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All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Venice, Toronto

Laura Poitras’ sublime Golden Lion-winning doc chronicles photographer Nan Goldin’s mission to hold the Sacklers responsible for the opioid crisis perpetrated by their company Purdue Pharma. It’s also a portrait of the artist, an intimate look at grassroots political action and a devastating story about family. — Sheri Linden

The Banshees of Inisherin

Venice, Toronto

Martin McDonagh’s superb dark comedy about the abrupt breakup of lifelong friends (a never-better Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) evolves steadily into an unexpectedly poignant account of a bond severed, though never erased. It’s the writer-director’s most deeply and distinctly Irish work for the screen to date, and also one of his best. — David Rooney

Bones and All

Venice, Telluride

Luca Guadagnino’s affecting account of first love between two cannibal drifters in 1980s Middle America...

Three movies into his film career, Harry Styles’ ability as an actor continues to improve with each of his outings. Beginning as a young soldier in Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” (2017), he returns to the silver screen with two films this year. In the first, he’s the charming husband to Florence Pugh in “Don’t Worry Darling,” with the press tour that keeps on giving. In the second, he portrays a closeted gay police officer in Michael Grandage’s drama “My Policeman” from Amazon Studios, featuring his strongest turn yet as an actor. But is an Oscar nomination in his future?

Singers-turned-actors have had an inconsistent road to the Academy Awards. While there are successes such as Cher (“Moonstruck”) and Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”), Academy voters sometimes make actors prove themselves for a while to show they’re the real deal. Known as a “pretty boy,” Styles’ celebrity status does present an...

My Policeman, which had its world premiere today at the Toronto Film Festival, has its roots in a novel by Bethan Roberts which was actually based on a complicated love relationship between famed novelist E.M. Forster; his male lover of 40 years, a policeman named Bob Buckingham; and Buckingham’s wife May Hockey, who slowly came to realize her husband had a long-standing affair with Forster, but even after he had suffered a series of strokes took care of the author in his later life so deep was their friendship. Roberts changed the names and fictionalized it all for her book, which is now the basis of Ron Nyswaner’s (Philadelphia) screenplay that explores the love triangle of three freewheeling friends in 1957 who each was hobbled by the mores of the time, repressing rather than expressing their own sexuality, even as the...

Exclusive: Michael Grandage gathered the cast of My Policeman for two weeks of rehearsals prior to the start of principal photography. The sessions included choreographing intimate moments involving actors Harry Styles (Don’t Worry Darling), Emma Corrin (Lady Chatterley’s Lover) and David Dawson (The Last Kingdom), and Linus Roache (Homeland ), Gina McKee (Notting Hill) and Rupert Everett (The Happy Prince) who were playing the older versions of the younger actors.

Grandage brought on choreographer Ben Wright, a frequent collaborator on Grandage’s theater productions, as intimacy coordinator. He told him he wanted the scenes to reflect something that he felt was “an absolute key theme of the film.” Which, he said, “is about the sensuality of touch, of whether it’s that first touch on the neck between Harry and David, whether it’s the ritual washing as Gina does with Rupert, whether it’s the touch of high levels of...

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Although director Michael Grandage had a pretty good idea of Harry Styles’ star power when he first cast him in My Policeman — his sophomore feature and adapted from Bethan Roberts’ 2012 romance novel — it only really hit home once rumors of the musician’s involvement in the film became public.

“When it started to get out, sales of the book just went through the roof. It was abso- lutely berserk,” says the Brit, a celebrated and multi-award-win- ning theater director who marked his first turn as filmmaker with 2016’s Berlinale-bowing Genius. “This poor, lovely author who had just been ambling along mind- ing her own business suddenly became a best-selling writer literally overnight. And I thought, ‘Oh my God, I see, that’s the power of this boy.’”

A story of forbidden love in 1950s Britain when same-sex relationships were illegal, My Policeman, which...

Exclusive: The ensemble cast of Kevin Costner’s Civil War western, Horizon, continues to grow with Dickinson and star of recent Telluride world premiere, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Ella Hunt, joining the cast.

That big cast now includes Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jamie Campbell Bower, Luke Wilson, Thomas Haden Church, Jena Malone, Alejandro Edda, Tatanka Means, Michael Rooker and Isabelle Fuhrman.

Costner is producing through his Territory Pictures, and is directing, starring and co-wrote the movie which returns him to the Civil War era, his first in the time period since the multi-Oscar winning Dances With Wolves. Jon Baird co-wrote the Warner Bros./New Line project. Costner returns to directing after his 2003 critically acclaimed western, Open Range.

Horizon chronicles a multi-faceted 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west. Experienced through the eyes of many, the epic journey is fraught with peril and intrigue from the constant onslaught of natural elements,...

