DEFINITELY THE BAHAMAS

Definitely The Bahamas is now showing at London’s Orange Tree Theatre, starring KATE FAHY.

The theatre has staged this brand new revival of the 1987 play, originally written by Martin Crimp for BBC Radio 3, as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations and this production marks the first time that Crimp has directed his own work.

Husband and wife Frank and Milly (FAHY) relish the visits of Michael, their charming and incredibly successful only child. But what exactly is his relationship to the young student living in their house?

The play is an unsettling mix of comedy and unbearable truth; a riveting exploaration of the paranoia and xenophobia that lurked behind genteel, middle-class life in the late 1980s, and the way doting parents excuse – and sometimes even absorb –their offspring’s dubious values.

FAHY has been receiving some fantastic reviews for her performance in the production: The Stage refers to her as “perfect”, The Guardian as “excellent”; The Financial Times found her “wickedly funny and light of touch” and Time Out describes her performance as “thrilling”.

Definitely The Bahamas is only running until 21st April, so book your tickets now and be sure not to miss this excellent revival.

It’s A Plunderful Life!

The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists, featuring the voice talents of ASHLEY JENSEN, opens next Wednesday 28th March in UK cinemas and across Europe.

Brought to us by the brilliant folk at Aardman Productions – the team behind the legendary Wallace & Gromit franchise – the film tells the tale of a boundlessly enthusiastic, if somewhat less-than-successful, bearded Pirate Captain (voiced by Hugh Grant), his rag-tag crew and their high seas exploits. ASHLEY JENSEN (above, left-ish, orange beard) provides the voice of  The Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate, a lady disguising herself as a gentleman, with Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson and Russell Tovey playing fellow shipmates.

This bonkers adventure also stars Jeremy Piven and Salma Hayek as rival pirates Black Bellamy and Cutlass Liz, Imelda Staunton as a diabolical queen and David Tennant as a haplessly smitten young scientist.

Trust us when we say this film is hilarious and well worth taking the whole family to see it on the big screen. Check out the trailer below.

(NB: don’t be confused by the changing title – the American release of the same film is called The Pirates: Band Of Misfits and it will be released in the US in April.)

Wild For Will

Wild Bill, the brand new feature film directed by Dexter Fletcher and starring WILL POULTER, is released in UK cinemas tomorrow.

Out on parole after 8 years inside, Bill Hayward (played by Charlie Creed-Miles) returns home to find his now 11 and 15 year old sons abandoned by their mother and fending for themselves. WILL stars as Dean, Bill’s 15 year old son, and SEAN PERTWEE also makes a cameo appearance in the movie.

WILL has been receiving some fantastic reviews for his brilliant performance in the film, a selection of which you can see below. You can watch the official trailer at the bottom of this post and be sure to catch Wild Bill on the big screen from tomorrow onwards.

Cine Vue- ‘Poulter is particularly excellent as Dean, a teenage boy thrust into adulthood by his precarious situation, perfectly capturing his character’s ‘wise-beyond-his-years’ facade whilst subtly allowing the fragile innocence of his age to sporadically trickle out with enormous effect.’

Herald Scotland- ‘a terrific performance from young Poulter’

Birmingham Post – ‘an impressively-mature performance’

Fake DIY – ‘Poulter shines as Dean, delivering on the promise he showed in Son of Rambow and the last Narnia film, and it’s as much his coming-of-age story as anything.’

Oxford Times – ‘Charlie Creed-Miles and Will Poulter anchor the film with terrific performances’

TITANIC – Sinking Starts Sunday

April 2012 sees the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the HMS Titanic. To mark this significant centenary, ITV1 will air Titanic, an epic 4 x 1 hour mini series created by BAFTA-winning producer Nigel Stafford Clark and Julian Fellowes, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of ITV1’s hit costume drama Downton Abbey. RUTH BRADLEY and IZABELLA URBANOWICZ star in the series.

Titanic is the extraordinary re-telling of that doomed voyage, cleverly weaving action, mystery and romantic plots featuring fictional and historical characters, before coming together in an explosive and unforgettable finale. Titanic will focus on different characters ranging from steerage passengers to upper class guests.  Each point of view will culminate in a cliff hanger as the ship begins to sink, building to an explosive conclusion which draws together each of the stories. Viewers will be taken on a heart-wrenching journey through the Titanic’s last hours, as the drama reveals which of the characters will survive… and those who won’t.

