#Mark Gatiss film night

[insanityclause]

Tom Hiddleston, Jenna Coleman, Sheila Atim and David Tennant are among the stars celebrating London’s stage talent at the 67th Evening Standard Theatre Awards on Sunday.

They will be at the event at Claridge’s joining Tuppence Middleton, Omari Douglas, Layton Williams, Hayley Atwell, Jake Shears and his Cabaret co-star Rebecca Lucy Taylor, AKA Self Esteem, among others, to hand out awards.

The event, hosted by the newspaper’s proprietor Lord Lebedev with the help of Ian McKellen, is presented by Susan Wokoma. The writer and actor, who played Edith in the Enola Holmes films and whose stage work includes appearances at the Bush, the National and the Royal Court, is about to start work on Three Weeks which she will direct and star in.

She said: “Theatre is always a labour of love and London stages have faced their fair share of difficulties in the last few years. So I think it’s paramount we celebrate excellence while we can.”

Among the awards presented on the night are best play, best actor and the Milton Shulman Award for best director which is named after the Standard’s late theatre critic. Other awards include the Natasha Richardson Award for best actress in association with Mithridate and the Charles Wintour Award for most promising playwright — named in honour of the paper’s editor for many years.

Also awarded on the night is the Lebedev Award, which is given to an individual or institution for lifetime achievement or a specific critically-acclaimed piece of work or series as well as two special Editor’s Awards.

Among those in the running are Paul Mescal, shortlisted for best actor for his role in A Streetcar Named Desire, with his co-stars Anjana Vasan and Patsy Ferran up for best actress. Mescal is up against Andrew Scott, who won in 2019 and is shortlisted for Vanya, as well as Paapa Essiedu for The Effect, and Mark Gatiss for The Motive and the Cue. The shortlist for best actress is completed by Rachael Stirling for Private Lives and Sophie Okonedo for Medea.

Also in the running is Nicole Scherzinger for Sunset Boulevard. She is nominated for best musical performance along with Charlie Stemp in Crazy For You, Kyle Ramar Freeman in A Strange Loop and Marisha Wallace in Guys & Dolls.

James Graham’s Dear England is shortlisted for best play alongside Jack Thorne’s The Motive and the Cue, Sam Holcroft’s A Mirror and Ryan Calais Cameron’s Retrogade.

Previous winners at the awards, which were first presented in 1955, include Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Ralph Fiennes, Laurence Olivier, Benedict Cumberbatch, Gillian Anderson and Glenn Close.

[lazbotronence]

Written by BAFTA-winning team Laurence Rickard & Martha Howe-Douglas (Ghosts, Horrible Histories) with Chris McCausland, hilarity and hijinks will commence on production this month at Sky Studios Elstree with the special set to air on Sky and NOW this Christmas.

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Chris McCausland & Lee Mack to star in Sky Original festive special ‘Bad Tidings’ [x]

Rebekah Staton, Sarah Alexander and Ben Crompton join the cast as production commences at Sky Studios Elstree.

Chris McCausland (The Wonders of the World I Can't See) and Lee Mack (Doctor Who, Inside No. 9, Brassic) star in Sky Original ‘Bad Tidings’, a mischievous festive special about two perpetually feuding neighbours in Stockport who become unlikely heroes, saving their street from notorious burglars with wacky booby traps and Great British banter. Written by BAFTA-winning team Laurence Rickard & Martha Howe-Douglas (Ghosts, Horrible Histories) with Chris McCausland, hilarity and hijinks will commence on production this month at Sky Studios Elstree with the special set to air on Sky and NOW this Christmas.

Joining the cast alongside McCausland and Mack are Rebekah Staton, Sarah Alexander, Ben Crompton, Emily Coates, Josiah Eloi, Millie Kiss, Tupele Dorgu, Sunil Patel, Susan Kyd and Donna Preston.

‘Bad Tidings’ follows a tradition of successful festive Sky Originals loved by Sky customers and star a wealth of British talent. Last year, ‘The Heist Before Christmas’ starring James Nesbitt, Timothy Spall and Laura Donnelly, was the biggest rating Sky Original of 2023 and followed 2022’s ‘Christmas Carole’ staring Suranne Jones, and 2021’s ‘The Amazing Mr Blunden’ staring Simon Callow, Tamsin Greig and Mark Gatiss.

This year’s Sky Original Christmas special revolves around grumpy home-security expert Neil (Mack) and his neighbour Scott (McCausland), who insists on keeping his Christmas lights illuminated all-year-round. And mixing up their bins, criticising Neil’s ‘project’ car and generally winding him up. Basically, Scott’s a git. He’s also blind and all the other neighbours think he’s great. 

When Scott is appointed head of the Neighbourhood Watch, Neil is the only one to question his suitability for the role. Their tit-for-tat argument culminates in Neil triggering a power-cut across the entire street. On Christmas Eve. 

Everyone is forced to evacuate, and Neil and Scott are left alone and on guard. But the local crime family decide to rob every house on the street in a single night, and the pair must set aside their differences to defeat them. They’ve got no lights, no cameras, no alarms and one of them is blind. Which might just be an advantage… 

Chris McCausland said: “Talk about a back of an envelope idea that has got out of hand, we are now making a Christmas comedy film and it's going to be awesome. I can't wait to get up to some hilarious mayhem with Lee and bring some festive spirit into people's living rooms this Christmas!”

