Movies
Cher and Meryl Streep share a kiss at 'Mamma Mia' premiere. Here they go again. Cher and Meryl Streep reunited on the red carpet of the "Mamma Mia 2" premiere in London on Monday night and greeted each other with quite the kiss. The co-stars also posed for photos together and with the rest of the cast, including Amanda Seyfried, Lily James and Christine Baranski. Cher, 72, and Streep, 69, previously worked on 1983's "Silkwood" together. "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again" marks Cher's return to the silver screen after seven years. (PageSix)
Lily James Didn't Speak for a Week Before Filming Mamma Mia 2 So She Wouldn't Lose Her Voice. Lily James went to extreme measures to make sure her voice was in tip-top shape before filming for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again began. In the sequel to the beloved 2008 film, which centers around the music of ABBA, James portrays a young version of Donna (played by Meryl Streep) and sings along with her group The Dynamos. James revealed to PEOPLE, just days before the film hits theaters on Friday, that she's "struggled" with her voice a lot since leaving drama school. "I lose my voice a lot," she said. "I have issues -- it's really scary and heartbreaking." To prepare for her singing parts in the film, the actress said she "didn't speak for a week before we recorded." "I went on steroids and didn't talk," she added. "I watched Mamma Mia over and over again to channel the essence of what makes Donna so unique and brilliant and fearless and courageous," James continued. The actress, 29, also said that when watching the film, she tried to "mimic a certain amount of [Streep's] physicality," including her hand gestures and "her gravity." James also prepared for her role by watching many of Streep's other films, especially "stuff where she's more comedic." "Postcards from the Edge was useful because she sang," James explained, adding that Streep's character was a bit "manic in that film and there is a bit of madness to Donna, a ballsyness and scattiness." Praising Streep, James added: "Like all great actors, Meryl is able to be a great comedian and break people's hearts." As an actress who has taken on a broad range of roles herself, James remarked, "I think if you've want to keep it interesting then you've got to keep it varied as repetition is the death of creativity." James also had great things to say about Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again's message, describing the movie as "a celebration of women, motherhood and sisterhood." "It's set in the seventies but it may as well be now," she continued. "There's a real sense of the freedom of her choice and of her sexual choice and embracing all of what it is to be young, free and single and to live on her own terms and to have the baby on her own on an island in the middle of nowhere." Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again takes place back on the Greek island of Kalokairi five years later with Amanda Seyfried's character running her mother Donna's inn -- with the help of her mom's former bandmates, Tanya and Rosie (Christine Baranski and Julie Walters). The entire original cast reunited for the film, including Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan, with James and Cher as the newcomers. Cher plays Donna's mother, Ruby Sheridan. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again in theaters Friday. (People)
'Bohemian Rhapsody' Trailer Addresses Freddie Mercury's AIDS Diagnosis. For most of it, the longer than two-minute trailer is exhilarating, with the classic music of Queen playing while the audience sees the band from its infancy to its rise to superstardom. The official trailer for the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody dropped Tuesday morning and the mood of the new preview is in part more somber than the teaser. For most of it, the longer than two-minute trailer is exhilarating, with the classic music of Queen playing while the audience sees the band from its infancy to its rise to superstardom. However, there is a darker moment in the trailer when it appears Freddie Mercury, played by Rami Malek, makes a comment about his AIDS diagnosis. Someone says, "I just need a bit of time," to which Malek's Mercury replies, "What if I don't have time." It is hard to tell whether it is two scenes put together or all happening in a single segment, but the description for the 20th Century Fox film reads in part, "While bravely facing a recent AIDS diagnosis, Freddie leads the band in one of the greatest performances in the history of rock music." The trailer also addresses Mercury's sexuality more than the first trailer, including a moment when a reporter asks him about his private life and Malek's Mercury dismisses the question. Along with Malek, the film stars Ben Hardy (Roger Taylor), Joseph Mazzello (John Deacon) and Gwilym Lee (Brian May). Although Dexter Fletcher completed filming after original director Bryan Singer was fired, Singer will get the directing credit on the film. Bohemian Rhapsody hits theaters Nov. 2. (Hollywood Reporter)
