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David Korda, the British film producer and financier who hailed from a family of notable filmmakers including his father Zoltàn Korda, has died. He was 87.

Korda’s death was disclosed Nov. 16 by film historian Charles Drazin via social media. Korda died Sept. 18 at Cromwell Hospital in London following a battle with cancer, according to Drazin who wrote a 2011 biography of Korda’s uncle, producer-director Alexander Korda. News of David Korda’s death was first reported by the Hollywood Reporter.

Korda’s father was the director of films such as 1939’s “The Four Feathers” and 1951’s “Cry, the Beloved Country.” His mother was actress Joan Gardner, known for roles in such films as 1934’s “The Scarlett Pimpernel” and 1937’s “Dark Journey.” His uncle Alexander Korda founded London Films, owner of British Lion Films, which produced the 1933 feature “The Private Life of Henry VIII” and 1949’s “The Third Man.” His uncle Vincent Korda...

David Korda, a prominent member of the Korda family movie dynasty who served as a producer and important film financier in a show business career that spanned more than 60 years, has died. He was 87.

Korda, chairman of the British company Film Finances Ltd., died Sept. 18 at Cromwell Hospital in London, author, editor and film historian Charles Drazin told The Hollywood Reporter. He had been in poor health after a battle with cancer.

Korda’s parents were Zoltan Korda, director of the Ralph Richardson-starring epic The Four Feathers (1939), and actress Joan Gardner (Dark Journey, The Scarlet Pimpernel).

One of his uncles was Alexander Korda, the founder of London Films, the owner of British Lion Films, a producer of such classics as The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and The Third Man (1949) and the first filmmaker to receive a knighthood. Another uncle, Vincent Korda, was a painter and Oscar-winning art director.

From Page to Screen: Why Film Breathes New Life into Golding's Classic Since its publication in 1954, William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’ has become a pillar of English literature, renowned for its unflinching exploration of the human condition under duress. Its portrayal of a group of boys stranded on a deserted island, descending into savagery as their fragile social structures collapse, resonates with readers of all generations. However, Golding’s novel isn’t just bound to the written word. Over the years, ‘Lord of the Flies’ has undergone several cinematic interpretations, each striving to capture the visceral energy and psychological tension of the novel. Film adaptations offer an unparalleled medium to bring the chaos and isolation of the island to life. The visual elements of cinema provide a tangible representation of the novel’s themes—innocence lost, the fragility of civilization, and the primal instincts that lie just beneath the surface of human nature.

Nearly 35 years after its original debut at the Venice Film Festival, Peter Brook’s epic film adaptation of “The Mahabharata” is returning to the Lido in a meticulously restored 8K version. The restoration, spearheaded by the late director’s son Simon, marks a new chapter for the groundbreaking 1989 production that brought the ancient Indian epic to global audiences.

“The Mahabharata” holds a unique place in Peter Brook’s storied career. Based on his nine-hour stage production, the film version clocked in at a still-substantial three hours. It featured an international cast performing in English and was shot in a Paris studio. The ambitious project aimed to distill the essence of the vast Hindu epic, exploring themes of war, ethics and power across generations.

Brook wanted to make a six-hour film initially, but this was deemed unfinanceable, so the decision was taken to shoot concurrently a three-hour film version and a six-hour TV version.

In the 1980s, Peter Brook’s adaptation of The Mahabharata enchanted audiences on stage and screen. As Brook’s son presents a restored print at the Venice film festival, he and his team discuss the work’s extraordinary journey

When Antonin Stahly was nine years old, his mother took him to the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris to see a production of the ancient Indian epic The Mahabharata, which translates loosely as “the great story of mankind”. More than 20 actors from 16 countries performed on a stage steeped in red earth and scarred by a water-filled trench; fire also played a leading role. Directed by Peter Brook, whom the RSC founder Peter Hall called “the greatest innovator of his generation”, and adapted by Luis Buñuel’s former co-writer Jean-Claude Carrière, this spectacular Mahabharata weighed in at nine hours, plus intervals. Even at that length, it represented a massive compression of its source text,...

In a tangential sense, no filmmaker working from 1960 onward would have gotten anywhere without the influence of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands. But in a very real sense, Martin Scorsese has said he would have likely left film entirely had it not been for the support Cassavetes and Rowlands showed toward him early on in his career. Following the death of Rowlands last week, Scorsese released a statement paying tribute to her.

“Up there onscreen, there was no one else quite like her. That’s the kind of observation that’s often made about people after they’re gone, but in Gena’s case it happens to be true,” Scorsese wrote. “She had an extremely unusual combination of qualities. Her talent, which was extraordinary. Her bravery and commitment to her art formn— equally extraordinary. Her presence… this was someone who could hold a room by just walking in and standing there.

