True crime dramas have become a staple of British television and streaming services. Their popularity seems endless and ever growing. Episodes are devoured at incredible rates as the true stories behind the dramatizations are the start of many an internet k-hole.
The British true crime drama has fallen into a somewhat formulaic way of being made. The narratives are almost classical; a clear, yet flawed hero, triumphing over an unquestionably evil villain. The focus is either on the lead police officer investigating the case, or the perpetrator of the crimes. Both or one of them is usually white, they are almost always men. If the focus is on the villain, it’s to show that he is irredeemably cruel, and a master manipulator with those closest to him suffering the most. If the focus is on the hero, he is usually approachably attractive, stern and focused when it comes to work yet soft centred,...
The British true crime drama has fallen into a somewhat formulaic way of being made. The narratives are almost classical; a clear, yet flawed hero, triumphing over an unquestionably evil villain. The focus is either on the lead police officer investigating the case, or the perpetrator of the crimes. Both or one of them is usually white, they are almost always men. If the focus is on the villain, it’s to show that he is irredeemably cruel, and a master manipulator with those closest to him suffering the most. If the focus is on the hero, he is usually approachably attractive, stern and focused when it comes to work yet soft centred,...
- 1/15/2021
- by Rosie Fletcher
- Den of Geek
U.S. streaming service BritBox is to co-produce ITV crime drama The Pembrokeshire Murders starring Murder Mystery and The Alienist star Luke Evans.
The Svod service, which is a joint venture between the BBC and ITV, will take U.S. and Canadian rights to the three-part series, produced by Bodyguard producer World Productions.
Evans plays police officer Steve Wilkins in the drama, which depicts the pursuit of a cold-blooded serial killer and is based on true-crime book Catching the Bullseye Killer, written by Senior Investigating Officer Steve Wilkins and ITV news journalist Jonathan Hill.
Filming kicked off in January on the series, which was originally commissioned by ITV’s Head of Drama Polly Hill and is written by In Plain Sight’s Nick Stevens. The series comes from ITV-owned Bodyguard and Line of Duty producer World Productions and is produced by Hinterland’s Ed Talfan for Wales-based Severn Screen.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle...
The Svod service, which is a joint venture between the BBC and ITV, will take U.S. and Canadian rights to the three-part series, produced by Bodyguard producer World Productions.
Evans plays police officer Steve Wilkins in the drama, which depicts the pursuit of a cold-blooded serial killer and is based on true-crime book Catching the Bullseye Killer, written by Senior Investigating Officer Steve Wilkins and ITV news journalist Jonathan Hill.
Filming kicked off in January on the series, which was originally commissioned by ITV’s Head of Drama Polly Hill and is written by In Plain Sight’s Nick Stevens. The series comes from ITV-owned Bodyguard and Line of Duty producer World Productions and is produced by Hinterland’s Ed Talfan for Wales-based Severn Screen.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle...
- 3/3/2020
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Murder Mystery and The Alienist star Luke Evans is to lead an ITV crime drama from Bodyguard producer World Productions. The actor, who also starred in The Fate of the Furious, will play police officer Steve Wilkins in The Pembrokeshire Murders.
The three-part series, which depicts the pursuit of a cold-blooded serial killer, is based on true-crime book Catching the Bullseye Killer, written by Senior Investigating Officer Steve Wilkins and ITV news journalist Jonathan Hill.
Filming kicks off this month on the series, which was commissioned by ITV’s Head of Drama Polly Hill, is written by In Plain Sight’s Nick Stevens. The series comes from ITV-owned Bodyguard and Line of Duty producer World Productions and is produced by Hinterland’s Ed Talfan for Wales-based Severn Screen.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle’s Keith Allen plays John Cooper, Game of Thrones’ Owen Teale plays Gerard Elias, The End...
The three-part series, which depicts the pursuit of a cold-blooded serial killer, is based on true-crime book Catching the Bullseye Killer, written by Senior Investigating Officer Steve Wilkins and ITV news journalist Jonathan Hill.
