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Oscar-nominated producer Adam Somner, who was among the most in-demand first assistant directors in the business during the past few decades, died November 27 from anaplastic thyroid cancer. He was 57.

Somner was the go-to Ad for the likes of Steven Spielberg (12 films), Paul Thomas Anderson (six) and Ridley Scott (six). He also worked multiple times with Scott’s brother Tony, Alejandro G. Iñárritu and James Mangold. His most recent films include Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Steve McQueen’s Blitz and Anderson’s upcoming untitled Warner Bros. film starring Leonardo Di Caprio.

Somner, who had more than 75 Ad credits on features, shorts and music videos, and fellow Licorice Pizza producer Sara Murphy were Oscar-nominated for their work on Anderson’s 2022 pic.

Somner’s dozens of films as first Ad include Best Picture Oscar winners Birdman and Gladiator; Spielberg’s West Side Story, Lincoln, Munich, Warhorse and two Indiana...

I’ve been a huge fan of Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds ever since one of my junior school teachers decided to play it to us over four lessons way back in 1978, encouraging us to discuss it among the class and to create our own words and pictures as a result. I’d never heard anything quite like it, and frankly, there’s never really been anything quite like it since, in terms of a completely immersive musical experience that was groundbreaking at the time and still sounds as fresh and vital today as it did 38 years ago.

When Wayne finally achieved his dream of bringing his magnum opus to life on the stage in 2006, I was there at the inaugural performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall to witness him conducting a live band and orchestra along with a breathtaking visual show that featured video walls,...

British actress Denise Welch has stunned fans by coming clean about her cocaine habit - the veteran star regularly took the drug on set while filming her role in hit U.K. soap opera Coronation Street.

The 51-year-old actress became a household name in Britain with roles in Spender opposite Jimmy Nail and Soldier Soldier, and later expanded her fan base when she was cast as Natalie Barnes in the popular drama serial in 1997.

She spent three years on the show, and has now revealed her work on Coronation Street was blighted by a raging cocaine addiction.

Welch admits she started snorting the drug when she was in her 20s, but the problem escalated when she became depressed following the birth of her first son in 1989.

She would take the drug in between scenes, and once even asked her dealer to come to the set and sell her more drugs to get her through the working day.

Writing in her new autobiography, Pulling Myself Together, Welch reveals, "The risks I took were incredible. I was a total wreck... I'd reached a point where I felt taking cocaine was the only way I could survive. I was suffering crippling depression and I'd made myself believe coke was the only thing that could make me cope...

"I'd become the master of getting out of scenes. I'd always be saying something like 'Don't you think Natalie would be in the toilet? Or in the... living room?' It was ridiculous, but this was a particularly awful day and I felt very low. When you suffer with depression it can just hit you like that at any time and I could feel myself slipping. I didn't have any drugs on me and I knew the only way I could possibly keep going and stay on an even keel was to get some more."

The actress managed to put her drug demons behind her when she fell pregnant with her second child, Louis, who is now nine.

The early 80s saw a whole raft of so-called sword and sorcery epics. The success of Star Wars meant that audiences were obviously desperate for more fantasy cinema - or not. Nowadays the likes of Krull, Hawk the Slayer and the Beastmaster are more likely to be seen propping up the late night film schedules and only people of a certain age will admit to liking them. Solomon Kane seems intent on reviving the genre but has a tricky task. Firstly if you not a fan of mystical hokum, nothing in evidence here will change your mind. Secondly, the titular hero is from the West Country. Imagine Jimmy Nail as Spender taking on the world’s terrorists. Kane (James Purefoy) is a murderous mercenary who when threatened by a demon with eternal damnation, renounces his violent ways in an attempt to save his soul. When a warlock threatens his native land,...