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Remember the time when you were just a toddler making sense of the world? The world was a different place back then; going to movies with your family was one of your favorite outings. However, family-friendly releases have been steadily on the decline over the years, and finding a good watch is like looking for a needle in a haystack. But quite surprisingly, A24 is venturing into the genre, with the fantasy feature The Legend of Ochi.

Known mostly for its adult-oriented projects, The Legend of Ochi is A24’s attempt to bring back the same comfort and familiarity when watching a film like Steven Spielberg’s E.T. or Joe Dante’s Gremlins. The poster for the film and the first trailer which has been out for a few weeks, will definitely give you that feeling, especially with the adorable monster or Ochi, who might just become the next Grogu.

Sir Ian McKellen is now the most feared drama critic on the West End thanks to his turn in “The Critic.”

McKellen leads the adaptation of Anthony Quinn’s 2015 novel “Curtain Call,” which centers on an aging — but iconic — journalist who teams up with an actress (Gemma Arterton) to exact revenge on his newspaper’s new owner (Mark Strong). The film is set in 1934 London.

“The Critic” is written by Academy Award nominee Patrick Marber and is directed by Anand Tucker (“Hilary and Jackie,” “Shopgirl”).

The official synopsis reads: “Jimmy Erskine (McKellen) is the most feared theatre critic of the age. He lives as flamboyantly as he writes and takes pleasure in savagely taking down any actor who fails to meet his standards. When the owner of the Daily Chronicle newspaper dies, and his son David Brooke (Strong) takes over, Jimmy quickly finds himself at odds with his new boss and his position under threat.

Rachel Griffiths wants people to start respecting sex workers. Now.

“If we disrespect sex workers, we are disrespecting women. It’s the same thing,” she says.

“In Australia, we are in the throes of terrible violence against women. We’ve had more of them die at the hands of their partners or ex-partners in the first three months of the year than in all of last year. People used to talk about what a woman was wearing if something bad happened to her. If she was a sex worker, nobody investigated these cases. I really hope we grow out of it.”

In her new show “Madam,” Griffiths – a “Six Feet Under” and “Brothers & Sisters” star, nominated for an Academy Award for “Hilary and Jackie” – plays Mack Leigh. The show had its world premiere Saturday at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival.

After discovering her husband has been hiring a sex worker,...

The creators of the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine will take on cancer in National Geographic documentary “The Cancer Vaccine” (working title).

The documentary will follow Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci – the husband-and-wife team who built German biotechnology giant BioNTech – as they and their team race competitors, skeptics, governments and cancer itself to create an entirely new class of medicines that use the body’s own defenses to defeat cancer.

The documentary posits a world where a cancer diagnosis – even the most aggressive kind – no longer means brutal chemotherapy or a death sentence and a world where every individual cancer patient gets a bespoke drug, individually tailored to the unique genetics of their tumor, which could keep patients cancer-free for the rest of their lives. It aims to take viewers to the frontlines of breakthrough science alongside the scientists, researchers and patients at the heart of this endeavor.

The film begins...

National Geographic has announced a documentary special with the working title of “The Cancer Vaccine.”

The documentary special will follow Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci – the husband-and-wife team who built German biotechnology giant BioNTech and created the Pfizer BioNTech Covid Vaccine — as they compete in the race to find a cure for cancer.

The film will chronicle Şahin and Türeci’s creation of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine, which came out of mRNA technology that, for years, had been considered useless. The couple has their own team, with whom they face competitors, skeptics, government officials and the disease itself. The solution may lie in using the body’s defenses to create medicine that can disarm the disease that has killed so many.

Early patient trials have yielded hopeful results, with half of those in BioNTech’s Phase 1 trial showing no sign of relapse after being treated for pancreatic cancer, which kills...

(from left) Emily Watson and Paul Mescal in God’s Creatures. Photo: A24 Emily Watson has a face made for the movies. Like all the great actors, she can telegraph volcanic emotions with just a flicker of her eyes or a tightening of her mouth. Watson made her big screen debut...

Writer/director/showrunner Leslye Headland returns to Tfe !by Nathaniel R

On Monday July 25th the next Supporting Actress Smackdown and its companion podcast arrive, with a discussion of the 1998 Oscars and more specifically, the Supporting Actress competition. You know what that means. For maximum enjoyment (re)watch Best Picture winner Shakespeare in Love  as well as  Little Voice, Hilary & Jackie, Primary Colors, and Gods and Monsters and send in your votes by Saturday July 23rd. 

Let's meet your fellow panelists, shall we? 

Please Welcome...

Jason Wingard to direct UK feature.

UK outfit Protagonist Pictures is launching world sales on UK romantic comedy Fado!, starring Emily Watson and Richard E. Grant, at the Pre-Cannes Screenings next week.

