Christopher Hampton Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Manori Ravindran International EditorChristoph Waltz will play Hollywood legend Billy Wilder in a new project from producer Jeremy Thomas.“Billy Wilder & Me” will be adapted by Christopher Hampton from Jonathan Coe’s book, with Stephen Frears directing. Billed as part coming-of-age story and part true-life portrait of Wilder, the film looks to capture “a heroic icon of Hollywood’s golden era for all cinema lovers.”Wilder’s directing credits include “Sunset Blvd.,” “The Apartment” and “The Seven Year Itch.”Here’s an official synopsis for the pic: In the summer of 1977, an innocent young woman begins working for famed director Billy Wilder and his screenwriter Iz Diamond on a Greek island during the filming of “Fedora.” When she follows Wilder to Germany to continue the shoot, she finds herself joining him on a journey of memory into the heart of his family history.

EXCLUSIVE: Jamie Lloyd, director of the history-making reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, reveals that his star Nicole Scherzinger initially “refused to consider” accepting his offer to play Norma Desmond in the show adapted from Billy Wilder’s 1950 classic.

Jamie Lloyd’s London production of Sunset Boulevard starring Nicole Scherzinger now has an opening date for its Broadway run!

Jamie Lloyd’s acclaimed London production of Sunset Boulevard starring Nicole Scherzinger will open on Broadway this fall at the St. James Theatre, producers announced today.

How do you capture Jenne Casarotto? She was at the intersection of theatre, film and television. It all, seemingly, swirled around her.

Jenne Casarotto, who co-founded leading British talent agency Casarotto Ramsay & Associates in 1989 and repped some of the nation’s greatest talents, died Thursday following complications from a short illness. She was 77.

Alex Ritman Jenne Casarotto, co-founder of the London agency Casarotto Ramsay & Associates which represents some of the leading names working behind the camera, died on Feb. 29. She was 77.

The hit London revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard is heading to Broadway later this year and bringing star Nicole Scherzinger and the rest of the West End principal cast with it.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Christopher Hampton, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “The Father” and “The Dangerous Liaisons,” is set to adapt Walter Isaacson’s acclaimed biography “Leonardo Da Vinci” for Universal Pictures. Universal Pictures had fiercely chased rights to the hot literary property six years ago, and was outbid by Paramount, which developed the project with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way. Now that Universal has finally secured those rights, it has tapped Hampton to pen the adaptation, which seems to be the perfect material for the Oscar winning writer whose movies typically lure A-list talent.

bigger.Of course, Lloyd, who directed “A Doll’s House” on Broadway last season with Jessica Chastain, isn’t this wildly imaginative production’s only risky choice.Scherzinger, from the Pussycat Dolls, is about as far away from Norma type-casting as you can possibly get. She has little in common with the Martian-esque Swanson or Glenn Close and never bothers with an eccentric turban.But her breathtaking, feral Norma is, nonetheless, a grand creature of showbiz who’s been shunned by Hollywood’s cruelly short attention span by just 40 years old.

Naman Ramachandran Nicole Scherzinger is back on London’s West End, playing Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Sunset Boulevard.” The former Pussycat Dolls star made her West End debut in a revival of Webber’s “Cats” in 2014, for which she earned an Olivier nomination. In “Sunset Boulevard,” with music by Webber, book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, based on Billy Wilder’s 1950 film, Scherzinger plays movie star Norma Desmond who yearns to return to the big screen. A struggling screenwriter may be her only hope, until their dangerous and compelling relationship leads to disastrous circumstances.

UK agency Casarotto Ramsay & Associates has named former Meta and Film4 exec Anna Higgs as Managing Director.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Florian Zeller, the Oscar-winning director and playwright of “The Father” and “The Son,” received the Medal of Honor, France’s highest decoration, at an intimate ceremony in Paris on Wednesday. The event, hosted in the gardens of the French authors and composers guild (SACD), gathered a flurry of talent and luminaries from the worlds of film, TV, theater and literature — reflecting the breadth of Zeller’s body of work. Zeller was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honor by France President Emmanuel Macron. Guests included Isabelle Huppert, Pierre Arditi, Catherine Frot and Elodie Navarre who have starred in Zeller’s plays; Christopher Hampton, with whom he shares a best adapted screenplay Oscar for “The Father;” “Simone” actor Elsa Zylberstein; Mediawan boss Pierre-Antoine Capton, with whom he launched the L.A.-based company Blue Morning Pictures; Victoria Bedos (“La famille Belier”); Orange Studio’s Kristina Zimmermann and Sebastien Cauchon, who distributed both “The Father” and “The Son” in France; French singer Julien Clerc; French director Anne Fontaine and producer Philippe Carcassonne; as well as Zeller’s wife, Marine Delterme, an actor who was recently signed by WME.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Samuel Goldwyn Films has unveiled the trailer for “Simone: Woman of the Century,” a biopic of Simone Veil, an Auschwitz survivor who became health minister of France and championed the 1975 law that legalized abortion in France.  Directed by Olivier Dahan, best-known for his Oscar-winning Edith Piaf biopic “La Vie en Rose,” “Simone” boasts powerful performances by Elsa Zylberstein and Rebecca Marder. The key cast is completed by Elodie Bouchez, Sylvie Testud and Olivier Gourmet. The film was a box office hit in France, where it was released by Warner Bros and ranked as 2022’s third highest-grossing French-language hit with over 2.5 million tickets sold. Samuel Goldwyn Films is planning to release the film in U.S. theaters, opening in New York and Los Angeles on Aug. 18, followed by a wider rollout.

