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When director Duke Johnson sat down and watched Federico Fellini’s 1954 classic “La Strada,” he was immediately drawn to the iconic clown costume worn by Giulietta Masina. Now in his newest film, “The Actor,” a similar outfit is adorned by Edna (Gemma Chan) while out on an intimate date with Paul (André Holland).

“It’s these two people that feel like maybe they don’t fit into the world,” Johnson tells Variety. “With these two oddballs finding each other, the possibility of connection was the driving force. They’ve really hit it off.”

The moment takes place on Halloween night when Paul, still trying to piece together who he is after waking up with amnesia, goes out with Edna after the two meet at the cinema. Despite it being Halloween, you’d hardly be able to tell by looking at the men’s synonymous coats, making Edna’s hand-stitched blue clown costume immediately stand out.

Netflix's Missing You spells out its intriguing mystery with the help of an exceptional cast. The limited series is based on the novel by Harlan Coben and follows detective Kat Donovan as an unexpected run with her ex exposes several deeply buried secrets. Directed by Sean Spencer, Missing You is one of several Coben novels adapted to the screen by Netflix, following up The Stranger, Stay Close, and Fool Me Once. Now, with the help of actors like Rosalind Eleazar, Ashley Walters, Mary Malone, and more, this New-Years-Day limited series is the next to bring thrills and secrets to the streaming service.

Kat's story in Missing You begins when she finds her ex-fiance, Josh Buchanan, on a dating app. The man had disappeared on her 11 years previous, just after the murder of Kat's police officer father, Clint Donovan. The shock of Josh's sudden return to social media grew when...

Armando Iannucci has launched UK-based production company Touchscreen with producer Kevin Loader and has struck a development partnership with BBC Studios.

Iannucci and Loader are long-standing collaborators and are joined at Touchscreen by development producer Charlotte Draper.

Touchscreen aims to develop and co-produce scripted programming for the UK and international markets, which will be distributed by BBC Studios.

In a statement, Touchscreen and BBC Studios said the new partnership will be committed to mentoring and championing new British talent, on and off screen, and telling stories that resonate globally.

Iannucci and Loader have previously teamed on projects such as The Death Of Stalin,...

“Veep” creator Armando Iannucci has launched a new venture with production company Touchscreen, which has established a partnership with BBC Studios.

Together, the two will develop and co-produce “innovative, daring and world-class scripted programming for the U.K. and international markets,” according to a press release, which will be distributed by BBC Studios. The aim of the partnership is to mentor and champion new British talent, both on and off screen, as well as tell stories that resonate on a global scale.

Touchscreen will also be joined by Kevin Loader, Iannucci’s longtime collaborator who has worked with him on films “In the Loop” and “The Personal History of David Copperfield” as well as two seasons of HBO comedy “Avenue 5.” Charlotte Draper is also on board as a development producer.

“Touchscreen is focused on making projects that reflect, confront or celebrate the world we live in. I’ll be continuing my relationship with HBO,...

Dev Patel will star in “The Journeyman,” a crime thriller directed by Tarsem Singh from a script by husband-wife duo Bryan and Alexis Roberts (aka The Roberts). Patel plays a down-on-his-luck tennis pro who is drawn into the dark world of match-fixing to make ends meet for his family.

AGC Studios will fully finance and produce the film with Academy Award nominee Scott Franklin, Patel’s Minor Realm and Lbi Entertainment.

Joining Franklin as producers are AGC Studios chairman and CEO Stuart Ford and Mason Eways for Lbi Entertainment. Shamier Anderson and Stephan James will executive produce for Bay Mills.

AGC Intl. represents the film’s international distribution rights and will introduce the film to buyers at the AFM next week; CAA Media Finance is handling domestic with AGC. Production is set to commence next year.

“The Journeyman” is the story of a struggling pro tennis player who is lured...

Hulu offers a wide array of films and series refreshed monthly, with over 100 new movies and TV shows coming to the platform in November. Launched in 2007, Hulu has been at the forefront of the streaming service boom since the very beginning, and it's one of the most popular services thanks to its rich catalog of new and classic movies and shows. From hosting series from networks like FX and ABC to producing original films and shows, Hulu has become an indispensable source of entertainment.

October 2024 was a busy month for the platform with the return of some popular series, including What We Do in the Shadows and Abbott Elementary. There were also plenty of horror titles for the Halloween season. Looking ahead to November 2024, Hulu is once again getting into the festive season with the addition of a variety of Christmas content, including TV movies, reality specials, and holiday movie favorites.

In Josh and Benny Safdie's 2019 panic attack "Uncut Gems," Adam Sandler plays Howard Ratner, a fast-talking jewelry store owner with several terrible habits. For one, he's been having a long-term affair with his mistress (Julia Fox) and his bitter, angry, soon-to-be-ex-wife Dinah (Idina Menzel) can't wait to be rid of him. Howard is also is a gambling addict with an unusual way of perpetuating his habit. He loans gems to celebrities and athletes, but takes their existing jewelry as collateral. He then takes the jewelry across town to a pawn shop and pawns it for a pile of money before betting the money on a sporting event. If he wins, he can get the jewelry out of hock and return it to the original owners with cash in his pocket, and no one is the wiser. If he loses ... well, he actually loses a lot.

