Latest news with #OnChesilBeach
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Simply unworkable': British film industry leaders aghast at Trump's movie tariffs
Leading figures in the British film industry have reacted with a mixture of wariness and bemusement at the prospect of tariffs announced by Donald Trump on movies produced in 'foreign lands'. Rebecca O'Brien, producer of a string of films by Ken Loach including Palme d'Or winners The Wind That Shakes the Barley and I, Daniel Blake says that tariffs appear 'simply unworkable given how intertwined and global the film industry is'. 'I can see that Trump watches Hollywood collapsing and losing its jobs to the rest of the world but that's because it's a very expensive place to make films.' O'Brien added: 'No doubt it'll take a while for the dust to settle, deals to be made and something or nothing to come out of this. What's for certain, though, is there will be a pause in the industry while everyone runs around working out what to do. The fragile film economy definitely doesn't need that.' Stephen Woolley, producer of Carol and On Chesil Beach, called Trump's plans 'ludicrous' and said: 'I am sure no one has thought this through and in a world of international co-productions its nigh impossible to regulate. One thing is for certain: those enemies of the state like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Tom Cruise who are presenting a National Security threat by insisting on shooting their films in Europe have been warned!' Woolley added: 'The insidious message behind this is that Trump's brains trust could make it really difficult for the already beleaguered independent film industry, in the US and globally, to continue making original and innovative films, especially with a propaganda watchdog on their backs. That is the dark message of his statement.' Colin Vaines, producer of Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool and Coriolanus, said that while it was 'very unclear exactly what President Trump is intending', it appeared 'that his main aim appears to be to return more production to the US, but of course there are many other proposals which might help achieve that to some degree, including incentives like major film tax credits.' Related: Trump's talk of film tariffs makes no sense, but it's already doing damage – to Hollywood | Peter Bradshaw Trump's movie tariff announcement came a day after a meeting with actor Jon Voight, one of Trump's so-called 'Hollywood ambassadors', who had proposed 'limited tariffs' as part of a wide-ranging plan to boost US film production. The Queen director Stephen Frears had some sympathy for Voight, saying: 'Trump is as usual hopeless at everything. I feel sorry for poor Jon Voight who, I imagine, made perfectly sensible suggestions. Subsidies, support etc. Trump failed to understand and bolloxed it all up. What a halfwit! Still, nobody got killed.' Mike Figgis, director of the Oscar-winning Leaving Las Vegas said: 'Like a lot of the Trump stuff it makes a good headline. I don't think it will help Hollywood particularly as so much of the productions go to Atlanta now. The more interesting question would be, why are they continuing to make so many bad films at insanely inflated budgets which force them to go shopping overseas?' Mark Cousins, director of A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things, said: 'Film history is full of countries tipping the lever in favour of their own film industries. What's new in Trump's sudden announcement is the unreason, bellicosity and instinctive xenophobia.' The UK appears to be particularly vulnerable to any attempt by the US president to prevent US studios shooting overseas, with suggestions that tariffs could 'wipe out the British film industry'. Figures show that non-British film and TV projects brought in £4.8bn, or 86% of production money spent in the UK, with the recent boom of studio construction – already in trouble – further threatened if productions dry up. Actor Brian Cox described the prospect of tariffs as a 'disaster', adding '[Trump is] not really understanding the point of view of how films are made, and what films cost, [how] the cost of films [has] gone up and the cost of films in America went up considerably … It's a kind of nonsense and a divine ignorance on all their parts.' With political figures such as California state governor Gavin Newsom pushing for a federal tax credit scheme, Jezz Vernon, producer and senior lecturer in film at the University of Exeter, says this could provide a viable alternative. 'If Trump were to authorise and fund bigger regional tax credits in the US in tandem with state governors then we would see a big production shift back to the US. Just last week we saw Netflix move 3 Body Problem from the UK to Hungary to use their tax credit rebate which is higher than the UK.' Vernon also pointed out that reciprocal tariffs would cause major problems: 'It would instantly damage the global economy of Hollywood studios and the streamers – they rely on the economy of scale from worldwide subscribers and audiences to fund and monetise their productions. Instead of aiding Hollywood, the tariffs would immediately damage the central economic model that sustains them.' The British actors' union Equity criticised the 'fragility' of the film and TV industry, with Equity general secretary Paul W Fleming saying: 'A lot of the panic over the past 24 hours is due to the fragility in the system. This can be addressed positively through properly funding our public service broadcasters and ensuring an attractive and fair tax and investment environment for studios and production.' Related: Trump's movie tariffs are designed to destroy the international film industry Fleming added: 'America's objective is to generate more productions and more jobs in film. Is that going to be achieved by stopping filming Barbie, which was filmed here on British union agreements, or Wicked or Mission: Impossible? Clearly not. The industry tends to feed itself, so an upturn in American production is a good thing for the UK.' Since making his bombshell announcement, Trump has appeared to row back on his comments, saying he was 'not looking to hurt the industry' and planned to meet with Hollywood leaders.
