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Colin Callender’s Playground will adapt Georges Simenon’s best-selling detective novels “Maigret” into a television series set to air in the U.S. on PBS under the “Masterpiece” banner.

The adaptation of the streetwise Parisian Chief Inspector Jules Maigret has started production in Budapest. Callender and David Stern will executive produce for Playground.

Benjamin Wainwright will play Maigret and Stefanie Martini stars as Madame Louise Maigret.

“George Simenon’s creation of Jules Maigret holds a firm place in the pantheon of great literary detectives and we are incredibly grateful to our partners ‘Masterpiece,’ Banijay, Ilp and John Simenon for their trust and support as we endeavor to bring a contemporary Maigret to a new, worldwide audience,” Stern said. “Patrick Harbinson’s brilliantly fresh take on this iconic IP is reflective of Playground’s ambition to expand our growing slate of contemporary returning dramas that speak to a global marketplace.

A new iteration of one of the most beloved detectives in fiction is coming to PBS.

The public broadcaster has ordered Maigret, a series based on Georges Simenon’s novels about Jules Maigret, a chief inspector for the Paris police. Production on the series, which stars Benjamin Wainwright as the title character, has begun in Budapest; it will air under PBS’ Masterpiece Mystery! banner.

Simenon published more than 100 novels and short stories about Maigret, selling more books than any other detective series aside from Sherlock Holmes. The new Maigret series, produced by Playground (Wolf Hall, All Creatures Great and Small), is set in the present and will position the character as an unconventional young detective with something to prove, a rising star in the Police Judiciaire who is relentless in his investigations and has both an uncanny ability to get under the skin of the criminals he is chasing and...

The long-gestating TV adaptation of Georges Simenon’s Maigret has landed at PBS Masterpiece, with Belgravia: The Next Chapter’s Benjamin Wainwright and Stefanie Martini (Prime Suspect 1973) playing the eponymous leads.

From Colin Callender’s Wolf Hall producer Playground, the series follows the detective and his wife in Paris. Maigret is a rising star in the Police Judiciaire, relentless in his investigations, with an uncanny ability to get under the skin of the criminals he is chasing and a matchless knowledge of Paris and its inhabitants. Lead Wainwright played Lord Frederick Trenchard in MGM+ sequel series Belgravia: The Next Chapter, which followed on from Julian Fellowes’ original.

Patrick Harbinson is writing Maigret and the cast includes Blake Harrison, Reda Elazouar, Kerrie Hayes, Shaniqua Okwok and Rob Kazinsky, with Nathalie Armin set to play Prosecutor Mathilde Kernavel.

The Maigret books are the second best-selling detective series of all time behind Sherlock. Playground licensed them from Georges Simenon Limited and unveiled the development three years ago, at which point Red Arrow Studios International – which is no longer attached – was co-producing. Banijay Rights has since boarded and will sell globally.

The previous Maigret TV adaptation aired on ITV for two seasons from 2016, starring Rowan Atkinson.

Playground Joint MD David Stern said: “George Simenon’s creation of Jules Maigret holds a firm place in the pantheon of great literary detectives and we are incredibly grateful to our partners and John Simenon for their trust and support as we endeavor to bring a contemporary Maigret to a new, worldwide audience.”

Harbinson will direct the first two episodes of the Maigret series with Faye Gilbert directing 3 and 4, and David Evans taking 5 and 6. Susanne Simpson serves as the executive producer on behalf of Masterpiece the lead commissioning broadcaster, with John Simenon executive producing on behalf of Georges Simenon Limited. International distribution will be handled by Banijay Rights, the global sales arm of Banijay Entertainment.

Playground has been busy of late. The indie has completed the second in the Wolf Hall franchise, also for Masterpiece and the BBC, and is working on an Inspector Lynley Mysteries adaptation for BritBox International.

"She Could Fly — the groundbreaking graphic novel from the co-creator of AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire Christopher Cantwell, acclaimed Ice Cream Man artist Martín Morazzo and colorist Miroslav Mrva (Deadpool) — is a one-of-a-kind reading experience. And now the experimental graphic novel from Dark Horse Comics and Berger Books will be a documentary escape game designed to challenge how we think about the deeply misunderstood mental illness, Ocd."

