This title (DVD) will be released on June 18, 2007.

Competition closes on 9:00am Saturday 30th June 2007.

The programme showcases the cream of British comedy, with Martin Freeman (The Office) turning up as various characters, as well as appearances from David Walliams (Little Britain), Simon Greenall (Alan Partridge), and Tamsin Grieg (Green Wing).

All-star cast for Dicken's classic
Metro.co.uk
May 18, 2007

Dickens' classic novel The Old Curiosity Shop is being brought to life with a star-studded cast for ITV1, it has been announced.

The Victorian tale will star Sir Derek Jacobi as Grandfather and Toby Jones as Dickens' infamous villain Quilp.

Other cast includes Zoe Wanamaker, Martin Freeman, Gina McKee, Bradley Walsh, Steve Pemberton, Anna Madeley, Josie Lawrence and Sophie Vavassuer.

The single drama, from Carnival Films, tells the story of Nell Trent who lives with her doting grandfather in his London shop.

Grandfather's gambling activities lead the property to be taken over by loan shark Daniel Quilp - and the pair are left on the run.

Laura Mackie, Controller of Drama at ITV, said: "Following ITV's hugely successful Jane Austen Season and the forthcoming adaptation of A Room With A View, I'm delighted that we're bringing one of Dickens' most loved titles to the screen.

"The Old Curiosity Shop has a powerful and moving narrative and a fantastic ensemble of colourful characters and we're thrilled to have attracted such a wonderful and diverse cast. We are committed to bringing the best classic drama to the audience and this will be a real treat."

The Old Curiosity Shop will be directed by Brian Percival (The Ruby In The Smoke, Much Ado About Nothing) and produced by Andrew Benson (Prime Suspect: The Final Act, Hornblower).

“If I want a nice cup of relaxing, cathartic tea, then its got to be fairly milky, in a mug, and with one brown sugar. Events like The Blue Cross's Tea Party allow the charity to raise thousands of pounds towards the animals in their care. So stick the kettle on and brew up some support!" - Martin Freeman

The All Together
By Leslie Felperin
Variety.com – Reviews
May 15, 2007

A Lionsgate U.K. release (in the U.K.) of an Establishment Films production, in association with Priority Pictures. Produced by Annabel Rafferty, Marion Pilowsky. Executive producers, Colin Leventhal, Phil Hunt, Compton Ross. Directed, written by Gavin Claxton.

With: Martin Freeman, Corey Johnson, Velibor Topic, Danny Dyer, Richard Harrington, Amanda Abbington.

Thinly written, poorly executed, and all-together unfunny, dark Britcom "The All Together" reps an inauspicious debut for TV-trained writer-helmer Gavin Claxton. Pic took a poor but not appalling $9,800 on eight screens nationwide after opening May 11, probably due to marquee value of locally well-liked thesps Martin Freeman and Danny Dyer, who gamely try to elevate this ill-conceived, low-budget farce.

TV producer Chris (Freeman), who aspires to become a screenwriter, leaves his inept artist housemate Bob (Velibor Topic) at home to receive real-estate agents coming to evaluate Chris' London house. Bob accidentally lets gangsters Dennis (Dyer, appearing in his third Brit film in as many months) and gastrically distressed Yank Gaspardi (Corey Johnson) come in to use the bathroom. However, when Dennis' firearm is spotted, he decides to hold everyone at gunpoint, while Bob keeps letting more people in. A certain bracing bitterness comes through in Freeman's opening voiceover rant about the vileness of TV people, but Claxton's clumsy helming and otherwise thin script mean the pic generates almost no laughs, no matter how absurd or scatological it gets. Soundtrack of rare vintage soul provides some incidental pleasure.

Camera (color, HD-to-35mm), Orlando Stuart; editor, Kevin Lane; music, Richard Blair Oliphant, David Blair Oliphant; production designer, Toby Davies; costume designer, Angela Zdero. Reviewed at the Empire, London, May 15, 2007. Running time: 83 MIN.

Kay No. 1 with girls
Mirror.co.uk - Showbiz
May 8, 2007

Women have voted tubby comic Peter Kay their No. 1 dream date, leaving hunky Brad Pitt trailing in second place.

Little Britain's David Walliams, stand-up Russell Brand and Martin Freeman from The Office also made the top 10.

Of the 500 women polled, 55 per cent said a sense of humour was the most important thing in a date, followed by intelligence at 18 per cent and sensitivity with nine per cent.

Seven per cent went for good looks, while a good body got just one per cent. Match.com, which ran the survey, said: "Laughter makes love happen."

Out of office
By James Mottram - Sunday Herald
May 5, 2007

He may have spent his career playing ordinary blokes, but seeing as they form the core of most British comedies, he’s done pretty well. On the eve of the release of his latest film, The All Together, Martin Freeman talks about his secret desire to be nasty and life after playing Tim in that show.

LONDON'S BATTERSEA Arts Centre. The ornate entrance hall has been converted into a makeshift art gallery for the final scene of new British comedy The All Together. The art' on display consists of several stuffed-and-mounted animals, all of which appear to have been practising various positions from the Kama Sutra just as the taxidermist got going. Just as I'm hoping nobody calls the RSPCA, I'm roped into being an extra, one of two dozen or so guests at the opening night for this bestial exhibition.