The Guardian
12-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Toby Jones's next campaign? Misinformation, and a huge immersive theatre show
Hidden from view inside a south London warehouse, a new underground movement will be fighting the international blight of misinformation this summer. The huge immersive event – half theatrical show, half social campaign – is to involve some of Britain's leading acting talent, including Toby Jones and Meera Syal, and has been put together by a theatre company led by a woman who learned about misinformation the hard way, at the Georgian television station Imedi. Liana Patarkatsishvili, the founder of Sage & Jester productions, still recalls the moment when the independent newsroom was taken over on the orders of the government of Mikheil Saakashvili. Her experiences have influenced her work on the new show, which is due to take place over 9,000 sq metres in an empty building in Deptford. 'I still remember those days clearly,' she told the Observer. 'Before the 2007 crackdown in Georgia, independent media faced significant challenges and mounting pressure.' The debut show, called Storehouse, is due to run from 4 June until 20 September. The story will take place in a fictional storage facility, where humanity's history has been archived since 1983, the dawn of the internet. In this arena, a 'battle between truth and order' will be waged, 'as the powerful manipulate the truth to their own ends and critical thinking is the only effective weapon'. Syal, who will voice Dolly K Guha, one of the imagined radical founders of the movement, said: 'I'm thrilled to be part of Storehouse. It is an ambitious immersive production that tackles a critical issue.' The three other founders are played by Jones, whose performances as postmaster Alan Bates in the ITV drama about the Post Office scandal won widespread acclaim, the renowned actor Kathryn Hunter, recently seen in Netflix's Black Doves and in the film Poor Things, and by rising star Billy Howle from the film On Chesil Beach. They will guide visitors through the warehouse and through a cast of live actors. Sign up to The Guide Get our weekly pop culture email, free in your inbox every Friday after newsletter promotion Patarkatsishvili is keen to show that misinformation is not just the spreading of deliberate falsehoods. 'It's also about creating uncertainty and eroding trust,' she said. 'This tactic has been used globally, from casting doubt in the media to flooding the public with conflicting narratives. In today's attention economy, news has been commodified, becoming a product that needs to be 'sold'. It becomes paramount to be able to discern 'sellable information' and false narratives from facts and being properly factually informed.' The show will run in tandem with a series of public debates, or critical conversations, that are being held through the summer on the other side of London at the Pleasance theatre. The sessions, staged in collaboration with Intelligence Squared, will be compered by the journalist Sophia Smith Galer. The discussions are intended to help inform or 'inoculate' the audience against misinformation by showing them how it can work. 'We want to empower individuals by better understanding the powers at play. A key point for us is to give people a sense of agency, as this topic can make us feel apathetic and disempowered, which ultimately feeds the problem,' said Patarkatsishvili, whose late father, known as Badri, founded the Imedi radio station and television station in Georgia. Debate, she argues, might be a more conventional way to develop critical thinking skills, but theatre can be more effective. 'In its own way, this is what Storehouse aims to do; immerse audiences in a world where they decide what's true,' she said. 'The art of storytelling creates empathy and understanding in ways that facts alone cannot. When audiences step inside, they're not just watching a story – they're living it. They're forced to grapple with difficult questions about truth, power, and their own complicity in shaping narratives. Entertainment has always been a powerful tool because it humanises abstract issues and makes them personal.' Patarkatsishvili's hope is that Storehouse will be 'more than a show – it's a call to action'. 'It asks audiences to reflect on their role in today's information ecosystem, and challenges them to take responsibility for the stories they believe and share.'