Palme d'Or Winner 'Shoplifters' Gets China Release Date. The film is set to get a much wider release than Hirokazu Kore-eda's 'The Third Murder,' which screened on China's nascent arthouse circuit earlier this year. Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters (Manbiki Kazoku) is set for an Aug. 3 release in China, with Huayi Brothers distributing in cooperation with Road Pictures, which picked up rights for the film after its Palme d'Or triumph at Cannes. Kore-eda's legal drama The Third Murder was the Japanese director's first film to get a Chinese release when it was screened by Road Pictures on the country's newly developing arthouse circuit in March and April. The involvement of Huayi Brothers, which is expanding its slate of Hollywood and other overseas films, should ensure Shoplifters gets a much wider release, a Gaga representative told The Hollywood Reporter. The story of a dysfunctional family of petty criminals, Shoplifters just spent its sixth weekend in the box-office top five in Japan and has become the director's biggest hit, bringing in $33.8 million (?3.8 billion) in its home market so far. Kore-eda is currently in France preparing for his next film, Le Verite (The Truth), his first production overseas, which is due to start shooting in October. (Hollywood Reporter)
Inside the New James Bond Installation on Top of an Austrian Mountain. THR takes a tour of '007 Elements,' a "James Bond cinematic experience," built like a secret Blofeld lair some 10,000 feet above sea level. The summit of a mountain around 10,000 feet above sea level might not seem the obvious location for a museum dedicated to one sole film franchise. But when that franchise is James Bond, such extreme geographical positioning starts to make sense. "007 Elements," which officially opened on Thursday with Miss Moneypenny herself Naomie Harris on ribbon-cutting duties, is being billed as "A James Bond Cinematic Experience," and sits atop and hidden within Austria's Gaislachkogl peak in the otherwise largely innocuous skiing resort of Solden, about a 90-minute drive from Innsbruck. A 14,000 square foot multi-roomed mass of jauntily angled cement and glass that, in parts, literally juts out of the mountainside, with somewhat spectacular panoramic views of the Alps in the distance, the two-tiered bunker would suit most wannabe Blofeld villains looking for a suitably impractical secret lair. Reachable only via two gondola rides (including a gold 007-themed carriage already dubbed the "Bondola" that plays a selection of John Barry's noted scores as it rises above the clouds), "Elements" is essentially a series of high-tech and immersive installations celebrating the longest-running film series of all time. And it's all done with a distinctly stripped back, neo brutalist minimalism (aided by the 1-degree celsius temperature maintained throughout). For Neal Callow, art director on the past four Bonds (alongside Star Wars: The Last Jedi), who helped bring the entire project the life alongside architect Johann Obermoser and Tino Schaelder of creative agency Optimist Inc., the aim was to maintain the "sense of understated 007 elegance," while paying homage to the iconic semi-futuristic sets of Oscar-winning Bond design legend Ken Adam. "We wanted to design a journey broken up into the elements of a Bond film," says Callow, adding that the reference for the project was more fine art installation than a series of museum pieces with text on the wall. "We want to use this incredible location to place people into Bond's world and bring stories to life in an unforgettable way." Much of the focus of "Elements" is the most recent outing, 2015's Spectre, several noted scenes from which were shot on the site. Sitting next door is the futuristic glass-fronted ice Q restaurant (also designed by Obermoser), which became the frosty Hoffler Klinik where Craig's 007 first meets Lea Seydoux's Madeleine Swann (the restaurant's owner Jakob Falkner was the one who originally thought of doing something once production had left town). Meanwhile, the nearby valleys and glacier roads were used for the dramatic chase scene in which Bond pursues and takes out several henchmen-filled 4x4s in a propeller plane. The actual front portion of the real-life aircraft is the centerpiece of one of the "Elements" installations, suspended from the ceiling amid a dramatic explosion of broken wood (Bond smashes through an alpine cabin during the chase), while models are used to explain how the entire stunt was put together. Guests can refresh their memories by watching the whole scene in question in the