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Washington — Thursday, November 7 was a fateful day for the courts in America.

By an 86-2 margin, the U.S. Senate approved William Nardini to a lifetime appointment on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals — Trump’s 45th appointment of an appeals-court judge. On the same day, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved another judicial nominee of Trump’s, Steven Menashi, an ally of Stephen Miller and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos with a history of inflammatory statements about Islam, Lgbt people, and race. Menashi’s nomination now goes to the Senate floor where...

“How much trouble can one poet be?” we’re asked early on in Set Fire to the Stars, an account of a visit to the U.S. made by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas in 1950. We then get a typical, ironic smash cut to Thomas himself (played by the disarmingly magnetic Celyn Jones, who also co-wrote the script) at a crowded, raucous party, hoisting a woman on his back and carrying her around, both of them drunkenly screaming. It’s an alarming and all too predictable bit of filmmaking: We might worry that we’re about to see a cross between Dead Poets Society and Animal House, a no-holds-barred indulgence in the myth of the poet as irrepressible wild man. Luckily, Set Fire to the Stars turns out to be a more delicate, intelligent film than that.The events here, inspired by the remembrances of literary critic and poetry teacher...

Hero worship can be the damndest thing, just look at the life of John Malcolm Brinnin.

Despite himself being a well known and critically lauded poet, the late writer was best known for his appreciation for the work of legendary Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, and ultimately his attempt to bring him stateside. The first person to do so, he penned a full book about the exploits on that tour, Dylan Thomas In America, and it couldn’t be a greater textual example to the negatives of hero worship.

However, it’s also a far more nuanced subject, and thankful the filmic take on this very time period is awash in nuance.

The debut feature of director Andy Goddard, Set Fire To The Stars not only takes its name from the most famous of all Dylan Thomas poems, but looks directly at this moment in history, when the legendary and troubled Irish-born icon jumped stateside.

By Dane Marti

“Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.”

Sometimes it’s wonderful to write film reviews. Some folks enjoy tearing a film to shreds. Me? I love praising first-rate films and Set Fire To The Stars is definitely one of them: Based on events concerning the brilliant poet Dylan Thomas and his wild and revelatory misadventures while visiting America, I was easily enthralled and taken back to the nineteen fifties. However, as visually beautiful as the movie is, the film stays focused on two main characters: powerful acting.

Elijah Wood is John Malcolm Brinnin, an academic and poet who was instrumental in bringing the legendary poet to the United States. He is quite good, erasing, for the time being, his iconic performance as Frodo in The Lord of the Rings films.

Opening in select U.S. theaters on June 12, watch the trailer for Set Fire To The Stars.

The film premiered in 2014 at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and was released in the UK in November.

Shelagh Rowan-Legg (Twitchfilm.com) wrote the film, “is a tribute not only to a poet, but to poetry, and how cinema can find its own way to convey poetry, through its own lyricism,” and “the stand-out feature of the poetic extention is by far the incredible score by Gruff Rhys.”

Based on true events, Elijah Wood stars as John Malcolm Brinnin, the New York academic who brought Dylan Thomas to America.

Actor/co-writer Celyn Jones plays the volatile celebrity poet – tormented by anonymity, alcohol and the abyss – who scandalized the Manhattan literati of the Fifties and challenged Brinnin’s hero worship of his work. In the face of the Welsh poet’s wilder excesses in the Big Apple – angel,...

To celebrate the DVD and Blu-ray release of Set Fire To The Stars, we’re giving five lucky WhatCulture.com readers the chance to win a copy of the film on DVD.

Set in 1950s New York, the film follows John Malcolm Brinnin (Elijah Wood) an aspiring young American poet who finds his ordered world shaken when he embarks on a week-long retreat to save his hell raising hero, Dylan Thomas, played by Celyn Jones.

The film also features established British acting talent including Kelly Reilly (Sherlock Holmes, Flight), Steven Mackintosh (Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Kick Ass 2), Kevin Eldon (Hugo, Hot Fuzz) and Shirley Henderson (Bridget Jones Diary, Trainspotting).

Visually stunning and shot entirely in black and white to an original score by Gruff Rhys, Set Fire To The Stars is about the dirty business of celebrity, and what may have happened in an East Coast boathouse when...

Charlotte Church has joined the cast of an upcoming Dylan Thomas film.

Rhys Ifans leads the cast of Welsh stars in a movie version of Thomas's Under Milk Wood.

Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock and rugby star Gareth Thomas have also joined the cast in guest roles.

