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Helen Mirren is reminding audiences just how cruel Hollywood can be. The iconic British star told THR while alongside fellow icons Parker Posey, Kathy Bates, Niecy Nash-Betts, Cristin Milioti, and Keri Russell that she was advised to under plastic surgery early in her career.

“I was told to have a nose job in my twenties,” Mirren recalled. “Someone said, ‘You’ll never get work if you don’t have a nose job.’ I said no. I didn’t want to be a pretty actress anyway. I elected to be not so pretty.”

“The Thursday Murder Club” star added of her fellow actresses at the roundtable, “Looking at our faces around this table, none of us are beautiful. We’re not. None of us are beauties. We all have really different faces, very interesting faces. We all know what ‘beautiful’ is like.”

Mirren previously caused a stir when she was cast...

Israeli filmmaker Renen Schorr, founder of the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School, died Wednesday at 72.

The school, which opened in 1989, was a gamechanger for Israeli cinema with alumni over the past 35 years including Nir Bergman (Broken Wings), Nadav Lapid (Synonymes), Tom Shoval (Youth), Talya Lavie (Zero Motivation) and Rama Burshtein (Fill The Void).

Schorr, who was born in Jerusalem in 1952, built his career alongside the fledgeling Israeli film industry to become a seminal figure in its development later on.

A filmmaker in his own right, his best-known work is the 1987 drama Late Summer Blues.

Set in the wake of the 1967 Six-Day War, it follows a group of seven high school graduates in their final summer together before being conscripted into the Israeli army.

The screenplay was inspired by Schorr’s involvement in the 1970 Senior’s Letter to Prime Minister Golda Meir – in which a group of high school students questioned...

Comcast-owned Sky’s Sky Documentaries and its streaming service Now will give viewers a front-row seat for an exploration of recent history and topics that have shaped it, along with big names that played key roles in it — all through the eyes of legendary journalist and interviewer David Frost. That is the promise of new documentary series David Frost vs, which will start airing in the U.K. on Sunday, Feb. 23, with MSNBC set to air it starting on Sunday, April 27.

“Pulling from an archive of over 10,000 interviews recorded over more than 50 years, David Frost vs centers on era-defining David Frost interviews, unveiling a fresh perspective on today through the battles of yesterday,” according to a synopsis. Frost became a household name around the world for his TV interviews with former U.S. President Richard Nixon. “Seen through Frost’s eyes, we encounter the mid-to-late 20th century as a...

“I was sure none of these people at the Actors Studio actually considered me an actor. I was a pretty boy, a real conventional kid who somehow had staggered into this mélange." - Paul Newman, The Extraordinary Life Of An Ordinary Man

For Montgomery Clift, there was Howard Hawks’ Red River...

“The best antidote for a bad election is a good movie,” Richard M. Nixon once proclaimed, and for many filmgoers this week Conclave helped blot out the political noise. A papal thriller with a shock ending, Conclave’s impact again raises the question of whether serious adult fare can again command a strong market niche.

The setting of Conclave is itself a departure: The Pope is dead. The Vatican’s prayerfully powerful College of Cardinals is locked in its sanctorum, weathering intrigues about a potential new leader.

Directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), a regally robed cardinal, Ralph Fiennes, struggles to sustain calm in the face of sexual and political challenges raised by Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow, among others.

The Focus Features unit of Comcast once provided a major dent in...

The glory days of peak TV, of blank cheque commissioning, open-ended series orders and blockbuster budgets, are well and truly behind us. But even with buyers tightening their purse strings, there’s still a hunger, and with the every-expanding global streaming market, a continually-growing demand for top-notch drama.

Ahead of MIPCOM Cannes — the number one global television market which runs October 21-24 — the supply side of the scripted business is also looking strong. From big-budget period pieces to quirky indie gems, from glossy period pieces to gritty urban drama, the offerings this year are broad and deep.

Budget constraints mean there will be fewer moon-shot deals at this year’s MIPCOM — proceedurals, thrillers and star-driven projects will have an edge over riskier, niche-focused fare — but for producers who know how to crunch the numbers, there is business to be done.

Here is The Hollywood Reporter‘s hot list of the...

Polish director Olga Chajdas continues chasing different projects as she follows Netflix’s “1983,” HBO’s “The Border” and award-winning features “Nina” and “Imago” with the new six-episode historical drama “A World Divided.”

“A long time ago, I promised myself I wouldn’t repeat myself, ever,” she explained to Variety. “I lean towards fiction, so it seemed intriguing, but I wasn’t interested in making another documentary about World War II. We focus on real-life characters. Some are more famous than others, but we keep things subjective, trying to reflect what they were experiencing at that very time.”

