DEREK JACOBI, AIDAN TURNER, SAM NEILL, DUSTIN HOFFMAN
Well, it certainly is a stellar cast: Simon Callow has added Derek Jacobi, Sam Neill, Aidan Turner, Dustin Hoffman, Roger Allam and Eileen Atkins to MR. SHAW GOES TO HOLLYWOOD comedy movie which tells the story of what happened before Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion became a worldwide phenomenon and answers the question of who will come out on top when the Irish born writer meets with the Hollywood elite. It starts
Aidan Turner, Sam Neill, Derek Jacobi lead the cast
in 1933, when Shaw (Derek Jacobi), goes to Hollywood with his wife Charlotte (Eileen Atkins) to see whether Shaw's most successful play Pygmalion should be turned into a film as everyone in Hollywood competes for his attention! Hoffman will be studio boss Louis B Mayer, co-founder of MGM, Aidan Turner will be Clark Gable and Sam Neill will be William Randolph Hearst.
NEW GOLD MOUNTAIN TRAILER
FOR NEW EPIC TV SERIES
Continuing our week of epic delights (which will actually culminate on Sunday with our mega list of all the historical and epic shows to air till the
New Gold Mountain starts October 13th
end of the year) here is a trailer that Australian SBS has published for their new four part mini series NEW GOLD MOUNTAIN which will arrive October 13th depicting the Gold Rush in 1850s Australia.
NEW GOLD MOUNTAIN opens in Ballarat, in 1857, where European, Chinese and
Indigenous Australian characters live together in a wild-west frontier
town as they seek to strike it rich by finding gold. Tensions between
rival camps run high, and Wei Shing (Yoson An), the charismatic
leader of the Chinese operation, struggles to remain in control as he
secretly amasses his own riches. A further threat to his authority is
Cheung Lei (Mabel Li), a formidable woman who has arrived
Alyssa Sutherland and Yoson An lead the cast
with
orders from China from her powerful father. When a white woman is found
murdered, Shing is fearful the prejudiced Europeans will blame the
New Gold Mountain will air in four hourlong episodes
Chinese. Determined to remain in power and keep his fortune, Shing must
find out what really happened. As Shing unravels the mystery, he
encounters
Mabel Li also stars in the new SBS historical series
the recently widowed Belle (Alyssa Sutherland), who is
making her name in town through the local newspaper she has inherited,
and Hattie, a young Aboriginal girl trying to get by.
With the start of production, BBC and director Shane Meadows have also announced the lead cast for their new six part historical series THE GALLOWS POLE which will have a psychedelic soundtrack! Based on the novel of the same name by Benjamin Myers, it fictionalises the remarkable
Tom Burke, George Mackay, Michael Socha, Thomas Turgoose
true story of the rise and fall of David Hartley and the Cragg Vale Coiners. Set against the backdrop of the coming industrial revolution in 18th century Yorkshire, the compelling drama follows the enigmatic David Hartley, played by Michael Socha, as he assembles a gang of weavers and land-workers to
Anthony Welsh, Cara Theobold, Samuel Edward Cook
embark upon a revolutionary criminal enterprise that will capsize the economy and become the biggest fraud in British history. The cast will also include Thomas Turgoose, George MacKay,
Tom Burke,
Sophie McShera, Cara Theobold, Eve Burley, Nicole Barber Lane,
Samuel Edward-Cook,
Anthony Welsh,
Joe Sproulle, Adam Fogerty and
Fine Time Fontayne!
THE MOST RELUCTANT CONVERT
TRAILER WITH NICHOLAS RALPH
Speaking of period set projects, check out the trailer for a movie which will air only one day November 3rd in selected USA venues chronicling
The movie will be a one night cinema event
the life of The Chronicles of Narnia author C. S. Lewis. Directed by Norman Stone, it stars Max McLean, Nicholas Ralph and Eddie Ray Martin as the adult Lewis, young man Lewis, and childhood Lewis respectively. Spanning C.S. Lewis' bitter childhood, WWI and his life changing friendships at Oxford, THE MOST RELUCTANT CONVERT depicts the events that shaped Lewis' early life and journey from hard boiled atheism to prolific Christianity.. Also starring in the film are Tom Glenister as J. R. R. Tolkien, David Shields as Hugo Dyson, and Hubert Barton as Owen Barfield.
