#johnnie redmayne my beloved

[hauntingyourself]

How am I supposed to explain to people that my current favourite character is a dead gangster created by an indie band and he’s only in a handful of songs and has like 10 minutes of screen time in a 2 hour long movie

[foolofatook001]

You know he always got an extra pack a’ cigarettes/ Rolled up in his t-shirt sleeve

Yeah, Roy’s so cool, that racin’ fool/ He don’t know what fear’s about/ He do a hundred thirty mile an hour, smilin’ at the camera with a toothpick in his mouth

Johnnie Redmayne // “Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy)”, Jim Croce

[tinylongwing]

Vide Noir's dual narrative structure

All right, here it is, me making good on at least one of my meta threats. Lord Huron's album Vide Noir can be interpreted as an album with two parallel, contrasting narratives - that of the lead protagonist Buck Vernon, as well as that of Johnnie Redmayne.

Disclaimer: this is an interpretation I think is pretty sound and well-reasoned, but I make no claim to any of this being proven canon information.

---

For those unfamiliar or who need a reminder, the primary narrative is this: the year is 1967, and we start near the end of Buck's journey, as he awakens from being black-brained (Lost in Time and Space). Having just suffered an overdose on the drug vide noir, his memories are slow to return to him, but return they do - his fiancee, Leigh/Lee Green (from here on Leigh but both spellings have been used), left him without a word one night, and he decided to follow, heading west to Los Angeles from their home town of Detroit, Michigan. He's been struggling to find her, checking every bar in the city in case she was booked to sing at one as her move was the result of her chasing her dream of becoming a singer. He doesn't remember a lot about himself, really, after that overdose, but he remembers her, and his love for her makes him desperate to find her.

We're then taken back to the night he left to find her (Never Ever) and his journey is mostly linear from there - he meets a fortune teller, Lady Moonbeam, who tells him that pursuing Leigh will end in his ruin, but he refuses to accept her advice and pushes on (Ancient Names I & II). He laments that he's been some kind of fuckup, that maybe he chased Leigh away through his own behavior, but that he still loves her and begs for her to return (Wait By the River). At some point around here he also learns of the drug vide noir and contemplates using it himself for clues.

(Note that unlike in the movie, in the album, nothing suggests that Buck suffered from a murder attempt by Z'Oiseau's henchmen but that instead he may have overdosed himself in an attempt to find Lee. However, there's plenty of reason to suspect that the film is the canon interpretation here anyway and the henchmen kidnapping Buck just doesn't make for a song I guess.)

One way or another, he winds up black-brained, where some deep existential truths of the universe are revealed to him (Secret of Life - namely that everyone and everything dies in the end, and that a human life is brief, fleeting, and ultimately meaningless within the context of the universe as a whole). He somehow reawakens rather than dying (Back from the Edge) and, again, understands that nothing he does will ever matter, has never mattered*, but that *even though* he's suffered greatly already on this quest, he's still committed to trying to find Leigh, pitting himself against that careless universe (The Balancer's Eye).

So he keeps searching (When the Night is Over) until he finds a clue, or a helping hand of some sort, that leads him on the right path to his beloved Leigh (Moonbeam). We get one more reminder of the forces at work here - vide noir is some awful stuff, it nearly killed him, Leigh herself is hooked on it now, it shows you terrible truths and nightmares beyond human comprehension (Vide Noir) - and when all is said and done, as Buck thinks he's about to "rescue" Leigh from her fate and bring her back to his fantasy of a perfect happy life together, she rejects him. He came all this way through time and space, and she doesn't love him at all in the end (Emerald Star).

---

I consider this the primary narrative here because it makes use of all the songs on the album, it has a clear start and ending and a mostly linear structure, and the album basically serves as a soundtrack to Buck's fool's errand. The film agrees - every scene is centered around his journey, after all. But we have context from Lord Huron's other albums, as well as the lyrics and musical stylings of multiple songs on Vide Noir, that show us that Buck isn't necessarily the only narrator on this album. Strange Trails, of course, came out three years prior, and features songs by multiple fictional bands performing songs which serve as narration for a diverse cast of characters. Unlike on Strange Trails, where each track has a writer or band specifically named and assigned to it as well as a character narrative, Vide Noir does not give us such conclusive information, but we can still put clues together to understand at least some of who the in-universe performers might be on Vide Noir.

Most likely, multiple of these songs are by the Buck Vernon Band - this is pretty obvious. Buck's semi-autobiographical music is all over Strange Trails, usually referencing a girl he loves, sometimes referencing that the girl left him, often giving her different names, all starting with L (Fool For Love's "Lily", and "Louisa").

But the other band that we can easily identify as performers on Vide Noir are the Phantom Riders. For those who need an introduction, this is the band composed of four members of the World Enders gang, with Dale Redmayne at the helm as lead writer. They were seen previously on Strange Trails as well, with banger surf/rockabilly hits like Hurricane, Until the Night Turns, and The World Ender. As a storytelling tool, they are primarily brought in to tell us about the man-turned-undead horror entity known as The World Ender himself, and then otherwise mostly we get their songs about Dale's brother Johnnie Redmayne, who is introduced to us in Strange Trails as a fun-loving and presumably fairly young guy, a thrillseeker and hedonist, who lives for the moment as if the world could end any day. The Buck Vernon Band jumps in between some of these songs with an interjection to tell us that wait, Johnnie is dead, or was, but he got back up. In Dead Man's Hand, Buck speculates that Johnnie could have been murdered or may have killed himself, accidentally or intentionally, upon first seeing him. It's in Vide Noir that we actually learn more about the circumstances of Johnnie's death.

Before we get to that, let's first identify which Vide Noir songs are by the Phantom Riders. This isn't all that hard to do. Any song that references The World Ender is presumably theirs - that gives us Secret of Life right away ("I sit alone in the dark, and I try to remember the words you spoke when you summoned the Ender"). This is reinforced in the Alive From Whispering Pines webseries, episode 423 - Secret of Life, when played, shows a skeleton prop the band has jokingly referred to as Cobb Avery on their social media posts in the past, and after the song ends in this episode, the tune continues in a slowed and distorted fashion through a clip of a WBUB movie version of Dead Man's Hand showing Johnnie rising from the pavement when Buck is about to bury him.

Ancient Names Parts I and II are presumably written by the same band as a two-part song. In the Vide Noir film, the Phantom Riders are performing Part II in the underground club. Additionally, in Alive From Whispering Pines episode 426, after Tubbs Tarbell is done reminiscing about the band and their nihilism, Ancient Names Part II is the next song covered - and often in this series, the structure of the segments between songs are intentional and related to either the song they precede or the song they follow, so it's likely that the placement of the Phantom Riders' appearance followed by a track they're associated with is meant to help confirm them as the performers. In addition, Ancient Names Part I references a fortune teller, and we know from the film that the fortune teller in question, Lady Moonbeam, is associated with the World Enders and knows the Redmaynes.

The last track on Vide Noir that is most likely theirs is the title track, Vide Noir. We have two points of evidence for this - one lyrical ("Many evils have I enjoyed, prowling the night raising hell with the boys" which feels like a pretty direct reference to the World Enders' nighttime violence) and one musical - the main melody of Vide Noir is identical to that of Ancient Names (and Fortune Teller's Theme, actually). In Strange Trails, using the same melody for multiple songs was an easy way to tie Frankie Lou's songs together, and here we can see that it ties two Phantom Riders tracks together directly, indicating that not only are they both by the same band, but that Vide Noir is a followup to Ancient Names part I, in which our fortune teller did warn us things would go very, very wrong.

