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Dick Pope, the veteran British cinematographer who worked on 11 movies with director Mike Leigh, has died Tuesday, the British Society of Cinematographers said in a statement. He was 77.

No cause of death was given, but Leigh told Indiewire that Pope had undergone “major heart surgery” before work began on Hard Truths, their last collaboration that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last month.

Pope received Oscar nominations for his work on Leigh’s Mr Turner and the mystery The Illusionist by director Neil Burger. Pope and Leigh also worked together on movies like Life Is Sweet in 1990, Naked, Topsy-Turvey, Vera Drake and Secrets & Lies.

In a 2019 interview with Film Comment, Pope talked about his decades of work with Leigh, with a reference to their movie coming out at the time, Peterloo.

“It’s very difficult to take Peterloo out of all the other work we’ve done together, because...

Dick Pope, the veteran British cinematographer best known for his decades-long collaboration with legendary filmmaker Mike Leigh, has died. He was 77.

The British Society of Cinematographers confirmed the news Tuesday with a statement.

“It is with deepest sadness that we learn of the passing of our friend and colleague Dick Pope Bsc,” the statement read. “Dick had a reputation for being a wonderful collaborator and someone who was passionate about the art form of Cinematography. He was keen to embrace new technologies and ideas while also ensuring the skills and crafts of those that came before him weren’t lost. To this end, Dick would guest tutor at schools such as the National Film and Television School.”

Pope was born in Bromley, Kent in 1947. He began his trade as a documentary filmmaker, working on the British current affairs series World In Action. He moved into television drama in the early...

Dick Pope, the legendary two-time Oscar nominated British cinematographer and longtime collaborator of auteur Mike Leigh, has died at the age of 77. News of Pope's passing was confirmed by the British Society of Cinematographers in a statement shared on their website earlier today.

"It is with deepest sadness that we learn of the passing of our friend and colleague Dick Pope Bsc," wrote the organisation in their post, which highlighted Pope's record three Camerimage Golden Frog wins as well as his achievement of the society's prestigious 'Cinematography in a Feature Film' award for his work on Mr. Turner. Continuing, the society also paid homage to their alumni's commitment to his craft and its furtherance, writing, "Dick had a reputation for being a wonderful collaborator and someone who was passionate about the artform of Cinematography. He was keen to embrace new technologies and ideas while also ensuring the skills and crafts...

Dick Pope, the esteemed British cinematographer who received Academy Award nominations for his exquisite work on “The Illusionist” and Mike Leigh‘s “Mr. Turner,” has died at the age of 77. His death was confirmed by a publicist on his final film, Leigh’s “Hard Truths.”

“Hard Truths” producer Georgina Lowe shared the following statement: “On behalf of Mike, the team at Thin Man Films, and the cast and crew who worked regularly with Dick on our films for over 30 years, I wanted to say what a privilege it has been to have collaborated with him. His work, both with us, and on the eclectic collection of films he shot over his impressive career, was extraordinary. We have lost a friend and will miss him so much.”

Born in Bromley, Kent, in 1947, Pope became obsessed with still photography as a child and published some of his pictures in local papers as a teenager.

Hard Truths

Scheduled to take place in England’s capital from the 9th to the 20th October is the 2024 edition of the London Film Festival. The UK’s premier film celebration will be taking over the city with screenings at a whole host of London-wide venues including the BFI Southbank, BFI IMAX, Prince Charles Cinema and Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall to name but a few. As it has done for a number of years now, the festival will also be presenting a number of select screenings in regional cinemas too as part of Lff on Tour. For those who aren’t able to make it to cinemas there will be a number of films, of both feature and short length, made available for free on the BFI Player once the festival gets underway.

The lineup of feature films on offer has once again excited us here at Dn headquarters.

Mike Leigh is moving slowly around the Toronto International Film Festival with a cane. His latest film, “Hard Truths” has earned raves and plays the New York Film Festival October 5. The 81-year-old British filmmaker, Oscar-nominated five times for writing and twice for directing has struggled to raise money for his projects since his $18-million period battle epic “Peterloo” (Amazon) flopped at the box office in 2018 ($2 million worldwide).

“Hard Truths” was delayed by the pandemic, but Bleecker Street and a group of European backers cobbled together a modest budget, Leigh’s lowest in some time, for the small-scale film focused on the astonishing character of Pansy (“Secrets & Lies” Oscar nominee Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a woman of Jamaican heritage who is so miserable that her massive pain and anger leak out on anyone unlucky enough to be near her, from her hapless husband (David Webber) and son (Tuwaine Barrett) to people in...

Two big awards contenders – Hard Truths and Saturday Night – are getting 2024 releases in America, 2025 releases in the UK.

