Sam Mendes On Making Movie Magic With Olivia Colman And Micheal Ward In ‘Empire Of Light’, And Why A Woman Should Direct The Next James Bond Film

K.J. Yossman BBC have unveiled their fall/winter arts and factual slate including documentaries on Elon Musk and fashion designer Virgil Abloh, who tragically died last year at the age of 41, as well as a new Louis Theroux series in which he interviews stars including Judi Dench, Rita Ora and Stormzy. “I’ve been in my new role for four months and I’ve been blown away by the sheer range, scale and quality of programming coming out of the factual, arts and classical music departments,” said Kate Phillips, director for unscripted. “From stand out documentaries like ‘The Real Mo Farah’ and ‘Freddie’s Field of Dreams’ to the BBC Proms and the launch of ‘Frozen Planet II,’ the team here are at the very top of their game, bringing audiences high impact, uniquely public service content at its very best. We’ve got plenty more to look forward to in the months ahead and I’m excited to unveil such an impressive array of diverse new content featuring big and upcoming talent, and bringing us new perspectives, incredible access and big moments for everyone.”

K.J. Yossman Actor, writer and director Celyn Jones (pictured above, left, and below) is the triple threat no one saw coming. Originally from Wales, where he still films a lot of his projects, Jones built his career first as an actor of both theater and screen before pivoting to writing features such as “Set Fire to the Stars,” which starred Elijah Wood, “The Vanishing” featuring Gerard Butler and “Six Minutes to Midnight,” which he co-wrote with Eddie Izzard co-wrote and stars both Izzard and Judi Dench. Jones’ latest project, “The Almond and the Seahorse,” also represents his directorial feature debut. Jones co-wrote the film, which is about two couples dealing with traumatic brain injuries, with Kaite O’Reilly (on whose play it is based) and co-directs with Tom Stern (“Changeling”). He also stars in it alongside Charlotte Gainsbourg (“Melancholia”), Trine Dyrholm (“Queen of Hearts”), Meera Syal (“Yesterday”) and Rebel Wilson (“Pitch Perfect”). The film, which premieres at the Zurich Film Festival on Monday evening (Sept. 26) also represents a significant first for Wilson as it is the first time she appears in a dramatic role.

Clayton Davis Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages are Davis’ assessment of the current standings of the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any film or performance. Like any organization or body that votes, each individual category is fluid and subject to change. Predictions are updated every Thursday. LAST UPDATED: Sept. 22, 2022 CATEGORY COMMENTARY: Composer John Williams is a legend in every facet of the music world. Aside from winning 25 Grammys and five Oscars, he is undoubtedly the most important musical artist living today. Tapped for Steven Spielberg’s personal semi-autobiographical film “The Fabelmans,” he adds another great composition to his already impressive resume. If nominated, at 90 years old he would surpass costume designer Ann Roth and documentarian Agnes Varda as the oldest nominee, of any competitive Oscar category, in history.

Clayton Davis Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light,” a love story and ode to cinema houses, is dividing critics after playing at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals earlier this month. However, Searchlight Pictures remains confident in its awards prospects. “Empire” is among this season’s divisive films, including “Bardo” from Alejandro G. Iñárritu and “The Son” from Florian Zeller. However, one of the agreed-upon highlights of the film is the quality of the actors’ performances — notably Oscar winner Olivia Colman, breakout star Micheal Ward and veteran actor Toby Jones. As categories become upended with the news of Michelle Williams campaigning for lead actress, instead of supporting, Ward’s campaign is cementing its strategy early by seeking supporting actor consideration for this awards season, Variety has confirmed. Playing Stephen, a young ticket-taker that begins a love affair with Hilary (Colman), a middle-aged woman coming out of a mental health episode, Ward holds his own against the three-time nominee and Oscar winner for “The Favourite” (2018).

