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P-p-p-pick up the new trailer for The Penguin Lessons, an upcoming drama starring Steve Coogan. And also a penguin.

Coming to a cinema near you soon(ish) is The Penguin Lessons, directed by Peter Cattaneo and based on the memoir of Tom Michell, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jeff Pope. Steve Coogan stars alongside Jonathan Pryce, Vivian El Jaber, Björn Gustafsson and Alfonsina Carrocio.

The synopsis reads as follows:

The Penguin Lessons is a story about a disillusioned Englishman who went to work in a school in Argentina in 1976. There, he found a divided nation and a class of unteachable students, only for everything to change when he rescues a penguin from an oil-slicked beach.

Steve Coogan and writer Jeff Pope have been a successful filmmaking team over the last few years. It began in 2013 with Philomena, which starred Judi Dench as the titular character, who enlists the help...

Stan And Ollie stars Steve Coogan and John C Reilly are reuniting for thespian comedy The Players.

One of the biggest cinematic comedy treats of 2018 was Stan And Ollie, a love letter to arguably the greatest double act of all time. At its centre were two powerhouse performances from Steve Coogan and John C Reilly, who not only captured the perfect comic timing but also the onscreen chemistry.

The film was written by Coogan’s regular collaborator Jeff Pope. The pair also made Philomena and last year’s Jimmy Savile drama, The Reckoning.

According to Deadline, Coogan and Reilly are reuniting with Pope for The Players, a comedy about actors performing a Shakespeare play in New York.

Peter Cattaneo will direct from Pope’s script. Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope are also co-producing with Protagonist Pictures’ Dave Bishop, George Hamilton, James Pugh and 42’s Josh Varney.

Cattaneo, Coogan, Pope and...

After teaming up for 2018’s Stan & Ollie, a biographical comedy focusing on the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy, John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan are reuniting for The Players, an upcoming comedy about competing Shakespearian actors.

The Full Monty’s Peter Cattaneo directs The Players from a script by Jeff Pope. The Players is an 1800s period comedy revolving around two thespians, Edwin Forrest and William MacCready. According to Deadline‘s exclusive report, The Players “is set in 1847 New York, where Edwin Forrest (Reilly) holds the undisputed title as the country’s top Shakespearian actor. Playing magnificently to a sold out, raucous crowd every night, Edwin is “The Star”. But when critically celebrated English thespian William MacCready (Coogan) arrives from London to perform his sophisticated Hamlet, Edwin’s title is thrown into jeopardy. Each man wants what the other has, and the rivalry between them starts a hilarious and unforgettable battle of egos.

Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly are set to collaborate again in an upcoming comedy that tells the true story of a legendary feud between two American Shakespearean actors in the 1800s. The film, titled “The Players,” will depict the rivalry between actors Edwin Forrest and William MacCready that dominated New York’s mid-19th century theater scene. Coogan will play MacCready, while Reilly portrays Forrest.

The movie takes place in 1847 and focuses on the tense relationship between the two main characters. Forrest, played by Reilly, was America’s top Shakespearean star at the time. However, his dominance was challenged with the arrival of Coogan’s character, the sophisticated English actor MacCready. Director Peter Cattaneo, known for the hit comedy “The Full Monty,” will direct the project. The screenplay was written by Jeff Pope, a frequent Coogan collaborator.

Pope’s script promises to deliver an insightful and witty dramatization of...

Exclusive: Following their 2018 critically acclaimed hit Stan & Ollie, Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly are reuniting for The Players, a comedy based on the rivalry between 1800s thespians Edwin Forrest and William MacCready. Two-time Academy Award nominee Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) is directing the project from a script penned by Stan & Ollie and Philomena writer Jeff Pope.

The Players, which is set to begin production early next year in Europe, is set in 1847 New York, where Edwin Forrest (Reilly) holds the undisputed title as the country’s top Shakespearian actor. Playing magnificently to a sold out, raucous crowd every night, Edwin is “The Star”. But when critically celebrated English thespian William MacCready (Coogan) arrives from London to perform his sophisticated Hamlet, Edwin’s title is thrown into jeopardy. Each man wants what the other has, and the rivalry between them starts a hilarious and unforgettable battle of egos.

Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jeff Pope (“Philomena”) and Xavier Marchand of “Nautilus” producer Moonriver TV are teaming up on “Castle of the Eagles,” a six-episode limited series based on the true story of Allied POWs who staged a daring prison break from a fortified Italian castle during World War II.

The duo will be presenting the project to an industry audience in Rome during the Mia Market, which runs Oct. 14 – 18.

Written by Pope and based on the book of the same name by Mark Felton, “Castle of the Eagles” is produced by Marchand for Moonriver and Pope for his production label Etta Pictures, which is part of ITV Studios. “Harry Potter” star Jason Isaacs, who played Cary Grant in the four-part ITV biopic “Archie” written by Pope, is attached in a lead role.

The series begins in 1943, with war raging across Europe and some two dozen Allied soldiers and officers imprisoned in Castello Vincigliata,...

Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo, better known simply as Mia, is the Rome-based event that is a market, pitching forum, co-production hub and place where the content world connects with Italy.

More than 100 of the co-production projects that have passed through its doors have moved into production, countless distribution deals have been inked, early-stage shows pitched and business has been done in the Palazzo Barberini, the Rome museum that houses the event.

The setting means the backdrop is Canaletto and Caravaggio masterpieces. The event itself has a broad canvas, spanning animation, fiction, documentary and features. The trick for Gaia Tridente in her third year as Director, is to speak to each of those audiences, and make the event feel curated, despite that breadth.

Mia is promoted by Anica, the Italian Association of Film, Audiovisual and Digital Industries that is chaired by Francesco Rutelli and APA, the Italian Audiovisual Producers Association, which is chaired by Chiara Sbarigia.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired “The Penguin Lessons,” an uplifting dramedy starring Steve Coogan as a teacher who forms an unlikely bond with a feathered friend.

Peter Cattaneo directed the film, which premiered at this year’s Toronto Film Festival. It’s adapted by Jeff Pope from Tom Michell’s 2016 memoir. It follows a cynical British professor who takes a job in Argentina in the 1970s during a period of political upheaval, only to find his life transformed when he rescues a oil-soaked penguin from a beach. Under the deal, Sony Pictures Classics has distribution rights in North America, the Middle East, Turkey, Asia, India, Japan and South Korea.

In Variety’s review, critic Guy Lodge described “The Penguin Lessons” as a “heartwarming tale of human-animal bonding” and praised the eponymous penguin, writing that “almost inevitably, it’s best when it’s about the bird.”

Coogan, the English actor who...

A UK-produced biopic exploring the life of Dutch extreme athlete Wim Hof has been put on hold following allegations of domestic abuse against the cold-water guru, which he has denied.

The film was originally announced in 2022 with Kevin Macdonald attached to direct and Joseph Fiennes signed to star as Hof.

The project reunited London-based production company Genesius Pictures and sales agent Cornerstone Films after their successful collaboration on Good Luck To You, Leo Grande.

The decision to halt the project follows a report in Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant over the weekend in which the athlete’s ex-partner said he had physically and verbally abused her, their son and her two children from a previous marriage over a 13-year period.

Hof has denied the report and since filed a complaint for alleged defamation and slander, but the production company appears to be waiting for the outcome of the case.

“Genesius Pictures...

Italy’s Mia market — dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films and documentaries — is set for its 10th edition with 60 projects from 90 countries ready to be unveiled to potential partners.

The Oct. 14-18 pre-Mipcom event will also feature a rich roster of panels and keynote speakers, which will help take the global industry’s pulse at a time when business models are changing and co-productions have become more crucial than ever.

This year’s Mia panels will be announced later this week, but market director Gaia Tridente revealed to Variety that she has lined up some high-caliber keynote speakers such as Sony Pictures Television Studios president Katherine Pope, “Ripley” producer Clayton Townsend and Canadian-American producer Odessa Rae, who was instrumental in the making of Oscar-winning doc “Navalny” about the late Russian dissident.

Tridente said she’s been surprised at how many projects Mia received this year – 600 submissions to its co-productions call,...

Rome’s Mia Market has seen a 20% increase in submissions for its Co-Production Market and Pitching Forum, with 60 of the 600 received selected to be presented.

The number of submissions rose from 80 to 90, with a 12.5% increase in the number of countries of origin. Genres span drama, docs, film and animation

The popular Drama Co-Production Market and Pitching Forum has seen submissions up 6%, with 14 series projects from 12 nations presenting.

Among the drama projects are Italian productions A Family Reunion (Riuione di Famiglia), a family thriller produced by Rosario Rinaldo for Cross Productions and written by Donatella Diamanti, Mauro Casiraghi, Simona Coppini, Alessandra Martellini, Marzio Paoltroni and Nicola Ravera Rafele; and Uglycomics (Fumettibrutti), which is based on the graphic novel trilogy by Josephine Yole Signorelli, produced by Riccardo Russo for Bim Produzione and written by Teresa Ciabatti, Laura Luchetti and Michele Pellegrini.

International co-productions Palmyra is a French-Lebanese story about three heiresses of...

All too often, a Toronto Film Festival premiere is seen as an audition for a U.S. release, when the end result is more like sending a manned space flight into the sun. The Penguin Lessons is a case in point, being a peculiarly British movie that takes a very traditional trope — man becomes attached to a very unusual pet — and then infuses it with an unexpectedly modern sense of humor. Given its setting, there were always going to be some serious issues to deal with that wouldn’t quite square with what is essentially a wry comedy. Star Steve Coogan, however, working from a script by his frequent writing partner Jeff Pope, does his best to ground the movie, using irony in a way that international audiences may find hard to process.

After an epoch-defining montage of civil unrest...