The Telluride Film Festival wrapped on Labor Day, with many of the season’s mystery films getting a first look from critics, journalists and festivalgoers. But what did we learn from the four-day fest? Do we have an Oscar frontrunner?

Four narrative films world premiered in the Colorado mountains – “Women Talking” from MGM/Uar, “Empire of Light” from Searchlight Pictures and “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and “The Wonder” from Netflix. Other Venice titles also made their North American debuts such as Netflix’s “Bardo” and Focus Features’ “Tar.”

Here are five things we learned at Telluride.

Polley Want an Oscar?

Writer, actor and director Sarah Polley received a tribute at the top of the festival, with her film “Women Talking” making its debut. Clips of her acting performances were part of the montage. Featured more prominently were her three films as a director – the documentary “Stories We Tell” and her two indie gems,...

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The setting and subject of Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s second film couldn’t be more different from those of her first. But the contemporary drama The Mustang and the director’s interpretation of D.H. Lawrence’s century-old novel share a sensuous physicality, an appreciation for skin and muscle — how bodies move, how they spar, how they intertwine. In the 2019 film, the beautiful bodies belong to Matthias Schoenaerts and a wild horse; in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell steam up the screen as kindred spirits ignited by carnal passion.

Lawrence was dismissed as a pornographer by many, and his oft-adapted 1928 novel, his last, was for years banned as obscene in several countries. Then it became part of the English-lit canon. Eventually it would be dissed by Susan Sontag as reactionary. Even in this telling, where the intelligence of Corrin’s character...

"Lady Chatterley's Lover", the notorious 1928 novel by English author D. H. Lawrence , exploring a woman's affair with a gamekeeper on her husband's estate, will be adapted by Netflix, to be directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre ("The Mustang") for 3000 Pictures, starring Emma Corrin ("The Crown"):

"..'Constance Reid', aka 'Lady Chatterley' (Corrin), is married to rich, upper-class ''Sir Clifford Chatterley', who is disabled from the waist down because of an injury during the 'Great War'.

"In addition to Clifford's physical limitations, his emotional neglect of Constance forces distance between the couple. 

"Her emotional frustration leads her into a 'steamy affair'...

"...with the estate gamekeeper, 'Oliver Mellors'. ...

You have to wonder whether Holliday Grainger misses the corsets. It’s been five years since the star of Strike last wore the punishing vintage garment; an eternity really, given that she spent the better part of a decade bound into one playing frothy aristocrats in shows such as The Borgias and haughty royalty in films like Anna Karenina. “I’ve worn so many I think my bloody liver is bruised,” she cackles, a trace of her native Manchester accent peeping through the negative space of her vowels. The short answer, then, is no. She does not miss the corsets.

These days, Grainger is about comfort. The actor calls me from bed one afternoon, her hair pulled back from her high-boned, full-moon face, which is bare. Not celebrity bare (meaning concealer and mascara) but actually bare. She’s in workout clothes and her rosy cheeks are rosier than usual. I...

From the moment it was published in 1928, D.H. Lawrence’s steamy romance of a commoner and artistocratic wife has met with outrage and enduring popularity. It was so scandalous an unexpurgated version never appeared until an obscenity trial in Britain in 1960 was won by the publisher of the uncut version, leading to 3 million more in sales — not to mention the several film and TV versions that have been tried throughout the years including a 1955 film that itself was subject to cries for censorship. Now French actress and filmmaker Laure deClermont-Tonnerre has given it a new whirl in an uninhibited and sexy, but quite respectable, version starring Emma Corrin (The Crown) as Connie, who marries happily into England’s upper crust only to have a raging affair with her husband’s new gameskeeper Oliver Mellors, played by Jack O’Connell. This thing, without the right and convincing chemistry between the two lovers,...

When D.H. Lawrence’s final novel “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was widely published for the first time in 1960 (other versions circulated in 1928 and 1929), the book ignited a firestorm that eventually led to an obscenity trial (won by its publisher) and massive sales. Decades later, the novel remains a source of titillation for many (including those who turned it into dozens of R- and X-rated films and TV series), even if its reputation has generally faded into “It’s smutty, right?” It is, of course, so much more.

When Penguin Books was prosecuted under the UK’s Obscene Publications Act 1959, it wasn’t just the book’s language (including the repeated use of many “unprintable” four-letter words) or the explicit sex scenes. Lawrence’s also lovers dared to cross class lines in a time when that was a shocking act of its own. In this latest adaptation, , much of that drama has been flattened.

These days, with rappers singing about “wet-ass pussy” and Ana de Armas simulating a presidential blow job in “Blonde,” it’s hard to imagine a world in which a couple four-letter words are enough to get a book banned. In the case of D.H. Lawrence’s notorious 1928 novel “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” it was more than just the sex talk that riled the censors (the 1955 French film version was banned because it “promoted adultery”), although the book certainly seems tame by the standards of “Fifty Shades of Grey” and whatever gynecological surprises an un-Safe Google search might turn up.

