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

The Grand Budapest Hotel (Blu-ray Review)

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I should probably start off by saying I’m generally not a great fan of director Wes Anderson. I’ve found most of his films far too pleased with themselves and so obsessed with their own quirkiness that it actually got in the way of the film rather than enhancing it.

That said, The Grand Budapest Hotel is the first Anderson movie I’ve enjoyed from end to end since the director’s debut, Bottle Rocket. Previously Anderson’s idiosyncratic style has leaned towards farce while pretending it was something else. With his last film, Moonrise Kingdom he went full farce for large chunks of the film, and they were undoubtedly the best bits. [Read more…]

Channing Tatum, Ralph Fiennes & Tilda Swinton Will Hail, Caesar! Alongside George Clooney

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Channing-TatumThe Coen Brothers are going for star power with their upcoming Hail Caesar!, as they already George Clooney and Josh Brolin attached, and now THR reports they’re set to be joined by Channing Tatum, Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton.

The film is about Eddie Mannix, a 1950s fixer who works for major Hollywood studios. His job is to try and keep the movie stars in line and also cover up their indiscretions.

Tatum will be ‘a Gene Kelly-type star while Fiennes would play Laurence Lorenz, a studio director, and Swinton will portray a powerful Hollywood gossip columnist’ It’s still now 100% who George Clooney and Josh Brolin are portraying at this time, although it’s believed Clooney will be Mannix.

Many of the Coens’ earlier movies harked back to Hollywood’s Golden Age and this would appear to be a return to their love of Tinsel Town in the 40s and 50s. It’s also suggested there are plenty more colourful characters in the script the Coens can find some great actors to play.

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Ralph Fiennes Says He Was Asked Not To Hire A Gay Director In Russia

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ralph-fiennesThere has been plenty of evidence emerging from Russia that the country is becoming increasingly and disturbingly anti-gay. However it’s not just the ‘gay propaganda’ law that essentially bans any positive talk of homosexuality in public, but it appears filmmakers are being asked to sign pledges they won’t make films about anything LGBT in the country or hire a gay director.

That includes Ralph Fiennes, who’s spoken out about the fact he was asked to sign such a document on a recent trip to Russia. He told The Guardian, “I knew there was a disturbing level of homophobia, but this written requirement I found profoundly disturbing. I’m afraid I laughed – as you do when you discover something really shocking.”

He also believes there is “something worrying about the way the press has had its spine snapped” in Russia, particularly in regards of reporting on gay issues or the controversy over the anti-gay laws.

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New The Invisible Woman Trailer – Plus a poster for Ralph Fiennes’ Dickens flick

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Ralph Fiennes got plenty of plaudits for his directorial debut, Coriolanus, and for his second venture he’s moving from Shakespeare to Dickens with The Invisible Woman – it’s not based on a Dickens tale, but it is about him.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Felicity Jones (Breathe In, Like Crazy) stars as Nelly Ternan, the woman with whom Charles Dickens (Ralph Fiennes) had a secret decade-long relationship. They are joined by a stellar British cast including Kristin Scott Thomas (Four Weddings and a Funeral, I’ve Loved you So Long) as Nelly’s mother – marking the first occasion Fiennes and Scott Thomas have appeared together on screen since the Academy Award® winning The English Patient in 1996 – alongside Tom Hollander (In the Loop, Pride & Prejudice) as author and friend of Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Joanna Scanlan (‘The Thick of It’, Notes on a Scandal) who delivers a heart-breaking performance as Dickens’ long-suffering wife, Catherine.

‘Nelly (Felicity Jones), a happily-married mother and schoolteacher, is haunted by her past. Her memories, provoked by remorse and guilt, take us back in time to follow the story of her relationship with Charles Dickens (Ralph Fiennes) with whom she discovered an exciting but fragile complicity.

‘Dickens – famous, controlling and emotionally isolated within his success – falls for Nelly, who comes from a family of actors. The theatre is a vital arena for Dickens – a brilliant amateur actor – a man more emotionally coherent on the page or on stage, than in life. As Nelly becomes the focus of Dickens’ passion and his muse, for both of them secrecy is the price, and for Nelly a life of “invisibility”.’

The film’s out in the UK February 7th 2014. [Read more…]

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The Grand Budapest Hotel Trailer – First look at Wes Anderson’s star-studded latest

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While Wes Anderson’s is a bit of a love him or be bored by him director, there’s no doubt a lot of people adore his quirky, eccentric movies – and that includes a lot of famous names, who are happy to show up to appear in his flicks. Indeed, he’s almost got his own repertory company with names such as Owen Wilson, Bill Murray and Ed Norton, who are all back for The Grand Budapest Hotel.

They’re not the only great names, as Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law, Harvey Keitel, Saoirse Ronan, Lea Seydoux, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson also star,

Here’s the synopsis: ‘THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL recounts the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune — all against the back-drop of a suddenly and dramatically changing Continent.’

