We’ve been making films at Ealing Studios for over 100 years. And films like St Trinians are proving just as popular today as when the Studio was boosting London’s morale during the Blitz or Michael Balcon and Alexander Korda were creating the classic Ealing Comedies. Ealing has always been at the heart of the British film industry.
Here is the film that Head of Studio - Barnaby Thompson produced and was nominated for an Oscar® for. It was directed by Peter Cattaneo (What the Puck!).
The big baddie St Trinian's 2 and Doctor Who star has just started shooting his new movie The Decoy Bride. David stars alongside fellow Scot Kelly MacDonald and Alice Eve, who played Charlotte's bra-less nanny in Sex And The City 2.
David plays British writer James, who is engaged to internationally famous film star Lara, who decide to get married on a remote Scottish island when their wedding is sabotaged by a paparazzo.
The movie is shooting on location for five weeks on the Isle of Man and in Scotland.
It's nearly that time of year again when we all get excited pull out our pointed hats and head off to the cinema to check out the latest Harry Potter movie. Well the series is almost over and the trailer for Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows (Parts One and Two) has just hit the net and it looks pretty bloody amazing. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Maggie Smith (From Time to Time), Timothy Spall (Lucky Break) and Emma Thompson (Effie) part one is released November 2010 and part two July 2011. EXCITING!
Did you see the brilliant new comedy series Rev directed by Peter Cattaneo (Lucky Break, What the Puck!) last night? Tom Hollander plays Adam a vicar who is promoted from a sleepy rural parish to an inner city East London Church.
Posh Totty actress Tamsin Egerton has taken a role in new 10 part US-TV drama 'Camelot'. She will play the heroine Guinevere with Jamie Campbell Bower (Twilight: New Moon) as Arthur. Also joining the cast are Joseph Feinnes (Flashforward) as Merlin and Eva Green (Casino Royale) as sorceress Morgana.
The shoot is taking place in Dublin until the end of the year. Can't wait to see some snaps from the set!
Turns out our St Trinian's actresses aren't just talented on screen they're turning their attention to bakery! Ashes to Ashes and Love Soup actress Montserrat Lombard has opened up an on-line cakery called 'Living in Oblivion'. Some of these recipes look pretty moreish! Send us a box of brookies please Montse!
Thursday saw the opening night for Jamie Lloyd's Salome starring Zawe Ashton (Bianca - St Trinian's 2) and Zawe's St Trinian's co-stars turned out to show their support. Ella Smith (Lucy), Montserrat Lombard (Zoe), Christian Brassington (Peters) and Georgia King (Juliet) were all there to watch the amazing production. Get thee to the Hampstead Theatre and check it out!
When Julie Taymor's new adaptation of Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' wrapped filming Helen Mirren was so sad to see St Trinian's star Russell Brand go that she stole a pair of his pants.
She explains, "He was leaving and he was coming to say goodbye and he had a pile of books and papers (from his trailer) and on top of all these things were a pair of bright yellow, canary yellow underpants - Y-fronts.
"I grabbed them and said, 'Russell, I'm having those as my little memento of working with you.'"
The Tempest is released later this year and Brand is currently starring in Get Him to the Greek which is in cinemas now!
Dorian Gray and Easy Virtue star Ben Barnes is returning to the West End stage playing the lead in Trevor Nunn's adaptation of the bestselling novel 'Birdsong' by Sebastian Faulks. The play will open at the Comedy Theatre in London for a limited season from 29 September 2010 (previews from 18 September) at the West End’s Comedy Theatre. You can book tickets here!
Zawe Ashton who played the blingtastic Bianca in Ealing's St Trinian's 2 is starring as Salome in Jamie Lloyd's new production which powers into the Hampstead Theatre this week. Press night is Thursday and it runs until July 17th.
With all the big serious blockbusters clamouring for our attention this summer there's one movie that looks really fun! Now don't laugh but Piranha 3D is definitely going to be our guilty pleasure of the summer. Released by Entertainment Film Distributors on August 27th we are going to be first in line to check it out! Bring on the 3d specs!
Check the trailer below!
Ex-Assistant to Head of Studio Barnaby Thompson- Sarah Alexander has just won the Advertising equivalent of an Oscar for her 90 second short film 'Embrace Life'. As reported in The Metro today the ad has received over 17 million hits since it's debut earlier this year. Ealing is very proud of Sarah and can't wait to see what she does next! If you haven't seen it yet- check it out below!