"Uncut Gems" grabs you...

October was huge for Disney+ and Hulu — but which month isn’t? After the weekly installments of “Agatha All Along” and the staple that is Huluween, the bundled streamers gear up for winter programming this November.

Disney+ continues to be the home for live episodes of “Dancing With the Stars” and the original series “Ayla & The Mirrors,” which continues to air new episodes. Along with new children’s programming and holiday specials like “An Almost Christmas Story,” the streamer will premiere “The Music of John Williams” on November 1, celebrating the acclaimed film composer and his decades-long career with new footage and interviews from those he worked with and inspired.

It’s another big month for movies coming to Hulu, as well as beloved shows like “Ally McBeal” (complete series). Stay tuned for an adaptation of Charles Yu’s “Interior Chinatown” and the docuseries “It’s All Country,” as well as...

Armando Iannucci, who created the series Veep, has shared that ever since President Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed his female Vice President, Kamala Harris, he has received a “pile-on” of requests from news organizations (including this one) to comment about how real life is tracking the plot of the HBO political comedy.

One particularly prescient plotline that has been recirculating on social media is from the season two finale (which aired in 2013), when the show’s then-vp Selina Meyer (played by star Julia Louis-Dreyfus) finds out that the show’s president (who viewers never saw) will remove himself from the ticket and won’t run for a second term. She breathlessly informs her staff that she intends to run for president.

Ianucci jumped into the discourse as the clip was being shared. “Still working on the ending,” he wrote.

Veep memes have been flooding social media,...

Dev Patel’s feature directorial debut Monkey Man leads the new films at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, starting in 592 cinemas through Universal.

Directed, produced, from a story by and starring Patel, Monkey Man follows an anonymous young man who unleashes a campaign of violence against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother, and continue to systematically victimise the poor and powerless.

Filmed in early 2021, Netflix originally bought worldwide rights to Monkey Man. After Jordan Peele boarded the title as producer through his Monkeypaw Productions, Universal acquired it from Netflix earlier this year. It debuted at SXSW last month.

Easter is behind us, we’re into a new month, and we’re fully into spring … and yet, the box office might be hitting another lull. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

There aren’t many scenarios where “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” doesn’t win its second weekend at #1. Even with a steep drop from its Easter opening, it should still be able to bring in another $30 million this coming weekend, which will be hard to beat.

It might be a coin flip on which of the other two new wide releases might do better, but I have to give a slight edge to “The First Omen,” 20th Century’s prequel to a horror franchise that began all the way back in 1976 with the horror film, “The Omen,” directed by Richard Donner pre-“Superman.” That led to two sequels in 1978 and 1981, even though the original...

Contrary to what children of the '90s might assume, "Monkey Man" is not a feature-length film about the "mystery wrapped in an enigma" that is the Hillwood vigilante Monkeyman from "Hey Arnold," as awesome as that sounds. It's actually something even cooler, believe it or not: an original starring vehicle for Dev Patel, who's only one of the most exciting actors currently doing it. Things had gone radio silent for several years on the news front surrounding the film, only for Universal to nonchalantly drop its trailer online near the end of January, sending the internet into a riotous frenzy at the sight of Patel going full John Wick on a seemingly never-ending parade of goons in Mumbai. (Not to mention by far the best use of a tuk-tuk in a movie this side of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.")

So what even is "Monkey Man," and...

Dickens' most popular characters like Scrooge, Nicholas Nickleby, and Oliver Twist have been adapted for film and TV numerous times. The best adaptations of Dickens' works include Scrooge (1951), Great Expectations (1946), Nicholas Nickleby (2002), Oliver! (1968), and The Personal History Of David Copperfield (2019). Some lesser-known but excellent adaptations include A Tale Of Two Cities (1935), The Old Curiosity Shop (1995), The Pickwick Papers (1952), Little Dorrit (1987), and Bleak House (1920).

Charles Dickens has had several of his works adapted numerous times, but with each story, there is an adaptation that stands out as the definitive movie for the source material. Dickens created an extensive body of work in his lifetime between 1812 and 1870, with 15 novels, five novellas, and hundreds of short stories. He was well known for creating characters that were well-defined and have endured long after his death.

Characters like Ebeneezer Scrooge, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, and Oliver Twist remain some of the most popular characters ever created,...

Streaming services are now trying to ration their upcoming original content due to the ongoing actors strike and the only recently-resolved writers’ strike, so we’re going to see a thinning-down of new releases across the board over the next six months at least. Hulu will be adding a lot of library TV shows and movies in November, but there are only a few new major original projects hitting the streamer this month.

