News

Daniel Radcliffe dodging Wolverine only to land in James Gunn’s DC playground? Now that’s a plot twist. Just when Marvel fans were hoping to see him sharpen his claws, Gunn swooped in and handed him a villain role instead. And not just any villain – an iconic one.

James Gunn | Image by Erik Drost, licensed under Cc By 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Looks like the Harry Potter star is trading magic for mayhem, and honestly, that’s a way more exciting move.

Daniel Radcliffe’s dark turn: From dodging superheroes to DC’s Clayface? Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter | Credits: Warner Bros. Studio

Reports say Daniel Radcliffe is in talks to play Basil Karlo in James Watkins’ Clayface.

Radcliffe has been dodging the superhero game for years, but James Gunn clearly had other plans. Instead of another mutant fan-casting, he’s stepping into DC’s darker, weirder side – right where Gunn thrives.

Click here to read the full article.

In the spring of 2020, two films starring Daniel Radcliffe came out, almost back-to-back.

In Escape From Pretoria, he played Tim Jenkin, the real-life anti-apartheid activist and former political prisoner who in 1978 was part of a daring and successful breakout — using secretly made wooden keys — from a South African jail.

In Guns Akimbo, he played Miles, a computer programmer in a bonkers near-future who wakes up one morning to find that a criminal kingpin’s gang of henchmen — including a masked guy called Fuckface — had bloodily bolted guns onto each of his hands.

For those who had been keeping an eye on Radcliffe’s post-Harry Potter career, this quick-fire double of taut historical prison thriller and insane action-comedy sci-fi felt like the perfect summary as he neared almost a decade since leaving one of the world’s most successful movie franchises.

Roles such as...

After he finished playing Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe set himself a specific acting goal, and his latest movie, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, is proof that he has achieved it. Radcliffe will always be known as Harry Potter given his first major role was the popular young wizard. But since Harry Potter, Radcliffe has starred in an eclectic range of movies, including The Woman in Black, Guns Akimbo, and The Lost City, and that has been a purposeful choice by the actor.

In a recent interview (via GQ), Radcliffe revealed that early in his career he wanted "to try and get a reputation for being someone who wanted to try lots of different stuff." He went on to explain, "obviously you want to be known as an actor who’s just in lots of different stuff rather than just a character or a specific character." Although Radcliffe emphasizes he is...

New award to recognise diversity and inclusion in cinema.

Filmmakers Armando Iannucci and Francis Annan are to be the first recipients of the Dda Spotlight Award at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia.

The new honour has been established to recognise diversity in inclusion in cinema. UK writer-director Iannucci will be honoured for his latest feature, The Personal History Of David Copperfield, which has an inclusive cast led by Dev Patel.

Fellow UK filmmaker Annan will be awarded for his latest feature, Escape From Pretoria, which stars Daniel Radcliffe as anti-apartheid activist Tim Jenkin, who was sentenced to...

There are few actors who will ever be a part of something as big as the Harry Potter franchise, let alone be the face of that franchise. But Daniel Radcliffe is one of those actors, as he starred as the iconic wizard until 2011. In the years since, Radcliffe has stayed busy, but largely taking on smaller movies that are remarkably different from what he did in the Wizarding World. His latest movie, Escape from Pretoria, is no exception.

Escape From Pretoria, directed by Francis Annan, tells the true story of Tim Jenkin (Daniel Radcliffe) and Stephen Lee (Daniel Webber), who were white South Africans branded as terrorists and imprisoned in 1978 for working covert operations as part of Nelson Mandela's Anc. Incarcerated in Pretoria Maximum Security Prison, they decide to send the apartheid regime a clear message and escape, which takes breath-taking ingenuity, meticulous surveillance, and, most interestingly, a set...

‘Escape from Pretoria.’

Since the Harry Potter franchise ended in 2011 Daniel Radcliffe has put the wizardry behind him in such movies as The Woman in Black, Now You See Me 2 and Greg McLean’s Jungle.

In the Adelaide-shot thriller Escape from Pretoria, which opened in the Us and UK last weekend, he plays South African freedom fighter and political prisoner Tim Jenkin.

Jenkin and fellow activist Stephen Lee (Daniel Webber) were branded terrorists for their involvement in covert anti-apartheid operations for the African National Congress in 1978.

Incarcerated in Pretoria’s maximum security prison, Jenkin, Lee and fellow inmate Leonard Fontaine (Mark Leonard Winter) escaped after months of meticulous surveillance and ingenuity before authorities were able to strengthen the prison’s security defences.

