Samuel West - The Crimson Field, Ode to Napoleon, Hamlet

Screencaps of Sam as Elliot Vincent in episode 4 of The Crimson Field. Click them for full size.


The episode is available on iPlayer for the next 14 days.

Booking for the Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival opens 12 May. On 27 September, Sam will narrate "Ode to Napoleon" by Schoenberg.
In September 2005, he mentioned that he'd narrated it "three times now -it's the hardest thing I've ever done" ("The finest recording of the year? Trust me, I'm a celebrity", The Times, 2 September 2005). Presumably one of those times was in early 1994, when he collaborated with the Hebrides Ensemble to perform an "eloquent and animated" interpretation of the work (Herald Scotland).

The Guardian's "45 Hamlets for Shakespeare's 450th birthday" features a selection of actors who have played Hamlet, including Sam, Ralph Fiennes, Simon Russell Beale, David Tennant, Ben Whishaw, Michael Sheen, Rory Kinnear, Toby Stephens, John Simm and Alex Jennings.
Sam starred in a production directed by Steven Pimlott - click here to find out more.

Yesterday, Sam tweeted some personal (and squeeworthy) news tweet 1|tweet 2

Charles Edwards - National Theatre 50th anniversary, A Young Doctor's Notebook, Trying Again

[updated 14 November 2013]


Charles and Ralph Fiennes in Pravda (video source)
Charles played Michael Quince in an excerpt from Pravda (video here) at the National Theatre's 50 years on stage performance.
The program for the event contains some reflections about the venue, including this one from Charles (via his Twitter, @cedwardsactor)

During the closing moments of All My Sons in the Cottesloe, those of us who weren't on stage were peering through the curtains at Arthur Miller, who was watching his play, rapt, mouthing the final words as they were spoken, 50-odd years after he had written them. In the Green Room afterwards we gathered round him to soak up whatever wisdom he could impart. In time he finished his drink and got up to leave with his wife, and we all one by one started to produce posters, copies of Timebends and programmes for him to sign, like the starstruck kids we were.

Screencap of Charles from A Young Doctor's Notebook
He will be in the next series of A Young Doctor's Notebook; he briefly appears in the trailer (via @BakerStBasilisk).

A picture of Charles and Chris Addison accompanies an article about filming for Trying Again.

British Independent Film Awards

Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Colin Firth, Andrea Riseborough, Rosamund Pike, Ruth Wilson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Matthew Goode, Romola Garai, and Jason Isaacs attended the British Independent Film Awards. Carey won the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film (Never Let Me Go) and Colin won the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a British Independent Film (The King's Speech).
Pictures: Rex Features, WireImage (inside, arrivals), and Getty (champagne reception, arrivals, after party).

Entertainment news

• An unseen Charlie Chaplin film was bought for a bargain on eBay [link]
  
• David Tennant will star in the NBC pilot Rex is Not Your Lawyer [link]
• In the Loop won three Scottish BAFTAs - best director (Armando Iannucci), best writing (Armando Ianucci, Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell) and best actor (Peter Capaldi) [link]
• Gerard Butler will star in Ralph Fiennes' contemporary reworking of Coriolanus [link]
  
• Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese and Emily Mortimer attended a screening of The Red Shoes in New York [link]
  
• Sally Hawkins, Juno Temple and William H. Macy will star in Abe Sylvia's feature directorial debut Dirty Girl [link]
• Glorious 39
• Article about the London Film Festival premiere's afterparty [link]
  
• Walsingham Abbey is one of the locations in the film [link]
• Ben Whishaw, Stephen Fry, Tom Sturridge, Charles Dance and Dominic Cooper interviews ben|stephen|tom|charles|dominic
• Wonderful blog post from Shadowplay about Vertigo (via Self-Styled Siren) [link]
• Michael Fassbender and Forest Whitaker will star in A Single Shot, a thriller directed by David Jacobson [link]
  
• Romola Garai's "My Week" from the Guardian [link]
• Georgia, starring Rupert Friend, Richard Coyle and Emmanuelle Chriqui, has begun filming [link]
  
• Martin Scorsese believes Blu-Ray is good [link]
• Dominic Cooper will star in The Devil's Double [link]

Entertainment news

• Mad Men has been renewed for a fourth season [link]
  
• Daniel Craig will star in the film Dream House which will be directed by Jim Sheridan [link]
  
• Andrew Buchan, Jon Hamm, Zooey Deschanel, Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant and Joseph Gordon-Levitt interviews andrew|jon|zooey|ricky & stephen|joseph
  
• Boardwalk Empire, starring Steve Buscemi and Kelly Macdonald, has been picked up for 11 episodes. The pilot was directed by Martin Scorsese. [link]
  
• Stephen Frears will direct Tamara Drewe, starring Gemma Arterton, Dominic Cooper and Tamsin Greig [link]
• Scans from Nylon about Mad Men, Entourage and The Prisoner 1|2
• Quentin Tarantino will receive the Santa Barbara International Film Festival's Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film [link]
• A picture of Michael Sheen as Aro from New Moon [link]
• Coriolanus, directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes, has been selected for International Financing Forum (IFF) which will take place during the Toronto International Film Festival [link]
• Article about the Australian International Movie Convention from the Australian [link]

Samuel West - Theatre - Enron. BBC Radio 3.

