Avid Shakespeare buffs might already be familiar with Rosaline. She’s not technically in “Romeo and Juliet,” but her name is briefly mentioned in the Bard’s tragedy all the same as an early romantic interest of Romeo Montague. Remember the original lover he follows into a party thrown by his family’s notorious adversaries, the Capulets, only to be struck by the sight of her cousin Juliet? Charming and witty despite being tidily formulaic and a little too tame, Karen Maine’s “Rosaline” delightfully assumes the unsung cousin’s perspective in Renaissance Italy, invading the era with a contemporary tongue and attitude amplified by stringy covers of modern tunes like “All by Myself” and “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love).”
Considering countless modernized costume dramas and TV shows in the vein of “Bridgerton,” “Dickinson” and Lena Dunham’s nifty medieval coming-of-ager “Catherine Called Birdy” — not to mention iconic ’90s...
Considering countless modernized costume dramas and TV shows in the vein of “Bridgerton,” “Dickinson” and Lena Dunham’s nifty medieval coming-of-ager “Catherine Called Birdy” — not to mention iconic ’90s...
- 10/11/2022
- by Tomris Laffly
- Variety Film + TV
When it comes to recreating the distant past onscreen, all we can really do is guess at how things looked based on what evidence is left behind. Our imagination of medieval and medievalist settings are in large part based on the wind-blasted shells of castles and the arch stonework of cathedrals, which means that, whether you’re in King’s Landing or King Henry’s court, all too often the medieval world is nasty, brutal, and short on color. It’s gray and black and occasionally scorched by firelight, as if nobody worked in primary colors until Da Vinci.
But looking at the time period this way is a little bit like extrapolating what an animal looks like based just on its bones — you miss the things that actually give it shape and character and life. Among the many virtues of “Catherine Called Birdy” is that Lena Dunham’s adaptation...
But looking at the time period this way is a little bit like extrapolating what an animal looks like based just on its bones — you miss the things that actually give it shape and character and life. Among the many virtues of “Catherine Called Birdy” is that Lena Dunham’s adaptation...
- 9/23/2022
- by Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
Lena Dunham directs the Medieval comedic drama Catherine Called Birdy. The film is an adaptation of the book by the same name by Karen Kushman and stars Bella Ramsey, Andrew Scott, and Billie Piper.
A Catherine Called Birdy begins toward the end of the 13th century, and this is where the exposition begins. Catherine (Bella Ramsey) describes her life, friends, and family. Her father, Sir Rollo (Andrew Scott), and mother, Lady Aislinn (Billie Piper) of Stonebridge, have three children and one on the way. Her older brothers follow different paths. Edward (Archie Renaux) is a monk, and Robert (Dean-Charles Chapman) wants to be a knight. Catherine’s relationship with her parents is a strained one. She’s a 14-year-old girl who plays by her own rules, likes to break the law, and get dirty. Her mother wants her to be more ladylike, while her father is counting down the days...
A Catherine Called Birdy begins toward the end of the 13th century, and this is where the exposition begins. Catherine (Bella Ramsey) describes her life, friends, and family. Her father, Sir Rollo (Andrew Scott), and mother, Lady Aislinn (Billie Piper) of Stonebridge, have three children and one on the way. Her older brothers follow different paths. Edward (Archie Renaux) is a monk, and Robert (Dean-Charles Chapman) wants to be a knight. Catherine’s relationship with her parents is a strained one. She’s a 14-year-old girl who plays by her own rules, likes to break the law, and get dirty. Her mother wants her to be more ladylike, while her father is counting down the days...
- 9/11/2022
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Stars: Vince Vaughn, Kathryn Newton, Celeste O’Connor, Misha Osherovich, Katie Finneran, Dana Drori | Written by Michael Kennedy, Christopher Landon | Directed by Christopher Landon
Freaky – a cross between Friday the 13th and Freaky Friday (the two most famous Fridays in film) sounds like an engaging concept; but when put to screen it’s more fun, gruesome and surprisingly entertaining than I ever imagined it could be.
Director Christopher Landon is best known for his slasher take on the 90s classic Groundhog Day with his 2017 film Happy Death Day. Now he is back and this time he’s taken the 70s classic Freaky Friday, starring Barbara Harris and Jodi Foster (or you may be more familiar with the 2003 remake starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan), and again Landon is adding that slasher touch. The concept is the same as before, a good old classic body swap. Vince Vaughn is the Blissfield Butcher,...
Freaky – a cross between Friday the 13th and Freaky Friday (the two most famous Fridays in film) sounds like an engaging concept; but when put to screen it’s more fun, gruesome and surprisingly entertaining than I ever imagined it could be.
Director Christopher Landon is best known for his slasher take on the 90s classic Groundhog Day with his 2017 film Happy Death Day. Now he is back and this time he’s taken the 70s classic Freaky Friday, starring Barbara Harris and Jodi Foster (or you may be more familiar with the 2003 remake starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan), and again Landon is adding that slasher touch. The concept is the same as before, a good old classic body swap. Vince Vaughn is the Blissfield Butcher,...
- 7/7/2021
- by Alex Ginnelly
- Nerdly
Girls creator and star Lena Dunham is gearing up to shoot longtime passion project Catherine, Called Birdy in the UK.
Dunham has scripted and will direct the film which will follow the adventures of a teenage girl in Medieval England as she navigates through life and tries to avoid the arranged marriages her father maps out for her.
UK powerhouse Working Title is producing with Joe Wallett (Emma) and Dunham’s banner Good Thing Going. Rebecca and Pet Sematary DoP Laurie Rose is also aboard.
According to online casting calls, the coming-of-age comedy is aiming to shoot between March and May 2021, including at locations in Shropshire, Wales and Gloucester. There’s no word yet on lead casting but we hear the script is a fun one.
The story is adapted from Karen Cushman’s well-received children’s novel from 1994. Published in diary format, the poignant and funny book won the...
Dunham has scripted and will direct the film which will follow the adventures of a teenage girl in Medieval England as she navigates through life and tries to avoid the arranged marriages her father maps out for her.
UK powerhouse Working Title is producing with Joe Wallett (Emma) and Dunham’s banner Good Thing Going. Rebecca and Pet Sematary DoP Laurie Rose is also aboard.
According to online casting calls, the coming-of-age comedy is aiming to shoot between March and May 2021, including at locations in Shropshire, Wales and Gloucester. There’s no word yet on lead casting but we hear the script is a fun one.
The story is adapted from Karen Cushman’s well-received children’s novel from 1994. Published in diary format, the poignant and funny book won the...
- 2/2/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”
That haunting line opened Daphne Du Maurier’s treasured 1938 romantic thriller “Rebecca,” which was published in 1938. Lauded by critics, it quickly became a best-seller and has been in print ever since. And for good reason.
Du Maurier wraps readers around her little finger with this addictive tale of a timid young woman-her name is never mentioned-who meets and falls in love with an enigmatic wealthy widower, Maxim de Winter, while in Monte Carlo working as a paid companion to the obnoxious American, Mrs. Van Hopper. Max and the young woman soon fall in love. They marry and he takes her home to his gothic estate Manderley run with an iron-fist by the tightly wound housekeeper Mrs. Danvers who is obsessed with the late, charismatic Rebecca, the late wife of Maxim.
Two years after its publication, “Gone with the Wind” producer David O. Selznick...
That haunting line opened Daphne Du Maurier’s treasured 1938 romantic thriller “Rebecca,” which was published in 1938. Lauded by critics, it quickly became a best-seller and has been in print ever since. And for good reason.
