Watch! TEN talks to Colin Firth and Emma Stone

RTE TEN
September 16, 2014



TEN's Sarah McIntyre caught up with Colin Firth and Emma Stone to chat about their new film Magic in

Check out TEN's interview with the actors, where they chatted about being intimidated working with Woody Allen, stifling laughter while filming scenes with the hilarious Hamish Linklater and wanting to take home the incredible costumes.

Plus, we find out which famous actress Colin named his pet cat after!

READ MORE HERE: http://www.rte.ie/ten/news/2014/0916/644046-watch-ten-talks-to-colin-firth-and-emma-stone/

Emma Stone brings vintage glamour to Parisian red carpet with Colin Firth (video)

DAILY MAIL
September 11, 2014
By HANNA FLINT FOR MAILONLINE




Emma Stone looked magic in the moonlight as she arrived for the premiere of her new film in Paris, Thursday night.

The American star takes the female lead in Woody Allen's latest cinematic endeavour, and was joined on the red carpet by co-star Colin Firth.

As the movie is set in the Roaring Twenties, it's no surprise to see Emma's glamorous look inspired by the fashion of the time.

Colin looked every bit the English gentleman in his sharp suit, while his wife Livia Firth dazzled in a metallic gold knitted top with a floral A-line skirt.

Emma and Colin were in Paris for the 'Magic In The Moonlight' Premiere at UGC Cine Cite Bercy.

It is in France where the majority of the movie is set, as Firth's skeptical character Stanley Crawford is enlisted to help debunk the clairvoyant and mystic Sophie (Stone).

Soon the story sees middle-aged Stanley and the young Sophie become romantically entwined, but of course a dramatic age-gap has never troubled Woody Allen when it comes to story telling and real life. 

READ MORE HERE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2752805/She-looks-Magic-In-The-Moonlight-Emma-Stone-brings-vintage-glamour-Parisian-red-carpet-Colin-FIrth.html

Colin Firth creates magic with Woody

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN
FILM
Magic in the Moonlight (PG)
3.5 stars
Colin Firth, Emma Stone
DIRECTOR WOODY ALLEN
REVIEW MARK NAGLAZAS



If Woody Allen had filmed his latest bonbon in black and white, as he's done on several other occasions (Manhattan, Stardust Memories, The Purple Rose of Cairo) it might be mistaken for a movie that was actually made during Hollywood's Golden Age.

Its main setting is a sumptuous spread on the Riviera, characters linger in drawing rooms and gardens engaged in witty exchanges, lovers speed along winding cliff-side roads overlooking the Mediterranean and Colin Firth plays a magician who dresses up as a Chinaman, replete with stringy moustache and pulled-back eyes.

Of course, we have seen all this tongue-in-cheek nostalgia before in Allen movies. But Magic in the Moonlight feels the most insistently old-fashioned work in memory, so much so it doesn't take too much imagination to see Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in the lead roles (it's the closest he has come to making a screwball comedy).

What Magic in the Moonlight lacks in originality - some have complained it's so familiar as to be redundant, right down to the Allen obsession with death and the meaningless of existence - it makes up for in polish, wit, a lightness of touch and, most of all, exuberant, nicely judged performances.

Where once Allen's male stars did a pale imitation of himself, more recent stand-ins are their own men, with Firth throwing off his signature stammering Englishmen to play an acid- tongued egotist and world-class misanthrope who both infuriates and charms with his every biting putdown ("Autographs are for morons," Firth's magician Stanley Crawford tells a fan of his on-stage alter-ego Wei Ling Soo).

Stanley is so disparaging of mankind's need for belief in the afterlife that he has a lucrative sideline exposing mediums as frauds, using his knowledge of chicanery to save the weak- minded from being fleeced (Harry Houdini also moonlighted as a debunker of mystics).

When Stanley is approached by an old friend to unmask a young woman named Sophie (Emma Stone), who has entranced a wealthy American widow living in the South of France by claiming to be able to communicate with her late husband, he is there in a flash, his mental tools sharpened and at the ready.

