News

Richard E. Grant, Emily Mortimer, Charles Dance, Fiona Shaw, Tom Davis and Weruche Opia are boarding the Netflix comedy Ladies First opposite Sacha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike.

Thea Sharrock is directing from a screenplay by Katie Silberman, Cinco Paul and Natalie Krinsky.

Pic, which is based on Eléonore Pourriat’s Je Ne Suis Pas Un Homme Facile, follows a womanizer who gets a real wakeup call when he finds himself in a parallel world dominated by women – a fiery female counterpart makes things far more complicated.

Producers are Liza Chasin for 3dot Productions, Eleonore Dailly and Edouard de Lachomette.

The feature project falls under Chasin’s creative partnership with Netflix, which sees her produce feature films via her shingle, 3dot Productions. Recently released is Lonely Planet...

This week on Comfort Eating, Grace is joined by one of the most successful and enduring film stars of the past 40 years: Richard E Grant. The Swaziland-born English actor made his film debut as Withnail in the comedy Withnail and I, and has since starred in the likes of Star Wars, Gosford Park and Saltburn. Richard and Grace chew over the food he ate when he ran away from home as a child, the breakfast he eats every single day but hates, and what exactly he cooked Melissa McCarthy for brunch before the Oscars ceremony.

If you liked this episode then have a listen to Grace’s conversations with James Norton, David Harewood and Tamsin Greig

New episodes of Comfort Eating with Grace Dent will be released every Tuesday...

It takes more than a village to make a movie; it’s more like a small army. And in the case of “The Franchise,” that army has a lot of faces you’ll recognize.

Streaming on Max and airing on HBO on Sundays, the comedy series tells the story of a film crew working to put together the next installment in a major (fictional) superhero franchise. Along the way, they run into the many hurdles of Hollywood, with the show lovingly poking fun at how real superhero films seem to be made.

Like we said, you’re going to see a lot of familiar actors, some of whom have actually starred in real-life franchises. We’ve rounded them up for you below.

Here’s who’s who in “The Franchise.”

Colin Hutton/HBO Daniel (Himesh Patel)

Daniel is the First Ad on the fictional movie “Tecto,” and he basically keeps things afloat in the series.

The Murder Mysterenaissance just keeps getting better and better! As production ramps up Rian Johnson's star-filled Knives Out threequel Wake Up Dead Man, Netflix's other big upcoming whodunit, Chris Columbus' adaptation of Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club, is continuing to add to its own stacked ensemble. Per Deadline's reporting, Withnail & I star Richard E. Grant and Lucifer's Tom Ellis lead the latest round of additions to the buzzy Brit-led crime caper.

Hailing from writer-director Columbus and backed by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, there's some serious creative firepower behind Netflix's take on Osman's tale of crime-solving pensioners caught up in a real high-stakes murder mystery. As has already been confirmed, The Thursday Murder Club's central quartet consists of Helen Mirren's ex-spy Elizabeth, Pierce Brosnan's former union man Ron, Ben Kingsley's retired psychiatrist Ibrahim, and Celia Imrie's kindly former nurse Joyce.

Jonathan Morano, a Peabody Award-winning writer of CBS’ The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, died peacefully June 20 at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles following a 15-month battle with Glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor. He was 56.

His death was announced by his wife Aimee Blisten.

Born December 23, 1967, in St. Helens, Merseyside, England, Morano began his writing career with a grant and a fellowship from Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Films for his dramatic screenplay Benjamin Garrett at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival.

Two years later, he was writing for The Late Late Show, where he’d work for the next 10 years, moving from writer to writing supervisor and, during his final two seasons with the program, as head writer. Although Ferguson left the show in 2014, Morano stayed on with the show writing for various guest hosts until James Corden took over as host in March 2015.

In addition to The Late Late Show,...

In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks to to TV producer Yvonne Grace about her new book From Creation To Pitch: How To Write Stories For Television That Sell and “3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life,” which includes:

An American Werewolf In London (1981) Strictly Ballroom (1992) Withnail & I (1987)

“3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life” is about those films that made you fall in love with film. The guest selects their trio of movies and we talk for 5 minutes, against the clock. When the alarm goes off for five minutes we move on to the next film.

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Everyone here at /Film loves watching movies and TV shows. But every now and then, you need a break from the screens. However, that doesn't mean you can't still bask in the glory of moving pictures. There's an endless array of books out there about your favorite movies and TV shows. Whether it's the story of the two most famous film critics ever, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, a chronicle of the making of movies like Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" or the screwball comedy spoof "Airplane!," memoirs from your favorite stars like Patrick Stewart and Barbra Streisand, an exhausting timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or a cookbook with recipes straight from the "Star Wars" universe, we've got a huge collection of books for the film and TV lover in your life.