UK filmmaker Jason Wingard will direct the feature from a script by Andrea Mann, and shooting will take place on location in Lisbon, Portugal and Wolverhampton in the UK.

It is produced by Gareth Wiley, whose credits include Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Match Point, with Giulia Salvadori as co-producer. Portuguese production services will be provided by executive producers Nuno Martins and Gerardo Fernandes through Disfarce Lda.

Anand Tucker’s (Hilary & Jackie) period-drama Curtain Call, which is due to star Colin Firth, Gemma Arterton, Paapa Essiedu and Simon Russell Beale, has been pre-sold by Culmination Productions to a host of key territories ahead of shoot later this year in the UK.

In addition to the previously announced sales to Sony Pictures International Productions for the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, the film has been sold to Squareone Entertainment (German Speaking Europe), Notorious Pictures (Italy), California Filmes (Latin America), Cineart (Benelux), Tanweer (Greece) and Lusomundo (Portugal).

Deals were also inked with Sena (Iceland), Hagi Films (Poland), Shoval Film (Israel), Selim Ramia & Co (The Middle East), Empire (South Africa) and Benchmark Films (Taiwan).

The film revolves around Jimmy Erskine (Beale), the most feared theatre critic of the age, his loyal and long-suffering assistant Tom Turner (Essiedu), David Brooke (Firth), the new owner of the newspaper who wants to be rid of Jimmy,...

The Supporting Actress Smackdown will resume in March 2021. Final Season! 

Happy Smackdown to you Happy Smackdown to you

Happy Smackdown you actressexuals,

Happy Smackdown to youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

After StinkyLulu graciously let us continue/revive the series here seven or eight years ago (eep!) we've done 35 episodes: 1938, 1941, 1943, 1944, 1947, 1948, 1952, 1954, 1957, 1960, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1994, 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, and concurrently with Oscar races as they happened 2016, 2017, and 2018. 

So, where to now? 

The Remaining Years

1937- Brady  (In Old Chicago) | Leeds (Stage Door) | Shirley (Stella Dallas) | Trevor (Dead End) | Whitty (Night Must Fall)

1946 - Baxter (The Razor's Edge) | Barrymore  (The Spiral Staircase) | Gish (Duel in the Sun) | Robson (Saratoga Trunk) | Sondegaard (Anna and the King of Siam)

1951 Joan Blondell (The Blue Veil) | Dunnock (Death of a Salesman) | Grant (Detective Story) | Hunter (A Streetcar Named Desire) | Ritter (The Mating Season)

1986 - Harper (Crimes of the Heart) | Laurie (Children of a Lesser God) | Mastrantonio (The Color of Money) | Smith (A Room With a View) | Weist (Hannah and Her Sisters...

Glenn Close said this week that Gwyneth Paltrow’s 1998 “Best Actress” Oscar for “Shakespeare in Love” just “doesn’t make sense.”

Close was on ABC News’ “Popcorn with Peter Travers” to promote her new Netflix film, “Hillbilly Elegy,” when she shared her distaste for awards on the grounds that she can’t justify comparing artists’ works.

“I’ve never understood how you could honestly compare performances. I remember the year Gwyneth Paltrow won over that incredible actress who was in ‘Central Station,'” she said, referring to Fernanda Montenegro. Paltrow and Montenegro were also up against Cate Blanchett (for “Elizabeth”), Meryl Streep (for “One True Thing”) and Emily Watson (for “Hilary and Jackie”).

Close went on, “I thought, ‘What?’ It’s like, it doesn’t make sense, so I think who wins has a lot of things to do with how things have been, whether it has traction or whatever.

Seven-time Academy Award-nominee Glenn Close is back in the Oscar mix for her turn in Ron Howard’s “Hillbilly Elegy,” now streaming on Netflix. All eyes were on Close last year to finally take home Best Actress for “The Wife,” but alas that honor went to Olivia Colman for “The Favourite.” Speaking with film critic Peter Travers for his ABC News special “Popcorn,” Close had some candid thoughts about the Oscars, pointing to the Best Actress race in 1999 as an example that didn’t “make sense.”

“I honestly feel that to be nominated by your peers is about as good as it gets,” Close said. “And then, I’ve never understood how you could honestly compare performances, you know? I remember the year Gwyneth Paltrow won over that incredible actress who was in ‘Central Station’ and I thought, ‘What?’ It doesn’t make sense.”

The year Paltrow won, she was...

ITV is to follow-up Paul Greengrass’ BAFTA-winning 1999 drama The Murder of Stephen Lawrence with a sequel series following the pursuit of justice for the murdered teenager.