neighboring room. But the rest of the 24-strong library of 007 titles aren't ignored, with the many video installations roaming across the 50-plus years of the franchise. The "Tech Lab," which could easily pass for one of Q's testing facilities, dives into the technology of Bond, showcasing a number of gadgets selected especially from Eon's archives, a vast warehouse in North London. Among the props is a grappling pistol from 1964's Goldfinger, one of oldest 007 items still in existence, alongside the Snooper Dog from 1985's A View to a Kill, and the exploding Parker pen from 1995's Goldeneye Almost all the items are originals, with the exception of a replica version of the iconic firearm from 1974's The Man With the Golden Gun, which is on display elsewhere, and the "rebreather," which famously allowed Sean Connery to breathe underwater in 1965's Thunderball. We've got no idea what happened to that," explains Meg Simmonds, Bond's official archivist since 1995, who helped select the items, choosing mostly those with a metallic feel to suit the aesthetics of the space. Also in the room is a ski stick Roger Moore used in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me, which turned out to be the first ever prop made by Chris Corbould, then a 16-year-old apprentice (uncredited in the film) and now one of the world's most respected special effects coordinators, having worked across every Bond title since A View to a Kill, with other credits including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Dark Knight Rises and Inception (for which he won an Oscar). "I actually got quite emotional when I first saw that," says Corbould. "It was the start of my Bond career and brought back so many memories." Over in the final room the Legacy Gallery (which also includes a gift shop, naturally) mannequins sport a selection of original Bond ski suits, including Moore's famed bright yellow jump suit worn in The Spy Who Loved Me. Keeping things in the family, the clothing for sale comes from Willy Bogner, the ski wear brand that has provided much of Bond's snow-based outfits and is headed up by former alpine racer Willy Bogner Jnr, who also worked on a number of 007 films himself. The first purpose-built Bond installation, "Elements" which has the scope to swap out or expand its current exhibits has managed to avoid anything too cheesy or cliched (Callow mentioned there had been talk of designing it to look like the 007 logo, an idea that would have been distinctly un-Bond and was thankfully scrapped). Instead, it manages to be an impressively audacious creation, one Simmonds says she thinks designer Adam would have "been hugely proud of," that should attract both fans of world's most famous cinematic spy and anyone who just happens to be skiing by. But for those who are after the full James Bond experience to go with it, there's also sleek modern Solden's Hotel Bergland at the base of the mountain, where the cast and crew for Spectre stayed during production. Naturally, it now includes a dedicated "Bond Suite." (Hollywood Reporter)
Ron Burkle's Company Accuses New Weinstein Co. Owners of Fraud, Breach of Contract. Burkle's Yucaipa Companies filed a lawsuit against Lantern Capital just as Lantern closed its deal to buy Harvey Weinstein's former company. No sooner had Lantern Capital closed its deal to buy The Weinstein Co. for $289 million than did Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Companies file a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday accusing the Texas-based company of alleged fraud and breach of contract related to the sale. Yucaipa and Lantern, along with former Obama administration official Maria Contreras-Sweet, were originally partners in a bid to buy TWC, but that bid ultimately fell by the wayside. Lantern, based in Texas, next became a stalking horse bidder to buy assets of the company out of bankruptcy. The deal, approved last week by a judge in Delaware, was finalized on Monday. In the lawsuit, Burkle's company alleges that Lantern had entered into a written agreement stating it wouldn't use confidential TWC information compiled by Yupaipa without Yucaipa's consent. That agreement was signed last fall, when they were working together to acquire Harvey Weinstein's ailing film and television production venture. Later, according to the complaint, the two parties struck an oral agreement whereby Lantern could use the information in its pursuit of the stalking horse bid if it agreed to compensate Yucaipa via a two percent transaction fee. The lawsuit alleges that Lantern later breached that agreement, including informing Yucaipa that it wouldn't honor the arrangement. Burkle had a close relationship with Weinstein and his company for years. As detailed in the lawsuit, Burkle's company invested in at least a dozen TWC films, including The Iron Lady, Long Walk to Freedom, August, Osage County and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The suit seeks unspecified damages. Yucaipa is represented in the matter by Loeb & Loeb. A Lantern spokesperson said the company does not comment on litigation. (Hollywood Reporter)
