The BBC is celebrating the art of the literary adaptation by screening a variety of classics on BBC Four. More details here.
The BBC is quite rightly celebrated for its rich history of book to screen adaptations, such as the iconic 1995 version of Jane Austen’a Pride And Prejudice to Cbbc’s hugely successful adaptation of Dame Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker series.
It has now put together a season of 14 adaptations from the BBC archive, some of which have rarely been seen since their original broadcast.
The dramas are:
The Great Gatsby
Toby Stephens, Mira Sorvino and Paul Rudd lead the cast in this 2000 BBC adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel on the American dream in the jazz age.
Small Island
Naomie Harris, Ruth Wilson, David Oyelowo, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ashley Walters star in this 2009 TV version of Andrea Levy’s novel focusing on the lives and...
The BBC is quite rightly celebrated for its rich history of book to screen adaptations, such as the iconic 1995 version of Jane Austen’a Pride And Prejudice to Cbbc’s hugely successful adaptation of Dame Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker series.
It has now put together a season of 14 adaptations from the BBC archive, some of which have rarely been seen since their original broadcast.
The dramas are:
The Great Gatsby
Toby Stephens, Mira Sorvino and Paul Rudd lead the cast in this 2000 BBC adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel on the American dream in the jazz age.
Small Island
Naomie Harris, Ruth Wilson, David Oyelowo, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ashley Walters star in this 2009 TV version of Andrea Levy’s novel focusing on the lives and...
- 2/6/2024
- by Jake Godfrey
- Film Stories
Luigi Caiola, who co-founded the Broadway production and investment company Caiola Productions with his sister Rose and participated in the development of more than 50 shows, died November 26 at his home in Miami. He was 64.
His death was announced by his family. A cause has not been determined.
A managing member of B&l Management LLC, a New York City real estate development company founded by his father Benny Caiola in 1974, Luigi Caiola, along with sister Rose Caiola, launched Caiola Productions in 2011 out of their shared passion for the theater. The entity has been involved in dozens of Broadway shows, including Tony Award winners Dear Evan Hansen, The Color Purple, Once on This Island, Company, All the Way, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the recent revival of Parade.
Born on September 15, 1959, Caiola was a fervent activist for the LGBTQ+ community. Having survived New York’s devastating AIDS crisis of the 1980s and ’90s,...
His death was announced by his family. A cause has not been determined.
A managing member of B&l Management LLC, a New York City real estate development company founded by his father Benny Caiola in 1974, Luigi Caiola, along with sister Rose Caiola, launched Caiola Productions in 2011 out of their shared passion for the theater. The entity has been involved in dozens of Broadway shows, including Tony Award winners Dear Evan Hansen, The Color Purple, Once on This Island, Company, All the Way, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the recent revival of Parade.
Born on September 15, 1959, Caiola was a fervent activist for the LGBTQ+ community. Having survived New York’s devastating AIDS crisis of the 1980s and ’90s,...
- 11/29/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Amicus Relaunch Bid Smashes Crowdfunding Goal in Less Than 24 Hours: "An ambitious campaign to revive the iconic British horror studio has reached its £60K funding goal in just 11 hours as fans from around the world rally around the project.
Thanks to this hugely successful funding drive, Amicus is now set to return with its first film for decades, ‘In the Grip of Terror’, a portmanteau feature harking back to the company's best-loved titles such as 'Dr. Terror's House of Horrors' (1965), 'Tales from the Crypt' (1972), and 'Asylum' (1972).
Since the announcement last month of the rebirth of Amicus, the team behind the project has received an incredible outpouring of support from the horror community, culminating in the launch of their record-breaking Kickstarter campaign. The team is seeking funds to produce 'In the Grip of Terror', and in return offering various perks, from Collector's Edition physical copies to exclusive merchandise,...
Thanks to this hugely successful funding drive, Amicus is now set to return with its first film for decades, ‘In the Grip of Terror’, a portmanteau feature harking back to the company's best-loved titles such as 'Dr. Terror's House of Horrors' (1965), 'Tales from the Crypt' (1972), and 'Asylum' (1972).
Since the announcement last month of the rebirth of Amicus, the team behind the project has received an incredible outpouring of support from the horror community, culminating in the launch of their record-breaking Kickstarter campaign. The team is seeking funds to produce 'In the Grip of Terror', and in return offering various perks, from Collector's Edition physical copies to exclusive merchandise,...
- 9/20/2023
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
Spoiler Alert: This review contains spoilers from “A Hundred Years Ago,” the eighth episode of Season 2 of “And Just Like That,” now streaming on Max.
I was as skeptical as anyone when it became clear that Aidan was returning to “And Just Like That.”
The “Sex and the City” character, Carrie’s other great love and one who, in his status as an obvious second choice to Big, wasn’t really so great, seemed to have run out of dramatic possibility a while ago. His appearance in “Sex and the City 2,” with a credibility-straining chance meeting in Abu Dhabi, seemed only to be happening to cast into relief what worked, and what didn’t, in Carrie’s marriage. Aidan’s own qualities as anything other than not-Big didn’t meaningfully enter the story.
With “And Just Like That,” Max’s continuation of the “Sex and the City” TV and movie franchise,...
I was as skeptical as anyone when it became clear that Aidan was returning to “And Just Like That.”
The “Sex and the City” character, Carrie’s other great love and one who, in his status as an obvious second choice to Big, wasn’t really so great, seemed to have run out of dramatic possibility a while ago. His appearance in “Sex and the City 2,” with a credibility-straining chance meeting in Abu Dhabi, seemed only to be happening to cast into relief what worked, and what didn’t, in Carrie’s marriage. Aidan’s own qualities as anything other than not-Big didn’t meaningfully enter the story.
With “And Just Like That,” Max’s continuation of the “Sex and the City” TV and movie franchise,...
- 8/3/2023
- by Daniel D'Addario
- Variety Film + TV
Julian Sands has officially been pronounced dead nearly five months after he went missing during a hike in California. Authorities confirmed the identification of his remains on Tuesday. Sands was 65.
“The identification process for the body located on Mt. Baldy on June 24, 2023, has been completed and was positively identified as 65-year-old Julian Sands of North Hollywood. The manner of death is still under investigation, pending further test results,” the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. “We would like to extend our gratitude to all the volunteers that worked tirelessly to locate Mr.
“The identification process for the body located on Mt. Baldy on June 24, 2023, has been completed and was positively identified as 65-year-old Julian Sands of North Hollywood. The manner of death is still under investigation, pending further test results,” the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. “We would like to extend our gratitude to all the volunteers that worked tirelessly to locate Mr.
- 6/27/2023
- by Jodi Guglielmi
- Rollingstone.com
Director James Ivory became an art house favorite thanks to a series of lofty literary adaptations produced by his partner Ismail Merchant. He shows no signs of slowing down in his twilight years. In fact, he recently become the oldest Oscar winner in history for penning the script to “Call Me by Your Name” (2017).
Although the majority of his work takes place overseas, Ivory was born in Berkeley, CA, in 1928. After cutting his teeth as a documentarian, he kicked off a professional and romantic relationship with Merchant, and together they formed the production company Merchant Ivory. Together, with screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala serving as the third member of their team, they produced a series of acclaimed films based on the works of E. M. Forster, Henry James, Kazuo Ishiguro and other seemingly unadaptable sources.
They struck Oscar gold with a trio of films that earned nominations for Best Picture, Best Director,...
Although the majority of his work takes place overseas, Ivory was born in Berkeley, CA, in 1928. After cutting his teeth as a documentarian, he kicked off a professional and romantic relationship with Merchant, and together they formed the production company Merchant Ivory. Together, with screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala serving as the third member of their team, they produced a series of acclaimed films based on the works of E. M. Forster, Henry James, Kazuo Ishiguro and other seemingly unadaptable sources.
They struck Oscar gold with a trio of films that earned nominations for Best Picture, Best Director,...
