Latest news with #WorkingTitleFilms
Mint
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
Chris Evans skipped Cannes Film Festival 2025? Why Captain America actor missed premiere of new movie 'Honey Don't'
Chris Evans starrer comedy-mystery 'Honey Don't' premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2025 on May 23 but to the surprise of Captain America fans, the actor was nowhere to be seen. The 43-year-old actor skipped the debut of his upcoming film to celebrate his mom Lisa's 70th birthday. In a social media post on Instagram, the actor wrote, 'I wish I could've been with my incredible cast and filmmakers at Cannes, but it was my mother's 70th birthday and there are some things you just can't miss!' Avengers Endgame actor gave a warm shoutout to Honey Don't team and posted a photo of the cast and crew on the Cannes red carpet with the caption 'Congrats everyone!!' Chris Evans skipped the Cannes premiere of his film 'Honey Don't' due to a personal reason. Starring Margaret Qualley and Aubrey Plaza alongside Chris Evans, the narrative revolves around a detective investigating a series of mysterious deaths and their connection to a local church. 'Honey Don't! is a dark comedy about Honey O'Donahue, a small-town private investigator, who delves into a series of strange deaths tied to a mysterious church,' the trailer's description states. The film was honoured an impressive six-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival while its stellar cast witnessed the grand event except for one of the world's highest paid actors - Chris Evans. Ethan Coen directorial movie features an ensemble cast, including Charlie Day, Gabby Beans, Talia Ryder and Billy Eichner in supporting roles, among others. Produced under the banners Focus Features and Working Title Films, the one hour thirty minutes movie is scheduled for August 22 theatrical release in United States and Canada.
BBC News
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Prince William gets behind camera on London Screen Academy visit
The Prince of Wales was behind a film camera, being rolled along tracks, gradually closing in on a journalist, inch by inch. It was not a reporter's fever dream, but a movie scene on the roof of the London Screen Academy in north London, where Prince William is test-driving the state of the art facilities in a sixth form academy dedicated to teaching film and TV checked out the costume department too, where he saw a steampunk outfit with a lot of holes, hooks and tartan."I might wear it on a Saturday night out," he said to the students showing him round. Prince William is president of Bafta, the British film and television industry body, and has spoken about the importance of widening doors to a notoriously who-you-know London Screen Academy, with 900 students, exists to widen those doors, offering practical skills in movies and televisions, all for free, alongside learning English and maths there might be a successful TV and film industry in the UK, access to jobs is still too often limited to "white, middle class" youngsters, the school's co-founder and movie producer, Tim Bevan, told the is co-chairman of Working Title Films and has seen students moving from the school on to some of his recent films, including the forthcoming Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy and said the industry was "doing very well, but there was not "a broad enough cross-section of people working within it". "We wanted to provide the opportunity for people from diverse backgrounds, from not so much privilege," he said. Prince William, who was commended by a student for his camera skills - "very smooth, nice pan, did a good job", seemed impressed by the energy and opportunities offered by the said he wanted it to encourage young people from families who might have seen the film and TV industry as being an "elite environment"."It feels a lot of people don't know that they can be in the film industry," said Prince William, adding it was "distant from reality" for prince was shown the make-up department, looking rather tentatively around a room filled with wigs, bright lights, and various levels of unusual make-up. He held out a hand to try out prosthetic skin, of the type used in zombie films, and said the post-apocalyptic TV series The Last of Us had been "quite full on".It was a relaxed and lively visit, no ties in sight, with the prince getting to take part in the final scene, in a mini-movie based on the idea of a London where music is banned. "Silence means security," said one of the fictional posters, as the prince glided past for the camera the student film crew was Kendra Nwogu, aged 18, from Essex, who never thought that she would get these kind of skills, thinking that working in the movies was "not a realistic job" and must involve a "magic gateway".She found about the London Screen Academy by googling, and now she is part of a course that will give her practical links to the film industry."I can have lessons about film. I can learn about cameras. I can learn about sound. I can learn about lighting. And anyone can do it," she said, as she marshalled the filmmaking by the royal is about bridging the gap to make things seem Prince William it was a rare chance to be behind the camera after a lifetime in front of its unforgiving gaze."Action," shouted a student as his camera moved and clapperboard snapped. And the point of a place like this is to achieve action in real life, as well as on the screen. Sign up here to get the latest royal stories and analysis straight to your inbox every week with our Royal Watch newsletter. Those outside the UK can sign up here.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Renee Zellweger became Bridget Jones and the actors who missed out
