Big Gay Picture Show

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

Natalie Portman & Nicholas Hoult Up For Xavier Dolan’s Death and Life of John F. Donovan

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Back in 2014 Jessica Chastain, Kathy Bates, Susan Sarandon and Kit Harington all signed up to star in the first English-language film from queer Canadian writer/actor/director Xavier Dolan. It’s taken longer to get it going than originally planned (largely because he slotted in the upcoming It’s Only the End of the World beforehand), but Dolan has managed to hang on to his cast, along with previously announced actors such as Michael Gambon, Bella Thorne, Chris Zylka and Emily Hampshire.

However, he’s decided that isn’t an impressive enough ensemble, as Variety reports that Natalie Portman, Nicholas Hoult and Thandie Newton have joined The Death and Life of John F. Donovan. The film is about an American TV star (Harington) with everything working out for him who has a secretive correspondence with an 11 year old in London. When a gossip columnist (Jessica Chastain) makes the whole thing look indecent, his life is turned upside-down.

It’s not clear who the newly announced actors will play, but it is known that Kathy Bates is set to be the actor’s high-powered manager, while Sarandon will play his mother.

Film rights are currently being sold at the Berlin film festival, with plans to shoot later this year.

 

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Spooks: The Greater Good (DVD Review)

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While Spooks (known as MI5 in the US) ended on British TV in 2012, it’s now been resurrected for the big screen with Spooks: The Greater Good. It’s certainly not necessary to have seen the show though, especially as it’s largely about new characters, with the main holdovers being the Secret Service setting and the presence of Peter Firth as counter-terrorism chief Harry Pearce.

Harry’s career comes crashing down around him after he makes the call to free dangerous terrorist Qasim (Elyes Gabel), after his prisoner transport is held up by armed men, which makes many people in MI5 feel he needs to be removed. He also becomes convinced that Qasim couldn’t have escaped without help from inside MI5, and so decides to disappear and go into hiding, in order to investigate. [Read more…]

Testament Of Youth (Blu-ray Review)

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It’s almost surprising the world of film didn’t make a few more movies to tie into the centenary of the start of the First World War. However Testament Of Youth is an apt tale to make a new version of at this time, as rather than being a gung-ho war story, it is more about grief and the wiping out of swathes of young lives.

Based on Vera Brittain’s memoir, the movie follows Vera (Alicia Vikander) as a free thinking young woman determined that her path in life will not just to be a wife and mother. She heads off to Oxford (after a little resistance from her father) and almost surprises herself when she falls for a handsome young man called Roland (Kit Harington). However their seemingly idyllic youth, along with that of her brother Edward (Taron Egerton) and their friends, is disrupted by the War. [Read more…]

Spooks: The Greater Good (Cinema Review)

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Having never seen the TV series I had no real expectations of the film version, or real knowledge, other than it is something to do with spies and MI5. It’s with great pleasure to report then that as a stand-alone spy movie, Spooks: The Greater Good works. It’s tense, looks great, pacy and well acted, satisfying on pretty much every level, as a decent espionage thriller should. It taps into our current fears of attack from abroad, especially ISIS, at times almost painfully so. It’s also the first film for ages to use its London locations to great effect without making everything look cheesy.

It begins with a great set piece. The most wanted terrorist in the world is being transported across London, but the armoured van is stuck in a pesky traffic jam. Out of nowhere come armed motorbike riders to free him. They know that watching in MI5 headquarters is Peter Finch, and tell him, either free the man or lots of innocent people will die. Finch lets the man go. [Read more…]

Susan Sarandon & Kathy Bates Join Queer Filmmaker Xavier Dolan’s First English-Language Film

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kathy-bates-susan-sarandonBack in September it was revealed that Xavier Dolan fan Jessica Chastain had signed on to star in the Quebecois filmmaker’s first English-language movie. Now she’s has some company, with the queer director ensuring that the film has plenty of impressive female talent by adding Kathy Bates and Susan Sarandon to the cast. Kit Harington is also set to star.

The new movie is called The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, which Dolan has previously described as “the story of an American movie star with everything working out for him who has a secretive correspondence with an 11 year old in London.”

THR expands on that, saying Kit Harington’s title character is famed for playing a popular superhero, ‘whose life and career are turned upside-down when his private correspondence with an 11-year-old fan is exposed and made to look indecent by a villainous gossip columnist (Jessica Chastain).’

Kathy Bates is set to be Donovan’s high-powered manager, while Sarandon will play his mother.

Dolan comments, “I’m so psyched about working with these two wonderful, mythical actresses. My excitement is almost convulsive.”

He adds, “Susan Sarandon’s role of the mother is tricky for me because it’s feels very real. The rapport my mom has with my life [since my profile has risen] — and of course I’m not as famous as the character of Donovan — is different now. I think all people can relate to this because whenever you walk out of the path that’s been traced for you, people from your old life find it a little menacing, because it questions their own worth.”

Dolan made waves when he won a prize at Cannes for his directorial debut, I Killed My Mother, which he helmed when he was only 18-years-old. He’s made four more acclaimed films since then (Heartbeats, Laurence Anyways, Tom At The Farm and Mommy), all of which have concerned the queer experience in one way or another.