Du Maurier wraps readers around her little finger with this addictive tale of a timid young woman-her name is never mentioned-who meets and falls in love with an enigmatic wealthy widower, Maxim de Winter, while in Monte Carlo working as a paid companion to the obnoxious American, Mrs. Van Hopper. Max and the young woman soon fall in love. They marry and he takes her home to his gothic estate Manderley run with an iron-fist by the tightly wound housekeeper Mrs. Danvers who is obsessed with the late, charismatic Rebecca, the late wife of Maxim.
Two years after its publication, “Gone with the Wind” producer David O. Selznick...
- 10/22/2020
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
It takes a certain amount of cojones to remake a movie by Alfred Hitchcock, especially one that nabbed the Academy Award for Best Picture and remains a stone cold classic some 80 years after it first came out. But that’s what British director Ben Wheatley has done with Rebecca, albeit with a film (his first for Netflix) that’s as much a new adaptation of the 1938 Daphne du Maurier novel as it a remake of the master’s Gothic melodrama.
Wheatley is no stranger to risky filmmaking–his resolutely indie resume so far includes extremely unsettling horror (The Kill List), genuinely weird psychedelic experimentation (A Field in England), disturbing dystopian sci-fi (High-Rise), and darkly comedic yet hyper-violent crime thrillers (Sightseers and Free Fire). His biggest risk here, of course, is having his work compared to a landmark from one of film’s most iconic directors. Yet he largely manages to pull off the attempt,...
Wheatley is no stranger to risky filmmaking–his resolutely indie resume so far includes extremely unsettling horror (The Kill List), genuinely weird psychedelic experimentation (A Field in England), disturbing dystopian sci-fi (High-Rise), and darkly comedic yet hyper-violent crime thrillers (Sightseers and Free Fire). His biggest risk here, of course, is having his work compared to a landmark from one of film’s most iconic directors. Yet he largely manages to pull off the attempt,...
- 10/15/2020
- by Don Kaye
- Den of Geek
Leave it to an audacious filmmaker like Ben Wheatley to put forth a new adaptation of the novel Rebecca here in 2020. Obviously, the most famous adaptation is the Alfred Hitchcock version from 1940, which might have intimidated many a storyteller. Not Wheatley, who has his version coming to Netflix in late October. In advance of the movie dropping next month, a first Trailer has debuted, showcasing the look and style that the unique director is bringing to the project, as well as his leads Armie Hammer, Lily James, and Kristin Scott Thomas. You can see that Trailer at the bottom of this post, but first…yes, you guessed correctly. We’re going to discuss it a little bit! The film is a mix of drama and thriller, made famous by Hitchcock’s adaptation of the novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. The official synopsis is as follows: “After...
- 9/8/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Making a tearjerker that still has a sense of fun to it is a fairly difficult proposition. After all, you want the emotions to seem real, so the playfulness can’t overwhelm it, or frankly, vice-versa. While the back half of Summerland goes for emotions and tears more than the first part, which is lighter and almost comic, the film manages to work on its own merits. To be sure, a main reason why the movie works is Gemma Arterton, who gets to shine in a juicy lead role. Now playing, it’s an option that adults longing for some solid drama can really sink their teeth into. The film is a drama, set during World War II. Alice (Arterton) is a reclusive writer, living a rather solitary life in a small town on the seaside cliffs of Southern England. The war rages, but she’s largely unconcerned, just focused...
- 8/1/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
In a cozy, seaside cottage in Kent, with the winds of WWII still at a distance, Alice Bloom (Gemma Arterton) bangs out academic theses about folklore on her typewriter and launches verbal attacks on neighbors who dare to interrupt her work. The locals have the swaggering, chainsmoking Alice pegged as a witch who’s probably signaling the Nazis from her perch over the white cliffs. The Brit villagers are not even half right — but oh, does she have anger to spare. Her reveries concern a torrid affair with Vera ((Gugu Mbatha-Raw...
- 7/29/2020
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
It’s 1975 and Alice Lamb, played by Penelope Wilton, is cussing at her typewriter and telling cute children to “bugger off.” When we cut back to the same typewriter some 30 years earlier, Alice, now played by Gemma Arterton, is again shouting at local kids and pointedly buying for herself the rationed chocolate bar another saucer-eyed moppet so desires. “Summerland,” the amiable debut feature from UK theater director and playwright Jessica Swale, works hard in its opening 10 minutes to convey the irascible Alice’s unlikability, and then even harder over the following 89 to unpick that impression. It’s all very good-natured but it does amount to a zero-sum game.
We’re on the outskirts of a small coastal village in Kent, in a picturesquely scuffed cottage in the dunes. Alice (Arterton) lives here alone, writing “academic theses” on folklore and investigating the “island in the sky” phenomenon, a kind of Fata Morgana...
We’re on the outskirts of a small coastal village in Kent, in a picturesquely scuffed cottage in the dunes. Alice (Arterton) lives here alone, writing “academic theses” on folklore and investigating the “island in the sky” phenomenon, a kind of Fata Morgana...
- 7/27/2020
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
It has been seventy-five years since World War II ended and there appears to be no shortage of new tales to tell. Enter Summerland, written and directed by Jessica Swale. The film concerns Alice (Gemma Arterton), a hermetic writer living in Southern England. She’s hated by the entire community, and hates them right back. The legend Tom Courtenay offers up some pitch-perfect facial expressions as the principal of the local school.
As the war tears apart London, a group of children arrive in the seaside town to be temporarily adopted for their safety. Alice is perturbed to find she has apparently volunteered to take care of one: a boy named Frank, played by Lucas Bond. Before long, of course, the pair grow comfortable with one another.
Arterton has been an under-appreciated performer for much of her career. Too often do her stellar turns come in under-seen fare, such as Tamara Drewe and Byzantium.
As the war tears apart London, a group of children arrive in the seaside town to be temporarily adopted for their safety. Alice is perturbed to find she has apparently volunteered to take care of one: a boy named Frank, played by Lucas Bond. Before long, of course, the pair grow comfortable with one another.
Arterton has been an under-appreciated performer for much of her career. Too often do her stellar turns come in under-seen fare, such as Tamara Drewe and Byzantium.
- 7/27/2020
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Author Stephen King is arguably one of the most well known and beloved writers. Often called the ‘King of Horror’, his work is familiar to countless audiences (be they avid readers or not) and he is the living author with the most film adaptations to his name. So it is no new event to see a King story being adapted for the screen again but after Andrés Muschietti’s record-setting success with 2017’s It: Chapter One (the eagerly awaited Chapter Two lands later this year), there is no doubt as feverish as ever a taste for some of the author’s stories to make the jump to the big screen. However, this is not the first time his 1983 novel Pet Sematary has being adapted for film, see Mary Lambert’s 1989 feature, but the story this time around is a little different from the source and the aforementioned movie.
Sticking very...
Sticking very...
- 4/14/2019
- by Jack Bottomley
- The Cultural Post
The hottest trend in horror right now is Stephen King, and specifically, remakes of some of his seminal works. Most recently, It was a box office smash, which got the ball rolling. Now, we have a new Pet Sematary on our hands. A more efficient updating of the original film, it also makes enough changes to the story that we’re not just watching the exact same narrative play out over again. Bleak, creepy, and effective enough to recommend, it’s also not nearly as good as the early buzz out of SXSW this year suggested. It’s a decent fright flick but that’s about it. The movie is, of course, a remake of the adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name. The Creed family is looking for a slower paced life as they relocate to a small town in rural Maine from their busy Boston life.
- 4/5/2019
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer’s Pet Sematary flips the Creed family narrative, breathes delectable darkness and while Act I takes its time building backwoods tension, once the tale’s famed “incident” occurs, it’s all-aboard this speeding vessel into an undead abyss. Stephen King adaptations are thriving as of late – It and Gerald’s Game, off the top of my head – and Pet Sematary does the prolific suspense author proud. Some might balk at the “switched” narrative, but there’s so much more to embrace about a rebirthed ballet-dancing daughter and Rachel Creed’s bolstered presence. And that’s all on top of the fact that Kölsch and Widmyer *earn* their jump scares.