She co-directed the show with Frank Devos.

“We decided to ‘split’ the characters. I ended up focusing on women, Frank focused on men, but only because these were our favorites. It was an interesting process because we work very differently. He’s read all the books and was concentrating on the factual layer.

Next year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and it’s no surprise networks and distributors are gathering the troops to commemorate. With war spreading in the Middle East and conflicts ongoing elsewhere around the world, the poignancy of programming in this area has been amplified this year.

What sets apart the noisiest of the new productions in this space that are heading for MIPCOM in Cannes, is that many of them aren’t using the global conflict as the actual setting for their stories. Instead, the war is a jumping-off point for wider, exploratory narratives, and themes different to those in traditional programs.

Among the most notable is the six-episode drama series A World Divided, which integrates archive footage with fictional drama. The series follows six people whose personal and political stories crystallized divisions and decisions that impacted the Second World War through to...

Kanopy, the no-fee/ad-free movie streaming service available through local libraries, colleges, universities and other institutions, has released the list of its Most-Watched Films of 2024 Midyear and ranked the Top 10 most-watched Kanopy films in the United States. Topping the crop is the Celine Song-directed Oscar nominee “Past Lives” from 2023, with the 2023 Ben Kingsley-starrer “Jules” coming in second and “Golda” (also from 2023) featuring Helen Mirren as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir ranking third.

See‘Past Lives’ star Greta Lee is standout on ‘The Morning Show’

In all, perhaps unsurprisingly, eight of the 10 most-streamed films of 2024 were released in 2023. The others, in order, are:

4. “The Royal Hotel” (2023)

5. “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002)

6. “”Sometimes I Think About Dying”(2023)

7. “BlackBerry” (2023)

8. “Talk to Me” (2023)

9. “She Came to Me” (2023)

10. “Dial M for Murder” (1954).

Predict the 2024 Emmy nominees by July 17

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or...

Steven Spielberg created one hell of a revenge movie in 2005’s Munich, which was based on George Jonas’ book Vengeance. The film (and the book) was a fictionalized version of the real-life assassinations that followed the killing of Israeli athletes in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. It was one of Spielberg’s most controversial films as Mossad condemned the portrayal of their assassins in the film.

Steven Spielberg (credits: Gage Skidmore | Wikimedia Commons)

The Jaws director is unapologetic about the criticism that his film faced. He shared that he wanted the conversation to take place surrounding the themes of the film. Interestingly, it was one of the lowest-grossing Spielberg films in the United States.

Steven Spielberg Wanted To Start A Conversation With His Movie Munich

Eric Bana in a still from Munich | Amblin Entertainment

Steven Spielberg gave himself only three months to make his historical drama film, Munich. When he...

Hillary Clinton and Sharon Stone shared the stage at the annual Cinema for Peace funder raiser in Berlin on Monday night with the latter presenting the former U.S. secretary of state with the Ngo’s Cinema for Peace Award.

Stone described Clinton as an inspirational figure in her life: “The things you’ve said have changed my life, changed the direction and changed the course of the things I’ve chosen to do.”

Clinton gently ribbed Stone about her gala gown, a tie at the front robe covered in mauve spots.

“To my friend Sharon Stone who can look amazingly beautiful in anything. When she walked in, I was like, ‘Wow, who besides Sharon Stone could wear a gigantic bath robe and look stunning… you are one of a kind my friend, one of kind,” she said.

Further honorees included Pope Francis, who was seen receiving the award on taped recording,...

Tatami, the groundbreaking Iranian drama co-directed by Oscar winner Guy Nattiv (Golda) and Cannes best actress winner Zar Amir Ebrahimi, has been picked up by XYZ Films for North America, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Based on real-life stories, the Farsi-language drama sees Arienne Mandi play Leila, an Iranian female judo athlete who travels to a world championship with her coach, played by Ebrahimi. Midway through the competition, they receive an ultimatum from the Islamic Republic ordering Leila to fake an injury and lose, or she will be branded a traitor of the state.

With her own freedom as well as her family’s at stake, she’s faced with an impossible choice: comply with the Iranian regime as her coach implores her to do, or fight on for the gold.

Tatami is the first feature film to have Iranian and Israeli filmmakers as co-directors. Nattiv directed the 2023 film Golda,...

A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit.

This week, Helen Mirren at the American Cinematheque Awards, the history-making connection between Godzilla Minus One and Stanley Kubrick, plus live on stage with Maestro and Anatomy of a Fall.

Helen Mirren got the royal treatment a queen deserves Thursday night from the American Cinematheque in a ceremony delayed by the actors strike but finally taking place right during crunch time in the Oscar race.

