Russell Crowe reunites with Superman son Henry Cavill for reboot of another beloved action franchise
Russell Crowe is reuniting onscreen with Henry Cavill, more than a decade after they acted with each other in the Superman film Man of Steel.
The 2013 superhero movie starred Henry in the lead role and Russell as his biological father Jor-El, who saves his son's life just before losing his own.
Now, fans will be able to see them back onscreen in a remake of the 1986 action fantasy picture Highlander, which launched a franchise of the same name.
In the original Highlander, Christopher Lambert played Connor MacLeod, a 16th century Scottish warrior who discovers he is immortal unless his head is severed.
He gets initiated into the secret world of immortals by the virtuoso swordsman Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, memorably portrayed by Sean Connery.
A reboot starring Henry as MacLeod was announced in 2021, and now, after years of development, Russell has been cast as Ramírez, according to Variety.
The original Highlander emerged as a roaring success in 1986, leading to the 1991 sequel Highlander II: The Quickening, which flopped disastrously.
However the series staggered on for the 1994 release Highlander III: The Sorcerer, a direct follow-up of the first film as if the events of the second never happened.
There was also a TV series from 1992 to 1998, followed by the 2000 film Highlander: Endgame, which was a sequel to the show rather than to the previous movies.
In 2021 it emerged that the original movie was being remade with Henry in the lead, back when he was still starring as Geralt of Riva on the Netflix medieval fantasy series The Witcher, before his departure and replacement by Liam Hemsworth.
The new film will be directed by Chad Stahelski, who helmed all the John Wick movies, and will have a script by Michael Finch, who co- wrote the fourth John Wick picture.
Russell first met Henry long before they ever worked together, back when the latter was a teenager at boarding school in the English countryside.
The encounter took place when Russell was filming his 2000 drama Proof of Life, starring him and Meg Ryan, at the Stowe School - where Henry was a student along with Russell's onscreen son Merlin Hanbury-Tenison.
Russell recalled that 'during a break in the shooting,' he caught sight of a rugby union game and noticed 'one kid on that field who was very fluid and in control.'
The teenager 'came over to have a chat, but all his questions were about acting, and there was just this smile in his eyes but there was something dead serious behind that smile,' Russell said on The Graham Norton Show in 2013.
'So instead of not answering the questions or whatever - 'cause you get asked these questions a hundred thousand times - I told him the truth in the brief moment that I had with him, and put it in front of him that it's a challenge that's up to him. Nobody's gonna give it to you,' Russell remembered.
'A couple of days later, I was putting a package together for the kid who'd played my son, because I figured the greatest thing if you're at boarding school must be unexpected mail, and I thought: "I'll put one together for that other bloke," and I'd remembered his name because he'd been very clear when he said it,' he shared.
His note to Henry was the saying: 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,' which Russell interpreted as meaning: 'If you want it, you go and get it.'
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Telegraph
11 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Want a pay rise? Take this French writer's hilarious advice
Georges Perec was attracted by formal challenges to writing: his most famous achievement was his novel La Disparition, written without using the letter 'e' once. (This is particularly hard in French, but the late Gilbert Adair managed to translate it into English, under the title A Void.) There was serious intent behind this; it was an echo of the Nazis' efforts to remove every single Jew from Europe. (In the case of Perec's mother, as well as about six million others, they succeeded.) The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise is much more light-hearted, but is still the result of an act of literary restriction: an attempt to mimic, in prose, the recursive nature of a flow chart. First published in 1968, this delightfully unclassifiable text, now reissued by Verso, is short and exhausting, and features no capital letters, punctuation (apart from dashes), inverted commas or any other of the normal accoutrements of the printed page. In short, it looks like this: it is never very wise to approach a line manager at a time when his gastric functions are likely to overshadow the professional and managerial capacities associated with his hierarchical rank it is far better to go see him in the morning but what the hell he himself told you to come see him at 2.30 pm you have to take life as it comes so now it is 2.30 pm and you go to see mr x … and so on. I could have stopped