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The film director answers your questions about wearing a dress to school, being courted by Disney for the teen market and the exorcism horror project he’s keen to get off the ground

I was told by an old teacher, who claimed to have been at school with you, that you turned up to non-uniform day in a dress for a laugh and everyone was too scared to take the piss. True or false? Mallycat

It’s true that I turned up in a dress. I don’t remember people being too scared. I do remember being told I had to go back and put on different clothes, truck drivers pipping at me, going: “Eh up, doll.” I wasn’t anywhere near as confident walking home to get some jeans without my friends as I was on the way in. I always pushed the boundaries. I dyed the top of my hair pink,...

He’s a bit of a legend in the UK, not as well known in the US, and now he’s starring in Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon. But who is Paddy Considine? Well, he’s a British actor and director who grew up in Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire (that’s in the West Midlands for our American friends – you’re welcome!). He’s won two BAFTA awards both as director for his short film Dog Altogether and for his feature debut Tyrannosaur which starred Olivia Colman and Peter Mullan and was one of the first movies to really introduce Colman as a heavy weight actress. In House of the Dragon Considine plays Viserys I Targaryen, the well-meaning but ineffectual leader of the Targaryen dynasty, and King of the Seven Kingdoms. Loving his performance and want to see more? Here are his best roles.

A Room for Romeo Brass...

Exclusive: Kaleidoscope picks up Justin Edgar-directed movie.

Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment (Khe) has taken all UK rights to writer-director Justin Edgar’s thriller The Marker and plan to release across all formats later in the year.

The dark thriller charts the story of a criminal who seeks redemption by tracking down the daughter of the woman he killed.

Cast includes Frederick Schmidt (Starred Up), Ana Uluru (Inferno) and John Hannah (The Mummy).

Supporting cast includes Cosmo Jarvis (Lady Macbeth), Struan Rodger (Kill List), Cathy Tyson (Mona Lisa), Lara Peake (How to Talk to Girls at Parties), Ian Sharp (Pleasure Island...

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Mr Robot, Cucumber, Inside No. 9...Here are Den Of Geek writers' top 15 TV episodes of 2015. Did your favourites make the cut?

The votes are in.

Earlier this month, over thirty of Den Of Geek's writers nominated up to five of their favourite television episodes of the year, ranked in order of preference. Points were allocated. Favourites emerged. And the sanity of the site's TV editor was offered once again as a festive sacrifice to the God of Microsoft Excel worksheets.

Over eighty individual episodes were nominated in total, and below are the fifteen that placed highest overall...

15. Rick & Morty – Total Rickall

What our writer said:

“Clip shows are traditionally seen as ways to save money, building a flimsy narrative framework of nostalgia-fuelled new footage around flashbacks to previous episodes. Somehow, Dan Harmon's shows usually manage to put more effort into spoofing this type of episode than any other episode.

Shane Meadows concludes This Is England’s final series with painful truths, great performances and a message of love and forgiveness…

This review contains spoilers.

1.4 Winter

It was the ending nobody wanted for Combo, which is why, by the law of drama, it had to happen. This Is England 90’s message of love and forgiveness above all else wouldn’t have rung out so clearly if we hadn’t seen the potential of Combo’s new start destroyed by merciless retribution.

The final shot of this episode, and so of the whole series, was Milky lowering his head in regret and shame. That revealed the show’s ultimate lesson: in the words of Woody, forgiveness is underrated. Milky’s torment at the wedding showed that the reverse is also true: if mercy is a virtue, then revenge is a weight around your neck.

The injustice of Combo’s death was searing.

This is the end of This Is England - and bringing his powerful working-class saga to a close would seem no mean feat for series mastermind Shane Meadows. Both the original movie and its TV spinoffs have been of a spectacularly high quality, Meadows' truthful scripts and the scarily authentic performances of the cast fostering our deep investment in the characters.

That said, last week's episode was a devastating outpouring of emotion that set the stage superbly for this grand finale, with Milky (Andrew Shim) plotting revenge on Combo (Stephen Graham) - the reformed thug who once viciously assaulted him.

In its final TV outing, This Is England finally addresses that brutal moment from the '03 film - something that until now it's always danced around. There's a feeling of coming full circle that permeates this finale from the off, Meadows opening with one last example of his trademark montage.

Last week, This Is England '90 was a tale of two halves. Episode two of Channel 4's working-class saga replicated a little of the premiere's 'Fools Gold'-tinged '90s nostalgia, before descending into darkness.

There's no gentle easing in of the audience here - the shock reappearance of Lol and Kelly's father Mick, in a chilling nightmare sequence, ensures that episode 3 grabs you from the off.

It's an uncharacteristic move for such a grounded series, but effective, and you can forgive writer/director Shane Meadows for breaking formula to feature the terrifying Johnny Harris once more.

