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Steve Coogan as Tom Michell and Baba/Richard as Juan Salvador in The Penguin Lessons Photo: Andrea Resmini. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Director Peter Catteneo and screenwriter Jeff Pope's adaptation of Tom Michell's memoir, The Penguin Lessons, stars Steve Coogan as the disillusioned and cynical Englishman, who takes up the position of English teacher at the prestigious St. George's private school in Argentina in 1976.

When a military coup forces the school to temporarily close, Michell travels to neighbouring Uruguay, where he rescues a penguin who he first names Peter, before settling on Juan Salvador. In spite of his initial reluctance to embrace Juan Salvador's affections, this unexpected friend helps him to inspire his students.

When the political tensions penetrate the school's walls, Michell must confront the horrors of authoritarian rule.

Tom urges Juan Salvador to return to the sea. Photo: Andrea Resmini. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics...

“It’s so nice to talk to The Hollywood Reporter,” Olivia Williams says, as we start our interview, “because I really had that Hollywood experience. I went from living in a damp basement flat in Camden Town to, in a matter of days, flying in a private jet to go on set of a huge Hollywood movie.”

Over the course of a single year, from 1997 to 1998, Williams (before then a jobbing British theater actress, doing commercials for Dove shower cream — “they asked me to audition in a bikini…I felt like giving up”) starred in three studio films: Kevin Costner’s The Postman, Wes Anderson’s Rushmore and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense. The Postman was a legendary flop. Rushmore an indie breakout. The Sixth Sense a gargantuan, global hit. Williams, it appeared, had arrived.

“I went from galloping horses with Kevin Costner — doing my own stunts, thank...

‘Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island’, ‘The Photograph’ also open.

Disney-Pixar’s latest animated offering Onward opens wide at the UK box office this weekend, as the coronavirus epidemic threatens to affect UK box office takings.

Directed by Dan Scanlon, Onward is the story of two teenage elf brothers in a suburban fantasy world who embark on a quest to see if magic still exists.

Screen Star of Tomorrow 2012 Tom Holland and Chris Pratt lead the voice cast, which also includes Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer and Lena Waithe. The film debuted as a Special title at last month’s Berlin Film Festival.

On Today's Show A Huge Producer is Going after Future's Fortune Amber Heard Meets with a Famous Love Doctor Beyonce Accused of Stealing 'Lemonade' The Disgraced Stanford Swimmer Catches Another Lucky Break Skype Us Tmztvshow Tweet Us Tweet to @Tmzlive Read more...

Visual effects firm Framestore is behind the acclaimed space movie, but is UK film making a giant leap, or is funding falling?

After picking up a galaxy of awards, the space thriller Gravity is tipped for further glory at the Oscars on Sunday. The film might look like classic big budget Hollywood, but has a starring role in the British film industry. Almost everything on screen, from the gorgeous images of light bouncing off the earth, the constellations of stars, down to the astronauts' space boots, was conjured up on computers at a studio in Soho. Stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock filmed their space nightmare in deepest, darkest Buckinghamshire.

Tim Webber is the director of visual effects at Framestore, the studio behind Gravity's magical effects. Before he put Sandra Bullock in space, Webber created the rich worlds of Harry Potter and The Dark Knight. But Gravity was the...

Baron Davis was spotted hanging with Khloe Kardashian during a holiday shopping trip. Are the Kardashian chicks addicted to athletes ... or the other way around?Plus, that Trent Richardson sex tape we told you about might not ever see the light of day ... and we know why. Lucky break for Trent -- or reason to hang his head in shame?And Eminem don't come cheap -- as the NFL owners just found out. Is $2 Million...

Odd List Simon Brew 20 Sep 2013 - 07:14

They don't make funny movies any more, right? Wrong. If you're looking for a laugh, then here are some you may have missed...

For this list, blame The Hangover Part III. It was whilst walking out of that film that I got into a chat with someone, who was bemoaning the lack of genuinely funny movie comedies. Certainly, big budget Hollywood comedies have no end of problems right now - with the occasional exception - but I couldn't help thinking of the many neglected gems that had gone through my DVD player over the past decade or so.