(And besides all of that, the Phantom Riders tracks on Vide Noir all tend to be similar in musical style - psychedelia-flavored garage rock with a heavy bass line, in contrast to other songs on the album.)

With those songs identified, we should also be aware of just how much Lord Huron seem to love their dual narratives. In Strange Trails, we have a really concrete example of this with The Night We Met. This song was in-universe written by Frankie Lou, presumably about her doomed relationship with Z'Oiseau and how much she wishes she had never met him to begin with (as she echoes in her dialogue in the Vide Noir film when speaking to Buck in her dressing room). However, the music video for this song shows not Frankie and Z'Oiseau, but instead Buck, driving west, while reflecting on his own failure to keep Leigh, wishing he could go back in time and fix things, and meanwhile kind of hallucinating her as he goes. In the album Long Lost, we get another dual narrative in I Lied, which is performed by Donny and Midge but is also sung by Leigh in Vide Noir, foreshadowing her breakup with and lack of love for Buck. There are certainly other dual narratives in both of those albums to be found as well - so what we should keep in mind here is that often, songs can be written and performed by a character or band in order to narrate for themselves or someone close to them, but that just as in our real-world movie soundtracks or our favorite character playlists on spotify, those songs can be applied to other characters in different (but somewhat similar) situations than the ones they were written for.

So! We have four Phantom Riders tracks on Vide Noir, all of which were presumably not written originally in-universe about Buck Vernon, because why would they be, Buck and the World Enders only briefly cross paths and at the very least we know that Ancient Names Part II was written well before he ever met them. Instead, it makes the most sense if like the bulk of the Phantom Riders songs, these tracks serve Johnnie's narration instead.

---

If that's the case, what does that give us? Winding around and through Buck's journey is this second storyline. Johnnie Redmayne, having used and enjoyed vide noir himself abundantly ("I had a vision tonight that the world was ending" as one probable example), decides it's time to get his hands on bulk quantities so as to get the Enders in on controlling the flow of the drug in LA rather than letting Z'Oiseau maintain a monopoly, thereby also increasing revenue for the members of the gang.

It's Moonbeam who warns him to knock it off first. We know, thanks to the film, that he'd spoken to her at some point about his plans to investigate the source of the drug at Tobey's arcade and try to get his hands on some to sell. Whatever his exact plan was, in Ancient Names Part 1, Moonbeam warns him that pursuing this is going to get him killed. Vide noir isn't just a drug, it's something extremely dangerous, tied to dangerous people, and he needs to get away from "her" (and note that frequently throughout music history, drugs have been personified as a "her" or an unnamed lover, whether for poetic reasons or to evade censorship that might come from talking directly about drug use - and Cursed, off Strange Trails, is one more in-universe example, where "her" refers both to Leigh Green and to drug use, specifically vide noir).

Immediately afterward, Ancient Names Part 2, in addition to serving as a very classic sort of World Enders nihilism anthem, can easily be interpreted as Johnnie saying "fuck that, I do what I want, you only live one life anyway and even if it kills me, I want to make my mark before I go out." Death is something hypothetical - sure, it'll get him some day, it gets everyone, and maybe Moonbeam is even right, but he isn't going to let her warning stop him.

On Strange Trails, Buck and Johnnie cross paths at Dead Man's Hand. On this album they only cross thematically, and the pivotal moment of intersection might be Secret of Life. This song may be the point at which Buck learns some forbidden secrets revealed by taking vide noir as discussed above, but its lyrics speak a lot more specifically to Johnnie's experience, implying some connection between him, vide noir, and the World Ender.

It may be that as we see with Buck in the film, perhaps Johnnie too has suffered the effects of being black-brained prior to taking it due to the time and space-bending effects of the drug (notice, for example, in Strange Trails we get Johnnie's story in a scrambled chronological order) and here he's confronted with the harsh truths of what those past visions of his possible future mean for him: he has been set on a path that is no longer avoidable due to his eventual future overdose. So perhaps it's at this point that he acknowledges that he is going to die sooner rather than later and that his life and death will not have meant anything to the greater cosmos, but this information, which was new to Buck, is not something Johnnie fears. Johnnie is hardly new to this point of view. He's seen past echoes of the knowledge imparted by vide noir throughout his life, both in his future visions of the end of the world (again see Until The Night Turns) and in the knowledge passed on through other World Enders, including their own motto ("The fair, the brave, the good must die", or in Secret of Life here, "The darkness comes for all of us").

(As an aside, there's still a lot to unravel with Secret of Life that I haven't touched on here. It's a fascinating song with some really mysterious lyrics. I've speculated at length in the LH discord about some additional interpretations this song could yield but won't veer off topic here.)

And yet despite what looks like a very certain and dire end, Johnnie maintains hope that perhaps he, too, will live past this. Because if Cobb Avery did, why can't he? This is part of the gang's core mythos - their founder is a dead man. He clawed his way back out of the grave for revenge, they thought it was just so fucking cool that he was unkillable that they had to join him, and together they dismantled the Winthrop Corporation, one murder at a time. When the police finally caught up to him, they lynched him - but the noose did nothing, for he was already dead, and now in the form of a skeleton, he called the gang to his side (see Strange Trails: The World Ender comic book). In the ensuing chaos, he flees, the gang heads west and relocates to east Los Angeles, and in the time contemporary with the events of Vide Noir, he is still present among them but this appears to be unknown to the public (Daily Trails prop, by Kim Berens, used in both Vide Noir and Alive From Whispering Pines where it was modified to Ten years later).

Whether The World Ender is readily visible to and known by most members of the gang at this point is unknown, but we know that those who were black-brained can see him (in the film, Buck sees him approaching, bumps into him, plunges into a hallucination of his own future, and when he comes too, the Ender is gone). Given the Secret of Life lyrics, it's reasonable to guess that Johnnie at least can see the World Ender just fine and one way or another, in speaking with him and in conjunction with consuming vide noir, has learned enough secret knowledge to make some kind of choice - and this is what later enables him, too, to drag his way back to the world of the living.

Fate catches up to Johnnie and as we learn in the film, his death was at the hands of Z'Oiseau's henchmen for trying to gain access to dealing in vide noir. Like Buck, he is black-brained - forced to swallow enough of the drug to kill him. And so the track Vide Noir opens with the Fortune Teller's Theme previously heard in Ancient Names Part 1, and that tune is woven through the track - Moonbeam's "I warned you, I told you so" to both of these fools who disregarded her advice. Although, again, the lyrics are clearly meant primarily to narrate for Johnnie - "Many evils have I enjoyed, prowling the night raising hell with the boys, getting high on a pure black void" sounds a lot more like what Johnnie gets up to than Buck. We are given a glimpse of his last words and final thoughts as life slips away and his consciousness is sent straight to the final edge of the cosmos.

---

So ultimately, this is what we're left with:

Vide Noir is an album that tells the story of Buck Vernon, whose fiancee has left him. His journey culminates in a near-brush with death, in finding Leigh, and in learning that she does not love him and that he's nothing, his life is worth nothing more than dust and that none of it mattered or will ever matter, that once he eventually dies he will vanish and be forgotten in time.

Vide Noir also tells the story of Johnnie Redmayne, who for once tries to do something that isn't just for his own hedonistic pleasure but that might actually help bring in money to support his friends and family, but he's too headstrong and impulsive to listen to the warnings he's given, and is killed in the attempt.

One lives who probably shouldn't have and comes out at rock bottom and now has to work out how to move on from here, and one dies a nihilist who should presumably just accept the inevitability of death, but has the knowledge and absolute stubborn determination to enable his eventual return, following in the footsteps of Cobb Avery.

