News

Female-led shows, crime dramas and politically charged stories are still making their mark.

“Anne of Green Gables” author Lucy Maud Montgomery will finally get the starry treatment worthy of her iconic characters in “Lucy. Maud.” Produced by Girls Productions, it’s created by Susan Coyne and presented at Berlinale’s Co-Pro Series.

“It’s a compelling drama about a powerful woman whose life experience remains relatable to this day,” promises producer Edwina Follows.

Another female protagonist, a young chef dealing with psychosis, will look for “Recipes for a Nervous Breakdown” in a Sophie White-created show, based on her own novel. Ireland’s Deadpan Pictures produces.

“What sets ‘Recipes’ apart is the stark, raw authenticity of the piece. It ties Sophie’s true story of managing – rather than ever fully healing from – a mental health collapse, through the glory and salvation of food. Sophie wants to bring the audience through the full descent into psychosis,...

The BFI has launched a trailer for the heartwarming comedy-drama ‘Four Mothers.’

The movie follows a struggling writer juggling four very different mothers during a chaotic weekend after his friends unexpectedly leave them in his care.

Directed by Darren Thornton, the cast includes James McArdle, Fionnula Flanagan, Dearbhla Molloy Paddy Glynn and Stella McCusker. Niamh Cusack makes a cameo appearance as a medium and Rory O’Neill, aka Panti Bliss, one of Ireland’s best-known drag performers, plays a therapist.

Also in trailers – Ben Affleck returns in trailer for ‘The Accountant 2’

The movie hits UK and Irish cinemas on April 4th.

The post “My son has abandoned me…” Trailer lands for comedy drama ‘Four Mothers’ appeared first on HeyUGuys.

As a doula, Domino Kirke is consistently inspired by the beauty of motherhood and for her upcoming sophomore album, parenting played an influential part. The Most Familiar Star will arrive on April 18, Rolling Stone can exclusively announce. Kirke also shared the video for its lead single, “It’s Not There,” with Angel Olsen.

“This record was such a test for me. It took five years to finish because life just kept happening, and there finally wasn’t this urgency (the kind I used to have as a younger musician) to...

Berlinale Series Market Selects has revealed its lineup. The European Film Market’s “boutique market for serial content from all over the world” will welcome Spanish shows in Berlinale Market Selects, its screening showcase, from “Internal Affairs,” focusing on one of the first female police officers in Spain, starting her first post, to “Honor” – yet another take on famous Israeli show which sees a judge covering his son’s crime.

Produced by Alex de la Iglesia, AtresmediaTV and Alex de la Iglesia and Carolina Bang at their Banijay-backed Pookepsie Films, “Sanctuary” turns to post-climate disaster future where women spend their pregnancies in a dome protecting them from pollution. It is not all they think, however.

Meanwhile, “City of God” director Fernando Meirelles and “Borgen” writer Maja Jul Larsen will bring projects to the Bsm’s Co-Pro Series strand.

Spain has been chosen as the Country in Focus at this year’s EFM.

Drug boss series, biopics, a Kiwi skateboarding drama and a smorgasbord of period pieces are set for the upcoming Berlinale Co-Production Market.

The line-up for this year’s Co-Pro Series pitch event, held during the Berlin Film Festival, features projects from Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, the U.S. and from across Europe.

The realities of financing premium drama mean co-production is in vogue and the shows pitched in Berlin will be scouting for partners.

Danish project The Best of Families will be on show, hailing from Piv Bernth’s ITV Studios backed banner Apple Tree. The series traces the impact of a chemical factory on the lives of various families and nature in the 1950s and comes from Maja Jul Larsen (Borgen) and director Charlotte Sieling (Homeland).

Two narco stories have made the grade. Wildlife comes from Brazil and the U.S. and is billed as a series about an unusual drug lord.

As awards season heats up, From Ground Zero, Palestine’s Oscar entry that’s on the shortlist for Best International Feature, debuts this weekend at about 70 AMC locations in top 20 markets and select arthouses including the Quad in New York and Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles.

The documentary from Watermelon Pictures is a series of 22 video diaries by Palestinian filmmakers commissioned and assembled by Gaza native Rashid Masharawi that show what it’s like on the ground in Gaza trying to survive and keep families safe, fed and sheltered amid Israeli bombardments. Mostly shying away from politics, From Ground Zero is a view of life in hellish conditions that also finds hope in small moments of normalcy. Masharawi, who currently lives in France, set up a fund early in the Israel-Hamas war to support filmmaking in Gaza.

Watermelon and parent MPI Media took a risk opening soon after Oscar shortlists were unveiled,...

Fear is the Rider, described as an ode to “gore-drenched Ozploitation slashers of the 1970s,” sees a woman pursued in the Australian Outback by a pack of ruthless serial killers. While that already has our attention, Deadline reports the nod to gory slashers has lined up an impressive cast so far.

Ben Mendelsohn (Star Wars: Rogue One), Abbey Lee, Toby Wallace (The Bikeriders) and Eliza Scanlen (Caddo Lake) have been cast in lead roles.

