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A Sudden Case of Christmas has Danny DeVito and his daughter Lucy leading a folksy ensemble in a spirited holiday romp about the value of family during the holidays. The rub here is that Christmas takes place in August because of an impending divorce. Shenanigans predictably ensue as the likable characters hide big secrets and juggle various relationship problems while a precocious girl documents the festive fray. The film avoids being overly sentimental with a few naughty bits meant to spike the eggnog.

Jacob Randall (Wilmer Valderrama) and his wife Abbie (Lucy Devito) sing Christmas carols with their young daughter Claire (Antonella Rose) as the family drives towards Italy's picturesque Dolemite Mountains. Rose's father, Lawrance (Danny DeVito), owns a boutique hotel where everyone usually congregates for Christmas. Jacob's parents, Rose (Andie MacDowell) and Mark (Jos Ziga), are also en route to join them. We quickly learn it's not December but...

Exclusive: Shout! Studios has snapped up North American rights to the holiday family comedy A Sudden Case of Christmas, starring Danny DeVito (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Andie MacDowell (Four Weddings and a Funeral), from Notorious Pictures and Riverstone Pictures in association with WME Independent. The film will roll out across multiple entertainment platforms later this year.

As we were first to report, Vmi Worldwide holds international sales rights and is currently presenting the film to buyers at Cannes.

Directed by Peter Chelsom (The Space Between Us), A Sudden Case of Christmas centers on Lawrence (DeVito), who runs a grand hotel in the mountains of Italy. Every winter, he hosts the extended family for Christmas — but this year, his daughter (Lucy DeVito) and her husband (Wilmer Valderrama) are bringing their 10-year-old, Claire (Antonella Rose), to visit in August.

The young couple comes with shocking news: They are divorcing and...

Netflix has debuted the trailer for the dark comedic thriller ‘Bodkin’.

The show follows a motley crew of podcasters who set out to investigate the mysterious disappearance of three strangers in a quaint, coastal Irish town. But once they start pulling at threads, they discover a story much bigger and weirder than they could have ever imagined. As our heroes try to discern fact from fiction — about the case, about their colleagues, and, most painfully, themselves — the series challenges our perception of truth and exposes the stories we tell ourselves to justify our beliefs or validate our fears.

Created by Jez Scharf, the show stars Sobhán Cullen (Dove), Robyn Cara (Emmy), Chris Walley (Sean O’Shea), David Wilmot (Seamus), and Will Forte (Gilbert).

Guest stars include Pom Boyd (Mrs. O’Shea), Fionnula Flanagan (Mother Bernadette), Áine Ní Mhuirí (Sister McDonagh), Charlie Kemp (Damien), Pat Shortt (Darragh), Ger Kelly (Teddy), Denis Conway (Sergeant...

A podcaster, his assistant, and a journalist travel to Ireland to investigate a cold case in Netflix’s Bodkin. Described as a dark comedic thriller, the trailer reveals that the Irish townsfolk aren’t thrilled about being invaded by a podcast team and definitely aren’t ready to disclose all their secrets to strangers who are determined to dredge up unwelcome memories.

Will Forte stars as Gilbert Power, the podcaster; Robyn Cara plays Gilbert’s assistant, Emmy Sizerghy; and Siobhán Cullen stars as Dove, the investigative journalist who reluctantly joins forces with Gilbert. The cast also includes Chris Walley as Sean O’Shea and David Wilmot as Seamus. Pom Boyd, Fionnula Flanagan, Áine Ní Mhuirí, Charlie Kemp, Pat Shortt, Ger Kelly, Denis Conway, and John Olohan guest star.

Bodkin follows “a motley crew of podcasters who set out to investigate the mysterious disappearance of three strangers in a quaint, coastal Irish town.

Viacom’s Channel 5 has unveiled its latest drama slate including a thriller from Mr Selfridge writer Kate O’Riordan.

The British broadcaster has ordered three-part series Penance and two-hour drama The Small Hand as well as the renewal of Blood, starring Line of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar.

This comes after Deadline revealed that it was working on psychological thriller The Deceived.

O’Riordan is adapting her own novel Penance into a three-part series. A psychological thriller that follows the lives of Rosalie and Luke Douglas and their teenage daughter, Maddie. Following the loss of their son, Rosalie and Luke find their marriage under immense strain. Maddie and Rosalie find themselves in the caring hands of Jed, a charming and charismatic young man that they encounter at bereavement counselling who is also suffering under the weight of his own grief. Jed rekindles a hope for the future within the Douglas household.