Ian Hart plays co-conspirator Denis Goldberg with Miss Fisher’s Nathan Page as Mongo, the hot-headed leader of the prison guards.

Momentum Pictures launched the UK-Australian co-production...

The slightly political prison thriller “Escape From Pretoria” works best when onscreen action is focused on Daniel Radcliffe, playing real-life South African political prisoner Tim Jenkin, as he leads a crack team of white prisoners in breaking out of Pretoria Maximum Security Prison.

That’s not really a spoiler, since “Escape From Pretoria” is based on a real-life prison break that led to a decades-long international manhunt. Still, it’s hard to care about what happens to Jenkin and co-conspirators Stephen Lee and Denis Goldberg (Ian Hart), even if you do know how their story will end, and even though “Escape from Pretoria” does feature some well-paced and visually dynamic pre-breakout prep scenes.

Almost everything that’s enjoyable about “Escape From Pretoria” is a variation on stuff you’ve probably seen in superior prison movies, though Radcliffe’s haunted performance is exceptionally compelling. Jenkin and Lee’s politics never make...

Escape from Pretoria is the true story of an apartheid era, South African prison break. The film initially delves into the brutal, racist separation doctrine; then focuses fully on the intricate getaway. It builds tension as the prisoners execute their plan. Several hold your breath moments keep the action flowing at a quick pace. Daniel Radcliffe continues to be daring in his acting choices. He carries Escape from Pretoria with a restrained, but deliberate performance.

In 1978, Tim Jenkin (Daniel Radcliffe) and Stephen Lee (Daniel Webber) were white South Africans who joined the revolutionary African National Congress (Anc). Led by Nelson Mandela, who was already imprisoned on Robben Island, the Anc fought against the brutal apartheid regime of the Afrikaners. Jenkin and Lee were caught planting devices that blew Anc leaflets into the air. They were dubbed "Leaflet Bombers" and sentenced to the political prison for whites in Pretoria.

The Afrikaner guards,...

Escape from Pretoria is easily one of the most anticipated films at this year’s Glasgow Film Festival and understandably so. This adaptation of Tim Jenkin’s real-life story, Inside Out: Escape from Pretoria Prison, of South Africa during apartheid sees Daniel Radcliffe taking on the lead role.

We caught up with upcoming and exciting director, Francis Annan, to talk about the gruelling shoot and how the issues of the film are still particularly relevant today.

Escape from Pretoria is such a powerful story- is there added pressure because these events actually happened?

It is interesting in a number of ways. On one level it can be quite comforting because you are not sat down staring at a blank page trying to write something.

You can go to Tim’s books, back to the source material and that is useful when you are stuck. But with this you have something...

“You are the white Mandela,” says a ham-faced warden, all but spitting in the face of anti-apartheid activist Tim Jenkin upon his arrival at Pretoria Local Prison in 1978. It’s not intended as a compliment: “The most deluded of them all,” the warden adds, lest it be taken as such. As clunkily deployed in the script for “Escape from Pretoria,” however, the line acts as a shortcut to nobility, in a tight genre exercise that has scant time for such elaborate niceties as character development and social context. Adapted from Jenkin’s memoir of his time served — and resourcefully cut short — as a South African political prisoner in the country’s darkest days of white supremacy, Francis Annan’s film works effectively as a straight-up jailbreak thriller, well-oiled in greasy B-movie tradition. It’s when it shoots for more historical import that it falls somewhat short.

Jenkin’s book of...

The real-life story of anti-apartheid activist Tim Jenkin makes for a tough, muscular drama

The rather amazing true story of the white Anc activist Tim Jenkin and his audacious escape from Pretoria Prison in apartheid-era South Africa is told in this capable and well-carpentered movie from British film-maker Francis Annan, adapted from Jenkin’s own book. The film has something pleasingly traditional about it, with tense nailbiting moments, slab-faced guards, and touches of The Great Escape and Papillon.

With long hair and straggly beard, Daniel Radcliffe plays Jenkin and Daniel Webber plays his fellow Anc activist Stephen Lee, imprisoned in 1978 for their “leaflet bombs” – firecracker-type devices left in the street which send blizzards of leaflets flying. Their prison is tough, but as they are white, it is not as tough it might have been. Inside, Jenkin and Lee meet another political prisoner and future escaper: Frenchman Leonard Fontaine (a slightly...

This year’s festivities kicked off with with a bang with the opening night gala which presented Alice Winocour’s beautifully atmospheric drama Proxima. Winocour was also present after the main event for a Q&a session in which she talked about her experiences of working with a multi-national team of actors and technicians.

