News

Hulu’s “We Were the Lucky Ones” is primed for a big night at this year’s Emmys. Adapted from the Georgia Hunter‘s 2017 book of the same name, the limited series follows the Kurcs, a Polish Jewish family who were split apart during World War II: some members go into hiding and others are forced into concentration camps. The series, brutal and dark, follows the family’s attempts to reunite after the war ends. It’s a tough watch but a vital one and the series, created by Erica Lipez, is intelligent in its portrayal of such hard subject matter, as noted by critics.

Aramide Tinubu (Variety) stated: “Devastating, and profoundly moving, ‘We Were the Lucky Ones’ illustrates the scope of World War II, the inhumanity of others and the anguish of disconnection and loss.”

Matthew Gilbert (Boston Globe) observed: “Yes, the miniseries is challenging, and steeped in heartbreak,...

Diana Kerew, an Emmy-winner television producer, died at her home in Glendale on Nov. 25 following a battle with cancer. She was 81.

Kerew executive produced more than 60 movies and miniseries for television, achieving success in the male-dominated entertainment industry and paving the way for other female producers as a mentor.

Kerew started off as a reader for David Susskind’s Talent Associates; she then became the first female producer at the company. Working for Talent Associates and later Time-Life Television as an executive producer, she worked on 16 films and miniseries. Some of these projects included the Emmy-nominated “Blind Ambition,” starring Martin Sheen, the Emmy-nominated and Peabody winner “The Wall,” and “The Bunker” which earned Anthony Hopkins an Emmy for acting.

Kerew briefly served as executive producer and vice president of television for Highgate Pictures before starting her own production company. Transitioning to focus on children’s programming, Kerew worked on several ABC “Afterschool Specials.

Kabo Family, the production banner owned by the fast-expanding Asacha Media Group, has signed a strategic deal with Christian Duguay, the prominent Canadian filmmaker of “Jappeloup” and “Coco Chanel.”

Under the pact, Kabo and Duguay’s CD Films France will collaborate on the development and production of TV series aimed at traditional television groups and platforms.

The partnership underscores Kabo Family’s ambition to ramp up its presence in the upscale scripted space. Duguay’s latest film “Tempete,” an uplifting drama with Melanie Laurent, Pio Marmai and Carmen Kassovitz, is currently playing in theaters. Besides “Jappeloup,” Dugay’s best known film credits include “Un Sac de Billes” and “Belle et Sebastien.” The helmer was nominated at the Primetime Emmy Awards three times, for “Joan of Arc,” “Hitler: The Rise of Evil” and the TV movie “Coco Chanel.”

Asacha Media Group is also the shareholder of Srab Films, the production banner...

Bag of Marbles (Un sac de billes) is an autobiographical film about two young brothers in occupied France, Maurice and Joseph, who discover within themselves the courage, the bravery, and the mischief needed to escape the enemy’s invasion and reunite with their lost family.

Thought I missed seeing this three-time Audience Award winning film starring Patrick Bruel, Dorian Le Clech, Batyste Fleurial Palmieri and Elsa Zylberstein when it premiered in U.S. at Colcoa here in L.A., I was able to interview the director Christian Duguay and actor Patrick Bruel before its U.S. release March 23.

See the trailer Here.

Christian Duguay was born in 1957 in Outremont, Québec, Canada. As a dirextor his is known for Human Trafficking (2005), The Art of War (2000) and Red Brazil (2012).

Patrick Bruel was born on May 14, 1959 in Tlemcen, France (Algeria) as Patrick Benguigui. He is one of the most famous French singers and actors in France,...

Peter O’Toole, best known for his lead role in the film classic Lawrence of Arabia, died Saturday at a London hospital at the age of 81, according to multiple reports.

While O’Toole made his career on the big screen — with eight Academy Award nominations, all in the Lead Actor category, plus an Honorary Award in 2003 — he also worked in a number of high-profile television projects, earning an Emmy win as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie in 1999 for Joan of Arc.

O’Toole also scored nods in 2003 as Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a...

"The trick is not minding that it hurts."

Legendary star Peter O’Toole has died at the age of 81 after being taken to hospital on Friday. In a statement released earlier, Kate O’Toole says:

"His family are very appreciative and completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of real love and affection being expressed towards him, and to us, during this unhappy time. Thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts.