Sometimes dead is better – but this mean-spirited remake isn’t one of those instances.
We pick up with the Creed clan having just moved to sleepy Ludlow, Maine as an escape from Boston’s hectic madness.
Sometimes dead is better – but this mean-spirited remake isn’t one of those instances.
We pick up with the Creed clan having just moved to sleepy Ludlow, Maine as an escape from Boston’s hectic madness.
- 3/17/2019
- by Matt Donato
- We Got This Covered
For fans of Mary Lambert’s original 1989 adaptation of the beloved Stephen King book, the new remake of “Pet Sematary” is different enough to offer shock and surprises to even the most ardent of loyalists.
At its premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival, several audience members braced themselves for pivotal moments from the older movie, and then jumped or nervously laughed when their anticipation was met by a clever psych-out by directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, whose previous film, “Starry Eyes,” also played at SXSW.
The movie opens differently than its predecessor. This time, the family car door is open, and there are bloody handprints still fresh on the driver’s side window. A thick trail of blood leads from the house to outside, but there are no characters in the frame or much of a clue as to what’s happened. The film then jumps back...
At its premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival, several audience members braced themselves for pivotal moments from the older movie, and then jumped or nervously laughed when their anticipation was met by a clever psych-out by directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, whose previous film, “Starry Eyes,” also played at SXSW.
The movie opens differently than its predecessor. This time, the family car door is open, and there are bloody handprints still fresh on the driver’s side window. A thick trail of blood leads from the house to outside, but there are no characters in the frame or much of a clue as to what’s happened. The film then jumps back...
- 3/17/2019
- by Monica Castillo
- The Wrap
Stars: Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Pilou Asbæk, Mathilde Ollivier, John Magaro, Iain de Caestecker | Written by Billy Ray, Mark L. Smith | Directed by Julius Avery
[Note: With the film now out on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD, here's a reposting of our review of Overloard from its theatrical release]
Directed by Julius Avery, WWII action-horror Overlord is produced by J.J. Abrams, which explains why it has suspiciously high production values for what is essentially a rollicking slice of schlock cinema. Mixing impressive gore effects with a pleasingly high splatter factor, it’s something of a treat for genre fans.
Jovan Adepo (The Leftovers) plays Private Boyce, a recently drafted WWII soldier who’s parachuted behind enemy lines and tasked with destroying a communications tower, alongside explosives expert Ford (Wyatt “Son of Kurt” Russell), wise-cracking private Tibbet (John Magaro) and naïve war photographer Chase (Iain de Caestecker). Their mission soon takes an altogether darker turn when Boyce discovers a secret underground lab where a Nazi scientist (Erich Redman) is conducting experiments on local villagers and creating monsters with a super-serum.
[Note: With the film now out on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD, here's a reposting of our review of Overloard from its theatrical release]
Directed by Julius Avery, WWII action-horror Overlord is produced by J.J. Abrams, which explains why it has suspiciously high production values for what is essentially a rollicking slice of schlock cinema. Mixing impressive gore effects with a pleasingly high splatter factor, it’s something of a treat for genre fans.
Jovan Adepo (The Leftovers) plays Private Boyce, a recently drafted WWII soldier who’s parachuted behind enemy lines and tasked with destroying a communications tower, alongside explosives expert Ford (Wyatt “Son of Kurt” Russell), wise-cracking private Tibbet (John Magaro) and naïve war photographer Chase (Iain de Caestecker). Their mission soon takes an altogether darker turn when Boyce discovers a secret underground lab where a Nazi scientist (Erich Redman) is conducting experiments on local villagers and creating monsters with a super-serum.
- 3/14/2019
- by Matthew Turner
- Nerdly
Stars: John C. Reilly, Steve Coogan, Nina Arianda, Shirley Henderson, Stephanie Hyam, Danny Huston, Richard Cant, Susy Kane, Rufus Jones | Written by Jeff Pope | Directed by Jon S. Baird
Director Jon S. Baird’s anticipated passion project on iconic due Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, played by John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan, respectively is a delightful effulgent nuanced picture. Highlighting the iconic duo’s last rodeo of substantial relevancy in their comedy hall tour around Great Britain offers a detailed and eye-opening account of the lives and personalities on the somewhat sadly faded legacy of two comedic giants. The chaotic, yet ironically straight shaped routine with its abundance of cynosure screen presence is felt within a matter of seconds within the opening sequence with distinctive mannerisms and traits.
Cinematographer Laurie Rose with editors Úna Ní Dhonghaíle and Billy Sneddon honour and utilise the world in a submerging manner. The...
Director Jon S. Baird’s anticipated passion project on iconic due Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, played by John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan, respectively is a delightful effulgent nuanced picture. Highlighting the iconic duo’s last rodeo of substantial relevancy in their comedy hall tour around Great Britain offers a detailed and eye-opening account of the lives and personalities on the somewhat sadly faded legacy of two comedic giants. The chaotic, yet ironically straight shaped routine with its abundance of cynosure screen presence is felt within a matter of seconds within the opening sequence with distinctive mannerisms and traits.
Cinematographer Laurie Rose with editors Úna Ní Dhonghaíle and Billy Sneddon honour and utilise the world in a submerging manner. The...
- 1/11/2019
- by Jak-Luke Sharp
- Nerdly
Widely regarded as the most iconic comedy double-act in film history, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy enjoyed a hugely successful film career which saw them become household names and as instantly recognisable as Charlie Chaplin on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond. Making over 107 between 1927 and 1950 together and separately, the duo went on to entertain millions of people around the globe thanks to their inimitable wit and perfectly timed routines of double entendre and slapstick humour, until they went their separate ways under a dark cloud.
In his new film Stan & Ollie, director Jon S. Baird, tells the story of the popular duo’s variety hall tour of Britain in 1953 which came over a decade after the two former friends had decided to part ways and pursue their own film projects separately. Starring Steve Coogan and John C. Riley in the principal roles, the film is strangely reminiscent...
In his new film Stan & Ollie, director Jon S. Baird, tells the story of the popular duo’s variety hall tour of Britain in 1953 which came over a decade after the two former friends had decided to part ways and pursue their own film projects separately. Starring Steve Coogan and John C. Riley in the principal roles, the film is strangely reminiscent...
- 1/10/2019
- by Linda Marric
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Hollywood, Calif. – Produced by J.J. Abrams and directed by Julius Avery (Son of a Gun), the “wild and fantastically fun thrill fest” Overlord lands on Digital February 5, 2019 and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD February 19 from Paramount Home Media Distribution.
Embraced by critics, Overlord is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and was hailed as “wonderfully tense and truly exhilarating”. The wildly entertaining genre mash-up boasts a stellar ensemble cast, non-stop action and plenty of wild twists you have to see to believe.
Fans can go even further behind enemy lines with nearly an hour of explosive bonus material on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, Blu-ray Combo Pack or Digital*. The 4K Ultra HD disc and 4K Ultra HD Digital release** feature Dolby Vision® Hdr, which brings entertainment to life through ultra-vivid picture quality. When compared to a standard picture, Dolby Vision can deliver spectacular colors, highlights that are up to 40 times brighter,...
Embraced by critics, Overlord is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and was hailed as “wonderfully tense and truly exhilarating”. The wildly entertaining genre mash-up boasts a stellar ensemble cast, non-stop action and plenty of wild twists you have to see to believe.
Fans can go even further behind enemy lines with nearly an hour of explosive bonus material on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, Blu-ray Combo Pack or Digital*. The 4K Ultra HD disc and 4K Ultra HD Digital release** feature Dolby Vision® Hdr, which brings entertainment to life through ultra-vivid picture quality. When compared to a standard picture, Dolby Vision can deliver spectacular colors, highlights that are up to 40 times brighter,...
