Laughter on the Orient Express: Judi Dench tells BAZ BAMIGBOYE why she's working with Kenneth Branagh on film adaptation of Agatha Christie classic

Daily Mail
BAZ BAMIGBOYE
Updated October 20, 2017

Judi Dench would like her future contracts to include a clause stipulating that she will refuse to work with grumpy co-stars.

'I don't want to work with anyone who hasn't got a sense of humour,' she insisted, with a hint of merriment behind those blue eyes.

'It's essential! I simply am not interested in working with them if they're miserable by nature.

'It's like the froth on the top of Guinness. You have to have the froth, and then you get to the real thing.

You discover people through larks,' the actress told me, while explaining why she has worked with Kenneth Branagh ten times over the years.

'I always get into trouble with Ken — and I like that!'

The two pillars of the British acting establishment are together again in the Fox 70mm extravaganza of Agatha Christie's Murder On The Orient Express.

Branagh directs, and also plays the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot; while Judi plays the imperious Princess Dragomiroff.

In the film, the Princess arrives with her personal maid (played by Olivia Colman) and two Shih Tzus.

'She's horrible to Olivia. She's a very autocratic princess. So bossy. And Russian. She's just rude; and you wouldn't want to work for her,' Judi said when we met in Soho.

We had the most glorious time,' she said, of her time on set with co-stars Johnny Depp, Derek Jacobi, Penelope Cruz, Daisy Ridley, Josh Gad, Willem Dafoe, Michelle Pfeiffer and dancer Sergei Polunin, as well as newcomers Lucy Boynton and Tom Bateman.

'Not only that: he stayed in the hotel I use when I am up in London. He's ruined my reputation!'One reason why everyone got on so well, she told me, was because filming took place in the interior of a luxury train. 'You had to be part of the company, because nobody could get off!'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4998840/Judi-Dench-s-working-Kenneth-Branagh-AGAIN.html#ixzz4w9rLucCq
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Behind the scenes with Kenneth Branagh (and a cast to die for) on a blockbusting remake of the Agatha Christie classic Murder on the Orient Express

Mail OnLine
By Clark Collis
PUBLISHED: 17:05 EDT, 14 October 2017 | UPDATED: 17:05 EDT, 14 October 2017

ALL ABOARD! AND WE MEAN ALL ABOARD! A GOODLY portion of planet Earth's most famous residents have gathered today at Longcross Studios outside London to shoot a scene set at Stamboul (now Istanbul) train station for director Sir Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (out Nov. 10).

Branagh, who also plays Christie's famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, is present and properly dressed in 1930s-era attire. So too are Star Wars heroine Daisy Ridley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Willem Dafoe, Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr., and British acting royalty Dame Judi Dench and Sir Derek Jacobi.

 There's more. In one corner of the soundstage, Josh Gad and Olivia Colman (Broadchurch) are discussing the Police Academy franchise; Penélope Cruz is gliding past the re-creation of a vintage train talking on her phone in Spanish; and Johnny Depp is ruminating to a reporter about the likelihood of his character's long brown coat being made out of leather. "I'm feeling like it's fake," he says—incorrectly, as the film's Oscar-winning costume designer, Alexandra Byrne (Elizabeth: The Golden Age), will later attest. But the most eye-catching sight is not a person but a thing: the fake mustache sported by Branagh.

The item is so extravagantly outsize it almost seems more alien face-hugger than facial fuzz. "When I saw it I was like, Holy moly!" says Ridley. "But this is a larger-than-life story, so why not make the mustache larger, too?"

 Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-4970852/Agatha-Christie-s-Murder-Orient-Express.html#ixzz4vWgc0Tyj Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Kenneth Branagh is starring in and directing the adaptation of Agatha Christie's classic tale "Murder on the Orient Express"

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
by Rebecca Ford

Kenneth Branagh's star-studded adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express pulled into Las Vegas with the first footage at CinemaCon Thursday.

Branagh directs and stars in the Fox film, which also features Penelope Cruz, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Leslie Odom Jr., Daisy Ridley, Michael Pena and Judi Dench among the cast.

The story centers on a murder onboard the famous train and introduces Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh), who must solve the case while being surrounded by duplicitous passengers.