As for plot, the film follows “a lone woman, searching for her missing mother, who is pursued into the Australian Outback by a terrifying family of serial killers, with only an ex-con and a young girl willing to help her.”

Fear is the Rider is an adaptation of the novel The Hunted by Gabriel Bergmoser, written and directed by John Michael McDonagh‘s (The Guard).

Daniel Henshall (Mickey 17), Brenton Thwaites (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales...

Exclusive: Heading into the American Film Market, Film Constellation and CAA Media Finance will be looking to scare up deals on writer-director John Michael McDonagh’s (The Guard) Fear Is The Rider.

An adaptation of the novel The Hunted by Gabriel Bergmoser, the team has attached Ben Mendelsohn (Star Wars: Rogue One) Abbey Lee (Horizons: An American Saga), Toby Wallace (The Bikeriders) and Eliza Scanlen (Babyteeth) in lead roles.

In a nod to the gore-drenched Ozploitation slashers of the 1970s, the film follows a lone woman, searching for her missing mother, who is pursued into the Australian Outback by a terrifying family of serial killers, with only an ex-con and a young girl willing to help her.

Pic is being produced by McDonagh and Elizabeth Eves’ House of Un-American Activities (The Forgiven), Trevor Matthews and Nick Gordon of Brookstreet Pictures (The Brutalist) and Kate Glover (Foe). The film is set...

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Wolfs is a buddy action comedy thriller film written and directed by Jon Watts. The Apple TV+ film is inspired by a real-life Hollywood fixer Paul Barresi and it revolves around two professional fixers who like to work alone but both of them are hired individually for the same job, they must team up to avoid some deadly consequences. Wolfs stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt in the lead roles with Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, Poorna Jagannathan, and Zlatko Burić starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the buddy comedies aspect, a bit of action, and two magnetic leads in Wolfs here are some similar movies you should check out next.

The Nice Guys (Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Warner Bros.

The Nice Guys is a neo-noir buddy action comedy thriller directed by Shane Black who also...

It’s official. Brendan Gleeson is set for a major role in the upcoming Spider-Man Noir live-action series at Amazon.

Variety exclusively reported in July based on sources that Gleeson would be a part of the show, but his role has now been fully confirmed. Exact details for Gleeson’s character are being kept under wraps, but he is believed to be playing the main villain.

Gleeson will star alongside series lead Nicolas Cage in the show, which is currently titled “Spider-Noir.” Additional cast members include Lamorne Morris, Abraham Popoola, and Li Jun Li. As previously reported, the show will debut domestically on MGM+’s linear channel and then globally on Amazon Prime Video.

Per the official logline, the show “tells the story of an aging and down on his luck private investigator (Cage) in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero.

Europe’s Ace Producers network has selected 18 international producers for Ace Series Special, its workshop for understanding the series production landscape.

Selected producers include Razor Film producer Roman Paul, with Ian Iqbal Rashid’s project Afterlives, based on the 2020 historical fiction work by Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah.

Scroll down for the full list of selected producers

Paul is a co-producer on Cannes 2024 title Santosh, 2021’s Petrov’s Flu and 2020’s Oscar-nominated Quo Vadis, Aida?, and produced Mia Hansen-Love’s 2022 One Fine Morning.

Also selected from Germany is Harry Floter of Germany’s 2Pilots Filmproduction, with Julia Klier’s project Semis Trail.

Brendan Gleeson has joined the cast of the upcoming Spider-Man Noir series at Amazon, Variety has learned from sources.

This marks one of Gleeson’s first announced project since his Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated turn in “The Banshees of Inisherin.” Gleeson will star in the series opposite previously announced series lead Nicolas Cage as well as the recently cast Lamorne Morris. The show, now titled “Spider-Noir,” was formally ordered to series in May with Cage in the lead role. As previously reported, the show will debut domestically on MGM+’s linear channel and then globally on Amazon Prime Video.

Amazon declined to comment on Gleeson’s casting.

Per the official logline, the show “tells the story of an aging and down on his luck private investigator (Cage) in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we have a conversation about what it means to be underappreciated. Not underrated necessarily. But underappreciated. And, boy, is Don Cheadle underappreciated. The Oscar-nominated actor has been elevating films in supporting roles since the late ‘80s.

Our guest today is Mitchell Beaupre, senior editor at Letterboxd.

Our B-Sides today include: The Assassination of Richard Nixon, Traitor, The Guard, and No Sudden Move. There is also a brief-but-worthwhile tangent on the Scott Caan-directed (!) indie The Dog Problem. Also the Sundance darling Manic from the early 2000s.

We discuss Cheadle’s incredible ability to listen as an actor. There may not be a better active listener working today. We offer some context into legend Steve Martin (who...

Variety has a first look at “The Damned,” the upcoming psychological horror starring Odessa Young and Joe Cole.

