News

BAFTA winner Jack O’Connell (Sinners) has closed a deal to join the next theatrical feature in Legendary’s Monsterverse franchise, Deadline can reveal.

Character details are being kept under wraps. O’Connell joins a cast that includes Kaitlyn Dever, as well as Dan Stevens, who reprises his role as veterinarian Trapper Beasley from last year’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the franchise’s highest-grossing installment to date.

Grant Sputore is set to direct from a script by Dave Callaham. Plot details have been kept vague so far, though we’re told the next entry will feature several new human characters alongside Titans Godzilla and Kong, as they face off against a cataclysmic world-ending threat. Sputore took over the directorial reins from Adam Wingard following the latter’s work on The New Empire and 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong.

10+ years in, Legendary’s Monsterverse franchise launched with 2014’s Godzilla and also...

Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Theo James are joining forces for a new thriller... but no, it's not for the next James Bond film. After finishing up production last year, the unlikely duo will be starring in Fuze, which also boasts a stacked supporting cast. Now in post-production, the buzzy thriller is finally gaining some momentum as it has sold to numerous international distributors across the globe. It may not be the thriller fans of the actors have envisioned them in, but the creative forces behind Fuze should be plenty to justify a viewing.

Variety exclusively reports that in addition to Sky acquiring the film's theatrical release in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Fuze has secured spots in several other international markets, including Canada, Australia, Indonesia, and Latin America, among many others. As of right now, it is unclear when or if Fuze will hit theaters in the United States, but expect...

Alan Clarke’s brutally unflinching prison drama Scum is set to make its long-awaited return to digital platforms in the UK and Ireland, with Vertigo Releasing confirming a release date of 17th March. The controversial 1979 film, which remains one of the most hard-hitting portrayals of the British borstal system, stars Ray Winstone in a breakthrough performance that would cement his status as one of the country’s most formidable actors.

Originally produced as a BBC television play in 1977, Scum was banned before its intended broadcast, deemed too extreme for public consumption. Clarke and screenwriter Roy Minton refused to let their vision disappear into obscurity, reworking the film as a theatrical release in 1979. What followed was a harrowing portrayal of institutional brutality that quickly became one of the most infamous British films of its era.

Set in a juvenile correctional facility, Scum follows Carlin (Winstone), a young offender who quickly learns...

Prison dramas are strange. It’s certainly not my go-to genre when it comes to recommending films or TV shows, and it is definitely not something I gravitate to in my free time. But if I come across one by chance, and if it’s even half-decent, I can assure you that I’ll stick with it all the way to the end. That’s how I came across masterpieces like The Great Escape, Escape from Alcatraz, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Hurricane. I watched Starred Up for Jack O’Connell, Chopper for Eric Bana, Bronson for Tom Hardy, A Prayer Before Dawn for Joe Cole, Gridiron Gang for Dwayne Johnson, The Longest Yard for Adam Sandler, and Brawl in Cell Block 99 for Vince Vaughn. Also, Chicken Run is undoubtedly up there with the greats. Now, when it comes to TV shows, I don’t show the same kind of zeal.

The ending of Yellowstone may have left a bad taste in some people's mouths, but there are undoubtedly still a legion of Taylor Sheridan fans out there who still love his work. The filmmaker is arguably at his best when writing film scripts, as evidenced by Sicario, Wind River, and Hell or High Water. That latter film is arguably his most acclaimed script, garnering a massive 97% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 88% audience rating. The film earned Sheridan an Oscar nomination for his script, and was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Editing, and Best Supporting Actor, with that nod going to star Jeff Bridges. Now Hell or High Water is a big streaming hit eight years after its release.

The Western heist film stars Bridges alongside Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Gil Birmingham, Dale Dickey, and Sheridan himself, and was directed by David Mackenzie. Its plot synopsis reads as...

Can’t get enough of “Rebel Ridge”? You’re certainly not alone. Jeremy Saulnier’s Netflix hit has soared up the streaming charts, thanks to Saulnier’s tight script, toothsome filmmaking and one star-making performance from Aaron Pierre. But all the qualities that make it so special also make it hard to find more movies that will scratch the same itch.

For one thing, it’s distressingly difficult to find action movies (that aren’t Batman or Spider-Man) where the hero makes an active effort not to kill people. But “Rebel Ridge” also treads in unique cinematic waters, a hybrid neo-western legal conspiracy thriller by way of payback actioner that seamlessly blends vintage sensibilities with modern techniques and is led by just about the coolest movie character of the decade. There’s nothing quite like it, but if you’re looking for more movies like “Rebel Ridge,” here’s a...