So let's dig into Part 2 of the 2023 /Film Holiday Gift Guide now!

With film festival season comes a multitude of glimpses at the upcoming winter cinema slate, and one of the most exciting is a new trailer for "Saltburn," a psychological thriller from Emerald Fennell, the writer-director of the Oscar-winning "Promising Young Woman." This first look gives us illustrious aristocratic parties, ominous butlers, steamy sex scenes through windows, and a never-been-sexier Jacob Elordi ("Euphoria") doused in glorious sunlight. The film's stacked cast features Barry Keoghan, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe, Rosamund Pike, and Richard E. Grant.

The first trailer dropped shortly before the film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, and early reviews demonstrate that this is one to watch. The latest trailer, released on Oct. 19, follows the first look we were given in September. The movie has been described by critics as "diabolical, sexy, dangerous, horny, brave, hilarious, audacious, and insane," with Entertainment Weekly calling it "a provocative, violent portrait of repulsion and desire.

Exclusive: Emerald Fennell likened making Saltburn, her dangerously dark comedy of class and lack of manners, “to taking your clothes off and exposing yourself.”

The filmmaker, who won an Oscar and BAFTAs for her debut feature Promising Young Woman, clarified that the “transgressive” material that she’s interested in working on means “that you have to spend a lot of your time as a director saying, ‘Trust me, I think this how we’re going to do it.’ And so then people watch it, which is so thrilling. But yeah, you are showing yourself. You are taking your clothes off and exposing yourself.”

She added that Saltburn, while made on a big canvas, is a ”very intimate“ movie.

She told me during a long conversation at the Telluride Film Festival, where the film had its world premiere, that this is a film “about needing and wanting and desire and sex.

Emerald Fennell likes things to be deeply cinematic, with elements that are vast, weird and flamboyant. No matter what you thought of the actor-turned-director’s genre-defying and much debated “Promising Young Woman”—it’s been called unapologetically feminist by defenders like this critic and, well, whatever’s the opposite of that, by others—her filmic appetite that rejected the mundane and conventional was undeniable in that original debut.

After a recent appearance as Midge in “Barbie,” Fennell is back in the directing chair with her unclassifiable sophomore caper “Saltburn,” a studiously mannered dark comedy-cum-thriller that spans across Oxford University and a massive mansion in the North Yorkshire town of Saltburn-by-the-Sea, and feels marvelously British. It’s almost as British as the likes of “Withnail and I” and “Jeeves and Wooster.”

This is both an observation and a bit of a warning, in that you will need a specific sense of...

In Alice Broughton’s tense literary drama “The Lesson,” Richard E. Grant plays one of Britain’s most noted authors, J.M. Sinclair, who hasn’t put out a book in years. He decides to mentor aspiring novelist Liam (Daryl McCormack) after he’s hired as a tutor for his college-bound son Bertie (Stephen McMillan), but the power dynamic between them soon shifts.

Ahead of the film’s limited theatrical release on Friday, TheWrap chatted about with the Oscar-nominated “Can You Ever Forgive Me” actor about his narcissistic character — who would never watch anything as “squalid” as Grant’s breakout indie “Withnail & I” — and how it’s a little like Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca.”

TheWrap: You play a famous writer who’s quite mercurial and manipulative. How would you describe him?

Richard E. Grant: Self-entitled old literary lion who is facing writer’s block.

Also Read:

‘Based on a True Story...

It was a phone call from James Cameron that first gave a young Mia McKenna-Bruce the inspiration to act. Well, almost.

Having watched Titanic at home in London around the age of six, she says she was so “traumatized” by the film that she couldn’t sleep. After several weeks, her mum had the bright idea to get the film’s director to ring her up so he could explain over the phone to the terrified child that what she’d seen was just a movie, with people wearing costumes on a set. “And I was like, wait, this is a real job that you can do, and you can make people cry,” she recalls. As a hugely energetic and overdramatic youngster, McKenna-Bruce knew what she wanted to do with her life.

It would be several years later — after she’d landed her first professional job on the West End...

The story goes that Belgian bartender Gustave Tops invented the Black Russian cocktail back in 1949 to honor the U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg, who was visiting Brussels at the time. Sources vary, but it is estimated that sometime in the '50s or early '60s Tops, or some other mixologist, later added cream to the blend and gave birth to the White Russian. The drink never made the A-grade of cocktails and might have died out altogether if it hadn't found its moment in the spotlight as the preferred tipple of Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) in "The Big Lebowski."