Branagh, sending in a video from Malta where he’s filming the project, said “we’ve assembled an amazing group” of his cast. “This is not only a who dunnit and how dunnit, it’s crucially a why dunnit,” he said

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/murder-orient-express-cinemacon-trailer-showcases-star-studded-cast-989954

Sir Kenneth Branagh to Receive Special Award at Oliviers

PLAYBILL
BY MARK SHENTON
MAR 02, 2017

He will receive the award at this year's ceremony April 9 at the Royal Albert Hall.

Previously an Olivier Award winner for Best Newcomer in 1982, the stage and screen star has appeared frequently in the West End, with the RSC and at the National Theatre. Most recently, the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company put on its inaugural West End season, comprising seven plays that were staged at the Garrick Theatre, with three of them, The Winter’s Tale, Romeo and Juliet, and The Entertainer, also broadcast to cinemas across the world, where they were seen by over 430,000 people.

In a press statement, Caro Newling, president of the Society of London Theatre, commented, “The Society of London Theatre is delighted to formally celebrate Kenneth Branagh’s outstanding contribution to London theatre. Whether acting or directing, there is no greater advocate for our industry.”

Past recipients of the Special Award include Kevin Spacey, Stephen Sondheim, Judi Dench, and Ian McKellen.

http://www.playbill.com/article/sir-kenneth-branagh-to-receive-special-award-at-this-years-olivier-awards

Tom Hardy, Christopher Nolan, Kenneth Branagh Start Work on ‘Dunkirk’ – Cast List and Plot Details

SHOWBIZ JUNKIES
BY REBECCA MURRAY ON MAY 23, 2016

Tom Hardy at the Moet British Independent Film Awards (Photo by Ben A. Pruchnie / Getty Images for The Moet British Independent Film Awards)

Warner Bros Pictures announced filming is now underway on the dramatic movie Dunkirk from writer/director Christopher Nolan (Interstellar, The Dark Knight trilogy). The action thriller stars Tom Hardy (Mad Mad: Fury Road, The Revenant), Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies), Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet), Cillian Murphy (Inception, Scarecrow in The Dark Knight trilogy), newcomer Fionn Whitehead, Aneurin Barnard, One Direction’s Harry Styles, James D’Arcy, Jack Lowden, Barry Keoghan and Tom Glynn-Carney. Nolan and Emma Thomas are producing and Jake Myers is executive producing. Warner Bros is targeting a July 21, 2017 theatrical release.

The Plot: Dunkirk opens as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces. Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea they face an impossible situation as the enemy closes in.

http://www.showbizjunkies.com/news/dunkirk-movie-details/

Benedict Cumberbatch proves a superb villain in The Hollow Crown's Richard III

THE GUARDIAN
Michael Billington
@billicritic
Saturday 21 May 2016 18.10 EDT

 The camera is a close bosom friend … Benedict Cumberbatch as Richard III. Photograph: Robert Viglasky/BBC/Carnival Film & Television Ltd


Richard III brings the BBC’s Hollow Crown cycle to a fine climax. It also confirms that Benedict Cumberbatch is a highly physical, as well as a natural Shakespearean, actor. Watching him wrestle his way into his clothes in the opening soliloquy, I was reminded of his superb performance as the creature in the National Theatre’s Frankenstein. On stage, we witnessed the tortured birth of a monster; here we see Richard acquiring a new identity as he gets laboriously dressed.



Cumberbatch starts with two great advantages. The previous episode enabled him to lay the ground for Richard’s throne-hungry mania. Like Olivier in the film of Richard III, he also uses the camera as a close bosom friend. Having wooed Phoebe Fox’s Lady Anne – an episode that here takes place in a forest glade – he confides to the camera, and thereby to us, his rasping astonishment at her pliability.

In fact, Cumberbatch takes us stage by stage through Richard’s systematic progress to power. The dominant image of the production is of Cumberbatch’s index finger tapping a chessboard, as he works out how to remove the pieces that stand between him and the crown. But it is a mark of Shakespeare’s progress that the dramatist also allows us to see inside Richard’s soul: Cumberbatch is especially good in the eve-of-battle soliloquy, where a character who might simply be a murdering monster pathetically realises “there is no creature loves me”.

Although Cumberbatch dominates the screen, this is far from a one-man show. Judi Dench brings all her clarity of speech and matchless sincerity to Richard’s mother, who views her son with undisguised horror: when she asks “What comfortable hour canst thou name / That ever graced me in thy company?” you totally believe her. Sophie Okonedo’s Queen Margaret stalks the action, right up to the climactic battle, like a vengeful ghost. Keeley Hawes turns Queen Elizabeth into a helpless pawn in Richard’s power games. Anyone who has seen the previous episodes will also understand – in a way that is tricky when the play is seen in isolation – just what the women are talking about when they catalogue Richard’s endless crimes.

