News

Alvin Rakoff, the veteran Canadian filmmaker best known for pics like the 1982 feature A Voyage Round My Father starring Laurence Olivier, died in Chiswick, London, October 12 surrounded by his family. He was 97.

Rakoff’s former personal agent confirmed the news with Deadline this morning.

Born on on February 6, 1927, in Toronto Rakoff was the third of seven children. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a psychology degree, Rakoff spent time as a news reporter. His first job as a writer was with the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), which later sponsored Rakoff to visit the UK. Within days of arriving, he sold his first fiction script to the BBC. He was soon invited to join the BBC’s director’s training course and, the following year at the age of twenty-six, Rakoff became the youngest producer/director in the BBC drama department.

As Rakoff once recalled: “I trained at the BBC as a director-producer.

Following its global theatrical run and seven combined Academy and BAFTA Award nominations, Ridley Scott’s historical epic “Napoleon” makes its streaming debut on Apple TV+. Starring Joaquin Phoenix as the eponymous French emperor and military leader, the action-filled drama looks at Bonaparte’s life from his origins to his ruthless climb to emperor, through the lens of his volatile relationship with his wife Josephine (Vanessa Kirby). “Napoleon” will become available to stream globally on Apple TV+ beginning Friday, March 1. You can watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Apple TV+.

How to Watch 'Napoleon' Starring Joaquin Phoenix When: Friday, March 1, 2024 Where: Apple TV+ Stream: Watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Apple TV+. 7-Day Free Trial$9.99+ / month apple.com About 'Napoleon' Starring Joaquin Phoenix

Directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by David Scarpa, the 2023 historical epic action-drama “Napoleon” stars Joaquin Phoenix as the title Napoleon Bonaparte,...

Exclusive: Susan Wokoma (Enola Holmes 2), Harriet Walter (Succession), Omari Douglas (It’s A Sin), Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey), Sinead Cusack (MotherFatherSon) and Peter Egan (Downton Abbey) have joined Aisling Bea, Colin Hanks and Billie Lourd in dramedy And Mrs.

And Mrs, which began filming in London earlier this fall, follows Gemma (Bea), a woman whose American fiancé Nathan (Hanks) dies shortly before their wedding day. When, with some encouragement from her sister-in-law, she decides to go ahead and marry him anyway, she has to overcome public opinion, the law of the land and even her own family’s objections. Pic is being directed by first time feature director, Daniel Reisinger, and written by Australian playwright and screenwriter, Melissa Bubnic.

Doctor Who actor Arthur Darvill, Game Of Thrones‘ Paul Kaye, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency starrer Samuel Barnett, and comedian Nish Kumar round out the cast in cameo roles.

Wokoma leads...

Network: HBO

Episodes: Eight (half-hour)

Seasons: One

TV show dates: April 24, 2022 -- June 12, 2022

Series status: Ended

Performers include: Michelle De Swarte, Amira Ghazalla, Amber Grappy, Patrice Naiambana, Sinéad Cusack, Shvorne Marks, Isy Suttie, Tanya Reynolds, Seyan Sarvan, Karl Davies, and Divian Ladwa.

TV show description:

A British horror-comedy series, The Baby TV show was created by Siân Robins-Grace and Lucy Gaymer. It presents a darkly funny, raw examination of motherhood, from the perspective of a woman who doesn't want to be one.

The story follows 38-year-old Natasha (De Swarte), a woman who is furious that her closest friends are all having babies. When she unexpectedly ends up with a baby of her own, her life dramatically implodes.

Read More…...

Exclusive: In an eye-catching acquisition, 42 has bought respected UK talent and literary agency Dalzell and Beresford, we can reveal.

Veteran British agent Simon Beresford has joined the LA and London-based management and production company as a Partner and Manager and his roster is moving over with him.

Clients include Ralph Fiennes, Matthew Goode, Sir Simon Russell Beale, Ciarán Hinds, Indira Varma, Lindsay Duncan, Giles Terera, Ken Stott, Patrick Marber, Leslie Caron, Jamie Campbell Bower, Nathaniel Parker, Simon Callow, Jim Norton, Matthew McNulty, Julian Clary, Dame Siân Phillips, Fra Fee, Nigel Havers, Sinéad Cusack and Andrei Konchalovsky.

Beresford’s team will also be joining him at 42, including Vicki Oliver as a Manager and Kitty Johnson. Kara Fitzpatrick, who runs Dalzell and Beresford’s literary department, brings with her clients including Roy Williams, Tanika Gupta, Dawn Sievewright, Paddy Campbell and John Donnelly.

Dalzell and Beresford was set up in 1966 by the legendary UK rep Larry Dalzell.

Vulture Watch

Could this child become a toddler? Has The Baby TV show been cancelled or renewed for a second season on HBO? The television vulture is watching all the latest cancellation and renewal news, so this page is the place to track the status of The Baby, season two. Bookmark it, or subscribe for the latest updates. Remember, the television vulture is watching your shows. Are you?  