The Son and The Father director Florian Zeller will direct, write and co-produce the upcoming big-budget TV adaptation of Tony Award-winning play The Lehman Trilogy, his debut TV project.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Florian Zeller, the French filmmaker behind the Oscar-winning “The Father” and “The Son,” is set to make his TV debut with the adaptation of Stefano Massini’s play “The Lehman Trilogy.” Zeller will write, direct and co-produce the series under his newly formed Blue Morning. Lorenzo Mieli at The Apartment Pictures, a Fremantle company, and Domenico Procacci at Fandango are executive producing the series. The pair previously teamed on the acclaimed series “My Brilliant Friend” based on the Elena Ferrante novels. Massini’s epic drama charts the history of one of the global financial institutions that helped spark the 2008 recession. The original production inspired Sam Mendes to stage an English-language version of Massini’s five-hour play. Adapted by Ben Power, the production won five Tony Awards earlier this year, including prizes for Sam Mendes’ direction and for the lead performance of Simon Russell Beale.

festival debut of his new film “The Son,” Florian Zeller has signed on to write, direct and co-produce a television adaptation of the Tony-winning play “The Lehman Trilogy.”The series will mark the first project under the Oscar-winner’s newly formed Blue Morning Pictures banner alongside Mediawan and Federica Sainte-Rose. Lorenzo Mieli will produce for The Apartment Pictures, a Fremantle company, while Domenico Procacci will produce for Fandango.

Skyfall director Sam Mendes has said he thinks a woman should direct the next James Bond film.The filmmaker discussed the future of the 007 franchise after producer Barbara Broccoli had said the next actor to play James Bond would be male.In an interview with Deadline, Mendes said that he thinks the director of the next film “has to evolve” after discussing Daniel Craig’s exit from the franchise.“I don’t envy Barbara having to follow Daniel’s [Craig] five movies,” Mendes began. “He reinvigorated the franchise but the franchise is so huge that it’s very difficult for a younger actor to step into that.”Referring to the director specifically, the filmmaker added: “I think that the actor playing Bond is going to evolve, the director has to evolve.

You could argue that Daniel Craig’s run as James Bond is highlighted by Sam Mendes’ “Skyfall.” Moreso than the other films over the actor’s tenure as 007, “Skyfall” seems to be the high watermark for the franchise in recent years. So, when you talk about where the James Bond franchise needs to go in the future, now that Craig is no longer involved, Mendes seems like a good person to ask.

Olivia Coleman looked positively regal as she stepped onto the red carpet for the premiere of her new film Empire of light at the Toronto International Film Festival on Monday. The Crown star’s appearance comes after she made an emotional tribute to Queen Elizabeth II following her death aged 96 on Thursday September 8. Olivia, 48, played the Queen for two seasons of The Crown, which debuted on Netflix in 2016, and described the late monarch as having “such dignity” in an interview over the weekend.

Olivia Colman sandwiches herself in between Michael Ward and Tanya Moodie at the premiere of their new film, Empire of Light, during the 2022 Toronto Film Festival at Princess of Wales on Monday (September 12) in Toronto, Ontario.

The Crown star Olivia Colman has paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II. The British monarch passed away on Thursday at the age of 96, ending a reign of more than 70 years and plunging the nation into mourning. While attending a Variety Studio event as part of the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, Olivia - who portrayed the royal on two seasons of drama series The Crown - offered her own tribute.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter On the stage at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, Harry Styles is a bonafide rock star, brimming with swagger and self confidence. But Styles, the actor, was more soft spoken while accepting an acting award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Styles was a man of few words as he, along with the cast of “My Policeman,” received the ensemble award at the festival’s Tribute Awards on Sunday.  “Thank you so much to everyone here on behalf of all of us for this wonderful, wonderful award,” said Styles, who stars in the romance drama as a closeted police officer. “We all loved working on this film so much. And we hope you enjoy it.”

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Olivia Colman, who portrayed Queen Elizabeth II for two seasons of Netflix’s royal sensation “The Crown,” is still processing the loss and legacy of the British monarch. The queen’s death was announced on Thursday, the same day as the start of the Toronto International Film Festival. “I wouldn’t know where to begin with that,” she told Variety at the Variety Studio presented by King’s Hawaiian at the Toronto International Film Festival. “She made a promise as a young woman and she absolutely kept it with such dignity. We’re all incredibly impressed by what she did.” Colman, who touched down in Canada to promote “Empire of Light,” a romantic drama from director Sam Mendes, also praised King Charles III’s first address to the nation. In his speech, he paid tribute to his mother and vowed to serve with “loyalty, respect and love.”