RUTH plays Mary Maloney, one of the lower class Irish passengers and a mother of four children. IZABELLA plays Alice Cleaver, a nursemaid working for the wealthy Allison family.

Titanic premieres this Sunday 25th March at 9pm on ITV1. Make sure you tune in for what is going to be one of the most talked about dramas of the year. Check out the trailer below.

McNulty’s Millions: THE SYNDICATE

The Syndicate is a brand new five-part drama for BBC One, written by Kay Mellor. It follows five workers at a cut-price supermarket in Leeds, whose lives are turned upside down after they jointly win the lottery, going from facing redundancy and battling the present economic downturn to having more money than they could ever have dreamed of.

MATTHEW McNULTY stars as the store’s assistant manager Stuart, a young man who at the start of the series is faced with the prospect of losing his young family if he doesn’t get hold of some cash quickly. Just when it seems things can’t get any worse the unthinkable happens and 18 million pounds falls into their laps.

Read an exclusive BBC interview with MATTHEW on his character and the new series.

Also starring in the show are Timothy Spall, Lorriane Bruce, Joanne Page and Matthew Lewis.

Episode 1 of The Syndicate premieres on Tuesday 27th March at 9pm on BBC1. Don’t miss it! You can see the trailer below.

2012 Olivier Awards Nominees

The 2012 Olivier nominations have just been announced this afternoon. Huge congratulations go to BERTIE CARVEL and NIGEL LINDSAY, both nominated for Best Actor In A Musical.

BERTIE is nominated for his performance as Miss. Trunchbull in Matilda The Musical at the Cambridge Theatre.

NIGEL is nominated for his performance as Shrek in Shrek The Musical at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Matilda The Musical has received numerous other nominations, including Best New Musical, Best Director (for Matthew Warchus), Best Theatre Choreography, Best Lighting Design, Best Set Design, Best Costume Design and Best Sound Designer.

Shrek The Musical is also nominated for Best New Musical and Best Costume Design.

Congratulations also go to DOON MACKICHAN and JAMES MUSGRAVE who starred in Jumpy at the Royal Court, which is nominated for Best New Play.

Winners will be revealed at the 2012 awards ceremony, which will be held on the 15th April at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden. Click here for the full list of nominees.

Tom & Michelle: Together In TIME

Check out these absolutely stunning photographs from TIME Style And Design’s futuristic London fashion shoot with MICHELLE DOCKERY and TOM HIDDLESTON.

These beautiful images were shot on the roof of Guy’s Hospital in London, the tallest hospital in the world, by photographer Jonathan de Villiers. The shoot’s concept involved time travel from the future. Villiers, who hails from London but now lives in Paris, says that the city has recently embraced its own relationship with the future: in the last decade, the city seems to have recovered from backlash against ’60s modernism, he says, and its architecture has moved in a more avant-garde direction.

To see more images and to check out a behind the scenes video of TOM and MICHELLE from the set, visit the TIME Style and Design website.

 

She’s No Ingenue!

This week, The Guardian newspaper has printed a special interview with SAMANTHA SPIRO as she discusses her incredible and varied career: “Shakespeare and musicals, sitcoms and Mike Leigh.”

In 2010, SAMANTHA won both the Best Female Comedy Breakthrough Artist award at the British Comedy Awards for her performance in television sitcom Grandma’s House, and the Best Actress in a Musical award at the Olivier Awards for her much-acclaimed performance as Dolly in Hello Dolly at Regents Park.

2011 saw SAMANTHA leading the cast of the Royal Court’s Chicken Soup With Barley and playing Amy in the revival of Sondheim’s Company at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. This year she will be playing the title role in the Almeida Theatre’s Filumena and starring as Kate in Taming Of The Shrew at Shakespeare’s Globe.

You can read the full Guardian interview with SAMANTHA here.

GRABBERS’ Rights

IFC Midnight announced this week that the company is acquiring the North and Latin American rights to director Jon Wright’s comedy Grabbers, starring RUTH BRADLEY and BRONAGH GALLAGHER.