What's This TV Show About?

Airing on the HBO cable channel, The Baby TV show stars Michelle De Swarte, Amira Ghazalla, Amber Grappy, Patrice Naiambana, Sinéad Cusack, Shvorne Marks, Isy Suttie, Tanya Reynolds, Seyan Sarvan, Karl Davies, and Divian Ladwa. The story follows 38-year-old Natasha (De Swarte), a woman who is furious that her closest friends are all having babies. When she unexpectedly ends up with a baby of her own, her life dramatically implodes. Controlling,...

It appears that The Baby is a true limited series with a set ending. However, several one-season shows have ended up being renewed in the past because they were popular enough with viewers. Could there be a second season of The Baby on HBO? Stay tuned.

A British horror-comedy series, The Baby TV show stars Michelle De Swarte, Amira Ghazalla, Amber Grappy, Patrice Naiambana, Sinéad Cusack, Shvorne Marks, Isy Suttie, Tanya Reynolds, Seyan Sarvan, Karl Davies, and Divian Ladwa. The story follows 38-year-old Natasha (De Swarte), a woman who is furious that her closest friends are all having babies. When she unexpectedly ends up with a baby of her own, her life dramatically implodes. Controlling, manipulative, but incredibly cute, the baby twists Natasha's life into a surreal horror show. As she discovers the true extent of the baby's deadly nature, Natasha makes increasingly...

Is there more to this infant than meets the eye in the first season of The Baby TV show on HBO? As we all know, the Nielsen ratings typically play a big role in determining whether a TV show like The Baby is cancelled or renewed for season two (this show appears to be a close-ended series but that could change). Unfortunately, most of us do not live in Nielsen households. Because many viewers feel frustrated when their viewing habits and opinions aren't considered, we invite you to rate all of the first season episodes of The Baby here.

An HBO British horror-comedy series, The Baby TV show stars Michelle De Swarte, Amira Ghazalla, Amber Grappy, Patrice Naiambana, Sinéad Cusack, Shvorne Marks, Isy Suttie, Tanya Reynolds, Seyan Sarvan, Karl Davies, and Divian Ladwa. The story follows 38-year-old Natasha (De Swarte), a woman...

Motherhood — specifically early motherhood — is hell. It’s a concept that’s been depicted plenty of times in film and television over the decades, yet it still manages to be a topic rife with material for more. HBO’s new horror-comedy “The Baby” is the latest offering into that particular canon. As one character in “The Baby” explains, when it comes to raising a baby, “Well, no one really gets it, do they? Not unless they’re in it. In the house all day, no one to talk to. Scream, nap, eat, shit, repeat. It’s a lot.” This is after another character asks the lead whether she’s started hallucinating yet. No, not any of the expected supernatural hallucinations, but the typical motherhood hallucinations of killing your child for a little peace for once.

Naturally, as a horror-comedy, “The Baby” takes the motherhood-as-hell concept and stretches it out to...

"This isn't my baby, Ruth..." "Well... it is." Uh oh. HBO debuted the full-length official trailer for "this year's most terrifying new comedy - a horror thriller series from HBO titled The Baby, created by Lucy Gaymer & Sian Robins-Grace. This looks so twisted and freaky - I really like this kind of flip-it-upside-down concept. So many movies about how cute babies are and how it is not easy but ultimately rewarding to raise them - but this is like, what if a baby was evil?! Ha. When 38-year-old Natasha is unexpectedly landed with a baby, her life of doing what she wants, when she wants, dramatically implodes... "Where does it come from? What does it want? And what lengths will Natasha have to go to in order to get her life back? She doesn't want a baby. The baby wants her." It stars Michelle De Swarte as Natasha, Amira Ghazalla,...

A mother falls from a cliff, tumbling to her death, but her baby lands in the arms of a childless Natasha (Michelle de Swarte), who never wanted kids.

HBO horror-comedy “The Baby” keeps it simple: Motherhood is a mess, especially if you add in murder. The HBO Original eight-episode limited series premieres Sunday, April 24, with episodes being available to stream on HBO Max. “The Baby” is created by Siân Robins-Grace and Lucy Gaymer and produced by Sister and Proverbial Pictures. Check out the trailer below.

Per an official synopsis, Natasha (De Swarte) grapples with her newfound, and wholly unexpected, parenthood, as the baby manipulates, controls, and yes, even kills those around her. As Natasha discovers the true extent of the baby’s deadly nature, she makes increasingly desperate attempts to get rid of it. She doesn’t want a baby. But the baby definitely wants her.

Amira Ghazalla also stars as Mrs.

Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none

“Just The Driver”

By Raymond Benson

Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg has always managed to push the envelope with nearly every one of his striking pieces of work since he appeared on the scene in the mid-1970s. Known at first as primarily a director of unique “body-horror” films (The Brood, 1979, or The Fly; 1986), Cronenberg spread his wings in the 1990s and moved away from the genre to tackle more dramatic and varied subjects. His 2007 crime picture about the Russian mafia operating in London, Eastern Promises, stands as a milestone title in the director’s filmography.

