Emma Thompson Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Last summer, it was reported that Columbia was setting up a remake of My Fair Lady and that Keira Knightley was pursuing the iconic, Cockney role of Eliza Doolittle. While Knightley has been "attached" ever since, The Telegraph reports that Scarlett Johansson was also vying for the role. But Knightley won out, and the Telegraph not only confirms that she's got the role, but that Joe Wright will be directing. Emma Thompson is writing the script.

Knightley has been taking singing lessons ever since the possibility came up (and I actually think she proved she had a good voice in The Edge of Love), and I think she'll be absolutely charming as Doolittle. But then I'm biased towards her. Even if you aren't (and I expect many "too skinny!" comments), I think the combination of Wright and Thompson pushes this into very, very promising territory. Thompson can do no wrong by me.

What will really tip the balance is who they cast as the grumpy, misogynist Professor Henry Higgins. The Telegraph reports that Daniel Craig is being considered, and he'd certainly be ideal as the grim Higgins, probably moreso than the dapper Hugh Jackman. I wouldn't mind seeing Patrick Wilson become a contender, and I half wonder if Gerard Butler's vocal chords were trotted out on Saturday Night Live as an audition. Just you wait, and practice your R's, and we'll see whose face Knightley must become accustomed to.

UPDATE: Screenrush caught up with Joe Wright, who says he never signed on, and is uninterested. Given the shakiness of the initial report, it's unclear whether Knightley's casting is official either.

There are those moments in a darkened theater that make you feel like you can take on the world. For me, those moments are why I go to the movies, to be so wrapped up in the story that I'm not just a spectator anymore, I'm a participant; and the 1993 true life political drama, In the Name of the Father, has one of the moments.

Jim Sheridan's film about a group of young Irish that were wrongfully convicted of an IRA bombing, is a brilliant film for plenty of reasons (not the least of which are the acting talents of Daniel Day Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite, and Emma Thompson) but what amazes me is that by the time the film is nearing an end, your nerves are raw, and your sense of righteous indignation reaches a fever-pitch -- and that's when Thompson gets to shine. In one short scene, she manages to give a voice to everything that the audience is feeling, and that release is what makes this film so memorable. It isn't an easy story to tell, but Thompson brings it all home...plus I still get goose bumps when she yells to the heartless Inspector "...and by god, you got you're blood!" -- Tell it sister! See what I mean? I get all pumped up just thinking about it.



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On Christmas Day, Last Chance Harvey will go into limited release and give us a Christmas treat. The film stars Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, and it's almost like seeing what would've happened if Stranger Than Fiction's Professor Jules Hilbert met and romanced Karen Eiffel. I always wonder what sort of romance could have blossomed between Jules and Karen, and since this is the holiday season, it got me thinking about characters who should reunite and deal with the holidays on the big screen.

The first that came to mind was Jesse and Celine -- our beloved Before Sunrise and Before Sunset characters. After Richard Linklater created a billowing, world-wide sigh with the ending of the second film, audiences have been itching to find out what happens next, so why not a thoughtful piece that takes place over the course of the holidays? It wouldn't work to add a million people into the mix, but I'm sure the pair would find a lot to say about Christmas, and maybe we could finally see how the pair survive in the real (albeit Santa-laced) world.

Beyond the realm of indie romance, can you imagine a certain Miles and Jack taking a New Years Eve trip back to wine country? Pineapple Express getting hidden in a Christmas gift? The Wonder Boys going on a new snow-filled adventure?

Are there any characters you would love to see in the holiday setting? Are any just perfect for dealing with a Winter Wonderland?

Geez, poor Sybill Trelawney has the crappiest luck. First, Dolores Umbridge goes after the zany teacher and tries to get rid of her, and then we learn that she's been written out of the next installment, even though she plays an important part in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. And now, well, now we don't even get to look forward to her in the final double installment. No big-screen goodbye for us, unless Order of the Phoenix heads back to theaters. (This is assuming the Harry Powers That Be don't recast her for the final film.)

Emma Thompson has told MTV that she's given up the Harry Potter world to make another Nanny McPhee film. It makes sense -- she wrote and starred in the first, so naturally it "means much more" to her. So, while she won't be magical with Harry, Hermione, and Ron, she will delight in magic with the tentatively titled Nanny McPhee and The Big Bang. This time around, it's one hundred years after the first film, and focuses on "The big war, and a war between these two sets of extremely different children."

I can't help but wonder -- is this why she wasn't in Half-Blood Prince too?

Well my friends are gone
And my hair is gray
And I ache in the places where I used to play
And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on
I'm just paying my rent every day In the tower of song
-- Tower of Song, Leonard Cohen

Harvey Shines (Dustin Hoffman) is a New York jingle-writer who doesn't quite toil in the tower of song; maybe in a small office in a nearby strip mall. But the rest of it applies; he's older, tired, headed to London for his daughter's wedding and obsessing about getting back fast in time for a job-related meeting. Harvey's dreading the trip before he even takes it, which guarantees it will be dreadful, but then he meets Kate Walker (Emma Thompson), another single, singular person unwilling to confront the terrifying possibility of happiness. ...

