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Exclusive: Synchronicity Films is adapting Hanif Kureishi’s The Body as a series with the novelist and screenwriter on board as an exec producer and Emmy-nominated director Paul McGuigan attached. There are scripts from crime writer Robert Murphy and the producers will relocate the action from the UK to the U.S. for the series.

Scottish-based drama producer Synchronicity is working on the Kureishi project in the wake of making The Tattooist of Auschwitz, which has launched strongly in the UK, the U.S. and internationally

The book and series were inspired by the memories of Jewish Slovakian Holocaust survivor Lali Sokolov, and follow a love story between him and Gita. The couple met while they were prisoners in Auschwitz. The TV drama is based on Heather Morris’ novel, which has returned to the New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller lists since the launch of the series.

Claire Mundell...

The actor, 43, talks about irreverence, trying to look more awake, his love of music, and the pursuit of art

I have mixed feelings about being the first non-white actor to win a Bafta. I was very grateful, but it also raised questions. I remember watching The Buddha of Suburbia and Bhaji on the Beach as a kid. British-Asian culture didn’t start in 2017, when I won. It’s weird to think it wasn’t recognised until that point.

Working on Four Lions with Chris Morris was a great lesson in irreverence. Even if people insist you take things seriously, you don’t have to. Actually, it’s probably more important not to. Comedy can take the teeth out of even the most serious issues.

I only started acting because my mum wanted me to pronounce my “T”s properly. When I was seven, she took me to speech and drama lessons.

Roger Michell’s final feature film brings good-natured, Ealing-style brio to the 1961 theft of Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington

As with so many of cinema’s most successful practitioners, the South Africa-born British film-maker Roger Michell, who died last September aged 65, was not an “auteur” with a singular distinctive style. On the contrary, he was a versatile craftsman who could turn his hand to a range of genres with ease. From the classic Richard Curtis romcom Notting Hill to the American thriller Changing Lanes and the deliciously twisty Daphne du Maurier dark romance My Cousin Rachel, Michell instinctively understood the differing demands of each story he was telling. He adapted Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia for TV with great success, gave Anne Reid her finest role in the taboo-breaking, Kureishi-scripted drama The Mother, and directed a sorely underrated screen adaptation of Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love,...

British auctioneer Wessex Auction Rooms is anticipating bids as high as £12,000 for the upcoming sale of a vinyl record featuring a rare recording of David Bowie from 1965 — back when he fronted the band Davy Jones and the Lower Third — in an auction on Thursday. (per Variety)

Written by John Dee and Jack Tarr and helmed by producer Shel Talmy, a Sixties hitmaker, the 56-year-old recording “I Want You Love” is an early Bowie demo, eventually recorded and released by the Pretty Things on their 1965 sophomore album Get the Picture. Keeping with the pre-nft times,...

Ahead of the release of David Bowie’s long-shelved 2001 LP Toy, Parlophone/Iso Records have shared the album’s unreleased version of “Can’t Help Thinking About Me.”

Like many of the Toy tracks — including the earlier single “Karma Man” — Bowie initially recorded “Can’t Help Thinking About Me” during his pre-Space Oddity era, only to revisit the song in the late-Nineties. The song was originally released as a single in 1966 and all but forgotten by the singer until he surprisingly revived it for his VH1 Storytellers special in August...

”His body of work represents exactly what many British filmmakers aspire to.”

Friends and collaborators in the international film industry reacted with shock and sadness to the sudden death of UK director Roger Michell, who died on Wednesday at the age of 65.

“It is a shock. He was my oldest professional friend,” said UK producer Kevin Loader, who produced six of Michell’s feature films including 2004’s Enduring Love, 2012’s Hyde Park on Hudson and 2013’s Le Week-end, through the duo’s London-based Free Range Films, founded in 1996. “I’d known him for over 30 years. We spoke several times a...

Laconic and moody, a Metallica t-shirt worn like a second skin, fifteen-year-old Daniel hobbles through his pastel-colored, chintzy home in a stretch of British suburbia like a black sheep in a Wes Anderson hallucination. He’s a few days away before his first-ever trip to the States, where his father moved with a new woman, with whom he expects his second child. A summer spent basking in the Florida sun is a far more alluring prospect than frittering it away with his best friend Ky and awkward, lonely mother Sue, but an intercontinental phone call is all it takes to make dreams crumble. As Daniel’s father tells his son that, regretfully, the trip is canceled, Sue is left to take up the pieces. Days of the Bagnold Summer, Simon Bird’s feature debut, is a chronicle of a failed journey, and of the far more intricate, tortuous one mother...