Kino Lorber Classics has released a superb 2-disk (4K Ultra and Blu-ray) package of the film, and the results are impressive. The picture quality is so sharp and clear that it could be used as a demonstration product for high definition televisions.

Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts) is a...

Fundraiser

Actors Jeremy Irons (“House of Gucci”), Sinéad Cusack (“Wrath of the Titans”) and Greta Bellamacina (“This Sceptred Isle”) are set to take part in a charity fundraising event for Ukrainian refugees on Wednesday evening in London.

The trio are set to give readings at the event, which will also include talks by journalist Misha Glenny and historian Sir Simon Schama about Putin’s Russia.

The Kiva Cello Quartet will also play.

Funds will go to the Wonder Foundation, its Polish partners, Panorama and Pontes, and Moldovan food business incubator Katalyst, all of whom are providing services from housing and employment to food and assimilation to hundreds of Ukrainian families fleeing the war.

“An Evening for Ukraine’s Refugees” takes place in Central London on Wednesday March 30. Tickets can be purchased here.

Detention

Viktor Marunyak, the elderly subject of Roman Bondarchuk’s IDFA winner and Ukraine’s 2016 Oscar entry “Ukrainian Sheriffs,...

The Baby: "The HBO original eight-episode limited series The Baby, from creators Siân Robins-Grace and Lucy Gaymer, debuts on Sunday, April 24 (10:30-11:00 p.m. Et/Pt) on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max. A horror comedy co-production with Sky, and produced by Sister and Proverbial Pictures, The Baby presents a darkly funny, raw examination of motherhood, from the perspective of a woman who doesn’t want to be one.

Michelle De Swarte (“The Duchess”) stars as 38-year-old Natasha, who is furious that her closest friends are all having babies. But when she is unexpectedly landed with a baby of her own, her life dramatically implodes. Controlling, manipulative, but incredibly cute, the baby twists Natasha’s life into a surreal horror show. As she discovers the true extent of the baby’s deadly nature, Natasha makes increasingly desperate attempts to get rid of it.

The Baby is coming to HBO in April. Starring Michelle de Swarte, Amira Ghazalla, and Amber Grappy, the horror-comedy series follows a woman who has her life turned into a surreal horror show when a baby arrives in her life. The cast also includes Patrice Naiambana, Sinéad Cusack, Shvorne Marks, Isy Suttie, Tanya Reynolds, Seyan Sarvan, Karl Davies, and Divian Ladwa. Eight episodes have been ordered.

Read More…...

Fox Entertainment’s MarVista Entertainment is entering into a development and production deal with TelevisaUnivision to produce 10 original Spanish-language films for ViX Plus, both sides announced Monday. ViX Plus is TelevisaUnivision’s Spanish-language subscription-based video on-demand offering; MarVista will produce 10 films across the genres of family, comedy, romance and holiday that will be available to stream exclusively on the service. TelevisaUnivision will hold the worldwide streaming distribution rights for all ten films, while MarVista is set to oversee the global distribution outside of streaming.

“It is an incredible honor to be a founding creative production partner of TelevisaUnivision on the launch of ViX Plus,” said Fernando Szew, CEO of MarVista Entertainment. “MarVista and Fox Entertainment take great pride in being leaders in delivering diverse stories and premium content across multiple genres for all viewers. We’re looking forward to introducing these initial ten films to what undoubtedly will be a...

"I know I'm not your mum, and you know I'm not your mum." Whoa this looks crazy fresh! HBO revealed a teaser trailer for a new dark comedy horror thriller series titled The Baby, created by Lucy Gaymer & Sian Robins-Grace. It is indeed a new series about a woman and a baby, but uh, it's definitely not what you're expecting. At all. When 38-year-old Natasha is unexpectedly landed with a baby, her life of doing what she wants, when she wants, dramatically implodes... "Where does it come from? What does it want? And what lengths will Natasha have to go to in order to get her life back? She doesn't want a baby. The baby wants her." It stars Michelle De Swarte as Natasha, Amira Ghazalla, Amber Grappy, Patrice Naiambana, Sinéad Cusack, Shvorne Marks, Isy Suttie, Tanya Reynolds, Seyan Sarvan, Divian Ladwa, plus Karl Davies. This almost seems like it's...

HBO has set an April premiere date for horror comedy series The Baby, a co-production with Sky. The eight-episode series will debut Sunday, April 24 at 10:30 Pm on HBO and will stream on HBO Max.

We’re also getting a first look at the series in a teaser trailer (which appropriately begins with a crying baby).

The Baby, from debut screenwriter Siân Robins-Grace, Lucy Gaymer and Cherynobyl producer Sister, is a darkly funny, raw examination of motherhood, from the perspective of a woman who doesn’t want to be one.

