James Laurenson, the British actor whose 50-year career included roles in Coronation Street, Midsomer Murders and The Crown, had died. He was 84.
His death was reported by multiple UK news outlets today. A cause of death and other specifics have not been reported.
First appearing in 1968 as the Reverend Peter Hope in the long-running soap Coronation Street, Laurenson most recently appeared in the film Matilda The Musical (2022), and TV series The Terror (2018) and The Crown (2016). On the latter, he reccured as Doctor Sir John Weir, Physician Royal to King Edward V and others in the monarchy.
Ian McKellen and James Laurenson in ‘Edward II’
Laurenson also was known for his groundbreaking performance in a stage production and 1970 television broadcast of Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II in which he and Ian McKellen shared a kiss, considered the first same-sex kiss for British television and arriving three years after homosexuality was decriminalized.
His death was reported by multiple UK news outlets today. A cause of death and other specifics have not been reported.
First appearing in 1968 as the Reverend Peter Hope in the long-running soap Coronation Street, Laurenson most recently appeared in the film Matilda The Musical (2022), and TV series The Terror (2018) and The Crown (2016). On the latter, he reccured as Doctor Sir John Weir, Physician Royal to King Edward V and others in the monarchy.
Ian McKellen and James Laurenson in ‘Edward II’
Laurenson also was known for his groundbreaking performance in a stage production and 1970 television broadcast of Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II in which he and Ian McKellen shared a kiss, considered the first same-sex kiss for British television and arriving three years after homosexuality was decriminalized.
- 5/10/2024
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Comedian and writer Julian Clary (Julian Clary: Live – Lord of the Mince) will play the title role in this festive season’s London Palladium pantomime Robin Hood, with singer and travel show presenter Jane McDonald (Cruising with Jane McDonald) topping the bill as Maid Marion.
The annual Palladium show, now in its ninth consecutive season, has become an eagerly awaited staple in the West End’s calendar. It runs from December 7 through January 12, 2025. Priority booking opens 10 Am (GMT) April 25.
Last year’s production, Peter Pan, with comedy legend Jennifer Saunders making her pantomime debut as Captain Hook, and with Clary playing Seaman Smee, was a sold-out success, playing 56 performances -often two a day – to an audience of more than 123,000 at the 2,200 capacity variety house.
When tickets went on sale, there was a moment when 90,000 people were in the queue, waiting their turn to book seats.
The annual Palladium show, now in its ninth consecutive season, has become an eagerly awaited staple in the West End’s calendar. It runs from December 7 through January 12, 2025. Priority booking opens 10 Am (GMT) April 25.
Last year’s production, Peter Pan, with comedy legend Jennifer Saunders making her pantomime debut as Captain Hook, and with Clary playing Seaman Smee, was a sold-out success, playing 56 performances -often two a day – to an audience of more than 123,000 at the 2,200 capacity variety house.
When tickets went on sale, there was a moment when 90,000 people were in the queue, waiting their turn to book seats.
- 4/21/2024
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
Daniel Mays remembers Michael Douglas and Timothy Van Patten, the respectively star and director of new Apple TV drama Franklin, bursting into song whenever he appeared on set.
It came about because during the Franklin shoot in Paris, director Nicholas Hytner asked Mays to star at London’s Bridge Theatre as good old reliable Nathan Detroit in an immersive production of the classic Broadway fable Guys & Dolls by Frank Loesser, Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling.
Upon hearing this news, Douglas insisted, ”You’re doing it, Danny — no question about it.”
The adaption of Damon Runyon’s tales was Van Patten’s father’s favorite musical, “so then within the hour, more like a whole bloody second, every time I came on set, they kept playing ‘The Oldest Established [Permanent Floating Crap Game in New York], and Michael and Noah Jupe would join in.”
Even the French crew got in the swing of it.
In French or English?...
It came about because during the Franklin shoot in Paris, director Nicholas Hytner asked Mays to star at London’s Bridge Theatre as good old reliable Nathan Detroit in an immersive production of the classic Broadway fable Guys & Dolls by Frank Loesser, Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling.
Upon hearing this news, Douglas insisted, ”You’re doing it, Danny — no question about it.”
The adaption of Damon Runyon’s tales was Van Patten’s father’s favorite musical, “so then within the hour, more like a whole bloody second, every time I came on set, they kept playing ‘The Oldest Established [Permanent Floating Crap Game in New York], and Michael and Noah Jupe would join in.”
Even the French crew got in the swing of it.
In French or English?...
- 4/12/2024
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
Before we can even get on the record, before that most familiar robot warning of “This meeting is being recorded,” Frederick Elmes is swapping stories about Albert Brooks. After greeting me by name, he mentions a news piece I had written––a blurb about the recent Brooks documentary Defending My Life. He worked with Brooks some, he says, as a camera operator, goes on to speak generously and thoughtfully about the atmosphere the director cultivated and maintained on set, what that meant in turn to his work as a cinematographer, to the cast and crew more generally. I am sitting and grinning like an idiot, not unlike an ancillary Brooks character––maybe Bruno Kirby in Modern Romance. It strikes me that this moment represents Elmes’ approach to tending the moving image: careful research, a focus on listening, the sharing of ideas stemming from observation, and an immediate instinct for collaborative thinking.
- 4/11/2024
- by Frank Falisi
- The Film Stage
Playwright Alan Bennett has written original screenplay The Choral, which will begin filming this summer.
There’s a reason a remake of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads monologues (pictured above) was one of the first things put into production when the pandemic started in 2020. Not only were they easy to film with a single cast member, but the texts are also regarded as modern classics of drama, each story a masterpiece in construction and storytelling. You only have to watch the original versions to see the astonishing power of David Haig in Playing Sandwiches or Dame Thora Hird in A Cream Cracker Under The Settee.
The Choral, meanwhile, is Alan Bennett’s first original script written for the screen in forty years, after 1984 comedy A Private Function. The synopsis reads as follows:
Set in Ramsden, Yorkshire in 1916, the plot centers on the chorus master and most of the men of the ambitious local Choral Society,...
There’s a reason a remake of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads monologues (pictured above) was one of the first things put into production when the pandemic started in 2020. Not only were they easy to film with a single cast member, but the texts are also regarded as modern classics of drama, each story a masterpiece in construction and storytelling. You only have to watch the original versions to see the astonishing power of David Haig in Playing Sandwiches or Dame Thora Hird in A Cream Cracker Under The Settee.
The Choral, meanwhile, is Alan Bennett’s first original script written for the screen in forty years, after 1984 comedy A Private Function. The synopsis reads as follows:
Set in Ramsden, Yorkshire in 1916, the plot centers on the chorus master and most of the men of the ambitious local Choral Society,...
- 3/21/2024
- by Jake Godfrey
- Film Stories
Ralph Fiennes, Jim Broadbent and Simon Russell Beale are starring in 'The Choral'.The actors have signed up to feature in the latest collaboration between director Sir Nicholas Hytner and writer Alan Bennett following on from 'The History Boys' and 'The Lady in the Van'.Unlike the pair's previous films, 'The Choral' is an original script rather than an adaptation of one of Bennett's plays.The movie is set in Ramsden, Yorkshire in 1916 and follows the chorus master and the men in the ambitious local Choral Society, who have volunteered for the frontline during World War I.Under the guidance of the demanding Dr. Guthrie (Fiennes), the Choral recruits a group of teenage boys and girls who discover the joy of singing while the new boys come to terms with the fact that they will soon be serving their country.The film explores the humour and humanity in a community that faces an uncertain future.
- 3/21/2024
- by Joe Graber
- Bang Showbiz
Sony Pictures Classics has taken worldwide rights to Nicholas Hytner’s The Choral, written by Alan Bennett, and set to star Ralph Fiennes, Jim Broadbent and Simon Russell Beale.
This is the fourth feature collaboration between Bennett and Hytner after The Lady In The Van, The History Boys and The Madness Of King George. Unlike those films,The Choral is based on an original screenplay rather than a play.
