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Kate Winslet Reveals It Was James Cameron, Not Leonardo DiCaprio, Who Drew the Iconic Rose Sketch in Titanic! ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

As we sail into 2024, we’re celebrating the 25th anniversary of Titanic, that legendary film that made hearts flutter and created cinematic icons out of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. And when you thought you knew everything about this maritime epic, here comes a jaw-dropper: it wasn’t DiCaprio who sketched Rose. Nope, it was none other than director James Cameron himself!

Winslet casually dropped the bombshell in a 2017 chat with Stephen Colbert, with fans gasping in nostalgia. “No, Jim Cameron drew that. Maybe no one even knows that until now,” she said, reminding us that the iconic “draw me like one of your French girls” moment has a creative mastermind behind it. Winslet also set the record straight about her attire during the scene, revealing she was in a bathing suit,...

Sim is superbly insinuating as the detective arriving with a few questions for the complacent residents of a grand Edwardian home

Jb Priestley’s drawing-room melodrama of Edwardian guilt and fear is rereleased for its 70th anniversary; it is an intricate clockwork mechanism ticking inexorably to the final reveal, with beautiful monochrome cinematography and thoroughbred character-actor faces looming out of the screen like a bad dream. It was adapted by Desmond Davis from Priestley’s stage play, directed by Guy Hamilton and unforgettably stars Alastair Sim as the implacable Inspector Poole, with his cool professional insolence, a needling, insinuating manner and sonorously droll voice; it is a performance to put alongside Sim’s Scrooge and his Professor Potter in School for Scoundrels.

It is 1912, and the inspector arrives unexpectedly at the sumptuous home of well-to-do magistrate and captain of industry Arthur Birling (Arthur Young), who is hosting a dinner party...

Hallmark+ is the rebranded streaming channel that will have a whole lot of Christmas this year. Firstly, they will air three new movie sequels to Christmas On Cherry Lane. Next, they will air the network’s first mystery series, Mistletoe Murders. Lastly, they will premiere two new holiday-themed reality shows.

This is all in addition to the Hallmark Channel’s Countdown To Christmas and Hallmark Mystery’s Miracles Of Christmas.

Here are all the details on the streaming channel.

Photo: Catherine Bell, Eva Tavares, Simon Farrell, James Denton

Credit: ©2023 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Allister Foster Hallmark+ Premiering Four Unwrapping Christmas Movies

According to TV Insider, Hallmark+ is premiering four movies in the Unwrapping Christmas series four Thursdays in a row. This is on November 7, 14, 21, and 28. They are about four friends who work at the shop All Wrapped Up. This stars Natalie Hall, Alec Santos, Kathryn Davis, Nathan Witte, Ashley Newbrough, Torrance Coombs,...

The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar will star in Gurinder Chadha’s next film, Christmas Karma. It’s due out this December.

News has emerged about Gurinder Chadha’s next project, confirmed to be an adaptation of A Christmas Carol.

Titled Christmas Karma, the film will star Kunal Nayyar as Scrooge. He’ll be joined by an ensemble cast that includes Eva Longoria, Boy George, Billy Porter, Hugh Bonneville, Leo Suter, Charithra Chandran, Pixie Lott, Danny Dyer, Bilal Hasna, Allan Corduner, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Rufus Jones, Eve, and Nitin Ganatra.

We can’t say we expected to see Danny Dyer, Boy George and Billy Porter in the same film, but there we are. We also reported earlier this year that the film’s Scrooge would be an “Indian Tory who hates refugees”.

Christmas Karma will also be a Bollywood-style musical; Gary Barlow is in charge of music alongside Shaznay Lewis and Nitin Sawhney.

Chicago – Monday, April 15th is the annual fundraising concert for Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theatre. As part of “Chicago Sings Broadway Pop II,” the company will confer its “Guy Adkins Award” to the award winning actor and musical director, Roberta Duchak. For more information and tickets, click Porchlight.

For more than ten years, Porchlight Music Theatre celebrates an individual who has made an exceptional and lasting contribution to the Chicago music theatre, with the prestigious Guy Adkins Award. Guy Adkins was an award-winning Chicago actor who passed away in 2010, with a number of roles at Chicago Shakespeare, The Goodman, Steppenwolf and more. The Award commemorates Adkin’s spirit and life, in addition to celebrating the many gifts he gave Chicago’s theater community and the world.

Chicago Sings Broadway Pop II

Photo credit: PorchlightMusicTheatre.org/Brett Beiner for Roberta Duchak

The Guy Adkins Awardee Roberta Duchak is an industry-recognized music director,...