Lee Mack added: “I love Chris McCausland, I love the script and I Iove Christmas. Where do I sign?”

‘Bad Tidings’ is written by Laurence Rickard & Martha Howe-Douglas with Chris McCausland, and is produced by Sky Studios. The film is directed by Tim Kirkby with Adnan Ahmed from Sky Studios producing. Anil Gupta Executive Produces for Sky Studios. NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution handles international sales on behalf of Sky Studios.

[emailsfromanactor]

The Motive and the Cue—directed by Sam Mendes and starring Mark Gatiss as John Gielgud, Johnny Flynn as Richard Burton, and Tuppence Middleton as Elizabeth Taylor—will be released in cinemas worldwide March 21. Written by Jack Thorne, the play is inspired by the making of Richard Burton and Sir John Gielgud’s landmark Broadway production of Hamlet in 1964. Filmed live during its summer 2023 run at the National Theatre, The Motive and the Cue is currently running in London’s West End at the Noël Coward Theatre until March 23.

Woohoo!

Coincidentally, March 21 was the closing night of the Toronto run of Hamlet. On that day, we will read almost nothing about the play, but a whole lot about William Redfield's opinions on film acting, with a guest appearance by Marlon Brando.

[uhlikzsuzsanna]

Tom Hiddleston, Jenna Coleman, Sheila Atim and David Tennant are among the stars celebrating London’s stage talent at the 67th Evening Standard Theatre Awards on Sunday.

They will be at the event at Claridge’s joining Tuppence Middleton, Omari Douglas, Layton Williams, Hayley Atwell, Jake Shears and his Cabaret co-star Rebecca Lucy Taylor, AKA Self Esteem, among others, to hand out awards.

The event, hosted by the newspaper’s proprietor Lord Lebedev with the help of Ian McKellen, is presented by Susan Wokoma. The writer and actor, who played Edith in the Enola Holmes films and whose stage work includes appearances at the Bush, the National and the Royal Court, is about to start work on Three Weeks which she will direct and star in.

She said: “Theatre is always a labour of love and London stages have faced their fair share of difficulties in the last few years. So I think it’s paramount we celebrate excellence while we can.”

Among the awards presented on the night are best play, best actor and the Milton Shulman Award for best director which is named after the Standard’s late theatre critic. Other awards include the Natasha Richardson Award for best actress in association with Mithridate and the Charles Wintour Award for most promising playwright — named in honour of the paper’s editor for many years.

Also awarded on the night is the Lebedev Award, which is given to an individual or institution for lifetime achievement or a specific critically-acclaimed piece of work or series as well as two special Editor’s Awards.

Among those in the running are Paul Mescal, shortlisted for best actor for his role in A Streetcar Named Desire, with his co-stars Anjana Vasan and Patsy Ferran up for best actress. Mescal is up against Andrew Scott, who won in 2019 and is shortlisted for Vanya, as well as Paapa Essiedu for The Effect, and Mark Gatiss for The Motive and the Cue. The shortlist for best actress is completed by Rachael Stirling for Private Lives and Sophie Okonedo for Medea.

Also in the running is Nicole Scherzinger for Sunset Boulevard. She is nominated for best musical performance along with Charlie Stemp in Crazy For You, Kyle Ramar Freeman in A Strange Loop and Marisha Wallace in Guys & Dolls.

James Graham’s Dear England is shortlisted for best play alongside Jack Thorne’s The Motive and the Cue, Sam Holcroft’s A Mirror and Ryan Calais Cameron’s Retrogade.

Previous winners at the awards, which were first presented in 1955, include Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Ralph Fiennes, Laurence Olivier, Benedict Cumberbatch, Gillian Anderson and Glenn Close.

[mylifeinfiction]

Dracula by Bram Stoker

What manner of man is this, or what manner of creature is it in the semblance of man?

Okay... I get it, it's a classic. But apparently being a classic didn't stop it from putting me to sleep four times in as many chapters, so I decided to make this a combo experience, bouncing back and forth between reading and listening. (And thankfully, the narration on the Penguin Classics audiobook is damn good.)

Bram Stoker's Dracula has been adapted and re-imagined possibly more than any other single literary work, and I've seen 'em all (false... hyperbole... who cares?). Having experienced this story—this character—so often in film and television, it was almost guaranteed that this book was going to be—for lack a better word—a letdown. And, honestly, it was... kinda.

No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and how dear to his heart and eye the morning can be.

The thing is: Bram Stoker's Dracula works a whole lot better as a piece of Detective Fiction than it does as Gothic Horror. The storytelling format (journals and correspondence) is just significantly more effective as a criminal case study than a terrifying journey into the horrific world of the Victorian vampire. As Detective Fiction, it's actually an extremely interesting—if wildly overlong and too often rambling—reading experience. However, it's so ingrained in the literary horror mythos that it being this entirely different thing is such an overwhelming shock to the system.

Also, Dracula himself is barely even a character after the introductory Harker Journal entries. It's a fact that cements him as a truly daunting, ever-present threat, sure, but even more so it's a fact that completely drains the final 'showdown' of any actual sense of terror or satisfaction. In the end, this reads so completely like one of those true-crime TV episodes that lays out the investigation in grueling detail only to cover the apprehension of the murderer in a mere postscript.

I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear; I think strange things which I dare not confess to my own soul.

