1ST RICHARD GADD, JAMIE BELL PICS FROM HALF MAN TV SERIES, RUPERT EVERETT, HAYLEY ATWELL JOIN RIVALS SEASON 2, TOM CAVANAGH JOINS BROOKE SHIELDS CRIME DRAMA YOU ARE KILLING ME

  LATEST NEWS HEADLINES 

FIRST LOOK AT HALF MAN SERIES

Straight from BBC and HBO we have the first look at buffed Richard Gadd in their new series HALF MAN in which he stars next to Jamie Bell as brothers Ruben and Niall, who reunite after years of estrangement, leading to an explosion of violence that catapults us back through their lives over the course of the series. Mitchell Robertson and Stuart Campbell will play them in their younger years in the six episode series that spans four decades from the 1980s to present day! Story explores highs and lows of Ruben and Niall’s relationship, from meeting them as troubled teenagers to witnessing their falling out as adults with all the good, bad, terrible, funny, angry and challenging moments along the way!

 

 RUPERT EVERETT JOINS RIVALS SEASON 2

Disney Plus is about to start filming the 12 episode second season of their hit series RIVALS and have added Rupert Everett and Hayley Atwell to the cast of the show set in the glamorous world of 1980s British television against the backdrop of the Cotswolds countryside, with the second season dealing with heightened power struggles and deeper rivalries as careers, marriages and reputations hang in the balance. Aidan Turner, David Tennant and Alex Hassell return to the lead roles. Atwell will portray Helen Gordon, the ex-wife of Rupert Campbell-Black and mother to his children Marcus and Tabitha. Everett will be Malise Gordon, her husband and Campbell-Black’s former show-jumping coach and mentor. 

 

 

YOU ARE KILLING ME DRAMA ADS CAST 

Over at Acorn TV they have added Tom Cavanagh and Amalia Williamson to their six part crime drama YOU ARE KILLING ME with Brooke Shields in the lead. Set in a quaint New England colonial town, formerly knows as Ally and Andi, follows bestselling novelist (Shields) who forms an unlikely alliance with Andi, an aspiring writer and podcaster (Williamson) to find the killer of a close friend. Cavanagh plays Jack, the new lead detective of the Founders Cove Police Department and former city slicker who is trying to acclimate to the quirks of small-town life.

1ST THE LONG SONG BBC 19TH CENTURY JAMAICA SET SERIES TRAILER WITH JACK LOWDEN, HAYLEY ATWELL! HERMAN MELVILLE'S BENITO CERENO SLAVERY NOVEL TO BECOME SF SERIES! BLACK JACOBINS HAITIAN 18TH CENTURY REVOLUTION NOVEL TO BECOME TV SERIES

 'THE LONG SONG' TRAILER 

 FOR BBC JAMAICA SET SERIES

We are all about colonial slavery today! BBC One has released a trailer for THE LONG SONG which will start airing in UK December 18 as the three part  adaptation of the novel by Andrea Levy, starring Jack Lowden and Hayley Atwell.

THE LONG SONG IS SET
during the final days of slavery in 19th century Jamaica and tells the story of the strong willed, young slave July (Tamara Lawrance) on a plantation

Hayley Atwell and Jack Lowden lead the cast of The Long Song

owned by her odious mistress Caroline Mortimer (Hayley Atwell). When a charming new arrival to the island, Robert Goodwin (Jack Lowden),

The three part mini series will start airing December 18th on BBC One

becomes the new overseer, July and Caroline are both intrigued by his seemingly revolutionary determination to improve the plantation for the

Our beloved Jack Lowden takes the male lead in the epic saga

slaves and mistress alike. Check out the trailer for the new three part historical mini series below and tell us what you think!:

 NEW BOOK ADAPTATIONS

MELVILLE'S BENITO CERENO

Benito Cereno will become a sf series

Meanwhile, Deadline reports that Herman Melville's novella about a fictionalized revolt of a Spanish slave ship BENITO CERENO will be adapted into a TV series but set in deep space! Steven Katz will write and produce the story, inspired by the novella about slavery, the nature of man and good versus evil, and turned into a science fiction thriller which will revolve around an accidental encounter between a human commercial ship and an alien slave freighter, where the human captain navigates a world of inter species slavery in a distant future with frightening parallels to our past.
THE BLACK JACOBINS
You can also expect a TV series on Haitian Revolution since Kwame Kwei Armah will turn C. L. R. James' book THE BLACK JACOBINS into a historical drama.  The ten part saga will chart the history of the Haitian

The story of Haitian revolution will be turned into a TV series

Revolution of 1791-1804 beginning with the first slave revolt of 1791 and ending with the Haitian declaration of independence in 1804, while also exploring the nature of leadership, its compromises, its glories and the range of personal cost it claims.

ENCHANTINGLY HEARTWARMING NEW TRAILER AND CHARACTER POSTERS FOR DISNEY'S 'CHRISTOPHER ROBIN' WITH EWAN MCGREGOR, HAYLEY ATWELL!

 'CHRISTOPHER ROBIN'

NEW POSTERS AND TRAILER

Christopher Robin arrives August 3rd!

It is almost around the corner, spylings, new heartwarming family adventure CHRISTOPHER ROBIN will bring Pooh and his friends into cinemas August 3rd, which is next week! With Mark Foster (who isn't a stranger when it comes to movies based on writers or book characters) behind the helm, this mix of live action movie and CGI was inspired by the creator of the popular children's story A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard's book Winnie-the-Pooh! Ewan McGregor leads the cast in the new Disney movie!

Mark Forster directed the new movie

THE STORY OF CHRIST OPHER ROBIN
follows an adult Christopher Robin, who is now focused on his new life, work, and family, but he suddenly meets his old friend Winnie the Pooh, who returns to his unforgotten childhood past to help him return to the Hundred Acre Wood and help find Pooh's lost friends. Christopher Robin is in trouble himself as he has lost all sense of

Ewan McGregor leads the cast

imagination obsessed with constant work and is even in danger of losing his wife and kids if Pooh doesn't awake the child in him again.

CAST OF CHRIST OPHER ROBIN

is lead by Ewan McGregor as Christopher Robin, a businessman who was once an imaginative boy, with Orton O'Brien appearing in the film as young Christopher Robin! Hayley Atwell, meanwhile, is Evelyn Robin, Christopher's wife. Bronte Carmichael appears as Madeline Robin, Christopher's daughter with Mark Gatiss as Giles Winslow, Christopher's boss. When it comes to voices of Robin's friends,

The Animals from the Hundred Acre Wood are here to help Robin again

Jim Cummings lends his to both Winnie the Pooh, a honey loving plush toy bear who lives in the Hundred Acre Wood, and Tigger, a toy tiger who loves to bounce on his tail like a spring. Brad Garrett is Eeyore, a toy donkey who

The movie is dedicated to composer Johann Johannson who died during production

always loses his tail and talks with a deep depressing voice and tone. Toby Jones is the wise Owl, while Nick Mohammed is Piglet, a diminutive toy pig who is afraid of everything but has a big heart. Sophie Okonedo is Kanga, a toy kangaroo! 

JACK LOWDEN, HAYLEY ATWELL TO LEAD BBC'S 'LONG SONG' 19TH CENTURY JAMAICAN SET TV SAGA! 'DOWNTON ABBEY' FILM SHOOTING THIS SUMMER OFFICIALLY!

    'THE LONG SONG' SERIES

JACK LOWDEN & HAYLEY ATWELL TO LEAD NEW BBC EPIC SAGA

And we are back, after his Netflix movie Calibre and yesterday's trailer for Mary Queen of Scots in which he plays Lord Darnley, with our favourite

Jack Lowden will take the lead male role

Scotsman, dearest Jack Lowden, who's just been cast together with Hayley Atwell in BBC's new epic mini saga THE LONG SONG! Three part adaptation of Andrea Levy's will also star Tamara Lawrence, Lenny Henry, Doña Croll, Sharon Duncan Brewster, Ayesha Antoine, Arinzé Kene, Ansu Kabia, Jordan Bolger, Joy Richardson, Madeleine Mantock and Leo Bill!