- 1/10/2019
- by ComicMix Staff
- Comicmix.com
“Stan & Ollie” marks the third feature for Jon S. Baird, after the 2008 racial drama “Cass” and the 2013 “Filth,” with James McAvoy as a bipolar junkie cop. There’s nothing in those earlier films similar to “Stan & Ollie,” which opens Dec. 28 in the U.S., but he proved the perfect match for the funny, sweet film about friendship.
The Scotland-born Baird admits, “On paper, I was not the logical choice for this. But I had been a huge fan since I was a kid; I used to dress up as Stan Laurel for the school dress party. And I loved the script by Jeff Pope.
“Jeff and I thought it was important to show them at height of career, but then to concentrate on the ’50s, the time of their biggest challenges.”
The film starts with a brief prologue in 1937, when comedy team Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy were at their height,...
The Scotland-born Baird admits, “On paper, I was not the logical choice for this. But I had been a huge fan since I was a kid; I used to dress up as Stan Laurel for the school dress party. And I loved the script by Jeff Pope.
“Jeff and I thought it was important to show them at height of career, but then to concentrate on the ’50s, the time of their biggest challenges.”
The film starts with a brief prologue in 1937, when comedy team Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy were at their height,...
- 12/7/2018
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
“Stan & Ollie” marks the third feature for Jon S. Baird, after the 2008 racial drama “Cass” and the 2013 “Filth,” with James McAvoy as a bipolar junkie cop. There’s nothing in those earlier films similar to “Stan & Ollie,” which opens Dec. 28 in the U.S., but he proved the perfect match for the funny, sweet film about friendship.
The Scotland-born Baird admits, “On paper, I was not the logical choice for this. But I had been a huge fan since I was a kid; I used to dress up as Stan Laurel for the school dress party. And I loved the script by Jeff Pope.
“Jeff and I thought it was important to show them at height of career, but then to concentrate on the ’50s, the time of their biggest challenges.”
The film starts with a brief prologue in 1937, when comedy team Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy were at their height,...
The Scotland-born Baird admits, “On paper, I was not the logical choice for this. But I had been a huge fan since I was a kid; I used to dress up as Stan Laurel for the school dress party. And I loved the script by Jeff Pope.
“Jeff and I thought it was important to show them at height of career, but then to concentrate on the ’50s, the time of their biggest challenges.”
The film starts with a brief prologue in 1937, when comedy team Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy were at their height,...
- 12/6/2018
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Stars: Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Pilou Asbæk, Mathilde Ollivier, John Magaro, Iain de Caestecker | Written by Billy Ray, Mark L. Smith | Directed by Julius Avery
Directed by Julius Avery, WWII action-horror Overlord is produced by J.J. Abrams, which explains why it has suspiciously high production values for what is essentially a rollicking slice of schlock cinema. Mixing impressive gore effects with a pleasingly high splatter factor, it’s something of a treat for genre fans.
Jovan Adepo (The Leftovers) plays Private Boyce, a recently drafted WWII soldier who’s parachuted behind enemy lines and tasked with destroying a communications tower, alongside explosives expert Ford (Wyatt “Son of Kurt” Russell), wise-cracking private Tibbet (John Magaro) and naïve war photographer Chase (Iain de Caestecker). Their mission soon takes an altogether darker turn when Boyce discovers a secret underground lab where a Nazi scientist (Erich Redman) is conducting experiments on local villagers and creating monsters with a super-serum.
Directed by Julius Avery, WWII action-horror Overlord is produced by J.J. Abrams, which explains why it has suspiciously high production values for what is essentially a rollicking slice of schlock cinema. Mixing impressive gore effects with a pleasingly high splatter factor, it’s something of a treat for genre fans.
Jovan Adepo (The Leftovers) plays Private Boyce, a recently drafted WWII soldier who’s parachuted behind enemy lines and tasked with destroying a communications tower, alongside explosives expert Ford (Wyatt “Son of Kurt” Russell), wise-cracking private Tibbet (John Magaro) and naïve war photographer Chase (Iain de Caestecker). Their mission soon takes an altogether darker turn when Boyce discovers a secret underground lab where a Nazi scientist (Erich Redman) is conducting experiments on local villagers and creating monsters with a super-serum.
- 11/8/2018
- by Matthew Turner
- Nerdly
Stan Laurel, the slimmer British half of Hollywood double act Laurel and Hardy, was not one to wax lyrical about the art or mystique of comedy: “You have to learn what people will laugh at, then proceed accordingly,” he said, making vaudeville performance sound altogether as methodical and prosaic as shopping for groceries. No matter how ebullient their joint mugging, Laurel and Hardy’s slapstick routines were work, not play. In “Stan & Ollie,” a gently elegiac portrayal of the pair’s final comic collaboration — a low-rent music hall tour of the U.K. and Ireland in 1953 — the physical and emotional toll of that labor finally shows through their threadbare antics. Well-rehearsed performance chemistry is merely a veneer behind which the two veterans, as tenderly played by Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly, find themselves struggling to click.
That the story of two stars once among the surest commercial bets in...
That the story of two stars once among the surest commercial bets in...
- 10/21/2018
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Neil Maskell is the standout performer in Wheatley’s drama of dysfunction, as a man inviting his family to a New Year party in the country
Ben Wheatley’s Happy New Year, Colin Burstead is a hothouse flower of misery, sprouting dozens of resentment-buds under artificially controlled conditions. It is a tense ensemble drama, with intriguing echoes of Alan Ayckbourn and Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen; Laurie Rose’s handheld camerawork is intimate and dynamic, and it is written by Wheatley himself with contributions from a really strong cast.
First among equals is the excellent Neil Maskell, who appeared in Wheatley’s 2011 breakthrough, the horror nightmare Kill List. Working with Wheatley, Maskell proved he is so much more than the geezer roles in which our industry might otherwise have confined him, and I almost wonder if, just as Leonardo DiCaprio is thought to be the acting-avatar of Christopher Nolan, and Johnny Depp...
Ben Wheatley’s Happy New Year, Colin Burstead is a hothouse flower of misery, sprouting dozens of resentment-buds under artificially controlled conditions. It is a tense ensemble drama, with intriguing echoes of Alan Ayckbourn and Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen; Laurie Rose’s handheld camerawork is intimate and dynamic, and it is written by Wheatley himself with contributions from a really strong cast.
First among equals is the excellent Neil Maskell, who appeared in Wheatley’s 2011 breakthrough, the horror nightmare Kill List. Working with Wheatley, Maskell proved he is so much more than the geezer roles in which our industry might otherwise have confined him, and I almost wonder if, just as Leonardo DiCaprio is thought to be the acting-avatar of Christopher Nolan, and Johnny Depp...
- 10/13/2018
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
In case there are any young folks out there who aren’t convinced that the Nazis were bad — shockingly, there still seem to be stragglers — here stomps Julius Avery’s World War II thriller “Overlord,” a blast of righteous rage in which a group of good American boys avenge themselves against an SS goon squad made of child torturers, corpse defilers, icon-burners, murderers, and rapists. These Germans even spit on baseballs.
“Overlord” is a jingoistic throwback to a time of moral clarity when there weren’t very fine people on both sides, adapted for an audience that likes its action movies to be structured like video games, with Private Boyce (Jovan Adepo) creeping down brick hallways like he’s in a first-person shooter, pausing to pick up clues. Novel? Not especially. “Overlord” works best as a patriotism booster shot — it’s “Inglourious Basterds” without a swizzle of irony. But at its Fantastic Fest premiere,...