In this comedy horror film, something sinister comes to the shores of Erin Island, unbeknownst to the quaint population of this sleepy fishing village resting somewhere off the coast of Ireland. First, some fishermen go missing. Then there is the rash of whale carcasses found washed up on the beach. When the murders start, it’s up to two mismatched cops — the charming but somewhat work-shy Ciaran O’Shea and his new by-the-book partner from the mainland, Lisa Nolan (BRADLEY) — to protect the islanders from the giant, bloodsucking, tentacled aliens that are out to get them. Their only weapon, they discover, is booze! If they want to survive the creatures’ onslaught, everyone will have to get very, very drunk. BRONAGH GALLAGHER‘s character runs the local town inn, providing the alcohol for the townsfolk.

The film, which also stars Russell Tovey, Richard Coyle, David Pearse and Lalor Roddy, recently played at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim from critics and fans. Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films, said: “Grabbers is a great time at the movies and an ingenious update of the classic monster movie. We look forward to working with director Jon Wright when we release it later this year.”

IFC Midnight is a sister division to IFC Films and Sundance Selects, and is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc. The deal for Grabbers was negotiated by Arianna Bocco, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Productions for Sundance Selects/IFC Films, with Samantha Horley for The Salt Company and Jay Cohen for Gersh on behalf of the filmmakers.

For the UK release date, watch this space… In the meantime, check out the preview trailer below.

Landing Pilots

Congratulations to RUTH BRADLEY, JANET MONTGOMERY, SARAH BOLGER and JULIAN MORRIS, all of whom have landed roles in brand new US pilots this year.

RUTH BRADLEY has been cast in the lead, titular role (and her first US gig) in ABC Studios’ drama pilot Beauty And The Beast.

The show is a fantasy re-imagining of the classic Beauty and the Beast tale wherein an embattled princess, Grace (BRADLEY), discovers an unlikely connection with a mysterious beast, Shiro (played by Scottish singer-actor Darius Campbell), a mercenary bodyguard.

Yves Simoneau is directing the pilot from a script by Jon Steinberg and RUTH will commence shooting in Vancouver later this month.

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JANET MONTGOMERY has landed the lead in CBS’ drama pilot Baby Big Shot.

The project, from writer Dana Calvo, is a legal drama centered on Martina (MONTGOMERY), a working-class woman who uses her street smarts to compete with her more polished colleagues at a top New York law firm.

Baby Big Shot starts shooting later this month in New York.

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SARAH BOLGER will star alongside Blythe Danner in the new ABC Studios period pilot Gilded Lilys, from exec. producer Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice) and writer K.J. Steinberg (Gossip Girl).

The drama centres on the opening of the first luxury hotel in New York City in 1895 and the stories of love, treachery and disdain between the classes, set against a backdrop of vicious family rivalries, scandalous secrets and conflict and co-mingling of the classes. The Lily family has reigned over New York’s elite for decades but a recent family scandal has undermined their fortunes both financially and societally.

SARAH will play series regular Violet Langton Lily, the wealthy, aristocratic and rebellious daughter of hotel owners Edwin and Elizabeth Lily.

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And last but by no means least, JULIAN MORRIS has joined the cast Guilty, one of Fox’s three pilots commissioned for the 2012/2013 Season.

The drama focuses on an intelligent but unethical lawyer called Billy Remz who is stripped of his legal license after being falsely convicted of fraud. Billy ends up using his unusual methods to solve the cases he’s been banned from investigating and to get revenge on the people who set him up.

JULIAN will play a keen young lawyer who is impressed by Billy.

Guilty is being developed by Brothers & Sisters and Eli Stone producers Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim.

Titans Of The Stage

Hamilton Hodell actors MARK RYLANCE and BERTIE CARVEL have both been featured in the New York Times’ prestigious ‘Titans Of The Stage’ article: a celebration of some of the outstanding acting talent in the world of UK theatre.

BERTIE CARVEL, described in the article as “one of the buoyant acting hopes of a new generation”, has most recently received a nomination for Best Actor in a Musical at the Laurence Olivier Awards (for Matlida The Musical) and been shortlisted for Best Actor at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. He can currently be seen playing the terrifying Miss. Trunchbull in Matilda The Muscial at the West End’s Cambridge Theatre. Book tickets here.