Argentina’s 1976 military coup d’état, along with the sustained period of violence and forced disappearances that it ushered in, isn’t an obvious historical backdrop for a heartwarming tale of human-animal bonding. But that’s how the timing worked out for Tom Michell, an English teacher stationed at an elite Buenos Aires private school, at the time of the turmoil: With the country in chaos and many of his colleagues in crisis, he was figuring out what to do with the Magellan penguin he had accidentally adopted on a weekend jaunt to Uruguay. His 2016 memoir of that period, “The Penguin Lessons,” was the kind of breezy read that bridges adult and juvenile tastes for animal stories; Peter Cattaneo’s amiable film adaptation matches the book’s feathery whimsy while reaching for a little more political import. Almost inevitably, it’s best when it’s about the bird.

While Michell...

Toronto film festival

Tom Michell’s feelgood memoir could have been a winning buddy movie with Coogan’s colleague – if it wasn’t for the titular bird always muscling its way in looking baffled

Films set in Latin America during periods of political and social unrest – the early work of Pablo Larraín, say – have traditionally been low on Dead Poets Society-style inspirational uplift. Or, for that matter, penguins. Now the Steve Coogan Heartwarming True Story Machine – the same one which produced Philomena and The Lost King – seeks to rectify the oversight, and not a moment too soon.

This adaptation of Tom Michell’s cosy memoir The Penguin Lessons, scripted by Coogan’s semi-regular collaborator Jeff Pope and directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty), begins in Buenos Aires in 1976, just as Isabel Perón is being ousted in a military coup. Tom, played by Coogan, pitches up with his wardrobe of...

Steve Coogan and the makers of The Lost King are being sued over the portrayal of a university official in their Richard III film.

Richard Taylor, a former University of Leicester deputy registrar is suing the actor-writer, his BBC Studios-owned production company Baby Cow Productions and Pathé Productions, claiming the performance presents him as “dismissive, patronising and misogynistic.”

Lee Ingleby played Taylor in the film, which was about the real-life discovery of Richard III’s remains under a council car park in Leicester in 2012.

The Stephen Frears-directed film focuses on the role played by historian Philippa Langley (played by Sally Hawkins) in the discovery, and debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022.

Coogan starred as Langley’s husband, and produced and co-wrote the film with Jeff Pope, who also co-wrote Coogan’s multi-Oscar-nominated 2013 film Philomena. Coogan did not attend the High Court hearing.

Taylor’s barrister claimed...

“For All Mankind” Releases Season 4 Trailer

Apple TV+ has taken a giant leap toward Season 4 of its critically acclaimed space drama series “For All Mankind.” The streamer has released the official trailer for the upcoming season, which will premiere on Friday, Nov. 10 with one episode per week every Friday through Jan. 12.

The 10-episode fourth season will take place in 2003, eight years after Season 3, with Happy Valley having rapidly expanded its footprint on Mars. With the focus of the space program shifting to the capture and mining of mineral-rich and valuable asteroids, simmering tensions between the residents of the international base threaten to undo everything with the fate of both Earth and Mars at their hands.

Watch the Season 4 trailer for “For All Mankind” below:

Joel Kinnaman, Wrenn Schmidt, Krys Marshall, Edi Gathegi, Cynthy Wu, and Coral Peña along will return for the fourth seaso alongside new series regulars Toby Kebbell,...

Exclusive: Nautilus, the UK live-action Captain Nemo series commissioned by Disney+ two years ago, is no longer headed to the streamer, Deadline has learned.

The decision is part of Disney’s streaming content removal plan unveiled in May, for which the company is taking an impairment charge of approximately $1.5 billion-$1.8 billion. It followed the February announcement by Disney that it intends to cut $3 billion in non-sports content spend across the company.

As part of the cost-reduction strategy, Disney’s streaming platforms, particularly flagship Disney+, have been taking a closer look on their programming with a new emphasis on content curation.

As Deadline reported exclusively Saturday, Disney+ also is not going forward with another upcoming original series, the The Spiderwick Chronicles, a U.S. live-action series adaptation of the popular children’s fantasy books.

Over the past couple of months, dozens of original series and specials were taken off Disney+ as well as Hulu,...

Exclusive: Benjamin Zephaniah’s memoir Life and Rhymes is being developed into a TV series by Baby Cow and Timewasters creator Daniel Lawrence Taylor.

The project forms part of a funded development slate from Steve Coogan’s indie, unveiled by CEO Sarah Monteith to Deadline earlier this week, which also features shows about Margaret Thatcher and forensic scientist Patricia Wiltshire.

The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah tells the story of the celebrated poet, artist, activist and Peaky Blinders actor who was born into poverty and produced radical poetry that led him to perform in every continent of the world, meeting the likes of Nelson Mandela and The Wailers along the way.

Sarah Monteith. Image: Baby Cow

BAFTA-winning Timewasters creator Lawrence Taylor is developing with Zephaniah on the show that is in late-stage development with a yet-to-be-revealed UK broadcaster.

Having been elevated to CEO two years ago, Monteith said Life...