“Overlord” is a jingoistic throwback to a time of moral clarity when there weren’t very fine people on both sides, adapted for an audience that likes its action movies to be structured like video games, with Private Boyce (Jovan Adepo) creeping down brick hallways like he’s in a first-person shooter, pausing to pick up clues. Novel? Not especially. “Overlord” works best as a patriotism booster shot — it’s “Inglourious Basterds” without a swizzle of irony. But at its Fantastic Fest premiere,...
- 9/23/2018
- by Amy Nicholson
- Variety Film + TV
“Overlord” invites low expectations and gleefully rises above them. Yes, this is a B-movie produced with studio resources about American soldiers battling Nazi zombies in WWII. But despite some underdeveloped characters and obvious B-movie tropes, “Overlord” goes beyond the call of duty with a riveting story that digs far deeper than this material usually goes for.
In the J.J. Abrams-produced genre hybrid, director Julius Avery takes the real-world horrors of Josef Mengele’s WWII Holocaust experiments to a more terrifying extreme: the Nazis have developed a special serum to reanimate their dead. Either by picking up deceased troopers off the side of the road, or simply kidnapping and murdering the locals, the S.S. has weaponized the villagers of an occupied town. This queasy premise sets the stage for a special kind of payoff, as a black man flips the script on these sadistic sociopaths’ final solution with a much better one.
In the J.J. Abrams-produced genre hybrid, director Julius Avery takes the real-world horrors of Josef Mengele’s WWII Holocaust experiments to a more terrifying extreme: the Nazis have developed a special serum to reanimate their dead. Either by picking up deceased troopers off the side of the road, or simply kidnapping and murdering the locals, the S.S. has weaponized the villagers of an occupied town. This queasy premise sets the stage for a special kind of payoff, as a black man flips the script on these sadistic sociopaths’ final solution with a much better one.
- 9/23/2018
- by Kalyn Corrigan
- Indiewire
If there’s going to be a late breaking Oscar contender in 2018, we may have found it. Hardly on the radar until recently, Stan & Ollie has a chance to crash the Academy Award party this year. There’s been rumors that it was one to watch, so now that we have a Trailer that dropped yesterday, it is easy to see why. Charming yet emotional, voters could go for this in a big way. We’ll discuss that shortly, and you’ll be able to see the Trailer as well. Watch out for this one, especially in terms of one specific category. You’ll see what I mean in a bit. The movie is a biopic about the legendary comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. This is the synopsis for the biographical dramedy: “The true story of Hollywood’s greatest comedy double act, Laurel and Hardy, is brought to the big screen for the first time.
- 9/19/2018
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
This new version of Rc Sherriff’s classic play about the futility and slaughter of the first world war is powerful, passionate and superbly acted
For the 100th anniversary of the first world war’s end, here is an unassumingly excellent new film version of Rc Sherriff’s classic 1928 stage play, adapted by Simon Reade and directed by Saul Dibb. It is expertly cast and really well acted: forthright, powerful, heartfelt. The dramatic action is opened out, while always conveying the essential, cramped claustrophobia of this tragic ordeal. Cinematographer Laurie Rose’s coolly observant, dynamic camerawork helps drive the dramatic momentum and the sinuous musical score by Hildur Guðnadóttir and Natalie Holt creates a growing sense of horror and dread.
Asa Butterfield plays the young Second Lieutenant Raleigh, newly arrived at the front in 1918. In all his moon-faced naivety, he asks to join C company in the trenches, because the...
For the 100th anniversary of the first world war’s end, here is an unassumingly excellent new film version of Rc Sherriff’s classic 1928 stage play, adapted by Simon Reade and directed by Saul Dibb. It is expertly cast and really well acted: forthright, powerful, heartfelt. The dramatic action is opened out, while always conveying the essential, cramped claustrophobia of this tragic ordeal. Cinematographer Laurie Rose’s coolly observant, dynamic camerawork helps drive the dramatic momentum and the sinuous musical score by Hildur Guðnadóttir and Natalie Holt creates a growing sense of horror and dread.
Asa Butterfield plays the young Second Lieutenant Raleigh, newly arrived at the front in 1918. In all his moon-faced naivety, he asks to join C company in the trenches, because the...
- 2/1/2018
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Colin You Anus shot for 11-days on the Isle of Portland in south-weat England.
Charles Dance, Hayley Squires, Sam Riley, Neil Maskell and Joe Cole are among the cast of Ben Wheatley’s latest project, purportedly titled Colin You Anus, which wrapped an 11-day shoot on Sunday (Jan 11).
Source: Kerry Brown
Ben Wheatley
Maskell is playing the titular Colin while Dance, Squires, Riley and Cole are also joined by Richard Glover (Into The Woods), Mark Monero (Free Fire), Asim Chaudry (People Just Do Nothing), Doon Mackichan (Plebs) and Peter Ferdinando (Ghost In The Shell) in the cast.
The film is being made through Wheatley’s company Rook Films with his producing collaborator Andy Starke. Following wrap, the project has moved straight into the editing suite.
The team are keeping plot details under wraps while they process the material following the rapid shoot.
A source close to the project confirmed to Screen that the film has been entirely...
Charles Dance, Hayley Squires, Sam Riley, Neil Maskell and Joe Cole are among the cast of Ben Wheatley’s latest project, purportedly titled Colin You Anus, which wrapped an 11-day shoot on Sunday (Jan 11).
Source: Kerry Brown
Ben Wheatley
Maskell is playing the titular Colin while Dance, Squires, Riley and Cole are also joined by Richard Glover (Into The Woods), Mark Monero (Free Fire), Asim Chaudry (People Just Do Nothing), Doon Mackichan (Plebs) and Peter Ferdinando (Ghost In The Shell) in the cast.
The film is being made through Wheatley’s company Rook Films with his producing collaborator Andy Starke. Following wrap, the project has moved straight into the editing suite.
The team are keeping plot details under wraps while they process the material following the rapid shoot.
A source close to the project confirmed to Screen that the film has been entirely...
- 1/23/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Have an itch to see a movie about a gunfight, the whole gunfight and nothing but the gunfight? Search no more, for Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump have the movie for you: twenty minutes of angry crooks in conference, and then seventy minutes of non-stop shootin,’ with no annoying plot context or character depth to get in the way. Just say ‘Bang Bang I shot you down,’ and then play it in a loop, ad infinitum.
Free Fire
Blu-ray
Lionsgate
2017 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date July 18, 2017 / 24.99
Starring: Sam Riley, Michael Smiley, Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Armie Hammer, Sharlto Copley, Babou Ceesay, Noah Taylor, Jack Reynor, Mark Monero, Patrick Bergin, Enzo Cilenti, Tom Davis.
Cinematography: Laurie Rose
Film Editors: Amy Jump, Ben Wheatley
Original Music: Geoff Barrow, Ben Salisbury
Written by Amy Jump, Ben Wheatley
Produced by Andy Starke
Directed by Ben Wheatley
Many critics fairly well loved Ben Wheatley...
Free Fire
Blu-ray
Lionsgate
2017 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date July 18, 2017 / 24.99
Starring: Sam Riley, Michael Smiley, Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Armie Hammer, Sharlto Copley, Babou Ceesay, Noah Taylor, Jack Reynor, Mark Monero, Patrick Bergin, Enzo Cilenti, Tom Davis.
Cinematography: Laurie Rose
Film Editors: Amy Jump, Ben Wheatley
Original Music: Geoff Barrow, Ben Salisbury
Written by Amy Jump, Ben Wheatley
Produced by Andy Starke
Directed by Ben Wheatley
Many critics fairly well loved Ben Wheatley...
- 7/4/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Exclusive: Lionsgate nabs UK rights to Saul Dibb feature.
Lionsgate UK has picked up rights to Sam Claflin war drama Journey’s End from Metro International.
The Hunger Games and Me Before You star Claflin plays the lead role in the adaptation of R.C. Sherriff’s 1928 classic stage play about trench warfare.
