News

Jonathan Pryce and Nick Mohammed are set to lead the cast of Mat Whitecross’ comedy murder mystery Sleeping Lionsfor Mister Smith Entertainment, which is launching sales at the European Film Market.

Developed and to be distributed by Sky in the UK and Ireland, the film will shoot in the UK later this year.

Written by James Roblin, Sleeping Lionsis a contemporary adaptation of Cyril Hare’s 1951 novelAn English Murder.

Pryce will play the dying Earl of Warbeck who summons his nearest and dearest for a final Christmas at Warbeck Hall. When a snowstorm hits, the guests are cut off from...

First cast by Shane Meadows, in This is England, Socha is about ​to star in​ the director’s ​period drama ​The Gallows Pole.​ He describes how acting saved him from a life of violence – and why he loves a madcap scheme

In a photographer’s studio in Derby, Michael Socha is wondering what he should wear. He’s got a good jumper on, but he doesn’t like his jeans. He’s brought a couple of shirts from his mum’s, but they need a bit of an iron. No stylist for Socha; he has the busy air of a man who’s popped in between shifts, which he has, sort of. He lives close by, and is always on the go, “here, there and everywhere”. Aside from acting, and family, he practises muay thai and kickboxing. He’s doing his belts. “I’m on brown two for kickboxing at the moment,...

Game Of Thrones star boards UK love story about poet Elizabeth Barrett; Damian Jones producing with Bankside.

Game Of Thrones star Emilia Clarke will play poet Elizabeth Barrett in Björn Runge’s English-language love story Let Me Count The Ways.

The film is produced by Bankside Films which is also handling worldwide sales on the project.

Runge, fresh off the success of The Wife, which garnered an Oscar nomination for Glenn Close, will direct from a screenplay by Bafta TV and Emmy-winning writer Paula Milne (The Politician’s Wife).

Bankside is teaming with Damian Jones of DJ Films (Goodbye Christopher Robin) on the production,...

Take a look at Emmy nominated actress Emilia Clarke aka 'Daenerys Targaryen' in the medieval fantasy series "Game Of Thrones", from a recent pictorial in The Hollywood Reporter:

In 2010, Clarke was cast as 'Daenerys Targaryen' in the HBO series "Game of Thrones", based on the book series "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin.

In 2013, she was nominated for 'Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series' at the '65th Primetime Emmy Awards'. She has appeared in all broadcast seasons, and returns next year for Season 8.

In 2012, Clarke appeared in "Spike Island". From March to April 2013, Clarke played 'Holly Golightly' in a Broadway production of 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'. In 2013, she also co-starred in the feature "Dom Hemingway". Clarke was cast as 'Sarah Connor' in 2015's "Terminator Genisys". She will also play the lead as 'Nurse Verena', in the up-coming movie "Voice from the Stone...

Author: Zehra Phelan

Mixing up a bit of witty banter with terrifying scenes, the debut trailer for The Signal’s David Bruckner’s next project, The Ritual, has landed.

Starring Rafe Spall (The Big Short, Life of Pi), Robert James-Collier (Downton Abbey, Spike Island), Arsher Ali (Line of Duty, Four Lions) and Sam Troughton (Robin Hood, Alien vs. Predator), The Ritual tells the story of a group of friends who take on a hiking holiday in honour of a friend who was murdered at the hands of a criminal. What lays ahead of them in a remote Scandinavian forest proves it might not have been the best idea they’ve ever had.

The trailer begins with the two friends in conversation before Rafe Spall dips behind the shelving of a shop in the midsts of a violent robbery. With his friend dying at the hands of one of the robbers,...

Six years ago, Emilia Clarke burst into popular consciousness during the first season of HBO's Game of Thrones. Her character, Daenerys Targaryen, began as a naive and submissive young woman who soon emerged as a far stronger personality than might have been anticipated. Throughout the course of the series, Daenerys has overcome one setback after another, rising to become a powerful ruling force. In concert with her character, Clarke has risen from relative obscurity to immense popularity over the past few years. She has been quite selective about the movies in which she's appeared since the series hit it big, starting with supporting roles in Spike Island and Dom Hemingway before she landed a starring role as Sarah Connor in Terminator Genisys (above left). The...

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Oliver Stone. That’s the filmmaker who should have been asked to chronicle the career of Oasis, the hugely successful, ever-combustible, now-departed kings of Britpop. Looking at the entirety of the band’s lifespan — from the early 1990s to break-up in 2008 — it’s hard not to notice the trademarks of Doors-era Stone: controversies, fisticuffs, conspiracies, bravery, insanity, ego, vulnerability, lust, and violence. In rock and roll, these are positives, and the joys that emanate from such feelings and behavior is certainly on display in Oasis: Supersonic, a Noel and Liam Gallagher-approved documentary. The band’s career, however, is not really the subject of the new documentary directed by Mat Whitecross and from the producers of Amy, Asif Kapadia’s Oscar-winning Amy Winehouse documentary. Instead, Supersonic is about the rise of the band, the period from birth to its two concerts (to 250,000 attendees) at Knebworth.

And that’s fine, since...

