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Sky has unveiled the first look at its upcoming prestige drama ‘Amadeus,’ a bold five-part reimagining of Peter Shaffer’s award-winning stage play. The series stars Will Sharpe as the genius and self-destructive Wolfgang ‘Amadeus’ Mozart, Paul Bettany as his envious rival Antonio Salieri, and Gabrielle Creevy as Mozart’s fiercely loyal wife Constanze Weber.

Adapted by Joe Barton, ‘Amadeus’ explores the meteoric rise and tragic downfall of one of history’s most iconic composers — and rockstar virtuoso of the 18th century.

Sky Original Amadeus First look – Paul Bettany as Salieri

Joining Sharpe, Bettany and Creevy in a stellar cast lineup is Rory Kinnear as Emperor Joseph, Lucy Cohu (Becoming Jane) as Cecilia Weber,...

First-look photos have been unveiled for Amadeus, the new series adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s award-winning stage play. Take a look at The White Lotus star Will Sharpe as Wolfgang ‘Amadeus’ Mozart, Paul Bettany as court composer Antonio Salieri, and Gabrielle Creevy as Mozart’s wife Constanze Weber. The limited series will be released later this year by Sky in the U.K. and will stream on Now. U.S. release details have yet to be announced. Adapted by Joe Barton, this five-part reimagination explores the meteoric rise and mythic downfall of one of the iconic composers of the 18th century, Wolfgang ‘Amadeus’ Mozart. The fictionalized telling of true events...

Will Sharpe is musical prodigy Wolfgang “Amadeus” Mozart in new photos from the upcoming show Amadeus.

Sky released a first look at the limited series Thursday, with Paul Bettany starring as envious court composer Antonio Salieri and Gabrielle Creevy as Constanze Weber, Mozart’s fiercely loyal wife.

Based on Peter Shaffer’s award-winning stage play, and adapted by Joe Barton (Black Doves, Giri/Haji, The Lazarus Project), the five-part reimagination explores the meteoric rise and mythic downfall of one of history’s most iconic composers — and rock star virtuoso of the 18th century, Mozart.

When 25-year-old Amadeus arrives in bustling 18th-century Vienna, no longer a child prodigy and craving creative freedom, his world collides with two pivotal figures: his fiercely loyal future wife, Constanze Weber, and devoutly religious court composer, Antonio Salieri.

Paul Bettany as envious court composer Antonio Salieri in Amadeus. Sky Studios Gabrielle Creevy as Constanze Weber, Mozart...

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha created and performed by Julia Masli, and directed by Kim Noble has been revealed the fifth Mainstage production to complete the 2025/26 Playhouse season. Additionally, Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays will star as Salieri in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus directed by Tony Award-winning director Darko Tresnjak. All Julia Masli wants to do is solve people’s problems and win the Nobel Peace Prize, but this plan keeps going wrong as she continually wins prizes for comedy. In her wildly unpredictable solo show ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, the award-winning performer turns the audience’s problems into surreal, side-splitting theater. No script, no safety net,...

Abraham’s gorgeous villainy as the bland court composer eclipsed by Tom Hulce’s nitrogen-voiced genius Mozart is a treat

The pure gorgeous villainy of F Murray Abraham once again floods the screen, as saturnine and sulphurous as ever, in this new rerelease of Amadeus in its original 1984 theatrical cut. It was adapted by Peter Shaffer from his stage-play about the two real-life composers, one a genius, one a nonentity (itself a theme-variation from Pushkin’s 1830 drama Mozart and Salieri), and directed by the great Czech film-maker Miloš Forman – his English-language masterpiece, or maybe his masterpiece full stop. Abraham was in his mid-40s when he played this Oscar-winning role; when I first saw it, I thought he would surely dominate the movies for decades to come, no doubt in classical adaptations in which he would be a superlative Iago or Faustus. For some reason, he never again got a starring role to match this,...

Exclusive: Producer Paul Zaentz and director Devin Adair are working on a feature adaptation of Luke Barr’s nonfiction book Provence, 1970: M.F.K Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, And The Reinvention Of American Taste.

Adair is writing a script for the film. Set in Provence, France, during Christmas in 1970, the 2013 book follows a gathering between six acclaimed culinary figures, who cooked, ate, argued, and talked about the future of food in the US, the meaning of taste, and the limits of snobbery.

“It’ll be a small dinner movie like My Dinner With Andre or Babette’s Feast,” Zaentz told Screen...

Miloš Forman's critically acclaimed biographical film Amadeus has found a new streaming home. The 1984 Best Picture winner at the Academy Awards starts streaming for free this month on Tubi. Other titles set to be added to Tubi's library include Oscar winners like Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, Titanic, and Thelma & Louise.

The musical biopic was adapted by writer Peter Shaffer, who had already tackled the subject for his stage play in the late '70s. He was inspired by the 1830 stage play Mozart and Salieri by Russian playwright Alexander Pushkin. Amadeus follows Antonio Salieri's frequently debated contempt for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as the young musical prodigy revolutionized the musical scene in Vienna in the mid-1700s. Per the Rotten Tomatoes synopsis of the film:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Hulce) is a remarkably talented young Viennese composer who unwittingly finds a fierce rival in the disciplined and determined Antonio Salieri...