However, Sophie is no pushover. She quickly sees through Stanley's guise and eventually plucks from the air his deepest secrets - Stone has fun mimicking the melodramatic arm-waving antics of movie mediums - shaking his firm believe that nothing exists beyond the grave.

Indeed, Sophie unlocks him from the prison of his own cynicism, releasing him to more fully embrace the here and now, which he claims is the only reality we know. Of course, love blossoms in this F. Scott Fitzgerald-ish playground for the rich and famous, or something like it, as Sophie's big smile and vivacity causes Stanley to question his relationship to his more eminently suitable fiance.

It could be claimed that Firth is too old for Stone (and that Allen is revealing his own dubious fixations) but they are lovely together.

Indeed, the mismatch in ages actually feels right for the period when such disparities were commonplace.

READ MORE HERE: https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/movies/a/24862863/firth-creates-magic-with-woody/

Colin Firth shines in Moonlight’

KENOSHA NEWS
By Cary Darling
August 15, 2014

After dealing with the emotional breakdown at the core of “Blue Jasmine,” a very contemporary tale of free-falling down the social ladder that won star Cate Blanchett the Best Actress Oscar, director / writer Woody Allen once again seeks refuge in the past. With “Magic in the Moonlight,” Allen turns out a well-wrought and clever but lightweight bauble set in late-1920s France that echoes the European daydream of his 2011 hit, “Midnight in Paris.”

What makes “Moonlight” most memorable is the performance from Colin Firth, who is in nearly every scene. Without him, “Moonlight” just might evaporate.

Firth is Stanley, the Penn Jillette of his day, a magician and a man of science and secularism whose specialty is to debunk those claiming to engage in the supernatural. An old magician friend of his, Howard (Simon McBurney), shows up after a performance to tell him of Sophie Baker (Emma Stone), a young American woman residing in the south of France who claims to have psychic powers and the ability to channel the dead.

Howard says he tried to prove she was really just a trickster but left her seance perplexed. She seemed to be the real deal.

Eager to discredit her, Stanley agrees to attend her next seance, where he will also meet her mother (Marcia Gay Harden) and fiance, Brice (Hamish Linklater), both of whom are convinced of her powers.

But things get complicated when Stanley, who is also engaged, finds himself attracted to Sophie and vice versa. He had never anticipated that he might have to choose love over logic.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.kenoshanews.com/where2b/colin_firth_shines_in_moonlight_478428958.html

Colin Firth: Movie review: ‘Magic in the Moonlight’ is a good Woody Allen film

SAULT STE. MARIE
Posted Aug. 1, 2014 @ 2:01 am
By Ed Symkus



Woody Allen has often spoken about his drawer full of movie ideas, some of them hastily written down, that he visits now and then when the prolific director feels that it’s time to write and direct another one. Though many of his most ardent fans were saying that his best days are behind him, that his last great film was “Husbands and Wives” two decades ago, it’s always such a great surprise when something the caliber of last year’s resoundingly acclaimed “Blue Jasmine” pops up. (Personal note: I’d also put 1999’s “Sweet and Lowdown” right up there with the strong stuff.)

And though “Magic in the Moonlight” mostly pales next to “Blue Jasmine” – except for Colin Firth’s terrific performance – I can still comfortably recommend it as good, if not great, Woody Allen.

It’s a period piece about the timeless subject of fraud. In 1928 Berlin, a Chinese magician named Wei Ling Soo astonishes audiences with his impossible stage illusions. Of course, all magicians are committing fraud, but it’s the sort of deception that audiences enjoy. Wei Ling Soo takes it a step further, in that he’s actually a Brit named Stanley (Colin Firth) posing, in heavy costuming and makeup, as a Chinese magician. When his magician pal Howard Burkan (Simon McBurney) asks him for a favor – to prove that an American woman claiming to be a psychic is a total fake – he agrees to take on the task, gallantly but tiredly saying, “OK, I’ll expose yet another fraudulent spiritualist.”