THE LONG SONG, set during the final days of slavery in 19th century Jamaica, follows the strong willed, young slave July (Tamara Lawrance) on a plantation owned by her odious mistress Caroline Mortimer (Hayley Atwell). When a charming new arrival to the island, Robert Goodwin (Jack Lowden), becomes the new overseer, July and Caroline are both intrigued by his seemingly revolutionary determination to improve the plantation for the slaves and mistress alike. The story is told from July’s perspective as she looks back over her life; the tone is funny, defiant and indomitable. It’s a story about the injustices that humans

First look at Tamara Lawrence and Hayley Atwell in The Long Song mini series

inflict upon each other and the unexpected ways in which people’s humanity sometimes overrules their prejudices. Three hundred years of slavery finally came to a chaotic end on the British ruled Caribbean island of Jamaica in 1838.

    'DOWNTON ABBEY' MOVIE

STARTS SHOOTING THIS SUMMER

In other period set news today, the production will officially commence this summer with the old cast on the movie version of DOWNTON ABBEY! Julian Fellowes has written the script (that apparently 'charms, thrills and

The movie will be produced by Carnival Films who did our fave Jamestown

entertains) which will be directed by The Book Thief's Brian Percival. The original cast of the turn of the century series included Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Smith, John Carter, Jessica Brown Findlay, Matthew Goode!

FAMILY FRIDAY: NEW 'CHRISTOPHER ROBIN' TRAILER & POSTER WITH EWAN MCGREGOR & WINNIE THE POOH! FANTASY CLASSIC 'EARTHSEA' TO BE TURNED INTO MOVIES!

   NEW 'CHRISTOPHER ROBIN'

TRAILER WITH EWAN MCGREGOR

Your Friday delights are lovely new trailer and poster for CHRISTOPHER ROBIN in which our dearest Ewan McGregor plays the grown up friend of

The Pooh arrives this August!

the famous little bear. With the release of the film scheduled for August 17th, the Marc Forster directed family adventure also stars Hayley Atwell as Christopher's wife Evelyn!

CHRISTOPHER ROBIN is now an adult and focused on his new life and work as a London businessman and is, apparently, at a risk to lose his wife and family because he is too devoted to his work and does not have any time to play so he needs to find his younger self again! When he’s ordered to work yet another weekend, Christopher’s stuffed childhood pals arrive to set things right and that is when he meets his old friend Winnie the Pooh again, from his

Ewan McGregor plays an adult overworked Christopher Robin

unforgotten childhood past, who comes to help him return to the Hundred Acre Wood where they need to find Pooh's lost friends.

   'EARTHSEA' FANTASY SAGA

TO BE TURNED INTO MOVIES!

Ursula wrote more than 20 books in her career

Meanwhile,  producer Jennifer Fox will turn Ursula K. Le Guin's fantasy classic EARTHSEA into a series of movies. Ursula sold her the rights before she died at the beginning of this year. As 'Deadline' reports, the saga includes five novels and eight short stories set in a fantasy archipelago of hundreds of islands, imperilled by those who use magic to gain power and upset its delicate balance. Most of its characters are people of colour and the emphasis is on understanding nature and human nature, not possessing power over them.

HEARTWARMING 'CHRISTOPHER ROBIN' TRAILER IS HERE WITH EWAN MCGREGOR & WINNIE THE POOH! EXCITING FULL TRAILER FOR NETFLIX SF SERIES 'LOST IN SPACE' WITH TOBY STEPHENS

'CHRISTOPHER ROBIN' TRAILER

EWAN MCGREGOR & WINNIE POOH

Christopher Robin arrives this August!

Continuing with family friendly programme this week, here's the first trailer for CHRISTOPHER ROBIN movie for you! It is a heart warming adventure in which Ewan McGregor plays an adult Christopher Robin, who is now focused on his new life, work, and family, when he suddenly meets his old friend Winnie the Pooh, who returns to his unforgotten childhood past to help him return to the Hundred Acre Wood and help find Pooh's lost friends.In the process he will find the boy he once were and who is still inside his heart. Directed by Marc Forster it is out in cinemas this August! Hayley Atwell plays his wife.