The excitement of Noel and Liam Gallagher’s rapid rise to pop stardom is well captured in Mat Whitecross’s documentary, but it is disappointingly coy on the band’s decline and breakup

Here is a watchable, intimate but oddly truncated history of Oasis, directed by Mat Whitecross, who gave us the recent Madchester drama Spike Island and the excellent Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. Noel Gallagher is the film’s executive producer, and it should probably be entitled Oasis: The Golden Years, because it ends with the band’s colossal concert at Knebworth in 1996, almost implying they went up in a blaze of glory after that.

We don’t hear about the Cool Britannia tussle with Blur, or Noel’s strikingly explicit endorsement of Tony Blair and New Labour (“There are seven people in here who are givin’ hope to the young people of this country. Me,...

Stars: Melia Kreiling, Nick Blood, Mark Bonner, Simone Kirby, Olivia Popica, Sophie Harkness, Fergal McElherron, Jemma Obrien, James Lecky | Written and Directed by Luke Hymans

Written and directed by Luke Hymans (Dubplate Drama), this horror film, shot in Belfast, tells the story of American documentary film-makers Georgia (Melia Kreiling – Cold) and Matt (Nick Blood – Spike Island) who head to Exmoor in the south of England in an attempt to catch, on film, the “Beast of Exmoor” which apparently exists somewhere in the remote grassland of that particular part of Devon. There reason for wanting to capture this so-called “beast” on camera? £25,000 from the local newspaper.

Xmoor begins with the two leads looking at a YouTube video that is apparently footage of this “beast”, and Georgia convinces Matt to go to Exmoor with the intention of filming this creature and collecting the cash reward. Our documentarians are greeted early-on, while on their way to their destination,...

A documentary all about the rise of Oasis is coming - and it's in the works from the team behind this year's Amy Winehouse movie Amy.

The film will journey from the moment Noel Gallagher joined his brother Liam's band in 1991, to releasing their debut album Definitely Maybe in 1994.

According to Deadline, Amy director Asif Kapadia will executive-produce alongside James Gay Rees. Mat Whitecross is directing.

The as-yet-untitled documentary will feature never-before-seen archive footage and insight from both Noel and Liam.

Director Whitecross previously worked on Spike Island, about a group of Stone Roses fans trying to get tickets to see the band's Spike Island concert in 1990.

Meanwhile, Noel recently ruled out Oasis headlining Glastonbury (again), simply because the festival "don't pay enough" to justify a reunion.

Watch the video for Definitely Maybe's 'Live Forever' below:...

Independent to launch sales at Afm on film about iconic UK band.

Iconic UK band Oasis are to be the subject of a new documentary produced by Amy and Senna producer James Gay Rees of On The Corner and executive-produced by Amy and Senna director Asif Kapadia.

The Road To Guantanamo director Mat Whitecross will direct the feature, which Independent will launch at Afm.

Also producing are Fiona Neilson for Mint Pictures (Spike Island) and Simon Halfon for Nemperor (Sleuth).

Financing will come from Lorton Entertainment Limited, founded by Julian Bird, while newly launched Lorton Distribution will handledistribution in the UK.

According to the production, the filmmakers have been given “unprecendented” access to the band and unseen archive footage and the film will include candid insight from the famously stormy brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher.

The film is understood to chart the journey from the moment in 1991 when Noel joined his brother Liam’s Manchester-based band. Three...

On 25th September, 193 World Leaders unveiled the new Global Goals for Sustainable Development at the Un General Assembly. If met, we can eradicate global poverty, remove inequalities and tackle climate change by 2030.

The Global Goals campaign has set out on a mission to reach 7 billion people in 7 days from the day the Goals are launched (26th Sept – 2nd Oct) using a number of ways. The Global Goals Campaign has hence launched “We the People” – a crowdsourced film where everyone is invited to join the world’s biggest cast and star alongside some of the world’s biggest names. The film was unveiled on the Google homepage on the 25th September.

From India, A R Rahman, Jacqueline Fernandez, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Kapoor, and Hrithik Roshan contributed and crowdsourced footage for We the People. Other artists and activists include Ashton Kutcher, Bill and Melinda Gates, Cate Blanchett, Daniel Craig, Jennifer Lawrence,...

Today, the Global Goals Campaign launches “We the People” – a crowdsourced film where everyone is invited to join the world’s biggest cast and star alongside some of the world’s biggest names. The film will be unveiled on the Google homepage when the Global Goals are adopted on the 25th September.

From India, A R Rahman, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan have already contributed and crowdsourced footage for We the People.

They will be joined by other artists and activists such as Alice Braga, Ananda Everingham, Anastacia, Ashton Kutcher, Avan Jogia, Becca, Bill and Melinda Gates, Cate Blanchett, Chelsea Islan, Christina Hendricks, Criolo, Daniel Craig, Diamond, Diego Luna, G.E.M., Gilberto Gil, James Chau, Jamie Oliver, Jennifer Lawrence, Jennifer Lopez, Kate Winslet, Un Messenger of Peace Lang Lang, Liverpool Football Club captain Jordan Henderson and team mates, Lenine, Mia Maestro, Mafikizolo, Mads Mikkelsen, Mena Suvari, Undp Champion Michelle Yeoh,...