It’s something of an exception to the norm – and has been for some time – for the UK release of a film to lag significantly behind its US debut. Sure, for independent movies that struggle for distribution it’s more common, but in the case of two expected major awards contenders, it’s an eyebrow-raiser to see it happen in 2024. And, effectively, 2025.

Yet here we are.

At the end of this month, Sony will launch Jason Reitman’s already well received Saturday Night into US cinemas. This is the story of Saturday Night Live’s debut broadcast, described as something of a Birdman-like approach to the story.

Sony has the film in both the UK and the US. Yet we now learn there’s going to be a four-month gap between...

Pansy, the central character in “Hard Truths,” British director Mike Leigh’s first film in six years, is one of the most unpleasant, off-putting and utterly exhausting characters to grace a movie screen in years. And the fact that we feel for Pansy by the end of the 97 minutes of Leigh’s spare and wrenching gem is one of the small miracles of an extraordinarily moving film.

From “Naked” to “Secrets & Lies,” “Vera Drake” to “Topsy Turvy,” “Happy-Go-Lucky” to “Mr. Turner,” Leigh has been a craftsman whose films are impressive vehicles for creating empathy for difficult characters — or, rather, for difficult people, so rich and true do they appear.

“Hard Truths” brings Leigh back to a contemporary story for the first time since “Another Year” in 2010, with his last two movies being the period pieces “Mr. Turner” in 2014 and “Peterloo” in 2018. And it reunites him with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, the...

Some people bring happiness and positivity into the world, uplifting the lives of all around them, and some make flowers wilt and milk curdle wherever they go. As Pansy, Marianne Jean-Baptiste embodies the latter sort in “Hard Truths,” coming away from her reunion with “Secrets & Lies” director Mike Leigh with her richest character yet — not economically speaking, of course, though we’d all be millionaires if we had a nickel for every blistering complaint that spills from Pansy’s lips.

“Hard Truths” arrives more than 50 years after Leigh’s first film, “Bleak Moments,” bookending a career of tough, tell-it-like-it-is looks at working-class British life. Frankly, that vague-sounding title seems better suited to a Criterion Collection boxed set of his work than to his latest feature. A return to intimate kitchen sink realism after the grand-scale ambition of several relatively expansive period pieces — “Topsy-Turvy,” “Vera Drake,” “Mr. Turner” and “Peterloo...

Hard Truths reunites Mike Leigh with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and here’s the trailer for the brand new film right here.

As it begins its rollout at film festivals, the first film from Mike Leigh since 2018’s Peterloo is nearing its release. The movie goes by the name of Hard Truths, and it reunites Leigh with Marianne Jean-Baptiste. She was one of the stars of Secrets And Lies, which remains arguably Leigh’s most successful film.

As always, the production of Hard Truths has been secretive, but we know that Bryony Miller and Michele Austin are in the cast as well. Studiocanal has backed the movie, and released the first trailer for the movie, which looks like this…

The synopsis for the film reads as follows…

Legendary filmmaker Mike Leigh returns to the contemporary world with a fierce, compassionate, and often darkly humorous study of family and the thorny ties that bind us.

The first trailer for Mike Leigh’s latest feature “Hard Truths” had been unveiled, showing its lead star Marianne Jean-Baptiste embarking on an angry rampage against supermarket check out clerks, unsuspecting members of the public and her family.

“People, can’t stand ’em,” she exclaims in the trailer, released ahead of the film’s world premiere in Toronto on Sep. 6. “Cheerful, grinning people.”

“Hard Truths” sees legendary British auteur Leigh return to the contemporary world after “Mr. Turner” and “Peterloo” with what is described as a “fierce, compassionate, and often darkly humorous study of family and the thorny ties that bind us.”

Reunited with Leigh for the first time since the multiple Oscar-nominated “Secrets and Lies,” Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, a woman wracked by fear, tormented by afflictions, and prone to raging tirades against her husband, son, and anyone who looks her way. Meanwhile, her easygoing younger sister, played by Michele Austin...

It’s been quite a while since we’ve gotten a new film from director Mike Leigh—the last being 2018’s “Peterloo.” However, that is changing soon with the release of his newest film, “Hard Truths.”

Read More: 2024 Fall Film Preview: 50 Movies To Watch

As seen in the trailer, “Hard Truths” tells the story of Pansy, a woman who finds herself picking fights with nearly everyone in her life.

Continue reading ‘Hard Truths’ Trailer: Mike Leigh Reteams With Marianne Jean-Baptiste For A New Family Drama at The Playlist.