Martin Scorsese remembered Gena Rowlands on Thursday as an “extraordinary” actress and celebrated her formative independent film work with John Cassavetes for being “inspirations to generations of filmmakers and actors.”

“There was no one else quite like her,” Scorsese said in a statement to press. “That’s the kind of observation that’s often made about people after they’re gone, but in Gena’s case it happens to be true.”

Rowlands died Wednesday after years of living with Alzheimer’s disease, a condition that her son and “The Notebook” filmmaker Nick Cassavetes only revealed two months prior. While commercially known best for playing the older, coincidentally Alzheimer’s-stricken version of the character played by Rachel McAdams in the 2004 romance, Rowlands will be remembered for her fearless, transformative performances through the 1970s and ’80s, including her Oscar-nominated leading roles in Cassavetes’ “A Woman Under the Influence” and “Gloria.”

“She had...

Yvonne Furneaux, the glamorous actress who had memorable performances in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Le Amiche, Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and Roman Polanski’s Repulsion, has died. She was 98.

Furneaux died July 5 at her home in North Hampton, New Hampshire, of complications from a stroke, her son, Nicholas Natteau, told The Hollywood Reporter.

She also was the female lead in the Hammer horror film The Mummy (1959), starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Though she considered the project less than ideal, she said she ultimately learned from those actors that “if you don’t take a film like The Mummy seriously and put your heart and soul into it, then you can bring it down,” she explained in Mark A. Miller’s 2010 book, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and Horror Cinema.

She starred in Italian, French, German and Spanish films during her career.

In Le Amiche (1955), a hit at the...

While its often the world premieres that get the most buzz out of any major film festival, look to their restorations lineup (if they are smart enough to have one), and a treasure trove of classics sure to be better than most premieres await. Ahead of their official lineup being unveiled on July 23, the Venice Classics slate is here, featuring films by Michelangelo Antonioni, Fritz Lang, Frederick Wiseman, Howard Hawks, Nagisa Ōshima, Anthony Mann, Lina Wertmüller, and many more.

“The programme of Venice Classics includes the commemoration of several important anniversaries.” said Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera. “First and foremost, the centennial of the birth of Marcello Mastroianni, the most beloved and celebrated Italian actor in the world, whom we will see in The Night (La notte), one of Michelangelo Antonioni’s finest films. It has been fifty years since the death of Vittorio De Sica, who in The Gold of Naples...

Venice Classics will screen restorations of Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Night and Vittorio De Sica’s The Gold Of Naples as part of an 18-film programme at the 81st Venice Film Festival (August 28-Septemer 7).

The Night, a 1961 black-and-white drama depicted a day and night in the life of a disillusioned novelist and his alienated wife, will play in the 100th anniversary year of the birth of its lead actor Marcello Mastroianni.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

De Sica’s 1954 The Gold Of Naples is formed of six episodes inspired by Giovanni Marotta’s short stories, and plays...

Marla Adams, the Emmy-winning soap opera veteran who starred as the scheming Dina Abbott Mergeron during parts of five decades on The Young and the Restless, has died. She was 85.

Adams died Thursday in Los Angeles, Matt Kane, director of media and talent for Y&r, announced.

When she was just starting out, Adams appeared in 1958 alongside Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne on Broadway in The Visit and portrayed June, the high school best friend of Natalie Wood’s Deanie, in Elia Kazan’s Splendor in the Grass (1961).

Her first prominent role on a daytime drama came on CBS’ The Secret Storm, where she played bad girl Belle Clemens from 1968 until the show’s 1974 demise. “I was the bitch of daytime,” she said in a 2016 interview. “I played a good bitch.”

Adams joined Y&r in 1982 but left when her three-year contract was up. She returned to Genoa City for brief...

Director Luca Guadagnino is remaking Lord of the Flies, leaning into its potential as a psychological horror and tapping into unexplored elements of the story. The new adaptation is expected to be a fresh and refreshing take on the classic novel, with a focus on character drama and psychological horror. There is no release date or casting announcements yet for the Lord of the Flies remake, but it is anticipated to be a highly anticipated film adaptation.

Director Luca Guadagnino is directing a movie remake of Lord of the Flies, and the upcoming adaptation of William Golding’s novel will lean into the tales untapped potential as a psychological horror. There have been multiple adaptations of Lord of the Flies, the now-classic tale of young schoolboys marooned on an island in the pacific. Peter Brook’s 1963 Lord of the Flies film and Harry Hook’s 1990 version both drew acclaim when they were released.

“She’s 100% a professional, and this is a great night for professionals,” said the actor Juliet Mills as she accepted Glenda Jackson’s first Best Actress Oscar on the absent winner’s behalf at the 1970 Academy Awards. On the face of it, it sounds an oddly impersonal thing to say in the circumstances — almost as if Mills knew nothing of Jackson, and opted for the vaguest praise possible.