The UK commercial broadcaster has commissioned three-part series Stephen, which will be made by Hat Trick Mercurio Television, the production outfit co-owned by Bodyguard creator Jed Mercurio and Hat Trick Productions, the Jimmy Mulville-run indie behind Matt LeBlanc’s Golden Globe-winning Episodes.

Frank Cottrell Boyce (Hilary And Jackie) and Joe Cottrell Boyce (Treasure) are writing Stephen, while it will be directed by Alrick Riley (The Cops). Madonna Baptiste (The Stranger) is the producer, while Greengrass and Mark Redhead — who produced the original drama — serve as executive producers. Mulville and Mercurio are also executive producers.

With the full support of Doreen and Neville Lawrence, the story will portray events from 2006, 13 years after Stephen’s death in a racially motivated attack while he was waiting...

The temperature has been rising on “Chernobyl” in our Emmy predictions since it premiered on HBO in May. That may be good news for Emily Watson, who plays the composite character of Ulana Khomyuk, a Soviet scientist trying to avert a global catastrophe. She’s looking like a strong contender for Best Movie/Mini Supporting Actress, which would be the first Primetime Emmy nomination of her career. But could she actually pull off an upset by beating the two Pattys: Patricia Clarkson (“Sharp Objects”) and Patricia Arquette (“The Act”)?

As of this writing Watson ranks third in our odds, which are based on the combined predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users. That includes 22 out the 24 Expert journalists we’ve surveyed who are confident that she will be nominated. However, none of those Experts are betting on Watson to win. Instead, 18 of them back Clarkson following her Golden Globe win...

“Thoroughbreds” opened March 9 to strong reviews (76 on MetaCritic, 86% freshness on Rotten Tomatoes). The black comedy is especially noteworthy for the lead performances by Anya Taylor-Joy as Lily, a teenage girl full of resentment, and Olivia Cooke as Amanda, her friend who doesn’t feel anything. Together they plot to kill Lily’s domineering stepfather Mark (Paul Sparks). Could these youthful offenders be a modern-day “Thelma and Louise” at the Oscars?

Cooke’s star has been on the rise in recent years, starting with a breakthrough role on “Bates Motel” (2013-2017) as Emma, a friend of a young Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) who suffers from cystic fibrosis. Then she co-starred as the title dying girl in “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” (2015). So playing sociopathic Amanda is a significant departure, and it’s a deceptively challenging role. Expressing a lack of emotions is the opposite of what actors are typically asked to do,...

Emily Watson tells why her role in Apple Tree Yard has been a delight

She made her name with raw and unfettered performances in films such as Breaking the Waves and Hilary and Jackie, but at the age of 50 Emily Watson admits that she thought those days were behind her. Then she was offered the leading role in the BBC’s eagerly awaited adaptation of Louise Doughty’s acclaimed thriller, Apple Tree Yard, playing a middle-aged woman who begins an unlikely and increasingly dangerous affair.

Related: Louise Doughty: ‘I don’t think I write thrillers – but other people seem to’

Continue reading...

Exclusive: Comedy-drama scripted by Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Bill Nighy, one of Britain’s best loved character actors, is to star in Hurricane Films’ Triple Word Score, a new feature scripted by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Hilary and Jackie, 24 Hour Party People).

The film is in the growing slate of features to be executive produced by Gibson & MacLeod - the outfit behind Hurricane Films’ Emily Dickinson biopic, A Quiet Passion.

Triple Word Score will mark the directorial debut of Carl Hunter who has collaborated extensively with Cottrell Boyce on various other ventures including an award winning children’s book and an online narrative project.

The supernatural comedy-drama follows the story of a father (Nighy) searching for his missing son, with whom he shared a passion for the board game Scrabble. The film is a journey of mystery, self-discovery and hope.

Shooting will take place this summer in the UK - in Liverpool and West Lancashire.

Liverpool-based [link=co...

Emily Watson will receive the Donostia Award in recognition of her career. Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival Emily Watson will receive the Donostia Award at this year's San Sebastian Film Festival. The award for the Oranges And Sunshine star is in recognition of her film career and comes in the same year she was awarded an OBE. Watson will collect the Award at a gala on September 25 in the Kursaal Auditorium.

The Islington-born actress made her film debut in Lars von Trier's controversial Breaking The Waves and other films include Hilary And Jackie, Punch Drunk Love, War Horse and Gosford Park.

Watson also participated in the television series Appropriate Adult, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination and won the Best Actress BAFTA. Her television credits include The Politician’s Husband, The Secret Life Of Marilyn Monroe and A Song For Jenny.

...