Bavaria Media and Beta Film have joined forces on Mozart Mozart, a six-hour drama that reimagines the legacy of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart through the eyes of his (real-life) sister, Maria Anna Mozart.

The series, from the creators of German costume drama hit Sisi, has received a first-season commission from German public broadcaster Ard and Austria’s Orf.

Set in the late 18th century, the series centers on Amadeus’s sister, Maria Anna Mozart, portrayed by Havana Joy (Love Sucks), who steps into her brother’s shoes after his dismissal from the Salzburg court threatens the family’s future. When Wolfgang, played by Eren M. Güvercin (Druck, Eldorado), proves too volatile to secure favor at the court of Emperor Joseph II, Maria Anna disguises herself as her brother, captivating Vienna’s elite and drawing the envy of Mozart’s rival, Antonio Salieri. Her deception grows increasingly complex as she attempts to maintain the ruse,...

Every year, Hollywood pumps out at least one or two musician biopics. Last year alone saw the release of "Back to Black," a portrait of the late Amy Winehouse, and the Oscar-nominated "A Complete Unknown," the Bob Dylan origin story as told by James Mangold. It's easy to understand why we keep getting these films: they're pretty popular. Sure, some of them flop, but more often than not, there seems to be an insatiable hunger from the public to watch actors slap on a wig and do an impression of a famous singer. And studios are often all-in because not only are there box office dollars at work, but if filmmakers and actors play their cards right, awards season glory comes calling.

"Bohemian Rhapsody," the 2018 film about Queen singer Freddie Mercury, did boffo box office and scored several nominations, winning Rami Malek a Best Actor trophy, and all of this...

Between 2001 and 2011, eight "Harry Potter" movies hit theaters, with the final movie, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," split into two parts. After being cast in the lead role at an extraordinarily young age, Daniel Radcliffe played the titular Boy Who Lived beautifully throughout the entire franchise. Still, if you ask him, he wasn't always great, which is to say that he's not a particularly big fan of one specific installment.

Speaking to The Daily Mail back in 2014 about his career up until that point, Radcliffe said that he's not an especially big fan of watching his own performances, which certainly isn't unusual for performers ... but he also made sure to give a shoutout to the sixth "Harry Potter" movie in a pretty negative way. "I never liked watching myself on film but I do make myself sit through it," Radcliffe began. "I think it comes from not actually realizing...

Miloš Forman’s Amadeus, adapted by Peter Shaffer from his 1979 play, isn’t technically a biopic, nor is it historically accurate. Still, it stands as one of the greatest film portraits of an artist for capturing the essence of their work. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has long been regarded as a genius for his innate skill, profligacy, and still-unmatched gift for instrumental melody. But of all his remarkable works across every style of music of his time, nowhere was Mozart more innovative than in the field of opera, and Amadeus is a suitably operatic treatment of his story: loud, emotive, volatile, and sweeping, blowing all facts out of proportion to reveal deeper truths.

Of course, in what feels like one more callous, almost cosmic joke at the expense of its subject, the film’s protagonist isn’t, in fact, Mozart. That would be Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), the court composer...

Last month playwright Jez Butterworth brought his latest work, “The Hills of California,” to Broadway. The haunting family drama explores the relationships between four sisters and their dying mother in their creaky seaside home, seamlessly moving back and forth in time between 1976 and 1955. The play previously bowed in London earlier this year, and before coming stateside it earned two Olivier Award nominations for Best New Play and Best Actress for Laura Donnelly, who reprises her performance in New York.

Since his Broadway debut only 13 years ago, Butterworth has quickly established himself as one of the theater’s most accomplished contemporary playwrights. He has two Tony nominations to his name, for New York debut “Jerusalem” in 2011 and for his Tony-winning epic “The Ferryman” in 2019. Those nominations alone already tie him with theater royalty including Ayad Akhtar, Tony Kushner, Tracy Letts, David Mamet, Lynn Nottage, Eugene O’Neill, and Wendy Wasserstein — all...

A week after Maggie Smith‘s death, best friend Dame Judi Dench is at a loss for words.

When asked about Smith’s death at age 89, as well as the death of friend and collaborator Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Dench broke down into tears during a conversation on Saturday at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

“I suppose the energy that’s created by grief…” started Dench before choking up, according to The Times, after interviewer Brendan O’Hea asked what she meant by comparing her grief around late husband Michael Williams’ 2001 death to petrol.

Smith “passed away peacefully” on Friday, Sept. 27, her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin announced in a joint statement.

She and Dench appeared together in such films as A Room with a View (1985), Tea with Mussolini (1999) and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015), as well as numerous stage productions.

Judi Dench and Maggie Smith in A Room with a View (1985). (Cinecom/Courtesy Everett Collection)

Robert Fox,...

Maggie Smith was a constant in the life of producer Robert Fox for half a century. She could “make grown men cry,” says Fox, because “if you weren’t 100 percent on top of your game, you were dead in the water, and she was right.”

Fox produced Dame Maggie in some of her greatest stage hits from Peter Shaffer’s Lettice and Lovage to David Hare’s The Breath of Life, in which she and her best friend, Judi Dench, shared top billing at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket.