Sharp, fun, and smartly entertaining from its first scene to its final twist, David Mackenzie’s “Relay” is an old-fashioned movie about an old-fashioned guy. The movie is a modern paranoid thriller that harkens back to the genre’s ’70s heyday (though the far more recent “Michael Clayton” might be its most obvious point of reference). The guy is an alcoholic Muslim named Ash, who became a renegade deal broker after drinking away a more conventional life.

His stocks-in-trade are whistleblowers — he works to keep them safe from the companies who want them dead. His methods are analogue — Ash exclusively communicates with brave clients and evil conglomerates alike through a talk-to-text relay service designed to help deaf people make standard phone calls. Nobody ever hears his voice or learns his name; he hammers a message into his teleprinter, and a team of very confused (but unfailingly professional) operators then speak...

Toronto film festival: Hell or High Water’s David Mackenzie attempts to recall 70s paranoid thrillers in a sleek, suspenseful watch before it makes a wrong turn

In the wrong, or maybe just less right, hands, the set-up of pacy thriller Relay could have been the set-up for a standard-issue network pilot. A nifty fixer, who finds unique and unexpected ways to assist reluctant whistleblowers as they hand back damning documents, feels like a character who could lead multiple seasons of a solid, if stodgy, NBC drama. But the Scottish writer-director David Mackenzie, whose primary credits include Starred Up and Hell or High Water, is aiming a little higher, something closer to the paranoia and laser focus of 70s and 80s thrillers like The Conversation and Blow Out (something he has made reference to in early press).

When that remains the aim, along with co-writer Justin Piasecki, he does a...

We’ve been waiting months to find out whether or not Aaron Taylor-Johnson (The Fall Guy) has actually landed the role of James Bond – but in the meantime, he’s working on the race-against-the-clock thriller Fuze, which is currently filming in London and has Hell or High Water director David Mackenzie at the helm. We first heard of this project back in February, and since then Taylor-Johnson has been joined in the cast by Theo James (Divergent), Sam Worthington (Avatar), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Loki), Elham Ehsas (The Kite Runner), and Honor Swinton-Byrne (The Souvenir), and now Deadline reports that Saffron Hocking (Top Boy) has also been added to the cast.

Details on the characters being played by these cast members are being kept under wraps.

Scripted by Ben Hopkins, who has previously written Simon Magus, Janice Beard, The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz, The Market, Lost in Karastan, Hasret: Sehnsucht, Marionette,...

Aaron Taylor-Johnson and director David Mackenzie have started filming their new movie, Fuze, in and around London. More here:

As speculation has built over whether or not Aaron Taylor-Johnson will be the next James Bond 007, the man himself has been preparing for his next film role. Off the back of his supporting turn in this summer’s The Fall Guy, he’s now taking on the lead role in a heist thriller by the name of Fuze.

We’ve talked about the film before, our interest piqued by the fact that the brilliant David Mackenzie is directing the feature. I’ll get told off by Ryan Lambie of this very parish if I don’t immediately direct you to 2016’s superb Hell Or High Water, but I don’t think he’ll mind if I salute both Starred Up and Young Adam as well.

This time, Mackenzie will be...

Mastermind Taylor Sheridan has worked with a lot of other master brains throughout his decades-spanning career, with genius filmmakers like David Mackenzie being one of them. This pair collaborated on the former’s critically commended masterpiece from 2016, Hell or High Water, which easily became a box office blockbuster at a $37 million worldwide gross with Mackenzie’s helming.

David Mackenzie. | Credit: Thierry Sollerot/Wikimedia Commons.

Needless to say, Mackenzie has also displayed his brilliant filmmaking chops in other pieces spread across various genres, like 2013’s critically acclaimed crime-thriller Starred Up, for one to count. However, when it comes to working on the superhero genre in particular, the director holds the harshest response even at the thought of directing a Marvel movie under Kevin Feige’s supervision.

David Mackenzie Has No Interest in Working on Superhero Movies

Director David Mackenzie has led a fairly promising career in the entertainment industry, having tested...

Taylor Sheridan’s decision to transform from an actor to a screenwriter has brought him considerable success. The screenwriter saw huge success with his first effort Sicario, which was nominated for the WGA Award for Best Original Screenplay. The Yellowstone creator received more acclaim for his follow-up effort Hell or High Water, which was nominated for multiple Oscars.

Sheridan reportedly spent some time trying to get the right team of creatives to work on Hell or High Water. The neo-Western starring Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine follows the story of two robbers, who are being pursued by the Texas Rangers. Regardless, Sheridan mentioned that he found Scottish director David Mackenzie by a stroke of luck.