It's pretty far from all bad, though. The atmosphere throughout lends a sneaking sense of dread to the events taking place that's effective enough now—and was most certainly downright gripping in 1897. The themes of madness throughout are explored with a philosophical intelligence that skillfully broadens the scope of the events that occur throughout. Dracula himself—when there—is fascinating in his inhumanity. Van Helsing and Renfield are an absolute delight to spend time with, in all their brilliance and insanity. And—as I said—the narration by Mark Gatiss was great, turning what could've ended up being a chore into an enjoyably fitting experience to usher in Halloween.

"Devils or no devils, or all the devils at once, it matters not; we fight him all the same."

6/10

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

[luimnigh]

May! Did pretty well this month. Okay, made no progress in reading the book I was reading, but apart from that I watch quite a bit of stuff.

Five movies, and four partial watches.

Two series, continued my weekly watch from past months, and added two new weekly watches.

And two games polished off.

I spent today babysitting my nephew, so let's just say I'm already getting a good start with June.

Movies:

Face/Off: It had come up on Flickle a few days before, and I ended up on it after scrolling some streaming sites for a while. Been a couple years since I've seen it. Delightfully bonkers.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes: There's some elements of this film that I feel have aged badly already, some elements that are unrealistic now that I know more about the realities of animal testing and care, but the global pandemic in the end hits different now.

Jumanji: The Next Level: Fine enough sequel, I liked it quite well. Nothing spectacular to it.

Casino Royale (2006): I watched this instead of Eurovision. Which means, unlike the rest of Europe, I watched Britain br good at something.

Deadpool 2: Good to catch this one before the sequel arrived. Took me a few years to realise this was an adaptation of the "Deadpool in love with Death" story without making Deadpool want to bone bones. Still think both these writers and the Avengers writers are cowards on that mark.

Rush (Partial): Caught the last hour one night, basically starting with Niki Lauda's crash. Good movie.

Maiden Voyage: Ocean Hijack (Partial): Caught the first hour of this film late one night. Terrible action movie, Die Hard on a Cruise Ship which makes it an inferior Speed 2: Cruise Control.

The Imitation Game (Partial): Parents were watching it. Caught the last half hour. Spent the entire time annoyed with Turing's characterisation.

The Road Dance (Partial): Caught the last hour. Depressing drama set in the Scottish Outer Hebrides during WWI, about the aftermath of a sexual assault. Mark Gatiss is in it.

Series:

Tales of the Empire: Good to see Barriss again, though I certainly didn't wait as long as many others I know.

Cyberpunk Edgerunners: A lovely little tragedy. Very much epitomises the idea of a tragedy where so many things could have happened to change the ending, and yet you know that the ending was always inevitable. Also I've been thinking about playing the game, so this helped give me some understanding of the setting.

Dungeon Meshi (Partial): I feel like this show is gonna need a second season to wrap up. The situation is still only escalating.

Doctor Who (Partial): You know, I haven't watched weekly Doctor Who since Capaldi? I stopped watching after Hell Bent. I really do need to watch the seasons I missed. Anyway, I think Ruby might be Susan.

Jet Lag: The Game: Season 10 (Partial): Yeah, already way better than Hide And Seek.

Games:

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations: The final game in the trilogy, and a nice send-off. Some interesting twists and turns, and a nice look into both Mia and Edgeworth's heads. And thankfully, there was no character as annoying as the clown this time.

Saints Row (2022) DLC: Stepping back into Santo Illeso was like stepping back into a comfortable pair of slippers. Problem is, the company that makes those slippers has been shut down, so once those slippers are worn out, I'll never be able to get new slippers. A damn shame.

Looking back, I spent most of last year in a depressive funk. There were some high moments, but after about March I just stopped doing the stuff I enjoy. I didn't read books, I didn't watch movies, the last videogame I played to completion was in May, I only went to the Cinema twice...

I just took the quick dopamine hit from stuff like youtube videos and social media scrolling.

I gotta fix that. I gotta get back to the things I enjoy.

So my New Year's Resolution, probably the first time I've ever seriously done one, is to enjoy more art.

I'm gonna record every movie and series watched, every book read, every game played- and I'm gonna finish a bunch of those I started and never ended.

No goal, just more.

[fuckyeahmarkgatiss]

Some photos from the Mark Gatiss film night on Friday.

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[elizadoolittlethings]

PHOTOS FROM THE MARK GATISS FILM NIGHT

December 2017 ·

News

On Friday 15th December, The Cinema Museum staged an evening with Mark Gatiss, who discussed his favourite films with critic and broadcaster Matthew Sweet. This was held as part of our fund-raising efforts, and as you can see from the photos below, the event was packed out! Many thanks to Mark and Matthew for giving us their time and support. These pictures were taken by volunteer Selene Marotta.

[devoursjohnlock]

hi! do you happen to have a list of must-watch holmes adaptations? can we see it pleasee

Hi anon! This is a great question; the short answer is no I don't keep such a list because I'd like to see everything eventually and haven't yet. But can I make such a list? I can try.

Since your follow-up ask mentioned that you’re watching from a tjlc/BBC Sherlock perspective, I’ve added explanations for why many of these adaptations made the cut. Personally, I love the earlier black and white films; if this is less your glass of tea, the first ones to cut out are Barrymore and Wontner.

Oh! Edited to add: there are so many Sherlock Holmes adaptations I haven’t seen, and I’m aware that I’m dramatically under-representing those not performed in English. Please feel free to recommend your favourites if you don’t see them here.