Stephan Elliott's (Director of Easy Virtue) musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert gets the Beyoncé treatment in this video to promote the broadway opening of the show. Check it out- it's genius!
With the fourth and final Shrek chapter about to hit UK cinemas there is still hope for the franchise because PUSS IN BOOTS: The Movie will be following next Christmas in 3D.
After the demise of Dreamwork's biggest animated franchise the gap will be filled by 'The Other Man' star Antonio Bandaras in his own movie. Puss will work with an arch female rival - Kitty voiced by Salma Hayektaking on a mission to steal the famous, golden egg-laying goose of fairy tale fame.
And as if that news wasn't exciting enough here is the first image from the movie!
Rupert Everett returns as headmistress of the feisty and ever-resourceful schoolgirls of St Trinians. A break-in at the school sets off a treasure hunt in which the girls are pitted against their most fearsome establishment rivals yet. Colin Firth, Tallulah Riley and Tamsin Egerton re-appear and are joined by Sarah Harding from Girls Aloud. David Tennant plays the villainous Pomfrey on a roller coaster ride that takes in Liverpool St station and the Globe Theatre. Gemma Arterton returns as ex Head-Girl Kelly, who has joined the Secret Service, and the School now has a band.
Directed by Oliver Parker & Barnaby Thompson
Starring Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, David Tennant, Gemma Arterton, Sarah Harding, Talulah Riley, Tamsin Egerton, Celia Imrie and Toby Jones
Written By Piers Ashworth & Nick Moorcroft
Produced by Oliver Parker & Barnaby Thompson
Released in UK by Entertainment Film Distributors December 2009
Where is my lobster?' demands Jeremy Brown, lead singer with Britain's hottest new pop act. 'It's on the floor,' I reply, pointing. 'It crawled out of the basket.'
'Well, go and catch it,' he retorts heatedly.
Sadly, we are not in some swanky London restaurant frequented by the decadent glitterati, sipping champagne before our seafood platter arrives. Jeremy catches his seafood platter by hand - every day of the week except Sundays.
We are on his fishing boat, the Free Spirit II, navigating the choppy emerald seas off Cornwall. The wind is stinging and I have just been nipped by a crustacean. My job is to measure the lobsters to determine if they are large enough to sell and then put rubber bands round their claws.
John Landis on why Ray Harryhausen's effects are still so special
King Kong bowled him over, and in turn Ray Harryhausen bowled over millions with his stop-motion magic in the likes of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Jason of the Argonauts
Stop-motion magic … Ray Harryhausen's Jason and the Argonauts. Photograph: The Kobal Collection
In 1933, the 13-year-old Ray Harryhausen went to see King Kong at Grauman's Chinese theatre in Los Angeles. That is the moment his life changed. In 1958, the eight-year-old John Landis went to see The 7th Voyage of Sinbad at the Crest theatre in Los Angeles. That is the moment my life changed. I asked my mom: "Who makes the movie?" She answered: "The director." So from that moment on, a director was all I wanted to be.
When you ask someone for their favourite movie, they can usually tell you how old they were, the name of the theatre and who they were with when they first saw it. An argument can be made that, indeed, the movies are our collective memory, contemporary man's new mythology. Harryhausen was overwhelmed by his experience watching "the 8th Wonder of the World".
All films require "suspension of disbelief" to work effectively. And every film creates its own unspoken rules to accomplish this. The filmmaker uses lighting, actors, montage and narrative to convey the "reality" of the story being told. And by "reality", I do not mean the actuality of the situation and characters. I mean that the audience should care about what is taking place before them. In 1975, I worked as one of the writers of the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. Guy Hamilton was the director I was trying to please. (Neither Guy nor I ended up working on the final film.) I mention this only because Guy told me a marvellous thing. When explaining why every Bond film had to start with a particularly outrageous prologue, he said this was the way the film-makers said to the audience: "Right, please put your brains under your seats and here we go!"
What does all this have to do with Ray Harryhausen? Ray was inspired by the brilliant stop-motion work through which Willis O'Brien made King Kong a reality – not only an awesomely powerful physical presence, but also a sympathetic being with thoughts and emotions. After he saw King Kong, Ray's encouraging and tolerant parents encouraged him in his pursuit of his craft. He cut up his mother's fur coat to cover his puppet of a woolly mammoth, and his father helped him with the steel armatures (or skeletons) of his creatures. (His father continued to create armatures for Ray for many years.)