One of IndieWire’s most-anticipated fall film premieres this year, “Hard Truths” reunites beloved (and seven-time Oscar-nominated) director Mike Leigh with actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for his 1996 Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Secrets & Lies.” In “Hard Truths,” out from Bleecker Street for an awards-qualifying run in December after debuting at the Toronto and New York film festivals, Jean-Baptiste plays a woman sick to death of life, and she’ll tell anyone about it who’s willing to listen. Watch the trailer below.

Here’s the official synopsis courtesy of Bleecker Street: “Legendary filmmaker Mike Leigh returns to the contemporary world with a fierce, compassionate, and often darkly humorous study of family and the thorny ties that bind us. Reunited with Leigh for the first time since multiple Oscar-nominated ‘Secrets and Lies,’ the astonishing Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, a woman wracked by fear,...

World premieres from Angelina Jolie, Mike Leigh, David Mackenzie, Edward Burns, Uberto Pasolini, Peter Cattaneo, and Rachel Morrison among the Gala and Special Presentation titles unveiled by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) today (July 22).

Hard Truths is a rare TIFF premiere for Leigh after the UK auteur’s last film Peterloo debuted in Venice in 2018, while Mr. Turner in 2014 and Another Year in 2010 both premiered in Cannes. Cornerstone represents sales and Bleecker Street will handle US distributon on the film, which stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste from Secrets And Lies.

Pasolini’s The Return marks his follow-up to Venice 2020 entry Nowhere Special...

At the Mediterrane film festival in Malta, the film-maker spoke out against UK citizens ‘seeing justification in not voting’ in the general election

Mike Leigh has criticised UK voters considering abstention at this year’s general election, saying the subjects of his 2018 historical drama Peterloo would be appalled by such disengagement.

Speaking at the Mediterrane film festival in Malta, Leigh said the protesters who gathered in St Peter’s Field in Manchester to demand the reform of parliamentary representation in 1819 would be “not only horrified but mystified” about “people procrastinating about whether to vote and seeing justification in not voting, which is what’s happening right now”.

Renowned British filmmaker Mike Leigh believes that if the subjects of his 2018 historical drama “Peterloo” were alive to see the upcoming U.K. general elections they would be “not only horrified but mystified” about “people procrastinating about whether to vote and seeing justification in not voting, which is what’s happening right now.”

While in conversation about his career with Chief Executive of Film London Adrian Wooton at the Mediterrane Film Festival, the director emphasized that his retelling of the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 is a film “about democracy” and felt it was vital to highlight the importance of voting ahead of the elections.

Speaking on his period films, which include “Peterloo,” 2014’s “Mr. Turner” and 1999’s “Topsy-Turvy,” Leigh said those were “the only times where I’ve been able to get bigger budgets.” “What I failed to do and continue to fail to do to this day is to get...

Exclusive: Here’s a first look at Sherwood Season 2, the highly-anticipated next instalment of James Graham’s BBC drama.

Filming on the House Productions show recently took place in and around the UK city Nottingham, and the images show the likes of Lorraine Ashbourne, Monica Dolan, Perry Fitzpatrick, David Morrissey, David Harewood, Michael Balogun, Christine Bottomley, Oliver Huntingdon and Robert Lindsay in character. Scroll to the bottom for all seven images.

Season 1 was a ratings success and was one of the most-watched British dramas of 2022, following a murder that shocks a former mining town where divisions still remain years after the miners’ strikes of 1984 and 1985.

The second season will introduce two new families, who become entangled with the Sparrows from the first run, entering a complex web of local gangs, old rivalries, revenge, and betrayal. At the same time, a new Sheriff of Nottingham fights passionately against a proposed new mine,...

Beware Frankenstein Legacy as director Paul Dudbridge (Fear the Invisible Man) reanimates the legend with a brand-new fear-filled period feature, that stars a stellar cast of acting talent and is brought to life on Digital thanks to 101 Films.

England, 1875. A century after Victor Frankenstein’s doomed experiment, his journals have traded hands for decades. Stolen at knifepoint, traded in shadowy back alleys and chased by a shadowy cabal who want them destroyed. Now, in the hands of gifted scientist Millicent Browning (Juliet Aubrey), what darkness is set the befall her?

Millicent’s beloved husband (Philip Martin Brown) is desperately ill with a degenerative disease and she will stop at nothing in her determination to find a cure before it’s too late. Their son William (Matt Barber), a doctor in the local asylum, voices his concerns but she pays no heed.

When her husband kills himself, she finally snaps, disappearing...

Details of Mike Leigh’s new film are beginning to emerge. The title, Hard Truths, and the leading cast have been confirmed.

