Sandra Oh not only hosted the Golden Globes last night (January 6), but took home one of the night’s biggest awards for her performance in Killing Eve.
Wearing another outfit worthy of Villanelle, our Sandra thanked showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge, co-star Jodie Comer and her parents, who were all cheering her on in the audience.
Other Anglo faves to win awards included Ben Whishaw, who won Best Supporting Actor in a TV Limited Series for his role in A Very English Scandal, and Richard Madden, whose performance in Bodyguard bagged him an award for Best Actor in a TV Drama.
Best TV Drama went to The Americans, while The Kominsky Method was named Best TV Comedy and The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story won Best Limited Series.
The film categories offered a hint at who might be in the running for Oscar glory next month, with Christian Bale winning Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for his portrayal of Dick Cheney in Vice, and Olivia Colman winning Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy category for her performance in The Favourite.
It’s fair to say Olivia was excited, blaming her ineloquence on riding “in a private jet,” calling co-stars Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz “ma b–ches,” and doing her best Dick van Dyke impression on stage during her acceptance speech.
“Cor blimey,” she exclaimed on reaching the podium. “I’m not going to cry because my entire table will point and laugh at me. I’ve been crying all evening.”
Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody won two big awards, including one for its star Rami Malek and his portrayal of frontman Freddie Mercury. He posed later on with band members Brian May and Roger Taylor.
Glenn Close won Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) for her role in The Wife, fueling speculation that she might finally win an Oscar after coming close six times, while Mahershala Ali and Regina King won the Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards for their roles in Green Book and If Beale Street Could Talk respectively.
Predictions are never straightforward, however: just some of the favorites who missed out this time include Emily Blunt, Emma Stone, Timothée Chalamet, Lady Gaga, and Bradley Cooper.
Idris Elba has been more than a little vocal about James Bond in the past year, something he may have regretted last night (January 6) at the Golden Globes.
It all may be fun and games, but not for the current incumbent of the 007 role. Daniel Craig just so happened to be at the Golden Globes last night (January 6), supporting wife Rachel Weisz after she’d been nominated for her performance in The Favourite, and so, coincidentally, was Idris, who was there to present the award for Best Original Song alongside his Cats co-star Taylor Swift.
The outcome? Idris posted the following hilarious photo on his social media accounts, with one simple caption: “Er… awks…..”
Tom Hardy will transform once again into Venom, just weeks after it was confirmed his pal Benedict Cumberbatch would get another solo outing as Doctor Strange.
Variety reports a sequel to last year’s Venom is in the works, after the first movie grossed a whopping $855 million worldwide, despite reviews being decidedly mixed.
A lot of that success was down to Tom, who played down-on-his-luck journalist Eddie Brock and his slobbering, razor-toothed “symbiote” self with his usual terrifying panache. It’s no surprise then that he’ll be back, with screenwriter Kelly Marcel, who co-wrote the first film, in talks to write the script and executive-produce.
It remains to be seen exactly what the plannedsequel will be about, but it’s probably a safe bet to say that Michelle Williams, who played Eddie’s former fiancée Anne Weying, will return.
And then there’s Woody Harrelson. The Cheers star made a surprise appearance in Venom‘s end credits scene wearing a red curly wig as convicted serial killer Cletus Kasady, who comic fans know becomes one of Venom’s most bloodthirsty foes when he bonds with a symbiote of his own and takes on the name Carnage.
The new film looks set to be a showdown between the two, now that Carlton Drake, a.k.a. Riot (a.k.a. Riz Ahmed), is out of the picture.
It’s expected to open in the fall of 2020, after Tom appears in Al Capone biopic Fonzo and (fingers crossed) another helping of Taboo.
The Favourite is certainly living up to its name, with the most nominations at this year’s British Academy Film Awards.
Just days after Olivia Colmanbagged a Golden Globe for her performance, the quirky comedy-drama has received 12 nods, including one for Best Film, at a ceremony held earlier today (January 9) at BAFTA in London.
Queen Olivia will once again vie for Best Leading Actress, this time against her fellow Golden Globe winner Glenn Close, while her co-stars Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz are both nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
The number of mentions puts The Favourite far ahead of its next rivals, which, with seven nominations apiece, are Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star is Born, First Man, and Roma. Vice follows with six, including another acting nod for Golden Globe winner Christian Bale, while Spike Lee‘s BlacKkKlansman has five.
Rami Malek, Bradley Cooper and Stan & Ollie‘s Steve Coogan are also up for Best Leading Actor, while the Best Leading Actress category includes a nod to A Star is Born‘s Lady Gaga and Viola Davis for Widows.
Angloophenia faves Claire Foy, Margot Robbie, Mahershala Ali, Amy Adams and Richard E. Grant are also among the acting nominees.
And then there’s the BAFTA Rising Star Award, which has been won by Eva Green, Tom Hardy and Daniel Kaluuya in the past. This year’s contenders were announced last week, and include Letitia Wright (Black Panther), Jessie Buckley (Taboo), Cynthia Erivo (Widows), Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk) and Lakeith Stanfield (Sorry to Bother You).
The BAFTA Film Awards 2019 will take place on February 10, hosted by the absolutely fabulous Joanna Lumley.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel star Dev Patel trades one hotel for a very different experience in Hotel Mumbai.
The trailer for the film was released yesterday (January 9), showing the alum team up with Armie Hammer against a group of gun-wielding terrorists.
The film is based on the real-life events of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, during which the city’s famous Taj Mahal Palace hotel was held under siege by terrorists.
As the world watches on, the hotel’s chef Hemant Oberoi (played by The Big Sick‘s Anupam Kher) and waiter Arjun (Patel) choose to risk their lives to protect their guests, while a desperate couple (Hammerand Homeland‘s Nazanin Boniadi) are forced to make unthinkable sacrifices to protect their newborn child. Jason Isaacs pops up too, as a Russian businessman dining in the restaurant when the attackers arrive.
The film has met with rave reviews since it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year, with Variety calling it “visually breathtaking” and “emotionally electrifying,” and the Guardian describing it as an “excellent, white-knuckle thriller.”
Hotel Mumbai opens in theaters on March 22, 2019.
Are you looking forward to seeing Dev play an action hero?