From director Thordur Palsson (“The Valhalla Murders”) and writer Jamie Hannigan, the film, which shot in Iceland last year, follows Eva (Young), a 19th-century widow who is tasked with making an impossible choice when a ship sinks off the coast of her isolated fishing outpost in the middle of an especially cruel winter. According to the synopsis, “Eva and her crew must choose between rescuing the shipwrecked and prioritising their own survival. Facing the consequences of their choice and tormented by their guilt, the inhabitants wrestle with a mounting sense of dread and begin to believe they are all being punished for their choices.”

Alongside Young and Cole, the cast also includes Siobhan Finneran (“Happy Valley,” “The Stranger”), Rory McCann (“Game of Thrones,” “Slow West”), Turlough Convery (“Killing Eve,” “Belfast”), Lewis Gribben (“Somewhere Boy,...

January is here and Hulu is rolling out the red carpet all month long! The streamer is heading into the new month (and the new year) with several specials, including the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Special, and “The Golden Bachelor” wedding special, “The Golden Wedding.”

But Hulu will also debut several major new series and films, including its all-new murder mystery series “Death and Other Details” and the new Marvel series “Echo,” which will be available to watch on both Hulu and Disney+.

See The Streamable’s top picks for what’s new this month, and find out everything coming to Hulu in January!

30-Day Free Trial $7.99+ / month hulu.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Hulu in January 2024? 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Special | Tuesday, Jan. 2

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame celebrates its new class...

As the aftereffects of the writers’ and actors’ strikes hit streaming in a big way, there’s not a lot of new content to offer subscribers early in 2024. Hulu still has some interesting things to offer in January, though.

The biggest new Hulu Original series in the new year is Death and Other Details, a locked room murder mystery starring Mandy Patinkin as Rufus Cotesworth, who is said to be the world’s greatest detective – at least in this universe. In the new series, Cotesworth comes to the rescue when an unfortunate soul is killed on lavish Mediterranean ocean liner, and he has to team up with the prime suspect (Violett Beane) to solve the crime.

The big Original movie premiere in January is Self Reliance, which follows a middle-aged dude (Jake Johnson) who gets randomly invited into a limo by Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Andy Samberg, and is soon offered...

Exclusive: A modern TV series remake of The Wombles is in the works with Ipcress File producer Altitude Television.

The TV arm of Altitude Media Group is forging a fresh version of the beloved animated British family series about a secretive group of furry creatures who live beneath Wimbledon Common, which is being co-produced with The Wombles production house and written by How to Train Your Dragon’s Will Davies.

Based on Elisabeth Beresford’s children’s novels, the stop-motion show ran in the mid-70s on the BBC featuring the voice of Bernard Cribbins, was remade in the mid-90s for ITV and remastered earlier this year as it turned 50. Altitude didn’t elaborate further on how it will be modernizing the classic.

Meanwhile, Altitude, which produced ITV’s big-budget remake of Michael Caine pic Ipcress File, has hired Chris Clark as MD and Chief Creative Officer, along with Development Executive Gabby Kardar.

To celebrate the release of The Others in 4K Ultra HD Edition, Blu-ray and DVD on October 2nd we are giving away Blu-Rays to 2 lucky winners!

Studiocanal announce the special release and 4K restoration of one of the most critically acclaimed horror films of the 21st Century, Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others. Starring Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston and Fionnula Flannagan (The Guard), the film opened to both critical and box office success upon original release, winning 8 Goya Awards including Best Film and Best Director, and has since been heralded as one of the best psychological horror films of all time.

The release features new artwork from graphic designer Jonathan Burton as well as a brand new feature length documentary “Looking Back at The Others”, including new interviews with Alejandro Amenábar, producer Fernando Bovaira and stars Nicole Kidman and Christopher Eccleston. They look back on the film and its legacy, over 20 years since its original release.

To celebrate the special release and 4K restoration of one of the most critically acclaimed horror films of the 21st Century, Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others out 2nd October on 4K Ultra HD Edition, Blu-ray & DVD – we have a 4K Uhd up for grabs!

Starring Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston and Fionnula Flannagan (The Guard), the film opened to both critical and box office success upon original release, winning 8 Goya Awards including Best Film and Best Director, and has since been heralded as one of the best psychological horror films of all time.

Watch the new trailer:

The release features new artwork from graphic designer Jonathan Burton as well as a brand new feature-length documentary “Looking Back at The Others”, including new interviews with Alejandro Amenábar, producer Fernando Bovaira and stars Nicole Kidman and Christopher Eccleston. They look back on the film and its legacy, over 20 years since its original release.

