Latest news with #BlueHarbor
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Étoile' Star Gideon Glick Launches LGBTQ+ Not-for-Profit Theater Initiative Blue Roses Project With Jonathan Groff Joining Board of Directors (EXCLUSIVE)
'Étoile' star Gideon Glick and producer-director James Will McBride are launching the Blue Roses Project, a not-for-profit theater initiative featuring Tony award-winning Jonathan Groff ('Merrily We Roll Along') on the board of directors, Variety can exclusively reveal. The Blue Roses Project aims to connect local New Orleans artists with theater professionals across the U.S., providing a rare opportunity for queer playwrights to create authentic, contemporary plays. More from Variety 'Just in Time' Review: Jonathan Groff Plays Bobby Darin in a Lackluster Bio-Jukebox on Broadway Nicole Scherzinger and Jonathan Groff Bond Over NSFW Banter, Performing Sick on Broadway and 'Patti F--ing LuPone' Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff Rom-Com 'A Nice Indian Boy' Gets Theatrical Release by Blue Harbor (EXCLUSIVE) 'Blue Roses Project is vital because it provides a safe, affirming space for LGBTQ+ voices to create, explore, and share stories at a time when queer narratives are increasingly under threat,' Blue Roses Project founder Glick said in a statement. 'By uplifting underrepresented voices, Blue Roses Project fosters empathy, builds community, and ensures that queer stories remain visible and celebrated.' In addition to Groff's involvement, the board of directors includes Tony award-winning actress Celia Keenan-Bolger, 'Dear White People' co-showrunner and writer Jaclyn Moore, 'A Strange Loop' producer Dale A. Mott, Apollo Theater director Kelley Nicole Girod, Broadway publicist Shane Marshall Brown and Not-For-Profit CEO and consultant David Emond. In a statement, Groff said: 'I'm honored to be a part of a project so dedicated to fulfilling a crucial need in our theatre community. Blue Roses Project provides resources so playwrights' imaginations can flourish in a place with a rich cultural legacy.' The initiative comes at a time of critical need with post-COVID budget crises and hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills being introduced across the country. Over the next year, the Blue Roses Project aims to host a 29-hour workshop, create relationships with local and nationally-renowned actors and collaborate with LGBTQ+ organizations in New Orleans. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ami Canaan Mann on Directing Natalie Dormer as a Heroic Real-Life Doctor in ‘Audrey's Children' and What She Learned Watching Her Dad Direct ‘Heat'
'Audrey's Children' — in theaters Friday via Blue Harbor Entertainment — tells the true story of pediatric oncologist Dr. Audrey Evans (Natalie Dormer), who upended medicine with a new treatment of Neuroblastoma, an often-deadly childhood nerve cancer, all while standing up for herself in her field and caring for her young patients. With a script from Julia Fisher Farbman, the film is directed by Ami Canaan Mann, whose storytelling extends to many different genres in both features (the romantic drama 'Jackie & Ryan,' the crime story 'Texas Killing Fields') and television ('The Blacklist,' 'Power,' 'House of Cards'). Mann opens up about the documentary that influenced her style on 'Audrey's Children,' the role that inspired her to work with Dormer and what she learned working on the set of 'Heat' with her father, Michael Mann. I was sent the script, and there's a scene where the main character, Dr. Audrey Evans, is talking to one of her patients, a child at the hospital, and she's trying to help this child understand their own mortality as a mode of preparation. I thought to myself when I read that scene, 'My God, no adult wants to be in that position with a child, particularly a child whose life you're trying to save, and you're aware that you may fail.' I just thought it was such an egoless thing to do, and she did that as a pediatric physician daily, for decades. To me, that's real heroism and somebody whose story I would like to tell. More from Variety Blue Harbor Acquires U.S. Distribution Rights to Historical Biopic 'Audrey's Children' (EXCLUSIVE) Natalie Dormer, Assaad Bouab to Star in Celyn Jones Thriller Series 'Minotaur' (EXCLUSIVE) 'The Wasp' Review: Naomie Harris and Natalie Dormer Play Old Friends With Fresh Grievances I heard an interview with Peter Weir, who is a hero of mine, and he was talking about casting, and he was talking about how the idea is to discern the spirit of the character that you need in order to pull the narrative forward. Casting is really trying to figure out which actor can embody that and already has that spirit. Meryl Streep can do absolutely everything, and every one of her characters has an essential Meryl that she carries with her. For Audrey, I knew we needed somebody who had an emotional and intellectual passion and fire. At the same time … it sounds counterintuitive, but her spirit could also hold incredible softness and empathy with children. I saw the remake of 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' and there's a shot of Natalie and she has this power in her shoulders, and at another moment she turned very slowly to the camera. I was like, 'Oh, that's her.' Weirdly, my biggest reference might be Barbara Kopple's 'Harlan County, USA,' in the gritty realism, the textural symphony that she has in that film. It's a documentary, but it's a deep dive into a very specific world with incredibly human characters and a humane ethos towards the narrative overall. That's really what I was trying to go for in terms of the visual lexicon of this movie, that it was a textural world that felt like a real world. If it felt visually consistent because of the subject matter, it would be easy to go in a way that was a little bit too soft. If you can make the world visually consistent and compelling, perhaps the audience would want to stay with you through that hour and a half. That was the puzzle. That was the directorial challenge. Part of that was the visual language of film, making it seductive so that you wanted to be there. All of that was informed by it essentially being a character study. The criteria was anything that happened visually in terms of shot design, performance — I'm a pretty camera-heavy director because I come from a photography background — so all the composition, everything was coming from an awareness of the character herself, who just happened to be a woman who was pediatric oncologist, who happened to work with kids who had cancer. It was a story about a woman, a brilliant thinker, and watching how she moves in a flawed, and sometimes not flawed, way. It wasn't so much words of advice, because my dad and I just talk about dad-kid stuff. We actually don't talk about films a whole lot, and I knew I wanted to work with him on one movie from the beginning to the end. The timing worked out so that it happened to be 'Heat.' I didn't actually work for him, I worked for the line producer as an assistant. He had another assistant who did assistant-y stuff, so I was sort of the, 'Ami, go figure out the gyroscopic helicopter mount, now go figure out the infrared, coordinate with people in Folsom Prison so we can send Bob and Val to go there to interview inmates.' I eventually directed second unit. What that did, though, was allow a distance from the show, from the directorial heart of it, but just close enough to see everything. Watching an A director move from beginning to end through an entire project, and watching that project evolve and watch his approach to it evolve … not so close that I wasn't seeing everything I could see, but not so far away that I couldn't watch that trajectory. Watch the trailer for 'Audrey's Children' below. 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