How then to approach Lawrence’s controversial classic today, when audiences have seemingly seen it all, but still find themselves surfing for titillation on Netflix (judging by the streamer’s T&a-skewing Top 10 lists)? In an admirable bid to make “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” at once respectable and arousing, French director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre...

Telluride – Almost a century after its initial publication, D.H. Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” is still captivating enough on the page to spur new cinematic and episodic adaptations every few years. In fact, there have been at least seven film versions in multiple languages (some more faithful than others) and two separate BBC incarnations created for the small screen alone. But for a novel banned for decades across the globe due to its sexual content, it’s never spurred a seminal film adaptation.

Continue reading Emma Corrin Is A Caged Bird In Somewhat Steamy ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ [Telluride Review] at The Playlist.

The US festival runs from September 2-5,

Telluride Film Festival (Tff) has unveiled the programme for its 49th edition, with the US festival running from tomorrow (September 2) to September 5.

Ahead of its play at Toronto and BFI London Film Festival, Sam Mendes’ Empire Of Light will world premiere. Set in an English seaside town during the 1980s, the film follows a love story and an old cinema. Olivia Colman and Colin Firth star, alongside Screen Star of Tomorrow 2020 Micheal Ward, Toby Jones, Tanya Moodie, Tom Brooke and Crystal Clarke. It is produced by Mendes and Pippa Harris’ Neal Street Productions in association with Searchlight.

The Telluride Film Festival announced the full lineup for its 2022 edition, which includes the world premiere of Sam Mendes' Empire of Light, Sarah Poley’s Women Talking, Sebastian Lelio’s The Wonder, and Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Polley is also one of the artists to get a Silver Medallion tribute during the festival, together with Cate Blanchett and documentary filmmaker Mark Cousins.

The 49th Telluride Film Festival opens Friday in a much-awaited edition that is set to feature world premieres of Searchlight’s Oscar hopeful Empire of Light from director Sam Mendes, starring Olivia Coleman and Colin Firth; Women Talking from director Sarah Polley, starring Rooney Mara and Frances McDormand in the ensemble; Sebastian Lelio’s The Wonder, starring Florence Pugh; and Sony/Netflix’s sizzling new version of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover with Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell; among other films.

Considered a must stop on the awards circuit, Telluride also will feature Silver Medallion tributes to Cate Blanchett, docu filmmaker Mark Cousins and Polley. Netflix, Searchlight, Sony Pictures Classics, Amazon and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are among those also throwing dinners and parties over the Labor Day weekend event, which runs September 2-5 in the Colorado Rockies town.

In addition to the world premieres,...

Telluride Film Festival’s official 2022 lineup has been announced, revealing world premieres of Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light,” Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking,” Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and Sebastián Lelio’s “The Wonder.”

In its 49th year, the festival will pay tribute to two-time Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett, whose new film “TÁR,” from director Todd Field, will debut stateside after premiering at the Venice Film Festival.

In addition, the festival will also tribute Academy Award nominee Polley (adapted screenplay for 2006’s “Away from Her”) and acclaimed documentarian Marc Cousins, who has two films dropping at the fest. One is “My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock,” which is based on a fictional monologue between Cousins and the master of suspense. The other is “The March on Rome,” depicting the ascent of fascism in Europe during the 1930s.

Other Venice bows heading over to the Colorado Mountains are Luca Guadagnino’s...

Executive’s development credits include Martin McDonagh’s Venice and TIFF selection The Banshees Of Inisherin.

Former Blueprint Pictures development executive Katie Sinclair has been appointed head of development at Jude Law’s Riff Raff Entertainment.

At Blueprint Pictures Sinclair’s credits include Martin McDonagh’s Venice and TIFF selection The Banshees Of Inisherin, Andrew Haigh’s Strangers, and Thea Sharrock’s The Beautiful Game. She also worked closely in production on Lady Chatterley’s Lover for Sony 3000 and Netflix.

Prior to Blueprint, she worked for Rose Garnett and Eva Yates at BBC Film, and previously worked in production and development for BBC Studios,...

Netflix has announced its full fall movie slate, including release dates for a number of films that will be opening in select theaters before they’re on the streaming service.

That includes Oscar-winning “Birdman” and “The Revenant” director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s new film “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths.” Described as an “epic, visually stunning and immersive experience” the film stars Daniel Giménez Cacho as a renowned Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker living in Los Angeles, who, after being named the recipient of a prestigious international award, is compelled to return to his native country, unaware that this simple trip will push him to an existential limit.

Highly anticipated titles like “Blonde,” starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, and Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise” are coming to the streaming service as they make their way around the festival circuit. Just as long-awaited are sequels “Enola Holmes 2...