• Some excerpts about Enron from an article by Sam from the Observer:
  

  "...Back to the Minerva Theatre in Chichester for the last week of Enron, Lucy Prebble's astounding exploration of the energy company's collapse...It's good to be exploring the staid world of business through a show that includes dance, song, dinosaurs and a light-sabre fight..."

• BBC Radio 3:
• Toby Jones, Toby Stephens, David Morrissey and Ruth Wilson will be in the Autumn season (via The Stage) [link]
• Readings by Ralph Fiennes are featured in The Essay Secret Places in the Four Quartets [link]

Entertainment news

• Hilarious Cemetery Junction teaser featuring Ralph Fiennes, Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais [link]
  
• Old films need a new marketing makeover [link]
  
• BBC4 will have tribute nights for Harold Pinter and Simon Gray this weekend [link]
  
• Rich Sommer, Audrey Tautou, Ang Lee, Quentin Tarantino and Bill Nighy interviews rich|audrey|ang|quentin|bill
  
• Matt Smith has started filming his episodes of Doctor Who [link]
  
• Season 6 of Entourage
• A couple of videos 1|2
• Matt Damon will have a cameo [link]
• Bright Star trailer [link]
• Article about the upcoming Star Trek DVD release [link]
• Emmy nominations [link]

Entertainment news

• Cannes:
  
• Martin Scorsese and Ben Whishaw were on Film Weekly [link]
• Ben Whishaw, Ang Lee and Thelma Schoonmaker interviews ben|ang|thelma
• Article about Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation [link]
• Movie posters, Lego style (via ONTD) [link]
• Clip of Harry and Ron from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince [link]
• Anton Corbijn (Control) will direct A Very Private Gentleman, an adaptation of the Martin Booth novel [link]
• Ewan McGregor, Pamela Rabe, David Suchet interviews ewan|pamela|david
• William Hurt, Vanessa Redgrave and Jessica Chastain have joined the cast of Ralph Fiennes' directorial debut, Coriolanus [link]
• Balibo and Bran Nue Dae will respectively open and close the Melbourne Film Festival [link]
  
• Michael Sheen and Paddy Considine will star in Submarine [link]
• Article about Alfred Hitchcock from the Independent [link]
  
• Sam Riley and Carey Mulligan will star in a film adaptation of Graham Greene's novel Brighton Rock [link]
• David Suchet is to embark on a journey across Europe on the Orient Express for a new ITV1 documentary [link]
  
• Tilda Swinton is attached to Lynne Ramsay's film We Need to Talk About Kevin [link]

Entertainment news

• Green Lantern, a DC Comics adaptation directed by Martin Campbell, will be filmed in Sydney [link]
  
• Charlotte Rampling and Sally Hawkins have been cast in Never Let Me Go, which stars Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield, Carey Mulligan and Andrea Riseborough [link]
• Adam Elliot's claymation film Mary and Max (starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette) took in $296,000 on its opening weekend [link]
  
• Zooey Deschanel SXSW interview (via ONTD) [link]
• Reviews of Realism by Paul Galloway and Travesties by Tom Stoppard by Alison Croggon [link]
  
• Ralph Fiennes is in talks to take an uncredited cameo in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, the Nanny McPhee sequel which stars Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rhys Ifans and Maggie Smith [link]
• Werner Herzog interview about his new film Encounters at the End of the World [link]
  
• According to a report released by Access Economics, the film and TV industry contributes $4.4 billion to the Australian economy annually. But of much of that is locally generated? Access Economics is currently preparing a separate report detailing the economic contribution by the Hollywood Studio members of MPA [link]
• In the Loop
• The film will be screened at the Sydney Film Festival (via the Hollywood Reporter) [link]
  
• Positive review from the Guardian [link]
  
• Producer Simon Channing Williams (Happy-Go-Lucky, The Constant Gardener, Topsy-Turvy) has died [link]
• New producers for Doctor Who have been announced (via Media Guardian) [link]
  
• Michael Sheen will portray the leader of the Volturi, an Italy-based coven of vampires, in New Moon, the sequel to Twilight [link]
• Fabulous rant by screenwriter James Moran (Torchwood, Spooks) about camera shakiness [link]
• Article about this year's Cannes Film Festival [link]

Entertainment news

• Daniel Evans will be artistic director of Sheffield Theatres, which will be reopening later this year [link]
• In the Loop
• Peter Capaldi interview from The Daily Mayo podcast (9 April) [link]
• Webisodes from Empire [link]
  
• Article from the Guardian [link]
• Clips from the Independent 1|2|3|4
  
• The film will be reviewed on Front Row 14 April [link]
• Leighton Meester, Dylan Moran, Emily Mortimer, Jason Isaacs and Amy Adams interviews leighton|dylan|emily|jason|amy
• Ralph Fiennes has joined the cast of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's new comedy The Men At The Pru [link]
  