BBC TV boss Charlotte Moore has said she will not “censor” respected writers who want to make shows about controversial subjects such as Jimmy Savile and the Grenfell disaster. In a wide-ranging briefing with the media press, Moore also addressed the Gary Lineker and Richard Sharp controversies, future of Top Gear, the streamers and the closure of Cbbc and BBC Four on linear.

The BBC’s upcoming TV dramas on serial abuser Jimmy Savile and the Grenfell fire – which killed 72 people in 2017 – have come in for much criticism and the latter has spawned a petition to have it canceled that has so far been signed by nearly 60,000 people.

Responding to a question from Deadline, Moore said the BBC “has a strong track record” in factual drama about controversial subjects and stressed that “it would not be right for me to censor ideas from very respected writers who have written about similar subjects in the past.

The much-maligned Richard III finally gets the royal treatment in Stephen Frears’ The Lost King as amateur historian Philippa Langley unearths the monarch’s five-century-old remains in a parking lot in Leicester, England, in 2012. Two books and a documentary later, IFC Films presents the feature film version in 750+ theaters.

“It took eight years from starting the search to cutting the tarmac. To see it telescoped into a hundred or so minutes made it really powerful for me,” Langley, who’s played in the film by Sally Hawkins, told Deadline.

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Richard III (1461-1483) is one of Shakespeare’s most malevolent villains,...

A survivor of Jimmy Savile’s abuse has recalled seeing Steve Coogan in character for the first time.

Coogan plays the disgraced TV star in a new four-part BBC drama titled The Reckoning, which will dramatise Savile’s history of pedophila.

As part of the duty of care in place for the drama, which was written by Neil McKay and produced by Jeff Pope, the production invited numerous survivors to the set in an attempt to convince them of the responsibility they felt in ensuring the story was told sensitively.

One survivor, Sam Brown, has now revealed what it was like seeing Coogan in character as Savile. Brown was repeatedly abused by Savile as a child.

She told Deadline she knew she would be approached by Coogan after he had finished filming a scene in Cheshire, but was not prepared for the “powerful” reaction she’d have to seeing him.

A survivor of Jimmy Savile’s abuse has recalled seeing Steve Coogan in character for the first time.

Coogan plays the disgraced TV star in a new four-part BBC drama titled The Reckoning, which will dramatise Savile’s history of pedophila.

As part of the duty of care in place for the drama, which was written by Neil McKay and produced by Jeff Pope, the production invited numerous survivors to the set in an attempt to convince them of the responsibility they felt in ensuring the story was told sensitively.

One survivor, Sam Brown, has now revealed what it was like seeing Coogan in character as Savile. Brown was repeatedly abused by Savile as a child.

She told Deadline she knew she would be approached by Coogan after he had finished filming a scene in Cheshire, but was not prepared for the “powerful” reaction she’d have to seeing him.

A survivor of Jimmy Savile’s abuse has recalled seeing Steve Coogan in character for the first time.

Coogan plays the disgraced TV star in a new four-part BBC drama titled The Reckoning, which will dramatise Savile’s history of pedophila.

As part of the duty of care in place for the drama, which was written by Neil McKay and produced by Jeff Pope, the production invited numerous survivors to the set in an attempt to convince them of the responsibility they felt in ensuring the story was told sensitively.

One survivor, Sam Brown, has now revealed what it was like seeing Coogan in character as Savile. Brown was repeatedly abused by Savile as a child.

She told Deadline she knew she would be approached by Coogan after he had finished filming a scene in Cheshire, but was not prepared for the “powerful” reaction she’d have to seeing him.

Exclusive: Sam Brown vividly recalls her visceral reaction to Steve Coogan. The BAFTA-winning actor was fresh from shooting a scene when he walked across a Cheshire graveyard in her direction.

With lightning-white hair, makeup, and in full costume, Coogan was unmistakably the image of Jimmy Savile, the BBC presenter who repeatedly abused Brown when she was just a child. Brown arrived at the encounter determined to face the specter of her late tormenter, but nothing could prepare her for the “powerful” jolt that shot through her body as Coogan approached.

“As he was walking towards me, in my head I was thinking, ‘No, go away.’ I kept thinking, ‘Go away.’ Seemingly this wasn’t kept in my head. I was saying all of this [out loud] and didn’t realize I was bloody saying it. I was so embarrassed,” she remembers.

Brown was one of a number of Savile survivors welcomed onto the set of The Reckoning,...

Prime Video has secured the return of Dave Bautista (Knock at the Cabin), Chloe Coleman (Avatar: The Way of Water), Kristen Schaal (What We Do in the Shadows), Ken Jeong (The Afterparty) and others for their My Spy sequel, My Spy: The Eternal City. Among the new additions to the ensemble in the second installment are Anna Faris (Mom), Craig Robinson (The Office) and Flula Borg (Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin).

An action-comedy from STXfilms that Prime Video picked up for release amidst the theatrical shutdown of the Covid pandemic, My Spy told the story of JJ (Bautista), a hardened CIA operative who found himself at the mercy of precocious nine-year-old Sophie (Coleman), after being sent undercover to surveil her family. Schaal played JJ’s tech specialist colleague Bobbi, with Jeong as his boss, David.