In my opinion, Mirren easily should have been in the Oscar Best Actress hunt for her stunning portrayal of legendary Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, but alas the summer opening (after an early 2023 Berlin premiere) and indie Bleecker Street’s limited campaign budget makes it hard to compete against particularly strong heavyweight competition this year.

I caught up with her last night at her table, right in the center of the action of course, at...

The tiny details mattered in transforming Helen Mirren into “Golda.”

In the film, Mirren plays the first female prime minister of Israel, Golda Meir, and follows her leadership during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Special effects makeup designer Karen Hartley Thomas did not want to turn Mirren into a caricature, so the less-is-more approach was the right way to go on this film.

Four makeup artists spent two and a half hours applying a nose bridge, tip pieces and adding in teeth. The team used stippling to age her, but the details mattered, especially for the eyes.

Mirren has blue eyes while Golda had brown eyes. “Brown eyes are quite difficult on film when they’ve got blue eyes underneath them, and they can look flat,” says Thomas. “I remember Helen saying to me, ‘Do you think we can go a bit darker with this?’ and I told her, ‘No,...

When we woke up on October 7 to the stories of the barbarity of Hamas, when we heard about the hostages, when we saw the footage of the obliterated homes on various kibbutzim, when we were told the massive death toll and saw kidnappings before our very eyes, when we heard about grotesque snuff videos on Facebook, it all seemed so surreal – an outlier even for a nightmare.

Last month I was in Israel, which is my homeland. I withstood a rocket attack. I stood in the ruins, in rooms and homes that were melted by the incendiary devices and thermobaric bombs, all of them charred to the darkest possible blacks. Some of the floors and walls still had blood spattered about them. If you looked up at the ceilings, you saw hundreds of holes created by the shrapnel of grenades. Many homes were leveled, save for the “safe rooms” which seemed to withstand the cataclysms.

Quick Links Why Can't Mags Speak In Catching Fire? What Happens To Mags in Catching Fire? Will Audiences Ever See Mags's Hunger Games? Lynn Cohen's Catching Fire character, Mags Flanagan, is unable to communicate verbally in the film. While the books explain that Mags suffered a stroke after winning the 11th Hunger Games, there may be other reasons for her condition. With the Hunger Games franchise expanding to include prequels and spinoffs, audiences may still learn a lot more about Mags Flanagan in the future.

The late Sex and the City actor Lynn Cohen made her Hunger Games debut as Mags Flanagan in Catching Fire. Mysterious and resourceful, Mags's victory for District 4 at the 11th Hunger Games made her a prime candidate for the Third Quarter Quell: 75th Hunger Games. Even at 80 years old, she proved herself a formidable opponent, but fans still wondered how Mags lost her ability to speak.

Exclusive: Actor Lior Ashkenazi has boarded Israeli-American filmmaker Matthew Mishory’s Mosolov’s Suitcase, exploring the life and legacy of Ukrainian, early Soviet era, avant-garde composer Alexander Mosolov.

Ashkenazi, who is Israel’s biggest acting star, is known for his award-winning performances in Israeli features Late Marriage, Footnote, Foxtrot, Walk On Water and Karaoke as well as HBO series Our Boys.

He is currently appearing opposite Helen Mirren in Guy Nattiv’s Golda Meir bio-pic Golda.

Mosolov’s Suitcase is a joint production between Alvaro Fernandez at L.A.-based Monolithic Films; Gidi Avivi at Vice Versa Films in Tel Aviv, and Rubber Ring Films, the joint Santa Monica-based company of Mishory and Bradford L. Schlei.

The upcoming picture is described as a hybrid, black-and-white meditation on the titular’s subject’s controversial life, told through three stories about creation and individualism in the face of state power.

In the first of three intersecting plotlines,...

The Oscar shortlists were released December 21 ahead of the nominations on January 23, 2024, and here we’re covering the crafts of makeup and hairstyling, original score, sound, and visual effects.

The big winners — appearing on three lists — were Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon”, Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer”, Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon”, Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,”, and J.A. Bayona’s “Society of the Snow”.

In fact, “Napoleon,” “Poor Things,” and “Society of the Snow” have the potential to be late-season craft juggernauts in competition with “Oppenheimer,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and Greta Gerwig’s billion-dollar blockbuster “Barbie,” which scored on two lists (original score and sound).

Also making two lists were Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” (makeup and hairstyling and sound), James Mangold’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (score and visual effects), Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” (makeup and hairstyling and sound), Christopher McQuarrie’s “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One...