READ MORE: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2016/may/21/benedict-cumberbatch-the-hollow-crown-richard-iii

"Tom Hiddleston was so effortlessly charming": Kenneth Branagh remembers discovering a star

DIGITAL SPY
BY MORGAN JEFFERY

Tom Hiddleston is now one of Hollywood's brightest lights, adored by legions of fans - and Kenneth Branagh always suspected he'd become a star.

Branagh – who cast Hiddleston as Loki in 2011's Thor – remembered how he first saw the actor in Othello at the Donmar Warehouse several years prior.

"I saw Tom Hiddleston play Cassio in Michael Grandage's production of Othello, which starred Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor," Branagh recalled.

"I'd not seen him before, but it was quite clear that he was an utterly naturalistic speaker of Shakespeare. It's not necessarily a part in which you can score, Cassio - he is in many ways the relatively straightforward young man...

"But Tom made him so effortlessly charming and was so adept, adroit and invisibly easy with the language, that it did feel like it was the start of something.

"Even against those two [Ejiofor and McGregor], that boy really stood out."

Hiddleston later appeared opposite Branagh in the first series of BBC One's Wallander in 2008 - and the two crossed paths again at the auditions for Thor.

"He auditioned with a clarity of purpose and a drive... not arrogance, and not over-ambition, but he was just very clear - I felt like I was watching that process happen before my very eyes," Branagh recalled.

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a794870/tom-hiddleston-was-so-effortlessly-charming-kenneth-branagh-remembers-discovering-a-star/

Kenneth Branagh on The Entertainer: 'I've been bending Rob Brydon's ear about standup'

THE GUARDIAN
Interview by Chris Wiegand
9 May, 2016

You’re playing music-hall performer Archie Rice in a revival of John Osborne’s The Entertainer. Can you talk through the look for your character (seen, below, for the first time)?

The play is being directed by Rob Ashford, with whom I’ve now collaborated three times, and he comes from a choreographic background. He wanted me to very much concentrate on Archie as a hoofer, not to feel that he was someone who regarded himself as being on the skids. The problem for Archie is not, in Rob’s view, so much that he is troubled about the possibility that his career and talent are second-rate, but he is terrified that his soul might be. What Rob wanted to see was a sort of theatrical grafter, a hoofer, so we maybe see more of the sacrifices Archie has to go through in order just to get on – or even be as good as he hopes will keep an audience’s attention. I think there may be just a little more dancing, more of that backstage graft and a sense of the sweat on the guy than people may be expecting.



The role was first played by Laurence Olivier, who famously sported a bowler hat and a bow tie and so on …

We’re trying to get away from very strong images like that. What goes with that image is this sense of the play as a certain kind of classic with maybe a few cobwebs around it … But you could argue that this is perhaps a more revolutionary play than, say, Look Back in Anger. And I think it gives voice to what you might call the angry young woman in [Archie’s daughter] Jean Rice. I’m trying to come at it from a different kind of place. Despite Archie being at the centre of things, there’s a youthful fire in the play. It gives the greatest kind of pragmatism and idealism and intelligence to the women of the play, not just Jean Rice – who is in many ways the voice of the call to arms in the play for political engagement. It feels very contemporary. She is someone who is articulating this questioning of the idea that one does follow state and government without question. She encourages participation and demonstration and agitation. … The play is sometimes thought of as a lament, a minor-key wind-down, end-of empire, with an elegiac quality that is in line with Archie’s decline. But what it feels like to us is much more of the usual and youthful Osborne theatrical grenades going off.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW HERE

The Entertainer is at the Garrick theatre, London, from 20 August to 12 November, with a worldwide cinema broadcast on 27 October. Romeo and Juliet is at the Garrick theatre from 12 May to 13 August, with a cinema broadcast on 7 July

Kenneth Branagh battles doubt as actor

THE BULLETIN
By Luaine Lee / Tribune News Service
Published May 4, 2016 at 12:02AM

TV SPOTLIGHT “WALLANDER” 9 P.M. SUNDAYS, PBS

PASADENA, Calif. — Though Kenneth Branagh is perched at the top of his game — both in directing and acting — 10 years ago he had serious doubts.

