Diana
Celebrated and adored by millions, she was the Queen of people’s hearts, yet the bittersweet story of the last man to truly capture hers has never before been told. Princess Diana (double Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts), at one time the most famous woman in the world, inspired a nation with her generosity, compassion and kindness – and in her final years she would meet the man who, in turn, inspired her.
When Diana met Doctor Hasnat Khan (Naveen Andrews), she found someone who could see beyond the exterior, to the vulnerable and complex woman underneath. An incredible source of strength to her, it was during this relationship that Diana accomplished some of her most rewarding and successful humanitarian work. As Diana fell in love with Dr Khan, she didn’t just feel like a Princess – but like the woman she truly was.
In a story that until now has remained untold, DIANA introduces a time in the Princess’s life that was uniquely important in shaping her final years, fulfilling her search for true happiness and sealing her legacy. The film is directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, stars Naomi Watts and Naveen Andrews and is produced by Ecosse Films.
Diana will be released in cinemas nationwide on September 20th 2013
Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa
Steve Coogan’s famous local radio DJ / one time talk show host Alan Partridge is one of the UK’s most-loved comedy characters. He comes to the cinema screen in this summer’s Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.
When Alan’s radio station, North Norfolk Digital, is taken over by a new media conglomerate, it sets in motion a chain of events which see Alan having to work with the police to defuse a potentially violent siege.
Will Alan talk round disgruntled colleague Pat Farrell? Will there be shots fired in anger? Will Alan become a public hero or simply another footnote in the history of broadcasting?
We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks
Filmed with the startling immediacy of unfolding history, Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney’s We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks details the creation of Julian Assange’s controversial website, which facilitated the largest security breach in US history.
Hailed by some as a free-speech hero and others as a traitor and terrorist, the enigmatic Assange’s rise and fall are paralleled with that of PFC Bradley Manning, the brilliant, troubled young soldier who downloaded hundreds of thousands of documents from classified US military and diplomatic servers, revealing the behind-the-scenes workings of the government’s international diplomacy and military strategy.
In seeking to expose abuse in the corridors of power, Assange and Manning were undermined by forces within and without, as well as by their own human failings. We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks is a riveting, multi-layered tale about transparency in the information age and our ever-elusive search for the truth.
Films Of The Week – April 1st to April 7th
OnTheBox’s film guide to what’s on TV this week:
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, BBC One, Thursday 11:30pm
Criminally overlooked at this year’s Oscars for the gorgeous Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson remains one of the most unique directors to emerge in the last 20 years. His films remain very much the cinematic equivalent of Marmite, baffling to those who feed only from the mainstream trough, delightful to anyone who still possesses the power of abstract thought. Put it like this: if you read The Sun, watch The X Factor and thought Avengers Assemble was
about as good as movies get, stick well clear of The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. It’s not for you.
If you don’t, sail into previously unchartered territories and bathe in its many whimsical delights. For a start, there’s Bill Murray as the titular Zissou, an existential Ahab figure on a hunt for the ‘Jaguar shark’ that ate his best friend. Then there’s the hapless crew he brings along with him, including Owen Wilson as the man who may or may not be the son Zissou never knew he had, Anjelica Houston as his long-suffering wife and Jeff Goldblum as his arch-rival. All performed to the soundtrack of Seu Jorge singing Bowie classics in Portuguese.
Set the recorder for:
Poltergeist, BBC1, Wednesday 12:20am
Co-written and produced by Steven Spielberg, who installed Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Tobe Hooper in the director’s chair, Poltergeist was the Paranormal Activity of its day, taking back many times what it cost to make. Horror of the highest order, it remains absolutely terrifying. All together now: “They’re here…”
No Country For Old Men, More 4, Wednesday 10pm
Given that it seems to be on either Channel 4, More 4 or Film 4 almost every other week, there’s a good chance you’ve already seen No Country For Old Men. If not, now’s the time to catch the Coen brothers’ Oscar-winning masterpiece. It even features Javier Bardem being a much badder bad guy than he was in Skyfall.
Scarface, ITV4, Thursday 10:30pm
There was no way that Al Pacino was ever going to top his performance as Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy. But his turn as Cuban refugee turned crazed drug baron Tony Montana comes in a very close second. An explosion of violence, profanity and narcotics, Scarface offers a memorably unflinching view of the dark side of the American dream.
The African Queen, More 4, Saturday 1:10pm
Picture a scenario for a classic Hollywood film, and you might imagine Humphrey Bogart as a gin-soaked steamboat captain talked into attacking a German gunboat by Katharine Hepburn’s headstrong missionary in WWI-era Africa. While that may be an accurate summary of The African Queen, it’s far too simplistic. The real beauty here is watching two
stars get down, dirty and funny, whilst providing what so many modern films fail to offer: characters we really care about.
Inbreeding produces 4 more for new series of MIC
In further proof that the swimming pools on the show are bigger than the gene pool, Made in Chelsea have added four more “characters” for the fifth series of structured-reality who you would swear are already cast members.
To many people the press releases generated by the E4 publicity team are the only way to in fact differentiate the stars of the show. The author is one of them.
Serious question: Is Made in Chelsea becoming a make-work program for otherwise unemployable members of the upper classes?