The Global Goals Campaign launches We the People - a crowdsourced film where everyone is invited to join the world's biggest cast and star alongside some of the world's biggest names. The film will be unveiled on the Google homepage when the Global Goals are adopted on the September 25. Joining the initiative from India, A R Rahman, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan have already contributed and crowdsourced footage for We the People.

They will be joined by other artists and activists such as Alice Braga, Ananda Everingham, Anastacia, Ashton Kutcher, Avan Jogia, Becca, Bill and Melinda Gates, Cate Blanchett, Chelsea Islan, Christina Hendricks, Criolo, Daniel Craig, Diamond, Diego Luna, G.E.M., Gilberto Gil, James Chau, Jamie Oliver, Jennifer Lawrence, Jennifer Lopez, Kate Winslet, Un Messenger of Peace Lang Lang, Liverpool Football Club captain Jordan Henderson and team mates, Lenine, Mia Maestro, Mafikizolo, Mads Mikkelsen, Mena Suvari, Undp Champion Michelle Yeoh,...

Sneak Peek new images of Emmy nominated actress Emilia Clarke aka 'Daenerys Targaryen' in the medieval fantasy series "Game Of Thrones", from a recent pictorial in The Hollywood Reporter:

In 2010, Clarke was cast as 'Daenerys Targaryen' in the HBO series "Game of Thrones", based on the book series "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin.

To date she has appeared in all four broadcast seasons, and will reprise the role once more in Season 5. In 2013, she was nominated for 'Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series' at the '65th Primetime Emmy Awards'.

In 2012, Clarke appeared in "Spike Island". From March to April 2013, Clarke played 'Holly Golightly' in a Broadway production of 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'. In 2013, she also co-starred in the feature "Dom Hemingway". Clarke was cast as 'Sarah Connor' in 2015's "Terminator Genisys". She will also play the lead as 'Nurse Verena',...

Kaya Scodelario has joined the cast of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer announced on Twitter that Scodelario would star in the fifth instalment of the film series.

"Pleased to announce that we cast Kaya Scodelario for the 5th Pirates of the Caribbean. Talented young actor from Skins & The Maze Runner," he wrote.

Scodelario will star opposite Johnny Depp and Brenton Thwaites, with Orlando Bloom in talks to reprise his role of Will Turner.

Javier Bardem is rumoured to be involved as the film's villain, while Keira Knightley has ruled out an appearance.

Scodelario has previously appeared in films including The Maze Runner and Spike Island. She is also known for her role of Effy Stonem in Skins.

Filming for Pirates of the Caribbean 5 will take place in Australia in February, with a release date set for July 7, 2017.

Stars: Melia Kreiling, Nick Blood, Mark Bonner, Simone Kirby, Olivia Popica, Sophie Harkness, Fergal McElherron, Jemma Obrien, James Lecky | Written and Directed by Luke Hymans

Written and directed by Luke Hymans (Dubplate Drama), this horror film, shot in Belfast, tells the story of American documentary film-makers Georgia (Melia Kreiling – Cold) and Matt (Nick Blood – Spike Island) who head to Exmoor in the south of England in an attempt to catch, on film, the “Beast of Exmoor” which apparently exists somewhere in the remote grassland of that particular part of Devon. There reason for wanting to capture this so-called “beast” on camera? £25,000 from the local newspaper.

X Moor begins with the two leads looking at a YouTube video that is apparently footage of this “beast”, and Georgia convinces Matt to go to Exmoor with the intention of filming this creature and collecting the cash reward. Our documentarians are greeted early-on, while...

Exclusive: Elliot Tittensor, Charlotte Hope and Steven Berkoff among cast of ‘Romeo and Juliet’-style thriller.

Shoot has wrapped in Manchester and Leeds on UK thriller Long Time Coming – North vs South, from writer-director Steven Nesbit and producers Benjamin Foottit and Mark Foligno.

Cast on the feature includes Bernard Hill, Steven Berkoff, Greta Scacchi, Keith Allen, Steve Evets, Elliot Tittensor, Charlotte Hope, Geoff Bell, Oliver Cotton, Brad Moore, Freema Agyeman and Sydney Wade.

The film focusses on the battle between a group of brutal northern hard men and their southern criminal enemies, during which two star-crossed young lovers from the rival families carry out an illicit affair.

Former Screen Star of Tomorrow Tittensor (Spike Island, Shameless) and rising star Charlotte Hope (Testament of Youth, Game of Thrones) play the film’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ characters.

Budgeted at around $2m, the independently financed film is produced by Benjamin Foottit through his London-based production company North South Films, alongside...

Exclusive: Elliot Tittensor, Charlotte Hope and Steven Berkoff among cast of ‘Romeo and Juliet’-style thriller.

Shoot has wrapped in Manchester and Leeds on UK thriller Long Time Coming – North vs South, from writer-director Steven Nesbit and producers Benjamin Foottit and Mark Foligno.

Cast on the feature includes Bernard Hill, Steven Berkoff, Greta Scacchi, Keith Allen, Steve Evets, Elliot Tittensor, Charlotte Hope, Geoff Bell, Oliver Cotton, Brad Moore, Freema Agyeman and Sydney Wade.