It’s due out early next year. [Read more…]

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Gary Oldman Set To Direct Flying Horse, With Ralph Fiennes & Benedict Cumberbatch Eyed To Star

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gary-oldmanGary Oldman got huge acclaim and two BAFTAs for his directorial debut, 1997’s Nil By Mouth, but since then he’s pretty much stuck to acting. Now he’s planning to helm another movie, as TheWrap reports that he’s set to direct a biopic about film pioneer Eadweard Muybridge, called Flying Horse.

It’s also said that he wants Ralph Fiennes and Benedict Cumberbatch to star, but no deals have been set in place yet.

Muybridge was a photographer who set out to settle a bet for California governor Leland Stanford in the early 1870s, over whether a horse ever had all four hooves off the ground while running at full gallop. Using an array of 12 cameras, each set to fire one after the other, he helped prove that horses did indeed have all feet off the floor, although not in the way most people had presumed.

These sequential photographs, often shown as a moving picture series in magic lantern shows, paved the way for the motion picture projector and the film industry as we know it. However, Eadweard Muybridge is also famous for murdering reputed theater critic Major Henry Larkyns, who was having an affair with his wife, Fiona.

The biopic will focus on the love triangle, with Ralph Fiennes being eyed to star as Eadweard Muybridge and Benedict Cumberbatch circling the Major Henry Larkyns role.

In addition to writing and directing, Gary Oldman may also play the smaller role of Dennis Spencer, the district attorney who defended Eadweard Muybridge in his murder trial. The current hop is to shoot next year, if financing comes together.

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Great Expectations (2012) (DVD)

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The BBC must like Great Expectations an awful lot, as within 12 months they produced a TV version starring Douglas Booth, Gillian Anderson and Ray Winstone, and backed this movie version from director Mike Newell (Prince Of Persia). They should probably have stuck with the very well received former, as while handsomely mounted and well-acted, Newell’s movie is a little flat. [Read more…]

Ralph Fiennes Books Into Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel

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Over the years Wes Anderson has built up a trusty stable of actors, such as Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray, who he’s used over and over again, but that doesn’t mean he won’t use new actors. Ralph Fiennes is an Anderson newbie, but he’s just signed up to work with the director on his new movie, Grand Budapest Hotel, according to Variety.

The actor will play M. Gustave, the ‘perfectly composed concierge’ who works in the titular hotel. Wes Anderson confirmed last month that Bill Murray is starring in an unspecified role, although he also debunked a rumor that Johnny Depp will be involved. The filmmaker has also been reported to recruit Jude Law and Angela Lansbury to star.

Wes Anderson is directing from his own original screenplay. It isn’t known when production will begin.

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Fresh Great Expectations Trailer Hits – Plus a couple of clips from the new take on Dickens

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Mike Newell’s Great Expectations was screened at the Toronto Film Festival a few days ago and will close the London Film Festival on October 21st, ahead of its UK release on Friday 30th November 2012. Now a new trailer has arrived, and we’ve embedded a couple of clips from the movie below. Here’s the synopsis: #Young orphan Pip is given a chance to rise from his humble beginnings thanks to a mysterious benefactor. Moving through London’s class ridden world as a gentleman, Pip uses his new found position to pursue the beautiful Estella; a spoilt heiress he’s loved since childhood. Yet the shocking truth behind his great fortune will have devastating consequences for everything he holds dear. Starring an award-winning cast, this British tour de force is directed by the BAFTA winning director of Four Weddings and A Funeral and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Mike Newell, and has been written for the big screen by David Nicholls, the acclaimed writer of the global best seller One Day.’

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Great Expectations To Close London Film Festival

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A few days ago it was announced that Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie is set to open 56th BFI London Film Festival on October 10th, and now it’s been revealed that the closing movie will be the European Premiere of Mike Newell’s take on Great Expectations.

In the film, young orphan Pip is given a chance to rise from his humble beginnings thanks to a mysterious benefactor. Moving through London’s class-ridden world as a gentleman, Pip uses his new-found position to pursue the beautiful Estella, a spoilt heiress he’s loved since childhood. Yet the shocking truth behind this great fortune will have devastating consequences for everything he holds dear.

The movie stars Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Jeremy Irvine, Holliday Grainger, Robbie Coltrane, Ewen Bremner, Jason Flemyng, Sally Hawkins, David Walliams and Tamzin Outhwaite. It was adapted for the screen by David Nicholls, writer of the global best-seller One Day. The film will be released nationwide on 30th November 2012 in the UK.

Director Mike Newell comments: “It’s a great honour to be invited to be the BFI London Film Festival’s Closing Night film. I’m proud that our new version of Great Expectations should be presented this year, the bi-centenary of Dickens’ birth. I’ve tried to make a film that is true to the theatrical vividness, energetic characters and high colour that he is loved for, while mining the deep seams of emotional cruelty and madness that underlie one of Dickens’ darkest-shadowed stories. I’ve tried to make a film for a young modern audience in which Pip and Estella’s fated love affair is shown through feelings and stresses that are of today and in a city that was, then, full of brawling energy, was unimaginably wealthy and very bad.”

Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes and Mike Newell are expected to attend the Festival. The 56th BFI London Film Festival runs from Wednesday 10th October-Sunday 21st October.

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