Latest news with #ThereWillBeBlood
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
West End cinema listed as asset of community value
One of London's most famous independent cinemas has been listed as an asset of community value (ACV). The Prince Charles Cinema, in Leicester Square, announced the news that Westminster City Council had bestowed the title months after it revealed concerns about its future as a result of its landlord seeking to impose new terms. The cinema's current lease is due to expire in September and the building's owner wants to raise the rent. The listing provides the local community with the right to try to raise funds and bid for the building first if it is put up for sale. The cinema described the recognition as "a huge honour", but added "the fight continues to secure a long term lease". If a building is listed as an ACV, its owner must notify the council if it is put up for sale. A six-month moratorium on the sale can then be invoked by the local community to give them the chance to raise finance and make a bid to buy it on the open market. However, it does not require a landowner to sell their property to a community group and does not mean a landowner has to continue any existing lease. In a statement about the listing, the cinema said: "Though this recognition is a huge honour, the fight continues to secure a long term lease that will enable us to invest in our future development and continue to bring the best of what we do to Leicester Place. "We believe that any truly great venue is built on the shoulders of those who work within and those who support it – and we couldn't have asked for a more passionate and vocal level of support from the many thousands of you who signed the petition, bought tickets, became members or simply just kept coming through our doors. "Thank you to every one of you who took a moment to support our cause." Beloved West End cinema fighting for its future London cinema drops AI-written film after backlash More than 160,000 people have signed a petition to save the venue. Paul Thomas Anderson, the director of Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood and Inherent Vice, has previously spoken up for the Leicester Square cinema, which he described as "like tuning into your favourite radio station". Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs director Quentin Tarantino said it was "everything an independent movie theatre should be", adding that "for lovers of quality films, this is Mecca". The venue, one of the last remaining independent cinemas in central London, has accused the landlord, Zedwell LSQ, of trying to "bully" the business out of the building. Criterion Capital, Zedwell LSQ's parent company, said the terms of a new lease were standard practice and not unreasonable. Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to Westminster City Council Westminster City Council guidance on assets of community value
Economic Times
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Economic Times
Things film school never told me about making a movie
Live Events It was in 2022 that Bugs Bhargava Krishna suggested we convert my play, Pune Highway , into a movie. 'It's cinematic. The time is right. Audiences are hankering for good stories, and OTT is here to stay,' he said, adding, 'But can you raise the dosh? It will then truly be an independent film . We make the movie on our terms - no interference, no committees, and we take as long as we want.'I sold my mother's jewellery, comprising one ring and a necklace. 'You have the money, Rahul?' my father asked, through steely eyes. 'I'm not lending you moolah for a film about three buddies. If you add some dames, you can break one of my FDs.' Fair enough.'Any item numbers?' I shook my head vociferously. 'So, it's an 'inty' film?' - his abbreviation for 'intellectual' meets 'intense'. 'What's the film about?' he asked.'Pune Highway is a crime thriller , a buddy mystery... a whodunnit that morphs into a whydunit.''Stop quizzing him, Sylvie,' my mom said. 'We have an early Jehangir Sabavala bought for ₹740 in 1950. It'll be worth significantly more now.'Bugs and I sallied forth towards the windmills. I was armed with Syd Field knowledge, lots of advice from 'legends', and even a course at FTII. Bugs is three films old. We were ready, and everything made sense. day we began one told me that an 8 am-8 pm outdoor shooting shift in December isn't 12 hours. A late sunrise means you begin shooting at 10 am, and an early sunset means pack-up is at 6 one told me that, as you're fighting to finish the day's work, the sun is setting. But at that moment: a plane flies overhead; the camera's memory card is full; an actor asks you a question; the sun disappears, and you don't have all the shots you one told me you can spend two days capturing a sequence on camera, only to ruthlessly chop it out of the film during editing. 'We wear one hat while we shoot, and another when we edit,' Bugs told film institute warns you that the process of making a movie can take 21/2 years, from screenplay to show timings, from page to one ever told me that your independent film is up against the tsunami called 'distraction'. The same weekend you plan to launch in cinemas, you might come up against an SRK starrer, a Southern remake, or a horror comedy... or a war thingie going on trailer may be trippy. But will the audiences come? All the rules I've learnt in advertising hold me in good stead. You've got to somehow cut through the clutter. 'Why should I watch your film?' 'Does it have songs?' 'Does it have stars?' I am asked. What I do know is: it's a captivating no one told me is there's an insidious component called P&A. I thought I was done paying once the film was ready. No such luck. Paul Anderson, director of Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood, once famously said, 'Only 40% of filmmaking is the actual film.'And no one warned me that it comes down to one Friday, your release Friday. No one ever warned me that tickets go up for sale 48 hours where will we be next weekend? Bugs and I will be running all over town, catching shows at Metro in Malad, maybe hopping across the highway to Pune to sit among cinema-goers to get a genuine feel: Are they laughing? Are they on the edge of their seats? Are they busy trying to guess the killer? No one warned me that 10 days from release, India would bomb terrorist camps in on that critical Saturday, on May 17, while hopefully hordes will throng to cinemas to catch my debut film, where will I be? Well, I'll be at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse, watching Guns N' Roses.
