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Somewhere around the end of the first trimester of the year 2020, the entire world abruptly halted due to a pandemic. This sudden stop in our daily routines—professional, personal, or otherwise—offered a welcome respite, allowing us to take a moment to breathe deeply and reset, either to continue our regular lives or to change altogether. However, this worldwide catastrophe and the confinement it entailed also caused many struggles, both personal and interpersonal, as the interruption of every and all activity meant the termination of the human workforce who could no longer fulfill their responsibilities in the new home-office modality.

The arts also suffered because of this. Particularly those that require mass attendance, namely theater, film, and music concerts, causing production delays, postponing scheduled events, or simply resigning to seeing a project be totally scrapped regardless of how advanced it was in its making. British theater director Simon Godwin was...

Exclusive: Emmy- and BAFTA-nominated actor Paapa Essiedu has inked with WME for representation in all areas, Deadline has learned.

Essiedu notched a Supporting Actor Emmy nom in Limited or Anthology Series as well as a Lead Actor BAFTA TV nom for his turn as Kwame in Michaela Coel’s HBO series I May Destroy You. He also received a BAFTA Lead Actor TV nom for The Lazarus Project.

Other recent projects include the National Theatre’s The Effect, written by Lucy Prebble and directed by Jamie Lloyd, which is transferring to The Shed in New York this year; Season 6 of the cult anthology series Black Mirror (“Demon 79”); and Working Title/Universal Christmas movie The Genie, directed by Sam Boyd and written by Love Actually‘s Richard Curtis.

Essiedu starred opposite Saoirse Ronan in The Outrun, directed by Nora Fingscheidt and based on Amy Liptrot’s bestselling memoir. The feature received...

Exclusive: After breaking tackles for six seasons on the hit CW series All American, Daniel Ezra has found a new challenge to run away from as sources tell Deadline he is set to join Paramount’s reimagining of The Running Man starring Glen Powell. Katy O’Brian is also on board with Edgar Wright directing the pic. Wright will also produce with his producing partner Nira Park and Simon Kinberg. Wright co-wrote script with Michael Bacall.

Based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King that the author first published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, Running Man was made famous by the 1987 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. King’s futuristic novel is a chase thriller set in a dystopian America in the year 2025. The story centers on Ben Richards, a desperate man who participates in violent reality show called The Running Man in order to win enough money to revive his gravely ill daughter.

Exclusive: It is exactly 13 years to the day that Ralph Fiennes’ feature directorial debut Coriolanus – in which he also starred alongside Gerard Butler, Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Cox – world premiered to acclaim at the 2011 Berlinale.

The Oscar nominee and Bafta-winning actor has since directed Rudolf Nureyev biopic The White Crow and The Invisible Woman about Charles Dickens’ secret mistress, alongside appearing in another 40 films including The Menu, No Time to Die, The King’s Man and The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The Berlinale will support another first for Fiennes, this time via its European Film Market, as Cornerstone kicks off sales on the actor’s next directorial feature project, based on his first feature film screenplay.

Set against Fiennes’ native English county of Suffolk, the drama revolves around an eco-idealistic family, living on a farm in a beautiful natural landscape by the sea, whose fault lines are revealed when the daughter’s...

Simon Godwin was preparing a stage adaptation of Romeo & Juliet at the National Theatre when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, shuttering theaters and putting the show’s future into question. To salvage the project, the director was tasked with transforming the play, starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley, into a film — his first ever. The finished product, PBS’ Great Performances: Romeo & Juliet, is a 90-minute hybrid between stage and screen filmed at the National’s Lyttelton Theatre, in what Godwin calls “a really exciting way of capitalizing on the very particular conditions that we were given.”

Godwin ...

Simon Godwin was preparing a stage adaptation of Romeo & Juliet at the National Theatre when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, shuttering theaters and putting the show’s future into question. To salvage the project, the director was tasked with transforming the play, starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley, into a film — his first ever. The finished product, PBS’ Great Performances: Romeo & Juliet, is a 90-minute hybrid between stage and screen filmed at the National’s Lyttelton Theatre, in what Godwin calls “a really exciting way of capitalizing on the very particular conditions that we were given.”

Godwin ...

The Broadway-aimed Britney Spears-inspired musical Once Upon A One More Time will debut this fall in Washington, D.C. rather than the previously announced Chicago, producers announced today. The Chicago engagement had been scheduled for last year but was canceled due to the Covid shutdown.

