News

More than 15 years later, Aaron Taylor-Johnson is unpacking a millennial teen fave that hasn’t aged well with at least one fan.

The Golden Globe winner reminisced about Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008), based on Louise Rennison’s young adult novels, as one fan of the rom-com shared how her take on the film has evolved over the years.

“Dave ‘The Laugh’ (Tommy Bastow) deserved better,” said the caller on BBC Radio 1, to which Taylor-Johnson confusedly responded, “Dave ‘The Laugh’? Who’s that?”

Refreshing his memory, the fan explained, “You say that he’s his friend. You get chipped with him at the beginning of the movie. But then Dave absolutely pines over Georgia (played by Georgia Groome) for the entire film.”

“Does he?” the actor replied. “Poor dave.”

@bbcradio1

anyone else siding with ‘dave the laugh’ here?...

Eva Longoria wants to keep busy.

The ex-Desperate Housewives star and now-Hyphenate Media boss decried an industry obsession with talent only working across one show at a time.

“Our business is so slow,” said Longoria at Content London. “That’s the problem with the industry it’s like, ‘Wait you can only do one show’ and I’m like, ‘No you can do more things than one’.”

This notion especially applies to women, Longoria joked, who said: “If you want to get something done, then ask a busy woman.”

Hyphenate recently struck a deal with One Day at a Time co-creator Gloria Calderón Kellett, who was previously signed up with Amazon Studios. Speaking alongside each other today, the pair said Kellett being able to work across multiple projects was crucial in her signing with Hyphenate, and she has 23 projects in various stages of development.

“[Gloria] had to beg to go...

​Count down to Christmas with favourites selected by Sean Baker, Gillian Anderson, John Waters, Mike Leigh, Gurinder Chadha, Will Sharpe and more

The Christmas movie has, in recent years, become its own industrial complex, algorithmically churned out by streaming services to hit various subscriber demographic sweet spots. Perhaps the seemingly disposable likes of Hot Frosty and Meet Me Next Christmas will be treasured for many Decembers to come, but they have a tough canon to crack, as represented by our all-star Advent calendar of festive movie favourites, chosen by some of the film industry’s best and brightest, invited by the Observer New Review to help our readers count down to the big day itself.

Some of the films here are as firmly entrenched in the season as mince pies and fir trees – who can argue with director Gurinder Chadha’s selection of It’s a Wonderful Life or actor Joe Alwyn’s of The Snowman?...

U.K. and India-based production company Civic Studios is presenting “Just Like Her Mother,” a series exploring the women’s rights movement through an intergenerational story, at India’s Film Bazaar co-production market. Venice Film Festival winner Ruchika Oberoi (“Island City”) is in talks to direct.

The series follows a daughter’s investigation into her mother’s disappearance, while examining the evolution of women’s rights in India from the 1970s to present day.

Civic Studios, a media company rooted in social impact storytelling, was founded with the mission of creating content that drives change. The company slate includes projects from Gurinder Chadha and Pan Nalin.

“This is a story we’ve developed in-house from the seed of the women’s rights movement in India,” says producer Anushka Shah. “It was one of the reasons for starting Civic Studios – to tell stories of social movements that offer cinematic scope of what change takes.

Dick Pope, the veteran British cinematographer who worked on 11 movies with director Mike Leigh, has died Tuesday, the British Society of Cinematographers said in a statement. He was 77.

No cause of death was given, but Leigh told Indiewire that Pope had undergone “major heart surgery” before work began on Hard Truths, their last collaboration that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last month.

Pope received Oscar nominations for his work on Leigh’s Mr Turner and the mystery The Illusionist by director Neil Burger. Pope and Leigh also worked together on movies like Life Is Sweet in 1990, Naked, Topsy-Turvey, Vera Drake and Secrets & Lies.

In a 2019 interview with Film Comment, Pope talked about his decades of work with Leigh, with a reference to their movie coming out at the time, Peterloo.

“It’s very difficult to take Peterloo out of all the other work we’ve done together, because...

Dick Pope, the veteran British cinematographer best known for his decades-long collaboration with legendary filmmaker Mike Leigh, has died. He was 77.

The British Society of Cinematographers confirmed the news Tuesday with a statement.

“It is with deepest sadness that we learn of the passing of our friend and colleague Dick Pope Bsc,” the statement read. “Dick had a reputation for being a wonderful collaborator and someone who was passionate about the art form of Cinematography. He was keen to embrace new technologies and ideas while also ensuring the skills and crafts of those that came before him weren’t lost. To this end, Dick would guest tutor at schools such as the National Film and Television School.”

Pope was born in Bromley, Kent in 1947. He began his trade as a documentary filmmaker, working on the British current affairs series World In Action. He moved into television drama in the early...

Richard Pope, the British cinematographer who worked extensively with Mike Leigh, has died at the age of 77.