Ifans will play the narrator in the film, previously played by Richard Burton in the original radio play and the 1972 version.

Church is to appear as Polly Garter, who is pining for her deceased lover.

The project is being filmed over six weeks in Solva, Pembrokeshire, with villagers to appear as extras.

Director Kevin Allen told BBC News: "We want to veer away from delivering a dull, literal reflection of Thomas's original work, intending instead to explore some of the more erotic, visceral elements of the richly funny, filthily fluid, magical dreamscape - whilst not stooping to mess with Thomas's original text.

Andrew finds lots to like in this thoughtful movie about Dylan Thomas

The first time I saw Andy Goddard's work, it was in the 2006 Torchwood episode Countrycide, which featured John Barrowman kneecapping cannibals with a shotgun.

Set Fire To The Stars, directed and co-written by Goddard with actor Celyn Jones, is visually impressive, but also immeasurably more lyrical and thoughtful than you might be expecting. This is less of a surprise considering its subject matter: the story of Dylan Thomas's first visit to New York (his death in the city was dramatised in the recent BBC drama A Poet in New York, with Ewen Bremner playing the same role Elijah Wood does in this film).

Here, Jones plays Dylan Thomas, visiting 50s New York (Swansea), Connecticut (Swansea) and Yale (also Swansea) at the request of Elijah Wood's lapsed poet, the academic John Malcolm Brinnin. Through a combination of monochrome,...

With competing projects by Oliver Stone and Paul Greengrass stuck at various stages of development, it's Ava DuVernay's Martin Luther King biopic that's moving forward fastest. David Oyelowo stars as Dr King in Selma, with Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson. They're now going to be joined by Tim Roth, who'll be playing the segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace.Selma was previously in the hands of Lee Daniels, but he passed it to DuVernay (Middle Of Nowhere) last summer. DuVernay has since been overhauling playwrite Paul Webb's original screenplay, but given the title it seems safe to assume the focus remains on the historic civil rights march that began in the Alabama town in 1965. The protest, marred by violence, marked a turning point for African-Americans in their struggle for equality, and took three attempts before it finally reached its target, Montgomery, a town just 54 miles away. The character of Wallace,...

Highlights include Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Abel Ferrara’s controversial Dsk feature Welcome To New York.

The full line-up of the 68th Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has been revealed this morning by artistic director Chris Fujiwara at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse.

This year’s festival, which runs from June 18-29, will comprise 156 features from 47 countries, including 11 world premieres, eight international premieres, seven European premieres and 95 UK premieres.

New titles announced today include Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his final performances that was first shown at Sundance in January.

Straight from its lively premiere in Cannes is Abel Ferrara’s controversial title Welcome To New York, inspired by the case of former Imf managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, starring Gérard Depardieu, which will receive its UK premiere at Eiff.

Other new titles added to the line-up include [link=nm...

Gerard Johnson’s follow-up to Tony to receive world premiere as opening film; contenders for Michael Powell Award also revealed, including six world premieres.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has revealed that corrupt cop drama Hyena will open the 68th edition of the festival on June 18.

The film reunites director Gerard Johnson with Peter Ferdinando, who played the lead in his debut feature Tony which received its world premiere at Eiff in 2009.

Producers include Stephen Woolley (Made in Dagenham, The Crying Game, Mona Lisa), Elizabeth Karlsen (Great Expectations, Ladies in Lavender) and Joanna Laurie. Hyena was developed by Film4. Sam Lavender and Katherine Butler exec produced the film for Film4 which was co-financed by Film4, BFI, Ingenious and Lipsync and will be released by Metrodome in the UK and distributed internationally by Independent.

Set in London, Hyena revolves around corrupt police officer Michael Logan (Ferdinando) who has to deal with an influx of ruthless Albanian gangsters...

While "movies about legendary and slightly eccentric writers" isn.t exactly the most obvious sub-genre to spring up, cinema has certainly carved out a place for it in recent years, with Kill Your Darlings and On the Road both finding their fans and detractors in the last year or so. The next wordsmith to get the big screen treatment is Dylan Thomas for the film Set Fire to the Stars, which has landed Downton Abbey director Andy Goddard to helm, and Elijah Wood to star as poet and literary critic John Malcolm Brinnin. That.s right, Wood is joining a film that is neither a thriller or a Middle Earth fantasy. He will star opposite Welsh actor Celyn Jones (Jo), who will portray the oft-drunk Welsh poet, and also co-wrote the script with Goddard. While the film doesn.t appear to be based on any particular biographical work, it will...