There is a common saying about people living in their dreams and having lost touch with reality. With their “head in the clouds”, it is often difficult to communicate with friends and colleagues who do not seem to look beyond their dreams, how it is affecting others and what purpose it has in the long run. This phrase and many other seem to be at the core of director Wylie Chan's 2023 short feature “Life of Cloud”, his overall third directorial effort, which may also serve to highlight his skills as a visual storyteller since it includes various CGI elements to enhance the tale of a person facing the truth about his life.

Life of Cloud is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival

Ever since his childhood, inventor Cheung Tak-hung (Chu Pak-Hong) has been obsessed with the creation of clouds. He has forgotten everything around him, including his friends and family,...

Actor, writer and director Aml Ameen is plotting a sequel to festive film Boxing Day, as well as thriller project Night And Day, here are the details.

While Britain has produced a number of films that grew into festive favourites like Scrooge, Love, Actually and Arthur Christmas, there are a number of festive films that flew under the radar, like Eddie Izzard’s Lost Christmas.

One such film is Boxing Day, which was released in 2019. Notable as being the first British Christmas film with an almost entirely black cast. It came from actor and writer Aml Ameen, who directed the film and co-wrote the script with Bruce Purnell.

He also starred as Melvin Mackenzie, a successful author who returns home to confront his chaotic family and his past. Aja Naomi King played Lisa, a Hollywood casting director who accompanies Ameen’s Melvin home to face Georgia, his chart-topping pop-star ex,...

In 1843, London publishers Chapman & Hall released A Christmas Carol. Written by Charles Dickens and illustrated by John Leech, it was inspired in part by Dickens’s anger at inequality in his country, especially as it affected children. Despite its aversion to the upper classes, A Christmas Carol was an immediate hit among readers and critics. Given the book’s popularity, it’s no surprise that movie makers have picked up on the story many times. Between its clear redemption arc and ghostly premise, the story has everything that a good movie needs.

Still, not every adaptation of A Christmas Carol is created equal. So if you’re looking for the best of the worst man in film and literature, check out these ten great movies. And if you don’t like my picks, well, bah humbug I say.

10. Scrooged (1988)

On paper, Scrooged sounds like a home run. Bill Murray, in his ’80s glory,...

Every fan of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (1971) loves the scene where Gene Wilder, as the mystical candy maker, takes his guests on a psychedelic tunnel ride, zooming through the bowels of the Chocolate Factory as he chants a little verse, getting angrier and more hysterical by the second. Wilder’s Wonka was a sweetheart, but he had a hidden maniacal side. And in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Tim Burton’s majestically wacked 2005 remake, Johnny Depp, then at the apex of his movie stardom, went full Depp, playing Wonka like some louche vampiristic cross between Anna Wintour and Michael Jackson.

But in “Wonka,” the fun, rousing, impeccably staged, jaw-droppingly old-fashioned musical prequel to the legendary Roald Dahl tale, Timothée Chalamet plays the title character as the beaming soul of effervescent goodness. His chocolate passion is there (he’s all but defined by it), but the kinks are gone...

You might not be able to tell it from the trailers but Wonka, the latest movie inspired by Roald Dahl’s classic 1964 children’s story “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is, make no mistake about it, a full-on movie musical that I found to be more in the tradition of ’60s-era films like Oliver, Dr. Dolittle, Albert Finney’s Scrooge — basically a throwback to that kind of feel-good musical confection designed to be released during the year’s end.

Unlike 1971’s beloved (but not a hit initially) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder, or Tim Burton’s darker 2005 take Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp, this version directed Paul King and co-written by King and Simon Farnaby is an origin story of how Willy Wonka came to be Wonka, the magician, inventor and chocolate maker extraordinaire. Both previous films certainly have their legions of fans,...

This piece originally ran on November 26, 2019. It's been updated for this year's holiday.

When it comes to Christmas, TV has no shortage of episode themes to fall back on. Or, okay, they mostly have two: the Scrooge tale and the It's a Wonderful Life tale, and they just get used over and over again. Thanksgiving doesn't really have that. For one thing, nobody wants to do an episode about the actual Thanksgiving story, with all its colonial overtones. And there aren't any real classic Thanksgiving movies to do homages to, certainly not compared to Christmas. So pretty much every Thanksgiving episode on TV involves the characters making dinner, and then something goes wrong, and then everybody enjoys the disrupted meal, because the moral of the story is being with loved ones and gratitude and whatnot.

Kicking October to the curb and bringing in some November goodness is a fresh slate of new content headed to Paramount Global’s streamer Paramount+, including the sequel to the hit 1997 film “Good Burger.”

Paramount+ started off November by adding more than 30 titles to its library, some of which include “Above the Rim,” Season 15 of “Ink Master,” “Gladiator” and “The Color Purple.”

And if you’re looking for some holiday movies to watch with the family, you can deck the halls with “Happy Christmas,” “Mistletoe Ranch” or “Christmas Eve.” When the kids go to sleep, adult-friendly treats like “Bad Santa” and “Bad Santa 2” are also available.