The film focusses on the battle between a group of brutal northern hard men and their southern criminal enemies, during which two star-crossed young lovers from the rival families carry out an illicit affair.

Former Screen Star of Tomorrow Tittensor (Spike Island, Shameless) and rising star Charlotte Hope (Testament of Youth, Game of Thrones) play the film’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ characters.

Budgeted at around $2m, the independently financed film is produced by Benjamin Foottit through his London-based production company North South Films, alongside...

Exclusive: Downton Abbey director readies feature debut, Anton Newcombe due to score.

Michael Socha (This is England, Spike Island), Alexandra Roach (Cuban Fury, The Iron Lady), Kate Bracken (Being Human) and Jack Lowden (The Tunnel) are attached to star in comedy Moon Dogs, the feature debut of Downton Abbey and Being Human director Philip John.

Produced by Kathy Proctor and written by Raymond Friel and Derek Boyle, the project has had development support from Creative Scotland, Film Agency Wales and Playwrights’ Studio Scotland.

Proctor was at the Efm in Berlin to discuss Moon Dogs with potential investors and sales companies and is aiming for a late summer shoot.

Musician Anton Newcombe, founder of Us rock band The Brian Jonestown Massacre, is due to score the film.

Moon Dogs charts the adventures of two warring brothers from Shetland who set out on a road trip to Glasgow in order to bring back one of the boy’s girlfriend...

The scent and sweat of a film set can be nauseating first thing in the morning. But this is no ordinary location - Digital Spy is stood on the sweeping set of Sky Atlantic's Fleming in the grand city of Budapest.

Back in January 2013, the Fleming crew are staging an elaborate ballroom sequence that wouldn't look out of place in one of the films that Ian Fleming's James Bond novels inspired.

Fleming is a biopic of Bond's creator tinged with the style and sensibility of the 007 movies, though director Mat Whitecross tells DS and other assembled press that he was keen for the four-part drama to avoid parody or pastiche.

"It's about the guy who created Bond, but you don't want to riff on it too much," says Whitecross, the filmmaker behind Ian Dury movie biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll and the Stone Roses-inspired Spike Island.

"The viewers will...

Warner Bros to distribute feature in the UK, exec produced by Ridley Scott and starring Jim Broadbent and Rafe Spall.

Shooting begins today in London and Yorkshire on Get Santa, starring Oscar-winning actor Jim Broadbent as Santa Claus.

The film, written and directed by Christopher Smith (Black Death, Severance), is produced by Ridley Scott’s Scott Free London, the BFI, Screen Yorkshire and Altitude Film Entertainment.

Produced by Liza Marshall, the film also stars Rafe Spall, Stephen Graham, Ewen Bremner, Jodie Whittaker, Warwick Davis, Joanna Scanlan and Nonso Anozie. The cast is rounded out by Perry Benson, Matt King, Joshua McGuire and Hera Hilmar.

The film begins when nine-year-old Tom, played by newcomer Kit Connor, discovers Santa (Jim Broadbent) in the garden shed just days before Christmas. Escaping the wreckage of his sleigh and desperate to return to Lapland, Santa has come to ask Tom and his dad Steve (Spall) for help.

But Steve has...

Blu-ray, DVD & Digital Release Date: Feb. 18, 2014

Price: DVD $59.99 Blu-ray/DVD Combo $79.98

Studio: HBO Home Entertainment/Warner Home Video

The third season of HBO’s acclaimed TV show Game of Thrones garnered even more kudos than the first and second.

The Red Wedding approaches its climax in Game of Thrones: Season 3.

dsBased on the series of fantasy novels by George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones tells the story about the seven noble families fighting for control of the mythical land of Westeros, including the scheming south, the savage east, the frozen north and the ancient Wall that protects the realm from the mysterious beyond.

In Season 3, the battling families of the Seven Kingdoms continue to fight for power as bonds are strained, loyalties are tested and cruel fates are met. The Lannisters barely hold on to power after a savage naval onslaught from Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane, Zero Dark Thirty...

It’s difficult to ascribe movies with a nationality, given that the murky business of film finance is nebulous at best (now more than ever), based more on tax breaks than creative concerns. Fitting with this model, this list is also nebulous, as some of the movies shown here aren’t completely British, whatever that is. Some will feature American actors or American directors, but it’s important to try not to get your knickers in a twist.

2013 was an unusually fecund year for British cinema. Sure, you still had the usual Cockney-gangster turds that get released every year – and, shudder, Diana – but there were also a lot of great movies released. Other notables not featured here include Spike Island, Byzantium, Welcome to the Punch, Trance and Sunshine on Leith. Never has there been a better time to live in the UK, film-wise. Despite the UK government simultaneously demanding more...

Scholes the joker, Schmeichel scalding his privates, Beckham just one of the lads … Tom Horan on a film that casts a new light on 90s Manchester and its football heroes

How many documentaries can claim to capture the spirit of an era through the reflections of an ex-prime minister – and the story of a Danish goalkeeper scalding his penis on a giant tea urn? Not many. But it is unquestionably true of The Class of 92, the British film that premiered this week in London.