The film will explore the relationship between Thomas and fellow poet John Malcolm Brinnin, played by Wood

• Elijah Wood: 'Frodo's never going away'

Elijah Wood has signed on for a lead role in Set Fire to the Stars, a film exploring the relationship between the poets Dylan Thomas and John Malcolm Brinnin.

Wood will play Brinnin, an American poet and literary scenester who was friends with Thomas as well as Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. He wrote Dylan Thomas in America, an account of how he brought the poet to the United States and accompanied him on book tours, which were often marred by Thomas's drunkenness and erratic behaviour. Thomas will be played by Celyn Jones, a veteran of TV shows like Above Suspicion, Leaving and Shameless.

The film will be directed by Andy Goddard, who has helmed Downton Abbey episodes, including its recent Christmas special, and it co-stars Shirley Henderson,...

• Bruce Willis (Die Hard) is set to star in the action thriller Captive, taking over for the previously rumored Arnold Schwarzenegger. Simon Brand (Unknown) is directing with a script by Benjamin van der Even (Che: Part Two) and Kario Salem (Chasing Mavericks) from a story by Nicolai Fuglsig. Willis will play a real estate developer who gets kidnapped and held for ransom while at work in Brazil. Production is set to begin in March. [Deadline]

• Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs) will play the woman who claimed to be the Grand Russian Duchess Anastasia, in Duchess. The film will be directed by Arie Posin...

He's been starring in TV comedy Wilfred recently, as well as giving his producing attention to his SpectreVision horror banner (Open Windows, Cooties, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night). But Elijah Wood's next project will be a literary period drama focused on the relationship between poets Dylan Thomas and John Malcolm Brinnin. Downton Abbey's Andy Goddard is Set Fire To The Stars' director.Wood will play Brinnin opposite Celyn Jones' Thomas, in a film dramatising their fractious friendship. Brinnin was the director of New York's Young Men's And Young Women's Hebrew Association Poetry Centre (Aka the 92nd Street Y), which he raised to some considerable cultural clout during the 1950s. One of his many significant achievements was in bringing Thomas to the States.His 1955 book Dylan Thomas In America details his trying experience with the poet, whose fondness for a tipple led to some erratic behaviour,...

Elijah Wood is ready to "Set Fire To The Stars" The "Lord of the Rings" vet will co-star in the Dylan Thomas biopic directed by "Downton Abbey" veteran Andy Goddard. The period drama will trace the turbulent relationship between aspiring poet John Malcolm Brinnin (wood) and the much more famous Thomas (Celyn Jones), the hard-living Welsh poet known for such pieces as "Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night" and "A Child's Christmas in Wales."  Brinnin and Goddard co-wrote the script. Kelly Reilly ("Sherlock Holmes"), Shirley Henderson ("Bridget Jones' Diary") and Steven Mackintosh ("Kick Ass 2") will round out the...

Elijah Wood is going to get literary with "Set Fire To The Stars." The actor will star in the indie film from co-writer/director Andy Goddard ("Downton Abbey"), and the '50s-set film will tell the story of the turbulent and moving relationship between aspiring poet John Malcolm Brinnin and his hero, the hellraising Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. Wood will play Brinnin, with Celyn Jones as Thomas. Production kicks off at the end of the month. Tonight marks the 100th episode of "Parks and Recreation," and that won't be the only thing Aubrey Plaza will be celebrating. The actress, along with Oliver Platt and Jeff Goldblum, has joined "Mortdecai" starring Johnny Depp. Directed by David Koepp, the film follows "debonair art dealer and part time rogue Charlie Mortdecai who must traverse the globe armed only with his good looks and special charm in a race to recover a stolen painting...

Elijah Wood has signed on to star alongside Celyn Jones in the Dylan Thomas biopic Set Fire to the Stars.

The plot is based on the relationship between Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (Celyn Jones) and American poet John Malcolm Brinnin (Elijah Wood), who was instrumental in bringing Dylan Thomas to America for his famous visits in the early 1950s, just before his death in 1953. Brinnin also had to deal with his hero's drunken and erratic behavior, stories which he turned into the 1955 book Dylan Thomas in America. Kelly Reilly, Shirley Henderson and Steven Mackintosh are also starring in unspecified roles.

Andy Goddard, who is best known for directing several episodes of Downton Abbey, is directing from a script he co-wrote with Celyn Jones. A.J. Riach is producing, with Steve Clark-Hall executive producing. Gruff Rhys from the band Super Furry Animals will provide the score.

