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Naomie Harris, Gwendoline Christie and Harry Potter star Mark Williams (who played Arthur Weasley in the film franchise) have joined the ensemble cast of family adventure film Robin and the Hood alongside rising star Darcey Ewart (Prancer: A Christmas Tale, To Olivia).

The film, which completed principal photography over the summer, comes from director Phil Hawkins (Prancer: A Christmas Tale) and was written by Stuart Benson and Paul Davidson, with the script first optioned by Silver Reel in 2021. It’s set to debut as a Sky Original in the U.K. and Ireland on Sky Cinema, with Gfm Global Sales handling the film at the AFM following a deal inked prior to the market.

Robin and the Hood follows the tenacious 11-year-old Robin (Ewart) and her loyal band of friends, called “The Hoods,” for whom the patch of overgrown scrubland at the end of their cul-de-sac is a magical kingdom.

Exclusive: Bodyguard and Line of Duty star Keeley Hawes has been tapped as a co-lead opposite Krysten Ritter in Orphan Black: Echoes, the upcoming offshoot series set in the world of Orphan Black, which is slated for a 2023 debut on AMC Networks’ digital platform AMC+ and linear nets.

The 10-episode Orphan Black: Echoes, produced and distributed globally by Boat Rocker, takes place in the near future and explores the scientific manipulation of human existence. It follows a group of women — two of them played by Hawes and Ritter — as they weave their way into each other’s lives and embark on a thrilling journey, unravelling the mystery of their identity and uncovering a wrenching story of love and betrayal.

Hawes will portray a perceptive but sensitive scientist who finds herself at odds with her own moral code when circumstances lead her to make an unthinkable choice. In addition to Ritter,...

Exclusive: Dave Logan, creator of Acorn TV’s Harry Wild and writer on Roald Dahl film To Olivia, is developing a crime drama TV series set in Malta with his Harry Wild co-writer Jo Spain.

Details of the show are scarce but it is being produced by Harry Wild indie Dynamic TV with Dynamic Managing Partner Klaus Zimmerman. No network is attached.

Logan, Spain and Dynamic combined for Dublin-set Harry Wild, which drops today on AMC’s Acorn TV in the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It stars Jane Seymour as the titular character Harriet, a Literature Professor who finds herself at a crossroads.

“I’ve been doing this job for 25 years and Harry Wild is, without doubt, the one project where the final result matches my original vision closer than anything else,” he said.

Logan was also writer on To Olivia, the Keeley Hawes and Hugh Bonneville...

Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell will be honored at the 24th annual Scad Savannah Film Festival with the Variety Creative Impact in Costume Design Award.

Powell, who has created the looks of queens in “The Favourite” and “Shakespeare in Love”; mobsters in “The Irishman” and “Gangs of New York”; lush period pieces such as “Carol” for more than three decades will be appearing in conversation on Oct. 29 with Variety senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay for a career retrospective talk. She will also be discussing her latest work on “Mothering Sunday,” which will screen at the festival.

The 2021 edition of the Georgia film festival will be a hybrid of in-person and virtual screenings from Oct. 23-30.

Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” kicks off the event, which will culminate with the closing-night gala screening of “King Richard” with Aunjanue Ellis present. The centerpiece gala “C’mon C’mon” will screen on Oct. 27 with director and writer Mike Mills in attendance.

To mark the release of To Olivia on 24th May, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on Blu-ray.

It’s 1962 and Roald Dahl (Hugh Bonneville), an eccentric, burgeoning children’s author and his wife, Patricia Neal, a glamourous Hollywood movie star, have retreated to the English countryside to bring up their expanding young family. Tragically, their lives are turned upside down by the devastating death of their daughter Olivia and as the couple struggle through the unimaginable loss, their shared grief becomes a source of redemption and strength which changes their lives forever.

Inspiring and heart-warming, To Olivia features an all British cast including Sam Heughan (Outlander), Geoffrey Palmer (Paddington) and Conleth Hill (Game of Thrones), was directed by John Hay and co-written by John Hay and David Logan.

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Sam Heughan, best known for his work in Outlander, and widely tipped to be the next 007 – is showing off his special agent skillset in Sas: Red Notice, a thrilling action flick about a terrorist attack in the Channel Tunnel. To mark the film’s release, out on Sky Cinema this weekend, we had the pleasure of speaking to the man himself, as he runs us through his rigorous training regime, alongside author Andy McNab to help prepare him for this challenging role. We also discuss his recent performance in To Olivia, and what it was like embodying Hollywood icon Paul Newman.

Watch the full interview with Sam Heughan here:

Synopsis

Tom Buckingham, a special forces operator, is taking Dr. Sophie Hart from London to Paris to propose. When their train is deep inside the Channel Tunnel, Grace Lewis and her team of heavily armed war criminals seize the train...