Combining comic book art, documentary films, and interactive gameplay, the She Could Fly Documentary Escape Game is a point and click game from Wowbagger Productions that "takes players on a looping adventure to explore Ocd." With the game now available, we wanted to give Daily Dead readers a little tease of the game's Fear Monster.

The not-for-profit game will be published on gaming platform Steam on July 12 2024 and will be available for £4.99/ $5.99, with all proceeds beyond development costs going to further engagement...

Exclusive: Small Axe star Shaniqua Okwok has criticized The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama for paying lip service to anti-discrimination pledges after the prestigious UK drama school failed to say whether it disciplined a teacher accused of a “racist incident.”

Okwok, one of Royal Central’s most successful recent graduates, made a formal complaint against a teacher after they allegedly demanded that she embrace her “inherited trauma” and play a slave during an acting exercise in 2015.

Deadline can reveal that the complaint was upheld last year and Royal Central apologized to Okwok, but for confidentiality reasons, she was not told if the lecturer faced any consequences. The individual remains in post as a lecturer at the school, which boasts alumni including Judi Dench and Kit Harrington. The teacher did not respond to a request for comment.

In an exclusive interview for Deadline’s Drama Schools Uncovered series, Okwok...

Never Let Me Go is not coming to Hulu after all. FX ordered the sci-fi drama series in October after putting it into development in May 2022. Melissa Iqbal was set to act as showrunner.

The FX on Hulu series was to be based on the 2005 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. A feature film version was released in 2010. Viola Prettejohn, Tracey Ullman, Kelly Macdonald, Aiysha Hart, Spike Fearn, Shaniqua Okwok, Gary Beadle, Kwami Odoom, Susan Brown, Keira Chanse, and Edward Holcroft were to star in the sci-fi series.

Read More…...

FX is no longer moving forward with its series adaptation of “Never Let Me Go,” Variety has learned exclusively.

The show was originally picked up to series by FX back in October and was meant to air exclusively on Hulu. It had originally been reported as being in development at FX in May 2022. According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, production had not yet begun before the decision to scrap the series was made.

The drama series was inspired by Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 science fiction novel of the same name, which was previously adapted into a film in 2010. The film was written by Alex Garland, directed by Mark Romanek, and produced by Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich.

Per the logline for the series, it followed “Thora (Viola Prettejohn), a rebellious teenage clone who escapes from the boarding school where she and her fellow clones are kept hidden from society.

A series adaptation of Never Let Me Go, the Kazuo Ishiguro novel that was adapted as a film starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield, is no longer moving forward at FX, sources close to the project have confirmed to Deadline. Production had not yet begun.

The project, from The Nevers writer Melissa Iqbal, was announced as in development at FX in May 2022 and was ordered to series at FX in October 2022 to air on Hulu.

The series was to star Viola Prettejohn (The Nevers) in the lead role.

The series would have followed Thora (Prettejohn), a rebellious teenage clone who escapes from the boarding school where she and her fellow clones are kept hidden from society. As she starts living undercover in the outside world, she unwittingly sets in motion events that will spark a revolution and test the boundaries of what it means to be human.

Cast also included Tracey Ullman,...

At a time when it feels like we’ve seen every romcom premise under the sun, the concept of two total strangers sharing a bed every night might be the first truly original idea I’ve heard in years. No wonder Beth O’Leary’s debut novel The Flatshare has been glued to the hands of train passengers and beach loungers since it was released in 2019. And now, among a sea of romantic comedies determined to deconstruct the genre, the TV adaptation on Paramount+ is charming and tightly written – knowing, but never snarky.

We open to the sight of mascara-streaked, recently dumped Tiffany (Jessica Brown Findlay), slumped on the floor as Paloma Faith warbles about how “only love can hurt like this”. In order to take control (and save money amid the hellish London rental market) post break-up, Tiffany is going to sublet a one-bed flat in south London. But this...