It now seems absurd to imagine that anybody but Renee Zellweger could play the role of Bridget Jones on the big screen. She is due to portray the relatable diarist once again in this year's Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy — 24 years after the first film had us all belting out All By Myself in our pyjamas — and we wouldn't have anybody else in the role. But it's easy to forget, in that respect, how divisive Zellweger's casting was back at the turn of the millennium. When the news was first unveiled, the concept of this archetypal Londoner being played by an American — Zellweger was born and raised in Texas — seemed truly bizarre. As it turns out, there were some very famous names in the frame and on the shortlist for the role of Bridget, with Zellweger far from the only American considered. So let's have a little look at how Bridget stumbled from the pages of a British newspaper on to the red carpets of Hollywood. Helen Fielding created Bridget Jones for a column in The Independent in 1995 and her pieces became so popular that the first Bridget Jones novel arrived in 1996. Working Title Films snapped up the movie rights sharpish, before the book truly became a bestseller. Read more: Renée Zellweger Makes Very Honest Admission About The Future Of Bridget Jones (HuffPost, 2 min read) This started the ball rolling on the extensive hunt for who could possibly play the all-important lead role of Bridget. In a 2001 piece over at the LA Times, director Sharon Maguire revealed that she had discussions with several stars before Zellweger's name even entered contention. There were British names including Emily Watson, Kate Winslet — fresh off smashing box office records with Titanic — and Helena Bonham Carter in the frame. Cameron Diaz was one of the few Americans suggested at this time. Rachel Weisz's name also came up but, according to reports at the time, she was considered "too beautiful" to be Bridget. Winslet, meanwhile, was reportedly thought to be too young. She was just 24 when filming began — six years younger than Zellweger. Australian star Cate Blanchett was also considered at this time, just a few years after she won a Bafta with another British role as Queen Elizabeth I in the movie Elizabeth. She was right in the thick of work on her role as Galadriel in Lord of the Rings, so it's entirely possible that scheduling may have played a part in the decision to move away from her as an option. Read more: Hugh Grant Says the New 'Bridget Jones 'Sequel 'Made Me Cry': 'It's Got a Huge Amount of Heart' (People, 2 min read) Blanchett wasn't even the only Aussie in the frame. Toni Collette said no to the role because she was on Broadway, performing the lead in Michael John LaChiusa's musical The Wild Party. In the end, that sliding doors moment also led to Collette missing out on another part — also to Zellweger — in Rob Marshall's eventual Oscar-winner Chicago. "While I was doing Wild Party, I turned down Bridget Jones's Diary, because I didn't know when Wild Party was going to close," Collette told the Miami Herald in 2006. "And that movie was a huge success for Renee Zellweger, and Harvey Weinstein was producing Chicago, and he was keen for her to do it. And that's the way it went." Eventually, all roads led to Zellweger. "Renee was completely charming but miles apart from the specifics of Bridget Jones," Maguire said in that LA Times piece. She explained that they were both acutely aware of how bad the response could be if this went wrong, saying that Zellweger told her: "If we don't get the accent right, the pair of us — you as the first-time director, me as a Texan — we're going to be so busted." Zellweger threw herself into the accent work, spending time with the dialect coach Gwyneth Paltrow had used for Shakespeare in Love. She spoke in the accent for weeks at a time while living in LA, then moved to London for several months to immerse herself in UK culture while also gaining weight for the role. Read more: Jim Broadbent knew Renee Zellweger was 'special' from first Bridget Jones film (PA Media, 3 min read) None of that meticulous preparation stopped the British press from hitting out at the decision to choose Zellweger ahead of the British actors who had been involved in the process. Empire Magazine, for example, wrote that "yet another British role falls prey to US star power". Hugh Grant, Zellweger's co-star, defended her in Entertainment Weekly, saying: "She's very funny, and she's been living in England a long time now, mastering the accent. It'll be a triumph. I know it will." Thankfully, Zellweger mostly escaped the extent of the backlash. "I thought it was just a tiny little thing. I didn't realize just how widespread this controversy was,' she told Yahoo. While preparing for the character, she spent time working in the offices of publisher Picador to get a look into Bridget's world, which also put her unfortunately close to the backlash. Read more: Renée Zellweger thinks she has a lot in common with Bridget Jones (Yahoo Entertainment, 2 min read) Zellweger said: "There were a couple things that I picked up closer to the time we filmed because part of my job — or 'work experience' as they said — at the publishers was to clip any clippings in the media that had to do with the authors that Picador-Macmillan represent. And they represent Helen Fielding. So every now and then something would pop up and I would see 'Crap American Comedian Playing English Icon,' and I'd have to cut it out and go put it in the file." Thankfully for all involved, Zellweger more than delivered and became an unforgettable Bridget. She won a SAG Award for her performance in that first film and also got nominations at the Golden Globes, Baftas, and Oscars. The franchise has also been an enormous box office success, with the three films to date earning a combined $756m (£608m) worldwide. That brings us to Mad About the Boy — the fourth and probably final Bridget Jones adventure. Over a quarter of a century, we've come a long way from being sceptical about a Texan star to being completely and utterly in love with one of cinema's most delightfully flawed female protagonists. Even if someone could spot a little bit of a deep-fried twang creeping into that accent now, they wouldn't even care. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is in UK cinemas from 13 February.