- 6/2/2023
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Clockwise from top left: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert (MGM), Tangerine (Magnolia Pictures), The Birdcage (MGM), Moonlight (Lionsgate)Graphic: AVClub
June means Pride Month, and Pride Month means celebrating queer art—which we could all use more of given the current state of things. In the spirit of 2023 Pride,...
June means Pride Month, and Pride Month means celebrating queer art—which we could all use more of given the current state of things. In the spirit of 2023 Pride,...
- 6/1/2023
- by Richard Newby, Manuel Betancourt, Brandon Kirby, Jack Smart, Alison Foreman
- avclub.com
One of the greatest honors someone can receive from the United Kingdom is receiving a knighthood. However, not everyone wants the title. This included rock star David Bowie.
Who gets to be knighted by the British monarchy?
Anyone can be nominated for knighthood (or damehood for women), but they must meet the monarch’s criteria. The nominee will have made an important contribution to the UK and the world, inspiring and influencing others with their work. Only citizens of the UK can officially be made knights or dames. However, people from all over the world can receive an honorary version of the title.
The late Queen Elizabeth knighted almost 300 people during her reign. This included diplomats, politicians, business leaders, artists, humanitarians, and athletes. Some of the most notable people who received knighthoods over the last few years include Paul McCartney, Emma Thompson, Elton John, Sean Connery, Bill Gates, Angelina Jolie,...
Who gets to be knighted by the British monarchy?
Anyone can be nominated for knighthood (or damehood for women), but they must meet the monarch’s criteria. The nominee will have made an important contribution to the UK and the world, inspiring and influencing others with their work. Only citizens of the UK can officially be made knights or dames. However, people from all over the world can receive an honorary version of the title.
The late Queen Elizabeth knighted almost 300 people during her reign. This included diplomats, politicians, business leaders, artists, humanitarians, and athletes. Some of the most notable people who received knighthoods over the last few years include Paul McCartney, Emma Thompson, Elton John, Sean Connery, Bill Gates, Angelina Jolie,...
- 3/1/2023
- by India McCarty
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Helena Bonham Carter has been gracing our screens for almost 40 years now.
Her often-wild, curly hair, thick eyebrows and loud cackle have become synonymous with a slightly off-the-wall character performance.
She was, however, first typecast as a virginal “English rose” in films such as A Room With a View (1985), helping to reinforce the Hollywood stereotype of the English as tea-sipping, bonnet-wearing toffs.
In fairness to the casting agents, though, arisocrat is a role Bonham Carter was born into. Her great-grandfather is H H Asquith, prime minister of the United Kingdom during the first half of World War One. Her uncle, Mark Bonham Carter, once dated Princess Margaret – a figure she would later play in The Crown.
Nevertheless, the quaint Victorian heroine shtick was never going to last.
“I drink booze, I smoke, and I’m hooked on caffeine. I actually have been known to swear at times and belch and...
Her often-wild, curly hair, thick eyebrows and loud cackle have become synonymous with a slightly off-the-wall character performance.
She was, however, first typecast as a virginal “English rose” in films such as A Room With a View (1985), helping to reinforce the Hollywood stereotype of the English as tea-sipping, bonnet-wearing toffs.
In fairness to the casting agents, though, arisocrat is a role Bonham Carter was born into. Her great-grandfather is H H Asquith, prime minister of the United Kingdom during the first half of World War One. Her uncle, Mark Bonham Carter, once dated Princess Margaret – a figure she would later play in The Crown.
Nevertheless, the quaint Victorian heroine shtick was never going to last.
“I drink booze, I smoke, and I’m hooked on caffeine. I actually have been known to swear at times and belch and...
- 1/31/2023
- by Tom Murray and Inga Parkel
- The Independent - Film
British actor Julian Sands has been identified as the hiker who went missing in the California mountains last week.
The 65-year-old, known for his role in the Oscar-nominated 1985 film A Room with a View, has been missing in the Mount Baldy area since Friday 13 January, according to authorities.
He was reported missing by his wife, writer Evgenia Citkowitz, on Friday evening and was thought to have been somewhere on the popular Baldy Bowl Trail in the San Gabriel Mountains. Mount Baldy is a 10,000ft peak located northeast of Los Angeles, in the Angeles National Forest.
Sands is a keen hiker and mountain-climber who once described his happiest moment as “close to a mountain summit on a glorious cold morning”.
Search and rescue crews were on the mountain looking for Sands, but had to suspend the search because of severe weather and avalanche threat, department spokesperson Gloria Huerta told CNN.
Drones...
The 65-year-old, known for his role in the Oscar-nominated 1985 film A Room with a View, has been missing in the Mount Baldy area since Friday 13 January, according to authorities.
He was reported missing by his wife, writer Evgenia Citkowitz, on Friday evening and was thought to have been somewhere on the popular Baldy Bowl Trail in the San Gabriel Mountains. Mount Baldy is a 10,000ft peak located northeast of Los Angeles, in the Angeles National Forest.
Sands is a keen hiker and mountain-climber who once described his happiest moment as “close to a mountain summit on a glorious cold morning”.
Search and rescue crews were on the mountain looking for Sands, but had to suspend the search because of severe weather and avalanche threat, department spokesperson Gloria Huerta told CNN.
Drones...
- 1/19/2023
- by Graeme Massie and Roisin O'Connor
- The Independent - Film
This review originally ran on September 11, 2022, for the film’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
A love triangle plays out over decades in Michael Grandage’s “My Policeman,” based on the 2012 novel by Bethan Roberts, who was inspired by the 40-year relationship between English novelist E.M. Forster and policeman Bob Buckingham, as well Buckingham’s wife, May, who also became close with Forster. As described by Roberts in a 2012 essay in The Guardian, this quiet, proto-polyamorous situation was “a wonderful muddle,” which seemingly worked for all three participants in their own way.
The relationship at the center of “My Policeman,” isn’t so much wonderful as it is tragic. Instead of finding a happily unconventional comfort as Forster and the Buckinghams may have, the three individuals in “My Policeman” end up jealous, unsatisfied and oppressed, and the film explores the ways in which one might attempt to right decades of wrongs.
A love triangle plays out over decades in Michael Grandage’s “My Policeman,” based on the 2012 novel by Bethan Roberts, who was inspired by the 40-year relationship between English novelist E.M. Forster and policeman Bob Buckingham, as well Buckingham’s wife, May, who also became close with Forster. As described by Roberts in a 2012 essay in The Guardian, this quiet, proto-polyamorous situation was “a wonderful muddle,” which seemingly worked for all three participants in their own way.
The relationship at the center of “My Policeman,” isn’t so much wonderful as it is tragic. Instead of finding a happily unconventional comfort as Forster and the Buckinghams may have, the three individuals in “My Policeman” end up jealous, unsatisfied and oppressed, and the film explores the ways in which one might attempt to right decades of wrongs.
- 11/4/2022
- by Katie Walsh
- The Wrap
What is it about the English seaside and suppressed yearning? Is it the bracing winds? The overcast skies? The white cliffs and rocky beaches, as bloodless as the emotional lives of characters who are terrified of their heart’s true desires? The beaches of Brighton in My Policeman are slightly sunnier than those of, say, Dorset in 2020’s Ammonite, but the chilling effect is the same.
To be fair, it’s not all the weather’s fault. Sunshine or fog, a gay man openly expressing his sexuality in 1950s England could land him in prison,...
To be fair, it’s not all the weather’s fault. Sunshine or fog, a gay man openly expressing his sexuality in 1950s England could land him in prison,...
- 10/21/2022
- by Katie Rife
- Rollingstone.com
Image Source: Everett Collection
Harry Styles has generated quite the buzz in the entertainment world outside of his music in 2022. From starring in Olivia Wilde's "Don't Worry Darling" to his cameo as Starfox in Marvel's "Eternals," the "As It Was" singer is taking on more acting projects and growing his film résumé. In Styles's latest film, "My Policeman," he shares the screen with "The Crown"'s Emma Corrin and David Dawson.