“I didn’t really know a lot about her,” reveals “Golda” star Dame Helen Mirren while discussing her role of Golda Meir, the first female prime minister of Israel. “All I knew is when she came to power it was an incredibly important moment for me as a woman to realize that women could be prime ministers. It was an unknown thing in those days. Now it’s completely accepted. But it was completely unaccepted in the era when Golda came to power. It was absolutely revelatory. It was an important moment for me to realize what women could do.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

The Bleecker Street film is directed by Oscar winner Guy Nattiv and focuses on the intensely dramatic and high-stakes responsibilities and decisions that Meir, also known as the “Iron Lady of Israel,” faced during the Yom Kippur War.

See Karen Hartley-Thomas (‘Golda’ hair and...

Ridley Scott’s Napoleon and Michael Mann’s Ferrari are facing allegations — surprising for two films focused on straight white male protagonists — of cultural appropriation.

French and Italian critics have taken offense at the directors’ decisions to cast American actors to play national icons — Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon Bonaparte, the general who became French emperor, and Adam Driver as visionary Italian carmaker Enzo Ferrari — and, adding insult to injury, having them speak in English.

“It’s original sin,” wrote a Ferrari reviewer for Italy’s Movieplayer magazine on the casting of Driver, alongside Spanish actor Penélope Cruz as Ferrari’s wife, Laura, and American Shailene Woodley as his mistress. “Not just to have them speak English, but with a dodgy Italian accent.”

“Deeply clumsy, unnatural and unintentionally funny” was French GQ’s assessment of the very French characters of Napoleon and his lover Josephine (played by Brit Vanessa Kirby) speaking en anglais.

Hair and makeup designer Karen Hartley-Thomas met with director Guy Nattiv just six weeks before he began shooting his film “Golda” starring Helen Mirren. “I desperately wanted to do the job,” she reveals. “I had just worked with Helen on a film called ‘The Duke,’ so when he offered it to me I thought, ‘Alright, we’re going to have to start immediately.’ So I found my usual prosthetics people who said, ‘No thanks.'”

We talked with Hartley-Thomas as part of Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2023/2024 awards contenders. Watch our exclusive video interview above.

See SAG Awards: 5 reasons why Helen Mirren could be going for the gold for ‘Golda’

“Golda” focuses on the intensely dramatic and high-stakes responsibilities that Golda Meir (Mirren), also known as the “Iron Lady of Israel,” faced during the Yom Kippur War. She was Israel’s first and only...

Revered and reviled U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger, whose death at 100 on Nov. 29 was met with the widespread view that his realpolitik was responsible for some of this country’s worst global war crimes, loved American celebrity — both his own, an expression of state power, as well as that of others, especially performers. He was “the ultimate starfucker,” noted Daniel Drezner, professor of international politics at the Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, in an appraisal published earlier this year on the occasion of Kissinger’s centennial.

Prior to meeting President Richard Nixon in 1967, Kissinger made frequent trips to Santa Monica to consult with the Rand Corporation, a global policy think tank. But after being appointed as national security adviser by the newly elected president in 1969, his profile skyrocketed — and the glitz of Hollywood was within reach. Fascinated since childhood with American popular culture, Kissinger pursued the...

Five top film makeup and hair awards contenders will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2024 awards contenders. They will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Thursday, December 7, at 4:00 p.m. Pt; 7:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Denton Davidson and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.

RSVP today to our entire ongoing contenders panel series by clicking here to book your free reservation. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

Golda (Bleecker Street)

Synopsis: Focuses on the intensely dramatic and high-stakes responsibilities and decisions that Golda Meir, also known as the ‘Iron Lady of Israel,’ faced during the Yom Kippur War.

Bio: Karen Hartley-Thomas was an Emmy nominee for “Little Dorrit” and “Cranford.” Other projects have included “Patrick Melrose,...

Usually, I’m the guy who can always find a way to turn the positive to the painful, who sees the glass not as half-full or half-empty but not even a glass at all – more like a cracked plastic container. And God knows there are a zillion things going on in the world and right here to home to be depressed about. But in a rare departure from form, I’m choosing this Thanksgiving to actually be thankful, at least when it comes to our entertainment (and a few other things).

What am I giving thanks for this year?

I’m thankful, first and foremost, that the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are over, and it appears great strides were made to benefit the rank and file in the guilds. It’s what makes the work stoppage necessary. I’m thankful that the forecasts of doom and gloom for the...

Tuesday night, on the one-month anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on southern and central Israel that sparked the nation’s biggest conflict in 50 years, an audience gathered at the Linwood Dunn Theater of the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Studies in Hollywood for a packed industry screening of – and panel discussion following – the powerful biopic “Golda” starring Helen Mirren in the title role as former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. The eerie timeliness of the film couldn’t have been known when it was released in the United States on August 25, nor in the UK on October 6 (the day before the conflict was launched).

