Hugh Grant really, really does not like Ben Whishaw. "I want him dead," he says, softly, as he sips on a cup of tea at the Ritz hotel in London. "He was my wife and I've clearly done terrible things to my wife. Then I put him in prison. I tried to kill him on a train. I seduced him, raped him, and tried to have him…
Hugh Grant gave a lively — and funny — discussion during the Paddington 2 presentation at The Contenders London event. He talked about acting opposite of a stick, his “weird history” with the voice of Paddington Ben Whishaw, and that big Busby Berkeley-esque musical number at the end of the film.
In the StudioCanal…
A new British Film Institute report has revealed that in 2017, British-qualifying films scored their second-best global box office performance since 2002. UK qualifying films had a total worldwide (so including UK) box office of $8.1B last year, taking 21% of the total market. Of that, 18.6% came from studio-backed UK…
In retrospect, it seems surprising, to put it mildly, that, for 25 years, the BAFTAs seemed to turn their back on the “B”—for British—that this Academy for Film and Television Arts had so keenly wanted to celebrate at its inception in 1947. Yet that's exactly what happened in 1967; after two decades, the Best British…
The UK production sector continued to go from strength to strength with overall spend on film hitting a record £1.9B ($2.7B). Of this, £1.69B came in the form of inward investment, an 23% increase on 2016. In television, high-end drama scripted production reached £938M with a record £684M coming from foreign…
Blowing the lid off the critical marmalade jar, Paddington 2 has set a new benchmark as the best-reviewed film ever on Rotten Tomatoes. The little bear from darkest Peru has now notched the most consecutive Fresh reviews without a single Rotten. Directed by Paul King, the Heyday Films/Studiocanal family sequel began…
Sunday AM update: Despite several inches of snow across Tennessee forcing a handful of AMC theaters in the Nashville area to close, it’s not enough to slow down tickets sales over this year’s MLK weekend. After a great estimated $12.2M Saturday (+100% over Friday), Sony’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungleis expected to…
When Paddington was released in 2014, it became one of the most successful children’s films ever, a hit around the world that inevitably would call for a sequel or perhaps several. Paddington 2 fills the bill and even tops the first one for sheer delight.
In this one from director Paul King, the lovable and very…
Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri scored seven nominations from the UK’s leading film critics today, nabbing mentions in the races for Best Film, Director, Screenwriter, Actress (Frances McDormand) and Supporting Actor (Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson). The movie, which was co-financed by…
UPDATE, WRITETHRU: While the world waits for Star Wars: The Last Jedi to hit global hyperdrive this week, the current international box office session was led by its Disney stablemate, Coco. Taking the overseas crown for the 2nd weekend in a row, the Pixar title crooned a $55.3M tune in 35 markets. That brings the…
"The films I like best really involve a lot of violence and death, so in my fantasy world, I'm in a Martin Scorsese film,” said Hugh Grant at a Saturday night BAFTA Life In Pictures event when asked about folks with whom he’d like to work. He mused, “I can't really imagine why I haven't been cast in one when you think…
EXCLUSIVE: Paddington 2 is going to Warner Bros., the home of the pic’s producer David Heyman. Warner Bros. made the news official in a press release this morning. Weinstein originally possessed domestic rights on the StudioCanal movie. The news today confirms what Deadline originally reported, that WB was one of the l…