Pope’s death was reported by the British Society of Cinematographers (Bsc) on Tuesday, October 22.

A message posted to the Bsc website read, “It is with deepest sadness that we learn of the passing of our friend and colleague Dick Pope Bsc.We pay tribute to our wonderful friend and colleague and out thoughts go out to his family especially his wife Pat at this difficult time.”

”On behalf of Mike, the team at Thin Man Films, and the cast and crew who...

British cinematographer Dick Pope, long-time collaborator of Mike Leigh, had died, it’s been announced. A very sad loss.

Some really awful news to wake up to this morning. Cinematographer Dick Pope has died at the age of 77. Ahead of the filming of what turned out to be his final movie, Hard Truths, Pope said he’d recently he’d undergone heart surgery.

Hard Truths – and it’s a superb film – has thus proven to be his final collaboration with writer/director Mike Leigh, and the pair have been at the heart of some of British cinema’s most notable films. They came together on 1990’s Life Is Sweet, and were regular collaborators from that point onwards.

Pope also, across a career that stretched nearly 50 years, worked with filmmakers such as Mike Newell, John Sayles, Gurinder Chadha, Christopher McQuarrie, Richard Linklater and Barry Levinson.

The news of his passing came...

Producer and author Lynda Obst, of Sleepless In Seattle, The Fisher King and Contact fame, has died after an illness.

A morning of not very nice news today, as we learn that producer Lynda Obst has died, at the age of just 74.

Obst produced and executive produced films such as Flashdance, Sleepless In Seattle, Contact, Interstellar, The Fisher King and Adventures In Babysitting. She also penned a couple of outstanding books about her time in the film industry, namely Hello, He Lied and Sleepless In Hollywood: Tales From The New Abnormal In The Movie Business.

Obst appeared on a special interview episode in April 2021, and it was striking how forward she was in her thinking, bringing up such topics as quantum computing and how that might affect the movie industry.

Lynda Obst had been unwell for a little while, it turns out, but had been working in recent times on...

Dick Pope, the legendary two-time Oscar nominated British cinematographer and longtime collaborator of auteur Mike Leigh, has died at the age of 77. News of Pope's passing was confirmed by the British Society of Cinematographers in a statement shared on their website earlier today.

"It is with deepest sadness that we learn of the passing of our friend and colleague Dick Pope Bsc," wrote the organisation in their post, which highlighted Pope's record three Camerimage Golden Frog wins as well as his achievement of the society's prestigious 'Cinematography in a Feature Film' award for his work on Mr. Turner. Continuing, the society also paid homage to their alumni's commitment to his craft and its furtherance, writing, "Dick had a reputation for being a wonderful collaborator and someone who was passionate about the artform of Cinematography. He was keen to embrace new technologies and ideas while also ensuring the skills and crafts...

Richard Pope, the British cinematographer who collaborated with director Mike Leigh across his career and earned an Oscar nomination for his work lensing Leigh’s 2014 biopic “Mr. Turner,” died Tuesday in London. He was 77 years old.

Pope’s death was confirmed by the British Society of Cinematographers in a statement released Tuesday.

“It is with deepest sadness that we learn of the passing of our friend and colleague Dick Pope Bsc,” the organization wrote. “Dick had a reputation for being a wonderful collaborator and someone who was passionate about the artform of cinematography. He was keen to embrace new technologies and ideas while also ensuring the skills and crafts of those that came before him weren’t lost.”

Pope’s artistic partnership with Leigh, the most enduring of his career, began with the 1990 drama “Life Is Sweet.” The film marked Leigh’s third feature. Pope has served as cinematographer on...

The last five years have been transformative for cinema, between the impact of Covid, the streaming revolution, and the rise of AI technology. Which is exactly why Empire decided to poll an array of top filmmakers in Hollywood – and beyond – on what exactly is going on in the industry, and what it all means for the movies. The result is a major new article – available to read in full in our Mickey 17 issue (order here).

One of the hottest topics is the encroachment of AI, with the industry still figuring out how it could, should – or should not – be used in moviemaking. “It is not creative,” says Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of The Woman King. “It just takes from others’ creativity.” Sofia Coppola – director of Priscilla and Lost In Translation – questions its capabilities beyond creating mere imagery: “It can be helpful, but I think you need a heart and soul to make art.

London got a taste of The Boss on Friday evening.

Bruce Springsteen took to a smaller stage than he is used to in the British capital on Friday evening, discussing the concert documentary Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band during an event organized by Disney+, which will premiere the film with Hulu on Oct. 25.

Following a screening of the doc, a Q&a that featured The Boss, who was welcomed with a standing ovation, long-time friend and band member Stevie Van Zandt and director Thom Zimny, as well as producer and Springsteen manager Jon Landau, provided additional insight. The session was moderated by Scottish radio DJ and TV host Edith Bowman.