The star of such films as “My Week with Marilyn” and “Hamlet,” and the director of movies like “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit,” “Cinderella” and “Thor,” Branagh could paper his house with accolades, throw in a knighthood, a theater company and a panoply of memorable performances.

But he says, “I found in my 40s a time when I found acting extremely difficult and very pressurized. And I didn’t want to quit, but I had to get over the hump of it. It began when I was playing in ‘Conspiracy’ for HBO.”

“Conspiracy” was about the meeting of Nazi officials held to determine the “final solution for the Jewish question.” Branagh played SS Gen. Reinhard Heydrich, the leader of the conference.

“It lasted for quite a few years where it was much harder to lose yourself in a character,” he says. “It started there because I didn’t want to be part of that man’s psyche, and it felt like one became rather self-conscious about what one was doing. And really, where I rediscovered joy with acting was when ‘Wallander’ began.”

“Wallander” is the PBS series on “Masterpiece Mystery!” about a melancholic Swedish detective, filled with quiet desperation as he observes the worst among us. The final three episodes begin airing Sunday.

“In a way it was because you stripped artifice away, and you became very comfortable with being uncomfortable,” he says. “You realized that to play something like this it just wouldn’t or couldn’t be easy. Just trying to present the truth under the unflinching gaze of the film camera, you had no choice but to commit. And somehow it put me out of the other side of a period where I’d been just not enjoying it for a long time, still committed to it, but finding it very, very difficult.”

He says he began to ponder the meaning of his work. “Sometimes you have to shake yourself down to understand how a piece of entertainment can be quite meaningful to people, or at the very least, enjoyable and diverting. And this is not a bad thing to be able to do. I think during that time, I lost a little that sense of purpose, in a way that sounds like it’s ego-led about legacy, but it’s more about finding a purpose.”

Branagh was born in Belfast. His mother worked in a tobacco factory, his dad was a plumber and carpenter. “It was a working class district of Belfast,” he says. “We lived in a very small house. We were working class rather than poor. We always had clothes and food. There were tangible moments in my childhood when I knew there wasn’t — that they were having a tough time.”


READ MORE HERE: http://www.bendbulletin.com/entertainment/4275679-151/kenneth-branagh-battles-doubt-as-actor#

Thor 3: Ragnarok News: Loki's death unlikely as Tom Hiddleston gets multi-movie contract with Marvel; Kenneth Branagh to helm final installment?

VENTURE CAPITAL POST
June 22, 2015



Thor 3: Ragnarok is still approximately 2 years away from its release, but as early as now, various speculations surfaced as to the possible plot of the final installment of the Thor franchise. Also, Marvel is rumored to be eyeing on director Kenneth Branagh to helm the film.

The end of days is near for Asgard as Thor: Ragnarok is slowly approaching and despite that no official synopsis has been released for the film as of yet, many theories have emerged as to the possible direction the film might go.

The fire giant "Surtur" who causes destruction is said to likely appear in Thor 3: Ragnarok. Surtur will burn the Birfrost which will lead to the destruction of Asgard. In the mythology, the god Odin fights a giant wolf and dies. Thor also faces a giant snake and ends up dead. Loki comes face to face with Heimdall and later dies, however in the comics, Thor rips Loki's head off due to his treachery.
Although Loki's death may be possible, many speculate that it is also somewhat unlikely as Tom Hiddleston, who plays Loki, still has a multi-movie contract with Marvel.

Meanwhile, there are also reports that Thanos might make an appearance in Thor 3: Ragnarok, and that the god of thunder, Thor, might come into a battle against Thanos and Surtur.


Read more: http://www.vcpost.com/articles/75861/20150622/thor-3-ragnarok-plot-spoilers-lokis-death-unlikely-tom-hiddleston.htm#ixzz3e1tTUaX6

Kenneth Branagh Explains What Makes Tom Hiddleston's Loki So Appealing

COMICBOOK.COM
By Jay Jayson
03/19/2015



Five-time Oscar-nominated actor-director Kenneth Branagh, who directed the first Thor (2011) film, shares his thoughts on what makes Tom Hiddleston's Loki a fan-favorite.