Dame Judi got the No. 1 dressing room. “But Maggie wasn’t fussed because she joked that Judi, she’d say, “had all those people in from Surrey to see her, so she needs the space.’ She wasn’t at all unhappy about it. She’d watch all of Judi’s guests troop in to see her. She’d say: ‘Look, there they go.

Maggie Smith, the legendary British actor whose career on stage and screen spanned more than 60 years, died Friday at the age of 89. Smith was a two-time Oscar winner, earning the lead actress statuette for the title role in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, and supporting actress for her portrayal of an Oscar loser in the anthology comedy California Suite. She also received Oscar noms for her roles in Othello, Travels with My Aunt, A Room with a View and Gosford Park. Her work in television earned her four Emmy awards, three for her role as Violet Crawley, The Dowager Countess of Grantham in PBS’ Downton Abbey. Her fourth Emmy came in 2003 as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series of Movie for her role as an eccentric novelist in the HBO film My House in Umbria. She was Emmy-nominated for her roles in the Great Performances PBS presentation of Suddenly Last Summer,...

British stage and screen actress Maggie Smith, the “Downton Abbey” and “Harry Potter” star who numbers two Oscars, three Emmys and countless stage awards to her credit, died Friday in London. She was 89.

“It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith,” her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin said in a statement. “She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September. An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days.”

In her late 70s, Smith drew an entirely new legion of fans thanks to her starring role in...

Dame Maggie Smith, the British actress who starred in Harry Potter films, the wildly popular Downton Abbey series and scores of other movies, TV shows, West End and Broadway productions in a career that brought two Oscars, five BAFTAs, four Emmys and a Tony Award, died today. She was 89.

Smith’s death was confirmed by her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin. In a statement shared with UK media, they said: “She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September. An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.”

Smith was one of the finest British screen and stage stars of her generation and will be remembered for her performances in iconic films and TV shows, including Harry Potter and Downton Abbey. Her...

For most of his career, Sir Ian McKellen was recognized primarily as a theater actor, having performed the work of Shakespeare since the mid-‘60s, from “Much Ado About Nothing” to “Hamlet.” He even received a Tony nomination in 1981 for his role as Salieri in Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus” on Broadway, in which he starred alongside Tim Curry. However, in a recent interview with The Guardian, McKellen acknowledged that it was his performance in the stage and film productions of “Richard III” during the 1990s that created the seismic shift in his career.

“When we were doing ‘Richard III’ at the National Theatre in 1990, the director Richard Eyre, the designer Bob Crowley and I felt there should be modern references in the design,” McKellen said. “Although it is a history play, if you look at the dates, there were people at the original production whose grandparents would have lived in Richard III’s time.

Milos Forman’s multi-Oscar-winning epic “Amadeus” has received a major 40th anniversary present thanks to the Academy Film Archive: a 4k digital restoration which will be unveiled May 31st at the Academy Museum. There’s major anticipation for this new restoration; the event is sold out with stand-by tickets available on a first-come, first-serve basis. The restoration by the archive and the Saul Zaentz Co. with funding provided by Teatro Della Pace Film marks the first time the original theatrical release has been available in over two decades.

“Amadeus,” produced by Saul Zaentz and adapted by Peter Shaffer from his Tony Award-winning Broadway play, revolves around the rivalry in last half of the 18th century Vienna between the mediocre court composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) and his rival, the brilliant young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). Shot on location in Prague, the film was a homecoming for Forman who...

“The Diplomat” star Rory Kinnear has joined Will Sharpe and Paul Bettany in Joe Barton’s upcoming Sky limited series “Amadeus.”

Based on the story of famed composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sharpe stars as the virtuoso while Bettany plays his fierce rival, Italian composer Antonio Salieri.

Kinnear, who is also known for his turns in “Skyfall” and “Men” has been cast as Emperor Joseph.

Joining them are Lucy Cohu (“Becoming Jane”) as Cecilia Weber, Jonathan Aris (“The Sixth Commandment”) as Leopold Mozart, Ényì Okoronkwo (“Renegade Nell”) as Da Ponte, Jessica Alexander (“The Little Mermaid”) as Katerina and Hugh Sachs (“Bridgerton”) as Von Strack.

Paul Bazely (“Such Brave Girls”), Rupert Vansittart (“Game of Thrones”), Anastasia Martin (“In From The Cold”), Nancy Farino (“Masters of the Air”), Olivia-Mai Barrett (“Invasion”), Viola Prettejohn (“The Crown”) and Jyuddah Jaymes (“Hijack”) round out the cast.

“Set within the musical hub of bustling Vienna at the end of the 18th century,...

Exclusive: Sky has found its Mozart’s wife for Joe Barton’s upcoming Amadeus series about the world’s most famous composer.

Gabrielle Creevy, who has just wrapped Barton’s Black Doves series for Netflix, will star as Constanze opposite Will Sharpe’s Mozart. Constanze was married to Mozart from 1782 and 1791 and was also a trained Austrian singer. She and Mozart had six children, four of whom died in infancy. Upon Mozart’s death in 1791, she was left saddled with debts.

Creevy is an up-and-coming British actor who played the lead in the BBC and Hulu’s mental health dramedy In My Skin, which beat the likes of Vigil and Unforgotten to the best drama series BAFTA at the 2022 awards. She is starring alongside A-listers Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw in Black Doves and is leading Starz’ adaptation of Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women opposite Shailene Woodley.

