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Jess By November 14, 2016 0 Comments

Brian Cox (seen on location, above) plays the British World War II leader, with Miranda Richardson as his wife, Clementine

Lionsgate Intl. UK has added “Churchill,” starring Brian Cox as the British World War II leader and Miranda Richardson as his wife, Clementine, to its 2017 movie release slate in the U.K. The film was acquired from Embankment Films.

The movie, which also stars John Slattery and Ella Purnell, was directed by Jonathan Teplitzky (“The Railway Man”) and written by Alex von Tunzelmann. It was produced by Nick Taussig, Paul Van Carter, Piers Tempest and Claudia Bluemhuber. The film is scheduled to be released in the summer.

The title marks the studio’s second partnership with Teplitzky and producer/financier Silver Reel, having released “The Railway Man,” starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman, in 2013.

This addition to the slate builds on what already promises to be a record year in terms of the breadth of British product handled by the studio. The 2017 schedule includes Toronto Intl. Film Festival entry “Their Finest,” directed by Lone Scherfig and starring Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy, which will be released in April, alongside Adam Smith’s “Trespass Against Us,” starring Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleeson, which is expected in cinemas in March. Later in the year the studio will release the Bill Nighy and Olivia Cooke starrer “The Limehouse Golem,” written by Jane Goldman.

The upcoming slate also includes Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land,” which has been earning rave reviews on the festival circuit, Mel Gibson’s “Hacksaw Ridge,” Peter Berg’s “Patriots Day,” Dean Israelite’s “Power Rangers” and Luc Besson’s “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.”

Lionsgate International UK has also invested heavily in British productions during 2016-17, and will add “On Chesil Beach,” starring Saoirse Ronan, which is shooting in locations across Britain; “Filmstars Don’t Die in Liverpool,” produced by Barbara Broccoli and starring Jamie Bell, Annette Benning and Julie Walters; “Submergence,” starring Alicia Vikander and James McAvoy; and “Ghost Stories,” also shooting and starring Martin Freeman, to its upcoming release schedule.

Zygi Kamasa, CEO of Lionsgate UK and Europe, said: “As a company we’ve always taken pride in being the largest supporter in distribution of homegrown talent and material, and I’m delighted to say that this year is no different. I’m exceptionally proud of our upcoming slate and what looks to be our strongest year ever. To be able to release British films and support British talent within a slate that includes the festival sensation ‘La La Land,’ one of the best reviewed films of the year, and blockbuster titles ‘Power Rangers’ and ‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’ is a truly unique opportunity for us as a studio.”

The latest British additions to the Lionsgate International UK slate follow in the footsteps of several pics from the U.K. released by the studio in the past year, including box-office hit “Brotherhood” from Noel Clarke in August, “Eddie the Eagle” in April, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” in January, and Duncan Kenworthy’s “The Pass” in December. These titles were scheduled alongside titles such as Peter Berg’s “Deepwater Horizon,” the Gerry Butler-starrer “London Has Fallen,” the critically acclaimed “Sing Street” and horror pic “Blair Witch.”

Jess By October 30, 2016 0 Comments

Ella Purnell adds a little pop to her black jacket with silver streamers in this shot from the new issue of Schon magazine.

The 20-year-old Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children actress chats about the new movie, Asa Butterfield and more. Check it:

On the moral of the story: “I think what this movie is trying to say is that it’s tough to be a teenager. Is this normal, why does this happen, am I supposed to have this growing here, is this OK?”

On her character, Emma: “Although Emma might look normal on the outside, she is fighting her own demons from within, which if you think about, we all have to do. Emma is actually very sweet, but like most girls she is very fierce: when you push her, that’s it! I wanted to show that she has a loving personality, and a great strength in controlling her peculiarity.”

On her chemistry with Asa: “At the final stages of audition, the chemistry test was at Tim Burton’s house. Tim didn’t know that Asa and I already knew each other, so I thought, this chemistry test is going to be a breeze. It definitely helped!”

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is out in theaters NOW.

Jess By October 24, 2016 0 Comments

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Is Tim Burton’s Best Film in Years!

With the right strange, spooky material, a beloved director finds his way again.

By my count, it’s been nine years since I liked a Tim Burton movie (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street), and a whopping 20 since I loved one (Mars Attacks!). I had begun to think that I’d lost all affection for this talented, wayward director, who conjured such bountiful, weird visions earlier in his career, and then seemed to get blinded by the empty gleam of studio C.G.I. What a nice surprise, then, to watch Burton’s new film, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and feel a stirring of that old Burton love—to find his dark whimsy (which had begun to seem a bit faux-dark of late) fresh and vibrant again. There’s the old Tim Burton we all used to root for, amiably wandering out of the woods like he hasn’t been lost for a long time.

Which, yes, is probably a pretty condescending way to start a review. But Burton’s artistry has been so misplaced for so long that it’s just really nice to thoroughly enjoy a movie of his again.

Miss Peregrine is based on the popular novel by Ransom Riggs. It proves to be ample, sturdy source material—full of visual wonder and intriguing narrative loops—for Burton to build one of his big, multifaceted curios atop. The film is essentially the story of a teenage boy, Jake (Asa Butterfield, monotone but effective), who travels to an island off the coast of Wales to investigate his beloved late grandfather’s (Terence Stamp, playing sweetly against type) past at the titular home for children. But hidden within that traditional-enough narrative is an arresting, Burton-y brand of spiky melancholy, a wistfulness laced with menace that is equal parts shivery and poignant.