Co-starring are Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) Asa Butterfield (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Tom Sturridge (Far From the Madding Crowd). Saul Dibb (The Duchess) directs.
Natalie Brenner, Metro International head of sales, negotiated the deal with Nick Manzi, head of production and acquisitions, Lionsgate UK.
The film, currently in post-production, is adapted for the screen by Simon Reade (Private Peaceful).
In Journey’s End, 18-year-old new recruit Lieutenant Raleigh (Butterfield) has pulled strings to join his childhood friend and hero Captain Stanhope (Claflin) on the front line. However, Stanhope...
Lionsgate UK has picked up rights to Sam Claflin war drama Journey’s End from Metro International.
The Hunger Games and Me Before You star Claflin plays the lead role in the adaptation of R.C. Sherriff’s 1928 classic stage play about trench warfare.
Co-starring are Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) Asa Butterfield (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Tom Sturridge (Far From the Madding Crowd). Saul Dibb (The Duchess) directs.
Natalie Brenner, Metro International head of sales, negotiated the deal with Nick Manzi, head of production and acquisitions, Lionsgate UK.
The film, currently in post-production, is adapted for the screen by Simon Reade (Private Peaceful).
In Journey’s End, 18-year-old new recruit Lieutenant Raleigh (Butterfield) has pulled strings to join his childhood friend and hero Captain Stanhope (Claflin) on the front line. However, Stanhope...
- 5/18/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
It’s probably fitting that Free Fire didn’t get a fair shake at the box office, if only because it seems destined, if not conceived outright, for a spot in the “underappreciated cult classic canon.” While the film, boasting an A-list cast led by Brie Larson, would appear to be co-writer/director Ben Wheatley’s most commercial film to date, Free Fire winds up shooting its way so far through the mainstream action genre that it winds up back in arthouse territory. The ‘70s-set plot involves an arms deal in an abandoned warehouse gone horribly wrong, but the particulars aren’t especially important. What is important is that Wheatley takes just about every Die Hard-style action movie trope to its furthest limit. Remember the scenes of John McClane dragging his bloodied torso around the Nakatomi Plaza? Well, pretty much every character spends most of the movie doing that, except in far more excruciating detail.
- 5/15/2017
- MUBI
Exclusive: Independent to launch futuristic project at Cannes.
London-based producer, financier and sales outfit Independent will produce Archive, the feature debut of Moon concept designer Gavin Rothery.
The project will be introduced to buyers at Cannes, Independent previously handled sales on Duncan Jones’ sci-fi Moon, which Sony Pictures Classics released in the Us, grossing $5m.
Theo James (Divergent) will lead the cast of the futuristic tale, which follows a scientist working on a human-equivalent android who is on the verge of a significant breakthrough. However, he has a secret ulterior motive: to be reunited with his dead wife.
Independent’s Luc Roeg and Philip Herd will produce. High-Rise cinematographer Laurie Rose is attached and VFX will be handled by Double Negative.
Independent and Wme will co-represent the film in the Us.
Rothery is represented by Casarotto. Theo James is represented by Markham, Froggatt & Irwin and Wme. Independent will represent worldwide rights to the film.
Philip Herd of [link...
London-based producer, financier and sales outfit Independent will produce Archive, the feature debut of Moon concept designer Gavin Rothery.
The project will be introduced to buyers at Cannes, Independent previously handled sales on Duncan Jones’ sci-fi Moon, which Sony Pictures Classics released in the Us, grossing $5m.
Theo James (Divergent) will lead the cast of the futuristic tale, which follows a scientist working on a human-equivalent android who is on the verge of a significant breakthrough. However, he has a secret ulterior motive: to be reunited with his dead wife.
Independent’s Luc Roeg and Philip Herd will produce. High-Rise cinematographer Laurie Rose is attached and VFX will be handled by Double Negative.
Independent and Wme will co-represent the film in the Us.
Rothery is represented by Casarotto. Theo James is represented by Markham, Froggatt & Irwin and Wme. Independent will represent worldwide rights to the film.
Philip Herd of [link...
- 5/12/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
We recommend titles that influenced Ben Wheatley and more.
With his sixth feature, Ben Wheatley finally has a wide release in America. Free Fire might be his most accessible movie yet, consisting a single location and pretty much just one long action sequence. It’s basically a 90-minute third act without the first two acts getting in the way. Also it features Oscar winner Brie Larson, and who doesn’t like watching her act?
If you like what you see, then you’ll want to discover Wheatley’s other work, starting with the small crime film Down Terrace, which kicked off his career. I also recommend the following dozen movies, some of which are direct influences on Wheatley, others being similar kinds of films, and then just whatever else I had determined worthy.
The Truce Hurts (1948)
Ben Wheatley loves Tom and Jerry cartoons and has cited them as an influence on his latest movie. I...
With his sixth feature, Ben Wheatley finally has a wide release in America. Free Fire might be his most accessible movie yet, consisting a single location and pretty much just one long action sequence. It’s basically a 90-minute third act without the first two acts getting in the way. Also it features Oscar winner Brie Larson, and who doesn’t like watching her act?
If you like what you see, then you’ll want to discover Wheatley’s other work, starting with the small crime film Down Terrace, which kicked off his career. I also recommend the following dozen movies, some of which are direct influences on Wheatley, others being similar kinds of films, and then just whatever else I had determined worthy.
The Truce Hurts (1948)
Ben Wheatley loves Tom and Jerry cartoons and has cited them as an influence on his latest movie. I...
- 4/21/2017
- by Christopher Campbell
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
It’s a little bit of an understatement to say that filmmaker Ben Wheatley has not made mainstream movies so far. His films are niche items, albeit sometimes incredibly compelling ones. This week, he makes what might be his most mainstream flick possibly, an action comedy of sorts in Free Fire. Although still decidedly independent, this is like the Mexican standoff sequence in Reservoir Dogs, but if that was an entire 90 minute movie. It’s a riot of a film. A literal blast, if you will. Helping to lead the charge is Brie Larson, who seems incapable of not turning in very solid work when the camera starts rolling. She’s just dynamite. The movie centers around an arms deal gone bad. Taking place in Boston in 1978, two gangs meet in an abandoned warehouse, ostensibly to buy/sell some guns. Set in motion by middle man Ord (Armie Hammer) one...
- 4/20/2017
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Ben Wheatley's latest, Free Fire, stars Cillian Murphy, Brie Larson, Sharlto Copley and - of course - Michael Smiley. Here's our review...
Ben Wheatley is, for my money, one of the most interesting filmmakers to come out of the UK in the past 10 years. In what appears to be a bid to tackle as many genres as he can in his first decade directing features, Wheatley has turned his hand to action with his latest venture Free Fire.
Free Fire follows the events of an arms deal taking place in late 1970s Boston between Ira operatives and a South African gun runner. In one corner is Chris (Cillian Murphy) and Frank (regular Wheatley collaborator Michael Smiley) who are planning to take some M16 rifles back to Ireland with the assistance of paid for muscle Bernie (Enzo Cilenti) and Frank’s brother-in-law Stevo (Sam Riley). In the other corner is...
Ben Wheatley is, for my money, one of the most interesting filmmakers to come out of the UK in the past 10 years. In what appears to be a bid to tackle as many genres as he can in his first decade directing features, Wheatley has turned his hand to action with his latest venture Free Fire.
Free Fire follows the events of an arms deal taking place in late 1970s Boston between Ira operatives and a South African gun runner. In one corner is Chris (Cillian Murphy) and Frank (regular Wheatley collaborator Michael Smiley) who are planning to take some M16 rifles back to Ireland with the assistance of paid for muscle Bernie (Enzo Cilenti) and Frank’s brother-in-law Stevo (Sam Riley). In the other corner is...
