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August 28, 2003

- More about the Prince's Trust event from Yahoo News (and Reuters):

Paltrow to Perform for Britain's Prince Charles

Oscar-winner Gwyneth Paltrow and British actor Joseph Fiennes will recreate the famous Romeo and Juliet balcony scene for Prince Charles at a charity show, organizers said on Thursday.

The co-stars of the 1998 film "Shakespeare in Love" will play the star-crossed lovers for the heir to the throne at an open-air London theater next Monday.

Paltrow won an Oscar for her role as wealthy beauty Viola de Lesseps who steals the heart of Shakespeare, played by Fiennes, and helps him overcome writer's block.

Among other actors performing selected Shakespeare scenes will be Paul Scofield, Diana Rigg (news) and Jane Lapotaire.

Guests will pay between 20 pounds ($31.36) and 300 pounds to attend the event at Shakespeare's Globe, a replica Elizabethan theater on the south bank of the River Thames.

Money raised will go to the Prince's Trust, a charity set up by Prince Charles to help disadvantaged young people.

Thrivent Financial helps bankroll major motion picture ‘Luther’
By Avi Stern
Posted August 17, 2003

When the movie “Luther” arrives in theaters next month, it will be because an organization better known for selling insurance than pushing popcorn took an unprecedented chance in marrying faith and film.

While executives with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans are pleased with the end results of the six-year effort, Chairman John Gilbert has absolutely no intention of becoming the next Steven Spielberg.

“I don’t think we’ll likely do something like this again,” says Gilbert, who leads the nation’s largest fraternal benefits society. “This was a one-time thing.”

“This” is a $30 million international big-screen release — about $10 million of which came out of Thrivent’s pocket — that will open in more than 300 theaters nationwide Sept. 26.

It stars big names, such as Joseph Fiennes in the title role, as well as Peter Ustinov and Alfred Molina.

The motion picture recounts the life of Martin Luther, a German monk who ultimately laid the groundwork for the Reformation and established the tenets of the Lutheran Church.

[snip]
The signing (of) British actor Joseph Fiennes proved a decisive moment for the enterprise, Clauss and Till agreed. The young actor already had proven his ability to deliver audiences to costume-dramas, such as “Shakespeare in Love” and “Elizabeth.”

“He brought a sensitivity,” the director said. “He went for the inner Luther rather than the famous external one. That is something unique in and of itself to this film. Joseph reached for the humanity, the soul of the gentleman.”

Fiennes also provided a marquee name that attracted other performers. “He brought a certain cachet to the film,” Clauss said.
[snip]

Be sure to check out the link (above) for the full article -- it's very interesting reading about how "Luther" was made and how successful it will be!

August 25, 2003

- From UK Telegraph:

Hollywood rivals battle to bring The Merchant of Venice to screen
By Chris Hastings and Catherine Milner
Filed: 17/08/2003

Two rival Hollywood producers are racing to get separate versions of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice onto the big screen, fearing that the one completed second could be a box office disaster.

Stars including Sir Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Joseph Fiennes and Al Pacino are caught up in the race, which began when it was discovered that two film adaptations were under way simultaneously. The producers are convinced that the scenes of unrequited love and racial tension in the play, which was written in 1596, will make a film version enormously popular.

Insiders admit, however, that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to attract big audiences for two films screened close together and fear that the second to appear will struggle even to recover its costs. One of the films is produced by Stewart, who is famed for his roles in the X-Men and Star Trek films. He will also star in the film, which will cost £13 million, giving it a contemporary setting in corporate America.

The rival version by Michael Radford, the award-winning director of White Mischief (1988) and Il Postino (1995), will be a more traditional adaptation set in Venice itself. It is likely to cost almost twice as much as the Stewart version. Radford, who has a cast including McKellen as Antonio, Pacino as Shylock and Fiennes as Bassanio, will begin shooting next month. He will film until February in Prague and Venice and is hoping for a release date around Christmas 2004.

He told The Telegraph that he was confident of box office success, but suggested that the rival production should be shelved.

"I am not going to criticise Patrick because he is a brilliant actor. But I doubt that the world can take two versions of The Merchant of Venice and our film is already under way," he said.