And what happens to both of them afterward? Well, we don't know. Hopefully some day (SOON?? BEN PLEASE) we'll get the opportunity to find out!

[lauren-no-why]

how about dale redmayne for the character ask?? :]

YEAH DALE MY BOY DALE

I have so many thoughts and I am going to try not to spend all night writing this even though it's sorely tempting. It's surprising to me just how much we can pull from the little we've been given and like some idiot dog I've taken that and run off with it while shaking it in my mouth

First impression: Pretty sure the first I became aware of his existence is Fool for Love, which is tricky because Buck is the world's least reliable narrator so it's really hard to know how much of that video to trust (and also confusing that they cast Stevin here as Dale, I... have to assume because it was just convenient but in retrospect after watching Vide Noir this could also represent some real confusion on Buck's part I guess). I guess the best I can say is that he was intriguing and I was a quick fan but also like, there wasn't much more to say. Some point afterward I became aware that he's the writer for all of the Phantom Riders' music and boy that is where the fun starts.

Impression now: Dale my beloved mess, Dale I feel so bad, Dale!! You keep losing people!!! god

Basically, here we have a guy who is clearly pretty brilliant at songwriting, both in terms of instrumentation and lyrics. He has to have a ton of creativity, intelligence, and passion to pull this off, I mean, consider all of the Phantom Riders' tracks and work out how those lyrics could have come from the mind of a Latino kid growing up in East LA in the 50s-60s, where the state was not exactly prioritizing their education. It would have taken an enormous amount of drive to shrug that off and start a band and write songs like these and make that work somehow (and certainly people did - Ritchie Valens might be one of the most well known today but there were many others).

Somehow he's able to balance that with evidently some kind of leadership status in the World Enders (both he and Alex have been named leaders, and since they're brothers, possibly co-leaders? that's how I interpret it but there are other options, like Dale left most of the leadership to Alex so he could pursue music, perhaps). Whether he's top dog or not, if we can trust Fool for Love at all he has some kind of higher status and a close circle of trusted folks who will fight by his side. Between these two facts, gang leader and rock musician, he probably has a pretty charismatic personality that lends itself well to leadership and stage performance, on top of the clear intelligence and creativity the music shows us.

And then! Somewhere in here, his brother is murdered, and Rigo (the band's drummer so presumably also a good friend) goes missing. A lot of the song lyrics seem to be a response to Johnnie's death in some way. My heart goes out to this poor dude so much because he lost a lot but the World Enders do truck on with their nihilism and he'll cope in whatever way he's able while accepting that death is just another fact of life even if it fucking sucks when it's your little brother and who knows if Rigo is dead or alive now too.

What? Oh that was supposed to be my impression now. I have so much impression.

Favorite moment: We are shown very little of him in action but I'm pleased that Miguel gets to briefly and temporarily depict him having a hell of a good time on stage in the underground club in the movie. I would love a whole fictional recorded live performance because the guy must absolutely have so much stage presence. Alternatively please give me more of his non-music side as delightfully violent gang leader alongside his brother. This is now a wishlist of moments.

Idea for a story: I'm interested in the balance between public and private life when you have someone who is a rock musician known well enough to have been on TV for a live performance in the 60s, and also absolutely a notorious criminal. I know obviously that this is a real scenario for a lot of folks these days but most current gang members that I am aware of who are releasing music are mostly doing a lot of self-promotion on, say, youtube. The social media and music industry environments today are very different from how they were in the 60s - there would have been a lot less opportunity for everyone to try to make it big back then, I feel like, meaning that somehow Dale is getting on using his real name and face and everything on television performing and like, there were fewer TV channels then, he has an opportunity to be a household name for his music, and then somehow he is able to step off stage and slip his black jacket and knife back on and get to business carjacking or whatever. Aside from "why has he not been arrested after a gig yet", what is that shift like, from street to stage and back? I don't know if I'll write that but it's an interesting thought to explore.

Unpopular opinion: Man if anyone has popular opinions about him to begin with I don't know them.

Favorite relationship: Well, like I said with Alex, his brothers. This trio is just so much trouble and I need to know more. Unlike with Alex, Johnnie doesn't mention Dale by name in the film (which is weird but hey I didn't write the script) - but it's obvious he still has a lot of affection for his brother's band, and vice versa Johnnie is on the cover of the Phantom Riders' album Black Brained in between two unnamed members, which may well be in honor of him after his death, so, there's a lot of love there, once again.

Favorite headcanon: Oh you want even more headcanon do you? Cool. I write Dale as the smug, cocky, very self-assured middle brother. The one who, unlike the other two, actually tries to keep up with the news, who has probably already burned his draft card while laughing hilariously about the audacity of the government to ask that of him while they give nothing in return, and who is very visibly a womanizer while quietly treating himself to pretty boys on the side. It's sex, drugs, and rock and roll all the time and you can't and won't stop him, and if you don't notice that he's smarter than he lets on, all the better, he doesn't give a single shit what you think. The World Enders are his family and he will fight fiercely for all of them, and meanwhile he'll play guitar while working on music at any hours he pleases and fuck you if you think you get to complain about that, take it or move out.

I love Dale. A lot. Oh and he also has great tattoos. Those will get posted soon.

[holdingup-fallingsky]

Thank you my beloved @jmkho!!

9 favorite characters!

Arthur Morgan - Red Dead Redemption 2

Charles Smith - Red Dead Redemption 2

Dora Lee - Nine to Five

Crowley - Good Omens

Aziraphale - Good Omens

Adam Faulker-Stanheight - Saw

Castiel - Supernatural

Frankie Lou - Lord Huron/Vide Noir

Johnnie Redmayne - Lord Huron/Vide Noir

I tag @ofthecaravel @t00turnttrauma @streamsofstardust @currentlyfangirling10 @runwayblues @joshkiszkashusband @joshsindigostreak

[urban-hart]

Johnnie Redmayne, my beloved

[mudstoneabyss]

sometimes a tumblr icon can be your niche music blorbos

[magicalhideoutengineer]

Nobody expected Johnny Depp to send those photos, though in retrospect they probably should have.

Director David Yates was finishing filming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them when the images arrived in his email. Depp had yet to shoot his climactic scene: Magizoologist hero Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) reveals that the fugitive dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald has been hiding in plain sight the entire film, disguised as dapper auror Percival Graves (played by Colin Farrell). The Farrell-to-Depp switcheroo was to be the film’s biggest shock when it came out in theaters, but first it was the director’s turn to be surprised.

Much like Depp had done when crafting his takes on Willy Wonka and Capt. Jack Sparrow, the actor huddled together with a makeup team to design his own creative look for J.K. Rowling’s villain.

“I had an image in my head of the guy,” explains Depp, who felt emboldened in his creative choices by a Skype chat with Rowling about the role. “She said, ‘I can’t wait to see what you do with him.’ It was beautifully left as this open gift.”

So Depp sent photos of himself as Grindelwald to Yates. His first-draft makeover was “slightly more extreme” than where Grindelwald ended up, the director recalls. “We saw this character as a combination of poet, rock star, visionary, and sociopath, beguiling but lethal,” says Yates, who also helmed the final four Harry Potter films.

After some back-and-forth (at one point a “foppish, romantic look” was considered and rejected), the production embraced Depp’s concept of Grindelwald as a pre-WWII vision of Aryan fascism — an ultra-white, pasty-faced platinum blond, with an undercut haircut and pale mismatched eyes.