Lily James Didn't Speak for a Week Before Filming Mamma Mia 2 So She Wouldn't Lose Her Voice. Lily James went to extreme measures to make sure her voice was in tip-top shape before filming for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again began. In the sequel to the beloved 2008 film, which centers around the music of ABBA, James portrays a young version of Donna (played by Meryl Streep) and sings along with her group The Dynamos. James revealed to PEOPLE, just days before the film hits theaters on Friday, that she's "struggled" with her voice a lot since leaving drama school. "I lose my voice a lot," she said. "I have issues -- it's really scary and heartbreaking." To prepare for her singing parts in the film, the actress said she "didn't speak for a week before we recorded." "I went on steroids and didn't talk," she added. "I watched Mamma Mia over and over again to channel the essence of what makes Donna so unique and brilliant and fearless and courageous," James continued. The actress, 29, also said that when watching the film, she tried to "mimic a certain amount of [Streep's] physicality," including her hand gestures and "her gravity." James also prepared for her role by watching many of Streep's other films, especially "stuff where she's more comedic." "Postcards from the Edge was useful because she sang," James explained, adding that Streep's character was a bit "manic in that film and there is a bit of madness to Donna, a ballsyness and scattiness." Praising Streep, James added: "Like all great actors, Meryl is able to be a great comedian and break people's hearts." As an actress who has taken on a broad range of roles herself, James remarked, "I think if you've want to keep it interesting then you've got to keep it varied as repetition is the death of creativity." James also had great things to say about Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again's message, describing the movie as "a celebration of women, motherhood and sisterhood." "It's set in the seventies but it may as well be now," she continued. "There's a real sense of the freedom of her choice and of her sexual choice and embracing all of what it is to be young, free and single and to live on her own terms and to have the baby on her own on an island in the middle of nowhere." Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again takes place back on the Greek island of Kalokairi five years later with Amanda Seyfried's character running her mother Donna's inn -- with the help of her mom's former bandmates, Tanya and Rosie (Christine Baranski and Julie Walters). The entire original cast reunited for the film, including Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan, with James and Cher as the newcomers. Cher plays Donna's mother, Ruby Sheridan. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again in theaters Friday. (People)
'Bohemian Rhapsody' Trailer Addresses Freddie Mercury's AIDS Diagnosis. For most of it, the longer than two-minute trailer is exhilarating, with the classic music of Queen playing while the audience sees the band from its infancy to its rise to superstardom. The official trailer for the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody dropped Tuesday morning and the mood of the new preview is in part more somber than the teaser. For most of it, the longer than two-minute trailer is exhilarating, with the classic music of Queen playing while the audience sees the band from its infancy to its rise to superstardom. However, there is a darker moment in the trailer when it appears Freddie Mercury, played by Rami Malek, makes a comment about his AIDS diagnosis. Someone says, "I just need a bit of time," to which Malek's Mercury replies, "What if I don't have time." It is hard to tell whether it is two scenes put together or all happening in a single segment, but the description for the 20th Century Fox film reads in part, "While bravely facing a recent AIDS diagnosis, Freddie leads the band in one of the greatest performances in the history of rock music." The trailer also addresses Mercury's sexuality more than the first trailer, including a moment when a reporter asks him about his private life and Malek's Mercury dismisses the question. Along with Malek, the film stars Ben Hardy (Roger Taylor), Joseph Mazzello (John Deacon) and Gwilym Lee (Brian May). Although Dexter Fletcher completed filming after original director Bryan Singer was fired, Singer will get the directing credit on the film. Bohemian Rhapsody hits theaters Nov. 2. (Hollywood Reporter)