Hytner will produce the film alongside Kevin Loader and Damian Jones. Backing comes from Sony Pictures Classics, BBC Film and Screen Yorkshire, and shooting will commence in Yorkshire this May.
Executive producers include Caroline Cooper Charles,...
This is the fourth feature collaboration between Bennett and Hytner after The Lady In The Van, The History Boys and The Madness Of King George. Unlike those films,The Choral is based on an original screenplay rather than a play.
Hytner will produce the film alongside Kevin Loader and Damian Jones. Backing comes from Sony Pictures Classics, BBC Film and Screen Yorkshire, and shooting will commence in Yorkshire this May.
Executive producers include Caroline Cooper Charles,...
- 3/21/2024
- ScreenDaily
Director Nicholas Hytner and writer Alan Bennett are collaborating again, with The Lady in the Van, The History Boys and The Madness of King George duo set to team on The Choral, which will star Ralph Fiennes, Jim Broadbent and Simon Russell Beale. Production begins in May in Yorkshire, according to Sony Pictures Classics, which said Wednesday that it has acquired all worldwide rights to the pic.
Unlike their previous collaborations that were based on Tony-winning playwright Bennett’s stage plays, this is an original screenplay. Set in Ramsden, Yorkshire in 1916, the plot centers on the chorus master and most of the men of the ambitious local Choral Society, who have volunteered for the front. Under the direction of the demanding, driven Dr. Guthrie (Fiennes), the Choral recruits a crop of teenage boys and girls. Together they discover the joys of singing and the urgency of desire as the new...
Unlike their previous collaborations that were based on Tony-winning playwright Bennett’s stage plays, this is an original screenplay. Set in Ramsden, Yorkshire in 1916, the plot centers on the chorus master and most of the men of the ambitious local Choral Society, who have volunteered for the front. Under the direction of the demanding, driven Dr. Guthrie (Fiennes), the Choral recruits a crop of teenage boys and girls. Together they discover the joys of singing and the urgency of desire as the new...
- 3/21/2024
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Sugar23 has brought in industry vet Sally Ware to serve as a producer and manager on behalf of the company.
Ware joins from Industry Entertainment, where she repped both actors and filmmakers while packaging projects for film and TV. She started her career working for casting director Donna Isaacson on Joel and Ethan Coen’s The Hudsucker Proxy, and then spent three years in the Feature Casting department at 20th Century Fox working on such films as Nicholas Hytner’s The Crucible and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. She then moved to New York and joined Gersh, where she spent the next 13 years as an agent in the talent department representing both emerging and well-established talent across film, television, and theatre.
Clients making the transition with Ware include actors Zosia Mamet (Girls), Mark Feuerstein (Royal Pains), Mickey Sumner (Snowpiercer), Will Harrison (Daisy Jones and The Six), Logan Polish...
Ware joins from Industry Entertainment, where she repped both actors and filmmakers while packaging projects for film and TV. She started her career working for casting director Donna Isaacson on Joel and Ethan Coen’s The Hudsucker Proxy, and then spent three years in the Feature Casting department at 20th Century Fox working on such films as Nicholas Hytner’s The Crucible and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. She then moved to New York and joined Gersh, where she spent the next 13 years as an agent in the talent department representing both emerging and well-established talent across film, television, and theatre.
Clients making the transition with Ware include actors Zosia Mamet (Girls), Mark Feuerstein (Royal Pains), Mickey Sumner (Snowpiercer), Will Harrison (Daisy Jones and The Six), Logan Polish...
- 2/7/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Indhu Rubasingham, an acclaimed theater practitioner, has broken the decades-long white male hold on the reins of power at the National Theatre by being appointed its artistic director, it was being revealed Wednesday in London.
She succeeds current director and chief executive Rufus Norris, who, by the time he departs in 2025, would have held the job for a decade over two terms.
Long tipped for the job, Rubasingham will assume Norris’s director title but will share chief executive duties jointly with present Nt executive director Kate Varah.
In a statement released via the Nt, Rubasingham said that her appointment was ”a huge honor — for me, this is the best job in the world.“ She added that the opportunity to play a role in the Nt’s history “is an incredible privilege and responsibility.”
She said she has witnessed firsthand “the commitment, collaboration, brilliance and pride of those who bring the magic to the building.
She succeeds current director and chief executive Rufus Norris, who, by the time he departs in 2025, would have held the job for a decade over two terms.
Long tipped for the job, Rubasingham will assume Norris’s director title but will share chief executive duties jointly with present Nt executive director Kate Varah.
In a statement released via the Nt, Rubasingham said that her appointment was ”a huge honor — for me, this is the best job in the world.“ She added that the opportunity to play a role in the Nt’s history “is an incredible privilege and responsibility.”
She said she has witnessed firsthand “the commitment, collaboration, brilliance and pride of those who bring the magic to the building.
- 12/12/2023
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
The new biographical drama “Golda” features Helen Mirren in a transformative role as Golda Meir, the so-called “Iron Lady of Israel” who faced high-stakes responsibilities and decisions during the Yom Kippur War. Written by Nicholas Martin and directed by Guy Nattiv, the Bleecker Street contender is Mirren’s first big play at a potential Academy Award nomination in many years, so let’s look back at her four Oscar races.
With a career in film going back to the 1960s, Mirren saw her first Oscar nomination in 1994 in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance in “The Madness of King George.” Directed by Nicholas Hytner, this biographical comedy-drama tells the story of King George III and how his Lieutenants tried to adjust the rules to run the country after he went mad. Mirren played his wife, Queen Charlotte, and she was one of four citations for the movie at the 67th Academy Awards,...
With a career in film going back to the 1960s, Mirren saw her first Oscar nomination in 1994 in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance in “The Madness of King George.” Directed by Nicholas Hytner, this biographical comedy-drama tells the story of King George III and how his Lieutenants tried to adjust the rules to run the country after he went mad. Mirren played his wife, Queen Charlotte, and she was one of four citations for the movie at the 67th Academy Awards,...
- 8/30/2023
- by Brian Rowe
- Gold Derby
Out of all the winners (and also-rans) in the 26 competitive categories at the 2023 Tony Awards, 34 results stand out as particularly noteworthy when considered in the context of history. So what were this year’s most interesting facts, records, and milestones? Check out the complete list of winners here.
1. The productions that received multiple Tony nominations, but went home empty-handed were “& Juliet,” “Ain’t No Mo’,” “Between Riverside and Crazy” “Camelot,” “A Christmas Carol,” “Cost of Living,” “Death of a Salesman,” “A Doll’s House,” “Fat Ham,” “Into the Woods,” “Kpop,” and “The Piano Lesson.”
2. This year marked the first time a Broadway production of “Into the Woods” didn’t win a single Tony. The original won three awards in 1987 for Best Lead Actress in a Musical (Joanna Gleason), Best Book of a Musical (James Lapine), and Best Original Score (Stephen Sondheim). The 2002 remounting won two for Best Revival of a Musical...
1. The productions that received multiple Tony nominations, but went home empty-handed were “& Juliet,” “Ain’t No Mo’,” “Between Riverside and Crazy” “Camelot,” “A Christmas Carol,” “Cost of Living,” “Death of a Salesman,” “A Doll’s House,” “Fat Ham,” “Into the Woods,” “Kpop,” and “The Piano Lesson.”
2. This year marked the first time a Broadway production of “Into the Woods” didn’t win a single Tony. The original won three awards in 1987 for Best Lead Actress in a Musical (Joanna Gleason), Best Book of a Musical (James Lapine), and Best Original Score (Stephen Sondheim). The 2002 remounting won two for Best Revival of a Musical...
- 6/12/2023
- by Jeffrey Kare
- Gold Derby
“Johnny! Johnny!! Johnny!!! Johnny Depp!!!!” The celebrity dutifully signed autographs for his followers on the red carpet for the premiere of Jeanne du Barry, director Maiwenn’s Cannes Film Festival opener.