But Sophie (Emma Stone) who travels the world under the guidance of her no-nonsense show biz mom (Marcia Gay Harden), is pretty darn good at what she does. When Stanley, who doesn’t reveal his true identity as a prestidigitator, attends a séance at the lavish home where the widowed Grace (Jacki Weaver) – accompanied by her dimwit, ukulele-strumming son Brice (Hamish Linklater) – wants to speak with her dead husband Harry, Stanley is impressed that Sophie seems to be able to know absolutely unknowable things. Sophie calls what she does “miracles.” Stanley admits that they’re “bewildering feats, but not possible.”

He also believes that Grace and Brice are perfect marks, and can see that Brice is smitten with Sophie. But though he can’t figure out how she does what she does, he remains a non-believer because, he says, “I’m rational.”


Read more: http://www.sooeveningnews.com/article/20140801/News/140809977#ixzz39C9jzyb6

Magic In The Moonlight - official trailer of Colin Firth/Woody Allen film

COLIN FIRTH: Woody Allen’s MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT Starring Emma Stone, Colin Firth, and Marcia Gay Harden

COLLIDER
by Matt Goldberg  
Posted 7 hours ago

A new image has gone online for Woody Allen‘s upcoming film Magic in the Moonlight.  We previously reported that the movie “is a romantic comedy about an Englishman (Colin Firth) brought in to help unmask a possible swindle.  Personal and professional complications ensue. The film is set in the south of France in the 1920s against a backdrop of wealthy mansions, the Côte d’Azur, jazz joints and fashionable spots for the wealthy of the Jazz Age.”  The latest issue of EW reports that the “possible swindle” involves the Englishman trying “to expose a phony mystic (Emma Stone), only to end up falling for her.”  Furthermore, Marcia Gay Harden will play “Stone’s mother and co-conspirator.”

Read more at http://collider.com/magic-in-the-moonlight-image/#LKCsg15jbjdWX3Pk.99

Colin Firth: Woody Allen's upcoming film to be 1920s comedy

KTVU.COM
Updated: 2:59 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014 | Posted: 2:59 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014



The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Woody Allen's upcoming film "Magic in the Moonlight" will be a 1920s romantic comedy set on the French Riviera.

Little had been known about Allen's next film before Thursday when Sony Pictures Classics announced it will distribute "Magic in the Moonlight." It stars Colin Firth, Emma Stone and Marcia Gay Harden.

Sony Pictures Classics said it's about "an Englishman brought in to help unmask a possible swindle." The film is set "against the backdrop of the Cote d'Azur, jazz joints and fashionable spots for the wealthy of the Jazz Age."


READ MORE HERE: http://www.ktvu.com/news/ap/entertainment/woody-allens-upcoming-film-to-be-1920s-romance/nchnG/

Colin Firth in Woody Allen's new film "Magic in the Moonlight" (video)

First Look At Colin Firth and Emma Stone In Woody Allen's Next Feature Magic In The Moonlight

CINEMA BLEND
uthor: Kristy Puchko
published: October 15, 2013

Despite being a world-renowned writer-director who typically has his pick of A-list stars, Woody Allen is somehow able to keep his projects under wraps as he sees fit. But having recently wrapped on an film known only as The Untitled Woody Allen Project, he has released to THR the feature's title (Magic in the Moonlight), along with a couple of stills that show off cast mates Marcia Gay Harden, Emma Stone and Colin Firth.

Details on the plot are still a mystery, but we do know that the film was shot in the South of France, making Magic in the Moonlight Allen's eighth movie to be set in Europe. Aside from the three stars seen above and below, Magic in the Moonlight boasts an ensemble that includes English actress Eileen Atkins, who most recently appeared in the teen fantasy-romance Beautiful Creatures, Hamish Linklater from the Robin Williams sitcom The Crazy Ones, The Borgias's Simon McBurney, two-time Academy Award nominee Jacki Weaver, Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Erica Leerhsen, 28 Weeks Later's Catherine McCormack, Paul Ritter from the British series Vera, and Jeremy Shamos, who will be seen later this year in the James McAvoy/Jessica Chastain drama The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.

