Benedict Cumberbatch: Parade’s End – Episode 3 Review September 8, 2012 8:46 am Oscar Harding (WHATCULTURE)

If you haven’t been watching Parade’s End, the five-part adaptation of Ford Madox Ford’s tetralogy of novels starring Benedict Cumberbatch, then I seriously suggest you do. As it stands at the start of the episode, the somewhat conservative and brilliant Christopher Tietjens (Cumberbatch), has resigned from the imperial office of statistics, and away from both his bitterly frustrated wife Sylvia (Rebecca Hall) and his potential saviour-cum-hopelessly smitten suffragette Valentine (Adelaide Clemens). So far, so Downton. But this episode was a reward for patiently enjoying the foundations set in the first two episodes- whilst we see less of the levity of Tietjens’ friend MacMaster (Stephen Graham) and his affair with Edith Duchemin (Anne-Marie Duff), we instead shift focus to three different themes- 1. What Titetjens really means to the women who love him, 2. The Tietjens dynasty and Christopher’s place in it, and 3. The effects of the war on society

First off, we discover that in actual fact Sylvia does love Christopher. Rebecca Hall is given more of an opportunity to show she is completely frustrated with Christopher, desperate for him to be more human, and more flawed. He is on a pedestal she wants to knock down, because she wants to love this man, but knows her wish will never come true. Her character became someone I really empathised with, rather than just an acid-tongued delight and the token villain. Clemens’ Valentine became less simpering and showed a little more depth- her sheer disappointment when her brother (Freddie Fox, playing the one character in the mini-series I have no time for) shows up and she can’t be Christopher’s mistress for the night makes her more than just a token suffragette. I am beginning to warm to her a lot more, and as Rupert Everett says as Christopher’s brother, “You’re good for him”, and she is. As both women develop, so does Christopher- he is not uptight, merely trapped. He does not know what to do as everyone of worth in London discredits him, spreading rumours, which are the catalyst for Sylvia realising how much she cares for him. Christopher is forgetting things, and he looks set to rebuild himself as a more modern man, and realising what is in front of him- a real chance for happiness, and a chance to rebuild his marriage. What happens next will be very interesting.

READ MORE: http://whatculture.com/tv/tv-review-parades-end-episode-3-review.php

Sean’s a beauty (SUN)

TOUGH guy Stephen Graham has admitted co-star Sean Bean’s “lovely long legs” were very distracting while filming a new TV drama.

He never expected to be “in a love story” with Sean, who plays a transvestite in award-winning BBC1 series Accused.

Stephen – famed for his role in This Is England – told how he supported Sean during filming.

He said: “I wanted Sean to know I was there for him from the start and I looked deep into his eyes.

“We were doing a scene one day sitting on a sofa and I found myself really gazing at his lovely long legs. Everyone on set was going on about them and how good his legs look in white tights.


READ MORE: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/4470827/Sean-Beans-legs-look-lovely-in-tights-on-set-of-Accused-according-to-Stephen-Graham.html

The Dark Knight Rises’ Star Tom Hardy To Play Al Capone in ‘Cicero’; David Yates To Direct (Geeks of Doom)

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Star Tom Hardy To Play Al Capone in ‘Cicero’; David Yates To Direct Posted by The Movie God | January 9th, 2012 at 11:14 pm Tom Hardy is a busy, busy man, with multiple projects on the horizon. His star grows bigger every day, and will no doubt reach even greater heights when his turn as Bane in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy-maker, The Dark Knight Rises, finally arrives. But that’s not stopping the British actor from locking up some projects for a little bit down the road, as well. Speaking to The Daily Mail, Hardy shared that he’ll be starring in a movie titled Cicero, where he’ll be playing a Prohibition-era Al Capone. The movie doesn’t even start filming until 2013-2014, but the script is currently being re-worked by director David Yates—who helmed the final four Harry Potter movies—from a draft written by Walon Green (The Wild Bunch, ER). There’s also a chance that the project will turn into a Capone trilogy, but for now they’re just focusing on that first film. In preparation for the role, Hardy has buried himself in the Warner Brothers vault watching classic gangster movies like The Public Enemy with James Cagney, The Petrified Forest with Humphrey Bogart, Little Caesar with Edward G. Robinson, The Roaring Twenties, which starred both Cagney and Bogart, and many others that deal with Prohibition. And if you don’t think a British actor can or should play Al Capone, fear not. Fellow Brit Stephen Graham also plays a young Capone (rather fantastically, I might add) on the excellent HBO series Boardwalk Empire, which is also set during Prohibition. The plain and simple fact of the matter is that Hollywood doesn’t make enough gangster flicks anymore, much the same as westerns. It’s rather confusing to think about how many of these types of movies were made back in the Golden Age of cinema that are now considered classics, yet very rarely do we see new actors and filmmakers and writers using their talents to create fresh new stories within those genres. A sad thing, indeed. Having seen (and loved) The Public Enemy and The Roaring Twenties, I have very high hopes that something along those lines will come from Tom Hardy’s work in Cicero. Next up for Hardy will be George Miller’s new chapter in the Mad Max franchise, titled Mad Max: Fury Road, which begins production in April. Are you interested in seeing Tom Hardy as Al Capone? Is it even possible to not be interested? [Source: The Daily Mail via Cinema Blend] Topics: Movies, News |   http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2012/01/09/the-dark-knight-rises-star-tom-hardy-to-play-al-capone-in-cisero-david-yates-to-direct/