"People like villains. People like damaged villains," Branagh told IGN when asked about Loki's appeal. "He was always an enormous part of the comics. A much loved villain, much of the way that happens on those big legacy pieces. They happened to find a great actor in Tom Hiddleston, who again brought depth to it the same way Cate Blanchett did with this stepmother role in Cinderella. Why people go to the dark side is always fascinating. The survival instinct makes them very inventive. It means they're always surprising you. So, when you have that dark, damaged quality and literally a box of tricks to play with that kind of character is going to be around for a long time."

read more here:  http://comicbook.com/2015/03/19/kenneth-branagh-explains-what-makes-tom-hiddlestons-loki-so-appe/

Film world gathers to remember Lord Richard Attenborough

BBC NEWS
17 March 2015 Last updated at 09:53 ET



Lord Attenborough was among Britain's best-known actors and directors

Dame Judi Dench and Sir Michael Caine were among those who celebrated "a truly great man" of stage and screen.

Also attending were Alan Rickman, Jane Seymour and Sir John Hurt.

Lord Attenborough, a stalwart of the British film industry for more than half a century, died aged 90 last year.

Sir Ben Kingsley and Lord Attenborough's brother, TV wildlife presenter Sir David Attenborough, were among those who spoke during the Westminster Abbey ceremony.

It was led by the Dean of Westminster, the very reverend Dr John Hall.

Hymns included Jerusalem, and there were bible readings from actors Tom Hiddleston and Penelope Wilton.

The service touched on all aspects of Lord Attenborough's life, including the influence his work had on the cultural fabric of the UK.

As well as his two Oscars, six Baftas and four Golden Globes, he was awarded the CBE in 1967, knighted in 1976, and made a life peer in 1993.

Sir David Attenborough read from Lord Attenborough's maiden speech in the House of Lords during the ceremony.

He said: "The arts are not a prerequisite of the privileged few; nor are they the playground of the intelligentsia. The arts are for everyone - and failure to include everyone diminishes us all.'"

The ceremony, which lasted just under an hour, was "absolutely perfect", said Dame Judi Dench.

"I think he'd have loved it," added Dame Penelope Keith, while Sir John Hurt called it "very moving" and "excellent".

"It was very uplifting and it was a testimony to his amazing gift," said Robert Lindsay, revealing that he "used to call [Lord Attenborough] 'the magician.'"



Lord Attenborough was married to actress Sheila Sim, with whom he had three children.

Tragedy struck the family on Boxing Day 2004 when his elder daughter Jane Holland, and her daughter, Lucy, and her mother-in-law, also named Jane, were killed in the south-Asian tsunami.

His son Michael is a theatre director and former artistic director of the Almeida Theatre in Islington, north London, while his daughter Charlotte is an actress.



READ MORE HERE: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-31921689

Kenneth Branagh Says 'Cinderella' (with Lily James and Sophie McShera of Downton Abbey) is 'Not About a Man Rescuing a Woman' (Q&A)

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
by Alex Ritman 2/5/2015 10:00pm PST

Cinderella’s rags-to-riches fairy tale is not the sort of project many might expect to be helmed by someone with the more Shakespearean skill set of Kenneth Branagh, recently seen flitting between Norse gods (Thor), Chris Pine-fronted Tom Clancy actioners (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit) and Swedish TV dramas (Wallander). But 64 years after Walt Disney’s animated version of the tale won the Berlinale’s very first audience award in 1951, Branagh, 54, is about to unveil the world premiere of his live-action retelling, with Downton Abbey’s Lily James in the title role and Cate Blanchett doing her best wicked stepmother.

THR caught up with the five-time Oscar-nominated actor-director, who lives with his film art director wife just outside London, to find out how a filmmaker noted more for his Henry V and Hamlet has taken on Cinderella and her ugly stepsisters.

Was making Cinderella something of a departure for you?

The fairy tale element was a surprise to me in that, although I’ve read them and enjoyed them, I didn’t ever think this was a subject I was likely to make a film about. But when you go back to the original source material, you become aware of how all-pervasive this Cinderella myth is. How many times do you read about “the Cinderella story,” the story of the underdog, the story of the ordinary human being, often subjected to cruelty and ignorance and neglect, who somehow triumphs?

How much did you deviate from the original Disney cartoon?

The animation actually took a number of liberties with the original story, which of course has been told and retold across every type of culture, with different names and even different types of cruelty. There are some in which the stepsisters cut their toes off in order to force their feet into the slipper. What we put front and center was a level of reality and psychological truth in the performances that would be surprising in the context of a fairy tale.

Did you feel much pressure when dealing with one of Disney’s prized characters?