Irish Examiner
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Bernard O'Shea: Five things I learned from the Minecraft movie
When was the last time you went to the cinema by yourself? Not to bring someone, not as a 'date night', 'not as an escape from soft play hell', but just… for you? If you're like me — a person with children under 12 and a vague memory of enjoying peace — then it's probably been more than a decade. The last time I went to the cinema alone, I saw There Will Be Blood. I remember sitting in the dark with a smug sense of cultural superiority. Little did I know that within a few years I would never be able to watch anything with more than three plot points or fewer than three animated animals singing pop songs. Let's be honest. The modern Irish family doesn't go to the cinema for the 'magic of the silver screen'. We go because it's raining. Again. And because the indoor trampoline park is booked out. It's all very tactical. You prep like you're going on a hike. You pack wipes, coins, spare clothes, treats, bottles, and back-up treats in case someone drops the first treat. The foyer becomes a war zone of sugary negotiation. One child wants nachos, one wants popcorn, and one wants to live inside the pick'n'mix. You realise you've just spent €57 before sitting down. And once you're in? You begin the ritual. The 'When does it start?' chant. The 'I need a wee' parade — one after another, never simultaneously, like some bladder-based relay team. There are arguments over seats, regret over the large drink. The sheer volume of the film is like a jet engine designed by Minions. But then, every so often, a moment reminds you why we do it. Why do we load them into the car and give up two hours of our lives? It's not just for the silence, the sugar high, or the chance to scroll Instagram under the cover of darkness. It's because you sometimes see something that lifts the whole experience out of survival mode. For me, that moment came during A Minecraft Movie. It wasn't the plot. Or the graphics. Or even the laugh I got when one of the characters turned a pig into a jet ski (I may have imagined that, to be honest). It was what was happening in the room. A group of lads — maybe 12 to 14 — started clapping, cheering, quoting lines along with the film: Not to wreck it, not for attention, but because they loved it. They were locked in. Eyes wide. Happy out. I almost cried. Minecraft is one of those rare cultural phenomena that makes adults feel ancient and irrelevant. On the surface, it looks like a game from the 1980s got stuck in a blender with a Lego set. There are blocky cows, floating trees. And yet, children love it. Scratch that. They don't just love it, they live it. For many children, Minecraft is not a game. It's a second home. A place where they're in charge, where they can explore without being told, 'Don't climb that' or 'That's not for sitting on'. It's a world without adults — no warnings, no instructions, just possibilities. And that's what I saw in the cinema. The group of teenage lads clapping along weren't just being nostalgic. They were reconnecting with a world where they have complete creative control. It's the exact opposite of school, Irish weather, or growing up in a world full of adult expectations. And it's not just boys. The cinema was full of girls just as tuned in — laughing at subtle references and nudging each other during inside jokes. There was an atmosphere of… what's the word? Shared joy, the kind that's increasingly rare in public spaces, especially among children. I may not know how to craft a diamond pickaxe or fend off a Creeper, but I do know this: The movie and the world it represents quietly teach a generation how to collaborate, create, and be kind. Here's five things I learned from the Minecraft Movie 1. Children don't need coaxing — they need a code. They were dressed, fed, and ready before I put on socks. Minecraft has its emotional language. Mention it, and they respond like sleeper agents. It activates something. 2. Minecraft is their mythology. It matters deeply to them. 3. Instead of rowdiness, there was genuine, shared joy — children enjoying something together without self-consciousness. That's rare, especially for boys, who are usually not encouraged to express joy openly in public. 4. The film wasn't for me — and that's a good thing. I didn't get all of it. A pig turned into a submarine? Grand. But that freed me up to enjoy them enjoying it. Like the designated driver at a wedding, you get your fun from watching the madness unfold. 5. It's not just screen time — it's shared time. We panic about screens. But this wasn't doomscrolling. This was a shared world. Minecraft is a door they open for you — and sometimes, you have to step through it with them. So, no, I still don't understand Minecraft. I don't know what a Wither is or why you'd ever need a saddle in a game with no visible horses. But I know this: sitting beside my children while they cheered for a pixelated hero and saw their world brought to life meant something. And, maybe, if you're lucky, one of them will lean over halfway through the film and whisper, 'Dad… this bit's good.' And, at that moment, you'll feel like the coolest person in the cinema. Even if you still have popcorn in your shoe.
