Latest news with #Waller-Bridge
Time of India
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Octopus! OTT Release Date: When and where to watch nature documentary by Emmy-award winner Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Octopus! OTT Release Date: Just in time for Earth Day season, Emmy Award winner Phoebe Waller-Bridge returns with something far more unexpected: a nature documentary that's as strange as it is stunning. On May 8, Prime Video will release Octopus!, a two-part documentary narrated by Waller-Bridge herself, exploring the mysterious world of one of the most intelligent animals on the planet - the octopus. But don't expect a typical underwater documentary. This series blends science, personal stories, surreal humour, and emotional depth into something entirely unique. From tales of love, loss, and obsession to strange encounters in Mexico and a unicorn sighting, Octopus! is a quirky, emotional rollercoaster that uses the octopus as a lens to examine the human experience and our connection to creatures that seem almost alien. The docuseries will drop globally in over 240 countries and territories and is included with any Amazon Prime membership. That means no extra fee to watch, just click and stream. Octopus! is directed by Niharika Desai and produced by Waller-Bridge's own Wells Street Films, alongside Amazon's MGM Studios and Alex Gibney's Jigsaw Productions. Waller-Bridge in the wild Best known for creating and starring in Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge is now stepping into the world of nature storytelling. But in classic Waller-Bridge style, this is far from ordinary. What she brings to Octopus!, is a feeling. You'll get to meet scientists trying to save them, divers trying to understand them, and even celebrities like Tracy Morgan who are obsessed with them. These personal narratives are stitched together to show just how deeply one species can touch so many lives. With only two episodes, Octopus! is a quick binge, but one likely to leave a lasting impact. Sounds exciting? Drop your thoughts @indiatimes.
The Guardian
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘It's Fleabag's home – the audience is unshockable': Phoebe Waller-Bridge and more on 25 years of Soho theatre
A fixture on London's Dean Street for 25 years, Soho theatre has hatched plays that won Oliviers, shows that earned the Edinburgh comedy award and ideas that became TV hits. On any night, across its upstairs studio theatre, its main house and basement cabaret bar, you'll find plays from new writers, experimentations in clowning, drag performance, standup comedy, or a hybrid of them all. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. In those rooms, I've watched American clown Natalie Palamides giving such a spirited performance that she vomited on stage, dancer and comedian Adrienne Truscott challenging rape jokes, and performance artist Kim Noble pushing audiences beyond comfort. I've sung along to ballads with sketch group Daphne, and folk songs with Sh!t Theatre. Soho does all this by running a 'festival programme', with multiple shows per room, per night. 'It allows us to take risks,' says executive director and CEO Mark Godfrey. 'You can say now, 25 years on, we had the first play from Tanika Gupta, from Moira Buffini, early work from Chris Chibnall.' And perhaps most famously of all, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who first performed her one-woman show – and later hit TV series – Fleabag at the venue. 'Soho theatre has a genuinely experimental, risk-taking attitude,' Waller-Bridge says. 'It's one of the only theatres that consistently puts on provocative work from lesser-known writers and performers and encourages them to be original. I've seen some of the best work of my life in those spaces.' Waller-Bridge began her artistic relationship with Soho in 2009, in finance-industry satire Roaring Trade: 'I remember throttling Andrew Scott with a tie as the lights went up every night, which was the beginning of one of the most happy collaborations of my life.' With colleagues in her DryWrite theatre company, Francesca Moody and Vicky Jones, she became an associate artist at the theatre, commissioning Adolescence writer Jack Thorne's play Mydidae in 2012. Fleabag first appeared in Soho's upstairs room. Being offered space to preview 'was no small thing', Waller-Bridge says. It returned, post-Edinburgh, and Soho supported its West End transfer. 