Critical Zone.International Competition(Jury: Lambert Wilson, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Lesli Klainberg, Charlotte Wells, Matthijs Wouter Knol)Golden Leopard: Critical Zone (Ali Ahmadzadeh)Special Jury Prize: Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (Radu Jude)Best Direction: Stepne (Maryna Vroda)Best Performance: Dimitra Vlagopoulou (Animal)Best Performance: Renée Soutendijk (Sweet Dreams)Special Mention: Nuit Obscure - Au Revoir Ici, N'importe Où (Sylvain George)Filmmakers Of The PresentGolden Leopard: Dreaming & Dying (Nelson Yeo)Best Emerging Director: Katharina Huber (A Good Place)Special Jury Prize: Camping Du Lac (Éléonore Saintagnan)Best Performance: Clara Schwinning (A Good Place)Best Performance: Isold Halldórudóttir and Stavros Zafeiris (Touched)Special Mentions: Excursions (Una Gunjak), Negu Hurbilak (Colective Negu)First Feature(Jury: Omar El Zohairy, Devika Girish, Isabel Sandoval)First Feature Award: Dreaming & Dying (Nelson Yeo)Pardi Di Domani(Jury: Ewa Puszczyńska, Matthew Rankin, Amos Sussigan)Best...

Joe Cole has been announced as joining the cast of a new psychological horror from award-winning director Thordur Palsson, ‘The Damned.’

Joining Cole and previously announced Odessa Young on the cast are Siobhan Finneran, Rory McCann (Game of Thrones, Slow West), Turlough Convery (Killing Eve, Belfast), Lewis Gribben (Somewhere Boy, Deadwater Fell), Francis Magee (Kin, The Tourist), Mícheál Óg Lane (The Guard, Calvary) and Andrean Sigurgeirsson (A Song Called Hate).

The horror follows Eva, a 19th-century widow who is tasked with making an impossible choice when, in the middle of an especially cruel winter, a ship sinks off the coast of her isolated fishing post. Eva and her crew must choose to either rescue the shipwrecked or survive the winter with their last remaining food. Facing the consequences of their choice and tormented by their guilt, the inhabitants wrestle with a mounting sense of dread and begin to believe they...

Director Thordur Palsson has wrapped principal photography in Iceland on “The Damned,” starring Odessa Young.

Newly revealed cast for the psychological horror film includes Joe Cole (“Gangs of London”), Siobhan Finneran (“Happy Valley”), Rory McCann (“Game of Thrones”), Turlough Convery (“Killing Eve”), Lewis Gribben (“Somewhere Boy”), Francis Magee (“The Tourist”), Mícheál Óg Lane (“The Guard”) and Andrean Sigurgeirsson (“A Song Called Hate”).

The script was written by Jamie Hannigan and is based on a story by Palsson (“The Valhalla Murders”). “The Damned” tells the story of Eva, a 19th-century widow who faces a difficult decision when a ship sinks off the coast of her isolated fishing post in the middle of an especially cruel winter. Eva and her crew must decide whether to rescue the shipwrecked or survive the winter with their last remaining food. As they face the consequences of their decision and are tormented by guilt, the inhabitants...

Hollywood directors — specifically Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and James Cameron — have a long tradition of taking out full-page adverts congratulating each other when one of their films beats the other’s to take the box office crown.

In Ireland, things are done a little differently, or at least they are for Jim Sheridan.

For the last 34 years, the renowned director has held the record for being behind the Irish film with the most Oscar nominations, first with 1989’s My Left Foot, with five, and then 1993’s In the Name of the Father with seven (which was, technically, matched by Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast in 2022). But this year, Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin smashed that record with nine nominations, prompting Sheridan to send him a note.

“I emailed Martin, saying he was a bastard for breaking the record,” Sheridan tells The Hollywood Reporter, speaking from the sidelines of the...

In 2008, Brendan Gleeson starred alongside fellow Irish actor Colin Farrell in Martin McDonagh's In Bruges which has enjoyed so much success as a cult favorite that the three reunited for 2022's The Banshees of Inisherin. In the meantime, Gleeson starred in two films by Martin's brother, John Michael McDonagh. This filmmaker, known for writing and directing the bleak drama Calvary (which also stars Gleeson) also helmed the 2011 comedy The Guard, which stars Gleeson as an unorthodox Irish cop, or "guard" as they are called in Ireland. Gleeson's Sergeant Gerry Boyle is a Connemara policeman with a not-so-sunny disposition. The crude and confrontational grump is even seen partaking in drugs and alcohol on several instances, even while on the job. However, between Gleeson's layered performance, and McDonagh's clever writing, they are able to ground this character as a balanced man with a softer side to him, by displaying his care and affection for his mother,...

Brendan Gleeson in The Guard

Cold In July, 11.45pm, Great Movies, Monday, January 16

Jim Mickle's psychological thriller keeps you guessing as a family man's life starts to unravel after he kills a home intruder in the night. Michael C Hall - gamely taking on both the role and an Eighties mullet - is perfectly cast as a dad who suddenly finds himself in deep, with acting grace notes provided by Sam Shepard and Don Johnson as the two men he has to team up with after they stumble on a horrific conspiracy. Mickle has moved into TV of late, creating Sweet Tooth, about a boy who is half human and half deer, which can be viewed on Netflix.