This latest outing - 'Autumn' - all centres around Mick, and Stephen Graham's jailed anti-hero Combo, with the two men's fates now unexpectedly but inexorably linked.

Mick was reprehensible and irredeemable, a true monster who showed no guilt or regret for his crimes. By contrast, Combo articulates his "shame and genuine remorse...

Last week, This Is England '90 served up a comparatively breezy opener - the calm before the storm, as actor Andrew Shim (Milky) remarked of Shane Meadows' work: "There's always going to be a dark day coming at some point."

Episode two again opens with a comic sequence; the charismatic Harvey - now Woody's replacement as the group's de-facto leader - pokes fun at the hapless Gadget, and there's some laugh-out-loud delivery from the show's secret weapon, Michael Socha ("There's a f**king bag within a bag here, dude!").

It's the summer of love, 1990, and rave culture is sweeping the nation - again, Meadows delivers more sunshine and happiness than we're accustomed to, and is still aiming for big, broad laughs with the continued presence of Flip and Higgy (even if Joe Dempsie's underplayed idiocy remains more effective than Perry Fitzpatrick's more excessive antics).

But that sickening...

Stephen Graham is set to make his anticipated comeback as the incarcerated Combo in Shane Meadows's This Is England '90.

The British actor - who has just teamed up with co-star Thomas Turgoose to raise money for Stand up to Cancer - revealed to Digital Spy that Combo will return as a "reformed figure".

The Channel 4 series is writer and director Meadows's final follow-up to 2010's This Is England '86 and 2011's This Is England '88 - all of which were off-shoots from the 2006 movie This Is England.

The first episode surprised fans with its unexpectedly sunny and laugh-out-loud start for the gang - which includes Gadget (Andrew Ellis), Shaun (Thomas Turgoose), Milky (Andrew Shim), Lol (Vicky McClure) and Woody (Joe Gilgun).

But Graham gave us a resounding "no" when we asked if it was going to stay that way.

"It's what Shane [Meadows] does," the Boardwalk Empire star explained.

"De-de-de-ding-ding / dig-a-dig-a-ding / a-flinky-flonk / wanky-shank ding-dong."

So this is England, 1990 - and Shane Meadows' latest follow-on from his 2006 film appears, on the surface, to be the saga's sunniest outing to date.

Our first reunion with the gang - 2010's This Is England '86 - was perhaps the most bleak. Replete with rape, murder and betrayal, it was to be admired rather than enjoyed.

The following year's '88 didn't spare the heartbreak either, but ended on a more optimistic note - and the beginning of '90 follows through on that, kicking off with a more positive outlook.

First episode 'Spring' - the four episodes being divided into the four seasons - opens with some good-natured larks, as Gadget (Andrew Ellis), Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) and Milky (Andrew Shim) wangle a free school lunch off of dinner lady kitchen boss Lol (Vicky McClure).

Milky's insistence that "the good times will come again" is...

As This Is England ’90 comes to TV, we look back over the rest of Shane Meadows’ brutal, funny and warmly empathetic series…

Try a bit of mental calculation: how many punches in total would you say you’ve seen thrown on screen? Bloodied faces? Kicks to the head? Unless you’ve kept your TV and film intake to a strict diet of family animation (and even then…), that total is likely to be swirling around the thousands.

Now, think of the number of times an on-screen attack has stopped your breath in your chest. When each kick has landed with nauseating weight and filled you not with ringside exhilaration but with dread. In short, how often have you been made to really care about an act of on-screen violence?

That was Shane Meadows’ aim in This Is England, the 2006 feature film that introduced the world to Shaun, Woody, Lol, Combo,...

It's 10 years since cameras started rolling on Shane Meadows' seminal This Is England and now the award-winning saga is about to draw to a close, with This Is England '90 launching on Channel 4 this Sunday.

The Berlin Wall and Margaret Thatcher have fallen, tie-dye and bowl cuts are in vogue and there's plenty of sex, drugs and all-night raves - but This Is England's final TV outing also explores how old friends grow apart over time.

"This series, as it unfolds, we start to look at the summer of love - and the drugs become more serious," says Meadows. "Things start to change - for the better for some, and for the worse for others."

For the cast, This Is England '90 brings to an end an epic journey they never expected to embark upon. "I don't think any of us ever thought that we'd do any sort...

Spirit Entertainment

To celebrate the upcoming release of Anti-Social on DVD, available to buy from 14th September, we’re giving 5 lucky WhatCulture readers the chance to win a copy.

Inspired by the spate of smash and grab robberies that hit the news between 2012 and 2013, this action-packed gangland thriller is set amidst London’s sub-cultures, with Dee (Gregg Sulkin), an anarchic graffiti artist, confronting the system, and his brother Marcus (Josh Myers) a smash and grab robber, trying to make it rich with a jewellery store crime wave. For the pair being anti-social is a way of life.