MARK RYLANCE is a two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and two-time Tony Award winner. Having just finished performing in the sold out, raved-about play Jerusalem (in London and New York), Mark can soon be seen performing in the all-male productions of Twelfth Night (as Olivia) and Richard III (as Richard III) at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London, alongside STEPHEN FRY.

The wonderful photographs from the feature (above) were taken by Nadav Kander. Other actors featured in the article include Judi Dench, Patrick Stewart and Simon Russell Beale. Click here for the full article.

Good Films Come In Threes

Next week, Friday 9th March 2012 sees the UK cinema release of three fantastic films with HH clients: John Carter – a fantasy epic starring POLLY WALKER, The Raven - a dark thriller starring PAM FERRIS and The Decoy Bride – a romantic comedy starring MICHAEL URIE and ROSS ARMSTRONG. Check out the trailers and full info below.

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From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton comes John Carter, a sweeping action adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). Based on the classic sci-fi novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the film tells the story of John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet. In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter discovers that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

POLLY WALKER stars in the film as Sarkoja, a four-armed, 9-and-a-half-foot green alien and the malevolent and tough elderwoman of the Thwark tribe. Yes indeed! Check her out below in all her other-worldy fabulousness.

Also starring in the film are Willem Dafoe, Ciarán Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy and Lynn Collins. Watch the trailer below and be sure to catch it on the big screen from next Friday.

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The Raven is a fictionalised account of the last days of Edgar Alan Poe’s life, in which the poet and author joins forces with a Baltimore detective to pursue a serial killer whose string of brutal murders mirror those in Poe’s stories.

John Cusack stars as Poe alongside Alice Eve, Luke Evans, Brendan Gleeson and our very own PAM FERRIS, who plays Mrs. Bradley, a Baltimore lady of high society.

Directed by John McTeigue, The Raven is a darkly gothic, claustrophobic and exciting thriller which looks great on the big screen. It’s also out next Friday, so don’t miss it! See the trailer below.

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And last but not least, next Friday also sees the release of The Decoy Bride, a romantic comedy starring David Tennant and MICHAEL URIE.

The movie takes place on a small Scottish island where famous Hollywood actress Lara Tyler (Alice Eve) is about to get married to James Arber (Tennant). With the world’s media sensing a big scoop, the pair hire a stand-in bride (Kelly MacDonald), hoping to stop the Paparazzi from ruining the ceremony. MICHAEL stars as Lara’s manager Steve Korbitz, charged with the struggle of readying the island for the fairytale wedding.

Smack the Pony‘s Sally Phillips and Neil Jaworski penned the script for the film, which is directed by Sheree Folkson, and HH client ROSS ARMSTRONG plays a relentless Paparazzi. Check out the trailer below.

AVENGERS Assemble

The official poster (above) and trailer (below) have just been released for this Spring’s eagerly-awaited superhero blockbuster The Avengers, starring TOM HIDDLESTON.

TOM plays evil super-villain Loki, continuing from where he left off in 2011′s Thor to wreak havoc upon the human world.

Assembling to defeat his mischievous plans are Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Mark Ruffalo (The Incredible Hulk), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Stellan Skarsgärd (Professor Erik Selvig) and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury).

Battle commences in UK cinemas on 27th April 2012 and in US cinemas on 4th May 2012. Brace yourselves!

RTS Awards 2011: Nominees

The Royal Television Society has today published the nominations for the 2011 Programme Awards, which will be announced at a ceremony on 20th March 2012. The shortlist contains only three nominees per category and big congratulations go out to all the Hamilton Hodell clients who starred in nominated shows. See below for a full list.