And let’s call him that “c” word, because to call him an actor in the true sense of the profession is an insult to thespians who toil on stage and screen for little gain. Judi Dench lamented once that, in the UK at least, roughly 5 percent of the actors make big bucks. The rest live hand-to-mouth, often doing two, three or more jobs to make ends meet.
So forgive me if I don’t jump up and down with glee at the sight of Johnny Depp and his Louis Xv in Jeanne du Barry.
Once up a time he was the bee’s knees; he had a certain swagger about him. But of late, he seems to have...
And let’s call him that “c” word, because to call him an actor in the true sense of the profession is an insult to thespians who toil on stage and screen for little gain. Judi Dench lamented once that, in the UK at least, roughly 5 percent of the actors make big bucks. The rest live hand-to-mouth, often doing two, three or more jobs to make ends meet.
So forgive me if I don’t jump up and down with glee at the sight of Johnny Depp and his Louis Xv in Jeanne du Barry.
Once up a time he was the bee’s knees; he had a certain swagger about him. But of late, he seems to have...
- 5/17/2023
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
April is the cruelest month, but evidently not for one-man shows starring Oscar nominee Ralph Fiennes.
The “Schindler’s List” and “Harry Potter” star’s sister Sophie Fiennes directs a film version of “T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets,” the stage production he brought to London and throughout the UK back in 2021. During the lockdown, Fiennes committed to memory the “Wasteland” poet’s four epic poems written during World War II about man’s relationship to time and the divine. His performance, praised as “magnetic” by The Telegraph, was filmed at the end of his run.
IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer for the film version, opening April 28 at the IFC Center in New York City, courtesy of Kino Lorber. An expansion in theaters nationally will follow.
Fiennes’ filmed performance of Eliot’s masterworks is a co-production between The Bath Theatre Royal and Royal & Derngate, Northampton and Lone Star Productions, Amoeba Film and Lonely Dragon Films.
The “Schindler’s List” and “Harry Potter” star’s sister Sophie Fiennes directs a film version of “T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets,” the stage production he brought to London and throughout the UK back in 2021. During the lockdown, Fiennes committed to memory the “Wasteland” poet’s four epic poems written during World War II about man’s relationship to time and the divine. His performance, praised as “magnetic” by The Telegraph, was filmed at the end of his run.
IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer for the film version, opening April 28 at the IFC Center in New York City, courtesy of Kino Lorber. An expansion in theaters nationally will follow.
Fiennes’ filmed performance of Eliot’s masterworks is a co-production between The Bath Theatre Royal and Royal & Derngate, Northampton and Lone Star Productions, Amoeba Film and Lonely Dragon Films.
- 4/5/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
I used to think that directing was all about commanding – about knowing the answers to all the questions,” says Richard Eyre. “Now I feel the opposite.” Eyre, one of the titans of British theatre since the 1970s, has of course done his share of commanding in the past. Of Ian McKellen in one of the definitive stagings of Richard III. Of Daniel Day-Lewis in Hamlet, which saw the actor walk off stage mid-performance and never return. Of the National Theatre, throughout his 10-year stint as creative director between 1987 and 1997, when he championed the work of firebrand artists such as David Hare and Howard Brenton.
On screen, he cut his teeth on Play for Today before moving on to films such as 2006’s Notes from a Scandal and the BBC’s 2018 King Lear starring Anthony Hopkins and a cusp-of-stardom Florence Pugh. Now 79 years old, Eyre speaks to me over video chat...
On screen, he cut his teeth on Play for Today before moving on to films such as 2006’s Notes from a Scandal and the BBC’s 2018 King Lear starring Anthony Hopkins and a cusp-of-stardom Florence Pugh. Now 79 years old, Eyre speaks to me over video chat...
- 3/16/2023
- by Louis Chilton
- The Independent - Film
Oscar and BAFTA-winning film producer David Parfitt is hoping to reunite with French producer Philippe Carcassonne following their successful collaboration on Florian Zeller’s Oscar-winning drama The Father.
Parfitt revealed his plans during a masterclass at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra talent incubator event on Sunday.
“He [Carcassonne] is developing something really interesting based on an Israeli novel called Pain, which he commissioned as a French screenplay but they have decided they want to do it in England in English,” Parfitt clarified after the talk.
The 2019 novel by Zeruya Shalev revolves around a woman revisiting the double trauma of being caught up in a terror attack and abandonment by a lover when he comes back into her life a decade later.
Carcassonne’s partner, the actress and director Anne Fontaine, whose credits include Coco Before Chanel, is attached to direct the film, in what would be her first English-language production.
Parfitt revealed his plans during a masterclass at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra talent incubator event on Sunday.
“He [Carcassonne] is developing something really interesting based on an Israeli novel called Pain, which he commissioned as a French screenplay but they have decided they want to do it in England in English,” Parfitt clarified after the talk.
The 2019 novel by Zeruya Shalev revolves around a woman revisiting the double trauma of being caught up in a terror attack and abandonment by a lover when he comes back into her life a decade later.
Carcassonne’s partner, the actress and director Anne Fontaine, whose credits include Coco Before Chanel, is attached to direct the film, in what would be her first English-language production.
- 3/12/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Comedy is what we need right now, says Nicholas Hytner, who ran London’s National Theatre for a decade.
It’s fine to have heavy-lifting dramas by Ibsen or Schiller, but boy-oh-boy laughter is an increasingly uplifting necessity.
Which is where Guys & Dolls and James Corden, post his life on The Late Late Show, come in.
Hytner, partnered with longtime executive Nick Starr, now own and control London’s Bridge Theatre and is overseeing a fully immersive revival of the classic Broadway musical Guys & Dolls, choreographed by Dame Arlene Phillips (Strictly Come Dancing) and now in early previews.
It stars Daniel Mays as Nathan Detroit, Andrew Richardson (A Call to Spy) as Sky Masterson, Celinde Schoenmaker (Rocketman) as Sarah Brown and Marisha Wallace (Aladdin) as long-suffering Miss Adelaide. Cedric Neal plays Nicely-Nicely Johnson. Also in the cast are Jordan Castle,...
It’s fine to have heavy-lifting dramas by Ibsen or Schiller, but boy-oh-boy laughter is an increasingly uplifting necessity.
Which is where Guys & Dolls and James Corden, post his life on The Late Late Show, come in.
Hytner, partnered with longtime executive Nick Starr, now own and control London’s Bridge Theatre and is overseeing a fully immersive revival of the classic Broadway musical Guys & Dolls, choreographed by Dame Arlene Phillips (Strictly Come Dancing) and now in early previews.
It stars Daniel Mays as Nathan Detroit, Andrew Richardson (A Call to Spy) as Sky Masterson, Celinde Schoenmaker (Rocketman) as Sarah Brown and Marisha Wallace (Aladdin) as long-suffering Miss Adelaide. Cedric Neal plays Nicely-Nicely Johnson. Also in the cast are Jordan Castle,...
- 3/4/2023
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
With “Yellowstone” the story never seems to end, but fans of the franchise are sure to love it. “The Bass Reeves Story ” is the latest spinoff from the “Yellowstone” franchise.
Already, there had been three spin-offs from “Yellowstone” — “1883,” “1932,” and “6666” — from the same creator, Taylor Sheridan. The latest addition to the franchise, “1883: The Bass Reeves Story” was announced by Paramount+ sometimes in May as a direct spinoff of “1883.”
The “Yellowstone” prequel “1883” traced how the Duttons became the owners of the Yellowstone Ranch. In the season finale, the Duttons arrived in Montana which seemed like a perfect way to end the prequel. However, talk about creating a spinoff from another spinoff, and we gladly welcome you to the world of “Yellowstone” creator, Taylor Sheridan.
“I’m not someone who likes to tie everything up in a bow and explain how everyone lived happily after or didn’t,” Sheridan...
Already, there had been three spin-offs from “Yellowstone” — “1883,” “1932,” and “6666” — from the same creator, Taylor Sheridan. The latest addition to the franchise, “1883: The Bass Reeves Story” was announced by Paramount+ sometimes in May as a direct spinoff of “1883.”
