Jack Thorne Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is to shine a spotlight on one of the UK’s biggest environmental scandals, the Corby poisonings, via a drama series starring Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood, departing Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker and Robert Carlyle.

Naman Ramachandran “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” the first Harry Potter story to be presented on stage and the eighth story in the series, celebrates its seventh anniversary at the Palace Theatre at London’s West End on July 30, where it is now booking to May 19, 2024. In the play, 19 years after Harry, Ron, and Hermione saved the wizarding world, they’re back on a new adventure – this time, joined by a new generation that has only just arrived at the legendary Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

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

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Former Meta executive and BAFTA Film Committee chair Anna Higgs has joined U.K. theater, film and television agency Casarotto Ramsay & Associates as managing director. Higgs, who will begin her role in August, will be entrusted by the Casarotto board to oversee the business and drive the strategic development and direction of the org. Founded in 1989 and based in London, the independent global agency represents many top writers, directors, playwrights, theater creatives, literary properties and heads of departments in film, theater, TV and new media.

EXCLUSIVE: Before a looming SAG-AFTRA strike, Disney is tying up the cast to their threequel Tron: Ares with the addition of Sarah Desjardins.

EXCLUSIVE: Shameless alum Cameron Monaghan has closed a deal to join Jared Leto and more in Tron: Ares, the third film in the Tron sci-fi franchise from Disney. Details as to Monaghan’s character are under wraps, though the film will follow Leto’s computer program Ares on a journey from the digital world to that of humans.

Murder Mystery 2 actress Jodie Turner-Smith and Past Lives star Greta Lee are boarding Disney’s Tron: Ares, Deadline has confirmed.

Angelique Jackson Jodie Turner-Smith, star of “Queen & Slim” and the upcoming “Star Wars” series “The Acolyte,” is plugging into the grid. The British star is latest addition to the cast of Disney’s “Tron: Ares,” joining Jared Leto, Evan Peters and “Past Lives” star Greta Lee. Joachim Rønning (“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”) will direct the third “Tron” installment from a script by Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne. Leto will play Ares, the manifestation of a program that becomes sentient and crosses over into the human world, with Lee as a video game programmer and tech company CEO who aims to protect her world-changing technology. Additional plot details, including specifics of Turner-Smith’s role, are being kept under wraps. Production on the film is set for August (an actors strike notwithstanding).

K.J. Yossman Louis Theroux will deliver this year’s James MacTaggart memorial lecture, the flagship address at the Edinburgh TV Festival. The documentary maker, who also founded unscripted production company Mindhouse in 2019, has examined everything from Scientology to porn to neo-Nazis in his films. He has also turned his hand to social media, podcasting and streaming. Theroux will address the challenges broadcasters face in today’s “multi-platform universe,” how he has maintained longevity after a quarter of a century in the broadcasting industry and the pros and cons of the tech revolution we are all living through.

helmed by Joachim Rønning, which will hopefully begin shooting in August in Vancouver. Emma Ludbrook, Jeffrey Springer and Leto are producing.

Tron 3 is coming!

Naman Ramachandran Lila Rawlings, head of creative: film and TV at “Roma” filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron’s U.K.-based outfit Esperanto Filmoj, is joining British independent production company Motive Pictures as an executive producer. Rawlings’ remit at Motive will encompass both TV and film projects as the company scales its team in the wake of its first wave of productions, including the Ruth Wilson drama “The Woman in the Wall” for BBC and Showtime. At Esperanto, Rawlings oversaw a slate of projects with Sarah Solemani, Jack Thorne and Charlize Theron and served as executive producer on “The Shepherd,” one in a series of films financed by Disney, directed by Iain Softley and starring John Travolta. Previously, Rawlings was executive producer at Left Bank Pictures where she was responsible for several projects, including “Sitting in Limbo,” a BAFTA- winning drama for BBC One and “Electric Dreams” for Amazon, Sony TV and Channel 4.

Hello Insiders, Jesse Whittock here to take you through a scorching week in international TV and film. Don’t forget to subscribe. Let’s go.

EXCLUSIVE: “We are today… WGA!” was the cry outside Cologne Cathedral yesterday evening in Germany, where around 50 protestors held a rally in solidarity with their WGA counterparts in the U.S.

British big-hitters Russell T. Davies, Jack Thorne and Dennis Kelly are preparing to stand with writers around the world today in support of striking scribes on a global day of solidarity and action.

EXCLUSIVE: Jack Thorne is a writer at the peak of his powers, so there are probably few people who can shred his nerves when they comment on his scripts. Sharon Horgan happens to be one such person.