Also starring Paul Bettany as composer Antonio Salieri,...

Paul Bettany has joined Sky’s upcoming limited series “Amadeus,” which tells the story of famed composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

“The White Lotus” star Will Sharpe was previously announced in the role of Mozart. Bettany will play Italian composer Antonio Salieri, Mozart’s longtime rival. The limited series hails from “Giri/Haji” collaborators Joe Barton and Julian Farino and is reimagined from Peter Shaffer’s award-winning stage play.

According to a press release, “Barton’s adaptation will expand and interrogate the mythic rivalry of the two composers. Hero of his own story but villain to history, Salieri’s envy turns vengeful as he uses any means necessary to thwart Mozart and protect his position in the establishment.”

“Amadeus” follows 25-year-old Amadeus (Sharpe) as he arrives to the bustling musical hub of Vienna at the end of the 18th century. “Recently unemployed and without the management of his father, Amadeus finds an...

Paul Bettany is set to star opposite Will Sharpe in Sky’s limited series about composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The WandaVision and A Very British Scandal star will portray renowned composer Antonio Salieri in Amadeus, with Sharpe playing Mozart, as we previously revealed.

It is a reimagining of Peter Shaffer’s award-winning stage play, and will expand and interrogate the mythic rivalry of the two composers. Hero of his own story but villain to history, Salieri’s envy turns vengeful as he uses any means necessary to thwart Mozart and protect his position in the establishment.

Giri/Haji and The Lazarus Project scribe Joe Barton is writing the series, with Julian Farino directing. Stv Studios-owned Two Cities Television is producing in association with Sky Studios. Megan Spanjian is executive producer for Sky Studios. Michael Jackson (Patrick Melrose) and Stephen Wright (Blue Lights) are EPs for Two Cities Television,...

Paul Bettany (A Very British Scandal, WandaVision) will star in Sky original series Amadeus, portraying composer Antonio Salieri opposite Will Sharpe (Giri/Haji, The White Lotus) in the titular role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The series is described as a “playfully reimagined limited event series” from writer Joe Barton (Giri/Haji, The Lazarus Project) and director Julian Farino (Giri/Haji). “Deftly reimagined from Peter Shaffer’s award-winning stage play, Barton’s adaptation will expand and interrogate the mythic rivalry of the two composers,” according to a description. “Hero of his own story but villain to history, Salieri’s envy turns vengeful as he uses any means necessary to thwart Mozart and protect his position in the establishment.”

On stage, Bettany most recently starred in the Broadway production of Anthony McCarten’s drama The Collaboration as Andy Warhol.

“I can’t wait to work with Julian Farino, Joe Barton, Sky and Will Sharpe who,...

Netflix is continuing to roll out its celebration of iconic films, this time turning the page to 1984.

As part of the streaming platform’s “Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection,” Netflix has unveiled the 1984 films celebrating their 40-year anniversary in 2024 with classics like “Footloose” and “Sixteen Candles” alongside Oscar contenders “Amadeus” and “Iceman.”

The Milestone Movies hail from Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, and Sony — the distributors that license content to Netflix.

Starting today, April 1, 2024, Netflix subscribers can revisit Brian de Palma’s erotic noir “Body Double” and Kevin Bacon’s breakout performance in “Footloose.” How about a double feature? There’s also “Repo Man” and “Beverly Hills Cop,” streaming just in time for franchise reboot “Beverly Hills Cop: Axle F” out this summer.

In addition to the cinematic celebrations in your Netflix queue, in-person special screenings of select films will continue at the Paris Theater in New York and Los Angeles...

After a quiet period following his international breakout in “The White Lotus” season two, Will Sharpe‘s dance card is beginning to fill up. The actor and playwright has a key role in Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain,” which debuted to raves at Sundance; he recently banked Audrey Diwan‘s feature “Emmanuelle” opposite Naomi Watts; and is still expected to star opposite Meg Statler in Netflix’s limited series “Too Much.” Now, the Brit has landed the title role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in a television adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play “Amadeus.”

Read More: “A Real Pain” Review: Kieran Culkin is superb in Jesse Eisenberg’s moving dramedy

According to a release from Sky, the project will reunite Sharpe with “Giri/Haji” writer and producer Joe Barton who has been a very busy bee on both sides of the Atlantic these days.

Continue reading Will Sharpe Will Play Mozart...

In 1984, Milos Forman brought Amadeus to the big screen in an epic tale of secrets, scandals and buffoonery amongst the world of esteemed musical composer Wolfgang Mozart. The film was based on the 1979 stage play by Peter Shaffer. The UK broadcast network, Sky, has been developing a new TV series adaptation of the play in the past few years, and the ball is now rolling with the casting of the story’s central figure. Deadline has revealed that White Lotus actor Will Sharpe has now been cast as Wolfgang Mozart in the Sky original series.

The synopsis of the show, per Deadline, reads, “Adapted from Peter Shaffer’s stage play, Amadeus is set within the musical hub of bustling Vienna at the end of the 18th century, as the 25-year-old titular character arrives in the city no longer a child and determined to carve his own path. Recently unemployed and...

White Lotus actor Will Sharpe is set to play the role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the musical genius, in Amadeus, a Sky Original limited series.