The “Yellowstone” prequel “1883” traced how the Duttons became the owners of the Yellowstone Ranch. In the season finale, the Duttons arrived in Montana which seemed like a perfect way to end the prequel. However, talk about creating a spinoff from another spinoff, and we gladly welcome you to the world of “Yellowstone” creator, Taylor Sheridan.
“I’m not someone who likes to tie everything up in a bow and explain how everyone lived happily after or didn’t,” Sheridan...
- 9/6/2022
- by Dee Gambit
- buddytv.com
Following its acclaimed run at The Bridge Theatre in London, David Hare’s Straight Line Crazy starring Ralph Fiennes as New York powerbroker Robert Moses will make its Big Apple Off Broadway debut this fall at The Shed. Directed by Nicholas Hytner and Jamie Armitage, the play will run October 18-December 18.
The announcement was made Monday by producers Alex Poots, artistic director and CEO of The Shed; Madani Younis, chief executive producer of The Shed; and Tim Levy, co-director of the London Theatre Company.
The limited nine-week engagement begins previews October 18, with an official opening October 26 at The Shed’s Griffin Theater as part of the venue’s fall 2022 season.
Hare’s play examines the questionable legacy of Moses and his enduring impact on New York. The play presents an imagined retelling of the arc of Moses’ controversial career in two decisive moments: his rise to power in the late...
The announcement was made Monday by producers Alex Poots, artistic director and CEO of The Shed; Madani Younis, chief executive producer of The Shed; and Tim Levy, co-director of the London Theatre Company.
The limited nine-week engagement begins previews October 18, with an official opening October 26 at The Shed’s Griffin Theater as part of the venue’s fall 2022 season.
Hare’s play examines the questionable legacy of Moses and his enduring impact on New York. The play presents an imagined retelling of the arc of Moses’ controversial career in two decisive moments: his rise to power in the late...
- 6/27/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: The rollicking Broadway musical Guys & Dolls is to be revived at London’s The Bridge Theatre next year with 420 members of the audience able to “party” with the cast, as the show’s director Nicholas Hytner (The History Boys) told Deadline.
The immersive production is set to begin preview performances from February 27. Official opening night is March 9.
Hytner, a former artistic director of Britain’s National Theatre, said that he and his associates chose Guys & Dolls “because a hell of a lot of it happens in public space like Times Square, Broadway and Havana.”
Guys & Dolls, described as a Broadway fable, is based on tales penned by Damon Runyon, with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows.
‘The Lehman Trilogy’ From Ideas To Sketches To Stage – A Photo Tour With Designer Es Devlin: Deadline Tony Watch Exclusive
“The audience will arrive...
The immersive production is set to begin preview performances from February 27. Official opening night is March 9.
Hytner, a former artistic director of Britain’s National Theatre, said that he and his associates chose Guys & Dolls “because a hell of a lot of it happens in public space like Times Square, Broadway and Havana.”
Guys & Dolls, described as a Broadway fable, is based on tales penned by Damon Runyon, with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows.
‘The Lehman Trilogy’ From Ideas To Sketches To Stage – A Photo Tour With Designer Es Devlin: Deadline Tony Watch Exclusive
“The audience will arrive...
- 6/9/2022
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
Zoe Saldaña revealed in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly that her former management team “discouraged” her from using her real name once she landed her first major acting role in the 2000 teen drama “Center Stage.” The actor stressed that her team was not trying to be malicious at the time. Saldaña starred in the Nicholas Hytner-directed drama as Eva Rodriguez, a smart aleck dancer from Boston. The “Center Stage” ensemble cast also included Amanda Schull, Susan May Pratt, Peter Gallagher, Donna Murphy and Ethan Stiefel.
“When I did [2000 film] ‘Center Stage,’ I remember being discouraged by my management at that time to use my name,” Saldaña said, “but their intention was never for me to stop being who I was. They celebrated who I was. But my manager at the time was a former singer and a ballroom performer, and she did change her name as well, when she...
“When I did [2000 film] ‘Center Stage,’ I remember being discouraged by my management at that time to use my name,” Saldaña said, “but their intention was never for me to stop being who I was. They celebrated who I was. But my manager at the time was a former singer and a ballroom performer, and she did change her name as well, when she...
- 3/11/2022
- by Zack Sharf
- Variety Film + TV
by Nick Taylor
Happy belated Thanksgiving, Tfe readers! In the spirit of American History, here’s a nice slice of cinema on one of the US’s many exemplary passages of telling on itself: the Salem Witch Trials. Arthur Miller’s retelling of these events in The Crucible is so universally well known, but how much the 1996 film adaptation is part of that legacy? I first saw the film in my junior high English class (I’d already chewed through Miller’s play and Death of a Salesman before I was ever assigned them), and aside from a few indelible images of Joan Allen’s silent devastation at court or Daniel Day-Lewis’s artfully grimy self in prison, Nicholas Hytner’s rendition of The Crucible didn’t leave much of an impression. Where Shine presented an opportunity to check off a box I knew I wouldn’t check off without outside incentive,...
Happy belated Thanksgiving, Tfe readers! In the spirit of American History, here’s a nice slice of cinema on one of the US’s many exemplary passages of telling on itself: the Salem Witch Trials. Arthur Miller’s retelling of these events in The Crucible is so universally well known, but how much the 1996 film adaptation is part of that legacy? I first saw the film in my junior high English class (I’d already chewed through Miller’s play and Death of a Salesman before I was ever assigned them), and aside from a few indelible images of Joan Allen’s silent devastation at court or Daniel Day-Lewis’s artfully grimy self in prison, Nicholas Hytner’s rendition of The Crucible didn’t leave much of an impression. Where Shine presented an opportunity to check off a box I knew I wouldn’t check off without outside incentive,...
- 11/28/2021
- by Nick Taylor
- FilmExperience
Cast also includes Bally Gill, Russell Tovey, David Bradley and Derek Jacobi.
Shooting has commenced in London on Pathe’s Allelujah, an adaptation of the stage play written by Alan Bennett.
Notes On A Scandal’s Richard Eyre directs with Call The Midwife creator Heidi Thomas adapting the screenplay.
Damian Jones and Kevin Loader produce. The duo previously worked on the adaptation of Bennett’s memoir, The Lady And The Van.
Judi Dench, Jennifer Saunders, Bally Gill, Russell Tovey, David Bradley and Derek Jacobi star.
Allelujah is a Pathé, BBC Film and Ingenious Media presentation of a DJ Films and Redstart Production.
Shooting has commenced in London on Pathe’s Allelujah, an adaptation of the stage play written by Alan Bennett.
Notes On A Scandal’s Richard Eyre directs with Call The Midwife creator Heidi Thomas adapting the screenplay.
Damian Jones and Kevin Loader produce. The duo previously worked on the adaptation of Bennett’s memoir, The Lady And The Van.
Judi Dench, Jennifer Saunders, Bally Gill, Russell Tovey, David Bradley and Derek Jacobi star.
Allelujah is a Pathé, BBC Film and Ingenious Media presentation of a DJ Films and Redstart Production.
- 10/25/2021
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Festival
The 65th BFI London Film Festival, which concluded Oct. 17, attracted crowds for in-person events and virtually. The festival unspooled over 12 days across London venues, 10 partner cinema venues around the U.K. and online. There were more than 139,000 physical attendances at screenings and events and over 152,000 virtual attendances.
The festival closed with the European premiere of “The Tragedy of Macbeth” at new festival venue, the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall with director Joel Coen and key cast, including Frances McDormand, in attendance.
There was a sting in the tail, however, as two people who attended the closing film and after party tested positive for Covid-19, compelling the BFI to send letters to attendees informing them about this. The positive tests came as no surprise as the U.K. is experiencing a dramatic surge in cases currently.
The array of celebrities who attended the festival in person included Jay Z,...
The 65th BFI London Film Festival, which concluded Oct. 17, attracted crowds for in-person events and virtually. The festival unspooled over 12 days across London venues, 10 partner cinema venues around the U.K. and online. There were more than 139,000 physical attendances at screenings and events and over 152,000 virtual attendances.