'LOST IN SPACE' TRAILER

TOBY STEPHENS LEADS THE ROBINSON FAMILY SF SERIES

The series starts airing April 13th worldwide

Netflix has released the full trailer for their remake of LOST IN SPACE TV series after that teaser two weeks ago! It will start airing worldwide April 13th! Set 30 years in the future, it follows the Robinson family (Toby Stephens is the father) who is among those tested and selected to make a new life for themselves in a better world. But when the new colonists find themselves abruptly torn off course en route to their new home they must forge new alliances and work together to survive in a dangerous alien environment, light years from their original destination. Stranded along with the Robinsons are two outsiders who find themselves thrown together by circumstance and a mutual

Toby Stephens leads the cast as the father of the Robinson family

knack for deception. The charismatic Dr. Smith is a master manipulator with an inscrutable end game. And the roguish, but charming Don West is a highly-skilled, blue collar contractor, who had no intention of joining the colony, let alone crash landing on a lost planet.

PREMIUM SPOTLIGHT ON 'HOWARDS END' PERIOD SET BBC SERIES WITH MATTHEW MACFADYEN, HAYLEY ATWELL, TRACEY ULLMAN, JULIA ORMOND, JOSEPH QUINN

  'HOWARDS END'

BBC & STARZ PERIOD SET DRAMA

The four episode drama starts airing this Sunday

Just three days before the start of the official airing, BBC One has finally released a trailer for their new period set drama HOWARDS END which starts airing this Sunday in four episodes, with Starz broadcasting the story of two couples caught in a swirling landscape of social and class divisions in turn of the century England sometime next year for the audience in USA.

THE STORY OF HOWARDS END
 based on E.M. Forster's classic novel, focuses on Margaret Schlegel (Hayley Atwell), an intelligent, idealistic, bohemian young woman who is courted by the older Henry Wilcox (Matthew Macfadyen), a self-made conservative businessman, after his wife Ruth Wilcox (Julia Ormond) dies

Matthew MacFadyen is Henry Wilcox in the series

unexpectedly! Meanwhile, Margaret’s passionate and capricious younger sister Helen Schlegel (Philippa Coulthard) takes up the cause of Leonard Bast

Hayley Atwell is Margaret Schlegel

(Joseph Quinn), a young bank clerk who falls on hard times at work and at home with his partner Jacky (Rosalind Eleazar). In the absence of their

Lovely Joseph Quinn is Leonard Bast

parents, who have died, the sisters’ loving but interfering Aunt Juley (Tracey Ullman) tries to keep the young ladies and their brother Tibby (Alex Lawther) on the straight and narrow.

Julia Ormond appears only in the first two episodes as Mrs Wilcox

WHAT DID THE SPY THINK?

The first episode is visually enchanting, story intriguing, performances mostly well done, but the series turns into a ghastly monotonous snobbish gibberish fest filled with shallow existentialist dialogues as early as the second episode and then finishes as an ode to blatant golddiggers with not an ounce of sense whatsoever.  

HAYLEY ATWELL IS THE WIFE OF EWAN MCGREGOR'S CHRISTOPHER ROBIN IN LIVE ACTION 'WINNIE THE POOH' MOVIE! JACK GRIFFO JOINS NETFLIX SITCOM 'ALEXA AND KATIE'

  LIVE ACTION 'WINNIE THE POOH'

HAYLEY ATWELL JOINS EWAN MCGREGOR IN THE CAST

Earlier this year I told you that Ewan McGregor is to play a grown up Christopher Robin in Disney's live action movie version of WINNIE

Hayley played Cinderella's mother for Disney before

THE POOH and now they've found him a wife in Hayley Atwell!