In due course there will be a memorial filled with song and good cheer, as he would have wished. We will be happy to speak to you all then but in the meantime if you could give Peter O’Toole the respect he deserves and allow us to grieve privately we’d appreciate it. Thank you all again for your beautiful tributes – keep them coming.

O'Toole retired from acting only last year, after a 54-year career, writing at the...

Robert Carlyle cried when he was portraying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler - and got so involved in the role that he felt full of "hatred" and "bile" for months afterwards. The Scottish star played the German Fuhrer in 2003 movie "Hitler: The Rise of Evil", and wept on set because he was convinced his anti-Semitic rants were offending Jewish crew members.

And Carlyle admits the strain of playing Hitler stayed with him for "months" after the cameras stopped rolling. He says, "If you are spewing bile as Adolf Hitler it doesn't just stop when they say 'cut'. It's in your f**king mind, this stuff is rattling around, these words, this hatred, this bile, is in there, and you need to just sit and let it go. That one in particular took months to get rid of, I felt horrible."

"There was one really hard moment during the beer hall speeches,...

Robert Carlyle cried when he was portraying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler - and got so involved in the role that he felt full of "hatred" and "bile" for months afterwards.

The Scottish star played the German Fuhrer in 2003 movie Hitler: The Rise of Evil, and wept on set because he was convinced his anti-Semitic rants were offending Jewish crewmembers.

And Carlyle admits the strain of playing Hitler stayed with him for "months" after the cameras stopped rolling.

He says, "If you are spewing bile as Adolf Hitler it doesn't just stop when they say 'cut'. It's in your f**king mind, this stuff is rattling around, these words, this hatred, this bile, is in there, and you need to just sit and let it go. That one in particular took months to get rid of, I felt horrible.

"There was one really hard moment during the beer hall speeches, it was only after I'd done it that I realised how many Jewish people were in the crew, and that affected me. I was in tears and going round saying sorry and stuff. They would say, 'It's Ok', but it was bad for me because I felt awful saying that stuff."...

Stargate Universe star Robert Carlyle has dismissed suggestions that his decision to appear in the show could be seen as a backwards step. The actor previously starred in a number of high-profile films including 28 Weeks Later and The World Is Not Enough. However, in a video on the Total Film website, Carlyle said: "I started off doing TV so it didn't ever seem to me to be like a journey back in any way. I'd continued to do bits of TV through the years - some stuff that I'd really enjoyed, particularly Hitler: The Rise of Evil with CBS and also... Human Trafficking, so those two things were really the steps on the way to [Stargate Universe]." He also revealed that he enjoys the long-running nature of a television (more)...

• Long-time cinematographer Pierre Gill (he was on the money with Denis Villeneuve's Polytechnique) will be making his feature film debut directing Adrien Brody, veteran actress Isabelle Adjani, and Twilight alumni Rachelle Lefevre in Vk - all the actors are of course attached at this point. The period piece, Canadian-French co-production with a 35 million dollar price tag that will begin lensing in either 2010 or Spring of 2011. Written by Doug Taylor, the period piece is about baron Wolfgang von Kempelen who created "The Turk" - a fake chess-playing machine constructed in the late 18th century. When a gifted engineer's comfortable life is ruined by a rival, the chess-playing automaton he invents gives him and his family a chance to start a new one. Inspired by the true story of Baron Von Kempelen (Brody), who traveled through Europe to play against famous historical figures, from Catherine II of Russia to Benjamin Franklin,

...

Scottish-born character actor Robert Carlyle is one of the most versatile thespians you're likely to meet. He's played a cold-blooded killer on the classic UK crime drama Cracker (1990), a police officer in the BBC drama Hamish Macbeth (1995-97), a psychopath in Trainspotting (1996), a strip-teasing steelworker in The Full Monty (1997), an international terrorist who feels no pain in the Bond film The World is Not Enough (1999), and an intelligence operative in 24: Redemption (2008).

And those are just a few highlights.

Inspired to take up acting after reading Arthur Miller's "The Crucible", the graduate of Glasgow Arts Centre probably never imagined, however, that a journey that began in Scotland's largest city would one day take him to distant worlds aboard an ancient starship. Yet, it is aboard the starship Destiny in a distant corner of the universe where Carlyle now finds himself, as he dons the persona of Dr. Nicholas Rush in Stargate Universe,...