As Dee finds acceptance with the city’s art scene, Marcus becomes a rising underworld face and his ambitions escalate. But when a savage gang war erupts, Dee is forced to remember who he is, as Police and rival criminals close in on the family and Marcus’ gang defiantly prepare to take down...

This Is England '90 now has an air date.

The final chapter in the series will begin on Channel 4 on Sunday, September 13 at 9pm.

Two years after the events of This Is England '88, the upcoming four-part outing follows the same group of youths in the north of England including Lol (Vicky McClure), Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) and Woody (Joe Gilgun).

Flip (Perry Fitzpatrick), Higgy (Joe Dempsie), Smell (Rosamund Hanson), Kelly (Chanel Cresswell), Harvey (Michael Socha), Trev (Danielle Watson), Gadget (Andrew Ellis) and Milky (Andrew Shim) are back as well.

This Is England '90 is written by Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne. Meadows is also behind the camera.

The miniseries will premiere its first episode at the Edinburgh International Television Festival later this month.

In the spirit of October, this list will look at scary scenes, but not from the horror classics directed by Craven or Carpenter or even Hitchcock (I’m excluding him, though I argue most of his work isn’t exactly horror). These are from the films that aren’t really meant to scare you. At least, not at the visceral level that horror films do. These are the fifty definitive moments from non-horror films that still made an impact on the “frightening front.” From shocking to creepy to unsettlingly hair raising, these are moments that will stick in your mind long after watching the films, even if they are part of a very different narrative.

50. Toy Story 3 (2010)

Scene: Monkey Security

Video: http://youtu.be/x6QkcJjx-Vo

The third installment of the one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time is also one of the darkest children’s films ever made.

Channel 4 has confirmed that This Is England '90 will air next year

The Shane Meadows drama will conclude with a four-part series in 2015, set two years after the events of This Is England '88.

This Is England '90 will follow the same group of youths in the North, including Lol (Vicky McClure), Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) and Woody (Joe Gilgun).

The director said: "We will see an enormous transformation in the lives of our cast over these final four stories as Shaun writes his final chapter with the gang he loves."

Piers Wenger, Channel 4 Head of Drama, added: "We might feel like we've grown up with Lol, Woody, Shaun and the gang but what Shane has planned for them in these final four parts will ensure that they are in our hearts forever."

Milky (Andrew Shim), Smell (Rosamund Hanson), Gadget (Andrew Ellis), Harvey (Michael Socha), Kell (Chanel Cresswell), Trev...

Shane Meadows has said that he hopes This Is England '90 is his "full stop" on the series.

The director's 2006 movie This Is England spawned TV follow-ups This Is England '86 in 2010 and This Is England '88 in 2011, but work on the 1990 catch-up was halted while Meadows made his documentary The Stone Roses: Made of Stone.

> Shane Meadows on 'Made of Stone': 'The Stone Roses were just like us'

Asked if This Is England '90 would be his last part of the story, Meadows told Digital Spy: "Yeah, hopefully. I say hopefully because I don't want to end up ruining it, but I love the cast."

Producer Mark Herbert joked: "We should do This Is England '70, when they're at school!"

Meadows added: "This Is England the musical? Who knows!

"It's really hard to put down when you have so much fun doing something, so I hope I don't...

Shane Meadows on being a 'mad little Stone Roses fan', Gemma Arterton on perfecting her French, and actor Michael Shannon on working with rising indie director Jeff Nichols

Shane off his head

Trash wasn't quite at the premiere of Shane Meadows's Made of Stone last Thursday. Instead, I attended a very buzzy satellite premiere of the Stone Roses doc at the Hackney Picturehouse, where the raucous atmosphere of the Victoria Warehouse in Manchester was well captured by the live feed (one of 200 such events round the country) of the red carpet and post-screening Q&A. Mick Jones of the Clash described the Stone Roses as "a generational band" and said he wished Shane Meadows had been around to have filmed the Clash. The loyal band of This is England stars – shortly to star in another instalment, set in 1990 – were out in force, including Thomas Turgoose and Andrew Shim. Shimmy...

U.F.O. hits our UK cinema screens today, and to mark the release of this ambitious British sci-fi, we caught up with director Dominic Burns, and star performer Bianca Bree.

U.F.O. follows the adventure of five friends, who awake one morning to find there is no power or electricity, and a big alien aircraft hovering above their heads. As tensions grow, it soon becomes a case of survival of the fittest, as the human race is seemingly at threat thanks to their new visitors.

Bree – daughter of Belgian action hero Jean-Claude Van Damme – stars alongside Sean Brosnan – (son of Pierce) and she discusses with us what it was like working alongside her father, and in particular her dramatic fighting scene with him.

Meanwhile, Burns – who directed the comedy How to Stop Being a Loser – is becoming something of a jack of all trades, but admits his future lies predominantly in action thrillers.