Read More: San Sebastian Film Festival Announces 2015 Titles Since her devastating film debut in Lars Von Trier's "Breaking the Waves," Emily Watson has received much well-deserved praise for her acting achievements in films such as "Hilary and Jackie," "Punch Drunk Love" and "Angela's Ashes." Now, the acting powerhouse will be honored for her impressive career with the Donostia Award at the 63rd San Sebastian International Film Festival on September 25. Watson next appears in Baltasar Kormákur's upcoming film "Everest," which opens in U.S. theaters on September 18. The festival also unveiled the lineup for their "Made in Spain" series, a selection of the best Spanish productions of the year. See the list of programmed titles below.  "A Cambio de Nada" ("Nothing in Return), dir: Daniel Guzmán "Las Altas Presiones" ("The High Pressures"), dir: Ángel...

As I’m waiting to interview Emily Watson the publicist tells me that the actress’s father died just a few days earlier – the request to inform me of this fact coming from Watson herself, in case I thought her behaviour to be “strange”. I’m a bit surprised that she still wants to go ahead – “it’s only marketing” as Watson will tell me later in a different context – but the 48-year-old star of Breaking the Waves, Hilary and Jackie, Angela’s Ashes and The Book Thief seems determined to keep our appointment.

Indian Summers has welcomed a host of new faces for series two, with Rachel Griffiths and Art Malik among those joining the drama.

The actors join Julie Walters and Henry Lloyd-Hughes on the Channel 4 show, which is set in 1932 Colonial India.

Griffiths, who earned an Oscar nomination for her role in 1998's Hilary and Jackie, and Malik (True Lies) are also joined by James Fleet (Four Weddings and a Funeral), Sugandha Garg (My Name is Khan), Arjun Mathur (Luck By Chance) and Blake Ritson (RocknRolla) on the series.

Malik will take on the role of the Maharaja Maritpur, while Griffiths will play his Australian mistress Sirene.

Griffiths said: "I'm absolutely thrilled to be joining the cast of Indian Summers.

"I have been bingeing on UK television for the last ten years and I'm very excited to be on board such a beautifully made and relevant show.

"[Writer Paul Rutman] is an incredible...

All week long our writers will debate: Which was the greatest film year of the past half century. Check here for a complete list of our essays. Just one glance at the Oscar nominees for 1998 might make it seem less a questionable choice for “best year in film” — and more an insane one. Instead of a 1974 – The Godfather II, The Conversation, Chinatown, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, etc – or even a 1994, where Shawshank, Quiz Show, and Pulp Fiction lost to Gump – you choose a year where the Oscars would allow Roberto Benigni to climb atop both the figurative and literal chairs of the Shrine? Fine, step away from the Oscars. Would you still celebrate a year that saw not one, but two movies about asteroids threatening the Earth? A year that saw such scars carved across cinematic history as Patch Adams, My Giant, Stepmom, and Krippendorf’s Tribe? It bears repeating: Krippendorf’S Tribe?...

The diva of Dynasty is now a dame. Joan Collins, who played scheming, shoulder pad-wearing Alexis Carrington in the hit 1980s TV show, was made the female equivalent of a knight in Queen Elizabeth II's annual New Year's honors list. The star of potboilers including The Stud and The Bitch was recognized for her services to charity. Collins, 81, is a longtime supporter of nonprofit groups helping children. London-born Collins said Tuesday it was "humbling to receive this level of recognition from my queen and country, and I am thrilled and truly grateful." Actress Kristin Scott Thomas, who is due...

The diva of Dynasty is now a dame. Joan Collins, who played scheming, shoulder pad-wearing Alexis Carrington in the hit 1980s TV show, was made the female equivalent of a knight in Queen Elizabeth II's annual New Year's honors list. The star of potboilers including The Stud and The Bitch was recognized for her services to charity. Collins, 81, is a longtime supporter of nonprofit groups helping children. London-born Collins said Tuesday it was "humbling to receive this level of recognition from my queen and country, and I am thrilled and truly grateful." Actress Kristin Scott Thomas, who is due...

Doctor Who has unveiled a trailer for next weekend's episode 'In the Forest of the Night'.

The next series eight episode sees The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) venturing into a dangerous forest with Danny Pink and a group of precocious schoolchildren.

'In the Forest of the Night' was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, who is making his Doctor Who debut.

The writer's notable work includes the Steve Coogan films 24 Hour Party People and Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, as well as the BAFTA Award-nominated movie Hilary and Jackie.

Doctor Who series 8 'Flatline' recap: A bumpy ride?

Doctor Who producer Steven Moffat has promised that Boyce's episode is "genius".

Harley Bird, Jenny Hill and Siwan Morris will be among the guest cast for 'In the Forest of the Night'.

Doctor Who airs on BBC One in the UK and BBC America in the Us.

Watch our Geek TV review of...

"I see into your soul, Doctor. I see beauty, divinity and hatred".

Another all too brief fifteen-second teaser for the upcoming eighth season of The BBC's "Doctor Who" has arrived, this one sporting a voiceover that sounds like a Dalek at first glance.