anywhere. You can either put up with this kind of thing or you can't, but once you slip into its rhythms, it becomes both beguiling and hilarious (although you wouldn't really want it any longer.) For me it recalls Molly Bloom's soliloquy at the end of Ulysses, or some of the madder expressions of Beckett's prose works (and Lucky's speech in Waiting for Godot); or indeed, Don Marquis's Archy and Mehitabel, a similarly unpunctuated and lower-case text. There's something about this style which is particularly suited to the downtrodden, and in my experience there are few more miserable and downtrodden people than office workers. It first appeared in the journal Enseignement programmé, which was devoted to exploring computer programming (in those days, still in its youth); as it happened, Perec's day job was as a lowly information storage and retrieval technician, grade IIIB, which meant, as Bellos notes in his introduction, 'his prospects of getting a raise were quite as dim as those of the narrator of this tale.' And yet there's a kind of insane but helpless cunning behind his efforts: which day would be best to ask? (None of them, of course.) Look at the cafeteria menu, Perec says. Is fish being served? Then be careful, for your line manager may have swallowed a fish bone and be 'in a really awful mood'. Bellos uses the word 'circumperambulate' to describe the futile odyssey you must make around the building to find out where 'he' is; he seems at times as elusive as Godot himself. When he does call you into his office 'abandon all rancour and refrain from observing [that] … he could have bloody well given you an appointment three weeks ago'. You know the protagonist will exhaust all the possibilities of the flow chart and still not get his raise; it would, of course, destroy the comedy if he did. Even in the 1960s, people were becoming uneasy about the prospect of losing their jobs to computers; Perec's own job was one of the more fragile canaries in that particular coalmine. So this book, although describing a world from over half a century ago, still rings true: not only do we have the eternal dehumanised tedium of the office, which has been evoked ever since offices were invented (think of Dickens's worn-out clerks, or Melville's rebellious Bartleby), but the long shadow of the algorithm. 'It would have been nice,' says Bellos wistfully at one point, 'to translate this text without apostrophes either, which are not needed in French, but that might have tried readers' patience a little too much.' He acknowledges that the text is 'quite unreadable in the ordinary way', and you could say that now that I have given you the gist, I have spared you the task of reading the book yourself. But there is something delightful about its intent, a sympathetic humanity which is deliberately at odds with the relentless, machine-like persistence of the prose. It's a text that repays attention, and is timeless.
The Review Geek
19 minutes ago
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Poker Face – Season 2 Episode 9 'A New Lease on Death' Recap & Review
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Maddy accuses Kate of simply being after the rent-controlled apartment. She threatens to tell the authorities if Kate doesn't leave Anne immediately. She allows Kate one day to say goodbye to Anne. They have this argument in the laundry room where Kate notices the washing machine shakes during the spin cycle, enough to drop a can of coke sitting on top of it. The next day, she spills some descaler on the floor below the machine and places a bottle of bleach on top of it. She also messes with the lock on the laundry room door. She then tells Maddy to get her laundry while she 'breaks up' with Anne. Maddy goes down and as the spill cycle hits, the washing machine knocks the bleach to the floor. Mixed with the descaler, it creates a gas that ends up killing Maddy. The Investigation Charlie arrives in New York City, telling her radio friend Good Buddy that she's hoping all the lies will become white noise in the city. He tells her to use his NYC apartment in Brooklyn and she heads to the same building where Anne and Maddy stay. The landlord, Otto, catches her but she claims she's here just to water Good Buddy's cactus plants. She then goes to a nearby store run by a man named Abdul. There, she bumps into Kate, who is trying to scam her way into getting free fruit. Back at the apartment, Charlie is forced to hide from Otto and runs into the laundry room, where she meets Maddy. The laundry door locks them inside and Maddy complains that the landlord never fixes it. She uses her bike tools to break them out. Maddy invites her to watch Jeopardy with her grandmother. The tattooed man from earlier joins them and Charlie learns that he's Ricardo, a librarian who is good at research. Charlie then takes up a remote job as a captcha technician. When she returns to the apartment, she sees the place crawling with firefighters. One of them, a fellow resident in the building named Mickey, tells