ACTION!

1. Sherlock Holmes Baffled (1900) Why wouldn’t you start here? It was the first, has nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes whatsoever, and runs just under 1 minute.

2. Sherlock Holmes (1916). William Gillette as Holmes. Historically very important. This is the film version of an original play first written by Doyle, then destroyed in a fire, then rewritten by Gillette with Doyle’s permission. Remember “Marry him, kill him, do what you like with him”? That was about this play (1899). Gillette was the model for Collier’s illustrator Frederic Dorr Steele’s Sherlock Holmes (1903 onward). This film was thought lost for many years; the Hartswood gang partly funded its restoration when it was rediscovered. Holmes has a love interest in this, Alice Faulkner, who is I guess modelled on Irene Adler; IIRC, they share a dream or vision at some point, which got my attention. There are some nice Holmes & Watson bits, too, although Watson is barely in it.

3. Sherlock Holmes (1922) John Barrymore as Holmes. I like this one! Again, Watson is not much in it, which leads to some odd choices like Holmes sitting down and listing his own limits (why???), but we do see their rooms in... Cambridge (sure, why not)... so they’re young, which is rare enough, and there’s a bit of nice camaraderie there. The Moriarty special effects are hilarious.

4. Sherlock Jr. (1924) Buster Keaton as a bungling Holmes wannabe. It’s Buster Keaton, so it’s action-packed and funny, with the added bonus of an extended mind palace sequence and fourth wall breaks. I just think it’s neat.

5. Wontner films (1931-1937) Arthur Wontner as Holmes. At long last, sound! Wontner did several films as Sherlock Holmes, partnered with Ian Fleming (not that one) as Watson. I like these, too. The Sign of Four is often laughed at for the speedboat chase, but have you read The Sign of the Four? Of course there should be a speedboat chase. Also: hairline.

6. Rathbone/Bruce films (1939-1946) Basil Rathbone as Holmes. These are obviously essential. The first two are set in Victorian England; after they moved from 20th Century Fox to Universal, they ditched the fog and deerstalker to fight the Nazis. Sherlock references these films often. For example, the Golem in TGG is based on the Creeper from The Pearl of Death; the play in the aluminium crutch case on John’s blog is named for Terror by Night; Moriarty’s stair pause in TRF is based on that in The Woman in Green; Irene teasing Sherlock in disguise in ASIB is based on Adria Spedding doing the same in The Spider Woman. That’s off the top of my head; lots of people have written about these references on tumblr over the years. Oh right, Holmes nearly leaps off a building in The Woman in Green because Moriarty tells him to, so there’s that.

7. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) Peter Cushing as Holmes. This is the Hammer Films version, so it’s pulpy and lurid. Is it Sherlock Holmes or is it Dracula? I’m not sure even Cushing knows. Mark Gatiss is a huge Hammer fan; ‘nuff said. Meant to be enjoyed for its faults, rather than despite them.

8. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) Robert Stephens as Holmes. Surely I don’t need to explain this one. The first on-screen gay Holmes (some would say this is arguable; I’m not going to bother arguing).

9. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976) Nicol Williamson as Holmes. This is not a great film, but I’m giving it a mention because the pastiche it was based on (by Nicholas Meyer, who also wrote Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, with all its Sherlockian vibes) is a pretty big deal. It’s got Freud! It’s got cocaine! The film has some good moments in it, though the book is better; the ending was changed from book to screen and a het romance was tacked on, because of course it was.

10. Murder by Decree (1979) Christopher Plummer as Holmes. Does a thing with peas.

11. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, aka Lenfilm Holmes (1980-1988) Vasily Livanov as Holmes. This Soviet-era Russian series is so well done; really a must-see. I linked the first playlist I found with subtitles, but it’s probably worth hunting around a bit for good ones. Vitaly Solomin is wonderful as Watson in this. Tea?

12. Sherlock Holmes, aka Granada Holmes (1984-1994) Jeremy Brett as Holmes. Again, essential viewing. Don’t underestimate the film-length episodes at the end of the series; Sherlock references these more than most because it’s where the original contributions are. A huge caveat here: Granada’s approach was to usually remove Watson’s narration, and show the viewer events that are only told in the stories, and often filtered through multiple people. So, when you’re watching the episodes, you pretty much can’t help but accept all events as factual, whereas the same cannot be assumed in the stories at all. In my opinion, this is the biggest limitation of the Granada series. They do make up for this with creative framing and lighting; pay attention to mirrors, for example, which are used to great effect throughout the series. And when they choose to diverge from the original story, it’s often to do something quite interesting. But I’d strongly recommend reading the story before watching the episode, so that you can see how they changed it every time; there is a real tendency for people (and like... the Granada fans are quite zealous about this) to just assume that everything Granada did was exactly canonical, and it’s simply not. I’ll also point out that the series was mainly produced by Michael Cox, who also commissioned the Oxford World’s Classics editions of the Holmes stories, which were annotated by a team of very smart people, including Richard Lancelyn Green. Cox also wrote a biography of MR James. Anyway, he knew his stuff, and it shows in the non-canonical places, in the divergences from canon.

13. The Great Mouse Detective (1986) Barrie Ingham voicing Basil of Baker Street. No explanation needed.

14. Without a Clue (1988) Michael Caine as Holmes. This is mostly here for Amy! It’s revealed early in this film that Watson is the brains behind the operation. Personally, I prefer The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’s Smarter Brother (1975) in the “Holmes isn’t smart actually” genre, but only because I think Gene Wilder is funnier than Michael Caine.