Related Story Simona Tabasco Joins Sydney Sweeney In Psychological Horror Film ‘Immaculate’ Related Story 'Holland,...

Fresh off last year’s Bodies Bodies Bodies, Rachel Sennott has joined the cast of Mimi Cave‘s (Fresh) new movie Holland, Michigan, Deadline first reported this afternoon.

Lennon Parham (Minx), Isaac Krasner (Power Book III: Raising Kanan) and Jeff Pope (Interview with the Vampire) have also signed on this week, joining the previously announced Nicole Kidman, Gael García Bernal, Jude Hill and Matthew Macfadyen.

Cave’s Holland, Michigan comes from Amazon Studios.

The site’s report details, “The feature, based on Andrew Sodroski’s (Manhunt) script, topped the 2013 Black List, and involves secrets that lurk beneath a Midwestern town with a Hitchcock bent. Kidman will star and produce with Per Saari under her Blossom Films.”

Peter Dealbert is producing, with Kate Churchill executive producing.

Mimi Cave’s horror-comedy Fresh was released on Hulu last year, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan. In the film, “Frustrated by scrolling dating...

The Hitchcockian thriller Holland, Michigan is a project that has spent the last decade in development hell. It started out with a screenplay by Andrew Sodroski, creator of the Discovery television series Manhunt, that was featured on the Black List back in 2013. At one point, documentarian Errol Morris was going to direct a version of Holland, Michigan that was going to star Naomi Watts, Bryan Cranston, and Edgar Ramirez. But it fell apart before filming could begin. Now director Mimi Cave – who recently made her feature directorial debut with the thriller Fresh – and producer/star Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge) are working together to push the project into production for Amazon Prime Video… and it’s looking like this version of Holland, Michigan is actually going to happen! We’ve previously heard that Kidman is going to be joined in the cast by Gael García Bernal (Werewolf by Night), Matthew Macfadyen...

Good afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here. The Berlinale is nearly upon us and plenty has been going down in the film and TV world this week. Read on.

EFM Nears

A welcome return: Berlin’s European Film Market was the last major physical market to take place in 2020 as the world began to shut down with the Covid-19 pandemic taking hold. The virus would force the event online in 2021 and 2022. Finally, this year, the market returns to in-person events, with thousands of industry professionals once again gearing up to descend on the Gropius Bau, the market’s traditional home, for the 2023 edition, running February 16-22.

Heating up: The market has already begun to heat up, with the first of the high-profile packages arriving this week. Mike Fleming had the scoop that Sacha Baron Cohen and Keke Palmer are set to star in Super Toys, a new pic written and directed by David O Russell,...

The Who frontman Roger Daltrey has brought life back to his longtime passion project, a biopic about the iconic rock band’s former drummer, Keith Moon.

Daltrey said in an interview with Vulture that he had recently finished a script for the movie, which had been nearly set to film last summer before Daltrey — with an aversion for a script written by Jeff Pope — stepped in and halted production. Paul Whittington (“The Crown”) had been set to direct.

Daltrey then committed to writing the script. He said he would now like to get the film shot within two years.

“I’m very pleased with the script,” Daltrey, 78, told Vulture. “I want people to get an understanding of him and his life, and the complete genius he was. He had so much talent, that boy, but he became out of control for a lot of reasons. Mostly for lack of discipline.

The Who singer Roger Daltrey has revealed in a new interview that he’s finished with a script for a biopic about late drummer Keith Moon. What’s more, he has “an actor in mind” to play his former bandmate.

Daltrey shared an update about his plans for the long-gestating film in an interview with Vulture. “I just finished a script, and I’m hoping to do my biopic of Keith within the next couple of years,” he said. “I’m very pleased with the script. I want people to get an understanding of him and his life, and the complete genius he was. He had so much talent, that boy, but he became out of control for a lot of reasons. Mostly for lack of discipline. But once the drugs kick in, usually that disappears, doesn’t it?”

He continued by describing the ideal actor who he wants to...

Exclusive: Steve Coogan is set to star in The Penguin Lessons, with The Full Monty’s Peter Cattaneo to direct the Jeff Pope-scripted adaptation of the Tom Michell nonfiction bestseller.

The management/production company 42 partners Rory Aitken and Ben Pugh will produce alongside Robert Walak. Rocket Science is handling international sales and will introduce the film at the European Film Market, with CAA Media Finance repping U.S. distribution rights.

The Penguin Lessons is the true story of a disillusioned Englishman who went to work in a school in Argentina in 1976. Expecting an easy ride, he discovered instead a complicated and divided nation – and a class of practically unteachable young boys. When he finds a small penguin washed up on an oil-slicked beach, his life is turned upside down – and the penguin becomes not only a valued friend, but also a teacher of life’s most important lessons, for Tom,...

A Labour MP who was the target of a far-right murder plot depicted in Jeff Pope’s Stephen Graham-starring ITV drama The Walk-In has lambasted the broadcaster for its “stupid, stupid, stupid series.”