Nowadays the White Russian is synonymous with the film and you can get it in just about any cocktail bar. Has anyone ever ordered one without seeing the movie first? Only a handful of movie characters are so well-known for their choice of alcoholic beverage. Of course, there's...

Actress Rhea Seehorn discusses a few of her favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Swimmer (1968)

Linoleum (2023)

Close Encounters of The Third Kind (1977)

Young Frankenstein (1974)

The Bride Of Frankenstein (1935)

Glengarry Glenn Ross (1992)

Short Cuts (1993)

Lars And The Real Girl (2007)

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Breaking The Waves (1996)

Sound Of Metal (2020)

Starman (1984)

The Worst Person In The World (2021)

Beatriz At Dinner (2017)

Frida (2002)

The Shape Of Water (2017)

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)

The Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)

The Lobster (2015)

Delicatessen (1992)

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)

The Favourite (2018)

World’s Greatest Dad (2009)

Birdman (2014)

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

The Stepford Wives (1975)

The Stepford Wives (2004)

Triangle Of Sadness (2022)

Get Out (2017)

Nope (2022)

Brazil (1985)

Safe (1995)

Withnail & I (1987)

The Fisher King (1991)

Regarding Henry (1990)

Lost in La Mancha (2002)

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote...

Acquisition

Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights from Participant to “A Compassionate Spy,” the new documentary from Steve James. The film, which world premiered at the Venice Film Festival ahead of its North American launch at Telluride, is a real-life spy story about Manhattan Project physicist Ted Hall, who provided nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, told through the perspective of his wife Joan, who protected his secret for decades. Magnolia will release the film in theaters later this year.

“A Compassionate Spy” is presented by Participant and is a Mitten Media and Kartemquin Films production produced by Mark Mitten p.g.a., Dave Lindorff, and Steve James. Executive producers are Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Tim Horsburgh and Gordon Quinn.

The deal was negotiated by Magnolia executive VP Dori Begley and senior VP of acquisitions John Von Thaden; Participant’s Liesl Copland, executive VP content strategy and sales, Adam Macy,...

The nominees for the 2023 BAFTA film awards were revealed Thursday, with Hayley Atwell and Toheeb Jimoh making the announcement at noon local time (4 a.m. Pt) from the British Academy’s headquarters at 195 Piccadilly in London.

Earlier this month, the longlists for each category — the results of the first round of voting — were unveiled, with Netflix’s anti-war epic All Quiet on the Western Front emerging as a surprise early frontrunner having been named in 15 categories, including best film and director. Lurking just behind was Martin McDonagh’s already honor-amassing awards season favorite The Banshees of Inisherin, shortlisted 14 times, and Everything Everywhere All At Once and Elvis, longlisted 12 times each.

The longlists also provided some early snubs likely to draw a line in the sand between the BAFTAs and the Oscars this year, most notably Steven Spielberg, who didn’t make the 16-strong shortlist for best director.

On Tuesday, the...

Richard E. Grant is set to host the BAFTA film awards for the first time.

The star, who was BAFTA and Oscar-nominated for his supporting role in 2018’s Can You Ever Forgive Me but is perhaps best loved in the U.K. for his debut performance as an alcoholic, unemployed actor in 1987 cult classic Withnail & I, will oversee proceedings on stage at the ceremony on Feb. 19 at London’s Royal Festival Hall, where the awards are moving to after several years at the Royal Albert Hall.

“I feel hugely privileged to be hosting the Ee BAFTAs for the first time and the opportunity to celebrate the very best of the extraordinary range of this year’s films,” said Grant, who would do well to beat the headlines generated by 2022 host Rebel Wilson. Also a BAFTA first-timer, the Australian actress ensured the ceremony had a far less sedate air than...

For the season 5 season finale, Writer/Director/Producer Adam McKay returns to the podcast to discuss movies from his favorite year of cinema… 1987.

The Movies That Made Me will return with Season 6 in January. Happy Holidays! Thank you for listening!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Tin Men (1987)

Billy Jack (1971)

The Menu (2022)

Boyz N The Hood (1991) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Menace II Society (1991)

Straight Out Of Brooklyn (1991)

Do The Right Thing (1989) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

School Daze (1988)

The Swarm (1978) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Squeeze (1987)

Squeeze Play (1979) – Lloyd Kaufman’s trailer commentary

Diner (1982)

Robocop (1987) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray reviews

The Evil Dead (1983) – Fede Alvarez’s trailer commentary

Evil Dead II (1987) – Mike Mendez’s trailer commentary, Alex Kirschenbaum’s review

Broadcast News (1987)

Raising Arizona (1987)

The Princess Bride (1987) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

This Is Spinal Tap (1984) – John Landis’s...

Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Archie Madekwe (See) and Alison Oliver (Conversations with Friends) are the newest additions to the cast of Prime Video’s upcoming feature Saltburn, written and directed by Academy Award winner Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman). The trio joins an ensemble, which also includes Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi and Rosamund Pike, as previously announced.

The film hailing from MRC Film and Amazon Studios, which is currently in production in the UK, is billed as a story of obsession, though more specific plot details are being kept under wraps. Fennell is producing alongside LuckyChap Entertainment’s Josey McNamara, Tom Ackerley and Margot Robbie. Prime Video holds worldwide streaming rights to the film, and will release it in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide, with Amazon Studios and MGM set to release it in theaters.

“From the second we read Saltburn, we were completely hooked.

The cast for Academy Award-winner Emerald Fennell’s upcoming film “Saltburn” is shaping up with the addition of Oscar nominee Richard E. Grant, Archie Madekwe and Alison Oliver. The trio join previously announced stars Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi and Rosamund Pike in the MRC Film and Amazon Studios project.

Following her best picture-nominated feature directorial debut “Promising Young Woman,” Fennell wrote and is directing “Saltburn,” which is described as a “story of obsession” with other plot details kept under wraps. Production is currently underway in the U.K.

Variety exclusively announced plans for the film in January, noting that Fennell would also produce the project alongside LuckyChap Entertainment’s Josey McNamara, Tom Ackerley and Margot Robbie. Prime Video landed worldwide streaming rights to “Saltburn,” which will also be released in theaters by Amazon Studios and MGM, and then stream on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

“From the second we read ‘Saltburn,...

“Saltburn,” the second feature film from writer-director Emerald Fennell, has added Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver and Archie Madekwe to its cast.

The trio joins previously announced stars Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike and Barry Keoghan. Plot details are being kept under wraps, with the official description calling it “a story of obsession.”

“Saltburn” is Fennell’s follow-up to “Promising Young Woman,” for which she won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. She will write and produce the film alongside Margot Robbie, Josey McNamara and Tom Ackerley of LuckyChap Entertainment. The MRC and Amazon Studios film will debut in theaters courtesy of Amazon and MGM before it streams on Prime Video.

Also Read:

‘Promising Young Woman’ Filmmaker Emerald Fennell to Direct Next Film at MRC

“From the second we read ‘Saltburn,’ we were completely hooked,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios and Julie Rapaport, head of movies at Amazon Studios.

Archie Madekwe, Alison Oliver also sign on to ’Promising Young Woman’ director’s follow-up.

Richard E. Grant, Archie Madekwe, and Alison Oliver have joined the cast of Emerald Fennell’s Prime Video and MRC Film feature Saltburn, which is in production in the UK.

Fennell, who won the original screenplay Oscar last year for Promising Young Woman, wrote and will direct the feature, described as a story of obsession.

Prime Video previously acquired worldwide streaming rights to the film and will debut on its global platform after Amazon Studios and MGM release theatrically.

The trio of actors join previously announced cast members Barry Keoghan,...

Denis O’Brien, best known for producing the comedy Monty Python’s Life of Brian with former Beatle George Harrison, died December 3 in a Swindon, UK hospital. He was 80 and passed away from intra-abdominal sepsis, his daughter said.

O’Brien and Harrison’s Handmade Films had a hit right out of the box with the 1979 comedy Life of Brian, a semi-blasphemous story of a young Jewish-Roman man who is born on the same day and next door to Jesus, and is subsequently mistaken for the Messiah. It was banned in several locations or slapped with an X for its outrageous stunts, including a closing sing-along on the cross.

With Monty Python regulars Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Mochael Palin in the cast, the producers thought the film would at best lose money and be a tax write-off. Instead, it was a smash, leading them to explore other films.

Lock the doors. Turn on the lights. Check under the bed. Crank up the volume. It’s time for another Halloween Parade!

Please help support the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Click here, and be sure to indicate The Movies That Made Me in the note section so Josh can finally achieve his dream of showing Mandy to his wife!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Scream Blacula Scream (1973)

Mandy (2018)

Carnival of Souls (1962) – Mary Lambert’s trailer commentary

Night Tide (1961) – Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

A Bucket Of Blood (1959) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s DVD review, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Dementia 13 (1963) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Region B Blu-ray review, Glenn Erickson’s director’s cut Blu-ray review

The Godfather (1972) – Ernest Dickerson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

The Godfather Part II (1974) – Katt Shea’s trailer commentary

The Conversation (1974) – Josh Olson...

The movie “Yesterday” imagines what the world would be like if no one had ever heard of The Beatles. You can guess the impact that would have on the world of rock music, but we’d also be without a handful of great movies that found just the right note because they managed to score a movie moment in the way no other song would do. This list however excludes The Beatles movies like “Yellow Submarine,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Help!” and even the “Across the Universe” jukebox musical that are loaded with perfect such moments.