Love & Mercy, 11.15pm, BBC2, Tuesday, January 17

Unfolding over two time periods, Bill Pohland's impressively balanced biopic of Beach Boy Brian Wilson, considers the moment in his youth when, played by Paul Dano,...

The searing drama The Forgiven is being released on DVD & Blu-ray on 12th December and to celebrate we are giving away a Blu-ray. Written by John Michael McDonagh and based on the bestselling book by Lawrence Osborne, The Forgiven is an unflinching look at the perils of Great Gatsby-esque Western decadence that recalls the likes of White Mischief and The Sheltering Sky, and Variety describes as a “thorny modern parable”.

Award-winning director McDonagh has lined up a formidable cast for his powerful tale of tragedy and redemption set in Morocco. Leading actors Ralph Fiennes (BAFTA-winner for Schindler’s List) and Jessica Chastain (Oscar-winner for The Eyes of Tammy Faye) are joined by Matt Smith (House of the Dragon), Christopher Abbott (Possessor), Abby Lee (The Neon Demon), Caleb Landry Jones (Get Out) and Saïd Taghmaoui (Wonder Woman) for a compulsive drama that plays out against a foreboding desert backdrop.

Speeding through the...

Born in Seoul, South Korea, Anthony Shim moved with his family to the Vancouver suburb of Coquitlam in childhood. He has had acting roles in both film and television, including in the 2013 film Evangeline and recurring supporting roles in the television series The Guard and 21 Thunder. His full-length feature debut as a director, Daughter, premiered at the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival. His second feature film, Riceboy Sleeps, premiered in the Platform Prize competition at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, and was named the winner of the Platform Prize.

Choi Seung-yoon is a dancer, choreographer and actor based in Seoul, South Korea. She began training in ballet at the age of five and has a BA degree in dance from Ewha Womans University. Early in her career, Choi produced and performed in her own dance productions that received grants from Arts Council Korea and the Seoul Art Council. Her work has...

Dark comedy seems to be Martin McDonagh's specialty, and he returns with The Banshees Of Inisherin this October. The film follows two lifelong best friends in crisis after one of them suddenly decides to end their friendship, leading to wicked consequences.

The movie is one of the most original comedies in recent years. Still, the movie addresses some distinctive dark comedy tropes used in other movies of the genre that should definitely compel fans of the film to seek them out.

The Guard (2011)

This Irish comedy is another great showcase of the talent The Banshees Of Inisherin director Martin McDonagh sees in Brendan Gleeson, a great actor that knows perfectly how to pair dramatic roles with comedy.

Related: 10 Characters Brendan Gleeson Could Be Playing In Joker 2

In the film, Gleeson's character isn't so different from his moody character in The Banshees Of Inisherin, Colm. While much more energetic and clumsy than Colm,...

Exclusive: The Francis Lawrence-directed feature adaptation of the Suzanne Collins prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has added 11 actors in its final casting round.

This includes Tony Award nominee Fionnula Flanagan, who’ll play Grandma’am, young Coriolanus Snow’s (Tom Blyth) strict grandmother. Years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem, the 18-year-old is the last hope for his fading lineage, a once-proud family that has fallen from grace in a postwar Capitol. With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow is alarmed when he is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), the girl tribute from impoverished District 12. But, after Lucy Gray commands all of Panem’s attention by defiantly singing during the reaping ceremony, Snow thinks he might be able to turn the odds in their favor. Uniting their instincts for showmanship and newfound political savvy,...

Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain play a couple en route to a weekend of debauchery in the desert in this morality tale from John Michael McDonagh

Beneath the garishly brittle portrait of ghastly westerners lording it up in Morocco, there’s a low-key, brooding quality to this accomplished if somewhat inert screen adaptation of Lawrence Osborne’s 2012 bestseller. Written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, whose screen CV includes The Guard (2011), Calvary (2014) and War on Everyone (2016), it’s an anxiously moralist tale of crime and punishment, revenge and resolution, played out against a broad-strokes, culture-clash backdrop that brings a tang of spiteful satire to the deeper discussions of good and evil.

“It’s a long way to go for a party, but then they’re more your friends than mine.” So says David (Ralph Fiennes), a British doctor with a blemished record whom we first meet aboard a boat to “l’Afrique” with his wife,...

Fans of John Michael McDonagh should find much to love in the writer/director’s fourth feature, The Forgiven, but it lacks the refined structure, likeable characters and charred heart of his earlier work.

Based on a novel by Lawrence Osborne, The Forgiven tells the tale of stuck-up, married couple, David (Ralph Fiennes) and Jo (Jessica Chastain), who travel to Morocco to attend a lavish party thrown by wealthy friends, Richard (Matt Smith) and Dally (Caleb Landry Jones). En route, David accidentally runs over a teenage boy, Driss (Omar Ghazaoui), and is forced to face repercussions of the event while partying with pals. The police are convinced it was an accident but when the late boy’s father, Abdellah (Ismael Kanetar) arrives, David is forced to accompany him to help bury his son and face further consequences.