The film is based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Bethan Roberts and centers on a complicated love triangle that spans decades, with the nature of the relationship dangerous to all involved.
Ahead of its theatrical release on Oct. 21, here's the story that inspired "My Policeman."
What Is "My Policeman" About?
In the 1950s, policeman Tom Burgess (Styles) meets schoolteacher Marion Taylor (Corrin). The two fall in love, eventually marry, and settle down in the beachside town of Brighton,...
Harry Styles has generated quite the buzz in the entertainment world outside of his music in 2022. From starring in Olivia Wilde's "Don't Worry Darling" to his cameo as Starfox in Marvel's "Eternals," the "As It Was" singer is taking on more acting projects and growing his film résumé. In Styles's latest film, "My Policeman," he shares the screen with "The Crown"'s Emma Corrin and David Dawson.
The film is based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Bethan Roberts and centers on a complicated love triangle that spans decades, with the nature of the relationship dangerous to all involved.
Ahead of its theatrical release on Oct. 21, here's the story that inspired "My Policeman."
What Is "My Policeman" About?
In the 1950s, policeman Tom Burgess (Styles) meets schoolteacher Marion Taylor (Corrin). The two fall in love, eventually marry, and settle down in the beachside town of Brighton,...
- 10/20/2022
- by Alicia Geigel
- Popsugar.com
Michael Grandage’s adaptation of a novel inspired by Forster’s famous ménage à trois conjours a mood of British postwar repression and guilt
Michael Grandage’s new film has been coolly received by some, but I found it an interestingly fragile and Rattiganesque melodrama of repression and regret. It is set on a gloomy English seafront and intercuts between the buttoned-up 1950s and the late 1990s. As an earnestly intended drama I can imagine it being performed on stage at a weekday matinee, the climactic speeches echoing wanly around the auditorium. But in its contrived way, it conjures a very English sort of shame.
Screenwriter Ron Nyswaner has adapted the novel by Bethan Roberts, itself inspired by the famous ménage between novelist Em Forster, Forster’s policeman lover Bob Buckingham and Bob’s wife, May. Linus Roache and Gina McKee play ageing married couple Tom and Marion, respectively a...
Michael Grandage’s new film has been coolly received by some, but I found it an interestingly fragile and Rattiganesque melodrama of repression and regret. It is set on a gloomy English seafront and intercuts between the buttoned-up 1950s and the late 1990s. As an earnestly intended drama I can imagine it being performed on stage at a weekday matinee, the climactic speeches echoing wanly around the auditorium. But in its contrived way, it conjures a very English sort of shame.
Screenwriter Ron Nyswaner has adapted the novel by Bethan Roberts, itself inspired by the famous ménage between novelist Em Forster, Forster’s policeman lover Bob Buckingham and Bob’s wife, May. Linus Roache and Gina McKee play ageing married couple Tom and Marion, respectively a...
- 10/20/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Click here to read the full article.
As Westwood’s Geffen Playhouse celebrated the opening day of The Inheritance on Sunday, there was a special guest seated in the audience all day long: Matthew López. And what a day-turned-night it was.
The Tony-winning playwright turned up for an epic day at the Geffen, which presented part one and part two back-to-back with a block party in between.
The day’s schedule kicked off as doors opened at noon for a cocktail hour that preceded the first performance, from 1-4:30 p.m. An outdoor picnic followed from 4:30-6 p.m. featuring boxed lunches, an ice cream truck, a coffee cart and other treats sprinkled about on Le Conte Avenue, a spread that also featured a production-approved cherry tree. Then a musical performance and DJ in the Geffen courtyard from 6-7 p.m. followed by Part 2 and a post-show party...
As Westwood’s Geffen Playhouse celebrated the opening day of The Inheritance on Sunday, there was a special guest seated in the audience all day long: Matthew López. And what a day-turned-night it was.
The Tony-winning playwright turned up for an epic day at the Geffen, which presented part one and part two back-to-back with a block party in between.
The day’s schedule kicked off as doors opened at noon for a cocktail hour that preceded the first performance, from 1-4:30 p.m. An outdoor picnic followed from 4:30-6 p.m. featuring boxed lunches, an ice cream truck, a coffee cart and other treats sprinkled about on Le Conte Avenue, a spread that also featured a production-approved cherry tree. Then a musical performance and DJ in the Geffen courtyard from 6-7 p.m. followed by Part 2 and a post-show party...
- 10/17/2022
- by Chris Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
On a break from his Madison Square Garden residency, and shortly after the Don’t Worry Darling Venice Film Festival world premiere, Harry Styles hit Toronto as his Amazon Studios Prime Video feature drama My Policeman made its world premiere to a great standing ovation Sunday at the Princess of Wales Theatre.
And there was no meme social-media spitting, or backstage drama; just all good vibes for My Policeman cast and director Michael Grandage. First stop was the Princess of Wales, where Emma Corin, David Dawson, Linus Roache, Styles and the filmmaker were among those taking the stage. Then they were whisked a few blocks away to the Fairmont Hotel to pick up their TIFF Tribute award for Best Performance (for the entire cast; see their acceptance speech below). Then they headed back for a Q&a at the Princess of Wales. And let’s not forget the press conference earlier in the day.
And there was no meme social-media spitting, or backstage drama; just all good vibes for My Policeman cast and director Michael Grandage. First stop was the Princess of Wales, where Emma Corin, David Dawson, Linus Roache, Styles and the filmmaker were among those taking the stage. Then they were whisked a few blocks away to the Fairmont Hotel to pick up their TIFF Tribute award for Best Performance (for the entire cast; see their acceptance speech below). Then they headed back for a Q&a at the Princess of Wales. And let’s not forget the press conference earlier in the day.
- 9/12/2022
- by Anthony D'Alessandro and Scott Shilstone
- Deadline Film + TV
English novelist E.M. Forster never married, and why would he? The author of “Maurice” and “Howards End” was gay, reportedly maintaining relations with a much-younger police officer over the span of four decades. That man did marry, and history has it that his wife knew their secret. In “My Policeman,” this unconventional arrangement lends itself quite nicely to one of those slightly stuffy yet respectable period pieces of the kind that Ismail Merchant and James Ivory have made of Forster’s novels, jumping back and forth in time between the sexy stuff and the maudlin way it resolves itself so many years later.
It all starts with a special delivery to a dreary seaside cottage: An invalid arrives at the house of retired policeman Tom (Linus Roache) and his schoolteacher wife Marion (Gina McKee). It was her idea to take in the unpleasant and largely uncooperative Patrick Hazelwood, whose presence clearly annoys her husband.
It all starts with a special delivery to a dreary seaside cottage: An invalid arrives at the house of retired policeman Tom (Linus Roache) and his schoolteacher wife Marion (Gina McKee). It was her idea to take in the unpleasant and largely uncooperative Patrick Hazelwood, whose presence clearly annoys her husband.
- 9/12/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
An involuntary snort of laughter escaped me just as the illicit gay union at the heart of My Policeman hit its most torrid peak. Harry Styles as Tom Burgess, the 1950s British copper who gives the film its title, has snuck off for a few days’ romantic idyll in Venice with his secret lover, urbane museum curator Patrick Hazelwood, played by David Dawson like he’s just stepped out of Brideshead Revisited. Patrick is draped across a hotel bed in what appears to be post-coital bliss, dreamily contemplating the sculptural curves of Tom’s buttocks as he stands smoking naked at the window. In precisely that moment, the choir singing Vivaldi’s “Gloria” explodes in collective euphoria.
It would be nice to think this was some music supervisor’s idea of, ahem, a cheeky joke, to direct a hymn of glorious praise at...