• BFI Southbank's James Bond season is featured on this week's Film Weekly podcast [link]
• Skellig
• John Simm interviews 1|2
• Kelly Macdonald interviews 1|2
  
• Tim Roth interviews 1|2
  
• Public Enemies, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Cherrybomb trailers public enemies|hbp|cherrybomb
• The Australian film Beneath Hill 60 will receive funding from Screen Australia (via transmission) [link]
• Article from the Guardian about the brilliantly underrated Buster Keaton [link]
  

Entertainment news

• Fantastic article about horror movie remakes by Michael Adams [link]
• BAFTA film award winners [link]
  
• Australian film financing market 37 South: Bridging the Gap has secured another two years of Victoria state funding. [link]
• WGA award winners [link]
• Article about the European Film Market [link]
• Ralph Fiennes' feature directorial debut will be an adaptation of Coriolanus. He will also star in the film. [link]
  
• Gemma Arterton, Eddie Marsan and Martin Compston will star in the thriller The Disappearance of Alice Creed [link]
• Adorableness - Kristen Bell on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and Leighton Meester giving a tour of the Gossip Girl set for seventeen.com kristen|leighton
• Celluloid Dreams has taken international rights to the film Jack Goes Boating, Philip Seymour Hoffman's feature directorial debut [link]
• Ewan McGregor and Carey Mulligan are in talks to star in Myriad Pictures' The Electric Slide [link]
• One of Steven Soderbergh's future projects is an adaptation of Michael Lewis' book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game [link]
• Trailer for series 3 of Torchwood *squeeeeeee* [link]
• Emily Blunt and James McAvoy interviews [link]
• Steven Spielberg is going to guest edit Empire [link]
• Werner Herzog interview [link]

Entertainment news

• Stills from Coco avant Chanel starring Audrey Tautou (via ONTD) [link]
• There's going to be an installation of material for a Kubrick film that did not get made [link]
  
• Isabelle Huppert will be president of the Cannes film festival jury [link]
• JD Salinger died on New Year's Day [link]
• Interview with Ralph Fiennes [link]
• Slideshow of pictures from photographer Mary Ellen Mark's book Seen behind the scene/Forty years of photographing on set [link]
• Interview with Daniel Craig [link]
• Matt Smith (Party Animals) will play the Eleventh Doctor in Doctor Who [link]
  

Hayley Atwell - Film - The Duchess

• Clip from moviejungle - "No Limits Whatsoever" [link]
• Scan of her interview from The Times [link]
• A nice article about her from The Morning Call [link]
• Quotes from reviews:
  Eye Weekly
  "...Lady Elizabeth Foster, played by Hayley Atwell with a nifty mix of fragility and calculation, enough to make one wish that the film were about her."
  The New Yorker
  "...The most diverting character is Lady Elizabeth Foster (Hayley Atwell), the Duke’s mistress, who moved in to create a ménage à trois, and who should have been the heroine of this movie..."
  Film Journal
  "...Atwell is terrific as the conflicted, practical Bess..."
  
• Interview with Ralph Fiennes [link]
• Article about costume design for the film [link]
  

Tags: Hayley Atwell, The Duchess, Lady Elizabeth Foster, Bess, Ralph Fiennes

Hayley Atwell - Film - The Duchess - Toronto film festival

From Variety:

"...on the Gala red carpet are Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes for The Duchess, a Paramount Vantage biopic about Lady Georgiana Spencer, directed by Saul Dibb (Bullet Boy). Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell and Charlotte Rampling also star..."

And from the festival's official site:

The Duchess Saul Dibb, United Kingdom
International Premiere
Long before the concept existed, the Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana Spencer (Keira Knightley), was the original “It Girl” -- ravishing, glamorous and adored by an entire country. Determined to be a player in the wider affairs of the world, she helped usher in sweeping changes to England as a leader of the forward-thinking Whig Party. But even as her power and popularity grew, she was haunted by the fact that the only man in England she seemingly could not seduce was her very own husband, the Duke (Ralph Fiennes). Directed by Saul Dibb (Bullet Boy, The Line of Beauty), The Duchess is the story of an extraordinary woman who rose to fame by staying true to her passions in a world of protocol, gossip and social rules – and paid the price. Academy Award™ nominees Knightley and Fiennes head an international cast that also includes Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell and Charlotte Rampling. Based on the award-winning biography Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman, The Duchess is written by Dibb, Jeffrey Hatcher and Anders Thomas Jensen. The Duchess is a Paramount Vantage presentation.

Tags: Hayley Atwell, The Duchess, Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF, Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Paramount Vantage, biopic, Lady Georgiana Spencer, Saul Dibb, Bullet Boy, Dominic Cooper, Charlotte Rampling, Variety, Duchess of Devonshire, Amanda Foremann, Jeffrey Hatcher, Anders Thomas Jensen

Hayley Atwell - Film - The Duchess

* updated 28 December

Interview with Hayley from the Daily Mail [link].

Links
Trailer from moviefone [link]
IMDB [link]
Wikipedia [link]
Ralph Fiennes Corner - The Duchess [link]


Tags: Hayley+Atwell, The+Duchess, film, Ralph+Fiennes, Keira+Knightley