  In the movie directed by Mark Forster, we will see Christopher Robin as an adult man, a business man who has lost all of his sense of imagination and has also neglected his wife and kids busy with work. While his home is falling apart, his childhood friends from the Hundred Acre Woods, Winnie, Tiger, Eeyore and others, reappear in his life to help him discover his lust for life and adventure again. Christopher will have to save his family with the help of his friends or he risks loosing everything. Dumbo, Aladdin, Mulan and Lion King live action versions are already in production!

  'ALEXA & KATIE' SITCOM

JACK GRIFFO JOINS THE CAST OF NEW NETFLIX COMEDY

There won't be many multi camera sitcoms on the telly in the new season, but one of them will see the light of the day next year on Netflix! I've already told you earlier this summer that Tiffany

Griffo starred in teen series The Thundermans

Thiessen will play a mother in ALEXA & KATIE, and now Jack Griffo and Kerri Medders have also joined the cast. It follows two best friends Alexa (Paris Berelc) and Katie (Isabel May), who are eagerly anticipating the start of their freshman year of high school. The friends confront a crisis that leaves them feeling like outsiders at a time when what seems to matter most is fitting in. Jack Griffo will play Dylan, a smart, cute friend of Alexa's brother Lucas (Emery Kelly). Slightly more mature than the average 16-year-old, Dylan sees Alexa’s strengths as well as her insecurities. To Alexa, Dylan is her brother’s annoying friend, but when he becomes her math tutor, Dylan’s teasing makes Alexa see him in a new way. While Alexa worries that Dylan’s flirtation might come from pity, underneath she is developing a crush on him that she’s not ready to admit. Medders will play Alexa's very competitive rival!

PERIOD SET SERIES SATURDAY: NEW PHOTOS FROM 'HOWARDS END' SERIES WITH MATTHEW MCFADYEN, HAYLEY ATWELL, 'PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK' WITH NATALIE DORMER

  'HOWARDS END' NEW PHOTOS

FROM BBC & STARZ MINI SERIES

With the news from the world of period set series that Hulu has ordered the second season of Harlots and that TNT is probably going to

Matthew Macfadyen plays a conservative businessman

cancel their Will series, there's also something new from Starz: they've released new photos from next year's mini series HOWARDS END an adaptation of E. M. Forster's novel.

The series is based on E.M. Forsters' classic novel

MATTHEW MACFADYEN AND HAYLEY ATWELL LEAD THE CAST   
A coproduction between BBC and Starz it will tell the story of two couples caught in a swirling landscape of social and class divisions in turn of the century England! The four part series focuses on Margaret

The series will air next year both on BBC and Starz

Schlegel (Hayley Atwell), an idealistic, woman who is courted by the older Henry Wilcox (Matthew Macfadyen), a conservative businessman, after his wife Ruth Wilcox (Julia Ormond) dies

Joseph Quinn, Tracey Ulman and Alex Lawther in their costumes

unexpectedly. Meanwhile, Margaret’s passionate and capricious younger sister Helen Schlegel (Philippa Coulthard) takes up the cause of Leonard Bast (Joseph Quinn), a young bank clerk who falls on hard times at work and at home with his partner Jacky (Rosalind

Hayley Atwell plays Margaret Schlegel

Eleazar). In the absence of their parents, who have died, the sisters’ loving but interfering Aunt Juley (Tracey Ullman) tries to keep the young ladies and their brother Tibby (Alex Lawther) on the straight and narrow.

  'PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK'

NATALIE DORMER TV SERIES

Amazon has, meanwhile, picked up another period set series coming from Australia PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK with Natalie Dormer as the lead star.  Based on a Joan Lindsay’s classic novel, the six part

Natalie Dormer leads the cast of the new period set series

series sees her playing English headmistress Mrs Hester Appleyard, a woman whose dead husband instructs her daily life and whose peculiarities are surely hiding dark skeletons! PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK chronicles the mysterious disappearances of three schoolgirls

The series will first air Down Under on Foxtel before moving to Amazon

and one teacher on Valentine’s Day 1900. The complex, interwoven narrative follows the subsequent investigation and the event’s far reaching impact on the students, families and staff of Appleyard College, and on the nearby township.