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Leland is best known for directing ’Wish You Were Here’, ’Land Girls’ and TV series ’Band Of Brothers’.

Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson have heralded their collaborations with leading UK director, writer and actor David Leland who died on December 24, 2023 at the age of 82

Brosnan thanked the filmmaker, best known for directing Wish You Were Here and The Land Girls, for giving him his first professional acting role in Tennessee William’s stage production of The Red Devil Battery Sign.

“It was the thrill of my young lifetime to be cast as McCabe, working with David and Tennessee. David will...

David Leland, a director of stage and screen whose filmmaking CV includes films such as Wish You Were Here, Personal Services and Land Girls, has died. He was 82.

Born in 1941 in Cambridge, Leland initially trained as an actor at the Central Speech of School and Drama and had many stage credits before moving into direction at the Crucible Theatre. That began his collaboration with Alan Clarke in 1981. He wrote Made In Britain, which Clarke directed and featured the first screen role of Tim Roth. In 1986, Leland and director Neil Jordan co-wrote the screenplay for Mona Lisa, which starred Bob Hoskins.

Leland then wrote Personal Services, which was directed by Terry Jones and followed the true-life story of Cynthia Payne, who ran a private brothel.

Payne was also the subject of Leland's next film his directorial debut, Wish You Were Here, which chronicled her teenage years, starring Emily Lloyd.

While his next two films,...

The Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star on his tense new BBC thriller and squaring up to Ray Winstone

For at least a couple of months in 1998, Steven Mackintosh looked destined to be our next great leading man. In August of that year, he had an eye-catching turn as head chemist Winston in Guy Ritchie's smash hit Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Then in September, he was the strapping love interest in The Land Girls opposite Rachel Weisz and Anna Friel. He was heralded as "the new Gary Oldman", even compared to a young Peter O'Toole.

It didn't play out that way, but while his Lock, Stock co-stars invariably burned brightly and faded, the 44-year-old Mackintosh has built a more singular and enduring career. "There were so many bad scripts around at that time that involved London, gangs and geezers," he says, as we sit at his kitchen table in Camden,...

It'd be easy to suggest that the nation's attention was turned toward March Madness and the War in Libya this weekend, which was why the overall box-office was so lackluster, but the reality is probably that the three new offerings simply weren't all that compelling. Limitless, which boasted one scene with the beautiful Anna Friel (looking not so beautiful), inexplicably took the top spot, scoring $19 million. There was nothing particularly compelling about the film, so it's modest success can only be attributed to The Emu. It's all the more strange because I thought the movie and its release had the feel of a film that had sat on a shelf for three years and was dumped into a quiet weekend, like two of Cooper's previous efforts, Case 39 and All About Steve. Presumably, that was not the case here -- Cooper actually chose it among all the post-Hangover scripts he was sent.

Doctor Who's epic series finale pulled in a total of 5.09m (31.2%) for BBC One on Saturday night, according to early data. 'The Big Bang', which concluded the 'cracks in time' story arc, had 4.64m (28.4%) at 6.05pm, and a further 455k (2.8%) on the BBC's HD channel. After the sci-fi drama, Total Wipeout amused 2.69m (16%), after which The National Lottery: In It To Win It 2012 averaged 3.74m (19.5%) from 8pm. Casualty grabbed 4.11m (19.8%) at 9.10pm. USA v Ghana on ITV1 pulled in 5.21m (27.7%), attracting a high of 8.28m (40.7%) at 9.45pm. ITV1 HD added a further 471k (2.5%) for the World Cup match. During the same time period, The Great Escape and The Land Girls mustered 990k (5.9%) and 1.04m (5.2%) for Channel 4, and CSI: NY and CSI: Miami took 900k (4.6%) and 980k (4.7%) respectively. Andy Murray's (more)...

Millions of moviegoers got their first real glimpse of Rachel Weisz in the 1999 archaeological action epic The Mummy. This weekend, the Oscar winner is after more ancient issues in Agora. This time, however, the film poses real ideological problems and they don’t get solved within the allotted runtime.

Collider recently got into Agora’s philosophical questions with Weisz and it turns out she wants in on another big-scale film with a brain, J.J. Abrams’ untitled Star Trek sequel. Hit the jump for the interview’s full audio and transcript, along with updates on her Jackie O film; the Hedy Lamarr biopic Face Value; The Invisible X for Karyn Kusama (Girlfight & Jennifer’s Body) and the news that should make Trekkies from here to Comic-Con thrilled they logged on before taking off for Memorial Day.

By the time Rachel Weisz won the Academy Award in 2006 for Best Supporting Actress in The Constant Gardener,...

(Paul Bettany in Gangster No. 1, above.)

[I did this interview with Paul Bettany in 2002 and it originally appeared in Venice Magazine, This was one of the earlier long-form interviews he did in the States. Other than as the "Naked Guy" in A Knight's Tale and the imaginary roommate in A Beautiful Mind, he was unknown to the American public at the time. But Gangster No. 1, while not a perfect film (largely due to the difficulty in believing that Bettany grew into Malcolm McDowell as an older man), showcased an actor in Bettany who had screen presence and intensity that was impossible to look away from.

Bettany is currently starring in the film Legion, set to open this month. Here's a look back at the period in his life when he was just about to become famous.]

The Contender

With Gangster No. 1, Paul Bettany reveals himself, all hype aside, as one of the most promising actors of his generation.

by Terry Keefe

The Silent Scream. As delivered by Paul Bettany in his new film Gangster No. 1, it's one of the most bone-chilling moments you'll see on screen this year, or any other year, for that matter. And there isn't a CGI effect in sight. Bettany simply closes his eyes, kicks back his head, and unleashes a blood-curdling scream as the sound drops out completely. This amazingly effective moment is designed to symbolize the unrelenting evil which lurks within Bettany's character, known only as Young Gangster, as he...