The drama will reunite the team behind the crime series Giri/Haji, with Joe Barton writing the screenplay for Amadeus and Julian Farino directing. The series, to shoot later this year, will be produced by Two Cities Television, in association with Sky Studios.

The project is a reimagining of Peter Shaffer’s 1979 stage play, Amadeus, to be adapted by Barton and with Sharpe in the titular role. Amadeus enjoyed award-winning live theater runs in London and New York and inspired Milos Forman’s 1984 film adaptation, which won eight Oscars, including best picture.

The Sky Original series will play up the mythic rivalry between a young Mozart in 18th century Vienna and fellow composer Antonia Salieri amid a clash of jealousy, ambition and genius.

“Recently unemployed and...

Exclusive: Sky has found its Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

White Lotus star Will Sharpe will play the lead role in Amadeus, Joe Barton’s playful TV series reimagining of the life of the musical genius, which was revealed at development stage by Deadline in late 2022.

Sharpe will reunite with Giri/Haji writer Barton and director Julian Farino for the show that comes from Patrick Melrose producer Two Cities Television in association with Sky Studios.

Adapted from Peter Shaffer’s stage play, Amadeus is set within the musical hub of bustling Vienna at the end of the 18th century, as the 25-year-old titular character arrives in the city no longer a child and determined to carve his own path. Recently unemployed and without the management of his father, Amadeus finds an unlikely ally in a young singer who will become his wife, the fiery Constanze Weber Mozart. Her connections help bring him...

When “Harry Potter” actor Daniel Radcliffe made his stage debut in 2007, he shocked Hollywood. At 17 years old, Radcliffe was cast as the lead in “Equus,” a Peter Shaffer play in which he would simulate sex with a horse.

Sixteen years later, a similar announcement would barely turn heads.

Now 33, Radcliffe has spent more time working as a professional actor outside of the franchise that skyrocketed him to fame than in it — and creating a singular body of work that exemplifies his artistic sensibilities and talent. Just four years after “Equus” and in the same summer as the final “Potter” premiere, he took a crash course in singing and dancing to lead the Broadway revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” (cast recording). This was followed by tackling horror in “The Woman in Black,” playing Allen Ginsberg in “Kill Your Darlings,” and running head-first into the dark fantasy “Horns.

Tom Stoppard won the Best Play trophy for “Leopoldstadt” at the 2023 Tony Awards. This is his fifth win in the category, breaking his own Tony record. The theater legend maintains an impressive lead as the winningest playwright in the Best Play category.

“Leopoldstadt” is a sprawling epic which traces the lineage of a Jewish family in Vienna from 1899 to 1955. The play considers important questions of assimilation and identity. The show picked up four wins in total, with additional victories for Brandon Uranowitz in Featured Actor in a Play, Patrick Marber in Director of a Play, and Brigitte Reiffenstuel in Costume Design of a Play.

Stoppard has now won the Best Play category five times in his career, more than any other playwright in history. He previously prevailed for “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” (1968), “Travesties” (1976), “The Real Thing” (1984), and the three-part epic “The Coast of Utopia” (2007). The Tony Awards do not...

Kelvin Harrison Jr commands the screen in Stephen Williams’s brashly anachronistic drama about the French composer, violin virtuoso and champion fencer Joseph Bologne

In 1985, Miloš Forman’s screen adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s stage play Amadeus swept the Academy Awards, winning eight Oscars, including best picture. In that acclaimed film, F Murray Abraham’s Antonio Salieri seethed at the divine gift bestowed upon Tom Hulce’s “vulgar” Mozart – a rapscallion whom God appears to have mischievously made his instrument on Earth.

In the new biographical drama Chevalier, from writer Stefani Robinson (a Writers Guild of America and Emmy award winner for the TV series Atlanta) and director Stephen Williams, the polarities are reversed, with Mozart finding his celebrated genius overshadowed by that of a rival. That this rival would later be reductively referred to as the “Black Mozart” adds a further turn of the screw, although according to Bill Barclay,...

Anthony Ramos, the In the Heights star who’ll soon be seen on the big screen in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, revealed in a podcast today that he’s signed on to star as Mozart in a Broadway revival of Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play Amadeus.

“I am excited about going back to Broadway,” Ramos said on the Wtf With Marc Maron podcast today. “I signed on to do Amadeus on Broadway, to play Mozart.” The actor said the production is still looking to cast the Salieri role.

No additional details were shared about the production.

Amadeus is a non-musical and fictionalized account of the lives of composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. First performed in 1979 in London, a subsequent Broadway production, starring Tim Curry as Mozart and Ian McKellen as Salieri, won the 1981 Tony Award for Best Play. Shaffer then adapted his play for the 1984 film starring F. Murray Abraham...

As The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is wrapping its five-season run, Emmy-winning creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino are prepping their next series. Prime Video has given a two-season order to Sherman-Palladino and Palladino’s Étoile, starring Mrs. Maisel duo of Luke Kirby, who won an Emmy for his work on the show, and Gideon Glick as well as Call My Agent! standout Camille Cottin, Simon Callow (Outlander), Lou de Laâge (The Innocents) and David Alvarez (West Side Story).

