The League of Austen Artists: walt disney

Showing posts with label walt disney. Show all posts

Saturday, February 7, 2015

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

Friday, July 12, 2013

Emma Thonpson, Tom Hanks - Savings Mr. Banks (the story of Mary Poppins and Walt Disney himself)

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson in Saving Mr. Banks Take a look at the first photo of the actors in character as Walt Disney and 'Mary Poppins' author P.L. Travers By Lily Rothman @lilyrothmanJuly 10, 2013 (TIME)

FRANÇOIS DUHAMEL / DISNEY

Emma Thompson has taken on some difficult roles during her career, winning Oscars and numerous other awards for her performances in works based on classic literature and historical events. But, says the actress, one role stands apart from the rest.

“She’s the most difficult person I’ve ever played,” Thompson says of her role as P.L. Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins books, in the forthcoming film Saving Mr. Banks.

The movie, coming out this holiday season, is Disney’s take on Travers’ life and, eventually, the stormy relationship she had with the studio’s own mastermind, Walt Disney. Here, TIME presents an exclusive first official look at Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers and Tom Hanks as Walt Disney. In the scene shown above, Travers has come to Disneyland, in 1961, to meet with the man himself.

Of course, today’s audiences have long enjoyed their resulting cinematic collaboration: Disney’s 1964 Mary Poppins movie. But the film was a struggle to make: even though Disney had a personal interest in Travers’ tale of a magical nanny, it being one of his daughters’ favorites, the author was not interested in her work being changed by a movie studio.

“She was a woman of quite eye-watering complexity and contradiction,” says Thompson, whose first-ever movie-going experience was seeing a Disney movie, Fantasia, as a child. “Often I play people who are controlled by some very clear guiding moral principles. Like Margaret Schlegel [in Howards End], guided by the early principles of feminism and equal rights, and Elinor Dashwood [in Sense and Sensibility], guided by the principles of decency and honor. There are very clear moral prisms these women pour life through, and I understand that very well. And [Travers] was not like that at all. She was far more chaotic and confused and morally various.”

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Helena Bonham Carter to Play Fairy Godmother in Disney's 'Cinderella' (Exclusive) 3:56 PM PDT 6/20/2013 by Borys Kit (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER)

Kenneth Branagh is directing the live-action fantasy, which already has Cate Blanchett playing the role of the wicked stepmother.

Helena Bonham Carter has nabbed the plum role, or perhaps it’s the pumpkin role, of the fairy godmother in Disney’s live-action version of Cinderella.

Kenneth Branagh is directing the movie project, which sees Lily James in the title role, Cate Blanchett as the wicked stepmother and Game of Thrones' Richard Madden as the prince. Sophie McShera (Downton Abbey) and Holliday Granger (The Borgias) are playing the stepsisters.

The fairy godmother will be getting more screen time in this version than in Disney’s classic animated movie, with the character disguised as an old beggar who watches over Cinderella before revealing herself as the magical being she truly is.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Colin Farrell Gets Disneyfied With 'Saving Mr. Banks' June 16th, 2012 4:01pm EDT | (STAR PULSE)

Colin Farrell is about to get a little more family-friendly. The "Fright Night" star will be embracing his paternal instincts as he signs on for a rare "dad" role in "Saving Mr. Banks," according to Deadline.

Farrell joins Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson in the true behind-the-scenes story of the long, hard road to making "Mary Poppins," in which Walt Disney (Hanks) waged a 14-year courtship to persuade Australian author P.L. Travers (Thompson) to sell him the rights to her story of the beloved nanny. Travers (obviously) eventually gave in but remained prickly about it all the way to the end and apparently despised the film's animated sequences.

"Mary Poppins" was a very personal story for Travers, as it reflected the hardships in her real life and her relationship with her father (to be played by Farrell), who died when she was seven years old. Travers' father inspired the character of Mr. Banks, played by David Tomlinson in "Mary Poppins."

READ MORE: http://www.starpulse.com/news/NextMovie/2012/06/16/colin_farrell_gets_disneyfied_with_sav

Monday, May 7, 2012

Imelda Staunton Joins Maleficent Sam Riley and more aboard fairy tale 07 May 2012 | Written by James White | Source: The Hollywood Reporter (EMPIRE)

Being around magic in Nanny McPhee and two of the Harry Potter films has clearly not put Imelda Staunton off the idea. She’s signed on to lead a batch of British actors into the cast of Disney’s Maleficent, joining stars Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning.

Robert Stromberg is behind the camera for the film, a new, live-action version of Sleeping Beauty that puts Maleficent’s point of view front and centre.