Taylor Sheridan’s Film Found The Right Director By Luck Taylor Sheridan | Credits: Linson Entertainment/Bosque Ranch Productions/Treehouse Films/101 Studios/MTV Entertainment Studios

Taylor Sheridan wrote his second installment in his American Frontier trilogy,...

The Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black has already received praise for its breakout lead performance by Marisa Abela, a relative unknown who brilliantly captures the severe trauma and anxiety that thwarted the late singers life. While Abelas performance is certainly worthy of attention, Back to Black also features a standout supporting role by Jack OConnell as Winehouses future husband Blake Fielder-Civil. Its a performance that transcends the traditional romantic interest role in a music biopic thanks to the specificity that OConnell brings to the performance. Its nice to see that Back to Black is rejecting some clichs within the genre, but its only the latest in a series of intense performances from OConnell. In one of his first major roles, OConnell starred in the brutal British prison drama Starred Up.

Speculation on the next James Bond has been rampant since Daniel Craig's departure, with Jack O'Connell emerging as a dark horse contender. Jack O'Connell's role in 28 Years Later may bolster his chances to play James Bond, as he is considered a great fit for the iconic character. Other actors like Cillian Murphy and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are also in the running, with the potential for a major shakeup in the franchise.

An actor, considered a dark horse casting for the next James Bond, has joined the roster of a $150 million franchise, which improves his odds of landing the 007 role. Since the inception of the James Bond movie franchise, six actors have officially played the role of the iconic spy character in a series of films. Daniel Craig was the latest in the line and, now, he, too, has hung his boots. After he departed from the franchise, many new prospects emerged,...

In “Back to Black,” Jack O’Connell’s Blake Fielder-Civil comes into the life of Amy Winehouse — played by an exceptional Marisa Abela — with seductive bravado, sweeping the singer off her feet on their first meeting in a London pub thanks to, among other things, a lip-synced rendition of the Shangri-La’s “Leader of the Pack”.

As the divisive biopic, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and released in the U.K. by StudioCanal this Friday (and in the U.S. by Focus Features on May 17), agonizingly portrays, the smitten pair quickly descend into violent self-destruction — a “toxic co-dependency” as Fielder-Civil later describes it in the film — fueled by alcoholism and drug abuse.

Many may question the ethics of picking at a tragic story that was heavily chronicled and sensationalized by the media in real-time during Winehouse’s final years. But for anyone who’s been tracking O’Connell’s career, the opportunity to...

Jack O’Connell may be about to be seen on screen in the Amy Winehouse biopic “Back to Black,” but the actor has also stepped behind the camera to shoot a video for another U.K. music icon, Paul Weller.

The Brit — who stars as Winehouse’s ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil in Sam Taylor-Johnson’s feature alongside Marisa Abela as the late, legendary singer — has made his directorial debut with the music video for “Nothing,” a track set to be part of Weller’s new album “66,” releasing in May.

“It was a good stroke of fortune,” O’Connell tells Variety. “Paul’s been a mate for a while and he’s got a bunch of new music coming out. He asked me to be in [a video] and I said, ‘Can I direct it instead?’ He obliged. And now we’ve edited it and cut it together.”

The collaboration isn’t the first project...

More reports of potential plot details and actors are emerging for Ryan Coogler’s upcoming vampire film, with Jack O’Connell and Delroy Lindo said to be in talks to star.

Details about director Ryan Coogler’s next film, due out in 2025, are still being kept secret – but that hasn’t stopped reports of casting deals and plot details from emerging. Most recently, it’s being reported that Jack O’Connell is in talks to star, with Deadline adding that he’ll be playing the villain.

Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter (via World Of Reel) writes that Delroy Lindo has also signed up to play an undisclosed role. The outlet also shares a few potential plot details: that the film will be “set in the Jim Crow-era South, and possibly involves both vampires and Southern traditional traditions.”

It’s also said that Michael B Jordan – Coogler’s long-time collaborator who’s been...

Exclusive: Jack O’Connell (Ferrari) is in talks to star opposite Michael B. Jordan in Ryan Coogler’s untitled event film for Warner Bros, sources tell Deadline.

While both the plot of the film and O’Connell’s role remain under wraps, we’re told it’s a period genre pic in which he’ll be playing the villain. Deadline was first to tell you about Warners’ acquisition of the project, following a heated bidding war.

The film brings Jordan and Coogler together following their collaboration on the Creed and Black Panther franchises, having first worked together on the acclaimed Sundance pic Fruitvale Station. It’s also the second project from the collaborators that Warner Bros Film Group co-chairs and CEOs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy have championed, after greenlighting the box office hit Creed III during their time at MGM.

Coogler is writing and will also produce alongside Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian.