Today (10 January) marks 20 years since the first ever episode of The Sopranos aired, setting in motion a ratings and cultural phenomenon that took place over six season and 86 episodes.
If we are in a “golden era of television,” then The Sopranos was surely the harbinger that ushered it in. Below are ten ways it changed TV forever, and inspired the creators of some of our favorite shows.
1. Premium drama
The Sopranos helped transform HBO from a fights-and-features cabler into a destination for critically-acclaimed drama. The fact that people had to subscribe to watch meant it was more important to make a show they loved, rather than one that simply reached as big an audience as possible. The result is ever higher quality cable shows, like Mad Men, Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, that go on to attract dedicated and committed fanbases.
Andrew Lincoln in ‘The Walking Dead’ (Pic: Gene Page/AMC)
2. Tony Soprano
The show’s central character set the stage for some of TV’s most difficult, conflicted men, like Deadwood‘s Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), Mad Men‘s Don Draper (Jon Hamm), Billions‘ Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis), Empire‘s Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard), and, most famously, Breaking Bad‘s Walter White (Bryan Cranston). Tony was a deeply flawed man, prone to unpredictable violence and appalling vice, but he was so excessively human and so committed to his own personal code, we ended up rooting for him anyway. This was in large part due to James Gandolfini, whose peerless performance could go from wonky-toothed charm to frightening unpredictability in a heartbeat.
I'm saddened by James Gandolfini's passing. He was a great talent & I owe him. Quite simply, without Tony Soprano there is no Walter White.
The Sopranos‘ success set a precedent for higher budgets, at a time when big drama shows were normally produced for about $2 million per episode. Costs have since ballooned as producers seek to attract major talent and achieve ever better production values with shows such as Vinyl (the pilot cost a cool $30 million), historical epic Rome ($10 million per episode), Game of Thrones ($10 million per episode), and Westworld ($8-10 million per episode) all benefitting from the “Sopranos effect.”
The cast of ‘Game of Thrones.’ (Photo: HBO)
4. The standalone episode
So-called “bottle” episodes have always existed, usually in a bid to produce an episode cheaply using a single location and non-regular cast members. The Sopranos took them to another level though in “Pine Barrens,” the acclaimed season three episode directed by Steve Buscemi. In it, two of the show’s best – and weirdest – characters, Paulie Walnuts (Tony Sirico) and Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), stumble around 1.1 million acres of dense woodland on the New Jersey border. It’s funny. It’s high stakes. And above all, a brilliant character study of two mob henchmen. Self-contained episodes have become all the rage since then, with shows like Breaking Bad, Atlanta and Master of None breaking the main story arc to focus on a sub-plot or character.
5. Soundtrack
The throbbing beat of “Woke Up This Morning” by Alabama 3 over the titles of the pilot episode was the first clue that The Sopranos would be doing music differently. Eschewing the traditional use of incidental music, the show instead treated its soundtrack like a jukebox, picking tracks such as “State Trooper” by Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra‘s “It Was a Very Good Year,” and “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey for significant emotional prompts.
Current shows from Insecure and Girls to Ray Donovan take a similar approach, one that reached an apex in 2012 when Mad Men paid $250,000 to use “Tomorrow Never Knows” by The Beatles.
Bruce Springsteen. (Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
6. Dark, challenging storytelling
At the end of season three episode “Employee of the Month,” Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) struggles with the notion of telling Tony about her rape. Her assailant has walked free, and one word to a mafia boss like Tony would put the wheels in motion for her revenge. But she doesn’t do it. She knows it would cross a line. More than that, it would downgrade a show known for its dark, challenging storylines for a moment of cheap closure. Darkly cynical shows such as Dexter and Weeds, or Battlestar Galactica, The Wire and Deadwood are direct descendants of The Sopranos‘ unflinching approach.
(Photo: HBO)
7. Raised the profile of TV as a medium
The Sopranos single-handedly raised the profile of television as a medium capable of dramatic ambiguity and emotional depth. With over 100 hours of television to play with, the writers could delve into every character, however brief or inconsequential to the plot, and produce a living, breathing thing, with new book The Sopranos Sessions highlighting its use of symbolism, and no less an authority than Norman Mailerlikening it to the Great American Novel.
We’d go one further than that, and call it Shakespearean: a compelling personal drama about the head of a family undergoing what is essentially a mid-life crisis, even if that “family” happens to be the New Jersey Mob. Since its example, we’ve been treated to shows like The Wire, reminiscent of sprawling 19th-century novelists like Dickens and Balzac in its scope, or Battlestar Galactica, which grappled with ethical and political dilemmas as sensitively as Philip K. Dick. Once found in writers such as John Steinbeck, Philip Roth, and Toni Morrison, a distillation of the American experience can now be found in some of our best TV shows, and we have The Sopranos to thank.
Aww! A fresh-faced Idris Elba arrives at the New York premiere of ‘The Wire’ in 2004. (Photo: Scott Wintrow/Getty Images)
8. The showrunner as auteur
Film has always had auteurs: names like Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog, and the Coen Brothers, are tantamount to being genres of their own. Sopranos creator David Chase was the one of the first TV showrunners who the public could name, leading the way for Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing), David Simon (The Wire), Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy), Matthew Weiner (Mad Men), and Lena Dunham (Girls).
David Chase at the 2016 Vulture Festival at Milk Studios on May 22, 2016 in New York City. (Photo: Getty Images)
9. Edie Falco
Without The Sopranos there would be no Edie Falco, or no Nurse Jackie, at least. Like her co-star James Gandolfini, Edie won three Emmys for her performance, and continued racking up awards even after saying goodbye to Carmela. Her starring role as a drug-addicted nurse in Nurse Jackie earned her five Emmy nominations and a win in 2010, and she recently popped up in a heartbreaking turn as Louis C.K. and Steve Buscemi‘s sister in Horace and Pete.
Edie Falco attends the “The Sopranos” 20th Anniversary Panel Discussion at SVA Theater on January 09, 2019 in New York City. (Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
10. More graphic content
With its brutal violence and inhibitions at showing the unseemlier side of life, The Sopranos paved the road for smart but graphic shows such as Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, and Hannibal. The upshot wasn’t necessarily positive. Noting the increase in violence on network shows, the New York Times blamed it on viewers becoming accustomed to such scenes on cable, resulting in “unnecessary gore at best and dreadful copycatting at worst.”