It proved, however, a rather apt way for Jackson, then 34, to be welcomed into Hollywood’s inner circle. A proudly working-class Brit who didn’t look or act (on screen or off) like the blushing English roses typically imported from across the pond, Jackson had markedly more interest in being a professional actor than in being a movie star. That spared her, even as she racked up assignments and awards, much of the fuss and frippery associated with A-list status — going to the Oscars included.

Glenda Jackson, a two-time Academy Award-winning performer who had a second career in politics as a British lawmaker before an acclaimed late-life return to stage and screen, has died at age 87.

Jackson’s agent Lionel Larner said she died Thursday at her home in London after a short illness. He said she had recently completed filming “’The Great Escaper”, in which she co-starred with 90-year-old Michael Caine.

Caine said Jackson was “one of our greatest movie actresses. I shall miss her.”

Born into a working-class family in Birkhenhead, northwest England, in 1936 Jackson trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company — where she starred in the cutting-edge drama “Marat/Sade” directed by Peter Brook — and became one of the biggest British stars of the 1960s and 70s, winning two Academy Awards, for the brooding D.H. Lawrence adaptation “Women in Love” in 1971 and the...

Glenda Jackson, whose illustrious career spanned from classic feature films like Sunday Bloody Sunday, Women in Love and A Touch of Class to a political career at the British Parliament, passed peacefully this morning at her home in London. She was 87 years old. Jackson has been said to have been battling an illness recently. Although she had transitioned from movies to civil service, the actress will appear in one last film project as she just wrapped her scenes opposite Sir Michael Caine in a movie titled The Great Escaper.

Jackson’s agent Lionel Larner released an official statement according to Variety. In the statement, Larner declares, ”Glenda Jackson, two-time Academy Award-winning actress and politician, died peacefully at her home in Blackheath, London this morning after a brief illness with her family at her side. She recently completed filming The Great Escaper in which she co-starred with Michael Caine.”

In addition to films,...

Glenda Jackson, the British actress who hit the snooze bar on her acting career for a 23-year career in politics, died on Thursday, as per her representatives. During her peak years in the 1970s and 80s, she won two Oscars (and was nominated for two more) and two Emmy Awards. She was nominated for four Tony Awards, finally winning one in 2018 after a late-in-life career resurgence. She was 87 years old.

Jackson, whose father was a bricklayer and whose mother was a barmaid and domestic, studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She was told by the academy’s principal that, due to her looks, she would likely only find work as a character actress, and she shouldn’t depend on getting jobs after 40.

This proved to be the opposite of true. Her big break came when experimental theater director Peter Brook cast her in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s groundbreaking adaptation of “Marat/Sade.

The British actor was the epitome of countercultural chic in key 1970s films. It is just a shame she couldn’t be persuaded to do more of them when her political career ended

Glenda Jackson, fearless actor and politician, dies aged 87

For a brief, intense period in the 70s, Glenda Jackson was the very epitome of bohemian Brit chic in the movies: gamine in a worldly English way, intellectual, liberated and frank but with a capacity for demure naivety. This was a period that gloriously co-existed with her recurring appearances on The Morecambe and Wise Show. Jackson revered Eric and Ernie to the end of her life, because apart from their own value, her guest-spots on their programme led to her being cast in the 1973 Hollywood comedy A Touch of Class, which in turn gave Jackson her second Oscar, the title tacitly describing what this Rada-trained English actor was giving the movie.

Glenda Jackson, who segued from a successful actress — Oscars for “Women in Love” and “A Touch of Class” and two Emmys for “Elizabeth R” — into a 23-year career as member of the U.K.’s House of Commons, has died. She was 87.

Jackson died after a brief illness at her home in London, her agent Lionel Larner said. “Glenda Jackson, two-time Academy Award-winning actress and politician, died peacefully at her home in Blackheath, London this morning after a brief illness with her family at her side. She recently completed filming ‘The Great Escaper’ in which she co-starred with Michael Caine,” Larner said in a statement.

Aside from her prize-winning roles, Jackson gave terrific performances in such films as 1967’s “Marat/Sade” (as Charlotte Corday), “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and on TV in “The Patricia Neal Story,” a 1981 work about that actress’s stroke and recovery with husband Roald Dahl. A defining role in...

The BBC has tasked His Dark Materials writer Jack Thorne to pen a TV adaptation of William Golding’s seminal novel Lord of the Flies.

This marks the first time the novel will be made for television, though there have been two feature film adaptations — the first Peter Brook’s 1963 movie and the second made in 1990 by Harry Hook (above).

Sex Education producer Eleven is attached to make The BBC’s series, which was unveiled by BBC Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore today at a Broadcasting Press Guild event in London. Several other announcements were also made (see below).