The contract says no crossover: he has it from 8am to 8pm and I have it 8pm to 8am.” In the first episode of The Flatshare on Paramount Plus, Tiffany (Jessica Brown Findlay) explains the intricacies of her unorthodox new living arrangement to her friend Maia (Shaniqua Okwok) over brunch. This kind of exchange is typical of a series – adapted from Beth O’Leary’s 2019 novel – that zeroes in on the day-to-day travails of renting in London.

The arrangement, though, is more of a bedshare than a flatshare: Tiffany’s nocturnal flatmate Leon (Anthony Welsh) will catch up on sleep in the one-bed apartment while she is out at work during the day. At weekends, though, Tiffany will have the place to herself, “so it’s actually a pretty good deal”. Maia’s face says otherwise – but anyone who has experienced the rental market in recent years has probably engaged in...

Never Let Me Go, which has been ordered to series by FX, is headed to Hulu. The sci-fi thriller series is based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, and it will star Viola Prettejohn, Tracey Ullman, Kelly Macdonald, Aiysha Hart, Spike Fearn, Shaniqua Okwok, Gary Beadle, Kwami Odoom, Susan Brown, Keira Chanse and Edward Holcroft. The series follows a clone as she escapes boarding school and starts a revolution. A premiere date will be announced later.

Read More…...

Viola Prettejohn to star in ‘Never Let Me Go’ (Photo Credit: Aaron Crossman)

Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel Never Let Me Go is being adapted at FX, with the network confirming they’ve given the adaptation a series order. Melissa Iqbal is on board as the showrunner and executive producer. In addition, Iqbal wrote the pilot which executive producer Marc Munden will direct.

Author Kazuo Ishiguro, Alex Garland Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich, and Maria Fleischer of DNA Productions are also involved as executive producers. Garland adapted Ishiguro’s novel for the 2010 feature film directed by Mark Romanek and starring Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield.

“Never Let Me Go is a modern science fiction classic that Melissa Iqbal and the creative team have brilliantly adapted for FX as a drama exploring timely and unsettling themes on life and the ethics of technology,” stated Gina Balian, President, FX Entertainment. “We...

Kazuo Ishiguro’s sci-fi tearjerker “Never Let Me Go” is heading to the small screen. FX has officially ordered an adaptation of Ishiguro’s novel, set to air exclusively on Hulu.

Published in 2005, “Never Let Me Go” is one of Ishiguro’s — a Nobel Prize-winning author also known for “The Remains of the Day” — most popular and critically acclaimed novels. Set in Britain during the ’90s, the book focuses on three childhood friends: Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth. Raised at the mysterious Hailsham boarding school, the three are clones created for the purpose of growing up healthy and donating their organs to science. Resigned to their fates, the three grow up close, but interpersonal conflicts between them lead to mistakes that haunt them for the rest of their short lives.

The novel was previously adapted into a 2010 film directed by Mark Romanek, with a screenplay by Alex Garland; Carey Mulligan, Kiera Knightley,...

FX has greenlit “Never Let Me Go,” a drama series inspired by Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 science fiction novel of the same name.

The thriller series will follow Thora (Viola Prettejohn), a rebellious teenage clone who escapes from the boarding school where she and her fellow clones are kept hidden from society. As she starts living undercover in the outside world, she unwittingly sets in motion events that will spark a revolution and test the boundaries of what it means to be human.

Along with Prettejohn, the cast includes Tracey Ullman, Kelly Macdonald, Aiysha Hart, Spike Fearn, Shaniqua Okwok, Gary Beadle, Kwami Odoom, Susan Brown, Keira Chanse and Edward Holcroft.

This is the second screen adaptation of the book, as a movie starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield came out in 2010 from Searchlight Pictures. The film was written by Alex Garland, directed by Mark Romanek and produced by Andrew Macdonald Allon and Reich.

FX has ordered a new one-hour drama series based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s science fiction novel “Never Let Me Go,” Gina Balian, president of FX Entertainment, announced today. The show of the same name will premiere exclusively on Hulu and has set its main cast.

Produced by DNA Productions, with FX Productions and Searchlight Television, the thriller stars Viola Prettejohn (“The Witcher”), Tracey Ullman (FX’s “Mrs. America”), Kelly Macdonald (“Boardwalk Empire”), Aiysha Hart (“Line of Duty”), Spike Fearn (“The Amazing Mr. Blunden”), Shaniqua Okwok (“Small Axe”), Gary Beadle (“Wheel of Time”), Kwami Odoom (BBC’s “Death in Paradise”), Susan Brown (“It’s a Sin”), Keira Chanse (“Come Away”) and Edward Holcroft (“Kingsman: The Secret Service”).