The question has been answered – we are not alone! Good, now I can finally continue my life! Thanks U.F.O.! Now, in case you’re still wondering what the hell Jean Claude Van Damme is doing on this image, I will give you the answer to that question – he’s fighting against the Aliens in Dominic Burns‘ new sci-fi movie! Today we have a completely new poster and a pretty cool international trailer to share with you, but please guys – try to remain calm!

Well, the truth is that Van Damme is not an important part of the U.F.O. story. He actually stars as a retired military adviser in the movie. But, hey, when your daughter stars as the lead – you have to support her, right?

So, in case you still know nothing about Van Damme’s little girl, we’re here to present you Bianca Bree, who plays a lead role in the movie!

Here’s your first look at footage from brand new British independent movie UFO as we debut the very first trailer to the world!

UFO stars Bianca Bree in her first major film role alongside Sean Brosnan, Julian Glover, Simon Phillips, Sean Pertwee, Andrew Shim, Jazz Lintott, Peter Barratt, Forbes Kb and Maya Grant. There’s also a chap who appears towards the end of the trailer that you may have heard of with the name Jean Claude Van Damme!

As well as the trailer, we’ve also got another new poster for you to join the one we put up over a year ago, both of which I absolutely love! The scale of the film looks epic and I can’t wait to see it in it’s finished form.

Dominic Burns takes the helm as director in the movie which we hope is set to hit cinema screens...

*here be some spoilers. Director: Dominic Burns. Writer: Paul Chronnell. Cast: Mark Hamill, Craig Conway, Billy Murray, Sebastian Street, Simon Phillips, Julian Glover, Alan Ford, Gemma Atkinson, Rita Ramnani, and Andrew Shim. Chelsea Films is releasing Airborne across the United Kingdom on DVD July 30th. This is a film that puts a dozen passengers on a doomed flight across the Atlantic. One of their passengers is an ancient Chinese spirit that likes to possess the living. The other flight crew and trapped passengers are understandably shook up when the ghost of Chang starts offing characters via gory suicides. The action is almost laughable as the plot of a cursed vase threatens to ground this aircraft for good. And, something strange begins to happen as you watch this film. If you are a United Kingdom film fan, then you might notice that director Dominic Burns has recruited a few familiar faces.

“Airborne” is a Brit horror directed by Dominic Burns (“Cut”), whose main draw is probably the presence of “Star Wars” favourite Mark Hamill, making his first appearance in a film from these shores. With a script by TV comedy writer Paul Chronnell, the film also stars a host of semi recognisable Brit talent, including Andrew Shim (“This is England”), Julian Glover (“Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade”), Alan Ford (“Snatch”) and Billy Murray (“Rise of the Footsoldier”). Having recently played the British Independent Film Festival, the film arrives shortly on Region 2 DVD via Chelsea Films. Hamill provides the opening narration, though doesn’t actually make it into the air himself, playing a traffic controller trying to keep track of a flight which suddenly diverts from its planned course during a wintery storm. The passengers (made up of a motley mix of gangsters, soldiers, the inevitable sexed up couple, a priest...

Playing troubled Lol in This is England won Vicky McClure a Bafta and a raft of new roles. Here she talks about the 'psychological nightmare' of working with director Shane Meadows

In an east London pub, Vicky McClure is reeling off a list of her recent roles. There's True Love, an entirely improvised TV drama directed by Dominic Savage, in which she co-stars with David Tennant. There's a big-budget Tom Stoppard adaptation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, with Keira Knightley in the title role. McClure plays a nun called Serafina who has a brief affair with Domhnall Gleeson's Levin: "not a one-night stand, because it's a bloody period drama, but that kind of thing". There's Svengali, based on an internet viral about the music business, and, perhaps most improbably, the latest Jason Statham vehicle, Hummingbird, in which Great Yarmouth's leading action hero hunts down the killers of his former lover.

The Empire in Leicester Square played host (alongside four other cinemas around the country) to the third annual British Independent Film Festival last weekend, and we were there to catch the world premiere of British high-octane horror Airborne on the Friday evening, as well as a trio of films screened the following day.

As the title suggests, the festival celebrates independent filmmaking and the choice of features this year represented an encouraging mix of genres (the full list of films can be found on the festival’s website.)

Airborne

Boasting a number of familiar faces from popular genre films of the past (including ‘Last Crusade’ villain Julian Glover and a certain farm boy-turned Jedi Knight) Airborne follows a group of misfit passengers on a night flight to New York who get more than they bargained for during their stormy journey.

A number of stars from the film were in attendance on the Friday,...

Fans of Shane Meadows work on the big and small screens will know the name and work of Vicky McClure. She won a well deserved Best Actress BAFTA in 2011 for her role as Lol in the spin-off TV series This is England ’86, a role she reprised for a third time for This is England ’88 to great acclaim.