15. A Case of Evil (2002) James D’Arcy as Holmes. I’m sorry, this has no place on a must-watch list, but it’s one of two so-bad-it’s-somehow-something films that I’m including (yes, you know what the other one is). It’s all repressed trauma and spooky dreams, I can’t leave it out.

18. The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002) Richard Roxburgh as Holmes. Ok, again, I apologize, but this is the only Hound film among over 30 to nail the tone of the book as far as Holmes and Watson are concerned—to recognize that the point of the book is that Holmes deserted Watson and now he’s back (yes, I’m aware the novel is backdated, it doesn’t matter). The only one! The casting is not great, it’s got some other issues, but it deserves more credit than it gets.

17. Reichenbach Falls (2007) Alec Newman as Detective Inspector John Buchan, who is somehow both a Holmes and a Watson. Required viewing; if you haven’t seen it, then hell mend you. I wrote an enormous meta on this film a few years ago.

18. Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2009/2011) Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes. I said what I said.

19. Sherlock Holmes, aka Asylum Holmes (2010) Ben Syder as Holmes. Awful. Frankly appalling. But may I also submit: Dinosaurs. And robots. It’s a fun time, especially with friends, and by now I really have convinced myself that Steven Moffat based the Doctor Who episode Deep Breath on it.

20. Sherlock (2010-) Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes. Eyyyyyy.

21. Sherlock Holmes, aka New Russian Holmes (2013) Igor Petrenko as Holmes. Full disclosure, I haven’t watched this yet. I need to rectify that soon.

22. Miss Sherlock (2018) Yûko Takeuchi as Holmes. What a tragic loss; this was a wonderful series and she was brilliant in it. Saw what BBC Sherlock was doing and tried to beat it to the punch. I have to respect that.

[ariel-seagull-wings]

@superkingofpriderock @metropolitan-mutant-of-ark @the-blue-fairie @amalthea9 @princesssarisa @parxsisburning

So my first memory of seeing David's face and learning his name was watching the BBC three part documentary A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss, where he was interviewed to talk about two horror movies he was in: the 1974 anthology From Beyond the Grave, where he sayed that the appeal of the anthology movies was: 1° They were a job; 2° They were quick, and the more well known 1976 evil child thriller The Omen, where he sayed that he lost his severed head at divorce.

Seeing the interview to the doc, i tought "Huh, i like him, he is humble, straight to the point, and has a good sense of humour".

Them i watched the first season of Penny Dreadful, only knowing that it was a crossover of classic gothic monsters, and them who appears as Van Helsing?

My reaction?

"Oh hey, it's that guy from A History of Horror! Indeed he is a good actor"!

And them later i heard of the 1968 film adaptation of a Midsummer Night's Dream that had an aclaimed Ian Holm as Puck, and went to the movie expecting only to see this.

Here is whom i found again:

So basically my introduction was finding him when i wasn't expecting to find him.

"Shoot what i've seen, killed what i didn't seen", as it goes a brazilian saying.

And my reaction was: "Okay sir, you win. Now you have become one of my favorite actors, i will have to purposely search your other works, and i will forever crush and fangirl over you".

And the best part was finding a comunity online that also admired his work and in some cases also finded him atractive right away, so now i knew i wouldn't feel as a lonely weirdow.

So thank you David Warner, for your funny interviews, your great work as an actor, for your handsome eyes, and for providing me a great comunity of artists and friends.

[byneddiedingo]

The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018) Cast: Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn, Mark Gatiss, James Smith. Screenplay: Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara. Cinematography: Robbie Ryan. Production design: Fiona Crombie. Film editing: Yorgos Mavropsaridis. Costume design: Sandy Powell. Yorgos Lanthimos is a genuine auteur, although I also think that was already pretty from the brilliant weirdness of Dogtooth (2009), The Lobster (2015), and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), made in collaboration with the screenwrier Efthymis Filippou. The Favourite is the first film of Lanthimos's I've seen that has a screenplay by other hands than his. He doesn't compromise with its genre, the historical costume drama; instead, he sends it up in ways that will make it hard for anyone to watch one of those glossy, opulent recreations of the past with a straight face again. It was hard, for example, to watch Olivia Colman playing Queen Elizabeth II on The Crown without recalling her performance as Queen Anne. And who will ever be able to witness a stately ballroom scene without remembering how Rachel Weisz and Joe Alwyn take the floor in The Favourite? Lanthimos thumbs his nose at historical accuracy, introducing anachronistic music, from Schubert to Elton John, in the midst of period-correct composers like Purcell and Handel, and thereby achieves a higher correctness of emotional intensity. He inverts sexuality, not only in the same-sex cavorting of the queen and her favorites, but also in the foppish bewigged courtiers, whose male devotion to war is subjugated to the power plays of the dominant females who regard war as a game. Abigail (Emma Stone), her mind on other things, gives her husband a hand job on their wedding night. As in his earlier films, Lanthimos is fascinated by people who play god, and although the film is mostly a comedy there's a kind of tragic irony in its ending, with Abigail, who has won her battle with Sarah, now under the thumb of the half-mad queen, reduced to a pet like one of the queen's rabbits. Earlier, Abigail has tried to squash one of the bunnies under her foot; now she's being squashed by Anne. The Favourite, I think, is going to take its place as one of the great satiric films, and it has already influenced at least one delicious TV series, The Great, even to the extent of casting Nicholas Hoult, who plays Harley in The Favourite, as the consort of Catherine the Great. 