Anybody who goes into the Disney world and takes on one of these live-action versions of an animated classic is always up against that kind of ancestry. But my entire filmmaking career and indeed my entire career has been in and around classics. Probably 90 percent of the stuff I make has inevitably been done before. … Whether it’s playing Hamlet, which has been on the go for 400 years, or pieces from the cinematic world that also have been essayed before, I feel released by that. What I think it confirms when people come back to the stories again is not that they’re tired, but that the themes and the stories and the character are ageless, and that they have a different kind of resonance for each passing generation.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cinderella-trailer-watch-a-very-750238

Martin Freeman interview: The actor on hobbits, Cumbermania and his Nazi-hounding role in The Eichmann Show

THE INDEPENDENT
CRAIG MCLEAN
Sunday 18 January 2015




These are strange, head-spinning days for doughty Martin Freeman.

We've met in a private room off the deserted restaurant of a boutique Bristol hotel to discuss the Holocaust. In The Eichmann Show, the 43-year-old Brit plays Milton Fruchtman, the American TV producer who persuaded the Israeli authorities to let cameras film the 1961 trial in Jerusalem of Adolf Eichmann, the high-ranking Nazi who was instrumental in implementing the so-called Final Solution that killed six million European Jews. Night after night the trial was a global media event, and beamed the horrors of the Holocaust into living rooms in 37 countries. True to context, and rightly, this new BBC drama does not stint on the use of newsreel footage from the concentration camps.

So Freeman and I sip tea from decorous china in a decorous hotel and find ourselves discussing the pulse-stopping pragmatism of the Nazis' industrial-scale death bureaucracy. I've seen the finished 90-minute drama; he hasn't. I relay to him the most chilling fact that I learnt from The Eichmann Show's broadcast of original court testimonies from survivors: that the Nazis spread the ashes of murdered Jews on the ground of the camps, so people wouldn't slip.



"Yeah, that rings a bell," he winces. "I went to see a camp when I was very young, called Sachsenhausen, which is not far outside Berlin, and I think there was a similar thing there that just completely rocked me. It was something to do with a running track… Just the banal inhumanity. All that stuff," he says briskly, rapping his knuckles on the table, "that's the really frightening stuff. When it's so easy to do, and so efficient."

A history and politics buff, as well as an assiduous watcher of quality drama, especially that featuring his peers and near-peers, Freeman cites a 2001 HBO/BBC film about the Wannsee Conference, the 1942 board meeting at which the Nazis planned the extermination of the Jews. "It's what Conspiracy does extremely well," he says of the drama that starred Kenneth Branagh as Reinhard Heydrich and Stanley Tucci as Eichmann, "because they're all quite attractive people; well, they're not all att-," he says without breath, backtracking hastily, cutting himself short. It's something Freeman does often, as his quick mind races against his quick tongue.

"But Branagh's character is an attractive, intelligent, smart person," he continues of the actor's Emmy-winning portrayal of senior SS officer Heydrich. "And if it wasn't for the context of what he was saying, you'd go, 'Yeah, I want to get behind this guy, he's pretty cool, he wants to get shit done,'" Freeman recounts briskly, clapping his hands. "And it's no one looking evil and it's no one looking dastardly. It's just, ah, admin. It's really, really frightening."

Certainly, while watching The Eichmann Show, Hannah Arendt's phrase about the "banality of evil" – coined by the writer while documenting the trial for The New Yorker to describe Eichmann's bland, implacable demeanour in the dock – feels as chillingly appropriate as ever.

Freeman is friendly, for sure, but also sharp, opinionated, and not afraid to bristle at lazy reductionism of his acting talents. It makes for an actor who's an engaging conversationalist and who is shot through with a shaft of steel – which also belies an oddly (and for him, aggravating) cuddly image. No, he's not an "everyman" actor; yes, he can do considerably more than Tim from The Office. A fact to which his current roster of roles forcefully attests.



Right now, he is armpit-deep in Dr Watson. Today is the end of day number three on the filming of the next instalment of Sherlock, the hit BBC drama attended – engulfed – by an unprecedented fan mania. Which, it transpires, actually bedevils the making of the show. (The leaking, already, of images of the suit worn by Dr Watson in this Christmas 2015 special – three-piece, brown, tweedy – is the least of the cast's worries.)

READ MORE HERE: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/martin-freeman-interview-the-actor-on-hobbits-cumbermania-and-his-nazihounding-role-in-the-eichmann-show-9983829.html

Benedict Cumberbatch to Receive Variety Award at BIFAs

VARIETY
Leo Barraclough

LONDON — Benedict Cumberbatch is to receive the Variety Award at the Moet British Independent Film Awards on Dec. 7 at Old Billingsgate, London.