She is fast becoming one of Britain’s rising stars with a return as Lol for the final hurrah as Meadows’ long running series enters a new decade as rave culture begins to take hold in 1990, and there is still time in the next two years for a role in John Hardwicke’s Svengali and a nicely diverse turn in Hummingbird with Jason Statham.

It’s no surprise that McClure maintains her closeness to Meadows, her role as Ladine in the director’s third film, A Room for Romeo Brass, put her in the frame with Andrew Shim,...

May 11 is going to be a big day for high-action horror across the pond, as Airborne, starring Mark Hamill and Gemma Atkinson, will be released on five UK screens as part of the prestigious British Independent Film Festival.

We've got the trailer for Airborne below and it looks like a high-intensity thriller, and anytime you include Mark Hamill, the guy who gave us Luke Skywalker and all those awesome Joker moments, you can't go wrong. Starring alongside Hamill are Andrew Shim (This is England), Julian Glover (Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade, The Empire Strikes Back), Alan Ford (Snatch, Cockneys Vs Zombies) and Billy Murray (Rise of the Footsoldier, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare). Airborne is directed by Dominic Burns (Cut!, UFO) and produced by Simon Phillips (The Last 7, Strippers Vs Werewolves) and Jonathan Sothcott (Elfie Hopkins, Devil’s Playground).

On Friday, May 11th the movie will premiere at 8:30 pm...

After a traumatic 18 months Lol and Woody are trying to rebuild their lives, will they live happily ever after or will this be a Christmas they never forget?

After the success of This is England ‘86, Shane Meadows returns with a follow up to the gritty, humorous, drama series based on his popular film of the same name.

The three hour-long episodes featured are set from December 23-25, 1988. Lol (Vicky McClure) is now looking after her and Milky’s (Andrew Shim) child while being haunted by the events that occurred 18 months ago. Woody (Joe Gilgun) is trying to rebuild his...

In Shane Meadows’ excellent 2006 film This Is England we saw how a group of young skinheads dealt with life in Thatcher’s England in 1983. That was followed up last year by a Channel 4 t.v. series which caught up with the gang three years later in ’86 and during the summer with the Football World Cup as the main focus point of much of England. We now catch up with them again during the Christmas of ‘88 in a three part special, the first of which aired on our screens last night.

Meadows’ latest outing in 80s Northern England sees the same characters return to our screens with Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) and Smell (Rosamund Hanson) continuing their relationship, but with Shaun’s attention wandering. Lol (Vicky McClure) is struggling to raise her daughter Lisa, conceived whilst cheating on her then boyfriend Woody (Joe Gilgun) with his best mate Milky (Andrew Shim...

Partially based on ex-prison officer Ronnie Thompson’s novel of the same name, Screwed centers on Sam Norwood (James D’Arcy), a former frontline soldier who finds himself working as a prison officer in one of Britain’s most deplorable institutions. As the harsh realities of being a prison ‘screw’ take their toll, Sam finds solace in booze, drugs and prostitutes, rejecting his family and slowly embroiling himself into a life he could never have imagined.

Director Reg Traviss and screenwriter Colin Butts try hard to inject verve and originality into Screwed, most noticeably in the way Traviss eerily presents the drama from the ‘screws’ point of view and in Butts’ deft approach to Sam’s character. While these aspects are refreshing to see and make for a solid setup, the fact both Traviss and Butts revert all too easily back to the clichés and contrivances of a typical prison...

Lionsgate UK are delighted to announce the home entertainment release of Screwed, based on Ronnie Thompson’s semi-biographical bestselling book Screwed: The Life of a Prison Officer, on October 17th, in both the UK and Ireland. We have two copies of the Blu-ray to give away.

Screwed stars James D’Arcy (W.E, Master & Commander) as former squaddie turned prison officer, Sam Norwood, and BAFTA Award winning actor Noel Clarke (Kidulthood, 4.3.2.1) as prisoner Truman. The cast features some of the UK’s most established acting talent: Frank Harper (The Football Factory), Jamie Foreman (Layer Cake), Andrew Shim (This Is England) and Kate Magowan (Stardust). Screwed is directed by Reg Traviss (Psychosis, Joy Division).

Fresh from a traumatic tour of Iraq, Sam Norwood (James D’Arcy) finds himself forced to take a job as a Prison Officer in one of her Majesty’s most brutal institutions. On the inside he...

To mark the release of Screwed on DVD October 17th, Lions Gate Home Entertainment have given us three copies of the movie to give away on DVD.

Screwed stars James D’Arcy (W.E, Master & Commander) as former squaddie turned prison officer, Sam Norwood, and BAFTA Award winning actor Noel Clarke (Kidulthood, 4.3.2.1) as prisoner Truman. The cast features some of the UK’s most established acting talent: Frank Harper (The Football Factory), Jamie Foreman (Layer Cake), Andrew Shim (This Is England) and Kate Magowan (Stardust). Screwed is directed by Reg Traviss (Psychosis, Joy Division).