It stars Michelle De Swarte as 38-year-old Natasha, who is furious that her closest friends are all having babies. But when she is unexpectedly landed with a baby of her own, her life dramatically implodes. Controlling, manipulative, but incredibly cute, the baby twists Natasha’s life into a surreal horror show. As she discovers the true extent of the baby’s deadly nature,...

Casting

English-language thriller series “North Sea Connection,” the next Viaplay Original produced by Nordic Entertainment Group (Nent), is currently filming in Ireland and has confirmed that Sinéad Cusack (“V for Vendetta”; pictured) will star alongside Lydia McGuinness (“Wild Mountain Thyme”), Kerr Logan (“Alias Grace”), Alida Morberg (“Black Lake”) and Claes Ljungmark (“Borg”).

The series follows Ciara (McGuinness), who is forced into an unenviable situation when her brother Aiden (Logan) becomes involved in illicit drug trafficking. With both the cartels and a Swedish law enforcement officer (Morberg) closing in, Ciara must come up with a plan to protect her family from a volatile and dangerous situation.

“North Sea Connection” will premiere on the Viaplay platform and on RTÉ in Ireland in 2022. It’s produced in association with Screen Ireland by Mopar Studios and Subotica, co-produced by Irish broadcaster RTÉ and distributed by A+E Networks International.

Education

The School of Film...

More than 400 leading creative figures including Stephen Fry, Grayson Perry, Rufus Wainwright and Simon Callow have warned that the U.K. risks becoming “a cultural wasteland” unless government provides urgent financial support for the creative industries.

In an open letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden, they called for urgent funding for those creative organizations and professionals hit hardest by the fallout of Covid-19.

Organized by the Creative Industries Federation (Cif), the letter’s other signatories include the heads of the Royal Albert Hall, Film Birmingham, Royal Opera House, Shakespeare’s Globe, Tate, Penguin Random House, Northern Ireland Screen and Lionsgate U.K.

The publication of the letter follows a Cif survey of creative organizations and freelancers that found that 50% have already lost 100% of their income, and that one in seven only have reserves to last until the end of April. Only half...

Alvin Rakoff’s black comedy was almost banned – not by overzealous censors but by its own star Peter Sellers who felt the role of a lonely businessman blackmailing a young woman was too close to his own personality. Sinéad Cusack plays the object of Sellers’ misguided affections. Adapted from a play with the squirm-inducing title Call Me Daddy, the beleaguered film was produced in 1970 but wasn’t screened in New York till 1982.

The post Hoffman appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

BBC Studios, the British public broadcaster’s commercial arm, has announced a raft of territory sales for Richard Gere starrer “MotherFatherSon,” a drama series written by Tom Rob Smith, Emmy-nominated for “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.” The show will screen Tuesday at Series Mania, France, in the International Panorama section.

Buyers for the eight-part thriller include HBO for Central and Eastern Europe, Tvnz in New Zealand, RTP2 in Portugal, Ruv in Iceland, Catchplay in Taiwan, Zee Café in India and Amedia in Russia. The show will be shown on BBC First in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa.

Gere stars in his first television role for 30 years alongside Helen McCrory and Billy Howle. The cast also includes Sarah Lancashire, Paul Ready, Danny Sapiani (“Black Panther”), Joseph Mawle (“Game of Thrones”) and Sinéad Cusack (“Call the Midwife”). The director is James Kent, who will attend the Series Mania screening.

“We are all capable of disloyalty,” Richard Gere warns in his first role for the small screen in decades, in BBC drama “MotherFatherSon.” Gere plays media overlord Max, who can be seen as a kingmaker and family man in the show’s first trailer.

Max is a newspaper and media baron who can influence elections and shape politics. He has succession plans in place, in the form of his son, Caden (Billy Howle), but events take an unexpected turn as a family crisis hits, with far-reaching implications.

“Are you here to pick a prime minister or deal with your son?” an adviser asks in another sequence. The trailer also shows a glimpse of Howle and Helen McCrory, who plays Max’s ex-wife.

It is a family drama but is set “in the context of really exploring our world in terms of politics and media and power in general,” Gere said...

Richard Gere is headed to Cannes to launch “MotherFatherSon,” his upcoming series for the BBC. Gere will be in town for Mipcom, the international TV business’ annual October get-together, where BBC Studios will be selling his new show.

There are no deals yet for the series outside the U.K., but with Gere in his first TV role for almost 30 years there is sure to be interest from U.S. and international buyers. The first footage will be available at the market.

Gere plays Max, a media baron who has to deal with a family crisis that has wide-reaching consequences. Billy Howle (“On Chesil Beach”) plays Caden, his son heir apparent, and Helen McCrory (“Peaky Blinders”) is Kathryn, his estranged wife.

The show is penned by Tom Rob Smith, writer of FX’s Emmy-winning “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.” Smith and Howle will also make the trip...

