Hello and welcome back to our roundup of what’s happening on stage and screen!
Loach on Brexit.
It’s not unlike the veteran film director Ken Loach to be political. His films have mapped the mood of the nation on key issues such as homelessness in “Cathy Come Home” and working class culture and ambition in “Kes”. Most recently, his Palme d’Or-winning “I, Daniel Blake” stared the bureaucratic cruelty of austerity straight in the eye.
Loach frequently side steps the camera and speaks out in public, especially against successive Conservative governments, the BBC, and the wider film and TV industry. In 2016 he called light historical drama programmes such as “Downton Abbey” a “rosy vision of the past” and said that “TV drama is like the picture on the Quality Street tin, but with with less quality and nothing of the street.”
Last week, Ken used an interview with the Hollywood Reporter to claim that the decision to leave the EU will “throw a spanner in the works” of his frequent collaborations with Belgium and producers in other EU countries. Most worryingly he said that international producers and directors will “just not bother” producing films in the U.K. if things get too complicated for them.
Ken’s not the first and won’t be the last to talk about the how the landscape of the industry will be changed dramatically in just a couple of years. But not everyone agrees that it’s all doom and gloom. Especially since top 10 biggest film industries in the world are all non-EU countries.
Million for minions.
The danger of predictions is that they can be off the money as well as on it. We hope you didn’t run to the bookies when we predicted that British director Edgar Wright’s superb action comedy “Baby Driver” would be the hit of the summer. We forgot to take into account “Despicable Me 3”, the latest installment from the franchise. As of last week “Despicable Me 3” has taken £11,154,904 at the U.K. box office, vastly outdoing “Baby Driver” which took a respectable £3,605,705.
It’s going to be a big year for Andy Serkis.
Looking more certain is the news that British actor Andy Serkis is premiering his directorial debut “Breathe” starring Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy at the BFI London Film Festival this autumn. Serkis is best known as the CGI actor behind various big screen creatures including Gollum from “Lord of the Rings”, Supreme Leader Snoke from “The Force Awakens”, and Caesar from “The Planet of the Apes” franchise.
It’s set to be a big year for Serkis as “Breathe” is just the first of many projects he is set to direct. His version of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” has been hit by delays in order to distance it from Disney’s 2016 offering but is set to be finished for 2018. Serkis promises his adaptation will be a “darker” and that the story focusses on Mowgli.
Fantastic storylines and where to find them.
The wizarding community is picking over the relatively minor revelations contained in the official plot synopsis from Studio Warner Bros. for “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them 2”:
“As he promised he would, Grindelwald has made a dramatic escape and has been gathering more followers to his cause—elevating wizards above all non-magical beings. The only one who might be able to stop him is the wizard he once called his dearest friend, Albus Dumbledore.
“But Dumbledore will need help from the wizard who had thwarted Grindelwald once before, his former student Newt Scamander. The adventure reunites Newt with Tina (Katherine Waterston), Queenie (Alison Sudol) and Jacob (Dan Fogler), but his mission will also test their loyalties as they face new perils in an increasingly dangerous and divided wizarding world.”
Conspicuously, there’s no mention of the fact that Dumbledore might be gay as J.K. Rowling, author of the original “Harry Potter” series and the first prequel, mentioned back on a book tour in 2007. Fans were mostly pleased with this hint at the wise old headmaster’s backstory despite there being no mention of this in the books. But as Rowling’s play “The Cursed Child” opening in London last year to sell-out audiences and critical success, she was hit with claims the close relationship of the central characters amounted to queer-baiting.
Perhaps this second installment in the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise, featuring a young Dumbledore (played by Jude Law), will be the film that finally delivers on the promise and quells claims that Rowling was just after the publicity.
For those who can’t wait for another helping from the Potter universe, there’s a Harry Potter-inspired 7-course dining experience in London over the summer which at just £75 a ticket is a full £100 cheaper than any “Harry Potter and The Cursed Child” tickets we could find.
That’s all for this week but do let us know if you’ve got news of your own in the comments below!
Check out Backstage’s London audition listings!