Written and directed by Joel Hopkins (who previously gave us the younger-skewed Jump Tomorrow), Last Chance Harvey may be easily -- in fact, too easily -- dismissed as "Before Sunrise for the sunset years," as Harvey and Kate meet accidentally, mesh immediately, dare to hope, get brought together by chance and separated by accident. Younger audiences will ignore Last Chance Harvey like a an overdue bill notice in the post, but if you've been around the block of life a few times -- on the bus or under it -- you'll find that it wins you over, bit by bit, in no small part thanks to the mix of effortless charm and contemplated sincerity Hoffman and Thompson bring to their work; the whole film has an air of lightweight gravity to it, and Hopkins may not be swinging for the fences, but he knows just how to swing and hit for a solid double.

Cinematical has just received these exclusive images from the upcoming film Last Chance Harvey, starring Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. You can view all three images in the gallery below. Last Chance Harvey follows a down-on-his-luck jingle writer (Hoffman) who, after missing a flight, losing his job and getting dissed by his daughter at her wedding, bumps into an over-worked mama's gal (Thompson) at the airport bar and finds himself energized by her presence.

You wouldn't necessarily think Hoffman and Thompson as an on-screen pair in a light romantic comedy, but I kinda dig it. Perhaps what this genre needs is some better acting to revitalize the same old stories, so I'd give it a chance. Written and directed by Joel Hopkins, Last Chance Harvey opens in limited release (NY and LA) on December 26th, and goes wide on January 23rd. For more, check out the website here, and feel free to hop into our exclusive gallery below.

Some might question whether Brideshead Revisited, the classic novel by Evelyn Waugh, needed to be revisited in a film adaptation; the novel, after all, has been adapted once before in a lengthy and well-beloved British television serial. Fortunately for fans of Waugh's work, this film version of Brideshead, directed by Julian Jarrold (Kinky Boots, Becoming Jane) off a screenplay written by Jeremy Brock and Andrew Davies, is beautifully shot, painstakingly directed, and well worth watching. For the most part, the filmmakers avoid mutilating Waugh's work, although the end result does place a greater emphasis on certain aspects (romance) and limit or eliminate others altogether (the brilliantly written discourses on religion and love that permeate the book).

The film is shot in Castle Howard, also the setting for the miniseries version, and Brideshead itself is a majestic, imposing character that looms over all who encounter it. The screenplay is rather a masterful adaptation; the film handles the compression of years through the storyline with a bit of book-ended time-jumping to both introduce us to the lead characters and close out the story, and Brock and Davies do an able job of whittling the story down to meet the needs of a cinematic experience without losing the feel of Waugh's novel in the process.

If you caught Kim's recent post about revisiting Brideshead Revisited, you'll remember that we're about to get more Emma Thompson in theaters as Lady Marchmain. As the film's July 26 release date zooms closer, buzz for the film is increasing, but it's not all run-of-the-mill Q&A's and that typical PR chatter. Vanity Fair just threw up a great discussion with the actress, one that took an appropriate, literary angle. Instead of the usual, they had her answer the classic Proust Questionnaire.

I could do without a lead-in that lists "ponders her thighs" as the first mention of what Thompson discussed, but the actual answers are a fun read. Thompson covers a number of areas, from her loving women with the "ability to laugh in the face of disaster," to discussions of those she admires, and her love of wine. It's amazing how much information can be jam-packed into one word answers that provide a quick and fun interview. I'm surprised that in this modern day, where brevity is adored, more people aren't getting Proustian.

*They've also put one up for the late and great George Carlin, from 2001.

[via Anne Thompson]

One of my favorite classic novels, Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, is coming your way in a new adaptation starring what looks to be a perfectly suited cast. Matthew Goode, (Match Point, The Lookout) stars as Charles Ryder, the tale's protagonist and narrator, who befriends the wealthy Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw). When Sebastian brings Charles for a visit to his family's estate, Brideshead Castle, Charles meets Sebastian's sister, Lady Julia Flyte (Hayley Atwell, Cassandra's Dream).

Emma Thompson plays Lady Marchmain, Sebastian and Julia's aristocratic mother, a Roman Catholic for whom her husband, Lord Marchmain, converted his faith from Anglican; in the book, at least, Catholicism is an influence on both the lives and conversations of the characters, especially Lady Marchmain, who uses the duel thumbscrews of guilt and manipulation to control others ... this is a character Thompson can really sink her teeth into, and I look forward to seeing her take on the role.

Poor Sybill Trelawney.* First Umbridge has at her in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in front of all the students, no less. Now she's really been sacked! At least, she has been from the next movie. After hearing that Moaning Myrtle was left out of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Snitch Seeker reports that so is Emma Thompson's Trelawney. A Hamilton Hodell rep said: "She is not in the Half-Blood Prince."

As the site points out, this means that she won't be able to play helpful informant to Harry. (What she tells him, I'll leave out to save the eyes of those who haven't read the books yet.) With two important players out of the film, it begs the question of how the story will come together. I imagine their important roles in this part of the story will be given to another character, but who? We'll have to wait until November 21 to find out.

*The UK/Canada spelling is being used. I've no idea why it's spelled "Sibyll" for the US.