Exclusive: The Night Manager star David Avery has joined the indie run by the director of buzzy BBC hit Dreaming Whilst Black to aid with a film and TV push.

David Avery joined Bluebird Pictures last year in an official capacity, having produced the company’s 2020 short Greasy Spoon.

Avery, who played Freddie Hamid in The Night Manager and has also starred in Starred Up, Gangs of London and Hanna, is helping with a fresh development slate as the company pivots focus to film and TV.

Bluebird was launched in 2017 by Dreaming director Joelle David but has in the main focused on running the World Cinema Festival. This festival has been placed on hiatus this year as David and Avery focus on their slate.

The slate, Bluebird’s first, features a dark comedy about motherhood and a comedy-thriller about how different cultures deal with death. Bluebird is also working with...

Neon is climbing into the passenger seat of Michael Mann’s Ferrari, a new film from the celebrated director starring Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz. Ferrari looks to premiere at the Venice Film Festival at the end of August, with Neon acquiring the rights in North America in a competitive situation. According to Deadline, Ferrari is racing into theaters on Christmas Day 2023. STX Entertainment, who helped get the film onto the pavement, is actively involved with all the Neon negotiations (which are still being determined as of this posting). STX set up and provided most of the financing to produce the movie. With Robert Simonds, Sam Brown, and Noah Fogelson executive producing, Ferrari will be distributed internationally through STX Entertainment and its partners.

“Michael Mann, one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers in American cinema, was moved by the power of this intensely dramatic story to persist for years...

Dale worked at Independent Entertainment for 10 years

Daniel Dale, Independent Entertainment’s former head of acquisitions and development, passed away last month at the age of 42.

Dale first joined Independent in 2005 in a junior role before being quickly promoted to work on all of the company’s development projects as well as acquisitions for the international side of the business.

In development and production, Dale worked on the films We Need To Talk About Kevin; Mr Nice; New Town Killers; The Sea and The Falling among many others.

Some of the titles he helped to acquire include London To Brighton...

Exclusive: We’re not quite done yet with the European Film Market packages, with a nice one coming together at the eleventh hour as Oscar winner Riz Ahmed and Baby Driver star Lily James have been set to lead thriller Relay for director David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water).

Pic is being produced by Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk (John Wick franchise), Sigma’s Gillian Berrie (Outlaw King) and Mackenzie, and Black Bear’s Teddy Schwarzman (The Imitation Game).

Black Bear International is launching the project at the EFM in Berlin, which as a whole has drawn a strong lineup of pre-sale projects. CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group will co-rep domestic on this one.

In Relay, Sound of Metal and Venom star Ahmed will play Tom, a world class “fixer” who specializes in brokering lucrative payoffs between corrupt corporations and the individuals who threaten their ruin. He...

When D.H. Lawrence’s final novel “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was widely published for the first time in 1960 (other versions circulated in 1928 and 1929), the book ignited a firestorm that eventually led to an obscenity trial (won by its publisher) and massive sales. Decades later, the novel remains a source of titillation for many (including those who turned it into dozens of R- and X-rated films and TV series), even if its reputation has generally faded into “It’s smutty, right?” It is, of course, so much more.

When Penguin Books was prosecuted under the UK’s Obscene Publications Act 1959, it wasn’t just the book’s language (including the repeated use of many “unprintable” four-letter words) or the explicit sex scenes. Lawrence’s also lovers dared to cross class lines in a time when that was a shocking act of its own. In this latest adaptation, , much of that drama has been flattened.

The Gotham Film & Media Institute on Monday has selected the films and series for its Project Market, a slate which IndieWire can exclusively reveal. Taking place during September’s Gotham Week at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the annual sales and development forum connects creators to distributors, financiers, and other industry decision-makers. It offers a look ahead at what could become the next buzzy films; “Moonlight” and “American Factory” are recent Oscar winners that were launched at past Project Market events.

This year’s lineup includes 65 fiction features and series, 60 nonfiction features and series, and 17 audio projects in various stages of development or production, including new projects from the producers of “Dopesick,” “Pose,” and “Sorry to Bother You.” For the first time since the pandemic, the annual event will include both in-person and virtual participation. In-person meetings run September 17-23, while virtual meetings will be held September 22-23.

“Being able...

Exclusive: Longtime Independent Film Company MD Andrew Orr has joined Comcast-owned Sky as Head Of Original Film.

Orr will be working on the pay-tv broadcaster’s development slate and strategy as well as acting as commissioner on a number of projects alongside Julia Stuart, Director of Original Film, and Laura Grange, Commissioning Manager, Original Film. He will also be working with James Newton on content partnerships.