Fresh from a traumatic tour of Iraq, Sam Norwood (James D’Arcy) finds himself forced to take a job as a Prison Officer in one of her Majesty’s most brutal institutions. On the inside he learns the ropes from his colleagues, a bunch of hardened ‘screws’, but his life begins to spiral out of control...

Why did it take so long to get Jean-Claude Van Damme in spaaaaaaace ... ? According to Variety, The Muscles from Brussels will be battling aliens for the upcoming Dominic Burns film, UFO. The Airborne director is taking to the sky for the British sci-fi tale about a group of friends who awaken to a "city size" spacecraft that has settled above them -- V style. Burns is describing the film as "Independence Day meets Monsters, told from the point of view of Signs," and he chose Van Damme for the part of a military advisor who is brought out of retirement to uncover the truth about the strange visitor. Bianca Bree, Simon Phillips, Andrew Shim, Peter Barratt, Forbes Kb, Jazz Lintott, Maya Grant, and Pierce Brosnan's son Sean (with more names to be announced...

Read More...

Why did it take so long to get Jean-Claude Van Damme in spaaaaaaace ... ? According to Variety, The Muscles from Brussels will be battling aliens for the upcoming Dominic Burns film, UFO. The Airborne director is taking to the sky for the British sci-fi tale about a group of friends who awaken to a "city size" spacecraft that has settled above them -- V style. Burns is describing the film as "Independence Day meets Monsters, told from the point of view of Signs," and he chose Van Damme for the part of a military advisor who is brought out of retirement to uncover the truth about the strange visitor. Bianca Bree, Simon Phillips, Andrew Shim, Peter Barratt, Forbes Kb, Jazz Lintott, Maya Grant, and Pierce Brosnan's son Sean (with more names to be announced...

Read More...

Right, then, first things first, Try to Remain Calm! We’ve got something exciting this Saturday evening as we’ve just sent us over some rather nice casting news along with a rather fabulous first poster and synopsis for a new movie, UFO.

The film comes from the came team behind How to Stop Being a Loser (trailer here) and Airborne (trailer here) which is currently in post production and stars Mark Hamill (All our coverage here). UFO is currently shooting in Derbyshire in the UK and we’re told that it’s a mix between Independence Day and Monsters told from the point of view of Signs! Sounds intriguing!

The film’s principle lead is American actress, Bianca Bree and this will be her first major movie. From what we’ve heard she’s one to watch out for as we have it on good authority that she’s...

British genre specialists Black and Blue Films, partnering with Press On Features, Templeheart and Hawthorn Productions, look to the skies with the new horror-thriller Airborne. Directed by Dominic Burns from a script by Paul Chronnell, Airborne stars Craig Conway, Simon Phillips, Gemma Atkinson, Sebastian Street, Kimberly Jaraj, Fiona Ryan, Jazz Lintott with Raji James, Andrew Shim, Alan Ford, Julian Glover, Billy Murray and Mark Hamill. The film is set for release sometime in 2012.

-...

The new feature from Dominic Burns (Cut) is one part thriller and one part suicide cult, as the film's first poster beckons you to "come die with me." In the trailer for this feature, a plane at 20,000 is ever going down, down, down...And actors Mark Hamill, Craig Conway (Dog Soldiers), Simon Phillips (The Last Seven) and Julian Glover (Mirrors) welcome you aboard one terrifying flight. Have an early look at this United Kingdom shot film, which will have you asking the stewardess for more booze and valium, in just under two minutes (courtesy of Dread Central).

The synopsis for Airborne is here:

"As a snowstorm closes in, one final plane takes off. The plane reports to the ground that both pilots are dead, while the slowly dwindling number of passengers on the plane wish that they'd never left the ground" (Dread).

Release Date: 2012.

Director: Dominic Burns.

Writer: Paul Chronnell.

To celebrate the release of Screwed, in cinemas June 3rd, our friends at First4Movies are giving you the chance to win an exclusive private screening for you and 30 of your mates.

Screwed is a semi-biographical story based on the experiences of former prison guard Ronnie Thompson who spent seven years working in some of the UK’s most dangerous prisons. Based on Thompson’s book of the same name, the project stars James D’Arcy (Master & Commander), Noel Clarke (Kidulthood), Frank Harper (The Football Factory), Jamie Foreman (Layer Cake), Andrew Shim (This Is England) and Kate Magowan (Stardust). The story revolves around former soldier Sam Norwood who takes a job as a prison officer when he returns from Iraq and becomes exposed to the underworld of prison culture – including corrupt guards and drug trafficking.

Click here to view the embedded video.

To enter head over to the Facebook page...

HeyUGuys were at the Jameson Empire Awards last Sunday and during the course of the evening we were tweeting from the red carpet, live blogging the awards, and interviewing the winners and presenters as soon as they got off stage.