Once Upon A One More Time, which uses Spears’ hit songs to reimagine various fairytale princess stories from a feminist angle, will begins performances at D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre Company on Monday, Nov. 29, for a limited engagement through Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022.

The announcement was made by The Nederlander Organization.

Casting was not announced. The Chicago engagement was to have starred, among others, Briga Heelan as Cinderella, Justin Guarini as Prince Charming and Emily Skinner as Stepmother.

Directed and choreographed by Keone & Mari Madrid, the musical features an original story written by Jon Hartmere that, as described, “busts open the antiquated book of fairytales.” Cinderella,...

In today’s Global Bulletin, the National Theatre shares details on its upcoming “Romeo and Juliet” feature adaptation, HBO Europe and ITV commission documentaries on Covid-19 and the Irish mother and baby home scandal respectively, Tim picks up Discovery Plus in Italy, Oble acquires Start series “Gold Diggers” and “A Good Man” to sell globally and Channel 4 announces three new digital series for its E4 platform.

Theater

One day after announcing new deputy director Clint Dyer, the National Theatre has dropped a first-look image of its upcoming production of “Romeo and Juliet,” produced as a feature film to be broadcast on Sky Arts and PBS this April.

Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley will play the young star-crossed lovers, as seen in the image of the couple as they meet on Juliet’s balcony in front of a full moon.

Further casting has been announced as well, with Olivier Award...

Sky/PBS Stage ‘Romeo & Juliet’

The Crown’s Josh O’Connor and Chernobyl’s Jessie Buckley are to star in Sky Arts and PBS staging of Romeo & Juliet. The National Theatre originally intended to bring the Shakespeare production to theatre audiences this summer, but will now film a 90-minute version of the pandemic-hit play over the course of three weeks at its Lyttelton theater. Emily Burns has adapted the play for television, while Simon Godwin directs. Sky Arts and PBS will broadcast Romeo & Juliet in the UK and U.S. respectively next year.

Hulu Picks Up Reality Series ‘Bad Habits, Holy Orders’

Hulu has picked up Channel 5 reality series Bad Habits, Holy Orders under a deal with Keshet International. The four-part, Crackit Productions-produced format follows a Catholic convent as it takes in five raucous, selfie-obsessed party girls. As well as the Hulu deal, Ki has licensed Bad Habits,...

The production will be filmed at the Lyttelton Theatre building on London’s South Bank.

The UK’s National Theatre (Nt) is to make its first original film with a screen production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley.

The production was first announced last year, intended for stage at the National Theatre’s Lyttelton theatre in London this summer.

That theatrical run was withdrawn due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the Nt has reimagined it as a 90-minute filmed version, directed by Nt associate Simon Godwin, and adapted for screen by Emily Burns.

Josh O’Connor, who plays Prince Charles in season 4 of Netflix’s “The Crown,” and BAFTA winner Jessie Buckley are set to star as Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers in “Romeo & Juliet,” a made-for-television production by the U.K.’s National Theatre.

“Romeo & Juliet” was originally scheduled to play this summer to theater audiences, but was called off due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now re-conceived for the screen, this new 90-minute version will be shot over three weeks in the National Theatre’s Lyttelton theater, which will be temporarily transformed into a studio.

Rehearsals will begin in November and filming in December. The production will bow on PBS in the U.S. and on Sky Arts in the U.K. in 2021.

While the National Theatre has broadcast stage productions to cinemas for over a decade through its popular National Theatre Live program, this will be the first time an original...

In 2015, Michaela Coel’s screenwriting debut was the brilliant Chewing Gum, an E4 comedy that earned her two Baftas, an Rts win, several nominations and a considerable weight of expectation for what she’d write next.

What Coel wrote next is I May Destroy You, a BBC-HBO co-production announced last year under the working title of January 22nd. It’s the autobiographically inspired story of Bella (played by Coel), a young London writer whose drink is spiked on a night out. When she tries to piece together the events of what happened, Bella goes on a personal journey through trauma and pain that examines questions of sexual consent, liberation and exploitation in contemporary London.

Arriving on HBO and BBC One this June, here’s the latest trailer and more…

I May Destroy You Geek Lowdown

How many episodes are there? 12 x 30-minute episodes in season one

Air date:...

Shakespeare adaptation will become the first ever live 4K broadcast to multiple cinemas under Sony, Vue and Nt Live partnership.

National Theatre Live, Vue Entertainment and Sony Digital Cinema 4K have unveiled the next two Nt Live productions to be captured in Sony 4K.