David Benedict “What was I thinking when I made this deal?” So sings Holly Martins (Sam Underwood) towards the end of the new musical adaptation of “The Third Man.” Indeed. As it turns out, the mystery at the heart of the show is not the expected “Whatever happened to Harry Lime?” – the man of the title – but what possessed a creative team as distinguished as director Trevor Nunn and bookwriter Christopher Hampton to imagine that what Carol Reed’s still-astonishing classic film needed was to be taken offscreen and planted onstage with added songs. The dismaying production provides no answer. The opening is ominous in completely the wrong way. Yes, we’re still in Vienna in 1947 but it feels like a failure to resort to a voice-over to explain necessary information about how, in the wake of the war, the city has been divided up into sectors under the control of warring nations. The storytelling, it’s clear, is going to be bald.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Elsa Zylberstein (“Simone: Woman of the Century”) will star as the French feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir in a feature film that will be penned by Oscar-winning writer Christopher Hampton and directed by Anne Fontaine. Zylberstein’s Sonia Films will produce the film with Philippe Carcassone’s banner Cine@ and Master Movie, the production vehicle of Marco and Lola Pacchioni. Rather than a biopic, the movie will revolve around the passionate transatlantic romance between de Beauvoir and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Nelson Algren. Zylberstein has scooped the adaptation rights of de Beauvoir’s “Lettres à Nelson Algren” from Gallimard. Through those letters, the film will chart the pair’s affair, which spanned nearly two decades from 1947, in the aftermath of World War II, to 1964. Two-thirds of the movie will take place in Chicago, and the reminder will unfold in Paris.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Brooke Shields came pretty close to starring in Stephen Frears’ 1988 period drama “Dangerous Liaisons” alongside John Malkovich, Glenn Close, Michelle Pfeiffer and Keanu Reeves. “They told me it came down to me and someone else,” Shields tells me. “They said the other person was this girl not many people knew about. It was Uma Thurman. At that time and that age, it felt so personal, but I’ve learned over time not to take it personally because ‘no’ outweighs ‘yes’ extensively in this business.” Released by Warner Bros., “Dangerous Liaisons” went on to be nominated for seven Oscars, eventually taking home the awards for adapted screenplay, costume design and production design. Christopher Hampton adapted the screenplay from his 1985 play “Les Liaisons dangereuses.” The $14 million film grossed $34.7 million at the box office.

Oscar-winning screenwriter, playwright and film director Christopher Hampton was on feisty form in a masterclass in Qatar earlier this week as part of the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra talent incubator event (March 10-16).

Oscar-winning writer Christopher Hampton is in talks to write a screenplay with French director Anne Fontaine about iconic feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Nelson Algren’s transatlantic affair.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Elsa Zylberstein, one of the most famous – and bankable — faces of French cinema, known for her Cesar-winning performance in “I’ve Loved You For So Long,” is preparing to emerge as a major film producer. Having recently set up banners in France and the U.S., Zylberstein is actively developing a raft of films and series, working with the likes of Oscar-winning Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad (“The Cave”), Ted Braun (Darfur Now”) and Oscar-winning screenwriter Christopher Hampton (“The Father”), among others. These include “Kingdom of Hope,” a movie about Elise Boghossian, a French acupuncturist and humanitarian worker in a war zone who has healed children victims of ISIS . The movie will be directed by Fayyad, who is based in Berlin, and is being penned by Braun, based on Boghossian’s autobiographical book “Au royaume de l’espoir, il n’y a pas d’hiver.”

Playwright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton, producer David Parfitt, Dune costume designer Jacqueline West and directors Lynne Ramsay and Michael Winterbottom are to set attend the Qatari Doha Film Institute’s ninth talent incubator event Qumra in March.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Doha Film Institute has recruited an impressive mix of film directors and talents comprising Christopher Hampton, David Parfitt, Jacqueline West, Lynne Ramsay, and Michael Winterbottom who will hold master classes and act as mentors during its upcoming Qumra Arab industry incubator. The event, which is back in person after a two-year hiatus, will run physically March 10-15 in the Qatari capital of Doha, followed by an online program March 19-21. Qumra, which means “camera” in Arabic, blends together a creative workshop, co-production market, and festival elements. The event, now at its ninth edition, was established by the Doha Film Institute (DFI) to help foster first and second works, mostly by Arab directors and to create curated networking opportunities between the Arab and international film communities.