Mail & Guardian
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Mail & Guardian
Sex, politics and very little else: A look at The Sweetest Taboo
An explicit, ambitious debut novel that delivers on sensuality but struggles to balance story, substance and seduction Right off the bat, let me say the following. This one was tough for me. Like many men of my generation, my relationship with the erotic arts and entertainment is, well, complicated. I grew up in a time where such things had just started to become widespread and easily available, and I think this is a fairly unique place to be, historically. People in the generations before me either had to go to great lengths to get their hands on any form of eroticism, or had no access to it at all. This goes double because I grew up in apartheid-era South Africa and our country's calvinistic and backward stance on sexuality and sexual materials had to be seen to be believed. Conversely, people in the generations after me have the internet, where any form of eroticism is literally at your fingertips, merely a search away, and so many of the previous dubious feelings towards it have begun to evaporate. Now, let's just make it clear, I am extremely pro-sex and pro-sensuality and I believe that a healthy expression of those two things is core to any person's psychological make-up. I also used to think I was very libertine in that there was very little in the way of such things that could shock or even surprise me. What I have subsequently discovered is that I am very libertine for my generation. There are things that the world has subsequently conceived that I will admit have occasionally had me muttering, 'What the tin-plated fuck is going on here?' But my stance remains now what it always was — as long as everyone involved is consenting, and no one involved is getting hurt — unless they want to be, feel free to go nuts. But I also have this weird thing where I feel as if there can be too much sex in a given situation. Don't get me wrong, I am the guy in my circle of friends who has a 'nudge nudge, wink wink' comment for almost every occasion,but I have also learned through bitter experience that there is a time and a place for everything. I also detest it when eroticism devolves beyond a certain level of explicitness into pure smut. Pornography is one thing — you engage it with a certain expectation. No one reading pornographic books or magazines is expecting Noam Chomsky's treatise on Universal Grammar. No one viewing a pornographic movie is expecting a performance from anyone involved that rivals Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood. It is what it is and it exists to do what it exists to do. But when something bills itself as art but is executed as something you'd find behind a paywall on a website that you would rather delete from your search history, it infuriates me. Just call it what it is and move on. We're all grown-ups here. I mention this because I need to explain it before I launch into the paroxysm of contradictory emotions Rams Mabote's first novel The Sweetest Taboo has thrown me into. Rams Mabote is a respected veteran of South African journalism. He is, by all accounts, a witty and educated man, with strong, balanced and well-thought-out viewpoints on a variety of topics. He is a shark in a pool full of minnows. And he has chosen to debut his first work of fiction in the realm of the erotic. The book proudly bills itself as a South African Fifty Shades of Grey and boasts a symbol on the cover warning about sex, nudity and language. (I confess, I chuckled at the warning of 'nudity' on the cover of a book that has no pictures in it.) The blurb is also very careful to mention just how much sex you're about to get yourself into, buddy. I can confirm all of this is well-earned. The book is positively brimming with sex scenes, like Jilly Cooper or Elizabeth Gage on testosterone supplements. (I apologise for the dated reference but I've told you guys before — I'm old) They are as explicit as advertised, and if Mr Mabote conducts himself with real-life partners as his fictional protagonist Morati Sello does with the unending parade of willing women who cross paths with him, then kudos is in order. He could teach Don Juan deMarco a thing or three. But outside of that — I don't know. The blurb also promises the sex is as hot and wild as the politics and I would like to understand that statement better. The book takes place in 2008 and Morati is an envoy sent to Australia by the ruling party to learn about banking. But other than that — a few cursory mentions of the South African political situation in 2008 and the three-headed news juggernaut of Mbeki, Zuma and Malema and a slightly long-winded explanation of the famous 'apology' by Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd to the indigenous peoples of Australia — politics is more or less absent. I might be missing the point. This book might entirely be about the very, very explicit male sexual wish fulfilment it centres around, and if that's the case, fine. It is what it says on the packaging and delivers in spades. But if it's not, then it's lacking. The interstitial scenes serve merely as filler to get us from one unbelievably adventurous sexual encounter to another. I would say the dialogue is expositional, but there's no plot to expose, other than, 'All hail Morati, the sexual god!' Much is made of the book's humour, but it fell flat with me, although I do acknowledge that I am probably not the target audience. All in all, if you're a (specifically male) person who needs a spicy read to brighten up a dreary work night, you could do worse than this book. But do engage it on its own terms.
