Exclusive: Zooey Deschanel has signed on to star in Merv, a romantic comedy that Jessica Swale will direct for Amazon MGM Studios.
Written by Linsey Stewart and Dane Clark, the film (Merv is a working title) watches as an estranged couple learns that the dog they share is suffering from depression following their break-up, awkwardly reconciling over the holidays when they take their dog on a sunny vacation to Florida to lift his spirits.
Producers of the pic are Matt Baer and Roma Downey.
Best known for starring in films like (500) Days of Summer, Yes Man, Almost Famous, and the holiday classic Elf, as well as Fox’s hit sitcom New Girl, Deschanel has most recently been seen starring opposite Casey Affleck in Roadside’s Emerson brothers drama Dreamin’ Wild from Love & Mercy helmer Bill Pohlad, which world premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Other recent projects for the Emmy...
Written by Linsey Stewart and Dane Clark, the film (Merv is a working title) watches as an estranged couple learns that the dog they share is suffering from depression following their break-up, awkwardly reconciling over the holidays when they take their dog on a sunny vacation to Florida to lift his spirits.
Producers of the pic are Matt Baer and Roma Downey.
Best known for starring in films like (500) Days of Summer, Yes Man, Almost Famous, and the holiday classic Elf, as well as Fox’s hit sitcom New Girl, Deschanel has most recently been seen starring opposite Casey Affleck in Roadside’s Emerson brothers drama Dreamin’ Wild from Love & Mercy helmer Bill Pohlad, which world premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Other recent projects for the Emmy...
- 3/7/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
The actor and producer on the joy of clowning around in her new comedy Funny Woman, how female solidarity has changed her professional life, and her top choice for a karaoke belter
Gemma Arterton, 37, was born in Gravesend and trained at Rada. Aged 21, she made her professional stage debut at Shakespeare’s Globe and her film debut in St Trinian’s. The following year, she landed the coveted role of Strawberry Fields in the Bond film Quantum of Solace. On TV, she has starred in Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Black Narcissus; stage highlights include Made in Dagenham, Nell Gwynn and Saint Joan. She now produces and plays the lead role in Funny Woman, the TV adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel Funny Girl, about a beauty queen from Blackpool who moves to swinging 60s London to break into the comedy scene. Arterton lives in East Sussex with her husband,...
Gemma Arterton, 37, was born in Gravesend and trained at Rada. Aged 21, she made her professional stage debut at Shakespeare’s Globe and her film debut in St Trinian’s. The following year, she landed the coveted role of Strawberry Fields in the Bond film Quantum of Solace. On TV, she has starred in Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Black Narcissus; stage highlights include Made in Dagenham, Nell Gwynn and Saint Joan. She now produces and plays the lead role in Funny Woman, the TV adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel Funny Girl, about a beauty queen from Blackpool who moves to swinging 60s London to break into the comedy scene. Arterton lives in East Sussex with her husband,...
- 3/19/2023
- by Michael Hogan
- The Guardian - Film News
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Scene 2 Seen Podcast!! I am your host Valerie Complex, associate editor and film writer at Deadline. On today’s episode is actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
In her latest project, the Apple TV+ series Surface (where she also serves as executive producer), Raw stars as Sohie, a woman who has suffered a traumatic head injury that has left her with extreme memory loss, believed to be a result of a suicide attempt. As Sophie embarks on a quest to put the pieces of her life back together with the help of her husband and friends, she begins to question whether or not the truth she is told is in fact the truth she has lived. Showrunner is Veronica West (High Fidelity). You can view the trailer here to get a taste.
Looking back into her career history, Raw is an award-winning actor of the stage and screen.
In her latest project, the Apple TV+ series Surface (where she also serves as executive producer), Raw stars as Sohie, a woman who has suffered a traumatic head injury that has left her with extreme memory loss, believed to be a result of a suicide attempt. As Sophie embarks on a quest to put the pieces of her life back together with the help of her husband and friends, she begins to question whether or not the truth she is told is in fact the truth she has lived. Showrunner is Veronica West (High Fidelity). You can view the trailer here to get a taste.