Also Read:

‘Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special’ Trailer Features Christmas Cheer With Kevin Bacon (Video)

“Never Let Me Go” follows Thora (Prettejohn), a rebellious teenage clone, who escapes from the boarding school where she...

Click here to read the full article.

FX has greenlit a series based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s acclaimed novel Never Let Me Go.

The drama, which will stream on Hulu in the United States, comes from writer and showrunner Melissa Iqbal (HBO’s The Nevers) and counts filmmaker Alex Garland — who wrote the script for a 2010 feature based on the novel — as an executive producer. Viola Prettejohn, Tracey Ullman and Kelly Macdonald head the cast.

DNA Productions will produce the series along with FX Productions and Searchlight Television; DNA and Searchlight were behind the 2010 film as well. Iqbal will executive produce with Marc Munden, who directed the pilot; Garland; Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich and Maria Fleischer of DNA Productions; and Ishiguro. Garland and DNA previously collaborated with FX and Hulu on the limited series Devs.

“Never Let Me Go is a modern science fiction classic that Melissa Iqbal and the...

Viola Prettejohn, Tracey Ullman and Kelly Macdonald will star in the series adaptation of Never Let Me Go, which has been handed a series order by FX to air on Hulu.

Earlier this year, Deadline revealed that the Kazuo Ishiguro novel adapted as a film starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield was being turned into a TV series from The Nevers writer Melissa Iqbal.

The sci-fi thriller is now moving forward with Viola Prettejohn, who starred in The Nevers, in the lead role.

She plays Thora, a rebellious teenage clone who escapes from the boarding school where she and her fellow clones are kept hidden from society. But as she starts living undercover in the outside world, she unwittingly sets in motion events that will spark a revolution and test the boundaries of what it means to be human.

Ullman (Mrs. America) and Macdonald (Line of Duty) will...

Jessica Brown Findlay (“Brave New World”) and Anthony Welsh “Master of None”) are set to star in a new U.K. drama series from Paramount Plus titled “Flatshare.”

The six-episode series has already started shooting in Bristol, U.K. Production will also take place in London and Brighton.

“Flatshare” tells the story of two twentysomethings trying to get by – by sharing not only an apartment but a bed. Brown Findlay will play Tiffany, a minimum wage worker employed by a clickbait news site will Welsh will play Leon, who works night shifts in a hospice.

To save money, they capitalize on their opposing timetables and time-share their apartment and their bed, with Tiffany sleeping through the night, while Leon is working, and Leon catching up on his sleep during the day, when Tiffany is at her desk in the office. They communicate entirely by Post-It note.

Despite never meeting, however...

Paramount+ has set Flatshare from London/LA-based The Girl Before production and management firm 42 as its third UK scripted original.

Deadline revealed that the six-parter from On the Edge’s Rose Lewenstein was in development with the BBC but the show was unveiled in the past hour as a Paramount+ original and will feature Brave New World’s Jessica Brown Findlay and Master of None’s Anthony Welsh in the lead roles of Tiffany and Leon, alongside the likes of Bart Edwards (The Witcher), Shaqi B Grant (Gangs of London), Shaniqua Okwok (It’s a Sin) and Jonah Hauer-King (World on Fire).

Based on Beth O’Leary’s bestselling novel, Flatshare follows cash-strapped Tiffany and Leon who share a bed but have never met. With neither able to afford to rent their own flat, they decide to time-share a bed as Tiffany spends her days earning minimum wage for minimum appreciation...

Little Simz has debuted an original narrative short film, I Love You, I Hate You, in partnership with WePresent. The film is a deep dive into a song of the same name from Little Simz’ recent album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert.

The musician stars in the 20-minute film, which is based on a story she wrote. It was directed by Sam Pilling and written by Caroline Adeyemi, and co-stars Shaniqua Okwok, C.J. Beckford, and Sonia Ajuwa.