Richard Gere is set to hit the Croisette in Cannes to promote BBC drama MotherFatherSon at Mipcom.

The Pretty Woman star will be at the week-long international TV market alongside On Chesil Beach’s Billy Howle and showrunner Tom Rob Smith (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story) to promote the BBC Two drama, which is produced by BBC Studios.

The company’s international sales team will be giving global buyers an exclusive first-look at the project, which has been filming in London ahead of a 2019 TX.

Gere plays Max, the charismatic self-made American businessman with media outlets in London and around the world. Peaky Blinders’ Helen McCrory is Kathryn, a British heiress estranged from Max following the breakdown of their marriage some years before. Their 30 year-old son Caden (Howle), runs Max’s UK newspaper and is primed to follow in his father’s footsteps as one of the...

BBC Two has dropped the first images for MotherFatherSon, the upcoming eight-part series that marks Richard Gere’s first major TV drama role. Created by Tom Rob Smith (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story), MotherFatherSon also stars Peaky Blinders‘ Helen McCrory and On Chesil Beach‘s Billy Howle who are also in the new snaps (check them out below).

Gere plays Max, the charismatic self-made American businessman with media outlets in London and around the world. McCrory is Kathryn, a British heiress estranged from Max following the breakdown of their marriage some years before. Their 30 year-old son Caden (Howle), runs Max’s UK newspaper and is primed to follow in his father’s footsteps as one of the most powerful men in the world.

But when Caden’s self-destructive lifestyle spirals out of control, the devastating consequences threaten the future of the family, its empire and a country on the brink of change.

When she hits, it hurts! The film also hits all the right notes.

The male arrogance and total self-centeredness, the disease of success as it affects men who know it is undeserved but cannot admit the truth even to themselves. The lies and deceptions all to aggrandize their inner sense, no, their knowledge of their male inferiority; it is all here in this film.

The woman creates and men are only her babies. She raises them to be kings, and they forget that it is the women who are the king makers.

When Jonathan Pryce, perhaps a little too elegant to play a tough New York street savvy Jew, has the arrogance to ask his wife Why did you marry me, you know this man has never loved but only lived for himself.

Glenn Close is at the height of her acting. Superb as the Smith educated Waspy, self-contained and restrained wife.

Marcella is back on the case. Today, ITV announced they've ordered a second season of the crime TV series.The drama stars Anna Friel as Marcella Backland, a former London detective who returns to the field after her husband leaves. The cast also includes Nicholas Pinnock and Sinead Cusack. The series airs on Netflix in the U.S.Read More…...

Since you're not Oscar winner Jeremy Irons, you probably get mud mask treatments at a boring spa -- but he has a dude in a Speedo apply his ... while sitting in Italian volcanic ash. Baller!  Irons and his wife, Sinead Cusack, caught a boat ride to Ischia -- a volcanic island off Naples, known for its natural hot springs. While the couple soaked, Irons got the mud literally painted on his face. Totally affordable ... if...

Netflix has acquired exclusive worldwide streaming rights to crime series Marcella from Hans Rosenfeldt, creator of the original Swedish/Danish co-production The Bridge (Bron). The eight-part drama, sold by Cineflix Rights, premieres tonight on ITV in the UK and will be available globally, outside the UK and Ireland, on Netflix beginning July 1. Anna Friel (Limitless), Laura Carmichael (Downton Abbey), Nicholas Pinnock (Fortitude), Sinéad Cusack (Jekyll & Hyde) and Harry…...

Stars: Jim Sturgess, Kate Beckinsale, Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley, Brendan Gleeson, David Thewlis, Jason Flemyng, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Sinéad Cusack, Edmund Kingsley, Ciara Flynn, Christopher Fulford | Written by Joe Gangemi | Directed by Brad Anderson

If you were told about a film based on an Edgar Allen Poe short story with stars including Kate Beckinsale, Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley and Brendan Gleeson I’d be surprised if your interest wasn’t peeked. Stoneheart Asylum (aka Eliza Graves) is just that… based on The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether by Poe it tells the tale of an Asylum where not all is as it seems.

When Edward Newgate (Jim Sturgess) a medical school graduate arrives at Stonehearst Asylum he finds himself transfixed by Eliza Graves (Kate Beckinsale) a patient supposedly suffering from “Hysteria.” Working under Dr. Silas Lamb (Ben Kingsley) he finds himself impressed with the doctor’s unconventional methods of treatment.

Ron Moody in Mel Brooks' 'The Twelve Chairs.' The 'Doctor Who' that never was. Ron Moody: 'Doctor Who' was biggest professional regret (See previous post: "Ron Moody: From Charles Dickens to Walt Disney – But No Harry Potter.") Ron Moody was featured in about 50 television productions, both in the U.K. and the U.S., from the late 1950s to 2012. These included guest roles in the series The Avengers, Gunsmoke, Starsky and Hutch, Hart to Hart, and Murder She Wrote, in addition to leads in the short-lived U.S. sitcom Nobody's Perfect (1980), starring Moody as a Scotland Yard detective transferred to the San Francisco Police Department, and in the British fantasy Into the Labyrinth (1981), with Moody as the noble sorcerer Rothgo. Throughout the decades, he could also be spotted in several TV movies, among them:[1] David Copperfield (1969). As Uriah Heep in this disappointing all-star showcase distributed theatrically in some countries.