I skulk at the back, drink in hand, just as Martin Freeman arrives, our leading man. It's the last night of the shoot, and the clock is creeping towards 11pm. "I've certainly never done anything that tight before," Freeman remarks later. "It really has been a proper race."

The scene tonight sees Freeman's character Chris, a television producer, arrive at the gallery where his hapless neighbour Bob Music (Velibor Topic) is exhibiting these unusual statues. Dressed in a suit-and-tie, Freeman loiters around, hands in pockets for a while, as he waits for the next shot to be set up. Looking like he could melt away into the crowd at any second, he seems less bewildered or quietly desperate than Tim Canterbury, the character that made him famous, from Ricky Gervais' sitcom The Office.

In real life he's more like a younger, better-looking version of Hancock. Amusingly, the innocence his rather cherubic features and mop of brown hair projects is entirely undermined by the fact he swears like a trooper. "Every interview I do," he groans, "it sounds like I've got Tourette Syndrome."

It's close to midnight when Freeman manages to find some time to sit down and chat, at the back of a dusty hall, adjacent to the set. Nearby is his real-life girlfriend Amanda Abbington, who plays Sarah, a student that Chris - after much goading - plucks up the courage to ask out on a date. He waves to her, and shoots across a cheeky grin. It was Abbington - whom Freeman met on the 2001 TV drama Men Only - that first read the script for The All Together.

"Amanda said, I think you'll really like this. You'll be good in it'," recalls Freeman. They certainly share a capacity to rant. Chris, who harbours designs on writing a screenplay and hopes to sell his house to fund it, opens the film with a monologue railing against formulaic British films. As a scene, it couldn't be better tailored to Freeman's ability to go off on one.

With Chris coming into contact with everyone from pain-in-the-ass presenters to vomit-covered gangsters, the comedy is as farcical as it is twisted. But there's evidently a lot of love in the room for this low-budget effort. Not least because writer-director Gavin Claxton has his house on the line to fund the film, a decisive action that Freeman evidently admires.

"He believes in it, which was one of the reasons I wanted to get involved," he says, "I'm very taken with people who speak truthfully, from the heart, and I liked his voice in the film. I thought it was good; it wasn't written for a demographic or by committee. It wasn't just about, How can we get a tax break?'"

When we first met, it was March 2005, just a few weeks before Freeman was due to hit the screens as Douglas Adams' hapless intergalactic hero Arthur Dent in the big-screen version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I remember asking him about how he felt about the prospect of impending fame. "I keep my head down and try not become famous as much as I can," he said. "It is to be avoided for me at all costs. Hence not going to any premiere, party or awards thing. I've just been Tim f**king Canterbury and I don't want to be Arthur Dent for the next 10 years. I have different ambitions. I want to be an actor and not just a character. My job is an actor, not a famous person."

Almost two years on, Freeman and I get a chance to catch up. It's been a productive time for him. After appearing again with Abbington on BBC1 sitcom The Robinsons, he has played it smart. There was Confetti, a hit-and-miss mock-documentary about three couples competing to stage an original wedding, in which Freeman and Spaced star Jessica Stevenson stole the show with their MGM-musical style ceremony. A strong supporting role as Jude Law's architect colleague in Breaking And Entering proved he could ride out even the most cringeworthy of scripts. And a cameo in Hot Fuzz, alongside his old friend Simon Pegg, showed he hadn't forgotten his comedy roots.

Best of all, Freeman had escaped the pigeonholing he feared. Hitchhiker's took a respectable $51 million in the US alone, even going to number one in the box office charts on its opening weekend, but it wasn't enough for a sequel to be rushed into production. This, he says, "is one of the good things - forgive me for saying it - for it not being the commercial success we hoped it would be".

Freeman evidently has an aversion to all things Hollywood. He has no desire to make, as he puts it, a "f**king lunchbox money-making scheme". In other words, a franchise designed simply to peddle merchandise. "I'm not relaxed enough in any portion of life to say, Let's just do the franchise'," he says. "I've got too much anger in me."

No proof is needed of this. Several times, Freeman launches into expletive-driven rants about the world of filmmaking. "I'm very self-critical and I have a certain take on why we make art, and I make no apology at all for seeing what I'm involved in as art. I have no interest in the industry or the business," he says, building up a head of steam. "We all know what the industry is full of - whether it's music or film. It's full of f**king people who didn't have the talent or the foresight or the balls to go into it themselves, so they ended up being f**king bean counters. So I don't want to be complimented by them. I don't want to be flattered by them."

He stops, takes a breath and cracks a smile. "Said Martin, as he never worked again."

But there's much chance of that. At this year's Sundance Film Festival, Freeman featured in two films. In Justin Theroux's romantic comedy Dedication, he plays a small role as Mandy Moore's ex-boyfriend "who tries to woo her again with not altogether honest intentions", as he explains. He liked the fact that he was able to play around with audience expectations of him as "the cute lovelorn guy", built up from his days as Tim. It's clear he's sick of being called an Everyman'.

"What if I wanted to play a paedophile, a rapist or Stalin?" he asks. "I want to do all those things, and why not?" While there's no doubting he could, Freeman still has much work to do before he will stop overhearing members of the public saying It's just like Tim from The Office, but in a different costume', as he has done. "You do sometimes wonder what you have to do," he cries. "Maybe become a black woman!"

