Star Wars Episode VII Starts Filming In May

Producers have finally confirmed that Star Wars Episode VII will officially start filming in May at Pinewood Studios in London. In related news Dinsey and Lucasfim have both further confirmed the long expected news that the new film will pick up the story approximately 30 years after the climatic events of Return of The Jedi. 

Although yet to release an official synopsis or concrete casting details the press release from the studio has confirmed the film “will star a trio of new young leads along with some very familiar faces”. Director J.J. Abrams has been predictably secretive about the project but it remains widely expected that those ‘familiar faces’ will at least include original trilogy stars Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hammill. 

The most recent casting rumors have Oscar winning 12 Years A Slave star Lupita Nyong’o tipped to land a lead role with and Girls star Adam Driver almost certain to be playing the new villain in classic Darth Vader type fashion. Expect big news soon as production rushes into full swing to meet he ambitious December 18th 2015 release date.

Svengali Review

The Plot:

Welsh dreamer Dixie moves to London with his loving girlfriend Shell to become the manager for a little known rock band The Premature Congratulations. Determined to turns them into the biggest thing since The Beatles Dixie faces all sorts of obstacles I his quest to become a great musical Svengali. Along the way he experiences the highs and lows of the music industry while being guided by real life Creation Records Guru Alan McGee and with an old school friend deliberately trying to stand in his way.

The Good:

Svengali is a film about the music industry so a great soundtrack was always utterly essential. While the audience never quite gets to hear mythical band The Prems ever actually play a proper song, we do hear a well assembled collection of songs from classic artists and fresh talents alike. The Stone Roses, Jake Bug, The Small aces and Mott The Hoople are just some of the musical magic the film offers. The superb quality of the soundtrack caries the film throughout and particularly keeps things watchable during any slower moments.

Writer and leading man Jonny Owen is so earnestly likeable that it’s impossible not to want his naïve hero Dixie to succeed in the face of a seemingly never ending string of disaster and financial woes. This Is England star Vicky McClure is an equally endearing and accomplished acting talent. The central relationship between Dixie and devoted girlfriend Shell provides a convincingly mundane and affectionate counterpoint to the harsh realities of the greedy underbelly of the music industry.

Svengali features a lot of familiar and very welcome faces. Sherlock star Martin Freeman clearly enjoys a comedy turn as a grumpy record shop owner with a nagging wife and eccentric Mod wardrobe. IT Crowd star Matt Berry and Morwenna Banks also both steal scenes as variously accented but equally hilarious caricatures of record label executives. Watching Berry’s implausibly dressed studio boss berate his grovelling flunkies with spectacularly apathetic disdain is a particular pleasure.

The presence of real life musical figures like Alan McGee and Carl Barat lends the film some deserved musical credibility, further supporting the accuracy of its amusing tale of explosive overnight indie band success.

The Bad:

It feels cruel to criticize Svengali as it does accomplish so much with such little budget and is evidently made with precisely the kind of unashamed enthusiasm that makes Dixie a likeable dreamer. Though the film does occasionally lag in pace, take predictable turns or fail to quite land laughs as big as it aspires to a note perfect soundtrack almost always rescues the situation.

Perhaps the only real problem the film faces is that the greedy cut throat side of the music industry is so well known that it makes the film’s seemingly accurate depiction feel unoriginal. In-fighting arrogant bands, vile A&R men and backstabbing betrayal are such a common feature of rock and roll films that it feels almost overly familiar.

It’s also fair to say that with the exception of Dixie many of the people he meets along his quest, including his own supposedly ‘amazing’ band, are unlikeable character with an assortment of loathsome selfish character traits. But then perhaps that’s the entire point of the film.

The Ugly Truth:

Svengali is a low budget indie comedy that boasts a surprising amount of familiar face and the best soundtracks it could possibly have assembled. After a slow heart it delivers enough heart and humour to carry itself to a satisfying if somewhat surprising conclusion.