Production will begin at the end of this month,...

Elijah Wood ("The Lord of the Rings") and Celyn Jones ("Joe's Palace") are set to star in the new 1950s-set drama "Fire to the Stars".

The story deals with the turbulent relationship between aspiring poet John Malcolm Brinnin (Wood) and his hero, the famed hellraising Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (Jones).

Kelly Reilly also stars as Thomas' wife, Shirley Henderson and Steven Mackintosh also have roles.

Andy Goddard ("Downton Abbey," "Doctor Who") helms from a script he co-wrote with Jones. The project will shoot on location in and around Thomas's spiritual home of Swansea, Wales from the end of this month.

Source: THR...

Elijah Wood has signed on to star in Set Fire to the Stars, a period movie exploring the relationship between poets John Malcolm Brinnin and Dylan Thomas. Andy Goddard, best known for helming key episodes of Downton Abbey, co-wrote the script and is directing. Celyn Jones (Jo) co-wrote the script with Goddard and will portray Thomas opposite Wood’s Brinnin. The movie is set to begin filming at the end of the month and counts Kelly Reilly (Flight, Sherlock Holmes), Shirley Henderson (the Harry Potter movies) and Steven Mackintosh (Luther) in its cast. Story: 'Mortdecai' Adds Aubrey Plaza, Oliver Platt,

read more...

Rebecca Miller will direct Golden Globe best actress nominee Greta Gerwig in the comedy of manners. Separately, Elijah Wood has joined the Dylan Thomas project Set Fire To The Stars.

Miller wrote the screenplay from a story by Karen Rinaldi. Rachael Horovitz of Specialty Films produces alongside Miller’s producing partner at Round Films, Damon Cardasis. The producers anticipate an autumn production start.

Downton Abbey director Andy Goddard co-wrote and will direct Set Fire To The Stars, a 1950s period drama abouts the relationship between aspiring poet John Malcolm Brinnin and his hero, the Welsh legend Dylan Thomas. Elijah Wood will play Brinnin and Celyn Jones, who co-wrote the script with Goddard, will play Thomas. Kelly Reilly will play Thomas’ wife, Caitlin. The key cast includes Shirley Henderson and Steven Mackintosh.

A new Dylan Thomas biopic of sorts is in the works from "Downtown Abbey" helmer Andy Goddard. Titled Set Fire to the Stars (a reference to the final line of Thomas' "Love in the Asylum"), the period feature will tell the story of the turbulent and moving relationship between aspiring poet, John Malcolm Brinnin and his hero, the hellraising Welsh poet whose work Brinnin helped bring to America. Elijah Wood will play Brinnin with Celyn Jones, who scripted alongside Goddard, starring as Thomas. Set in Fifties America, the film will actually shoot on location in and around Thomas's spiritual home of Swansea, Wales, from the end of January. Jones will be the latest in an illustrious line of actors to play the Welsh poet including Alec Guinness, Matthew Rhys and Tom...

Separate Tables

Directed by Lin Snider and Justin Bennett

Out of the Box Theatre Company

West End Theater , 263 West 86th Street, NYC

October 2-5, 2013 (Closed)

If you know of stage play more perfectly realized than Out of the Box Theatre's polished realization of Terence Rattigan's Separate Tables, let me know and I will rush to see it. However, that is unlikely, as co-directors Lin Snider and Justin Bennett have created a profound rarity indeed: a flawless production. Everything about this rendering of Rattigan's play, which opened in London in 1954 and on Broadway in 1956, is sheer perfection: every performance, the set, the costumes, the invisible effortless direction, the brief musical interludes -- all make for one of the most exhilarating evenings of theater I have ever experienced. It is unfortunate that such a fine production was limited to only six performances: a production of this outstanding caliber deserved a much longer run,...

Michael Logan, a Maryland man who pled guilty to illegally recording two films in a Washington, D.C., theater, "28 Weeks Later" and "Enchanted," was sentenced Tuesday to 21 months in federal prison.

The MPAA says forensic analysis indicates Logan could be responsible for illegally recording more than 100 films from January 2006 to January 2008 in four states and the District of Columbia.

"This sentence should serve as a reminder to would-be camcorder thieves that they will in fact be prosecuted and can face serious consequences for engaging in this illegally activity," said MPAA executive vp John Malcolm.