I ask if he got this Tim From The Office accusation after playing Arthur Dent. "I get a lot of it from everything," he says, exasperated. He then begins another entertaining - though admittedly well-thought out - rant about how, as an actor taking on a part, you can't literally become someone else and therefore will always shape every role with elements of your own personality.

"It's a kind of a cab driver's response," he continues. "Oh yeah, Ray Winstone - he's the same in everything.' Well, you be that f**king good and then get back to me. I don't care if people are similar. Do I care that George Clooney has never played an Irish dwarf? I don't give a shit! He's great. I'm not saying I'm great, but I'm working on it. I'm working on doing work that I like." His other new film, The Good Night, is hardly going to help, mind you. Set in New York, Freeman plays Gary, a former pop star who gradually begins to undergo a mid-life crisis. Much of this seems to revolve around fantasising about a model (Penelope Cruz) who haunts his dreams. Directed by Jake Paltrow, and featuring his more famous sister Gwyneth (as Gary's long-suffering girlfriend), if Freeman is still left playing the Everyman, at least he's now doing so alongside Hollywood A-list stars.

I put it to him that the film will certainly broaden his international appeal and he shrugs. "If it means more people know you, then great. But, I don't know, man" He tells me he's proud of the film, that the key question in his mind whenever he takes a role is, Can I stand by why I did the film?'. "It's a big thing for me," he adds, "keeping integrity." Given that in the film Gary's career has been reduced to penning commercial jingles, does Freeman ever fear he may start selling out one day? "It's always possible and to be honest, I'm always on guard against it," he says.

"I need to know why I'm doing something. That I'm not just taking the money and running, which I can pride myself on not doing. I don't do that. Which is why I do films like The All Together, because I like it. Which is why I don't do many of things that would, on paper, see my career and my bank balance do so much better. Of course I don't want to be poor. But I'm not interested in it over and above why I wanted to be an actor in the first place. What I don't want is success or money at all costs."

It's tempting to think that Freeman's background has helped contribute to these noble sentiments. Born in Aldershot in 1971, the youngest of five, he was evidently a party to a creative environment from an early age. "My mum's quite classy," he says. "She likes books and art and stuff." His older brother, Tim, was in Eighties art-pop group Frazier Chorus; another brother, Jamie, is a musician and website designer; and his cousin, Ben Norris, is a stand-up comic. Freeman is also a big music nut, from his teenage days when he was into punk to listening to the likes of Public Enemy, De La Soul and The Jungle Brothers later. He even rapped in a band for a bit. So, did he consider his family artistic when he was growing up? "Yeah, I would say so," he nods. "It is not like we are all patrons of the National Theatre, but we can all paint or draw or play music."

Catholic-raised, Freeman's early life was not easy, by the sounds of it. His mother Philomena, a housewife, and father Geoffrey, a chief petty officer in the navy, divorced when he was young. He went to live with his father, who then died when Freeman was just seven. He returned to his mother and stepfather James, who ran pubs. Eventually the family settled in Teddington. A sickly child, Freeman suffered from both asthma and a recurring hip problem. "I had to lay off the sport - cold turkey from football. I was never destined to be Paul Scholes, but like most boys of a certain age, I liked to play football. That was purgatory for me.

Freeman also carried on playing another sport - squash. He was good, too. Part of the British national squash squad from the age of nine to 14, he regularly travelled the country and competed in tournaments. For those five years he thought he was going to play the game professionally, then he just "fell out of love with it". He shoots me a knowing wink. "By now my career would be well over."

He started acting at Teddington Youth Theatre, went on to study drama at Central in London's Swiss Cottage and his first job was for the National Theatre, taking small roles in plays such as Volpone. "I've never really seen myself as a comedian," he says, all too aware that his successes to date have seen him cast as the funnyman - whether it be The Office or taking on Sacha Baron-Cohen in Ali G Indahouse.

Yet if The Office cast him for all eternity as the Everyman, Freeman is fighting it for all he's worth. If The Good Night won't exactly help him in this quest, he's just finished playing Rembrandt for Peter Greenaway, the British director behind such Eighties arthouse classics as The Draughtsman's Contract and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover. His new film, Nightwatching, weaves a fictional story around Rembrandt's painting The Nightwatch.

"It's a love story, and it's all about passion, desire, money and murder," says Freeman, excitedly. "It's got all those things that pretty much every film in your DVD collection you love has got." He calls Greenaway "an extremely clever and very weird man". Uncompromising, too, I suggest. "Infuriatingly so, at times. It was not an easy experience."

For the next few months at least, Freeman intends to stick around in Britain. "I've got things coming out this year, so I need to keep a fairly clear deck so I can support them," he says. His main project on the horizon is The Last Laugh, a play he did at the beginning of the year with Roger Lloyd-Pack that is due to transfer to the West End. A two-hander adapted from an original play by Koki Mitani, "it's a comedy about comedy and censorship", says Freeman, who stars as a playwright trying to get his latest work past the government censor in an unspecified country "but with a whiff of the Eastern bloc".

But his main reason for hanging around in London for the foreseeable is more domestic: he and Abbington recently became parents - to a baby boy named Joseph.