An involuntary snort of laughter escaped me just as the illicit gay union at the heart of My Policeman hit its most torrid peak. Harry Styles as Tom Burgess, the 1950s British copper who gives the film its title, has snuck off for a few days’ romantic idyll in Venice with his secret lover, urbane museum curator Patrick Hazelwood, played by David Dawson like he’s just stepped out of Brideshead Revisited. Patrick is draped across a hotel bed in what appears to be post-coital bliss, dreamily contemplating the sculptural curves of Tom’s buttocks as he stands smoking naked at the window. In precisely that moment, the choir singing Vivaldi’s “Gloria” explodes in collective euphoria.
It would be nice to think this was some music supervisor’s idea of, ahem, a cheeky joke, to direct a hymn of glorious praise at...
- 9/12/2022
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
My Policeman, which had its world premiere today at the Toronto Film Festival, has its roots in a novel by Bethan Roberts which was actually based on a complicated love relationship between famed novelist E.M. Forster; his male lover of 40 years, a policeman named Bob Buckingham; and Buckingham’s wife May Hockey, who slowly came to realize her husband had a long-standing affair with Forster, but even after he had suffered a series of strokes took care of the author in his later life so deep was their friendship. Roberts changed the names and fictionalized it all for her book, which is now the basis of Ron Nyswaner’s (Philadelphia) screenplay that explores the love triangle of three freewheeling friends in 1957 who each was hobbled by the mores of the time, repressing rather than expressing their own sexuality, even as the...
- 9/12/2022
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
40 years ago, Hugh Grant made his film debut in 1982’s “Privileged,” a little-seen effort about undergraduates at Oxford (where Grant studied English lit), which was funded by the Oxford University Film Foundation. In its July 14, 1982, review, Variety said the film — which also marked the bows of producer Andy Paterson, director Michael Hoffman, actors Imogen Stubbs and James Wilby and composer Rachel Portman — would have “limited interest” for most audiences but that the actor, billed as Hughie Grant, gives a convincing performance as an “aristocratic dropout.”
For the next five years, Grant did sketch comedy, played the classics onstage and worked in TV; his first mention in Variety was for the 1985 miniseries “Jenny’s War,” playing the Raf pilot son of Dyan Cannon.
He boosted his profile with the 1987 Merchant-Ivory film “Maurice,” adapted from E.M. Forster. The film also featuring his “Privileged” costar Wilby and the two shared the best-actor prize at the Venice Film Festival.
For the next five years, Grant did sketch comedy, played the classics onstage and worked in TV; his first mention in Variety was for the 1985 miniseries “Jenny’s War,” playing the Raf pilot son of Dyan Cannon.
He boosted his profile with the 1987 Merchant-Ivory film “Maurice,” adapted from E.M. Forster. The film also featuring his “Privileged” costar Wilby and the two shared the best-actor prize at the Venice Film Festival.
- 9/1/2022
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Most biopics are thuddingly prosaic: There’s a lot of “this happened, then that happened,” performed by a famous person covering themselves in latex in an attempt to resemble another famous person.
In the hands of British auteur Terence Davies, however, biopics can be poetry, although his choice of subject matter probably helps in that department. On the heels of his gorgeous and contemplative “A Quiet Passion,” about the life of Emily Dickinson, he returns with another passionately quiet portrait, this time exploring Siegfried Sassoon in “Benediction.”
It’s an impressionistic collage, and Davies skillfully jumps from the 1910s to the 1960s and back again. “Benediction” fleetingly encapsulates the horrors of WWI — Sassoon went from being a decorated soldier to an outspoken critic against those who would prolong the conflict — the shadow-world of British gay men in the decades before homosexuality was decriminalized in the UK, and the bitterness of...
In the hands of British auteur Terence Davies, however, biopics can be poetry, although his choice of subject matter probably helps in that department. On the heels of his gorgeous and contemplative “A Quiet Passion,” about the life of Emily Dickinson, he returns with another passionately quiet portrait, this time exploring Siegfried Sassoon in “Benediction.”
It’s an impressionistic collage, and Davies skillfully jumps from the 1910s to the 1960s and back again. “Benediction” fleetingly encapsulates the horrors of WWI — Sassoon went from being a decorated soldier to an outspoken critic against those who would prolong the conflict — the shadow-world of British gay men in the decades before homosexuality was decriminalized in the UK, and the bitterness of...
- 6/3/2022
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
In early April, when Netflix and Shondaland announced that Regé-Jean Page, everyone’s favorite duke, wouldn’t be returning for the second season of “Bridgerton,” the news caused an explosion of grief on the internet. “Bridgerton,” after all, was a sensation as soon as it hit Netflix on Christmas Day 2020, and a significant number of the show’s fans had fallen in love with Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings (Page) and Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor). How could he be leaving?!?
Rhimes was surprised by the surprise, she said during an interview for Variety’s Show Woman of the Year cover story — she assumed that more people would be familiar with the structure of Julia Quinn’s “Bridgerton” romance series. “Every season we’re telling a different romance story of a different couple,” she said. “There are eight Bridgerton siblings, and as far as I’m concerned, there are eight ‘Bridgerton’ seasons.
Rhimes was surprised by the surprise, she said during an interview for Variety’s Show Woman of the Year cover story — she assumed that more people would be familiar with the structure of Julia Quinn’s “Bridgerton” romance series. “Every season we’re telling a different romance story of a different couple,” she said. “There are eight Bridgerton siblings, and as far as I’m concerned, there are eight ‘Bridgerton’ seasons.
- 11/3/2021
- by Kate Aurthur
- Variety Film + TV
Occasionally we'll take a movie and baton pass it around the team and really dive in. If you missed past installments we've gone long and deep on Rebecca (1940), West Side Story (1961), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Cabaret (1972), Silence of the Lambs (1991), Thelma & Louise (1991), Aladdin (1992) and A League of Their Own (1992).
A Room With A View
(a three part retrospective)
part 1 by Cláudio Alves
Ismael Merchant and James Ivory's breakthrough hit, A Room with a View, based on the 1908 novel by E.M. Forster marked the beginning of a new era of British costume pictures. It opened in both the UK and the US in the spring of 1986 (the year we're celebrating this month at The Film Experience) on its way to becoming a beloved modern classic.
The movie won the BAFTA for Best Film and was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Since it's currently streaming...
A Room With A View
(a three part retrospective)
part 1 by Cláudio Alves
Ismael Merchant and James Ivory's breakthrough hit, A Room with a View, based on the 1908 novel by E.M. Forster marked the beginning of a new era of British costume pictures. It opened in both the UK and the US in the spring of 1986 (the year we're celebrating this month at The Film Experience) on its way to becoming a beloved modern classic.
The movie won the BAFTA for Best Film and was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Since it's currently streaming...
- 8/9/2021
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
Neil Peart made it only 10 months into his hard-won retirement before he started to feel like something was wrong. Words were, for once, the problem. Peart, one-third of the Toronto band Rush, was one of the world’s most worshipped drummers, unleashing his unearthly skills upon rotating drum kits that grew to encompass what seemed like every percussive possibility within human invention. Before band rehearsals for Rush tours, he’d practice on his own for weeks to ensure he could replicate his parts. His forearms bulged with muscle; his huge hands were calloused.
- 1/7/2021
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Matthew López, the acclaimed playwright behind “The Inheritance,” will bring the story of legendary dramatist Tennessee Williams to the big screen for Searchlight Pictures.
López will pen a feature film adaptation of the novel “Leading Men,” which centers on the “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” scribe and his longtime partner Frank Merlo. The film is produced by Luca Guadagnino and Peter Spears, who previously teamed for “Call Me By Your Name.” This is Spears’ second Searchlight project, after Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” which won the Venice Golden Lion and TIFF’s people’s choice award. There is currently no director attached to the project.
The novel by Christopher Castellani tells the tale of the romantic partnership between Williams and Merlo, touted in a synopsis of the film as “one of the most creatively inspiring love stories of the twentieth century.”
Already famous for penning “The Glass Menagerie,...