On Oct 15, Lyndsey Turner’s Hamlet, starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role, will become the world’s first ever multi-site live 4K transmission in selected Vue cinemas across the UK. Hamlet is already the fastest-selling show in London’s theatre history.

Prior to Hamlet, Simon Godwin’s 18th Century comedy The Beaux’ Stratagem will be shot in Sony 4K and delivered for exclusive ‘encore’ screenings across Vue’s 84-site estate in September, after the show’s Nt Live broadcast on Sept 3.

Both productions will be captured using Sony F-Series 4K cameras which deliver four times the resolution of Full HD. Hamlet will be transmitted with 4K resolution at 50 frames per second to ensure...

National Theatre Live has announced an international broadcast of George Farquhar's wild comedy of love and cash The Beaux' Stratagem, directed by Simon Godwin Man and Superman, to cinemas internationally on Thursday, September 24, 2015. Dates will vary at venues internationally and encore screenings will follow. This week, Nt Live will broadcast Tom Stoppard's new play The Hard Problem, directed by Nicholas Hytner, on Thursday, April 16. Also, it has been announced that the Donmar Warehouse's critically acclaimed production of Shakespeare's Coriolanus, starring Tom Hiddleston in the title role and directed by Josie Rourke, will have an encore screening internationally on Thursday, November 12.

The RSC's The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Shakespeare's early exuberant romantic comedy about friendship and betrayal, was captured live Wednesday September 3, 2014 to be screened in Us Cinemas September 20 - October 20, 2014. Directed by Simon Godwin, the production stars Mark Arends Proteus Elliot Barnes-Worrell Outlaw Martin Bassindale Speed Pearl Chanda Julia Nicholas Gerard-Martin Thurio Robert Gilbert Outlaw Jonny Glynn The Duke of Milan Molly Gromadzki HostSinger Youssef Kerkour Sir Eglamour Sarah MacRae Silvia Michael Marcus Valentine Roger Morlidge Launce Keith Osborn Antonio Leigh Quinn Lucetta and Simon Yadoo PanthinoOutlaw.Below, BroadwayWorld is excited to bring you an exclusive clip from Act IV, Scene II. Check it out below...

Almeida, Lyttelton, London; Bristol Old Vic

Matt Smith brings a deadly vacancy to Easton Ellis's antihero in a musical with sharp instincts and a hollow heart

American Psycho will be a big hit for Rupert Goold's new, rejuvenating Almeida. His production is tremendously accomplished, stylistically coherent, sprinkled with Goold glitter and fuelled by Goold attack. Matt Smith plays the central part of the psychopathic banker with a deadly vacancy. It would be extremely surprising if this murderous musical does not race off to the West End. But the evening left me coldly indifferent. I can't think when a show has so completely divided me between admiration and recoil.

In many ways this is a perfect staging of Bret Easton Ellis's slasher satire, which split critical opinion – "careful, important", "cheaply sensationalist" – when it was published in 1991. It is true to the book yet not too doggedly faithful, a genuine...

On the day the actor bids farewell to her character in the last episode of Shameless, she will open in a very different role in Eugene O'Neill's marathon, Strange Interlude, at the National

Anne-Marie Duff holds out her hand – a shy shake. She is wearing what looks like a child's white vest, jeans and no jewellery. There is nothing to give her away, apart from her face. Even her feet are bare – maroon nail varnish excepted. It is a sunny day – warm upstairs at the Jerwood rehearsal space in south London – and we have two reasons to meet. She is about to star in Strange Interlude at the National, a Eugene O'Neill marathon. And the final episode of Channel 4's Shameless (now in its 11th series) is about to be aired, featuring Fiona – peroxide hair and tarty Gypsy earrings to the fore – taking a last stand. Anne-Marie's range is incredible: Elizabeth I,...

Trafalgar Studios; Royal Court; Palladium, London

The wonderful thing about Jamie Lloyd's production of Macbeth is that the Scottish play is Scottish. There is a rightness about the accents – it's almost as if one had only heard the play in translation until now. It is tremendous to hear James McAvoy's Macbeth say: "the multitudinous seas incarnadine" rolling the "r", giving the line new momentum. Yet designer Soutra Gilmour's stricken set – a concrete bunker filled with overturned office chairs – is not necessarily Scottish. We could be anywhere. And it is immediately obvious that this production is going to do Macbeth the hard way. It's set in a dystopian future in which everyone looks as if they have recently had a mud or blood bath, the witches wear gas masks and Banquo is so bloody he looks as though he ought to go straight to A&E. One feels one...