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Back in July, it was announced that Oscar-winner Troy Kotsur (Coda) had signed on to star in the horror film Primate. Since then, Johnny Sequoyah (pictured above) of Dexter: New Blood has signed on to star in the film with Kostur – and now, as the project draws closer to production, Deadline has revealed that ten more actors have joined the cast. Here’s the line-up: Jessica Alexander (Amadeus), Victoria Wyant (My Fault: London), Benjamin Cheng (d’Illusion: The Houdini Musical), Gia Hunter (Sherlock and Daughter), Miguel Torres Umba (National Theatre co-production Kin), Kae Alexander (Ready Player One), Tienne Simon (Grime Kids), Charlie Mann (Lazarus), newcomer Amina Abdi, and Albert Magashi (National Theatre Live: Dear England).

Unfortunately, we’re not able to tell you anything about the roles these actors will be playing, because all plot and character details are currently being kept under wraps.

At the helm of Primate is genre regular Johannes Roberts,...

BBC has ordered a wide variety of new dramas and among them, a TV adaptation of the National Theatre’s Dear England.

Featured image credit: Marc Brennar

The BBC unveiled its 12 upcoming drama commissions yesterday (21st February), as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Among those is a commission from one of the most prolific – and trendy – studios of our time, A24.

BBC has asked A24 to adapt Kaliane Bradley’s highly anticipated debut novel The Ministry Of Time into a six-part series for BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Alice Birch will be in charge of the adaptation and A24 will distribute the series internationally.

The Ministry Of Time will follow Commander Graham Gore who’s swept from his 1845 reality to the present in a time travel experiment. He’s then stuck in a flat share with a woman and has to quickly learn his way around the contemporary world.

Also...

Raine Allen Miller’s debut feature Rye Lane, Adjani Salmon’s Dreaming Whilst Black, and Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical were among the top winners at the sixth edition of the CDG Casting Awards. Scross down for the full list of winners.

Kharmel Cochrane picked up the Best Casting in an Independent Film award for her work on Rye Lane. Dreaming Whilst Black landed the Best Casting in a TV Comedy Series award for Heather Basten, Peter Noden, and Fran Cattaneo, and Louise Kiely won Best Casting in a Film for The Banshees of Inisherin.

High-profile titles that missed out on honors include Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, which was nominated for Best Casting in a Film alongside Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn. Kharmel Cochrane cast Saltburn and also popped in the noms for Best Casting in a Commercial for her work on Vanish ‘Me, My Autism & I.

The awards were...

The Boiling Point TV series, The Banshees of Inisherin, Rye Lane and Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical are among the U.K. Casting Directors’ Guild Awards winners for 2024.

The sixth CDG Casting Awards, handed out Wednesday evening in London, also honored the likes of the theater play Dear England, a TV adaptation of which Sky has just unveiled.

Competing for the awards were productions that premiered between Sept. 1, 2022 and Dec. 31, 2023 and they were selected as nominees by members of the guild. The Casting Directors’ Guild represents casting directors in the film, television, theater and commercials industries in the U.K. and Ireland.

Its awards celebrate “the incredible work achieved by casting teams across film, television, theater and commercials,” in partnership with global casting platform Spotlight.

“Casting directors are often the unsung storytellers of the industry. Their vision and skills that help orchestrate an ensemble of characters bring a script to life in every medium,...

The BBC has unveiled its biggest drama slate in years featuring a TV version of James Graham play Dear England starring Joseph Fiennes from The Crown producer Left Bank, Sex Education star Aimee Lou Wood’s debut writing project and a Rebecca Hall-starrer from Poor Things maker Element.

Unveiled at a glitz London do for press and producers, the 12-strong roster, which features some of Britain’s best and brightest talents, is the first from new Drama Director Lindsay Salt, who took over from A24’s Piers Wenger 18 months ago.

Scroll down for the full slate below, which features an adaptation of Sherwood creator Graham’s Dear England about the England soccer manager Gareth Southgate – the play of which has taken London by storm and recently transferred to the West End. Fiennes (The Handmaid’s Tale) will reprise his role as Southgate and Graham will pen the TV version, which...

The BBC have unveiled a new slate of star-studded dramas including the TV adaptation of James Graham’s football play “Dear England” starring Joseph Fiennes, a new co-pro with “Euphoria” producer A24 and the screenwriting debut from “Sex Education” star Aimee Lou Wood.

Director of BBC Drama Lindsay Salt revealed the 12-strong slate – which adds up to 66 hours of top TV – at a press event in London, U.K. on Wednesday evening. It includes two more series of Belfast-based police drama “Blue Lights.”

