Grace Of Monaco Release Delayed

The Weinsteinn Co. are reportedly pushing back the release date of Grace of Monaco, the film which sees Nicole Kidman play silver screen legend Grace Kelly. The story focuses on a turbulent time in Kelly’s marriage to Prince Rainier III.

The film had already premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, but has drawn criticism from the current Monaco Royal family, with Prince Albert II attacking the film for being ‘historically inaccurate’. In an official statement the Prince and his sisters alleged the film contains “Major historical untruths and a series of purely fictional scenes… The Prince and his family wish to emphasize that this film is by no mean a biopic”.

The news comes in the shadow of the recent public and critical backlash against Diana, the romantic melodrama that saw Naomi Watts play the Princess of Wales.

Grace of Monaco will now reportedly not arrive in cinemas until next year, in a move presumably designed to distance the film from the recent attacks and avoid unwelcome comparisons with the much derided Diana biopic.

Marvel Making Peggy Carter TV Series

Hayley Atwell recently reprized her role as Captain America’s love interest Peggy Carter for a new short film included on the Iron Man 3 Blu-ray/dvd release. She’s also going to be featuring at least briefly in big screen sequel Captain America The Winter Soldier, playing a older Agent Carter, reunited with a youthful Steve Rogers in the present day. However Marvel now also reportedly plans to launch a spin off TV series based around the character.

The new show in the early stages of development would go by the obvious title Agent Carter, following the adventures of the beautiful British agent introduced in Captain America The First Avenger. It’s expected that Network ABC might take responsibility for the show in line with their recent handling of Avengers spin-off show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

It’s unclear whether or not Hayley Atwell would be playing Carter in the new series or whether she’d be willing to commit herself to an entire series. The beautiful British actress is currently on stage in London’s West End in The Pride and about to stat working with Tom Hiddleston on Close Enough a biopic of war photographer Robert Capa.

Our recent video interview with Atwell below talking about Peggy Carter, working with Tom Hiddleston and her new play:

 

Disney & Jerry Bruckheimer Part Ways

Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer have officially parted ways. Despite a long history of collaboration and the vast box office success of Bruckheimer’s Pirates of The Caribbean franchise, it seems that the studio and the popular producer have lost enthusiasm for the relationship.

Many will be quick to point to the recent highly publicized box office catastrophe of Bruckheimer’s latest Disney Johnny Depp vehicle The Lone Ranger as the reason for the sudden split. The costly cowboy project had a bloated budget in excess of $200 million dollars, but only managed to haul back $29 million during it’s ominous opening weekend. Some analysts have estimated the flop may ultimately end up costing the studio about $190 million dollars.

In the official statement confirming the split with Bruckheimer, the studio was quick to try and assert that the colossal box office misfire wasn’t necessarily the reason for the break down of the relationship

“This is about a long-term relationship with lots of pluses and minuses. The Lone Ranger certainly didn’t help things, but we all have our wins and our losses, and this is an overall thing related to the company’s supply of projects from all these other places.”

Jerry Bruckheimer likewise has been quick to try and assert that:

“It’s not about Lone Ranger”.

The axed producer also confirmed that he won’t be producing any more films for Disney subsidiary Touchstone Pictures either:

“Films that fall into [Touchstone's] wheelhouse are supplied by DreamWorks.”

Apparently the end of the ongoing partnership with Disney won’t prevent Bruckheimer continuing to help develop the next Pirates of the Caribbean adventure  and another possible National Treasure sequel.

 

Benedict Cumberbatch Star Wars Rumours Grow

The enthusiastic but questionably reliable Latino Review is once again claiming to have news of exciting Star Wars Episode VII casting. This time they’re reporting that  Benedict Cumberbatch and Saoirse Ronan are both in various stages of joining the cast of J.J. Abrams Star Wars sequel.

Reports claim that Saoirse Ronan has already had a meeting to read for an undisclosed role and that Cumberbatch likewise will extraordinarily re-unite with his Star Trek Into Darkness director for a role in the new Star Wars franchise. The confident article even asserts that while the Sherlock stars role in Episode VII may be fairy small, he will in fact go on to have an expanded presence in the rest of the new trilogy of Star Wars films.

Saoirse Ronan recently contradicted widely reported claims she’d actually turned down a role in Avengers sequel Age of Ultron whilst talking to Red Carpet News, so it’s sensible to treat these new reports with healthy Jedi caution. Time will tell if any of these assertions are based on more than enthusiastic speculation and a calculated desire to grab some easy fangirl internet traffic…

J.J. Abrams Wants Authentic Star Wars Sequel

Director J.J. Abrams has spoken to Entertainment Weekly about his Disney backed reboot of the Star Wars franchise, insisting that while the tone of Episode VII is still “an evolving thing”  that he is nevertheless “working really hard to make a movie that feels as emotional and authentic and exciting as possible”.  

Sharing his own recollections of the beloved original Star Wars Trilogy the director added:

“I remember reading a thing somewhere, someone wrote about just wanting [the new film] to feel real; to feel authentic. I remember I felt that way when I was 11 years old when I saw the first one. As much of a fairy tale as it was, it felt real. And to me, that is exactly right.”

Presumably these comments are the first tentative step towards reassuring fans that Abrams is looking to learn from the CGI fuelled mistakes of the much derided  Star Wars pre-quels, restoring both credibility and tactile magic to the once proud space saga. May the force be with him……