The festival closed with the European premiere of “The Tragedy of Macbeth” at new festival venue, the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall with director Joel Coen and key cast, including Frances McDormand, in attendance.
There was a sting in the tail, however, as two people who attended the closing film and after party tested positive for Covid-19, compelling the BFI to send letters to attendees informing them about this. The positive tests came as no surprise as the U.K. is experiencing a dramatic surge in cases currently.
The array of celebrities who attended the festival in person included Jay Z,...
- 10/25/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Ralph Fiennes will lead the cast as New York City power broker Robert Moses in the world premiere of David Hare’s Straight Line Crazy at London’s The Bridge theater this spring. Nicholas Hytner will directed.
Straight Line Crazy, beginning performances March 16, 2022, opening March 23 and running through June 18, will reunite Fiennes, Hare and Hytner following their 2020 collaboration on The Bridge’s Beat the Devil.
Additional casting will be announced at a later date.
Described as “an account of the life of a man whose iron will exposed the weakness of democracy in the face of charismatic conviction,” Straight Line Crazy tells the story of Moses, who for forty years was the most powerful man in New York, creating new parks, new bridges and 627 miles of expressway until grass roots campaigns in the 1950s began to organize against his ideas of what a city should be.
Fiennes was last on stage in Beat the Devil,...
Straight Line Crazy, beginning performances March 16, 2022, opening March 23 and running through June 18, will reunite Fiennes, Hare and Hytner following their 2020 collaboration on The Bridge’s Beat the Devil.
Additional casting will be announced at a later date.
Described as “an account of the life of a man whose iron will exposed the weakness of democracy in the face of charismatic conviction,” Straight Line Crazy tells the story of Moses, who for forty years was the most powerful man in New York, creating new parks, new bridges and 627 miles of expressway until grass roots campaigns in the 1950s began to organize against his ideas of what a city should be.
Fiennes was last on stage in Beat the Devil,...
- 10/8/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Annapurna Theatre’s Beat The Devil is now streaming for subscribers on Showtime in the United States, with additional territories to be announced.
The film is written and directed by David Hare and stars Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominee Ralph Fiennes. It is based on the stage play of the same name that premiered at London’s Bridge Theatre. The stage production, commissioned by London Theatre Company and originally directed by Nicholas Hytner, saw Fiennes give one of his greatest performances in a sold-out run.
Beat The Devil recounts Hare’s experience contracting Covid-19 on the day the UK Government made the decision to go into lockdown. Suffering a pageant of apparently random symptoms, he recalls the delirium of his illness, which, mixed with fear, dreams, honest medicine and politics, creates a story of urgency and power.
The film is written and directed by David Hare and stars Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominee Ralph Fiennes. It is based on the stage play of the same name that premiered at London’s Bridge Theatre. The stage production, commissioned by London Theatre Company and originally directed by Nicholas Hytner, saw Fiennes give one of his greatest performances in a sold-out run.
Beat The Devil recounts Hare’s experience contracting Covid-19 on the day the UK Government made the decision to go into lockdown. Suffering a pageant of apparently random symptoms, he recalls the delirium of his illness, which, mixed with fear, dreams, honest medicine and politics, creates a story of urgency and power.
- 9/3/2021
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we usually talk about movie stars and not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between. Today, however, we talk about Oscar movies (!) that time has relegated to B-Side status.
To tackle such a task, Conor and I welcome the incredible Chris Feil of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. Our guest and his co-host Joe Reid dive into myriad films that were released to significant awards buzz, only to earn zero Academy Award nominations.
In today’s episode, we each choose one film to focus on. Conor’s pick is the 1976 Woody Guthrie biopic Bound For Glory. The film earned six Oscar nominations, including wins for Cinematography and Best Music, Adapted. Chris’ pick is Ironweed from 1987, starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, adapted from William Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name.
To tackle such a task, Conor and I welcome the incredible Chris Feil of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. Our guest and his co-host Joe Reid dive into myriad films that were released to significant awards buzz, only to earn zero Academy Award nominations.
In today’s episode, we each choose one film to focus on. Conor’s pick is the 1976 Woody Guthrie biopic Bound For Glory. The film earned six Oscar nominations, including wins for Cinematography and Best Music, Adapted. Chris’ pick is Ironweed from 1987, starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, adapted from William Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name.
- 4/15/2021
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Three weeks after filmmaker Sam Mendes teamed up with Netflix to launch a $620K (£500K) fund to support the UK’s embattled theater workers, the pot has swollen to $2M (£1.6M) and counting.
Prominent figures to contribute include the estate of the late Peter Saunders and Lady Saunders, the UK theater impresario behind The Mousetrap, which joins Netflix as the headline supporter. The Mackintosh Foundation, Eileen Davidson Productions, Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, and Linbury Trust have also donated.
Individuals to have given money include Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter, Imelda Staunton, Eddie Redmayne, Sonia Friedman, Caro Newling, Colin Firth, Hugh Bonneville, and Tom Hiddleston.
The team says they have also received $110,000 through the online platform Enthuse, including from Michaela Coel, Michael Frayn, David Hare, Nicholas Hytner, Armando Iannucci, Thea Sharrock, Mark Strong, Emma Thompson, Laura Wade, David Walliams and Edgar Wright.
The fund also revealed today that is has received...
Prominent figures to contribute include the estate of the late Peter Saunders and Lady Saunders, the UK theater impresario behind The Mousetrap, which joins Netflix as the headline supporter. The Mackintosh Foundation, Eileen Davidson Productions, Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, and Linbury Trust have also donated.
Individuals to have given money include Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter, Imelda Staunton, Eddie Redmayne, Sonia Friedman, Caro Newling, Colin Firth, Hugh Bonneville, and Tom Hiddleston.
The team says they have also received $110,000 through the online platform Enthuse, including from Michaela Coel, Michael Frayn, David Hare, Nicholas Hytner, Armando Iannucci, Thea Sharrock, Mark Strong, Emma Thompson, Laura Wade, David Walliams and Edgar Wright.
The fund also revealed today that is has received...
- 7/24/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Kristin Scott Thomas can thank lockdown for one thing: it’s made her stay put. But now she is craving the bright lights and buzz of a film set…
If you went for a stroll in Rutland during the early days of lockdown, enjoying your daily dose of exercise in England’s tiniest county, you might have been interrupted by the sight of a strange woman ranting about her antiques shop and a dying neighbour. It was Kristin Scott Thomas, rehearsing her lines for an Alan Bennett Talking Heads monologue hurriedly commissioned by the BBC when production on other shows had to stop. Nicholas Hytner, former director of the National Theatre, has revived the series of one-actor plays, in which Scott Thomas plays Celia, a woman approaching retirement age with a struggling business and an accidentally cunning plan for how to make some cash.
“The script was quite difficult to learn,...
If you went for a stroll in Rutland during the early days of lockdown, enjoying your daily dose of exercise in England’s tiniest county, you might have been interrupted by the sight of a strange woman ranting about her antiques shop and a dying neighbour. It was Kristin Scott Thomas, rehearsing her lines for an Alan Bennett Talking Heads monologue hurriedly commissioned by the BBC when production on other shows had to stop. Nicholas Hytner, former director of the National Theatre, has revived the series of one-actor plays, in which Scott Thomas plays Celia, a woman approaching retirement age with a struggling business and an accidentally cunning plan for how to make some cash.
“The script was quite difficult to learn,...
- 6/21/2020
- by Sophie Heawood
- The Guardian - Film News
Ian Holm, the classically trained Shakespearean actor best known to film audiences for his performances in films including the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” movies, “Chariots of Fire” and “Alien,” has died. He was 88.
A rep for the actor has said Holm died in hospital on Friday morning. The actor had been battling Parkinson’s Disease for a number of years. However, as recently as January, Holm appeared in person to collect the Newport Beach Film Festival’s Icon Award in London.