Staunton and Lesley Manville are playing Knotgrass and Flittle, two of the pixies who help to take care of Fanning’s Princess Aurora. Miranda Richardson is aboard to play Queen Ulla, the Fairy Queen who happens to be Maleficent’s aunt, and not all that keen on her niece.

Kenneth Cranham will be the human king, who has his eye on conquering the fairy kingdom, while Sam Riley has landed the role of Diaval, a raven who can shift into human form and serves Maleficent.

READ MORE: http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=33883

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson in Talks to Star in 'Saving Mr. Banks' 6:11 PM PDT 4/9/2012 by Borys Kit (THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER)

The true-life story recounts the behind-the-scenes drama of bringing the beloved "Mary Poppins" to life. Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson are in talks to topline Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks, a true-life account behind one of the studio’s most-cherished films.

The script by Kelly Marcel details how Walt Disney spent 14 years courting P.L. Travers, the Australian author of Mary Poppins, in order to make adapt her books about the magical nanny. Travers resisted for so long because she feared Disney would make an animated adaptation. The studio finally made a live-action movie in 1964, starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, but stuck in animated sequences, which turned the author off from working with Disney again.

READ MORE: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tom-hanks-emma-thompson-saving-mr-banks-disney-309716

Monday, March 12, 2012

Downton Abbey: OOOPS! and John Carter flops (LOS ANGELES TIMES)

DOWNTON ABBEY
Oops? Did NBC blow an opportunity to have "Downton Abbey," the British import that has been a hit in the U.S. on PBS?

The Philadelphia Inquirer notes that the show is produced by NBC sister company Britain's Carnival Films, and says the network passed on it, "believing that American audiences wouldn't have the appetite for a very British historical drama set in a country manor in Edwardian England."

That said, the story offers little evidence that NBC ever considered the show. A spokesperson at NBC told the Inquirer that the decision not to air the show was made by a previous administration. Beyond that there are no comments in the story -- on the record or on background -- from anyone from the previous administration or at Carnival saying it had been shopped to NBC at all.

JOHN CARTER
John Carter" a non-starter. Walt Disney Co.'s "John Carter" -- one of the biggest bets in movie history -- opened with a disappointing $30.6 million at the box office, finishing a distant second behind Universal's "The Lorax," which earned almost $40 million in its second weekend of release.

"John Carter" is projected to lose as much as $165 million, according to one Wall Street analyst. The only good news for Disney is that "John Carter" wasn't the only flop of the weekend. The horror movie "Silent House" and the comedy "A Thousand Words" also bombed. Box office coverage from the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Movie City News.

READ MORE: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/03/the-morning-fix-john-carter-box-office-.html

Friday, January 13, 2012

Top 5 Prestigious Awards Of The World (Bold Sky)

Celebrities often gain more respect and status with awards. Although stars say that awards only motivate them to give more to their fans, they also make big money by hiking prices in the future movie projects. Prestigious awards help stars get the global recognition and make them feel that they have achieved big. Today, we will discuss on the top 5 awards that are worth winning for a lifetime. Take a look.

Top 5 Most Famous And Prestigious Awards

1. Nobel Prize - The international award was named after the inventor of dynamite “Alfred Nobel” and was first presented in 1901. The awards are given to the those people who have made it big in the field of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, economics and peace. The irony is that the award in the name of the inventor of dynamite which destroys mankind is given to a person who fights for peace.

2. Oscars (Academy Awards) – The always talked about awards across world began in 1929. They are longer restricted to Hollywood alone but have become international in recognising the talent across world. Apart from films, animations, television shows are also awarded. Having the oscar statuette itself is a status symbol and Walt Disney is highest award winner (has won 20 awards).

3. Booker Prize – To recognise the art of writing or depicting stories and facts, the famous booker prize award was set up in 1968. Each year, the best novel writer gets the award.

4. BAFTA Awards - The British award is next or rather equivalent to Oscars. The Academy of Film and Television Arts awards began in 1947 and actress Judi Dench has won the most number of awards (8) for her television and film roles.

5. Golden Globe Awards – The US film awards started in 1943. Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks are the highest nominees and award winners. Last year's golden globes host Ricky Gravais created a lot of controversy by ridiculing stars through statements.

Even the international film festival awards held in Cannes, south France is one of the most famous and prestigious awards one can win in a lifetime. For celebrities just being invited (not even nominated) for these awards is big. They wear highly fashionable outfits designed by the A-class fashion houses across world. Even being the host of such awards is a matter of prestige and talent to many.