“The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001) – “Hey Jude”

The Mutato Muzika Orchestra, did up this lovely, twinkling, instrumental version of “Hey Jude” that captures the miniature, picturesque quality of the prologue to Wes Anderson’s family dysfunction comedy “The Royal Tenenbaums.” But the smaller in scope orchestration doesn’t change the sweeping, inspiring quality of the melody,...

There’s an old saying in Hollywood: You haven’t truly lived until Richard E. Grant causes you to bend over in laughter by pointing out his — and your — physical shortcomings.

At least, that’s what happened when the Oscar-nominated character actor — from 2018’s “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” to 2001’s “Gosford Park” to 1987’s “Withnail & I” — spoke with Variety about his scene-stealing turn on last week’s episode of the Marvel Studios series “Loki.” The penultimate episode of the season finds Tom Hiddleston’s titular god of mischief trapped in the Void, a limbo plane of existence that plays home to dozens of other variant Lokis who’ve been pruned by the Time Variance Authority. Along with Grant’s Classic Loki (who escaped death by living alone on a remote planet), Hiddleston meets Kid Loki (Jack Veal), Boastful Loki (Debbie Oparei), and Alligator Loki — basically, an alligator wearing...

Imagine the protagonist of a Richard Curtis film woke up on the morning of whichever wedding or funeral they were to attend, suddenly cursed with self-awareness. The resulting movie, a comedy that elicits such bone-deep cringe it’s indistinguishable from horror, might look a lot like Andrew Gaynord’s “All My Friends Hate Me,” a ferociously witty, deeply British evisceration of upper-class Millennial anxiety, dedicated to the truism that if you can’t spot the asshole in any group of five or more people, the asshole is you.

Pete (Tom Stourton) is just back from a volunteer stint at a refugee camp, and is setting off in high spirits to spend his birthday weekend in the enormous stately home owned by his friend George (Joshua McGuire). Pete’s down-to-earth girlfriend Sonia (Charly Clive) will join him the following day, but initially it’s just going to be him and his...

Paul Heller, the American film producer known for his work on UK classic Withnail & I, the Oscar-winning My Left Foot and the Bruce Lee-starring Enter the Dragon, has died at the age of 93.

BAFTA confirmed his death and offered condolences to his family. He had been a BAFTA Los Angeles Board Member for a long time, supporting the org’s work in the area including backing career starters and local students through community-based education activities.

He was instrumental in the launch of BAFTA’s family screenings at Helen Keller Park, a series that led to mentorship and school programs throughout LA, and helped to create and launch the inaugural BAFTA Student Film Awards.

A New York native who spent years working in the UK, Heller also had credits including 1962 feature David and Lisa, which received two Oscar nominations. He worked as an executive at Warner Bros on pics such...

Producer was longtime BAFTA LA board member.

Paul Heller, the US producer whose credits included Withnail & I and Enter The Dragon and My Left Foot as executive producer, died on December 28 in Los Angeles. He was 93.

Heller, a longtime board member of BAFTA LA, was born in New York on September 25, 1927, and spent many years in England producing some of his most acclaimed films.

His first feature, the 1962 mental health drama David And Lisa directed by Frank Perry, earned two Oscar nominations for directing and for Eleanor Perry’s adapted screenplay.

Encouraged to pursue his career with gusto, Heller...

In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks with film and TV director Stuart Urban as he discusses his picks of 5 Great Black Comedies, including:

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

A distant poor relative of the Duke of D’Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.

Dr Strangelove (1964)

An insane general triggers a path to nuclear holocaust that a War Room full of politicians and generals frantically tries to stop.

The King Of Comedy (1982)

Rupert Pupkin is obsessed with becoming a comedy great. However, when he confronts his idol, talk show host Jerry Langford, with a plea to perform on the Jerry’s show, he is only given the run-around. He does not give up, however, but persists in stalking Jerry until he gets what he wants. Eventually he must team up with...

Paul McGann, best known among fans of genre TV from Doctor Who as the eighth incarnation of the Time Lord, celebrates his 60th birthday today.

McGann initially had only a single outing as the Doctor in a TV movie aired in 1996, seven years after the series went on indefinite hiatus due to its steadily declining ratings and long before work began on the 2005 revamp, which will soon return for a second season with Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor.

Sometimes referred to as Enemy Within, the film was made as a pilot episode for a new series of Doctor Who produced with an American audience in mind, but fared poorly due to its radical alteration of the show’s core ideals and mishandling of established lore. However, McGann’s performance as the Doctor was still celebrated, and despite the movie’s failure he’s remained an integral aspect of the mythology.