“I Love You, I Hate You is the story of abandonment,” Little Simz said in a statement.

Exclusive: Comcast-owned Sky is working on its first series with Shameless creator Paul Abbott — a crime drama titled Wolfe, which will feature Guerrilla and Rogue One actor Babou Ceesay as a brilliant but flawed forensic pathologist.

The six-part AbbottVision series, which will be officially announced on Monday as part of a slate of Sky originals, is written by a team led by Abbott and will co-star Amanda Abbington (Sherlock), Natalia Tena (Harry Potter), Naomi Yang (Poisonings), Adam Long (Vera), and Shaniqua Okwok (Small Axe).

Ceesay leads the crime-of-the-week series as Professor Wolfe Kinteh, the finest crime scene investigator in the north of England. He is a mercurial genius when it comes to piecing together evidence, but is prone to being a liability and has been kicked out of his family home by his wife, Val (Tena).

Wolfe is propped up by a team that includes child prodigy Maggy (Yang...

Helen Scott served as production designer on all five films in Steve McQueen’s Amazon anthology series “Small Axe,” but the task wasn’t as intimidating as it sounds. The reason? She had all five scripts at once.

“It became daunting later on, but having the five scripts in front of us, it was kind of doable because we could work out what the art was and where each film sat within the arc and get an overall feel for the whole project,” Scott says during Gold Derby’s Meet the Experts: TV Production Design panel (watch above). “We never lost sight of the fact that all of these stories are connected. They’re all of the same family. It was just trying to [find] the nuance of each film. Each film came from a slightly different time zone — they were all set in different times, they were all in London,...

Lovers Rock Photo: BBC

We hope you enjoy this week's Stay-At-Home Seven and, if you're looking for more streaming inspiration, you can read our spotlight on Icelandic films here.

Lovers Rock, BBC iPlayer

If you didn't catch the second episode in Steve McQueen's Small Axe TV series on BBC1 last night, then treat yourself to a catch-up of this immersive ensemble treat. The action centres on a London house party in 1980, where the Lovers Rock reggae of the title winds up its waist in the spotlight. Everything about the film slips into the period groove, from the beautifully realised costumes - you can read more about those here - to the music as Martha (Amarah-Jae St Aubyn) sneaks out with her mate Patty (Shaniqua Okwok) for a night of dancing, embarking on a tentative romance with Franklyn (Micheal Ward). McQueen and cinematographer Shabier Kirchner capture the essence of freedom in a crowd perfectly,...

If you’ve seen “Hunger,” “Shame,” or his Oscar-winning “12 Years a Slave,” you know that director Steve McQueen has a singular gift for plunging viewers into his characters’ central nervous systems, even when they’re undergoing sensations you’d just as soon avoid. With “Lovers Rock,” one of five segments in his upcoming miniseries “Small Axe,” that gift is used for delight. It’s a great kick-off for this year’s New York Film Festival, where “Lovers Rock” will be the opening-night film.

A “one wild night” movie akin to “Dazed and Confused” or “American Graffiti,” “Lovers Rock” takes us to a West Indian “Blues party” in 1979 London. As with any such gathering of young people to flirt, dance, and listen to music, there are friendships and rivalries, intra-community and intra-family squabbles and alliances, the promise of love and the threat of violence.

Specifically, for 2020 pandemic audiences, there is...

Young love flourishes at a house party in Eighties London in the new trailer for Lovers Rock, the second film in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology, premiering November 27th on Amazon Prime Video.

The clip doesn’t offer much in the way of specific plot points but features a quick montage of party preparations, unexpected connections and confrontations, a little bit of religious guilt, and plenty of music. Per a press release, Lovers Rock, is “an ode to the romantic reggae genre called ‘Lovers Rock’ and to the black...

‘If you are the big tree, we are the small axe’

Made famous by Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 1973 song ‘Small Axe’, that’s the traditional proverb behind the title for a five-film series by Oscar-winning British director Steve McQueen.

