Wednesday, August 25, 2010

This Edition Contains No Hazardous Materials

News about The King’s Speech (featuring Jennifer Ehle as Myrtle Logue)

Coverage of the Toronto festival and more:

By Anne Thompson at indiwire with the comment ”TWC’s The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth, will play Venice, Telluride and Toronto.”
[Note: I haven’t been able to find supporting evidence for Venice or Telluride, but that would be stupendous if true!]

And Joshua Brunsting at Gordon and the Whale, who comments ”The latest film, Tom Hooper’s THE KING’S SPEECH, looks amazing and has already garnered some pre-premiere Oscar love.” and ” Hooper, director of last year’s great film, THE DAMNED UNITED, brought together one hell of a cast for this thing, [...] it will see a release through Miramax, leaving many to believe that this may be their big Oscar baby come later this year.”

And, more bromatically, Shinan Govani, National Post reveals that ’ Tom Hooper, who directed the film -- one that includes a tea-party cast comprised also of Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter -- further tells EW it is, yes, a "bromance." Basically, he goes on, summing it up, "Boy meets therapist, boy loses therapist, boy gets therapist." ‘

Liam Lace in Saturday's Globe and Mail lists some of the films & mentions “The King’s Speech (Dec. 10)” [The Dec date might be the Canadian release perhaps?] and also says ”Very British acting excellence and a credible historic reconstruction, which should make this film (originally a play) like Masterpiece Theatre with a budget.”

And some blogging & Oscar speculation by
Scott Feinberg, Erik Childress, Edward Davis, Jon Lyus, Ashleigh Ryan, Murph, and Ryan Adams

Several of the blogs above include rosters of celebrities scheduled to attend Toronto and while the list is impressive, the name we’d most wish to see is unfortunately not there.


A bit of Pride and Prejudice

Some bits about the Austen Attired exhibit at Peckover House. And isn’t that a wonderful name for a place? In so many ways, including that it could be a Dickens title.

ANNABELLE DICKSON wrote ”An exhibition of costumes, worn in film and television adaptations of the Georgian novelist's books, including Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, has already brought many visitors to Peckover House, in Wisbech.”

Be sure to take a look at jfwakefield’s austenonly blog which not only reports on the exhibit but also includes great pictures of the costumes & venue.
[Austen lovers, check out other entries at this blog, they will not disappoint.]

And, to finish, a fresh in-depth review of P&P95 Posted at The Rush Blog

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Hearing Voices

Simon & Schuster have a page with all sorts of goodies for the Clockwork Angel audiobook read by Jennifer Ehle.

There’s a video of Cassandra Clare talking about Jennifer Ehle narrating. She’s excited about the ”combination of strength and sweetness” she can bring to the character (well, yeah … ). Clare is a big fan, having watched the BBC Pride and Prejudice “… probably, I don’t know, 300 times, something really embarrassing like that”.

Best of all at this page, you can listen to an excerpt of Jennifer's recording from the audiobook. You’ll get a sample of both American and English accents (Yay!)


Oscar speculation for TKS continues

At Movie City News where David Poland says it’s Time To Start Thinking Oscar Again and writes that perhaps The Weinstein Company’s dark horse for their season is ”The King's Speech, a Brit tale of a stammering king, loaded with faves like Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Gambon, Tim Spall, Derek Jacobi and so on.”
!!! *sigh*, relegated to AndSoOn … Well, she’s still the fave here.

and

at In Contention where Guy Lodge writes ”The King’s Speech? Well, it has corsets and cut-glass British accents a go-go […] But it’s also a small-scale story of one man overcoming a stutter: mightn’t that prove a little slight for voters who like their awards bait capital-I Important?”

and

at Award Contenders where Mark Johnson’s take is that ”There is a good chance he [Firth] returns to the Oscar field in this year’s The King’s Speech, as King George VI. The Academy loves a biopic, and the fact that his character will be working to overcome a nervous stammer leads me to believe their could be one hell of a performance coming from him. Throw in the fact that the film is backed by the Weinstein’s and you may consider Firth a near lock.”

Does the Academy’s love of biopic trump lack of capital-I Important?


Gala in Toronto

Barbara Vancheri at The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette posted about the Toronto fest filling out. ” The Sept. 9-19 event will offer 15 galas and 35 special presentations, with 25 world premieres”. One of the galas is The King’s Speech.


LONDON?

Per an article at TimeOut London the opening film has been announced for the October 2010 London Film Festival. The author goes on to ponder the possible closing film, including ”perhaps the impressive-looking historical drama ‘The King’s Speech’”.






Lizzy’s blue dress

Regency fashions can be seen this month at the Austen Attired exhibition in Wisbech, featuring eight costumes worn by stars from screen adaptations of Jane Austen’s classic stories and including ”… the blue dress worn by Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice”

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

More King’s Speech

Toronto

As reported earlier THE KING’S SPEECH, which features Jennifer Ehle as Myrtle Logue, will have it’s North American premiere at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival taking place from September 9 to 19.

An overview Posted by Michelle McCue at
We Are Movie Geeks includes several photos and a don’t-miss YouTube video showing scenes of the filming and Colin Firth speaking about his role.

More coverage of the festival at

HULIQ by Candice Lucey

The Independent

Encore Magazine, which notes the Australian connection and announces a December release there. ”Transmission will release it in Australia/New Zealand on December 26.”

National Post by Brad Frenette


Oscar Buzz

The King’s Speech has frequently been mentioned as a possible Oscar Nominee, so fingers-Xd.
Tom O'Neil at the LA Times
“…the movie that the Weinstein Co. is pushing hard for the best picture Oscar is The King's Speech”

THR By Alex Ben Block ”The pics seen as worthy of Academy consideration are "The King's Speech," starring Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter, which goes out limited Nov. 24”

Opposing Views "Tom Hooper's The King's Speech (which has a shot at a Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor nomination for Colin Firth)"


No Golden Lion?

Though the film had been touted as a candidate for the Venice Festival, sadly it is not on the Venice lineup as listed at
Indie Movies by Paul Martin


On The Horizon

Cassandra Clare’s audiobook Clockwork Angel read by Jennifer Ehle is due to be released this month on August 31, 2010 and can be pre-ordered at Amazon.

I wish there were more to report, but no new roles (that we know about) announced at this time. There’s hope, though, since Ms Ehle has sometimes stacked multiple projects in the autumn/winter. But her unpredictable side is one of her most beguiling features, so I’m sure she’ll manage to surprise us in one way or another.