Armando Iannucci & Sam Mendes Set HBO Comedy Pilot ‘The Franchise’ About Superhero Movie-Making

Over the past 20+ years, filmmaker Sam Mendes has released numerous films, each earning acclaim. Even his two James Bond films, “Spectre” and “Skyfall,” are seen as high watermarks in the world of 007.

High school is hellish in its own way, as one deals with the awkwardness of growing up, going through puberty, and so forth. But it’s friends that help temper that hellishness, their presence a reminder that no one goes through any of it alone.

Empire Of Light, starring Olivia Colman, has been released. You can watch it below.Directed by Sam Mendes (1917, Skyfall), the upcoming film tells the story of a romance that takes place in a scenic old cinema on the South Coast of England in the 1980s.Micheal Ward (Blue Story, Top Boy) stars opposite Colman as her love interest, while Toby Jones (Detectorists) plays a projectionist.“Film: It’s just static frames with darkness in between,” Jones’s character narrates in the trailer, which reveals very little about the film’s plot.

Veep and The Thick of It creator Armando Iannucci is still angry. In fact, he told delegates here at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday that he is “angrier than ever” at the direction of the UK’s politics and broadcasting, seven years after his blistering MacTaggart lecture urged the BBC to fight back against its critics and railed against a sale of Channel 4 — both topics now back on the agenda.

set to receive the Ebert Director Award at next month’s Toronto International Film Festival, where “Empire” will make its Canadian premiere.Check out the full teaser trailer above or here.

Sam Mendes is set to be honoured by the Toronto International Film Festival following the Canadian premiere of his latest fil, “Empire Of Light”.

Over the past 20+ years, filmmaker Sam Mendes has released numerous films, each earning acclaim. Even his two James Bond films, “Spectre” and “Skyfall,” are seen as high watermarks in the world of 007.

Brendan Fraser will receive the TIFF Tribute Award for Performance for his role in A24’s upcoming film “The Whale.”TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey announced the news.  “Brendan Fraser gives a performance of staggering depth, power and nuance in ‘The Whale,’” Bailey said. “This former Torontonian has been an action star, a screen comic and a romantic lead.

Actor Brendan Fraser will receive the TIFF Tribute Award for Performance at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced on Monday.Fraser is attending the festival for the North American premiere of Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” in which he stars as a severely obese man attempting to repair a fractured relationship with his teenage daughter (played by “Stranger Things” star Sadie Sink). He will receive the award during the TIFF Tribute Awards, an in-person gala fundraiser that will take place on Sunday, Sept.

Outlander star Sam Heughan is set to play the leading role in a film adaptation of the PlayStation game Days Gone.

Sam Mendes is set to be honoured by the Toronto International Film Festival.

Director Sam Mendes will receive the TIFF Ebert Director Award at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced on Friday.Mendes will be at the festival for the Canadian Premiere of his new movie, “Empire of Light,” which stars Olivia Colman as a woman who works in a seaside movie theater in 1980s England. It is his ninth film as a director and second as writer in a career that began with the Oscar-winning “American Beauty,” which made its world premiere at TIFF in 1999.

Carson Burton Sam Mendes will receive the Ebert Director Award at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey announced Tuesday.The award, which recognizes filmmakers who have exemplified greatness in their careers, was named after legendary film critic Roger Ebert and is an evolution of the festival’s Roger Ebert Golden Thumb Award. Past recipients of the award include Denis Villeneuve, Chloé Zhao and Taika Waititi.

Sam Mendes, whose latest movie from Searchlight, Empire of Light, is making its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, will be receiving the event’s TIFF Ebert Director Award.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterLil Rel Howery has lined up his second HBO stand up comedy special, Variety has learned exclusively.This will be Howery’s second HBO stand up special after 2019’s “Lil Rel Howery: Live in Crenshaw.” The new special will tape in Howery’s hometown of Chicago in the coming weeks. It will then be available on both HBO and HBO Max.“Getting the opportunity to do another comedy special with HBO is a dream come true, but even more so this time around because I’m excited for the world to see what happens when I go back to my roots,” Howery said.

“Empire of Light,” the latest feature film from Oscar winner Sam Mendes, has locked its European premiere with a gala screening at the 66th annual BFI London Film Festival. Starring Olivia Colman, Michael Ward, Colin Firth, Toby Jones and others, the 1980s–set film “is a powerful and poignant story about human connection and the magic of cinema,” distributor Searchlight Pictures said in a statement. The film’s stars – including Colman, Firth, and on-the-rise BAFTA winner Ward – are expected to be in attendance at the festival’s American Express Gala screening on Oct.

Naman Ramachandran Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light,” starring Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward and Colin Firth, will be this year’s American Express Gala at the 66th BFI London Film Festival.Written, produced and directed by Oscar and BAFTA winning filmmaker Mendes, the film also stars Toby Jones, Tanya Moodie, Tom Brooke and Crystal Clarke. Set in an English seaside town in the early 1980s, the film is about human connection and the magic of cinema. It marks Mendes’ first solo credit as screenwriter and reunites him with Oscar winning cinematographer Roger Deakins (“1917,” “Skyfall”).The film is produced by Mendes and Pippa Harris’ Neal Street Productions, in partnership with Searchlight Pictures.

The 66th BFI London Film Festival has set Empire Of Light, the latest film from Sam Mendes, as its American Express Gala screening.

“Veep” boss Armando Iannucci’s newest comedy – “The Franchise” – has been ordered to pilot at HBO, with Sam Mendes set to direct.The half-hour comedy is set in the world of superhero movie-making, and Jon Brown is the showrunner. Here’s the logline: “A hopeful crew trapped inside the dysfunctional, nonsensical, joyous hellscape of franchise superhero movie-making. If and when they finally make the day, the question they must face — is this Hollywood’s new dawn or cinema’s last stand? Is this a dream factory or a chemical plant?”Mendes executive produces for Neal Street Productions, while Iannucci executive produces for Dundee Productions.