The highly-anticipated “Good Burger 2,” which stars Kel Mitchell, Keenan Thompson, Shar Jackson, Carmen Electra, Josh Server, Alex R. Hibbert, Lori Beth Denberg and Lil Rel Howery, hits the platform on Nov. 22

Here’s everything coming to Paramount+ this November, from “The Truman Show” to “Paw Patrol.

Broadway insiders are always quick to offer their predictions for the big races at the Tony Awards, but if you’re aiming for a top score in our Tony Awards prediction contest you’ll need to make informed decisions in the below-the-line races. It’s time to look past the acting races and figure out who is ahead in the four design categories which could make or break your score.

This season’s crop of plays serve up some sensational stagecraft. There are life-like animal puppets, ghostly apparitions, elegant period gowns, amorphous dreamscapes, and more. The level of artistry on display with this set of nominees makes for challenging categories to predict. So let’s wade into these turbulent waters and attempt to make sense of each race.

Scenic Design

This should be an epic battle between “Life of Pi” and “A Christmas Carol.” The stagecraft on display in both plays is so impressive,...

“Happiness is a Warm Gun” isn’t the only connection between The Beatles and Peanuts. Both groups exemplified the optimism of the 1960s era. Charles M. Schulz’s Charlie Brown was so assured of positive outcomes he repeatedly tried to kick a field-goal-placed football held by the town’s resident five-cents-a-session psychiatrist, Lucy, in spite of the knowledge she would pull it out from under him at the last moment. He faced defeat and realized “the world didn’t come to an end.”

When Schulz’s comic strip moved into animated TV specials, much of that expectant wonder was expressed through the music. Jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi joined the Peanuts’ creative gang in 1964, when he was hired to score a TV documentary about Schulz, A Boy Named Charlie Brown. The documentary never aired, but jazz label Fantasy Records released the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack, Jazz Impressions of A Boy...

Christmas movies are numerous and greatly vary in quality and entertainment value – to put it mildly. For every great one, there are dozens, if not hundreds of disposable, Hallmark-style movies. But, there are no shortage of great holidays picks to entertain you and your family this holiday season, so here are some of our own personal Christmas classics!

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Originally not exactly beloved at the time (critics didn’t appreciate the film and audiences seemed tepid about it), it has now become a family classic that is enjoyed every year. It’s become a sort of cult film that transcended its status and circled back to being a major hit for Jim Henson Studios (and Disney who now owns it). What makes this one so great is that mix of whimsy with a classic performance from Michael Caine who played his character 100 serious and direct while surrounded by Muppets.

It’s nearly Christmas, which means it’s time to watch Christmas movies, sip hot chocolate, and cosy up in the pleasant weather. From Scrooge: A Christmas Carol to The Christmas Chronicles 2 here are a list of fun titles on Netflix that are the perfect watch for the holiday season.

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without carol singing, right? Directed by Stephen Donnelly and starring Luke Evans, Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley in lead roles. Scrooge: A Christmas Carol is a Netflix musical animated movie. An adaptation of Charles Dickens novel Holiday Chestnut, the story centres around Ebenezer Scrooge, a selfish miser who is presented with an opportunity to fix his past mistakes and improve his future by an unexpected guest.

Holiday Home Makeover with Mr. Christmas

Netflix’s Holiday Home Makeover with Mr. Christmas is a lighthearted drama about an interior designer featuring Benjamin Bradley as Mr. Christmas.

“I sincerely hope this holiday season will drain the poison that has infected our politics, and set us against one another,” an optimistic President Joe Biden said this afternoon in a Christmas address to the nation. However, if the politically nimble Democrat in the White House hoped to break through the echo chamber of our national discourse, Fox News Channel burst that wish.

While CNN, MSNBC and the rest of the usual cable suspects carried Potus’ speech live, the Rupert Murdoch-owned outlet played Scrooge and ignored the whole thing. Focusing on topics like the crisis at the southern border and the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange Ftx and running a lot of ads for security system and more, Fnc was, as the partisan trope says, in a whole other universe today with Biden’s remarks – as they have been many times in the past.

Unmentioned directly, but part of the heart of Biden’s address,...

These days it seems like Christmas and horror go together like hot cocoa and candy canes sharpened to a deadly point, but in the long history of film, this is a relatively recent development. Of course there are a few exceptions, but before 1972, it was a rarity to enjoy a vicious Christmas at the local theater. As to why horror was not set at Christmas for so long is an interesting question. Perhaps it was considered off limits to use what many consider a sacred holiday for such dark purposes. But then, holidays of any kind, including Halloween, were rarely seen in horror films before the seventies. In those days, studios would often roll out their theatrical releases over long periods of time, and limiting the reliable market fulfilled by horror films to the small window of the holiday season was likely a risk they were unwilling to take. In the golden age of Hollywood,...