Check out red carpet interviews with the cast and celeb guests from the Svengali London Premiere below: 

BAFTA Games Awards 2014 Winners List

Last Night the BAFTA Games Awards 2014 rewarded the outstanding achievements in gaming for the past year. The Last Of Us swept up wins across a number of key categories including the all important Best Game. While Rockstar Games received this year’s prestigious BAFTA fellowship as well as collecting Best British Game and Best Mulitplayer awards for Grand Theft Auto 5. Significantly, breakthrough indie titles like Papers, Please and Tearaway also collected awards on the night, stealing limelight from big studio productions and blockbuster franchises. The full list of winners below with exclusive Red Carpet News video interviews set to follow soon.

Best action and adventure: The Last of Us (Naughty Dog)

Debut game: Gone Home (The Fallbright Company)

British game: Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)

Best music: Bioshock Infinite (Irrational Games)

Best story: The Last of Us (Naughty Dog)

Strategy and simulation: Papers, Please (Lucas Pope)

Artistic achievement: Tearaway (Media Molecule)

Audio achievement: The Last of Us (Naughty Dog)

Sport: Fifa 14 (EA Sports)

Family: Tearaway (Media Molecule)

Game innovation: Brothers: A tale of Two Sons (Starbreeze Studios)

Mobile and handheld: Tearaway (Media Molecule)

One to watch: Size DOES Matter (Team DOS)

Game design: Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)

Multiplayer: Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)

Best performer: Ashley Johnson as Ellie in The Last of Us (Naughty Dog)

Best game: The Last of Us (Naughty Dog)

Bafta Fellowship: Rockstar Games

Olivier Awards 2014 Full Nominations List

The nominations for The Olivier Awards 2014 with MasterCard – the most prestigious event in the UK’s theatrical calendar – were announced today (Monday 10 March) by Nigel Harman and Leigh Zimmerman with the full list of nominations available below. New musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along lead the list with seven nominations, followed by the Best New Musical nominees OnceThe Book of Mormon and The Scottsboro Boys each receiving six nominations. A good year for the Almeida is marked with ten nominations including two in the Best New Play category for Chimerica and 1984, and a Best Revival nomination for Ghosts.

In the coveted categories of Best Actor and Best Actress, Jude Law and Judi Dench receive nominations for their performances in Henry V and Peter and Alice respectively, both part of the successful Michael Grandage Season at the Noël Coward Theatre, which receives four acting nominations in total. They compete with Tom Hiddleston, Henry Goodman and Rory Kinnear for Best Actor, and Anna Chancellor, Lesley Manville and Hayley Atwell for Best Actress.

The Best New Comedy category makes a welcome return with original productions The Duck House, The Full Monty, Jeeves & Wooster in Perfect Nonsense and The Same Deep Water As Me all vying for the award.  Women dominate the Best Director category with Maria Friedman (Merrily We Roll Along), Susan Stroman (The Scottsboro Boys) and Lyndsey Turner (Chimerica) up against Richard Eyre for his staging of Ghosts.

The highly anticipated shortlist for the BBC Radio 2 Audience Award – the only Olivier Award voted for by the public – is Matilda The MusicalLes MisérablesThe Phantom of the Opera and Wicked.

Contemporary dance is strongly represented with nominations split between the Royal Opera House, the Barbican and Sadler’s Wells. Notable opera nominations include Les vêpres siciliennes at the Royal Opera House and English National Opera’s new staging of Berg’s Wozzeck up for Best New Opera Production.  English Touring Opera and the Royal Opera House are both nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.

Nominations for the Affiliate category cover the breadth of London with Theatre Royal Stratford East and the Bush Theatre competing against the Soho Theatre and the Tricycle Theatre for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre.

The star-studded 2014 Olivier Awards ceremony will take place at the Royal Opera House on Sunday 13 April with a full television highlights package broadcast on ITV later that evening. MasterCard will make tickets for the 2014 ceremony available to the public on Monday 10 March at www.pricelesslondon.co.uk.