The actor, who is about to star opposite Nicola Walker in new BBC drama Marriage, talks about chemistry, crying and being killed off

Sean Bean used to be known as an action hero – a gritty Hollywood hard man who usually died before the credits rolled. Yet the past decade has seen him become one of our most reliably excellent dramatic actors: a tender, terrific performer with multiple awards to show for it.

Now 63, he trained as a welder in his home city of Sheffield before discovering acting, winning a scholarship to Rada in London and becoming a member of the RSC in 1986. He found mainstream fame in the 90s as the swashbuckling hero of ITV’s period action romp Sharpe. His film roles have included a terrorist in Patriot Games, a James Bond villain in GoldenEye and Boromir in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. On TV he has starred...

Sean Bean isn’t all that thrilled by the increasing presence of intimacy coordinators on film and television sets. According to the “Game of Thrones” actor, these professionals actually have the ability to “ruin” the art of a sex scene.

In a recent interview with the UK’s Times, Bean reflected on the graphic sex scenes in the BBC’s 1993 series “Lady Chatterley,” based on the book “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” saying that, had an intimacy coordinator been present on that set, his performance would’ve suffered.

“It would inhibit me more because it’s drawing attention to things. Somebody saying, ‘Do this, put your hand there, while you touch his thing…’” he explained. “I think the natural way lovers behave would be ruined by someone bringing it right down to a technical exercise.”

Also Read:

‘Game of Thrones’ Fans Can Now Sit in a ‘House of the Dragon’ Iron Throne...

Actors to be feted at in-person awards gala on September 11.

The cast of upcoming TIFF world premiere My Policeman – Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, Gina McKee, Linus Roache, David Dawson, and Rupert Everett – are the first film ensemble to receive the festival’s TIFF Tribute Award for Performance.

Now in its fourth year, the award will return to an in-person gala fundraiser during the 47th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11 at Fairmont Royal York Hotel.

Michael Grandage directed for Prime Video from Ron Nyswaner’s adapted screenplay based on Bethan Roberts’ novel of the same name. The...

Exclusive: Michael Mann’s upcoming race car drama Ferrari is building on its already stacked ensemble as sources tell Deadline, Jack O’Connell, Patrick Dempsey and Sarah Gadon have rounded out the cast. Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz, Shailene Woodley and Gabriel Leone are already set to star. Dempsey will play Piero Taruffi and O’Connell will play Peter Collins with Gadon playing Linda Christian. Mann is directing with production set to start on August 1 in Italy.

The film is set during the summer of 1957. Ex-racecar driver, Ferrari (Driver), is in crisis. Bankruptcy stalks the company he and his wife, Laura (Woodley), built from nothing ten years earlier. Their tempestuous marriage struggles with the mourning for one son and the acknowledgement of another. He decides to counter his losses by rolling the dice on one race – 1,000 miles across Italy, the iconic Mille Miglia.

Troy Kennedy Martin co-wrote the script with Mann, which is...

"Lady Chatterley's Lover", the notorious 1928 novel by English author D. H. Lawrence , exploring a woman's affair with a gamekeeper on her husband's estate, will be adapted by Netflix, to be directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre ("The Mustang") for 3000 Pictures, starring Emma Corrin ("The Crown"):

"..'Constance Reid', aka 'Lady Chatterley' (Corrin), is married to rich, upper-class ''Sir Clifford Chatterley', who is disabled from the waist down because of an injury during the 'Great War'.

"In addition to Clifford's physical limitations, his emotional neglect of Constance forces distance between the couple. 

"Her emotional frustration leads her into a 'steamy affair'...

"...with the estate gamekeeper, 'Oliver Mellors'. ...

Energetic Italian sales agent Open Reel has closed world sales rights to Valentin Merz’s “De noche los gatos son pardos,” which will world premiere in this year’s Locarno Festival International Competition.

One of two first features in Locarno’s main competitive section, “De noche los gatos son pardos” (“At Night All Cats Are Black”) returns to Europe’s largest mid-Summer film event after winning the biggest prize last year at its First Look pix-in-post showcase focused on Swiss movies.

That prize went to the section’s boldest entry, a genre mashup of film shoot drama and comedic procedural which proves an ode to sexuality in its multiple manifestations, as well as to love and filmmaking.

Shot through with a meta conscience, “De noche…” turns on a highly disparate crew and cast shooting a sexually-souped costume drama in wooded hills. Suddenly, its director, Valentin disappears. Clodhopping local cops interview the crew,...

Amazon Studios has unveiled a teaser trailer for “My Policeman,” which finds Harry Styles caught between a forbidden romance with a male museum curator and a more socially acceptable relationship with a female teacher.