I did say many times that in these times of woke hardships, European studios will be the ones to save the period set genre and next to a slate of German, Russian and Italian costume series we now have another one coming
The first photo of Emilia as Marie Antoniette from the sets!
from France: beside the two part saga on Diane de Poiters, they are now preparing an eight part saga MARIE ANTOINETTE over at Canal + which brought us Versailles as well. German actress Emilia Schule has been set as the lead in Deborah Davis written and produced series which will also have James Purefoy, Marthe Keller, Louis Cunningham, Jack Archer,
German actress Emilia Schule takes the lead
Jasmine Blackborow, Gaia Weiss, Crystal Sheperd, Caroline Piette, Oscar Lesage, Roxane Duran, Liah O’Prey, Jonas Bloquet, Nathan Willcocks, Laura Benson, Nicola Perot, Paul Bandey, Maximilien Seweryn in the international cast.
MARIE ANTOI NETTE WAS
barely 14 years old when she left Austria and her
mother empress Maria Theresa to marry the Dauphin in France. She is still a stubborn and
dissipated young child who must comply with French rules, which are
numerous and complicated. The young princess quickly suffers from not
being able to live her life as she sees fit. She is constantly under
pressure to carry on the Bourbon line. A mission more
Gaia Weiss, James Purefoy, Marthe Keller (could be M. Theresa)
complicated than
expected: even if the relationship between Marie Antoinette and Louis
XVI improves over time, it will take them seven years to consummate
their marriage. From the young runner-up to the queen of style, a true
fashion icon, Marie Antoinette quickly impresses with her charisma and
naturalness. She will gradually understand the codes and secrets of the
French
Jonas Bloquet, Maximilien Seweryn, Oscar Lesage, Jack Archer
court and completely recreate Versailles in her image! But her success stirs up jealousy and rivalry.
Defamatory pamphlets and persistent rumors about her private life
undermine her reputation. It will take a lot of courage and dignity to
defeat her numerous enemies at the Versailles court.
LOST ILLUSIONS CLIP
STRAIGHT FROM VENICE!
Speaking of French costume drama, check out the first clip from new French period set movie LOST ILLUSIONS which has premiered over at
The movie is getting rather nice reviews over at Venice
day he seeks revenge by writing controversial – yet banal – articles. Inside the Paris he so coveted, he finds a cynical world where everything – and everyone – can be bought and sold. Can he find his way and remain faithful to his hopes and dreams? The movie is out October 21st in France, 28th in Russia.
In a season in which we will get pretty much no new comedies and some networks have even killed comedy hours in their programmes, this is definitely a happy news: after Mom, Jaime Pressly will return to CBS with new multicam sitcom THE PORCH! The story which she wrote and is co producing with Susan McMartin revolves around recently divorced LJ (Jaime Pressly), who returns home to the small North Carolina island she couldn’t wait to leave to bury a mom she couldn’t stand. She finds herself staying far longer than she ever imagined, reconnecting with the “porch” folks she never felt a part of and falling in love for the first time with the train wreck of a mother who is no longer alive. I hear that other networks competed for the show too in a heated battle.
AUSTIN STOWELL TO STAR IN
NETFLIX SERIES BREATHE
I think I have informed you before that the thriller survival series will be led by Melissa Barrera, but now stunning Austin Stowell has been
Austin Stowell has joined the cast of Breathe
also added to the cast of BREATHE series which is being produced for Netflix. As Variety reports, the six episode series will see Melissa Barrera playing Liv, a razor sharp Manhattan attorney who finds herself profoundly out of her comfort zone when her small plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness and she must battle for survival. Juan Pablo Espinosa, Florencia Lozano, and Jeff Wilbusch will also appear in the new series over at the streamer.
BEST SELLER TRAILER
WITH GRUMPY MICHAEL CAINE
Best Sellers is out next week
Trailer has been released for a new drama movie with comedy elements out as soon as next week September 17th! British acting legend MichaelCaine plays Harris Shaw, an ornery, outdated writer at the center of Lina Roessler’s gentle literary comedy! As Variety reports, he has been creatively blocked for 50 years since producing one vastly acclaimed novel. Stymied by his own one-time success, he needs to be dragged into an era that has largely left him behind to be freed as an artist! This cranky, retired author reluctantly embarks on a final book tour to help out a young publisher played by Aubrey Plaza.The cast also includes Cary Elwes and Scott Speedman, whom I personally, haven't seen in a long while.