“I almost felt like he’s maybe two people,” Depp says. “He’s twins in one body. So a gamy eye is more like the other side of him — a brain for each eye, and he’s somewhere in the middle.”

When Depp’s Grindelwald was unveiled in the final moments of Fantastic Beasts, fans were indeed stunned, but also concerned. The dark wizard looked so strange. Was he supposed to be comedic? So for the second title in the planned five-film franchise, The Crimes of Grindelwald, the evil wizard’s appearance was “softened and refined,” made to look more natural. Judging by the enthusiastic fan reactions to the film’s final trailer at the end of September, the tweaks worked.

Grindelwald’s evolution was just a small example of how the Fantastic Beasts team leveled up for the sequel. Where to Find Them bore the burden of launching a new Wizarding World franchise with a different cast, setting, time period, and characters. While the movie was largely a success — with solid reviews and $814 million worldwide at the box office — members of the filmmaking team quietly felt that the sequel could (and should) be an improvement over its predecessor.

“When we made the first film [the actors] all thought it was great,” recalls Ezra Miller, who plays troubled young wizard Credence Barebone. “But the department heads — Yates, [production designer] Stuart Craig, [costume designer] Colleen Atwood — were all like, ‘It’s not good enough, it has to get better, it has to get way better, and here are all the things that were wrong with it.’ [Crimes] is a serious push by some of the greatest artists in the game to elevate in a way that’s inspiring to watch and be around.”

That elevation began with Rowling’s script, which largely shifts the action from New York to Paris — a new locale, sure, but returning to Europe feels more Potter-esque. And while the first film was focused heavily on Newt, the sequel is more of an ensemble piece that deepens returning characters, introduces several new ones, and plays like a life-and-death, wartime noir thriller (no whimsical three-minute scenes of Newt demonstrating a mating dance at the zoo with a horny Erumpent).

The setup is that Grindelwald escapes while being transported to a new prison and rallies an army of supporters with his pledge to unify the Wizarding World and rule Muggles. That leaves Hogwarts professor Dumbledore (Jude Law), the dark wizard’s former childhood friend (and perhaps more?), to enlist his expelled former student Newt and, by extension, his American friends — rebellious auror Tina (Katherine Waterston), her telepathic sister Queenie (Alison Sudol), and affable No-Maj Jacob (Dan Fogler). But that’s only the beginning.

“The script is labyrinthian,” says Redmayne, whose introverted beast-wrangler is a bit more comfortable in his own skin this time around. “You’re going down this maze, and Jo [Rowling] is weaving the stories together with such intricacy. Along the way, connections to Harry Potter and secrets are falling at your feet. And there is one…” The Oscar winner pauses, knowing he’s treading into heavy spoiler territory. “I got to the end and my jaw dropped. There was one thing I didn’t see coming.”

“Darker” is a word the cast uses a lot. “Complex” and “fast-paced” are others. The film is more, well, adult — The Crimes of Grindelwald may be the most grown-up of all the Wizarding World titles.

EW caught up with Fogler shortly after he saw the completed film for the first time, and he was as excited as any fan stepping out of a cineplex. “It reminds me a lot of The Empire Strikes Back,” he says. “The first movie is so positive. It’s sweet and lovely. But this time everybody is really put under fire. People are gonna see this, like, a hundred times just to get everything. They’re going to be going nuts that they have to wait for the next one. And Jude Law, oh God, he’s perfect.”

Ah, yes. From the moment that first photo was released of Law as a dashing Dumbledore, even the most discriminating Potter purists admitted he was spot-on as the beloved wizard (and some are rather hot for teacher, with hashtags circulating like #Dumbledaddy and #Dumbledamn). Adding Dumbledore to this prequel pleased Rowling, too, who spent more time visiting the set during this shoot than the first film.

You might assume Dumbledore would be the least mysterious part of this tale since we already know so much about his past and future. Not so. “There are things to resolve from Albus’ life, some of which we know from the story, some of which we don’t know about yet,” Law says, and then comes up with an even better tease: “This is a good riddle. One of the reasons Dumbledore trusts and likes Newt so much is Newt understands and forgives beasts and monsters. And there’s a part of Dumbledore — only a part — that sees himself as a bit of a beast.”

The friendship between Newt and Dumbledore might feel a bit wistful for Harry Potter fans: It’s like a glimpse into what might have been if the future Hogwarts Headmaster had somehow been able to carry on his friendship with the Boy Who Lived into adulthood. Yet Newt, unlike young Potter, can quickly spot Dumbledore’s “for the greater good” manipulations.

“One of the things I love about Newt is he has this naivete and gentleness on the surface, but he’s got quite a steel core,” Redmayne says. “He adores Dumbledore, but he also knows when Dumbledore has crossed a line and isn’t afraid to call him on it.”

Newt’s whip-smart Auror love interest Tina is back as well, going on a mission to hunt down Credence in Paris. “She’s more confident this time. No one is questioning her intellect and instincts,” Waterston says. Yet her character’s love life is a mess thanks to some long-distance-relationship misunderstandings. While fans know Newt and Tina eventually end up together, the duo clearly have no idea. “It’s fun to play something out where the audience is one step ahead and Newt and Tina are the clueless ones,” the actress says.

Newt also has a tense relationship with his older brother, Theseus, played by Callum Turner, who broke his wand during his first day on set during an enthusiastic screen test. Theseus is an uptight careerist and Head of the British Ministry of Magic’s Auror Office, who’s pressuring the rebellious Newt to fall in line with the wizarding government’s plans.

“Theseus wants his brother to stand up and fight [Grindelwald],” says Turner, but the two have conflicting ideas on how to #resist. That Theseus is engaged to Leta Lestrange (Zoë Kravitz) — Newt’s schoolboy crush — complicates matters as well.

Yet perhaps the most intriguing new character is the one fans only discovered last month: Nagini, a circus performer who gives customers one heckuva transformation act as she morphs into a massive snake. South Korean actress Claudia Kim wasn’t told which character she was playing until she arrived for her last audition. A Harry Potter fan since sixth grade, Kim instantly realized Nagini was cursed to eventually become Voldemort’s murderous serpent.

“I was speechless,” she recalls, and then was told that for this final test, she had to pretend to transform into a snake — on the spot. “I instantly felt the heartburn, a lot of insecurity, but you have to empty your head and let your instincts take over,” she says. “If I find [the audition tape] I will destroy it!”

Once on set, Kim worked with a contortionist to perfect her act, infusing her performance with varying degrees of snake-ness. “David would give directions like ‘Can you do 2 percent more snake?'” she says, laughing.

Since her casting was announced, however, some have objected to a person of color playing a character doomed to subservience. Those close to the production disagree with that perspective and note that Kim simply gave the best audition for a standout role. “Claudia Kim is a living god,” Miller declares. “You’re about to get your head blown off. Prepare yourselves for Nagini. This is a tragic and beautiful story.”

Miller should know, as it’s his character, Credence, who teams up with Nagini to form a power couple of sorts: two lost souls with unique magical abilities they can’t entirely control. “Credence has joined the circus, as one does when you’ve killed your foster mom and fled the country,” Miller says glibly. “He’s trying to figure out who he is. They’re two people who don’t really trust anyone who are learning trust for the first time.”

Another challenged couple (actually, every major character in Crimes of Grindelwald is arguably part of a couple, and that’s why the Paris setting is so apt) are Jacob and Queenie, who flee America due to its strict policy against No-Maj/wizard relationships. And guess which charismatic politician is surprisingly in favor of such unions?