Set in New York City and Paris, the eight-episode Étoile follows the dancers and artistic staff of two world-renowned ballet companies, as they embark on an ambitious gambit to save their storied institutions by swapping their most talented stars.

Word of the new series started trickling out last fall when Sherman-Palladino and Palladino held an Open Dance Call for an untitled ballet show. The duo will write, direct and executive produce the...

Since leaving the role of boy-wizard extraordinaire Harry Potter, a character that made him a household name, Daniel Radcliffe has played it anything but safe. Rather than going for a quick payday by attaching himself to another lucrative franchise, Radcliffe instead has sought out independent filmmakers, many making their feature debut, for the opportunity to play a wide variety of characters that would expand his range as an actor. And expand it they did, with Radcliffe in his post-“Potter” period portraying characters who range from a video game nerd to a literary giant, an evil billionaire, a South African hero and even a corpse. Try that, Meryl.

Radcliffe didn’t limit himself to films either, as he brought his fearlessness to Manhattan, triumphing in Broadway productions of Peter Shaffer’s “Equus,” Martin McDonagh’s “The Cripple of Inishmaan,” and the legendary musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,...

Since leaving the role of boy-wizard extraordinaire Harry Potter, a character that made him a household name, Daniel Radcliffe has played it anything but safe. Rather than going for a quick payday by attaching himself to another lucrative franchise, Radcliffe instead has sought out independent filmmakers, many making their feature debut, for the opportunity to play a wide variety of characters that would expand his range as an actor. And expand it they did, with Radcliffe in his post-“Potter” period portraying characters who range from a video game nerd to a literary giant, an evil billionaire, a South African hero and even a corpse. Try that, Meryl.

Radcliffe didn’t limit himself to films either, as he brought his fearlessness to Manhattan, triumphing in Broadway productions of Peter Shaffer’s “Equus,” Martin McDonagh’s “The Cripple of Inishmaan,” and the legendary musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,...

Chaim Topol, who became professionally known solely by his last name in a career that included starring in “Fiddler on the Roof” on stage and screen and co-starring in the James Bond movie “For Your Eyes Only” and the sci-fi film “Flash Gordon,” died Thursday in Tel Aviv after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 87 years old.

Topol’s death was confirmed by Israel’s president Isaac Herzog, who described him as a “gifted actor who conquered many stages in Israel and overseas, filled the cinema screens with his presence and especially entered deep into our hearts.”

Topol began his long association with the starring role of Tevye the milkman in the musical “Fiddler on the Roof” in 1967, appearing in the West End production, which ran for 2,030 performances. He starred in Norman Jewison’s 1971 film version, which carried a budget estimated at $9 million and garnered a domestic gross of $80 million.

Making fun of "horse girls" is a cruel rite of passage for most people, but few would dare mock a "horse mobster" like Tommy Shelby on "Peaky Blinders." A gangster family epic, the hit crime drama centers on the historical Peaky Blinders street gang that came to prominence following the First World War. Of course, the series embellishes the true story a bit, introducing the fictional crime boss Tommy Shelby, played brilliantly by Cillian Murphy.

There are multiple themes and motifs presented throughout the series — like all those swans in season 5 — but "Peaky Blinders" has in particular consistently made references to black horses. There are plenty of fan theories floating around online about what the horses represent, but during an interview with PeakyBlinders.TV, show creator Steven Knight explained the origins of the black horses.

As it turns out, Knight grew up with horses; his father was a farrier, aka...

Tom Stoppard’s haunting drama “Leopoldstadt” is the rare non-musical play to become a smash hit on Broadway. After critics fell in love with the gripping historical piece, the show broke the house record at the Longacre Theatre twice, over two consecutive weeks in October. Its highest weekly gross soared to 1,158,051. If this critical and commercial success translates into a Tony Award win for Best Play next spring, playwright Tom Stoppard will best his own record in that top race.

“Leopoldstadt” begins in 1899 Vienna and traces the history of a Jewish family as they move from a period of relative happiness and prosperity into the tumultuous 20th century and its eventual horrors. Patrick Marber directs the quiet epic, which focuses on how countless personal histories have been consumed by war and time. The sprawling cast of 32 includes David Krumholtz, Brandon Uranowitz, Faye Castelow, Arty Froushan, Caissie Levy, and Seth Numrich.

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Founded in 1981 by the American Film Marketing Association, which was headed by the late producer Andy Vajna, the American Film Market in its early years featured a lot of genre fare looking to sell VHS video rights abroad. But with 1984’s Amadeus, AFM also proved that it could be a home for more prestige titles — and few of its offerings would strike a more prestigious tone than Milos Forman’s award-winning film about the rivalry between the Austrian court composer Antonio Salieri and the upstart musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Record executive and film producer Saul Zaentz was the driving force behind the production. He already had one best picture Oscar for 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest when he set about assembling an adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s Tony-winning stage play. With F. Murray Abraham as the envious Salieri and Tom Hulce...

It is one of the most famous stories in music history: The divinely talented Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart falls foul to the murderous schemes of Antonio Salieri, a mediocre court composer driven wild with jealousy by the young maestro's God-given gifts. This is the tale told by Milos Forman's Oscar-winning "Amadeus," probably the most popular movie ever made about classical music and, I'll bet, where many people have derived their knowledge of Mozart's life and works.