Two of McQueen’s Small Axe films were selected for this year’s Cannes Film Festival and in October, one opened the 64th London Film Festival. Now, all five are coming straight to BBC One and iPlayer in the UK, and Amazon Prime Video around the world. The home release has nothing to do with the pandemic; it was always the plan for these feature-length films with a cast including Star Wars’ John Boyega and Black Panther’s Letitia Wright, to air for a mainstream audience on prime time UK television.

11 years in the making, the five films were funded by BBC Studios and made to celebrate key figures in...

Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut “The Human Voice” and British artist Steve McQueen’s “Lovers Rock” have been added to the British Film Institute London Film Festival.

Almodovar’s short, loosely based on Jean Cocteau’s play, presents a woman on the edge portrayed by Tilda Swinton, who is waiting for her lover to call. It will play in the festival’s shorts program, and screen at BFI Southbank on Oct. 17, accompanied by a pre-recorded introduction and Q&a with Almodóvar and Swinton.

Meanwhile, the festival has added “Lovers Rock”to its ‘Love’ strand. It will screen Oct. 18. The film, alongside “Mangrove,” which opens the festival, is one of five films from “Small Axe” — a five-film anthology created by McQueen for BBC One and Amazon Prime Video.

Co-written by Courttia Newland and McQueen, “Lovers Rock” tells the fictional story of young love and music at a house party...

The BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express has announced that BFI Fellow Steve McQueen’s ‘Lovers Rock’ has been added to this year’s line-up.

Screening on Sunday 18th October across two screenings at BFI Southbank as part of the Lff’s Love strand, the film is an ode to the romantic reggae genre called “Lovers Rock” and to the young people who found freedom and love in its sound.

The film tells a fictional story of young love and music at a house party in 1980. Amarah-Jae St Aubyn makes her screen debut opposite the BAFTAs 2020 Rising Star Award recipient Micheal Ward (Blue Story). Shaniqua Okwok (Boys), Kedar Williams-Stirling (Sex Education), Ellis George (Dr Who), Alexander James-Blake (Top Boy) and Kadeem Ramsay (Blue Story) also star, as well as Francis Lovehall and Daniel Francis-Swaby who make their screen debuts.

Also in news – Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù joins Olivia Colman,...

Second of McQueen’s ‘Small Axe’ series to play the event.

The BFI London Film Festival has added Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock to the programme which will run from October 7-18).

It forms part of McQueen’s Small Axe anthology series; the festival opens with Mangrove, another film in the series.

Two screenings of Lover’s Rock will play at the BFI Southbank in London as part of the Love strand on the festival’s closing day, Sunday October 18.

The film tells the fictional story of young love and music at a house party in 1980. It stars newcomer Amarah-Jae...

Earlier in the week, the 2020 incarnation of the New York Film Festival got underway officially, with one part of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology, Lovers Rock, serving as the Opening Night Selection. Having seen it, the movie serves as both a strong start for NYFF this year, as well as a smaller and far less awards friendly selection. That’s not a bad thing, just noteworthy. The film is showcasing something far different than Oscar potential, and in a year like this one, that’s probably for the best. Still, it’s an interesting choice for the 58th New York Film Festival. For those unaware, here’s a bit about the film from the official festival description: “Lovers Rock tells a fictional story of young love and music at a blues party in the early 1980s. Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn makes her screen debut opposite the BAFTAs 2020 Rising Star award...

After drilling into dreary subjects for five movies, Steve McQueen appears to have discovered joy. The dark personal and social struggles at the center of those earlier projects are right there in their titles, which gives “Lovers Rock” an immediate juxtaposition, and it plays that way, too.

It remains to be seen exactly how this concise tale of West Indian Londoners at an all-night rager fits into the larger context of “Small Axe,” the BBC-produced anthology five feature-length stories about the Black West Indian struggles to which “Lovers Rock” belongs. These may add layers of subtext to “Lovers Rock” beyond its immediate resonance, positioning an intimate drama within the wider fabric of racial tensions. But this swift installment sings its own tune, too — or, rather, it marches to one helluva beat.

Set across a single night in 1980 and loaded with a soundtrack from the eponymous reggae music, “Lovers Rock” is...

