Timothee Chalamet is set to play Bob Dylan in the forthcoming biopic A Complete Unknown, and he took inspiration from another star who delivered an Oscar-nominated performance in a musical biopic – Austin Butler.
01.10.2023 - 15:59 / variety.com
Guy Lodge Film Critic In a genre not traditionally given to brevity, James Marsh‘s literary biopic “Dance First” at least has that on its side: In 100 minutes, it races through the key events and alliances in the life of Irish author and dramatist Samuel Beckett, even finding time for some metaphysical musings alongside the cradle-to-grave checklist. But Beckett’s characteristic terseness — or radical “lessness,” to borrow a title from one of his stories — isn’t a feature of this creditable but ponderous film, which ultimately achieves its efficient runtime by skirting any meaningful engagement with Beckett’s work and literary legacy.
What’s left is an anatomy of his unhappiness via a procession of stymied or soured relationships: shot with grace, acted with intelligence, but short on Beckettian daring or wit. It’s another biopic from Marsh, following 2014’s popular “The Theory of Everything” and 2017’s less-seen “The Mercy,” that resists bringing his flinty gifts as an Oscar-winning docmaker (“Man on Wire,” “Wisconsin Death Trip”) to the table — instead trading in the softer, more romantic filmic language of adult prestige drama.
With its chaptered structure and sporadic segues into Beckett-styled surrealism, “Dance First” may flirt more with experimentation than “Theory” did, but these are still timid, tasteful flourishes on a mostly conventional canvas. Beckett scholars are unlikely to feel stimulated, which is fair enough — they’re an ornery bunch.
But the unacquainted aren’t given much to go on either. Sky will release the film (this year’s closer at the San Sebastián fest) theatrically in the U.K.
and Ireland in November, before shifting it to their streaming platform. It opens in 1969, at the Nobel Prize ceremony
.Timothee Chalamet is set to play Bob Dylan in the forthcoming biopic A Complete Unknown, and he took inspiration from another star who delivered an Oscar-nominated performance in a musical biopic – Austin Butler.
More than 2,000 figures from the UK’s arts and culture world have signed an open letter calling for the immediate cessation of Israel’s blockade and bombing of Gaza.
Brent Lang Executive Editor Samuel Goldwyn Films has signed a worldwide catalog deal with Concord Originals for rights to three Rodgers & Hammerstein films. The distribution pact involves two classic Hollywood films, 1958’s “South Pacific” and 1955’s “Oklahoma.” It also includes a filmed Royal National Theatre production of “Oklahoma!” that was staged in 1998 and starred a pre-Wolverine Hugh Jackman.
A light therapy lamp designed to counteract symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is now on sale on Amazon.
EXCLUSIVE: Pierce Brosnan (Fast Charlie), Samuel L. Jackson (Argylle), and Brandon Lessard (Murder at Yellowstone City) are in Montana shooting Unholy Trinity, a Western helmed by Richard Gray (Robert the Bruce), which has secured a SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreement.
Julia Fox opened up about auditioning for a role in Madonna‘s biopic.
With “Ferrari” fresh off its Fall festival circuit run, Michael Mann is on the press circuit himself to plug his latest feature and talk about previous films. But in a new interview with Vulture, the director spoke about another recent movie that featured legendary automobile mogul Enzo Ferrari: James Mangold‘s “Ford v Ferrari” from 2019.
Guy Lodge Film Critic The grand-scale Biblical epics that midcentury Hollywood churned out to roaring box-office returns had many drawcards as (so to speak) mass entertainment — brawny action, transporting spectacle, then jaw-dropping effects — but a sense of humor, by and large, wasn’t one of them. That’s something British musician-turned-filmmaker Jeymes Samuel attempts to rectify in his offbeat messiah story “The Book of Clarence,” a newly invented tale that runs parallel to the life and death of Jesus in ways both blithely blasphemous and sincerely Christian.