The pic below tells us that Colin Firth plays a dapper gentleman in the film, but really we could have guessed that even without this image. However, the wardrobe of Harden and Stone plus posh cars spotted up top suggest this will be a period piece, which I'd estimate to be set in the early 1930s. Based on Allen's past works, it seems safe to assume the plot will involve romance and shenanigans within this colorful setting. But without even a hint as to when Magic in the Moonlight will open, this is all we have to go on for now.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/First-Look-Emma-Stone-Colin-Firth-Woody-Allen-Next-Feature-Magic-Moonlight-39852.html

Colin Firth to play Paddington Bear, Hugh Bonneville will play Mr. Brown

MAIL ON LINE
By BAZ BAMIGBOYE

Colin Firth will play Paddington Bear in a movie from the man behind the Harry Potter films.

And Nicole Kidman has signed on to play the villain in the film.

Firth, who won an Oscar for The King’s Speech, will give voice to the bear from darkest Peru.

‘Paddington will be computer generated, and I will speak his lines with, I suspect, a slight Peruvian flavour,’ the actor  told me.

‘Every other character in the film will be real, live, human beings,’ he said.

‘But the idea is that Paddington will have something of me in his DNA because I’m going to do some sessions wearing one of those helmets with cameras to capture my face muscles, and all that data will somehow be incorporated into Paddington.

Because Paddington is digitally created I’m spared having to over-indulge in marmalade sandwiches,’ Firth joked, referring to Paddington’s habit of keeping a stash of sarnies under his hat for emergencies.

The bear was created by Michael Bond and first appeared in the book A Bear Called Paddington in 1958.

He was sent to England by his Aunt Lucy, when she went to live in a home for retired bears in Lima, and was discovered by Mr Henry Brown and his wife Mary at Paddington Station. He was wearing a note round his neck stating: ‘Please look after this bear, thank you.’

Paddington was taken in by the Browns and their two children and lived in a Victorian semi at 32 Windsor Gardens off the Portobello Road.

Heyman confirmed to me that Hugh Bonneville, Downton Abbey’s Earl of Grantham, and Sally Hawkins, soon to be seen in Woody Allen’s superb movie Blue Jasmine, will play the Browns.

Julie Walters has been cast as Mrs Bird, their housekeeper, and Jim Broadbent may also take a role.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2419423/Colin-Firth-play-Paddington-bear-movie-man-Harry-Potter-films.html#ixzz2eipAP7jq 

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Colin Firth Movie news (video)

What happened to Mr Darcy? Colin Firth displays his incredibly slimline physique after losing weight for movie role

By EMILY SHERIDAN

MAIL ON LINE

PUBLISHED: 04:34 EST, 22 July 2013

UPDATED: 07:27 EST, 22 July 2013

He shifted the pounds to play a prisoner of war in upcoming movie The Railway Man.

However, with filming having long ended, it looks like the slimline Colin Firth may be here to stay.

The Oscar winner, 52, was looking trim as he attended his newest director Woody Allen's jazz band performance on the French Riviera on Sunday.

he actor may like his trimmer fame, or perhaps he is required the keep the weight off for another film.

This year, busy Colin has several films in the pipeline, including Devil's Knot, with Before I Go To Sleep, Genius and the Woody Allen project, which is as yet untitled.

The Railway Man sees Colin play Eric, who was tortured by Japanese Kempeitai military police when he was sent to work on the Death Railway after being captured in Singapore in 1941.