“If you get the art right, the music right and the band right, you go out and play every night like it’s your last night on Earth,” Springsteen said about the longevity of the band.

Caroline Dinenage Returns Unopposed To Culture, Media & Sport Committee Hotseat

The UK’s Culture Media & Sport Committee (Cmsc), which scrutinizes the work of the film and TV industries, has re-elected Caroline Dinenage as chair. Dinenage, whose father Fred Dinenage was a TV presenter, was the sole nomination and therefore elected unopposed. She had been chair for around a year before parliament was dissolved for the July 4 election. During her tenure she oversaw the review into the high-end TV and film industries, which saw the likes of Gurinder Chadha, Slow Horses director James Hawes and the head of Amazon UK appear in front of the committee. That work will need to be started from scratch if Dinenage chooses to do so. “I’m delighted to be re-elected to chair the Culture, Media and Sport Committee and entrusted to build on our achievements in the last parliament,” said Dinenage. “These sectors are our global economic super-power,...

Film London Predicts $12B Film & TV Boost To UK Capital

Film London has suggested that the film, TV and animation industries could generate as much as $12B (£9.5B) in investment in the UK capital in the next five years to 2028-29, as a result of its support activities. The body released the figures as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations on Wednesday. It said this investment would in turn add another $1.2B (£1B) in Gva for London over the same five-year period. The future impact figures were modelled on 2023/24 data. Film London noted that the forecast builds on figures for the previous five years, during which it said $5B (£4B) was invested in London as a result of its activities. These include the Artists Moving Image Network, equal access schemes such as Breaking the Glass Ceiling as well as the Production Finance Market (Pfm), during the BFI London Film Festival,...

Over the next five years, £9.5bn of investment in London is expected to be generated as a result of Film London’s support for film, TV and animation production, according to figures released by the organisation this morning.

This investment would add an additional £1bn Gva (gross value added) for London over the same five-year period, leading to 2028-2029.

The release of the figures coincided with Film London’s 20th anniversary, celebrated with an event at London’s The Standard Hotel.

The event was attended by UK industry representatives including Barbara Broccoli, Andy Harries, Daniel Battsek, producer Stephen Woolley, filmmaker...

Civic Studios, a media company rooted in social impact storytelling, is continuing its global expansion from its bases in Mumbai and London.

Founded with the mission of creating content that drives change, the women-led studio boasts a 70% female team. The company was founded by Anushka Shah and incubated at the MIT Media Lab, with an intention of data and research driven media.

The 2024 slate highlights include “Christmas Karma,” directed by Gurinder Chadha. This Christmas musical set in London reimagines Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Starring Kunal Nayyar, Eva Longoria and Boy George, the film features music by Gary Barlow, Shaznay Lewis and Nitin Sawhney. It’s set for a December 2025 release.

“Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust,” an animation feature by Ishan Shukla premiered at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam 2024, winning the Netpac award for Best Asian Film. The film, about a dystopian world where citizens wear paper bags to erase differences,...

The UK’s Culture, Media and Sport (Cms) committee’s inquiry into the territory’s film and high-end TV (Hetv) sector has been paused indefinitely in light of the upcoming general election.

As is the case with most parliamentary committees, it was dissolved on May 30 following the announcement of the general election by prime minister Rishi Sunak and the dissolution of parliament.

The UK general election will take place on July 4.

The committee will be re-assembled with new members at the start of the next parliament who will decide whether to continue on with the inquiry.

The existing committee did...

True Brit Entertainment has acquired U.K. rights to “The Death of Robin Hood,” one of the hot market packages at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where A24 picked up the project up for the U.S.

Set in Sherwood Forest and starring Hugh Jackman and Jodie Comer, the film is being directed by Michael Sarnoski, behind the critically acclaimed “Pig” and upcoming “A Quiet Place: Day One.”

As per the logline, “The Death of Robin Hood” sees the Prince of Thieves having banished the jolly green tights of previous incarnations, becoming instead “a battle-worn loner” who finds himself “grappling with his past after a life of crime and murder and in the hands of a mysterious woman.”

Lyrical Media is fully financing “The Death of Robin Hood.” Aaron Ryder and Andrew Swett will produce under their Ryder Picture Company banner alongside Alexander Black for Lyrical Media. Lyrical’s...

True Brit Entertainment has picked up Michael Sarnoski’s thriller The Death Of Robin Hood for release in UK-Ireland. The film is set to star Hugh Jackman and Jodie Comer.

A24 will release in the US. WME Independent is representing sales.

The US feature sees Robin Hood grappling with his past life of crime and murder, and faced with a shot at redemption. Production is set to start around February 2025 with shoot location yet to be confirmed. Aaron Ryder and Andrew Swett are producing through Ryder Picture Company and Alexander Black for Lyrical Media. Lyrical Media is fully financing the film.