We also managed to carry out quite a few interviews with guests on their way into the awards. We’ve got some interesting stuff coming up in the videos, which we’ll publish over the next few days, including Gareth Edwards talking about Monsters and Godzilla, Jane Goldman on X-Men: First Class, and Gary Oldman discussing the differences between the Potter and Batman films.

First up for you is a video featuring Ian Hislop praising last year’s crop of British films, Neil Marshall and his wife Axelle Carolyn discussing their future projects, Chris O’Dowd talking about writing and whiskey, and Andrew Shim not giving much away about This Is England...

As Jon mentioned earlier, today was a rather exciting one in the life of HeyUGuys. Never in a million years did I ever think that I’d get to interview any celebrity let alone one that is of this stature! This morning, Colin (who took all these great photos) and I headed off to The National Space Centre in Leicester, England to interview the legendary Mark Hamill who you’ll all know from from his film, Comic Book the Movie and also some franchise you might have heard of called Star Wars where he played a certain Luke Skywalker!

We’ve been given the honour to debut the news that Mark Hamill is returning back to feature films after a five year gap starring as ‘Malcolm’ in the new British movie, Airborne directed by Dominic Burns. In the movie, he stars alongside Julian Glover, Alan Ford, Andrew Shim, Simon Phillips...

The British horror thriller Airborne is currently filming in the UK and HeyUGuys recently visited the set of the film which tells the story of a flight from London to New York that takes a nasty turn when several unexplained occurrences during the flight result in the passengers turning on one another.

The joint production between Press On Features and Black & Blue Films has assembled an impressive cast with Julian Glover, Alan Ford, Andrew Shim, Simon Phillips (interview here) and Gemma Atkinson (interview here) on board and when we were on set a few weeks ago we heard that there would be a big casting announcement made soon. Today our intrepid Editor Dave Sztypuljak returned to the set to meet the newest cast member, none other than Mark Hamill.

Though forever anchored in cinematic history to a role he made famous over thirty years ago Hamill has since forged a prolific voiceover career,...

HeyUguys report that Hamill has joined the cast of Airborne, which already includes the likes of Julian Glover, Alan Ford, Andrew Shim, Simon Phillips and Gemma Atkinson. The movie is currently shooting in the UK and deals with very strange goings on aboard a flight from London to New York. Director Dominic Burns spoke to HeyUGuys about working with Hamill.. When you work with people you’ve looked up to your whole life it’s a very nerve-racking experience because they might destroy your hopes and dreams of what they may be like. Mark is the complete opposite of that, he is everything you want him to be, and more. He’s one of the nicest guys, an incredible actor, he’s passionate about what he’s doing. He’s everything you hope he would be. For me, it’s a genuine dream come true to work with him, I...

This week has been completely nuts and I still can’t believe I get to do these things! In the last few days, I got to the Baftas, meet Sir Paul McCartney, have dinner with multiple Hollywood legends and now this evening (or last night by the time you’re reading this), Colin and myself got to go to the set of a new movie which was shooting on the Jumbo Jet which you’ll probably have seen in the background of multiple shots if you’re a fan of the BBC TV show, Top Gear.

Wednesday is actually the day that Top Gear is filmed and as we arrived at the aerodrome in Surrey, there was amass of 200 odd cars leaving the airfield as the Top Gear show had just finished filming for the day. It was quite surreal being the only car going in while everyone else left!

Shane Meadows' This is England '86 is out on DVD and Pure Movies is giving away three copies! This is England '86 stars Andrew Ellis, Andrew Shim, Chanel Cresswell, Joseph Gilgun, Kriss Dosanjh, Perry Benson, Perry Fitzpatrick, Rosamund Hanson, Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham and Vicky McClure. Award-winning filmmaker Shane Meadows (This Is England, Dead Man’s Shoes, Somers Town) makes his highly anticipated TV debut This is England ‘86 available to own on DVD from 11 October 2010 courtesy of 4Dvd, and will be packed with fantastic extras including exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, cast interviews, outtakes, deleted scenes and an audio commentary from Shane Meadows.

Shane Meadows certainly doesn’t do things by halves. Least of all depict terrible, depraved acts on the silver screen and, of late, its little sister. Those hoping for a slap-dash happy ending in the last part of his This Is England continuation may be disappointed, or else will need to rethink their definition of ‘happy’.

Yes, there is a resolution one way or another, complete with redemption, psychological healing and all that good stuff, but don’t think it won’t take its toll on the characters. I’m not going to spoil the show for you, but will simply say that this is the most gripping episode in the series, as the tensions between characters finally come to a boil, fittingly paralleled with the 1986 World Cup match between Argentina and the UK – famous for Maradona’s ‘hand of god’ goal and post-Falklands worries.

The humour that permeated earlier episodes,...