"There is a market for Shakespeare but it is not like the market for a film like Matrix Reloaded. We have Al Pacino who is a huge star. People will want to see what he does with Shylock, and Ian McKellen is now very much a box office name."

Radford added that he was not convinced by his rival's idea of giving the play a modern makeover. "I personally do not think these contemporary things work that well on screen."

Stewart has long dreamt of making a contemporary version of the play in an attempt to emulate the success of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio in a modern setting of the play.

He hopes to begin six months of filming in October and is aiming to release his film in early December next year, shortly before the Radford version.

One colleague involved with the production said: "Patrick has made the character of Shylock very much his own in recent years. He wants to get that performance on screen and he knows he has to act fast in the light of the Radford film. The project is under way and final details are being put in place."

Stewart said: "I am working on a contemporary adaptation of the play but I do not want to say any more than that."

The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare's most popular plays and centres on a financial agreement between two long-standing enemies: Antonio, the merchant, and Shylock, a Jewish moneylender. Opinion is divided over whether the eventual humiliation of Shylock is a plea for racial harmony or an anti-Semitic polemic.

Radford's film will feature Gerard Depardieu, the French actor, and Ricky Gervais, the star of the BBC comedy The Office, in minor roles.

Stewart, however, is a big box office draw in his own right. He is also one of the country's most acclaimed Shakespearean actors and has won two Olivier awards. He is very familiar with the part of Shylock, which he first performed for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1965. He reprised the role in 1978 and 1979 and has toured Britain with his one-man show based on the character.

- From the SF Chronicle:

Shakespeare for the ears
Expansive collection brings all his plays together on CD
August 17, 2003
By Robert Hurwitt

To Bard or not to Bard? That may not be the question most people contemplate when choosing what to pop into the CD player while heading for the mountains or the beach. But at least now it's an option.

For the first time, all 38 of the plays written in whole or in part by William Shakespeare are available on CD in a remarkable new issue from a group calling itself the Audio Partners Publishing Corp. "The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare," produced by Tom Treadwell and Bill Shepherd (Arkangel Productions) and directed by Clive Brill, is not only the first attempt at recording all of Shakespeare's plays in some four decades, it's also the most comprehensive ever.

It's a huge project: 98 CDs containing the complete, unabridged texts of 38 plays for a total listening time of almost 102 hours. Brill, a former BBC director and producer who cast and directed each recording, spent 4 1/2 years recording the scripts in London with a company of 400 actors, most past or present members of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

It's expensive, at $600 (with an unusual lifetime replacement guarantee for lost or damaged CDs). It's also a very high-quality product. The language, of course, is incomparable. The stature of most of the titles included -- "Hamlet, " "King Lear," "Twelfth Night," "A Midsummer Night's Dream" et al. -- speaks for itself, as does the artistic excellence of many of the actors: Eileen Atkins, Jennifer Ehle, Joseph Fiennes, Simon Russell Beale and Amanda Root, not to mention Sir John Gielgud in what was possibly his last performance.

Some of the performances are are truly outstanding. Trevor Peacock is a commanding, comfortably impetuous Lear whose descent into soul-ravaged defeat is gripping and pitiful, beautifully supported by Penny Downie and Samantha Bond as the evil Goneril and Regan and Julia Ford's touching Cordelia. Joseph Fiennes makes an engaging segue from Shakespeare to Romeo in love, his scenes with Maria Miles' Juliet quivering with ecstatic eroticism. Hugh Ross and Harriet Walker are chillingly urgent, driven Macbeths, with a brilliant comic, favor-currying Porter monologue by David Tennant (also a dynamic Mercutio and an affecting Edgar in "Lear").

"The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare'

Unabridged recordings of 38 plays by William Shakespeare, directed by Clive Brill, on 98 CDs. Total playing time: 101 hours and 47 minutes. $600. The set may be ordered from Audio Partners Publishing Corp., P.O. Box 6930, Auburn, CA 95603. (800) 231-4261

August 19, 2003

- A "Dust" ad in yesterday's calendar section of the LA Times reveals a screening time:

Joseph Fiennes
David Wenham
A Milcho Manchevski Film
DUST
History is Written in Blood

Exclusive Engagements Start Friday Hollywood Arclight Hollywood at Sunset & Vine Beverly Hills Loews Complex Beverly Center

- And www.blackstar.co.uk is now selling Region 2 Dust DVD's:

Dust (DVD) (Widescreen) (2001)

Starring: David Wenham, Joseph Fiennes, Adrian Lester, Rosemary Murphy, Anne Brochet
Directed by: Milcho Manchevski

Dust is an epic Eastern that spans centuries, countries and lifetimes. At the turn of the last century in the American West, two brothers fall in love with the same woman. Lilith chooses the younger brother, Elijah (Joseph Fiennes). The embittered Luke (David Wenham) travels alone to Europe. His demons drive him to Macedonia where he becomes a ruthless mercenary fighting amongst the vicious local gangs.