Mike Leigh’s new film Hard Truths will be his first new release in five years. Mike Leigh’s films have been more sporadic in recent years, but it’s very much a case of quality over quantity, from Timothy Spall’s astonishing turn as Mr Turner in 2014 to 2018’s epic historical drama Peterloo.

Known for his improvisational method of creating characters, there is no script, in fact there us often no basic idea of what the plot will be when his actors are cast. Leigh begins by having private conversations with his actors about people they know in real life followed by an in-depth period of inprovisation. Actors are then introduced to each other and over an intensive couple of weeks, even months, the characters are developed.

Following 2018’s Peterloo, Mike Leigh has openly discussed how difficult it was to finance his next feature. Thankfully, he recently amassed the resources and quietly began production last year on his 23rd film, with the backing of Thin Man Films, The Mediapro Studio, co-financed by Film4 in association with Creativity Media, with Bleecker Street releasing the film in the US later this year, Studiocanal releasing in the UK, and Cornerstone Films handling international sales.

Titled Hard Truths, nothing was known about the project, but now Bleecker Street have unveiled the first image and details. Led by Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who worked with Leigh on his 1996 feature Secrets & Lies and received an Oscar nomination for her performance, the film marks Leigh’s “return to the contemporary world with a tough but compassionate intimate study of family life.” The London-set film also stars Michele Austin.

Leigh was joined behind the camera by...

The cast of “Hard Truths,” the 23rd film from legendary British director Mike Leigh, has been unveiled, along with a first look image.

The feature, which like most Leigh projects has remained under a veil of secrecy, has reunited the filmmaker with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who received an Oscar nomination for his 1996 drama “Secrets & Lies.” Michele Austin, another frequent Leigh collaborator, also stars.

“Hard Truths” was shot in London in 2023 and, following his historical epics “Mr. Turner” and “Peterloo,” sees Leigh return to the contemporary world. However, plot details are still scarce, the film’s only description being that it’s a “tough but compassionate intimate study of family life”.

Leigh was joined behind the camera by his regular crew members, including producer Georgina Lowe, cinematographer Dick Pope, costume designer Jacqueline Durran (who recently earned her 9th Oscar nomination for her work on “Barbie”), production designer Suzie Davis, composer Gary Yershon...

UK sales outfit Cornerstone Films has revealed details of Mike Leigh’s 23rd feature Hard Truths which reunites the auteur with star Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who was Oscar nominated for her role in Leigh’s 1996 film Secrets & Lies.

Hard Truths also stars Michele Austin, another star of Secrets & Lies, and shot in London in 2023. Following his historical films Mr.Turner and Peterloo, Hard Truths sees Leigh return to the contemporary world with a tough but compassionate intimate study of family life.

It is a Thin Man Films and The Mediapro Studio co-production, co-financed by Film4 in association with Creativity Media.

Mike Leigh has unveiled the first look at what will be the “Another Year” and “Secrets & Lies” director’s 23rd feature film, a new project called “Hard Truths.”

“Hard Truths” reunites Leigh with actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who starred in 1996’s “Secrets & Lies” and was Oscar-nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance in the film. You can see her looking concerned and harried while talking on the phone in the first look photo of the film above.

After last directing “Mr. Turner” and “Peterloo,” both of which were historical dramas, Leigh is back in a contemporary setting for “Hard Truths.” Specific plot details are still being kept under wraps, but the film is described as a “tough but compassionate and intimate study of family life.” Michele Austin, another of Leigh’s frequent collaborators, also stars.

Any details about “Hard Truths” were largely secret (it’s not...

Mike Leigh’s hotly-anticipated, but super-secretive, new film will see the iconoclastic British director reunite with his Secrets & Lies star Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

Hard Truths is Leigh’s first film since 2018’s Peterloo and will co-star frequent Leigh collaborator Michele Austin (Another Year, Secrets & Lies). After Peterloo and 2014’s Mr. Turner, both period dramas, Hard Truths will see Leigh return to the modern day, with a drama described as “a tough but compassionate intimate study of family life.”

Other Leigh regulars returning for Hard Truths include producer Georgina Lowe, cinematographer Dick Pope, costume designer Jacqueline Durran, production designer Suzie Davis, composer Gary Yershon and casting director Nina Gold.

Secrets & Lies, which premiered in Cannes in 1996, winning the Palme d’Or, featured Jean-Baptiste as a well-off Black professional who seeks out her biological mother, a poor white factory worker living in East London, played by Brenda Blethyn. Jean-Baptiste was Oscar-nominated for her performance,...

Seven-time Oscar nominee Mike Leigh has reteamed with British actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who led his 1996 Oscar-nominated Secrets & Lies, on his latest feature, Hard Truths. We can share a first look at the feature above.