The award recognizes a director, actor, writer or producer who has helped to put the international spotlight on the U.K. Paul Greengrass was given the award last year. Previous recipients include Jude Law, Kenneth Branagh, Liam Neeson, Daniel Craig and Helen Mirren.

Cumberbatch’s latest film, “The Imitation Game,” has been nominated in four categories at the British Independent Film Awards: British independent film; screenplay for Graham Moore; actress for Keira Knightley; and actor for Cumberbatch.

Cumberbatch commented: “I am delighted to receive this prestigious award, and would like to thank Variety and the Moet British Independent Film Awards for this incredible honor. It is made even more special by the recognition of ‘The Imitation Game’ in this year’s nominations, a film I am very proud to be a part of.”

Cumberbatch is best known for playing the title role of Sherlock Holmes in “Sherlock,” Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ adaption of the Arthur Conan Doyle books. The role won him an Emmy this year.

So far this year, Cumberbatch has been filming “Black Mass,” playing Bill Bulger alongside Johnny Depp, and Shere Khan in Andy Serkis’ “Jungle Book.” He is also part of the voicecast in DreamWorks Animation’s “Penguins of Madagascar,” which is released later this year.

He is currently shooting “The Hollow Crown” for the BBC and Neal Street Productions, in which he plays Richard III for director Dominic Cooper, and alongside Judi Dench.

Next he will shoot “Lost City of Z,” based on David Grann’s novel for director James Gray, where he will play British explorer Percy Fawcett, who set out to discover the City of Z in the Amazon in the 1920s.

READ MORE HERE: http://variety.com/2014/film/news/benedict-cumberbatch-to-receive-variety-award-at-bifas-1201355475/

Keira Knightley and husband James Righton meet her mum Sharman Macdonald for a shopping trip in London

MAIL ON LINE
 By TANIA WILLIS
PUBLISHED: 13:56 EST, 14 January 2014 | UPDATED: 05:09 EST, 15 January 2014



Sometimes in-laws can be a tricky thing to negotiate being a newlywed.

This didn't seem to be the case for Klaxons keyboardist James Righton, as he held new wife Keria Knightley's hand on a shopping trip accompanied by her mother, Sharman Macdonald.

The three seemed happy in each others company during a trip to the shops in north London on Tuesday.

Keira previously opened up to Harpers Bazaar about how liberating she has found marriage.
She said: ‘These words that you think beforehand, “That’s the reason I’ll never do it”… those words that you see as completely negative, and you suddenly see them as being incredibly positive, and that’s actually quite liberating and quite nice.’

Meanwhile, Keira is appearing alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in wartime drama The Imitation Game later this year.She is also stars in the film Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit alongside Chris Pine, Kenneth Branagh and Kevin Costner.

Keira plays Ryan’s love interest Cathy in the fifth film in the Jack Ryan franchise, in which Jack (Chris Pine) finds evidence of an imminent terrorist attack and economic catastrophe.

 READ MORE HERE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2539408/Threes-crowd-Keira-Knightley-husband-James-Righton-meet-mum-Sharman-Macdonald-shopping-trip.html

CHRIS PINE AND KEIRA KNIGHTLEY GO SPYING IN 'JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT' TRAILER

HOLLYWOOD
By: Jordan Smith
October 15, 2013

Spy games are a family affair in the new international trailer for Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Chris Pine and Keira Knightley's marriage gets wrapped up in a complex web of international spy intrigue, and spy intrigue in Hollywood means a lot of stuff getting shot at and blown up.

CIA analyst and desk jockey Jack Ryan (Pine) must go operational to stop the nefarious plans of Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh), whose Russian accent tells you he's the bad guy behind all of the global corporate evil going on. Kevin Costner plays Jack's steely CIA handler.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.hollywood.com/news/movies/55037234/jack-ryan-shadow-recruit-international-trailer-chris-pine-keira-knightley-kevin-costner

Tom Hiddleston, 'Only Lovers Left Alive' Star, On The Scene He Pitched For 'Thor: The Dark World'

HUFFINGTON POST

Mike Ryan

Mike.Ryan@huffingtonpost.com

It's remarkable how popular Loki has become. What could have been a forgettable role as a mostly unknown villain (at least to the non-comic book reading population of the world) in "Thor," a then-second-tier superhero movie, has now become something close to a household name. This has everything to to with Tom Hiddleston.