In the most transporting scene of Steve McQueen’s “Lovers Rock,” we’re at a London house party that has just hit its smoky seductive dirty-dancing groove. It’s 1980, and most of the revelers have West Indian roots. The men, in their natty duds and rasta hats, stand against the wall smoking joints, looking for women to tug by the arm onto the dance floor. Then a hypnotic sound comes on: It’s “Silly Games,” Janet Kay’s delectably lulling reggae-pop anthem, a hit in the U.K. in 1979. With its melting chords and disco flutes and Kay’s voice soaring into an ecstatic high register, the song hits the party like opium.

The dancers nuzzle up to each other, enraptured by the sheer sway of it, moving from slow dancing to slow grooving to slow foreplay. Is that a drop of sweat rolling down the wall? The scene becomes...

Steve McQueen's Lovers Rock will open 58th New York Film Festival Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Film at Lincoln Center announced today that Steve McQueen's Lovers Rock (part of his Small Axe anthology), co-written by Courttia Newland, will be the Opening Night selection of the 58th New York Film Festival. Lovers Rock stars Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn, Micheal Ward, Shaniqua Okwok, Kedar Williams-Stirling, Ellis George, Alexander James-Blake, and Kadeem Ramsay with Francis Lovehall and Daniel Francis-Swaby. The film is a fictional account that takes place in London's West Indian community in the early 1980s.

Steve McQueen's Lovers Rock

"In the coming weeks we'll unveil the films our programmers have selected for the 2020 New York Film Festival," said Eugene Hernandez, Director of the New York Film Festival. "For months we've worked to both sustain and refresh NYFF as "a champion of film as art since 1963” and we're honoured that...

Moments ago, the New York Film Festival announced their Opening Night Selection, and it’s not a title you’d expect. Going in a different direction than at least I anticipated, they’ve tapped Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock as the Opener. Part of a five movie collection of McQueen’s called the Small Axe anthology, this is the highest profile of the lot, with the four other films being Mangrove, Alex Wheatle, Education, as well as Red, White and Blue. Consider this a surprise, as well a potential shakeup in the upcoming awards race. Considering how interesting it sounds, count me in, and it’s kind of fun that NYFF didn’t opt for an obvious choice. Read on for more about the flick… Here is some of the press release: Film at Lincoln Center announced today that Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock will be the Opening Night film...

Following his crime thriller Widows, Steve McQueen is returning this year with a project of great ambition and scope. Small Axe, an anthology series from BBC and Amazon Prime Video, is made up of five new feature films, each one directed and co-written by the 12 Years a Slave helmer. While it was revealed that two of the films were originally set to premiere as part of the Cannes Film Festival 2020 lineup, it’s now been announced where they will make their world premieres, along with another film in the anthology.

Film at Lincoln Center’s New York Film Festival has unveiled that one of the films in the anthology, Lovers Rock (pictured below), will be the Opening Night film of the 58th edition, while two others––Mangrove and Red, White and Blue (pictured above)––will premiere in the festival’s Main Slate. Set from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s,...

Film at Lincoln Center has set the Steve McQueen-directed Lovers Rock as the opening-night film of the 58th New York Film Festival. The film will be making its world premiere, and the festival is going heavily into the work of McQueen, who became the first Black filmmaker to win the Best Picture Oscar for 12 Years a Slave.

Lovers Rock is part of his Small Axe anthology, which comprises five original films by the director. Two other films from the anthology, Mangrove and Red, White and Blue, will also have their world premieres as part of the NYFF’s Main Slate, the rest of which will be disclosed in the coming weeks.

This becomes the second straight year in which NYFF chose at its opening nighter a film that will be most widely viewed on a streaming service. Last year, that was the Martin Scorsese-directed The Irishman, though...

Steve McQueen’s “Lovers Rock” will be the opening night film for the 2020 New York Film Festival, Film at Lincoln Center announced Monday.

The 58th edition of NYFF kicks off on September 25 with the latest from the “12 Years a Slave” director. And “Lovers Rock,” which will make its world premiere, is one of five films as part of an anthology from McQueen called “Small Axe.” All five movies, including “Mangrove,” “Lovers Rock,” “Alex Wheatle,” “Education” and “Red, White and Blue,” are set to premiere on BBC One later this year and on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.

