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The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Trailer – Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy and co. are back

August 8, 2014 By Tim Isaac 1 Comment

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel turned out to be a far bigger hit than anyone expected, grossing over $135 million around the world and ensuring a sequel was put into the works. Now the trailer for the film has arrived, which you can watch below.

Original cast members Judi Dench (Evelyn), Maggie Smith (Muriel), Bill Nighy (Douglas), Dev Patel (Sonny), Penelope Wilton (Jean), Celia Imrie (Madge), Ronald Pickup (Norman), Tina Desai (Sunaina), Diana Hardcastle (Carol) and Lillete Dubey (Mrs. Kapoor) are joined by the likes of Tamsin Greig, David Strathairn and Richard Gere for the follow-up.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL is the expansionist dream of Sonny (Dev Patel), and it’s making more claims on his time than he has available, considering his imminent marriage to the love of his life, Sunaina (Tina Desai). Sonny has his eye on a promising property now that his first venture, ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful’, has only a single remaining vacancy – posing a rooming predicament for fresh arrivals Guy (Richard Gere) and Lavinia (Tamsin Greig). Evelyn and Douglas (Judi Dench and Bill Nighy) have now joined the Jaipur workforce, and are wondering where their regular dates for Chilla pancakes will lead, while Norman and Carol (Ronald Pickup and Diana Hardcastle) are negotiating the tricky waters of an exclusive relationship, as Madge (Celia Imrie) juggles two eligible and very wealthy suitors. Perhaps the only one who may know the answers is newly installed co-manager of the hotel, Muriel (Maggie Smith), the keeper of everyone’s secrets. As the demands of a traditional Indian wedding threaten to engulf them all, an unexpected way forward presents itself.

‘Directed by John Madden from an original screenplay by Ol Parker THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL will open across the UK and Ireland on 27 February 2015, distributed by Twentieth Century Fox.’ [Read more…]

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ACTORS: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Richard Gere DIRECTORS: John Madden FILMS: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 2

Richard Gere & David Strathairn Join The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 2

January 11, 2014 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

While The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel mainly stuck with British and Indian actors, the sequel is getting an infusion of American men. Back in October it was revealed they were trying to land Richard Gere for the movie. Now he’s officially signed on and so has the always excellent David Strathairn, as well as a new Brit, Tamsin Grieg.

Most of the original cast will also be back, including Judi Dench (Evelyn), Maggie Smith (Muriel), Bill Nighy (Douglas), Dev Patel (Sonny), Celia Imrie (Madge), Ronald Pickup (Norman), Penelope Wilton (Jean), Diana Hardcastle (Carol), Tena Desae (Sunaina) and Lillete Dubey (Mrs. Kapoor).

John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) has returned to helm, working from an original screenplay by Ol Parker. The movie follows, ‘the expansionist dream of Sonny (Dev Patel), and it’s making more claims on his time than he has available, considering his imminent marriage to the love of his life, Sunaina (Tena Desae). Sonny has his eye on a promising property now that his first venture, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful, has only a single remaining vacancy – posing a rooming predicament for fresh arrivals Guy (Richard Gere) and Lavinia (Tamsin Greig). Evelyn and Douglas (Judi Dench and Bill Nighy) have now joined the Jaipur workforce, and are wondering where their regular dates for Chilla pancakes will lead, while Norman and Carol (Ronald Pickup and Diana Hardcastle) are negotiating the tricky waters of an exclusive relationship, as Madge (Celia Imrie) juggles two eligible and very wealthy suitors. Perhaps the only one who may know the answers is newly installed co-manager of the hotel, Muriel (Maggie Smith), the keeper of everyone’s secrets. As the demands of a traditional Indian wedding threaten to engulf them all, an unexpected way forward presents itself.’

Filming is now underway in India.

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:
ACTORS: Richard Gere, David Strathairn DIRECTORS: John Madden FILMS: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 2

Colin Firth, Emily Blunt & Adam Sandler Will Have A Murder Mystery

April 26, 2013 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

For a while John Madden has been plotting Murder Mystery as his follow-up to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, with Charlize Theron attached to star. Now the cast has grown significantly, with THR reporting that Colin Firth, Adam Sandler, and Emily Blunt have also signed up to appear in the movie.

James Vanderbilt’s script is about a pair of American newlyweds visiting Europe on their honeymoon who get implicated in a murder they witnessed. There’s no news on exactly who any of the cast members will play, although Sandler and Theron will presumably be the American couple.