“Golda” tells the story of how Meir, ill with malignant lymphoma, runs interference during the tense 19 days of the Yom Kippur War in ’73. Mirren, thanks to a masterful make-up job by the Bleecker Street movie’s hair, makeup and prosthetics designer Karen Hartley-Thomas, is transformed...

Helen Mirren’s American Cinematheque tribute has a new date.

The Cinematheque announced today that their annual awards show will now take place on Thursday, February 15, at The Beverly Hilton. The event was postponed from its original November 4 date due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

As previously announced, Mirren — who is getting awards buzz for her role as Golda Meir in Golda — will receive the 37th American Cinematheque Award. Kevin Goetz & Screen Engine will be honored with the Power of Cinema Award.

This is the annual fundraiser for the organization, with proceeds benefiting its classic, international and independent film programs at the Los Feliz 3 Theatre in Los Angeles, the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. A portion of the funds supports American Cinematheque’s commitment to diversified programming and audience reach, through engaging with Los Angeles County’s 88 school districts to broaden the AC Educational Screening Series.

When skepticism about the savagery of attacks by Hamas terrorists against Jews in Israel first surfaced, the Israel Defense Forces put together 45 minutes of gruesome imagery — most of it shot by the perpetrators — of murder, beheadings, rapes and other atrocities against Jewish adults and children. Initially shown to world leaders, ambassadors and journalists covering the attack and the ensuing response by Israel military forces, that footage will be shown this week in screenings organized in Hollywood and New York.

Several in Hollywood who are Jewish spoke with me to see if I’d been among those who were torn over whether they needed to subject themselves to footage which will be presented without narration, and the only sounds coming from terrorists committing the atrocities, and the victims who believed something like this could never happen again. Right now, there is only the screenings this week — Deadline agreed to not divulge...

Helen Mirren’s ardent feminism came to the fore Thursday night when the Oscar-winning actress was asked during a keynote conversation in Toronto what she looked forward to beyond the “horrible situation” of the current Israel-Hamas war.

“Gosh, that’s an incredibly difficult question, because you don’t want to be naïve and silly. Of course one hopes for peace,” Mirren told the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center during an appearance at its 2023 Spirit of Hope Benefit.

Then she added: “Honestly, ultimately, I’m going to say I look forward to women taking a stronger place in life. Because I think that may be our hope for the future.”

Praised as a steadfast ally in the fight against anti-Semitism by the human rights organization after she received their 2023 Humanitarian Award, Mirren’s informal conversation was overshadowed by events in the Middle East after Israel declared war on the Hamas terrorist...

The tanks are rolling into Gaza, as the Israeli invasion seems to finally be happening, after a pause for humanitarian aid and mostly-fruitless negotiations for the release of 220 hostages being held by Hamas.

No one knows how this will end, but one thing is clear: This will be remembered as Bibi’s war.

Yes, of course, Hamas started this round of violence, with their appalling mass slaughter of over 1,400 innocent civilians and the kidnapping of hundreds more. They bear a profound moral responsibility that cannot be justified or excused, no...

Update, 6:21 a.m. Pt: President Joe Biden said that he would ask the Congress to pass an “unprecedented support package for Israel’s defense.”

Speaking during his visit to Israel, Biden said that the U.S. will “keep Iron Dome fully supplied so that they can continue standing sentinel over Israeli skies, saving Israeli lives.”

As of now, nothing can move through the House of Representatives because Republicans have been unable to elect a new speaker. Another vote on Jim Jordon’s bid is scheduled for this morning, but there are doubts that he has the vote and increasing talk of empowering speaker pro tem Patrick McHenry with the ability to move legislation on a temporary basis.

The president also said that Israel had agreed that humanitarian aid can be transported from Egypt to Gaza. He said that is Hamas “diverts or steals the assistance, they will have demonstrated...

“God, it’s fucking crazy,” Guy Nattiv said with exasperation when we connected by phone this week, in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel that has resulted in the deaths and hostage-taking of hundreds of Israelis. “This is a holocaust.”

Nattiv, the first Israeli filmmaker to ever win an Oscar — he won best live action short for 2018’s Skin — and the director of the 2023 film Golda, which chronicles Golda Meir’s response to the 1973 surprise attack on Israel that resulted in the Yom Kippur War, has lived in the United States for the past decade, since he met the woman who would become his wife, the actress-filmmaker Jaime Ray Newman. But he remains deeply connected to Israel, where many of his family members and friends still reside. And when Hamas attacked Israel last week, he instinctively decided that he should use his Instagram platform as a “shofar” — a horn,...

Paris Fashion Week isn’t just for the young and fashionable, and Dame Helen Mirren proved just that as she walked the runway for the L’Oreal fashion show.