Hulu’s spotlight streaming series in November is Black Cake, which is based on the bestselling book by Charmaine Wilkerson. Part family drama, part murder mystery, the show features a globetrotting story that will cover decades of events after a bereaved family find a flash drive that contains some shocking secrets about the hidden history of their late matriarch.

Also dropping on Hulu this month is the original film Quiz Lady, starring Sandra Oh, Awkwafina, Jason Schwartzman,...

Black Bear has launched international sales on “Wicker,” a twisted romance starring Oscar winner Olivia Colman and Oscar nominee Dev Patel. Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson will direct from a script they adapted from Ursula Wills-Jones’ short story “The Wicker Husband.”

“Wicker” will start production in 2024. Per the logline, “On the outskirts of a village by the sea, lives a Fisherwoman (Colman); smelly, single and perpetually ridiculed. One day, fed up with her stuffy, small-minded neighbors, she commissions herself a husband to be made from wicker (Patel). In an otherwise conservative town, this unconventional romance sparks outrage, jealousy and chaos.”

Topic Studios and Tango will finance and produce the film with Colman, Ed Sinclair and Tom Carver from South of The River, David Michôd and Brad Zimmerman for Yoki, Inc. and Justin Lothrop and Brent Stiefel for Votiv, who originated and financed development.

Colman received an Oscar for starring in Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite.

Sci-fi romcoms are rare things. Some of the few examples include the much underrated time travel film Happy Accidents (2000), Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010), and - if you really want to push the point - Groundhog Day, which celebrated its 30th anniversary earlier this year. This is a shame. If ever there were two genres that cried out to be joined together, it's science fiction and romantic comedy. After all, what could be more romantic than seeing the usual mixture of comic misunderstandings and embarrassing situations against a backdrop of interstellar battles or dimension-jumping jiggery-pokery?

It's welcome news, then, that a new addition to the genre will soon hit the silver screen. British film Timestalker began shooting last year and features a marvelous array of comedic acting talent and an intriguing plot line full of both romantic and comic possibilities. Here's everything we know so far about the upcoming film.

Nikki Molloy and Zoe Martin have joined as lead agents.

UK talent agency Loop Talent has expanded its representation remit with a new slate of line producers, production managers and first assistant directors, while building on its growing list of intimacy co-ordinators, and bringing on Nikki Molloy and Zoe Martin as lead agents for the new departments.

Loop Talent was founded by Lucy Price in 2020. It is an agency that focuses on representation of UK heads of department and crew.

Prior to joining Loop, Molloy was an assistant director on film and high-end TV productions including The Personal History Of David Copperfield...

In the United Kingdom, Daisy May Cooper is a certified television star, a familiar enough presence as both an actress and series creator that she appeared on the British version of The Masked Singer earlier this spring. She was the Otter.

Had Cooper been revealed on the American Masked Singer in February, Jenny McCarthy probably would have been totally flummoxed. Cooper might have been familiar from a pair of Armando Iannucci projects — The Personal History of David Copperfield and Avenue 5 — but instead of This Country, an award-winning comedy she starred in and created with brother Charlie, we got U.S. remake Welcome to Flatch; and instead of the British smash hit Taskmaster, on which Cooper contributed to the 10th season, we got the American version of Taskmaster, which bombed in its lone Comedy Central season.

That’s changing, of course. American audiences are getting a crash course in Daisy May Cooper this spring,...

When it comes to Dickens adaptations, it helps to temper your expectations. The revered Victorian writer is perhaps the most frequently adapted novelist in history – but to what end? The results are wildly inconsistent: for every The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) or Bleak House (2005), there are a dozen insipid Christmas Carols, or a handful of regrettable Oliver Twists. The BBC are once more throwing their (old-fashioned bowler) hat into the ring with a new six-episode screen version of Great Expectations. But how many more hats can this particular ring withstand?

Starring Dunkirk’s Fionn Whitehead as Pip, Shalom Brune-Franklin (Line of Duty) as Estella, and Oliva Colman as Miss Havisham, the new BBC series is a retelling of Dickens’s rags-to-riches bildungsroman – roughed up a bit with some distinctly modern sex and violence. Peaky Blinders scribe Steven Knight wrote the adaptation, the latest in a long line of Great Expectations adaptations for the screen.

UK sales and production firm Embankment Films has set a wholesale rejig of its nonfiction arm with four new senior hires.

Producers Nick Taussig, Malcolm Neaum, Sophie Harmer, and researcher Henry Farrington will join the company, taking on their new positions with immediate effect.

Taussig, a BAFTA and Grierson nominated feature documentary producer, will team with Neaum to produce unscripted series formats, including returnable series, for Embankment.

Those two will be joined by Harmer, who, with Taussig, recently produced the feature docs Call Me Kate and Charlie Mackesy: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and Me. Harmer will be Head of Production Unscripted at Embankment, while Henry Farrington joins as a senior researcher.

