‘Empire Of Light’ Teaser: Olivia Colman Shows The Power Of Cinema In Sam Mendes’ Upcoming Drama

Claire Foy said she was “honoured” to have got the chance to play the Queen in “The Crown” after the late monarch’s death at age 96 on Thursday.

Sam Mendes was writing the screenplay for what would become Empire of Light and he’d hit a wall.

Olivia Coleman looked positively regal as she stepped onto the red carpet for the premiere of her new film Empire of light at the Toronto International Film Festival on Monday. The Crown star’s appearance comes after she made an emotional tribute to Queen Elizabeth II following her death aged 96 on Thursday September 8. Olivia, 48, played the Queen for two seasons of The Crown, which debuted on Netflix in 2016, and described the late monarch as having “such dignity” in an interview over the weekend.

Olivia Colman sandwiches herself in between Michael Ward and Tanya Moodie at the premiere of their new film, Empire of Light, during the 2022 Toronto Film Festival at Princess of Wales on Monday (September 12) in Toronto, Ontario.

The Crown star Olivia Colman has paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II. The British monarch passed away on Thursday at the age of 96, ending a reign of more than 70 years and plunging the nation into mourning. While attending a Variety Studio event as part of the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, Olivia - who portrayed the royal on two seasons of drama series The Crown - offered her own tribute.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter On the stage at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, Harry Styles is a bonafide rock star, brimming with swagger and self confidence. But Styles, the actor, was more soft spoken while accepting an acting award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Styles was a man of few words as he, along with the cast of “My Policeman,” received the ensemble award at the festival’s Tribute Awards on Sunday.  “Thank you so much to everyone here on behalf of all of us for this wonderful, wonderful award,” said Styles, who stars in the romance drama as a closeted police officer. “We all loved working on this film so much. And we hope you enjoy it.”

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Olivia Colman, who portrayed Queen Elizabeth II for two seasons of Netflix’s royal sensation “The Crown,” is still processing the loss and legacy of the British monarch. The queen’s death was announced on Thursday, the same day as the start of the Toronto International Film Festival. “I wouldn’t know where to begin with that,” she told Variety at the Variety Studio presented by King’s Hawaiian at the Toronto International Film Festival. “She made a promise as a young woman and she absolutely kept it with such dignity. We’re all incredibly impressed by what she did.” Colman, who touched down in Canada to promote “Empire of Light,” a romantic drama from director Sam Mendes, also praised King Charles III’s first address to the nation. In his speech, he paid tribute to his mother and vowed to serve with “loyalty, respect and love.”

her death on Thursday.But Emmy-winning Netflix hit “The Crown” has given us some insight into the monarch who has been portrayed in the series by Claire Foy, Olivia Colman and now Imelda Staunton. Still, the show has employed a fair amount of creative license in taking us behind the walls of Buckingham Palace and across the history of the late queen’s reign.In fact, series creator Peter Morgan has admitted that he has “made up” scenes, while one Palace source has accused the show of “trolling on a Hollywood budget.”Still, “The Crown” — which will return in November with its fifth season — had enough respect for the Queen to have a plan in place in the event of her death: The series shut down production for at least a week while filming Season 6, due out in 2023.Until the royal family is back in all of its streaming splendor on “The Crown,” we break down how much was fact versus fiction in reference to Queen Elizabeth II’s most memorable moments.In the third season of “The Crown,” Lord Mountbatten — the Queen’s second cousin once removed, who was also Prince Philip’s maternal uncle affectionately known as “Uncle Dickie” — was approached by a group plotting to depose Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

Her Majesty’s death was announced. “I’m mourning along with the rest of my country, the passing of a great Queen.

Netflix series The Crown will likely pause production of its sixth season following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.The Queen of the United Kingdom, who succeeded to the throne in 1952 aged 25, passed away today (Thursday, September 8, 2022). “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,” The Royal Family said in a statement.Earlier today, a source close to series creator Peter Morgan confirmed to Variety that production will stop on The Crown, which is based on the events surrounding Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.