“Grindelwald actually sounds like he’s all for love — if you love a Muggle, you should be allowed to be with them, and you should be allowed to marry,” Fogler reveals. “But wizards, he feels, should be on a pedestal. This is very tantalizing to some.”

So hold up. Could the nicest couple in this story, Jacob and Queenie, join Team Grindelwald? They’re not saying, of course, but Sudol notes: “Grindelwald’s like staring at the sun — you’re not supposed to, but he’s hard to look away from. He does very, very bad things.”

And he does them with flair. One of Depp’s improvisational additions was giving the wand-waving Grindelwald a conductor-like rhythm during a key sequence. “When Johnny conducts a barrage of spells he’s like a conductor guiding an orchestra — except instead of creating music he’s effectively creating fiery mayhem and death,” Yates says.

Indeed, the film’s title promises crimes. And that this dark wizard’s deeds are wrapped in divisive rhetoric at rock-concert-style rallies peppered with populist appeal sounds kind of, well, familiar. Is Rowling making — unintentionally or not — some kind of modern political point? Sudol certainly sees one.

“The film is terrifying that it’s so relevant,” she says. “We really need to focus on trying to find commonalities amidst the instability of the world’s climate. When a lot of crazy things are happening, it’s very easy to lose true north.”

Which brings us, quite appropriately, back to Newt, the story’s moral compass. At one point in the movie, Newt tells his brother, “I don’t do sides.” That’s almost a revolutionary stance in hyper-partisan times. But it’s also one that, given the forces at play, is perhaps unsustainable. “You really get the sense that Newt’s always gonna make the right choice,” Fogler says. “In this day and age, that’s very refreshing.”

[oscar-isaacs-number-one-bitch]

“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” Movie Review

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the 9th film in the widely beloved Harry Potter universe and the second of its prequels after 2015’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. In this installment, Eddie Redmayne is back as Newt Scamander, a former student of Hogwarts and author of the in-universe textbook which for which the first of these prequel films was titled. In this film, he’s tasked by a young Albus Dumbledore (here played by Jude Law) with going to Paris to find the child Credence (Ezra Miller), who was a problem in the last movie due to his insane and unstable power, because he’s the only one who could conceivably defeat Dumbledore in order to make the wizards rule over humankind forever, a plot all set in motion by Grindelwald (Johnny Depp), who escapes prison and sets out to also find Credence to this end. And if all of that sounds overlong and needlessly convoluted, I’m not even going to begin going into the issue of Credence’s genealogy, a plot point apparently so important, they center the entire reason he could defeat Dumbledore around that very mystery. Oh, and Nagini is here too, I guess.

I enjoyed the first Fantastic Beasts fine enough; it wasn’t exactly the same quality as when the Harry Potter series reached its greatest heights, but I put it about on par with the more subpar entries in that superior franchise. The characters were fun, the lead had conviction, the beasts (though not fantastic) begot a lot of enjoyment, and the additions of Dan Folger and Alison Sudol easily made up the largest highlights of the film. It’s a shame, then, that writer J.K. Rowling has opted to not only entirely abandon any sense of true narrative or plot mechanics, but all but ignore entirely that this movie even needs a story in the first place. The sad thing is, the lack of a general plot progression right up until the very end isn’t even one of the most frustrating things about the movie. What’s truly upsetting is how many opportunities it takes to go out of its own way to show you THIS thing from Harry Potter, and THIS thing from Harry Potter, and THAT name from Harry Potter, until you’re so worn down with Harry Potter references you just wish Rowling had never written the first of these movies.

To get the positives out of the way first, there’s one line that Jacob Kawolski says that actually made me laugh, the performances are all mostly fine still (even though I wrack my brain daily to find out why on God’s green earth Warner Bros is still putting Johnny Depp in anything given that one of their flagship characters movies stars his ex-wife he used to beat, Amber Heard), the visual effects are mostly pretty good…mostly…and David Yates still hasn’t lost touch when it comes to directing a big budget effects blockbuster in terms of how he moves the camera. On the shots where the camera doesn’t move? That’s a different story.

No, that’s it. Those are the only positives I can find to this movie. Luckily they’re positive enough that the film isn’t intolerable, but it only barely avoids being perhaps the worst franchise prequel since X-Men Origins: Wolverine. To even begin to start in on the negatives would nearly constitute having to get up onto a podium in front of every movie theater in America and warn you about how disappointed you’re likely going to be if you have a competent sense of filmmaking mechanics or structure or have ever seen a decent film in your life (and aren’t going to be someone who bends over backwards to praise Rowling’s writing this movie just because she wrote a now-iconic book series a while ago). From the start, the film introduces a minorly interesting idea for this universe and then not only never revisits that old trick again, but essentially makes it the one crime Grindelwald commits for the entire movie, and I’m not exaggerating – “the crimes of Grindelwald” has exactly 0 to do with the actual plot of the film, which (as we’ve discussed) there’s barely any of. And come to think of it, neither do the “fantastic beasts” these films are supposed to be about. There are a total of essentially two (2) new creatures you actually remember that pop up in this installment, and only one of them is an actual creature, whereas the other is a large dragon that’s made of fire but is only the result of a spell, having no physical incarnation in this universe for it to come from or go back to.

This would all be forgivable as a simple mistitling if the plot was at least interesting, but what of the plot there is moves at a snail’s pace while the audience not only has to jump through so many different lore and legend hoops to understand what’s going on (which there’s basically no source for because no books have been written), but is left way too bored to even care that they’re confused about any of it. By the time we actually get to the climax of the movie, Newt and Tina (Katherine Waterson from the last movie) have only just resolved an issue where Tina was mad at him because of a misprinted news article (no, really) and we’re thrown right into an exposition shouting match between all the movie’s important characters. Yes, the first time the movie shows any sort of momentum, right towards the end, it stops cold in its tracks for an overly complicated exposition shouting match between two characters about a backstory to another character that doesn’t end up matter at all.

The largest weakness of this movie, however, is that it abandons its characters and any development they might receive in order to just lay out stuff about the Harry Potter universe for the audience to look at. It’s essentially the Solo of this universe, only Solo did this sort of thing with a lot more style. Sure, retroactively making the series a little more diverse by making Voldemort’s pet snake a Korean woman this whole time is a decent idea in concept I guess, but not once you actually start to parse out the pieces of it or what it represents, not that any of that matters because the character has zero effect on the overall story and is just boring, disposable, and entirely unnecessary. And speaking of things being unnecessary, while I was happy to see him back since he’s the only fun character in either of these movies now, the return of Jacob and Queenie is not only totally random and brushed over in terms of what it would mean (breaking the rules of the last movie) to get there, it’s so bizarrely handled that one wonders what about the actual execution of it made it necessary for them to do it that way.

In fact, all of the characters are worse this time around. Newt used to be charming, but now he’s just a bumbling oaf with no convictions about anything, Tina’s annoying “mister Scamander” routine is back, and Alison Sudol (the best part of the last movie) looks like she dropped some acid right before every single take and they just filmed what happened after. Oh, and did I mention there’s a major twist at the end? Cause there is, and if you’ve been paying attention, it’s gonna piss you off too, because not only is it a complete betrayal of one of the universe’s most beloved characters, it never, not once, comes up in the part of these stories where it would have mattered in even the slightest bit.