Exclusive: Relationship dramedy produced by See-Saw Films will be directed by Notting Hill’s Roger Michell.

See-Saw Films and writer Nick Hornby are teaming up on a TV series about marriage counselling.

State Of The Union will be directed by Roger Michell (Notting Hill) and is made up of ten ten-minute episodes.

The series follows a middle-aged couple who meet in the pub before going into marriage counselling each week. Each episode shows the ten minutes before they face the counsellor.

State Of The Union will shoot in London this autumn with the cast and broadcast partner set to be announced soon.

See-Saw told Screen that they expect the show to be aired both online and by a TV broadcaster.

Hakan Kousetta, COO of television at See-Saw, said: “Because it’s a completely different format, it lends itself to something a broadcaster can play with. It’s not just a piece of digital television, it’s a proper...

Exclusive: Relationship dramedy will be directed by Notting Hill’s Roger Michell.

See-Saw Films and writer Nick Hornby are teamig up on a TV series about marriage counselling.

State Of The Union will be directed by Roger Michell (Notting Hill) and is made up of ten ten-minute episodes.

The series follows a middle-aged couple who meet in the pub before going into marriage counselling each week. Each episode shows the ten minutes before they face the counsellor.

State Of The Union will shoot in London this autumn with the cast and broadcast partner set to be announced soon.

See-Saw told Screen that they expect the show to be aired both online and by a TV broadcaster.

Hakan Kousetta, COO of television at See-Saw, said: “Because it’s a completely different format, it lends itself to something a broadcaster can play with. It’s not just a piece of digital television, it’s a proper...

Author: Jon Lyus

Director Roger Michell’s previous films include Notting Hill, Morning Glory and Hyde Park on Hudson. His second directing job was ushering Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia onto an unexpecting TV audience, setting the tone for eliciting stirring performances from his actors.

His latest film, his own adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1951 novel My Cousin Rachel, is a dark tale of romance and revenge, with fine leading turns by Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin. The film also stars Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) and Holliday Grainger (Their Finest Hours), and you can see all of our interviews with the cast here.

Related: See our red carpet interviews from the World Premiere of My Cousin Rachel

Scott Davis sat down with the director to talk about how the project came to be, and working with the cast on this film.

This contains Mild Spoilers.

Here...

Wearing produced Boys from the Blackstuff, Pride and Prejudice, Edge of Darkness and many more.

Michael Wearing, producer of iconic television dramas including Boys from the Blackstuff and Edge of Darkness, has died aged 78 (reports Broadcast).

Wearing (right), who held a number of senior positions across drama at the BBC, died on Friday 5 May following a stroke. Wearing is survived by his three children, Sadie, Ella and Ben.

After studying anthropology at Newcastle University and a short career in the theatre, Wearing joined the BBC’s English regions drama department as a script editor in 1976.

Reporting to David Rose, who went on to become founder of Film 4, at the BBC’s Pebble Mill base in Birmingham, Wearing worked with writers including Alan Bleasdale and Ron Hutchinson on a number of Play for Today scripts.

He also worked on series including Stephen Davis’ Trouble With Gregory, which aired as part of BBC2’s Playhouse strand, Hutchinson’s six-part...

We pay tribute to the film stars and directors from around the world who sadly passed away in 2016.Hector BabencoArgentine-born Brazilian director Hector Babenco died on July 13 at 70-years-old.He found international success with Brazilian slum drama Pixote (1981), going on to make Kiss Of

We pay tribute to the film stars and directors from around the world who sadly passed away in 2016.

Hector Babenco

Argentine-born Brazilian director Hector Babenco died on July 13 at 70-years-old.

He found international success with Brazilian slum drama Pixote (1981), going on to make Kiss Of The Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned a best director Oscar nominee and William Hurt earned an Oscar win for best actor.

Babenco went on to direct Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson in Ironweed (1987) and Tom Berenger and John Lithgow in At Play In The Fields Of The Lord (1991).