'It's Fleabag's home. The Soho theatre audience is so up for it … unshockable, game for anything, fun-loving and curious.' Now that game-for-anything is going to get a lot larger. As the theatre celebrates its 25th anniversary, it's also starting a new chapter – the opening of 1,000-seater Soho Theatre Walthamstow, in north-east London, where it will entertain its biggest audiences yet. It's been a long journey. Soho theatre on the West End's Dean Street opened in 2000, but the company was founded as the Soho Theatre Company in the late 60s by theatre directors Verity Bargate (namesake of Soho's new writing award) and Fred Proud. It became Soho Poly when it moved into a university basement in 1972. Deliberately free from 'the trappings of bourgeois theatre architecture', it was a pioneer of lunchtime theatre, allowing performances to 'reach a different sort of audience', write Matthew Morrison and Guy Osborne from the University of Westminster. That basement showcased future stars such as Bob Hoskins, Harriet Walter, Hanif Kureishi and Caryl Churchill. 'It was about new plays and new writing, that fringe explosion of the 70s,' says Godfrey, who's been with the company since 1990, its final year as Soho Poly. By the mid-90s, after a stint at Cockpit theatre, Soho theatre was homeless. Fortuitously, the national lottery was emerging. With director Abigail Morris and producer David Aukin, Godfrey found a building on Dean Street that had formerly housed a synagogue. The vision was influenced by the diversity and collective spirit of the south London theatre Ovalhouse, the ICA's punk aesthetics and experimental performances, the fun of comedy clubs. Rather than one artistic director, Soho has 'a plurality of voices', Godfrey says. 'They love the work,' says performance artist Bryony Kimmings. 'In the curating of their programme, they're also artists.' Those voices now include creative associate Pooja Sivaraman and head of comedy Steve Lock. Comedy is now a core part of Soho's identity. In 2000, short-ish plays meant Dean Street's stages were free by 9pm, so mixed-bill comedy, then eventually solo standup shows, filled the gap. Lock started working on the box office in 2001, but soon moved into comedy programming, scouting experimental shows at the fringe, and programming things crowds couldn't find at comedy clubs. 'It was about full-length shows, which intrinsically felt more theatrical. We started to feel like the natural home for people's one-hour shows in the early 2000s, and it's snowballed from then.' Soho welcomed American drag performers such as Kiki and Herb, plus acts such as Hannah Gadsby before their rise to fame. For the first 10 years at Dean Street, the basement was an Indian restaurant, which also ran the ground-floor bar. In 2011, it became Soho Theatre Bar, and the basement became a bespoke cabaret space. They decided 'to give equal importance to theatre, comedy and cabaret', Godfrey says. Lock points to artists like Kimmings and Noble, who could never be squeezed into one box. Temi Wilkey, whose recent show Main Character Energy blended performance styles, says: 'It's an extraordinary space for people whose work is genre-pushing.' Kimmings says: 'They never say no. They trust you to be creative.' When I ask artists what sets Soho theatre apart from other institutions, many say community. Associate artists used to be given membership to the Groucho Club, but when the theatre started running the bar, this was swapped for bar discounts instead. The idea was to build a club-like atmosphere right there. When you enter Dean Street's bar now, chances are you'll recognise someone – it's a 'snipers' alley' per one TV producer's analogy; you're always in the eyeline of an artist, writer, agent. For punters, this means the chance to spot a star. Social media was abuzz in 2023 when Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield and Phoebe Bridgers were snapped after attending Kate Berlant's show. It helps that many of the artists connected to Soho arrived as fledging talent, such as Waller-Bridge, growing within the theatre, before achieving mainstream status. Kimmings had never visited Soho theatre until a meeting to discuss the transfer of her 2010 fringe show Sex Idiot, a tale of chlamydia and reappraising relationships. She's spoken in the past about the snobbery and classism that can come with traditional theatre. Soho is 'not like that at all', she says. Meeting Lock and dramaturg Nina Steiger: 'The two of them felt like family, like home, immediately,' Kimmings says. They earned her respect. '[Steiger] taught me how to use the principles of narratives, that was so exciting to me,' she says, and she saw Lock's passion for new work. When she wanted to make another show – an exploration of alcohol and creativity – they gave her space to develop and she wanted their input. Kimmings now teaches young artists and says most dream of staging their work at Soho. 'It's managed to establish a mark of quality and experimentalism. It feels like if you're there, you're original, you're good quality.' Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion Cheerleading new artists is vital, says Waller-Bridge, especially in the current funding climate: 'Writers need places to take risks, and to have the support of a theatre who back you as an individual rather than just a single project means you can push the boundaries.' Without that, 'we'll just end up with more and more generic work because people need to hedge their bets'. Poppy Jay, of the podcast Brown Girls Do It Too, used to walk past Soho theatre on the way to Topshop in nearby Oxford Circus. It seemed like 'a cool place', but not for her. 'Brown women, south Asian people, the theatre space doesn't really feel like ours,' she says. Jay and co-host Rubina Pabani were invited to create a stage version of their podcast, which they developed at Dean Street into a theatrical mix of jokes, sketches and discussion of sexuality and cultural expectations. Despite initial fears of not belonging, she says the theatre is 'embracing of talent and people from other backgrounds. It's completely different to how I always imagined theatre spaces to be.' While many artists are scouted, Soho theatre also runs 'labs' to coach new talent. Comedians Jack Rooke and Olga Koch started in the comedy programme and playwright Ryan Calais Cameron in the writers' lab. Rooke, creator of sitcom Big Boys, remembers the comedy lab as 'the most valuable education I've ever had. One day would be being taught how to apply to go to the fringe by Richard Gadd, the next week we'd have a masterclass with the DryWrite team,' he says. 'It taught me to be OK with putting darkness and silliness next to each other.' It led to the live show Good Grief, about the aftermath of his dad's death, and two subsequent shows, the seeds of Big Boys. He commemorated Soho's role in his career by naming a Big Boys' character after staff member Jules Haworth, who helped him secure a comedy lab bursary. Soho got TV commissioners in the door, Rooke says: 'It's always been good at taking a risk on new talent and not just following where the buzz is.' In the upstairs studio, Sivaraman describes the importance of the labs while in the background performer Shafeeq Shajahan rehearses The Bollywood Guide to Revenge. 'Shafeeq started on the writers' lab and drag lab, and this show was programmed as part of Soho Rising [a new talent festival] last year. Now it has a one-week run.' With the opening of Soho Theatre Walthamstow, there's potential to reach a larger stage. Palamides, who's worked with Soho since her debut show Laid, will be the first to grace the beautifully restored theatre with Weer, her absurd 90s romcom that earned plaudits in Edinburgh. Jay will perform Brown Girls Do It Too later in the year – as a Walthamstow local, she saw films in the venue as a teen, so it feels like a full-circle moment. In the autumn, Kimmings will present Bog Witch, about rediscovering nature, her first show in more than five years: 'I don't think I could've done it with anybody else.' It's been nearly 15 years since Godfrey joined the fight to transform the Walthamstow venue, which nearly became a church, into a functioning theatre. With the launch imminent, he reflects on Soho's origins. 'One of the challenges is: how do you become a bigger organisation and still keep that queer-punk, radical-fringe core identity?' They hope that 'plurality of voices' in the theatre's artistic team and the relationships they've built with artists over the years will preserve the Soho spirit. In the early days of Dean Street, the company was 'under the radar', says Godfrey, the pressure was off and creativity flowed. Will it be easier to fill an auditorium now on the cachet of Soho's past successes, or will people expect mainstream acts from a larger venue? Alongside the company's usual genre-melding works, tickets are already on sale for a pantomime and shows from Jon Ronson and Adam Kay. 'We believe it will work, but it will be nice when you actually see it.' During the redevelopment, there was some criticism over the loss of local LGBTQ+ venue The Victoria, which adjoins the site, but there has also been local outreach work. There are new labs programmes for Walthamstow locals, and many of the staff, including Godfrey and Soho Theatre Walthamstow co-chair Alessandro Babalola are locals themselves. Growing affection and audiences among residents, as well as persuading others to make the journey out, will be crucial. Memories formed at Dean Street might hold lessons in how to retain the theatre's identity. Kimmings laughs as she recalls one night in the cabaret basement, when an audience member bit her leg and she ended her show dancing on stage next to Juliette Lewis. To her, Soho theatre is 'a place where you get to be free. A place where you can cast off your baggage and really belly laugh. That is so precious.' Soho Theatre Walthamstow opens on 2 May.