What, exactly, are we to make of Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett), the dysfunctional slacker architect with the racing tongue and the porcupine disposition who’s at the center of Richard Linklater’s “Where’d You Go, Bernadette”? Bernadette lives in a beautiful crumbling mansion, perched on a Seattle hilltop, that she spends her days indolently renovating. Everywhere in the house, there are signs of her visual imagination (printed pamphlets folded into cones and stacked as wallpaper; splashes of surreal color). But it’s clear that the project stalled a long time ago, because the place is a half-finished wreck, with chipped paint and scarred moldings and barely furnished rooms.

What does Bernadatte do? Basically, she does nothing at all, except talk a blue streak of manic invective. She’s a drop-dead misanthrope who spends all day, every day, putting down everybody and everything. She hates the neighbors. She hates the...

Can You Ever Forgive Me? is available on Digital Download 27th May and on DVD & VOD 3rd June and to celebrate we are giving 3 lucky winners the chance to win a special bundle prize of the DVD and a copy of Lee Israel’s memoir in which the film is based on.

From the director of The Diary Of A Teenage Girl, Marielle Heller, comes Can You Ever Forgive Me?, a true-life comedic drama that sees Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant (Withnail & I) come together as terrific partners-in-crime. Both McCarthy and Grant received a BAFTA®, Academy Award® and Golden Globe nomination for Leading Actress and Supporting Actor respectively for their incredible performances in this fascinating & captivating biopic.

McCarthy portrays Lee Israel, a frustrated, hard-drinking author who can barely afford to pay her rent or bills in 1990s New York. Desperate for money, Israel soon hatches a scheme to...

Richard E. Grant has seen a few things in his 61 years. He was raised in the then-British colony of Swaziland. He went to school with Mandela’s daughters. He lay silent in the back seat of a car on an African dirt road as his mother screwed a man who was not his father, and then endured said father taking a shot at him in an alcoholic rage.

Later, he moved to London and became an actor making his permanent mark as Withnail, an alcoholic wastrel and the title character in Withnail & I,...

Dating all the way back to his breakout role in the British cult film “Withnail & I,” Richard E. Grant has appeared in classics like “The Player,” “The Age of Innocence,” “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” and “Gosford Park,” not to mention parts in “Game of Thrones” and “Girls.”

But his Oscar nomination Tuesday morning for “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” is his first Academy nod despite his long career.

“I’m over 62 years old, I’ve never been nominated for anything in my life. So far for this thing I’ve had 21 awards, so getting this nomination, it’s the cherry on top of the whole thing,” Grant told TheWrap. “Usually actors — by the time they get to my age — the parts have diminished, so whatever recognition you have is amazing.”

Also Read: Oscar Nominations Analysis: 'Roma,' 'BlacKkKlansman,' 'The Favourite' Gain Ground

There’s...

Richard E. Grant is so memorable in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” that it’s a shock to realize he’s only in a fraction of the film.

Fox Searchlight’s “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”centers on biographer Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) when she is broke and desperate, and begins forging celebrity letters. Israel has encounters with multiple characters, but it’s the love-hate relationship with friend and accomplice Jack Hock (Grant) that audiences remember, even though he only enters one-third into the film.

To begin research, Grant read Israel’s 2008 memoirs. “It was her voice, in all its scabrous wit, but she was very scant on detail about Jack Hock. It’s a real achievement that [scriptwriters] Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty were able to extrapolate those few hints or suggestions and create a full character.”

He also credits the “brilliant” costume designer Arjun Bhasin. “The film starts in...

Richard E. Grant, who made an acclaimed debut over 30 years ago in Withnail & I, is still busier than ever, and now he’s front and center during awards season with his work as author Lee Israel’s (Melissa McCarthy) good friend Jack Hock in Can You Ever Forgive Me?. Hock, along with being a drinking buddy [...]

The post Richard E. Grant Takes Lee Israel Connection Off His Shelf With ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’ appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.

Chris Allcock Nov 26, 2018

Finding yourself embroiled in wacky shenanigans on a weekly basis? We might just know the reason why…

This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

Have you ever, after a particularly difficult or exhausting day, sunk back against the sofa cushions and asked yourself “Why me? Why does all the crazy stuff always seem to happen to me?” Did you head out to a party dressed as Godzilla only to realise too late that it wasn’t fancy dress? Accidentally arrange two dates on the same night? Maybe your relaxing weekend was ruined by the unexpected arrival of your identical twin?

Perhaps it’s just your imagination – you know, the human brain seeking to find patterns in random events and trying to impose a narrative on what amounts to a chaotic and whimsical universe. Alternatively… it might be because you’re a character in a TV show.

