annabel jankel Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Good lord, Tim Roth is doing a lot of morphing lately. He de-aged himself in Youth Without Youth, became a weird ol' monster in The Incredible Hulk, and now he's getting his wings.

Variety reports that Roth is taking the title role in Skellig -- a UK production that will hit television screens next spring before getting a theatrical release. Based on the novel by David Almond, Skellig focuses on a boy in northern England who makes a surprising discovery. His parents have just bought a rundown house, and while investigating the shed out back, he finds a man/creature lying in the darkness who he decides to help. "Feeding him Chinese food and beer, the boy nurses the creature, who possesses magical powers, back to health."

It definitely sounds like an interesting story (read more about it here), and it's hard not to get intrigued at the thought of Roth as an angel, alongside the likes of Kelly MacDonald, Bill Milner (the cutie from Son of Rambow), and John Simm. The film has just started shooting in Cardiff.

I watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit again the other night (loved every minute of it for the hundredth time), and now that I'm older I'm able to appreciate the greatness of Bob Hoskins as Eddie Valiant. Essentially playing with himself in every scene, he completely commits, never winks at the audience, and totally convinces the viewer that man and cartoon walk side by side. In a sense, he's the movie's finest special effect. In addition to being a terrific actor, a new piece on Hoskins over at The Guardian reveals him to be a humble, hilarious and brutally honest interview. He talks about growing up in north London ("You don't end up with a face like this if you're hard, do ya? This comes from having too much mouth and nothing to back it up with. The nose has been broken so many times."), about getting his start in the business ("When I told my relations I'm gonna be an actor, they said: 'Don't be f**king daft. Forget it! You've got to be kidding, aintcha?') and scoffs at "Method Acting" ("Nah! Nah, that's Lee Strasberg, that's bollocks! Like how to look busy. It's just looking busy, impressing the boss. That's bollocks, going through all this cobblers. Living it out and all that. Bollocks. Total cobblers!")

It's Hoskins' frank discussion of his work that amused me the most, particularly his not-so-fond remembrance of the film that single-handedly destroyed my youthful innocence: "The worst thing I ever did? Super Mario Brothers. It was a f**kin' nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks their own agent told them to get off the set! F**kin' nightmare. F**kin' idiots." Seems like ol' Bob might be right, that married couple -- Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton -- haven't directed a feature film since. Hoskins is 64 years old, but blows off the idea of retirement. He's got loads of projects lined up, and he mentions in the interview that he is into smaller roles now. I told you he was asked to play Fezziwig in Robert Zemeckis' planned re-re-re-re-make of A Christmas Carol, and he's got a supporting role in this month's Sparkle. Says Hoskins, "You reach a point where the cameo is the governor. You go in there for a couple of weeks, you're paid a lot of money, everybody treats you like the crown jewels, you're in and out, and if the film's a load of shit, nobody blames you, y'knowwhadimean. It's wonderful." Great actor, entertaining dude, and I'm definitely going to start working "Total cobblers!" into my everyday conversation.