Hiddleston is at the Toronto International Film Festival in support of Jim Jarmusch's "Only Lovers Left Alive." Hiddleston plays Adam in the film, a very sad vampire who spends his days moping around Detroit and being snobby about music (Adam is a Jack White fan, though). This is not a vampire movie that will appeal to "Twilight" fans; this is a vampire movie that will appeal to Jim Jarmusch fans.

In person, Hiddleston is a geyser of charm, and he's certainly not the type who would look his gift horse -- in this case, his gift god -- in the mouth. That's something Hiddleston displayed to dazzling effect at this year's Comic-Con when he took the stage in full Loki wardrobe in front of hundreds of screaming fans. (It's a moment that, as he mentions here, meant a lot to the 32-year-old actor.) Loki aficionados will have even more to cheer about this fall: In the interview below, Hiddleston discussed the post-Comic-Con additions to "Thor: The Dark World," which he says adds a lot more Loki to the film (including one thing that Hiddleston pitched himself).

But, first, the interviewee explains why he was recently the interviewer.

Tom Hiddleston: I just recently did your job.

What do you mean?
Well, I mean I conducted an interview and had to transcribe it.

Transcribing is awful, right?
It's the hardest thing in the world.

Who did you interview?
I was interviewing Natalie Portman.

Did you enjoy being on that side of it?
Very much so, yeah.

How so?
I liked listening. And I actually thought, I'd better do my research, like serious reporter. I went back and watched all of her films -- and then you begin to see things differently I guess. The biggest thing I took away from it is actually the perception of the interviewee is a subjective thing. That's what I realized. I realized how much it's my particular view of Natalie. I can't possibly be objective; I bring who I am to the table. And it made me realize, like, your interview with me is your interview with me.

Subjectively, I think you seem like a nice guy because I just watched a video where you gave Cookie Monster a cookie.

[Laughs] Thanks, man. I did. I gave him a whole plate! Yeah, Cookie Monster was a big moment for me.


READ THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW HERE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/09/tom-hiddleston-only-lovers-left-alive_n_3890573.html

Tom Hiddleston Talks Shakespeare, THOR & AVENGERS

BROADWAY WORLD
Tuesday, August 20, 2013; 06:08 PM - by Pat Cerasaro

Film superstar and dedicated thespian Tom Hiddleston discusses his integral role in the forthcoming four-film Shakespeare series premiering on PBS later this Fall, dubbed THE HOLLOW CROWN, as well as his AVENGERS and THOR roles, as part of a new interview.

Hiddleston first remarks upon his first experience with the Bard, relating, "My first Shakespearean production I ever saw, I was 13 years old. It was the RSC, A Midsummer Night's Dream. I thought some bits were funny but, to be honest, a lot of it went over my head, and it was really being taken to see Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing and sort of being dragged, kicking and screaming because it wasn't an action film and then go, "'Oh. Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves are in this. Oh. This is hilarious and I understand everything and it's great.'"

He adds of his affection for Baz Luhrmann's wildly imaginative re-telling of Romeo & Juliet, "I was 15 when Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet came out so it's as if he made that film for me. The soundtrack to that film was my soundtrack. Romeo or Juliet, I can't remember which character, one of them is actually supposed to be 15 and it seemed so romantic and so true."


READ MORE HERE: http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Hiddleston-Talks-Shakespeare-THOR-AVENGERS-20130820

Kenneth Branagh to Make New York Stage Debut in ‘Macbeth’

WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Pia Catton
August 20, 2013

Kenneth Branagh will make his New York stage debut in June 2014, but don’t look for him on Broadway: His “Macbeth” is heading to the Upper East Side’s Park Avenue Armory.

The production originated in England at the Manchester International Festival, which co-commissioned the play with the Park Avenue Armory. Branagh starred as Macbeth and directed the play with Rob Ashford (“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”). Starring opposite Branagh in New York will be former Royal Shakespeare Company member Alex Kingston (“ER”) as Lady Macbeth.

In Manchester, the production took place in a deconsecrated church, with several parts of the space used. In New York, it will be adapted to the 55,000-square-foot drill hall, but is likely to replicate the runway stage and the intensity of the original. “The action happens so fast. The battles are right on top of you,” said Rebecca Robertson, president and executive producer of the Park Avenue Armory. “The production elements are simple, but it’s so stark and you just feel a part of it.”

READ MORE HERE: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/08/20/kenneth-branagh-makes-new-york-stage-debut-with-macbeth/