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin must issue a "loud and unequivocal message" of condemnation if rampant copyright crime is to be stopped in Russia, the MPA's head of worldwide anti-piracy operations said Wednesday. John Malcolm, senior vp of the Motion Picture Assn., said rising piracy, combined with widespread corruption among government officials, meant that nine out of every 10 DVDs sold in Russia was an illicit copy. "There is a need for a signal of resolve from the highest levels -- and I mean President Putin -- to tackle this pernicious problem," Malcolm said at the conclusion of a six-day visit to the Russian capital.

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin must issue a "loud and unequivocal message" of condemnation if rampant copyright crime is to be stopped in Russia, the MPA's head of worldwide anti-piracy operations said Wednesday. John Malcolm, senior vp of the Motion Picture Assn., said rising piracy, combined with widespread corruption among government officials, meant that nine out of every 10 DVDs sold in Russia was an illicit copy. "There is a need for a signal of resolve from the highest levels -- and I mean President Putin -- to tackle this pernicious problem," Malcolm said at the conclusion of a six-day visit to the Russian capital.

MEXICO CITY -- John Malcolm, the MPA's worldwide anti-piracy director, toured the Mexico City black market of Tepito on Monday, where he bought a copy of recent Lions Gate release Lord of War for just 50 cents. Malcolm, on his first official visit to Mexico as head of the MPA's anti-piracy operations, called the Mexico City's black market of Tepito "one of the most extreme" he had ever seen. "It was a rather overwhelming experience because it is so dense," he told reporters at a Mexico City press conference Tuesday. Malcolm dressed down for the occasion and was accompanied by escorts who led him through a sea of some 800 stalls.

DreamWorks has optioned the rights to Ben Mezrich's Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions. Kevin Spacey's Trigger Street Prods. is set to produce. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan will adapt the material. Schenkkan won the Pulitzer for best drama for The Kentucky Cycle. He also adapted Graham Greene's The Quiet American for Miramax. Ugly Americans tells the true story of John Malcolm, who in the mid-1990s, as a Princeton graduate, took a job offer to be an arbitrage trader for a couple of expatriates in Japan. There, Malcolm and his co-workers went from rags to riches and created the American Dream half a world away until run-ins with the Yakuza and governmental agents sent Malcolm on the run for his life.

LAS VEGAS -- It's time to stop calling film piracy "piracy"; the word only romanticizes what is actually the theft of copyrighted materials. That point was made by several panelists and audience members at a ShoWest panel Wednesday titled "Movie Piracy: The Latest on Problems and Solutions." And by the end of the presentation, moderator John Fithian, president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners, vowed that next year the word piracy will be dropped from the annual discussion of copyright theft, much of which stems from illegally camcording films in theatrical release. "Camcording is really a slow-motion robbery," said John Malcolm, senior vp and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the MPAA. While camcording remains rampant, NATO reported some progress under a new program, first announced at last year's ShoWest, that rewards theater employees with cash for catching camcorders in the act, detaining them and calling local authorities.

WASHINGTON -- The major motion picture studios launched an international offensive against online piracy Tuesday as the MPAA announced scores of lawsuits on four continents and criminal actions in three countries against people operating servers on the BitTorrent, eDonkey and Direct Connect networks. "The operators of these servers exercise total control over which files are included on their servers and even determine if some kinds of files aren't allowed," said John Malcolm, MPAA senior vp and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations. "For instance, some operators won't post pornography on their systems, but they have no compunction allowing illegal files of copyrighted movies and TV shows to flow through their servers. We are moving to stop that. The message today is clear: If you illegally trade movies online, we can find you, and we will hold you accountable." BitTorrent, Direct Connect and eDonkey are examples of newer kinds of peer-to-peer file-trading networks that are becoming more popular. These P2P networks require special software that allows the operators to index and efficiently deliver files of all kinds.

WASHINGTON -- The major motion picture studios launched an international offensive against online piracy Tuesday as the MPAA announced scores of lawsuits on four continents and criminal actions in three countries against people operating servers on the BitTorrent, eDonkey and Direct Connect networks. "The operators of these servers exercise total control over which files are included on their servers and even determine if some kinds of files aren't allowed," said John Malcolm, MPAA senior vp and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations. "For instance, some operators won't post pornography on their systems, but they have no compunction allowing illegal files of copyrighted movies and TV shows to flow through their servers. We are moving to stop that. The message today is clear: If you illegally trade movies online, we can find you, and we will hold you accountable." BitTorrent, Direct Connect and eDonkey are examples of newer kinds of peer-to-peer file-trading networks that are becoming more popular. These P2P networks require special software that allows the operators to index and efficiently deliver files of all kinds.