Guys, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is bad, but only in the way a big budget blockbuster set in one of the most beloved movie universes of all time can be. Sure, there is one funny line, most of the performances work fine, and there are a few charming moments overall, but that doesn’t make much difference. It will have its defenders I’m sure, just as the Star Wars prequels do, and there are some interesting elements to it, but none of those elements add up to anything compelling, and when Rowling finally does get around to one compelling thing, it doesn’t matter and it betrays a character she wrote! It’s boring, dreary (the whole thing seemingly takes place at night or under cloud cover), it begs you so hard to take it seriously as “the dark one” that you just get annoyed, and it’s so stuffed full of exposition and backstory that doesn’t matter that I’m practically begging them to just stop the Hogwarts express here cause I wanna get off of it. If you’re ever browsing my movie shelf, don’t look for this one, cause it won’t be there. The magic is gone.

I’m giving “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” a 5/10.

[stowawayproductions-blog]

The Crimes of Grindelwald — It Might Be Time to Mourn Our Childhood

This film was too disappointing to spend too much time on, so let me get this out of the way: it was all plot with no character, heart, or theme. The small message that was vaguely gestured at was absolutely no different than what was explored in Harry Potter, please do something new. The CGI was numbing and very done, not impressive or necessary. The various twists were eye-roll-inducing. Grindelwald was just Voldemort 2.0 and way less cool ’cause Ralph Fiennes can kick Johnny Depp’s ass any day. And finally, the hints to things from the original series (portkeys, Travers, McLaggen) were so obviously fan-service that they weren’t even fun for us die-hard Potterheads. The only good parts were the cute creatures, Queenie and Jacob, and Eddie Redmayne being awkward. That concludes my technical review. Onto being emotional:

I was as excited as the next person when Fantastic Beasts was announced a few years ago. Cautious, sure, but excited. This will come as no surprise to anyone, but I was one of those kids. One of the millions who stood in line every year at midnight to get the next book, who read it feverishly as if my life depended on it, who prepared every year by re-reading all the previous novels, and who still, to this day, can answer any Harry Potter trivia question (within reason).

The movies were hard, as they were for most of us. This story became our bible, our text explaining good and evil, right and wrong. Harry Potter taught me how to be a good friend, how to be brave, how to trust my gut, and how to love the weirdos with good hearts (and love myself for being one). Even though I’m only now healing from what Alfonso Cuaron did to Hermione’s character in the third movie, and I’m still working on forgiving David Yates for his glossy, overexposed interpretation of my favorite quiet moments (don’t even ask about Mike Newell, that man is dead to me), I’ve come to terms with the films because Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson are my trio. They are perfect, they are beloved, and they shaped my childhood and enhanced this world that I spent so much of my life exploring.

As an official Potterhead, how could I not be hopeful about a movie starring all the monsters from that little red book that I bought as a kid? And continuing the world by going to America and learning about the history of wizards? Hell yes! Of course I was nervous after the disastrous finale of Deathly Hallows pt. 2, but still cautiously optimistic; and I was pleasantly surprised! The monsters were adorable, especially the niffler, Eddie Redmayne did a fine job, and David Yates began redeeming himself in my mind.

In this latest iteration, however, I was quite disappointed, and it’s come to that unfortunate time in my life that I must consider how to move forward. This sounds melodramatic, but I feel I’m in a state of mourning for a couple different reasons. First and foremost, I must accept that no expansion of this universe will ever live up to the original series, not necessarily because J.K. Rowling doesn’t have it in her, but because I am no longer in a place to accept it. I don’t need another sacred text, the one I had as a child is still in fine shape. Revisiting Harry, Ron and Hermione is satisfying enough, I don’t need anything else. I also must come to terms with bringing J.K. Rowling off of her pedestal. She’s only human, not some superhero as I saw her in my youth. She’s trying new things, and they’re not very good, and that has to be okay. It’s painful and this probably won’t be the end of my denial, but it’s a step, and feels oddly important to my growing up.

I credit Harry Potter for a lot of the strength being used by our generation. We were raised to break the rules, to find the good in people different from us, to fight evil until the very end, and that love is the most powerful kind of magic. I find it to be no coincidence that the Harry Potter generation is changing society to be more inclusive, more loving, and more noble. For this, J.K. Rowling will always have my undying respect. It is time, however, to part ways. I hope she does well in her future ventures and I hope she can manage to inspire a new generation of wanna be wizards and witches the way she inspired us, but the time for me to be awed by her creations has passed. I will go back to my beaten up old copies of Harry Potter, reread them shamelessly, and learn new things each time, and that will have to be good enough.

Rating: Disappointing. In my bottom 5 of 2018.

Some Issues 37) Halloween 38) The Spy Who Dumped Me 39) Disobedience 40) Boy Erased 41) Bohemian Rhapsody 42) A Star Is Born 43) Pick of the Litter 44) A Simple Favor

Disappointing 45) Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald 46) Beautiful Boy 47) Lizzie 48) The Party 49) Ready Player One

[fanfic-shiz]

I don't understand the casting decisions going on with Fantastic Beasts. The actor chosen to play Theseus is younger than Eddie Redmayne but he's supposed to be the older brother. How does that work? Even worse, Colin won't be back. My heart is so broken, but maybe he'll return in a future film, there's still three more left for him to appear in.

I'm so with you about Colin :( Johnny Depp once upon a time was my favorite actor but I think he's kinda got a screw loose now.I'm gonna cross my fingers about the actor chosen to play Newt's brother! I've realized that this happens a lot in film. You'll see actors and actresses chosen to play parents when they're in reality only about five years older than the actor playing their child. I suppose some people do look old or young for their age, plus make up does wonders.The actor they chose is great though! Watch Green Room if you haven't. He kills it in that. Also, our beloved Anton Yelchin stars in that one as well.

[foolofatook001]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I got tagged by @havenotwillnotreadthebooks (wooo!) <3

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

I have 69 works rn lol

2. What's your total ao3 wordcount?

308,253!!! Which is a lot. My goodness.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Oh, so many. My biggest ones in terms of fic number are dsmp and then atla, although I think the life series is catching up

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

they are all dsmp which makes sense because the fandom is (was?) absolutely forking massive

We'll See Where We Land (296 kudos); Death and Her Angel (246 kudos); I Don't Discriminate (Between the Sinners and the Saints) (239 kudos); I'll Go With You (225 kudos); History Has Its Eyes On You (198 kudos) (wow I really went for the Hamilton titles lol)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

I do! I don't get many comments, so I always try to reply when I do, because it's exciting to know that people enjoyed my writing :D

6. What is your fic with the angstiest ending?

Oh definitely How Soft Your Fields lol. No spoilers but that one got some people.

7. What is your fic with the happiest ending?

I'm gonna go with Sleepless in the Fire Nation, I think

8. Do you get hate on your fics?

Nope! Kefi also said this but I'd say I'm not a big enough fish to get hate lol

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Also nope.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's your craziest crossover?

I do write crossovers on occasion. As far as "craziest" goes, either Diplomatic Relations, which is an Avatar the Last Airbender/Lunar Chronicles crossover, or my Magnus Archives/Lord Huron lore series lol (this one more for like. nicheness)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I'm aware. Like I said, small fish.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not! Definitely down if anyone ever asks though

13. Have you co-written any fics?

I have! Who Killed Markiplier: Origins, with my dear friend who goes by Madness_Life_and_Choice on ao3, and then I'll Be Back Again, which was part of a collaborative "telephone" event I did with the ever-wonderful stardust server.

14. What is your all-time favorite ship?

Gotta go with Zutara for this one. It's definitely one of the ones I've shipped the longest, and a lot of the tropes/characteristics they have are what I find I like in other ships as well

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt will actually happen?