“Inflation, content and platform saturation, streamer retrenchment, the writers’ strike… It’s all fed a serious slowdown,” Salt said as she unveiled the diverse slate. “Five years ago, everyone was willing to make brave choices, to experiment, to try something a little unorthodox. I worry that risk-taking is becoming a dirty word… And that, in less than a decade, the industry might be moving from ‘peak TV...

Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love leads the UK and Ireland box office releases this weekend with 687 locations while Sony’s Madame Web has 572.

The Jamaican musician’s biopic is among 2024’s biggest releases in the UK and Ireland so far, eclipsing the distributor’s January release of Mean Girls which opened in 647 venues. Event cinema release Dear England still holds the overall record after releasing in 716 UK venues through National Theatre Live.

Bob Marley: One Life is directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green and stars Kingsley Ben-Adir as the Reggae icon, exploring his rise to fame and eventual death in...

Barbie, Saltburn and The Banshees of Inisherin are among the nominees at the UK’s sixth CDG Casting Awards.

Lucy Bevan, Olivia Grant (associate), Lucy Downes (assistant) are nominated in Best Casting in a Film for Barbie, with Kharmel Cochrane (Saltburn), Louise Kiley (Banshees of Inisherin), Kahleen Crawford, Carla Morris & Eliza Heslop (All of Us Strangers) and Jessie Frost (Triangle of Sadness) providing the competition.

In the Best Casting in a TV Drama Series category, Nina Gold is nominated three times, for Andor and Slow Horses Seasons 2 and 3, competing against Shaheen Baig, Jonny Boutwood and Carolyn McLeod for Boiling Point and Robert Sterne and Kate Bone for The Crown.

In the TV Comedy category, Heather Basten, casting execs for Dreaming Whilst Black, Extraordinary, Motherland, Sex Education Season 4 and Ted Lasso Season 3 are up for awards. In the Limited or Single Series race are casting execs from A Small Light, Black Mirror Season 6, Somewhere Boy,...

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (Jan 26-28)Total gross to dateWeek 1. Mean Girls (Paramount) £1.5m £5.5m 2 2. Wonka (Warner Bros) £1m £59.8m 8 3. All Of Us Strangers (Disney) £1m £1.2m 1 4. Anyone But You (Sony) £817,810 £8.4m 5 5. Poor Things (Disney) £690,000 £5.1m 3

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.27

Andrew Haigh’s All Of Us Strangers scored an excellent £1m opening at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend as Mean Girls held top spot.

Paramount’s Mean Girls added £1.5m – a 40% drop that was soft enough for a second weekend atop the charts. The musical comedy is now up to £5.5m, and will overtake the £5.7m total of...

Event cinema title Dear England is the widest new release at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, playing in 716 UK venues through National Theatre Live.

The play first screened in 694 venues yesterday (Thursday 25), grossing £541,000 with several venues still to report. As well as cinemas, it is screening in many non-cinema venues such as community centres and village halls.

Dear England is a recording of James Graham’s play, following the fortunes of the England men’s football team across three tournaments: the 2018 World Cup, the 2020 European Championships, and the 2022 World Cup.

Directed by Rupert Goold and starring Joseph Fiennes as England manager Gareth Southgate,...

Event cinema title Dear England is the widest new release at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, playing in around 800 UK cinemas through National Theatre Live.

The play first screened in 694 cinemas yesterday (Thursday 25), grossing £541,000 with several venues still to report. The exact weekend location number is to be confirmed; should it be above the 777 sites of James Bond film No Time To Die from 2021, it would be the widest opening ever in UK-Ireland cinemas.

Dear England is a recording of James Graham’s play, following the fortunes of the England men’s football team across three tournaments: the 2018 World Cup,...

Several independent cinemas across the UK are screening the finale of the second series of BBC’s hit reality show The Traitors tonight.

Birmingham’s Mockingbird Cinema, London’s Catford Mews, Ealing Project and Reading Biscuit Factory are showing the 70-minute final episode of the popular series in which contestants must complete various challenges while figuring out who among them is a ‘faithful’ or a ‘traitor’.

“It’s like the World Cup of television programmes,” said Mockingbird Cinema’s director and programmer Lee Nabbs. “It’s always great to watch stuff with a crowd and I think The Traitors is...

Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (Jan 19-21) Total gross to date Week 1. Mean Girls (Paramount) £2.5m £3.2m 1 2. Wonka (Warner Bros) £1.7m £58.4m 7 3. Poor Things (Disney) £1.1m £3.7m 2 4. Anyone But You (Sony) £1.1m £7m 4 5. One Life (Warner Bros) £857,500 £7.5m 3

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.27

Paramount’s musical comedy Mean Girls has grossed £2.5m on its opening session, ending the six-week run of Wonka atop the UK-Ireland box office.

Playing in 647 sites, Mean Girls took a £3,864 location average. This is up on the £1.4m opening of the original Mean Girls from 2004, at a £3,829 average.

Directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr.,...