READ MORE HERE:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2373217/Slimline-Colin-Firth-stay-trim-actor-attends-Woody-Allens-jazz-band-performance-France.html

Dame Eileen Atkins joins Colin Firth in new Woody Allen film ALBERTINA LLOYD (INDEPENDENT)

Dame Eileen Atkins has joined Colin Firth in the cast of Woody Allen's new film.

The writer and director has already begun filming on his latest project, a comedy which also stars Emma Stone, on location in the South of France.

Veteran British actress Dame Eileen, star of Cold Mountain and Cranford, has joined the cast along with Oscar nominees Marcia Gay Harden and Jacki Weaver, according to Variety.

As with all Woody Allen productions the title and subject matter is being kept under wraps. It is Allen's second time filming in France and his eighth film set in Europe.

READ MORE: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/dame-eileen-atkins-joins-colin-firth-in-new-woody-allen-film-8685618.html

COLIN FIRTH: Woody Allen recruits Firth for French film | Print version Updated: 01 May 2013 11:02 GMT+02:00 (THE LOCAL - FRANCE'S NEWS IN ENGLISH)

The as-yet-untitled film, to be shot this summer, will be the second set in France by the 77-year-old cult director, who scored his biggest commercial hit ever with 2011's "Midnight in Paris."

Allen has made a series of Europe-based movies in recent years – "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" in 2008 and 2012's "To Rome with Love" – and has hired a number of collaborators from those movies for the new film.

Cinematographer Darius Khondji, production designer Anne Seibel and costume designer Sonia Grande all worked on "Midnight in Paris" and "To Rome with Love," while Grande also worked on "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."

The new Gravier Productions film is produced by Allen's longtime associates, Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, who have worked with Allen for a decade and a half, they said in a statement.

After early classics like "Annie Hall" (1977), 1979's "Manhattan" and "Hannah and Her Sisters" in 1986, Allen fans had become used to mild disappointment with his annual output, until the last five or ten years.


READ MORE: http://www.thelocal.fr/page/view/woody-allen-recruits-colin-firth-for-french-film#.UYJmNrUp_3M

Colin Firth to Star Opposite Emma Stone in New Woody Allen Movie 14 hours ago (SCREEN RANT) by Sandy Schaefer

We just barely learned that Colin Firth is going to headline Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class co-writer/director Matthew Vaughn’s upcoming Mark Millar comic book adaptation, The Secret Service, and now reports are in that the Oscar-winning actor is also making plans to co-headline Woody Allen’s currently-untitled followup project to his Summer 2013 release, Blue Jasmine.

The Woodmeister returned to his native U.S. shores to shoot Blue Jasmine, which is a comedy about a New York housewife (Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett) who must deal with “the final stages of an acute crisis.” Per usual for a Woody Allen project, the cast includes big names like Alec Baldwin and comedians Andrew Dice Clay and Louis C.K., in addition to such credible supporting talent as Michael Stuhlbarg (Boardwalk Empire), Peter Sarsgaard (Lovelace) and Sally Hawkins (Godzilla).

Deadline is reporting that Allen has plans to resume his European “tour” after Blue Jasmine, by filming his latest original script in the South of France. Firth has yet to finalize the deal, but Allen’s quick-and-easy production approach will make it easier for the King’s Speech actor to work things out; that is, both fit Allen’s movie into his schedule and remain committed to Vaughn’s Secret Service movie (which is due to open in theaters during November 2014).

Firth is a natural match for the Allen-verse; in fact, he’s already played the kind of smart, but dysfunctional – and hopeless when it comes to relationships – creative type which appear throughout Allen’s filmography (see: Firth’s character in Love, Actually). Of course, the award-winner Firth also knows how to play the square and dignified archetype for laughs as well (see: Bridget Jones’s Diary), in case that’s the sort of character that Allen’s hiring Firth to tackle here.


READ MORE: http://screenrant.com/colin-firth-emma-stone-woody-allen-movie/

Colin Firth for Woody Allen's new film? (XPOSE)

Colin Firth is being lined up for Woody Allen's new movie.