Mads Mikkelsen (l) and Hugh Dancy (r) in ‘Hannibal’. (Photo: Sony Pictures Television)
News first emerged that Sir Patrick Stewart would be reprising his Star Trek role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard back in August, but details have so far been few and far between.
It was unclear, for instance, how the new spin-off series would fit with Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994), or 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis, the final film to feature Sir Pat as Picard and the TNG crew (not to mention a certain Tom Hardy as Picard’s clone), or the recent reboot movies directed by J.J. Abrams.
Until now, that is. According to an interview with showrunner Alex Kurtzman in The Hollywood Reporter, the series will see Picard dealing with the aftermath of a supernova that destroyed the planet Romulus and sent Spock and Nero back in time through a black hole.
If that sounds familiar, then that’s because it’s the very same cataclysmic event described by a much older Spock (Leonard Nimoy) in 2009 reboot Star Trek. You can watch the original series via BBC America.
That’s not to say the Picard series will take place in the same timeline as that movie, however. It will take place after the events in Star Trek:Nemesis, andon the so-called “Prime” timeline, a.k.a. the universe left behind after Spock and Nero got zapped away, and turned up alongside Chris Pine as Captain Kirk and Simon Pegg as Scotty.
Confused yet? You’re not alone. Thankfully Trekkie site TrekCore has created a useful diagram to help explain how the Picard show fits in:
Kurtzman describes Picard’s life as “radically altered ” by the supernova, which has altered the balance of power in the galaxy. Picard also acted as an emissary between the Federation and the Romulan Empire, meaning the destruction of the latter would have special significance for him.
Referring to Sir Patrick, Kurtzman explains: “He threw down an amazing gauntlet and said, ‘If we do this, I want it to be so different, I want it to be both what people remember but also not what they’re expecting at all, otherwise why do it?'”
The untitled Picard show is expected to air later this year on CBS.
The air date for the final season of Game of Thrones has been revealed, meaning we can mark April 14, 2019 in our planners.
A new teaser trailer aired on HBO last night (January 13), showing Jon (Kit Harington), Arya (Maisie Williams) and Sansa (Sophie Turner) assemble in the Winterfell crypt as a frost approaches.
If only there was a neater, snappier phrase for “a frost is approaching,” eh?
It’s been a year and a half since season seven left us reeling, but the saga will finally reach a conclusion — and winter will finally come — in the eighth and final season.
The last season is just six episodes long, but each episode is rumored to be about 90 minutes long, the same length as a movie. HBO boss Richard Plepler has even gone so far as to call each episode “spectacular:”
“It’s a spectacle,” he recently told Variety. “The guys have done six movies. The reaction I had while watching them was, ‘I’m watching a movie.'”
So cancel all your plans: Game of Thrones season 8 will premiere on HBO on April 14, 2019, with each episode following every Sunday thereafter.
Until then, watch the fearless leaders of BBC America’s Dynasties defend their own thrones in the series premiere this Saturday at 9/8c.
Do you have some sort of strategy to prepare for the end of GoT?
Forget Loki and Batman. Perry Mason is about to get his own origin story, with Matthew Rhys playing a younger version of the famed defense lawyer.
Variety reports the Americans star will take the lead role in limited series Perry Mason for HBO, playing the character made famous by Raymond Burr as he lives check-to-check as a “low-rent private investigator” in 1932 Los Angeles.
The series will likely delve into material from the original books by Erle Stanley Gardner, who wrote over 80 novels and short stories about Perry and his legal team, the first of which was published in 1933.
Sure enough, the show’s synopsis says it will center on a child kidnapping case, which simultaneously reveals a “fractured city” and offers Perry — who’s haunted by his experiences in war-torn France and suffering the effects of a broken marriage — a pathway to redemption when he takes it on.
It’s no surprise then that True Detective‘s Nic Pizzolatto was briefly attached, though he’s since had to leave the project to focus on season three of the detective drama. Also gone is Robert Downey Jr., who was originally lined up to play Perry way back in 2011 when the project was still a feature-length movie.
Robert’s not fussed though. He remains on board as executive producer, and had this to say about his “new best friend” Matthew:
"Now it seems to me the place to start is at the beginning." Perry Mason “And it seems to me the beginning of any great project is casting my new best friend Matthew Rhys.” Robert Downey Jr. Executive Producer pic.twitter.com/jZl6Mm0GGx
Toni Collette will blast into outer space for her next film, a sci-fi thriller about an ill-fated mission to Mars called Stowaway.
Variety reports the About a Boy and Little Miss Sunshine star will play the commander of a ship on its way to the red planet, when an unexpected stowaway does major damage to the life support systems.
It means she’ll be pitted against Anna Kendrick, whose starring role as the crew’s feisty medical researcher was confirmed by the Hollywood Reporter in October. According to the film’s synopsis, the two women will battle it out over how best to survive, as the ship’s resources rapidly dwindle. And while Toni’s character uses “clinical logic” to come to a grim conclusion, Anna’s emerges as the “only dissenting voice.”
It matches what we know of the two actresses so far, with Anna’s attitude and Pitch Perfect pluckiness being an interesting foil for the chilly authority Toni recently demonstrated in Hereditary.
The film will be directed by Joe Penna, a former YouTube star who co-wrote the script with Ryan Morrison. You may not have heard of them yet, but this pair of filmmakers is about to break out with Arctic, a survival filmstarring Mads Mikkelsen as a man stranded after an airplane crash.
There’s no word yet as to when the film will start filming or be released, but with Arctic premiering at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, it’s not unreasonable to think this one might be ready for next year’s festival in May 2020.
Sir David Attenborough‘s latest natural history show, Dynasties, proves that the animal world is just as fraught with family drama as our own.
With new episodes premiering Saturdays at 9/8c on BBC America, the series focuses on a different animal family with each episode, from the mama lion trying to raise and protect her family, to the alpha chimpanzee whose long reign is being challenged by power-hungry rivals.
It got us thinking of the real-life dynasties stalking the hills of Hollywood, and the complicated histories and rivalries within them. Below are ten of the greatest.