Looking back into her career history, Raw is an award-winning actor of the stage and screen.
- 1/19/2023
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: After her breakout role in the Netflix comedy series Sex Education, Emma Mackey has landed her first major lead role in a feature film as we are hearing she is attached to star in Working Title’s Nell Gwynn. Working Title is still still packaging before they go to financiers which would include Focus Features, who Working Title goes to first as part of their first look deal with Universal. Insiders add they will likely cast the role of Charles II, with execs currently meeting with talent, before taking package out.
Based on the Olivier-winning play by Jessica Swale, who is also adapting, the story follows the life of Nell Gwynn, mistress of Charles II, and her part in the theatre of the 17th century. Ordinary Love directors Lisa Baros D’Sa and Glenn Layburn will helm.
Mackey’s star has been on the rise with her scene stealing...
Based on the Olivier-winning play by Jessica Swale, who is also adapting, the story follows the life of Nell Gwynn, mistress of Charles II, and her part in the theatre of the 17th century. Ordinary Love directors Lisa Baros D’Sa and Glenn Layburn will helm.
Mackey’s star has been on the rise with her scene stealing...
- 10/7/2020
- by Justin Kroll
- Deadline Film + TV
Lucas Bond as “Frank” and Gemma Arterton as “Alice” in Jessica Swale’s Summerland. Photo by Michael Wharley. Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films Release
Summerland is a sweet drama set in the English countryside during WWII, about a reclusive, curmudgeonly writer who has her heart softened by a young refugee who has been sent to her Sussex village to escape the London Blitz. Gemma Arterton is delightful as the author but everything about writer/director Jessica Swale’s warm-hearted story is a bit too neat and perfect to be believable, much like the folk tales and myths about which the central character writes.
Playwright Jessica Swale makes her feature film debut with Summerland, which stars Gemma Arterton and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who also appeared in Swale’s Olivier Award-winning play “Nell Gwynn.”
Summerland opens in a picturesque cottage in the English Sussex coastal countryside, with a disheveled older Alice...
Summerland is a sweet drama set in the English countryside during WWII, about a reclusive, curmudgeonly writer who has her heart softened by a young refugee who has been sent to her Sussex village to escape the London Blitz. Gemma Arterton is delightful as the author but everything about writer/director Jessica Swale’s warm-hearted story is a bit too neat and perfect to be believable, much like the folk tales and myths about which the central character writes.
Playwright Jessica Swale makes her feature film debut with Summerland, which stars Gemma Arterton and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who also appeared in Swale’s Olivier Award-winning play “Nell Gwynn.”
Summerland opens in a picturesque cottage in the English Sussex coastal countryside, with a disheveled older Alice...
- 8/3/2020
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The British actor excels as a crotchety loner who takes in a child evacuee in Jessica Swale’s uplifting debut feature
What a lovely, hopeful and rather magical movie this is. The feature debut from writer/director Jessica Swale, whose impressive theatre CV includes the Olivier award-winner Nell Gwynn, Summerland provides just the tonic we need in times of turmoil. A tale of love lost and found, told with wit and charm, it maintains an impressive balance between the sly and the sentimental, gently subverting mainstream formulae as it slips back and forth in time, alternating between the realist and the romantic.
We open in coastal Kent, 1975, with Penelope Wilton’s crotchety Alice rudely shooing children from the door of her cottage (“You know how you can help the aged? You can bugger off!”) so she can return to her typewriter. From here, we spiral back to the 40s, where...
What a lovely, hopeful and rather magical movie this is. The feature debut from writer/director Jessica Swale, whose impressive theatre CV includes the Olivier award-winner Nell Gwynn, Summerland provides just the tonic we need in times of turmoil. A tale of love lost and found, told with wit and charm, it maintains an impressive balance between the sly and the sentimental, gently subverting mainstream formulae as it slips back and forth in time, alternating between the realist and the romantic.