Mirren, 78, wore a shimmering silver gown for the show with her hair blown out, as it framed her glowing face. Unlike the Cannes Film Festival this year, when she dyed her hair blue, Mirren wore her natural locks for the fashion show.

Mirren wasn’t the only star to grace the L’Oreal runway, though, as Andie MacDowell, Kendall Jenner, Eva Longoria, Viola Davis, Elle Fanning and Aishwarya Rai were also there.

@voguegermany

#ellefanning and #helenmirren on the @L’Oreal Paris runway. #voguegermany #ledefileloreal #walkyourworth #lorealpfw #pfw #parisfashionweek #parisfashionweek2023 #ellefanningedit #ellefanningstyle #helenmirrenedit

♬ butterfly fly away speed up – aux

Off the runway, Mirren is talking about her new film, Golda, in which she plays the fourth Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir.

National Amusements fires up ‘BlackBerry’; MetFilm has ‘Golda’ starring Helen Mirren and ‘The Burial’.

Universal’s franchise horror The Exorcist: Believer and Warner Bros’ UK drama The Great Escaper will be targeting different audiences at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, with both films opening wide.

Starting in 616 cinemas, The Great Escaper stars Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson, in her final film role before her death in June aged 87. Shot along the south coast of the UK including at Dover, Camber Sands and Hastings, the film follows a pensioner who escapes from his care home to attend the 70th anniversary...

Backlash over Helen Mirren’s casting in “Golda”, a new biopic about late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, has flared up, and Mirren is responding.

Speaking with Britain’s Radio Times, the Oscar winner said that she understands criticisms that she — a non-Jewish actor — is playing an iconic Jewish woman.

“I did tell Guy that I’m not Jewish, in case he thought I was.”

While controversy over her casting emerged last year, Mirren told the magazine that “the whole issue of casting has exploded out of the water fairly recently.”

Read More: Helen Mirren Says Criticism Of Her Casting As Israel Pm Golda Meir Is ‘Utterly Legitimate’

She cited some past projects in which she’s played Jewish characters, which didn’t raise any eyebrows.

“I’ve had other Jewish roles [in ‘Woman in Gold’ and ‘The Debt’], but not an uber-Jewish role like Golda Meir,” she said, noting that...

Disney sci-fi epic “The Creator” and Lionsgate U.K.’s horror franchise entry “Saw X” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office — and the race was almost too close to call.

“Saw X” won the three-day total with £1.92 million ($2.31 million), while “The Creator” was just behind with £1.89 million ($2.27 million). However, including previews, “The Creator” grossed £2.2 million, according to numbers released by Comscore.

In third place, in its third weekend, Disney’s “A Haunting in Venice” collected £1 million for a total of £6.7 million. In its fourth weekend, in fourth position, Warner Bros.’ “The Nun II” scared up £418,693 for a total of £5.8 million. And in fifth place, in its fifth weekend, Sony’s “The Equalizer 3” shot its way to £323,247 for a total of £7.8 million.

There were two more debuts in the top 10. A24’s remastered release of Jonathan Demme’s iconic 1984 Talking Heads documentary “Stop Making Sense” debuted in...

Mirren has spoken of her dismay at the backlash to her casting as Golda Meir, former prime minister of Israel, in forthcoming film Golda

Helen Mirren has spoken of her dismay at the controversy sparked by her casting as Golda Meir, former prime minister of Israel.

The actor, and the biopic of Meir in which she stars, faced considerable backlash as Mirren herself is not Jewish, and heavy prosthetics were employed in her transformation.

Helen Mirren is sharing her thoughts on playing a Jewish character as a non-Jewish actress.

The 78-year-old Oscar-winner has been facing criticism surrounding her role as former Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir in the upcoming film Golda. Some have expressed opposition to Helen portraying a Jewish person.

Keep reading to find out how Helen responded…

Helen told the Radio Times that “the whole issue of casting has exploded out of the water fairly recently”.

She added, “I’ve had other Jewish roles [in Woman in Gold and The Debt], but not an uber-Jewish role like Golda Meir. I did tell [director Guy Nattiv] that I’m not Jewish, in case he thought I was.”

Helen said that Guy, who is Jewish, did not express any concern with her casting.

“I said, ‘If that’s an issue, I’ll step away, no problem.’ But he said, ‘No, it’s not an issue.

Helen Mirren thinks it is “ridiculous” that writers are being told to stay in their lanes.

The Oscar-winning actress has railed against the idea that writers can only tell stories about their own race or religion after the so-called “Jewface” row over her new movie Golda.