We first broke news of the project, which was shot in London, last May. Hard Truths is described as a movie set in the “contemporary world” with a plot said to be a “tough but compassionate intimate study of family life.”

The film also stars Michele Austin and is a Thin Man Films and The Mediapro Studio co-production, co-financed by Film4 in association with Creativity Media. Bleecker Street will release the film theatrically in the US later this year, with Studiocanal releasing in the UK and Cornerstone Films handling international sales. The film will be part of the company’s upcoming European Film Market slate.

Leigh was joined behind the camera by regular crew members,...

FX has ordered a limited series adaptation of the Patrick Radden Keefe book “Say Nothing,” Variety has learned.

The nine-episode series explores The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Lola Petticrew, Hazel Doupe, Anthony Boyle, Josh Finan, and Maxine Peake will star.

It will be available exclusively on Hulu in the U.S., Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ in all other territories.

The official description states:

“Spanning four decades, ‘Say Nothing’ explores the tumultuous period in Northern Ireland known as The Troubles. The series launches with the shocking disappearance of Jean McConville, a single mother of ten who was abducted from her home in 1972 and never seen alive again. But McConville was only one of many others who became known collectively as The Disappeared. Through the eyes of various Ira members, including sisters Dolours and Marian Price—young women who transformed into magnetic symbols of radical politics, Brendan Hughes—a tight-lipped but conflicted military strategist,...

Exclusive: Two-time Oscar nominee and BAFTA winner Ralph Fiennes (Schindler’s List) has written and will direct The Beacon, in which he will also have a leading role alongside Olivier Award-winner Indira Varma (Obi Wan Kenobi), Charles Babalola (The Outlaws) and Alison Oliver (Saltburn).

Described as a meditation on family, class, race and identity, the contemporary UK-set drama marks Fiennes’ first feature film screenplay after previously directing The White Crow, The Invisible Woman and Coriolanus.

The official synopsis reads: “Joshua Nyaga travels to the countryside from London to spend a summer’s weekend with his girlfriend Cass’ family for the first time. Transplanted as a young boy from the violence of the Ugandan civil war to the concrete jungle of London, Joshua has never experienced the privilege that Cass’ family enjoys.

“Surrounded by the sea and lush natural landscape, the farm is an oasis, brimming with idealistic notions and lively debate amongst Cass’ father,...

Exclusive: Amazon MGM’s Head of Specialty Theatrical Distribution, Mark Boxer, was among the notables cuts yesterday at the streaming theatrical studio.

Among some of Boxer’s highlights at Amazon, he oversaw the specialty theatrical releases of such Oscar nominated titles as Being the Ricardos, Poland’s 2018 International film entry Cold War, and 2x Oscar winner Sound of Metal.

With Amazon’s acquisition of MGM, Boxer was a key suit in getting Ben Affleck’s Air into theaters. He was also recently involved in the successful release strategies for awards season titles Saltburn, The Boys in the Boat and American Fiction.

During the pandemic, Boxer also handled the theatrical distribution of such big Prime Video acquisition titles, Coming 2 America, Cinderella, Hotel Transylvania 4, and The Tomorrow War to those cinemas and drive-ins that were lucky to be open.

Boxer also supervised the opening, and operated Amazon’s Culver Theater in Culver City,...

With temperatures starting to drop and darker nights drawing in here in the UK, reminding us that summer is almost over, doesn’t a TV festival on the sunny south coast of Spain sound pretty glorious right now?

We certainly think so, and the first ever edition of the new South International Series Festival, set to be held in Cadiz from 6 October, fits the bill perfectly. Created for the public and industry professionals alike, the South International Series Festival is the first festival of its kind in southern Europe, and was created with the intention to promote the audiovisual small-screen offerings from this region and beyond.

Over seven days, attendees can enjoy a programme including the very best of fiction and unscripted series, some undiscovered gems, and displays of cutting-edge innovation in the industry, with a focus on European and global Spanish-language series, and a spotlight on African nations. The...

It has sold in France, Italy, Benelux and Switzerland.

Mike Leigh’s untitled upcoming feature has sold in key European territories for Cornerstone.

Deals include Diaphana (France), Lucky Red with Academy 2 (Italy), Cherry Pickers (Benelux) and Pathé (Switzerland).

As previously announced, StudioCanal has the UK rights and Bleecker Street has acquired for North America.