After undergoing cancer treatment in the 1990s, he returned to the director’s chair for films including Brazilian prison...

Death of the music, film and fashion icon confirmed by his son.

Musician, style icon and actor David Bowie has died aged 69, his son has confirmed.

The artist’s official Facebook account said: “January 10 2016 - David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief.”

The announcement was immediately followed by a wave of claims that it was a hoax, with fans unable to believe it was true.

But his son, the film director Duncan Jones (who took his father’s original surname), tweeted: “Very sorry and sad to say it’s true. I’ll be offline for a while. Love to all.”

Very sorry and sad to say it s true. I ll be offline for a while. Love to all. pic.twitter...

David Bowie's first TV theme in over 20 years has landed and it hears the pop icon sounding as mysterious as ever.

The 68-year-old singer has recorded 'Blackstar' as the official theme for upcoming Sky Atlantic drama The Last Panthers.

The opening credits - which hear less than a minute of the track played over visuals - give fans a taster of the eerie, atmospheric song.

"On the day of execution / Only women kneel and smile," Bowie's distorted vocals chant over strings and a pulsing bass line.

"I was looking for one of the icons of my youth to write the music for the title sequence, but was presented with a god," said the show's director Johan Renck.

"His first response was precise, engaged and curious. The piece of music he laid before us embodied every aspect of our characters and the series itself - dark, brooding, beautiful and sentimental...

Simply Media

To celebrate the release of The Englishman’s Castle, Chandler and Co., A Picture of Katherine Mansfield, The Locksmith and Lazarus & Dingwall on DVD, we are giving 1 lucky WhatCulture reader the chance to win a bundle containing all five!

Simply Media

An Englishman’s Castle (1978) starring Kenneth More (Father Brown), Isla Blair (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) and Anthony Bate (Tinker, Tailor, Solider Spy), is set in an alternate 1970s on an Earth where Germany won the Second World War and is now occupying England. Peter Ingram (More) is the lead writer of a popular soap opera set in Blitz-era London, and knowingly turns a blind eye to the local Nazi rule, opting for the easy life. But when faced with the stark reality of the situation Peter has a difficult decision to make.

Available to own on DVD from 5th October 2015.

Simply Media

Chandler and Co.

Ahead of the show's season two premiere on Tuesday, August 25th, from director Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror), comes another From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series behind-the-scenes video. Also: Voices of the Damned and Children of the Night release details.

From Dusk Till Dawn Season 2: In this second behind-the-scenes video, the crew takes you through what the costume and makeup process is like for the series:

Press Release: "El Rey Network and Miramax® released a behind-the-scenes featurette from the El Rey Network original "From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series".

Returning cast members are D.J. Cotrona (Dear John, G.I. Joe: Retaliation); Zane Holtz (Wind Walkers, Holes, The Perks of Being a Wallflower); Jesse Garcia (Quinceañera, "Sons of Anarchy"); Eiza González ("Amores Verdaderos" ("True Love")); Wilmer Valderrama ("That '70s Show," To Whom It May Concern); Madison Davenport ("Noah," "Shameless"); Brandon Soo Hoo (Tropic Thunder, Ender's Game, Incredible Crew) and guest star Jake Busey ("Motorcycle Gang,...

After a brief but memorable chat with James McAvoy to promote the cinematic release of Filth, which brought the term "cryw***ing" into the mainstream, Digital Spy was delighted to spend more time chatting to the amiable actor as his magnificent movie hits the home entertainment market. Expect fascinating comparisons between his twisted character Bruce and X-Men's Professor X, the latest on his collaboration with Daniel Radcliffe on Frankenstein, the truth about the Wanted sequel, and... a trip to Belgium to be humped by a dog...

Are you happy with how Filth was received? I remember seeing it, loving it and then trying to figure out what the outraged Daily Mail headline would be.

"I'm pretty sure the Daily Mail gave us a good review, as did other more righty-wingy papers which was surprising. I always thought it was really good but I didn't know what the reaction would be.

Hanif Kureishi's muse has long been transgression: dazzling early success was followed by a sex-and-drugs phase, family falling-out and a lacerating novel about marital breakdown. Now, with The Last Word, has he finally pinned down who he really is?