Orr, who will be in Cannes this week for Sky, spent almost 17 years at UK sales and production firm Independent, selling movies including Moon, Starred Up, Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry, Hallam Foe, London To Brighton and Adulthood. He was an executive producer on movies including We Need to Talk About Kevin, Mr Nice, The Falling and Out of Blue.

In more recent years Orr segued to a role as executive producer and developed the company’s first TV slate. Prior to Independent he was at The Works,...

HanWay Films have picked up comedy drama “Sweet Sue” from newcomer Leo Leigh with sales set to commence at the European Film Market in Berlin.

Buyers will also be treated to footage at the market. A first look image of “White Line’s” Maggie O’Neill, who plays the starring role of Sue, is above.

In “Sweet Sue”, which wrapped production Dec. 2021, O’Neill plays a woman who embarks on a relationship with a mysterious biker called Ron after meeting at a funeral. But Ron’s son Anthony, a social media influencer who also has his own dance troupe, is more than she bargained for.

Tony Pitts (“Rogue One”) plays Ron in the film while Harry Trevaldwyn, who is set to appear on the upcoming U.K. adaptation of “Call My Agent,” takes on the role of Anthony.

Joining them are Nick Holder (“London Road”), Anna Calder-Marshall (“Last Christmas”), Paul Hilton...

Actor Jack O’Connell is known for going to physical extremes to show the vulnerability of violent men. But what does masculinity really mean to him?

Are you here to see man?” asks a Spanish waiter as I walk through the café garden, and points towards the table just beyond the loos where Jack O’Connell stands, his hand raised in a solemn hello. Yes I say. Yes I am.

To sit in the dark and watch Jack O’Connell’s work, from the very earliest characters he played through to self-destructive lad Cook in teen drama Skins and the boy incarcerated with his dad in prison drama Starred Up, followed by a squaddie in Northern Ireland in the Troubles film ’71, is to watch a slow portrait of contemporary masculinity. What O’Connell does, with his eyes and voice, and careful violence, is show the vulnerability beneath his characters’ cracked shells,...

FX on Hulu’s “Under the Banner of Heaven” has rounded out its cast with 11 additions to the limited series starring previously announced leads Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones.

Sam Worthington, Denise Gough, Wyatt Russell, Billy Howle, Gil Birmingham, Adelaide Clemens, Rory Culkin, Seth Numrich, Chloe Pirrie, Sandra Seacat and Christopher Heyerdahl have all joined the show inspired by Jon Krakauer’s bestselling nonfiction book “Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith,” FX Networks revealed Thursday.

Created by Dustin Lance Black, FX’s TV series version of the book follows a devout detective whose faith is tested as he investigates a brutal murder that seems to be connected to an esteemed Utah family’s spiral into Lds fundamentalism and their distrust in the government.

Worthington has been cast as Ron Lafferty, Gough is playing Dianna Lafferty, Russell has the part of Dan Lafferty, Howle is Allen Lafferty,...

Exclusive: Jack O’Connell and Matthew Duckett have joined Golden Globe Winner Emma Corrin in Lady Chatterley’s Lover for Sony’s 3000 Pictures and Netflix. This will be the first film to be produced under the new partnership where Sony Pictures will offer Netflix a first look at any films it intends to make for streaming. The deal was announced in April and part of that deal allowed Sony to offer Netflix a first look at any films it intends to make directly for streaming or decides later to license for streaming, and Netflix has committed to make a number of those films over the course of the deal. Sources say that while Sony will not distribute the film, Netflix can still choose to have it run theatrically if they please for an awards qualifying run given Elizabeth Gabler, who runs 3000 Pictures, track record with award season pics.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover...

Director David Mackenzie is heading to FX to helm a new crime series after making a string of feature films such as the robbery thriller “Hell or High Water,” the Scottish historical epic “The Outlaw King,” and the prison drama “Starred Up.”

Read More: David Mackenzie Talks Re-Editing ‘Outlaw King,’ Shrugs Off ‘Braveheart’ Comparisons, & Thinks Theaters Are Overrated [Interview]

A report from Variety has revealed that Mackenzie will bring his extensive directing experience to FX’s “Under The Banner of Heaven” with actors Andrew Garfield (“Red Riding 1974,” “The Social Network“) and Daisy Edgar-Jones (“Normal People,” “War of The Worlds“) taking key roles on the project.

Continue reading ‘Hell Or High Water’s David Mackenzie To Direct Andrew Garfield & Daisy Edgar-Jones In FX Crime Series ‘Under The Banner Of Heaven’ at The Playlist.

Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones will star in the FX on Hulu limited series “Under the Banner of Heaven,” Variety has learned.

