Lenny Henry has launched a scripted production outfit backed by the £50M ($61M) Banijay UK Growth Fund.
05.10.2023 - 01:47 / variety.com
Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Shia LaBeouf doesn’t appear until more than 20 minutes into “Henry Johnson,” a new David Mamet play making its world premiere at the Electric Lodge in Venice, Calif. The play amounts to just four scenes, barely more than an hour in all (plus an unnecessary 15-minute intermission). LaBeouf is on stage for just two of them, but the instant the film star materializes, something electric happens.
The whole audience leans forward. Maybe it’s the way LaBeouf delivers his lines, mumbling slightly. That’s a tell that he’s on a different wavelength from the three other actors in the cast, who articulate every word of Mamet’s script.
But LaBeouf is bringing more to the text. The character — or maybe it’s the performer — seems tortured and slightly volatile. (Who knows how he might react if a cell phone went off in the room?) There’s a delicious unpredictability to what LaBeouf is doing.
Whether it fits what Mamet had in mind, I found myself mesmerized to be witnessing such commitment applied to a secondary role in a previously unproduced play, which Mamet evidently dusted off as a favor to the venue. LaBeouf isn’t even the title character in “Henry Johnson.” That fellow is played by Mamet’s son-in-law, Evan Jonigkeit, and could be described as a patsy, a stooge or, in the Mametian parlance of “House of Games,” a mark. A college boy of negotiable morals and no strong principles, Henry is someone easily manipulated by stronger personalities, and the play, as directed by Marja-Lewis Ryan (“The L Word: Generation Q”), amounts to an exploration of that tendency at a time when entire segments of the country are being swayed — though I suspect Mamet penned it many moons ago.
Lenny Henry has launched a scripted production outfit backed by the £50M ($61M) Banijay UK Growth Fund.
Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Gregg Sutton, a songwriter and musician who recorded as a solo artist, was a member of Lone Justice, toured with Bob Dylan and was the musical director for comedian Andy Kaufman, died Sunday in Los Angeles. He was 74. No cause of death was immediately given.
After over a week of silence, the actors union and the AMPTP are set to return to negotiations on Tuesday, Oct. 24.
Adam Sandler proved he had his eye firmly on his audience on Wednesday night, pausing his show mid-flow when he spotted one fan was suffering a medical emergency.
EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winning filmmaker Barry Levinson is stepping in to direct the David Mamet scripted drama, Assassination, we hear, and is putting his own stamp on the project. Deadline first reported about the movie out of Cannes.
Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “The Bikeriders,” a drama starring Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, and Tom Hardy and directed by Jeff Nichols, has been delayed amid the ongoing actors’ strike. Disney and 20th Century were scheduled to open the film on Dec. 1 but it’s been taken off the calendar for now.
filming on his Netflix documentary with wife Victoria Beckham is over. The former soccer pro opened up about the project at the David Beckham Fragrances Launch Party at hotspot restaurant Torrisi in New York City.“It was a series that took me a while to come to terms with filming, and talking about my life,” David told People on Wednesday.
Ray Quinn and Emily Fletcher said their 'I Do's' at Cheshire's incredible Grade-1 listed Peckforton Castle - which has already seen a host of celebrity A-listers take their vows in its incredible grounds.The 35-year-old X Factor finalist and his dance teacher bride Emily, 31, recited their personal vows to each other in the castle's Great Hall, complete with its incredible 10m-high vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows. "We'd been to so many different venues but this place just stood out for us, it really felt like a bit of us,” nto tears," Ray told us a few days after the ceremony on Monday 2 October, which was covered exclusively by OK!.
Manchester United boast a goalkeeping legacy that lasts almost as long as the club itself. From Reg Allen and Harry Gregg in the 1950s all the way through to modern greats like Peter Schmeichel, Edwin van der Sar and David de Gea, the number-one jersey at Old Trafford weighs a tonne.
Zack Sharf Digital News Director John Cena was asked at the press conference for WWE Fastlane about his own hypocrisy in his former feud with fellow wrestler-turned-Hollywood-actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Cena has said that his beef with Johnson was fueled by his anger over Johnson abandoning WWE in order to become an A-list Hollywood actor, which is exactly the career move Cena would take himself. Cena admitted in May that he was “short-sighted and selfish” in feuding with Johnson, and now he told press that “I 100% see and understand” how people could consider him a hypocrite for calling out Johnson and then following in his footsteps.
Jessica Kiang Family will break your heart and bruise your heart and mend your heart like no one else can — not always in that order, and sometimes all three at once. In his exceptional, happy-sad-funny debut film “House of the Seasons,” Oh Jung-min creates a beautiful tapestry of intimate sprawl, as three generations of a meddlesome, quarrelsome, loving Korean clan experience all the colors of familial life while the hills of their village home phase from lush green to copper and russet to stark, snowy white.
Shortly after midnight on Jan. 1, 1967, as balloons dropped from the ceiling to mark the New Year at the Black Cat, undercover Los Angeles police officers, who were waiting for the right moment to pounce.
Katharine McPhee and David Foster are enjoying the perks of touring together, their new single “Amazing Grace” — which is set to be released tomorrow, Oct. 6 — and being parents! ET got an exclusive sneak peek at McPhee and Foster’s debut single together, which caused a bit
David Beckham is on the sidelines rooting for Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift.
Meghan Markle is determined to reinvent herself as a Hollywood power player. The claim was made by British author Andrew Morton who previously wrote a book on the former "Suits" star titled "Meghan: A Hollywood Princess." He told Fox News Digital he does not envision the mother of two ever returning to the U.K. "Meghan is making her own life on the West Coast," said Morton.
Pete Davidson damaged his car after leaving his stand-up show in Los Angeles, according to reports.The comedian, who performed at The Wiltern in Los Angeles on Saturday (September 30), is said to have scraped his car against the side of a wall while exiting the venue at 10pm.As seen in photos obtained by PageSix, several marks were seen on the side of his black GMC SUV from the middle door to the backwheel, with Davidson seen in the driver’s seat alongside four others in the car.Davidson has not commented on the incident.In July, the comedian was charged with reckless driving after crashing his car into a fire hydrant and the side of a house in Beverly Hills, California on March 4. He was ordered to serve 50 hours of community service as part of a 18-month “diversion programme”.According to TMZ at the time, Davidson was accompanied by his Bupkis co-star Chase Sui Wonders in the car.
Dakota Johnson attended not just one, but two Coldplay concerts this weekend!
The greater the spy, the bigger the lie. That’s the tagline for Matthew Vaughn’s “Argylle,” a razor-witted, reality-bending, globe-encircling spy thriller.
Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic The creator of “The Creator,” Gareth Edwards, started his filmmaking career teaching himself VFX at home. He’s an innovator on that front, devising ways to generate creepy CG monsters for “Monsters” more than a dozen years ago, then overseeing deceptively massive blockbusters, like “Godzilla,” ever since (deceptive because much of that stunning scale comes from virtual detail added in post).
Director, Producer, and Co-Writer (with Chris Weitz) Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) has been working on his idea for an original science fiction tale involving human interaction with advanced AI childfor many years. Now that The Creator is finally reaching the screen I would say it is more like science fact, or at least a plausible facsimile. With recent warnings from Silcon Valley leaders about imminent dangers with the alarming speed of AI progress, and all the talk (especially with the guild strikes) about the threat of AI technology invading and possibly even shifting out of our control in frightening ways, Edwards has cooked up a hell of a story in which AI just might be the good guys – or robots as it were – in a world where humans could be losing the upper hand.