Day 2 was marked by the Scottish premier screening of Lorcan Finnegan’s brilliantly unsettling sci-fi drama Vivarium. Finnegan and star of the film Imogene Poots were also there to introduce the film.

The festival also welcomed Icelandic director Grímur Hákonarson who was there to introduce his new film The County. Hákonarson also stayed afterwards for a short Q&a session. The County is part of a wider Icelandic strand at this year’s Gff. Other films in this strand also feature the brilliant A white, White Day by Hlynur Palmason.

Meanwhile 1917 star George MacKay was also...

South Africa in the 1970s feels more like an eternity ago, not just 50 years. It was the era of Apartheid, when just 13% of the population ruled the country to the advantage of the whites. The indigenous populations were segregated, law and order maintained with a ferocious brutality coupled with the threat that rebellion wouldn’t change anything and that anybody who resisted the regime would suffer personally. There were, of course, those who wouldn’t give in, and one of them went on to become president in the 1990s. Nelson Mandela.

While he was imprisoned on the all-black Robben Island, activist Tim Jenkin was locked up in the white equivalent, the maximum security Pretoria Prison. The story of how he and two other inmates hatched an ingenious escape plan and fled to freedom was told in Jenkin’s own book and now arrives as Escape From Pretoria, courtesy of British director,...

Escape From Pretoria Entertainment One Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Francis Annan Screenwriter: Francis Annan, L.H. Adams, Karol Griffiths, from Tim Jenkin’s book “Inside Out: Escape from Pretoria Prison” Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Ian Hart, Daniel Webster Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 2/4/20 Opens: March 6, 2020 Whenever […]

The post Escape from Pretoria Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Francis Annan, Daniel Webber and Daniel Radcliffe on the set of Escape From Pretoria Photo: courtesy of Signature Entertainment

A little over three decades ago, I played my small part in the battle against Apartheid in South Africa, encouraging the boycott of South African fruit that activists in that country had requested of those living elsewhere in the world. Looking back, it seems more absurd than ever that such injustice should have been permitted to flourish for as long as it did – a whole country with a legal system built upon the premise that one group of people were categorically inferior to another because of their ethnicity, and brazenly, brutally so, even in the late 20th Century. Escape From Pretoria, the new film from Francis Annan, carries us back to that time and celebrates the people who fought for change in far more extreme circumstances than mine simply because they...

Daniel Radcliffe continues to move far away from Hogwarts with “Escape From Pretoria,” a riveting, true-life prison drama that’s gritty, grounded and wholly different from the fantasy franchise that made him a star.

The indie release hits theaters on March 6 and finds Radcliffe playing Tim Jenkin, an anti-apartheid activist who was imprisoned in South Africa for distributing political pamphlets that were critical of the racist government. Sentenced to 12 years behind bars, Jenkin cooks up an ingenious plan to break out of Pretoria Central Prison.

Radcliffe spoke to Variety about researching his role in the film, his love of the stage and why he won’t be reprising his role as Harry Potter anytime soon.

What interested you about “Escape From Pretoria”?

Just the f—ing incredible physical riddle of it all. How they were able to open the cell door of this terrible prison with these handmade keys and escape to freedom.

The previous trailer for Escape from Pretoria trapped viewers within the prison alongside star Daniel Radcliffe as he attempted to make the titular escape. What it didn't do, however, was explain just how and why Radcliffe's character ended up in prison to begin with and what it was that drove his obsession with escape. The marketing relied on the audience knowing the true story of Tim Jenkin (Radcliffe), an African National Congress activist incarcerated in a maximum security prison in the 1970s during the height of Apartheid. One particular viewer (yours truly) was wholly ignorant of that fact, …...

Ratidzo Mambo.

Last year Ratidzo Mambo figured she wasn’t being offered the type of roles she wanted and so she made a pivotal decision.

The Zimbabwean-born actor and former sales agent and distribution consultant resolved to take her fate into her own hands by becoming a creative producer, developing her own TV and film projects.

“I’ve had to learn how to multi-task because acting jobs are scarce and the types of roles I want to do are seldom offered to me,” Rati tells If via Skype from Bali, where she is finishing the bibles and treatments for a bunch of projects.

“Rather than blame people or live in a space of negativity, I have to take accountability. I have a lot to say and I am a storyteller as well.”

With the help of her Us manager, Fictional Entity’s Krista Carpenter (a former head of development at...