Listening to it carefully though, it seems less robotic to the point that fans are wondering is this hinting at the return of their creator Davros?

Meanwhile the mystery of the final writer on the new season may have been revealed. The Liverpool Echo indicates that "24 Hour Party People," "Hilary and Jackie" and "Millions" writer Frank Cottrell Boyce has already written an episode for the Capaldi-era 'Who'.

Direct from its world-premiere screening at the Cannes Film Festival, Sff and Vivid Ideas are proud to present the Australian Premiere of the highly anticipated futuristic thriller The Rover and host director David Michôd, actors Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson and producer Liz Watts at the State Theatre on Saturday 7 June. The Rover screens as part of Sff’s Official Competition. Michôd, Pearce, Pattinson and Watts will also give a talk as part of Vivid Ideas at Town Hall on Sunday 8 June.

Actor Cate Blanchett will attend the Festival to introduce a special screening of DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 the second chapter of the epic trilogy in which Blanchett is the voice of the character Valka. The screening is held at 2pm on Public Holiday Monday, 9 June, at Event Cinemas George Street.

UK visual artists and film directors Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard introduce Sff’s Opening Night Film,...

Watching Belle, the refreshingly atypical costume drama released nationwide this weekend, I was reminded of a quote from a book I finished recently. In Jill Lepore's biography of Jane Franklin (Ben's sister), she writes: "History is what is written and can be found; what isn't saved is lost, sunken and rotted, eaten by the earth." [Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin]

If Misan Sagay hadn't seen this portrait in a Scottish castle, we may never have learned about the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle. Based on the limited facts the screenwriter was able to find in her research -- given that Dido was a female in the 18th Century, there's unfortunately not a large amount known about her -- Sagay crafted a tale about this real woman, illegitimately born of a black woman and a white admiral, who was raised by the Murray family.

Dido (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Touch) is left as a child with her great-uncle Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson,...

Meryl Streep breaks Oscar record: Oscar 2014 nominations (photo: Meryl Streep in ‘August: Osage County’) The 2014 Oscar nominations were announced earlier today at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Thor: The Dark World and Snow White and the Huntsman actor Chris Hemsworth — whose Rush was completely shut out — made the announcements, including that of Best Actress contender Meryl Streep, in the running for her performance in John Wells’ August: Osage County. Streep’s competitors are her Doubt and Julie & Julia co-star Amy Adams for David O. Russell’s American Hustle, Sandra Bullock for Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, Judi Dench for Stephen Frears’ Philomena, and likely winner Cate Blanchett for Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine. (Emma Thompson’s absence from the Best Actress roster — for her performance in John Lee Hancock’s Saving Mr. Banks — was quite a surprise.

Judi Dench in ‘Philomena’ movie: The one British Independent Film Award nominee surely to get BAFTA, Academy Award nominations Among the 2013 British Independent Film Award nominees, only one has a truly good chance of being shortlisted for both the BAFTAs and the Academy Awards. That’s Best Actress Bifa nominee Judi Dench for Stephen Frears’ "based on a true story" drama Philomena, in which Dench plays a woman whose son was taken away from her after she was sent to a convent. For the record, Dench has four previous Best Actress Oscar nominations (Mrs. Brown, Iris, Mrs. Henderson Presents, Notes on a Scandal), in addition to one win and a nomination as Best Supporting Actress (win: Shakespeare in Love; nomination: Chocolat). (Photo: Judi Dench as Philomena Lee in Philomena.) Needless to say, the British Independent Film Awards have little influence on North America’s awards-season favorites. There are a number of reasons for that — e.

When Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks opens in theaters in December, audiences will delight in a movie that gives them not only a rare glimpse of the behind-the-scenes tug-of-war that ultimately brought “Mary Poppins” to the screen but also a glimpse of the creative geniuses it took to envision the classic film – everyone from a cantankerous, difficult author to an ever-optimistic, visionary entrepreneur.

John Lee Hancock’s film will have it’s North American Premiere at the Opening Night Gala of the 2013 AFI Fest on Thursday, November 7.

Actors Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson discuss the backstory of what would ultimately set the wheels of the beloved film in motion.

Prior to it’s screening at the AFI Fest 2013, the Oscar-winning actress will be honored with a handprint-footprint ceremony at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

In preparation to take on the persona of P.L. Travers, Thompson listened to tapes of...