Holm, who was celebrated for interpretations of most of the Shakespeare canon, including a towering “King Lear,” also excelled onstage in the original production of Harold Pinter’s “The Homecoming,” which he also brought to Broadway. He began working in films only midway through his career, debuting with an adaptation of his stage performance in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in 1968.
In later years, however, he worked increasingly...
A rep for the actor has said Holm died in hospital on Friday morning. The actor had been battling Parkinson’s Disease for a number of years. However, as recently as January, Holm appeared in person to collect the Newport Beach Film Festival’s Icon Award in London.
Holm, who was celebrated for interpretations of most of the Shakespeare canon, including a towering “King Lear,” also excelled onstage in the original production of Harold Pinter’s “The Homecoming,” which he also brought to Broadway. He began working in films only midway through his career, debuting with an adaptation of his stage performance in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in 1968.
In later years, however, he worked increasingly...
- 6/19/2020
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
The BBC has released first-look images of the cast of Talking Heads, a coronavirus-inspired reimagining of Alan Bennett’s BAFTA-winning series of dramatic monologues.
Killing Eve actress Jodie Comer, Sherlock star Martin Freeman and the soon-to-be star of The Crown Imelda Staunton are among those attached to the project, which premieres June 23 before the full series is dropped on iPlayer.
The 12-part season was produced by the London Theatre Company on ready-made sets at Elstree Studios. Kristin Scott Thomas, Maxine Peake, Rochenda Sandall and Lucian Msamati are also among the cast for the monologues, which center on themes including death, isolation and illness.
Talking Heads is produced by Nicholas Hytner and Kevin Loader for London Theatre Company, and co-produced by Steve Clark Hall. Executive producers are Nick Starr and Anthony Jones for London Theatre Company, and Piers Wenger for the BBC.
Killing Eve actress Jodie Comer, Sherlock star Martin Freeman and the soon-to-be star of The Crown Imelda Staunton are among those attached to the project, which premieres June 23 before the full series is dropped on iPlayer.
The 12-part season was produced by the London Theatre Company on ready-made sets at Elstree Studios. Kristin Scott Thomas, Maxine Peake, Rochenda Sandall and Lucian Msamati are also among the cast for the monologues, which center on themes including death, isolation and illness.
Talking Heads is produced by Nicholas Hytner and Kevin Loader for London Theatre Company, and co-produced by Steve Clark Hall. Executive producers are Nick Starr and Anthony Jones for London Theatre Company, and Piers Wenger for the BBC.
- 6/8/2020
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Columbia Pictures film Center Stage, which was released on May 12, 2000 and launched the feature careers of Zoe Saldana and Amanda Schull.
Center Stage, a follow-up series to the cult film, has now been put in development by Sony Pictures Television. It comes from Sweet/Vicious creator Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, Laurence Mark, producer of the 2000 movie and its two sequels, and Temple Hill Entertainment.
Written by Robinson, who also executive produces and will direct the potential pilot, Center Stage is a series continuation of the original film set today within the highly competitive world of dance. It follows a new, inclusive class of dancers as they work to stay at the academy and clash against the traditional students and style the Aba is known for. Ballet has always been a conformist world, but with Cooper Nielson now at the helm of the Aba and the ABC,...
Center Stage, a follow-up series to the cult film, has now been put in development by Sony Pictures Television. It comes from Sweet/Vicious creator Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, Laurence Mark, producer of the 2000 movie and its two sequels, and Temple Hill Entertainment.
Written by Robinson, who also executive produces and will direct the potential pilot, Center Stage is a series continuation of the original film set today within the highly competitive world of dance. It follows a new, inclusive class of dancers as they work to stay at the academy and clash against the traditional students and style the Aba is known for. Ballet has always been a conformist world, but with Cooper Nielson now at the helm of the Aba and the ABC,...
- 5/12/2020
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Whatever you feel, just dance it. Can you believe Center Stage came out 20 years ago? How should we dance feeling old?! Directed by Nicholas Hytner, Center Stage's cast was made up of mostly newcomers, many of whom had no real acting experience before joining the fictitious American Ballet Academy. In fact, Center Stage was the feature film debut for two its female leads, with one going on to become one of the most sought after stars in Hollywood. While it only made $26 million worldwide at the box office and received less than favorable reviews, Center Stage has gone on to become a cult classic, both as a teen drama and a dance film, with the movie still considered one of the best in the later genre,...
- 5/12/2020
- E! Online
Jodie Comer, Martin Freeman, Tamsin Greig, Kristin Scott Thomas and Imelda Staunton are among the stars lined up for new BBC One adaptations of playwright Alan Bennett’s acclaimed “Talking Heads” monologues, which start filming Tuesday.
Ten of the original pieces are being remade, having first aired on BBC Television in 1988 and 1998, winning two BAFTA awards. Two new monologues, written by Bennett last year, are also being filmed.
The contained nature of Bennett’s monologues means they are one of the very few dramas that can be produced while following guidelines on safe working practices during Covid-19. Filming is taking place at BBC Elstree Studios using existing sets.
They are produced by former National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner’s London Theatre Company and ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ producer Kevin Loader.
Lead director Hytner, whose film credits include “The Madness of King George” and “The History Boys,” said:...
Ten of the original pieces are being remade, having first aired on BBC Television in 1988 and 1998, winning two BAFTA awards. Two new monologues, written by Bennett last year, are also being filmed.
The contained nature of Bennett’s monologues means they are one of the very few dramas that can be produced while following guidelines on safe working practices during Covid-19. Filming is taking place at BBC Elstree Studios using existing sets.
They are produced by former National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner’s London Theatre Company and ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ producer Kevin Loader.
Lead director Hytner, whose film credits include “The Madness of King George” and “The History Boys,” said:...
- 4/28/2020
- by Tim Dams
- Variety Film + TV
The BBC has dusted off British playwright Alan Bennett’s famous series of Talking Heads monologues and is remaking them for the coronavirus age with a head-turning cast.
Killing Eve actress Jodie Comer, Sherlock‘s Martin Freeman and the soon-to-be star of The Crown Imelda Staunton are among those attached to the project, which will breathe new life into the BAFTA-winning show that ran for two seasons in 1988 and a decade later in 1998.
Talking Heads will be produced by London Theatre Company for BBC One, and overseen by Bennett’s long-time collaborator Sir Nicholas Hytner, who staged shows including The History Boys. The plan is to make 12 episodes, 10 of which will be monologues filmed for the original series and two new stories Bennett sent Hytner last year.
Auditions and rehearsals have taken place over Zoom but the series will be filmed on ready-made sets at Elstree Studios, with a slimline...
Killing Eve actress Jodie Comer, Sherlock‘s Martin Freeman and the soon-to-be star of The Crown Imelda Staunton are among those attached to the project, which will breathe new life into the BAFTA-winning show that ran for two seasons in 1988 and a decade later in 1998.
Talking Heads will be produced by London Theatre Company for BBC One, and overseen by Bennett’s long-time collaborator Sir Nicholas Hytner, who staged shows including The History Boys. The plan is to make 12 episodes, 10 of which will be monologues filmed for the original series and two new stories Bennett sent Hytner last year.
Auditions and rehearsals have taken place over Zoom but the series will be filmed on ready-made sets at Elstree Studios, with a slimline...
- 4/28/2020
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
James Corden’s performance in ‘One Man Two Guvnors’ launches free series during pandemic.
The UK’s National Theatre has delivered more than 960,000 views worldwide for the first in its series of productions streamed online.
’National Theatre At Home’ launched last night (April 2) with a 2011 performance of One Man Two Guvnors, featuring a Tony Award-winning performance from James Corden.
Originally screened in cinemas globally as part of National Theatre Live, it was streamed for free via the National Theatre’s YouTube channel from 7pm (BST), during which time it drew more than 200,000 views. It will remain free to watch on...
The UK’s National Theatre has delivered more than 960,000 views worldwide for the first in its series of productions streamed online.
’National Theatre At Home’ launched last night (April 2) with a 2011 performance of One Man Two Guvnors, featuring a Tony Award-winning performance from James Corden.