It is the most expensive television series shot down in Australia in more than a decade. NBC moved the production on their upcoming new adventure
La Brea arrives September 28th to NBC
series LA BREA Down Under where it was safer for the crew during the covid pandemics. Now the series, which cost well over $70 million to make, is ready to start airing September 28th on NBC as one of the very few new shows that we can look forward to this month. David Aplebaum's high end show uses the real life mystery of famous La Brea tar pit that exists in the middle of Los Angeles as the trigger for the story about a family which inexplicably finds themselves in a primeval world, along with a number of fraught strangers, when a massive sinkhole sinks a sizable chunk of Los Angeles deep into the Earth!
STORY OF LA BREA CENTRES
around
a mother (Nathalie Zea) and a father (Eoin Macken) who are suddenly
separated from one another when a massive sinkhole swallows
The show is still shooting Down Under
hundreds of
Los Angeles people, buildings, and landmarks from the busy city. Rather
than plummet to their deaths, these fallen souls are descended into a
primeval land, unlike anything in the known world, where they have no
choice but to band together to survive all the dangers which, as you can
see in the trailer, involve some nasty primeval beasts and animals as
well, both the land ones and the flying ones. Meanwhile, the rest of the
world desperately seeks to understand what happened. In the search for
answers, one family torn apart by this disaster will have to unlock the
secrets of this inexplicable event to find a way back to each other.
WHO WILL FALL INTO LA BREA?
Nathalie Zea plays Eve Harris, a busy working mom who’s sometimes a little overprotective and just trying to hold it all together. Eoin Macken’s Gavin Harris, Eve’s recently estranged husband, is full of swagger and charm. Jack Martin will be Josh Harris, Gavin’s son who coasts through
Zyra, Martin, Zea and Macken are the Harrises in the series
life on his wit, has great sense of humor and an undeniable charisma. Zyra Gorecki will play their daughter as the first actress with a bionic leg to lead a major network show. Jon Seda will play Dr. Benjamine Glass, a former Navy Seal who knows how to take charge and is a father of a teenage girl (Veronica
Seda, Gonzalez, McKenzie, St Clair also star in La Brea
St. Clair). Nicholas Gonzalez will play Levi Brooks, an Air Force pilot and Gavin’s best friend who is recruited to lead the mission to save the people who fell into the sinkhole. Josh McKenzie will play Lucas. Sarcastic with an air of danger, Lucas has gone down a road of crime and works as a drug dealer!
Yesterday I showed you first photo from the second season of Netflix' hit epic series BARBARIANS which has just started shooting in Poland, but I wanted to take a minute and show you just how crazy stunning freshly appointed additions to the cast are: our sweet boo Daniel Donskoy, who
Murathan, Donskoy, Fella and Heyer are new cast members!
stole our heart as Grand Duke of Russia in Victoria and ran away with it, will play Flavus, the brother of Arminius, next to insanely magnetic Murathan Muslu, beautiful Katharina Heyer, and charismatic Alessandro Fella!
BELFAST MOVIE TRAILER
KENNETH BRANAGH'S CHILDHOOD
And here is a rather upbeat trailer for period set drama BELFAST from Kenneth Branagh which follows his own childhood and is out in cinemas
Belfast opens in cinemas this November
November 12th. Filled with music, the film revisits Kenneth's memories of being 9 years old and growing up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, right in the middle of troubles breaking out between the Protestants and the Catholics that so ravaged the country. Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds play his grandparents, with Jamie Dornan as his father who is trying to make a living for his family but forced to do that by commuting to England where the opportunities and pay are more available. Little newcomer Jude Hill takes the lead role of a colorful young kid who particularly loves American Westerns and often visits the local movie house. Colin Morgan also stars.
A bunch of first photos from epic projects today, starting with the season two of BARBARIANS epic series which scored amazing success this year on Netflix and has just started shooting six new episodes over in Poland. Jeanne Goursaud, Laurence Rupp and David Schütter return as
The first season was viewed by over 50 million people
Arminius, Thusnelda and Folkwin who managed to kick Romans out of Germania. The second season will send them on a new adventure of love, friendship and betrayal. Joining in new roles are Daniel Donskoy, Murathan Muslu, Cynthia Micas, Katharina Heyer, Giovanni Carta and Alessandro Fella!