Queen Elizabeth II has died aged 96. The royal, who was the world’s second longest-serving monarch after ruling for 70 years, will be replaced by her son Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales.

Not aging well? Amid the offscreen Don’t Worry Darling drama, a resurfaced clip of Florence Pugh gushing about Olivia Wilde is making its rounds on social media.

TELLURIDE – Venice may be enraptured in gossip-y drama over a film no one will be talking about two months from now (and, clearly, a very frustrating ticketing system), but the 49th edition of the Telluride Film Festival was where the 2023 Oscar season truly kicked off. The annual Colorado set festival certainly has its fair share of world premieres and curated Venice and Cannes titles, but that’s only one reason it has solidified its reputation as an awards season staple.

Clayton Davis Roughly a year ago, Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” launched out of Telluride, and there was something about that film’s emotional expansiveness and the irresistible pull of its unapologetic nostalgia that made it clear it was going to be a force to be reckoned with at the Oscars. I got the same sense watching Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light” at its Telluride premiere this past weekend. It has a similar open heartedness even if the setting for the movie is an English seaside town and not the war-torn streets of Northern Ireland. Cinema seeps through “Empire of Light.” Mendes’ latest doesn’t just swoon for the images that flicker across screens; it also pays tribute to the physical buildings that house our most cherished artform and the sense of escapism that gets triggered every time you sit down in one of those palaces. If you are a movie lover, it’s hard to resist “Empire of Light’s” charm and stylized beauty.

magic of movies genuinely registers as a vibe in Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light,” a frustratingly uneven and often meandering period drama written by Mendes, loosely drawing remembrances from his own formative years. And he pulls from “a lockdown mindset,” too, as the director put it before his ’80s-set film’s world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, a melancholic state of being marked by feelings of loneliness and even fear that things we love (like movie theaters) would be lost forever in a post-pandemic world.Perhaps because his inspirations seem to be so extensive here, it often feels like Mendes is searching for a story within a bottomless well of moods and ideas throughout “Empire of Light.” Ironically enough, this undisciplined disposition is the exact opposite of the kind of taut restraint that was at the core of “1917,” his previous, tightly orchestrated and end-to-end choreographed film.“Empire of Light” starts with an admiration towards the enchanted majesty of cinemas, as Hilary (an affecting Olivia Colman, with an impressively wide-ranging emotional scale) preps the beautiful movie palace she works at for its daily opening, her gentle touches aided by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ soothingly nostalgic score.

TELLURIDE – When has Olivia Colman ever been bad in anything? Think about it for a moment. Can you remember any performance of hers where you reacted with an “Eh, she was fine”? The answer is you have to do some serious digging to find a miss (we tried).

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In the era where content is king, Sam Mendes still believes in moving pictures. “Empire of Light” is the proof. While the world was in lockdown these past couple years, Mendes let his imagination run to his happy place: a grand old English movie palace he dubbed the Empire Cinema. Thousands pass through its Art Deco doors seeking escapism, but Mendes is more interested in the employees — the projectionist, the ticket-takers, the box office attendant and so forth, who collectively form an ersatz family — whose stories, he senses, are every bit as interesting as the ones they show. And so he put them up on screen where they belong. But “Empire of Light” is more than just Mendes’ homage to an endangered art form — in fact, it spends a lot less time valorizing the medium than you might imagine. He has assembled a terrific cast, trusting that these performers can go deeper than their dialogue makes explicit, whether it’s Olivia Colman (who can do anything) as the romantically frustrated theater manager Hilary or relative newcomer (and “Blue Story” breakout) Micheal Ward as Stephen, Mr. Ellis’ latest hire (in an unusually sleazy cameo, Colin Firth plays the boss).

The 49th Telluride Film Festival opens Friday in a much-awaited edition that is set to feature world premieres of Searchlight’s Oscar hopeful Empire of Light from director Sam Mendes, starring Olivia Coleman and Colin Firth; Women Talking from director Sarah Polley, starring Rooney Mara and Frances McDormand in the ensemble; Sebastian Lelio’s The Wonder, starring Florence Pugh; and Sony/Netflix’s sizzling new version of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover with Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell; among other films.

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.

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.