Daily Mail
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Crashing: Trailer, certificate and where to watch
The lives and loves of six twenty-somethings living together in a disused hospital. 2016 Certificate: 15 Before Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge created this six-episode sitcom about a bunch of twentysomethings making their home in the most affordable housing they can find - a disused hospital where they get cheap rent in return for keeping the building safe. As an ensemble comedy it's a very different animal to the personal, confessional style of Fleabag, but the romantic and sexual chaos and toe-curling scenarios are there, as are the frank dialogue and moments of melancholy. Joining Waller-Bridge are Jonathan Bailey (aka Viscount Bridgerton) and new Bergerac's Damien Molony. (Six episodes)
Telegraph
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
$100 million, zero TV shows: Why Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Amazon deal hasn't paid off
Less than 48 hours after dominating the 2019 Emmys – with four wins for her hit series, Fleabag – Phoebe Waller-Bridge was confirmed in her status as the world's hottest TV writer. Amazon proudly announced that it had signed her up to a lucrative 'golden handcuffs' deal, worth a reported $20 million (£15 million) each year, to create new series for Prime Video. Jennifer Salke, then the head of Amazon Studios, hailed the Fleabag creator as 'clever, brilliant, generous and a virtuoso on multiple fronts'. That deal was renewed in 2022, and again (albeit on looser, less lucrative terms) in the past few months. Yet in the six years since she initially signed with Amazon, nothing Waller-Bridge has made as part of her contract has yet made it to air. The 39-year-old has earned the sharp end of $100 million without any real achievements to show for it. Her first big project was a new version of 'married spies' thriller Mr & Mrs Smith, in which she would write with and act opposite Donald Glover, but that soon foundered amid reports that the two stars did not see eye-to-eye. Waller-Bridge was replaced on screen by Maya Erskine, and she did not even get a writing credit, suggesting none of her material had made the cut. 'Amazon stuck with him and moved her out,' says an insider. 'Maybe that is somewhat indicative of where she is with Amazon at the moment.' Unfazed by the setback – plus the fact that Waller-Bridge helped rewrite Daniel Craig's swansong as James Bond, No Time to Die, and starred in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny outside her deal – Amazon later announced that Waller-Bridge would create a series based on the Tomb Raider video games. It should have been the perfect combination: Waller-Bridge was a keen gamer growing up and idolised the no-nonsense protagonist Lara Croft, who has been played in film versions by Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander, but wanted to put a new twist on a character often accused of being a cartoonish male fantasy of a female hero. 'She had an attitude. She was very deliberate in what she wanted to do,' Waller-Bridge told Vanity Fair in June 2023. 'The opportunity to have… a female action character…. Having worked on Bond and having worked as an actor on Indy, I feel like I've been building up to this. What if I could take the reins on an action franchise, with everything I've learned, with a character I adore, and also just bring back some of that 1990s vibe?' The only vibes around the series at this point are negative. Puck News, one of the most reliable Hollywood outlets, reported last month that the project had 'gone through two writers' rooms and tens of millions of dollars in development costs', but still has no script. Some reports have suggested that Amazon has shelved Tomb Raider entirely, but The Telegraph understands that the streamer is still committed to the project with Waller-Bridge at the helm. When Waller-Bridge's deal was originally renewed, in 2022, without anything to show for the previous three years, a TV executive told The Hollywood Reporter that the streaming service was guilty of 'star-f—ing' – i.e. chucking cash at big names without any overarching strategy – and only signed her up again to save face. For years, Amazon executives have been faced with questions about what exactly Waller-Bridge has been doing to earn her keep. In a 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Vernon Sanders, Amazon's TV chief, 'bristled' when asked what she was up to. 'Phoebe has not only fully embraced Tomb Raider and I think is feeling very committed to it, but she's in a writers room right now working on it,' he said. 'She's a perfectionist, so she absolutely wants to make sure that what she does is great and right, but she's proven that when she does deliver, she delivers.' That was more than two years ago, and still nobody seems quite sure about what, if anything, Waller-Bridge has completed. Prime next-day delivery it ain't. For her part, Waller-Bridge does not like being described as a perfectionist. 'Happy to be called creatively controlling,' she told Vanity Fair two months after Sanders's comments. 