Two other films as part of McQueen’s anthology, “Mangrove” and “Red, White and Blue,” will also have their world premieres as part of the festival. The full main slate for the New York Film Festival will be announced in the coming weeks.

Also Read: Toronto Film Festival Lineup to...

Steve McQueen, the Oscar-winning director of “12 Years a Slave” and “Shame,” is best known for his searing big-screen work. So it is fitting that the New York Film Festival would turn to the British auteur to kick off its 58th edition with his new work “Lovers Rock. McQueen joins a long list of cinema legends such as Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, and David Fincher, all of whom have had the opening night film at the annual gathering of movie-lovers.

But this is a year unlike any other in the history of film festivals, with the coronavirus scuttling best-laid plans and forcing organizers to change things up on the fly. Thus it makes sense that the film that McQueen is highlighting isn’t a “movie” in the strictest definition. Rather, it is part of the filmmaker’s Small Ax anthology series, a chapter in a collection of original films that...

The New York Film Festival has announced its opening night film as well as plans for its physical events. The 58th edition of the festival will open with Steve McQueen’s “Lovers Rock,” with the festival also playing home to two other features that comprise McQueen’s ambitious new “Small Axe” series in its main slate. As indicated by festival brass earlier this summer, this year’s NYFF is going to operate differently than it has in previous incarnations. The event will combine a brand-new virtual presence with carefully designed outdoor screenings, including two drive-ins.

McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology is set to premiere on BBC One later this year and air on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S. Per the series’ official synopsis, it is “set from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, the films each tell a different story involving London’s West Indian community, whose...

Steve McQueen’s ’Mangrove’ and ’Lovers Rock’ are standalone films from his London-set BBC anthology series.

Two Steve McQueen features – Mangrove and Lovers Rock – from his BBC-commissioned anthology series Small Axe have been confirmed by Cannes delegate general Thierry Fremaux for the Cannes 2020 label.

They join Francis Lee’s Ammonite, Ben Sharrock’s Limbo, and Viggo Mortensen’s Falling as the five UK titles to receive the label in the absence of a physical festival this year.

McQueen’s films are part of a six-episode anthology series, Small Axe, that he has made for BBC Drama and Amazon. All are...

Steve McQueen has been working on his anthology television series “Small Axe” for quite some time (a first look at the ambitious project dropped in September 2019), but new information about the project has emerged in the wake of two installments being included in the Cannes 2020 official selection. The BBC confirms McQueen has conceived each episode of “Small Axe” as its own feature film. The two entries that were selected for Cannes are “Lovers Rock” (a runtime of 1 hour and 8 minutes) and “Mangrove (a runtime of 2 hours and four minutes). The remaining three films are titled “Alex Wheatle,” “Education,” and “Red, White and Blue.”

According to the BBC’s official synopsis, the five films of “Small Axe” tell “personal stories about London’s West Indian community from the late-1960’s to mid-1980’s. The title is derived from an African proverb, which has resonance throughout the Caribbean, ‘if you are the big tree,...

Steve McQueen’s ’Mangrove’ and ’Lovers Rock’ are standalone films from his London-set BBC anthology series.

Two Steve McQueen features – Mangrove and Lovers Rock – from his BBC-commissioned anthology series Small Axe have been confirmed by Cannes delegate general Thierry Fremaux for the Cannes 2020 label.

They join Francis Lee’s Ammonite and Ben Sharrock’s Limbo as the four UK titles to receive the label in the absence of a physical festival this year.

McQueen’s films are part of a six-episode anthology series, Small Axe, that he has made for BBC Drama and Amazon. All are standalone stories based around...

12 Years A Slave director Steve McQueen has dedicated his two movies announced today as part of the Cannes Film Festival lineup to George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Oscar-winning director said of the two films, which address racism in the UK: “I dedicate these films to George Floyd, and all the other black people that have been murdered, seen or unseen, because of who they are, in the U.S., U.K. and elsewhere. ‘If you are the big tree, we are the small axe.’ Black lives matter.”

The films come from the director’s British anthology series Small Axe, which was previously described as a TV series, but is now an anthology of five films which will show on the BBC and Amazon Prime.

The two films announced for Cannes, which hasn’t taken place this year due to the coronavirus but has announced its...