Here’s when and where you can stream more than 20 new holiday movies and specials this year, including at least three new versions of “A Christmas Carol:” the Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell musical “Spirited;” Netflix’s animated “Scrooge” with the voices of Luke Evans and Olivia Colman; and “A New Diva’s Christmas Carol,” where the mean old miser is now a faded music star who’s now a mean old judge on a reality TV show.

And — “Mean Girls” alert — Lindsay Lohan, Lacey Chabert and Jonathan Bennett each have a holiday movie out this year. And don’t forget “Hannukah on Rye,” about two deli owners who get matched up for the holidays, featuring singer Lisa Loeb.

If you don’t have the Hallmark channel, which is Christmas movie central, their new movies will be available on-demand on Peacock for 72 hours after their network premiere and on subsequent re-airings.

A core musical moment in Sean Anders’ Apple TV+ “Christmas Carol” riff “Spirited” involves Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell repeatedly hurling the same insult at strangers set to song and dance in Dickensian London, and as it turns out, the whole thing was Reynolds’ idea.

“When Ryan Reynolds has an idea, you kind of just say like, ‘how do we make it happen?’ He has an okay, track record,” songwriter Justin Paul, who collaborated on the big musical number “Good Afternoon” with frequent writing partner Benj Pasek as well as Mark Sonnenblick, Sukari Jones and Khiyon Hursey, told TheWrap. “It was this sort of very straightforward concept, that was this is a vulgar, obscene insult in the world of Dickensian England that needs to become a song.”

In the words of Will Ferrell’s character ‘Present,” back in the old days “Good Afternoon” was a sick burn. In fact, Present...

Chicago – Ten years ago, an Independent film was released in Chicago, co-written and co-directed by Richard Knight Jr., an entertainment fixture in the Windy City. “Scrooge & Marley” offered a bit more than the previous versions of the familiar “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, it was the first to filter the story through same sex coupling and LGBTQ+ themes. A new staged version of the film, complete with the featured songs, will be presented at Chicago’s Center on Halsted on December 12th, 2022, at 7pm. It’s a Free event, register for tickets by clicking Scrooge & Marley.

The 10th Anniversary DVD edition of “Scrooge & Marley” has also been released by Dark Star Pictures, with special features and cast interviews, as well as a new digital download available. Click here for The Trailer.

Scrooge & Marley

Photo credit: Dark Star Pictures

Ben Scrooge (David Pevsner) – he doesn’t like his given name...

Image Source: Getty / Rich Polk/E! Entertainment/NBC

Ryan Reynolds received the people's icon award at the People's Choice Awards on Tuesday, Dec. 6, but there was something else on his mind: his pregnant wife, Blake Lively, back at home. During his speech, Reynolds noted that if Lively gave birth to their fourth child while he was away at the event, he'd be in some major hot water. Watch his full speech ahead.

Reynolds took time in his speech to shout out his family, saying, "Blake and my three daughters, it's gonna be a fourth child very soon. If it happens tonight while I'm here, I will be looking for a couch to sleep on for a while." He joked, "I'd venture a guess that Shania Twain has an amazing couch, just saying," looking at the singer, who won the music icon award earlier in the night. Reynolds and Lively already share James,...

There are Christmas movies, then there’s The Muppet Christmas Carol. In the years since its arrival in 1992, this surprisingly dedicated adaptation of Charles Dickens’ defining redemption story has emerged as a modern classic, dripping with nostalgia and indelibly linked to the childhood of a generation thanks to countless festive repeats. Full of memorable moments, beloved songs and that warm, fuzzy, festive feeling – for many, it’s just not Christmas until you’ve seen a frog in a top hat teach Michael Caine’s Scrooge the importance of empathy.

But beneath Kermit’s compassion and Ebeneezer’s humbugs lies an equally restorative tale of how Christmas saved the Muppets during their darkest hour. Reeling from the sudden death of Jim Henson, the company’s troupe of performers and its new de facto leader, Jim’s son Brian Henson, were left with a looming question: can this gang of frogs, bears,...

Festive movies have never been more popular – and there’s nothing like a classic. Here are some to enjoy now, from Scrooged to Paddington to You’ve Got Mail

The original Ebenezer is, of course, Alastair Sim. Ideally, I like to watch this on an old videotape with the early 1980s BBC logo and announcer before the film starts. Every Christmas, we would watch Mr Sim transform from a hard, cold, pastry-faced man into a very huggable uncle. Just thinking about it makes my eyes well. I sit down with my kids to watch Scrooge as often as I can get away with it, and I’m always moved by this wonderful film.

Cait Hurley, trainee Alexander technique teacher and domiciliary carer, Mitcham...