Split between two timelines, the drama follows the trio of Tom (Styles), Patrick (David Dawson) and Marion (Emma Corrin) in 1950s Britain as they navigate the contours of a homosexual affair. Forty years later, they are given a chance to confront the past when an older Patrick (Rupert Everett) pays a visit to the home of Tom (Linus Roache) and Marion (Gina McKee).

The trailer begins with Tom and Patrick standing side by side, gazing at a painting of a stormy ocean. When Patrick asks how it makes him feel, Tom replies, “You can sense the waves… you know how strong they are… like swimming in rough surf.”.tpd-featured-video.youtube{position:relative;overflow:hidden;width:100;padding-top:56.25}.tpd-featured-video.youtube...

Beryl Vertue, the acclaimed UK TV exec behind Sherlock and Men Behaving Badly, has died aged 90.

Vertue’s daughters Sue Vertue and Debbie Vertue said in a joint statement: “It’s with the heaviest of hearts that we have to share the sad news that mum passed away peacefully last night. It wasn’t Covid, it was just her nearly 91-year-old body saying enough is enough.”

They described her as “our best friend, our mentor, our adviser, our role model, our holiday companion, our giggle-maker and our boss,” adding: “She was more than a mother to us – she was also a friend. To many in the industry she was more than a friend – she was often a mother.”

Multiple UK TV figures paid tribute to Vertue, who set up and steered successful independent drama company Hartswood Films in 1979. Both Sue Vertue and Debbie Vertue now work for Hartswood and Sue...

Maybe you’ve been patiently waiting two years for director Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” sequel. It could be the team-up of Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas in “The Gray Man” that strikes your fancy. Perhaps “The Bubble,” Maria Bakalova’s first film since “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” has you grabbing for popcorn. Whatever your taste, Netflix will be unveiling a smorgasbord of entertainment options in 2022.

The streaming service has announced plans to debut no less than 68 movies in the new year, making good on its promise to launch at least one film per week over the next 12 months.

Netflix’s genre-spanning slate includes musicals, action spectacles, romantic comedies and spooky thrillers, with projects on schedule from Ryan Reynolds, Halle Berry, Judd Apatow, Jamie Foxx, Greta Gerwig, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Lopez, Jordan Peele, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and other A-listers.

In a new sizzle reel released Thursday, Netflix showcased first...

Upwards of 85 new films will launch (or have already arrived) on Netflix this year. A few movies made their grand debuts in January, and quite a few more are set to launch at the beginning of this month, but the streaming service is touting its 2022 slate with new movies every week and a robust lineup of actors and filmmakers.

Standout tiles include Shawn Levy’s time-traveling tale, “The Adam Project,” with a cast led by Ryan Reynolds, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner and Zoe Saldaña, as well as a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Persuasion,” starring Dakota Johnson and Henry Golding. Regina King will embody trailblazing politician Shirley Chisholm in a biopic titled “Shirley.” Stop-motion and horror maestros Henry Selick and Jordan Peele are teaming up for the animated pic “Wendell & Wild.” “The Gray Man” stars both Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in a CIA/spy/global manhunt film alongside Ana de Armas.

Fresh off her stint playing Diana, Princess of Wales, in Netflix’s period drama “The Crown,” Emma Corrin is gearing up to portray another high-society woman. The actor in talks to star in “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” a romance drama about the scandalous affair between star-crossed lovers.

Based on D.H. Lawrence’s novel, the story follows the wealthy and privileged Lady Chatterley, who finds herself married to a man she doesn’t love and engages in a torrid affair with a gamekeeper on their English estate. The book was originally published in Italy and France in the 1920s, but it wasn’t printed in the United States until 1959 due to obscenity.

Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, whose credits include “The Mustang,” “Mrs. America” and “The Act,” will direct the film. “Life of Pi” screenwriter David Magee is set to pen the script, and 3000 Pictures, the production company founded by Elizabeth Gabler, is backing the big-screen adaptation.

Kiell Smith-Bynoe isn’t much of a Christmas person. “I don’t like the whole build-up and I despise the idea of people putting up their Christmas trees on the 1st of November. I’m horribly against it!” he tells Den of Geek over the phone. “If that makes some people happy then fine, but no, I’m not really a Christmas guy at all.”

That didn’t stop him from feeling a touch of the Christmas spirit when filming the Ghosts special in February this year. “That actually felt very festive. It really had that Christmas feel. As well as the decorations, they added in some scents that made the set smell really Christmassy.” Even the most tinsel-averse can be turned by a cinnamon and gingerbread candle.

It won’t have just been about the fragrance. The Ghosts special, which follows the goings-on in a haunted manor house populated...

Paris-based Lincoln TV is set to reunite with the creative team behind “Mirage” on a period series about the turbulent life of Sylvia Kristel, the 1970’s sex symbol and star of the erotic film trilogy “Emmanuelle.”