Ray served in Frank Capra's army film unit in the second world war. When it ended, he moved into making shorts, then started generating special effects for features. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, which became a tremendous box office success for Columbia, was the first colour movie he worked on, and he was credited as an executive producer. That is an important moment in the history of the movies: Harryhausen, a below-the-line special effects technician, had become his own genre. In fact, Ray is truly unique in the history of movies as a special effects technician who is really the auteur of his films. The stop-motion creatures and vehicles Ray created were not only the stars of those movies, but the main reason for them to exist at all. Ray would conceive the stories and create illustrations and storyboards to guide the picture's art directors and crew. He created reality – audiences cared about what was being put before them.
Jason and the Argonauts remains my favourite of Ray's films, probably because it has the best script of all of his pictures. But all of his films hold a special place in both my heart and my mind. Maybe it is the tactile reality of movement generated by Ray's hands and the extraordinary personalities his figures display that makes his work so special. I don't know. But I do know that Ray Harryhausen is a true giant of the cinema, and I am proud to call him both my mentor and my friend. Ray's 90th birthday is rapidly approaching. And all of his fans, and we are legion, wish him well.
Ray Harryhausen: A Birthday Celebration Hosted by John Landis is on 26 June at BFI Southbank, London SE1.
TAORMINA, Sicily (Hollywood Reporter) – When Jake and Elwood Blues, the protagonists in John Landis' cult classic "The BluesBrothers," claimed they were on a mission from God, the Catholic Church apparently took them at their word.
On the 30th anniversary of the film's release, "L'Osservatore Romano," the Vatican's official newspaper, called the film a "Catholic classic" and said it should be recommended viewing for Catholics everywhere.
The film is based on a skit from "Saturday Night Live." In the story, Jake and Elwood -- played by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, respectively -- embark on an unlikely road trip featuring concerts, car chases, clashes with the police and neo-Nazi groups, and attempts at revenge from a spurned lover, all, ostensibly, to raise money for the church-run orphanage where they grew up.
But aside from a brief appearance from Kathleen Freeman as a wrist-slapping nun referred to as "The Penguin" and the brothers' periodic claim that they were on a mission from God, spirituality does not play a significant role in the film.
In addition to Belushi and Aykroyd, the film featured an all-star cast including musicians James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, and Chaka Khan, in addition to noted actors John Candy, Carrie Fisher, Charles Napier, and Henry Gibson, and cameo roles for Frank Oz, Steven Spielberg, Landis, Mr. T, and Paul Reubens.
With the recommendation, "The Blues Brothers" joins the list of dozens of films recommended by Catholic authorities that includes Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments," "Jesus of Nazareth" from Franco Zeffirelli," Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ," Victor Flemming's "Joan of Arc," and "It's a WonderfulLife" from Frank Capra.
It's nearly that time of year again when we all get excited pull out our pointed hats and head off to the cinema to check out the latest Harry Potter movie. Well the series is almost over and the trailer for Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows (Parts One and Two) has just hit the net and it looks pretty bloody amazing. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Maggie Smith (From Time to Time), Timothy Spall (Lucky Break) and Emma Thompson (Effie) part one is released November 2010 and part two July 2011. EXCITING!
The trailer for next year's Green Hornet starring Tom Wilkinson (Burke & Hare) hits the internet. Looks pretty cool. Pineapple Express meets Iron Man.
When Julie Taymor's new adaptation of Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' wrapped filming Helen Mirren was so sad to see St Trinian's 
star Russell Brand go that she stole a pair of his pants. 
With all the big serious blockbusters clamouring for our attention this summer there's one movie that looks really fun! Now don't laugh but Piranha 3D is definitely going to be our guilty pleasure of the summer. Released by Entertainment Film Distributors on August 27th we are going to be first in line to check it out! Bring on the 3d specs!
Ex-Assistant to Head of Studio Barnaby Thompson- Sarah Alexander has just won the Advertising equivalent of an Oscar for her 90 second short film 'Embrace Life'. As reported in The Metro today the ad has received over 17 million hits since it's debut earlier this year. Ealing is very proud of Sarah and can't wait to see what she does next! If you haven't seen it yet- check it out below!