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“A Comedy Of Errors”

By Raymond Benson

Alastair Sim was a national treasure in Great Britain, a comic actor who never failed to make one smile or outright guffaw. His Scrooge proved that he could also take a serious turn as well. This reviewer likens him to an early sort of John Cleese—an irreverent player who could do irony, surrealism, farce, wicked delight, and pure outrageousness within the confines of a somewhat realistic human being of a character.

As the star of The Green Man (1956), Sim plays an assassin named Harry Hawkins. Yes, that’s right, Alastair Sim is a mad bomber who takes it upon himself to get rid of the pompous blowhards in Britain, whether they be boring politicians or unctuous professors. He even has a Peter Lorre-like assistant, McKechnie (John Chandos), who is willing to obey Harry, even...

This Ducktales review contains spoilers.

From the opening moments of DuckTales’ final episode it feels like the end. Almost everyone is here. There’s an extra care put into the scenes, a knowledge that we are in the last hour of their adventures. A last moment of uncomplicated joy before things get messy. And at the center of it all?

Webby. In the beginning she seemed to be the Pov character of DuckTales, the one everything seemed to focus around. Some of that was caused by the original air dates of the episodes accidentally putting all her focus episodes at the start but it was a feeling that never left me. The show was an ensemble piece but there was something about Webby that kept her at the forefront. Something that made go, “if anyone had to lay claim as the main character of DuckTales, it’s her.” Boy, was I right about that!

This Ducktales article contains massive spoilers for the finale.

The DuckTales finale had a lot to wrap up. One of the biggest mysteries introduced in season 3 had to do with Webby. Beakley was keeping secrets about her but we weren’t sure what. The finale gave us answers but not in the way we expected.

Early on we’re introduced to what we’re told are Webby’s sisters, clones of her. As Webby begins to investigate she learns more and more, confident she’ll get some clue to her past. She gets that and a whole lot more. The audience and Webby both learn she’s not actually Beakley’s granddaughter, she never had real parents. She was created by F.O.W.L. solely to obtain a magical artifact that would prevent Scrooge from ever having adventures again. In order to do that she needed to be a descendent of Scrooge…...

I can’t feel anything but eternal love for this propulsive, unrelenting time-travel sequel that changed my life

Read all the other My favourite film choicesThe best arts and entertainment during self-isolation

I am rubbish at concentrating, sitting still and keeping my mouth shut, traits particularly intense when I was young. Consequently, my interests ranged from sport to board games to general wildness, tricky for an only child, never mind a complete and utter only child, and I could not be detained by toys, Lego or sleep, nor narcotised by a TV set.

But every morning I was stuck in front of one anyway, when my parents dropped me at the childminder’s. There, I and various other kids were primed for a day’s education with a film that would show until we settled into a Vauxhall Cavalier, one in the front, five in the back, one in the front footwell,...

Mark Harrison Dec 23, 2019

From Christmas Eve capers to Michael Shannon pretending to be Bigfoot, here are some more unusual Christmas movie picks for this season

Despite only being in season for about a month of the year, Christmas movies are a booming business. Outside of big-screen offerings like Paul Feig’s Last Christmas and a new version of Black Christmas, the Hallmark Channel has produced a whopping 40 new festive movies for 2019 and Netflix has turned out a range of original films too.

Few of the new films produced each year will join the annual rotation of classics like The Muppet Christmas Carol and It’s A Wonderful Life, but not everyone wants to watch the same films once a year every year. If you’re looking for something festive that you might have missed, or you just haven’t seen in a long time, or even something that isn’t about either Santa or Scrooge,...

On Monday, December 16thThe Actors Fund held a benefit concert of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. The concert starredGavin Leeas 'Mr. MagooEbenezer Scrooge',Sierra Boggessas 'Belle',Clifton Duncanas 'Bob Crachit',Ali Ewoldtas 'Mrs. Crachit',Kyle Seligas 'Young Ebenezer,'Matthew Scottas 'Fred',Byron Jenningsas 'Jacob Marley',Don Darryl Riveraas 'the Ghost of Christmas Past',Edward Hibbertas 'the Ghost of Christmas Present', Ian Fitzgerald Gallagher as 'the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come',Klea Blackhurstas 'the Charwoman',Jennifer Codyas 'the Laundress',Jeff Blumenkrantzas 'the Undertaker',Stephen DeRosaas 'The Old Man,' andJeff Hilleras 'The Director'.

This ain’t your grandaddy’s Scrooge! FX’s new ultra-dark, ultra-creepy take on A Christmas Carol flips Charles Dickens’ immortal classic upside down and turns it into something approaching full-blown horror. This new take on the story debuts on FX tomorrow night, and there’s a new featurette that delves into what makes this Carol so different. Watch it below. […]

The post ‘A Christmas Carol’ Featurette is Ready to Scare the Dickens Out of You appeared first on /Film.