These four new hires are the latest to be announced by Embankment since veteran UK producer Kevin Loader joined the fold in May 2022. Embankment teamed up with Loader to create the new label Free Range Entertainment. The key shareholders in the company are Embankment’s Tim Haslam and Hugo Grumbar and Loader.

The combined company will develop, produce, co-produce, sell, and distribute film, TV, and “allied” content while also investing directly into production and working with third-party investors and financiers.

“Our mission is to enable audience-facing storytellers to produce surprising and emotive entertainment. The company now increases its offering to the market,” Embankment founders Tim Haslam and Hugo Grumbar said of today’s four new hires.

Taussig added: “We are joining a dynamic and experienced team with a proven record for providing filmmakers a dependable and consistent premium infrastructure to greenlight production through to worldwide distribution.”

Embankment has handled over 50 scripted feature films and five feature documentaries. The company’s next global release is The Miracle Club, starring Maggie Smith, Laura Linney, and Kathy Bates, recently acquired by Sony Picture Classics.

Apple TV+ has renewed “Tehran” for a third season, in which Hugh Laurie will join the cast as Eric Peterson, a South African nuclear inspector.

“Tehran” follows Tamar (Niv Sultan), a Mossad hacker-agent who infiltrates Tehran under a false identity. After going rogue at the end of Season 2 and reeling from the loss of her closest allies, in Season 3, Tamar must find a way to reinvent herself and win back the Mossad’s support if she is to survive. Shaun Toub and Shila Ommi return to play Faraz and Nahid, respectively, while Sasson Gabai, Bahar Pars and Phoenix Raei are new additions to the series.

Laurie is best known for starring as Dr. Gregory House in the Fox medical drama “House” for eight seasons, with other prominent credits including BBC One and AMC’s “The Night Manager,” HBO’s “Veep” and the films “Sense and Sensibility,” “The Borrowers” and “The Personal History of David Copperfield.

Spoiler Alert: Do not read unless you have watched the first two episodes of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

That sound you just heard is neither drums, drums in the deep nor the roar of a Balrog. It was actually a collective sigh of relief emanating from countless “Lord of the Rings” fans who just watched the first two episodes of “The Rings of Power” and realized that it is, in fact, a compelling expansion of the Middle-earth mythos. The episodes, titled “Shadows of the Past” and “Adrift,” both premiered tonight, while the remaining six will air weekly. The Second Age of Middle-earth is fairly technologically advanced, all things considered, but it would seem they haven’t yet developed the means to drop an entire season of prestige television at once.

“Shadows of the Past” begins, as the movies did,...

Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, specifically the Appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The series is a prequel to the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and is set during Arda’s Second Age, when the Rings of Power are first created. Like any good fantasy series, The Rings of Power has an expansive cast of characters whose stories will weave through each other to determine the fate of Middle-earth. Here are the Elves, Dwarves, Humans, and Harfoots that will feature prominently throughout this season.

Morfydd Clark is Galadriel

Galadriel is an Elven warrior of royal blood who is destined to become one of the mightiest Elves of Middle-earth during The Lord of the Rings. First portrayed by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy, The Rings of Power...

Ncuti Gatwa is set to make British television history next year when he becomes the fourteenth actor to play the Doctor on the beloved BBC series “Doctor Who.” Gatwa will be the first Black actor to play the Time Lord, a casting that has many people (including Ryan Gosling) excited, but inevitably led to some grievances from Internet trolls who see diverse casting as an example of dangerous “wokeness.” But one person who has little patience for that side of the debate is “Veep” creator and “The Death of Stalin” director Armando Iannucci.

Appearing on the MacTaggart Legacy panel at the Edinburgh International TV Festival (via The Independent), Iannucci explained why he thinks the debate around “wokeness” is ridiculous. He believes that the word “woke” has lost all meaning and is being gratuitously used by politicians to describe minor pop culture changes that they don’t like.

“My worry is...

TV show creator Armando Iannucci has opposed those who have labelled the casting choices of Doctor Who as “woke”.

Iannucci, who is behind programmes such as The Thick of It and Veep, recently spoke at the MacTaggart Legacy panel as part of the Edinburgh International TV Festival.

Joined by writer and producer Jack Thorne, British historian and broadcaster David Olusoga OBE, and Channel 4's former Head of News and Current Affairs Dorothy Byrne, the writer discussed making programmes and films that feel representative of the UK.

“British television is great, we want it to be even better, and it can only be better if it’s much more reflective of who we are, as a country and as an audience,” he explained.

In Iannucci’s 2019 film The Personal History of David Copperfield, Dev Patel played the title role – a move that the creator described as “colourblind casting” and something...

Morfydd Clark was at the Toronto International Film Festival promoting “The Personal History of David Copperfield” when she was told she was cast as Galadriel in the upcoming Amazon series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”

“I found out and then I went to a screening and Q&a for ‘David Copperfield,” Clark told me Monday night at the “Rings of Power” premiere at Culver Studios. “I suddenly realized what a big deal it was for me, and I passed out during the Q&a. I was caught by a lovely security guard.”