Here’s the latest episode of the The Filmmakers Podcast, part of the ever-growing podcast roster here on Nerdly. If you haven’t heard the show yet, you can check out previous episodes on the official podcast site, whilst we’ll be featuring each and every new episode as it premieres.

For those unfamiliar with the series, The Filmmakers Podcast is a podcast about how to make films from micro budget indie films to bigger budget studio films and everything in-between. Our hosts Giles Alderson, Dan Richardson, Andrew Rodger and Cristian James talk how to get films made, how to actually make them and how to try not to f… it up in their very humble opinion. Guests will come on and chat about their film making experiences from directors, writers, producers, screenwriters, actors, cinematographers and distributors.

The Filmmakers Podcast #207: How to make a Sky Original Feature with ‘To Olivia...

For all of the whimsicality and enchantment of his brilliant children’s novels, Roald Dahl’s real life was sadly anything but. The writer lost a daughter at a very young age, and it’s this particular set of events that are focused on, in To Olivia, exploring the effect of this tragic death on Dahl’s marriage with American actress Patricia Neal.

To mark the film’s release, we had the pleasure of speaking to Hugh Bonneville, who plays Dahl, as we discuss the challenges of playing a role of this nature, and just how much he could give of himself, emotionally, to somebody going through the most unthinkable thing. He also talks about Keeley Hawes as a collaborator, and finally we of course ask him for an update on Paddington 3. And needless to say, his response made us really rather excited.

Watch the full interview with Hugh...

Though famed for creating comedic and peculiar worlds for children across

the world, the darker shades of Roald Dahl’s life often seeped into his

pages. As detailed in his autobiographical works Boy and Going Solo, his

time as a fighter-pilot, coupled with a burgeoning alcohol problem, ensured

he ran against the clean-cut image often associated with childrens’

authors.

In-keeping with this, To Olivia picks a particularly formative, devastating

time in Dahl’s familial life, and cleverly observes the clash between

Dahl’s real and fictional worlds.

Set before the world-wide acclaim which would greet Dahl (Hugh Bonneville)

in the wake of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, The Bfg and Matilda, the

family is nevertheless illuminated by the stardom of Dahl’s wife, Hollywood actor

Patricia Neal (Keeley Hawes). But soon after the film begins, their quaint

and quiet life in the Buckinghamshire countryside is punctured

devastatingly by the sudden...

“Downton Abbey” star Hugh Bonneville has teased a sequel to the hit 2019 film adaptation.

Speaking on BBC Radio 2’s “The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show” on Friday, Bonneville said: “Here’s the deal, if everybody who is offered a vaccine takes a vaccine, we can make a movie, we will make a movie.”

The actor, who is volunteering as a marshal at his local vaccination center and has had his first jab, said that he has seen a script for a sequel.

“It’s the usual thing. The planets are circling. They are beginning to get into alignment,” Bonneville said. “There is a thing called coronavirus knocking around and until that is under control in a sensible way, we are not going to be able to get all those ducks in a row. Mixing my metaphors here.

“But there is certainly the intention to do it. We would love to do it,...

UK broadcaster Sky has landed rights to a host of upcoming features, packing its film slate for 2021 with titles including the Allison Janney-starring Breaking News in Yuba County and the Irvine Welsh-penned Creation Stories.

The company says it will release two ‘original’ films every month this year and one per week from next year. The full list of 14 newly-announced originals is below, they join previously announced pics on the slate such as Twist with Michael Caine, the animation Dragon Rider voiced Felicity Jones and Patrick Stewart, and To Olivia starring Hugh Bonneville and Keeley Hawes.

In the past, Sky has released its original titles day-and-date with UK cinemas. Once venues are able to re-open post-lockdown this could once again come into play.

Asked if Sky is being opportunistic about its film slate in light of cinema closures and delayed movie releases, Zai Bennett, Sky’s managing director of...

Sky plans to broadcast one new film a week from 2022.

UK pay-tv broadcaster Sky is to launch 30 new Sky Original films this year and will increase this to one a week from 2022 in a bid to become “the best home cinema service in the world”.

It represents a major push into film for the UK pay-tv operator, taking on streaming giants Netflix and Amazon as well as Disney, whose channels were removed from Sky last October following the launch of Disney+.

The plan to launch one original film per week from next year echoes a similar commitment made by Netflix earlier this month.

Amazon Studios have debuted a new trailer for Regina King’s critically acclaimed ‘One Night in Miami’.

Based on Kemp Power’s award-winning play, the film centres on one incredible night in 1964, four icons of sports, music, and activism gathered to celebrate one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. When underdog Cassius Clay, soon to be called Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), defeats heavyweight champion Sonny Liston at the Miami Convention Hall, Clay memorialized the event with three of his friends: Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge).

Directed by Regina King, the film stars Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr., Joaquina Kalukango, Nicolette Robinson with Beau Bridges and Lance Reddick.

Also in trailers – Hugh Bonneville and Keeley Hawes star in trailer for ‘To Olivia’

The film is released on Prime Video 15 January 2021.