In 2018, Charles Dickens’ classic novella “A Christmas Carol” turns 175, but its utility as a springboard for movie and TV adaptations shows no signs of slowing down. It’s a classic story of regret and redemption, and its lead character Ebenezer Scrooge offers an arc from misery and cruelty to love and kindness that’s catnip for any actor or actress. (I watched a sleighful of Scrooges for my book “Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas” and am doing you the service of keeping the Barbie and “All Dogs Go to Heaven” versions off this list.)

Here’s a look at 20 performers who have put their own unique spin on “Bah! Humbug!”

Seymour Hicks, “Scrooge” (1935): There were a few silent versions, but this was the screen’s first talking Scrooge, in a version that’s early-talkie through and through, from the technical limitations to the big, theatrical performances, Hicks’ included.

We all may know someone who’s more than a little “Noel-nutty”. They’re the folks in a frenzy as retailors pack up the pumpkins and bring out the wreaths. And they probably overload on nogg as they “zone out” on all those winter holiday flicks that clog a couple of the basic cable TV channels. Ah, but what’s this at the multiplex, barely a week into November? Did one of those offerings slither out of its cage over at Hallmark? Perhaps, except this has a rather interesting list of talents. It’s got a story and script co-written by Oscar-winner Emma Thompson, and it’s directed by one of the current kings of raunchy comedies (this time minus his muse Melissa McCarthy), Paul Feig. What kind of tinsel and fluff stocking stuffer have these two diverse talents created? Well, it’s one that takes its title (and much...

Disney still isn't done pumping out remakes of your favorite classics. According to Deadline, Disney is currently working with director Bill Condon on a movie musical version of A Christmas Carol, titled Marley, and there's already a script in production.

The new film will be (yet another) reimagining of the holiday classic, which tells the story of how a Christmas-hating man named Ebenezer Scrooge is spiritually transformed by a visit from the ghost of a former colleague named Jacob Marley and three Christmas spirits. It's been adapted a handful of times already, though one of the most well-known renditions is 2009's CGI version starring Jim Carrey, who played Scrooge and all three spirits. In the new version, the story will be told from Marley's point of view, hence its title.

Condon previously worked with Disney on the live-action Beauty and the Beast remake back in 2017, and he'll be joined by...

Even with a cave duck jamming on a keytar, DuckTales doesn't forget how Della's arrival has changed the family.

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This DuckTales review contains spoilers.

DuckTales Season 2 Episode 21

DuckTales. The only show that can include a cave duck jamming out on a keytar while wearing sunglasses And a lesson in taking responsibility. ‘Timephoon’ uses its central premise of a time traveling tub gone wrong to highlight Della’s still shaky place in the family incredibly well.

Everyone is of course happy Della’s back, none more than she. She had tried for so long to get back to her kids and while she’s got a ton of love for them it’s not as if she learned any parenting skills up on the moon. We’ve seen in recent episodes that Della’s thirst for adventure doesn’t exactly include safety. She throws caution to the wind...

FX has boarded “Peaky Blinders” scribe Steven Knight’s upcoming adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” with Guy Pearce playing Scrooge and Andy Serkis the Ghost of Christmas Past. The new take on the Dickens classic had already been announced in the U.K., and FX has now come on as the U.S. partner. It is the latest trans-Atlantic cooperation between the U.K. pubcaster and U.S. cable network after “Taboo.”

The three-parter will be produced by FX Productions, Scott Free, and Hardy Son & Baker. Other cast members include Stephen Graham (“This Is England”) as Jacob Marley; Charlotte Riley (“Peaky Blinders”) as Lottie; and Joe Alwyn (“The Favourite”) as Bob Cratchit.

Vinette Robinson (“Doctor Who”) has also signed on and will play Mary Cratchit, and Rutger Hauer (“True Blood”) will be the Ghost of Christmas Future.

“This production of ‘A Christmas Carol’ will respectfully present what we believe to...

DuckTales gives us a fun romp, even if there isn’t much gold to be had.

This DuckTales review contains spoilers.

DuckTales Season 2 Episode 9

It’s always odd when I give DuckTales a less than stellar review. This show is usually rock solid, with the series rarely scoring below a 3/5 and on average netting 4’s and higher. So what about this episode left me a little cold?

I can put it down to two things, the first being is that it was a little too straightforward. The framing device of Scrooge telling the story to Louie was fun but it seems it could have been used to greater effect. Same with Gyro traveling to the past. There’s a ton of great gags that could have been utilized and that’s another problem with the episode.

The second is there's too many fun ideas stuffed into one episode. Scrooge and Goldie reuniting,...