McDonagh’s latest is, for the most part, engrossing with striking performances from its A-list cast,...

Director John Michael McDonagh, author Lawrence Osborne and the stars of the film discuss personal salvation, simplistic critics and why ‘you can’t build a culture out of non-stop moral hysteria’

Everyone loved John Michael McDonagh’s first film, The Guard, with Brendan Gleeson as a sloshed cop. They admired his second, Calvary, in which Gleeson played a priest reconciled to his own murder. His third, a black comedy with Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Peña, was mostly loathed. McDonagh anticipated these reactions, he says in a pub in south London. He had assumed people would like his first two, “and War on Everyone was meant to be divisive”.

So he would be forgiven for having felt perky before the premiere last year of his fourth film. “I love watching the film!” he says. It’s an old-fashioned noir: tense, starry, good-looking. “So I was like: Everyone’s going to love it.

Dir: John Michael McDonagh. Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, Matt Smith, Ismael Kanater, Caleb Landry Jones, Abbey Lee. 18, 117 minutes.

At what point does art’s stubborn (though not invalid) fascination with the inner mechanics of terrible people cross a line, and begin demanding we show mercy towards the truly irredeemable among us? It’s the problem that lies at the heart of The Forgiven, a somewhat on-the-nose title for a film that lines up for us a miniature troupe of the wealthy and perversely bigoted at leisure in Morocco, who feel free to say horrific things about the local population because they’re shielded behind the walls of a literal castle. The only Moroccans they speak to on a daily basis are the ones whose wages they pay. We watch these one-percenters scurry about like termites, spewing their awfulness, before one of their number undergoes a moral awakening and we...

Click here to read the full article.

The 2023 Oscars may be well over seven months away and the events of the ceremony last March may be still making headlines. But that hasn’t stopped Ireland, which is getting into the race early.

As much of the industry slowly emerges from its summer holidays and warily eyes the incoming awards season, the Irish Film & Television Academy has announced that the Irish-language feature The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin) has been selected as Ireland’s best International feature film entry for the upcoming 95th Academy Awards.

The feature debut of Colm Bairéad, The Quiet Girl recently made history in Ireland when it became the first Irish language film to win the Irish Academy Award (IFTA) for best film. The film received 7 IFTAs overall including awards for director, actress, cinematography, editing, production design and original score. It also broke box office records in Ireland and the U.

This review of “The Forgiven” first appeared when the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021.

A dark and dirty morality play where nobody’s very concerned with morals, John Michael McDonagh’s “The Forgiven” takes some extremely questionable behavior and makes it as intriguing as it is off-putting. There’s a lot of despicable stuff going on in this efficiently nasty drama from the Irish writer-director of “The Guard” and “Cavalry,” but in the hands of McDonagh, Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain, you may actually find yourself caring for these people more than they care for themselves.

The film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021, is a timely piece of work based on Lawrence Osborne’s 2012 novel — it may focus on first-world problems, but that doesn’t stop it from delving into issues of white privilege, colonialism, casual racism and the conflict between the West and the Arab world.

A wealth of film and TV titles are available at launch on streamer Studiocanal Presents, which is now available as an Amazon Prime Video channel in the U.K.

Some 300 films and series from Studiocanal’s catalogue are available at launch, including Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now: Final Cut” in 4K; Brian Helgeland’s “Legend”; Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis”; a digitally restored version of Carol Reed’s “The Third Man”; Lynne Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here,” zombie horror “Train to Busan” and Céline Sciamma’s “Girlhood.”

Also available are Nicolas Roeg’s “The Man Who Fell To Earth” and Sidney Lumet’s “Murder on the Orient Express,” award-winners “Manchester by the Sea” and “Room,” seminal titles like Luis Buñuel’s “Belle de Jour” and Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” and modern British classics “Submarine” and “Four Lions.” Other recent additions include Sharon Stone classic...

Cinema“You don't have to qualify Hindi films with any word, but if it is coming from regional cinema, they are not just regional films, but ‘pan-Indian’. That is nonsense! All films are Indian films,” Siddharth said.IANSInstagram At a time when south films are gaining more attention than ever before, a new term — 'pan-Indian' — is being used to refer to films in regional languages that are emerging as superhits, watched by people across the country. While many think that describing a film as ‘pan-Indian’ is actually a compliment, actor Siddharth, who has worked in films in over five languages, including Hindi, and who enjoys a huge fan following in two of the most popular film industries of the country, believes otherwise. Draw his attention to how south Indian films are now ruling the roost and ask him if times have changed from when people looking to get into Bollywood...

Described as the world’s most prominent and prolific film composer by Time Magazine, A.R. Rahman is coming to America on a 15 city tour! Known as the maestro, A.R. Rahman has composed incredible music for Indian films, English and Hollywood movies, and even for Broadway with the Musical Bombay Dreams. The catalog of songs and soundtracks he has created is to way long to list but from his first film Roja, to the recent Mimi and Atrangi Re, and his amazing Why, the musical now playing in Dubai, Mr. Rahman is considered one of the greatest composers working today. The composer has won four National Film Awards, fifteen Filmfare Awards and seventeen Filmfare Awards South in addition to numerous other awards and nominations. He has also been given the prestigious Padmashree (the highest civilian honour in India) award by the Government of India in the year 2000 for outstanding contribution to the Indian film industry.