1. The Coppolas
Sofia Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola, Eleanor Coppola and Roman Coppola in 2013. (Photo: Getty Images)
This dynasty has often been dubbed “the Corleones of Hollywood,” thanks to the trilogy of films directed by its guiding light Francis Ford Coppola. His father Carmine, a composer in his own right, scored Godfather II, while his children Roman and Sofia popped up as the young Sonny and Mary Corleone in Godfather III before going on to have successful directing careers of their own. And that’s not all: Francis’s nephews include actors Robert and Jason Schwartzman, not to mention Nicolas Cage (born Coppola).
2. The Douglases
Michael Douglas (L) and his father Kirk Douglas at the 84th Annual Academy Awards in 2012. (Photo: ADRIAN SANCHEZ-GONZALEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
Patriarchs don’t come more impressive than Spartacus star Kirk Douglas, who, at the grand old age of 102, still presides over the Douglas clan. The last surviving star of Hollywood’s Golden Age, he had four sons who followed him into showbiz: Peter and Joel, who both became producers, and Eric and Michael, who became actors. The famous family received a dash of glamour in the form of Catherine Zeta-Jones, who married Michael in 2000.
3. The Jacksons
The Jacksons on September 4, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo: Getty Images)
This First Family of Pop had humble beginnings in Gary, Indiana, but went on to dominate the charts with Motown hits as the Jackson 5, then disco bangers as The Jacksons, followed by solo number ones by Jermaine, Janet and, of course, Michael. Papa Joe may have passed last year, but Mama Katherine still serves as matriarch to a family comprising nine children, 26 grandchildren, and 19 great grandchildren, many of whom have ambitions to follow in their famous family’s fancy footsteps.
4. The Minnellis/Lufts
Singer Lorna Luft (L), her daughter Vanessa and sister Liza Minnelli arrive at a screening of ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’ on April 4, 2004 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft‘s relationship has had its highs and lows, but the two daughters of Hollywood sweetheart Judy Garland chalk it up to typical sibling rivalry. Both have singing careers, and though Lorna’s is eclipsed by her EGOT-winning half-sister, she got her own back with 1999 book Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir.
5. The Barrymores
Drew Barrymore attends The Museum Of Modern Art Film Benefit Presented By CHANEL: A Tribute To Martin Scorsese on November 19, 2018 in New York City. (Photo: Getty Images)
It was no surprise when little Drew Barrymore was cast in E.T. in 1982. Acting goes back no fewer than four generations in her family, starting with her parents John Barrymore Jr., and Jaid Barrymore; her grandfather John, considered the “world’s greatest actor” in the 1920s and ’30s, who married famous silent-screen star Dolores Costello; her great-aunt and “glamor girl” Ethel and her great-uncle Lionel, a character actor who appeared in more than 200 films, including as Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life; and stretching all the way back to her board-treading great-grandparents MauriceBarrymore and Georgiana Drew.
6. The Sheens
Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez attend the Career Achievement Award ceremony honoring Martin Sheen during the 47th Chicago International film festival at the AMC River East Theater in 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo: Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images)
Best known for his roles in Apocalypse Now and The West Wing, Martin Sheen (born Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez) had four children, all of whom followed him into acting. Two became stars quickly: Emilio Estevez in 1985 with The Breakfast Club and St Elmo’s Fire, and Charlie Sheen in 1986 with Platoon and Wall Street. Since then, the two brothers have taken drastically different paths, with Emilio telling the Telegraph in 2011 he was “at a loss” as to why his brother has struggled with demons so much more than he has.
7. The Hustons
Angelica Huston (R) with her nephew Jack Huston at the ‘Boardwalk Empire’ season 2 premiere after party on September 14, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/Getty Images)
When Angelica Huston won an Oscar in 1985 for her role in Mob satire Prizzi’s Honor, her clan achieved something no other Hollywood dynasty has: the first family in the Academy’s history in which three generations have won Academy Awards. Even more apt, her Oscar-winning performancehad been directed by her father, the legendary director, screenwriter, and actor John Huston, who directed such classics as The Maltese Falcon, The African Queen and Asphalt Jungle, andwas in turn the son of Oscar-winning actor Walter Huston. It doesn’t stop there, either: Angelica’s brother is actor Danny Huston, while her brother Tony’s son Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire, Ben-Hur) is now forging ahead with an acting career of his own.
8. The Gyllenhaals
Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal attend the NY Special Screening of Netflix’s ‘The Kindergarten Teacher’ at Crosby Street Hotel on October 9, 2018 in New York City. (Photo: Getty Images)
This Hollywood clan can actually trace their lineage back over 400 years to a Swedish cavalry officer called Lieutenant Nils Gunnarsson Haal. Since then, the family has had numerous notable members in Sweden and the U.S., including Stephen Gyllenhaal, the director and father of Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
9. The Presleys
Priscilla Presley attends The Humane Society of the United States’ to the Rescue Gala in 2016 with her granddaughter Riley Keogh. (Photo: Getty Images)
Elvis may be dead, but his name lives on with ex-wife Priscilla and daughter Lisa Marie Presley. The latter has released music of her own, including duets recorded posthumously with her famous dad, and her daughter is actress Riley Keogh, who briefly got to call Michael Jackson her step-dad when he married her mom in 1994. The marriage promised to unite two Hollywood families into one mega-dynasty; sadly though, it was not to last. Her even briefer marriage to Nicolas Cage offered an alliance with the Coppolas, but it ended after 108 days.
10. The Reynolds/Fishers
Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds and Billie Lourd at the 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 25, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo: Getty Images)
Okay, so Carrie Fisher‘s lineage pales in comparison with Princess Leia’s, but it comes pretty close. The scion of Hollywood darlings Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, she herself was the mother of actress Billie Lourd, the sister of director Todd Fisher, while her two half-sisters are actresses Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher.
11. The Skarsgårds
Alexander and Stellan Skarsgård arrive at the premiere of Marvel Studios’ “The Avengers” at the El Capitan Theatre on April 11, 2012 in Hollywood, California. (Photo: Getty Images)
This epic family are all over our screens: there’s Alexander Skarsgård in True Blood or Big Little Lies, his brother Bill Skarsgård terrifying us as Pennywise in 2107’s IT, and their sibling Gustaf Skarsgård as everyone’s favorite mischievous boat maker Floki in Vikings. And we’ve got one person to thank for all of them: dad Stellan Skarsgård, star of Avengers and Mamma Mia.