Once it opens in theaters on Nov. 8, we'll know better whether or not "The Book Thief" can steal into the Oscars derby. Only one major review is out so far – from Variety and it's good – but more are needed and the film seeks solid box office to establish its success. Certainly, there's strong early interest among movie-goers. The book version was on the New York Times Bestsellers List for 230 weeks. The screen team has socko awards cred. "The Book Thief" stars Geoffrey Rush (Oscar champ for "Shine") and Emily Watson (Oscar nominee for "Hilary and Jackie" and "Breaking the Waves") and it was directed by Brian Percival (Emmy winner for "Downton Abbey"). And it's clear that they deliver a solid dramatic wallop. Performances are deeply felt. Every screen frame of the production is artfully crafted. But it's unclear if all of that is enough to make it a top Osca.

• Jim Sturgess (Cloud Atlas), Sam Worthington (Avatar), and Ryan Kwanten (True Blood) have signed on to join the cast of Kidnapping Freddy Heineken, starring Anthony Hokpins as the kidnapped beer heir. Daniel Alfredson (The Girl Who Played with Fire) is set to direct the true story of the 1983 kidnapping of Heineken and his chauffeur which resulted in the largest ransom ever paid for an individual at that point (about $50 million today).• Randall Park (Colin on The Mindy Project) and Timothy Simons (Jonah on Veep) have joined the cast of Seth Rogen’s comedy The Interview about a talk show host...

Everybody, step away from your computers and double-check that we haven't stepped into a wormhole in the 90s. This new trailer for The Book Thief, which you can watch in HD at Apple, seems to have been lifted directly from the 1996 Oscar season, the kind of vaguely European-seeming awards bait that would have played as a trailer in front of Life is Beautiful or The English Patient. It even stars Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson, two fixtures of 90s Oscar ceremonies-- Rush won Best Actor for Shine in 1997 and was nominated for 1999's Shakespeare in Love, and Watson was nominated for Best Actress for Breaking the Waves in 1997 and Hilary and Jackie in 1999. And even the one-sentence plot description feels incredibly 90s Oscars: "Based on the beloved bestselling book, The Book Thief tells the inspirational story of a spirited and courageous young girl who transforms the lives of everyone around...

Emily Watson's raw performances have made her one of Britain's most spellbinding actors. Now she's playing a woman running for prime minister – against her husband. She talks to Carole Cadwalladr about marriage, sexuality and the joy of viscose blouses

The plots of TV dramas are often so preposterous and far-fetched. And then sometimes they're not. The latest three-parter from the BBC, The Politician's Husband, stars David Tennant and Emily Watson as two senior politicians who are married to one another and whose domestic life starts to unravel when the husband's career begins to be eclipsed by that of his more talented wife. If this is a fantasy (and none too flattering) version of Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper's lives, then at least they can be happy with the cast.

It's a mark of how much the star of TV drama has risen that an actor of Emily Watson's stature is involved.

The final cast of the remake of Patrick has been announced. Directed by Mark Hartley the cast includes Bait 3D’s Sharni Vinson and Game of Thrones’ Charles Dance, joining already announced Rachel Griffiths and Damon Gameau. Production began this week. The film is produced by Antony I Ginnane.

The announcement:

A re-working of the 1978 Australian cult horror film Patrick, starring Rachel Griffiths, Sharni Vinson and Charles Dance, has commenced production at Melbourne’s Docklands Studios.

Patrick is a sophisticated thriller that begins with the mysterious disappearance of a nurse at a remote private clinic. Kathy (rising star Sharni Vinson – Step Up 3D, Bait 3D, You’re Next) takes up the vacant position and is thrust into the formidable company of Matron Cassidy (Academy Award nominee Rachel Griffiths – Hilary and Jackie, Six Feet Under, Muriel’s Wedding) and Dr. Sebastian Roget (Charles Dance – Game Of Thrones, Gosford Park, Alien 3...

Disney began production today on Saving Mr. Banks, the account of Walt Disney's twenty-year pursuit of the film rights to P.L. Travers' popular novel, Mary Poppins, and the testy partnership the upbeat filmmaker develops with the uptight author during the project's pre-production in 1961.

Two-time Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks (Philadelphia, Forrest Gump) will essay the role of the legendary Disney (the first time the entrepreneur has ever been depicted in a dramatic film) alongside fellow double Oscar-winner Emma Thompson (Howards End, Sense and Sensibility) in the role of the prickly novelist. Before actually signing away the book's rights, Travers' demands for contractual script and character control circumvent not only Disney's vision for the film adaptation, but also those of the creative team of screenwriter Don DaGradi and sibling composers Richard and Robert Sherman, whose original score and song (Chim-Chim-Cher-ee) would go on to win Oscars at the 1965 ceremonies (the film...

Disney began production today on “Saving Mr. Banks,” the account of Walt Disney’s twenty-year pursuit of the film rights to P.L. Travers’ popular novel, Mary Poppins, and the testy partnership the upbeat filmmaker develops with the uptight author during the project’s pre-production in 1961.