Tour of Duty: Boorman Returns to Autobiographical Elements

Now at 82 years of age, British auteur John Boorman returns with Queen and Country his first feature since 2006. It is a follow-up to one of the director’s most cherished titles, Hope and Glory (1987), which documents war-torn England through the eyes of a child as his family survives the blitz. Though it’s been nearly thirty years, Boorman sets this follow-up chapter only nine years in the future, leaving behind the horrors of WWII for the Cold War ethics of the Korean conflict. Much like he managed with the film’s predecessor, Boorman achieves success by making the film a personal, insular story about a small group of characters’ experiences. The powerful emotional possibilities of the child’s perspective is left behind, now a young man discovering who he wants to be and what values he wishes to cherish. This makes for a more reserved,...

Crazy in Love: Anderson’s Gothic Sprinkled Romance Deserves to be Tarred and Feathered

Fresh off the surprise box office success of 2013’s Halle Berry headlined The Call, director Brad Anderson returns to the creepy confines of the mental ward with Stonehearst Asylum, reminiscent of his well received 2001 film, Session 9. Assembling another terrific cast for this period piece, those familiar with a fine tradition of Gothic cinema will immediately begin to pick up on the threads of Edgar Allan Poe that inspired the macabre switcheroo generating the dramatic conflict. But even before we get to that point, Anderson’s latest arrives Doa, a cold, tepid turkey that isn’t ever sure of the mood it wishes to generate. Scenes fluctuate rapidly, and we’re left to decide whether this is supposed to be a prim and proper brooding romance of stiff corsets and constricted consecrations, a downright queasy...

Name and focus changes for every section, which are now all competitive, resulting in the festival’s structure being “slimmer’.

The ninth Rome Film Festival (Oct 16-25) has revealed a diverse line-up including the Italian premieres for potential awards contenders including David Fincher’s Gone Girl. the world premiere of Takashi Miike’s As the Gods Will and Burhan Qurbani’s We are Young, We are Strong and European premiere of Oren Moverman’s Time Out of Mind, Toronto hit Still Alice and Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet.

This year for the first time the award-winners in each section of the programme will be decided by the audience on the basis of votes cast after the screenings.

Each section has changed name and focus for 2014 and are all competitive, resulting in the festival’s structure being “slimmer’.

Italian comedies Soap Opera and Andiamo a Quel Paese bookend the line-up.

Full line-up

Cinema D’Oggi

World premiere

• Angely...

"All games must end." I suppose that's true. A trailer has debuted for an Edgar Allan Poe-inspired film called Stonehearst Asylum, originally known as Eliza Graves, referring to a character played by Kate Beckinsale. The film is being readied for release this October and to show you what it's all about they've debuted this trailer, which delves deep into a psychological mystery set at the creepy Stonehearst Asylum. The cast includes Michael Caine, Jim Sturgess, Ben Kingsley, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson, Jason Flemyng and Sinéad Cusack. Despite some solid names, this looks a bit too much like Shutter Island, even though I like the Poe connection. I can't really tell if it will be any good. Check it out yourself. Here's the first official trailer for Brad Anderson's Stonehearst Asylum, originally from Yahoo: Beckinsale, Sturgess, Gleeson, Kingsley and Caine all star in this thriller loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story,...

Just yesterday we learned that Brad Anderson's new project has been renamed Stonehearst Asylum, and now we already have a look at its updated artwork and trailer. Check it out, and look for more soon!

The film is loosely based on one of Edgar Allan Poe’s early works, an 1845 short story titled "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether." It's written by Joe Gangemi and directed by Brad Anderson (Session 9, The Call, "Almost Human").

Millennium Films is releasing Stonehearst Asylum in theaters and via VOD on October 24th.

The cast includes Kate Beckinsale, Jim Sturgess, Ben Kingsley, Michael Caine, Brendan Gleeson, David Thewlis, Jason Flemyng, and Sinéad Cusack. Producers are Bruce Davey, Mel Gibson, and Mark Amin with David Higgins, Christa Campbell, Cami Winikoff, Mark Gill, and Lati Grobman executive producing.

Synopsis:

A recent medical school grad who takes a position at a mental institution soon...

Time to play the name game, kids, though it will not be nearly as entertaining as it was during "American Horror Story: Asylum." Eliza Graves has gotten itself a new title, Stoneheart Asylum. Look for it via Millennium Films on October 24th.

The film is loosely based on one of Edgar Allan Poe’s early works, an 1845 short story titled "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether." It's written by Joe Gangemi and directed by Brad Anderson (Session 9, The Call, "Almost Human").