Set thousands of years before the “Lord of the Rings” films, Clark plays the same character portrayed by Cate Blanchett on the big screen.

“I knew I was auditioning for an elf but I didn’t know which one,” Clark recalled. “So me and my sister went mad trying to figure it out. I...

Armando Iannucci is returning to HBO once again.

The network has ordered a pilot for “The Franchise,” a new satire which will see the “Veep” creator turn his eye for institutional dysfunction toward an industry that has no shortage of it: Hollywood. The series will follow the behind-the-scenes drama on the set of a “dysfunctional, nonsensical, joyous hellscape of franchise superhero movie-making,” as the cast and crew of a fictional franchise wonder if their jobs have any meaning, per the announcement.

The script was written by Jon Brown and Keith Akushie, with Iannucci collaborating with them on the pilot story. Iannucci will serve as an executive producer alongside Sam Mendes, who is also directing the pilot. Pippa Harris, Nicolas Brown, and Julie Pastor are also producing.

The pairing of Iannucci and Mendes is an exciting one for fans of British film and television. The two have never collaborated before, but...

Dev Patel emerged as a knight in shining armor during a knife fight outside a convenience store on Monday night in South Australia.

The “Green Knight” star and Oscar nominee intervened after witnessing a fight during which a woman stabbed a man in the chest. Patel’s representatives confirmed to IndieWire that, as first reported by 7News Australia, that the incident took place in Adelaide, Australia and added that there were ultimately “no heroes” in the situation.

“Dev acted on his natural instinct to try and de-escalate the situation and break up the fight,” Patel’s representatives said. “The group was thankfully successful in doing so, and they remained on site to ensure that the police and eventually the ambulance arrived.”

The man who was injured in the attack was brought to a hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The woman was arrested and charged with aggravated assault causing harm and has been denied bail.

If you’ve been waiting to watch Christopher Nolan’s confounding sci-fi thriller “Tenet,” now is the time to finally get to it on your HBO Max watchlist. Nolan’s latest film is one of many movies leaving HBO Max in July, the full list of which you can read below.

Also leaving HBO and HBO Max this month is another Nolan classic, “Inception,” Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby,” as well as two rom-com favorites “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and “You’ve Got Mail.”

If you’re looking to prioritize some selections, “American Gigolo” was Richard Gere’s break-out role — and it would be a good time to watch ahead of the upcoming TV series starring Jon Bernthal.

Also Read:

The Best Movies on HBO Max Right Now

July 9:

Horrible Bosses 2, 2014

The New Mutants, 2020 (HBO)

July 11:

Black Mass, 2015

July 13:

Blue Exorcist (Subtitled), 2016

July 23:

Human Capital, 2020 (HBO)

July 26:

The Accountant,...

Anya Taylor-Joy, Billie Eilish, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Caitríona Balfe, Jamie Dornan and Disney exec Dana Walden are among the 397 artists and executives invited to join the membership of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. If all of this year’s invitees accept membership, it will bring the total number of Academy members to 10,665, with 9,665 eligible to vote for the 95th Oscars set to take place on March 12, 2023.

The 2022 class is 44 women, 37 belong to underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 50 are from 53 countries and territories outside the United States. There are 71 Oscar nominees, including 15 winners, among the invitees. Some of the big names invited are recent winners Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”) and Troy Kotsur (“Coda”), and nominees Jessie Buckley (“The Lost Daughter”), Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee (“The Power of the Dog”). Also invited are a slew of global artists and artisans such as actors Robin de Jesús, Olga Merediz...

Long-awaited animated feature “Lamya’s Poem” has unveiled its first trailer.

Alex Kronemer’s Rumi-inspired film about a Syrian refugee girl named Lamya was one of the hot competition titles at the 2021 Annecy Film Festival, and went on to play at festivals in Vancouver, Zurich and Prague.

The film is an inspiring and timely tale about a 12-year-old Syrian refugee who flees the violence of her country, and looks to a gifted book of poetry by the famous 13th-century poet, Rumi, as a source of strength. As the perils of her journey mount, the book becomes a magical gateway where she meets Rumi when he was a boy and also a refugee fleeing the violence of his time. In a shared dreamworld, they battle the monsters that follow them from their real world situations, and Lamya must help young Rumi find his calling and write the poem that, 800 years later,...

It’s 1818, and “the season” is in full swing in upper-crust London. High society’s “ton” is out in full force, swanning their way through balls, operas, suppers, teas, strolls around both large and small bodies of water, and even the odd horse sale, all in service to one principal aim: capturing a spouse, and hopefully one with plenty of money to their aristocratic name. But one society lady continues to strike out, and as she enters her fifth season (her fifth! cue the bosom-clutching!) without snagging a suitable husband, things are getting mighty desperate. Soon enough, they’ll even get downright mean.