I ask if he'd like to work with Abbington again. "Def-o," he chirps. "I do like working with her. It's always nice when we do work together." Much of their work to date - The Robinsons, Men Only and The Debt, a thriller with Warren Clarke - has been for television, but Freeman is looking out for something bigger.

"I'm really hoping and waiting for the time we can do something big together, and have more scenes together. I mean, she's one of my favourite actors. I think she's f**king great. I love working with her and hopefully I will again. I would like to do something major with her. That would be nice."

He seems to have no qualms about being seen as a screen couple. "It's not like we're Ken and Em," he chuckles. "Obviously, it could become self-indulgent, but we're not well-known enough for that to happen."

And if he has his way, they won't be.

The All Together opens on May 11. The Good Night is released later this year.

Martin Freeman
Copyright 2006 News Group Newspapers Ltd.

Freeman to play struggling magician
April 26, 2007

The Office star Martin Freeman is to play a has-been magician in a new TV comedy.

Other People will see him play a thirtysomething who was a big name in his teens but is now struggling for success.

The Channel 4 show is currently in its pilot stage.

Freeman told Broadcast magazine: "It's about this guy who used to do all the big shows like the Royal Variety Performance and Saturday Superstore when he was 18, but is now a bit washed up.

"It's that feeling that most thirtysomethings have of feeling like they are not quite where they thought they would be."

It will be Freeman's first small screen lead role after shooting to fame as Tim in The Office.

He has also forged a film career with roles in Love Actually and The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

LMR comments: With the release of Confetti on DVD this past week, I was finally able to see what I've been reading about for months. It had a limited release in the U.S., so I wasn't able to see it at the theatre. If you haven't seen the movie, make sure to rent it. It's an excellent movie. My rating? Four star.

The movie centers around three quirky couples who are vying for Most Original Wedding. Confetti is a bridal magazine that is sponsoring the contest. The prize is a new home and fame. Which couple will win?

Matt and Sam (Martin Freeman and Jessica Stevenson) are the couple with the Busby Berkeley-style musical wedding. The only problem is they can't sing or dance. You can't help but like this couple. Martin Freeman looks smashing in top hat, tails....and cane! Gotta dance!

Josef and Isabelle (Stephen Mangan and Meridith MacNeil) are the tennis couple with the tennis-themed wedding. Yes, there were ball-boys at their wedding. These two are obnoxious and super-competitive. I almost felt sorry for this couple. Even so, they do make you laugh!

Michael and Joanna (Robert Webb and Olivia Colman) are the couple who want a "natural" wedding. How would you convince these uninhibited naturists to wear attire fit for a wedding...if you could? Be prepared, this couple as well as other cast members, provide scenes of full-frontal nudity. After the first few scenes, I was used to the "less is better" couple. These two actors were brave in taking on their roles.

The wedding planners are Archibald and Gregory (Vincent Franklin and Jason Watkins). They attempt to coach the three couples. This gay couple seems to have the healthiest relationship in the film. Notice how their attire matches!

While watching the movie, you learn about each couple and come to like each of them. I have to admit there were scenes that brought tears to my eyes. The tears were from laughing and the from the emotional vows of each couple. It's definately a feel good movie.

There are special features on the DVD. There are three alternate endings. You choose the winner. There is a More Tears and Tantrums video diary featurette.

I'm going watch it again before returning it!

The Last Laugh
By Richard Harris
Adapted from an original play by Koki Mitani

In this hilarious and moving satire, Martin Freeman (best known for his role as the laconic, love-sick Tim in The Office) plays a beleaguered comedy troupe writer. Obliged by law to submit his latest script for government approval, he finds himself having to go toe-to-toe with a newly appointed hardnosed government censor, played by Roger Lloyd Pack (Only Fools and Horses).

As he diligently attempts to rework his play, incorporating the censor’s unconventional edits, the most unlikely partnership starts to flourish and the men become engaged in their own world, crafting the funniest play they can imagine, whilst the spectre of the outside world threatens to destroy everything.

The Good Night
By Justin Chang
Variety.com
January 26, 2007

(U.S.-U.K.)

An Inferno Distribution and Tempesta Films presentation of an MHF Zweite Academy Film production in association with Grosvenor Park Media. Produced by Donna Gigliotti, Bill Johnson. Executive producers, Jim Seibel, Robert Whitehouse, Oliver Hengst, Ernst-August Schneider. Co-producer, Nicky Kentish Barnes. Directed, written by Jake Paltrow.

Anna/Melodia - Penelope Cruz
Gary - Martin Freeman
Dora - Gwyneth Paltrow
Paul - Simon Pegg
Mel - Danny DeVito

Sweet dreams, indeed. As becalmed and refreshing as a good night's sleep, writer-director Jake Paltrow's first feature delves assuredly into the mind of a lost soul who literally encounters the woman of his dreams. Though its forays into the subconscious may strike more adventurous cinematic palettes as precious and unimaginative, few will be able to resist Martin Freeman's appealing lead turn or the wry Brit wit that gives this fanciful confection a robust comic core. Given the right push emphasizing its marquee names, "The Good Night" could hit sleeper status.