Set in London and currently in production, Mike Leigh’s new film explores family relationships in the post-pandemic world, after over a decade spent making his two period films Mr.Turner and Peterloo. Leigh returns to his ongoing exploration of the contemporary world, in what is billed...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.Extra! Extra!A new Notebook publication has been released into the world! Our limited-edition, print-only Notebook Cannes Special is exclusively available at the Cannes Film Festival. It includes interviews with Souleymane Cissé and Alice Rohrwacher, an insider’s guide to the festival, a crossword, a comic, and much more. The publication is pictured above, but the bright red Pantone color must be seen on the page to be truly appreciated! (As an online preview: Yasmina Price's interview with Souleymane Cissé is available online.)NEWSIn production news, writer Durga Chew-Bose will make her directorial debut with an adaptation of Françoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse, starring Chloë Sevigny and Claes Bang (The Square). Filming began last week in the south of France.Noémie Merlant (of...

It’s clear from the opening moments why the narrative feature debut of Kavich Neang, finally arriving in the US nearly two years after its 2021 Venice premiere, caught the attention of its co-producer Jia Zhangke. Like much of the Chinese filmmaker’s internationally-lauded work, Neang’s debut dives into the effects of gentrification on a younger population struggling to get by as their country cautiously opens its arms to international developers. But the similarities end there: where Jia’s films can double up as grander state-of-the-nation addresses, Neang doesn’t widen his focus beyond the characters; they’re at risk of displacement from the city they’ve always known, but this critique of gentrification largely remains implicit, visible only allegorically through their daily struggles.

This semi-autobiographical film is set against the backdrop of the titular White Building, an apartment block in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh that was eventually...

Exclusive: Seven-time Oscar nominee Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies) is underway on his secretive new film in London, we can reveal.

Filming began today on the project which we’re told will explore family relationships in the post-pandemic world.

After over a decade spent making period films Mr.Turner and Peterloo, a source close to the project said the Brit auteur will “return to his ongoing exploration of the contemporary world with a tragicomic study of human strengths and weaknesses.”

Cast details remain under wraps on the project which was initially due to shoot in 2020 but was delayed by the pandemic.

Cornerstone Films is handling international sales and will continue shopping the project at this week’s Cannes market. Studiocanal has UK rights while Bleecker Street pre-bought North America.

Film4, who have a long history backing Leigh’s work, is co-financing alongside Creativity Media. The Mediapro Studio co-produce, together with Thin Man Films,...

Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is expanding its ensemble cast.

Season 2 of the record-breaking series boasts franchise newcomers Ciarán Hinds, Rory Kinnear, and Tanya Moodie in recurring roles. The second season is currently in production in the U.K., with actors Calam Lynch, Oliver Alvin-Wilson, Stuart Bowman, Gavi Singh Chera, William Chubb, Kevin Eldon, Will Keen, Selina Lo, Gabriel Akuwudike, Yasen Atour, Amelia Kenworthy, Nia Towle, Ben Daniels, Nicholas Woodeson, and Sam Hazeldine previously announced as part of the new cast.

Oscar-nominated “Belfast” star Hinds has appeared in hit films like “Silence, ” “Munich,” “Persuasion,” “There Will Be Blood,” “In Bruges,” “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” and “The Eclipse.” His TV background includes appearances in “Game of Thrones,” “Rome,” “The English,” “Prime Suspect,” and “The Dry.”

“Rings of Power” co-star Kinnear is best known as Bill Tanner in the James Bond films “Quantum of Solace,...

Bob Goody, veteran British stage and screen actor and co-writer of 1985 BBC1 comedy Wilderness Road, has died at age 71.

He passed away March 5 after a long battle with cancer that he chronicled in a book of verse.

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Born in Brighton in 1951, Goody trained at Rada and became known as a charismatic actor and poet. He fronted his own ITV children’s sketch show, Smith & Goody, in the 1980s with writer and comedian Mel Smith before penning Wilderness Road, a sitcom set in a seedy London pub, with Richard Cottan.

Goody’s TV acting roles included appearances in Bleak House, EastEnders, Lovejoy, the Lock Stock and Two...

StudioCanal has acquired U.K. rights to Mike Leigh’s secretive and untitled next project, marking the first time the distributor has worked with the iconic director.

The deal sees StudioCanal take over from eOne, which had been handling U.K. on the project in 2020 before it was stalled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Bleecker Street still has North American rights, also collaborating with Leigh and his Thin Man Films for the first time.

Untitled Mike Leigh 2023 — which The Hollywood Reporter recently revealed will start shooting this year — is being sold by Cornerstone Films. It comes backed by Film4, which has a long history of supporting Leigh’s work and will co-finance alongside Creativity Media. The Mediapro Studio will co-produce, together with Thin Man Films, and will acquire Spanish rights. Natixis Coficine is providing cash flow finance. Georgina Lowe produces, with Gail Egan as executive producer.

As with much of Leigh’s work,...

First time the distributor has handled Leigh’s work theatrically.