“It’s more frightening for a writer to be told they are not allowed to write about subjects with which they don’t have an immediate DNA connection,” Mirren told the Radio Times. “I imagine it must be very alarming. And ridiculous.”

Mirren was responding to a statement from Golda writer Nicholas Martin, who said there is a “creeping authoritarianism” in the entertainment industry, leading to writers being told they “cannot do this or that.” He told the Radio Times: “Am I just supposed to write about middle-aged men living in south London?”

Neither Mirren nor Martin are Jewish, meaning they have been criticized for their involvement in Golda,...

Dame Helen Mirren has acknowledged there is a "very delicate balance" to playing people with a different heritage.The 78-year-old star plays former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in Guy Nattiv's biopic 'Golda' although her casting was met with a backlash because she is not Jewish and she "can see" why some are uncomfortable with her role.Speaking on the BBC's 'Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg', Helen said: "I think I can see, but sometimes I can't see, because, I can't see who in this room is Jewish."We are all such an amazing mix and certainly I don't have an issue with Kirk Douglas playing a Viking. Kirk Douglas was Jewish."Bradley Cooper also faced criticism for wearing make-up to amplify the size of his nose as he depicts conductor Leonard Bernstein in the Netflix film 'Maestro' and Mirren realises the pitfalls of playing characters from different cultures.

Golda is a biographical war drama film directed by Guy Nattiv from a script by Nicholas Martin. Starring Helen Mirren in the lead role of Golda Meir, the fourth Prime Minister of Israel, the film follows Golda’s leadership of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The film also stars Camille Cottin and Liev Schreiber. So, if you loved Golda here are some similar movies you could watch next.

A Woman Called Golda (Not Streaming in the US) Credit – Syndication

Synopsis: The story of the Russian-born, Wisconsin-raised woman who rose to become Israel’s prime minister in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Darkest Hour (Netflix & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Universal Pictures

Synopsis: Academy Award® winner Gary Oldman gives a “towering performance” in acclaimed director Joe Wright’s soaring drama Darkest Hour. As Hitler’s forces storm across the European landscape and close in on the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill...

Ferrari, Michael Mann's latest biopic about the legendary automobile entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari, has been a much-awaited film for many racing and car fans around the world. The film had some difficulty making its way to screens, with challenges regarding its distribution. However, now, with the issues ironed out, Ferrari was expected to have a smooth sail to its exclusive theatrical release on Christmas Day 2023. Or, so we thought. The biopic and the team of creatives behind the film have seemingly run into yet another issue, although it isn't likely to affect the film's release.

After premiering at the Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2023, Ferrari has come under fire for its choice of actors, especially the actor cast to spearhead the biopic. Mann's film centers on the life of Enzo Ferrari. The focus of the plot is specifically on the tragic 1957 Millie Miglia, a race that spanned a thousand miles across the Italian countryside.

(L-r): Riccardo Scamarcio as Vitale Portfoglio and Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot in 20th Century Studios’ A Haunting In Venice. Photo by Rob Youngson. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Agatha Christie fans will delight in A Haunting In Venice, because Kenneth Branagh really hits the mark with this one.

Branagh has directed and starred a few of these Christie classic mysteries as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, featuring star casts and a big, splashy out-sized approach (including Branagh version of Poirot’s famous mustache). Those films have been based on very familiar Agatha Christie mysteries, the ones that have been done, on big screen and small, many times before over the years, which meant they invited comparison, sometimes unfavorable, to some stellar films and productions.

With A Haunting In Venice, Branagh takes a different tack. This Agatha Christie mystery film is based on a less-familiar Poirot mystery, Christie’s “Hallowe’en Party,...

Spy Ops Episode 5 began discussing the Mossad’s role in eliminating almost every member of Black September, which sent shockwaves across the world. The Munich Olympics massacre left a scar that will be hard to erase. Revenge was the motivation of the Israeli government. The only member they could not find was Ali Hassan Salameh, the chief of Black September and a close associate of Yasser Arafat of the Plo. Spy Ops Episode 6 is the continuation of Israel’s hunt to neutralize Salameh.

What Happened In Lillehammer, Norway?

The Mossad never stopped their search for Ali Hassan Salameh. They tried to locate him in Lebanon and Europe in the hope of catching him red-handed, but he was nowhere to be found. There were several pictures of him circulating with Yasser Arafat and several other groups, which proved that he was alive, but he was like a ghost who appears and disappears without a trace.

Spy Ops Episode 4 was about all the conspiracy theories revolving around the unsuccessful attempt made on kill Pope John Paul II’s life. There is still no conclusive ending to this story, even though there were many avenues that allowed the intelligence agencies to find answers. Spy Ops Episode 5 is about the most daring intelligence agency that ever existed. No spy operation documentary series is complete without mentioning some of the most audacious rescue attempts made by Mossad agents of Israel. This episode focuses on the operation carried out by Israeli intelligence to locate and kill the members of the terrorist outfit Black September.