Speaking in the UK’s House of Commons yesterday, Rosie Cooper said she has had death threats since the series was broadcast and claimed she had been used as a “marketing tool” by ITV.

ITV Studios’ The Walk-In, which ended earlier this week and was watched by millions of viewers, starred Graham as Hope not Hate activist Matthew Collins, who infiltrated a far-right gang and got a tip-off in 2017 about a threat to Cooper which led to the arrest and imprisonment of a neo-Nazi who had bought a machete to kill the West Lancashire MP.

Cooper said she was “appalled” at her treatment by ITV.

“What excuse is there for a press release that says,...

You're probably familiar with the old saying "History is written by the victors." A more accurate sentiment would be "History is written by the conquerors." Those that end up on top have the desire to justify and celebrate their conquering, and if that story gets passed along through time, it becomes an accepted fact rather than a propagandistic perception. Only in the last few years has there been major pushback from folks of all stripes on the historical perception of Christopher Columbus, who for hundreds of years has been hailed as the founder of the "New World," which isn't true at all. Most stories need heroes, and if you've silenced those who oppose you, you can claim to the hero yourself.

This correcting of the record is at the core of the story of Philippa Langley, a woman who spearheaded an archaeological dig a decade ago in search of the remains of King Richard III.

This review contains Spoilers for all five episodes of The Walk-In

Any drama that has a first episode including the line ‘Where Hitler went wrong is he showed mercy’ is going to be a difficult watch, and ITV’s true-crime offering The Walk-In certainly goes in hard from the off. Its very first scene depicts a brutal 2015 terrorist attack – white nationalist Zack Davies storms into a Welsh supermarket to attack dentist Dr Sarandev Bhambra with a machete while screaming ‘white power’ – effectively establishing how unflinchingly this series will deal with its central theme.

Screenwriter Jeff Pope’s latest drama tells the true story of how – as part of his work with advocacy group Hope Not Hate – Matthew Collins (played by Line of Duty and This Is England‘s Stephen Graham) infiltrated UK far-right terrorist groups in order to stop a plot to murder a second MP following the attack on...

Vulture Watch

Be careful what you wish for, Louis. Has Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire been cancelled or renewed for a second season on AMC? The television vulture is watching all the latest cancellation and renewal news, so this page is the place to track the status of Interview with the Vampire, season two. Bookmark it, or subscribe for the latest updates. Remember, the television vulture is watching your shows. Are you?  

What's This TV Show About?

Airing on the AMC cable channel, Interview with the Vampire stars Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, Bailey Bass, and Eric Bogosian. Recurring performers include Assad Zaman, Steven Norfleet, Kalyne Coleman, Rae Dawn Chong, Jeff Pope, Chris Stack, Rachel Handler, John Dimaggio, Dana Gourrier, Christian Robinson, and Maura Grace Athari. The story follows Louis de Pointe du Lac (Anderson), Lestat de Lioncourt...

We don't have to wonder if Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire will be cancelled right now. The series was renewed for a second season before the series even premiered. Will the AMC execs end up regretting this decision once they see the ratings, or does this adaptation have many years of renewals in its future? Stay tuned.

A dark fantasy series, the Interview with the Vampire TV show stars Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, Bailey Bass, and Eric Bogosian. Recurring performers include Assad Zaman, Steven Norfleet, Kalyne Coleman, Rae Dawn Chong, Jeff Pope, Chris Stack, Rachel Handler, John Dimaggio, Dana Gourrier, Christian Robinson, and Maura Grace Athari. The story follows Louis de Pointe du Lac (Anderson), Lestat de Lioncourt (Reid), and Claudia (Bass) in a tale of love, blood, and the perils of immortality, as told to journalist Daniel...

It doesn't take long before Lestat and Louis's relationship begins to unravel in the first season of the Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire TV show on AMC. As we all know, the Nielsen ratings typically play a big role in determining whether a TV show like Interview with the Vampire is cancelled or renewed for season two. Unfortunately, most of us do not live in Nielsen households. Because many viewers feel frustrated when their viewing habits and opinions aren't considered, we invite you to rate all of the first season episodes of Interview with the Vampire here.

An AMC dark fantasy series, the Interview with the Vampire TV show stars Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, Bailey Bass, and Eric Bogosian. Recurring performers include Assad Zaman, Steven Norfleet, Kalyne Coleman, Rae Dawn Chong, Jeff Pope, Chris Stack, Rachel Handler,...

Stephen Frears, Jeff Pope and Steve Coogan turn the true story of how the infamous king’s remains were found under a Leicester car park into an uneven comedy drama

A couple of years ago, the gently charming Brit pic The Dig told the “true-life” story of autodidactic archaeologist Basil Brown (played with low-key aplomb by Ralph Fiennes) being sidelined from the unearthing of the Sutton Hoo treasures by a snobby establishment attempting to take credit for his work. That winning formula is revisited in this latest seriocomic drama from the team behind 2013’s Oscar-nominated Philomena: director Stephen Frears, writer Jeff Pope and writer-actor Steve Coogan. In The Lost King, it’s Sally Hawkins’s amateur historian-sleuth Philippa Langley who gets to butt heads with the archaeological establishment as she pursues her dream to find the mortal remains of the much-maligned King Richard III.