Compared to David Lynch's convulsive dreamscapes and Michel Gondry's "The Science of Sleep" - all films that seek to strand the viewer in an impenetrable chain of dream logic -- "The Good Night's" fascination with hallucination and reverie doesn't go much deeper than the surface level. Fortunately, it's an enchanting surface that doesn't wear out its welcome for a good 93 minutes.

Puzzling mock-doc prologue introduces a trio of characters discussing the life of sad-sack musician Gary Sheller in tones of hushed regret. Of the three, only Paul ("Shaun of the Dead's" Simon Pegg) plays a part in the story that follows, set two years earlier.

Gary (Freeman) is a thirtysomething Londoner now living in New York, a nice but hapless bloke with all the detritus of a movie midlife crisis. Since his band broke up seven years ago, he has eked out a living scoring TV commercials, to the increasing chagrin of his mildly depressive live-in girlfriend Dora (the helmer's sister, Gwyneth Paltrow). Even worse, Gary's friend and former bandmate, Paul, is doing quite well for himself in an advertising career.

Given Dora's irritable demeanor and Gary's tendency to aggravate it by saying exactly the wrong thing, it's no surprise that their love life is mutually unsatisfying. So when Gary starts having recurring dreams about a beguiling mystery woman (Penelope Cruz) who seems to offer more of herself to him every night, they have a rejuvenating effect. Wanting more, he takes an active interest in lucid dreaming - the act of becoming aware of and even controlling one's dream state - getting all sorts of tips from a New Age-y, self-styled expert (an amusing Danny DeVito).

Gary's growing obsession with manipulating his nocturnal entertainment - he sound-proofs his bedroom and gets cranky whenever he's awakened mid-dream - doesn't improve his relationship with Dora; somehow, even Paul's foolhardy dalliances in cybersex manage to widen the rift. Eventually Dora announces they need time apart and jets off to Venice, leaving Gary to indulge his fantasies to the fullest.

But after a wide-awake Gary sees Anna's face plastered on the side of a bus, he soon learns she's a real-life model (whose actual name, Melodia, strikes a rather obvious note), and Paul all too conveniently books her for a commercial. The foundation for Gary's discovery and face-to-face meeting with his fantasy lover isn't particularly well-laid, but by this point, the script has set a fascinating structural dilemma for itself, and Gary and Melodia's waking interactions easily compel one's interest and anticipation.

Subsequent plot turns are anything but predictable, and the tale begins to take on a quiet gravity as Gary's fantasy life is increasingly infected by his reality. The moving denouement is both a testament to the power and necessity of dreams and a bittersweet acknowledgment of their limitations.

With so many first-time helmers lately piling on the flash and visual gimmickry, the measured pacing and almost crystalline purity of Jake Paltrow's direction can't help but come as a soothing relief. The filmmaking is arguably too tasteful at times; intriguing as they are, Gary's dream sequences are absent any real sense of mystery or danger, and the use of stately fade-ins and fade-outs as delineating markers leads to some rhythmic awkwardness. In "The Science of Sleep," dreams and reality blurred together inscrutably; here, they exist opaquely side-by-side.

Best known Stateside for "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and the BBC's "The Office," Freeman carries the movie in his sleep, so to speak, showing terrific leading-man chops in a delightfully shaggy, self-effacing role. Continuing her dowdy-brunette look from "Running With Scissors," Gwyneth Paltrow comes through with a prickly, witty characterization that, despite a maudlin streak, occasionally lets the sun peek through.

Supporting perfs are similarly well handled. Looking as ravishing as she did in "Volver" (with no small help from Verity Hawkes' splendid costumes, including one striking white tux), Cruz breaks her so-called English-language curse with a role that requires her to be seductive and not much else. Needless to say, she acquits herself admirably. And Pegg, with his crack comic timing, pockets every other scene as Gary's lovable bastard of a best friend.

Production design is aces, the predominantly gray scheme of Gary and Dora's dreary apartment providing a "Wizard of Oz"-like contrast with the vivid colors and textures of the film's dreamscape; Giles Nuttgen's cinematography astutely follows in kind. Alec Puro's unobtrusively melodic score, which incorporating a tender composition Gary writes late in the picture, plays an especially significant role.

Gotham-set pic was largely filmed in London -- a disjunction that, given the film's Anglophilic bent, almost makes sense.

Camera (color), Giles Nuttgens; editor, Rick Lawley; music, Alec Puro; production designer, Eve Stewart; art directors, Leon McCarthy, Lisa McDiarmid; costume designer, Verity Hawkes; sound (Dolby Digital), Tony Dawe; supervising sound editor, Richard E. Yawn; visual effects supervisors, Charley Henley, Richard Stammers; stunt coordinator, Jim Dowdall; associate producer, Wolfgang Shamburg; assistant director, Nick Heckstall-Smith; casting, Nina Gold. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (Premieres), Jan. 25, 2007. Running time: 93 MIN. - (English, Italian dialogue)

Freeman & Lloyd Pack Laugh En Route to West End
By Terri Paddock
Whatsonstage.com
December 7, 2006

Martin Freeman, star of The Office and the film of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, will return to the stage in the new year to appear opposite Roger Lloyd Pack in Richard Harris’ new comedy The Last Laugh. Prior to an anticipated West End transfer, the production opens at the Theatre Royal Windsor from 30 January to 3 February 2007 and then continues to Cheltenham, Milton Keynes, Richmond and Newcastle.