Charlie about the accident in the laundry room. A woman sitting nearby tells Charlie that the descaler and bleach reacted to produce chlorine gas, which killed Maddy. Charlie goes upstairs to give her condolences and is surprised to see Kate open the door to Anne's house. Kate doesn't let her meet Anne. Charlie then comes across Otto, who insists he had fixed the lock on the door. Charlie knows he's telling the truth and they go to the laundry room where Otto points out the door has a new handle, a different model from the one he'd bought. While cleaning Maddy's things, Kate finds the paper with her real identity on it. She notices Ricardo's name, since he accessed the information, and threatens him to keep quiet. Meanwhile, Charlie tries to find out from Abdul if anyone bought the new door handle. He has face blindness, so it takes a while but Charlie eventually realises it was Kate. Charlie heads back to the building and tries to speak to Ricardo about her suspicions about Kate. Before he can say anything, Kate (who was eavesdropping) pulls the fire alarm which forces them all to leave the building. Afterwards, Kate returns and is happy that the apartment is basically hers now. But her bubble bursts when she sees Otto showing a new tenant around. Anne reveals that she's too upset because of losing Maddy and wants to move out of the apartment. Kate is frustrated and tries to pressure Anne into marrying her immediately. She runs out to get the forms and when she's back, Charlie is waiting with Anne. She's told her everything. Anne asks Charlie to step into another room and confronts Kate. Kate tells Anne it's all a lie and asks her to go get her laundry while she deals with Charlie. After Anne leaves, Kate pushes Charlie off the balcony. But thanks to Charlie's good friend Mickey — who had laid out an inflatable platform to catch her — Charlie's absolutely fine. In fact, Anne has seen the whole thing and her lawyer, who was hiding in the apartment, has recorded Kate's attempted murder. In Charlie's words, she's cooked. Poker Face Season 2 Episode 9 ends with Charlie helping Anne pack up her things as the new tenant makes plans for redoing the apartment. The Episode Review Poker Face Season 2 Episode 9 is a fun ride, even if it is a bit more straightforward than some of Poker Face's other episodes. This one has fewer twists and turns compared to even last week's episode, which offers a solid plot twist and unexpected reveal at the end. And there are a few details, like the woman who gives Charlie a free coffee, that aren't tied up in the larger plot. Awkwafina feels a bit underused as well. It's still quite an enjoyable episode, though, particularly with that New York aesthetic and how Charlie meets a firefighter who wanted to be a tap dancer and a woman who used to be a journalist but now peels potatoes outside the building. It's also nice to see that Charlie and Good Buddy are still in touch, although we could use some more information about him. The humour is pretty on brand as well and that one joke about Vague magazine will stay with me for a while. All in all, another solid Charlie Cale adventure. Previous Episode Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
Telegraph
25 minutes ago
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The 20 best superhero TV shows of all time
Superheroes might have been a screen staple since the 1950s but capes, tights and masks never go out of style. Indeed, a ceaseless production line of Hollywood blockbusters have made them the dominant genre of the early 21st century. Marvel's latest TV effort is Black Panther/Iron Man spin-off Ironheart, following science student Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) as she invents an Iron Man-style armoured suit. But what are the best shows ever to pow, zap and fly into our living rooms? Here's our countdown of the all-time TV top 20. How did we select our 20? As Spider-Man's Uncle Ben always had it, 'with great power there must also come great responsibility' (although, sorry, Spidey, you haven't made our cut). We've looked at the entirety of the superhero genre on TV, determined not to fall into the cliché of just relying on Marvel and DC staples. That means, you'll find some more whimsical family favourites nestling between the stern jaws and pumped pecks of some of our line-up. Heartfelt apologies, however, to SuperTed, the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon (of 'does whatever a spider can,' fame) and the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno The Incredible Hulk series; all of which just fell outside our selection. Turns out there's one super-villain that can't be beaten: The capricious TV critic! 20. He-Man & The Masters of the Universe (CBS/ITV, 1983-1985) 'By the power of Grayskull!' The biggest, daftest cartoon of the Eighties was this fantasy romp based on a Mattel toy range. When helmet-haired, muscle-bound Prince Adam held aloft his sword and uttered the magic words, he transformed into the universe's most powerful human and foiled the evil plans of cackling villain Skeletor. It spawned literal sister series, She-Ra: Princess of Power, plus films, reboots and even more toys. Ker-ching. 