The film will shoot in Germany later this year.

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ACTORS: Colin Firth, Emily Blunt, Adam Sandler DIRECTORS: John Madden FILMS: Murder Mystery

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (DVD)

June 25, 2012 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Dev Patel, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson
Director: John Madden
Running Time: 118 mins
Certificate: 12
Release Date: June 25th, 2012

Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Dev Patel, Ronald Pickup – if you assemble a cast like that, you could get them to read the phone book and it would be entertaining. It would be tough to get them to make something that wasn’t at least worth a look, and thankfully although The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a relatively slight tale, it’s never less than charming.

Dench, Smith, Nighty, Wilkinson, Imrie, Wilton and Pickup play a group of aging Brits, who for one reason and another respond to an advert for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The ad promises an Indian idyll where retirees can live out their days in luxury that brings to mind the days of the Raj. After a rather problematic journey to the hotel, the reality turns out to be rather different than what was promised, with the hotel falling to bits and little of the advertised luxury. [Read more…]

Charlize Theron Set To Solve A Murder Mystery

June 14, 2012 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Thanks to Prometheus, the slightly idling career of Charlize Theron has been kicked back into high gear, and she’s now in negotiations to star in and produce Murder Mystery for director John Madden, according to Deadline.

The first news of the project surface back in December 2010, when Kevin Macdonald was attached to direct, but he’s now been replaced by Shakespeare In Love and The Debt’s Madden. The comedy is described as an ‘affectionate deconstruction’ of an Agatha Christie-style whodunit, which centres on an American couple traveling overseas.

James Vanderbilt (Total Recall, The Amazing Spider-Man) wrote the screenplay, although there’s no news on when it might shoot.

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DIRECTORS: John Madden

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Cinema)

February 20, 2012 By Stephen Sclater Leave a Comment

Starring: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie, Tom Wilkinson
Director: John Madden
Running Time: 123 mins
Certificate: 12A
Release Date: February 24th, 2012

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel doesn’t have the catchiest title I have ever heard. However, based on the novel by Deborah Moggach, the film stars the ‘crème de la crème’ of our favourite geriatric British film and TV actors, and is directed by John Madden (Shakespeare In love, Mrs Brown and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin).

After the phenomenal success of Slumdog Millionaire, it was inevitable that at some point mainstream British cinema would be return to India. The premise of the film is that seven elderly people decide to up-sticks from the UK and go to India, moving into a hotel for the ‘elderly and beautiful’. However it doesn’t quite live up to the image of the photoshopped promos! [Read more…]

The Debt (DVD)

January 22, 2012 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington
Director: John Madden
Running Time: 113 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: January 23rd, 2012

The Debt starts out in 1997, with Rachel (Helen Mirren) being lauded for her role in a Mossad mission 30 years before, in which she and two other agents are known for going into East Berlin to bring a Nazi War Criminal to justice, killing him in the process. After a dinner in her honour, shocking news comes through that one of the other agents, David (Ciaran Hinds), has thrown himself in front of a truck, and it seems to have something to do with their shared past.

Flashing back to 1965 – when Helen Mirren was Jessica Chastain, Ciaran Hinds was Sam Worthington and Tom Wilkinson was Martin Csokas – we find out exactly what happened on the mission. Rachel enters East Berlin and a rundown apartment where David and Stephan have been cooped up together for months, with only each other for company. When the mission goes wrong and the plan to get the Nazi out of East Berlin fails, the situation gets ever more intense while the trio try to find a way to extract the criminal to Israel. [Read more…]

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Trailer – Dench, Smith & co. go to India

December 6, 2011 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

With a cast including Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie and Ronald Pickup, you’d expect something ridiculously classy and highbrow, but The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel seems a whole lot more fun than that. Indeed it seems kind of like Carry On Abroad but with loads of Oscar winners. For a disparate group of English pensioners, retirement takes an unconventional turn when they are enticed by The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a seemingly luxurious sanctuary for ‘the elderly and beautiful’ in Jaipur, India. On arrival, they discover that the hotel falls somewhat short of the idyll promised in the brochure, but they are gradually won over by the ever-optimistic young manager Sonny (Dev Patel), and embark on a new adventure, finding that life can begin again when you let go of the past. The film hits cinemas next February.