As such, I started to put this list together. It's inevitably subjective, as one person's comedy is another person's snore fest. But I've tried to dig out a mix of comedies from the past three decades that have either flown under the radar completely, or...

Everyone's favorite hapless and insecure Londoner is back, and this time, she's bringing a baby. Yes, the third installment in the adventures of Bridget Jones is gearing up, and it now has a title that says it all: "Bridget Jones's Baby." And moreover, it has a director. While "Bridesmaids" helmer Paul Feig took a pass at the script by Helen Fielding and David Nicholls and was eyeing the job for himself, he eventually moved on and the producers were said to be looknig for a Brit to take the helm. Well, they got one. "The Full Monty" director Paul Cattaneo will get this one underway, and yeah, we kind of forgot about this guy too. While 'Monty' was a massive, Oscar-nominated hit (the rare comedy to get Best Director and Best Picture nods), Cattaneo hasn't matched that success since. You probably didn't hear about "Lucky Break" and "Opal Dream,...

Since emerging like a shopper from the Christmas sales madness bruised, bloodied but unbowed, the idea of Bridget Jones 3 has been slowly crawling towards reality. It hit a setback in October when Bridesmaids director Paul Feig withdrew from the film, and Working Title began the hunt for someone else. Now it looks like the company has found its choice as Full Monty man Peter Cattaneo has entered talks.Cattaneo seems like a decent idea – he’s British, has proven comedy chops and he’s got a few movies under his belt. His career has been a little patchy since Monty became a surprise hit back in 1997, though: while he also made the solid Lucky Break and little-seen Opal Dream, frankly dodgy Rainn Wilson film The Rocker also litters his CV.But since then, he’s worked largely in shorts and also helped himself by directing Rev on TV. And according to Deadline,...

Esther Freud is a smart and underrated novelist, with a fleeting, little-known connection to Dr. Who: in her acting days she once had a tiny part as an alien on the show. As I point out on my review of her new novel Lucky Break (in Sunday's New York Times Book Review), the career change was a good idea. The novel, which follows a group of drama students, is witty and sly about the deep lure of acting and the unlikely chances of fame. You can read the entire review here. And to answer the obvious Freudian question: she is…...

Esther Freud is a smart and underrated novelist, with a fleeting, little-known connection to Dr. Who: in her acting days she once had a tiny part as an alien on the show. As I point out on my review of her new novel Lucky Break (in Sunday's New York Times Book Review), the career change was a good idea.

Hi everyone! Let the games (and the blogs) begin! We kicked off a new season Big Brother tonight, welcoming 13 new Houseguests for a summer-long extravaganza of bikinis and backstabbing. It’s so hard to believe, but ten years ago we started the ultimate voyeuristic reality show (52 cameras and 95 microphones) and here we are a decade later.

But First!…

I’m so excited to bring you my weekly download on everything from the cast, twist, Hoh, and evictions, and I hope you enjoy my take on what this season will have to offer. For my first blog entry I wanted to...

Warning: this recap contains spoilers. This episode begins with Raylan and Rachel staked out in front of a small house, waiting for any sign that the residence might be harboring the husband (and father) who just happens to be a fugitive on the run for killing a cop. It’s day three of being crowded into an incognito van, and the only indication that there may be a man in the house is the copious amount of beer being brought in by the wife. Art tells them to hang it up, they have nothing to go on.

Raylan keeps pleading for one more day, and takes matters into his own hands. He approaches the house, and sweet talks the wife into letting him do some yard work in exchange for food. She reluctantly agrees. What woman could actually turn Timothy Olyphant away? She’s powerless, really.

That night, Raylan and...

The Heart of Me was an extraordinary performance, and made me believe we've only seen a fraction of what Olivia Williams can do

A little over 10 years ago, the question was being asked: what is this very English-seeming actress doing in so many American films? Have the Americans "discovered" her – and, if so, where will she go from here? Olivia Williams made her movie debut in Kevin Costner's very strange film The Postman (1997) about a post-apocalyptic world in which Costner tries to keep the mail functioning in the wild forsaken north-west. Williams was his girl, Abby, and because of the shortage of cosmetics she wasn't meant to look beautiful, exactly. But she looked very good and she never let the film down.