The first time I met Hanif Kureishi it was the mid-80s, and we talked about writing fiction for Faber and Faber whose list I was directing. Kureishi came into my office like a rock star and I remember thinking that he did not seem in need of a career move. He was already riding high on the international success of his screenplay, My Beautiful Laundrette.

In fact, Kureishi was cannily pondering his next step. He was on the lookout for a means of self-expression that might sustain a way of life and over which he could have some control. Movies, he said, were chancy, a gold-rush business. There was...

Nick and Meg go to Paris for their 30th anniversary and confront some tricky questions. In his new film, Le Week-End, Hanif Kureishi meditates on the old problem of marriage and desire

Marriage as a problem, and as a solution, has always been the central subject for drama, the novel and the cinema, just as it has been at the centre of our lives. Most of us have come from a marriage, and, probably, a divorce, of some sort. And the kind of questions that surround lengthy relationships – what is it to live with another person for a long time? What do we expect? What do we need? What do we want? What is the relation between safety and excitement, for each of us? – are the most important of our lives. Marriage brings together the most serious things: sex, love, children, betrayal, boredom, frustration, and property.

Le Week-End is a...

Hanif Kureishi and Roger Michell have combined to create a tender, insightful portrait of a stagnant marriage, and a film of considerable substance

• Read our review of The Fifth Estate

• Read our review of The Invisible Woman

Roger Michell's new film - in which Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan try to jumpstart their ailing marriage with a Paris mini-break - plays out like a British, middle-aged Before Midnight. It is brittle and bitter, petty and parochial – where Linklater's, which revisited lovers Jesse and Celine, on hols seven years having finally got together, was good-looking even when things got ugly. For much of its running time, Michell's is plain old cross.

And while Linklater's script was written with his returning stars, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, Le Week-End is Michell's latest collaboration with writer Hanif Kureishi, following The Buddha of Suburbia on TV, then The Mother (2006) and Venus (2008). This feels by far their most personal.

Twelve years on from the hugely acclaimed East Is East comes its sequel, West Is West. Sarfraz Manzoor examines the new directions British-Asian film-makers are taking

Ayub Khan-Din was in his first year at drama school in Salford when his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Khan-Din, the mixed-race son of a Pakistani Muslim father and a white Catholic mother, found that each time he came home, another slab of his mother's memory had disappeared. The past, with all its stories, was slipping into the void, and Khan-Din became determined to try to preserve his parents' history and his own experience of growing up.

Although he was studying to be an actor, Khan-Din started writing. At the time, Asians were rarely glimpsed on screen in the UK unless they were being beaten up by racist skinheads, running corner shops or fleeing arranged marriages. Khan-Din wanted to tell a different story...

(Roger Michell, above.)

(I interviewed director Roger Michell in 2004, for the release of his film The Mother. This past month, he released his newest, Morning Glory. This article originally appeared in Venice Magazine.)

A Return to Notting Hill with Roger Michell

By Terry Keefe

To see just how diverse a director Roger Michell is, all you need to do is compare the two very different versions of London's Notting Hill district that he has shown us on film. The first was the sizable studio picture, Notting Hill, which starred Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant and which was one of the biggest hits of 1999. A romantic comedy about an ordinary bookstore owner who finds himself in a relationship with a huge movie star, Notting Hill managed to be breezy on its surface level but also deceptively deep in its characterizations. And it also made you want to visit the charming and...

LONDON -- A bevy of veteran British thespians including Peter O'Toole, Leslie Phillips and Richard Griffiths have joined the cast of Roger Michell's Venus, producers said Monday. The Michell-directed movie, from an original screenplay by Hanif Kureishi, also includes a turn by Oscar-winner Vanessa Redgrave and introduces newcomer Jodie Whittaker. Billed as a wry, affectionate coming of very-old-age story, Venus reunites the director and writer with producer Kevin Loader, the trio behind The Mother and award-winning television series The Buddha of Suburbia. Backed by the U.K. Film Council's Premiere Fund, Venus is being produced by Free Range Films for FilmFour and Miramax Films. New York-based Daniel Battsek will shepherd the project for Miramax and Buena Vista will distribute in the U.K. The movie is scheduled to shoot for eight weeks in and around London and at the capital's Ealing Studios. No budget details were available. Venus details the story of two veteran actors whose dotage is interrupted by the arrival of a brash grandniece who shakes up their views and outlook on life.