In The Last Laugh, adapted from an original play by Koki Mitani, Freeman is a beleaguered comedy troupe writer who, obliged by law to submit his latest script for government approval, has to go toe-to-toe with a newly appointed, hard-nosed government censor (Lloyd-Pack). As he diligently attempts to rework his play, incorporating the censor's multitudinous and unconventional edits, the most unlikely partnership starts to flourish and the men become engaged in a “conspiracy of two”, crafting the funniest play they can imagine, whilst the spectre of the outside world threatens to destroy everything.

Martin Freeman was last on stage in October 2005 in Toby Whithouse’s Blue Eyes and Heels at Soho Theatre. His other stage credits include Kosher Harry, Jump Mr Malinoff Jump, The Comedians and The Dispute. His other screen credits include the films Breaking and Entering, Confetti, Love Actually and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Roger Lloyd Pack has just made his pantomime dame debut in Mark Ravenhill’s new version of Dick Whittington and His Cat, the Barbican’s first-ever pantomime. Best known for his TV roles as Trigger in Only Fools and Horses and, more recently, Owen Newitt in The Vicar of Dibley. His stage credits include The Winterling (Royal Court), Wild Honey (National), Blue/Orange and One for the Road. His films include Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

In addition to The Last Laugh, Theatre Royal Windsor provides the launching pad for Laurence Boswell’s revival of Christopher Hampton’s 1976 play Treats, featuring Doctor Who’s Billie Piper in her theatrical debut. It runs at Windsor from 16 to 27 January 2007 before visiting Malvern, Bath and Richmond and is also tipped for a West End transfer. Both productions are presented by Bill Kenwright Ltd.

Review: 'Breaking and Entering' strained
By David Germain
Associated Press
December 11, 2006

Rather than a forced entry into deep matters of the heart and multicultural relations, Anthony Minghella's "Breaking and Entering" feels more like casual window-shopping on the issues.

Writer-director Minghella leaves viewers with their faces pressed to the glass, looking in on but not really involved with this dramatic study of a London couple and an immigrant mother and son whose lives cross over a series of burglaries.

Rich performances from past Minghella collaborators Jude Law, Juliette Binoche and Ray Winstone, along with Robin Wright Penn, bring more depth and soul to the film than the somewhat superficial characters and overly contrived situations warrant.

An emotional frostiness in much of Minghella's work, including "Cold Mountain" and best-picture Academy Award winner "The English Patient," is distinctly present here, hindering the audience's ability to connect with the people on screen.

"Breaking and Entering" is a return to contemporary London for Minghella, who made his debut with 1991's romantic gem of a ghost story "Truly Madly Deeply." Unlike that low-key, unassuming little lark, "Breaking and Entering" is almost as big a film as his period pieces in production and scope.

Minghella and his team went to great lengths to capture a region of London in flux, expansively presenting the transition of the King's Cross district from a seedy haven for crime and transients to a bustling business and transportation nexus.

In the heart of this massive gentrification is landscape architect Will Francis (Law), whose company has the contract to design open spaces for the King's Cross redevelopment.

Will and his partner have just opened their fabulously modern office in an old foundry, but their company headquarters immediately is hit by ongoing burglaries orchestrated by a gang of Bosnian immigrants.

Staking out the office in his car at night, Will obsesses on catching the thieves, his nocturnal prowlings further straining an already cold relationship with longtime girlfriend Liv (Wright Penn) and her mildly autistic teenage daughter, Bea (Poppy Rogers).

Will's surveillance eventually leads him to bright but delinquent teen Miro (Rafi Gavron), who fled Bosnia as a young boy with his mother, Amira (Binoche), a seamstress.

One strange romantic entanglement and a lot of forced deceptions later, everyone's lives are swirling through traumatic changes that reflect the breaking-down-to-build-back-up transition in King's Cross itself.

Minghella casts about widely, exploring societal transience, economic and political displacement, bias against immigrants and the notion that crimes of the heart may be far more sinister than felonious misdeeds.

In the end, the film wraps up awfully neatly considering how sloppy and unraveled the characters' lives had been at the height of their conflicts. Some supporting players seem tacked on to little purpose, notably Vera Farmiga as a pesky prostitute who forges a weird alliance with Will.

Minghella also injects too many conveniences - coincidental encounters and artificial parallels (what are the odds that Poppy and Miro are both heavily into gymnastic pursuits?).

Law and Wright Penn share great chemistry both in Will and Liv's loving moments and their worst of times. But Binoche, who won the supporting-actress Oscar for "The English Patient," dominates the film with a fearless performance as a lonely mother alternately wooed and betrayed, ferociously willing to do whatever it takes to protect her son.

It's nice to see Winstone, known for playing heavies in such films as "The Departed," do an amiable turn as a compassionate cop. Martin Freeman adds some cheeky humor as Will's business partner.

Juliette Stevenson, star of "Truly Madly Deeply," has a fleeting role as a therapist, her appearance a reminder of how much more heart and humanity that earlier, smaller film had than Minghella's latest.

