Latest news with #StephenFrears
NDTV
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- NDTV
William Dalrymple's The Anarchy Series Adaptation To Be Backed By Roy Kapur Films
New Delhi: Siddharth Roy Kapur's Production house Roy Kapur Films has backed some of the biggest commercial blockbusters such as Dangal and Chennai Express, and critically acclaimed films like Kai Po Che, Barfi!, and Haider, to name a few. Expanding his role as a global storyteller, Siddharth Roy Kapur has now received the rights for the series adaptation of acclaimed author Willaim Dalrymple's book The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company. British filmmaker Stephen Frears has been onboarded to direct this ambitious project. For the unversed, Stephen Frears is known for his stellar work in The Queen, Dangerous Liaisons, Philomena, Victoria and Abdul, My Beautiful Laundrette, The Grifters, High Fidelity, The Regime and A Very English Scandal. The series is being mounted as an international co-production between US-based studio wiip and Roy Kapur Films. Set against the backdrop of the 18th century, the story of The Anarchy is extremely relevant today, in a world where corporate giants possess the undeterred power to shape the destinies of entire nations. The plot explores the British East India Company's commercial ambitions in India, which concluded in taking over an entire subcontinent. The rights acquisition of William Dalrymple's bestselling book was believed to have been amongst the most sought-after book-to-TV rights deals in India. Roy Kapur Films has finally bagged it and the show is touted to be produced on a massive scale. The Anarchy will be shot across the UK and Asia. Stephen Frears reacted to the development, as he said, "This is the most contemporary of themes, a ruthless businessman and his corporation seizing power, a group of oligarchs taking over a chunk of the world, asset-stripping, looting, manipulating the stock market, destroying whole economies for their profit. The East India Company stealing India in the 18th Century." Siddharth Roy Kapur, expressing his delight, added, "Stephen's range as a filmmaker is simply unmatched. He has directed some of the most beloved films of the last four decades, including some of my personal favourites, and to have him come on board to helm this project is an absolute dream come true. Collaborating with our production partners at wiip has been an incredibly enriching experience. This is a story that demanded scale, depth, and ambition, and I am proud that we have brought an extraordinary team together to bring it to life for a global audience." Dalrymple's book was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and named one of Barack Obama's top 10 books of the year. The upcoming series adaptation is a bold step in the world of entertainment, and worth looking forward to.
Time of India
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Roy Kapur Films and WIIP collaborate to adapt historian William Dalrymple's book
In a first for a big-scale collaboration, global independent studio WIIP (known for producing well-received web series Mare of Easttown) and Indian production house Roy Kapur Films will be creating a web series adaption of writer-historian William Dalrymple 's critically-acclaimed and bestseller book The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company . The web series will be produced across the UK and Asia. According to a source, it is estimated that the first season of the web series will cost $100 million, almost similar to the scale of critically-acclaimed big-scale web series such as The Crown and Game of Thrones. The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company tells the story of how the East India Company based in a small London office took over the entire Indian sub-continent which constituted more than one-fourth of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at the time. The web series will be directed by legendary British director Stephen Frears known for films such as My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), and Dangerous Liaisons (1988) "This is the most contemporary of themes: A ruthless businessman and his corporation seizing power, a group of oligarchs taking over a chunk of the world, asset-stripping, looting, manipulating the stock market, destroying whole economies for their profit. The East India Company stealing India in the 18th century, " said director Stephen Frears. This will be the first big-scale collaboration of Indian production with an international production house in creating a web series adaptation. The funding of the series is likely to be done by a global streaming platform. "Stephen's range as a filmmaker is simply unmatched. He has directed some of the most beloved films of the last four decades. To have him come on board to helm this project is an absolute dream come true, " said producer Siddharth Roy Kapur, founder of Roy Kapur Films. "Collaborating with our production partners at WIIP has been an incredibly enriching experience. This is a story that demanded scale, depth, and ambition, and I am proud that we have brought an extraordinary team together to bring it to life for a global audience, ' he added.