Titled “Sylvia,” the six-part series will be based on Kristel’s 2006 autobiography “Nue” (“Naked”), in which the late actress chronicles her rise and tragic downfall.

Currently at the script stage, the series is being created and penned by Bénédicte Charles and Olivier Pouponneau, who previously wrote “Mirage” with Franck Philippon. Lincoln TV, the well-established banner founded by veteran producers Christine de Bourbon-Busset and Marc Missonnier, has acquired the audiovisual rights to Kristel’s autobiography from the publishing house Cherche-Midi.

The project is currently being shopped to key French channels and Lincoln TV is aiming to partner up with a Flemish co-producer.

“We think the story of Sylvia will strike a chord in the post-MeToo era.

“You fool! You can not stop me! I am the ninja! No one, nothing can stop me!.”

BearManor Media has published The Cannon Film Guide, a Trilogy of Books About the Movies Released By the Legendary 1980s B-Movie Studio, Cannon Films. Order The Cannon Film Guide Here

Volume One Available Now: Over 500 Pages Covering the Company’s First Five Years under the Leadership of B-Movie Icons Golan and Globus

From 1980 until 1994, The Cannon Group was responsible for the production of more than 200 films. Quantity, rather than quality, was the key to Cannon’s game: their output included many of the 1980s’ most beloved (and notorious) b-movies. Along the way they dipped their toes into every imaginable genre of movies, made stars out of Chuck Norris and Michael Dudikoff, kicked off the ninja and breakdancing crazes, and kept Charles Bronson working into the twilight of his career. While it’s rare...

If you watched an action, sci-fi, or horror movie in the 1980s, there was a good chance it was produced by Cannon Films. The studio — perhaps the last great home of B-movie and exploitation classics — was founded in 1967 but hit its apex between 1979 and 1987, releasing scores of films that (mostly) no one would call high cinema but which delivered thrills, chills and plenty of blood, action, and fire on a budget.

Tapping into the massive market for both high and low concept fare — the 1980s equivalent of drive-in double bill fillers — Cannon, under the leadership of Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, were perhaps best known for churning out chintzy crowdpleasers like the Chuck Norris-starring Missing in Action and The Delta Force along with a slew of Death Wish sequels.

But the company also produced titillating titles like Lady Chatterley’s Lover, slasher fare such as Schizoid and New Year’s Evil,...

I came of age (whatever that means) in the ’80s, so I’m always very interested in what Severin Films re-releases from that era; some I’ve seen and some I haven’t, and others I’ve never even heard of before. The two new releases from Severin I’ll be looking at today fit in that middle category—ones I know of very well, but yet remained unseen. Until now, that is; Severin has seen fit to load up the fantasy/actioner/softcore Gwendoline (1984) and the harrowingly violent The Boys Next Door (1985) with everything a viewer could want to know.

Gwendoline (1984): Otherwise known as The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak, this film is goofy, immature, leering, and has stunning set design. Yes, it’s French; how’d you guess? Writer/director Just Jaeckin (Lady Chatterley’s Lover) has concocted an almost unwieldy mix of Raiders of the Lost Ark,...

Joan Collins in 'The Bitch': Sex tale based on younger sister Jackie Collins' novel. Author Jackie Collins dead at 77: Surprisingly few film and TV adaptations of her bestselling novels Jackie Collins, best known for a series of bestsellers about the dysfunctional sex lives of the rich and famous and for being the younger sister of film and TV star Joan Collins, died of breast cancer on Sept. 19, '15, in Los Angeles. The London-born (Oct. 4, 1937) Collins was 77. Collins' tawdry, female-centered novels – much like those of Danielle Steel and Judith Krantz – were/are immensely popular. According to her website, they have sold more than 500 million copies in 40 countries. And if the increasingly tabloidy BBC is to be believed (nowadays, Wikipedia has become a key source, apparently), every single one of them – 32 in all – appeared on the New York Times' bestseller list. (Collins' own site claims that a mere 30 were included.) Sex...

UK TV ratings roundup - data supplied by Barb

The X Factor enjoyed a more successful second Sunday episode in the ratings this series, according to overnight figures.

The fourth auditions compilation attracted an average audience of 6.68 million (29.6%) viewers at 8pm on ITV, with an added 393,000 (1.8%) on +1. This is lower than its Saturday edition by around 500,000 viewers, but is up by almost 700,000 from last Sunday.

X Factor episode four review: Isn't this whole show a contestant farm?

Later, ITV2's Xtra Factor follow-up entertained 517k (2.4%) at 9pm (119k/0.8% on +1).

Elsewhere, BBC One's one-off new version of Lady Chatterley's Lover spiced up the homes of 4.86m (24.2%) people at 9pm.

Earlier, Countryfile appealed to 5.63m (30.1%) at 7pm, followed by Antiques Roadshow with 5.31m (23.2%) at 8pm.