Fears over the future of the UK’s film and high-end TV inquiry have emerged due to the upcoming general election.

Culture, Media & Sport Committee (Cmsc) chair Caroline Dinenage has written today to Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer urging the Cmsc’s “successor committee” to keep up its work exploring the issues impacting the industry.

When a general election is called, committees such as the Cms are dissolved. Once a new government is in place, a different chair and group of cross-party MPs will be appointed to the new committee but it is under no obligation to continue the work of the previous one.

“We hope that the next government will continue to champion and support all facets of our screen industries,” wrote Dinenage. “Given the huge value that film and Hetv contributes, and the deep questions that remain about its resilience, we strongly urge our successor committee to revisit the...

Film industry luminaries have paid fulsome homage to Indian DoP Santosh Sivan, this year’s recipient of the annual Pierre Angénieux ExcelLens in Cinematography award conferred during the Cannes Film Festival.

Hosted by professional cinema lens manufacturer Angénieux at Cannes, the award pays tribute to a renowned cinematographer and recognizes an emerging talent. Estonian-u.S cinematographer Kadri Koop will receive the Angénieux special encouragement honor.

Sivan has shot 55 feature films, including “Roja,” “Thalapathi,” “Dil Se” and “Iruvar” for Mani Ratnam, Cannes selection “Vanaprastham” for Shaji N. Karun, “Meenaxi” for M.F. Hussain and “Bride and Prejudice” for Gurinder Chadha, amongst many others. He has also shot more than 50 documentaries and directed 17 feature films including Sundance selection “The Terrorist” and Venice and Toronto selection “Asoka,” produced by and starring Shah Rukh Khan. Sivan is the first Indian member of the American Society of Cinematographers.

The DoP is the first Asian recipient of the Angénieux award,...

“Throwing money” at the “workforce crisis” in UK film and TV will “exacerbate the problem” rather than solving it, according to the former boss of Amazon in Europe.

Georgia Brown, who now chairs the UK’s Screen Sectors Skills Task Force, delivered a passionate plea for the industry to take a holistic approach to resolving the “crisis” during an appearance in front of the UK’s British Film & High-End TV Inquiry this morning, which was titled “How can the UK film industry combat its workforce crisis?”

According to Brown, the industry is now comfortably meeting a BFI-set demand to spend 1% of production budgets, or £100M ($127M), on training, but that this spending is far too fragmented.

“We know we are collectively spending more than 1% but I will keep coming back to the fact that it’s not a money question,” she added. “Throwing more money won’t solve this, it will exacerbate the problem.

Amazon UK MD Chris Bird was among the latest group of industry execs to appear in front of the UK’s British Film & High-End TV Inquiry this afternoon, during which he revealed how much cash the streamer has invested in content from UK broadcasters for the first time.

“We have spent more than $400 million licensing, co-producing, and co-commissioning content from the UK Public Service Broadcasters,” Bird said. “Not only to make bigger and better shows but we’ve also helped produce everything from Steve McQueen’s Small Axe and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag to the recently announced second and third seasons of The Night Manager with the BBC.”

Deadline was first to break news of The Night Manager returning with Tom Hiddleston signed on to star.

Prime Video doesn’t only help produce these hits but also distributes them to territories across the globe, Bird added. “Outside of America, British...

The Star Wars film series is still expanding and has grown in recognition over the years. Innumerable actors have contributed to the property as the galaxy far, far away continues to grow through projects for both small and large screens. Some of them even lose track of how they came to be cast in the first place. Take Keira Knightley, for example.

Known for her acclaimed performances in Pride and Prejudice and The Imitation Game, the actress, 39, also had a role in the Star Wars film franchise that was a long-kept secret.

Keira Knightley in Love Actually

Surprisingly, Knightley’s involvement in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) wasn’t a big deal at the time, as she was not a known face playing a bit part in the background. Even more intriguingly, she was cast for the role because of how much she resembled Natalie Portman when...

Chris Besseling, former marketing lead at eOne and Pathé UK, is joining Zygi Kamasa’s True Brit Entertainment as head of theatrical distribution, marketing and publicity.

Besseling is one of the distribution and financing outfit’s first major hires, with True Brit’s speedily expanding slate including Marching Powder, The Scurry, Giant, The Critic and Gurinder Chadha’s Christmas Karma.

He will be based in London and report to Kamasa.

Throughout his career Besseling has been responsible for launching over 200 films at the UK and Ireland box office. He has also held posts at Metrodome, the BFI, Optimum Releasing and consulted for Studiocanal.

Former eOne and Pathé UK marketing executive Chris Besseling has joined True Brit Entertainment, the UK distribution company run by Zygi Kamasa.