- 3/13/2017
- Den of Geek
Exclusive: Shoot underway on adaptation of Wwi classic; Asa Butterfield, Paul Bettany, Toby Jones co-star.
The BFI has boarded production finance on director Saul Dibb’s (Suite Française) adaptation of the classic British stage play Journey’s End.
Principal photography got underway earlier this month in Cardiff and Ipswich on the feature which stars Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games) in the lead role alongside Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) Asa Butterfield (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Tom Sturridge (Far From the Madding Crowd).
Simon Reade’s adaptation of R.C. Sherriff’s 1928 play also draw’s on the latter’s novel co-written with author Vernon Bartlett. Guy de Beaujeu is producing with Reade through their production company, Fluidity Films (Private Peaceful).
#waiting for our #JourneysEnd pic.twitter.com/bh7yFjie3w
— Sam Claflin (@samclaflin) November 16, 2016
Sam Claflin tweets from the set of Journey's End.
[p...
The BFI has boarded production finance on director Saul Dibb’s (Suite Française) adaptation of the classic British stage play Journey’s End.
Principal photography got underway earlier this month in Cardiff and Ipswich on the feature which stars Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games) in the lead role alongside Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) Asa Butterfield (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Tom Sturridge (Far From the Madding Crowd).
Simon Reade’s adaptation of R.C. Sherriff’s 1928 play also draw’s on the latter’s novel co-written with author Vernon Bartlett. Guy de Beaujeu is producing with Reade through their production company, Fluidity Films (Private Peaceful).
#waiting for our #JourneysEnd pic.twitter.com/bh7yFjie3w
— Sam Claflin (@samclaflin) November 16, 2016
Sam Claflin tweets from the set of Journey's End.
[p...
- 11/28/2016
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Shoot underway on adaptation of Wwi classic; Asa Butterfield, Paul Bettany, Toby Jones co-star.
The BFI has boarded production finance on director Saul Dibb’s (Suite Française) adaptation of the classic British stage play Journey’s End.
Principal photography is underway in Cardiff and Ipswich on the feature which stars Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games) in the lead role alongside Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) Asa Butterfield (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Tom Sturridge (Far From the Madding Crowd).
Simon Reade’s adaptation of R.C. Sherriff’s 1928 play also draw’s on the latter’s novel co-written with author Vernon Bartlett. Guy de Beaujeu is producing with Reade through their production company, Fluidity Films (Private Peaceful).
Director of photography is Laurie Rose whose most recent credits include Free Fire and High Rise. The creative team includes editor Tania Reddin, production Designer...
The BFI has boarded production finance on director Saul Dibb’s (Suite Française) adaptation of the classic British stage play Journey’s End.
Principal photography is underway in Cardiff and Ipswich on the feature which stars Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games) in the lead role alongside Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) Asa Butterfield (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Tom Sturridge (Far From the Madding Crowd).
Simon Reade’s adaptation of R.C. Sherriff’s 1928 play also draw’s on the latter’s novel co-written with author Vernon Bartlett. Guy de Beaujeu is producing with Reade through their production company, Fluidity Films (Private Peaceful).
Director of photography is Laurie Rose whose most recent credits include Free Fire and High Rise. The creative team includes editor Tania Reddin, production Designer...
- 11/28/2016
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Indepedent has boarded sales on the drama is being produced by UK outfit Shoebox Films.
Gemma Arterton and Dominic Cooper will lead The Escape, a drama about a dissatisfied woman who leaves her family behind.
Dominic Savage (Love + Hate) is directing and Guy Heeley (Locke) will produce for Shoebox Films. Laurie Rose (Free Fire) has come on board as director of photography.
Independent has boarded sales and is introducing to buyers at Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 8-18).
London-based Lorton Entertainment is financing (Oasis: Supersonic, Maradona) and has taken UK distribution rights.
The film’s shoot is scheduled for October 2016 in the UK and France.
Gemma Arterton said: “The Escape will be an exploration of marriage and motherhood. It is frank, honest and unapologetically from the woman’s point of view. It will be extremely per-sonal. I look forward to embarking on it, surrounded by people I trust and who understand the intention, and to digging...
Gemma Arterton and Dominic Cooper will lead The Escape, a drama about a dissatisfied woman who leaves her family behind.
Dominic Savage (Love + Hate) is directing and Guy Heeley (Locke) will produce for Shoebox Films. Laurie Rose (Free Fire) has come on board as director of photography.
Independent has boarded sales and is introducing to buyers at Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 8-18).
London-based Lorton Entertainment is financing (Oasis: Supersonic, Maradona) and has taken UK distribution rights.
The film’s shoot is scheduled for October 2016 in the UK and France.
Gemma Arterton said: “The Escape will be an exploration of marriage and motherhood. It is frank, honest and unapologetically from the woman’s point of view. It will be extremely per-sonal. I look forward to embarking on it, surrounded by people I trust and who understand the intention, and to digging...
- 9/9/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Cinematographer Laurie Rose began his career as a feature film Dp with Down Terrace, the debut film from British director Ben Wheatley. Rose has gone on to shoot all five of Wheatley’s features, including his latest, High-Rise. The first major adaptation of a J.G. Ballard novel since David Cronenberg’s Crash, High-Rise depicts a society in all-out decay. The film is set largely in a single apartment building, where tenants’ petty squabbles and decadent parties devolve into a hellish dystopian vision of mankind at its most feral. Below, Rose discusses his love of practical effects, his career with Wheatley, and how Andrew Bujalski’s […]...
- 4/20/2016
- by Soheil Rezayazdi
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
When the 44th edition of the Festival du Nouveau Cinema announced their lineup two weeks ago, I wasn’t sure where to even begin when deciding what I should see. The festival which takes place in Montreal from October 7 to 18 is screening nearly 400 films and events in only 11 days. This includes 151 feature films and 203 short films from 68 countries – 49 world premieres, 38 North American premieres and 60 Canadian premieres. Because of it’s strong line-up, there is no possible way to see everything – so we decided to come up with a list of our ten most anticipated films — and trust me, it wasn’t easy. We will of course be covering the event once again this year, so be sure to revisit our site over the next few weeks. In the meantime, here is our 10 most anticipate films.
Arabian Nights
With a total running time of over six hours Arabian Nights is certainly...
Arabian Nights
With a total running time of over six hours Arabian Nights is certainly...
- 10/8/2015
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
If you're a fan of "The Prisoner," I have a feeling you're going to really like Ben Wheatley's "High-Rise," adapted from the J.G. Ballard novel. One of the things I learned early on about "The Prisoner" was that it is not for everyone. While I love the look of the world and the way the stories are told and the heightened sense of reality, I have seen enough people reject the entire thing outright to get that it is a particular taste. When you're talking about adapting the work of British novelist J.G. Ballard into film, you're automatically starting from a place outside the mainstream. He wasn't writing books like Michael Crichton, hoping for a film deal to turn his barely-more-than-an-outline into a big summer blockbuster. Ballard wrote end-of-the-world science-fiction and he dealt with the darkest corners of the human heart in work like "The Atrocity Exhibition" or "Crash,...
- 9/24/2015
- by Drew McWeeny
- Hitfix
High-Rise
The first photo is out of Tom Hiddleston, Luke Evans, cinematographer Laurie Rose, and director Ben Wheatley on the set of the film adaptation of J.G. Ballard's darkly satirical horror tale "High Rise". There's even a Lego version of this photo out. Click here for the actual one, and here for the Lego one.
Bond 24
"Blue is the Warmest Color" actress Lea Seydoux is rumored to be the top choice to join Daniel Craig in the still untitled 24th James Bond film.
The report comes from Schmoes Know who admit they have no idea what role she'd play be it Bond girl, villainess or a supporting character of some kind.