Check out the official list of Olivier Awards 2014 nominees below:

BEST ACTOR

Henry Goodman for The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui at the Duchess Theatre

Tom Hiddleston for Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse

Rory Kinnear for Othello at the National Theatre, Olivier

Jude Law for Henry V at the Noël Coward Theatre


BEST ACTRESS

Hayley Atwell for The Pride at the Trafalgar Studios

Anna Chancellor for Private Lives at the Gielgud Theatre

Judi Dench for Peter And Alice at the Noël Coward Theatre

Lesley Manville for Ghosts at the Almeida Theatre & Trafalgar Studios
BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Ron Cook for Henry V at the Noël Coward Theatre

Mark Gatiss for Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse

Jack Lowden for Ghosts at the Almeida Theatre & Trafalgar Studios

Ardal O’Hanlon for The Weir at the Donmar Warehouse & the Wyndham’s Theatre


BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Sharon D Clarke for The Amen Corner at the National Theatre, Olivier

Sarah Greene for The Cripple Of Inishmaan at the Noël Coward Theatre

Katherine Kingsley for A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Noël Coward Theatre

Cecilia Noble for The Amen Corner at the National Theatre, Olivier

 

AMERICAN AIRLINES BEST NEW PLAY

1984 at the Almeida Theatre

Chimerica at the Almeida Theatre & Harold Pinter Theatre

The Night Alive at the Donmar Warehouse

Peter And Alice at the Noël Coward Theatre

 

BEST NEW COMEDY

The Duck House at the Vaudeville Theatre

The Full Monty at the Noël Coward Theatre

Jeeves & Wooster In Perfect Nonsense at the Duke of York’s Theatre

The Same Deep Water As Me at the Donmar Warehouse

 

BEST DIRECTOR

Richard Eyre for Ghosts at the Almeida Theatre & Trafalgar Studios

Maria Friedman for Merrily We Roll Along at the Harold Pinter Theatre

Susan Stroman for The Scottsboro Boys at the Young Vic

Lyndsey Turner for Chimerica at the Almeida Theatre & Harold Pinter Theatre

 

BEST ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

Gavin Creel for The Book Of Mormon at the Prince of Wales Theatre

Jared Gertner for The Book Of Mormon at the Prince of Wales Theatre

Douglas Hodge for Charlie And The Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Kyle Scatliffe for The Scottsboro Boys at the Young Vic

 

BEST ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

Rosalie Craig for The Light Princess at the National Theatre, Lyttelton

Zrinka Cvitesic for Once at the Phoenix Theatre

Jenna Russell for Merrily We Roll Along at the Harold Pinter Theatre

Charlotte Wakefield for The Sound Of Music at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
BEST PERFORMANCE IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MUSICAL

Stephen Ashfield for The Book Of Mormon at the Prince of Wales Theatre

Colman Domingo for The Scottsboro Boys at the Young Vic

Josefina Gabrielle for Merrily We Roll Along at the Harold Pinter Theatre

Nigel Planer for Charlie And The Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane

 

MASTERCARD BEST NEW MUSICAL

The Book Of Mormon at the Prince of Wales Theatre

Charlie And The Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Once at the Phoenix Theatre

The Scottsboro Boys at the Young Vic

 

BEST REVIVAL

The Amen Corner at the National Theatre, Olivier

Ghosts at the Almeida Theatre & Trafalgar Studios

Othello at the National Theatre, Olivier

Private Lives at the Gielgud Theatre

 

BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL

Merrily We Roll Along at the Harold Pinter Theatre

The Sound Of Music at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

Tell Me On A Sunday at the St James Theatre & the Duchess Theatre

 

BEST THEATRE CHOREOGRAPHER

Peter Darling for Charlie And The Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Steven Hoggett for Once at the Phoenix Theatre

Casey Nicholaw for The Book Of Mormon at the Prince of Wales Theatre

Susan Stroman for The Scottsboro Boys at the Young Vic

 

BEST ENTERTAINMENT AND FAMILY

Derren Brown: Infamous at the Palace Theatre

Eric And Little Ern at the Vaudeville Theatre

Barry Humphries’ Farewell Tour – Eat, Pray, Laugh! at the London Palladium

The Wind In The Willows at the Duchess Theatre

 