She was far better, and really very striking as the schoolteacher, Rosemary Cross, who wins the love of both Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray in Wes Anderson...

When Ray realizes that the lesbian couple he has been helping get pregnant disappear, he enlists the help of Jonathan to crack the missing couple case.

So far in Bored to Death, it seems like the main weapon or secret gadgetis in fact, marijuana. This week they use pot in order to find out where the couple lives. Lucky break or is this a reoccurring theme? I think the writers are definite pro-legalizers.

It's pretty funny stuff that Ray realizes he has been duped by a masterminding pair of lesbians - that tugged on his heart strings. Then to find out that almost all of his sperm were blanks - genius thinking to make the last name on the list of lesbian couples pregnant.

The reaction of the pregnant lesbo made the show. Why would anyone be so upset to find out that a good-looking, smart and successful comic artist...

Vanessa Hudgens landed her big break as a child star after standing in for a friend at a commercial audition.

The High School Musical star admits she may have never found fame if she hadn't heeded the advice of an acting pal who couldn't attend a casting, and sent Hudgens instead.

She tells the New York Daily News, "My girlfriend was doing a bunch of commercials and she couldn't go to one. She was like, 'You want to go?' And I was like, 'Sure.'

"It was a Travelodge PSA (Public Service Announcement), so it was random dancing around with a little Travelodge Bear."...

A new trailer for Michael Mann’s upcoming crime-drama Public Enemies has popped online. The film, which tells the story of notorious American gangsters John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd during a booming crime wave in the 1930s, stars Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Giovanni Ribisi, Billy Crudup, Stephen Dorff, Rory Cochrane, Stephen Lang, David Wenham, Stephen Graham, Channing Tatum and Jason Clarke. It’s based on the Bryan Burrough book Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 and Mann co-wrote the film with Ronan Bennett (Lucky Break) and Ann Biderman (Primal Fear). It arrives in theaters July 1, 2009.

In honor of Natasha Richardson, an older review of one of her finer roles, in a grossly underappreciated film. Indie-Brit (or perhaps, Indie-u.K.) is practically its own genre at this point. In recent years there have been a host of movies that, to one degree or another, feel like they belong together, and not just because of where they were filmed, or where they take place. Movies like: ‘The Full Monty’, ‘Lucky Break’, ‘Waking Ned Devine’, ‘Billy Elliot’, ‘Brassed Off’, and others serve to define the genre. These are movies that aren’t merely made in the same place (often by the same people), but they are saying largely the same thing, and are mainly made for the same audience. That seems like a genre to me. Another notable of the group, and in keeping with its fine tradition (if you think it’s fine, a tradition, or indeed...

Nick Mitchell's Top 36 Inclusion Explained: In terms of total viewers, last night's American Idol peaked in the 8:30 p.m. half-hour, scoring 25.1 million for Mitchell's Norman Gentle aerobics, preliminary Nielsen estimates showed. Fodder for Idol Conspiracy Theorists: The much-hyped Adam Lambert, not unlike the prior week's much-hyped Danny Gokey, sang in the final spot in the final half-hour, reaching the show's largest 18-49 audience. Lucky Break? The unfortunate song choices from leadoff performers Jasmine Murray, Matt Giraud and Jeanine Vailes were contained to Idol's least-watched half-hour and its lowest-rated in the demo. Bottom Line: Pushed back to Wednesday because of...

MacKenzie Phillips is one lucky Z-lister! She escaped prison time today when a judge ordered her to 18-month drug rehabilitation program after she pleaded guilty for being caught with coke and heroin at Lax. The judge ruled that once she successfully completes the program, he’ll dismiss the charges altogether and it won’t be on her record. MacKenzie issued this statement: "I want to thank the Los Angeles Police Department and the Airport Police for stopping me -- they saved my life." This will be her tenth time in rehab. 10th time’s a charm?...