The Class of 92 is remarkable not just for being an excellent film about football, a subject that rarely translates to the big screen, but for being about so much more. Using interviews and archive footage, it follows six Manchester United players who met in their early teens and together won every honour in club football. But what emerges through the reminiscences of David Beckham,...

Judges Shane Meadows, David Tennant and Mat Whitecross attend ceremony at the BFI IMAX in London.

Virgin Media Shorts has revealed the winner of this year’s competition.

Nimer Rashed secured the Grand Prize with his film Touch, after being selected by a jury including This is England director Shane Meadows and Spike Island director Mat Whitecross.

Nimer was presented with his prize by Meadows, which includes £30,000 funding towards his next film, at a ceremony at the BFI IMAX in London’s Waterloo hosted by presenter Danny Wallace with afterparty music provided by Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker.

Touch is described as “a poignant reflection on the relationship and love between two people over the course of a life time, told almost entirely through the touch of their hands – from their first connection through to their final farewell.”

The piece was inspired by Em Forster’s phrase ‘only connect’ and after many weeks of pre-production, shot over one...

Emilia Clarke is the star of Game of Thrones who wants to appear in Ibsen. Now she's appearing alongside Jude Law in one of the best films of the year. She talks to Emma John about Dom Hemingway, Dothraki rituals, and the pitfalls of Hollywood dating

See more photos from The Observer's exclusive shoot with Emilia Clarke

June 2013: the internet announces the engagement of Emilia Clarke, 26, actor known for her role in HBO fantasy epic Game of Thrones, to James Franco, film star, director, writer, thinker. Text messages fly in from Clarke's friends, some of whom she hasn't spoken to since she was about four years old. "I had my aunt from America calling me up and being like" – Clarke slips into a brassy East Coast accent – "'Where's the ring?'"

She lets out a peal of laughter so gleeful you can almost hear the exclamation marks. She had...

Disc of the week

The Stone Roses: Made of Stone

Film

A rollicking documentary focusing on the recent comeback of Madchester baggy indie pop legends The Stone Roses made by superfan Shane Meadows. What more could any music fan want? From the spine-tingling opening, which sees lead singer Ian Brown greeting front row fans at last summer’s monumental Heaton Park concerts, to the initial post-reconciliation jam session and snippets of subsequent world tour gigs, this is a hugely entertaining and surprisingly touching film.

True, some of the less appealing truths around the band’s break-up are skimmed over, but this is far from a hagiography, and is more an affectionate, heartfelt look at a four friends rediscovering their love for each other and the music which brought them together. Meadow’s personality is evident in every frame, and his own unabashed love for the foursome shines through.

Early 80’s...

Shane Meadows has joked that the release of a new Stone Roses album in 2015 would be quick for the band.

The Stone Roses released their last album Second Coming in 1994, five and a half years after their self-titled debut.

After splitting in 1996, the band reunited in 2011 and at the time promised a "live resurrection" with new material, though have only played old songs at their live shows and festival appearances so far.

During Meadows's documentary The Stone Roses: Made of Stone, the director got visibly excited about the 'New Song' on the running order for a band rehearsal for their Warrington Parr Hall comeback.

However, the band played no new songs during that performance, and no new material is heard on the film itself.

Asked if he heard any new music during the making of the film, Meadows told Digital Spy: "No, we didn't. The day I think we were...

“It's inevitable really,” murmurs Ian Brown in 1989 about the chances of his band's future success. Three weeks later, the Stone Roses had changed the pop landscape. Shane Meadows makes deft use of old footage (the Spike Island gig, the early, awkward interviews) in his gushing document of the Manchester band's unexpected return last year. Don't expect a warts and all hatchet job here – drummer Reni's storm out in Amsterdam isn't sufficiently documented, for instance. It's a failing, but Meadows' film aims to eulogise and, on that level, it succeeds.

“I knew next to nothing about Dinard, and also it’s just me and the producer here and she didn’t really tell me anything.” It’s a warm October day in the French village of Dinard, and Chloe Pirrie, star of the acclaimed Brit-flick Shell is talking with me about her experiences of the town’s festival of British film.” “It’s much more chilled out, and schedules are much less rigid”, she continues, “and general conveying of people from one place to another is much less rigid than I’ve ever experienced before”

And she’s not alone. The festival has an incredibly relaxed atmosphere, where any sense of formality is subverted by a combination of small-town friendliness and free-flowing drink. In the most pleasant way possible, it’s utterly bizarre. As Spike Island writer, Chris Coghill puts it, “Technically we’re supposed to be in competition with each other,...

Behind The Candelabra | After Earth | The Wicker Man: The Final Cut | Modern Family: The Complete Fourth Season | Spike Island

Behind The Candelabra

Famously turned down by every studio that director Steven Soderbergh took it to, this lively and gaudy Liberace biopic had to settle for life as a TV movie with cable heavyweight HBO. The film really doesn't suffer, though; the only downside being a shortage of Ott opulence. Indeed, the fact that they had to turn to TV even works to the movie's advantage: it's a lot more lively, fun and daring than the usual Oscar-bait biopics – compare it to the bland and corny Diana, for example.