Studiocanal has acquired UK distribution rights to Mike Leigh’s untitled new film, which will shoot later this year.

It is the first time the distributor will release one of Leigh’s films theatrically in the UK.

Bleecker Street has North American rights, which also represents a first collaboration with Leigh and his UK production company Thin Man Films.

Cornerstone Films is launching international sales on the film at the European Film Market in Berlin this week.

Plot and precise production details have not yet been confirmed.

Film4, a regular...

It won’t be “Another Year” after all before we see Mike Leigh’s next movie.

The seven-time Oscar-nominated British filmmaker behind classics new and old like “Secrets & Lies,” “Happy-Go-Lucky,” and “Topsy-Turvy” hasn’t released a picture since his 2018 epic “Peterloo” got backed by Amazon. The director in February 2020, of all times, announced a new project with U.S. distribution courtesy of Bleecker Street. The rest is history, and now, three years later, the film is starting to take shape.

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Leigh’s next movie, financed by Film4 and set for a hometown U.K. release from eOne, will at last begin production this year. But there’s a catch for the next film from the “Vera Drake” writer-director, which is that any details remain not just scarce but nonexistent: The project is reportedly so secret that plot specifics are not only being kept...

Mike Leigh is set to go into production on his as-yet-untitled, super-secretive and now long-awaited next feature this year, The Hollywood Reporter can reveal

In typical style for the beloved veteran filmmaker and seven-time Oscar nominee, there’s very little else to be revealed. Untitled Mike Leigh 2023, as the project is now called, is as much under wraps as it was when it was first announced he was embarking on another film in 2020 (when it was entitled Untitled 2020). Plot, cast, and practically everything else is being kept under the thick veil of secrecy that the auteur prefers to operate. What is known is that the film was due to go into production in 2020, but was among the features impacted by the Covid pandemic. Three years on, and the wheels are finally moving.

Even despite the secrecy (which THR understands isn’t just limited to the public realm, but across buyers,...

These days, it’s refreshing to speak with someone like Mike Leigh whose vocabulary hasn’t been corrupted by the latest Hollywood trends. For example, when Leigh uses the word “content,” it’s doesn’t mean the same thing as 98 of his peers, for whom the term has come to describe the swill that fills the various streamers’ pipelines.

For Leigh, “content” refers to the substance of a film or play, as I found when asking Leigh, who is the subject of a 14-film, career-spanning retrospective by New York’s Film at Lincoln Center — from “Bleak Moments” to “Peterloo,” with two shorts thrown in for good measure — where he thinks audiences unfamiliar with his work ought to begin.

“I certainly don’t think anybody should be preoccupied with seeing my films for the first time in chronological order,” he says. “I think you could drop anchor anywhere and start.”

A...

Netflix spends tens of billions of dollars each and every year on film and TV content. Hundreds of projects get made through the streaming service, which is seen by more than 200 million subscribers around the world. Netflix will even spend upwards of $200 million for a new Russo Brothers film starring Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling. But apparently, Netflix draws the line at funding a Mike Leigh feature.

Read More: Mike Leigh Explains Working With Amazon Studios & Why Cannes Passed On ‘Peterloo’

According to a recent interview with iNews, Mike Leigh revealed he’s having trouble finding funding for his projects.

Continue reading Oscar-Nominated Filmmaker Mike Leigh Is Having Trouble Finding Funding & Netflix Even Turned Him Down at The Playlist.

Leading British independent filmmakers expressed some frank views on gatekeepers acting as a barrier to independent cinema at a BFI London Film Festival panel discussion on Tuesday.

The panel consisted of Palme d’Or winner Mike Leigh (“Secrets & Lies”), Oscar winner Asif Kapadia (“Amy”) and Golden Bear winner Michael Winterbottom (“In This World”). The discussion used Winterbottom’s recently published book “Dark Matter: Independent Filmmaking in the 21st Century” as a starting point. The discussion was moderated by former London Film Festival artistic director Sandra Hebron.

Leigh, who debuted in 1971 with “Bleak Moments,” has a unique approach to getting funded in that, except for his films with historical subject matter like “Topsy Turvy,” “Mr. Turner” and “Peterloo,” he does not reveal what his films are about. The reason for this process, he says, is that he discovers what a film is about during the process of making it.

In response,...

Jon Gregory, editor of such films as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and In Bruges has died, a representative confirmed to Deadline. He was 77.

Gregory worked with Mike Leigh across the director’s storied career, from an early short called The Short & Curlies to one of Leigh’s first features, High Hopes, to some of the director’s best-known work — such as Life Is Sweet, Naked and Secrets & Lies — to one of his most recent works, Peterloo. Leigh remembered his frequent collaborator in a piece posted by The Guardian today.