[vintage1981]

Hammer Films and BBC Radio 4 Unleash ‘The Unquenchable Thirst of Dracula’

Mark Gatiss directs The Unquenchable Thirst of Dracula as part of Fright Night on Radio 4

Sherlock co-creator, Mark Gatiss, has directed an unmade Hammer Horror script set in 1930s India – The Unquenchable Thirst of Dracula.

The cast includes Nikesh Patel, Meera Syal, Kulvinder Ghir, Anna Madeley, Ayesha Dharker, Raj Ghatek, Lewis MacLeod as Dracula and Michael Sheen narrates.

Mark Gatiss said: “What better way to celebrate Hallowe’en than with a lost Hammer movie? And not just any Hammer movie! Anthony Hind’s thrillingly titled ‘The Unquenchable Thirst of Dracula’ is a wonderful, rich and atmospheric script and way ahead of its time – set in the 30s, a sort of ‘Heat and Dust and Fangs’! It was nearly made in the early 70s on location in India and I was thrilled to assemble a fantastic cast […]  to bring this forgotten gem to gory life.”

Simon Oakes, CEO Hammer Films, said: “We’re delighted at Hammer Horror to see this wonderful script finally brought to life and to have its world premiere on Radio 4. We are a keen to develop a film version next as there’s so much in the writing and concept that can work for a modern audience. It’s re-imagining by Mark Gatiss here is just the beginning of a new future for the project.”

The script was adapted for radio by Mark Gatiss and Laurence Bowen of Dancing Ledge Productions.

Laurence Bowen said: “What a treat to find another lost treasure in this unmade Hammer Horror script, and who better to make it than the impresario of British horror: Mark Gatiss. Dracula still at large in 1930s India, combining forces with an ancient Indian blood cult which preys on victims in secret ancient caverns beneath an ancient palace. Welcome to Halloween 2017!”

The Unquenchable Thirst of Dracula will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 28 October 2017 at 14:30.

[msclaritea]

Retrospect: Older interviews of Ben

"The splendidly named 33-year-old actor Benedict Cumberbatch looks absolutely dreadful. He is known to have "interesting" features – sloe-eyed and snub-nosed, with a sort of startled-meerkat-meets-a-Magimix look about him – but today he is also pasty-faced, with bottle auburn hair and a nasty, shiny cream shirt. His suit looks one size too small for him. It's a wet February morning on the Cardiff set of Sherlock, the BBC's modern adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic. Cumberbatch, who plays Holmes, twists and shifts about in his chair. He sits on his hands. He does impromptu imitations and funny voices. His eyes jag from side to side. Mark Gatiss, who co-wrote the screenplay, says, "Oh, he's always like that. You should hear him in the car on the way back to the hotel in the evening. Does impressions of everyone. Hilarious."

Months later, Cumberbatch is sitting on a balcony in London being grilled by a hot midday sun and three journalists. From behind a glass partition, I wait my turn and watch. He's a smoker. No wriggling now. He's talking fluently, gesturing, smiling, elaborating. It's soon clear that I got him wrong last time. He looked so odd because he was in costume. His clothes fit him now. And so, rather strangely, do his features. The face is interesting, and appealing, with changeable slants and angles. It is also, thanks to the sun, rather pink.

Most humans might want to leave this scene to take a rest in a cool, darkened room. But not Cumberbatch. He goes clomping off to the bathroom in an enormous pair of black leather biking boots.

And then, a minute later, he's back. He is not tired. And, he says, he's not hyper. He tells me he has had two coffees, five cigarettes, quite a bit of water, some juice. He's fine.

Cumberbatch has a reputation for playing odd, brilliant men very well, and his Holmes is cold, techie, slightly Aspergerish. He talks 19 to the dozen and is forever coming up with lines such as, "From the tiny scratches on your mobile, I deduce that your brother is an alcoholic and that you don't get on with him."

Sherlock was, he says, a very enjoyable part, even if he did end up with pneumonia from the strain. "There's a great charge you get from playing him, because of the volume of words in your head and the speed of thought – you really have to make your connections incredibly fast. He is one step ahead of the audience, and of anyone around him with normal intellect. They can't quite fathom where his leaps are taking him. Zip zip zip. But you catch me in the car on the way home after and I am, 'Whoahhh!'" He does a theatrical wilt in his chair. I repeat what Gatiss said about him. "I do what? God! How exhausting. How fucking awful. I don't like the sound of myself at all. Well, mimicry is what I do, and a big part of what Holmes does, too. I love doing impersonations of people."

Did he learn any new skills for the part? "A bit of violin work – how to hold the bow, do fret work. And what he does. You can't help but cast an eye round you and think about people and the explanation that might lie behind the exterior show..."

Surely he can't believe that tosh? He shrugs as if admitting a vice. "A couple of times on trains... you can't help it. That indentation where a wedding ring should be, the dynamics of families. People in a moment of isolation, certain things do stick out. It's an achievable superpower."

Sherlock Holmes, Cumberbatch says, "makes you look at the world in the way you do anyway as an actor – as a rich canvas for observation. One of the fears of having too much work is not having time to observe. And once you get recognised, there is nowhere for you to look any more. You can't sit on a night bus and watch it all happen."