First-time feature filmmaker Emma Holly Jones spins with her “Mr. Malcolm’s List,” presenting a fresh twist on the Regency Era rom-com that has kept author Jane Austen such a hot commodity for so long. Jones, however, makes nearly as many missteps along the way (said mean streak,...

“Promising Young Woman” scribe Emerald Fennell and “His Dark Materials” scribe Jack Thorne were among those honored at the 29th Writers’ Guild of Great Britain awards on Monday night.

The ceremony, which was hosted by Wggb president Sandi Toksvig in London, handed out awards in 16 categories including film, television, radio, theatre, comedy, books, and videogames.

Awards covered the past two years of work, after the 2021 ceremony was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Which is why Fennell won a prize for first screenplay for “Promising Young Woman” while Thorne picked up the award for outstanding contribution to writing.

Also walking away with gongs were Chinonyerem Odimba for best musical theater bookwriting for “Black Love,” Russell T. Davies for best long form TV drama for “It’s a Sin” and Simon Blackwell and Armando Iannucci for best screenplay for “The Personal History of David Copperfield.”

“I think all writers would say that being...

The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (Wggb) has unveiled the shortlist for its annual awards, with nominees including “Promising Young Woman” scribe Emerald Fennell and “Succession” writer Lucy Prebble, who’s been nominated for her Billie Piper series “I Hate Suzie.”

The awards, which will be handed out on Feb. 14 in central London, will cover two years of British writing, after last year’s awards were cancelled due to the pandemic.

Wggb President and former “The Great British Bake-Off” host Sandi Toksvig said: “What a fitting day to celebrate the cream of British writers – who have kept us entertained on page, stage, screen and across the airwaves, through such dark times.

“Our creative industries play such an important role, as do all those who work within them and we hope our awards ceremony on Valentine’s Day will send this message – you matter, we care, and thank you for your words,...

FX’s upcoming limited series “Class of ’09” has added Sepideh Moafi, Brian J. Smith, Jon Jon Briones, Brooke Smith, Jake McDorman, Rosalind Eleazar and Raúl Castillo to the cast. Additionally, Sunu Gonera is set to direct the first two episodes.

The eight-episode series is a suspense thriller that spans three decades and is told across three distinct but interweaving timelines in order to examine the nature of justice, humanity and the choices people make that define their lives and legacy. One of these timelines will be the near future when the U.S. criminal justice system has been transformed by artificial intelligence.

The show follows a class of FBI agents, including previously announced stars Kate Mara as Poet, a woman who never thought she’d join the world of law enforcement and yet is at the center of a pivotal moment of transformation, and Brian Tyree Henry as Tayo,...

FX’s limited series Class of ’09 has added Raúl Castillo, Jake McDorman, Sepideh Moafi, Brian J. Smith, Jon Jon Briones (Ratched), Brooke Smith (Grey’s Anatomy), and Rosalind Eleazar (Master of None) to its cast. They join previously announced leads Brian Tyree Henry and Kate Mara. Sunu Gonera is set to direct the first two episodes.

The series, which follows a class of FBI agents set in a near future where the U.S. criminal justice system has been transformed by artificial intelligence, comes from Tom Rob Smith, Nina Jacobson, and Brad Simpson.

The eight-part series produced by FX Productions revolves around a group of FBI agents who graduated from Quantico in 2009 and are reunited following the death of a mutual friend. Spanning three decades and told across three interweaving timelines,...

Festival

The 65th BFI London Film Festival, which concluded Oct. 17, attracted crowds for in-person events and virtually. The festival unspooled over 12 days across London venues, 10 partner cinema venues around the U.K. and online. There were more than 139,000 physical attendances at screenings and events and over 152,000 virtual attendances.

The festival closed with the European premiere of “The Tragedy of Macbeth” at new festival venue, the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall with director Joel Coen and key cast, including Frances McDormand, in attendance.

There was a sting in the tail, however, as two people who attended the closing film and after party tested positive for Covid-19, compelling the BFI to send letters to attendees informing them about this. The positive tests came as no surprise as the U.K. is experiencing a dramatic surge in cases currently.

The array of celebrities who attended the festival in person included Jay Z,...

David Lowery’s “The Green Knight” is finally coming to the U.K., with a day-and-date release planned for Sept. 24 in movie theaters and on Amazon Prime Video, Variety can reveal.

This will be good news for Dev Patel fans in the U.K. hoping to see the British actor on the big screen in Lowery’s dark Arthurian tale, who were left in the lurch in July when the movie was suddenly pulled from its Aug. 6 theatrical slot.

The A24 film, which received glowing reviews from critics, opened as planned in the U.S. on July 30 with a respectable domestic haul of $6.78 million, but to date, its disrupted opening across the pond had been shrouded in confusion among audiences and disdain from exhibitors baffled by Entertainment Film Distributors’ decision to yank the pic just weeks out from its release, citing Covid concerns.

Variety understands discussions have been ongoing over the last month,...

British acting duo Emma Thompson and Jim Broadbent have signed up to star in the 3-part Agatha Christie adaptation ‘Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?.’