Gulf Today
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Off the page
For Hollywood, books can be one the best places to find inspiration for a new film. However, the written word does not always get translated onto the big screen so nicely. This week we are taking a look at some of those book-to-movie adaptations that did not quite go to plan leaving audiences disappointed. The novel 'On Chesil Beach' was written by British writer Ian McEwan back in 2007. The book did very well and was even chosen for the 2007 Booker Prize shortlist. In 2017, director Dominic Cooke decided to bring the love story to life on the big screen with actors Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle. The film was heavily criticised even down to the actors make-up. Writer Louis de Bernières's novel 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' was a big literary success in the 90s. In 2001 the film version was made with director John Madden at the helm. Even the casting of two of the biggest actors of the time, Nicholos Cage and Penélope Cruz, couldn't save it. Critics went to town on the film claiming it had lost all traces of the novel's heart and soul with the lead actors lacking chemistry. In other news this week, turn to our Fitness pages to read about how to up your walking game to get fitter faster. According to an exercise scientist, the popular goal of hitting 10,000 steps a day is more effective if we increase our walking speed. Apparently walking with more enthusiasm has huge benefits on our blood glucose and blood sugar.
The Guardian
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Ian McEwan novel What We Can Know to be published this year
A new novel by Ian McEwan, which is set nearly a century in the future in a UK partly submerged by rising seas, will come out later this year. What We Can Know is 'science fiction without the science', said McEwan. 'My ambition in this novel was to let the past, present and future address each other across the barriers of time.' The novel is a 'deeply humane' work that 'defies categorisation' according to its publisher Jonathan Cape, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Set in 2119, the novel imagines a Britain that has become an archipelago, after the country's lowlands were submerged by rising tides. It follows Tom Metcalfe, an academic at the fictional University of the South Downs. Searching in the archives, Tom comes across a clue that may lead to a lost poem, read aloud in 2014 and never heard again. His find reveals a story of entangled loves and a crime that destroys his assumptions about people he thought he knew well. 'This is a novel about history, and what we can know of it, and of each other,' said McEwan. 'We live our lives between the dead and the yet to be born. Of the dead we know a little, but not as much as we think. About the present, we disagree fiercely. People of the future are beyond our reckoning, but we're troubled by what we'll bequeath them. As they look back at us, what will our descendants think, when they contemplate the diminished world we left them? They might envy us.' 'To catch at these thoughts, I've written a novel about a quest, a crime, revenge, fame, a tangled love affair, mental illness, love of nature and poetry, and how, through all natural and self-inflicted catastrophes, we have the knack of surviving somehow,' he added. McEwan has published 17 novels including Atonement, Enduring Love, On Chesil Beach and, most recently, Lessons, described as 'compassionate and gentle' and 'a tale of humane grace' by Beejay Silcox in the Guardian. In 1998, McEwan won the Booker prize with his novel Amsterdam. He is also the author of two short story collections, First Love, Last Rites, which won the Somerset Maugham award, and In Between the Sheets. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion What We Can Know by Ian McEwan is published by Jonathan Cape (£22) on 18 September. To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at for £19.80. Delivery charges may apply.