However, the revolution takes on a personal face when pregnant Neda saves dying Luke. 100 years later, in New York City, a desperate robber, Edge (Adrian Lester) tries to part an elderly woman from her life savings. But Angela won't give up her hoard of ancient gold coins until he's listened to her story of two brothers who fell for the same woman a long time ago in the Wild West...

- Luther debuts in area theaters in September

By Avi Stern
Post-Crescent business editor

APPLETON — Thrivent Financial for Lutheran’s first-ever foray into big-screen moviemaking hits theaters nationally Sept. 26.

“Luther,” a motion picture about the life of Martin Luther, will open on more than 300 screens in 45 major markets in the United States. Locally, both the College Avenue 16, W3091 Van Roy Road, and the Hollywood Cinema, 513 N. Westhill Blvd., will offer showings of the PG-13 film.

The nation’s largest fraternal benefits society co-produced the $30 million film with the German entertainment company, Neue Filmproduktion.

“For this to be successful as both entertainment and a financial venture is a huge undertaking,” said Dennis A. Clauss, an Appleton-based Thrivent executive who served as the film’s executive producer.

The film stars an international ensemble cast led by Joseph Fiennes (“ Shakespeare in Love,” “Enemy at the Gates”) and two-time Oscar-winner Peter Ustinov ( “Spartacus”). In a serendipitous piece of casting, the film also features Alfred Molina, who will star as the lead villain in the 2004 sequel to “ Spiderman.”

“I really am excited to see it,” said David L. Tiede, president of the St. Paul-based Luther Seminary. “It’s a very difficult challenge to take someone whose whole energy was about the Christian faith and speak about it in a (frank) way at a time that is as secular as ours.”

Technically, this is not the first film project for Thrivent, although it will mark the company’s big-screen debut.

In 2000, the former Aid Association for Lutherans produced the TV movie “ Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace,” which told the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran minister and resistance fighter against the Nazis.

August 3, 2003

- Joseph Fiennes to sparkle for Asprey

www.hellomagazine.com reports, alongside www.ananova.com and www.thisislondon.co.uk, that Keira Knigthley, the 18-year-old actress from "Bend It Like Beckham", who wore £500,000 in Asprey diamonds to her recent film premiere, is the new face of the British jeweller. Shakespeare In Love star Joseph Fiennes will also be featured as their male face in Asprey's upcoming campaign, shot by famed photographer Bruce Weber. The adverts, set for a November debut, will coincide with the firm's re-launch and opening of new stores in London and New York.

August 1, 2003

- According to IMDB web site, Dust will now have a limited release in the US on 8/22 instead of 8/8.

- The Prince's Trust : Shakespeare Gala Evening

The Bard is going to bat for young people, and some big names are helping out.

The Prince's Trust is happy to announce a very special evening at Shakespeare's Globe in London, featuring performances of selected scenes from Shakespeare's plays from some of the world's finest actors and musicians.

The prestigious line-up will include Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Diana Rigg, Julian Glover, Jane Lapotaire, Paul Schofield, Desmond Barrit, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Helen Lederer and Michael Pennington.

The English Chamber Orchestra will provide the music. A champagne reception will precede and a magnificent banquet will follow, in the UnderGlobe beneath the Theatre.

When
Monday, September 1st
Reception from 6:00 pm
Performance at 7:30 pm

Where
The Globe Theatre
South Bankside
London

Join us
You can be part of this unique chance to help young people. Several ticket packages are available:

£300 - Full champagne reception, performance and dinner at UnderGlobe
£150 - Full champagne reception and performance
£50 - Seated
£20 - Standing

Bookings
To book, contact The Globe's box office on 020 7401 9919