The cast includes Kate Beckinsale, Jim Sturgess, Ben Kingsley, Michael Caine, Brendan Gleeson, David Thewlis, Jason Flemyng, and Sinéad Cusack. Producers are Bruce Davey, Mel Gibson, and Mark Amin with David Higgins, Christa Campbell, Cami Winikoff, Mark Gill, and Lati Grobman executive producing.

Synopsis:

A recent medical school grad who takes a position at a mental institution soon finds himself taken with one of his colleagues...

Aliya looks back at the film Peter Sellers wanted destroyed and finds it very, very dark indeed...

Feature

Peter Sellers is one of those figures of British comedy whom everyone feels, in retrospect, was only laughing on the outside. If you want to know about his less than happy life then it's worth watching Geoffrey Rush give a brilliant performance in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004). Rush does a really good job of putting across his deep-seated sense of emptiness. Sellers once said of himself, “I could never be myself… You see, there is no me. I do not exist… There used to be a me, but I had it surgically removed.” This might sound like a deep statement of angst; it seems entirely fitting to me that he said it to Kermit during his 1978 appearance on The Muppet Show. Ten seconds later you can watch him recite...

★★★★☆The debut feature from Stephen Brown, The Sea (2013) is a compassionate rendering of John Banville's Man Booker Prize-winning novel. After losing his wife Anna (Sinéad Cusack) to cancer, Max Morden (Ciarán Hinds) returns to the Irish seaside town where he spent summers as a child. He stays at a boarding house owned by Miss Vavasour (Charlotte Rampling) and shares mealtimes with permanent resident Colonel Blunden (Karl Johnson). He's utterly overwhelmed by grief and shows no signs of healing. "Fleeing one sadness by revisiting the scene of an old one doesn't work," he tells his landlady. Max is an art historian and is supposed to be writing about French artist Pierre Bonnard.

To celebrate the DVD release of The Sea on 23rd June, we’re giving away a DVD of the film to three lucky winners.

Art historian Max Morden (Ciarán Hinds – Munich, Rome) returns to the sleepy seaside resort where he spent summers as a child after losing his wife (Sinéad Cusack – winner of Best Supporting Actress at IFTAs). Max lodges at a boarding house he once frequented, where frosty proprietor Miss Vavasour (Charlotte Rampling – The Verdict, The Duchess), and eccentric resident Blunden (Karl Johnson – The Illusionist, Rome), now reside. Before long – and despite protestations from his daughter Clare (Ruth Bradley – Grabbers, Primeval) – Max revisits the ghosts of his past.

Based on the Man Booker prize-winning novel by John Banville, The Sea is a haunting, uplifting, meditation on the human condition – at times elegiac, poetic, and nostalgic. A story of memory, love, loss, regret… and the persistent possibility of rebirth.

Please...

Ciarán Hands is a little too insistent in his grief in this glum bereavement drama

John Banville adapts his own 2005 Man Booker-winning novel as a glum bereavement drama of the rain-on-windowpanes variety. Ciarán Hinds plays a widowed art critic who returns to the scene of a sun-kissed but ultimately painful summer of his childhood a lost world inhabited by louche bohemian adults (Natascha McElhone, Rufus Sewell, both ripe as all hell) who seem to be trapped for eternity in a Jack Vettriano painting. Hinds plays the bibulous grief a little too insistently with jowls a-quiver, but Sinéad Cusack, pithy as the dead wife, and a silky Charlotte Rampling bring some tone. Otherwise, a lugubriously literary affair.

Continue reading...

Following on from John Jencks’ absorbing drama The Fold, comes another low-budget British production studying grief in a quite fascinating manner, as debutant Stephen Brown’s The Sea provides an insight into one man’s suffering with the loss of his wife, and how he revisits an old tragedy to help himself get over a new one. The death itself, however, is merely a catalyst for him to explore a range of other emotions, and to trigger a series of old memories.

The man in question is Max Morden (Ciarán Hinds), who decides to head back to the beachside resort where he spent his summers as a child, staying with Miss Vavasour (Charlotte Rampling), in the very same house he used to play in. His reason for returning is the death of his wife Anna (Sinéad Cusack), though while searching for serenity and peace of mind, his trip brings up a host of painful memories,...

★★★☆☆John Banville is one of Ireland's greatest literary sons of recent decades. In 2005, he won the Man Booker Prize for The Sea, a tale of a man in later life consumed by both a dark secret from his youth and the recent death of his wife. Banville now adapts his own work for the big screen, directed by Stephen Brown. A heady meditation on grief and nostalgia, Banville's poetic masterpiece is transformed into a middling drama with Ciarán Hinds in the lead as art historian Max Morden. After the death of his wife, Anna (Sinéad Cusack), Max is compelled to return to the coastal village of his childhood in order to lay to rest the ghosts of the past, visiting a boarding house governed by Miss Vavasour (Charlotte Rampling).