Originally screened in cinemas globally as part of National Theatre Live, it was streamed for free via the National Theatre’s YouTube channel from 7pm (BST), during which time it drew more than 200,000 views. It will remain free to watch on...
- 4/3/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
Performances begin tomorrow, Saturday, January 4, for the American premiere of the London Theatre Company Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr production of My Name is Lucy Barton starring Laura Linney Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, 'Ozark', by Elizabeth Strout Olive Kitteridge, adapted by Rona Munro The James Trilogy, and directed by Richard Eyre The Crucible, Notes on a Scandal. The New York production is produced in association with Penguin Random House Audio.
- 1/3/2020
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Manhattan Theatre Club, Lynne Meadow Artistic Director and Barry Grove Executive Producer have just announced the American premiere of the London Theatre Company Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr production of My Name is Lucy Barton starring Laura Linney Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, 'Ozark', by Elizabeth Strout Olive Kitteridge, adapted by Rona Munro The James Trilogy, and directed by Richard Eyre The Crucible, Notes on a Scandal as part of Manhattan Theatre Club's upcoming 2019-2020 season. The New York production will be produced in association with Penguin Random House Audio.
- 4/29/2019
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
One Man, Two Guvnors adaptation and Sleeping With The Enemy remake are in the works.
UK producer Damian Jones has renewed his overall deal with Fox Searchlight and unveiled a slate of new projects including a feature version of hit stage play One Man, Two Guvnors and a “reimagining” of the Julia Roberts domestic violence drama Sleeping With The Enemy.
One Man, Two Guvnors is being written by Oli Refson, creator of BBC TV comedy series Uncle and will be executive produced by Richard Bean and Nicholas Hytner.
Emerging Us filmmaker Nia DaCosta is writing and directing the new version of Sleeping With The Enemy.
UK producer Damian Jones has renewed his overall deal with Fox Searchlight and unveiled a slate of new projects including a feature version of hit stage play One Man, Two Guvnors and a “reimagining” of the Julia Roberts domestic violence drama Sleeping With The Enemy.
One Man, Two Guvnors is being written by Oli Refson, creator of BBC TV comedy series Uncle and will be executive produced by Richard Bean and Nicholas Hytner.
Emerging Us filmmaker Nia DaCosta is writing and directing the new version of Sleeping With The Enemy.
- 2/26/2019
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Fox Searchlight is planning to remake “Sleeping With the Enemy,” the 1991 film starring Julia Roberts, as part of a new overall producer deal with Damian Jones and his DJ Films Limited, the company announced Tuesday.
Jones, who first partnered with Fox Searchlight in 2016, is developing a reimagining of “Sleeping With the Enemy” with writer and director Nia DaCosta. The original film is about a woman (Roberts) who fakes her own death in an attempt to escape a nightmarish marriage, only to find she can’t evade her controlling husband.
Jones is also planning a film adaptation of “One Man, Two Guvnors,” the stage play starring James Corden. The play’s writer, Richard Bean, is executive producing the project along with Oli Refson and Nicholas Hytner. “One Man, Two Guvnors” is itself an English adaptation of “Servant of Two Masters,” an 18th-century Italian play. The play opened in the UK in...
Jones, who first partnered with Fox Searchlight in 2016, is developing a reimagining of “Sleeping With the Enemy” with writer and director Nia DaCosta. The original film is about a woman (Roberts) who fakes her own death in an attempt to escape a nightmarish marriage, only to find she can’t evade her controlling husband.
Jones is also planning a film adaptation of “One Man, Two Guvnors,” the stage play starring James Corden. The play’s writer, Richard Bean, is executive producing the project along with Oli Refson and Nicholas Hytner. “One Man, Two Guvnors” is itself an English adaptation of “Servant of Two Masters,” an 18th-century Italian play. The play opened in the UK in...
- 2/26/2019
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
The Favourite backer Fox Searchlight is lining up a reboot of Julia Roberts’ 1991 hit Sleeping With The Enemy and a feature version of smash James Corden stage play One Man, Two Guvnors as part of a new producing deal with The Iron Lady and Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie producer Damian Jones.
Prolific UK producer Jones is in development on a strong new slate of movies with Searchlight and they have set emerging US filmmaker Nia DaCosta as writer-director of the Sleeping With The Enemy “reimagining.” DaCosta’s 2018 feature debut Little Woods starred Lily James and Tessa Thompson as sisters driven to work outside the law to better their lives.
Based on Nancy Price’s 1987 novel of the same name, thriller Sleeping With The Enemy saw Roberts – then at the height of fame just after Pretty Woman – play a woman trying to escape her abusive husband. The film was a...
Prolific UK producer Jones is in development on a strong new slate of movies with Searchlight and they have set emerging US filmmaker Nia DaCosta as writer-director of the Sleeping With The Enemy “reimagining.” DaCosta’s 2018 feature debut Little Woods starred Lily James and Tessa Thompson as sisters driven to work outside the law to better their lives.
Based on Nancy Price’s 1987 novel of the same name, thriller Sleeping With The Enemy saw Roberts – then at the height of fame just after Pretty Woman – play a woman trying to escape her abusive husband. The film was a...
- 2/26/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Fifty years after his play “Forty Years On,” Alan Bennett is still pining for the England of old. Just as his first play lamented the slipping standards of an old public school and, by extension, the nation at large, so “Allelujah!” sees an ailing National Health Service hospital as symptomatic of a wider national malaise. The show, now playing at Nicholas Hytner’s Bridge Theatre, is full of all the playwright’s signature elements — warmth, wry humor, faith in humankind — but at some point, you have to ask whether his idyllic, old England ever really existed. His nostalgia’s seductive, but mighty sentimental — and maybe, in this misty-eyed political climate, dangerous too.
Set in the geriatric wing of a Yorkshire hospital at full stretch, its future hanging in the balance, “Allelujah!” throws up a collage of characters and a criss-cross of subplots. Among the patients, singing in the hospital’s in-house Oap choir,...
Set in the geriatric wing of a Yorkshire hospital at full stretch, its future hanging in the balance, “Allelujah!” throws up a collage of characters and a criss-cross of subplots. Among the patients, singing in the hospital’s in-house Oap choir,...
- 7/19/2018
- by Matt Trueman
- Variety Film + TV
Out of all the winners (and losers) in the 26 competitive categories at the 2018 Tony Awards, several of them stand out as particularly noteworthy when considered in the context of history. So what were this year’s most interesting facts, records and milestones?
“The Band’s Visit” is the first Best Musical winner to have been based on a movie since “Kinky Boots” in 2013. Of its 11 Tony nominations it managed to win a whopping 10 awards (including Best Musical). The only prize it didn’t end up taking home was Best Scenic Design of a Musical for Scott Pask. It is now tied with “Hello, Dolly!” (1964) and “Billy Elliot” (2009) as the third most awarded production in Tony history, behind “The Producers” with 12 wins in 2001 and “Hamilton” with 11 victories in 2016.
“The Band’s Visit” is also the first Best Musical winner to have won every single acting award it was nominated for since...
“The Band’s Visit” is the first Best Musical winner to have been based on a movie since “Kinky Boots” in 2013. Of its 11 Tony nominations it managed to win a whopping 10 awards (including Best Musical). The only prize it didn’t end up taking home was Best Scenic Design of a Musical for Scott Pask. It is now tied with “Hello, Dolly!” (1964) and “Billy Elliot” (2009) as the third most awarded production in Tony history, behind “The Producers” with 12 wins in 2001 and “Hamilton” with 11 victories in 2016.
“The Band’s Visit” is also the first Best Musical winner to have won every single acting award it was nominated for since...
- 6/11/2018
- by Jeffrey Kare
- Gold Derby
Kevin and Rob have a dialect-off, Rob redecorates, Kevin sweats it out, Rob reveals some upcoming 54 Below shows, Kevin goes to the Catskills, Rob introduces to the Kutcher Emcee, the merits of talkbacks, Nathan Lane vs. Faith Prince, Victoria Clark needs a hug, Jackie Mason tackles Rodney Dangerfield, Jackie Mason goes into Les Miz, four books that praise the National Theatre, the brilliance of Nicholas Hytner, and more...