For a comedian like Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey, it takes “serious” roles to get respect, but not so Melissa McCarthy, who earned an Oscar nomination for her breakout performance in “Bridesmaids” and has been a critical darling ever since. Still, that shouldn’t stop her from branching out, and it’s our gain that she does in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” an unexpectedly profound, incredibly true dramedy in which she plays Lee Israel, a miserable Manhattan author who resorted to forging letters by famous writers in order to pay the bills — and found the basis for her most successful book in the process.

Dowdy, half-soused, and frowning for nearly the entire running time, McCarthy earns nearly as many laughs playing this curmudgeonly cat lady as she does in her more irrepressible comedic parts. But, of course (and this is why critics love watching cut-ups reveal their more introspective...

Germany's Oldenburg Film Festival will honor British cult director Bruce Robinson (Withnail & I) with a retrospective of his work.

Oldenburg will screen eight films featuring Robinson, from his early work as an actor in features such as Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968) and Francois Truffaut's The Story of Adele H (1975); to Roland Joffe's The Killing Fields (1984), for which Robinson penned the Oscar-nominated screenplay; to his four features as a director: Withnail & I (1987), How To Get Ahead in Advertising (1989), Jennifer 8 (1992) and The Rum Diary (2011).

Despite his Oscar nomination for The Killing ...

Germany's Oldenburg Film Festival will honor British cult director Bruce Robinson (Withnail & I) with a retrospective of his work.

Oldenburg will screen eight films featuring Robinson, from his early work as an actor in features such as Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968) and Francois Truffaut's The Story of Adele H (1975); to Roland Joffe's The Killing Fields (1984), for which Robinson penned the Oscar-nominated screenplay; to his four features as a director: Withnail & I (1987), How To Get Ahead in Advertising (1989), Jennifer 8 (1992) and The Rum Diary (2011).

Despite his Oscar nomination for The Killing ...

Serge Bozon having a Hard, Fast And Beautiful First Encounter with Gavin Smith Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

First Encounters at the Quad Cinema have included Kenneth Lonergan and Edward Yang's Yi Yi, John Turturro and Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali, and two directors who have films in the Main Slate of this year's New York Film Festival, Greta Gerwig with Lady Bird watched David Lynch's Blue Velvet and The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected) director Noah Baumbach's First Encounter was Bruce Robinson's Withnail And I.

Serge Bozon, who is in the Main Slate program with Mrs. Hyde (Madame Hyde), starring Isabelle Huppert with Romain Duris and José Garcia, chose Ida Lupino's Hard, Fast And Beautiful with Claire Trevor, Sally Forrest, Robert Clarke, Kenneth Patterson, and Carleton G Young for his First Encounter.

Isabelle Huppert in ‪Serge Bozon‬'s Mrs. Hyde (Madame Hyde)

Hard, Fast And Beautiful...

Nikki Baughan Aug 31, 2017

A big hit at Horror Channel FrightFest, we chat to Danny Morgan about the upcoming horror, Double Date...

London-born actor/writer Danny Morgan (Off The Hook, Ideal, On The Road) had a very good reason for turning to the horror genre when it came to writing his first screenplay. “I thought that was a genre I could do something in, because there are so many crap horror films. I thought ‘well, it’s not going to stand out horribly if it’s completely terrible’. So I went into it with a good frame of mind!”

It’s a characteristically self-deprecating remark from Morgan who, along with director Benjamin Barfoot, can rest assured that Double Date is one of the funniest and most entertaining British horror comedies of recent years. Following screenings at Karlovy Vary and Edinburgh, it brought the house down at this year’s London’s Horror Channel FrightFest,...

After polling critics from around the world for the greatest American films of all-time, BBC has now forged ahead in the attempt to get a consensus on the best comedies of all-time. After polling 253 film critics, including 118 women and 135 men, from 52 countries and six continents a simple, the list of the 100 greatest is now here.

Featuring canonical classics such as Some Like It Hot, Dr. Strangelove, Annie Hall, Duck Soup, Playtime, and more in the top 10, there’s some interesting observations looking at the rest of the list. Toni Erdmann is the most recent inclusion, while the highest Wes Anderson pick is The Royal Tenenbaums. There’s also a healthy dose of Chaplin and Lubitsch with four films each, and the recently departed Jerry Lewis has a pair of inclusions.

Check out the list below (and my ballot) and see more on their official site.

100. (tie) The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese,...

Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This August will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.

To sign up for a free two-week trial here.