Daniel Radcliffe is undergoing a radical transformation for his new thriller Escape from Pretoria.

The 29-year-old actor was photographed on the set of the film on Wednesday wearing a blue button-down shirt, gray slacks and sporting long hair and a beard, as well as glasses.

Radcliffe plays Tim Jenkin, the real-life white South African activist who was imprisoned on the brutal Pretoria Prison for working with the African National Congress, an organization intent on ending apartheid.

The film is directed by Francis Annan and also stars Nathan Page and Mark Leonard Winter.

Radcliffe is currently starring on TBS’ Miracle Workers...

Arclight Films has come on board true-life prison break thriller Escape From Pretoria, alongside Mep Capital, with assistance from the South Australian Film Corporation (Safc), the trio announced Wednesday.

The U.K.-Australian co-production stars Daniel Radcliffe and Australian actor Daniel Webber as two anti-apartheid activists, Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, who broke out of Pretoria's maximum-security prison in 1978, alongside social campaigner and activist Denis Goldberg, who was a member of the African National Congress’ military wing. British actor Ian Hart, Mark Leonard Winter and Nathan Page have also joined the cast.

British director Francis Annan makes ...

Arclight Films has come on board true-life prison break thriller Escape From Pretoria, alongside Mep Capital, with assistance from the South Australian Film Corporation (Safc), the trio announced Wednesday.

The U.K.-Australian co-production stars Daniel Radcliffe and Australian actor Daniel Webber as two anti-apartheid activists, Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, who broke out of Pretoria's maximum-security prison in 1978, alongside social campaigner and activist Denis Goldberg, who was a member of the African National Congress’ military wing. British actor Ian Hart, Mark Leonard Winter and Nathan Page have also joined the cast.

British director Francis Annan makes ...

‘Escape from Pretoria’. (Photo: Ian Routledge)

Production is underway in South Australia on British director Francis Annan’s feature debut Escape From Pretoria, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Aussie Daniel Webber.

Radcliffe and Webber play real-life political prisoners and freedom fighters Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee; two white South African twenty-somethings who were branded ‘terrorists’ and imprisoned in 1978 for their involvement in covert anti-apartheid operations for the Anc (African National Congress). The cast also includes British actor Ian Hart, Mark Leonard Winter and Nathan Page.

Incarcerated in Pretoria Maximum Security Prison, Jenkin and Lee – joined by a fellow inmate – decide to send the regime a clear message and escape. After months of meticulous surveillance, breath-taking ingenuity, and in a race against time as the authorities strengthen the prison security defenses, the group craft wooden keys for each of the ten steel doors between them and freedom.

The script is based on...

Ian Hart, Mark Leonard Winter, Nathan Page join cast.

Arclight Films has released the first image from the Australia-uk true-life drama Escape From Pretoria starring Daniel Radcliffe, which has begun production in Adelaide, Australia.

British actor Ian Hart, Mark Leonard Winter, and Nathan Page have joined Radcliffe and Australian actor Daniel Webber in the story of political prisoners and freedom fighters Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, who were incarcerated in 1978 for their part in anti-apartheid operations for the African National Congress.

Incarcerated in Pretoria Maximum Security Prison, Jenkin and Lee – joined by a fellow inmate – crafted wooden keys for each...

Germany, Spain, Cis, Middle East among buyers.

Arclight Films has licensed key territories at Efm to Daniel Radcliffe prison-break thriller Escape From Pretoria led by deals in Germany and Spain.

Company chairman Gary Hamilton and his team have concluded sales with Ksm GmbH for Germany, Inopia Films for Spain, Top Film for Cis, and Front Row for the Middle East.

Rights have gone in Greece (Spentzos), Thailand (Logo Motion Pictures), Vietnam (Galaxy Studio), India (Viswaas), and airlines (CineSky Pictures).

Arclight is co-financing the Australia-uk co-production along with New York-based Magna Entertainment. Escape From Pretoria is financed with the assistance of the South Australia Film Corporation.

Australian-uk co-production is based on the life of political prisoner Tim Jenkin.

Arclight Films has come on board to co-finance the Daniel Radcliffe true-life prison break film Escape From Pretoria along with New York-based Magna Entertainment, and is in talks with worldwide buyers here.

The Australian-uk co-production is based on the life of Tim Jenkin (Radcliffe), who as a twentysomething white South African was slung in jail in 1978 with Stephen Lee after they were branded terrorists for their involvement in covert anti-apartheid operations for the African National Congress.

Racing against time as the authorities at the high-security Pretoria Central Prison ramp up security,...