What happened at the 1972 Munich Olympics?

Spy Ops Episode 5 begins with the terrifying footage of the Palestinian terrorists of the group Black September holding the Israeli contingent of athletes hostage at the Munich Olympics. We get to see testimony given by a former Israeli swimming champion...

Guy Nattiv has revealed that 'Golda' was initially meant to be a "massive war movie".The 50-year-old director has helmed the biopic that tells the story of the life of Israel's first and only female prime minister Golda Meir – played by Dame Helen Mirren – and explained how he altered the film to make it a character study of the politician during the Yom Kippur War.In an interview with Collider, Guy recalled: "When I joined the project, the script was completely different. It was a massive war movie with a lot of combat scenes and a little bit of 'Golda'. I felt that it was an opportunity for us to go under the skin of Golda and to do a character piece."We scrapped the war scenes and brought most of the script to focus on Golda. It took us a year, and then the pandemic happened,...

Kazu Hiro said he “wasn’t expecting” the controversy; “I feel sorry that I hurt some people’s feelings.”

Kazu Hiro, make-up designer on Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, has responded to the controversy around the nose of Cooper’s lead character Leonard Bernstein, saying “I feel sorry that I hurt some people’s feelings.”

Speaking at the press conference in Venice for the Competition title, Hiro said “I wasn’t expecting [the controversy] to happen. My goal and Bradley’s goal was to portray Lennie [Bernstein] as authentically as possible.

“Lennie had a really iconic look that everybody knows,” said Hiro, who earlier...

The death of Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16, 2022, would shake Iran to its core. In what proved to be a tinder box moment and led to what experts have asserted was the greatest challenge to the hard-line Iranian government since the 1979 revolution, the 22-year-old died in Tehran, having allegedly been beaten by the police after she’d been arrested for not wearing the mandatory hijab.

The news sparked widespread protests across the country as thousands took to the streets over the following weeks and months to demand an end to the hijab rule and for wider social freedoms, particularly for women. The brutal crackdown by authorities that followed resulted in more than 500 reportedly killed by security forces and tens of thousands detained.

Amini’s death would also shake up the production of Tatami, then underway in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, just over 200 miles from the Iranian border. The film, receiving...

The new biographical drama “Golda” features Helen Mirren in a transformative role as Golda Meir, the so-called “Iron Lady of Israel” who faced high-stakes responsibilities and decisions during the Yom Kippur War. Written by Nicholas Martin and directed by Guy Nattiv, the Bleecker Street contender is Mirren’s first big play at a potential Academy Award nomination in many years, so let’s look back at her four Oscar races.

With a career in film going back to the 1960s, Mirren saw her first Oscar nomination in 1994 in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance in “The Madness of King George.” Directed by Nicholas Hytner, this biographical comedy-drama tells the story of King George III and how his Lieutenants tried to adjust the rules to run the country after he went mad. Mirren played his wife, Queen Charlotte, and she was one of four citations for the movie at the 67th Academy Awards,...

Helen Mirren undergoes extensive prosthetic makeup and wears a bodysuit to accurately portray Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the biopic Golda. The prosthetic makeup and bodysuit were designed to give the essence of Meir without appearing like a caricature. Mirren's casting initially faced backlash for not being of Jewish heritage, but director Guy Nattiv, who is Jewish, felt she was the right fit for the role and the controversy did not deter Mirren from taking on the part.

The acclaimed actor Helen Mirren stars as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the wartime drama biopic Golda, which takes place during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Meir was the fourth Pm of Israel and the first female head of government. To accurately depict the 75-year-old leader, Mirren had to undergo two hours of prosthetic makeup and dress in a bodysuit every day of filming. Special effects makeup designer Karen Hartley Thomas has explained the process,...

“Golda” looks to do the unthinkable – to portray Golda Meir, the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974, not as a historical figure but as a flesh-and-blood person. And what’s more, the movie hinges on the Yom Kippur War, an armed conflict between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (including Egypt), which puts Golda (played elegantly by Helen Mirren) in a pressure cooker. It’s incredible just how much you learn about her given the movie’s strict parameters.

As directed by Guy Nattiv, it’s a tense and unnerving history lesson, one that keeps you riveted throughout. And with Mirren as Golda, who at the time was secretly ailing, the conflict has a very human face. Nattiv gives the movie immediacy and draws parallels to what’s going on today.

TheWrap spoke to Nattiv about the influence of 1970’s Cold War thrillers and Oliver Stone’s “JFK...