The 52-year-old actor is being courted to play the lead in the 'Midnight In Paris' filmmaker's new whimsical comedy, according to Deadline.

Colin is likely to join 'The Amazing Spider-Man' actress Emma Stone in the project, who is rumoured to have become Allen's new muse.

The director is expected to film in the South of France and will write, produce and direct the as yet untitled film.

This comes after it was announced Colin has entered negotiations to star in Matthew Vaughn's forthcoming adaptation of comic book series, 'The Secret Service'.

The Oscar-winning actor will play a man who sends his nephew off to a British spy school which transforms young troublemakers into refined, James Bond-style secret agents.

Casting is underway for the part of the unruly nephew after Aaron Taylor-Johnson - who starred in Vaughn's 2009 movie 'Kick-Ass' - turned down the role.


READ MORE: http://www.tv3.ie/entertainment_article.php?locID=1.803.810&article=102148

COLIN FIRTH: British Star Colin Firth Lined Up For New Woody Allen Movie (CONTACT MUSIC)

Following the news that Emma Stone is lined up to star in a Woody Allen movie, Deadline have announced that British actor Colin Firth is also in the running to star in the film. As yet untitled, the movie is expected to be shot in the south of France. Woody’s keeping the plot firmly under wraps though it seems that he is working towards putting together a typically stellar cast.

Allen, a prolific, iconic and highly respected director, just finished working on his 44th movie as a director. Entitled Blue Jasmine, the film was set in New York and Los Angeles and stars Alec Baldwin, as well as Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins and Louis CK. The movie is scheduled to open in September 2013. Colin Firth is currently lined up to star in The Secret Service – the next movie from X:Men First Class’s Matthew Vaughn. However, he’s thought to be making room in his schedule to ensure that he lands a slot in Woody Allen’s latest movie.

READ MORE: http://www.contactmusic.com/news/colin-firth-woody-allen-emma-stone_3635449

Ewan McGregor: Watch Ewan McGregor in His 1993 Film Debut ‘Family Style’ Features By Christopher Campbell on February 24, 2013 (FILM SCHOOL REJECTS)

Short Starts presents a weekly short film from the start of a filmmaker or actor’s career. 

Twenty years ago, a young Ewan McGregor began his acting career with a short film made for Channel 4 called Family Style. The 11-minute, black and white effort was also the directorial debut of Justin Chadwick, whose latest, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, was just acquired for distribution by The Weinstein Co. Back in 1993, McGregor still had long hair, a look you’ll find familiar if you’ve seen Shallow Grave, and was far from being a great actor. His crying scene in Family Style is pretty awful. But look at what two decades does for a guy, going from a breakthrough role in Trainspotting to portraying a young Obi-Wan Kenobi and working with Woody Allen, Baz Luhrman, Peter Greenaway, Todd Haynes, Tim Burton, Ridley Scott, Ron Howard, Steven Soderbergh and Roman Polanski, earning two Golden Globe nominations… And now co-starring in a big budget, live-action adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk (Jack the Giant Slayer). Well, he’s mostly had great run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CwSWbJVHrK8

READ MORE: http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/watch-ewan-mcgregors-1993-film-debut-family-style.php

Tom Hiddleston: 'Avengers' Tom Hiddleston: 'Midnight in Paris role was a dream' Published Sunday, May 20 2012, 2:04am EDT | By Amy Bell | (DIGITAL SPY)

Hiddleston said: "It was three sentences long. 'Dear Tom, I'm making a movie in Paris this summer. I attached some pages. I'd love for you to play the role of Scott'.

"The character was only referred to as 'Scott'. So I thought, okay, this guy Scott is in a scene with a character called Ernest and a character named Zelda. Is Woody Allen writing a movie about F. Scott Fitzgerald?"

Hiddleston however clarified that he only found out the truth after coming onto the set and asking Owen Wilson about the movie.




READ MORE:  http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/news/a382534/avengers-tom-hiddleston-midnight-in-paris-role-was-a-dream.html