THE THREE MUSKETEERS
PATHE RELEASES FIRST PHOTO
With the start of the $85 million production, Pathe has released first photo from THE THREE MUSKETEERS an epic two part movie adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' famous story. The shoot will last till next May! The cast includes François Civil, Eva Green and Vincent Cassel as
First look at the lavish new Three Musketeers movie
D’Artagnan, Milady and Athos. Eric Ruf is the Cardinal Richelieu, Vicky Krieps is queen Anne, Romain Duris is Aramis, Pio Marmaï is Porthos, Louis Garrel is King Louis XIII, Jacob Fortune-LLoyd sadly replaces
First movie will be titled D'Artagnan, second Milady
Oliver Jackson Cohen as Duke of Buckingham, Patrick Mille, Lyna Khoudri and Ralph Amoussou also star. The shooting will cover Louvre Palace, the Castles of Fontainebleau and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Fort la Latte and Chantilly, as well as the citadel of Saint-Malo.
HOUSE OF PROMISES
NEW SERIES FROM BETA FILM
Our favourite Beta Film has announced new period set 12 part drama HOUSE OF PROMISES set in the 1920's Germany and following young Vicky (Naemi Feitisch) who arrives from the provinces to a glamorous Berlin, in the vanguard of European modernity, though marked by great poverty.
She scores a dream job as a saleswoman in the newly opened Jonass department store. At a dance bar she falls in love with the seemingly penniless pianist Harry (Ludwig Simon), who turns out to be the son of the department store owner Arthur Grünberg (Alexander Scheer). And so begins an impossible love across the class divide that nevertheless – or precisely because of it – outlasts time! It will air on RTL and NOWTV streamer.
After first photos last week, Amazon has unveiled the first trailer for their eight part epic fantasy series THE WHEEL OF TIME which will premiere November 19th with Rosamund Pike as Moiraine, a member of
The series is based on Robert Jordan's popular epic saga
the shadowy and influential all-female organization called the ‘Aes Sedai’ who arrives in the small town of Two Rivers. There, she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women, one of whom is
Rosamund Pike takes the lead role in the new series
prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn, who will either save or destroy humanity. With first three episodes on the 19th, the finale will be a day before Christmas.
AMAZON'S THE RIG SERIES
GETS FIRST SET PHOTOS
If you remember, back in April first English original TV series from Amazon was announced with a rather stellar cast led by Iain Glen, Martin Compston and Mark Bonnar and now the streamer has given us first set photos depicting the leads over at THE RIG stationed off the Scottish coast in the dangerous waters of the North Sea where the story of the six episode
Ian Glen leads the cat in The Rig television series
thriller TV series is situated. Emily Hampshire, Owen Teale, Richard Pepple, Calvin Demba, Emun Elliott, Abraham Popoola, Stuart McQuarrie
Emily Hampshire is a scientist and oil company representative
and Molly Vevers also star in the series, which is produced by Wild Mercury Productions. THE RIG follows the crew of the Kinloch Bravo oil rig stationed
Mark Bonnar also stars in the thriller tv series
off the Scottish coast in the dangerous waters of the North Sea. When they are due to be collected and return to the mainland a mysterious and all-enveloping fog rolls through. The rig is hit by massive tremors, and they find
The Rig is Amazon's first UK original TV series
themselves cut off from all communication with the shore and the outside world.
As the crew endeavour to discover what’s driving this unknown force, a major accident forces them to ask questions about who they can really trust.
The series will air on Amazon in six hourlong episodes
Bonds are broken, allegiances formed and generational fault lines exposed. The crew of the Bravo will be driven to the limits of both their loyalties and their endurance, into a confrontation with forces beyond their imagination.
RED NOTICE TRAILER
FOR NETFLIX' $130 MILLION FILM
Rival Netflix has released the first trailer for their action movie RED NOTICE which will arrive November 12th An Interpol issued Red Notice is a global alert to hunt and capture the world's most wanted. But when a daring
Red Notice will stream on Netflix November 14th!
heist brings together the FBI's top profiler (Dwayne Johnson) and two rival criminals (played by Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds), there's no telling what will happen.
