilt and the media is obsessed with the numbers and the studios. But the film-makers don't feel that way, we just go off and tell our stories. It's the same torture for us and as the torture our forefathers endured making movies in the Golden Era."
On retirement
“I’ve no plans to quit. Clint Eastwood is one of my best friends. I’ve known Clint for 40 years and we have almost a joking relationship about retirement. He’s 81 and I say, ‘Are you thinking about retiring, Clint?’ and he says, ‘No, are you?’ and I say no. I’m waiting for the call when Clint says he’s hanging up his spurs. If it doesn’t happen for Clint, it doesn’t happen for me.”
One possibly apocryphal (yet delicious) story about the making of You've Got Mail had it that in order to preserve the cinematic power of Meg Ryan's tousled Sally Hershberger hairdo, no other actresses or extras working on the film were allowed to sport blonde locks. Whether true or not, it's a bit of cinematic trickery that Steven Spielberg seems to have taken to heart while making War Horse, where virtually every actor in the movie is ostentatiously blue-eyed, all the better to emphasize those big brown eyes of Joey, the movie's titular animal. In fact, Spielberg throws so much pupil-reducing key light at his actors' faces in this film that you'd think he were lighting Anjelica Huston in The Addams Family! With all those big blue peepers on display, Vulture felt compelled to provide an analysis. Whose eyes were bluer, and what exactly did those wide eyes convey?
Albert (played by Jeremy Irvine)
As the nearest thing to a human protagonist in this ensemble picture, Irvine's also got the most opportunities for a blue-eyed close-up. He does not disappoint, seizing the chance to give Spielberg Face at every moment.
What Do These Blue Eyes Convey? Dreamy innocence.
Captain Nicholls (played by Tom Hiddleston)
In the upcoming Marvel movie The Avengers, Hiddleston's Loki seeks to enslave Earth with his magical god-powers and extraterrestrial army. However, why bother with those meager weapons when he could simply use DEM EYES? Hiddleston's pair of peepers is perhaps the most lavishly lit thing we've seen in a Spielberg movie since Kate Capshaw in Temple of Doom.
What Do These Blue Eyes Convey? Clear-eyed British decency.
Rose (played by Emily Watson)
It sure was nice of Spielberg's longtime cinematographer Janusz Kaminiski to light everything in this scene the same hue as Watson's cloudy-blue eyes.
What Do These Blue Eyes Convey? Noble, long-suffering Emily Watson–osity.
Grandfather (played by Niels Arestrup)
Is it nighttime? Are we in a dark cottage that's barely lit by candlelight? Who cares: Get a klieg light on this old man's pretty cerulean orbs!
What Do These Blue Eyes Convey? Fatigued but unbroken old-man spirit.
Emilie (played by Celine Buckens)
Perhaps there are child labor laws stating that you can't shine set lights straight into a 10-year-old's eyeballs; it would account for how Buckens is the only actor in the movie whose pupils aren't reduced to mere pinpricks to better show off her eye color. As you can tell, she feels really bad about it.
What Do These Blue Eyes Convey? Lachrymal overload.
Gunther (played by David Kross)
Both cross-eyed onscreen and at cross-purposes with his own German army, Kross provides the movie's interlude behind enemy lines. And you'd better believe that an Aryan guy's got blue eyes to spare.
What Do These Blue Eyes Convey? Sympathy for good Germans.
Major Jamie Stewart (played by Benedict Cumberbatch)
Okay, you can't really see them in this picture, but trust us: Cumberbatch has blue eyes for days! Still, out of all the stars in the movie, no one can top Hiddleston. Thanks for playing.
What Do These Blue Eyes Convey? Squinty support designed not to pull focus from one's mustache.
Our Inbox is full so time to catch up with all the latest images, clips and whatever else we could find featuring some of your favorite British stars. This week you can catch up on Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Kate Beckinsale, Emma Watson, Jeremy Irvine, Ray Winstone, Robert Pattinson and we even have a deleted scene from the final Harry Potter movie.
Take a look at all the images and clips below.
The big budget final installment of Chris Nolan’s Batman series The Dark Knight Rises is starting to pick up some buzz in anticipation of its summer 2012 release. That means pictures of Christian Bale as Batman and Tom Hardy as the villain, Bane are starting to appear. Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), better known to comics fans as Catwoman, will also star and you can see this one July 20, 2012. (Source: Empire)
Underworld: Awakening welcomes British actress Kate Beckinsale back into her guns and leather role. Returning to the Underworld series as the vampire warrioress Selene, she escapes imprisonment to find herself in a world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans, and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species. This one is out in January 2012. (Source: Coming Soon)
Just a couple of weeks ago we bought you the first look at Helena Bonham Carter in Mike Newell’s adaption of Great Expectations, one of two adaptations coming out over the next year. This big screen version of the classic Charles Dickens novel stars (the soon to be a household name) Jeremy Irvine, as Pip and we have a first look at him in character below. (Source: Empire)
Another picture has seen the light of day featuring Emma Watson in The Perks of being a Wallflower. She will play Sam in the film based on the book of the same name and directed by the author, Stephen Chbosky. Telling the tale of a shy college freshman named Charlie (Logan Lerman, The Three Musketeers) who learns everything from drug use to suicide after being taken under the wings by two of his friends. Watson’s first big starring role post Potter will be out sometime in 2012. (Source: The Playlist)
mentioned above that Jeremy Irvine is about to become a household name and this is why. He is the human lead (lets not forget about the horse!) in Steven Spielberg’s latest film, War Horse. Based on an award winning UK play and packed full of Brits, Emily Watson, Peter Mullan, David Thewlis, Benedict Cumberbatch, (to name but a few), it tells the story of Albert and his horse Joey. It follows the two as their bond is broken when Joey is sold to the cavalry and sent to the trenches of World War One. This one is released just in time for award season on Christmas day and we have new images and trailers below. (Source: The Daily Blam)
Harry Potter has not gone away quite yet, although make sure you buy your DVDs before Warner Brothers take them off the shelves on December 30. With the final DVD of the franchise not yet released in the UK we have found a deleted scene that I thought you may like to see. It features Harry, Ron and Hermione as they plan to break into Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault in Gringotts, the Wizard’s bank, hunting for the horcrux hidden inside. (Source: Total Film) (GO DIRECTLY TO BRITSCENE TO SEE THE DELETED SCENE)
Robert Pattinson does not seem to have any Twilight typecast isssues, Water for Elephants came out earlier this year and he has just wrapped filming David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis, a film based on a novel by Don DeLillo. It tells the story of a newlywed billionaire (Pattinson) who ends up losing his bride and his billions in a single day. Some very cool new images of Pattinson in action have been released and you can see this one sometime next year. (Source: Hey U Guys)
One of the British movies I am most looking forward to next year is the remake of the 70′s British TV show, The Sweeney. Starring Ray Winstone and British rapper Plan B as flying squad members Jack Regan and George Carter. Some on-set pictures have appeared from director Nick Love’s latest Brit flick and we hope that this makes its stateside next year. (Hey U Guys)