Nominated for Best Drama Series:

The Fades
starring IAIN DE CAESTECKER, TOM ELLIS and RUTH GEMMELL

Luther 2
starring NIKKI AMUKA-BIRD and PAM FERRIS

Nominated for Best Children’s Programme:

Horrible Histories (Series 3)
starring MAT BAYNTON

Nominated for Best Drama Serial:

The Crimson Petal & The White
starring SHIRLEY HENDERSON, BERTIE CARVEL and IZABELLA URBANOWICZ

Nominated for the International Award:

The Slap
starring SOPHIE OKONEDO

Nominated for Best Scripted Comedy:

Fresh Meat
starring JAMES MUSGRAVE

Rev
starring JIMMY AKINGBOLA

Nominated for Best Single Drama:

Random
starring NADINE MARSHALL

United
starring THOMAS HOWES

Click here for the full shortlist of nominations.

6DEGREES Of Jayne Wisener

6Degrees is a brand new six-part drama from Stirling Productions for BBC Northern Ireland, starring JAYNE WISENER.

The series begins on BBC Two Northern Ireland, Tuesday, February 28 at 9.30pm and follows six freshers arriving from throughout the UK and Ireland as they crash through their first term at university. The series then continues at 10pm on the 6th of March.

JAYNE plays Sandie Morrow, a glamour girl hailing from the Causeway Coast. An idealist in every way, Sandie is the optimist of the group. She believes the best in everyone, but when she falls in with the football lads, Sandie’s naivety comes back to bite her.

Descending on Belfast, the lives of the six students are about to change forever. In a city with no limits, hearts will be broken, friendships made and trust betrayed, but within all the madness and mistakes, the students will learn the invaluable life lessons that books just can’t teach.

Be sure to tune in next week. And for viewers living outside of Northern Ireland, fret not – the show will be available weekly on BBC iPlayer. Click here for the Episode 1 trailer.

Grint In INTO THE WHITE

The latest trailer is out for Into The White, the new Norwegian film from director Petter Næss starring RUPERT GRINT.

High above the harsh Norwegian wilderness, English and German pilots shoot each other to the ground after a violent chance encounter. Isolated, they must fight to survive the brutal winter. Though war has made them enemies, antagonism is hard to maintain as days go by and, through mutual need, unlikely friendships bloom. Somehow, they become comrades. War, after all, is absurd.

RUPERT plays Gunner Robert Smith and Into The White will receive its world premiere in Oslo, Norway on 4th March 2012, opening in Norwegian cinemas on 9th March. Check out the trailer below.

Barbican WHORE

After a hugely successful tour of France and the UK, Cheek By Jowl’s fantastic new adaptation of John Ford’s classic play‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore is now showing at the Barbican, London.

JACK GORDON, who stars as Giovanni (above, right), has been receiving great reviews for his emotional and passionate performance in the leading role.

In this violent and bloody drama, we watch a brother and sister’s passionate descent into hell. Incest, morality, religion and corruption all intertwine to make this play as shocking and controversial today as it was almost four hundred years ago. The show is directed by Declan Donnellan, designed by Nick Ormerod and produced by Cheek by Jowl in co-production with the Barbican, London, Les Gémeaux/Sceaux/Scène Nationale and Sydney Festival.

‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore will be playing at the Barbican’s Silk Street Theatre until 10th March 2012. Tickets are in high demand and the show has nearly sold out, so be sure to book here to avoid disappointment.

After its run at the Barbican, the production will move to New York where it will show at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music (BAM) as part of its 2012 Winter/Spring Season, 20th-31st March 2012. Check out the trailer below:

David And Dockery

If you missed MICHELLE DOCKERY‘s fantastic interview on the Late Show With David Letterman last Thursday, you can watch it in its entirety below.

Go MICHELLE!

Will Gone Wild

The official trailer has just been released for Wild Bill, the brand new feature film directed by Dexter Fletcher and starring WILL POULTER.

Out on parole after 8 years inside, Bill Hayward (played by Charlie Creed-Miles) returns home to find his now 11 and 15 year old sons abandoned by their mother and fending for themselves.

WILL stars as Dean, Bill’s 15 year old son, and SEAN PERTWEE also makes a cameo appearance.

Wild Bill is released in UK cinemas on 30th March 2012. Check out the trailer below:

Top 10 Agent

Our very own Commercial & Voice agent extraordinaire LOUISE DONALD is featured in this month’s Spring/Summer 2012 edition of ’10 Magazine’.

Check out the super cool interview below as she discusses a few of her favourite things…