Thompson and Broadbent, who will play British aristocrats Lord and Lady Marcham, will join Lucy Boynton who takes on the role of their daughter Lady Frankie, Will Poulter as Bobby Jones and Hugh Laurie and as creepy sanitorium director Dr. James Nicholson.

Based on Christie’s 1934 mystery, the story centres on the local Vicar’s son, Bobby Jones (Poulter), and his whip-smart friend, socialite Lady Frances ‘Frankie’ Derwent (Boynton) on their crime-solving adventure after they discover the crumpled body of a dying man who, with his last breath, gasps the cryptic question of the title.

Also in news – Brendan Fraser joins cast of Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’

Armed only with a photograph of a beautiful young woman found in the dead man’s pocket,...

How bad of an experience was shooting “The Last Airbender” for Dev Patel? So bad the actor has rejected offers to star in major Hollywood blockbusters in the decade since. The closest Patel has come to a studio tentpole is Neill Blomkamp’s 2015 sci-fi effort “Chappie,” but that movie doesn’t have the scale of Hollywood’s biggest franchises. According to The New York Times, Patel said “his agents get frustrated with him for turning down” tentpoles.

“Maybe it’s a fear of how I would fit into that world,” Patel said about his decision to stay out of the studio tentpole world after “The Last Airbender,” which he called “one of the worst movies I’ve ever done, and I shouldn’t even bring it up, but do a quick IMDb search and you’ll know what it is.”

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan and based on the animated...

Altitude and Film4 have acquired writer/director Julia Ducournau’s Cannes Film Festival competition title “Titane” for U.K. and Ireland.

In the horror thriller, following a series of unexplained crimes, a father is reunited with the son who disappeared ten years ago.

The film stars newcomer Agathe Rousselle, Cannes best actor winner Vincent Lindon (“The Measure of a Man”), Laïs Salameh (“Le rêve de Mila”) and reunites Ducournau with her “Raw” star Garance Marillier.

Horror hit “Raw” was selected at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2016 and won the Fipresci prize there before going on to global acclaim and awards including the Sutherland award for best first feature at the BFI London Film Festival and a clutch of prizes at Sitges – Catalonian International Film Festival.

Film4 and Altitude have co-acquired the film and will collaborate on the theatrical release later this year. Film4 will retain broadcast and on-demand rights in the U.

Video Version of this Article Photo/Video: Dev Patel attends the European premiere of 'The Personal History of David Copperfield' at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London, England/Cubankite/Shutterstock/Hollywood Insider YouTube Channel Dev Patel, one of the best Indian actors today, was born in West London. His love of acting began after performing in a school’s play and continued throughout high school. In high school, he earned the highest grade possible for his drama Gcse and peers knew him because of his acting skill. Before he began to pursue acting more seriously, he grew up practicing taekwondo and was continuously in national and international championships. In fact, the year before he started acting professionally he received his black belt. Related article: A Tribute to Cannes Film Festival: A Celebration of Cinema, Glamour, and Humanity | Statement From Hollywood Insider’s CEO Pritan Ambroase Related article: Sebastian Stan...

Oscar nominee Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread), Emmy nominee Carice van Houten (Game of Thrones), Paloma Faith (Youth) and Michael McElhatton (Game of Thrones) and BAFTA nominee Kosar Ali (Rocks) are among 14 cast in Starz’s original series Dangerous Liaisons, a reimagining of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ classic 18th century novel. Also joining leads Alice Englert and Nicholas Denton in the prequel series are Nathanael Saleh (Mary Poppins Returns), Hakeem Kae-Kazim (Godzilla vs. Kong), Hilton Pelser (Moffie), Mia Threapleton (A Little Chaos), Colette Dalal Tchantcho (The Witcher), Lucy Cohu (The Queen’s Sister), Fisayo Akinade (The Personal History of David Copperfield), Maria Friedman (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) and Clare Higgins (Ready Player One). The series hails from Lionsgate TV, Colin Callender’s Playground Entertainment and Tony Krantz’ Flame Ventures.

Dangerous Liaisons tells the origin story of how the Marquise de Merteuil (Englert) and the Vicomte de Valmont (Denton) meet...

The “Dangerous Liaisons” series at Starz has added over a dozen actors to its cast.

Lesley Manville, Carice van Houten, Michael McElhatton, Paloma Faith, Koshar Ali, Nathanael Saleh, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Hilton Pelser, Mia Threapleton, Colette Dalal Tchantcho, Lucy Cohu, Fisayo Akinade, Maria Friedman, and Clare Higgins will all appear in the series. They join previously announced series leads Alice Englert and Nicholas Denton in the reimagining on the Pierre Choderlos de Laclos book of the same name.

Full character descriptions for the new cast members can be found below.

The series tells the origin story of how the Marquise de Merteuil (Englert) and the Vicomte de Valmont (Denton) meet as passionate young lovers in Paris on the eve of revolution. Driven to right the wrongs of their past, we follow the couple as they rise from the slums of Paris and scale the heights of the French aristocracy, seducing and...