CBS has greenlighted Sybil, an original movie based on Flora Rheta Schreiber's best-selling book that will star two-time Oscar winner Jessica Lange and Emmy winner Tammy Blanchard. Writer John Pielmeier (CBS' Hitler: The Rise of Evil) has adapted the book, which chronicles the real-life treatment from 1954-65 of a young woman who suffered from dissociative identity disorder, better known as multiple personality disorder. The movie, to be directed by acclaimed TV director Joseph Sargent, centers on Sybil (Blanchard), who, after a suicide attempt, is introduced to psychiatrist Dr. Corneila Wilbur (Lange). During their sessions, Sybil, who confides that she frequently loses her memory and can't account for large blocks of time, slowly remembers the physical, emotional and sexual abuse to which she was subjected as a child by her mentally disturbed mother. During 11 years of treatments, 16 distinct personalities -- which Sybil had created to cope with the abuse -- emerge, each varying in age and personal appearance.

The Art of War director Christian Duguay has signed on to direct The Runelords for Franchise Pictures Story Island Entertainment, Origin Entertainment and Entertainment Business Group. The $80 million project -- the first of three films based on the novels by David Farland -- is scheduled to start principal photography in July in Prague. The project is described as an epic adventure set in the medieval world of Rofehaven. Franchise topper Elie Samaha is executive producing, with the company's Joseph Merhi handling producing chores alongside David Wolverton (who wrote the novels under the pen name David Farland), W. David McBrayer, Richard Shaw and Anne Marie Gillen. Published in 1997, Runelords was the first novel in Farland's series. Duguay has been nominated two times for an Emmy for his work on the small screen for Hitler: The Rise of Evil and Joan of Arc. His feature credits include The Assignment and Screamers.

The Cinema Audio Society on Wednesday announced its nominees for outstanding achievement in sound mixing. Noms in the motion picture categories were given to New Line Cinema's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 20th Century Fox's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, the Walt Disney Co.'s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Warner Bros. Pictures' The Last Samurai and Universal's Seabiscuit. In the movies and miniseries television heat are CBS' A Painted House and Hitler: The Rise of Evil (Part 2) and HBO's And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself Angels in America (Part 2) and My House in Umbria.

Fox was on fire Tuesday with the penultimate episode of American Idol and the cliffhanger season finale of the 9 p.m. drama 24. The two American Idol finalists, Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard, battled it out to the tune of 25.7 million viewers and an 11.2 rating/31 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, breaking the 18-49 share record for the blockbuster franchise. With that kind of lead-in, 24 (14.2 million, 6.4/16) couldn't help but soar to its personal-best total-viewer number, according to Nielsen Media Research data. CBS placed second for the night behind Fox with the conclusion of its Hitler: The Rise of Evil miniseries, which delivered 12.2 million viewers and a 3.7/9 in adults 18-49 from 9-11 p.m. NBC didn't have much pull at 9 p.m. with the season finale of Frasier (11.5 million, 3.9/10), which was handicapped by an anemic lead-in from the 8 p.m. Outrageous Game Show Moments special (6.2 million, 2.0/6). ABC had a slow night until 10 p.m., when NYPD Blue (12.5 million, 5.0/13) won the hour with its 10th-season finale. For the night, Fox steamrolled the competition with an average of 19.9 million viewers and an 8.8/23 in 18-49. CBS was No. 2 in viewers (12.5 million), while ABC ran second in adults 18-49 (4.0/11).

The Full Monty star Robert Carlyle has taken on the toughest role of his life - and won high praise for it. The Scottish star plays reviled German dictator Adolf Hitler in a made-for-TV movie in America. And his performance has attracted acclaim from some of the US's top critics - despite the fact that Carlyle himself admits he didn't know what to expect. He says, "I thought I knew him (Hitler). Everybody does. But I didn't. Fortunately, there was mountains of material available on him." The Orlando Sentinel described Carlyle's performance as "first rate" while the New York Post said it was his best effort ever. The paper's Adam Buckman added, "He plays Hitler with a blazing intensity - a charismatic maniac in his private and public lives." But Carlyle, 42, says not all Germans should be blamed for the tragedies of the Nazi party's rule of their nation. He adds, "They were looking to secure their fortunes and thought they could control him. Instead, he saw his opportunity to seize the power and eliminated everyone around him who could take it away." Hitler: The Rise Of Evil also stars Peter O'Toole and Matthew Modine and will be screened in the US next month.