Still, your attention isn't on the sets, thanks to a mesmeric, career-best, Emmy-winning performance from Michael Douglas. Matt Damon is also no slouch as Scott Thorson, Liberace's lover of four rather incredible years, while Rob Lowe steals every scene...

Audience award of Dinard British Film Festival goes to Charlie Cattrall’s Titus.

Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant has won the Golden Hitchcock Award at the 24th edition of the Dinard British Film Festival in Brittany, France.

The prize comes with distribution support. The film also won the Cine+ Award, to promote the film during its theatrical release in France, as well as the Heartbeat Award “Le Prix Coup de Coeur” for a film with French distribution to get a special boost in Western France.

In addition, the film won the Technicolor Award for Best Cinematography.

Chris Coghill won Best Screenplay for Mat Whitecross’ Spike Island.

A special mention was given to a trio of actors — Nora Tschirner, Rob Knighton and Madeline Duggan — for Everyone Is Going To Die.

The jury included Alice Eve, Toby Jones, Michael Smiley, David Parfitt, Eric Cantona, Natalie Carter, Fred Cavayé, Hippolyte Girardot and Amanda Sthers.

Dinard opened...

For about six years now Virgin Media has been putting their brand behind a collection of filmmakers and their shorts, in an effort to push the world of British filmmaking and the short films that new talent have produced. This year on the Virgin Media Shorts shortlist, sees 13 short films vie for the grand prize of £30,000 in funding for the next film project, plus mentoring and guidance from the BFI.

At an event at the Curzon Soho, Spike Island director Mat Whitecross announced the names of the 13 shortlisted films before an audience of filmmakers got to watch their work on the big screen, 12 of which were voted for by a panel of industry representatives, whilst the 13th was voted for by the public.

The films, online for you to watch for free right now, are:

The Big Day by Karl Falconer

A family prepares for their daughter’s wedding, whilst...

Jessica Sula has been cast in the lead role in new movie Honeytrap.

The actress - best known for playing Grace Blood in the fifth and sixth series of Skins - will play 15-year-old Layla, a girl who sets up the murder of a boy who is in love with her.

Writer/director Rebecca Johnson said: "The urban genre has not been explored from the female perspective before, and it's time this side of the story was told.

"Jessica is a rare talent who will bring Layla to searing life. I'm very excited to have found her."

The film, which is Johnson's debut feature after her award-winning short Top Girl, is based on true events.

Producer Sarah Sulick added of the casting: "Our casting director did an exhaustive search and we saw many talented actresses, but Jessica really stood out.

"The fact that she is of Trinidadian descent - like...

Keeping the walking dead off the top spot and dominating the box office for a second week? That looks like a job for Superman

The winner

Topping the chart for a second week in a row, Man of Steel is only the second film this year to reach £20m after just two weekends of play. Les Miserables, the top-grosser for the year with £40.65m, stood at £17.36 at this stage of its run. Iron Man 3 reached £24.57m after two weekends, an 11-day figure. Man of Steel is behind the pace of the summer's top earner, with £21.33m so far. That's already nearly £5m ahead of the lifetime total for Superman Returns, which maxed out here with £16.4m. It's a similar amount ahead of Man of Steel producer Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, which reached £16.6m in total.

Man of Steel suffered a second-weekend drop of 55%, which compares unfavorably with the...

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In an ironic comedy of errors, Made of Stone director Shane Meadows missed his favourite band's most important gig after giving away his coveted tickets to "some bloke in the street" following a night of chemically enhanced recreation. If only his path had crossed with that of the young protagonists of Spike Island who spend the better part of the movie in search of tickets to see the Stone Roses at a gig that has passed into modern mythology.

Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll director Mat Whitecross clearly has both an eye and ear for the rarefied nuances of pop culture, and his young cast are convincing as the baggy Manc-lads, even when the script hands them a bunch of coming-of-age clichés. Less a double-bill accompaniment to Meadow's movie, more a solid second-feature – albeit one that happens to be taking to the stage after the main act.

The Act Of Killing: Directors Tour | East End film festival | All The Right Notes 2 | Avengers marathon

The Act Of Killing: Directors Tour, Nationwide

Co-produced by Werner Herzog and Errol Morris, no less, The Act Of Killing establishes Joshua Oppenheimer as a significant force in documentary, if that's what you can call it. Oppenheimer's movie tracks down the perpetrators of Indonesia's state-sanctioned 60s genocide and encourages them to recreate their crimes as scenarios from Hollywood movies, a project they embrace all too readily. By turns, shocking, surreal and revelatory, this innovative film blurs fact and fiction and leaves you with many questions. To answer some of those, the UK-based American director talks to John Pilger at Brixton's Ritzy on Friday, and Q&As at 10 other venues.

Various venues, Fri to 7 Jul

East End film festival London

Making the colloquialisms of Albert Square look like a far-off universe, or at least a far-off postcode,...