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Judi Dench win top prizes at the Irish Film & Television Awards, as Calvary and Philomena are handed best film trophies.Scroll down for full list of winners

John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary picked up a hat-trick of awards at the 11th Irish Film & Television Awards on Saturday night including Best Film, Best Script and Best Actor, for Brendan Gleeson’s performance as a good-natured priest who must battle dark forces. The actor beat competition including his son Domhnall Gleeson, nominated for his role in About Time.

The ceremony in Dublin also saw Stephen Frears’s Philomena walk away with three prizes including Best International Film, Best Costume for the work of Consolata Boyle, and Best International Actress, for Judi Dench’s performance as a woman searching for her long lost son. Philomena Lee, whose true life story inspired the film, was in attendance

Vampire horror Byzantium also scored a hat-trick, winning Best Director...

Dame Judi Dench and Michael Fassbender were among the major winners at the Irish Film and Television Awards.

The ceremony was held in Dublin on Saturday (April 5), with the likes of Steve Coogan, Will Forte, Jeremy Irons and Jamie Dornan in attendance.

Dench was honoured as International Actress of the Year for her portrayal of a mother searching for her lost son in Philomena, with 12 Years a Slave's Chiwetel Ejiofor taking the male version of the prize.

Fassbender was named Best Actor in a Supporting Role for playing a brutal plantation owner in 12 Years a Slave.

Saoirse Ronan walked away with the Best Actress in a Leading Role Award for Byzantium.

Brendan Gleeson's performance in Calvary earned him Best Actor in a Lead Role, with the movie also winning the top overall prize of the evening.

Major television winners included Dornan for The Fall and Michelle Fairley for Game of Thrones.

Midsomer Murders ITV

Despite the demise of Poirot and the unexpected cancellation of Whitechapel, ITV continues to dominate the market for British TV detective shows. Within this genre, there is arguably no show more popular than Midsomer Murders, and more blood has been spilled on the streets of Britain’s most dangerous rural community in the stories included in Acorn’s latest DVD release. Midsomer Murders Set 23 features three tales that are intriguing, unpredictable and just a little bit peculiar.

The trilogy of tales begins with The Dark Rider, a spooky adventure in which local residents are seemingly being tormented by the vengeful spirit of a headless horseman. The guest stars include William Gaunt who is perhaps best known for his role as Martin Clunes’ Dad in No Place Like Home. His onscreen wife is Doctor Who veteran Eleanor Bron while James Callis has his work cut out playing twins.

Andrew Hazelton, Barbara Connell, Anika Noni Rose, Biyi Bandele, David Doepel

Upstart Australian distributor Leap Frog Films has acquired its third film, a drama set during the Nigerian civil war that tore the country apart from 1967-1970.

Based on a 2006 novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Directed by Nigerian novelist and playwright Biyi Bandele, it stars Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) and Thandie Newton (The Pursuit of Happyness) as an upper class couple whose marriage is put to the test when war erupts. Anika Noni Rose plays the twin sister of Newton's character.

The producers are Andrea Calderwood (The Last King of Scotland) and Gail Egan (The Constant Gardener).

.We are thrilled to be able to bring this incredibly powerful and compelling story to Australia and New Zealand,. said David Doepel, Leap Frog Films MD, who plans to release...

Australia.s newest distributor, David Doepel.s Leap Frog Films, has taken on a new partner and has confirmed its second acquisition, The Sea, a drama starring Ciaran Hinds and Charlotte Rampling. Andrew Hazelton, a former Roadshow Films and Greater Union executive, has joined the company and will spearhead acquisitions. Based in Los Angeles, Hazelton most recently was VP Distribution & Marketing at Michael Favelle.s Odin.s Eye Entertainment. Hazelton met Doepel at this year.s Cannes Film Festival where Doepel bought his first film, Wrinkles, a Spanish animated film directed by Ignacio Ferreras. A surprisingly funny and touching film set in an aged care facility, it won the award for best animated feature at the Spanish Goya Awards in 2012. Doepel is a former ordained minster who spent 22 years in the Us, including 10 years making educational documentaries. He also served as the Western Australian Government.s Trade Commissioner based in L.

Take a daytime TV star, an ex-soap actor, 10 extras and some potted palms to a quarry in Hertfordshire and what do you get? An award-winning Iraq war blockbuster, of course. Here's how the producers of A Landscape Of Lies conned millions out of the taxman

Paul Knight is not the sort of person you'd take for a fall guy. A youthful-looking but physically imposing 45-year-old, Knight makes no secret of his colourful past. "Let's just say my path up until my 30th birthday went in a certain direction," he says. As a youth, his record ran to car theft, shoplifting and breaking and entering; in "the bigger leagues", he was arrested several times but always managed to avoid prison. "I was only convicted for certain things, so I'm not going to admit to what they didn't catch me for." He hints that his godfather was Charlie Kray, and that his...