Sony Pictures Classics present Florian Zeller’s The Son on 554 screens, an emotional family drama that folllows the director’s 2020 Oscar-winning The Father. As with that film, The Son is adapted from Zeller’s own stage play along with Christopher Hampton. Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath and Anthony Hopkins star in the cautionary tale of a family struggling to reunite,

Pierre Choderolas de Laclos’ 1782 epistolary novel “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” has proven to be incredibly malleable over the last few decades. In addition to the 1988, Stephen Frears-directed Christopher Hampton adapted “Dangerous Liaisons,” we’ve gotten the stately “Valmont” and even the glorious camp of “Cruel Intentions.” Needless to say, the world was perhaps not clamoring for another look into the backstabbing lives of the Marquise de Merteuil and her sometimes lover/enemy, Valmont.

Starz is already smitten with its Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont: The network has renewed Dangerous Liaisons for a second season, ahead of its November debut.

Vanessa Kirby shows off the details on the back of her black velvet mini dress at the premiere of her movie, The Son, in London, England on Monday (October 10).

Starz has released the key art and full trailer for their upcoming series Dangerous Liaisons, based on the Pierre Choderlos de Laclos classic, which you can watch in the video posted above. The eight-episode series will make its debut on November 6.

The Son and The Father director Florian Zeller will direct, write and co-produce the upcoming big-budget TV adaptation of Tony Award-winning play The Lehman Trilogy, his debut TV project.

in “The Music Man” on Broadway. He’s fulfilled that dream — but all things must come to an end.On the red carpet at the Toronto Film Festival, Jackman told The Associated Press that the revival will play its last performance at the beginning of the new year,“Jan. 1 is going to be the last show.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Playwright-turned-filmmaker Florian Zeller (“The Father”), who is at Venice with “The Son,” is joining forces with the European group Mediawan (“Call My Agent!”) and former CAA executive Federica Sainte-Rose to launch Blue Morning Pictures, a new production company. The multi-year deal will see Mediawan finance and produce with Blue Morning Pictures programming across an array of platforms. Zeller recently relocated in Los Angeles to accompany the release of “The Son” in the U.S., and promote the film during the awards season. Operating from both Paris and L.A., Zeller will now be working hand-in-hand with Sainte-Rose to develop a slate of premium films and television series.

Florian Zeller’s family drama The Son had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday evening, eliciting a 10-minute standing ovation after the film’s screening.

Writer/director Florian Zeller cannot manage to reproduce the magic of “The Father” with his latest film, “The Son.” This latest screen adaptation of Zeller’s trilogy of stage plays about families falling apart, co-written with Englishman Christopher Hampton, expands its setting outside the limited confines of a single apartment – yet somehow manages to feel less cinematic. Without a clever conceit to elevate the material, this domestic drama is a mostly middling piece of maudlin manipulation.

Writer/Director Florian Zeller had such great success with his 2020 film adaptation of his stage play, The Father which won six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, winning for his and co-writer Christopher Hampton’s screenplay, as well as Best Actor for Anthony Hopkins, that he was able to move very quickly in getting a film version going for his next play, 2018’s Le Fils. The result, The Son, premiering today at the Venice Film Festival in competition, is the second of a three part stage and film series on stories dealing with mental health, in this case a troubled 17 year old boy who has been deeply affected by the divorce of his parents and is suffering severe problems. Of course The Father dealt with one elderly man’s devastating descent into dimentia and the effect that had on his family, and it was an intimate film production for Zeller, largely taking place in the man’s apartment, yet still managed to be cinematic despite its stage origins.

The Son star Hugh Jackman told the Venice press corps today that his role in the film has had an impact on how he behaves with his own kids. “For many, many years as a parent the job was to appear strong and dependable and never worried and I don’t want to burden my children. But certainly since this movie I’ve changed my approach. I share my vulnerabilities more with my 17- and 22-year-old and I see their relief when I do.”

Hugh Jackman stars as a troubled father in The Son, the second installment in a trilogy from The Father director Florian Zeller.

Everything is not okay at home.

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter Variety will return to the Toronto Film Festival this year with its annual interview studio, in partnership with King’s Hawaiian. Running from Sept. 9 to Sept. 12, the Variety Studio presented by King’s Hawaiian will include interviews with cast members and directors from the top movies premiering at the Toronto Film Festival. Talent includes Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton (“The Son”); Mark Mylod, Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Menu”); Gina Prince-Bythewood, Viola Davis, John Boyega, Lashana Lynch, Thuso Mbedu, Sheila Atim and Cathy Schulman (“The Woman King”); Rian Johnson, Daniel Craig, Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr. and Madelyn Cline (“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”); Darren Aronofsky, Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins and Sam Hunter (“The Whale”); Peter Farrelly, Zac Efron and Ruby Serkis (“The Greatest Beer Run Ever”); Tyler Perry, Solea Pfeiffer and Joshua Boone (“A Jazzman’s Blues”); and Lila Neugebauer, Jennifer Lawrence and Justine Polsky (“Causeway”). Talent and creators from the following projects will also participate in the studio: “Inspection,” “The Fabelmans,” “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” “Bros,” “On the Come Up,” “The Good Nurse,” “The Eternal Daughter,” “Sanctuary,” “Empire of Light,” “Devotion” and “Catherine Called Birdy.”