JulianFellowes Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Last October, Warner Brothers picked up the rights to a book in the works by Olen Steinhauer called The Tourist, a story focusing on a spy who is falsely accused of murder and has to clear his name. And now we're getting another movie called The Tourist. However, this one is based on the French thriller, Anthony Zimmer, and Variety reports that Bharat Nalluri -- the man who helmed Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day -- will direct it. Talk about confusion -- a movie based on another movie, but shares the same name as yet another movie.

Casanova director Lasse Hallstrom was originally set to direct the film, but left the project a while ago. Now Nalluri will take on Julian Fellowes' (Gosford Park) script, which focuses on "an American tourist who finds his life in danger when a female Interpol agent uses him as a dupe to flush out an elusive criminal with whom she once had an affair." It's sort of like a Dave / Moon Over Parador film -- Zimmer is this money launderer who changes his face and voice, and a common man who looks like Zimmer is pulled into the mess as bait.

Production on the film is set to begin late this summer, or early fall.

Is The Guardian upset that a Canadian is directing a film about Queen Victoria? I don't know, but I find it strange that Jean-Marc Vallée is not mentioned anywhere in Guardian Unlimited's new piece on The Young Victoria, the biopic of the 19th century Monarch being co-produced by Martin Scorsese (he's not British either, but he is named in the article). Anyway, I'm sure he was simply forgotten by accident, but it is important to realize how significant Victoria is to the Canadians (ever hear of Victoria Day?). The piece mostly spotlights screenwriter Julian Fellowes and titular star Emily Blunt. It also lists a cast member we haven't yet heard about: Miranda Richardson, who joins Blunt, Mark Strong and Rupert Friend, who we just recently learned is playing Prince Albert. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Richardson will be playing Victoria's mother, Princess Victoria.

From Fellowes we learn about the focus of the film, which begins shooting next month. And from the description, I'm imagining the mostly brilliant Marie Antoinette with less hair and more tea. Actually, The Young Victoria will begin with the future Queen's repressed childhood, as she is forbidden to do anything or spend time with anyone out of her mother's fears that Victoria might die before taking the crown. Once Victoria does become Queen, though, she kind of breaks loose. Certainly not Marie Antoinette loose, but definitely more free spirited than we typically think of Victoria to have been. Taking place from 1836 to 1840, the film likely climaxes with her marriage to her first cousin, Prince Albert. The article stresses that this wedding was not simply an arranged affair -- so expect plenty of romantic scenes. Just don't get carried away too much by the romance; I wouldn't want you to think about committing incest, too.

"Do you have Prince Albert in a film can?" That's a question director Jean-Marc Vallée may be asked soon, and if he doesn't understand it's all a bad joke, he might give a literal answer like, "yes, and he's played by Rupert Friend." The casting is for Vallée's The Young Victoria, a film about the 19th century Queen and her first cousin/husband, Albert, whose name is better known these days for the awful practical joke and the awful body piercing (the former is not named for him; the latter allegedly might be). Friend, who is himself best known these days for his roles in Pride & Prejudice and The Libertine, joins Emily Blunt, who had previously been cast in the title role.

The royal biopic is not expected to hit theaters for another two years (though I think it will be pushed up), in which time you may become even more familiar with Friend, who won the 2005 British Independent Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer. According to the IMDb, the actor has no less than eight movies that could come out in the U.S. before 2009 (some have already been released elsewhere and/or have been shown at festivals). Also in the cast is Mark Strong (Syriana), who seems to be playing Sir John Conroy, a man rumored to have been Queen Victoria's real father.

The Young Victoria begins filming next month in the UK. It was scripted by Oscar winner Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) and is being produced by Martin Scorsese, Graham King (The Departed), Tim Headington and Sarah Ferguson (aka HRH The Duchess of York). So, yeah: a man named King and a real-life Duchess are producing a historical movie about a Queen and a Prince. I don't believe it possible that such a team could screw this up.