"Breaking and Entering," released by MGM and the Weinstein Co., is rated R for sexuality and language. Running time: 119 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:

G - General audiences. All ages admitted.

PG - Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG-13 - Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.

R - Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

NC-17 - No one under 17 admitted.

"The Good Night," director-writer Jake Paltrow's feature debut, a romantic comedy about a young man, unhappy in his relationship, who falls in love with a dream woman, played by Penelope Cruz. Danny DeVito, Martin Freeman and helmer's sister Gwyneth Paltrow also appear in this world premiere.

Breaking and Entering Review
By Rob Bleaney
November 8, 2006

Set in rapidly changing King's Cross, Breaking and Entering (15) tells the story of what happens when the yuppie class moves into an area and clashes with its old criminal underclass.

Will (Jude Law) and Sandy (Martin Freeman) move their architectural firm into new offices in Europe's largest regeneration site, only to be repeatedly targeted by Eastern European thieves.

Eventually Will chases young thief Miro (Rafi Gavron) to a council estate nearby and becomes transfixed by what he sees.

Suddenly Will forgets his worries about relationship with girlfriend Liv (Robin Wright Penn) and autistic daughter.

Instead, in his investigation of the burglary he falls for Miro's mum Amira (Juliette Binoche), a Bosnian refugee struggling to keep her wayward son out of trouble.

In Will's journey to the dark side of King's Cross, we see how different life is on the other side of the tracks. There is blackmail, prostitution, violence, and a lesson in how far a mother will go to protect her son.

This is a gripping film, which portrays the endless tensions within sprawling cities, as well as sexual relationships.

Juliette Binoche is convincing as a refugee mum trying to keep her son away from the temptations of crime, but Ray Winstone and Martin Freeman are underused. Nevertheless, Breaking and Entering is well worth a look.

Breaking and Entering (15)
By Mark Adams
SundayMirror.co.uk
November 5, 2006

3/5

THE STARS: Jude Law, Juliette Binoche, Robin Wright Penn, Martin Freeman

THE STORY: Architect Will (Law) and his business partner Sandy (Freeman) have a shiny new office behind St Pancras station in London and are heavily involved in regeneration of the King's Cross area. But after a series of break-ins, Will stakes out their office and, after spotting a young thief, follows him to his estate home. There he finds himself drawn to the boy's Bosnian refugee mother Amira (Binoche), whose passion for life contrasts with his life with his depressive girl-friend (Penn) and severely hyperactive daughter.

WHAT'S GOOD? Director Anthony Minghella has crafted a thoughtful and thought-provoking drama which attempts to blend political and personal dilemmas as it charts a course through the changing face of London. Working from his own screenplay, Minghella uses the King's Cross redevelopment as a backdrop for tackling issues around the Eastern European immigrant population, set alongside a love triangle involving Jude Law, Juliette Binoche and Robin Wright Penn. Penn makes the most impact as Will's tortured and troubled Scandinavian girlfriend, close to breaking under pressure from her varied relationships. Martin Freeman is fun and sparky here - though not given enough to do - while also striking is Vera Farmiga as a foreign prostitute who gets friendly with Will.

WHAT'S BAD? Though provocative and enthralling in places, Breaking And Entering feels oddly disjointed and too emotionally cold to really entrance and engage. I'm a huge fan of Anthony Minghella but here the different layers of the story never quite manage to fit together, with aspects left unresolved and characters dropped. At no time are we convinced about Law's reasons for getting to know Binoche rather than simply calling the rozzers and having her son jailed for his thieving.

HOW LONG IS IT? An absorbing 119 mins.

FINAL VERDICT: An ambitious and complex drama full of fine performances.

Opens Friday, November 10

Law of the Bungle
People.co.uk - Showbiz - Bacon at the Movies
November 5, 2006

BREAKING AND ENTERING ROMANCE Cert: 15. Rating: 2/5

This, readers, is quite a special film for me. It's the only one I've ever seen being shot.

I went into Kentish Town Sainsbury's last year to buy a fruit smoothie, and saw Jude Law at the checkout.

No, not on the till (though I wouldn't have been surprised - acting's not the most reliable profession). But I knew he was making a movie - after all, with a far poncier Waitrose up the road, he wouldn't be seen dead in Sainsbury's.

Had I known how the film - this one here, called Breaking And Entering - would turn out, I wouldn't have bought that fruit smoothie.

Instead I'd have bought an axe and tried to smash the cameras up to spare the world this load of heavy-handed moral lectures, contrived scenarios, and a puzzling metaphor of a fox padding around London.

What this film tries to say in two dull hours can be summed up in two sentences... Some people are well-off and some aren't. I wonder if it's possible for them all to get along.

But writer-director Anthony Mingella (who did the massively overrated English Patient, and the massively under-good Cold Mountain) padded it out.

Jude Law, in the lead role, is an unlovable, cold fellow who it's almost impossible to care about one way or another. And in the film, he plays a very similar character.

He's Will Francis, an architect in King's Cross. If you've not been there, imagine Afghanistan with a tube station and slightly more heroin.

With business partner Sandy (a small role for the brilliant Martin Freeman - God, he could have done the lead role so much better), Will's spearheading the redevelopment of King's Cross.