The series hails from write Dustin Lance Black and is based on the Jon Krakauer novel of the same name. In the series, a devout detective’s faith is tested as he investigates a brutal murder that seems to be connected to an esteemed Utah family’s spiral into Lds fundamentalism and their distrust in the government.

Garfield will star as Pyre, an Lds elder who is committed to his Church and family but begins to question some of the Church’s teachings through his contact with a suspected murderer. Edgar-Jones stars as Brenda, a young faithful Mormon who is the victim of a brutal murder.

Black created the series and will serve as an executive producer along with Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Samie Kim Falvey and Anna Culp for Imagine Television.

Max Winkler’s “Jungleland” is a throwback to the kind of character-driven, road movies that Hollywood hasn’t made much since the glory days of the 1970s moviemaking.

It’s the story of two drifter brothers who are so desperate to escape their dead-end lives that they accept an offer to ferry a young woman (Jessica Barden) across the country to a degenerate criminal. The film, which opens Friday, stars Jack O’Connell as Walter “Lion” Kaminsky, a bare-knuckle boxer, and Charlie Hunnam as Stanley Kaminsky, his corner-man and manager, who is better at plunging the family into debt than scoring big paydays.

On the eve of the film’s release, Winkler spoke to Variety about the movies that inspired “Jungleland,” why “King Arthur” convinced him to cast Hunnam as the down-and-out Stanley, and his go-for-broke effort to score the rights to a Bruce Springsteen song.

What drew you to this story?...

For some, he will always be Pukey Nicholls, the troubled skinhead from Shane Meadows’ This Is England. For other equally early adopters across the pond, he’s James “Cookie Monster” Cook in the British teen show Skins. Maybe you discovered him in the intense prison drama Starred Up, standing toe to toe with Ben Mendelsohn, or first noticed him as the lead in Unbroken, Angelina Jolie’s biopic on lost-at-sea Olympian Louis Zamperini that was supposed to kick Jack O’Connell up the A-list. Oh, and the wounded outlaw in Netflix’s Western miniseries Godless?...

Credits from those selected include ‘Bodyguard’, ‘The Personal History Of David Copperfield’.

Bafta has named 21 actors for the latest edition of its Elevate scheme, aimed at supporting those from under-represented groups in progressing to the next stage of their career.

Those selected include Anjli Mohindra, whose breakthrough role was as would-be terrorist Nadia in the BBC’s Bodyguard last year.

Also chosen is Anthony Welsh, whose film credits include Starred Up, Journeyman, and The Personal History Of David Copperfield, with TV roles in Fleabag and Pure.

Micky McGregor is also among those selected and has credits including Ken Loach’s I,...

Control, Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh to make feature directorial debut.

UK actor Jack O’Connell is in advanced talks to star as Happy Mondays lead singer Shaun Ryder in the musical biopic Twisting My Melon, which Stuart Ford’s Agc Studios is introducing to buyers at Tiff.

Agc will fully finance and co-produce the project, based on Ryder’s autobiography of the same name that charts his life and role in ushering in the “Madchester” sound in the late 1980s and early 1990s that embraced hedonism and rave culture. O’Connell will perform Happy Mondays songs in the film.

The cast also includes Catalina Sandino Moreno, Conor Swindells, Will Kemp, and Tommy McDonnell.

Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones) and Tom Cullen (Downton Abbey) have been signed to star in UK thriller Barbarians, which started shooting this week in Surrey and is the feature directing debut of Charlie Dorfman, who also wrote the script.

The cast also includes Catalina Sandino Moreno (The Affair), newcomer Ines Spiridonov, Conor Swindells (Sex Education), Will Kemp (Reign), and Tommy McDonnell (Starred Up).

Rheon, Cullen and Swindells were Screen Stars of Tomorrow in 2010, 2011 and 2017 respectively.

Director Dorfman has worked as an executive producer on the...

The cast also includes Catalina Sandino Moreno, Conor Swindells, Will Kemp, and Tommy McDonnell.

Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones) and Tom Cullen (Downton Abbey) have been signed to star in UK thriller Barbarians, which started shooting this week in Surrey.

The project is the feature directing debut of Charlie Dorfman, who also wrote the script and is chairman of one of the film’s financiers, Media Finance Capital (Mfc).

The cast also includes Catalina Sandino Moreno (The Affair), newcomer Ines Spiridonov, Conor Swindells (Sex Education), Will Kemp (Reign), and Tommy McDonnell (Starred Up).

Rheon, Cullen and Swindells were Screen Stars of Tomorrow in 2010, 2011 and 2017 respectively.

