Naomi Watts will join Viggo Mortensen for the London-based thriller Eastern Promises. David Cronenberg will direct the script by Steven Knight, which delves into the same seedy underside of London life that Knight explored in Dirty Pretty Things. Watts will play a midwife at a London hospital who gets dragged into the criminal underworld when she tries to discover the identity of a dead patient. The movie will begin filming in November.
Category: LotR Movies
From Variety: Rachel Weisz, Ian McKellen and Susan Sarandon have joined Colin Firth in The Colossus, a colonial drama set in South Africa at the turn of the 20th century, to be directed by Sean Mathias. Based on Ann Harries’ novel “Manly Pursuits,” the $15 million film was written by Mathias and Myer Taub, and produced by Lisa Katselas. The Colossus is a fictionalized version of real events. It’s the story of ornithologist Francis Wills (Firth), who is hired to transport English songbirds to recently deposed South African prime minister Cecil Rhodes (McKellen). Wills falls in love with a firebrand political activist (Weisz) and becomes entangled in a plot to stop the imminent Boer War. Variety says the project is expected to shoot this fall. [More]
Sean Bean is to star in the big screen adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance. US stars Lindsay Lohan and Annette Bening have also been cast in the movie. Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance first appeared on stage at London’s Haymarket Theatre in 1893. Prunella Scales, Samantha Bond and Rupert Graves starred in a stage production at the same theatre in 2003. [More]
Although famed composers ranging from Sergei Prokofiev to Aaron Copland have written music for movies, the classical music world has tended to look down their noses at it. But that attitude is changing. The San Francisco Symphony and Brooklyn Philharmonic are now regularly programing such music, and, in September 2004, cellist Yo-Yo Ma released an album devoted to the film works of Ennio Morricone. Then there’s “The Lord of the Rings Symphony.” In an effort to get his music performed not only on the screen but in concert halls as well, movie composer Howard Shore fashioned his scores for the blockbuster trilogy into a popular six-movement symphony. [More]
Newswise — “Lord of the Rings” star Viggo Mortensen told the graduates of St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, that “activism is not a dirty word” and urged them to be active citizens, particularly to make changes in the country’s health-care system. Mortensen, star of “A History of Violence,” graduated from St. Lawrence in 1980 and spoke to the University’s 567 graduates at Commencement on Sunday, May 21, in Appleton Arena on campus. He also received an honorary doctor of arts degree at the ceremony, held indoors for the first time in 21 years. “Much has changed in this country and the world since 1980,” he said, “but the value of active citizenship is greater than ever. Making an earnest attempt to connect with people and issues outside of one’s own limited personal circle will always be worthwhile. My liberal arts education at St. Lawrence taught me as much, and for that I am grateful.” [More]
The folks from Billy’s Loons Charities write: Billy’s Loons Charities is excited to announce our latest auction to benefit The Scottish Youth Theatre, www.scottishyouththeatre.org, where Billy Boyd is a Patron, and Billy’s Loons Charities is a sponsor. This auction is an unique set consisting of a large Lord of the Rings poster of Pippin and Merry, signed by Billy Boyd, and an extremely hard to find package of Fangorn Forest Incense, signed by Billy Boyd and Treebeard himself, John Rhys-Davies! Note the message Billy wrote on the incense: “This smells better than Dom”. [More]
Many thanks to Billy Boyd and John Rhys-Davies for their autographs, to Alesia and Elisa for the poster and incense and to Auntie Nu for the photographs.