DuckTales beautifully lampoons the tropes of epic quests and gives us its most (delightfully) pedestrian adventure yet.

This DuckTales review contains spoilers.

DuckTales Season 2 Episode 8

DuckTales has a delightful tendency to not go where you think it’s headed. The beginning of 'Treasure of the Found Lamp!’ sets up what could be a standard adventure, which of course DuckTales would do great with, but goes an even more amazing direction. It (lovingly) lampoons epic quests and makes the actual plot much more pedestrian, to hilarious effect.

I can’t get over just how well DuckTales does comedy. The swerve into farce land did this episode so many favors, with my favorite of the two plots being Webby and Scrooge’s stalling of Djinn. Webby’s enthusiasm was of course infectious but it was Scrooge’s exasperated but well-intentioned part in it that was tip top. The riddle sequence is one...

Della's story exceeds expectations as DuckTales beautifully sums up its mission statement.

This DuckTales review contains spoilers.

DuckTales Season 2 Episode 7

‘What Ever Happened To Della Duck?!' is a mission statement for DuckTales. I’m not trying to be deep, co-producer Frank Angones tweeted that after the episode aired. He said the lyrics to ‘Della’s Lullaby’ “serve as a kind of mission statement for our DuckTales series as a whole.” Those lyrics being…

“Life is strange and vast, filled with wonders and joys. Face each new sun with eyes clear and true, Unafraid of the unknown, because I face it all with you.”

It’s bold for the series’ mission statement to be in an episode that barely features any of the main characters. It actually mostly features just one character, Della. How can one non-main character sum up what this series is trying to accomplish? I mean sure,...

Chicago – He moved deftly from British matinee idol to formidable movie star to reliable character actor, and was nominated four times for an Academy Award (no wins). Albert Finney had a nearly 50 year stage and screen career that encompassed virtually all types and genres of acting. He died in London on February 7th, 2019. He was 82.

He was born Albert Finney Jr., and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating at age 20 in 1956. He became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company shortly thereafter, and appeared on the stage throughout the late 1950s, and throughout his career. His debut film role was “The Entertainer” in 1960. He was the title character in the Oscar Best Picture “Tom Jones” (1963), and other films in that decade included “Night Must Fall” (1964), “Two for the Road” (1967) and “Charlie Bubbles”.

An Early Career Albert Finney

Photo credit: File Photo

His most fruitful film era was arguably the 1980s and ‘90s,...

Albert Finney was not yet 50 when he earned his third Oscar nomination playing a volatile ball of ego and insecurity in Ronald Harwood’s brilliant backstage drama “The Dresser.” At one point, the character — a high-maintenance Shakespearean stage actor slowly collapsing in upon himself like some kind of dying sun — bellows, “I can’t do it anymore! I have nothing more to give!”

That was 35 years ago. His character Sir may have been primed to expire after more than 200 performances as King Lear In “The Dresser,” but Finney, who died Thursday, still had at least half of his career — and two more Oscar nominations — ahead of him: as the epically self-destructive drunk in John Huston’s “Under the Volcano,” and the surly boss-turned-champion in “Erin Brockovich.”

Younger audiences probably know the 82-year-old British actor best as the baritone-voiced mastermind behind the shadowy CIA operations in the first two Jason Bourne sequels,...

This week, the world lost a legendary actor in Albert Finney. He might’ve already been an icon as the handsome, rugged face of the British New Wave of cinema, but he soon transformed into an actor who loved disappearing into roles, whether behind pounds of makeup or thick accents. And in doing so he found himself in everything from Oscar favorites to star-studded blockbusters to auteur-driven indies. Here we’ve compiled 15 of his greatest roles, and that might not even begin to scratch the surface.

“Saturday Night, Sunday Morning” (1960)

Finney’s breakout role in “Saturday Night, Sunday Morning” branded him as the first “Angry Young Man,” an archetype that would grow out of the rebellious ’60s and Britain’s rising lower class. From the film’s opening minutes, Finney looks like a British James Dean, and you can immediately sense his disdain at any sort of authority figure, giving...

“To be a character who feels a deep emotion, one must go into the memory’s vault and mix in a sad memory from one’s own life” – Albert Finney, 1936-2019.

Finney was part of a post-war wave of English performers, including Tom Courtenay, Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole, Alan Bates and Oliver Reed, who made a quite a splash on the big screen in the early ‘60s. The much-admired actor, who was nominated for five Oscars spanning four different decades yet never won one, died at age 82 on Thursday.

Finney first earned awards attention as a hard-drinking, philandering and disgruntled member of the working class in the 1960 British release “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning,” which was emblematic of a genre called the “kitchen sink drama.” But it was his charming rogue who proved irresistible to women in 1963’s “Tom Jones,” a bawdy, boisterous picaresque that blew the dust off of period pieces,...