Sisters Francesca and Olivia Newman-Young, designer Josh Coombs and fashionista Phoebe-Lettice Thompson will be joining the cast of Francis Boulle, Richard Dinan, Binky Felstead, Rosie Fortescue, Victoria Baker Harber, Cheska Hull, Stevie Johnson, Andy Jordan, Jamie Laing, Ollie Locke, Millie Macintosh, Spencer Matthews, Ollie Proudlock, Louise Thompson and Mark-Francis Vandelli – all your favourite members of the landed classes in fact.
The Newman-Young sisters work in the music industry and are friends with Millie Macintosh and Andy Jordan. Thompson is a fashion assistant at Tatler and has an on/off relationship with fellow Made in Chelsea newcomber Coombs. Coombs has previously worked with Ollie Proudlock and runs his own design business.
Jay Z to soundtrack Great Gatsby
Grammy Award-winning musical artist Shawn “Jay Z” Carter has collaborated with director Baz Luhrmann on “The Great Gatsby” to bring the modern “Jazz Age” energy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s original text to the big screen.
The Brooklyn rapper will soundtrack Gatsby’s champagne-infused dance floors, the rumble in New York’s illegal speakeasies, and help to foreshadow the tragedy behind Gatsby’s “extraordinary gift for hope” to articulate the film’s “1920s-Meets-Now” sound.
Luhrmann and Jay Z were introduced by Leonardo DiCaprio (Jay Gatsby) and have worked together over the past two years to create a sound suitable for Luhrmann’s adaption of one of America’s most defining novels.
Luhrmann emphasised that “Fitzgerald was a pioneer, famed and controversial for using the then-new and explosive sound called jazz in his novels and short stories—not just as decoration, but to actively tell story using the immediacy of pop culture. He coined the phrase ‘the Jazz Age.’”
He continued “So, the question for me in approaching Gatsby was how to elicit from our audience the same level of excitement and pop-cultural immediacy toward the world that Fitzgerald did for his audience? And in our age, the energy of jazz is caught in the energy of hip-hop.”
“The Great Gatsby” follows would-be writer Nick Carraway as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz, bootleg kings, and sky-rocketing stocks. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby, and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy, and her philandering, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan. It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without of the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles.
Daniel Day-Lewis Wins Third Best Actor Oscar
Daniel Day-Lewis has won the 2013 Academy Award for Best Actor for his title role in Lincoln.
The prize is the English-born star’s record third Best Actor Oscar, after previous wins in 1989′s My Left Foot and 2007′s There Will Be Blood.
“I really don’t know how any of this happened,” said Day-Lewis.
“I do know that I have received so much more than my fair share of good fortune in my life, and I am so grateful to the Academy for this beautiful honor.
“It’s a strange thing,” Day-Lewis joked on receiving the award from Meryl Streep. “Three years ago… we decided to do a straight swap. I had actually been committed to play Margaret Thatcher, and Meryl was Steven’s first choice for… for Lincoln – and I’d like to see that version!
“Steven didn’t have to persuade me to play Lincoln, but I did have to persuade him that if I were to play Lincoln, perhaps it shouldn’t be a musical!
“My fellow nominees, my equals, my betters, I am so proud to have been included as one amongst you.”
In reference to his extreme method acting, Day-Lewis joshed: “Since we got married 16 years ago my wife Rebecca has lived with some very strange men.
“I mean, they were very strange as individuals, and probably very strange as a group… but she’s been the perfect companion to all of them.
“I’d like to thank Kathy Kennedy our producer, and through you, our mighty team of co-conspirators. At the apex of that human pyramid, there are three men to whom I owe this and a great deal more.
“Tony Kushner, our great skipper Steven Spielberg, and the mysterious mind, body and spirit of Abraham Lincoln.
“For my mother. Thank you so much. Thank you.”
21 And Over – Preview
They say: Straight-A college student Jeff Chang has always done what’s expected of him. But when his two best friends Casey and Miller surprise him with a visit for his 21st birthday, he decides to do the unexpected for a change, even though his critical medical school interview is early the next morning. What was supposed to be one beer becomes one night of chaos, over indulgence and utter debauchery in this outrageous comedy.
We say: Lots of potential. Except for the 2 Broke Girls style racial humour.
The Possession – DVD Release
Based on a true story, THE POSSESSION is the terrifying story of how one family must unite in order to survive the wrath of an unspeakable evil.
Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Stephanie Brenek (Kyra Sedgwick) see little cause for alarm when their youngest daughter Em becomes oddly obsessed with an antique wooden box she purchased at a yard sale. But as Em’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic, the couple fears the presence of a malevolent force in their midst, only to discover that the box was built to contain a dibbuk, a dislocated spirit that inhabits and ultimately devours its human host.
Available on DVD, Blu-ray and download to own and rent from 21st January 2013
A Good Day To Die Hard Trailer
They say: Bruce Willis returns in his most iconic role as John McClane – the “real” hero with the skills and attitude to always be the last man standing. This time the take-no-prisoners cop is really in the wrong place at the wrong time after traveling to Moscow to help his estranged son Jack (Jai Courtney). With the Russian underworld in pursuit, and battling a countdown to war, the two McClanes discover that their opposing methods make them unstoppable heroes.
We say: Unlike many aging action heroes Bruce Willis doesn’t need a co-sign from anyone and continues to absolutely own his deadpan, shoot first, shoot second, shoot third persona.