AUTOGRAPH SOUND AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC

The Book Of Mormon – Trey Parker, Robert Lopez & Matt Stone for book, music & lyrics

Merrily We Roll Along – The orchestra

Once – Martin Lowe for composition & arrangements, Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová for music & lyrics

The Scottsboro Boys – John Kander & Fred Ebb for music & lyrics

 

WHITE LIGHT AWARD FOR BEST LIGHTING DESIGN
Paule Constable for The Light Princess at the National Theatre, Lyttelton
Tim Lutkin & Finn Ross for Chimerica at the Almeida Theatre & Harold Pinter Theatre
Peter Mumford for Ghosts at the Almeida Theatre & Trafalgar Studios
Paul Pyant for Charlie And The Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane

 

 

BEST SOUND DESIGN

Simon Baker for The Light Princess at the National Theatre, Lyttelton

Carolyn Downing for Chimerica at the Almeida Theatre & Harold Pinter Theatre

Clive Goodwin for Once at the Phoenix Theatre

Gareth Owen for Merrily We Roll Along at the Harold Pinter Theatre

 

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Nicky Gillibrand for The Wind In The Willows at the Duchess Theatre

Soutra Gilmour for Merrily We Roll Along at the Harold Pinter Theatre

Rae Smith for The Light Princess at the National Theatre, Lyttelton

Mark Thompson for Charlie And The Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane

 

XL VIDEO AWARD FOR BEST SET DESIGN

Bob Crowley for Once at the Phoenix Theatre

Es Devlin for Chimerica at the Almeida Theatre & Harold Pinter Theatre

Tim Goodchild for Strangers On A Train at the Gielgud Theatre

Mark Thompson for Charlie And The Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane

 

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN AN AFFILIATE THEATRE

Cush Jumbo for Josephine And I at the Bush Theatre

Fleabag at the Soho Theatre

Handbagged at the Tricycle Theatre

Oh What A Lovely War at the Theatre Royal Stratford East

 

BEST NEW DANCE PRODUCTION

Compagnie 111 Aurélien Bory/Stéphanie Fuster for What’s Become Of You? (Questcequetudeviens?) at the Barbican Theatre
Eastman – Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui & Sadler’s Wells for Puz/zle at Sadler’s Wells
Richard Alston Dance Company/Britten Sinfonia for Barbican Britten: Phaedra at the Barbican Theatre

 

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DANCE 
Arthur Pita for his choreography of Ballet Black – A Dream Within A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House
Clemmie Sveaas for her performance in Witch-Hunt at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House
The Mark Morris Season at Sadler’s Wells
Michael Hulls for his body of lighting work including Ballet Boyz – The Talent at Sadler’s Wells

 

BEST NEW OPERA PRODUCTION

The Firework-Maker’s Daughter at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House

Les vêpres siciliennes at the Royal Opera House

Wozzeck by English National Opera at the London Coliseum

 

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN OPERA

Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez for their performances in La Donna Del Lago at the Royal Opera House

Plácido Domingo for his performance in Nabucco at the Royal Opera House

English Touring Opera for its brave and challenging touring productions at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House

 

BBC RADIO 2 AUDIENCE AWARD

Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre

Matilda The Musical at the Cambridge Theatre

The Phantom Of The Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre

Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre

Michael Fassbender Frank Trailer

Check out the first official trailer for Frank, the Frank Sidebottom inspired indie drama starring Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Michael Fassbender.

The film, directed by Lenny Abrahamson follows a young man’s adventures with an eccentric band led by a lead singer who permanently wears a large papier-mâché head.

The film is loosely inspired by real life musician and comedian Christopher Sievey who gained cult status in the 1970s and 80s through his comic alter-ego Frank Sidebottom. Instantly recognizable for his large cartoonish papier-mâché head.

The project was co-written by  Jon Ronson who was once a member of Frank Sidebottoms band in real life. It was originally intended to be an autobiographical tale based upon Sievey’s own writing, but was re-imagined as a  fictional story following his death.