Filming kicks off this month on the series, which was commissioned by ITV’s Head of Drama Polly Hill, is written by In Plain Sight’s Nick Stevens. The series comes from ITV-owned Bodyguard and Line of Duty producer World Productions and is produced by Hinterland’s Ed Talfan for Wales-based Severn Screen.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle’s Keith Allen plays John Cooper, Game of Thrones’ Owen Teale plays Gerard Elias, The End...
- 1/20/2020
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
The challenge facing not only United Artists' marketing mavens but reviewers is how to characterize the sly comic pull of writer-director Burr Steers' "Igby Goes Down".
Mention of disaffected youth and upper-class angst is off-putting. So you try twists on past movies, such as "Arthur" with a social conscience or "The Graduate" during the '90s economic bubble or "Five Easy Pieces" adrift among East Coast Wasps. One can make an even stronger comparison of "Igby" to Holden Caulfield in "The Catcher in the Rye", the ultimate confused, disillusioned teen in American fiction. But none of this does full justice to an original work filled with bracing wit and sharp observations about character, class and social milieu.
You can only hope that festival exposure and strong promotion in urban adult markets by UA will help this film find its audience. "Igby" may divide people. At a recent press screening, there were two walkouts and applause at the end, both rarities.
There is no controversy over Kieran Culkin's turn as Igby Slocumb. He marvelously holds the screen with a performance that suggests both brash cynicism and extreme vulnerability. Alienated from his family and class, Igby discovers the only form of rebellion open to a 17-year-old rich kid comes in a resolute determination to fail -- in his studies, social deportment and relationships with family members. His shrink even hits him. Twice.
Igby has been kicked out of so many prep schools on the East Coast that his anal, distant, pill-popping mother, Mimi (Susan Sarandon in a scathing portrait of a lady of leisure), stashes him in a military academy. Almost immediately, Igby runs away with her credit card and hides out in New York.
He takes up residence in an artist loft owned by his godfather, D.H. (Jeff Goldblum) -- a ruthlessly focused self-made man -- which is used by D.H.'s dancer mistress (Amanda Peet). Igby then tumbles into a Manhattan demimonde that includes the dancer's friend (Jared Harris), a performance-artist who deals drugs, and the sexually vivacious Sookie Sapperstein (Claire Danes), an older, jaded Bennington student who launches an affair with Igby because she thinks he's "funny."
But what does Igby want? "I'm preparing to leave", he announces. Certainly nothing in his present life maintains a grip on him. His dad (Bill Pullman) resides in a mental hospital. His brother Oliver Ryan Phillippe) is a self-absorbed, Fascist-prone Columbia student with little between him and his younger brother. Igby calls his mother Mimi because "Heinous One is a bit cumbersome."
Steers says he began "Igby" as a novel. This shows in the film's rich detail and texture. While every character is caught in a scathing light, no one comes off as two-dimensional. All are vibrant personalities, their discontent and dysfunction seen as a consequence of class, personal idiosyncrasies and too much time on their hands. Steers puts everybody in his place but never puts anyone down. The tone is always comic, even when circumstances are tragic.
Occasional flashbacks (with Culkin's brother Rory playing 10-year-old Igby) fill in more details of his peculiar childhood. At times, though, things may be a little too peculiar: Characters have one edge too many. Emotional illnesses tend toward theatricality.
Sookie's brief involvement with Oliver feels forced and unlikely, given Sookie's disdain for such people. Finally, some events abruptly happen, suggesting cutting-room decisions.
Wedigo von Schulzendorff's elegant cinematography and Kevin Thompson's nuanced design make for an Upper West Side that is slightly idealized and somewhat surreal. Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen's music is well spotted and unintrusive yet supports and often amusingly comments on the action.
IGBY GOES DOWN
United Artists
UA and Atlantic Streamline present in association with Crossroads Films a Marco Weber/Lisa Tornell production
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Burr Steers
Producers: Marco Weber, Lisa Tornell
Executive producers: Fran Lucci, David Rubin, Lee Solomon, Helen Beadleston
Director of photography: Wedigo von Schulzendorff
Production designer: Kevin Thompson
Music: Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen
Costume designer: Sarah Edwards
Editor: William Anderson
Cast:
Igby Slocumb: Kieran Culkin
Sookie Sapperstein: Claire Danes
DH: Jeff Goldblum
Russell: Jared Harris
Rachel: Amanda Peet
Oliver: Ryan Phillippe
Jason: Bill Pullman
Mimi: Susan Sarandon
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 96 minutes...