“Sent before my time into this breathing world,...

‘Amsterdam’ also opening wide for Disney.

A pair of monarchs are striding into UK-Ireland cinemas this weekend, as Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King and Stephen Frears’ The Lost King look to reign.

eOne’s The Woman King is starting in 577 cinemas, including 50 iMax screens plus 4Dx and Dolby Vision venues. The historical epic is inspired by events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of Africa’s most powerful states in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was protected by an all-female warrior unit known as the Agojie.

Viola Davis stars in the film and has...

Dir: Stephen Frears. Starring: Sally Hawkins, Steve Coogan, Harry Lloyd. 12A, 108 minutes.

The true lives of so many kings, queens, and emperors have been lost to history – their faces scratched off coins, their names scrubbed from the record, and, in the case of Richard III, their stories turned into villainous pageantry by one William Shakespeare. Separating fact from historical propaganda is steady and ponderous work, a series of slow-motion spats confined to lecture theatres and academic annuals. It’s hardly the stuff of celluloid dreams. That’s what led to the hypocrisy of The Lost King, Stephen Frears’s comedy drama about the discovery of Richard III’s skeleton. Its self-congratulatory crusade to restore its subject’s reputation has, for the sake of entertainment, distorted reality to the point that it borders on farce.

The film, supposedly, champions the course correction of historical narratives. Firstly, there’s that of Richard III,...

Exclusive: eOne has struck a multi-year first-look deal with BAFTA-winning writer-director Paul Andrew Williams.

The deal will see Williams, who won a BAFTA for BBC Three single drama Murdered for Being Different, forge scripted TV shows for all platforms, working closely with Sharon Hughff, the newly-appointed eOne Creative Director, Scripted Television, UK.

Hughff said Williams is known for “striking, bold, character-driven dramas” and has “effortlessly moved between film and television winning many accolades along the way.”

“His work is uncompromising, distinctive, and always has heart and integrity,” she added. “Working with Paul is absolutely what eOne is about.”

Williams was BAFTA nominated nearly 20 years ago as Most Promising Newcomer for film London to Brighton and has since gone on to work on a wealth of scripted projects including ITV’s Broadchurch, A Confession and, most recently, the Stephen Graham-starring The Walk-In, which is penned by his long-time collaborator Jeff Pope.

The dream team of Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope and Stephen Frears, that put the wonderful Philomena are back together, this time bringing the story of Philippa Langley to life in The Lost King. To mark the film’s release we had the pleasure in speaking to Coogan, who co-wrote and stars in the film, as he sat alongside Langley herself, as we wanted to talk about the importance in telling the subject’s story the right way. Letting her side be known, once and for all. We also talk about the writing process, Coogan’s collaboration with his familiar team, and Langley tells us whether she really does have visions of King Richard III.

Watch the full interview with Steve Coogan and Philippa Langley here:

Synopsis

In 2012, having been lost for over 500 years, the remains of King Richard III were discovered beneath a carpark in Leicester. The search had been orchestrated by an amateur historian,...

Kara Tointon, Harriet Walter and Laura Aikman have joined the cast of Cary Grant biopic “Archie” alongside Jason Isaacs, who will play the matinee idol himself.

Aikman (“Bluestone 42”) is set to play Grant’s ex-wife Dyan Cannon, Walter (“Succession”) will play his mother Elsie Leach and Tointon (“Mr Selfridge”) will play a younger version of Elsie.

Also joining the cast are Henry Lloyd-Hughes (“Ragdoll”), Ian Pulston-Davies (“Di Ray”), Ian McNeice (“Doc Martin”), Jason Watkins (“McDonald & Dodds”), Lisa Faulkner (“EastEnders”) and Niamh Cusack (“The Virtues”).

Meanwhile Dainton Anderson (“Patrick Melrose”), Calam Lynch (“Bridgerton”) and Oaklee Pendergast (“Home”) will play young versions of Grant, whose real name was Archie Leach.

The series will follow Grant from his early life in Bristol, England, where he was born into extreme poverty in the 1900s, before auditioning for a music hall act, a move which would eventually change his life. The troupe went on tour to the U.

Itvx and BritBox International’s Jason Isaacs-starring Cary Grant biopic Archie has set the rest of its cast.

Jeff Pope’s series, revealed by Deadline in August, will also star Laura Aikman as Cary’s ex-wife Dyan Cannon with Harriet Walter (Succession, Ted Lasso, Killing Eve) as Elise Leach, Grant’s mother. Dainton Anderson (Patrick Melrose), Calam Lynch (Bridgerton) and Oaklee Pendergast (Home) will play young versions of Archie Leach and Kara Tointon (Mr Selfridge, The Halcyon, Sound of Music Live) will play young Elsie. Meanwhile, Henry Lloyd-Hughes (Ragdoll), Ian Pulston-Davies, Ian McNeice (Doc Martin), Jason Watkins (McDonald & Dodds, Des), Lisa Faulkner (EastEnders) and Niamh Cusack (The Virtues) have boarded.