19. Moon Knight (Disney+, 2022) If you can overlook leading man Oscar Isaac's creaky Cockney tones, which creep into Dick Van Dyke territory, there is much to enjoy in this tragicomic Marvel miniseries. As a mercenary with dissociative identity disorder, Isaac had a ball giving each alter ego a different personality (and accent) as he unravelled a mystery involving nocturnal warriors and Egyptian gods. Wild, weird and witty. Cor blimey, Mary Poppins. 18. Wonder Woman (ABC/CBS/BBC One, 1975-1979) 'All the world is waiting for you / And the power z you possess / In your satin tights / Fighting for your rights / And the old red, white and blue.' It's since had a Hollywood reboot – hasn't everything? – but the DC Comics adaptation about an Amazonian princess coming to America is a true cult classic. Lynda Carter became a pop culture icon as the feminist heroine, battling crime with her bullet-deflecting bracelets and golden lasso. Huge fun and just camp enough. 17. The Thundermans (Nickelodeon, 2013-2018) This surprisingly sophisticated teen-com followed the titular superpowered family as they attempted to live a normal existence in the fictional city of Hiddenville. While the parents struggled not to use their powers, their wisecracking children enjoyed exploring theirs – or, in the case of son Max, dreamed of becoming an evil supervillain – complete with a sassy talking rabbit. 16. Daredevil (Netflix, 2015-2018) British actor Charlie Cox excelled as blind New York lawyer Matt Murdock, who used his heightened senses to lead a double life as a masked vigilante. His nocturnal crusade set him on a collision course with crime lord Wilson Fisk (a skin-crawlingly creepy Vincent D'Onofrio). The bruising combat scenes, memorably a pulverising corridor fight, were widely acclaimed. It was recently resurrected for Disney+ sequel series Daredevil: Born Again. 15. Preacher (AMC/Amazon Prime Video, 2016-2019) A trio of Britons led this western-style comic book adaptation. Dominic Cooper starred as Texan preacher Jesse Custer, who was infused with a supernatural gift during a crisis of faith. He sets out on a quest to understand his new-found cosmic powers, joined by gun-toting ex-girlfriend Tulip (Ruth Negga) and vagabond Irish vampire Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun). Gleefully gory, it blended horror with humour to hugely entertaining effect. 14. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (CBS/BBC One, 1987-1996) It was conceived as a superhero parody but soon took on a life of its own. Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo – a Renaissance-named quartet of anthropomorphic turtle brothers, trained in ninjutsu (still with us?) – became 'heroes in a half-shell' by fighting evil from the sewers of New York City. The cartoon became a playground phenomenon, birthing a turtle-powered franchise of comics, films, games, toys and even breakfast cereal. Cowabunga indeed. 13. Agent Carter (ABC/Fox UK, 2015-2016) The Marvel universe did period drama – and did it jolly well – in this stylishly rendered series about Captain America's love interest. Our own Hayley Atwell was winningly charismatic as all-action spy Peggy Carter, battling baddies and post-war sexism at the Strategic Scientific Reserve. A perky, pulpy romp with a knowing wink and pleasing Britishisms ('Crikey O'Reilly!' was among her catchphrases). 12. Jessica Jones (Netflix, 2015-2019) The most noirish of the first wave of Marvel series, this brooding, slow-burn thriller followed a traumatised ex-superhero, superbly played by Breaking Bad's Krysten Ritter. Hard-drinking Jessica Jones fought her demons by working as a private eye in Hell's Kitchen. Our sardonic anti-heroine faced off against a worthy foe in David Tennant's monstrous, mind-controlling Kilgrave. 11. Super Gran (ITV, 1985-1987) Is there nothing she cannae do? Like a Beano comic strip come to life, this Tyne Tees caper saw a sweet old lady (Gudrun Ure) acquire superpowers when zapped by a magic ray. As she kept the town of Chisleton safe from villainous Scunner Campbell (Iain Cuthbertson), the series was sold worldwide and won an Emmy. A gallery of guest stars included Billy Connolly, George Best and Barbara Windsor. It just edges out SuperTed, Bananaman and Danger Mouse in our 'quintessentially British children's TV parody' slot. 10. Heroes (NBC/BBC Two, 2006-2010) 'Save the cheerleader, save the world.' Creator Tim Kring's pre-Marvel, post-Lost fantasy yarn was impossibly exciting when it first touched down on our screens. As a seemingly ordinary group of civilians slowly became aware of their special abilities, it delivered globe-straddling, comic book-style thrills. Later series got too wrapped up in mystical mumbo-jumbo and its own mythology but for a while back there, Heroes was ambitious, blockbuster television. 