Writer Thorne is known for shows such as BBC fantasy series His Dark Materials, Channel 4 Covid-19 drama Help, Shane Meadows’ This is England and Netflix series The Eddy, feature films Wonder and Enola Holmes and theater productions including Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Golding’s 1954 novel tells the story...

Edwin Lee Gibson’s stage career spans 40 years and over 100 U.S. and international theater productions. On television he is currently reprising his role as series regular “Ebraheim” in season 2 of FX’s hit series The Bear. On this episode, he talks about the importance of listening, “letting the character find me,” working with the late Peter Brook, cultivating a relationship with fear, how his stutter actually made him dig deeper into the study of speech, and much more. Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Stitcher. And if you’re […]

The post “I Don’t Want To Know Anything. I Just Want to Listen”: The Bear Series Regular Edwin Lee Gibson first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Edwin Lee Gibson’s stage career spans 40 years and over 100 U.S. and international theater productions. On television he is currently reprising his role as series regular “Ebraheim” in season 2 of FX’s hit series The Bear. On this episode, he talks about the importance of listening, “letting the character find me,” working with the late Peter Brook, cultivating a relationship with fear, how his stutter actually made him dig deeper into the study of speech, and much more. Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Stitcher. And if you’re […]

The post “I Don’t Want To Know Anything. I Just Want to Listen”: The Bear Series Regular Edwin Lee Gibson first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Sir Ben Kingsley, 79, has one foot planted in Beverly Hills, the other in Oxfordshire, England — nearly 200 miles southeast of his native Lancashire, where he was raised by his British model and actress mom and his father, a Kenyan-born family doctor of Indian descent.

“[Oxfordshire] is more Shakespeare country,” Kingsley said on the phone. “The Cotswold Hills, limestone hills that run through the center of the British Isles across the Channel into France. It looks like Normandy. Our house looks rather French, a petite château. It looks like it should be on a wine label.”

Wine is front and center, per usual, at this year’s Sonoma International Film Festival, where Kingsley is attending the world premiere of “Jules,” from director Marc Turtletaub and writer Gavin Steckler. In this sci-fi heart-tugger with a senior twist, Kingsley delicately portrays elderly Pennsylvania suburbanite Milton. He’s losing control of his memory, so no one...

Behind some bins – big wheelie ones down an alley on Dublin’s Northside – a man and a woman, both oldish, are coupling frantically. Their al fresco pleasure is interrupted when they are spotted by the man’s daughter, who’s just come out of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

“It’s not what it looks like, Shiv,” explains her flustered father, as he makes himself decent while the woman, short and of Asian heritage, with cropped silver hair, yanks up her tights.

“It looks like an old Irish man f***in’ a woman behind some bins,” she says.

This delicious scene is from The Dry, a daffy eight-part tragicomedy previously on Britbox, now coming to Itvx. The old man is played, with all his baffled hangdog charm, by Ciarán Hinds, who is 70. The woman behind the bins with him – and here’s the complicated surprise – is played by none other than Hinds’s French-Vietnamese wife,...

Every year the Oscar’s hold an in memoriam segment honoring stars and Hollywood professionals who lost their lives over the past year, and every time, there’s controversy after the segment seems to leave notable faces out. “White Lotus” star Michael Imperioli is adding to the criticism that this year’s in memoriam received, by blasting the omission of his prior co-stars Tony Sirico, Paul Sorvino, and Tom Sizemore.

“Sorvino, Sirico and Sizemore,” Imperioli wrote in an Instagram post on Monday, featuring headshots of all three actors. “These three brilliant actors were forgotten by the Academy last night at the Oscars. I was proud and honored to have worked with all three of these men and it saddened me to see Hollywood ignore them on its biggest night.”

Imperioli and Sirico famously worked together on all six seasons of the beloved HBO mobster drama “The Sopranos;” Imperioli played Christopher Moltisanti,...

Mira Sorvino is calling out the Academy Awards for not including her father Paul Sorvino during the In Memoriam tribute.

Sorvino took to social media to share her “hurt” over Paul being “overlooked” at the 2023 ceremony. Sorvino tweeted, “It is baffling beyond belief that my beloved father and many other amazing brilliant departed actors were left out. The Oscars forgot about Paul Sorvino, but the rest of us never will!!”

The Oscar winner also shared on Instagram, writing, “I love you Dad. I miss you so much. Ps, when I posted this I had not learned of my Dad’s omission and that of several other incredible artists from the in Memoriam section. Incredibly hurt and shocked that my father’s lifelong, irreplaceable, enormous contribution to the world of cinema was overlooked by whomever made that list. We, his adoring family, and you, his adoring public, know just how unique and incredible he was.

Every year it’s a depressing ritual: Who is the Academy going to fail to recognize in their annual In Memoriam segment? Once again, during the live ceremony, more stars who passed away in the last year were left out.