World War Z | Before Midnight | Spike Island | Fire In The Night | Like Someone In Love | Snitch | I Am Nasrine | The Seasoning House | Shun Li and The Poet | Black Rock | I Am Breathing | A Haunted House

World War Z (15)

(Marc Forster, 2013, Us/Mal) Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale. 116 mins

In the end, the much-reported delays, reshoots and overspend have at least resulted in a watchable disaster epic, even if this brings little to the zombie apocalypse party save for a huge guest list. Forster's film finds Pitt pitted against insect-like hordes of the sprinting dead, as his Un agent trots round the globe trying to trace the source of the epidemic, save his family and avoid getting chomped. Mild spoiler alert: blame Wales.

Before Midnight (15)

(Richard Linklater, 2013, Us) Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Walter Lassally. 109 mins

A satisfying return for the comfortable screen couple, now together but burdened by history,...

For fans of The Stone Roses it seems all their Christmases have come at once, or at least all their films, as this week sees the release of the second movie about the band in as many months.

But while Shane Meadows’ biopic-cum-concert-movie Made of Stone focused on the Roses, and the real-world implications of their recent reunion, Spike Island tells a fictional tale of a group of mates who go to ridiculous lengths to see the Baggy band at the height of their fame.

We recently sat down with Nico Miragello, who plays Dodge in the movie, to discus filming, chemistry and the reaction to the film back in Manchester.

The chemistry between the lads

Me and Elliott are best friends in real life, so the part could have not been more perfectly suited for me and Elliott to just go in and go, ‘boom’. The chemistry was there,...

To mark this week's UK cinematic release of Mat Whitecross's Spike Island (2012) - the new movie about four young Manchester teens and their journey to The Stone Roses most famous gig, Spike Island circa 1990 - we've been provided with Three brilliant DVD bundles about music to give away to our devoted readership, which include the following films: Gus Van Sant's Stoned, Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten and Human Traffic. Prizes come courtesy of Vertigo Films, UK distributor of Spike Island. This is an exclusive competition for our Facebook and Twitter fans, so if you haven't already, 'Like' us at facebook.com/CineVueUK or follow us @CineVue before answering the question below.

Shadowcaster are a four-piece band from Manchester. Or more accurately, they are five lads with guitars and a garage and an ambition to forget school, forget their troubled home lives, forget GCSEs and see their heroes,...

Director: Mat Whitecross; Screenwriter Chris Coghill; Starring: Elliott Tittensor, Nico Mirallegro, Jordan Murphy, Adam Long, Emilia Clarke; Running time: 105 mins; Certificate: 15

Earlier this month, Shane Meadows's heartfelt documentary Made of Stone bucked expectations by focusing as much on the fans in the ticket queue as on the Stone Roses themselves, and emerged as more an affectionate reminiscence than a journalistic document. Mat Whitecross's 1990-set Spike Island makes no claims to be documenting anything, except for a certain kind of devoted teenage fandom, and while it's far from revolutionary as a coming-of-age story, its game young cast elevate even the clichés.

Manc teens Tits (Matthew McNulty) and Dodge (Nico Mirallegro) are lead singer and guitarist, standing in for Ian Brown and John Squire in an indie band that might as well be a straight-up Roses tribute act, but instead call themselves Shadowcatcher. They're hellbent on getting to Spike Island,...

★★★☆☆ It would seem that 2013 is shaping up to be the true second coming of legendary Manchurian outfit The Stone Roses. Following triumphant reunion gigs and an equally lauded documentary, Made of Stone, into the mix comes Roses-tinged teen tribute-cum-standalone rites of passage tale Spike Island (2012). It's the summer of 1990 and the streets are filled with the sights and sounds of The Stone Roses, in both an aural and visual sense (the band's Jackson Pollock-inspired, signature abstract paint splashes imaginatively invade the frame). Thus, anticipation is naturally high for six school chums on the cusp of adulthood.

Not only are the boys harbouring plans for pop world domination with their own band, Shadowcaster, but their musical heroes The Stone Roses have a huge outdoor gig planned at Spike Island. The gang are eager to get tickets, although frontman 'Tits' is in a quandary about making the date, owing to the...

Seven years after Superman Returns debuted disappointingly, the series reboot has opened faster than a speeding bullet

The winner

How long should a franchise lie fallow before it can be rebooted successfully? With its premier comic-book property, Warner Bros allowed an eight-year gap between Batman and Robin and Batman Begins, although it's worth remembering that grosses for the Christopher Nolan trilogy only reached spectacular levels with The Dark Knight, three years later; the sequel made £49.1m, as opposed to just £16.6m for Batman Begins. Sony did pretty well with The Amazing Spider-Man only five years after Spider-Man 3, whereas Universal didn't create much excitement with Louis Leterrier's The Incredible Hulk, five years after Ang Lee's less-than-fully achieved Hulk.

Seven years after Superman Returns underwhelmed audiences with a total of £16.4m in the UK and Ireland, the pricey Man of Steel always looked likely to improve on that total. With Nolan on board as producer,...

Nico Mirallegro will be familiar to TV fans thanks to roles in Mad Fat Diary and The Village, but the Manchester-born actor is switching his attention to the big screen this week with the release of Brit coming-of-age film Spike Island. Set around The Stone Roses's now-famous 1990 concert, the film tracks four friends in fictional band Shadowcaster as they experience love, heartbreak and the joys of rock 'n' roll.