On BBC Two, Dragons' Den brought in 1.92m (8.4%) at 8pm, while Special Forces: Ultimate Hell Week was seen by 1.32m (6.2%) at 9pm.

Channel 4's Time...

Prithee, my lord, loosen our corsets and unbutton our breeches. This week has seen a new wave of period drama steam, from Natalie Dormer's BBC film The Scandalous Lady W to the furore about the 'pornographic' new adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover.

But they're hardly the first shows to bare historical breasts and bottoms. Here's our 9 favourite saucy costume dramas...

Pride and Prejudice

Ooh, Mr Darcy. We'll ease you in gently with the BBC's iconic 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries, fondly remembered for the scene in which Colin Firth's dashing hero takes a dip in the Pemberley lake and emerges to greet his unexpected guests, dripping like a dolphin in a wet T-shirt contest.

While it may have shocked your grandma, this is pretty tame stuff.

Tipping the Velvet

Classic 19th century literature isn't known for its portrayal of lesbian love but Sarah Waters set out to right this...

Samantha Morton will star in BBC One's Cider with Rosie.

The Golden Globe-winning actress has been cast as Annie Lee in the adaptation of Laurie Lee's 1959 book.

Morton said: "I am thrilled to have taken on the role of Annie Lee in BBC One's adaptation of Cider with Rosie as it is one of my favourite books."

W1A's Jessica Hynes will feature as Miss Crabby, while June Whitfield will play the role of Granny Wallon.

Annette Crosbie and Billy Howle also appear, and will be joined by newcomers Archie Cox as Laurie/Lol, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis as Rosie and Emma Curtis as Maj.

Cider with Rosie follows a young Laurie Lee during and after the First World War, and follows the ups and downs of his family and first love.

The adaptation will air on BBC One in 2015, as part of the channel's classic 20th Century literature season.

The rise and fall of Cannon Films is told in Mark Hartley's wildly entertaining documentary, Electric Boogaloo. Here's Ryan's review...

Producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus were famous (or infamous) for many things, but a stringent approach to quality filmmaking was hardly one of them. At the height of their success in the 1980s, the Israeli cousins, and their company Cannon Films, were synonymous with cheap B-movies of just about every kind: Chuck Norris action flicks, sex comedies, ninja martial arts epics, dance movies and tawdry slasher horrors.

Their films frequently horrified critics, but became a staple of video rental stores: with Cannon Films cranking out as many as 50 or so pictures a year at its peak, the company's distinctive logo and self-explanatory film titles (New Year's Evil, Avenging Force, Enter The Ninja) were ubiquitous throughout the 80s and early 90s. The company was eventually brought down by its fast-and-loose approach to film production,...

Lady Chatterley's Lover

Rob Stark himself, "Game of Thrones" star Richard Madden, will play gamekeeper Oliver Mellors in a TV movie adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" for BBC1. Jed Mercurio ("Line of Duty") helms the project which will come from "Sherlock" producer Hartswood Films

Madden joins Holliday Grainger ("The Borgias") as Lady Chatterley and James Norton ("Happy Valley") as her war-wounded husband Sir Clifford Chatterley. [Source: The Guardian]

Queen of Earth

Michelle Dockery ("Downton Abbey") has joined the cast of Alex Ross Perry's indie psychological thriller "Queen of Earth". Joe Swanberg is producing.

Dockery and Elisabeth Moss play two women who retreat to a beach house to get a break from the pressures of the outside world. Although they grew up as best friends, they soon realize how disconnected from each other they have become. [Source: THR]

Operator

Ving Rhames has joined the cast of Obin and Amariah Olson's indie action-thriller "Operator". Mischa Barton,...

Holliday Grainger and Richard Madden are set to star in Jed Mercurio’s adaptation of Dh Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover for BBC One.The 90-minute drama which will be directed by Mercurio to air on BBC One as part of its ambitious season of classic 20th century literature next year.Holliday Grainger (represented by Troika) will play Lady Chatterley with James Norton as her war-wounded husband Sir Clifford Chatterley. Holliday played Estella in the film adaptation of Great Expectations and will shortly be seen in The Riot Club, the film adaptation of the West End play Posh, and as an ugly sister in Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella.Game of Thrones star Richard Madden (also represented by Troika) will play gamekeeper Oliver Mellors. He has also recently wrapped on Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella in which he plays Prince Charming.

Jed Mercurio, writer and director, says: “I'm hugely flattered that...

Joanna Vanderham has been cast in BBC One's The Go-Between , which will form part of its season of classic 20th century literature.

Vanderham, who has appeared in The Paradise, Dancing On The Edge and Banished, will play Marian Maudsley in the film. She will be joined by Stephen Campbell Moore (The History Boys) as Trimingham, Ben Batt (Shameless) as Ted Burgess and Maleficent's Lesley Manville as Mrs Maudsley.