Until now, Cumberbatch has never been a household face. He has had small parts in big films – he played Paul Marshall (confectionery magnate and rapist) in Atonement – and big parts in small films, notably as the young Stephen Hawking in a BBC2 drama about the physicist, and in 2008 starring as a troubled mathematician sucked into a global conspiracy in the mini-series The Last Enemy. But Sherlock, created by two Doctor Who writers and probably destined for a larger primetime audience, could propel him into street recognisability.

So, too, could his next film. Cumberbatch is to play Major Stewart in Steven Spielberg's War Horse, based on the children's novel by Michael Morpurgo. After this interview, he is off for a riding lesson. He says, with great enthusiasm, "I charge in, Charge Of The Light Brigade-style, on this massive Spanish stallion with a sword out. I have a gladiator moment." He holds his arm out in front of him and does a jerky little swivel. "There! Horrible! That's how to disengage with what you have on the end of your kebab skewer."

Cumberbatch is one of the few British actors you might reasonably expect already to have a passing acquaintance with horses and things military. Like the Light Brigade's hapless Earl of Cardigan, he went to Harrow public school: his parents, the actors Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton (a stage name; he's a Cumberbatch, too), were very keen to give him the sort of high-octane education that might encourage him to consider not going on the stage.

''Having your adolescence at an all-male boarding school is just crap,"

Cumberbatch says, though he also seems to have been a model pupil and threw himself into extramural activities. He went paragliding and abseiling. He had an arts scholarship and painted huge oil canvases in a disused squash court. And, of course, he acted. His school drama teacher, Martin Tyrell, calls him "the best schoolboy actor I've ever worked with".

Cumberbatch went on to study drama at Manchester University. "I needed to be out of the danger of tying a cashmere jumper round my neck," he explains. "I wanted something a bit more racy, a bit more different, a bit more egalitarian. I had a thoroughly healthy – and unhealthy – mix of friends."

He overdid things – he often does – and contracted glandular fever. But he had a ball.

After that, he did a one-year course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and by the time he finished there he already had an agent. He has worked steadily ever since.

Cumberbatch is widely recognised as a stage actor, covering a repertoire from Ibsen and Shakespeare to the theatre of the absurd. But his big-screen breakthrough came in 2004 when he starred in Hawking and was nominated for a Bafta. It was such a startling performance that other odd geniuses, such as Van Gogh and Holmes, have since come his way. He also does a pretty good line in costume toffs – he played Scarlett Johansson's pompous husband in The Other Boleyn Girl and the vain young Edmund Talbot in a BBC adaptation of William Golding's seafaring epic To The Ends Of The Earth.

He says the impression people have of him is that " I just play neurotic, fey people who would have died with a cold compress to their head. But I do work on the variety. I do try. At the moment, I am playing a 38-year-old man whose chest is fucking huge," he says of his role as David Scott-Fowler in Terence Rattigan's After The Dance at the National Theatre. "He thinks in very predatory sexual terms. He is a child, like a lot of alpha men, but there is nothing of Van Gogh or Hawking about him."

Cumberbatch has multiple agendas. There is so much he wants to do. He is desperate, he says, to paint again. He and his girlfriend, the actor Olivia Poulet, would like to have children. He wants to write. He really is the ultimate thirsty young man.

Even negative experiences are grist to his mill. Asked about the time he was carjacked in South Africa with co-stars Denise Black and Theo Landey while filming To The Ends Of The Earth in 2004, he lights up a cigarette, fixes his eye on a point on the table and he is away.

He sets the scene – he's been on a shoot and it's night-time on a highway near the Mozambique border. A tyre blows and they have to stop. The juggernauts whizz by in the freezing African night. The grassland stretches out seemingly for ever. Then six men appear. Cumberbatch and his two colleagues are held up against the car. The men utter terrible threats and tie the trio's hands behind their backs with their own shoelaces. There follows a very intense sense of death being close by. He describes the running commentaries in his head and the strange moments of calm. He remembers the Radiohead song playing on the car sound system and recites the lines.

Then things get worse. He is thrown into the boot of the car, and later on to the ground. He can feel a trickle of blood from the side of his head and insects scrabbling away. Even though they are bound up, he can squeeze Denise's hand. And he keeps thinking, "I wish I knew morse [code]" then he thinks, "Hmmm, that would be fucking irritating and useless if she didn't know it, too."

And so on and so on and so on. He isn't just telling, he is reliving the experience. The car-jacking lasted two and a half hours; this is a mere 26 riveting minutes. Finally, we reach the aftermath, when Cumberbatch went on an "adrenaline junkie drive", skydiving, hot-air ballooning and generally "looking over the precipice".

Now things are calmer. "I ride a bike, but I am not seeking man thrills on that level, no. There is a sense of impatience and a yearning for a life less ordinary, which is destructive, as it leads you away from harnessing the true value of things. But it also gives you fantastic knowledge. I know I am going to die on my own, which is something you don't realise until you are faced with that. You leave this world as you come into it, on your own. A sobering but profound thought to realise early in life."

His mobile phone rings. It's his driver telling him he's waiting down below. Must go. He shakes hands. He is off. Zip zip zip."

[scotianostra]

TV Producer and writer Steven Moffat was born in Paisley on November 18th 1961.

One of my favourite guys in the showbiz world, my last post of the night is for one of the good guys in television. 