Besseling’s official title at True Brit is Head of Theatrical Distribution, Marketing, and Publicity. He will oversee the full theatrical distribution, marketing, and publicity function for True Brit Entertainment’s slate. He will be based in London and report to True Brit Entertainment CEO Kamasa.

Besseling began his career at the Metrodome, BFI, and Optimum Releasing. Since then, he has been responsible for launching over 200 films at the UK and Irish box office. During his time at eOne and Pathé, he spearheaded the theatrical campaigns for a wide array of titles, including 1917, Suffragette, Green Book, Selma, Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Amongst Thieves, Wild Rose, The Death of Stalin, The Woman King, Stan & Ollie, Clifford The Big Red Dog, The House With A Clock In Its Walls, Blinded By the Light...

‘The Big Bang Theory’ star Kunal Nayyar has joined the cast of Gurnder Chadha’s festive offering ‘Christmas Karma’ from True Brit Entertainment, Bend It Films, Maven Screen Media and Civic Studios.

Inspired by Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol, Nayyar will lead the cast as Scrooge with a further cast including Eva Longoria, Boy George, Billy Porter, Hugh Bonneville, Leo Suter, Charithra Chandran, Pixie Lott, Danny Dyer, Bilal Hasna, Allan Corduner, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Rufus Jones, Eve, Nitin Ganatra.

On his casting Nayyar stated; “To explore a beloved holiday tale through the eyes of an immigrant story (much like my own) is exactly the kind of movie that I believe will resonate with so many of us who are searching for the meaning of home. It takes a visionary like Gurinder to take a chance on a story like this, and I am humbled to be a part of it.”

Also in...

‘Bend It Like Beckham’ helmer Gurinder Chadha is all set to start shooting for her next production, ‘Christmas Karma’, a Bollywood musical set in contemporary London and inspired by Charles Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’.

Kunal Nayyar, who is best known for his role in the popular sitcom ‘The Big Bang Theory’, is the lead actor in a star-studded global cast, which includes Eva Longoria, Boy George, Billy Porter, Hugh Bonneville, Leo Suter, Charithra Chandran, Pixie Lott, Danny Dyer, Allan Corduner, Bilal Hasna, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Rufus Jones, Eve and Nitin Ganatra.

Chadha, a BAFTA-nominated director, is also the producer and writer, and the music is by the six-time Ivor Novello award-winning singer and songwriter Gary Barlow, apart from Shaznay Lewis and Nitin Sawhney. Shooting for the film will start on April 22.

‘Christmas Karma’ sees Chadha’s return to the big screen following her time working on the Indian historical television...

BAFTA Circles Calendar

The British Academy has confirmed the date of the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards, which will now be held on Sunday February. 16.

As per recent scheduling arrangements, the awards — arguably the biggest film awards outside the U.S. — takes place two weeks before the Oscars on March 2, 2025. Regular film festival attendees may note that the BAFTA awards will, once again, be held during the Berlinale, set to run February 13-23, with there likely to be a spike in industry professionals flying back to London on the morning of Feb. 16.

The full timeline and eligibility details for the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards will be announced in due course. Voting will take place over three rounds: longlisting, nominations and winners, by the academy’s global voting film membership which comprises more than 7,800 industry creatives.

The 2024 BAFTA Film Awards, which saw “Oppenheimer” dominate with wins for best film, director and actor, were watched...

Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham) is pushing forward with Christmas Karma, a contemporary Bollywood musical set in London and inspired by Charles Dickens’ seminal A Christmas Carol, with Kunal Nayyar (The Big Bang Theory) signed on to lead an ensemble cast.

Nayyar will star as Scrooge in pic alongside an expansive cast, including Eva Longoria, Boy George, Billy Porter, Hugh Bonneville, Leo Suter, Charithra Chandran, Pixie Lott, Danny Dyer, Bilal Hasna, Allan Corduner, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Rufus Jones, Eve, and Nitin Ganatra.

Chadha wrote the pic and is producing alongside directing, with music by Take That alum Gary Barlow alongside Shaznay Lewis and Nitin Sawhney. Financing for Christmas Karma is from Civic Studios. Gurinder Chadha, Celine Rattray, Trudie Styler, and Amory Leader will produce. Zygi Kamasa, Anushka Shah, Paul Mayeda Berges, Sophia Pedlow, and Hannah Leader will serve as executive producers.

Christmas Karma is the fifth scripted project from British distributor True Brit Entertainment,...

Kunal Nayyar, Eva Longoria, Hugh Bonneville and Danny Dyer head the ensemble cast of Gurinder Chadha’s Christmas Karma for which Zygi Kamasa’s True Brit Entertainment has UK and Ireland rights.

Filming is set to start on April 22. It is being produced by Chadha’s Bend It Films, Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler for Maven Screen Media and Amory Leader. Executive producers are Kamasa, Paul Mayeda Berges, Sophia Pedlow and Hannah Leader.