NGL a lot of my multichap dsmp fics. Some of them I have outlines for, and I feel bad for letting them languish, but I probably won't be back to them any time soon (although idk I've been rereading a lot of my bookmarks lately lol)

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'd probably say character voice? I like to think I'm pretty good at letting the character shine through in dialogue and in narration.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I don't always do enough description, I think-- I forget that not everyone has the same image in their head as I do.

18. What are your thoughts on dialogue in other languages in fic?

It can be done well and it can be done poorly, and it's Really Irritating when done poorly.

19. What was your first fandom?

Avatar: The Last Airbender.

20. What's your favorite fic you've written?

Probably Lord Knows I Should Be Pushin' Daisies, which was my first TMA/Lord Huron crossover and very near and dear to my heart (Johnnie Redmayne my boy my beloved <3)

tag time! I shall tag @wikipedianna, @liminalumi, @randomprojectedkat and @fennzer

[harryandmeghan0-blog]

Royal wedding falls on the same day as FA Cup Final - Daily Mail

New Post has been published on https://harryandmeghan.xyz/royal-wedding-falls-on-the-same-day-as-fa-cup-final-daily-mail/

Royal wedding falls on the same day as FA Cup Final - Daily Mail

Prince William is facing a right royal wedding dilemma.

The Duke of Cambridge is the President of the Football Association and would be expected to present the trophy to the winners of the FA Cup Final on May 18.

But I can reveal that this year’s royal wedding is to be held on the same day.

Lady Gabriella Windsor, whose father Prince Michael of Kent is a beloved first cousin of the Queen, has chosen May 18 as the day she will marry businessman Thomas Kingston at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. 

Lady Gabriella Windsor has chosen May 18 as the day she will marry businessman Thomas Kingston at St George’s Chapel, Windsor

The Queen is among those expected to attend the wedding.

‘Poor William, it will give him another headache,’ a courtier tells me. Ella Windsor attended William’s wedding in 2011 and he would want to return the compliment.

Wills faced the same dilemma last year when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle chose Cup Final day for their wedding.

Keen football fan Wills had to skip the match between Chelsea and Manchester United, leaving Jackie, the widow of England star Ray Wilkins, to present the trophy.

Harry’s polo event hits the skids as Audi deal stalls 

When Meghan Markle was pictured kissing Prince Harry before she presented him with the winners’ trophy at the Audi Polo Challenge, it confirmed the event’s central place in the royal social and sporting calendar.

However, I can disclose that this year’s charity tournament is not expected to go ahead amid claims that Audi was asked to increase massively its donation to good causes supported by the Prince.

Last year, both Harry and Prince William played in the competition, held at Coworth Park in Ascot, where spectators included Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne and Wimbledon champion Serena Williams.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were pictured kissing before she presented him with the winners’ trophy at the Audi Polo Challenge

‘There has been real shock, because Audi has provided 16 years of loyal service holding the event with the Royal Family,’ an insider tells me.

‘The sum it was expected to stump up was a huge increase on its previous donation.’

Kensington Palace is keen to deny suggestions that Audi was asked to donate £1 million — and that Meghan inspired the increase. 

‘The Princes decide which charities their matches support,’ the spokesman insists.

Last year, Harry helped raise £1 million for his African charity, Sentebale, when he played in the Sentebale Polo Cup, which he hosts annually.

‘This is the sort of money they want to be making through polo from now on,’ said Malcolm Borwick, polo ambassador of Royal Salute, which sponsored the cup in 2017. 

‘We want to help Prince Harry raise £1 million per event in the future.’

Borwick added: ‘They have a limited number of days to play polo, so they really want to make it count.’

The Audi event’s cancellation would, at least, reassure Meghan that her husband won’t be tempted by any alluring fellow actresses.

In 2015, Harry was pictured with his hand on the knee of Victoria star Jenna Coleman as they chatted intimately in the sponsor’s marquee.

The event’s future appears to be a very hot potato, with Audi referring all inquiries to Kensington Palace, where Harry, Meghan, William and Kate are based. A palace spokesman will say only: ‘Polo matches will be announced in the usual way.’

The smart set’s talking about…Ella Balinska

Ella Balinska (left and right with mother Lorraine Pascale)  is making her mark on the big screen

Her mother, Lorraine Pascale, was the first black woman to star on the cover of American Elle magazine before going on to become a television chef. But Ella Balinska is making her mark on the big screen.

The 22-year-old, whose father is Pascale’s aristo ex-husband, the Polish musician Count Kaz Balinski-Jundzill, has been cast as one of Charlie’s Angels in the new instalment of the film series alongside Twilight star Kristen Stewart.

‘I’ve always wanted to do [an] action [movie], but I thought that at 5ft 11in, I was too tall,’ says Ella, who was educated at the £18,000-a-year James Allen’s Girls’ School in Dulwich, South London.

‘I’m qualified in 12 types of stage combat, so it’s safe to say the brief for my character was very familiar.’

Ella, who describes Vogue editor Edward Enninful as a ‘godfather’ figure and supermodel Naomi Campbell as a family friend, could have become a sportswoman, having thrown the javelin for Team London.

Shaken and stirred-Jodie’s link to 007

Bond girl: Jodie Kidd with her godfather George Lazenby, the star of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Jodie Kidd, who would make a great Bond girl, has revealed that her godfather is George Lazenby — the kilt-wearing 007 in the 1969 film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

The 40-year-old model turned pub landlady made the disclosure at the Leica store launch party in Mayfair this week, which she attended with Lazenby, 79. 

With secrecy that would make James Bond proud, she declined to go into details about why the Australian actor was chosen for the role, but her family is full of fascinating connections.

Her father, who was also at the party, is Johnny Kidd, grandson of Lord Beaverbrook and a former champion show-jumper.

Pictured: The kilt-wearing 007 George Lazenby in the 1969 film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Heather finds elixir of youth

As the owner of an anti-ageing clinic, Heather Bird encourages the well-heeled women of Knightsbridge to spend a small fortune on treatments to hold back the years.

For her own part, she has found a cheaper cure — a toyboy.

The estranged wife of property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz is courting Spandau Ballet’s new lead singer, Ross William Wild, 20

The estranged wife of property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz is courting Spandau Ballet’s new lead singer, Ross William Wild, 20 years her junior.

‘We met at a party at The Savoy,’ Heather, 49, tells me at the Nina Naustdal catwalk show at Bagatelle London. ‘It was his idea to date, not mine.’

She adds: ‘I never would have thought about having a toyboy, but I know a lot of women who are doing that nowadays.’

 I’m ready for another love match, says broody Boris

The former model Lilly Kerssenberg, ex-Wimbledon champion Boris Becker is nevertheless considering expanding his family

Still enmeshed in a rancorous divorce from his second wife, the former model Lilly Kerssenberg, ex-Wimbledon champion Boris Becker is nevertheless considering expanding his family.

‘If my [next] partner desperately wants to have a child, I would be open to it after years of togetherness,’ admits the 51-year-old, who has four children by three women, one of whom was conceived with a Russian waitress on the stairs of a Mayfair restaurant.

‘I have a lot of experience in how to deal with children, and I am still of viable age.’

Form an orderly queue, ladies…

Will Philip join Land Rovers at Balmoral

Prince Philip doesn’t appear to have lost his love for Land Rovers after the road accident in which his Freelander flipped over in January.

For Balmoral is staging a Land Rover ‘self-drive and trek’ later this year, in which car owners are invited to motor through the 50,000 acres at the Queen’s private estate in Scotland in guided convoys, at a cost of £135 per vehicle.

‘I do not doubt it will be very popular,’ a spokesman tells me.

Presumably, the Duke of Edinburgh will not be taking part, as the terms include: ‘Drivers must hold a full driving licence for the UK.’