Digital Spy sat down with Mirallegro to talk about the Roses resurrection, Spike Island and what he thought about Shane Meadows's documentary Made of Stone.

You were born in Manchester, so were The Stone Roses always hovering in the background?

"They were very much in the background. Growing up where I was from it was very much Oasis, but my mum was into her Manchester music. In fact, Bez from The Happy Mondays is like a family uncle. So...

Man Of Steel | Paradise: Love | Much Ado About Nothing | Stuck In Love | Admission | Summer In February | Fukrey

Man Of Steel (12A)

(Zack Snyder, 2013, Us/Can/UK) Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon. 143 mins

How to retell a story everyone has heard so many times before? By shuffling up Superman's origins myth, adopting a deadly earnest tone and chucking tons of money at it, apparently. The result is a Christ parable with a Transformers-sized appetite for destruction. Cavill is appropriately strapping but the tension between Earth and Krypton gets buried beneath the rubble.

Paradise: Love (18)

(Ulrich Seidl, 2012, Aus/Ger/Fra) Margarete Tiesel, Peter Kazungu, Inge Maux. 121 mins

Wealthy white women's third-world sex tourism is hardly a nuanced subject (or a new one: see Laurent Cantet's Heading South) but Seidl brings it up to date and out in the open in this excruciating study of mutual exploitation. Tiesel plays a lonely,...

★★★☆☆ There's no denying that Shane Meadows' latest film, The Stone Roses: Made of Stone (2013) - which details the impact of the Manchester-based band - is going to divide opinion. Fans of the group, which broke through in the late eighties with tremendous success, will relish in the multitude of archive interviews and gig footage. Meadows' boyish glee and borderline obsession translates into palpable energy that thrusts you through the 90-minute doc. Early on in the film, Meadows recounts how he missed out on attending the now-famous Spike Island gig after dropping a tab of acid and giving his ticket away to a stranger.

From here on out, Made of Stone is less concerned with the finer biographical details of the band and more interested in Meadows making amends for his teenage error. Swiftly dropping the a-typical music documentary structure we actually receive relatively little information regarding the formation of the band.

June 7, 2013

Stone Roses: Made of Stone

Director: Shane Meadows

Starring: Ian Brown, Mani

Running time: 97 mins

Certificate: 15

After Earth

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Starring: Will Smith, Jaden Smith

Running time: 100 mins

Certificate: 12A

Behind the Candelabra

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Starring: Michael Douglas, Matt Damon

Running time: 118 mins

Certificate: 15

The Iceman

Director: Ariel Vromen

Starring: Michael Shannon, Winona Ryder

Running time: 105 mins

Certificate: 15

The Last Exorcism Part II

Director: Ed Gass-Donnelly

Starring: Ashley Bell, Julia Garner

Running time: 88 mins

Certificate: 15

June 14, 2013

Admission

Director: Paul Weitz

Starring: Tina Fey, Paul Rudd

Running time: 107 mins

Certificate: 12A

Man of Steel

Director: Zack Snyder

Starring: Henry Cavill, Russell Crowe

Running time: 143 mins

Certificate: 12A

Much Ado About Nothing

Director: Joss Whedon

Starring: Amy Acker, Clark Gregg

Running time: 107 mins

Certificate: 12A

Summer in February

Director: Christopher Menaul

Starring: Dominic Cooper, Dan Stevens

Running time: 100 mins

Certificate: 15

June 21, 2013

Before Midnight

Director: Richard Linklater

Starring: Ethan Hawke,...

Bowlcuts, wide trousers, bad weather – it's Madchester all over again as Laura Barton spends a day in a field with the makers of Spike Island, a film about a legendary Stone Roses show

Once the birthplace of the British chemical industry and later a toxic wasteground, the area of reclaimed woodland and wetland known as Spike Island gained a certain notoriety in May 1990 as the venue for the Stone Roses' Sunset Sunday gig. With a crowd of 27,000, the show in this once-industrial area of Widnes in Cheshire has become the stuff of Madchester legend, rhapsodised, euologised, recounted ad infinitum. This summer, that gig and the band's later reunion are commemorated in two film releases: Made of Stone, a documentary made by Shane Meadows; and Spike Island, a drama directed by Matt Whitecross.

I visited the set of the latter during shooting on a bitter spring day last year, finding the quiet parkland cluttered with trailers,...

Director: Shane Meadows; Starring: Ian Brown, Gary 'Mani' Mounfield, John Squire, Alan 'Reni' Wren; Running time: 96 mins; Certificate: 15

"You can't repeat the past," Nick Carraway ventures in one of the year's other big movies, The Great Gatsby. "Can't repeat the past?" Gatsby cries incredulously. "Why of course you can!" With Made of Stone, director Shane Meadows suggests that maybe - just maybe - it's actually possible.

Back in 1990, Shane had a ticket for The Stone Roses at Spike Island - the first time the Uttoxeter lad would have seen his favourite band. A bad acid trip the night before meant that he gave the ticket away and missed out. Fast forward two decades and singer Ian Brown drops him a line. He and guitarist John Squire have kissed and made up, along with drummer Reni and bassist Mani, and does he fancy bringing a camera along?

What happens next is...