Further financing is coming from Anushka Shah’s Mumbai and London-based Civic Studios.

The Bollywood musical retelling of A Christmas Carol will also star musicians Boy George,...

The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar will star in Gurinder Chadha’s next film, Christmas Karma. It’s due out this December.

News has emerged about Gurinder Chadha’s next project, confirmed to be an adaptation of A Christmas Carol.

Titled Christmas Karma, the film will star Kunal Nayyar as Scrooge. He’ll be joined by an ensemble cast that includes Eva Longoria, Boy George, Billy Porter, Hugh Bonneville, Leo Suter, Charithra Chandran, Pixie Lott, Danny Dyer, Bilal Hasna, Allan Corduner, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Rufus Jones, Eve, and Nitin Ganatra.

We can’t say we expected to see Danny Dyer, Boy George and Billy Porter in the same film, but there we are. We also reported earlier this year that the film’s Scrooge would be an “Indian Tory who hates refugees”.

Christmas Karma will also be a Bollywood-style musical; Gary Barlow is in charge of music alongside Shaznay Lewis and Nitin Sawhney.

Giant will star Amir El-Masry and Pierce Brosnan. What’s more, filming is about to begin in Leeds, as part of an all-uk shoot.

Shortly to start filming in the UK is a new movie by the name of Giant. Unrelated to the James Dean-headlined classic, this is actually the biopic of boxer Prince Naseem Hamed (also known as Naz). It’s going to follow his story from his early days through to his ascent to becoming a world champion boxer.

Interesting personnel have been attracted to the feature, too.

Amir El-Masry is going to be playing Hamed in the movie, and alongside him will be Pierce Brosnan. Brosnan is going to take on the role of Brendan Ingle, the trailer who helped coach Hamed to his title.

Rowan Athale, who’s been working on the likes of The Rise and Gangs Of London, has written the script and will be directing as well.

New film celebrities have joined the Cinema for Gaza auction that is raising funds for the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (Map).

The latest auction lots include a signed and framed Malcolm X poster offered by Spike Lee and Paul Mescal donating a signed Aftersun poster. On the experiences side, actress Tessa Thompson is offering to have a beer (or an “O’Douls”) over Zoom with a winning bidder, and Shiva Baby director Emma Seligman will shoot the breeze over tea, again via a Zoom call.

There’s also a Zoom call with Ayo Edebiri, star of The Bear, who is tossing in a list of her favorite places to dine, and a walk-on part in director Gurinder Chadha’s next film.

The biggest memorabilia lot so far is Annie Lennox donating handwritten lyrics to “Sweet Dreams,” her 1983 popular song with Eurythmics, with bids currently standing at £7,700.00 (U.S. $9,720.75)

The...

Govinda & Karisma Kapoor Starred in the 1997 David Dhawan Hit Hero No. 1. (Photo Credit – Instagram)

The 90s were a golden time for Bollywood comedy. The Govinda and David Dhawan duo were comedy kings with back-to-back hit collaborations. Their 1997 movie Hero No. 1 is a certified cult movie. But the producer behind the hit movie, Vashu Bhagnani, revealed some major behind-the-scenes trivia in a recent interview. He indicated that the movie’s shooting was halted because Govinda didn’t reach Switzerland initially. But he also added that when he did, he completed the shooting in one day. Days later, Govinda’s Manager, Shashi Sinha, refutes the producer’s claim.

Vashu Bhagnani and Govinda have worked on two very hit movies, Hero No.1 and the original Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. While speaking to a portal recently, Vashu Bhaganani praised Govinda and even said they have a great working relationship. In the same conversation, he...

Fom Akshay Kumar To Ajay Devgn Check Out The Biggest Pranksters Of Bollywood. (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Did you play pranks on the set? Well, this is the most asked question in interviews with celebs. The question is sometimes fair because you are actors who work on long schedules, and you would want to make things light for them along with your co-stars and crew. Many Bollywood stars like Akshay Kumar and Varun Dhawan are notorious for playing pranks. Even Ajay Devgn, and Tiger Shroff who can come off as very serious, dabbles in goofs on set.

In the glitz and glamour of Bollywood, certain artists add a playful and mischievous element to the vibe by doing funny pranks behind the scenes. From practical jokes to lighthearted puns, these stars keep the showbiz going with their fun activities. Here’s a look inside the world of Bollywood’s pranksters:

Akshay Kumar

The king of comedy,...

Jonathan Glazer has joined Cinema For Gaza, the UK-based appeal funding medical support for Palestinians in the Gaza region, as the auction of donations from film and TV professionals gets underway today.

The online auction is raising funds for the humanitarian work conducted by Medical Aid for Palestinians (Map) in Gaza. It will run from today (April 2) until midnight on Friday, April 12.

