More about “Benjamin”

Benjamin

Benjamin, written and directed by actor and comedian Simon Amstell (‘Grandma’s House’) commenced shooting in late July. It is a delicate comedy about intimacy and despair, and will be Amstell’s second feature after making his debut with the iPlayer mockumentary ‘Carnage’. The project, has been produced by new production company Open Palm Films.

Benjamin is a character led comedy about being weird and struggling for connection.
The film opens as Benjamin ( Colin Morgan ), a rising star filmmaker, is on the brink of premiering his difficult second film ’No Self’ at the London Film Festival when Billie, his hard drinking publicist, introduces him to a mesmeric French musician called Noah.

Dominic Dromgoole,  who founded the movie’s production company Open Palm Films last year, said: ‘We have been hugely lucky in the great talent we have been able to work with’

Amstell said he wanted to direct a  funny film about a subject close to his heart ‘so that people could watch it and feel wildly entertained as well as feeling mildly upset’.

Again we see Colin’s willingness to seek out new talented writers and directors, new production companies … not taking the road already traveled but lending his light to new projects which appeal to his seemingly unerring eye.

Read more: www.openpalmfilms.com

 

Colin Morgan to star in Simon Amstell’s film … We are excited !

We are so happy and excited to see this news … More to come.

“Colin Morgan will star in Benjamin, the new film written and directed by Simon Amstell.”

Benjamin is described as ‘a comedy about intimacy and despair… a tragicomic tale of dizzying introspection and a painful, constant struggle for validation’.
It revolves around a socially awkward and self-deprecating director and writer – who may bear some similarity to Amstell himself.  Morgan himself bears a passing resemblance to the comedian, who both wrote and directed Benjamin:

 

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2017/10/11/38123/cast_announced_for_simon_am

Bosie

The role of Bosie … reading about him leaves us believing he was often unkind, selfish, and manipulative of Wilde. Hard to imagine Colin making him likeable as he has done with every other role thus far. Colin as a scoundrel. How will we absorb that? He not only challenges himself, he is challenging us as well. We seem to continue to learn from him, and our affection grows ever deeper.

This is an interesting departure for Colin.  A character very hard to like or embrace.  Lord Alfred Douglas, nicknamed ‘Bosie’, became Oscar Wilde’s constant companion, the love of his life and his downfall.  By all accounts, Bosie did not treat Wilde well.  From their meeting in 1891, the attachment grew.  They traveled together and, when apart, corresponded frequently.  These letters were not guarded well, and some were later used to incriminate Wilde for his trial.  There are stories of Bosie’s gambling and extravagant tastes, relying on Wilde to  come to his rescue …  a spoiled young man who used his influence with Wilde to benefit himself with little regard for his patron.

           

  http://www.wilde-online.info/oscar-wilde-biography.htm

 

 

Colin Memories

Thanks to United Agents for this look back at a bit of Colin’s world.  Victor, Leo, Cathal, Tom, Frankie, and Jimmy.  Memories to savor, enjoy and reflect upon.

Our Pied Piper does not rest …

While we are pulling up our chairs preparing to view, at last, Season 02 of Humans, Colin is happily skipping on down the road …. Our Pied Piper of Future Events!

It will be 2017 before The Happy Prince appears in its finished form and finds a distributor to bring it to our screens.  Will it show up in America, we wonder.  We will, of course, expend all efforts to find it when the time comes.  🙂

We are certain better photos will emerge later.  In the meantime, we can enjoy some brief glimpses of  this new project.  🙂

The Happy Prince

News from the wonderful world of Colin Morgan. Below an article about a filming underway as we speak. Some very familiar and exciting names listed there! It’s hard to be patient … this will probably spill over to 2018.  🙂 The future continues to be bright for our serious, dedicated thespian.  🙂

Filming underway on Rupert Everett’s Oscar Wilde biopic The Happy Prince

September 29, 2016 by Gary Collinson 0 Comments

Screen International is reporting that principal photography is now underway on The Happy Prince, a biopic of Oscar Wilde starring Rupert Everett, who also writes and directs.

The Happy Prince “tells the story of the last days of famed playwright Wilde. As he lies on his death bed, the past floods back to him, transporting him to other times and places.”
Everett is joined in the cast of the film by Colin Firth (The King’s Speech), Edwin Thomas (Churchill: 100 Days That Saved Britain), Colin Morgan (Merlin), Emily Watson (War Horse), Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton), Miranda Richardson (Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1).

http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2016/09/filming-underway-on-rupert-everetts-oscar-wilde-biopic-the-happy-prince/

Oh, There he is !

Does #Humans get your vote? http://www.radiotimes.com/win/radio-times-audience-award-2016/443.html … #BAFTATV #HumansAMC

Radio Times Audience Award 2016

The Radio Times Audience Award is the only prize at this year’s House of Fraser British Academy Television Awards chosen by the public. The shortlist was drawn up by a panel of top TV critics but the final decision lies with you. Voting closes at 4pm on Thursday, 5th May 2016.  Your winner will be announced on Sunday 08 May 2016.

Entries are:  Doctor Foster, The Great British Bake Off, Humans, Making a Murderer, Peter Kay’s Car Share, and Poldark.

BAFTA 2016

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Another of our favorites:  Ben Whishaw… exceptionally talented in whatever he does.

Gold Derby ‏@GoldDerby Mar 31     Will BAFTA nominee Ben Whishaw earn his first Emmy bid for “London Spy”? http://www.goldderby.com/news/12121/ben-whishaw-london-spy-bafta-emmy-642083571.html … @BBCAMERICA

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He was on their radar once before, in the Emmy-winning “The Hour,” and he’s coming off a strong year that also included high-profile roles in “Suffragette,” “The Danish Girl,” “Spectre” and “The Lobster.” Also consider some of his strong critical notices for “London Spy”:

Remembering Ariel

 

Where the bee sucks,  There suck I.  In a cowslip’s bell I lie
There I couch when owls do cry;   On a bat’s back I do fly.

After summer merrily …
Merrily, merrily, shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough …

 

The Tempest … (dvd) …  Beautifully done. One can see how exciting it must have been to be a “groundling” at The Globe.  The music is delightful, and somber, and sweet … backing up the scenes wonderfully. It is colorful and exuberant.  All the actors are excellent. Roger Allam is a tour-de-force as Prospero.

There is a gift for us ! Colin has a solo during the last act. His voice is sweet. The song is poignant and melancholy. It is quite short … but so worth watching again and again.

And, where Ariel is coming from?  He can be sitting silent, or swinging, or running up the stairs. His entrance is as flying in from above … though we cannot see from where. Those who have seen the play at The Globe and have now also seen the dvd … have very good things to say.  Being at the Globe for this performance would have been the best of all possible worlds.

With the dvd, however, we can savor these moments over and over again. There is a particular moment in the last act, at the end of Ariel’s song, where it seemed to me that Ariel movingly displayed that brief moment of looking forward to his freedom while understanding that this would mean separation from Prospero. It was an almost imperceptible change to that malleable face which reveals more than words, lasted only an instant, and spoke again to the talent we witness.

(photo credit: shakespeare.globe)  (gif via King and Lionheart)

 

Vera’s Plea

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By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio 1060

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Toward the end of Testament of Youth, the central character delivers a speech that, taken out of context, would usually be considered flatfooted “speechifying” and would land with a thud.

But this earnest British period drama makes such an eloquent case leading up to that moment that the words overwhelm us with their wisdom and power.