HayleyAtwell Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Cinematical has just received this exclusive clip from the period drama The Duchess (click image above or head after the jump to view), directed by Saul Dibb and based on Amanda Foreman's best-selling novel. Starring Keira Knightley as Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, the film chronicles the life of a vibrant beauty and celebrity of her time; a woman held prisoner in an unhappy marriage, but one who'd risk it all for the love of a young politician. (Been there, done that -- right ladies?) Also starring Ralph Fiennes, Charlotte Rampling, Dominic Cooper and Hayley Atwell, the following clip takes us inside a pretty intense confrontation between Georgiana and the Duke of Devonshire (Fiennes) as they battle one another for the respect each feels they deserve.

The Duchess (which is currently enjoying a limited release) expands to theaters across the country on October 10.

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.

When the lights dim and the first moments shine upon the screen, you know that you're watching a Woody Allen film. That classic font smiles, and we quickly get the cast of characters. There's no long, music-laden intro -- just a quick rundown of the top names and then into the story. That's where the similarities to classic Allen die, though, but maybe it's time to stop comparing Allen to the works of his past. Over his last few films, the filmmaker has broken out of the mold. This time around, however, the mold might have helped keep things together. Cassandra's Dream is an interesting but superficial film that isn't sure if it wants to be a light drama or a dark comedy.

Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor star as brothers Terry and Ian. Terry is a mechanic with a penchant for gambling, while Ian is a wannabe businessman who bides his time in the family restaurant while he waits for his big financial break. Terry has been having quite the winning streak -- he keeps betting himself into a corner, and then comes out with a big win every time. After betting on a race dog with 60-1 odds at the races, he comes into a bit of money, and he and his brother buy a boat that they name 'Cassandra's Dream', after the winning dog. Ian, meanwhile, runs into a beautiful actress named Angela (Hayley Atwell), who is having car troubles on the side of the road, and he falls hard.

Here's a few bites to chew on:

• Back in July, I alerted you to the news that Keira Knightley signed on to play Georgiana Cavendish, the 18th century Duchess of Devonshire in an upcoming flick called The Duchess. Now Variety is reporting that Lord Voldemort -aka- Ralph Fiennes, Dominic Cooper of The History Boys, and Cassandra's Dream co-star Hayley Atwell have also signed on to the film that starts shooting on the 23rd in the UK. Fiennes will play the Duke of Devonshire, Cooper will be Georgiana's lover, Earl Grey, and Atwell will take on the role of her best friend, Lady Bess Foster. And yes, this Earl Grey is the man linked to the tea. Georgina's life was pretty wild -- affairs, lovers, and messed-up marriages, so this could be one fun flick.
• Variety has also posted that Reese Witherspoon and Christina Ricci's Penelope is finally coming out in theaters. Summit Entertainment has picked up the North American rights, and it will be released on February 1. You might remember that IFC and the Weinsteins nabbed the rights in Toronto last year, set it up for release in April, and then stopped it all to focus on "its core business of smaller-budget indies." You'd think they could've at least put out what they'd purchased. Luckily, Summit head Rob Friedman says: "It is the kind of material that will allow our marketing group to really shine," and it looks like its time has finally come. (Crosses fingers.) While we wait, you can check out Kim's review here, and the trailer here.

Chew on this:

• I've more casting news to bring you for the remake of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, which I posted about here and here. Matthew Goode and Ben Whishaw will be joined by relatively new actress, Hayley Atwell. Her most notable role to date is in Woody Allen's upcoming film, Cassandra's Dream, which will be released in October. In Brideshead, Atwell will play Julia Flyte, the sister to Whishaw's Sebastian and the lover of Goode's Charles Ryder. Being paired with Goode should make for some steamy scenes. The film is set to shoot this May.
• If there is something better than Bill Cosby's Julia Child impression, it might be the news coming out of ShoWest today. It seems that Ratatouille director Brad Bird has divulged that Peter O'Toole will be one of the voices in the upcoming ratty film, that opens June 29. The epic actor's voice is bringing life to a food critic character named Anton Ego. That's enough to make me curious about the film. Basically, the movie is about a rat who wants to become a French chef, but obviously, rats aren't desirable in a kitchen, so craziness ensues.
• The director of Assault on Precinct 13, Jean-François Richet, is setting up a double-feature project based on an infamous gangster named Jacques Mesrine, who is known in France as "the man with 1,000 faces." The first, Death Instinct, has added Gérard Depardieu to the cast as Mesrine's mentor and fellow gangster. Vincent Cassel, who was François Toulour in Ocean's Twelve, has already signed on to play Mesrine. Gerard is probably not the man I'd think of first for the role, but maybe the addage should be: take as much Depardieu as you can get. No?
  

Ever since Woody Allen fled Paris for London and started shooting his still-untitled Summer Project, we've been incredibly frustrated in our search for details about the movie's plot. We know all about the cast (Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell, Hayley Atwell, Tom Wilkinson), sure, but all we knew about what the hell they were up to was basically a single line: "Two brothers with financial problems ... are persuaded by a third party to turn to a life of crime." Fantastic, right? Jeez Woody, you're days from finishing filming -- throw us a bone here, huh?

But this morning, I found this. Whether they acquired the information via legal means or through kidnapping and torture isn't clear (I think it's best we don't ask), but the folks at Cineuropa have pulled together the first detailed plot summary for the movie, and it includes some encouraging wrinkles. Yes, Farrell and McGregor are brothers (who, randomly, are restoring a boat), and yes, they're drawn into a life of crime -- but apparent it's the Atwell character who does the manipulating rather than Wilkinson, or some big, hulking brute. Here's what Cineuropa has got: "When McGregor's character falls in love with [Atwell's character], she becomes aware of her power to attract the opposite sex and uses this to the point of leading the two brothers, who are in financial difficulty, into crime, and creating a dangerous rivalry between the two men." Hmm. So could this be another dark, nasty Allen flick? We can only hope.

The film is currently scheduled for a spring 2007 release, and could possibly debut at Cannes.

In a report that surfaced first in European publication Screen Daily, it's been revealed that the female lead in Woody Allen's next film (aka I Hate Paris, Get Me Back to London) is the little-known Brit Hayley Atwell.* Atwell has done some stage work and also starred in the BBC's The Line Of Beauty; though she's currently filming a pair of new BBC projects, her only major exposure so far seems to have come from that show. That, however, didn't stop Screen International (the parent publication of Screen Daily, which explains the latter's glee at the news) from naming the girl one of their "Stars of Tomorrow" earlier this year. For his part, Allen is fully stoked to have Atwell in his film, and has told the press that he his "going to present her so [we] can see what [he is] talking about." He wants all of us, you see, to "Share [his] enjoyment of her." (Does that choice of words sound creepy to anyone else?)

The movie, which also stars Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell and Tom Wilkinson, is about "two brothers with financial problems who are persuaded by a third party to turn to a life of crime;" it will shoot in London this summer.

*Sorry about the picture. Come on, she's been in ONE TV SHOW -- what do you want from me? And yes, that's her on the left, without the massive head.