Steven Moffat attended Camphill High School before going on to Glasgow University where he was involved with the student television station, GUST (Glasgow University Student Television). He gained an MA in English and became a teacher for over three years at Cowdenknowes High School, Greenock.

During his years teaching Moffat wrote a couple of plays, one of which, War Zones was performed at Glasgow’s Mayfest and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His big break came when his dad, a primary school headmaster, met TV producers filming the Harry Secombe show Highway at his school, he told them about an idea for a show about a school newspaper, the producers asked for a sample script and he insisted his son Steven write it. Producer Sandra Hastie said that it was “the best ever first script” that she had read. The show, Press Gang ran for 43 episodes over 5 series an gave us the likes of Dexter Fletcher and Julia Sawalha. Steven has never looked back.

He is perhaps best known now for his work with Dr Who, his two-part story The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances for series one of BBC One’s revival of Doctor Who (starring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper) won him much acclaim, including the award for ‘Television Moment of the Year’ and the first of three HUGO Awards. He has since went on to write numerous episodes and has been showrunner, lead writer and executive producer from 2009 right through until this year.

Steven Mofatt still finds time for other work, the feature screenplay for the Golden Globe-nominated Tintin, commissioned by Steven Spielberg via Spielberg’s company Dreamworks, Sherlock, a multi-award-winning, contemporary take on the Arthur Conan Doyle classic, was created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, he also wrote and was an Executive Producer of Jekyll, a six-part comedic thriller starring James Nesbitt.

Steven is one of the most eminent writers and producers in Television and is in great demand his latest projects include  Inside Man, a mini series about a man on death row,  The Time Traveller's Wife an upcoming American based on the novel of the same name and he is also  revisiting a familiar character Jekyll, which of course has a Scottish with RLS, the short description say  "The only living descendant of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde makes a deal with the dark side.“ I pointed this out last year, but no movement since then, it only says it is “Pre-Production”

[justthegreat1]

The Legacy Of Horror

Before I start discussing the legacy of the horror genre, I would like to use a quote from English actor Mark Gatiss, “The cinema was made for horror films. No other kind of film offers that same mysterious anticipation as you head into a darkened auditorium. No other makes such powerful use of sound and image. The cinema is where we come to share a collective dream and horror films are the most dream-like of all. Perhaps because they engage with our nightmares.”

The horror genre had its start in 1765 when Horace Walpole published “Castle of Otranto”, and this is said to be the first piece of horror fiction in literary form. In 1818, Mary Shelley published “Frankenstein” which follows a doctor who creates a monster which leads to his own destruction.  

https://filmschoolrejects.com/why-horror-matters/

https://www.britannica.com/art/horror-story

There has been a point in cinema history that many people called “The Golden Age of Horror”.  “The Golden Age of Horror” occurred between 1931-1946 mostly due to Boris Karloff’s portrayal of Frankenstein’s monster in Universal Pictures 1931 adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein” and Bela Lugos portrayal of Dracula in the 1931 film adaptation of Bram Stokers novel of the same name.  

Pictured above is the movie poster for “Dracula” (1931) 

Image credit: Universal Pictures

Pictured above is the movie poster for “Frankenstein” (1931)

Image credit: Universal Pictures

https://www.classichorror.club/golden-age#:~:text=When%20you%20look%20at%20the,of%20literary%20and%20mythological%20monsters.

On September 8th,1960, a film that’s considered to be the first slasher film was released to the public and the film is called “Psycho” directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The cast includes Anthony Perkins as “Norman Bates”, Janet Leigh as “Marion Crane”, Vera Miles as “Lila Crane”, Virginia Gregg as “Norma Louise Bates”, and John Galvin as “Sam Loomis”. The plot revolves around “A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run, and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.

Image credit: https://www.originalfilmart.com/products/psycho

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/?ref_=tt_pg 

When people discuss the legacy of horror, I believe it is important to talk about “The Exorcist” which came out on December 26th,1973. Now this film was controversial during the time it was released. Here are some of the reasons as to why this film was controversial were the subject matter which follows a young girl named “Regan” who was possessed by a demon which was played by Linda Blair. The premise alone upset religious institutions.  

Another reason this film was controversial was because of the reactions audiences had when they saw the movie which included fainting, vomiting, and having heart attacks in theaters. Despite these controversies the film received ten nominations at the 1974 academy awards, even being the first horror film to be nominated for best picture.

Image credit:https://moviesanywhere.com/movie/the-exorcist

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070047/?ref_=tt_mv_close

https://www.cbr.com/why-exorcist-film-and-trailer-banned

The horror genre is more than just movies and novels, this genre is an art form. This genre has expanded into the music genre with artists like Ice Nine Kills who made an album titled “The Silver Scream” and “Welcome to Horrorwood: The Silver Scream 2” which has songs about classic and modern horror films such as “Halloween”, “Scream”, “A Nightmare on Elm St.”, “The Fly”, “Child’s Play”, and many more that I can’t name on the top of my head.  

Image credit: https://open.spotify.com/album/7JHuopZAKDulAbpg61Yjzm https://open.spotify.com/album/4PyOq7kavqglGk3cexcygx 

On the topic of horror being more than just movies, novels, and even more than music, this genre can bring people together by creating horror themed events. Some of these events include “Spookala”, “Spooky Empire”, and “Universal Halloween Horror Nights.” These events give horror fans an opportunity to interact with their favorite actors in the horror genre and it gives them a sense of community.