But it's a rough neighbourhood - and after a couple of break-ins at the offices, Will decides to try to catch the thieves. His relationship with live-in Swedish-American girlfriend Liv (Robin Wright-Penn) is going sour and he makes pals with a Romanian prostitute (Vera Farmiga), who like all Hollywood prostitutes looks like a model and has a heart of gold.

I've seen prostitutes hanging round King's Cross, and if you wanted to cast someone who looks like them, you wouldn't go for a twenty-something sex-pixie with nice teeth, you'd give it to Tommy Lee Jones.

Anyway, Will spots the burglar, Bosnian teen Miro ( Rafi Gavron), who jumps from roof to roof as Will follows him back to the flat where he lives with his mother Amira (Juliette Binoche).

She works as a tailor, and Will brings over some clothes that need fixing, so he can investigate the burglary a little more. Wouldn't you know it, they start falling for one another.

Thankfully, it all goes wrong and everyone's left with big issues to think over at extremely great length. While well-performed, and clearly wanting to be a gritty British answer to the 2004 Oscar winner Crash, this is a pretentious, hand-wringing collection of plot strands that never manage to tie neatly together.

Breaking And Entering asks a lot of questions and gives few answers. But there's only one question you should be concerned with: "Should I spend my hard-earned money on it?"

And I'll give you a straight-forward, black and white answer. No.

BBC Canada – Britcoms
The Robinsons: Canadian Premiere – Tuesday Comedy Block
Begins October 24, 2006 at 9:40 p.m. ET

Follow the amusing adventures of the eccentric Robinson family, starring Martin Freeman, Hugh Bonnevilee and Abigail Cruteenden. Hector is the patriarch: a world-weary, disappointed man married to - and constantly bickering with - Pam, his sparky but equally jaded wife. Their daughter is Abigail, a bitterly-determined control-freak with a penchant for older men. Their eldest son is George, an intense misery-guts married to the chatty and impolitic Maggie, and they have a precocious son, Albert. But at the centre of proceedings is Hector and Pam's other son, Ed, a hapless, inhibited individual trying to bounce back from a painful divorce but whose life is made ever more miserable by the support of his family. He finds them excruciatingly embarrassing, especially when they indulge in their frank discussions of subjects that he would rather avoid, such as sex, death and disease.

Martin Freeman & Jude Law

London Film Festival - October 18 - November 2, 2006

The Times BFI 50th London Film Festival

London Film Festival - Films - Breaking and Entering:

This lively, engaged contemporary drama marks both Anthony Minghella's return to working from one of his own original screenplays and his return to filmmaking in London. Breaking and Entering tells the story of a series of thefts - some criminal, some emotional - taking place amidst London's geographical and cultural change. Will (Jude Law) is a partner in a thriving landscape architecture firm which he runs with his partner Sandy (Martin Freeman). Professionally things are going well, but Will spends less and less time at home with his partner Liv (Robin Wright Penn) and her troubled daughter Bea. Will's office has recently relocated to King's Cross, and their state-of-the-art studio is repeatedly targeted by a local gang of thieves. After one of the attempted break-ins, Will follows teenaged freerunner Miro (Rafi Gavron) back to the flat he shares with his mother, Amira (Juliette Binoche), a Bosnian refugee. Already questioning his relationship, Will is drawn closer to Amira, and the excuses he finds to spend time with her propel him further away from his familiar world. Breaking and Entering deftly juggles multiple characters and their interlinked stories without sacrificing the complexity of any of them - even the seemingly minor characters are given real depth and personality. London too is shown in all its multifaceted, multicultural richness, and whilst never downplaying the disparities in circumstance between its various characters, the film holds out hope for understanding and reconciliation. - Sandra Hebron

The National Autistic Society Sudokuthon

The National Autistic Society Sudokuthon - Meet our celebrity supporters

Martin Freeman:

"The NAS Sudokuthon is a great idea… I haven't got to leave my chair, all I need to do is log on, donate some money and play a few enjoyable games of Sudoku. Plus the best bit is that the money I donate will help the NAS continue its vital work. So go on - give it a go."

UK Film Council Supports Rembrandt Film 'Nightwatching'
4rfv.co.uk
September 2, 2006

Peter Greenaway, the prolific and critically acclaimed filmmaker is about to embark on a journey to explore how and why Rembrandt’s most famous painting came into being.

His new film 'Nightwatching' is a tale of conspiracy, lust and murder that attempts to unravel the mystery which surrounds each of the characters in the most famous of Rembrandt’s paintings, and to explain how they came to be in it.

The film is due to start filming on location in Poland and Wales from September 4, 2006. Starring the commercial and popular Martin Freeman as Rembrandt the film will bring to life each of the characters in the Night Watch painting and examine Rembrandt’s most personal relationships.

The UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund, headed by Paul Trijbits, has supported the project, with an NCF award of £300,000 being given.

Trijbits commented: "Nightwatching is a stunning project which imbues classic art with passion, drama, and intrigue, making it particularly relevant for a contemporary audience. The New Cinema Fund and the UK Film Council are particularly proud to lend their support to a project of such calibre and innovation."

The film will be produced by long time Greenaway collaborator Kees Kasander and co produced by Aria films’ Carlo Dusi, both of whom have just finished the film noir drama 'Kill Kill Faster Faster' in Rotterdam.

(DS/SP)