We open in coastal Kent, 1975, with Penelope Wilton’s crotchety Alice rudely shooing children from the door of her cottage (“You know how you can help the aged? You can bugger off!”) so she can return to her typewriter. From here, we spiral back to the 40s, where...
- 8/2/2020
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Jessica Swale’s World War II-era “Summerland,” debuting on demand via IFC on July 31, turns the English coastal countryside into a character in the tale of a reclusive writer played by Gemma Arterton — and the house in which much of the action takes place serves as a portal to those surroundings.
Making her feature film debut, Swale, the Olivier-winning playwright who penned “Nell Gwynn,” enlisted set decorator Philippa Hart to create the ambience of the house. It’s there that Arterton’s Alice is writing a thesis about the mythology of the area, when a boy — an evacuee from London — is left in her care. Overcoming her initial misgivings, she establishes a friendship with the child that reawakens her emotionally and allows her to reconnect with the memories of a former love (Gugu Mbatha-Raw).
The house that’s featured in the movie is film-friendly — its exteriors were used in the final scenes of 2007’s “Atonement.
Making her feature film debut, Swale, the Olivier-winning playwright who penned “Nell Gwynn,” enlisted set decorator Philippa Hart to create the ambience of the house. It’s there that Arterton’s Alice is writing a thesis about the mythology of the area, when a boy — an evacuee from London — is left in her care. Overcoming her initial misgivings, she establishes a friendship with the child that reawakens her emotionally and allows her to reconnect with the memories of a former love (Gugu Mbatha-Raw).
The house that’s featured in the movie is film-friendly — its exteriors were used in the final scenes of 2007’s “Atonement.
- 7/31/2020
- by Valentina I. Valentini
- Variety Film + TV
On the surface, Jessica Swale would seem to have a lot of beginner’s luck. The first play she ever wrote, “Blue Stockings,” was a massive success with audiences and critics, premiering at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2013. Her first official foray behind the camera as writer-director, a short film titled “Leading Lady Parts,” starred a who’s who of powerhouse women and quickly went viral. And now her feature film debut as writer-director, “Summerland,” comes out this week to warm reviews for its story and lead actors Gemma Arterton and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. She also has several scripts in various stages of development, from her own works to adaptations of Jane Austen’s “Persuasion” and the novel “Longbourn.”
Of course, luck has little to do with Swale’s success; she’s a self-proclaimed workaholic who spent a decade building her bona fides as a stage director on such plays as “Sense and Sensibility...
Of course, luck has little to do with Swale’s success; she’s a self-proclaimed workaholic who spent a decade building her bona fides as a stage director on such plays as “Sense and Sensibility...
- 7/29/2020
- by Jenelle Riley
- Variety Film + TV
In a cozy, seaside cottage in Kent, with the winds of WWII still at a distance, Alice Bloom (Gemma Arterton) bangs out academic theses about folklore on her typewriter and launches verbal attacks on neighbors who dare to interrupt her work. The locals have the swaggering, chainsmoking Alice pegged as a witch who’s probably signaling the Nazis from her perch over the white cliffs. The Brit villagers are not even half right — but oh, does she have anger to spare. Her reveries concern a torrid affair with Vera ((Gugu Mbatha-Raw...
- 7/29/2020
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
Both Gemma Arterton and Gugu Mbatha-Raw enjoyed success on the London stage in the title role of playwright Jessica Swale's comedy about Restoration actress and royal mistress Nell Gwynn. Their collaboration continues in Swale's first step into features as writer-director. But Summerland, while it's an original screenplay, has the feel of sentimental historical fiction, the kind of decorous novel that's a dime a dozen as Brit TV miniseries material. For a story in which a potentially controversial mixed-race lesbian relationship plays a significant part, it's also surprisingly insipid.
That's disappointing given how captivating Arterton was a ...
That's disappointing given how captivating Arterton was a ...