Lonely Island
Lonely Island, the musical comedy trio comprised of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, has reportedly just sold an untitled comedy pitch to Universal Pictures.
Judd Apatow will produce while "Hot Rod" helmers Schaffer...
The first photo is out of Tom Hiddleston, Luke Evans, cinematographer Laurie Rose, and director Ben Wheatley on the set of the film adaptation of J.G. Ballard's darkly satirical horror tale "High Rise". There's even a Lego version of this photo out. Click here for the actual one, and here for the Lego one.
Bond 24
"Blue is the Warmest Color" actress Lea Seydoux is rumored to be the top choice to join Daniel Craig in the still untitled 24th James Bond film.
The report comes from Schmoes Know who admit they have no idea what role she'd play be it Bond girl, villainess or a supporting character of some kind.
Lonely Island
Lonely Island, the musical comedy trio comprised of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, has reportedly just sold an untitled comedy pitch to Universal Pictures.
Judd Apatow will produce while "Hot Rod" helmers Schaffer...
- 8/8/2014
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
On this week's episode of The Golden Briefcase, hosts Tim and Jeremy go through their latest picks of the week, the newest DVD & Blu-ray releases and plenty more on this special episode. For the main topic of the night the guys talk with cinematographer Laurie Rose, of Ben Wheatley's Kill List, Sightseers and A Field in England. The topic was loosely based around Wally Pfister's Transcendence, and the guys wanted to talk about cinematography with a man who works in it. Laurie shares some of his favorite Dp's working today, his own background of getting into the craft and his working relationship with Ben Wheatley. Enjoy! Download #193 or Listen Now: [audio href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/firstshowing/EP193.mp3" title="The Role of Cinematographer (Guest: Laurie Rose)"]The Golden Briefcase #193/audio] Subscribe via: RSS or iTunes Previous Episode: A Discussion - In Regards to Religion in Movies Our Guest: Laurie Rose: @Laurie_Rose / IMDb Picks of the Week: Jeremy: Dgg's Joe / Wolf Creek 2...
- 4/21/2014
- by Tim Buel
- firstshowing.net
Given how much time I spend watching and writing about weird movies, it's noteworthy to mention how much trouble Ben Wheatley's A Field in England gave me. Not because it's a bad film -- indeed it's quite the unique, weird, and fascinating feature -- but because I'm not sure "I get it." Most movie geeks get frustrated (perhaps even angry) when they cannot immediately decipher a strange movie, but it's actually pretty impressive when a film can A) throw you for a loop, B) yank you out of your comfort zone, and C) keep you interested even if you don't know exactly what you're watching. In other words: A Field in England is not a traditional narrative. Those who enjoyed Mr. Wheatley's earlier films -- Down Terrace, Kill List, Sightseers -- will certainly appreciate what the director and his loyal team have concocted here, even if they don't fully "get" it.
- 2/11/2014
- by Scott Weinberg
- FEARnet
Kill List and Sightseers director Ben Wheatley's A Field in England is drastically different from the British filmmaker's previous works, to the point that fans of his other films are having a difficult time wrapping their tastes—and minds—around this new one. A Field in England is shot in gorgeous black and white by his regular cinematographer collaborator Laurie Rose. That's a switch-up. Beyond that, though, Wheatley's delivers yet another head-trip of ideas, an extremely abstract work of art that requires the film to sink in and rattle around before the true genius at work is allowed to come to the forefront of your mind. Plunging us headlong into the settings and surroundings of his film, Wheatley moves us into the path of a small group of soldiers who have fled the battlefields of the English Civil War. This band of deserters begin a trek across what has...
- 9/21/2013
- by Jeremy Kirk
- firstshowing.net
Kill List director Ben Wheatley turns the period drama to his usual subversive ends in a grisly slice of English civil-war psychedelia
• Stuart Heritage will be liveblogging the UK television premiere of A Field in England from 10.45pm tonight. Join him here from about 8.30pm GMT
During the English civil war, Thomas Hobbes wrote in his Leviathan that without general submission to the sovereign, our natural selfishness would predominate, chaos would reign and the life of man would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". If Hobbes had seen this film, he would amend the passage to read "intensely solitary, very poor, extremely nasty, horribly brutish and rather similar to Mr Ben Wheatley's 91-minute mummery, A Field in England." Or perhaps, given that these circumstances apply despite the characters' submission to a sovereign, of sorts, he might want to delete it altogether.
Wheatley's new film is grisly and visceral,...
• Stuart Heritage will be liveblogging the UK television premiere of A Field in England from 10.45pm tonight. Join him here from about 8.30pm GMT
During the English civil war, Thomas Hobbes wrote in his Leviathan that without general submission to the sovereign, our natural selfishness would predominate, chaos would reign and the life of man would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". If Hobbes had seen this film, he would amend the passage to read "intensely solitary, very poor, extremely nasty, horribly brutish and rather similar to Mr Ben Wheatley's 91-minute mummery, A Field in England." Or perhaps, given that these circumstances apply despite the characters' submission to a sovereign, of sorts, he might want to delete it altogether.
Wheatley's new film is grisly and visceral,...
- 7/5/2013
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★☆☆ British director Ben Wheatley has a bold habit of experimentation, having previously married kitchen sink drama to comic crime thriller in 2009's Down Terrace, social realism to occult horror in 2011's Kill List, and British camping comedy to serial killing in Sightseers (2012). His new film, A Field in England (2013), is in much the same vein. An English Civil War era costume drama about a mystical hunt for buried treasure with psychedelic monochrome visuals, it lies somewhere between Michael Reeves' The Witchfinder General, Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man - a potent mix.
Co-written by Wheatley's off-screen and collaborative partner Amy Jump and shot by regular cinematographer Laurie Rose, A Field in England bears the same sardonic dialogue, stomach-churning violence and earthy English countryside as his previous films. Our voyage begins with Whitehead (Reece Shearsmith), a God-fearing alchemist who stumbles across deserters...
Co-written by Wheatley's off-screen and collaborative partner Amy Jump and shot by regular cinematographer Laurie Rose, A Field in England bears the same sardonic dialogue, stomach-churning violence and earthy English countryside as his previous films. Our voyage begins with Whitehead (Reece Shearsmith), a God-fearing alchemist who stumbles across deserters...
- 7/4/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Stars: Michael Smiley, Julian Barratt, Reece Shearsmith, Peter Ferdinando, Ryan Pope, Sara Dee, Richard Glover | Written by Ben Wheatley, Amy Jump | Directed by Ben Wheatley
A Field In England, prolific low-budget and lo-fi filmmaker Ben Wheatley’s latest effort, continues the original and highly distinctive work he’s made thus far but pushes past boundaries and expectations to create a brilliantly psychotic burst of filmmaking which feels like it’s ventured forth from a parallel universe version of the 1960s.
With a budget of £300,000 and a shoot lasting 12 days, it’s rather incredible the finished film feels so perfectly polished but helped some fantastic cinematography from Laurie Rose and great sound design and music by Martin Pavey and Jim Williams respectively, the film takes top hold of the throat from the off with the sounds of war invading the soundscape and percussive score belying the budget and evoking filly the...
A Field In England, prolific low-budget and lo-fi filmmaker Ben Wheatley’s latest effort, continues the original and highly distinctive work he’s made thus far but pushes past boundaries and expectations to create a brilliantly psychotic burst of filmmaking which feels like it’s ventured forth from a parallel universe version of the 1960s.
With a budget of £300,000 and a shoot lasting 12 days, it’s rather incredible the finished film feels so perfectly polished but helped some fantastic cinematography from Laurie Rose and great sound design and music by Martin Pavey and Jim Williams respectively, the film takes top hold of the throat from the off with the sounds of war invading the soundscape and percussive score belying the budget and evoking filly the...
- 7/2/2013
- by Ian Loring
- Nerdly
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