Exclusive: Former Nightflyers star David Ajala is boarding CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery as a new series regular for the upcoming third season of the sci-fi drama. Ajala, the biggest new cast addition for next season, will play a new character, Cleveland Booker (aka Book). He will be introduced Saturday during the Star Trek Universe panel at the San Diego Comic-Con. He will join on stage Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green and executive producers Alex Kurtzman, Michelle Paradise and Heather Kadin.

Smart and capable, Ajala’s Book has a natural charisma and devil-may-care attitude that tends to get him into trouble as often as it gets him out. You can see him in character in the photo above.

The second season of Star Trek: Discovery launched in January with the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery joining forces with Captain Christopher Pike to investigate seven red signals and the...

Jack O’Connell is a British-Irish actor best known for his roles in the films Starred Up, Unbroken and Money Monster. He recently starred in Trial by Fire, a controversial biopic about an American sentenced to the death penalty in 2004. Jack O’Connell Bio: Early Life, Family, Education Jack O’Connell was born in Derby, Derbyshire, England, […]

The post Jack O’Connell Bio: In His Own Words – Video Exclusive, News, Photos appeared first on uInterview.

Total of 842 people from 59 countries invited by AMPAS.

This year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has invited 842 people from 59 countries to join its membership.

The strong cohort of international film names includes two producers of Cold War, the directors of Dogman, Stan & Ollie, and I Am Not A Witch, and various executives from different facets of the industry.

International executives invited include Eric Lagesse of French sales and distribution outfit Pyramide Films, London-based Netflix development and acquisitions executive Funa Maduka, Michele Halberstadt of French distribution and sales outfit Arp Selection, Lebanese producer and distributor Georges Schoucair of Abbout Productions,...

Peter Mullan plays golfer Tom Morris Photo: Courtesy of Edinburgh Film Festival

Peter Mullan, long considered to be one of the most important figures in the Scottish film industry, was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this week, it has been announced. The star of films like The Vanishing and Tyrannosaur, and director of Neds, is one of the latest crop of stars to join the Oscar-voting body, alongside younger Scot Jack O'Connell, who burst onto screens in 2013 with Starred Up.

Other actors invited to join the Academy this year include Lady Gaga, who took home this year's Best Original Song Oscar and was praised for her performance in A Star Is Born, Elizabeth Moss of The Handmaid's Tale, Rocketman's Jamie Bell, veteran actor Kenneth Cranham and young Spider-Man: Homecoming star Tom Holland.

The directors' category saw invitations for Out Of Blue's Carol Morley and Stan & Ollie's.

This year, the motion picture academy made history by inviting an equal number of women and men to join. In all, 842 film professionals were invited to become part of the organization that hands out the Oscars. Compare this intake to the totals of the previous five years: a record 928 in 2018; 774 in 2017; 683 in 2016; 322 in 2015; and 271 in 2014.

While Academy Awards nominees are automatically eligible for consideration, the rest of the candidates must go through a fairly cumbersome process. A candidate must meet certain branch specific requirements before even being eligible.

For example, actors must “have a minimum of three theatrical feature film credits, in all of which the roles played were scripted roles, one of which was released in the past five years, and all of which are of a caliber that reflect the high standards of the Academy.” For writers, directors and producers they need have just two of these credits.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 842 new members in their annual effort to bring in new blood to the organization that hands out the Oscars. This is down from the 928 members invited last year, but 50% of this year’s number are women, inching closer to the goal of creating an even playing field between female and male members. It marks an 7% increase in female members from 2015 to an overall 32% of the entire organization.

A total of 29% of the new class revealed Monday are people of color, marking an 8% increase in that statistic since 2015. Among the new invitees, 21 are already Oscar winners and 82 are past Oscar nominees.

New members among the acting branch include recent Best Song winner Lady Gaga, who is also being invited to the music branch; Sterling K. Brown; Claire Foy; and actors ranging in age from 23-year-old Spider-Man Tom Holland to the (shamefully) never-nominated legendary French star,...

Cameron Todd Willingham burned his three daughters alive, at least according to the state of Texas, which sentenced him to death in 1992. In the decades since, Willingham’s trial has been relitigated in the court of public opinion by the New Yorker, whose evisceration of testimony by arson experts gives “Trial by Fire” its title. The case has also become a cause célèbre for justice advocates sifting through convictions to find a case where the American government executed an innocent man — Willingham was put to death in 2004 — a travesty they would take all the way to the Supreme Court.

Edward Zwick’s take on the tragedy is a linear biopic, a film more comfortable with time stamps than in burning down the judicial system. “Trial by Fire” opens two days before Christmas in Corsicana, Texas, as 23-year-old Willingham (Jack O’Connell) flees his flaming house, barefoot, shirtless and screaming for...