The Flash showrunner Eric Wallace will be telling fellow American writers “we are not in this alone” when he returns home from London later.

She’s given us Coupling, Catastrophe and Motherland - now Sharon Horgan is about to show us her serious side in new BBC show Best Interests.The brand-new thought-provoking drama written by BAFTA winning writer, Jack Thorne sees Sharon draw on her own traumatic real life experiences. Four-parter Best Interests, follows an ordinary family driven apart by having to make choices no parent would ever want to make. Sharon Horgan and Michael Sheen star as Nicci and Andrew who have two daughters Katie and Marnie.

EXCLUSIVE: Sam Mendes has a mammoth hit on his hands with The Motive and the Cue, which has been playing to packed houses on the National Theatre’s 890-seater Lyttelton proscenium stage.

EXCLUSIVE: His Dark Materials and Enola Holmes scribe Jack Thorne, a “proud” member of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, has paused work on two projects in solidarity with the WGA strikers.

EXCLUSIVE: Anonymous Content, Casarotto Ramsay & Associates and United Agents have set former ITVS Creative Director Patrick Spence (Spy Among Friends) as Managing Director of their UK film and TV production joint venture.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Renowned British novelist William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” is to be adapted for television for the first time by Eleven and multi-BAFTA award-winning screenwriter Jack Thorne, known for TV shows like “This Is England ’88,” “National Treasure” and “His Dark Materials,” and stage shows like “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” Executive produced by Eleven’s Joel Wilson and Jamie Campbell (“Ten Pound Poms,” “Sex Education”), “Lord of the Flies” is comprised of four one-hour episodes, to be aired on BBC One and playing on BBC iPlayer. The drama tells the story of a group of young boys who find themselves stranded on a tropical island.

The BBC has tasked His Dark Materials writer Jack Thorne to pen a TV adaptation of William Golding’s seminal novel Lord of the Flies.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LILLE, France — Headed by a commanding performance from Navid Mohammadzadeh, superbly shot and packing arguably the best opening scene of any series in Series Mania main competition, Navid Javidi’s “The Actor” won the Grand Prize at Series Mania on Friday night. The top Series Mania award for the “The Actor” also proves vindication for the Festival which this year has broadened its geographical reach in an effort to discover new narrative modes and styles. Consistently subordinating narrative to mood, “The Actor” certainly wins on that score. Main scribe John Kåre Raake (“The Quake”) and co-scribe Linn-Jeanethe Kyed (“Bø”) scooped best writing for “The Fortress,” a banner upcoming Viaplay title produced by Norway’s Maipo Film and sold by TrustNordisk, which delivers a telling political cautionary tale for our times, a chic isolationist parable thriller set in an alternative Norway which has built a wall to keep foreigners out. When a virus strikes, it becomes a prison.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent With an International Panorama spangled by gems  – think Spain’s “Apagón,” Sweden’s “Blackwater,” and Canada’s “Disobey” and “Little Bird” – Series Mania also weighs in this year with one, if not the, strongest and most mouthwatering of international competitions in its history.  Including the opening and closing series, Amazon’s “Greek Salad” and Netflix’s “Transatlantic,” nearly all the global streamers have titles in the lineup, from Apple TV+’s “Drops of God” and Paramount+’s “Fleeting Lies.” The lineup also features some A-List international writing talents, such as the U.K.’s Jack Thorne and Israel’s Ron Leshem and Amit Cohen, whose “The Virtues” and “No Man’s Land” rank among the most memorable of recent Series Mania competition titles, and closing the festival, out of competition, “Unorthodox’s” Anna Wenger.”Fleeting Lies” also represents one of the first series from Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar’s El Deseo label in Madrid, opening series “Greek Salad” Cedric Klapisch’s first works a TV series creator.

Hannah Abraham Guest Contributor A virtual panel organized by Channel 4 has shed light on the findings of the recent Access into Action Industry Access Survey. The Wednesday panel was moderated by Channel 4 journalist Jordan Jarrett-Bryan, and included well-known industry figures like screenwriter Jack Thorne and producer Bryony Arnold. The Access into Action survey was conducted in late 2022 as a joint effort by Channel 4 and Amazon Studios U.K. as part of an ongoing effort to increase accessibility and inclusion in Britain’s entertainment industry. The anonymous questionnaire surveyed 105 organizations spanning production companies, broadcasters and streamers. The findings have revealed troubling statistics, like the fact that 25% of surveyed establishments were physically inaccessible, and the same proportion had no functioning accessible toilets. While acknowledging that 75% of respondents rented their production offices, Channel 4 Disability Lead Ally Castle stated that this could be a stepping stone for future conversations with landlords regarding improvements in building accessibility.