In it, Leigh praised Gregory’s ability to compose complex component parts into a cohesive whole. “He brought to the task his unique characteristic skill, imagination, sensitivity and sophistication, while, as always, staying true to the material,” wrote the director. He praised Gregory’s sense of when not to edit, as well.

Leigh recalled...

Film editor who brought his brilliance to Secrets & Lies, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Four Weddings and a Funeral

When shooting the massacre scene in my film Peterloo (2018), the cinematographer Dick Pope and I worked in our customary mode – no script, no storyboard. However, unusually for us, we used three cameras for a substantial part of the action. The quantity and complexity of the resulting footage might have been daunting for most film editors, but this was far from the case for Jon Gregory, who has died aged 77 after a short illness.

He brought to the task his unique characteristic skill, imagination, sensitivity and sophistication, while, as always, staying true to the material. As Pope said: “Jon’s editing is always incredibly sympathetic to my cinematography. Whatever I produce, he’ll make the most of it.”...

At 78, with three Baftas and a Palme d’Or under his belt, the director still sees himself as an outsider. He talks about Hollywood’s obsession with big names, his determination to portray ‘real people’ – and being accused of pretension

Interviewing Mike Leigh is a daunting prospect, not because of his intimidatingly central plinth in the pantheon of British cinema – well, maybe a bit of that – but because he is extremely exacting. You just couldn’t work the way he does – his scripts are improvised, not written, resting on collaboration, trust, instinct, bravery – without weighing every word, cross-examining every sentence. Otherwise it would just be baggy. He takes this perfectionism into every interview, every conversation: Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh, a close textual and visual reading of his life’s work by Amy Raphael, reissued next month, bristles with this energy.

Then there’s the incredible range of his output:...

Sci-fi thriller marks feature directorial debut of Ireland’s Alan Friel.

Bankside Films has acquired worldwide sales rights to Irish filmmaker Alan Friel’s sci-fi thriller Woken, set to star Maxine Peake and Naomi Ackie.

The London-based sales agent will introduce the project to buyers at the upcoming American Film Market (AFM) next week. It is aiming to shoot in Ireland next year.

Ackie will play a young woman who wakes up on a remote island without any memory and is forced to re-learn everything about herself, including her husband and the baby she is carrying. When two disfigured men arrive on the island,...

Vanessa Redgrave has called on businesses and entrepreneurs to come to the aid of the U.K.’s arts sector, which is facing major financial challenges due to the Covid-19 crisis.

The Oscar winner and BAFTA Fellow was joined by Maxine Peake (Black Mirror, Peterloo), comic and campaigner Lenny Henry and theater director Trevor Nunn at a public appeal to save arts jobs held outside London’s National Theatre on Tuesday night.

“We theater and arts people must campaign to raise funds from private enterprise to add to any government funds, so that we can help to restore all ...

Vanessa Redgrave has called on businesses and entrepreneurs to come to the aid of the U.K.’s arts sector, which is facing major financial challenges due to the Covid-19 crisis.

The Oscar winner and BAFTA Fellow was joined by Maxine Peake (Black Mirror, Peterloo), comic and campaigner Lenny Henry and theater director Trevor Nunn at a public appeal to save arts jobs held outside London’s National Theatre on Tuesday night.

“We theater and arts people must campaign to raise funds from private enterprise to add to any government funds, so that we can help to restore all ...

Ted Hope had quite a ride at Amazon Studios. Early on, when the independent producer (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”) saw the digital culture shifts coming to Hollywood, he landed as head of Amazon Original Movies in 2015, where he became the consigliere to successive studio heads who relied on his counsel and support. Today came the news that he would be leaving the job to return to his old routine.

“I came to realize Ted is a producer through and through,” said Amazon studio chief Jennifer Salke in an email to Amazon Studios staffers today. “And that now is the right time for both him and the studio to make a change.”

The news has been a long time coming. Many in Hollywood questioned how long Hope would last inside the Silicon Valley shopping behemoth, but it took five and a half years for Hope to finally make the...

Ted Hope had quite a ride at Amazon Studios. Early on, when the independent producer (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”) saw the digital culture shifts coming to Hollywood, he landed as head of Amazon Original Movies in 2015, where he became the consigliere to successive studio heads who relied on his counsel and support. Today came the news that he would be leaving the job to return to his old routine.

“I came to realize Ted is a producer through and through,” said Amazon studio chief Jennifer Salke in an email to Amazon Studios staffers today. “And that now is the right time for both him and the studio to make a change.”

The news has been a long time coming. Many in Hollywood questioned how long Hope would last inside the Silicon Valley shopping behemoth, but it took five and a half years for Hope to finally make the...