Actress Madhoo, who stole people’s hearts with her stellar performance in one of Mani Ratnam’s classic blockbusters ‘Roja’, on Saturday that she was “the biggest fan of actress Sai Pallavi”. Taking to social media, Madhoo, who is better known as Madhu Bala, put out a video clip on Twitter and said: “Hi everyone, I saw […]...

Ten years ago, on a drizzly Thursday evening during the much-loved Galway Film Fleadh, Element Pictures’ Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe were standing outside of the Eyre Square Hotel when Guiney received an email with the initial pre-booking numbers for their upcoming title The Guard. The figures were, thankfully, “through the roof” and it marked a key turning point for the Irish production, distribution and (soon to be) exhibition outfit.

The Irish buddy cop comedy, starring Brendan Gleeson and written and directed by John Michael McDonagh took $7.4M in the UK and Ireland (and nearly $20M worldwide) making it the biggest independent Irish film at the time, a huge feat especially considering Ireland was going through an economic crash. The film, which had sold to Sony Pictures Classics in the U.S. after it wowed at Sundance earlier that year, earned Gleeson a Golden Globe nom and McDonagh a BAFTA nom.

If the vision of Jessica Chastain in a sleek Lbd sniffing coke and then vigorously bedding Christopher Abbott during a bacchanal in Morocco stokes your flames, then John Michael McDonagh’s “The Forgiven” is the movie for you. “I wish I wasn’t so worried,” she says before jubilantly downing another line of white powder. She wishes she were more worried about her husband, played by Ralph Fiennes, a selfish doctor who, during their now-derailed vacation stay at an old-time friend’s deliciously depraved party in the desert, has run over a Muslim child and failed to cover it up. She wishes she cared that he’s now been carted off to the boy’s Berber village in middle-of-nowhere North Africa to do penance by the kid’s father, and where he could possibly be hung and quartered. Will she miss him at all?

Working from a novel by Lawrence Osborne,...

Have you ever noticed how, in Western culture, when referring to someone’s death, writers feel obliged to insert the word “tragic” somewhere in the sentence? Is there any other kind, a reader might rightly ask. Sometimes they mean “unexpected,” a kind of shorthand intended to show that the life in question was cut short before its time. But just as often, the phrase “tragic death” is simply redundant, a trite cliché intended to signify that the speaker isn’t some callous bastard.

Writer-director John Michael McDonagh recognizes that not all deaths are tragic. Some are merciful, others accidental; while many are unfortunate, on some occasions, people meet an end that could be described as “poetic” — or at the least, deserved. McDonagh (like younger brother Martin) is a brute-force moralist. Both siblings write scripts in which the term “reckoning” often applies, which is to say, movies and plays where atonement...

MusicThe notebook pages of singer Minmini’s handwritten lyrics in Malayalam show the date of the recording of the first song of Ar Rahman.Tnm StaffMinmini / Credit - Shijo Manuel / Geeths N GroovesOn January 24, 1992, in two pages of a lined notebook, singer Minmini wrote down the words of a Tamil song that would be loved by generations. In clear round letters of Malayalam, the singer from Kerala took down the Tamil words of 'Chinna Chinna Aasai', the first song in Mani Rathnam's popular award-winning film Roja. It was the first time that Ar Rahman was composing music for a film. The story, Minmini's notebook pages and the handwritten lyrics was recently shared on the Facebook page ‘Malayalam Movie & Music Database’ by Shijo Manuel, a music connoisseur. In the yellowing pages of Minmini's notebook, some of the lyrics are crossed out and rewritten. The author of the post speculates that there...

MollywoodAR Rahman will reportedly play a cameo as part of a special music video in ‘Aaraattu’. Tnm StaffTwitter/MohanlalBody 2:

Malayalam superstar Mohanlal took to social media on Sunday to express his happiness at collaborating with Oscar winner Ar Rahman for his upcoming film Aaraattu. The actor shared a photo of himself with the music composer and the film’s director B Unnikrishnan, and wrote, “A rare and remarkable shoot with the Music Maestro @arrahman for #Aaraattu. @unnikrishnanb.”

A rare and remarkable shoot with the Music Maestro @arrahman for #Aaraattu. @unnikrishnanb pic.twitter.com/GPEz23e0lH

— Mohanlal (@Mohanlal) March 21, 2021

Ar Rahman will reportedly do a cameo as part of a special music video in the film. Fans of both Rahman and Mohanlal are eagerly awaiting the film’s release since the news was shared with them. It may be noted that Rahman had composed music for Mohanlal’s film...