EbonyLife CEO Mo Abudu and execs from Starz, DreamWorks Animations and Universal International Studios are leading the jury for the Banff World Media Festival, which has unveiled nominations for its Rockie Awards.

Stranger Things is officially coming to London’s West End. Check out a teaser below for the play set a quarter of a century before the Netflix smash.

Ellise Shafer “Stranger Things” is coming to London’s West End. Netflix announced on Tuesday that “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” a stage play spinoff of the wildly popular series, will world premiere at the Phoenix Theatre later this year. The play, which is “rooted in the mythology” of the Netflix show, was written by “Stranger Things” writer and co-executive producer Kate Trefry from an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne and Trefry. The production will be helmed by Tony-winning director Stephen Daldry, with co-direction from Justin Martin. “Hawkins, 1959: a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn’t so easy… and the shadows of the past have a very long reach,” the play’s synopsis reads. “Brought to life by a multi-award-winning creative team, who take theatrical storytelling and stagecraft to a whole new dimension, this gripping new adventure will take you right back to the beginning of the ‘Stranger Things’ story – and may hold the key to the end.”

A stage-play adaptation of the hit Netflix franchise “Stranger Things” will premiere in London’s West End later this year, the streamer said Wednesday.Based on an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne and Kate Trefry, “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” will be set in the 1950s as an origin story that “will take you right back to the beginning of the ‘Stranger Things’ story – and may hold the key to the end.” The play, written by Trefry, a writer and co-executive producer for the TV series, will be rooted in the mythology and world of the Netflix global phenomenon.“We are beyond excited about ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow,'” said the series’ creators, Matt and Ross Duffer. “Collaborating with the brilliant Stephen Daldry has been nothing short of inspiring, and Kate Trefry has written a play that is at turns surprising, scary, and heartfelt.

EXCLUSIVE: Hulu has acquired Daisy May Cooper’s hit BBC comedy-thriller Am I Being Unreasonable?

The winners have been revealed for the 2023 BAFTAs!

*WINNER.BEST FILM“All Quiet on the Western Front,” Malte Grunert“The Banshees of Inisherin,” Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh“Elvis,” Gail Berman, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Patrick McCormick, Schuyler Weiss“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang“Tár,” Todd Field, Scott Lambert, Alexandra MilchanOUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM“Aftersun,” Charlotte Wells, Producer(s) TBC“The Banshees of Inisherin” Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin“Brian and Charles,” Jim Archer, Rupert Majendie, David Earl, Chris Hayward“Empire of Light,” Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris“Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” Sophie Hyde, Debbie Gray, Adrian Politowski, Katy Brand“Living,” Oliver Hermanus, Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley, Kazuo Ishiguro“Roald Dalh’s Matilda the Musical,” Matthew Warchus, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Jon Finn, Luke Kelly, Dennis Kelly“See How They Run,” Tom George, Gina Carter, Damian Jones, Mark Chappell“The Swimmers,” Sally El Hosaini, Producer(s) TBC, Jack Thorne“The Wonder,” Sebastián Lelio, Ed Guiney, Juliette Howell, Andrew Lowe, Tessa Ross, Alice Birch, Emma DonoghueOUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER“Aftersun,”  Charlotte Wells (Writer/Director)“Blue Jean,” Georgia Oakley (Writer/Director), Hélène Sifre (Producer)“Electric Malady,” Marie Lidén (Director)“Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” Katy Brand (Writer)“Rebellion,” Maia Kenworthy (Director)FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE“All Quiet on the Western Front” Edward Berger, Malte Grunert *WINNER“Argentina, 1985,” Santiago Mitre, Producer(s) TBC“Corsage,” Marie Kreutzer“Decision to Leave,” Park Chan-wook, Ko Dae-seok“The Quiet Girl,” Colm Bairéad, Cleona Ní ChrualaoíDOCUMENTARY“All That Breathes,”

Broadway lost six productions on January 15 – including the top-grossing The Music Man – to the usual January roster-thinning, and each show went out on a happy note with strong attendance.

EXCLUSIVE: Help and The End of the F***ing World producer Jenny Frayn has joined the BBC drama commissioning team on a temporary basis.

Welcome back Insiders. Hope you’re feeling sufficiently rested and re-energized as the world of TV and film kicks back into gear. Jesse Whittock with you for the first edition of 2023, and we have plenty for you.