Samuel West has been incredibly successful in the acting and entertainment business over the years. From starring in the long running series Midsomer Murders, Waking the Dead and Poirot, to his stint in Netflix's The Crown, he now spends his time playing the role of eccentric veterinary surgeon Siegfried Farnon in Channel 5's popular period drama, All Creatures Great and Small.The 57 year old has been a staple part of the cast since the show premiered in 2020, with filming taking place in the quaint and quiet Yorkshire Dales.
It’s not every day that a filmmaker will rise up during an interview and recite Old Testament tales and sing out their favorite hymn. Well, hallelujah, brother Jeymes Samuel for spreading the gospel’s good news.
Jessica Kiang At the memorial gathering for her husband Adnan, 30-year-old Nawal (a riveting Mouna Hawa) is offered many empty words of support and so-called comfort by friends and family. “When a woman loses her husband, she loses her lover, her partner, everything in her life,” clucks a commiserating neighbor.
Lionsgate and Universal Pictures International announced on Tuesday that Universal will serve as the international distributor for the Michael Jackson biopic Michael, starring the pop superstar’s nephew Jaafar Jackson, which we were first to report on. Uni will handle all territories apart from Japan, with Lionsgate repping the film on the domestic front.
The Bachelorette‘s Charity Lawson will have to hit the dance floor tonight without her partner: Artem Chigvintsev has Covid.
Boots has slashed the price of an anti-ageing cream said to 'work its magic overnight'. With an almost-perfect five-star rating, the youth defying anti-wrinkle cream has been reduced to £10 - but you don't have long to act.
Drew Carey today saluted the writers who thanked him for the meals he provided strikers at Bob’s Big Boy and Swingers during the WGA work stoppage. It was his first public comments on his charitable efforts.
A really wet Friday in New York – National Weather Service flash flood warning wet – is likely to take a bite out of specialty film in one of its biggest markets this weekend. Alamo Drafthouse shut its NYC locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island until further notice due to “severe flooding in and around the area,” saying “Please everyone stay dry & stay safe, and we hope to have you back at the movies very soon.” Subways are jammed up and the water makes it hard to get around.
Selome Hailu Tom Brady is getting the biopic treatment. The Gotham Group is developing a scripted limited series titled “The Patriot Way” based on the career of NFL superstar, who led the New England Patriots to nine Super Bowls, winning six.
The trailer for Argylle is finally here and it looks SO fun!
Argylle, featuring Dua Lipa, has arrived – you can watch it above.Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman franchise), the star-studded film follows Bryce Dallas Howard’s (Jurassic World franchise) spy fiction novelist Elly Conway, who spends most of her nights at home with her cat, Alfie.However, when the plots of her books — centred on secret agent Argyle (Henry Cavill) — begin to mirror the covert actions of a real-life spy organisation, Elly’s quiet evenings at home quickly become a thing of the past.An official description adds: “Accompanied by Aiden (Sam Rockwell), a cat-allergic spy, Elly (carrying Alfie in her backpack) races across the world to stay one step ahead of the killers as the line between Elly’s fictional world and her real one begins to blur.”Alongside Howard, Rockwell, Cavill and Dua Lipa, the A-list ensemble cast also includes John Cena (Fast X), Ariana DeBose (West Side Story), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek), Sofia Boutella (Kingsman: The Secret Service), and Samuel L. Jackson.
Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained in her new memoir.The actor, who starred alongside Jamie Foxx in the 2012 movie which focused on slavery in the American South, claims in excerpts from her book Thicker Than Water via The Daily Beast that the original script included a scene where she “escaped abuse running naked down the street” and a “terrifyingly brutal rape scene” which she had reservations about being part of.In the end neither scene was filmed and Washington says she still doesn’t know exactly why the latter in particular never went ahead.She wrote: “Jamie and Quentin stood in the corner. Both men were looking down at the dirt floor, and as I walked toward them, Tarantino announced that we were all going home.”Washington went on: “The scene would be cut from the script.