López will pen a feature film adaptation of the novel “Leading Men,” which centers on the “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” scribe and his longtime partner Frank Merlo. The film is produced by Luca Guadagnino and Peter Spears, who previously teamed for “Call Me By Your Name.” This is Spears’ second Searchlight project, after Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” which won the Venice Golden Lion and TIFF’s people’s choice award. There is currently no director attached to the project.
The novel by Christopher Castellani tells the tale of the romantic partnership between Williams and Merlo, touted in a synopsis of the film as “one of the most creatively inspiring love stories of the twentieth century.”
Already famous for penning “The Glass Menagerie,...
- 11/23/2020
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
7 random things that happened on this day, October 18th, in showbiz history. If it's your birthday, happy birthday!
1910 E.M. Forster's masterpiece Howards End is published. It will later become another masterpiece in a different medium with the Oscar-winning Merchant Ivory film version in 1992.
1920 Greek superstar Melina Mercouri born on this day in Athens 100 years ago. Happy Melina Mercouri Centennial...
1910 E.M. Forster's masterpiece Howards End is published. It will later become another masterpiece in a different medium with the Oscar-winning Merchant Ivory film version in 1992.
1920 Greek superstar Melina Mercouri born on this day in Athens 100 years ago. Happy Melina Mercouri Centennial...
- 10/18/2020
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Fresh from season 2 of HBO’s “Succession” in which he plays the hapless Tom, Matthew Macfadyen portrays Major Charles Ingram, the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” contestant accused of cheating, in the new AMC limited series “Quiz.” The BAFTA-winning actor (“Criminal Justice”) speaks about these two very different roles in our exclusive video interview (watch above).
Macfadyen readily admits that he remains on the fence as to whether Ingram and his wife Diana (Sian Clifford) conspired to defraud the show by having a fellow contestant cough at key points in the major’s deliberations over the questions. “The truth is we don’t know. Sian and I would come in every day and say, ‘Do you think they did or not?’ In the end we stopped minding. The interesting thing was their relationship.”
SEEEmmys 2020 exclusive: AMC, BBC America, IFC and Sundance categories
“Quiz,” which debuts on AMC just in time for Emmy consideration,...
Macfadyen readily admits that he remains on the fence as to whether Ingram and his wife Diana (Sian Clifford) conspired to defraud the show by having a fellow contestant cough at key points in the major’s deliberations over the questions. “The truth is we don’t know. Sian and I would come in every day and say, ‘Do you think they did or not?’ In the end we stopped minding. The interesting thing was their relationship.”
SEEEmmys 2020 exclusive: AMC, BBC America, IFC and Sundance categories
“Quiz,” which debuts on AMC just in time for Emmy consideration,...
- 5/28/2020
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
David Lean would’ve celebrated his 112th birthday on March 25, 2020. The Oscar-winning director became famous for a series of visual striking, technically ambitious epics, but how many of those titles remain classics? In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at all 16 of his films, ranked worst to best.
Born in 1908, Lean cut his teeth as a film editor, cutting a number of prominent movies including “49th Parallel” (1941) and “One of Our Aircraft Is Missing” (1942) for his contemporary, Michael Powell. He transitioned into directing, working alongside acclaimed playwright Noel Coward with “In Which We Serve” (1942). The WWII Naval epic was a joint venture for the two, with Coward (who also wrote and starred) handling the acting scenes and Lean tackling the action sequences.
He earned his first Oscar nominations for writing and directing “Brief Encounter” (1945), a big screen version of Coward’s play about two strangers (Trevor Howard...
Born in 1908, Lean cut his teeth as a film editor, cutting a number of prominent movies including “49th Parallel” (1941) and “One of Our Aircraft Is Missing” (1942) for his contemporary, Michael Powell. He transitioned into directing, working alongside acclaimed playwright Noel Coward with “In Which We Serve” (1942). The WWII Naval epic was a joint venture for the two, with Coward (who also wrote and starred) handling the acting scenes and Lean tackling the action sequences.
He earned his first Oscar nominations for writing and directing “Brief Encounter” (1945), a big screen version of Coward’s play about two strangers (Trevor Howard...
- 3/3/2020
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
The Inheritance, playwright Matthew Lopez’s two-part drama that re-imagines E.M. Forster’s Howards End as a 21st Century tale set among gay men in Manhattan, will close on Sunday, March 15, producers announced today.
Directed by Stephen Daldry, The Inheritance began previews at the Ethel Barrymore Theater on Friday, September 27, with an opening night on November 17. When it closes, it will have played 46 previews (28 of the play’s Part 1 and 18 of Part 2) and 138 regular performances.
The Broadway staging followed a sold-out London engagement. Though it received mostly positive reviews here – if less ecstatic than in London – The Inheritance has struggled at the box office. For the week ending Feb. 16, the two-part production grossed $345,984, just 30% of its $1.1M weekly potential. Attendance of 4,372 was at slightly more than half of capacity. The production hit its box office high point of $738,918 in early November, shortly before opening night.
The...
Directed by Stephen Daldry, The Inheritance began previews at the Ethel Barrymore Theater on Friday, September 27, with an opening night on November 17. When it closes, it will have played 46 previews (28 of the play’s Part 1 and 18 of Part 2) and 138 regular performances.
The Broadway staging followed a sold-out London engagement. Though it received mostly positive reviews here – if less ecstatic than in London – The Inheritance has struggled at the box office. For the week ending Feb. 16, the two-part production grossed $345,984, just 30% of its $1.1M weekly potential. Attendance of 4,372 was at slightly more than half of capacity. The production hit its box office high point of $738,918 in early November, shortly before opening night.
The...
- 2/21/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Broadway playwrights Jeremy O. Harris (Slave Play) and Matthew Lopez (The Inheritance) will be honored by the Human Rights Campaign with each receiving this year’s Hrc Equality Award.
Hrc, the nation’s largest Lgbtq civil rights organization, announced the honors today. The awards will be presented at the 19th Annual Hrc Greater New York Gala on Saturday, February 1.
“Jeremy O. Harris’s brilliant Slave Play is a compelling and raw exploration of race, sex, gender and identity,” said Hrc President Alphonso David. “A vital voice for the Lgbtq community, Harris constantly challenges us to rethink the power dynamics within all of our relationships and how our shared past influences our present struggle for justice. We are honored to award Jeremy O. Harris with our Equality Award for his work on and off Broadway.
“Matthew Lopez’s sweeping, groundbreaking play The Inheritance tells the important story of Lgbtq life in the 21st century,...
Hrc, the nation’s largest Lgbtq civil rights organization, announced the honors today. The awards will be presented at the 19th Annual Hrc Greater New York Gala on Saturday, February 1.
“Jeremy O. Harris’s brilliant Slave Play is a compelling and raw exploration of race, sex, gender and identity,” said Hrc President Alphonso David. “A vital voice for the Lgbtq community, Harris constantly challenges us to rethink the power dynamics within all of our relationships and how our shared past influences our present struggle for justice. We are honored to award Jeremy O. Harris with our Equality Award for his work on and off Broadway.
“Matthew Lopez’s sweeping, groundbreaking play The Inheritance tells the important story of Lgbtq life in the 21st century,...
- 1/27/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Greta Gerwig may have been snubbed for Best Director for “Little Women” at the Oscars (see the full list of contenders here), but the academy nevertheless nominated the film six times including Best Picture, and Gerwig is up for Best Adapted Screenplay. If she wins, she would achieve something no female writer has since Emma Thompson.
SEE2020 Oscar nominations: Full list of Academy Awards nominees in all 24 categories
No woman has won Best Adapted Screenplay since Diana Ossana, who co-wrote the script for “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) with Larry McMurtry. But it has been even longer since a woman has won this prize as the solo credited writer of her film — 24 years, to be exact. The last time was Thompson for “Sense and Sensibility” (1995).
The parallels are eerie. Both Thompson and Gerwig were best known as actors before they went behind the camera — though Thompson has only written films, never directed them like Gerwig has.