Anne Hathaway is all set to play one of the most evil characters on screen, according to Variety: the Grand High Witch in Roald Dahl‘s The Witches.
The character was memorably played by Angelica Huston in the 1990 film version, and by “memorable” we mean absolutely bloody terrifying:
Roald Dahl was reportedly not keen on that big-screen version of his 1983 children’s fantasy novel, calling it “utterly appalling” (though many movie-lovers disagreed).
The new version will stick much closer to its source material, however. It’s being made by Robert Zemeckis, the genius director behind movies like Romancing the Stone (1984) and Back to the Future (1985), who’ll pen the script and produce it alongside filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro.
The signs are all looking good, and things are coming together now that Anne’s been added to the cast. Just who’ll play her nemesis — a seven-year-old British boy and his Norwegian Grandmamma, who just so happens to be a retired witch hunter — is yet to be revealed.
It’s also not clear yet if the film will take place in the U.K. or the United States, though some moviegoers might prefer the latter after Anne’s last attempt at a British accent.
Are you excited to see Anne Hathaway in an evil role?
Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Helen Mirren are sharing a screen for the first time, in photos released by USA Today of new thriller The Good Liar.
Here they are as aging con man Roy (Sir Ian), who tries to woo well-to-do widow Betty (Dame Helen) after meeting her online.
(Photo: Warner Bros)
It certainly looks like a meeting of minds, but things don’t exactly go well from there. Roy inadvertently develops feelings for Betty, turning what should be a cut-and-dry con into “the most treacherous tightrope walk” of his life.
(Photo: Warner Bros)
And according to the film’s director Bill Condon, while Sir Ian gets the chance to play a “villain” in this cat-and-mouse thriller, he finds in Dame Helen’s character a match for him in “intelligence and in power.”
(Photo: Warner Bros)
The film also stars Downton Abbey’s Jim Carter, who plays Roy’s longtime partner Vincent, Being Human‘s Russell Tovey, playing Betty’s grandson Stephen, who’s wary of her new suitor, and Will star Laurie Davidson, in an undisclosed role.
It may be the first time both Dame Helen and Sir Ian have appeared on screen, but it’s not the first time they’ve worked together. They starred in a Broadway production of August Strindberg‘s play Dance of Death in 2002, though appearing in a film together is a different kettle of fish altogether.
In fact, Dame Helen tells USA Today it was “like meeting a new Ian, the film Ian, and likewise he was meeting the film Helen, which are in a way different creatures.”
The Good Liar is due to open in theaters on 19 November, 2019.
Are you excited to see Dane Helen and Sir Ian on screen together?
It’s official: Gillian Anderson will play former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in The Crown.
We first reported the possibility way back in August, but The Sunday Times and Deadline confirmed it yesterday (January 20) as filming continues on seasons three and four of Netflix’s royal epic.
The X-Files star won’t appear until season four, however, when the saga reaches the late 1970s and 1980s. Thatcher became the U.K.’s first female prime minister in 1979, and was a formidable political presence until her resignation in 1990.
But we should expect some fireworks when she does: Thatcher’s weekly meetings with the Queen were reportedly very frosty. So frosty, in fact, they became the subject of The Audience, the 2013 play starring Dame Helen Mirren and written by showrunner Peter Morgan a few years before he created The Crown.
The two women reportedly disagreed over Apartheid in South Africa, the 1984-5 miners’ strike and the 1982 Falklands War with Argentina, making it a challenging and formidable role for Gillian.
It also means we’ll get to see her squaring up to Olivia Colman, who takes over from Claire Foy in the role of the Queen for seasons three and four. We can’t imagine a better pairing – well, not since Gillian shared screen space with a certain Fox Mulder, anyway.
Season four is shaping up to be a cracker in more ways than one. As well as Gillian’s casting, not to mention the wider cast of Helena Bonham Carter and Tobias Menzies, it will also cover the 1981 royal wedding, when Prince Charles (played in seasons three and four by Josh O’Connor) married Lady Diana Spencer. Deep breaths while we wait to hear who’ll be playing that role.
The Crown season three is expected to launch in 2019, with season four following in 2020.
We first heard about the new adaptation of A Christmas Carol starring Tom Hardyway back in 2017, and it seems plans have become even more ambitious.
Taboo creator Steven Knight, who worked with Tom on Peaky Blinders as well as the spooky period drama, spoke to Collider recently about their plans to adapt some of Charles Dickens‘ most famous works.
“What I’m planning to do is adapt five Dickens books — A Christmas Carol plus four novels — and do it over a period of six or seven years and have a repertory of actors,” he said. “I think we’ll get the best actors in the world, hopefully, to take part because the Dickens characters are so great.”
Whoa. So this is starting to sound like The Hollow Crown, the BBC’s recent star-studded adaptation of Shakespeare‘s history plays. According to Steve, the Dickens novels in question include David Copperfield, Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, and will be made in “a modern way” like Taboo.
Steve also confirmed Tom would appear in all of the four other adaptations, which, like Taboo, would span eight hour-long episodes each.
The first though will be A Christmas Carol, the 1843 novella memorably tackled by on-screen repertories as varied as Alastair Sim and Albert Finney to Mr. Magoo and The Muppets.
“It’s gonna be three one-hours,” Steve told Collider about his and Tom’s new version. “It’s largely done in terms of the script. We’re planning to shoot this year and hopefully get it on the screen for Christmas.”
It sounds as if a U.S. outing is covered too, with Steve promising “an American element” that’s yet to be announced — though he was Scrooge-like on details when it came to which roles Tom would play.
“I’m not going to reveal [that],” he said, “but he’s going to be pivotal in the whole thing.”
“Pivotal” doesn’t sound like it’s main character Ebeneezer Scrooge, meaning Tom could play Scrooge’s underpaid clerk Bob Cratchitt, or, even better, rattle chains as Scrooge’s dead business partner Jacob Marley.
Whichever characters he plays, we think this sounds like unmissable TV.
Do you like the sound of a Taboo-style retelling of your Dickens favorites?
The Killing Eve star will have a lead role in the next big Agatha Christie movie, according to a recent interview with director Sir Kenneth Branagh. Digital Spy reports Sir Ken told Empire magazine that Jodie will join Gal Gadot and Armie Hammer to form the “central trio” of characters.