Anne Heche, Paul Sorvino, Tom Sizemore, Leslie Jordan, and “Triangle of Sadness” star Charlbi Dean were not included in the tribute. “Walking and Talking” star Heche died in August 2022 after a car crash; she was in a coma before being taken off of life support.

Sizemore similarly died in March 2023 after being taken off of life support following a ruptured brain aneurysm. Jordan died after suffering a medical emergency behind the wheel and crashed his car in October 2022.

“Triangle of Sadness” actress Charlbi Dean passed away in August 2022 of a lung infection at age 32.

Palme d’Or winning director Ruben Östlund shared a tribute to Dean, writing, “Charlbi’s sudden...

3 December 1930 - 13 September 2022

The cinematographer recalls working with the radical French director, a man who transformed cinema and survived on omelettes and beer

Peter Brook remembered by Richard EyreRead the Observer’s obituaries of 2022 in full

I didn’t grow up in a movie-loving family – we rarely went to the cinema. However, I had this strange habit as a young teenager: I avidly read French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur’s film reviews. Once, I asked my parents for permission to go and see Godard’s Pierrot le Fou. They said: “Absolutely not.” I asked why. “Because it’s violent,” came the reply. I finally watched Pierrot le Fou when I studied at the national film school. The film was not violent in the way they saw it, but it was a shock, nonetheless. Little did I know then that I would spend a few years working side by side with Jean-Luc Godard.

This story about “Elvis” director Baz Luhrmann first appeared in “The Race Begins” issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.

He started with Elvis as metaphor and wound up staring at Elvis the man. At least that’s how Baz Luhrmann describes the journey with “Elvis”, his extravagant semi-biopic about the poor kid from Tupelo who shocked the world, became the king of rock ‘n’ roll, got it all, squandered it all on drugs, lethargy and bad movies and, every so often, got it all back.

An over-the-top two-hour-and-39 minute musical epic featuring Austin Butler’s uncanny recreation of Elvis Presley and Tom Hanks’ curious take on his brilliantly manipulative and predatory manager, Colonel Tom Parker, “Elvis” is big and bold and silly and messy and kind of wonderful, taking liberties with Elvis’ story but selling it all so dramatically that it made 286 million in theaters after its Cannes Film Festival premiere.

The festival celebrates UK independent cinema and runs September 28 - October 2.

Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees Of Inisherin will screen at France’s Dinard Festival Of British Film (September 28 - October 2), with Sophie Hyde’s Good Luck To You, Leo Grande closing the event.

Both films will have their French premiere at the festival which is held on the coastal town of Dinard, France and celebrates independent cinema from the UK.

Scroll down for full line-up

McDonagh’s Ireland-set comedy drama recently premiered at Venice Film Festival and stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two lifelong friends hurtled into...

New Delhi, Aug 22 (Ians) This is a frank portrayal of the extraordinary life of acclaimed dancer, actor and activist Mallika Sarabhai, very aptly titled ‘In Free Fall: My Experiments With Living’ (Speaking Tiger).

She doesn’t hold back in talking about her “thirty-year obsession with being thin”; her addictions like smoking and how she “hypnotized” her way out of it; her fascination with alternate therapies like Pranik healing, Ayurveda and colour therap;, and the beauty treatments she uses for “future-proofing” her body so that she can continue to dance and perform for years to come.

She speaks with equal candour about her battles with grief and depression – when she lost her beloved father, the space scientist Vikram Sarabhai, in 1971; a painful break-up with a man she loved; and her ups and downs with her children, due, in part, to her own relationships.

The loss of her mother, dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai,...

John Steiner, a British actor who appeared in Caligula and several other films in the 1960s and 1970s, has died. He was 81 and passed Sunday at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs after a two-vehicle automobile accident in La Quinta, the Riverside County Sheriff’s department told the Desert Sun newspaper.

Steiner played the treasurer Longinus opposite Malcolm McDowell in the 1979 film Caligula, one of several movies he made with Italian film director Giovanni “Tinto” Brass.

He portrayed the tycoon Beauty Smith in director Lucio Fulci’s White Fang (1973) and Challenge to White Fang (1974). He was also a vampire in Dracula in the Provinces (1975).

He also appeared in director Mario Bava’s Shock (1977) and director Dario Argento’s Tenebrae (1982), the latter memorable for his character taking an ax to the head.

Born on Jan. 7, 1941, in Chester, England, Steiner attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company,...

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John Steiner, a British actor who appeared in Tinto Brass’ Caligula and in other Italian films for directors Lucio Fulci, Mario Bava and Dario Argento, has died. He was 81.

Steiner died Sunday at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs from injuries suffered in a two-vehicle automobile accident in nearby La Quinta, the Riverside County Sheriff’s department told the Desert Sun newspaper.