Irish actor Brendan Gleeson scored his fourth career Golden Globe nomination this year for his performance as Donald Trump in Showtime’s “The Comedy Rule.” His previous nominations were in the Best Film Comedy/Musical Actor category for “In Bruges” (2008) and “The Guard” (2011), and in the Best TV Movie/Limited Actor category for playing another instantly recognizable world leader, Winston Churchill, in the 2009 telefilm “Into the Storm.”

See 2021 Golden Globes nominations list: Nominees for 78th annual ceremony

Emmy winner Gleeson is chilling as the scheming and impulsive presidential candidate turned president-elect in “The Comey Rule.” He co-stars with another Emmy champ, Jeff Daniels, who plays FBI Director James Comey in the two-part event series that tells the story of two powerful men whose strikingly different ethics and loyalties put them on a collision course. Based on Comey’s tell-all book “A Higher Loyalty,” which was adapted by writer and director...

CinemaThe motion poster tracks J Jayalalithaa’s transition from the world of cinema to the world of politics.Digital NativeDigital NativeOn the 73rd birth anniversary of late chief minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa, the makers of Kangana Ranaut’s upcoming movie Thalaivi, shared a motion poster and announced the release date of the film. The shoot of J Jayalalithaa’s biopic Thalaivi was wrapped up in 2020. Sharing the poster with her fans, Kangana tweeted, “To Jaya Amma, on her birth anniversary Witness the story of the legend, #Thalaivi, in cinemas on 23rd April, 2021.” To Jaya Amma, on her birthanniversary Witness the story of the legend, #Thalaivi, in cinemas on 23rd April, 2021. @thearvindswami #Vijay @vishinduri @ShaaileshRSingh @BrindaPrasad1 @neeta_lulla #BhushanKumar @KarmaMediaent @TSeries @vibri_media #SprintFilms @ThalaiviTheFilm pic.twitter.com/JOn812GajH — Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) February 24, 2021 The film is being helmed by director Vijay and is will be available in three languages—Hindi,...

A.R. Rahman, the Oscar-, BAFTA-, Golden Globe- and Grammy-winning Indian composer of “Slumdog Millionaire,” is set to return to Hollywood projects after a hiatus.

Rahman’s mother Kareema Begum was ailing for eight years, and Rahman and his family decided to spend as much time with her in India as possible. She died in December.

“It was a blessing that we got to live with her and all my sisters and me and our family,” Rahman told Variety‘. “And so that was definitely one aspect, which held me in India and I also wanted to set up my studio here.”

“I’m working on certain things, but it doesn’t need me there, and I can do it from here,” says Rahman. The composer can’t reveal any of the Hollywood titles he is working on at the moment because of contractual confidentiality reasons.

Having debuted in films with the...

Jeff Daniels and Brendan Gleeson are no strangers to the Golden Globes, drumming up an impressive seven nominations between them. Now both could be on the verge of more recognition from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their transformative performancess on the Showtime miniseries “The Comey Rule.” The political drama, based on former FBI director James Comey‘s book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,” chronicles Comey’s contentious relationship with President Donald Trump during his first months in the White House.

Gleeson took on the formidable task of playing Trump, a role he managed to pull off in dramatic fashion after countless parodies of the president have been ingrained in the public’s mindset (most notably Alec Baldwin‘s Emmy-winning turn on “Saturday Night Live”). The Irish actor nailed Trump’s mannerisms and speech patterns, all while maintaining a serious tone under that mound of creamy orange hair.

Every once in a while, a veteran journeyman actor breaks through at the Golden Globes, notwithstanding the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s infatuation with red carpet-ready celebrities. So look out for character actor Peter Gerety to potentially score a bid when the HFPA announces its nominations on Feb. 3, for his heartbreaking turn in “Working Man.” And that could potentially get the ball rolling for him towards an underdog Oscar nom.

It would be the first nomination ever for Gerety, who recently turned 80, and who after working on stage and screen for 60 years has given arguably his most acclaimed performance to date. In “Working Man,” he stars as Allery Parkes, a factory worker in a small Rust Belt town, who defiantly shows up at work every day after the plant is closed. The film co-stars two-time Oscar nominee Talia Shire as Allery’s devoted wife Iola and Billy Brown (“How To Get Away With Murder...

Marking the death anniversary of the 'People's King' of Tamil Nadu Dr. M. G. Ramachandran, the team of Thalaivi revealed a new look of Arvind Swami as Mgr from the film.

Earlier on the 103rd birth anniversary of Mgr, the makers of Thalaivi released the first look of Arvind Swami as the legend Mgr, tracing the youth and life of him as an actor.

Now, on the death anniversary, the new look essayed by Arvind Swami presents the late legendary actor and respected politician Mgr at the peak of his political career.

Directed by A. L. Vijay, Thalaivi traces the life events of J Jayalalithaa played by Kangana Ranaut along with the humungous contribution of Mgr in her journey to stardom and politics.

South Indian Star Arvind Swami is all set to make his comeback in Bollywood after his remarkable performances in Roja and Bombay. While the first look of...