SEE2020 Oscar nominations: Full list of Academy Awards nominees in all 24 categories
No woman has won Best Adapted Screenplay since Diana Ossana, who co-wrote the script for “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) with Larry McMurtry. But it has been even longer since a woman has won this prize as the solo credited writer of her film — 24 years, to be exact. The last time was Thompson for “Sense and Sensibility” (1995).
The parallels are eerie. Both Thompson and Gerwig were best known as actors before they went behind the camera — though Thompson has only written films, never directed them like Gerwig has.
- 1/17/2020
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
Andrew Burnap is leaving no stone unturned with his Broadway debut as Toby Darling in Matthew Lopez’s two-part drama, The Inheritance.
The Yale Drama grad is onstage for almost all of Lopez’s seven-hour opus, baring his soul (and his body) as a self-destructive yet endearing playwright with a troubling past he can’t let go.
Burnap, 28, originated the role in the original award-winning London production, which transposes E.M. Forster’s classic novel Howards End to 21st-century New York to tell the story of a group of gay men from various generations.
Below are excerpts from People’s conversation with Burnap,...
The Yale Drama grad is onstage for almost all of Lopez’s seven-hour opus, baring his soul (and his body) as a self-destructive yet endearing playwright with a troubling past he can’t let go.
Burnap, 28, originated the role in the original award-winning London production, which transposes E.M. Forster’s classic novel Howards End to 21st-century New York to tell the story of a group of gay men from various generations.
Below are excerpts from People’s conversation with Burnap,...
- 12/18/2019
- by Nigel Smith
- PEOPLE.com
Tony Goldwyn, last seen on the New York stage co-starring with Bryan Cranston in Network, will make a four-month return to Broadway when he joins the cast of Matthew Lopez’ The Inheritance.
Starting Sunday Jan. 5, Goldwyn will take over the role of Henry Wilcox from John Benjamin Hickey, who’s taking a leave of absence to direct the Broadway-bound production of Plaza Suite starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Goldwyn, best known to TV audiences for his seven-season run as Scandal‘s President Fitzgerald Grant, has starred in such other Broadway productions as Promises, Promises and Holiday. Off Broadway credits include The Water’s Edge, The Dying Gaul, Spike Heels and The Sum of Us, among others.
The Inheritance, playing at the Barrymore Theatre, is Lopez’s re-imagining of E.M. Forster’s Howards End, updated to 21st Century Manhattan and shifting the characters to a group of gay men,...
Starting Sunday Jan. 5, Goldwyn will take over the role of Henry Wilcox from John Benjamin Hickey, who’s taking a leave of absence to direct the Broadway-bound production of Plaza Suite starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Goldwyn, best known to TV audiences for his seven-season run as Scandal‘s President Fitzgerald Grant, has starred in such other Broadway productions as Promises, Promises and Holiday. Off Broadway credits include The Water’s Edge, The Dying Gaul, Spike Heels and The Sum of Us, among others.
The Inheritance, playing at the Barrymore Theatre, is Lopez’s re-imagining of E.M. Forster’s Howards End, updated to 21st Century Manhattan and shifting the characters to a group of gay men,...
- 12/9/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The best advice about seeing The Inheritance on Broadway — which you definitely should if you’re looking for a head-spinning, heart-rending theatrical experience — is to forget the hype surrounding it. And that won’t be easy. Playwright Matthew Lopez, a Puerto Rican transplanted to New York City from the Florida panhandle, is fresh from London where his ardently ambitious play about different generations of gay men living in post-AIDs Manhattan won an armful of Oliviers (the Brit Tonys named after the late, great Lord Larry) and gushy reviews that called...
- 11/18/2019
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
Declarations of “She’s Got Legs” might be premature, but Broadway’s Tina: The Tina Turner Musical is already strutting to $1M+ at the weekly box office, becoming one of the season’s most promising productions.
In its second week of previews, Tina was a sell-out at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, grossing $1,386,360 for seven previews. With an average paid admission of $134, Tina hit 96% of its $1.5M potential.
Starring Adrienne Warren in the title role, Tina was a hit in London and seems to be carrying plenty of that good will to Broadway. Opening night is set for Nov. 7.
Tina‘s total helped keep Broadway from slipping more than a tiny 1.6% last week: Total receipts for the 34 Broadway productions for the week ending Oct. 20 were $34,644,583. Total attendance was 286,802, a barely noticeable bump of 1.4% over the previous week.
Another new arrival hit the right notes on Broadway last week: David Byrne’s American Utopia,...
In its second week of previews, Tina was a sell-out at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, grossing $1,386,360 for seven previews. With an average paid admission of $134, Tina hit 96% of its $1.5M potential.
Starring Adrienne Warren in the title role, Tina was a hit in London and seems to be carrying plenty of that good will to Broadway. Opening night is set for Nov. 7.
Tina‘s total helped keep Broadway from slipping more than a tiny 1.6% last week: Total receipts for the 34 Broadway productions for the week ending Oct. 20 were $34,644,583. Total attendance was 286,802, a barely noticeable bump of 1.4% over the previous week.
Another new arrival hit the right notes on Broadway last week: David Byrne’s American Utopia,...
- 10/21/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Starring Steve Coogan as a billionaire who is literally named “Rich,” Greed cannot be accused of being a subtle movie—but then, these are not subtle times. Reusing a comically raspy, manly baritone from The Trip, and kitted out with a set of absolutely blinding false chompers, Coogan is Sir Richard “Greedy” McCreadie—“King of the High Street,” per an opening exposition-via-YouTube, a flashy fast-fashion magnate obviously modeled on Sir Philip Green, the Topshop chairman notorious for asset stripping and general fat-cat arrogance. In Greed, McCreadie’s teetering empire is signified through flashbacks to Parliamentary testimony covering his shady dealings and reliance on sweatshop labor, intercut throughout the looming hubristic disaster of his 60th birthday weekend. You might groan at the symbolism of a modern-day robber baron throwing a multimillion-dollar toga party, was the concept not in fact directly lifted from Green’s 50th.
Here, the island is Mykonos,...
Here, the island is Mykonos,...
- 9/12/2019
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
And the next prime minister of Great Britain will be… Hugh Grant!
Okay, maybe not.
However, Grant says he has entertained the idea of running for office. “I have thought about it a bit to be honest,” Grant says in this week’s episode of “The Big Ticket,” Variety and iHeart’s movie podcast.
The 58-year-old actor knows his way around politics after being on the forefront of the battle against British tabloids that regularly bugged his and other celebrities’ phones. His anti-hacking campaign uncovered cozy relationships that elected officials had with press barons, including Rupert Murdoch.
He even has an campaign slogan. “My main slogan would be, ‘I Don’t Want to Be Reelected.’ It seems to me that the desire to be reelected or be a career politician poisons everything,” Grant said.
While Grant says he “gets incandescently angry” watching today’s political news, the chances of him actually running are pretty slim.
Okay, maybe not.
However, Grant says he has entertained the idea of running for office. “I have thought about it a bit to be honest,” Grant says in this week’s episode of “The Big Ticket,” Variety and iHeart’s movie podcast.
The 58-year-old actor knows his way around politics after being on the forefront of the battle against British tabloids that regularly bugged his and other celebrities’ phones. His anti-hacking campaign uncovered cozy relationships that elected officials had with press barons, including Rupert Murdoch.
He even has an campaign slogan. “My main slogan would be, ‘I Don’t Want to Be Reelected.’ It seems to me that the desire to be reelected or be a career politician poisons everything,” Grant said.
While Grant says he “gets incandescently angry” watching today’s political news, the chances of him actually running are pretty slim.
- 8/15/2019
- by Marc Malkin
- Variety Film + TV
A biographer of Christopher Isherwood once remarked that the legendary writer’s friends seemed to grow younger and younger the older he became. There was a detectable whiff of contempt in this observation, and it irked the hell out of me, since I had been one of those younger friends, one of the lucky souls who, in the late 1970s, found ourselves around Isherwood’s dinner table in his little house above Santa Monica Canyon. Sure, some of us were young, but every age of queer was represented.