The show from Pope’s rebranded ITV Studios label Etta Pictures is intercuts scenes from Hollywood’s leading man’s early life and 1961 at the height of his fame, with that...

This evening royalty came to the Ham Yard Hotel in Central London in the stately form of the UK Premiere of The Lost King. The event was attended by Sally Hawkins, Mark Addy, writer, producer and star Steve Coogan, real life inspiration Philippa Langley, director Stephen Frears, executive producer and writer Jeff Pope, producer Christine Langan and composer Alexandre Desplate.

The Lost King will be released on the 7th of October, 2022. Sarah Cook and Colin Hart were on the red carpet for us this evening, here are their interviews.

The Lost King Premiere Interviews

Plot:

In 2012, having been lost for over 500 years, the remains of King Richard III were discovered beneath a carpark in Leicester. The search had been orchestrated by an amateur historian, Philippa Langley, whose unrelenting research had been met with incomprehension by her friends and family and with scepticism by experts and academics. The Lost King is...

Stephen Graham To Star In ITV Neo-Nazi Drama ‘The Walk-In’

ITV’s has ordered a five-part drama, The Walk-In, a true story of how a Neo-Nazi plan to kill an MP was foiled by an inside man. Stephen Graham will star in the ITV Studios series from writer Jeff Pope as activist Matthew Collins, a reformed Neo-Nazi, now working as a bona fide journalist for the anti-racist organisation Hope Not Hate. Bafta-award winning director Paul Andrew Williams directs the series, reuniting him with Pope — the pair has worked together previously on A Confession and Isolation Stories. They are both executive producers alongside Graham and another regular collaborator, Tom Dunbar. Jo Johnson is producing. Filming for The Walk-In tookin London and surrounding areas and the drama will air on ITV on Monday October 3 for five consecutive weeks. ITV Studios has International distribution.

After the success of their Oscar-nominated collaboration on the 2013 drama “Philomena,” starring Judi Dench, director Stephen Frears and star-screenwriter Steve Coogan were eager to team up once again — similarly this time on a true-life-inspired tale about amateur sleuthing.

“The Lost King” tells the story of Philippa Langley (Sally Hawkins), a self-guided historian who seemingly stumbles upon the remains of Richard III, only to be thwarted by various forces that doubt her discovery, much of them in academia.

Frears and Coogan stopped by TheWrap and Shutterstock’s Interview and Portrait Studio at the Toronto International Film Festival to discuss what drew them to work together on this unique project, which also rejoined them with “Philomena” composer Alexandre Desplat, co-writer Jeff Pope and producer Christine Langan.

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If you’re a fan of “The Trip” and its sequels, those semi-improvised road comedies in which Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon play slightly exaggerated versions of their real-life selves, you’ll know that they’re about more than just two men driving through the European countryside, eating fabulous food, trying to top each other with their Al Pacino impersonations. Coogan, in particular, comes off as a fellow who, for all his larkish narcissism, is so steeped in history that it’s literally alive for him. And that’s the feeling that courses through “The Lost King,” the new movie written by Coogan and Jeff Pope and directed by Stephen Frears.

They’re the team that gave us “Philomena” (2013), the sharp-tongued heart-tugger that cast Judi Dench as a real-life Irishwoman tracking down the son she’d been forced to give up for adoption 50 years before. That movie was fine (a...

William Shakespeare rather definitively defined Richard the Third as a deformed, conniving, duplicitous and altogether unsavory monarch in his 1485 play, and the man’s image as such has persisted ever since.

But that all changed nearly a decade ago when an obscure amateur historian sniffed around and ultimately uncovered the burial site beneath a downtown Leicester parking lot, a story that has now been beguilingly recounted in The Lost King. It’s a modest but thoroughly captivating tale that has the look and feel of so many good British films of 25 or 30 years ago, a quality that can no doubt be significantly attributed to that reliable all-rounder Stephen Frears at the helm.

Toronto Film Festival: Deadline’s Complete Coverage

Delightfully written by co-star Steve Coogan and the prolific television writer Jeff Pope, this is a story somewhat in the vein of Preston Sturges’ little-man-makes-good human comedies, in which an unlikely...

Don’t believe everything you read. More than a hundred years after King Richard III was killed during the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last important fight of the War of the Roses and widely considered the end of the Middle Ages, William Shakespeare wrote his “Richard III,” which dramatized the king’s life, works, and death, turning him into something of a monster in the process. But what if, Stephen Frears’ “The Lost King” wonders, everything we thought we know about Richard, much of it straight from The Bard’s pen itself, was wrong indeed?

Many people have noodled on that same thing in the centuries since his death, including the nearly century-old Richard III Society, which is comprised of not just fans of the ruler, but fans who are dedicated to reassessing his reputation. But “The Lost King” is mostly concerned with just one fan: Philippa Langley, a...