This week’s penultimate episode of This Is England ‘86 has some moments in it that I felt were what was missing from the start of the series – that is to say, a Shane Meadows-style punch to the gut.

Following on from Shaun’s running away from home and Lol’s infidelities, the episode sees both characters deal with their situations in opposite ways – Shaun’s old flame Michelle ‘Smell’ talks him into making up with his mum, while Lol rejects her friends and Woody alike after a visit from her dad strikes a disturbing chord, sending her into a somewhat nihilistic trajectory. Meanwhile, we discover that her grievances against her father are most definitely not without foundation, in an extremely uncomfortable scene that would best be seen alone.

Shane Meadows takes up the directing slack for this and the last episode, and it’s little wonder: the director is...

As the misadventures of Shaun, Combo and co move into the mid-80s, we meet Shane Meadows and his TV sequel's young cast, including Joe Gilgun and Vicky McClure, on set in Sheffield

It's a murky afternoon in a car park in Sheffield and two This Is England actors are lounging around in a golf buggy, eating fish and chips, gulping Coke and giggling. Joe Gilgun and Michael Socha – who play Woody, the tall, dark-haired guy who dates Lol; and his mate Harvey, who boasts an impressive blond flat top – have been drunk for three days. They abandon their lunch and, while Socha lazily drives the golf buggy around in circles, Gilgun slides into a seat on the double-decker bus that doubles up as a cafe and hangout.

It's late May and the car park is the base for This Is England '86, a four-part Channel 4 drama which picks...

You could win tickets to an exclusive Channel 4 screening of This is England '86 introduced by director Shane Meadows, with actor Thomas Turgoose and other members of the cast in attendance.

It's 1986, the year when Maradona ends England's world cup dreams in Mexico, Top Gun is the highest grossing film and more than 3.4 million Brits are unemployed. It's also the year Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) leaves school.

The BAFTA award-winning This is England is back in a brand new four-part series, This Is England '86, and it's coming to Channel 4 in September. To mark its return Channel 4 will host a special preview screening at Showroom Cinema, Sheffield on Thursday 2 September.

The event will be introduced by series director Shane Meadows and guests will include cast members Thomas Turgoose, Vicky McClure, Andrew Shim and Joe Gilgun. Guests will also enjoy some the sounds of some '80s ska - and some sausage rolls.

Shane Meadows' second feature is a compulsive look at the relationship between two children and what happens when people and situations drive them apart. At times tough, charming and disturbing, the British film presents a telling portrait of growing up in a Midlands estate town where life is never easy and the line between compassion and violence is often thin.

Meadows' first full-length film, "TwentyFourSeven", was acclaimed by critics at Venice two years ago, and "A Room for Romeo Brass" confirms his talent for telling honest tales and pulling no punches. It screened at the London Film Festival.

The story centers on the friendship between two 12-year-olds, the chunky Romeo (Andrew Shim) and the more fragile Gavin (Ben Marshall), next-door neighbors whose relationship helps compensate for the shortcomings of their families. Then they meet Morell (Paddy Considine), a strange and gangly young man who befriends the boys and develops a romantic obsession with Romeo's sister.

When Gavin has to go into the hospital, the friendship is hampered by the presence of Morell. He seems to take a fatherly role with Romeo, whose estranged real father has recently appeared on the scene. But Morell's obsession with Romeo's sister becomes more and more violent, eventually pushing Romeo back to his old friendship and a seeming reconciliation with his father.

As with his previous film work, Meadows uses a mixture of professional actors and newcomers. In the lead roles, Shim and Marshall are excellent, and Considine is wonderfully bizarre and disturbing as the unhinged Morell. Bob Hoskins, who starred in "TwentyFourSeven", crops up in a cameo as a cycling tutor who visits Gavin while he is bed-bound after an operation.

Meadows, again shooting in his native town of Nottingham, films with deep understanding and compassion for his characters. Often it doesn't make for easy viewing, but he remains a filmmaker with stories to tell.

A ROOM FOR ROMEO BRASS

Alliance Atlantis/BBC

A Company Pictures production in association with Big Arty

Credits: Producers: George Faber, Charlie Pattinson; Director: Shane Meadows;

Screenwriters: Shane Meadows, Paul Fraser; Executive producers: Andras Hamori, David M. Thompson; Director of photography: Ashley Rowe; Production designer: Crispian Sallis; Music: Nick Hemming; Editor: Paul Tothill. Cast: Romeo Brass: Andrew Shim; Gavin 'Knocks' Woolley: Ben Marshall; Morell: Paddy Considine; Stephen Laws: Bob Hoskins; Joseph Brass: Frank Harper; Carol Brass: Ladine Hall; Ladene Brass: Vicky McClure; Sandra Woolley: Julia Ford; Bill Woolley: James Higgins. No MPAA rating. Color/stereo. Running time -- 88 minutes.