Mention of disaffected youth and upper-class angst is off-putting. So you try twists on past movies, such as "Arthur" with a social conscience or "The Graduate" during the '90s economic bubble or "Five Easy Pieces" adrift among East Coast Wasps. One can make an even stronger comparison of "Igby" to Holden Caulfield in "The Catcher in the Rye", the ultimate confused, disillusioned teen in American fiction. But none of this does full justice to an original work filled with bracing wit and sharp observations about character, class and social milieu.
You can only hope that festival exposure and strong promotion in urban adult markets by UA will help this film find its audience. "Igby" may divide people. At a recent press screening, there were two walkouts and applause at the end, both rarities.
There is no controversy over Kieran Culkin's turn as Igby Slocumb. He marvelously holds the screen with a performance that suggests both brash cynicism and extreme vulnerability. Alienated from his family and class, Igby discovers the only form of rebellion open to a 17-year-old rich kid comes in a resolute determination to fail -- in his studies, social deportment and relationships with family members. His shrink even hits him. Twice.
Igby has been kicked out of so many prep schools on the East Coast that his anal, distant, pill-popping mother, Mimi (Susan Sarandon in a scathing portrait of a lady of leisure), stashes him in a military academy. Almost immediately, Igby runs away with her credit card and hides out in New York.
He takes up residence in an artist loft owned by his godfather, D.H. (Jeff Goldblum) -- a ruthlessly focused self-made man -- which is used by D.H.'s dancer mistress (Amanda Peet). Igby then tumbles into a Manhattan demimonde that includes the dancer's friend (Jared Harris), a performance-artist who deals drugs, and the sexually vivacious Sookie Sapperstein (Claire Danes), an older, jaded Bennington student who launches an affair with Igby because she thinks he's "funny."
But what does Igby want? "I'm preparing to leave", he announces. Certainly nothing in his present life maintains a grip on him. His dad (Bill Pullman) resides in a mental hospital. His brother Oliver Ryan Phillippe) is a self-absorbed, Fascist-prone Columbia student with little between him and his younger brother. Igby calls his mother Mimi because "Heinous One is a bit cumbersome."
Steers says he began "Igby" as a novel. This shows in the film's rich detail and texture. While every character is caught in a scathing light, no one comes off as two-dimensional. All are vibrant personalities, their discontent and dysfunction seen as a consequence of class, personal idiosyncrasies and too much time on their hands. Steers puts everybody in his place but never puts anyone down. The tone is always comic, even when circumstances are tragic.
Occasional flashbacks (with Culkin's brother Rory playing 10-year-old Igby) fill in more details of his peculiar childhood. At times, though, things may be a little too peculiar: Characters have one edge too many. Emotional illnesses tend toward theatricality.
Sookie's brief involvement with Oliver feels forced and unlikely, given Sookie's disdain for such people. Finally, some events abruptly happen, suggesting cutting-room decisions.
Wedigo von Schulzendorff's elegant cinematography and Kevin Thompson's nuanced design make for an Upper West Side that is slightly idealized and somewhat surreal. Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen's music is well spotted and unintrusive yet supports and often amusingly comments on the action.
IGBY GOES DOWN
United Artists
UA and Atlantic Streamline present in association with Crossroads Films a Marco Weber/Lisa Tornell production
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Burr Steers
Producers: Marco Weber, Lisa Tornell
Executive producers: Fran Lucci, David Rubin, Lee Solomon, Helen Beadleston
Director of photography: Wedigo von Schulzendorff
Production designer: Kevin Thompson
Music: Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen
Costume designer: Sarah Edwards
Editor: William Anderson
Cast:
Igby Slocumb: Kieran Culkin
Sookie Sapperstein: Claire Danes
DH: Jeff Goldblum
Russell: Jared Harris
Rachel: Amanda Peet
Oliver: Ryan Phillippe
Jason: Bill Pullman
Mimi: Susan Sarandon
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 96 minutes...
- 8/30/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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