What I found around that table was more than rich, mirthful conversation — about books, about movies, about sex — but a satisfying sense of intergenerational connection.
Just by sharing our stories we could discern where we were heading and where we had been. There was time travel involved, too, since Isherwood had known Somerset Maugham and E.M. Forster and had once even hidden...
What I found around that table was more than rich, mirthful conversation — about books, about movies, about sex — but a satisfying sense of intergenerational connection.
Just by sharing our stories we could discern where we were heading and where we had been. There was time travel involved, too, since Isherwood had known Somerset Maugham and E.M. Forster and had once even hidden...
- 6/21/2019
- by Armistead Maupin
- Variety Film + TV
“Only just connect” are the words that would most aptly end “The Kindness of Strangers” if it were an E.M. Forster novel — even if that prospect is about as hard to swallow as, well, just about anything that happens in Lone Scherfig’s strange, sticky mélange of social realism, Dickensian sentiment and straight-up romantic fairy tale. Awkwardly twirling parboiled spaghetti strands of narrative around Zoe Kazan’s modern-day Little Match Girl — a pure-hearted mother of two escaping her abusive husband to live rough in Manhattan — this über-earnest Berlinale opener is given some commercial lift by classy ensemble casting and the malted directorial polish we’ve come to expect from the helmer behind “An Education” and “Their Finest.” But even Kazan’s stalwart commitment to the material can’t resolve the clash of grit and whimsy in Scherfig’s schizo moral fable.
“Can’t you just be kind?” pleads one character...
“Can’t you just be kind?” pleads one character...
- 2/7/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Middle age rather suits Hugh Grant, who turns 58 on September 9. The Oxford grad has outgrown most of his romantic comedy ticks from his early years – flopsy-mopsy hair, fluttery eyelashes and charming stutter – and has matured into an exceptional and versatile actor. Not that he has lost his sense of humor. Anyone who chuckled over his villainous turn in this year’s “Paddington 2” as a pompous, cravat-wrapped actor who frames his cuddly ursine co-star for a crime he didn’t commit can testify to that Then there was his finely tuned scoundrel turn in this summer’s BBC miniseries, “A Very English Scandal,“ in which his Parliament member Jeremy Thorpe plots the botched murder of his male lover.
Grant began his acting career in the ‘80s as secondary player in both British period pieces — some good (“Maurice”) and others faintly ridiculous (“The Lair of the White Moon”) – and Hollywood comedies...
Grant began his acting career in the ‘80s as secondary player in both British period pieces — some good (“Maurice”) and others faintly ridiculous (“The Lair of the White Moon”) – and Hollywood comedies...
- 9/9/2018
- by Susan Wloszczyna and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
After a sell-out London premiere screening which was introduced by its stars Hugh Grant and James Wilby at BFI Flare: London Lgbtq Film Festival earlier this year, the new 4K restoration of Maurice, Merchant Ivory’s award-winning adaptation of E.M. Forster’s autobiographical novel, will open at the BFI and across the country this month, giving fans the chance to savour this gem of a film on the big screen once more.
Making its debut at the 1987 Venice Film Festival to rapturous applause and critical acclaim across the board, Maurice went on to become one of the most repeatedly viewed and eternally cherished films of its genre by those who amongst us fell madly in love with its dream-like romance qualities. It shares this reaction with that of a whole new generation who have done the same with Luca Guadagnino’s award winning 2017 film Call Me By Your Name for...
Making its debut at the 1987 Venice Film Festival to rapturous applause and critical acclaim across the board, Maurice went on to become one of the most repeatedly viewed and eternally cherished films of its genre by those who amongst us fell madly in love with its dream-like romance qualities. It shares this reaction with that of a whole new generation who have done the same with Luca Guadagnino’s award winning 2017 film Call Me By Your Name for...
- 7/24/2018
- by Linda Marric
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
It seems like the writers branch of the television academy keeps us in suspense every year, particularly in the race for Best Movie/Mini Writing, which has given us twist endings multiple times. “The Hour” by Abi Morgan trumped the otherwise dominant “Behind the Candelabra” by Richard Lagravenese in 2013. Then Steven Moffat‘s “Sherlock: His Last Vow” took down “The Normal Heart” and its legendary scribe Larry Kramer in 2014. And most recently Charlie Brooker took home the prize for “Black Mirror: San Junipero” over longtime Emmy favorite David E. Kelley for “Big Little Lies” in 2017.
So what can we expect from this year’s longform writing category? I think we should watch out for these two dark horse contenders.
“Godless,” written by Scott Frank
The seven-episode Netflix series focuses on the town of La Belle, which is inhabited almost solely by women after a mining disaster. But they’re not damsels in distress.
So what can we expect from this year’s longform writing category? I think we should watch out for these two dark horse contenders.
“Godless,” written by Scott Frank
The seven-episode Netflix series focuses on the town of La Belle, which is inhabited almost solely by women after a mining disaster. But they’re not damsels in distress.
- 7/4/2018
- by Amanda Spears
- Gold Derby
Who will be nominated for Best Movie/Mini Actress at the 2018 Emmys? Gold Derby has hosted exclusive video interviews with nine of this year’s contenders, including Emmy veterans and others who could be nominated for the first time. Click the links below to be taken to their full interviews.
Hayley Atwell (“Howards End”): Atwell plays Margaret Schlegel, who decides to marry the wealthy but emotionally distant Henry Wilcox (Matthew Macfadyen) in this new adaptation of E.M. Forster‘s novel. She previously received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Movie/Mini Actress for “The Pillars of the Earth” (2011), but she has yet to be nominated for an Emmy. (Click here to be taken to her full interview)
Jodi Balfour (“Rellik”): Balfour plays Elaine Shepard, a detective hunting down a serial killer with her partner and lover (Richard Dormer). She’s also on the Emmy ballot this year for...
Hayley Atwell (“Howards End”): Atwell plays Margaret Schlegel, who decides to marry the wealthy but emotionally distant Henry Wilcox (Matthew Macfadyen) in this new adaptation of E.M. Forster‘s novel. She previously received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Movie/Mini Actress for “The Pillars of the Earth” (2011), but she has yet to be nominated for an Emmy. (Click here to be taken to her full interview)
Jodi Balfour (“Rellik”): Balfour plays Elaine Shepard, a detective hunting down a serial killer with her partner and lover (Richard Dormer). She’s also on the Emmy ballot this year for...
- 7/3/2018
- by Zach Laws
- Gold Derby
Who will contend for Best Movie/Mini Actor at this year’s Emmys? Gold Derby has hosted exclusive web chats with 10 of this year’s possible competitors. Click the links below to be taken to their full, in-depth interviews.
Antonio Banderas (“Genius: Picasso”): Banderas plays famed Spanish surrealist painter Pablo Picasso in this second season of the NatGeo anthology series. He previously competed in this category at the Emmys for “And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself” (2003). That role also brought him a Golden Globe bid to go along with the two he received for Best Film Comedy/Musical Actor (“Evita” in 1996 and “The Mask of Zorro” in 1998). (Click here to be taken to his full interview)
Daniel Brühl (“The Alienist”): Brühl plays the title character Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a criminal psychologist who teams up with a newspaper illustrator (Luke Evans) and a police secretary (Dakota Fanning) to catch...
Antonio Banderas (“Genius: Picasso”): Banderas plays famed Spanish surrealist painter Pablo Picasso in this second season of the NatGeo anthology series. He previously competed in this category at the Emmys for “And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself” (2003). That role also brought him a Golden Globe bid to go along with the two he received for Best Film Comedy/Musical Actor (“Evita” in 1996 and “The Mask of Zorro” in 1998). (Click here to be taken to his full interview)
Daniel Brühl (“The Alienist”): Brühl plays the title character Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a criminal psychologist who teams up with a newspaper illustrator (Luke Evans) and a police secretary (Dakota Fanning) to catch...