Two-time Academy Award®-winner Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia,” “Forrest Gump”) will essay the role of the legendary Disney (the first time the entrepreneur has ever been depicted in a dramatic film) alongside fellow double Oscar®-winner Emma Thompson (“Howard’s End,” “Sense and Sensibility”) in the role of the prickly novelist. Before actually signing away the book’s rights, Travers’ demands for contractual script and character control circumvent not only Disney’s vision for the film adaptation, but also those of the creative team of screenwriter Don DaGradi and sibling composers Richard and Robert Sherman, whose original score and song (Chim-Chim-Cher-ee) would go on to win...

Actors Jeremy Irvine and Emily Watson discuss their roles in Steven Spielberg's War Horse.

Jeremy Irvine, the young star of Steven Spielberg's War Horse, has managed to make a distinct impression on Hollywood in a relatively short time. The 21-year-old studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before landing a role on TV's "Life Bites," which led to his casting as Albert Narracott in Spielberg's latest. He recently completed filming Now is Good (with Dakota Fanning) and Great Expectations (with Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter). Here, he discusses his experiences filming War Horse.

Q: War Horse is your first film. That’s an incredible way to start…

Irvine: I’m just proud to be a part of it. Just to have lines in a movie, any movie, is ridiculous and to be in a Steven Spielberg movie is beyond my wildest dreams. It’s something I never even contemplated.

Just on the heels of the announcement that Kristen Bell had signed on to be the first of Adam Brody’s many ex-girlfriends in Some Girls, THR has a report that a whole bevy of additional actresses have come out of the woodwork to fill out the ranks of Brody’s former flames. You see, Some Girls is an adaptation of a Neil Labute play about a young writer who is looking to take stock of his past romantic entanglements and gain closure with each of his exes before he moves forward in his life and marries his current fiancée. Bell is said to be playing a character named Bobbi, a whip-smart little lady who Brody’s character walked away from without so much as a word. And with this new casting announcement, it’s looking like the Jennifer Getzinger-directed film version of this story will be including four other girls that have a bone to...

Anglophiles continued to follow the career of British actor and filmmaker David Morrissey thanks to his roles in various series like State of Play, Blackpool and a guest role on Doctor Who. Morrissey also built up something of an art-house following with roles in specialty dramas Nowhere Boy, the Red Riding Trilogy, Stoned and Hilary and Jackie. Morrissey received his biggest stateside role to date landing the colorful character the Governor on the hit AMC drama The Walking Dead. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Morrissey signed on to play the villainous Governor, leader of a small community of survivors known as Woodbury, who becomes an adversary to the Sheriff-turned-group leader, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln).

Anglophiles continued to follow the career of British actor and filmmaker David Morrissey thanks to his roles in various series like State of Play, Blackpool and a guest role on Doctor Who. Morrissey also built up something of an art-house following with roles in specialty dramas Nowhere Boy, the Red Riding Trilogy, Stoned and Hilary and Jackie. Morrissey received his biggest stateside role to date landing the colorful character the Governor on the hit AMC drama The Walking Dead. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Morrissey signed on to play the villainous Governor, leader of a small community of survivors known as Woodbury, who becomes an adversary to the Sheriff-turned-group leader, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln).

Anglophiles continued to follow the career of British actor and filmmaker David Morrissey thanks to his roles in various series like State of Play, Blackpool and a guest role on Doctor Who. Morrissey also built up something of an art-house following with roles in specialty dramas Nowhere Boy, the Red Riding Trilogy, Stoned and Hilary and Jackie. Morrissey received his biggest stateside role to date landing the colorful character the Governor on the hit AMC drama The Walking Dead. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Morrissey signed on to play the villainous Governor, leader of a small community of survivors known as Woodbury, who becomes an adversary to the Sheriff-turned-group leader, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln).

"I think there's a lot of guff sometimes.

"I look around the room, and realise I've already spoken to most of the people in it, and wonder, 'why are we all here, listening to the same anecdotes all over again?' Why don't we all just go home to bed?!"

Emily Watson has a very refreshing, slightly intimidating, very British take on the whole circus that goes with having a role in the already-celebrated War Horse, although she's quick to appreciate the upside too:

"I can't complain, it's been such a thrill to be on this ride, to work with an iconic American filmmaker - and I don't know who would've taken on such an ambitious project."

Watson's co-star Tom Hiddleston has revealed time slowed down for him when he got director Steven Spielberg's call, so how did it feel for the actress who got her big break 15 years ago in Breaking the Waves?...