UK filmmaker Glazer has donated seven signed posters from his Oscar best international film winner The Zone Of Interest, plus a selection of posters from his previous film Under The Skin.

At the time of writing, the auction...

Alia Bhatt hosted her first charity event Hope Gala in London as she raised money for underprivileged adolescents in India at the event, to help the Salaam Bombay foundation. Alia said in a statement: “I’m happy to have played a small part in helping these children reshape their narratives. Furthermore, holding the Hope Gala at such a prestigious venue is a genuine privilege, as I’ve always been a fan of Mandarin Oriental’s exceptional hospitality.

The actress added: “Today marks just the beginning of our efforts, and with the support of our generous contributors, I’m confident we’ll make significant strides in empowering future generations.”

Along with Alia, the guests included actress-model Poppy Delevingne, director Gurinder Chadha, Natasha Poonawalla of Serum Institute of India, among many others.

The evening saw performances by Indian singer Harshdeep Kaur, Usha Jey, the innovator behind Hybrid Bharatham, and the Yehudi Menuhin School Quartet.

Tilda Swinton, Ken Loach and Brian Cox are among the British film and TV VIPs contributing to an online auction to raise money for humanitarian relief for Palestinians in Gaza.

Among the auction lots to bid on are an online bedtime story read by Swinton; tickets to Cox’s London stage performance of A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, including a meet and greet with the Succession star; and a walk-on part in the new film from Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha.

Directors Mike Leigh, Asif Kapadia and Joanna Hogg, and actors including Harris Dickinson (The Iron Claw), Alison Oliver (Saltburn) and Aimee Lou Wood (Sex Education), are also taking part in the auction, which will raise money for Medical Aid for Palestinians (Map), a U.K.-based nonprofit that provides medical and humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza.

The auction was set up by Cinema for Gaza,...

Bruce Springsteen will be the subject of Deliver Me From Nowhere, a biopic from director Scott Cooper. The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White is the top choice to star.

Writer and director Scott Cooper is no stranger to musical films, having written and directed the terrific 2009 drama Crazy Heart, which saw Jeff Bridges play an alcoholic country singer, for which he won an Oscar for Best Actor.

Deliver Me From Nowhere, much like Bob Marley: One Love, which is still in cinemas, will focus on the creation of one iconic album, in this case Nebraska, which Springsteen made in 1982. It is often cited as his masterpiece. It was released between 1980’s The River and 1984’s Born In The USA, and Springsteen recorded it without his regular collaborators The E Street Band. Born In The USA is one of the best selling albums of all time.

The Bear star Jeremy Allen...

Exclusive: UK Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer has said the 40% indie film tax relief will bring balance to a movie sector that has swung too far towards big-budget fare in recent years.

The Conservatives unveiled the relief yesterday on films below £15M ($19M) budget, which was celebrated as a “game-changer” by figures ranging from Christopher Nolan to Ridley Scott to Gurinder Chadha.

Frazer said the latest set of tax reliefs brought in by the government, which it predicts will be worth £1B in additional relief over the next five years, are the “continuation” of a decade’s worth of work and will level the playing field between big-budget U.S. movies like Barbie that filmed in the UK and smaller indie fare.

“We’re supporting big productions and big international films on British soil but we need to do both and help indie films as well,” she said, as she sat...

Wednesday’s announcement that the British government would be introducing the new Independent Film Tax Credit sparked a response that was nothing short of jubilant across the entire sector.

The incentive — a 53% expenditure credit that equates to a tax relief of approximately 40% for U.K. productions with a budget of up to £15 million ($19.2 million) — was labeled by BFI chief executive Ben Roberts as “the most significant policy intervention since the 1990s.” Elsewhere, the likes of Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas, Barbara Broccoli, Andrew Haigh, Gurinder Chadha, Mike Leigh, Steve McQueen, Ridley Scott, Riz Ahmed, Jonathan Glazer, Gareth Edwards Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner were among the chorus of filmmaking heavyweights celebrating the news.

Speaking to Variety a day later, Roberts underlines the impact the credit could have on the independent sector, which — while inward investment has boomed over the last decade — has found itself at a point of crisis, with...

Some of the biggest names in the world of British film have showered praise on the “game-changing” new 40% British indie film relief.

Announced earlier today by UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt following lobbying from the BFI and Pact for months, the relief will apply to movies made for less than £15M ($19M). Today’s move was coupled with a 5% increase in tax relief for UK VFX costs in film and high-end TV, and business rates relief of 40% for major studios.

Sixteen Films producer and Ken Loach collaborator Rebecca O’Brien joked that the “genuine game changer” has prompted her to rethink whether to stop making movies.

“It’s extraordinary,” she told Deadline shortly after the credit was announced. “It just gives me confidence and means if I can raise the money more easily, I can spend more time helping the production and making a good film rather than spending all my time...