Jack Hollington will play Leo Colston, the young protagonist of the 90-minute adaptation of LP Hartley's novel.

The Go-Between follows Colston as an elderly man as he pieces together his childhood memories. He does this with the help of his diary from 1900, which he wrote at the age of 13. The film then paints a picture of British life and social hierarchy at the beginning of the 20th century.

Vanderham said of her role: "I am so excited to have been...

Andrew counts down some of the best roles of Sean Bean's career, from the ones you'll know to the ones you probably won't...

Top 10

Sean Bean.

Love him, fear him, smell him: the man breathes fire. And acting.

But what is Sean Bean? Well, adhering to a skeptical epistemology, we simply don't know, but for the purposes of this article he's the bloke who played Errol Partridge in Equilibrium, still to this day his defining role in Equilibrium.

While everyone at Den of Geek loves Equilibrium slightly more than they love each other, Sean Bean is only in it but for a moment. Unfortunately he mistakenly believes that holding up a book in front of his face will stop a bullet, when all he had to do to stop Christian Bale from shooting him was impersonate a puppy. Really, it's hard to argue that the film wouldn't be considerably...

Star of 1974 film about bored housewife who embarks on voyage of sexual discovery dies after cancer battle and stroke

Sylvia Kristel, the Dutch-born actor who brought sex to the multiplex, has died at the age of 60. She had been battling cancer and suffered a debilitating stroke in June of this year. "She died during the night during her sleep," her agent, Marieke Verharen, told the Afp news agency.

Having initially worked as a model, Kristel rose to stardom in Emmanuelle, the 1974 tale of a bored, beautiful housewife who embarks on a journey of sexual discovery. Directed by Just Jaeckin, the softcore drama sent Kristel's character through an endless whirl of skinny dipping, masturbation and the leg-over antics of the Mile High Club. But Emmanuelle's hedonistic worldview struck a chord with mainstream 70s audiences. It went on to become one of the most successful French productions ever, earning upwards of...

Her film career was dominated by her role as Emmanuelle

There can be few film actors so closely associated with one role as was Sylvia Kristel, who has died of cancer aged 60. The title role of the sexually adventurous housewife in Emmanuelle (1974) became a reference for every part she played subsequently. This was not surprising, as the Dutch star did play a character called Emmanuelle, with few variations, many times over.

In the original film, Kristel portrayed the bored wife of a French embassy official in Bangkok, urged by her libertine husband to explore all the possibilities of sex. Thereupon, she finds herself in bed with, among others, a lesbian archaeologist and an elderly roué. Directed with some grace by Just Jaeckin, this glossy soft-porn package, dressed up as art-house erotica, was a huge international hit, becoming the first X-rated film to be released in the Us. Lushly photographed and...

Sylvia Kristel will always be associated with her starring role in the 1974 softcore classic Emmanuelle. The Dutch model-turned-actress would never repeat the success and went on to play parts capitalising on the role, most notably in a 1981 adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover and the nudity-filled biopic of the World War I spy Mata Hari. She was born the daughter of innkeepers in Utrecht (she claimed she was sexually abused by a guest) and worked as a barmaid and petrol station attendant before modelling when she was 17, winning the Miss TV Europe contest in 1973.

The Hague, Netherlands -- Actress Sylvia Kristel, the Dutch star of the hit 1970s erotic movie "Emmanuelle," has died of cancer at age 60.

Her agent, Features Creative Management, said in a statement Thursday that Kristel died in her sleep Wednesday night. Kristel, a model who turned to acting in the 1970s, had been fighting cancer for several years.

Her breakthrough came in "Emmanuelle," a 1974 erotic tale directed by Frenchman Just Jaeckin, about the sexual adventures of a man and his beautiful young wife, played by Kristel, in Thailand.

She went on to star in several sequels to "Emmanuelle," as well as in Hollywood movies including "Private Lessons" in 1981.

In Hollywood, she sank into a world of drink and drugs. "I wish I could have skipped that part of my life, she said in a 2005 interview with Dutch newspaper De Volkkrant.

Her agent described her as one of the Netherlands' biggest movie stars,...

Sylvia Kristel who starred in the 1974 erotic film Emmanuelle, has died from cancer at the age of 60. According to The Huffington Post, Kristel's agent Features Creative Management said in a statement Thursday that Kristel had died in her sleep last night after battling cancel for a few years. Just Jaeckin's Emmanuelle marked her breakthrough, which she followed with a sequel, and numerous TV movies. The actresses other roles included 1981's Lady Chatterley's Lover as Lady Constance Chatterley, alongside Shane Briant, Nicholas Clay and Anne Mitchell. In the same year, she starred in Alan Myerson's Private Lessons comedy with Howard Hesseman and Eric Brown.