Since Gal has already been pegged as heiress Linnet Ridgeway Doyle, we think that leaves Armie playing her new husband Simon Doyle, and Jodie his jilted fiancée Jacqueline de Bellefort.
That role was previously played by Mia Farrow in the 1978 version of Christie’s famous tale, which sees the famous Belgian detective try to solve a murder case while on a cruise down the Nile.
Sir Ken’s new version already sounds like it’ll be just as star-studded as its 2017 predecessor Murder on the Orient Express, which starred Dame Judi Dench, woman-of-the-moment Olivia Colman, Sir Derek Jacobi, Daisy Ridley, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Leslie Odom Jr., Willem Defoe and Penélope Cruz alongside Sir Ken’s tache-tastic Hercule Poirot.
And sure enough, Sir Ken admitted living up to the previous cast has been hard.
“We’re in the process of casting the rest,” he reportedly told Empire. “We want the same sense of event. Something I’m pleased about is that I bump into a lot actors I admire and they ask, ‘Can I be in the next one?!’ So, I’ll absolutely be taking them up on that.”
Fingers crossed one of them will be Sandra Oh.
Comer is racking up the roles, it was recently announced she’ll star opposite Ryan Reynolds in the forthcoming action flick Free Guy, based in a video game world. You can look for Death on the Nile in theaters on October 2, 2020. In the meantime, of course, Comer is set to return to BBCA for the second season of Killing Eve on April 7.
Can you imagine the damage Villanelle could do on a cruise?
Move over, Graham Norton (perish the thought!): Doctor Who star David Tennant has turned chat show host, with his very own podcast.
And if that wasn’t exciting enough, among the Tenth Doctor’s very first guests will be Oscar hopeful Olivia Colman, followed by current Doctor Jodie Whittaker, who stepped into the role after co-starring with them both in Broadchurch.
The news was announced in a short teaser yesterday (January 23), in which David introduced the “pretty low-concept” show with a cheery “Hello, Podcast Land!”
The imaginatively titled show David Tennant Does a Podcast will see him chatting with celebrity pals like Olivia and Jodie every week. Or, as David rather charmingly puts it, “Me and some cool people, talking and stuff on a podcast.”
Sure enough, those “cool people” currently reads like a Who’s Who of Anglo faves, including David’s Good Omens co-stars Michael Sheen and Jon Hamm, Whoopi Goldberg, his Jessica Jones adversary Krysten Ritter, and, oh, just some chap called Sir Ian McKellen.
Sign. Us. Up. The first episode with Olivia Colman will be released this Monday 28 January, with new episodes every Monday on Acast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all good podcast providers.
It's coming… subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from. https://t.co/gqII8ysXSh
Matt Smith looks set to follow in the footsteps of Tom Hardy by starring in a Spider-Man spin-off movie.
While Tom played a shape-shifting symbiote in last year’s Venom, Variety reports the Doctor Who star could have a “major role” in the upcoming Morbius, which stars Jared Leto as the eponymous “living vampire.”
Introduced as a foe for Spider-Man in 1971, Morbius is a scientifically altered human with vampire-like traits who, like Venom, has been both villain and antihero over the years. Having tried to cure himself of a disease, he ended up instead with super-strength, fangs, claws, and a thirst for blood, but over time, managed to get some degree of control over himself and fight evil instead of perpetuating it.
Both Morbius and Venom began life in the Spider-Man comics, which Sony bought the rights to in 1999, long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) got going. Since then, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland have played the famous webslinger, with Sony now branching out into other Spider-Man characters.
Which leaves us wondering just which one Matt will play. And we’re not alone: Movieweb claims he could be portraying Dr. Emil Nikos, a lab assistant who becomes one of Morbius’ first victims, while Comic Book previously reported the movie’s villain may be a character called Loxias Crown.
It won’t be the first time Matt has faced off against vampires, of course. Okay, so technicallythey turned out to be vampire fish from space, but still. We’re just not sure a sonic screwdriver can get him out of this one.
Morbius doesn’t have an official release date yet, but 2020 seems likely, after we’ve seen Matt in Robert Mapplethorpe biopic Mapplethorpe, Charlie Manson drama Charlie Says, and in a hotly anticipated but undisclosed role in Star Wars IX.
Are you excited to see Matt tackle a superhero movie?
The Kid Who Would Be King opens today (25 January), the first feature from director Joe Cornish since Attack the Block introduced us to Jodie Whittaker and John Boyega.
Just as that film situated an alien invasion in a London council estate, this one puts a modern-London spin on Arthurian legend, as schoolboy Alex Elliott (Louis Ashbourne Serkis – yep, Andy Serkis‘s son) finds King Arthur’s sword Excalibur and sets out on a quest to save the world.
He’s assisted in his quest by the wizard Merlin, played by The Hollow Crown‘s Angus Imrie and Sir Patrick Stewart, who portrays the warlock’s “true” form – a role that means the X-Men star can finally look his pal Sir Ian McKellen in the eye as a fellow wizard.
It got us thinking of our favorite on-screen wizards, and the virtuosos who play them, of course.
10. The High Aldwin in Willow (1988)
Like all good wizard mentors, this one convinces Willow (Warwick Davis) to set out on his quest, and teaches him to trust his instincts. Played by Billy Barty, his motto was classic wizard: “Magic is the bloodstream of the universe. Forget all you know, or think you know. All that you require is your intuition.”
9. Mickey Mouse in Fantasia (1940)
With his long red robes and pointy star-spangled hat, Mickey looks every inch the wizard in this classic Disney cartoon. He is in fact a lowly apprentice, who gets himself into a pickle when he tries to get out of chores by enchanting a broom. Something tells us he won’t be getting his sorcerer credentials any time soon.
8. The All-Powerful Oz in The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Played by Frank Morgan, an old, distinctly unmagical man is revealed when Toto tugs back an emerald curtain. This wizard may be a fraud, but it’s his advice that helps Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her friends realize what they seek has been within their grasp the whole time.
7. Tim the Enchanter in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
This wizard is one of the many strange characters encountered by King Arthur (Graham Chapman) in this comedy film spoofing Arthurian legend, Medieval politics, and knights who love a good shrubbery. Played by John Cleese, Tim took the form of a terrifying figure with a horned helmet, a fire-producing staff and a fearsome Scottish accent. “What an eccentric performance,” says Arthur as he hurries away.
6. Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter
The headmaster of Hogwarts played by Michael Gambon and Richard Harris is the only wizard Lord Voldemort fears, despite rarely using his powers. Exactly why is currently being explored in the Fantastic Beasts series of prequel movies, but needless to say he gives the best advice, and, in time-honored wizard tradition, is a brilliant teacher. Most surprisingly of all, however, is that he turns out to have been a bit of a hottie in his younger years, thanks to a rather dapper Jude Law.
Albus Dumbledore’s mind has been blown. (Pic: Warner Bros)
5. Merlin
Merlin has been portrayed on screen plenty of times before, of course, from Nicol Williamson in Excalibur (1981) and the old, scatter-brained and cranky animated version in Disney’s The Sword and the Stone (1963). Our favorite, however, has to be Colin Morgan, who played the young warlock in Merlin (2008 – 2012).
BBC America’s ‘Merlin’ aired for five years from 2008-2012. (BBCA)
4. Doctor Strange in Doctor Strange (2017)
Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme is the primary protector of Earth against magical and mystical threats. Inspired by stories of black magic and Chandu the Magician, the character brought mysticism to Marvel Comics in the 1960s, and was played by the equally spellbinding Benedict Cumberbatch in the MCU.
(Photo: Marvel)
3. Harry Potter in the Harry Potter franchise (1997 – )
“You’re a wizard, Harry,” Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) tells Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) in the first movie adaptation of J.K. Rowling‘s magical opus. He’s certainly not the most powerful wizard on this list, but what he lacks in magic and spells he more than makes up in courage, loyalty and leadership.
Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter in ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ (Pic: Warner Bros)
2. The Doctor in Doctor Who (1963 – )
Now, hear us out. The Doctor isn’t a wizard, of course; he’s a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. But 1989 episode “Battlefield” implies that the wizard Merlin is in fact a future (or alternate-dimension) incarnation of the Doctor – something that’s picked up in 2010 episode “The Pandorica Opens,” when River Song (Alex Kingston) tells Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) she hates good wizards in fairy tales, as they “always turn out to be him,” meaning the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith).
‘The Pandorica Opens’ (Photo: BBC)
1. Gandalf in Lord of the Rings (2001 – 2003) and The Hobbit (2012 – 2014)
No surprises who’s at number one. It’s Gandalf, of course – the most iconic wizard on our list, played by Sir Ian McKellen. He has the best beard, the biggest staff, and the most famous catchphrase (“You shall not pass!”), but more important than even all that, he is everything a wizard should be: wise, fair and compassionate, and a formidable fighter to boot.
Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf. (Image: New Line Cinema)
Rami Malek continued his winning streak last night (January 27) at the SAG Awards, but let slip he owes it all to Gilmore Girls.
The Bohemian Rhapsody star told ET he got his first Hollywood acting job on the show in 2004, after posing as his own agent and smooth-talking the casting director to land an audition for the quirky comedy.
After a successful audition, Rami played Andy, a member of Lane’s bible study group, in the season four episode “In the Clamor and the Clangor.”
And thanks to a dedicated Rami fan, the brief appearance has made it to YouTube, showing how the future Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award winner had a total of three lines: “Assistant Pastor Eric?,” “Then it would be Assistant Pastor Eric,” and “Unless he’s sick, in which case it would be Assistant Pastor Eric!”
Brief as it may be, the role made it possible for Rami to get his Screen Actors Guild (SAG) card, and the rest, as they say, is history.
His win last night (January 27) is the latest to honor his performance as the late, great Freddie Mercury in Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, and leaves him on course for the Oscars next month, where he’s nominated for Best Actor alongside Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Viggo Mortensen, and Willem Dafoe.
Richard Armitage is the latest big-name addition to Netflix, as he’s cast in the new series The Stranger.
Deadline reports the Hobbit star will play Adam Price, whose perfect life is destroyed when a stranger sits next to him in a bar and tells him a devastating secret about his wife, Corinne.
An ever darker conspiracy will unfold over the course of eight episodes, something fans of last year’s Safe starring Michael C. Hall and Amanda Abbington will recognize. That’s because both series are based on books by thriller writer Harlan Coben, written by Danny Brocklehurst (Shameless), and made by the same production team.
“The Stranger was one of my most challenging novels and definitely the most twisted,” Coben said in a statement. “When I wrote it, I never imagined that I’d be part of a dream team of extraordinary talent bringing it to life.”
As for Richard, he was quoted as saying he could “barely contain [his] excitement” reading the script, calling it a “nail-biting thriller” with a “huge beating heart and a dash of social commentary for extra bite.”
Gabriel Byrne and Elizabeth McGovern are set to star in a new version of The War of the Worlds, the second in the works currently.
Deadline reports the Hereditary and Downton Abbey stars will feature in a modern-day retelling of H.G. Wells‘s seminal sci-fi story, which will unfold over eight episodes on Fox.
It’s written by Howard Overman, the creator of the hit television show Misfits, and will take place in Europe, as a few small groups of humanity left on Earth work to survive after an alien attack.
Production is already underway in the U.K. and France, with Natasha Little (The Night Manager), Lea Drucker (Le Bureau Des Legendes), Daisy Edgar Jones (Cold Feet), Stephane Caillard (Marseille), Adel Bencherif (Spectre), and Guillaume Gouix(The Returned) also in the cast.
It’s certainly got a global outlook, so hopefully we can expect a U.S. outing too.
The BBC is also working on a version starring Rafe Spall and Eleanor Tomlinson and set in the book’s original Edwardian England. It started filming last April, but an air date hasn’t been announced yet.
A Very English Scandal is returning to our screens, but without Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw or even its writer Russell T Davies.
The change in personnel isn’t down to a lack of success: the three-part drama was nominated for three Golden Globes, and even bagged one, plus a Critics Choice Award for Whishaw’s portrayal of Norman Scott, a young man who threatened to make life very hard for his ex-lover and politician Jeremy Thorpe (Grant).
It’s because the series is being turned into an anthology show, in the vein of American Crime Story, which dramatizes famous criminal cases like the O.J. Simpson trial or murder of GianniVersace,or Delhi Crime, which has just been picked up by Netflix.