The lanky Steiner played the treasurer Longinus opposite Malcolm McDowell as the depraved Roman emperor in the erotic Caligula (1979), one of several films he made with Brass.

For Fulci, he portrayed the tycoon Beauty Smith in White Fang (1973) and Challenge to White Fang (1974) and a bloodsucker in Dracula in the Provinces (1975).

He also appeared in Bava’s Shock (1977) and Argento’s Tenebrae (1982), where his character took an ax to the head.

Born on Jan. 7, 1941, in Chester, England, Steiner attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Peter Brook, the innovative film and theater director known for groundbreaking adaptations of classic literary works and bringing prominent non-Western influences into the theater world, has died at the age of 97. The news was confirmed by BBC.

For the majority of the 20th century, Brook was consistently viewed as one of the most important directors working in the theater world. Born in London in 1925, he began directing Shakespeare productions at Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1940s. He quickly became known for his willingness to infuse classic texts, including operas and Christopher Marlowe plays, with experimental aesthetic choices. After several of his productions transferred to Broadway in the 1960s, Brook moved to Paris in the early 1970s. He founded an experimental theater company known as the International Centre for Theatre Research, which traveled throughout Africa and the Middle East to work with local artists on collaborative theater pieces.

As time went on,...

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Peter Brook, a British theater and film director known for an influential and distinguished career which saw him garner worldwide acclaim, has died. He was 97.

The two-time Tony Award winner, who had settled in France decades ago, directed the film adaptations of his best stage works as well as the 1963 movie Lord of the Flies.

Brook’s publisher Nick Hern Books said in a statement Sunday that he “leaves behind an incredible artistic legacy.” French media reports said that Brook died in Paris on Saturday.

Born in London in 1925, Brook would go on to study at Oxford University and direct his first London show, Doctor Faustus, while he was still a teenager.

After serving as director of productions at the Royal Opera House, he gained further notoriety through his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, or RSC, including Titus Andronicus, starring Laurence Olivier.

Ground-breaking France-based British theater director Peter Brook, who revolutionized 20th-century theater, has died at the age of 97-years-old in Paris.

The director, who pioneered taking theater outside of traditional theatre houses, mounting productions in unexpected venues such as gymnasiums, abandoned factories and old gas works, was renowned for his experimental and out-of-the box approach to staging classic and new works alike.

He was born in West London to parents of Lithuanian Jewish heritage on March 21, 1925. After attending Westminster School and Oxford, he put on his first production, Dr Faustus at the Torch Theatre in London in 1943.

By his early 20s, he had been appointed director of production at the Royal Opera House, where he distinguished himself with an experimental production of Richard Strauss’s Salome featuring sets by Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali.

In the 1950s, he started working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, directing Sir Lawrence Olivier in Titus...

What do the 25th and 75th Tony Awards have in common? The landmark Stephen Sondheim/George Furth musical “Company,” Angela Lansbury and the beloved tuner “The Music Man.”

The gender-bender revival of “Company” is considered the front-runner for the Tony for Best Musical Revival as well as featured actress for Broadway legend Patti LuPone who brings down the house with “Ladies Who Lunch.” Elaine Stritch originated the LuPone’s character of Joanne; her rendition of “Ladies Who Lunch” is considered one of the indelible show-stopping numbers in Broadway history. Stritch was considered a shoo-in for lead actress but lost to Helen Gallagher for the revival of -the 1920s musical “No, No Nanette.” Go figure. Gallagher was good, but she wasn’t as great as Stritch.

The original “Company” waltzed into the Tony Awards — which took place at the Palace Theatre on March 28, 1971 — with a whopping 14 nominations and won six including Best Musical,...

On the surface, a film set primarily in one hotel room with a pair of actors might seem simple. But in the case of “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” which premieres Jan. 22 at the Sundance Film Festival, limiting the location gave the film an opportunity to explore what star Emma Thompson calls “the emotional landscape.”

Thompson plays Nancy, a widow and former teacher who has stepped outside her comfort zone for the first time in her life and hired a sex worker, the titular Leo Grande, played by “Peaky Blinders” actor Daryl McCormack. With a script by Katy Brand and direction by Sophie Hyde, what unfolds is a frank, funny and touching adventure as these two very different individuals get to know one another and themselves a little better.

Variety spoke with Thompson, McCormack and Hyde about putting together the film, which was shot in 19 days. Says Thompson with a laugh,...

International Conference: Contemporary Acting Techniques in Eurasian Theatre, Performance and Audiovisual Arts: Intercultural and Intermedia Perspective!