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Fresh Seventh Son Trailer – Will we ever actually see the Jeff Bridges fantasy?

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seventh-son-slideThey’re certainly keeping us waiting for Seventh Son. The movie has been in the works for years and even after it was shot there were delay, as while it was originally due to be released October 2013, it’s not actually arriving in cinemas until next February.

But to help keep up the excitement a new trailer has arrived.

Here’s the official synopsis: ‘In a time long past, an evil is about to be unleashed that will reignite the war between the forces of the supernatural and humankind once more.

‘Master Gregory (Jeff Bridges) is a knight who had imprisoned the malevolently powerful witch, Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), centuries ago. But now she has escaped and is seeking vengeance. Summoning her followers of every incarceration, Mother Malkin is preparing to unleash her terrible wrath on an unsuspecting world.

‘Only one thing stands in her way: Master Gregory. In a deadly reunion, Gregory comes face to face with the evil he always feared would someday return. Now he has only until the next full moon to do what normally takes years: train his new apprentice, Tom Ward (Ben Barnes) to fight a dark magic unlike any other.

‘Man’s only hope lies in the seventh son of a seventh son.’ [Read more…]

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Pompeii (DVD Review)

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It becomes clear fairly early on that director Paul W.S. Anderson would like Pompeii to be his Titanic – creating a movie that spends the first half building romance and intrigue before throwing a massive disaster at it, and then hoping the audience will be suitably moved. Indeed there are moments where the parallels become slightly overbearing.

However what Anderson seems to have forgotten is that he’s the director of Alien Vs. Predator, Death Race, The Three Musketeers and Soldier, all of which have had great ambition and plenty of good ideas but got crushed under his rather cack-handed and condescending approach to filmmaking. [Read more…]

New Seventh Son Trailer – Jeff Bridges takes Ben Barnes under his wing

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seventh-son-slideSeventh Son is nearly here. The movie has been in the works for years and even after it was shot there were delay, as while it was originally due to be released October 2013, it’s not actually arriving in cinemas until next February.

Here’s the official synopsis: ‘In a time long past, an evil is about to be unleashed that will reignite the war between the forces of the supernatural and humankind once more.

‘Master Gregory (Jeff Bridges) is a knight who had imprisoned the malevolently powerful witch, Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), centuries ago. But now she has escaped and is seeking vengeance. Summoning her followers of every incarceration, Mother Malkin is preparing to unleash her terrible wrath on an unsuspecting world.

‘Only one thing stands in her way: Master Gregory. In a deadly reunion, Gregory comes face to face with the evil he always feared would someday return. Now he has only until the next full moon to do what normally takes years: train his new apprentice, Tom Ward (Ben Barnes) to fight a dark magic unlike any other.

‘Man’s only hope lies in the seventh son of a seventh son.’ [Read more…]

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Testament Of Youth Trailer – Kit Harington turns First World War soldier

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Testament-Of-Youth-pic1Kit Harington sure does seem to get involved in a lot of fighting, whether it’s as part of the ever-shifting allegiances and battles of Game Of Thrones, as a gladiator in Pompeii or in the upcoming Testament Of Youth, where he’s forced to head off to the First World War.

You can take a look at the trailer below.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘TESTAMENT OF YOUTH is a searing story of love and war. Based on the classic First World War memoir, this is the incredible true story of one young woman’s struggle to survive the horrors of war, which robbed her of everyone and everything she held dear, but was ultimately unable to break her extraordinary spirit.

‘Vera Brittain, irrepressible, intelligent and free-minded, overcomes the prejudices of her family and hometown to win a scholarship to Oxford. With everything to live for, she falls in love with her brother’s close friend Roland Leighton as they go to University to pursue their literary dreams. But the First World War is looming and as the boys leave for the front Vera realises she cannot sit idly by as her peers fight for their country, so volunteers as a nurse. She works tirelessly, experiencing all the grief of war, as one by one her fiancé, her brother and their closest friends are all killed and the pillars of her world shattered. But, an indefatigable spirit, Vera endures and returns to Oxford, irrevocably changed, yet determined to create a world in which such a war can never take place again.’

Alicia Vikander plays Vera, with Taron Egerton, Colin Morgan, Dominic West, Emily Watson, Hayley Atwell, Miranda Richardson and Anna Chancellor. It’ll be in cinemas early next year.

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Kit Harington Reuniting With Alicia Vikander For Testament of Youth

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Kit Harington has scored himself a new role, as he’s signed up to reunite with his Seventh Son co-star Alicia Vikander in BBC Films Testament of Youth, according to THR.

The film is an adaptation of Vera Brittain’s 1933 autobiography, which follows her experiences in World War I. Brittain stopped stuffing as Oxford so that she could become a nurse. While she tended to the injured, the war claimed the lives of both her fiance and brother. After the conflict ended, she tried to get her life back on track, but found herself as part of a lost generation. She later returned to Oxford to become a feminist and a writer.

Alicia Vikander, who replaced Saoirse Ronan in the film late last year, is play Vera Brittain, with Kit Harington as her fiance. James Kent (The White Queen) is directing from a script by Juliette Towhidi (Calendar Girls).

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