USA Today
14-04-2025
- USA Today
Live like royalty at these 5 amazing castle hotels in the US
Advertisement Oheka Castle and Estate was once a private residence – Photo courtesy of Historic Hotels of America and Oheka Castle and Estate There are approximately 1 million castles in the world, and 316 of them are here in the United States. While each has a storied past, some of these fairy-tale properties operate as luxurious castle hotels that transport their guests to another place and time. Ready for the royal treatment? Here are five castle hotels in the U.S. where you can be queen (or king!) for as many days as you please. Smithmore Castle, Spruce Pine, North Carolina Smithmore Castle hotel offers a fairy-tale experience – Photo courtesy of Smithmore Castle Prepare for a five-star experience at Smithmore Castle, a private estate situated amidst the rolling hills of Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Spanning over 150 acres, the 15,000-square-foot castle hotel boasts eight luxurious bedrooms, some with hot tubs and balconies. The castle features several towers and turrets, as well as a majestic three-story stone fireplace. You'll never want for much with a staff of nannies, guards, and butlers at your service. Overnight guests are treated to a gourmet breakfast each morning and an elegant three-course dinner in the evenings. Lunch is available for an additional fee. Between meals, you can be as leisurely or as adventurous as your mood strikes you. Embark on a cave tour, where you'll learn about a historic mine or book a massage to relax and unwind. Off-property, visitors can go horseback riding or partake in water adventures, such as kayaking and tubing. This castle you can stay in offers stunning vistas of Mount Mitchell and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Advertisement Thornewood Castle, Lakewood, Washington Thornewood Castle was built in the early 1900s – Photo courtesy of Thornewood Castle Located just south of Tacoma, in Lakewood, Washington, Thornewood Castle was built between 1908 and 1911 as a gift from affluent banker Chester Thorne to his wife, Anna. Thornewood comprises three buildings, laid with bricks from England and stained glass salvaged from medieval churches. Spanning over 27,000 square feet of living space across four acres, guests can rest their heads in this Gothic Tudor castle. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1982, it has been the site of several movies and TV shows, including Stephen King's "Rose Red" and 'There Will Be Blood,' starring Daniel Day-Lewis. Children must be 12 and older to stay in the castle proper; all ages are welcome in Thornewood's apartment suites, also on the property. There are no dining options on-site, so you'll have to head into town where you'll find no shortage of restaurants. Moonrise Cafe serves breakfast and lunch; enjoy classic breakfast plates, along with a solid offering of salads and sandwiches. Ram Restaurant and Brewery serves pub fare and local microbrews. Advertisement Glen Eyrie, Colorado Springs, Colorado This English Tudor-style castle hotel in Colorado Springs offers timeless elegance – Photo courtesy of Visit Colorado Springs Erected by the city's founder, William Jackson Palmer, Glen Eyrie castle hotel serves as a conference and retreat center, operated by The Navigators, an international Christian organization. There are 95 rooms spread across seven buildings, but only 17 rooms in the castle proper, so booking early is a good idea. The classic English Tudor-style castle features luxurious bedding and unique designs of the 1920s, while offering modern comforts. Six deluxe rooms in this castle hotel offer air-conditioning. A daily delicious hot breakfast is included with your stay. Additionally, the on-site Carriage House Cafe offers coffee, grab-and-go food, along with gifts and souvenirs. For those looking to explore, there are more than 8 miles of easily accessible hiking trails adjacent to the property. Guided historical castle tours are available but need to be booked in advance. Book Now When you check rates and book independently reviewed hotels through our site, we may earn a small commission. Oheka Castle and Estate, Huntington, New York Oheka Castle and Estate is a popular wedding venue – Photo courtesy of Stefan Turner Photography Situated on the highest point of Long Island, Oheka Castle and Estate was built in 1919 by wealthy businessman Otto Hermann Kahn on 443 acres. Famous for its appearance in films like "Citizen Kane" and TV shows like "Succession," the luxurious castle hotel offers 34 elegant guest rooms and suites. Accommodations pay homage to the early 19th century, with rooms aptly named Carnegie, Gatsby, and Fairbanks. Oheka has a 24-hour fitness center, and you can book a massage with a certified therapist in the comfort of your room. OHK Bar & Restaurant serves brunch, lunch, and dinner. End your day by attending Gatsby Hour, OHK's version of happy hour, with specials on appetizers and drinks. Guided castle tours begin at 11 a.m. daily and can be reserved in advance. Book Now When you check rates and book independently reviewed hotels through our site, we may earn a small commission. Manresa Castle Hotel, Port Townsend, Washington Manresa Castle Hotel is situated on the Olympic Peninsula – Photo courtesy of Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau Atop a hill in the coastal community of Port Townsend, Washington, Manresa Castle Hotel was built in 1892 as a residence for Charles and Kate Eisenbeis, two of the town's early settlers. Originally known as Eisenbeis Castle, an attorney purchased the property in 1925 with plans to convert the castle into a vacation home for nuns. A couple years later, the castle was transformed into a Jesuits training college. The Jesuits added several architecture features, to include a large hall named Manresa. When the Jesuits left in 1968, the historic castle became a hotel of its current name. The castle hotel features Victorian architecture with modern amenities, as well as an on-site restaurant and lounge. Book Now When you check rates and book independently reviewed hotels through our site, we may earn a small commission.