Key note speakers: Mr. Eugenio Barba, Mr. Tang Shu-wing, Mr. Danny Yung

Online conference: 28‒30 September 2021

Faculty of Humanities of the Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń

The Grotowski Institute, Wrocław (Instytut Grotowskiego) in collaboration with the Bridges Foundation

Contemporary acting encompasses a wide range of established and evolving approaches, techniques and strategies. This conference, the second conference held as part of the InlanDimensions International Arts Festival – will offer a platform of dialogue for international researchers and practitioners focused on contemporary acting techniques interpreted from an intercultural and intermedia perspective. We cordially invite all researchers interested in contemporary Eurasian theatre and performance, cinema and audiovisual arts. This Eurasian dimension provokes investigation of cultural exchanges between East and West, including the spread of ideas and practices, intercultural influences and interweavings, inspirations coming from the masters of the 20th...

“There are those people who completely fill the world when you’re with them. He was certainly one of those,” George Miller told IndieWire’s Eric Kohn about the late actor Hugh Keays-Byrne hours after his passing. Keays-Byrne, the Australian actor best known for playing the villain characters in two “Mad Max” movies, died December 2 at the age of 73. Miller cast the actor to play the evil Toecutter opposite Mel Gibson in the original 1979 “Mad Max” movie, then cast him again to play the villainous Immortan Joe in the 2015 sequel “Mad Max: Fury Road.”

As Miller told IndieWire, the two collaborators’ paths crossed thanks to Keays-Byrne’s association with the Royal Shakespeare Company. The actor was touring the world as part of the ensemble of Peter Brook’s stage production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and landed in Australia for his final shows. It’s here where Keays-Byrne and several...

Brian Henson has been head of the Jim Henson Company for nearly 30 years now, following in his father Jim Henson’s footsteps. His latest project, “Earth To Ned” (streaming on Disney Plus) features new puppet creatures, such as the titular alien commander Ned (Paul Rugg) and his sidekick Cornelius (Michael Oosterom), who host a late-night talk show.

Ned is sent to destroy Earth, but instead, he falls in love with mankind, beaming human celebrity guests, such as RuPaul and Rachel Bloom, to his spaceship. The idea to play with a combination of late-night TV, improve and science fiction had been brewing in Henson’s mind for more than six years before becoming a reality.

Here, Henson talks with Variety about the craft of puppetry and creature effects, and how materials have changed in the crafts work.

From where did the idea for “Earth to Ned” stem?

We did a show...

Year-end conversations about the movies are often dominated by top 10 lists from critics who spend the year watching movies. But they aren’t the only ones. Many of the most influential people responsible for getting movies out into the world are toiling away behind the scenes, whether they’re assembling venerated film festival lineups or acquiring and distributing some of the most revered films of the year.

Each year, IndieWire reaches out to a range of figures from the independent film community to give them the opportunity to single out some of their favorite movies from the past 12 months. This year’s respondents include programmers, publicists, and distribution executives. Provided with a flexible criteria for their lists, participants singled out a range of media — from television to theater and beyond — providing a unique window into the way many of the movers and shakers in film culture experienced the year as a whole.

Oscar-nominated “Call Me By Your Name” and “Suspiria” director Luca Guadagnino is in negotiations to direct a new adaptation of William Golding’s classic coming-of-age novel for Warner Bros. According to Variety, Warners has been trying to mount the project since reacquiring the rights in 2017.

There have previously been talks of a gender-bent production, swapping in a group of school girls for the boys in the novel who, marooned on a desert island, unravel into savagery and madness. According to other sources, the screenplay will come from Nicole Perlman and Geneva Robertson-Dworet — scribes behind such recent action tentpoles including “Captain Marvel,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and “Tomb Raider.”

“Lord of the Flies” would mark the biggest scope, and presumably budget, yet for the Italian auteur who currently already has a busy slate on his hands. He’s in pre-production on the HBO miniseries “We Are What We Are,” which centers...

Suspiria and Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino is reportedly in talks to direct Warner Bros’ latest take on William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, a project the studio has been trying to mount for the past two years.

There have been a couple of versions of Lord of the Flies prior: Peter Brook’s 1963 movie and Harry Hook’s 1990 film, the latter of which was rated R and grossed just under $14 million at the domestic box office.

The book follows a group of schoolboys stranded on an island. They divide into two groups and square off against each other, giving way to savagery despite their best attempts for cooler, more rational heads to prevail. Guadagnino’s version will reportedly stick to that take with a contemporary spin; no writers are attached to the project.

Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name was nominated for four Oscars,...

Freddie Jones, the veteran English stage and screen character actor known for his long stint on the ITV soap Emmerdale, died Tuesday in the UK after a brief illness, according to his agent Lesley Duff. He was 91.

“Freddie was a much loved and admired actor, known for his triumphs in classical theatre, film and television,” Duff said in a statement. “He will be greatly missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing him and most especially his family.”