There is definitely a trend of late for film directors to take a look in thinly disguised cinematic memoirs of their early influences that shaped the artist and person they have become. Kenneth Branagh with Belfast and Paolo Sorrentino with The Hand Of God did it last year. Of course there is Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, others over the years. Sam Mendes, while not drawing a portrait of his younger self revisits the movie palaces of his youth in another 2022 offering, Empire Of Light, which premiered last weekend at Telluride and will also hit the Toronto International Film Festival. TIFF is also where the man I recently described as the GOAT, Steven Spielberg, has chosen to debut his own story where the names have been changed but the story is  clearly his. The Fabelmans basically chronicling his early Jewish family life and infatuation with making movies  had its World Premiere Saturday night, the first of Spielberg’s directed movies ever to premiere at a film festival. This one seems entirely appropriate, and it has been gestating in the director’s head ever since he and his co-writer Tony Kushner started kicking it around during the making of Lincoln over a decade ago. He says he finally made it primarily as a way to bring his late parents Leah and Arnold (to whom the film is dedicated) somehow back to his life. Movies can do that, and no one knows it better than Steven Spielberg.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic If you’re a fan of “The Trip” and its sequels, those semi-improvised road comedies in which Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon play slightly exaggerated versions of their real-life selves, you’ll know that they’re about more than just two men driving through the European countryside, eating fabulous food, trying to top each other with their Al Pacino impersonations. Coogan, in particular, comes off as a fellow who, for all his larkish narcissism, is so steeped in history that it’s literally alive for him. And that’s the feeling that courses through “The Lost King,” the new movie written by Coogan and Jeff Pope and directed by Stephen Frears. They’re the team that gave us “Philomena” (2013), the sharp-tongued heart-tugger that cast Judi Dench as a real-life Irishwoman tracking down the son she’d been forced to give up for adoption 50 years before. That movie was fine (a tad too sentimental in my book), but “The Lost King” is a growth ring, a richer, stronger, and more moving piece of work, a historical detective story that carries the kick of a true-life “Da Vinci Code.”

Clayton Davis You’d think the reunion of Academy Award nominee Timothee Chalamet and his “Call Me by Your Name” director Luca Guadgnino in “Bones and All” would be all anyone could talk about following the film’s premiere last weekend at Telluride and Venice.   Instead, the name on everyone’s lips is going to be Taylor Russell. The up-and-comer, who first gained prominence with her role in “Waves” (2019), takes center stage and devours every morsel of her time on screen. She brings grace and restraint, two qualities that don’t exactly spring to mind when you’re talking about a coming-of-age story about teen cannibals drawn together by mutual blood lust. I only wish I had more faith Oscar voters would give the movie its proper shake, as genre movies always face an uphill climb, no matter how well reviewed or beloved they are by critics and audiences. 

Clayton Davis Roughly a year ago, Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” launched out of Telluride, and there was something about that film’s emotional expansiveness and the irresistible pull of its unapologetic nostalgia that made it clear it was going to be a force to be reckoned with at the Oscars. I got the same sense watching Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light” at its Telluride premiere this past weekend. It has a similar open heartedness even if the setting for the movie is an English seaside town and not the war-torn streets of Northern Ireland. Cinema seeps through “Empire of Light.” Mendes’ latest doesn’t just swoon for the images that flicker across screens; it also pays tribute to the physical buildings that house our most cherished artform and the sense of escapism that gets triggered every time you sit down in one of those palaces. If you are a movie lover, it’s hard to resist “Empire of Light’s” charm and stylized beauty.

magic of movies genuinely registers as a vibe in Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light,” a frustratingly uneven and often meandering period drama written by Mendes, loosely drawing remembrances from his own formative years. And he pulls from “a lockdown mindset,” too, as the director put it before his ’80s-set film’s world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, a melancholic state of being marked by feelings of loneliness and even fear that things we love (like movie theaters) would be lost forever in a post-pandemic world.Perhaps because his inspirations seem to be so extensive here, it often feels like Mendes is searching for a story within a bottomless well of moods and ideas throughout “Empire of Light.” Ironically enough, this undisciplined disposition is the exact opposite of the kind of taut restraint that was at the core of “1917,” his previous, tightly orchestrated and end-to-end choreographed film.“Empire of Light” starts with an admiration towards the enchanted majesty of cinemas, as Hilary (an affecting Olivia Colman, with an impressively wide-ranging emotional scale) preps the beautiful movie palace she works at for its daily opening, her gentle touches aided by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ soothingly nostalgic score.

EXCLUSIVE: Léa Seydoux who played Dr. Madeleine Swann in the two most recent 007 films, Spectre and No Time to Die, posed a mischievous question about whether audiences will see the mother of James Bond’s daughter in the next instalment of the long-running film franchise.