Although this will be the first year I will not be giving you our traditional list of period set shows to expect in Autumn (as there is next to nothing to freaking expect and not because of covid but because the genre is
Rodrigo Santoro leads the cast as Magellan
getting killed by woke tyranny which creates flops) next year does not really look that bleak as there is a number of epic shows set for 2022. One of them is
Alvaro Morte is famous explorer Elcano in the new series
BOUNDLESS three part mini series that will air on Amazon Prime and Spanish RTVE starring Rodrigo Santoro and Alvaro Morte as explorers
The series started shooting in April and ended in August
Juan Sebastián Elcano and Ferdinand Magellan, who set sail from Spain over 500 years ago in the first ever circumnavigation of the world! The project will
The series will be turned into three episode serial and a film
also be made into a feature film from the shot material which will also air on Amazon and Spanish national broadcaster. Simon West directed the series
Hollywood's Simon West has directed the epic series
that started shooting in April when we announced it and finished earlier this August. The production itself lasted two years longer than the actual voyage of the famous explorers.
ALL CREATURES GREAT & SMALL
TRAILER & SEASON 2 AIR DATE
The second season airs September 16th
Channel 5 has released trailer and also the airing date for the second season of their wholesome ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL series which will start its new six episodes September 16th with a Christmas special in December and winter release over at PBS in USA. The show’s second season picks up three months after season one. A trip back home to Glasgow presents James (Nicholas Ralph) with a dilemma that will mean choosing between the people he loves. As Helen and James navigate their feelings for one another, Siegfried (Samuel West), Tristan (Callum Woodhouse), and Mrs Hall (Anna Madeley) are also
As last year,there will also be a Christmas episode in December
forced to consider their places in the world, while James must decide between supporting his family and following his heart. It’s spring in 1938, and James’s
The second season will also air on PBS later in winter
parents are overjoyed when he’s offered a position at his old mentor’s forward-thinking practice in Glasgow. When he returns to the Dales, James is reminded of how much he loves the place and the people – and thinks of one person who it would be worth staying in the Dales for. Since Helen Alderson
The seventh episode will be a Christmas special
left Hugh Hulton (Matthew Lewis) at the altar, she has kept a low profile and James has given her the space she needed. But the pair find themselves forced together again when neighbouring farmer Rob Benson’s sheep are in trouble. Inspired by his time at the Glasgow surgery, James pushes Siegfried
Samuel West is back as the local vet Siegfried
to let Tristan do more veterinary jobs so that they can take on more small animal cases at Skeldale House. Tristan tends to a budgerigar whilst Mrs Hall uncovers a difficult truth.
Beside TVNOW's Sisi series and Corsage movie with Vicky Krieps, I told you that we will also be getting a third project on famous Austrian empress Sisi as Netflix is shooting six part series THE EMPRESS
as one of their new German originals and today I have first photos for you from the production that started earlier this month. The series will depict Sisi’s
life from her teenage years onwards, when she first met Emperor Franz
Joseph of Austria Hungary, and Devrim Lingnau and Philip Froissant will
play the imperial couple. When the rebellious Elisabeth meets Franz,
the Emperor of Austria, in 1853 the young couple's intoxicating love
completely upsets the power structure at the Viennese court. After the
wedding, the young empress must assert herself not only against her
mother
Philip Froissant and Devrim Lingnau are Franz und Sisi
in law, the sovereign, power hungry Sophie, but also against
Franz's brother Maxi, who himself longs for the throne (and for Sisi). As
enemy troops form up on the borders of the Habsburg Empire, people in
Vienna rise up in protest against the emperor. Elisabeth must find out
who she can trust and how high
Both The Empress and Sisi will air in six hourlong episodes
the price is to be a true empress and a
figure of hope for
the people. While her contemporaries considered her kitschy and vain,
Sisi got a whole cult of fans after she was stabbed to death in Geneva
in 1898. Kinda like today's rock stars. You can read our main spotlight on the series with tons of photos HERE.
TVNOW'S SISI SERIES
NEW PHOTOS FROM THE SETS
Meanwhile, check out two new photos from the rival series to the Netflix' one, which will
also have six episodes but will air first as The Empress above
is scheduled for next spring and SISI for the end of the year. The lead
Desiree Nosbusch is glamorous ArchDuchess Sophie
cast includes Dominique Devenport as Sisi, and Jannik Schümann as emperor Franz.The
series, which will air on ORF in Austria, RTL's streamer TVNOW in
Germany and TF1 in France and is produced by Beta Film, will also
Six part Sisi should arrive sometime at the end of the year