Today we lost an acting legend of the screen and stage, Albert Finney. Finney was born in Salford, England, and graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and was also a member of the Royal Shakespeare Academy in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England. He was nominated for Best Actor in the Academy Awards five times, although he never took the award home. His nominations were for Tom Jones (1963), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), Under the Volcano (1984), and Erin Brockovich (2000).

Finney also starred in fan-favorites like the musicals Scrooge (1970) and Annie (1982), and one of my favorite films, Big Fish (2003), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. Finney’s final roles were in 2012’s Bond film, Skyfall, and The Bourne Legacy. This was just one year after he reportedly beat a cancer diagnosis.

In reading about his life, I saw that he was nominated for knighthood twice,...

Finney with Audrey Hepburn in Stanley Donen's "Two for the Road".

By Lee Pfeiffer

Albert Finney, who rose to fame and acclaim as one of Britain's generation of actors known as "Angry Young Men", has died at age 82. A chest infection was cited as cause of death. Finney was among an exciting new generation of British actors who burst upon the scene in the 1950s and 1960s, reaping critical praise for their realistic portrayals often of troubled men who were being constrained by socio-economic conditions that afflicted the lower income class in post-War Britain. His star-making role came in director Karl Reisz's "kitchen sink" classic, the 1960 film "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" which reflected the frustrations of the working class. Finney called upon his real life experiences growing up in Northwest England under somewhat spartan living conditions.

As a newly-minted star, he screen tested for director David Lean for...

Refresh for updates Albert Finney, who died yesterday, is being remembered by co-stars and colleagues from Hollywood to London today as an actor who all but defined versatility. From the intimate kitchen-sink dramas that started his career to the big, broad musicals like Scrooge (pictured) and Annie that became family fare traditions, Finney was, as Rufus Sewell, his A Man of No Importance co-star, “effortlessly great.”

Sam Mendes, director of Finney in Skyfall, said, “It is desperately sad news that Albert Finney has gone. He really was one of the greats – a brilliant, beautiful, big-hearted, life loving delight of a man. He will be terribly missed.”

“I was lucky enough to have worked with the late great Albert Finney in the film Erin Brockovich,” tweeted Marg Helgenberger. “An extraordinary & generous actor who oozed charm & mischievousness. Do yourself a favor & watch one of his performances this weekend…”

James Bond franchise producers...

Albert Finney has passed away at the age of 82. According to a family spokesperson, the British actor died "peacefully after a short illness with those closest to him by his side."  "The family request privacy at this sad time," the spokesperson added. Over the course of his career, Finney appeared in a number of films, including Erin Brockovich, Under the Volcano, The Dresser, Murder on the Orient Express and Tom Jones. He also played the classic character Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1970 film Scrooge and Daddy Warbucks in the 1982 version of Annie. One of his most recent roles included the portrayal of Kincade in the 2012 film Skyfall. The star also received several...

Oscar-nominated actor Albert Finney, one of the great British actors of his generation who made a worldwide name for himself in 1963’s Tom Jones and maintained a strong career through 2012’s Skyfall, died Thursday in London. He was 82.

The cause of death, according to The New York Times, was a chest infection. He died at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London Thursday afternoon. In 2011 Finney disclosed he was undergoing treatment for kidney cancer.

Among his Oscar-nominated performances were roles in Tom Jones, Murder on the Orient Express, The Dresser, Under the Volcano and Erin Brockovich.

Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Finney moved quickly into film, gaining immediate acclaim for his 1960 debut in Tony Richardson’s The Entertainer. With that year’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, produced by Richardson but directed by Karel Reisz, Finney secured his position, along with Alan Bates and Tom Courtenay, at the...

Albert Finney, one of the leading actors of the postwar period, has died after a short illness. He was 82.

The robust British actor began as a stage actor before transitioning to film. With his gravely voice and rumbling stare he brought an intense realism to his work, rising to fame in such 1960s classics as “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” and “Tom Jones.” He later memorably played Agatha Christie’s legendary sleuth Hercule Poirot in “Murder on the Orient Express” and impressed critics and audiences with towering performances in “The Dresser” and “Under the Volcano.” Finney was nominated for five Oscars but never won the prize.

In 1963, Finney played the foundling hero in Tony Richardson’s Oscar best picture winner “Tom Jones.” The role made Finney an international movie star and earned him the first of four best actor Oscar nominations. A year earlier, Finney had turned down the title...

Five-time Oscar nominee Albert Finney has died. A family spokesman said the actor died after a short, undisclosed illness. Finney had kidney cancer back in 2011, but it's unclear if it was related to his death. Finney was at the forefront of a British invasion of sorts ... a wave of British actors who hit the big screen in the '60s in the U.S. The actor received Oscar noms -- Best Supporting Actor for "Erin Brockovich,...