- 4/11/2018
- by Behind the Curtain
- BroadwayWorld.com
Fathom Events, By Experience and National Theatre Live have a full line-up of top London stage productions set for U.S. cinema audiences in early 2018. Newly added titles include director Nicholas Hytner's Bridge Theatre production of 'Julius Caesar' March 22 and Rory Kinnear's return to the National Theatre stage as the title role in 'Macbeth' May 17. These two titles are in addition to Tennessee Williams' 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' February 22, captured live from London's West End, and the fastest-selling show in London theatre history -- and most-watched Nt Live broadcast -- 'Hamlet' March 8.
- 2/5/2018
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Allegiance, The Nutcracker and Doctor Who: Twice Upon A Time top our December Events listAllegiance, The Nutcracker and Doctor Who: Twice Upon A Time top our December Events listScott Goodyer11/30/2017 10:14:00 Am
The holidays are just around the corner and we've got some fantastic holiday event screenings on our big screens to get you in that festive mood! Check out our list below and stay warm out there!
Dec 3rd: Eagles at Seahawks - NFL Sunday Nights
For four regular season and three playoff games leading up to Super Bowl Lii, NFL screenings will be hosted at Cineplex’s luxurious, adults-only VIP Cinemas, where football fans can cheer on their favourite team from ultra-wide, luxury recliners. Fans will also enjoy in-seat food and beverage service throughout the game from an expanded menu, which includes a wide selection of beer, wine and spirits as well as classic game-day favourites likes burgers,...
The holidays are just around the corner and we've got some fantastic holiday event screenings on our big screens to get you in that festive mood! Check out our list below and stay warm out there!
Dec 3rd: Eagles at Seahawks - NFL Sunday Nights
For four regular season and three playoff games leading up to Super Bowl Lii, NFL screenings will be hosted at Cineplex’s luxurious, adults-only VIP Cinemas, where football fans can cheer on their favourite team from ultra-wide, luxury recliners. Fans will also enjoy in-seat food and beverage service throughout the game from an expanded menu, which includes a wide selection of beer, wine and spirits as well as classic game-day favourites likes burgers,...
- 11/30/2017
- by Scott Goodyer
- Cineplex
It’s great when a fancy costume picture really has something to say — Alan Bennett’s crazy tale of a king’s episode of mental illness becomes a highly entertaining comedy of errors, but with serious personal and political ramifications. Nigel Hawthorne is exceptionally good as the sovereign whose brain has de-railed; Helen Mirren, Ian Holm, Rupert Everett and Amanda Donohoe variously try to help him — or steal his crown.
The Madness of King George
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1994 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 111 min. / Street Date October 31, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98
Starring: Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, Ian Holm, Amanda Donohoe, Rupert Everett, Julian Wadham, Jim Carter, Rupert Graves, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Anthony Calf, John Wood, Robert Swann, Peter Woodthorpe.
Cinematography: Andrew Dunn
Film Editor: Tariq Anwar
Production Design: Ken Adam
Written by Alan Bennett from his play
Produced by Stephen Evans, David Parfitt
Directed by Nicholas Hytner
Every few years the...
The Madness of King George
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1994 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 111 min. / Street Date October 31, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98
Starring: Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, Ian Holm, Amanda Donohoe, Rupert Everett, Julian Wadham, Jim Carter, Rupert Graves, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Anthony Calf, John Wood, Robert Swann, Peter Woodthorpe.
Cinematography: Andrew Dunn
Film Editor: Tariq Anwar
Production Design: Ken Adam
Written by Alan Bennett from his play
Produced by Stephen Evans, David Parfitt
Directed by Nicholas Hytner
Every few years the...
- 11/18/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Simon Brew Jul 7, 2017
Trey Edward Shults tells us about It Comes At Night, its dark history, and odd marketing...
In amongst the bustle of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Despicable Me 3 screenings in
UK
cinemas this weekend is the distinctly unsettling and powerful It Comes At Night. A film marketed, not entirely fairly, as a horror, it’s from writer/director Trey Edward Shults. He wrote the movie following the death of his father, a parent from whom he was estranged until his dying days. That extraordinary, impactful backdrop underpins the film, and was the logical starting point for our conversation.
I’ve been reading quite a lot since sitting through your film. In particular, that the movie was a response to your relationship with your late father. I’m sorry to bring it up, but it resonates through so much of the film once you know that. I read that...
Trey Edward Shults tells us about It Comes At Night, its dark history, and odd marketing...
In amongst the bustle of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Despicable Me 3 screenings in
UK
cinemas this weekend is the distinctly unsettling and powerful It Comes At Night. A film marketed, not entirely fairly, as a horror, it’s from writer/director Trey Edward Shults. He wrote the movie following the death of his father, a parent from whom he was estranged until his dying days. That extraordinary, impactful backdrop underpins the film, and was the logical starting point for our conversation.
I’ve been reading quite a lot since sitting through your film. In particular, that the movie was a response to your relationship with your late father. I’m sorry to bring it up, but it resonates through so much of the film once you know that. I read that...
- 7/6/2017
- Den of Geek
"The Furniture" is our weekly series on Production Design. You can click on the images to see them in magnified detail.
by Daniel Walber
Play adaptations are frequently criticized for not being “cinematic” enough. It’s as perennial a complaint as it is a silly one. Many of the best play adaptations don’t abandon their more theatrical elements, they use cinema’s unique capabilities as an especially potent additive.
The Madness of King George is a great example, a film that juxtaposes the visual freedom of on-location shooting with the precision of period sets. Adapted by Alan Bennett from his own play and directed by Nicholas Hytner, it chronicles the Regency Crisis of 1788. King George III (Nigel Hawthorne), perhaps as a result of porphyria, lost his grip on reality. The Prince of Wales (Rupert Everett) petitioned Parliament to have his father removed from power, and to have himself declared regent.
by Daniel Walber
Play adaptations are frequently criticized for not being “cinematic” enough. It’s as perennial a complaint as it is a silly one. Many of the best play adaptations don’t abandon their more theatrical elements, they use cinema’s unique capabilities as an especially potent additive.
The Madness of King George is a great example, a film that juxtaposes the visual freedom of on-location shooting with the precision of period sets. Adapted by Alan Bennett from his own play and directed by Nicholas Hytner, it chronicles the Regency Crisis of 1788. King George III (Nigel Hawthorne), perhaps as a result of porphyria, lost his grip on reality. The Prince of Wales (Rupert Everett) petitioned Parliament to have his father removed from power, and to have himself declared regent.
- 6/5/2017
- by Daniel Walber
- FilmExperience
Simon Brew Jun 19, 2017
The Madness Of King George is a film that was sold off the back of a story that wasn’t true…
Nominated for four Oscars, and bringing the late, great Nigel Hawthorne to the attention of movie audiences (following his sensational work in television and on the stage), The Madness Of King George was a real breakout hit. Premiering in December 1994 (just two months after filming wrapped!), and released in the UK in March 1995, the film won one Academy Award, three BAFTAs, and grossed over $15m in the Us alone.
But there’s one story about the movie that continues to circle. And it’s to do with its title.
The film is based on Alan Bennett’s play, The Madness Of King George III, that tells the story of the health issues that King George III suffered during his reign in the 18th century. But when...
The Madness Of King George is a film that was sold off the back of a story that wasn’t true…
Nominated for four Oscars, and bringing the late, great Nigel Hawthorne to the attention of movie audiences (following his sensational work in television and on the stage), The Madness Of King George was a real breakout hit. Premiering in December 1994 (just two months after filming wrapped!), and released in the UK in March 1995, the film won one Academy Award, three BAFTAs, and grossed over $15m in the Us alone.
But there’s one story about the movie that continues to circle. And it’s to do with its title.
The film is based on Alan Bennett’s play, The Madness Of King George III, that tells the story of the health issues that King George III suffered during his reign in the 18th century. But when...
- 5/20/2017
- Den of Geek
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