A perpetually alarming issue that merits interminable outrage, wrongful convictions are not news in this country. Innocent people accused of a crime, or at least individuals not dutifully proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, face a voracious system where circumstantial variables sway the law more than facts do.

This failure of justice resulting in lives lost to unearned sentences is so pervasive that countless movies (both scripted and non-fiction) populate their own subgenre chock-full of these dispiriting cases. In “Trial by Fire,” the latest fiction adapted from real-life tragedy, despair is amplified by the state of Texas’ fondness of fatal reprisal and right-leaning attitudes.

Translated into screenplay form by Geoffrey Fletcher (“Precious”) from David Grann’s identically titled article for The New Yorker, director Edward Zwick’s tremendously cast but inadequately realized drama details how Cameron Todd Willingham went from being a lousy husband (yet loving father) to getting branded...

Roadside Attractions has released the trailer for “Trial by Fire,” which finds Jack O’Connell back in prison — onscreen, that is. The “Starred Up” and “Unbroken” star teams up with Laura Dern in Edward Zwick’s based-on-fact drama about a death-row inmate and an unlikely ally who did her utmost to exonerate him. Watch the trailer below.

Here’s the synopsis: “‘Trial by Fire’ is the true-life Texas story of the unlikely bond between an imprisoned death row inmate (Jack O’Connell) and a mother of two from Houston (Laura Dern) who, though facing staggering odds, fights mightily for his freedom. Cameron Todd Willingham, a poor, uneducated heavy metal devotee with a violent streak and a criminal record, is convicted of arson-related triple homicide in 1992. During his 12 years on death row, Elizabeth Gilbert, an improbable ally, uncovers questionable methods and illogical conclusions in his case, and battles with the state...

Godless star Jack O’Connell is to star in the BBC’s adaptation of The North Water. Deadline understands that the British actor will play the lead role of Patrick Sumner in the series, which is written and directed by Lean on Pete and 45 Years’ Andrew Haigh, and produced by Top of the Lake producer See-Saw Films.

O’Connell’s Sumner is a disgraced ex-army surgeon who signs up as the ship’s doctor. Hoping to escape the horrors of his past, Sumner finds himself on an ill-fated journey with murderous psychopath Henry Drax, played by Colin Farrell. Sumner is in search of redemption, and his story becomes a harsh struggle for survival in the Arctic wasteland.

The series, which is being produced as three hour-long episodes and a 90-minute finale, is set in Hull and the ice floes of the Arctic in the late 1850s. It is an adaptation...

Film4 executive Sam Lavender, who oversaw films including The Favourite and The Lobster, has joined Simon Maxwell’s Endeavor-backed drama production company Motive Pictures.

Lavender, who was a Senior Commissioning Editor at the Channel 4 film division, will join Motive Pictures as Executive Producer. He will work closely with The First and Electric Dreams commissioner Maxwell to build a slate of high-end drama projects for the UK, U.S. and international markets.

As well as the Yorgos Lanthimos duo, Lavender worked on Bart Layton’s American Animals, Michael Pearce’s Beast, Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete and 45 Years, David Mackenzie’s Starred Up and Yann Demange’s ’71.

He also developed Slumdog Millionaire, Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Steve McQueen’s Shame starring Michael Fassbender. He is currently completing Justin Kurzel’s The True History of The Kelly Gang starring George Mackay and Russell Crowe,...

Motive Pictures, the new Endeavor Content-backed U.K. banner from former Channel 4 executive Simon Maxwell, has made its first major hire.

Sam Lavender, currently a senior commissioning editor at Film4, has joined the startup as executive producer and will work closely with Maxwell to build a slate of high-end drama projects for the U.K., U.S. and international markets.

Over 14 years at Film4, Lavender counts among his production credits the likes of Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite and The Lobster, Bart Layton’s American Animals, Michael Pearce’s Beast, Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete and 45 Years, David Mackenzie’s Starred Up and ...

A couple of weeks ago, The Hollywood Reporter relayed word that Matt Reeves and Warner Bros. have yet to meet with actors in preparation for the upcoming DC flick The Batman, but according to a self-declared “rumor” reported by Geeks WorldWide, the studio may at least have a wish list of stars they’d like to see as the next Caped Crusader.

Earlier this month, ex-Batman Ben Affleck seemingly confirmed the old rumor that Warner is on the lookout for a younger actor to fill his shoes, and sure enough, the five names that Gww lists are all in the 26 to 29 age range. First of all, you have Jack Reynor from Macbeth and Transformers: Age of Extinction. Then there’s Alexander Ludwig from The Hunger Games and Vikings. After that is Starred Up’s Jack O’Connell, a regular fixture on these rumored shortlists. But if you’re looking...