Tuesday, August 1

Tuesday’s Short + Feature: These Boots and Mystery Train

Music is at the heart of this program, which pairs a zany music video by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki with a tune-filled career highlight from American independent-film pioneer Jim Jarmusch. In the 1993 These Boots, Kaurismäki’s band of pompadoured “Finnish Elvis” rockers, the Leningrad Cowboys, cover a Nancy Sinatra classic in their signature deadpan style. It’s the perfect prelude to Jarmusch’s 1989 Mystery Train, a homage to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the musical legacy of Memphis, featuring appearances by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Joe Strummer.

Author: Samuel Spencer

Chubby Funny, apart from being my username on all major online dating profiles, is a film directed by Harry Michell. The story concerns Charlie (Augustus Prew) and Oscar (Michell), struggling actors living on the outskirts of London, Zone Four in name but shot a lot around Camden. Oscar makes a pact to give himself a year in London, saying “if I don’t even appear in Holby City I’ll go back to Kent”.

Oh and it stars Dave Benson Phillips in a small role, previously of iconic gunge-based TV show ‘Get Your Own Back’. Also showing their support through cameo roles are Alice Lowe, of previously great work like ‘Prevenge’, ‘Sightseers’ and ‘Horrible Histories’, plus Julian Rhind Tutt, Anna Maxwell Martin and Jemma Redgrave.

It’s easy to see why they would support the major new comedy talent that has been unearthed by this film. We...

Craig Carter..

One of Australia.s most respected sound designers, Craig Carter, has died in Melbourne.

The multiple AFI award winner had a heart attack last Friday, aged 60. The sound designer, editor, and recordist worked on more than 100 productions in a career spanning 34 years..

He was working with producer Tait Brady on Clayton Jacobson.s film Sibling Rivalry, now three weeks into production..

Brady, who first collaborated with Carter on Craig Monahan.s Healing, told If: .It.s incredibly sad. .Craig was such a great guy, gentle, thoughtful, so good natured and generous. A perfectionist who always went the extra mile and a very smart, sensitive sound designer who was also a musician and had a great musical ear, which fed into his work..

One of his last projects, PACmen, Luke Walker.s documentary on the inside workings of the controversial Political Action Committees which raise millions to support Us political candidates and causes,...

Quad Cinema Director of Programming and Nathan Silver's Thirst Street co-writer C Mason Wells Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Since its reopening by Charles S Cohen in April, the Quad Cinema has had four noteworthy theatrical premieres right from the start: Terence Davies' soulful A Quiet Passion (with Cynthia Nixon as Emily Dickinson, Jennifer Ehle, Keith Carradine); Katell Quillévéré's thoughtful Heal The Living (Emmanuelle Seigner, Kool Shen, Tahar Rahim, Finnegan Oldfield); Bruno Dumont's wild Slack Bay (Fabrice Luchini, Juliette Binoche, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), and Maura Axelrod's impish Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back.

Terence Davies' A Quiet Passion still going strong at the Quad Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Following First Encounters for Greta Gerwig with David Lynch's Blue Velvet, Kenneth Lonergan with Edward Yang's Yi Yi, John Turturro and Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali, and Noah Baumbach catching up on Bruce Robinson's Withnail And I at the Quad,...

Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach have First Encounters at the Quad Cinema Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Quad Cinema in New York reopens in grand style this Friday, April 14 with theatrical releases of Katell Quillévéré's Heal The Living (Réparer Les vivants), Terence Davies' A Quiet Passion and Maura Axelrod's Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back. Amy Heckerling will introduce Seven Beauties (Pasqualino Settebellezze) in the career retrospective for the great filmmaker Lina Wertmüller: Female Trouble.

Manchester By The Sea director Kenneth Lonergan first views Edward Yang's Yi Yi Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

First Encounters kicks off this Saturday with Greta Gerwig's first viewing of David Lynch's Blue Velvet. Jeffrey Deitch chooses Da Pennebaker's Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, John Turturro picks Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali, Noah Baumbach nails Bruce Robinson's Withnail And I, Sandra Bernhard views Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Lola, and...

Next month will mark the return of New York City’s Quad Cinema, a theater reshaped and rebranded as a proper theater via the resources of Charles S. Cohen, head of the distribution outfit Cohen Media Group. While we got a few hints of the line-up during the initial announcement, they’ve now unveiled their first full repertory calendar, running from April 14th through May 4th, and it’s an embarassment of cinematic riches.

Including the previously revealed Lina Wertmüller retrospective, one inventive series that catches our eye is First Encounters, in which an artist will get to experience a film they’ve always wanted to see, but never have, and in which you’re invited to take part. The first match-ups in the series include Kenneth Lonergan‘s first viewing Edward Yang‘s Yi Yi, Noah Baumbach‘s first viewing of Withnail and I, John Turturro‘s first viewing of Pather Panchali,...