'What I look for in something is that little bit of electricity, of danger or saying something, doing something that hasn't been done before. If I don't feel that, I can plow and plow and plow, I just won't make it.' She also said that Amazon bosses understood why things have not moved more quickly. 'They've been with me along this process where I'm like, 'I'm getting there, but I want it to be f—ing amazing.' ' Salke appeared to confirm this in October last year. 'When we look at a long-term commitment to a creator like Phoebe — we're so happy now that we retained her,' she told Variety. But Jeff Bezos's lieutenants will not wait around forever. Salke was abruptly dismissed last month amid a litany of failings, not least the slow progress on a new James Bond film, for which Amazon now has full creative control. One of Salke's last acts was to sign Waller-Bridge up to yet another deal, though this one is said to be much less lucrative and not on an exclusive basis. It is part of a trend in the industry as money becomes tighter for creatives to be paid when projects are delivered, rather than in these 'golden handcuffs' agreements. From those heights at the 2019 Emmys, when Waller-Bridge won gongs for both her acting and writing, there is a sense that she has become lost and fallen behind fellow star writers, such as James Graham, Jack Thorne and Sharon Horgan. 'She's become very rich out of it but I feel sorry for Phoebe,' says one senior TV executive. 'She's a once-in-a-generation British talent. She was clearly developing stuff and Amazon was knocking it back. The viewer isn't gaining out of it, are they?' By this executive's telling, much of the problem must lie at the feet of Amazon, which remains a retail giant with a streaming service bolted on. 'It feels like it's part of an old world: where global streamers pay stupid money to take people off the table,' he adds. 'Their most important thing is selling stuff, they don't seem focused on creating a really coherent content strategy.' Though Amazon has a large, and growing, roster of Prime Video staff in the UK (which has launched hits such as Clarkson's Farm) Waller-Bridge has reported to those in the American mothership as they sought a global mega-hit that would provide a large return on the investment in her. 'When people talk about global shows, what they really mean is shows that are big in the US that become big in other territories around the world,' says an insider. 'The size and scale of those output deals… it is not worth doing a niche, UK public service broadcaster-style show. You are really swinging for the fences on high value international global franchisable formats. 'The US really wanted to find something to break her in America. She had a ton of ideas but none of them really materialised in a big manner that the US thought, 'We would take that, make it better and get US audiences on board with it',' they add. 'I think they were thinking 'What is the US version of Fleabag?' It becomes a Friends or Curb Your Enthusiasm-type show. I don't think that is a direction she was very interested in.' None of which is to say that Waller-Bridge's creative abilities have deserted her. 'It is certainly true that had she been in the UK making shows, you would have imagined another Killing Eve, Fleabag-type project would have come pretty quickly. For whatever reasons her projects just haven't met Amazon's view of what they expect from a global property.' Waller-Bridge's hunt for an international hit goes on. As well as Tomb Raider, Waller-Bridge is also said to be working on an adaptation of Sign Here, the 'darkly humorous' debut novel by Claudia Lux about a man in hell who needs to collect one more soul to win freedom. And the fruits of Waller-Bridge's labour will become apparent next month. She has narrated and executive produced a two-part documentary series called Octopus! about Pacific cephalopods. It launches on Prime Video on May 8.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Phoebe Waller-Bridge Re-Ups With Amazon, Shifts to First-Look Deal
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is sticking with Amazon, shifting from an exclusive overall deal to a new first-look deal with the streamer, TheWrap has learned. The 'Fleabag' creator's new agreement comes a year after Prime Video greenlit her adaptation of 'Tomb Raider,' which will star Sophie Turner as Lara Croft. Waller-Bridge is the latest to shift to a first-look deal, following J.J. Abrams striking a similar pact with Warner Bros. in December. She first signed an overall deal with the tech giant in 2019, which was subsequently extended in 2023. The move comes as Amazon MGM Studios head Jen Salke was ousted from her role at the studio last week and will transition to a producing deal. Salke will not be replaced at the studio. Instead, Mike Hopkins, head of both Amazon MGM and Prime Video, will take full command, with theatrical/streaming film chief Courtenay Valenti and TV chief Vernon Sanders reporting directly to him. News of the re-upped deal with Waller-Bridge was first reported by Puck. The post Phoebe Waller-Bridge Re-Ups With Amazon, Shifts to First-Look Deal appeared first on TheWrap.
