DavidThewlis Tagged Articles at Cinematical

On the one side, there's Howard Marks -- international drug smuggler and U.K. spy. On the other, there's some faces that you might not expect to find in international drug and spy territory.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that Rhys Ifans, Chloe Sevigny, and David Thewlis are wrapping up negotiations to star in Mr. Nice -- Bernard Rose's adaptation of Marks' autobiography of the same name. Ifans, who long ago played Puff in Michel Gondry's Human Nature, will head the cast as Marks. Once Britain's most-wanted man, he morphed from Oxford grad and teacher into a drug smuggler -- all to impress his wife Judy (Sevigny). Thewlis comes into the picture as an Irish Republican Army boss he asks for a job, which leads Marks to his other gig -- informant for British intelligence.

But wait -- don't expect lots of violence and action -- according to Wikipedia, Marks says that he never used violence during his smuggling career. But with these actors, and the director behind Immortal Beloved, methinks the action won't matter.

We've all sat down to watch a movie that I like to call the cinematic equivalent of 'civic duty'. Sure, it's not going to be a fun night at the movies, but its all for a good cause, so you shell out your hard-earned dollars. That is exactly the kind of film that I think The Boy in the Striped Pajamas will be -- well intentioned, but depressing as hell. The trailer for the Holocaust drama appeared on the net a few days ago, and I have to send this warning before you press play: you might want to keep a tissue nearby. Pajamas was directed by Mark Herman (who also wrote the screenplay) and the film shares a producer with the Harry Potter franchise (David Heyman).

Pajamas is the story of a young boy whose father is a high ranking guard in the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp. Through the course of the story, the cost of war and inhumanity is all shown through the friendship between the young German boy, and the boy in the 'striped pajamas' on the other side of the fence. Pajamas stars David Thewlis, Rupert Friend, and Vera Farmiga. The film is based on the novel by John Boyne, who, believe it or not, intended this story to be a 'children's book'. But if I had come across this story as a child, I might have needed some long-term grief counseling.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is expected to arrive in theaters in November; which leaves you with plenty of time to practice sobbing quietly in the movie theater.