A TV series made entirely by generative AI is only three-to-five years away, according to the director of hits including Slow Horses and Anthony Hopkins movie One Life.

James Hawes spoke with legal teams at SAG-AFTRA and the WGA and undertook a poll with fellow directors and VFX workers after the BBC canceled long-running drama Doctors, in which he probed the likelihood of a fully AI series, he revealed today.

“The best guess was three to five years,” he told the British Film & High-End TV Inquiry. “Someone will say, ‘Create a scene in an ER room where a doctor comes in and he’s having an affair with a woman and they’re flirting, and someone is dying on the table,’ and [AI] will start to create it. Maybe it won’t be as polished as we are used to but that is how close we are getting.”

Hawes, who is...

At a special screening of the upcoming Amazon Original Poacher in London, the guests heaped praise on the crime series, with overwhelmingly positive and promising reactions. Written, created, and directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Richie Mehta and produced by QC Entertainment, Poacher features an accomplished ensemble cast including Nimisha Sajayan, Roshan Mathew, and

Dibyendu Bhattacharya. The series is a riveting fictionalized dramatization of real-life events based on a group of Indian Forest Service officers, Ngo workers, police constables, and good Samaritans who risked their lives trying to track down and bring to justice the biggest elephant ivory poaching ring in the history of India.

Richie Mehta, along with Manish Menghani, director, content licensing at Prime Video India, Executive Producer, Alia Bhatt, and QC Entertainment’s principals Raymond Mansfield and Sean McKittrick visited London for the publicity of the series ahead of its global streaming premiere. Celebrities including Freida Pinto, Gurinder Chadha,...

Berlin-based producer/distributor Dcm has taken a sake in Wim Wenders’ production company Road Movies, creating an “equal, strong partnership” between the two firms, Wenders and Dcm said Friday.

Dcm, which has released several of Wenders’ films in Germany, including the Oscar-nominated Perfect Days, will buy into Road Movies in the first quarter of this year. Dcm partners Dario Suter, Christoph Daniel, Marc Schmidheiny and Joel Brandeis described the move as a strategic expansion of the company’s film production business. Schmidheiny will be named Road Movies’ managing director.

Schmidheiny described the partnership as “a dream come true,” saying Dcm would handle the financial and day-to-day management of Road Movies to “to create the space for Wim to bring his seemingly inexhaustible creative power to the screen.”

“It has been on the agenda for years that we would work together with a strong partner,” said Wenders. “As Road Movies, we...

Christopher Nolan was presented with his BFI Fellowship last night (Feb 14) at the Rosewood London by his Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy, who introduced the director he has worked with on six films as “the most important bromance of my career” and “one of the greatest directors in the world”.

The visibly moved filmmaker paid tribute to his wife and long-time producer Emma Thomas in front of a packed industry audience.

“I was asked if in all of those years fighting to shoot on film, did you ever feel alone doing that?” said Nolan. “I was able to say I did...

Cillian Murphy presented Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan with the BFI Fellowship, the British Film Institute’s highest honor, Wednesday evening at a London dinner event hosted by BFI chair Tim Richards.

“The BFI Fellowship recognizes Nolan’s extraordinary achievements and enormous contribution to cinema as one of the world’s most innovative and influential film directors,” the organization said.

Nolan received the honor at the annual BFI Chair’s Dinner at the Rosewood Hotel in central London. Murphy, who has worked with Nolan on the likes of the Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Dunkirk and Oppenheimer, was in attendance along with such film industry guests as NBCUniversal Studio Group chair and chief content officer Donna Langley, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thomas, Michael Caine, Josh Hartnett, Hans Zimmer, Hoyte van Hoytema, Barbara Broccoli, Tom Hiddleston, Michelle Dockery, Gurinder Chadha, Misan Harriman, Molly Manning Walker, BFI CEO Ben Roberts, as well as U.K. Prime...

In a groundbreaking collaboration, the British Film Institute’s UK Global Screen Fund is supporting the production of “ChennaiStory,” an Indo-uk co-production featuring the versatile Shruti Haasan. The film, set to be a cross-cultural romantic comedy, will be directed by BAFTA winner Philip John, known for his remarkable work in the industry.

A Fusion of Languages and Cultures

“ChennaiStory” promises to be a unique cinematic experience, as it is an English-language film interwoven with Tamil and Welsh. Shruti Haasan, a prominent figure in Indian cinema, will lead the cast, bringing her talent to a global audience. Joining her is British star Viveik Kalra, celebrated for his lead role in Gurinder Chadha’s “Blinded By The Light.”

Shruti Haasan Stars In Indo-uk Co-production… BAFTA Winner Philip John To Direct… #ShrutiHaasan will headline #ChennaiStory, an Indo-uk co-production backed by the British Film Institute’s [#BFI] UK Global Screen Fund.#ChennaiStory – a cross-cultural rom-com – is an #English…...