Three time Tony Award-winning, Oscar nominated Broadway and film star Frank Langella plays King Lear at the Harvey Theater at Bam Brooklyn Academy Of Music in New York, joined by Sebastian Armesto, Max Bennett, Denis Conway, Isabella Laughland, Catherine McCormack, Harry Melling, Lauren O'Neil and Steven Pacey. The production runs now through February 9, 2014. BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at the cast in action below...

Minerva, Chichester

This return to star-driven Shakespeare has in Frank Langella a commanding Lear still driven by a craving for love

We are used to director's Shakespeare. This production, which plays 32 performances in Chichester before moving to Brooklyn, is unequivocally actor's Shakespeare. It is staged with great clarity by Angus Jackson as a timeless moral fable. But what impresses is the spellbinding power of that fine American actor, Frank Langella, best known in Britain as the disintegrating president inFrost/Nixon, who plays Lear and wins.

Langella has that mysterious quality known as "weight". It is not merely that he is tall, has a voice that could be heard in Bognor Regis and is more oak than ash: it is that he has an authority that compels our attention. This is palpable from the start when he needs help ascending the steps of Robert Innes Hopkins's set, which looks like a...

LONDON -- Tom Collins' Irish-language movie "Kings" has scooped a regal 14 nominations in the race for the fifth annual Irish Film and Television Awards.

Presented by the Irish Film and Television Academy, "Kings" took the most nominations ahead of its closest challenger, Lenny Abrahamson's "Garage", which scored 11.

Both "Kings" and "Garage" will compete for the top film award alongside Julian Jarrold's Jane Austen biopic "Becoming Jane", Richard Attenborough's Northern Irish film "Closing the Ring" and Paddy Breathnach's horror film "Shrooms".

"Kings" and "Garage" also count nominations in the director and script categories.

Colm Meaney ("Kings") and Pat Shortt ("Garage") will battle it out with Cillian Murphy ("Sunshine"), Gabriel Byrne ("Jindabyne") and Hugh O'Conor ("Speed Dating") for the lead actor nod.

"Garage" director Abrahamson and the film's writer, Mark O'Halloran, also each have a second nomination in the director TV and script for television categories, respectively, for the RTE drama "Prosperity", which garnered a total of five television category nominations.

In the television categories, TG4's Irish-language series "The Running Mate" scored eight nominations, as has TV3's primetime period drama "The Tudors". Both titles also have strong acting nominations, including Denis Conway, Don Wycherley and Jonathan Rhys Meyers for the prestigious lead actor television award.

"It has been another strong year for Irish talent with world-class Irish production, and IFTA Academy Members have selected titles across a very interesting mix of genres and styles with the Irish language a strong feature coming through this year across both film and television," IFTA CEO Aine Moriarty said.

The awards will be dished out Feb. 17 at Dublin's Gaiety Theater and broadcast in primetime on RTE One.

A complete list of nominees follows:

FILM CATEGORIES

Film

"Becoming Jane"

"Closing the Ring"

"Garage"

"Kings"

"Shrooms"

International film

"Atonement"

"The Bourne Ultimatum"

"La Vie en Rose"

"The Lives of Others"

Director, film

Lenny Abrahamson -- "Garage"

Paddy Breathnach -- "Shrooms"

Tom Collins -- "Kings"

John Crowley -- "Boy A"

Robert Quinn -- "Cre na Cille"

Script, film

Tom Collins -- "Kings"

Mark O'Halloran -- "Garage"

Mark O'Rowe -- "Boy A"

Stuart Townsend -- "Battle in Seattle"

Actor in a lead role, film

Gabriel Byrne -- "Jindabyne"

Colm Meaney -- "Kings"

Cillian Murphy -- "Sunshine"

Hugh O'Conor -- "Speed Dating"

Pat Shortt -- "Garage"

Actor in a supporting role, Film

Brendan Conroy -- "Kings"

Donal O'Kelly -- "Kings"

Conor J Ryan -- "Garage"

Don Wycherley -- "Speed Dating"

Actress in a supporting role, film

Elaine Cassidy -- "And When Did You Last See Your Father"

Anne Marie Duff -- "Garage"

Gail Fitzpatrick -- "Strength and Honor"

Saoirse Ronan -- "Atonement"