Yet the juiciest details of the story are almost entirely made up; the old saying that truth is stranger than fiction proves just the opposite in this case, and many of the Machiavellian plot points are flourishes from the pen of celebrated playwright and screenwriter Peter Shaffer.

That is not to diminish the accomplishments of Mozart's short life. He was known across Europe as a musical prodigy at an early age, having played for...

Sir Ian McKellen is not only one of the most celebrated actors working today, he is also one of the most beloved. Though he has thrived in the past as a villain, the world largely knows and adores him as the wizard Gandalf in Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

As the planet scrambled to regain its bearings in the aftermath of 9/11, the warmth and cautious wisdom of McKellen's Gandalf was a balm to the soul. We did not know at the time how we would find our way out of such dark days, and we have yet to truly shake free of its hold on our collective conscience, but whenever it feels as though evil has won, all you need to do is fire up Gandalf's advice to a despairing Frodo: "All we have to decide is what to do...

Spoiler Alert: Do not read if you haven’t watched “Chocolate Souffle,” the Season 1 finale of “Julia,” now streaming on HBO Max.

Season 1 of “Julia” on HBO Max ends on a cozy scene of domesticity emblematic of the show itself: After a series finale in which main character Julia Child (played by actor Sarah Lancashire) suffers a crisis of confidence and backs out of her popular cooking show “The French Chef,” she is ultimately convinced to return to the show by her husband Paul (David Hyde Pierce). Once a snob who tried to forbid Julia from participating in public television, Paul has since gone through a transformative arc, learning how to support his wife while still being his own person. Apologizing for his past behavior, Paul affirms his love for Julia and makes it clear to her how important her work on television really is.

With Julia and Paul’s relationship stronger than ever,...

Continuing our series of writers picking out under-the-radar films available to stream is a recommendation of an often brutal drama about mediocrity

Movies about mediocre artists almost never get made, for the obvious reason that history has rightfully forgotten about them. It’s a delicious indignity, for example, that the great Oscar-winning adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s play about the obscure Italian composer Antonio Salieri is called Amadeus, after the musical savant whose genius far eclipsed him. Sometimes generational fame is a matter of timing or ineffable charisma, as the Coen brothers movie Inside Llewyn Davis implied about its hero, a never-was folk musician. But in the real world, such stories are written constantly, since so few have the goods to realize their dreams of greatness.

The superb Indian drama The Disciple, picked up and released last year on Netflix, offers the rarest of rare portraits of artistic mediocrities, because...

Director Miloš Forman frames his splendid 1984 epic "Amadeus" around the elderly Antonio Salieri's recollections of his life story to a young priest. Based on Peter Shaffer's triumphant stage play, the film takes several historical liberties to deliver a classic tale of jealousy. "Amadeus" follows a fictional rivalry between Salieri (played by an Oscar-winning F. Murray Abraham) and fellow composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) at the court of Emperor Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones).

Salieri is consumed with envy and convinced that God is using him as a toy for His own amusement, allowing Salieri to recognize a musical greatness that he will never be able to achieve. His compositions...

The post Amadeus Ending Explained: In the Shadow of Greatness appeared first on /Film.

Anthony Hopkins made his film debut 1968’s “The Lion in Winter” and the 83-year-old actor has become a lion in winter. He’s received extraordinary reviews for his devastating and poignant performance as an elderly man descending into dementia in “The Father,” which opened in theaters on Feb. 26.

AARP Movie for Grownups’ Tim Appelo stated: “Anthony Hopkins scores the performance of a lifetime as a man afflicted with dementia in a film that takes you inside his disintegrating reality — and also inside the experience of his daughter Anne (“The Favourite” Oscar winner Olivia Colman), who looks after him and faces terrifying decisions about his treatment.” Hopkins has won the British Independent Film Award for Best Actor, is nominated for a Golden Globe, SAG Award and Critics Choice honor and is a strong contender for an Oscar nomination.

Of course, he’s no stranger to Oscar. Hopkins won his only Academy...

In 2018, “Bohemian Rhapsody” blew past everyone’s expectations, becoming one of the top 10 highest grossing films of the year off the love that Queen fans have for the late Freddie Mercury. Now, “Rocketman” will try to have the same charm on Elton John fans, though it will be a tall order for it to knock “BoRhap” off the top of the music biopic charts.

10.) “All Eyez On Me” (2017) $44.9 million: Critics were not impressed by Benny Boom’s biopic on the life and career of Tupac Shakur, but fans of the late rapper showed up en masse on its opening weekend to beat box office expectations and earn nearly $45 million at the box office.

9.) “Jersey Boys” (2014) $47 million: Clint Eastwood is more well known as a director for making grittier films like “The 15:17 to Paris” and “The Mule,” but he also contributed to musical history with a 2014 jukebox drama about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons,...

Directed by Miloš Forman and adapted by Peter Shaffer from his own stage play, Amadeus is one of the most unlikely box office hits in Hollywood history. The story of the fraught relationship between Mozart and Italian composer Antonio Salieri features two powerhouse performances from Tom Hulce as Mozart and F. Murray Abraham as Salieri who received an Oscar for Best Actor. The picture took home a score of other Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.