Palme d'Or Winner 'Shoplifters' Gets China Release Date. The film is set to get a much wider release than Hirokazu Kore-eda's 'The Third Murder,' which screened on China's nascent arthouse circuit earlier this year. Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters (Manbiki Kazoku) is set for an Aug. 3 release in China, with Huayi Brothers distributing in cooperation with Road Pictures, which picked up rights for the film after its Palme d'Or triumph at Cannes. Kore-eda's legal drama The Third Murder was the Japanese director's first film to get a Chinese release when it was screened by Road Pictures on the country's newly developing arthouse circuit in March and April. The involvement of Huayi Brothers, which is expanding its slate of Hollywood and other overseas films, should ensure Shoplifters gets a much wider release, a Gaga representative told The Hollywood Reporter. The story of a dysfunctional family of petty criminals, Shoplifters just spent its sixth weekend in the box-office top five in Japan and has become the director's biggest hit, bringing in $33.8 million (?3.8 billion) in its home market so far. Kore-eda is currently in France preparing for his next film, Le Verite (The Truth), his first production overseas, which is due to start shooting in October. (Hollywood Reporter)
Inside the New James Bond Installation on Top of an Austrian Mountain. THR takes a tour of '007 Elements,' a "James Bond cinematic experience," built like a secret Blofeld lair some 10,000 feet above sea level. The summit of a mountain around 10,000 feet above sea level might not seem the obvious location for a museum dedicated to one sole film franchise. But when that franchise is James Bond, such extreme geographical positioning starts to make sense. "007 Elements," which officially opened on Thursday with Miss Moneypenny herself Naomie Harris on ribbon-cutting duties, is being billed as "A James Bond Cinematic Experience," and sits atop and hidden within Austria's Gaislachkogl peak in the otherwise largely innocuous skiing resort of Solden, about a 90-minute drive from Innsbruck. A 14,000 square foot multi-roomed mass of jauntily angled cement and glass that, in parts, literally juts out of the mountainside, with somewhat spectacular panoramic views of the Alps in the distance, the two-tiered bunker would suit most wannabe Blofeld villains looking for a suitably impractical secret lair. Reachable only via two gondola rides (including a gold 007-themed carriage already dubbed the "Bondola" that plays a selection of John Barry's noted scores as it rises above the clouds), "Elements" is essentially a series of high-tech and immersive installations celebrating the longest-running film series of all time. And it's all done with a distinctly stripped back, neo brutalist minimalism (aided by the 1-degree celsius temperature maintained throughout). For Neal Callow, art director on the past four Bonds (alongside Star Wars: The Last Jedi), who helped bring the entire project the life alongside architect Johann Obermoser and Tino Schaelder of creative agency Optimist Inc., the aim was to maintain the "sense of understated 007 elegance," while paying homage to the iconic semi-futuristic sets of Oscar-winning Bond design legend Ken Adam. "We wanted to design a journey broken up into the elements of a Bond film," says Callow, adding that the reference for the project was more fine art installation than a series of museum pieces with text on the wall. "We want to use this incredible location to place people into Bond's world and bring stories to life in an unforgettable way." Much of the focus of "Elements" is the most recent outing, 2015's Spectre, several noted scenes from which were shot on the site. Sitting next door is the futuristic glass-fronted ice Q restaurant (also designed by Obermoser), which became the frosty Hoffler Klinik where Craig's 007 first meets Lea Seydoux's Madeleine Swann (the restaurant's owner Jakob Falkner was the one who originally thought of doing something once production had left town). Meanwhile, the nearby valleys and glacier roads were used for the dramatic chase scene in which Bond pursues and takes out several henchmen-filled 4x4s in a propeller plane. The actual front portion of the real-life aircraft is the centerpiece of one of the "Elements" installations, suspended from the ceiling amid a dramatic explosion of broken wood (Bond smashes through an alpine cabin during the chase), while models are used to explain how the entire stunt was put together. Guests can refresh their memories by watching the whole scene in question in the neighboring room. But the rest of the 24-strong library of 007 titles aren't ignored, with the many video installations roaming across the 50-plus years of the franchise. The "Tech Lab," which could easily pass for one of Q's testing facilities, dives into the technology of Bond, showcasing a number of gadgets selected