The Guardian
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The week in theatre: Alterations; A Knock on the Roof review
Let's hear it for costume designers. The temptation for a reviewer has always been to regard their work as primarily decorative, not informative; seldom mentioned unless the stage is crammed with silken flounces. An old journalist friend told me that in the 50s, Queen magazine reviews had a formula: the cast was 'beautifully gowned'. Imagine getting away with a description of an actor which said only that she spoke very nicely. Yet costumes can tell the story of a play as surely as the dialogue. Never more so than in Alterations, the 1978 play by Michael Abbensetts, who came to Britain from Guyana in 1963, had his first play directed at the Royal Court by Stephen Frears, and was the first black British author commissioned to write a TV drama series in the UK: Empire Road ran on BBC Two from 1978 to 1979. There are numerous alterations in Abbensetts' drama, which has been retrieved from the Black Plays Archive. A tailor whose parents came to London from Guyana is trying to alter his prospects and buy a shop in Carnaby Street. To do so – the task has a fairytale dimension – he has to alter a huge batch of trousers overnight. Meanwhile, British society is creakingly, grudgingly altering: kids are called 'darkie' at school. Frankie Bradshaw designs set and costumes for Lynette Linton's production: the two worked together to glorious effect in Blues for an Alabama Sky three years ago. Bradshaw wires you into the heart of the action. The 70s are summoned in an orange onesie for a determined woman, a rose-tinted velvet suit with wide brown reveres for her raffish admirer, a trilby for the man who has commissioned the trouser tucking. Dreamlike, the past drifts on in the form of a stately, straw-hatted Windrush matriarch; the future in the shape of a young black man in tracksuit and earphones. Garments become scenery as clothes rails crowded with shirts swish down from on high, but this decor is never only naturalistic: amid the clutter of Singer sewing machines, tape measures and bolts of cloth, the shirts arrive like lovely promises, but also, being bodyless, like wraiths. Which goes to one of Abbensetts's central, simple points: financial success may come at the expense of human warmth. Arinzé Kene, the tailor who gets his shop but loses his marriage, is vivacious, hustling and bustling across the stage, but the strongest performance is from Cherrelle Skeete – soaked in sadness, growing into resolve – as the capable wife who, having been strung along and patronised, claims her independence. Her part is bolstered by additional script from Trish Cooke that points up the casual disregard of women's viewpoints: a man ringing the hospital to ask if his wife has given birth is bemused by her inability to get a move on. Genial, larky, with small touches of melancholy, Alterations is more atmospheric than incisive. In June, Linton will direct another drama about a person of colour whose profession is clothes. Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel, about a black seamstress who makes knickers in 1905, is delicate and far-reaching. It was a revelation to me 11 years ago and I am agog. The title of Khawla Ibraheem's one-person show is itself a piece of information. What sounds like a small incident – perhaps a spooky occurrence in an attic – is a blood-freezing indicator of a large terror. Ibraheem's roof is in Gaza, and the knock is a minor explosion, the warning that the Israeli military give to residents that a bombing will take place in five to 15 minutes. A Knock on the Roof is in some ways very particular. How often do bombers exercise that terrible parodic courtesy of the tipoff? The setting is precise: the evening begins with the speaker's young son begging to go to the beach – not part of Trumpian real estate but a public playground, washed by a dirty ocean. The life of an individual city is evoked: one whose streets are suffused by the smell of baking a special pastry – one that is brilliant at producing constipation. Yet the psychological study that drives Oliver Butler's production – a study of what happens to humans if they are always afraid – could be the product of any war, of anyone under siege. Ibraheem rehearses what she will do when she hears that knock, going through the procedure much as people did years ago when told they might receive a four-minute warning of nuclear attack. She practises what she will pack and what she can carry. She turns to her audience for advice: someone suggests taking a cardigan, another a passport, a third perfume. She makes up a bundle the weight of her son to see how much she can hold as well as him. She cleans the house obsessively; she worries what will happen if her elderly mother is on the toilet when the knock comes. And she runs: into the evening through the city, seeing how far she can get in 10 minutes. A desolate, haunting backdrop designed by Frank J Oliva shows a skeleton apartment block with dislocated beams swinging from various ceilings. Ibraheem talks of the sensation of being looted. It goes beyond the physical. This is the portrait of a ransacked mind. Star ratings (out of five) Alterations ★★★ A Knock on the Roof ★★★ Alterations is at the Lyttelton, National Theatre, London, until 5 April
BBC News
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Harwich's Electric Palace cinema visited by Sir Stephen Frears
An award-winning film director has visited one of the UK's oldest cinemas as part of the venue's ongoing fundraising Stephen Frears attended a screening of his film Dangerous Liaisons at the Electric Palace cinema in Harwich on Thursday, followed by a question and answer session with the said the independent Essex venue, which opened in 1911, was "absolutely stunning" and urged local film lovers to support cinema is trying to raise £50,000 for a new projector, and a further £25,000 for other improvements to the Grade II* listed building. "I can see that staying at home and seeing films on the telly is less effort, but I only see films in cinemas," said Sir Stephen, whose CV includes the films The Queen and Philomena."I love going to the cinema and I'm completely committed to it."Particularly nowadays with everything being so corporate… [the Electric Palace] is really important. This is so modest and heroic." Cinema chairman Deb Perkins said she was delighted to welcome Sir Stephen to the said its single screen would be replaced in March thanks to sponsorship from the Harwich Haven Perkins hopes further fundraising will future-proof the cinema so it can be enjoyed by the next generation of film lovers. The history Travelling showman Charles Thurston first opened the Electric Palace in 45 years later, Mr Thurston, who also owned three cinemas in nearby Dovercourt which have since closed, decided to shut up shop in Harwich. The building had been owned by the town council, which according to former chairman David Looser, wanted to demolish the building in the 1970s to make way for a car keen to save the historical cinema, retired architect Andrew Carden and GP Chris Strachan leased the building for three years and eventually bought the freehold after restoring it to its former Electric Palace reopened under the pair's leadership in 1981. In 2018, the cinema closed temporarily for repairs to its ceiling at a cost of £ having survived two world wars and a global pandemic, it is owned by the Harwich Electric Palace Trust and is run mostly by Looser, now the cinema's technical manager, first got involved in the venue in 1975."I was single at the time, had time on my hands, and it looked like a fun thing to get involved in," he said."I love the place and it's such a big part of my life." Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