TELEVISION DRAMA

Single drama/drama serial

"Damage"

"My Boy Jack"

"Prosperity"

"The Running Mate"

Drama series/soap

"The Clinic"

"Ros na Run"

"Single-Handed"

"The Tudors"

Director, television

Lenny Abrahamson -- "Prosperity"

Brian Kirk -- "The Tudors"

Paul Mercier -- "Aifric"

Declan Recks -- "The Running Mate"

Script, television

Marcus Fleming -- "The Running Mate"

Mark O'Halloran -- "Prosperity"

Daniel O'Hara, Paddy C.Courtney -- "Paddywhackery"

Aisling Walsh -- "Damage"

Actor in a lead role -- television

Denis Conway -- "The Running Mate"

Michael Gambon -- "Celebration"

Jonathan Rhys Meyers -- "The Tudors"

Don Wycherley -- "The Running Mate"

Actor in a supporting role, television

Nick Dunning -- "The Tudors"

Leroy Harris -- "Prosperity"

Eamonn Hunt -- "The Running Mate"

Gary Lydon -- "The Clinic"

Actress in a lead role, film/television

Cliona Ni Chiosain -- "Aifric"

Fionnula Flanagan -- "Brotherhood"

Brid Ni Neachtain -- "Cre na Cille"

Aisling O'Sullivan -- "The Clinic"

Siobhan Shanahan -- "Prosperity"

Actress in a supporting role, television

Dawn Bradfield -- "The Clinic"

Maria Doyle Kennedy -- "The Tudors"

Fionnula Flanagan -- "Paddywhackery"

Amy Huberman -- "The Clinic"

CRAFT CATEGORIES

Costume design

Joan Bergin -- "The Tudors"

Maggie Donnelly -- "Kings"

Lorna Marie Mugan -- "My Boy Jack"

Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh -- "Becoming Jane"

Director of photography

PJ Dillon -- "Kings"

Seamus McGarvey -- "Atonement"

Peter Robertson -- "Garage"

Ciaran Tanham -- "Northanger Abbey"

Editing

Dermot Diskin -- "Kings"

Stephen O'Connell -- "Damage"

Isobel Stephenson -- "Garage"

Gareth Young -- "The Running Mate"

Hair and makeup

"Kings" -- Muriel Bell, Pamela Smyt

"My Boy Jack" -- Morna Ferguson, Lorraine Glynn

"Prosperity" -- Tom McInerney, Sandra Kelly

"The Tudors" -- Jennifer Hegarty, Dee Corcoran

Original score

Pol Brennan -- "Kings"

Jim Lockhart -- "Cre na Cille"

Stephen McKeon -- "The Running Mate"

Stephen Rennicks -- "Garage"

Production design

Tom Conroy -- "The Tudors"

David Craig -- "Kings"

Tom Mc Cullagh -- "Closing the Ring"

Padraig O'Neill -- "Garage"

Sound

"Becoming Jane" -- Nick Adams, Tom Johnson, Mervyn Moor

"Garage" -- Niall Brady, John Fitzgerald, Robert Flanagan

"Kings" -- Ken Galvin, Ronan Hill, Dominic Weaver

"My Boy Jack" -- Brendan Deasy, Ken Galvin, Nikki Moss

TELEVISION CATEGORIES

Children's/youth program

"Aifric"

"The Cafe"

"Cula Cairde"

"Skunk Fu!"

Current affairs program

"Election 2007 -- Results Coverage" (RTE)

"Prime Time Investigates -- Buyer Beware" (RTE)

"Prime Time Investigates -- Not Seen, Not Heard" (RTE)

"Spotlight: The Pitbull Sting" (BBC Northern Ireland)

Documentary series

"The Hospice"

"Imeacht Na N'Iarlai /Flight of The Earls / Flight of the Earls"

"Mobs Mheircea"

"Surgeons"

Single documentary

"Arts Lives: The Undertaking"

"At Home with the Clearys"

"Bloody Sunday -- A Derry Diary"

"Get Collins"

"Ireland's Nazis"

"Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten"

Entertainment

"Dan & Becs"

"Killinaskully"

"Naked Camera"

"The Podge & Rodge Show"

Factual entertainment

"Diarmuid's Pony Kids"

"Families in Trouble"

"Hector -- Mo Rogha San Oz"

"No Experience Required"