especially from Eon's archives, a vast warehouse in North London. Among the props is a grappling pistol from 1964's Goldfinger, one of oldest 007 items still in existence, alongside the Snooper Dog from 1985's A View to a Kill, and the exploding Parker pen from 1995's Goldeneye Almost all the items are originals, with the exception of a replica version of the iconic firearm from 1974's The Man With the Golden Gun, which is on display elsewhere, and the "rebreather," which famously allowed Sean Connery to breathe underwater in 1965's Thunderball. We've got no idea what happened to that," explains Meg Simmonds, Bond's official archivist since 1995, who helped select the items, choosing mostly those with a metallic feel to suit the aesthetics of the space. Also in the room is a ski stick Roger Moore used in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me, which turned out to be the first ever prop made by Chris Corbould, then a 16-year-old apprentice (uncredited in the film) and now one of the world's most respected special effects coordinators, having worked across every Bond title since A View to a Kill, with other credits including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Dark Knight Rises and Inception (for which he won an Oscar). "I actually got quite emotional when I first saw that," says Corbould. "It was the start of my Bond career and brought back so many memories." Over in the final room the Legacy Gallery (which also includes a gift shop, naturally) mannequins sport a selection of original Bond ski suits, including Moore's famed bright yellow jump suit worn in The Spy Who Loved Me. Keeping things in the family, the clothing for sale comes from Willy Bogner, the ski wear brand that has provided much of Bond's snow-based outfits and is headed up by former alpine racer Willy Bogner Jnr, who also worked on a number of 007 films himself. The first purpose-built Bond installation, "Elements" which has the scope to swap out or expand its current exhibits has managed to avoid anything too cheesy or cliched (Callow mentioned there had been talk of designing it to look like the 007 logo, an idea that would have been distinctly un-Bond and was thankfully scrapped). Instead, it manages to be an impressively audacious creation, one Simmonds says she thinks designer Adam would have "been hugely proud of," that should attract both fans of world's most famous cinematic spy and anyone who just happens to be skiing by. But for those who are after the full James Bond experience to go with it, there's also sleek modern Solden's Hotel Bergland at the base of the mountain, where the cast and crew for Spectre stayed during production. Naturally, it now includes a dedicated "Bond Suite." (Hollywood Reporter)
Ron Burkle's Company Accuses New Weinstein Co. Owners of Fraud, Breach of Contract. Burkle's Yucaipa Companies filed a lawsuit against Lantern Capital just as Lantern closed its deal to buy Harvey Weinstein's former company. No sooner had Lantern Capital closed its deal to buy The Weinstein Co. for $289 million than did Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Companies file a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday accusing the Texas-based company of alleged fraud and breach of contract related to the sale. Yucaipa and Lantern, along with former Obama administration official Maria Contreras-Sweet, were originally partners in a bid to buy TWC, but that bid ultimately fell by the wayside. Lantern, based in Texas, next became a stalking horse bidder to buy assets of the company out of bankruptcy. The deal, approved last week by a judge in Delaware, was finalized on Monday. In the lawsuit, Burkle's company alleges that Lantern had entered into a written agreement stating it wouldn't use confidential TWC information compiled by Yupaipa without Yucaipa's consent. That agreement was signed last fall, when they were working together to acquire Harvey Weinstein's ailing film and television production venture. Later, according to the complaint, the two parties struck an oral agreement whereby Lantern could use the information in its pursuit of the stalking horse bid if it agreed to compensate Yucaipa via a two percent transaction fee. The lawsuit alleges that Lantern later breached that agreement, including informing Yucaipa that it wouldn't honor the arrangement. Burkle had a close relationship with Weinstein and his company for years. As detailed in the lawsuit, Burkle's company invested in at least a dozen TWC films, including The Iron Lady, Long Walk to Freedom, August, Osage County and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The suit seeks unspecified damages. Yucaipa is represented in the matter by Loeb & Loeb. A Lantern spokesperson said the company does not comment on litigation. (Hollywood Reporter)
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