The Revenant star Will Poulter and Bohemian Rhapsody’s Lucy Boynton are to lead the cast of Hugh Laurie’s three-part adaptation of Agatha Christie’s murder-mystery Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?.

Deadline revealed that The Night Manager and House star was behind the adaptation in April and the series is starting production this week.

Based on the 1934 Agatha Christie novel, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? follows the local Vicar’s son, Bobby Jones (Poulter), and his whip-smart friend, socialite Lady Frances “Frankie” Derwent (Boynton) on their crime-solving adventure after they discover the crumpled body of a dying man who, with his last breath, gasps the cryptic question of the title. Armed only with a photograph of a beautiful young woman found in the dead man’s pocket, these amateur detectives pursue, and are pursued by, the answer to the mystery.

The series is commissioned by BritBox North...

Lucy Boynton (“Bohemian Rhapsody”) and Will Poulter (“The Revenant”) are set to star in Hugh Laurie’s adaptation of “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?”, one of Agatha Christie’s earliest murder mystery novels.

Laurie (“House”) is set to direct and act in the three-part series for BritBox North America, in which he plays the creepy Dr. James Nicholson, a clinical director of a sanatorium.

Christie published “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?”, which follows Bobby (Poulter) and shrewd socialite Lady Frances (Boynton) as they untangle a murder mystery, in 1934. In classic Christie fashion, there are plenty of twists and turns until the perpetrator is finally unmasked.

“I’m so thrilled to be working with Hugh and Will, and on this story from one of my favourite authors,” said Boynton. “I can’t wait to get started.” She won’t have to wait long with production kicking off this week.

“I’m...

In recent years, the British Film Institute (BFI) London Film Festival has become synonymous with the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, with many of the two-week festival’s screenings taking place in and around the central London venue.

This year, however, Variety can reveal that the festival will take place on the opposite side of the Thames river, at BFI Southbank and Royal Festival Hall, primarily. The festival, which will run from Oct. 6-17, is also currently negotiating additional venues, including Odeon cinemas.

“We are in active discussions with the BFI London Film Festival and look forward to once again supporting the iconic event,” an Odeon spokesperson told Variety.

Leicester Square, however, isn’t a major part of the equation, as it has been historically. Industry insiders have speculated that the late September release of James Bond film “No Time to Die” may play a role in the change of venues.

Dev Patel has signed a first-look film deal with ShivHans Pictures, the production company founded by CEO Shivani Rawat and led by president of production Julie Goldstein.

Under the deal, Patel will produce, develop and create first-look projects with ShivHans Pictures. Patel previously worked with the company on “Hotel Mumbai” from 2018, in which he starred and executive produced, and which ShivHans co-distributed with Bleecker Street.

Patel is currently in post-production on his feature directorial debut, “Monkey Man,” which is based on a script he co-wrote and produced. The film was recently acquired by Netflix in a $30 million deal.

“We are thrilled to partner with Dev Patel, who has an incredibly fresh vision for projects that align with the ShivHans Pictures mission,” Rawat said in a statement. “Dev has portrayed some of the most memorable and groundbreaking characters and brings forth diverse and engaging storytelling to the screen. We are excited...

One of the bright lights of this year’s awards season, BAFTA best actress nominee Bukky Bakray of the film “Rocks” will star in forthcoming BBC One and Netflix drama “You Don’t Know Me.”

Produced by Snowed-In Production and co-produced with Netflix, the show has now begun filming in Birmingham. The project is an adaptation of Imran Mahmood’s bestselling novel, and is written by “The Crown” and “Judy” writer Tom Edge.

Directed by Sarmad Masud, the four-part drama turns on a young man named Hero (Samuel Adewunmi) who, with overwhelming evidence against him, stands accused of murder. At his trial, Hero tells an extraordinary story about the woman he loves, and how he risked everything to save her. Hero swears he is innocent, but can we believe him?

Bakray plays Bless, Hero’s younger sister, who is a guiding force for her older brother and believes fiercely in his innocence.

There are many different types of existing works from which a film’s screenplay can be adapted, and the academy has honored scripts built from just about every source material imaginable. Voters typically reveal their preferences by consistently choosing scripts based on certain source materials over others. Examining the most recent Best Adapted Screenplay lineups is the most effective way of predicting the next one. Here is a list of the category’s nominees and winners, as well as their sources of origin, from the last five years:

2020:

Winner: “Jojo Rabbit” – Novel

“The Irishman” – Non-fiction book

“Joker” – Comic books

“Little Women” – Novel

“The Two Popes” – Play

2019:

Winner: “BlacKkKlansman” – Memoir

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” – Short stories

“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” – Memoir

“If Beale Street Could Talk” – Novel

“A Star Is Born” – Existing films

2018:

Winner: “Call Me By Your Name” – Novel

“The Disaster Artist” – Non-fiction book

“Logan...