9. The Penguin (HBO/Sky Atlantic, 2024-present) Arguably this dark psycho-drama doesn't quite qualify because its anti-hero is technically a baddie. But the show's sheer quality means we've turned a blind eye. A Sopranos-esque mob saga stars Colin Farrell, near-unrecognisable under heavy prosthetics, as disfigured gangster Oz Cobb on his rise through Gotham City's criminal underworld. Fox drama Gotham – another Batman prequel, this time starring Ben McKenzie as a young Chief Gordon – isn't half bad either. 8. Misfits (E4, 2009-2013) This very British riff on the genre began with a group of gobby young offenders doing community service. When stuck outdoors during a strange electrical storm, they acquired a supernatural power apiece. Think X-Men with an Asbo. Howard Overman's scripts fizzed with street humour, while the bright young cast – Iwan Rheon, Antonia Thomas, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Lauren Socha and scene-stealer Robert Sheehan – would go on to bigger things. 7. WandaVision (Disney+, 2021) Marvel's first Disney+ series was unexpectedly eccentric and an utter delight. Witchy Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and android Vision (Paul Bettany) were the Avengers-turned-homemakers, trying to conceal their true natures while living in a sitcom-style suburban idyll. Each episode paid loving homage to TV history, slowly peeling back the couple's domestic bliss to expose the darker truths beneath. A love story wrapped in a David Lynchian mystery, this was a thoughtful exploration of grief and nostalgia. 6. Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (ABC/BBC One, 1993-1997) This sparky screwball-style spin on the Man of Steel made stars out of Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher, who were hugely charming as Daily Planet colleagues Clark Kent and Lois Lane. The pair's will-they-or-won't-they romance provided the backdrop to Clark secretly donning the costume to fight for justice. Airing at Saturday teatimes in the pre-Strictly era, it united the generations. As Superman TV series go, it eclipses teen prequel Smallville, which ran for a few series too long and lost its way. 5. Watchmen (HBO/Sky Atlantic, 2019) Alan Moore's graphic novel masterpiece is traditionally described as 'unfilmable', so Lost creator Damon Lindelof called his miniseries a 'remix'. Smart, cinematic and endlessly surprising, his wild reimagining dropped the masked vigilantes into present-day Oklahoma. A cast led by Regina King, Don Johnson and Jeremy Irons served up a boiling brew of racial tension and dystopian chaos. Defying expectations of a comic book adaptation, this was bold, bravura TV. 4. Supacell (Netflix, 2024-present) The newest UK entry on our list transcended superhero tropes to become something truly ingenious. Created by musician and director Rapman, the distinctive drama saw five South Londoners suddenly develop supernatural abilities. Their contrasting reactions to their newfound powers were compelling. Raising awareness of sickle cell disease while acting as a metaphor for black Britishness, this was supa-smart social commentary. 3. The Boys (Amazon Prime Video, 2019-present) Incongruously, one of Amazon's biggest hits is this near-the-knuckle, anti-capitalist twist on the familiar superhero formula. A welcome antidote to dark origin stories and cinematic pomposity, The Boys is like Marvel's lippy teenage brother, with a taste for ultra-violence and transgressive sex scenes. Pitting the commercialised 'Supes' against a band of black ops vigilantes, it's a nihilistic satire with plenty to say about institutional corruption and corporate America. And it usually says it in luridly vulgar language. In Antony Starr's sociopathic Homelander, it also boasts one of the best villains on TV. 2. Legion (FX/Fox UK, 2017-2019) Writer Noah Hawley, who masterminded the award-winning Fargo anthology and the upcoming Alien: Earth, is one of the most boundary-busting showrunners on TV. His 'anti-Marvel Marvel series' was built around a stunning star turn from Downton Abbey alumnus Dan Stevens as the schizophrenic son of X-Men leader Charles Xavier. Imprisoned in a psychiatric facility, he tried to control his mutant powers and fight the sinister forces who wished to harness them. Dramatising the inner workings of the human mind, it was visually dazzling and utterly unique. 1. Batman (ABC/ITV, 1966-1968) Holy top spot, Batman! Nowadays the Caped Crusader is a brooding, traumatised creature of the night. Once upon a time, he was actually fun. Starring Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as sidekick Robin, this swinging Sixties crime caper followed the Dynamic Duo as they defended Gotham City from a rogue's gallery of camp supervillains. With hammy performances, tongue-in-cheek humour, a killer theme song and shameless cliffhangers, it gleefully embraced its comic book origins, coming to define the genre for the next three decades. Its only rival in the TV Batverse is Nineties modernisation, Batman: The Animated Series. Ker-pow!