I normally have a problem with movies about infidelity (there's just too many of them), but I rather enjoyed Separate Lies, the directorial debut of Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park). Apparently enough people liked the film to allow the writer-director to be hired for yet another magical fantasy franchise. This one is based on a series of books by L. M. Boston called The Green Knowe Chronicles. The first novel, published in 1954, is titled The Children of Green Knowe, though the film has been renamed From Time to Time. The plot follows the adventures of a boy visiting with his strange grandmother during WWII. Somehow the boy ends up traveling backward in time -- but as a sort of ghost -- and visits with older generations of his family, who help him to solve an old mystery.

The film will feature another great crop of British actors, two of whom are no strangers to magical franchises (hint: they appear in the Harry Potter movies). And of those cast, I will take a wild guess and say that Maggie Smith is playing the grandmother. I would love to say that Timothy Spall plays the boy, but I'll go ahead and assume he plays some other character. Rounding out the ensemble so far is Hugh Bonneville and Annie Reid, neither of whom are likely the boy, either. It will be interesting to see how well Fellowes is able to work with children and youth-oriented material, because both Separate Lies and Gosford Park were pretty much films for grown-ups (and no, I don't mean they were "adult films").

With the mere existence of The Queen, let alone its success, it was inevitable that more of the royal family would make its way to the big screen. Luckily, it won't be a way-too-similar and way-too-soon alternative treatment, but another part of the British monarchy -- not only that, but it's getting royal, behind-the-scenes treatment. Martin Scorsese is once again teaming up with Graham King to produce The Young Victoria, a script by Gosford Park scribe, Julian Fellowes.

The film will follow Queen Victoria's rise to power when she ascended the throne at 18, the earlier years of her reign and her marriage to Prince Albert. Why only the beginning? Besides the fact that she ruled the United Kingdom for 63 years, King has said: "We all think we know Queen Victoria from the latter part of her life, but in fact she was an amazing, dynamic, romantic personality from a very early age that is largely unknown." Besides, who wants to whittle down that much drama into two hours? Not only that, but the film is coming from a royal family member - The Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson -- who brought King the project.

Scorsese will be busy directing another period piece, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, so there's a different body to sit in the directorial chair -- Canadian filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallee. His last film, C.R.A.Z.Y., won the prize for Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival. It's an interesting collection of talent, so I can only imagine the royal treatment that Victoria will receive.

America is the best! Happy birthday, America! The big 2-3-0! Woooo! Okay, enough celebrating of Independence Day. Cinema has no national allegiance, even if it seems we make the most significant movies in the world. The United States may be the most powerful nation as far as its military and economy are concerned, but should it also be the most powerful in terms of film? It isn't like we produce the most films, or the best.

I noticed two stories in the news this past weekend that show Hollywood's domination around the world isn't that welcome, not because it isn't enjoyed, but because it overshadows and overpowers some countries' own films. On Saturday, in Seoul, North South Korea**, a few thousand demonstrators protested their government's elimination of a quota that required cinemas to show a minimum number of South Korean films. Thanks to pressure from the U.S. government and Hollywood, which requested the quota cut as part of free-trade negotiations between America and South Korea, fewer of their own films are likely to get proper distribution locally. Among the protesters were actors, filmmakers and film industry workers who fear their jobs will be lost. Meanwhile, in England, Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes is making a stink about the fact British audiences prefer Hollywood movies to their own country's. Although he mostly was criticizing the British industry for producing "irritating movies," his complaint still weighs in on the matter of American influence being too great.

People tend to forget that in many countries, domestic films can out-gross Hollywood movies. Seven of South Korea's top ten all-time grossers -- six of which are the top six -- are domestic releases (the other three are American imports). Unfortunately that will probably not be the case in the future. The only domestic film in Britain's top ten is The Full Monty, and only two others in its top 50 could be considered non-U.S. productions (Bridget Jones' Diary and Four Weddings and a Funeral). Comparatively, France, Thailand, Japan, Egypt, Italy and, of course, India all do pretty well domestically with their own films (I would also like to point out that Australia's all-time #1 grosser is surprisingly still Crocodile Dundee).

**(Thanks to reader greg rivera for pointing out the editorial oversight in placing Seoul in North Korea, rather than in South Korea, where it belongs. --ed.)