Jeremy Irvine, War Horse Tom Cruise/Ghost Protocol Surpasses Mission: Impossible III Total Domestic Take At the North American box office, trailing Tom Cruise/Jeremy Renner/Paula Patton's Mission: Impossible IV – Ghost Protocol and Robert Downey Jr/Jude Law/Noomi Rapace's Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows was Mike Mitchell's Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked, which pulled in $18.25m at no. 3 according to studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo. After 17 days, Chip-Wrecked has collected $94.6 million. Two years ago, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel collected $165.35 million during that same period. Since the picture is quite clear, I won't even bother attempting to adjust The Squeakquel's figure for inflation. Chip-Wrecked, which cost about $80m, features the voices and/or bodies of Jason Lee, Justin Long, Anna Faris, David Cross, Amy Poehler, Christina Applegate, and Matthew Gray Gubler. Now at 2,547 theaters, Steven Spielberg's War Horse is galloping at a slower pace.

Jeremy Irvine, Steven Spielberg on the set of War Horse Tom Cruise/Mission: Impossible 4, Robert Downey Jr/A Game Of Shadows Have Estimates Revised Upwards: Box Office Despite the presence of Matt Damon and former Woody Allen muse Scarlett Johansson, Cameron Crowe's We Bought a Zoo brought in a revised $9.5m — nearly $2m more than originally estimated — at no. 6 as per studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo. Even so, the film's per-theater average was a mere $3,032 at 3,117 locations ($15.6m for the four-day weekend; average $5,005). As mentioned in a previous post, although figures will almost inevitably go up next weekend thanks to the New Year's holiday, We Bought a Zoo will have quite a bit of trouble matching — let alone recovering — its $50m budget domestically. Perhaps it's time for Cameron Crowe to pair up with Tom Cruise (Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky) once again. We Bought a Zoo, Crowe's first...

Actress Emily Watson has certainly taken on a number of diverse roles in her career, from her Oscar-nominated turns in Breaking the Waves and Hilary and Jackie, to parts in Westerns (The Proposition), action films (Equilibrium), and adaptations (Red Dragon, the upcoming War Horse). She portrays the face of a remarkable yet under-told true story in her latest movie, Oranges and Sunshine, which will be released in New York and Los Angeles October 21.

Click to watch Exclusive: Emily Watson Interview!

Click to watch Exclusive: Margaret Humphreys and Jim Loach Interview!

Emily Watson portrays Margaret Humphreys (who wrote the book this drama is based on), a social worker who discovers a horrifying secret: children from broken homes were being deported en masse from the U.K. to Australia, after they were told their parents were dead. She wages a one-woman crusade to reunite these deportees, now adults living in Australia, with the families they had lost,...

Ralph Fiennes, Vanessa Redgrave, Coriolanus Much like the Gotham Awards and the Spirit Awards, the British Independent Film Awards (Bifa) don't have much influence on eventual awards-season favorites. Independent films generally do well with U.S. critics and organizations only when they have the backing of a subsidiary of a major Hollywood studio, e.g., Fox Searchlight, or influential mid-level distributors such as The Weinstein Company. Else, it really helps if they have well-known names either in front or behind the camera — or both. Aside from Winter's Bone and a few such others, truly small films almost invariably go under the radar. Among this year's Bifa nominees, the one most likely to earn a Best Picture Academy Award nomination is Tomas Alfredson's adaptation of John Le Carré's novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, featuring Gary Oldman and Tom Hardy. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has been picked up by Universal Pictures.

If you know anything about British actors, you know they are made, not born. So you won't be surprised to learn that Emily Watson, one of Britain's most respected actors, started her career at the Royal Shakespeare Company as a spear carrier and understudy. And as she recalls, "In that company, the male understudies got to go on, at the time, but the female parts were very jealously guarded." No wonder she moved into film.Watson made her first big mark onscreen with Lars von Trier's 1996 "Breaking the Waves." Thereafter followed roles opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in "The Boxer," as cellist Jacqueline du Pré in "Hilary and Jackie," opposite Adam Sandler in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch-Drunk Love," with Geoffrey Rush in "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers," as Beatrix Potter's chum in "Miss Potter," and dozens more.Now, she takes on a relatively unknown real-life figure to recount a sadly shameful.

Screen Australia has announced six rising Australian producers and one director will take internships with established production companies from around the world.

The placements are through Screen Australia’s Talent Escalator program aims to develop the producer’s development opportunities to enhance their skills.

Screen Australia’s head of development said “These internships are an important part of Screen Australia’s professional development support of filmmakers. Each of these ambitious placements will expose Australian producers or directors to the international production landscape, helping to broaden outlook, hone specific skills and advance marketplace awareness, which will directly benefit the Australian industry more broadly.”

Melissa Kelly, producer of Wa feature film Blame will be working at Magnolia Pictures in New York for four months. Working closely with the Head of International Sales Kelly will receive insight into the international marketplace.

Benjamin Gilovitz, producer of award winning short film Deeper Than Yesterday will...