The father of actors Toby and Casper Jones and writer-director Rupert Jones, he left Emmerdale last year after playing Sandy Thomas since 2005 — with a nearly yearlong hiatus in 2008-09. The popular soap has aired in the UK since 1972.

Born on September 12, 1927, in Staffordshire, Jones got a late start in acting — landing his first screen roles while in in the early 1960s. But he would have a prolific career, racking up more...

Peele’s follow-up to Get Out is a superb doppelganger satire of the American dream, with Lupita Nyong’o delivering a magnificent performance

An almost erotic surge of dread powers this brash and spectacular new horror-comedy from Jordan Peele, right from its ineffably creepy opening. It’s a satirical doppelganger nightmare of the American way, a horrified double-take in the mirror of certainty, a realisation that the corroborative image of happiness and prosperity you hoped to see has turned its back, like something by Magritte. And though this doesn’t quite have the same lethal narrative discipline of Peele’s debut masterpiece Get Out, with its drum-tight clarity and control, what it certainly does have is a magnificent lead performance from Lupita Nyong’o, who brings to it a basilisk stare of horror. The musical score by Michael Abels has the same disturbing “Satan spiritual” feel of his compositions for Get Out.

“Angels in America” has cast a long shadow: Tony Kushner’s fantastical dramatization of the AIDS crisis has long seemed near definitive. But over six acts and seven hours at London’s Young Vic, Matthew Lopez’s sweeping two-parter “The Inheritance” not only picks up its mantle, it might just measure up. Like “Angels in America,” “The Inheritance,” directed by Stephen Daldry, is a vast, imperfect and unwieldy masterpiece that unpicks queer politics and neoliberal economics anew. In addressing the debt gay men owe to their forebears, it dares to ask whether the past hasn’t also sold the present up short.

If Lopez steps out of Kushner’s shadow, he does so by constantly acknowledging his lineage — one character crashes a party in white wings — but his play owes more to another gay writer: E. M. Forster. A very loose retelling of his novel “Howard’s End,” “The Inheritance...

Directed by Andrew Wiest, The Forlorned, based on the novel by Angela Townsend, will be released on October 3rd courtesy of Midnight Releasing. Continue reading for more details in today's Horror Highlights. We also have a trailer extravaganza with looks at Truth or Dare, Axeman 2: Overkill, and Irrational Fear, London Horror Festival performance details for The Raven, and a clip from Downrange.

Trailer and Poster Revealed for The Forlorned: Press Release: "Los Angeles, CA-- Midnight Releasing turns on the light for Andrew Wiest's The Forlorned October 3rd. Based on the book by suspense novelist Angela Townsend, The Forlorned is the story of a man lured by a job to a desolate lighthouse who quickly finds himself in over his head and at the mercy of malevolent forces. The Forlorned will be available October 3rd on Amazon Instant, iTunes, Xbox, Vimeo, Steam, Vudu, Google Play and more.

Andrew Wiest...

So you’ve schlepped round audition after audition, you’ve repeatedly channelled your inner child at that oh-so-painful actor’s workshop...isn’t it time for some fun? The answer is big, adult yes and we’re here to help with our weekly roundup of all that London has to offer. Listen to one of the theatre’s great directors.Peter Brook is one of British theatre’s biggest names, often touted as the most influential director of the twentieth century. Now in his nineties, Brook is still going strong and on Sept. 14 September, he’ll be at the National Theatre talking about his new book and reflecting on his long, illustrious career. Not to be missed. (Tickets: £7) Sing it loud, sing it proud! Bearpit Karaoke, the phenomenon that has taken Berlin by storm, finally arrives in London this week. The idea is simple: sing karaoke in front of an encouraging open air crowd.

Late last week, Deadline broke the news that Warner Bros. has partnered with Scott McGehee and David Siegel (“Uncertainty,” “What Maisie Knew”) to create an all-female “Lord of the Flies” movie. The proposed drama marks a third adaptation of William Golding’s classic 1953 novel. The first two adaptations premiered in 1963 (dir. Peter Brook) and 1990 (dir.

Continue reading All-Female ‘Lord of the Flies’ Vies for Coveted Title Of Least Desirable Hollywood Project at The Playlist.

According to reports, author William Golding's classic novel "Lord of the Flies", will be adapted to the big screen for the third time, with the main characters, previously played by young boys, now to be played by young girls:

"Lord of the Flies", published in 1954, was adapted into a 1963 feature, directed by Peter Brook, followed by "Lord of the Flies" (1990).

"It is a timeless story that is especially relevant today," said co-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel about their upcoming take on "Lord of the Flies", "with the interpersonal conflicts and bullying and the idea of children forming a society and replicating the behavior they saw in grownups before they were marooned...

"Taking the opportunity to tell it in a way it hasn't been told before, with girls rather than boys, is that it shifts things in a way that might help people see the story anew. It breaks...