The post Four legends come together for...

"I rather think she would've liked it as well." Sky Cinema in the UK has debuted the first look teaser trailer for a film titled To Olivia, described as "the true story of renowned writer Roald Dahl and actress Patrica Neal." Set in the 1960s, the film follows Dahl & Neal around their secluded home in the English countryside where they have moved to raise their expanding young family in peace. But an "unimaginable loss" in their family changes them forever as they try to figure out how to live on together. Hugh Bonneville stars as the legendary author Roald Dahl, and co-stars with Keeley Hawes as Patricia. The cast includes Darcey Ewart and Isabella Jonsson as his daughters, as long with Sam Heughan, Conleth Hill, and Michael Jibson. This looks like a lovely and emotional story of Roald Dahl, looking forward to seeing more footage. Here's the first official UK...

Sky has dropped the first trailer for the original film based on the true story of Roald Dahl, ‘To Olivia’ featuring Hugh Bonneville and Keeley Hawes.

It’s 1962 and Roald Dahl, an eccentric, burgeoning children’s author and his wife, Patricia Neal, a glamourous Hollywood movie star, have retreated to the English countryside to bring up their expanding young family. Tragically, their lives are turned upside down by the devastating death of their daughter Olivia and as the couple struggle through the unimaginable loss, their shared grief becomes a source of redemption and strength which changes their lives forever.

Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) plays novelist Roald Dahl and Keeley Hawes features as his American actress wife Patricia Neal.

Directed by John Hay, Sam Heughan (Outlander), Geoffrey Palmer (Paddington) and Conleth Hill (Game of Thrones) also star.

Also in trailers – Thomas Brodie-Sangster is a dragon in trailer for ‘Dragon Rider’

The...

British actor Geoffrey Palmer, known for the long-running series “As Time Goes By,” “Butterflies” and “The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin,” has died peacefully at home, his agent told the BBC. He was 93.

In “As Time Goes By,” Palmer co-starred with Judi Dench. The two reunited in the 1997 James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies.” Other notable films he was in include “The Madness of King George,” “A Fish Called Wanda,” “Mrs. Brown,” and “Paddington.” His last appearance is in “An Unquiet Life,” a film currently in post-production.

Palmer appeared in several iconic TV series, such as “Doctor Who,” “The Saint,” “Fawlty Towers” and “The Avengers.”

Tributes have been pouring in after Palmer’s death.

“Baby Driver” director Edgar Wright tweeted a reference to Palmer’s role in “Reginald Perrin”: “The flight path gag wiping out the lines of Reggie Perrin’s brother-in-law is one of my favourite running gags in comedy.

Exclusive: Sam Heughan (Outlander) and Priyanka Chopra Jonas (Quantico) are set to star in the Screen Gems romantic drama, tentatively titled Text For You, with music icon and five-time Grammy Award winner Celine Dion also joining the cast. Grace Is Gone helmer Jim Strouse is directing the pic from a screenplay he wrote with Lauryn Kahn undertaking the most recent re-write.

The film is inspired by the 2016 German-language box office hit SMS Fur Dich, which is based on Sofie Cramer’s popular novel. It’s about a woman who, to ease the pain after tragically losing her fiancé, starts to send romantic texts to his old cell. It turns out, the phone number has been reassigned to a man across town suffering from similar heartbreak. The two meet and feel an undeniable connection, but can’t seem to leave the past behind. In this English language remake, the music and...

Exclusive: Outlander star Sam Heughan is to play Paul Newman in the untitled biopic of Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl.

Production wraps this week on the movie, which stars Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard) as American actress Neal and Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) as her husband, the British children’s author Dahl.

Heughan has joined as screen icon Newman who co-starred with Neal in 1963 classic Hud, for which she won an Oscar and he was Oscar-nominated.

Formerly known as An Unquiet Life, the film charts the early 1960s period when Charlie And The Chocolate Factory author Dahl and Breakfast At Tiffany’s star Neal retreated to the English countryside to bring up their young family. The somewhat unlikely pair – an in-demand Hollywood actress and a burgeoning children’s author – find their relationship put to the test, and ultimately strengthened, by tragic events.

The Align and Goldcrest Features movie is being directed by...

Keeley Hawes will star opposite Hugh Bonneville in a film about the Oscar-winner Patricia Neal and her husband, author Roald Dahl. Formerly known as “An Unquiet Life,” and based on Stephen Michael Shearer’s book of the same name, the family drama starts filming this week in Surrey, southern England.

John Hay directs. He co-wrote the script with David Logan. The movie has already scored a raft of presales.

Film and TV star Hawes returns to the big screen after the success of BBC/Netflix breakout hit “Bodyguard” and ITV/PBS drama “The Durrells.” She also set up her own banner this year, Buddy Club Productions, and has teed up several projects.

Neal, who died in 2010, starred in Hollywood classics such as “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” before winning an Oscar for 1963’s “Hud.” She was nominated again in the best actress category five...