- 7/27/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Both Gemma Arterton and Gugu Mbatha-Raw enjoyed success on the London stage in the title role of playwright Jessica Swale's comedy about Restoration actress and royal mistress Nell Gwynn. Their collaboration continues in Swale's first step into features as writer-director. But Summerland, while it's an original screenplay, has the feel of sentimental historical fiction, the kind of decorous novel that's a dime a dozen as Brit TV miniseries material. For a story in which a potentially controversial mixed-race lesbian relationship plays a significant part, it's also surprisingly insipid.
That's disappointing given how captivating Arterton was a ...
That's disappointing given how captivating Arterton was a ...
- 7/27/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Release set for July 31.
IFC has picked up Us rights from Embankment Films to Gemma Arterton Second World War era drama Summerland.
Olivier award-winning theatre director Jessica Swale’s feature directorial debut stars Arterton as a heartbroken debunker of folklore whose life changes when she is charged with looking after a young evacuee from the Blitz in London.
The cast includes Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Penelope Wilton, Lucas Bond, and Tom Courtenay. Guy Heeley and Adrian Sturges served as producers.
IFC Films will release Summerland on July 31. The film is a Quickfire and BFI presentation of a Shoebox Films and Iota Films production.
IFC has picked up Us rights from Embankment Films to Gemma Arterton Second World War era drama Summerland.
Olivier award-winning theatre director Jessica Swale’s feature directorial debut stars Arterton as a heartbroken debunker of folklore whose life changes when she is charged with looking after a young evacuee from the Blitz in London.
The cast includes Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Penelope Wilton, Lucas Bond, and Tom Courtenay. Guy Heeley and Adrian Sturges served as producers.
IFC Films will release Summerland on July 31. The film is a Quickfire and BFI presentation of a Shoebox Films and Iota Films production.
- 4/20/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
The Acting Company Founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley Ian Belknap, Artistic Director Elisa Spencer-Kaplan, Executive Director announced casting today for the next reading in the 23rd John McDonald Salon Reading Series, Jessica Swale's Olivier Award-winning, music-filled comedy Nell Gwynn. The reading will take place on Monday, June 24 at 7 Pm at the Mainstage Theater at Playwrights Horizons 416 W. 42nd Street, New York, NY. Tickets are available now online at www.theactingcompany.org.
- 6/13/2019
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Variety is pleased to announce its annual list of 10 Brits to Watch, an honor the publication has bestowed since 2013.
For the third year, Variety is partnering with the Newport Beach Film Festival to recognize those selected at the fifth annual Newport Beach U.K. Honours evening, to be held at the Langham Hotel in London on Feb. 7. Talent selected include writers, actors, and singers appearing working in all mediums.
“The health and vitality of the U.K. filmmaking scene can be measured in many ways, from the unprecedented boom in physical production in London and across the British Isles, to the abundance of U.K. talent at the center of awards season,” said Steven Gaydos, VP and executive editor of Variety. “In movies such as ‘The Favourite,’ ‘A Private War,’ ‘The Children Act’ and in the many individual performances by brilliant British screen talents such as Richard E. Grant, Olivia Colman,...
For the third year, Variety is partnering with the Newport Beach Film Festival to recognize those selected at the fifth annual Newport Beach U.K. Honours evening, to be held at the Langham Hotel in London on Feb. 7. Talent selected include writers, actors, and singers appearing working in all mediums.
“The health and vitality of the U.K. filmmaking scene can be measured in many ways, from the unprecedented boom in physical production in London and across the British Isles, to the abundance of U.K. talent at the center of awards season,” said Steven Gaydos, VP and executive editor of Variety. “In movies such as ‘The Favourite,’ ‘A Private War,’ ‘The Children Act’ and in the many individual performances by brilliant British screen talents such as Richard E. Grant, Olivia Colman,...