- 6/27/2018
- by Zach Laws
- Gold Derby
Starz is looking for an Emmy breakthrough for its four-hour adaptation of E.M. Forster‘s novel “Howards End” written by Oscar-winner Kenneth Lonergan (“Manchester by the Sea”) and directed by Hettie Macdonald. Gold Derby recently spoke with stars Matthew Macfadyen, Hayley Atwell, and Philippa Coulthard, as well as producer Colin Callender about the limited series. Scroll down and click their names below to be taken to their full interviews.
Atwell had some mighty shoes to fill playing headstrong Margaret Schlegel: the role brought Emma Thompson the Best Actress Oscar for the 1992 Merchant Ivory adaptation. “I know Em and spoke to her about it, and she was adamant … not to watch other people’s interpretations of the work you’re about to do,” Atwell explains. “You don’t want to get lost or confused impersonating someone else.” Atwell previously earned a Golden Globe nomination for her work in “The Pillars of the Earth...
Atwell had some mighty shoes to fill playing headstrong Margaret Schlegel: the role brought Emma Thompson the Best Actress Oscar for the 1992 Merchant Ivory adaptation. “I know Em and spoke to her about it, and she was adamant … not to watch other people’s interpretations of the work you’re about to do,” Atwell explains. “You don’t want to get lost or confused impersonating someone else.” Atwell previously earned a Golden Globe nomination for her work in “The Pillars of the Earth...
- 6/21/2018
- by Zach Laws
- Gold Derby
Expect to see the Starz program “Howards End” reap a Best Limited Series Emmy nom on July 12, along with nominations across the board for its actors and below-the-line talent. The series debuted stateside in May, 26 years after the acclaimed 1992 film adaptation that garnered nine Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Director (James Ivory) and won three including Best Actress for Emma Thompson.
Based on the acclaimed 1910 novel by E.M. Forster, this new spin on the timeless classic was adapted by Oscar champ Kenneth Lonergan (“Manchester by the Sea”). It stars Hayley Atwell and Philippa Coulthard as the independent and unconventional Schlegel sisters navigating their way through turn-of-the-century England, whose lives become intertwined with the wealthy Wilcox family and the working-class Bast family. The series also stars Emmy winners Julia Ormond and Tracey Ullman, alongside Matthew Macfadyen, Joseph Quinn and Alex Lawther.
See Emmys 2018 exclusive: Starz categories for ‘Outlander,’ ‘Counterpart,...
Based on the acclaimed 1910 novel by E.M. Forster, this new spin on the timeless classic was adapted by Oscar champ Kenneth Lonergan (“Manchester by the Sea”). It stars Hayley Atwell and Philippa Coulthard as the independent and unconventional Schlegel sisters navigating their way through turn-of-the-century England, whose lives become intertwined with the wealthy Wilcox family and the working-class Bast family. The series also stars Emmy winners Julia Ormond and Tracey Ullman, alongside Matthew Macfadyen, Joseph Quinn and Alex Lawther.
See Emmys 2018 exclusive: Starz categories for ‘Outlander,’ ‘Counterpart,...
- 6/16/2018
- by Rob Licuria
- Gold Derby
Manchester by the Sea, Margaret and You Can Count on Me, have earned him critical acclaim and awards attention. (The first landed Lonergan his original screenplay Oscar in 2017.) But with Howards End, the miniseries that debuted stateside on Starz in April, the writer, director and playwright exercised a different kind of storytelling muscle: literary adaptation.
E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel had been adapted before — by James Ivory in 1992 (the film won three Oscars, and Ivory was nominated). But Lonergan saw an opportunity to dig into ...
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E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel had been adapted before — by James Ivory in 1992 (the film won three Oscars, and Ivory was nominated). But Lonergan saw an opportunity to dig into ...
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- 6/14/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Music often provides the finishing touch for a limited series or TV movie, and this year’s crop contains a diverse range of sounds that enhance the stories.
Contemporary composer and arranger Nico Muhly, who moonlights in film, wrote his first TV score for Starz’s “Howards End,” based on the E.M. Forster novel. True to his classical roots, it has a chamber-music ambiance that emphasizes the story’s intimacy.
The biggest challenge, explains Muhly, involved the Schlegel sisters, played by Hayley Atwell and Philippa Coulthard: “They are slightly Bohemian, independent and learned, but there was a need to add a sense of yearning and poignancy to them,” he says. “I wanted the Wilcoxes’ music to be always slightly haunted by the music belonging to the first Mrs. Wilcox. Bast’s music was jagged and angular — stuck in an obsessive set of patterns.”
Muhly played piano and conducted an...
Contemporary composer and arranger Nico Muhly, who moonlights in film, wrote his first TV score for Starz’s “Howards End,” based on the E.M. Forster novel. True to his classical roots, it has a chamber-music ambiance that emphasizes the story’s intimacy.
The biggest challenge, explains Muhly, involved the Schlegel sisters, played by Hayley Atwell and Philippa Coulthard: “They are slightly Bohemian, independent and learned, but there was a need to add a sense of yearning and poignancy to them,” he says. “I wanted the Wilcoxes’ music to be always slightly haunted by the music belonging to the first Mrs. Wilcox. Bast’s music was jagged and angular — stuck in an obsessive set of patterns.”
Muhly played piano and conducted an...
- 6/7/2018
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
“We definitely all felt that we had a lot to live up to,” reveals Philippa Coulthard in our exclusive webcam interview (watch the video above) about the BBC/Starz limited series “Howards End,” based on the acclaimed 1910 novel by E.M. Forster. “It’s a bit nerve-wracking to take on a role that has been done so brilliantly,” the actress admits about taking on a new spin on the novel and especially the Oscar-winning 1992 Merchant/Ivory film of the same name, acknowledging that “people cherish that adaptation.”
In this version adapted by Oscar champ Kenneth Lonergan (“Manchester by the Sea”), Coulthard plays Helen Schlegel alongside Hayley Atwell who plays her sister Margaret, two independent-minded sisters navigating their way through turn-of-the-century England, whose lives become intertwined with the wealthy Wilcox family and the working-class Bast family. The Australian actress reprises the role originated on the big screen by Helena Bonham Carter, who...
In this version adapted by Oscar champ Kenneth Lonergan (“Manchester by the Sea”), Coulthard plays Helen Schlegel alongside Hayley Atwell who plays her sister Margaret, two independent-minded sisters navigating their way through turn-of-the-century England, whose lives become intertwined with the wealthy Wilcox family and the working-class Bast family. The Australian actress reprises the role originated on the big screen by Helena Bonham Carter, who...
- 6/6/2018
- by Rob Licuria
- Gold Derby
One of the most challenging tasks designers face is outfitting one location to play another, or turning contemporary settings into a different time period. Many of the contenders vying for this year’s Emmys for production design grappled with these challenges.
To portray the English country home of the well-to-do Wilcox family, the titular location in the Starz miniseries adaptation of the E.M. Forster novel “Howards End,” set at the dawn of the 20th century, production designer Luke Hall chose Vann House, near Hambledon, England, built in 1542 and remodeled in 1907.
“We completely redressed the interior of the house,” says Hall, “but the garden was in such good shape, all we had to do was fill out the flower beds, let the grass grow a little longer and give it a bit more shape and structure so it felt more nestled into its landscape.”
For National Geographic’s “Genius: Picasso,” production...
To portray the English country home of the well-to-do Wilcox family, the titular location in the Starz miniseries adaptation of the E.M. Forster novel “Howards End,” set at the dawn of the 20th century, production designer Luke Hall chose Vann House, near Hambledon, England, built in 1542 and remodeled in 1907.
“We completely redressed the interior of the house,” says Hall, “but the garden was in such good shape, all we had to do was fill out the flower beds, let the grass grow a little longer and give it a bit more shape and structure so it felt more nestled into its landscape.”
For National Geographic’s “Genius: Picasso,” production...
- 6/1/2018
- by Todd Longwell
- Variety Film + TV
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