The post Amadeus appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

When news broke over the weekend about the death of Czech-American filmmaker Milos Forman, movie lovers, actors and directors mourned the legacy of a man who celebrated rebels and outcasts in iconic, Oscar-winning works like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus. Forman was fearless, taking on controversial projects – his satire The Fireman's Ball was banned in his homeland of Czechoslovakia – and, in the case of Amadeus, arguing that the roles of the vain, mediocre composer Antonio Salieri and bratty young genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart must be played by unknowns rather than movie stars.

Milos Forman, who died on April 14 at the age of 86, has left behind some of the most sharply observed portraits of human behavior in cinema.

When I think of Forman’s work, my mind doesn’t necessarily go first to his two Oscar-winning juggernauts — “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) or “Amadeus” (1984) — or the Czech films that garnered him worldwide acclaim in the 1960s, such as “Loves of a Blonde” (1965) or “The Firemen’s Ball” (1967). Rather, I think of the opening scene from his lesser-known comedy, “Taking Off” (1971): a series of static shots of young women, one after the other, performing songs for an off-screen producer.

Most of the women are earnest and serious; some seem awkward or shy, dressed in contemporary hippy-ish clothes; their hair is often long and frizzy. Some of these audition singers include Carly Simon, Kathy Bates (credited as Bobo Bates) and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her Jessica Harper. What is remarkable about these relatively straightforward snippets is that Forman isn’t nudging the audience for what to make of these young people, or their songs. He’s not telling the audience how to react; he’s simply presenting these young people as they are.

Also Read: Milos Forman, 'Amadeus' and 'Cuckoo's Nest' Director, Dies at 86

The first 5-10 minutes of this film paints a picture of these flower children of the Woodstock era that feels authentic, admiring and compassionate. And kind. It’s a quality in Forman’s cinema I can see throughout his career.

Forman sprang forth from the extraordinary group of filmmakers known as the Czech New Wave, most of whom were trained at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (including Věra Chytilová, Jaromil Jireš, Ján Kadár, Jan Němec and Ivan Passer), and, like his cinematic compatriots, Forman’s early films are often political in nature, portraying figures of authority as inept and corrupt. In “The Firemen’s Ball,” the volunteer fire department in a small town decides to organize a ball in honor of their recently retired chairman.

Also Read: Milos Forman Hailed as 'Champion of Artists' Rights' by Directors Guild of America

At the event, the firefighters’ committee decide to host a beauty contest and proceed to procure some of the unsuspecting young women to pose for them. The women appear hesitant, guarded, and a few are even somewhat amused by the ramshackle way they are being put on display by these old men. (Most of the actors were local to the area of Vrchlabí, where it was filmed.) The spunkiest of the young women seems to have an awareness of how ridiculous and sexist this is. She laughs and then runs off halfway through her walk for the judges, triggering a mass exodus by the other contestants, and the scene ends in comedic chaos.

Clearly, the characters who buck the system, like the young woman in “The Firemen’s Ball,” are what hold director’s greatest interest. Forman is fixed on the idea of the outsider as being the true hero of his work: Jack Nicholson’s R.P. McMurphy, Treat Williams’ George Berger, Howard E. Rollins’ Coalhouse Walker Jr., Tom Hulce’s Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Woody Harrelson’s Larry Flynt and Jim Carrey’s Andy Kaufman are all individuals that won’t fit into society’s prescribed mold for them.

Also Read: Milos Forman Remembered by Larry Flynt, Judd Apatow and More: 'Genius of Cinematography'

Forman’s rebels, though clearly stemming from his Czech roots, found fertile ground in America. His two most critically and financially successful films, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (adapted by Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman from Ken Kesey’s novel) and “Amadeus” (Peter Shaffer adapting his own stage play), both impeccably produced by Saul Zaentz, together garnered 13 Oscars total, including two for Forman for directing.

At his best, Forman’s greatest work (I would include the woefully underrated musical adaptation of “Hair”) shows both compassion for his characters and wry humor in the predicaments in which these characters find themselves. His work with actors is exemplary, and his filmography is flooded with memorable performances and ensemble work: from Nicholson and Louise Fletcher in “Cuckoo’s Nest” to Rollins, Elizabeth McGovern and James Cagney in “Ragtime” (1981), F. Murray Abraham and Hulce in “Amadeus,” Harrelson and Courtney Love in “The People vs. Larry Flynt” (1996), and back to Hana Brejchová in “Loves of a Blonde” and Lynn Carlin, Buck Henry, Georgia Engel and Audra Lindley in “Taking Off,” to name a few.

Cinematically, I’m just so impressed with the way he and his cinematographers captured these actors’ faces and performances. This is filmmaking that is not trying to impress you with flashy editing and swirling cameras (though the camerawork in the opening “Aquarius” number in “Hair,” accompanied by Twyla Tharp’s wonderful choreography, is a wonderful exception), it’s focused on its characters and story.

Possibly because of his lack of flash and cutting-edge technique, there is a danger that Forman’s work may not be immediately appreciated by younger filmmakers — though in this current era where young people are rising up to stand for their beliefs to their schools, their City Halls, and the world at large, Forman’s filmography is ripe for rediscovery by a new generation of rebels.

Read original story Milos Forman Remembered: A Rebel in His Time, and for the Future At TheWrap...