- 1/24/2019
- by Variety Staff
- Variety Film + TV
New movies from Sally Potter, Sarah Gavron and Hong Khaou were among the BFI’s top ten Film Fund recipients in 2018. Potter’s untitled drama, starring Javier Bardem, Elle Fanning, Salma Hayek, Chris Rock and Laura Linney, received the year’s biggest production grant of £1.1M. Scroll down for the top ten.
In 2017, the BFI — the UK’s lead organization for film — awarded seven movies £1M or more from its Film Fund. This year, Potter’s feature was the only one to cross the £1M mark. Other leading recipients in 2018 included Liam Neeson starrer Normal People and Keira Knightley pic Misbehaviour.
There is a healthy gender balance to the top ten awards this year with five male and five female directors in the mix. Two are feature debuts. Of course, different films will receive different amounts of money from different BFI funding strands, but this list gives a snapshot of...
In 2017, the BFI — the UK’s lead organization for film — awarded seven movies £1M or more from its Film Fund. This year, Potter’s feature was the only one to cross the £1M mark. Other leading recipients in 2018 included Liam Neeson starrer Normal People and Keira Knightley pic Misbehaviour.
There is a healthy gender balance to the top ten awards this year with five male and five female directors in the mix. Two are feature debuts. Of course, different films will receive different amounts of money from different BFI funding strands, but this list gives a snapshot of...
- 12/21/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Embankment Films has sold British rights to Lionsgate U.K. for romantic drama “Summerland,” starring Gemma Arterton and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Variety has been given the exclusive first-look image for the film, which has just wrapped production.
The pic is the feature debut of British playwright Jessica Swale, who won an Olivier Award for her play “Nell Gwynn,” in which Arterton and Mbatha-Raw both starred. Swale won BAFTA’s Jj Screenwriting Bursary for “Summerland” in 2012.
The film centers on fiercely independent writer Alice (Arterton) who “secludes herself in her clifftop study, debunking myths using science to disprove the existence of magic,” according to a statement.
When a spirited young man, Frank, an evacuee from the London Blitz, is placed in her care, “his innocence and curiosity awaken Alice’s buried emotions… perhaps magic really does exist.”
The cast includes Penelope Wilton (“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) and Tom Courtenay (“45 Years...
The pic is the feature debut of British playwright Jessica Swale, who won an Olivier Award for her play “Nell Gwynn,” in which Arterton and Mbatha-Raw both starred. Swale won BAFTA’s Jj Screenwriting Bursary for “Summerland” in 2012.
The film centers on fiercely independent writer Alice (Arterton) who “secludes herself in her clifftop study, debunking myths using science to disprove the existence of magic,” according to a statement.
When a spirited young man, Frank, an evacuee from the London Blitz, is placed in her care, “his innocence and curiosity awaken Alice’s buried emotions… perhaps magic really does exist.”
The cast includes Penelope Wilton (“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) and Tom Courtenay (“45 Years...
- 11/1/2018
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Jessica Swale’s feature debut will start shooting this summer in the UK.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Belle), Tom Courtenay (45 Years) and Penelope Wilton (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) have boarded second world war-era drama Summertime, which is set to star and be executive produced by Gemma Arterton.
The project marks the feature debut of Olivier Award-winning playwright Jessica Swale. She previously collaborated with Arterton on West End romantic comedy Nell Gwynn.
Embankment Films is representing international sales in Cannes on the title and co-representing Us with Gersh.
Producers are Guy Heeley and Adrian Sturges. The film is set to shoot this summer in the UK.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Belle), Tom Courtenay (45 Years) and Penelope Wilton (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) have boarded second world war-era drama Summertime, which is set to star and be executive produced by Gemma Arterton.
The project marks the feature debut of Olivier Award-winning playwright Jessica Swale. She previously collaborated with Arterton on West End romantic comedy Nell Gwynn.
Embankment Films is representing international sales in Cannes on the title and co-representing Us with Gersh.
Producers are Guy Heeley and Adrian Sturges. The film is set to shoot this summer in the UK.
- 5/12/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
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