News program

"BBC Newsline" -- BBC Northern Ireland

"Nuacht" -- TG4

"RTE News" -- RTE

"TV3 News" -- TV3

Sport

"20 Moments That Shook Irish Sport"

"Red Mist"

"Rugby World Cup 2007"

"Six Nations: Ireland's v England"

"Tall, Dark & O hAilpin"

OTHER CATEGORIES

Special Irish-language award

"Aifric"

"Cre na Cille"

"Kings"

"Paddywhackery"

Rising Star Award

Cecilia Ahern -- Writer

Mark Mahon -- Producer

Martin McCann -- Actor

Marion Quinn -- Director

Saoirse Ronan -- Actress

Pantene People's Choice Award for Best International Actress

Cate Blanchett -- "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"

Jodie Foster -- "The Brave One"

Keira Knightley -- "Atonement"

Hilary Swank -- "P.S. I Love You"...

CANNES -- A Ken Loach film about the British in Ireland always has the potential for controversy, but his historical drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley is unlikely to inflame passions on either side.

Atmospheric but pedestrian, it is a retelling of the classic tragedy of all civil wars, from the U.S. to Vietnam to England, where brother is pitched against brother.

The film looks handsomely authentic, and the familiar characters are engaging, but the story is predictable and the Irish accents are so thick that even English subtitles are required. Loach's humanity is always in evidence, however, and the lack of histrionics will please many, so the film's conventionality could help make it accessible to general audiences.

The British in the film are nameless cardboard villains used mainly to establish just how horribly occupying forces behave. It's such a common device to make audiences root for the rebels that Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty might have been cleverer about it. But it works, and Damien O'Sullivan (Cillian Murphy), who in 1920 is about to leave his Irish village to become a doctor in London, has his fate sealed by two incidents of British brutality that make it impossible for him to leave.

After centuries of domination, the Irish have voted for independence and so the British send in ruthless military squads, known as the Black and Tans, to intimidate the population. Mostly survivors of World War I trench fighting, the soldiers have been brutalized themselves, a point Loach allows to be made.

Damien's brother Teddy (Padraic Delaney) is a man of action, and he's devoted to the cause of Irish freedom. Led from afar by the political faction that became the Irish Republican Army, Teddy leads a group of village boys and men who call themselves a "flying column."

Training as guerilla fighters with pieces of wood shaped like rifles, the column spends most of its time trying to steal weapons. These raids bring reprisals that hit not only the rebels but also their womenfolk. Damien's sweetheart, Sinead (Orla Fitzgerald), has her hair crudely and bloodily sheared in one assault.

The story follows the group through the truce that was declared in 1921 and the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed in 1922 that created the Irish Free State out of 26 counties, with six other counties forming what became Northern Ireland remaining as part of the U.K.

As with all rulers that strive to divide the conquered, the British make sure the Irish Free State remains a part of its empire and require an oath of loyalty to the king. Those who view the treaty as a path to peace, like Teddy, don the British uniform. Those who insist that freedom will only come with complete republicanism, like Damien, continue the fight. Their tragedy becomes inevitable.

Loach provides plenty of time for arguments on all sides of the political issue, and while that is important, those scenes slow down the film badly. He stages the many action sequences with assurance, however, and draws persuasive performances from his cast.

With his poet's cheekbones and blue eyes, Murphy makes a fine romantic hero, and Delaney is a match as his duty-bound brother. Liam Cunningham, too, stands out as a thoughtful train driver-turned-rebel. Contributions from cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, production designer Fergus Clegg and composer George Fenton are all first-rate.

THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY

Sixteen Films, Matador Pictures, Regent Capital

Credits:

Director: Ken Loach

Screenwriter: Paul Laverty

Producer: Rebecca O'Brien

Executive producers: Ulrich Felsberg, Andrew Lowe, Nigel Thomas, Paul Trijbits

Director of photography: Barry Ackroyd

Production designer: Fergus Clegg

Editor: Jonathan Morris

Composer: George Fenton

Cast:

Damien: Cillian Murphy

Teddy: Padraic Delaney

Dan: Liam Cunningham

Sinead: Orla Fitzgerald

Peggy: Mary Riordan

Bernadette: Mary Murphy

Micheail: Laurence Barry

Finbar: Damien Kearney

Leo: Frank Bourke

Rory: Myles Horgan

Chris: John Crean

Sir John Hamilton: Roger Allam

Priest: Denis Conway...