A Very English Scandal is — as the title suggests — quintessentially British. Gone are the celebrity cameos of L.A., the glamor of Miami, or the shadowy streets of Delhi, replaced instead by 1960s London, a stiff upper lip, and energetic, often brutal, humor.
The new season will follow another well-known English scandal from the 1960s, when Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, went through a public and very messy divorce from her second husband, and was dubbed the “Dirty Duchess” by British newspapers.
“[Her husband] went through her private desk and found a list of all the men she’d slept with,” producer Dominic Treadwell-Collinstold the Radio Times. He also found compromising photos of his wife wearing nothing but pearls with a man whose face was not in the pictures.
“At the time, the news was in all the papers,” Treadwell-Collins continued. “People thought it could have been a member of the royal family or the government or a Hollywood actor. No one still knows who it was.”
Perhaps there is scope for some Hollywood glitz after all. Treadwell-Collins also revealed how “three actresses have asked to play the role” of the Duchess, which he says is “an amazing part” for an actress in her late 40s or early 50s.
The new season won’t feature the writing talent of one Russell T Davies, though he may return for subsequent seasons. It’s believed Sarah Phelps, the writer behind recent Agatha Christie adaptations And Then There Were None and The ABC Murders, will pen the next season.
“For a feminist scandal, I need a female writer,” Treadwell-Collins explained.
David Bowie will be the next rock icon to get the biopic treatment, after Freddie Mercury and Elton John‘s origins were explored in Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman.
Deadline reports the upcoming movie Stardust will document Bowie’s rise to fame, including a trip to America in 1971 that inspired the invention of his alter ego, Ziggy Stardust.
Playing a young Bowie will be Johnny Flynn, the English actor currently starring alongside Kit Harington on stage in True West in the West End, and who previously appeared in Lovesick and Genius as a young Albert Einstein. It also helps that Flynn is a musician himself. He is the lead singer and songwriter for the band Johnny Flynn & the Sussex.
Johnny Flynn in 2017. (Photo: Getty Images)
(Fun fact: Johnny’s half brother is Jerome Flynn of Ripper Street and Game of Thrones fame.)
The Hunger Games‘ Jena Malone will co-star as Bowie’s first wife, Angie, while Marc Maron (G.L.O.W.) will play the record company publicist who — and we’re guessing here — isn’t too keen on Bowie’s new direction and image.
There’s just one problem: Bowie’s family is not too pleased. According to Duncan Jones, Bowie’s son with Angie, the family is not involved, and none of Bowie’s music will feature as a result.
“Pretty certain nobody has been granted music rights for ANY biopic… I would know,” wrote Jones, also a director, on Twitter yesterday (January 31).
Im not saying this movie is not happening. I honestly wouldn't know. Im saying that as it stands, this movie won't have any of dads music in it, & I can't imagine that changing. If you want to see a biopic without his music or the families blessing, thats up to the audience.
As it stands, filmmaker Gabriel Range (I Am Slave, Death of a President) is set to direct the biopic, with a script from Christopher Bell (The Last Czars). Filming begins in June.
Arctic opens in theaters today (February 1), featuring Mads Mikkelsen as a man trying to survive after becoming stranded in the polar wilderness.
It’s a remarkable film according to the critics, not least because it is the first feature film to be directed by ex-YouTube star Joe Penna, who rose to fame after posting animations and stop-motion videos to his YouTube channel MysteryGuitarMan.
He’s not alone. A growing number of stars — or “influencers” in social media parlance — with huge fan bases and clicks are breaking into TV and the movies, turning the traditional talent-development process on its head. Below are some of our favorites.
1. Issa Rae
One of the most successful examples is comedy writer and actress Issa Rae, whose acclaimed show Insecure started life as YouTube series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl. The series quickly went viral after its launch in 2011, and won a Shorty Award and Issa a place on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Entertainment List in 2012. With help from comedian and writer Larry Wilmore, a television pilot was made in 2013, and picked up by HBO in 2015.
“It’s a bit more rare to be discovered but it’s happening,” Issa told reporters at a press day ahead of the show’s second season in 2017. “I constantly look at web series and find writing talent.”
Issa Rae attends The Hollywood Chamber’s 7th Annual State Of The Entertainment Industry Conference on November 15, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Photo: Presley Ann/Getty Images)
2. Bo Burnham
This YouTuber started way back in 2006, making videos in his bedroom that have so far been viewed over 250 million times. Since then he’s made comedy specials, played the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and appeared in films like Funny People and The Big Sick. Last year came his feature film debut, a comedy drama called Eighth Grade, which followed the travails of an eighth grader played by 13-year-old Elsie Fisher.
Bo Burnham attends the 24th annual Critics’ Choice Awards on January 13, 2019 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo: Getty Images)
3. Miranda Sings
Created by comedian and actress Colleen Ballinger, this fictional character started posting videos in 2008 about her comically talentless, egotistical, and misguided attempts to be famous. They led to live performances, appearances on television, and eventually her own show, Haters Back Off!, on Netflix.
Miranda Sings, a.k.a. comedian Colleen Ballinger, attends Shoebox’s 29th Birthday Celebration at The Improv on June 10, 2015 in Hollywood, California. (Photo: Getty Images)
4. Fede Álvarez
This director has racked up big hits in recent years, including Evil Dead (2013) and The Girl in the Spider’s Web (2018). Not for him the usual route to success, however. He started off in 2009, when he uploaded the four-minute short film “Ataque de Pánico!” to YouTube and grabbed the attention of Hollywood filmmakers.
Fede Alvarez (r) attends ‘The Girl In The Spider’s Web’ New York screening with Claire Foy on November 4, 2018 in New York City. (Photo: Getty Images)
5. Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld
This ex-husband and wife team created the web series High Maintenance in 2012, about a nameless marijuana seller called The Guy (Sinclair) as he delivers his product to clients in New York City. The 19 webisodes featured cameos by actors like Dan Stevens, Lena Dunham and Gaby Hoffmann, until it was picked up by HBO and turned into a glossy TV series.
Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld at The Edison Ballroom on February 13, 2016 in New York City. (Photo: Getty Images)
Are there other YouTubers making moves in Hollywood you can think of?