The Duke recently confirmed he had given his up.

Born in New York, artist Alexander Newley moved to this country four years ago and has now painted a ‘love letter to London’ in the form of works devoted to the capital.

The son of Dame Joan Collins and late actor and singer Anthony Newley has called the exhibition London: Sacred City, and it will be on display at Home House in Marylebone until August. 

‘I wanted to do some cityscapes,’ Newley tells me. ‘I agree with William Blake that London is a holy city, like Jerusalem. I want to convey my love and celebrate its complexity, mystery and depth as the capital of the human spirit.’

His ten works include portraits of actors David Suchet and Sir Derek Jacobi, but none of his radiant girlfriend, Sheela Raman, a U.S.-born jazz singer.

 It’s just water for slimline Stanley

Boris Johnson’s confession that he stopped drinking ‘bathfuls’ of booze in an effort to shed the pounds seems to have inspired his father, Stanley. 

‘I lost a tremendous amount of weight on I’m A Celebrity — and what’s even better is I’ve kept it off!’ the 78-year-old boasts at a book launch in Marylebone. ‘I went from 91kg to 82kg [a loss of almost 1½ stone in old money].

‘I don’t diet, but I think drinking less alcohol must have something to do with it. I’m going out for dinner after this party, which is why I’m only drinking water.’

 (Very) modern manners

Baroness Mone of Mayfair used to enjoy boasting about her extravagant lifestyle, sharing selfies online of herself reclining in private jets or with her ‘billionaire’ fiance Doug Barrowman.

So imagine the surprise when the underwear tycoon — nicknamed Baroness Bra — was spotted lugging her Louis Vuitton luggage aboard a grimy carriage on a standard-class train from Gatwick airport to London Victoria last Saturday.

‘If I was about to marry a billionaire, I would ask to be picked up at the airport, at the very least,’ remarked one of Michelle’s fellow passengers.

Such snobbery. Elevated to the peerage by David Cameron, Lady Mone should, surely, be commended for ‘keeping it real’.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6762665/Royal-wedding-falls-day-FA-Cup-Final.html

[kansascityhappenings]

‘Wonder Woman,’ ‘Aquaman’ and ‘Shazam!” thrill at San Diego Comic-Con

SAN DIEGO — Warner Bros brought out all the stops Saturday at Comic-Con with an army of stars, surprises and new footage from films like “Aquaman ,” ”Shazam! ” and even “Wonder Woman 1984,” which is only three and a half weeks into production.

Jason Momoa, Gal Gadot, Chris Pratt, Johnny Depp and Nicole Kidman were just a few of the starry names to grace the stage of the comic book convention’s Hall H.

Momoa, who stars as Aquaman, seemed to be as excited as those in the 6,500-seat audience, if not more so. The actor was downright giddy speaking about the film, which is over five years in the making.

“My heart is big and open,” he said. “I’m really, really happy.”

Director James Wan, best known for his “Conjuring” films, introduced some new footage in two trailers from the origin story, which hits theaters in December.

“I wanted to create a superhero film that we’ve never quite seen before. I wanted our film to be more unique,” Wan said. “My movie plays more like a science fiction fantasy film than a traditional superhero movie.”

Jason Momoa speaks onstage at the Warner Bros. theatrical panel during Comic-Con International 2018 at San Diego Convention Center on July 21, 2018 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Warner Bros.’ was the most-anticipated Hall H presentation of the convention, which this year was absent of many of the big names that attendees have come to expect, like Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm (“Star Wars”) and HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”

The studio also has continued to have to prove its mettle with its DC Comics universe, which has had its share of widely panned movies, like “Justice League.”

The focus Saturday thus was not on Batman or Superman, but the new, the fresh and the proven-quantities, like “Wonder Woman,” which has been best-reviewed and most beloved of the new DC universe.

It’s why, with 20 weeks of filming left to go, “Wonder Woman 1984” star Gadot and director Patty Jenkins took a break from their Washington D.C. shoot to tease brief footage from the highly anticipated follow-up to the groundbreaking superhero film.

The clip showed Diana Prince saving a young girl from some bad guys in their Miami Vice-finest in a very ’80s-looking mall.

Chris Pine also joined Gadot and Jenkins on stage, but all stayed mum about how and why his character Steve Trevor is back considering his fate in the first movie (and that he looks to be the same age as he was in 1917).

Jenkins said his presence is a “very important part” of the movie and that audiences will have to see it in November 2019 to find out.

She did explain why she set the movie in the 1980s.

“It was mankind at its best and worst,” Jenkins said. “We see Wonder Woman in a period of time that is us at our most extreme…We thought it could go on forever, everything we were doing right then.”

Another audience-pleaser was “Shazam! ” and Zachary Levi was on hand to introduce the first trailer for the DC superhero film, or “Big” with superpowers. The origin story shows how a bullied 14-year-old kid becomes the superhero (and a fully-grown man) after a fateful ride on the subway. It comes out in April.

“There are very few characters who are just stoked to have their powers,” Levi said. “Since I still am waiting to wake up one morning and fly, to do that, I just got to be me. I got to be a genuine part of myself … I love that there’s still an optimism in him.”

“Maybe now more than ever we need heroes like that, who care about people,” Levi added.

Chris Pratt also took the stage with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller to tease “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part ,” out in February. Pratt says his own trajectory mimicked his character Emmett’s journey in “The Lego Movie.”

When he was cast in the first movie, he was still best known for being Andy in “Parks and Recreation,” but by the time they finished voice-recording, he was Star-Lord in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

“You think, ‘Oh my life is a computer simulation and I’m living in the Matrix,’” he said.

The sequel will feature a few winks to Pratt’s real life and career, including a character named Rex Dangervest, who counts “raptor trainer” as one of his many jobs.

Pratt’s comment about the impact of “Guardians of the Galaxy” on his life was his only mention of the franchise on stage, which came just one day after writer and director James Gunn was fired from the third installment over past tweets. The actor pulled out of planned press line interviews following the news.

In addition to showing the trailer for “Godzilla: King of the Monsters ,” many of the stars of “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald ,” like Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Zoe Kravitz and Ezra Miller (sporting a “Super Mario Bros.” Toadette costume) turned out to talk about their sequel as well.

“Everything is at stake, really,” Law said of the film that comes out Nov. 16. “The depths and darkness in this story are the darkest that this world has plumbed before.”

Other topics discussed included Law’s “hot Dumbledore,” and what they’d use Harry Potter magic for. Not missing a beat, Kravitz said, “Impeach Trump.”

Johnny Depp, who plays Grindelwald, also made a surprise appearance in costume and character. “I love you Johnny,” shouted an audience member.

As in years past, the studio brought out all the stops for the showstopper presentation, bringing in screens that stretch around 180 degrees of the massive room, and a booming sound system to match.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2018/07/21/wonder-woman-aquaman-and-shazam-thrill-at-san-diego-comic-con/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2018/07/22/wonder-woman-aquaman-and-shazam-thrill-at-san-diego-comic-con/

[foolofatook001]

Why is johnnie redmayne you beloved boy

Oh heavens. Where do I start

There are three whole Lord Huron songs about him but I do not have time for a line-by-line lyrical breakdown of his character

First of all it’s definitely the devil-may-care personality and the “well if the world ends tomorrow, at least we had fun tonight” attitude

Also he’s so full of life, even after he dies— mans gets a look at the other side of death and goes “nope, not for me” and comes right on back— and like, yeah, he’s got regrets, but he’s still got fire!

The leather jacket and the motorcycle riding don’t hurt either ;)