Miss Peregrine is plenty silly, for sure. As the film goes, it builds toward yet another over-the-top climax full of goofy villains and unpleasant C.G.I. That sequence works, only barely, because Burton’s witty choreography manages to keep it aloft. But much of what comes before that bulbous (but still fun!) final stretch is grim and clever and, quite simply, vastly entertaining—just what one hopes for from a Tim Burton movie. As Jake gets to know the peculiar children of this peculiar house, led by the peculiar Miss Peregrine (Eva Green, masterfully doing her usual Eva Green thing, only flecked with a little more warmth and sadness), the film explores its terrain inventively. Burton’s hand is delicate here—each oddity and ability possessed by the children is presented with restraint. Miss Peregrine is big and busy, but it only rarely feels over embellished. The film mostly stays focused on its interesting story, with occasional digressions or pauses to appreciate some canny little flourish.

Aside from the supernatural elements, Miss Peregrine serves as a decent, if rudimentary, coming-of-age story: Jack comes into himself in Wales, after living a muted, lonely life in Florida with his parents. The film is also a quietly perceptive look at a prickly father-son dynamic, with Jack joined on his trip by his uninterested father, played with a curious accent but a good deal of insight by Chris O’Dowd. There’s a nice little budding romance when Jack falls for one of Peregrine’s wards, Emma (the promising newcomer Ella Purnell)—who also, at one point, was the sweetheart of Jack’s grandfather. Yup!

You see, Miss Peregrine is, most strikingly, a story about time and memory and the bittersweet process of growing up. Which are all big, broad, bleary themes that tend to work very well on me. With its crafty, if a bit confusing, use of time travel, Miss Peregrine meditates on an idea of arrested adolescence that is both appealing and tragic, a nifty notion of perpetual youth that begins to seem more grotesque the more the film forces you think about it. There’s a maturity, and a respect for the audience’s maturity, in the way Burton handles this double-edged topic. We’ve not seen that from him in some time—not even in his last film, the for-adults drama Big Eyes. Miss Peregrine has a genuine emotional intelligence to it. Burton casts his gaze largely on people and pathos while employing his usual elaborate, special-effects-laden kookiness to embolden the humanity at the film’s core. Which is kind of the opposite of what he’s mostly been doing for the last 20 years.

I don’t want to oversell Miss Peregrine as some sort of ruminative mood piece about the human experience. It’s not. It’s a kid’s film, co-starring Samuel L. Jackson as an eyeball-eating mad scientist. But it’s the rare kid’s film that has a sense of risk and stakes and tension to it, that admirably dares to be violent and unsettling and sad. Those qualities have long been Burton’s bailiwick—but here, he finally synthesizes them together in a way that’s coherent and thoughtful. Miss Peregrine is a testament to finding the perfect material to match a director’s tastes, rather than trying for some hideous compromise, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Alice in Wonderland. As Tim Burton’s best film in almost a decade, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children has an exciting air of rejuvenation about it. It’s confident and judicious with its peculiarities, while letting its heart and intellect—not Johnny Depp in a bad wig—be its stars.

Source: Vanity Fair

Jess By October 24, 2016 0 Comments

We have added x04 new stills for Ella’s upcoming movie, Access All Areas which will be released next year.

Jess By October 24, 2016 0 Comments

We have added x03 new photos of Ella on set and filming Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Jess By October 17, 2016 0 Comments

One of the biggest questions from Ransom Riggs fans was why the characters of Emma Bloom and Olive Abroholos Elephanta were swapped for the film adaptation of “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.” Olive (Lauren McCrostie) is supposed to have an air peculiarity, but on screen she has fire. “I’m really glad you asked that because it’s something I do enjoy addressing,” actress Ella Purnell, who plays Emma, said during an interview.

“Obviously, the decision did not come from me, it came from [screenwriter] Jane Goldman and [director] Tim [Burton] and the producers, and when I first read it I was kind of bummed because I wanted to be the fiery, badass character, like every girl does,” she recalled. “Every girl relates to her because you want to be Laura Croft. But when I sat down and thought about it, I was actually really glad that they gave me the opportunity to create a whole new character because if you try to exactly replicate a book as well-loved as this book, you will never please everyone. So you might as well make an adaptation of the book.”

Emma and Olive aren’t the only differences from page to screen: Purnell noted how the ending is completely different, while Samuel L. Jackson plays an amalgamation of characters from the book in the form of Mr. Barron.

“There are several reasons why I’m happy that they [made the change],” Purnell continued. “First of all, I got the opportunity to create a new [character]. Second of all, I didn’t try to go near fiery Emma. I created a whole new character. I didn’t even read the books before I felt like I actually had an idea of who movie Emma was. Third of all, I think it’s much more common to see girls playing with fire, boys playing with fire. You see it quite a lot on the big screen, but how often do you see a girl being dragged along by a rope? That’s so rare, and that’s so Tim Burton. Fire isn’t that Tim Burton, but a girl with these big gothic, lead shoes? That’s very Tim.”

She concluded, “Fourth of all, I think, from an actor’s standpoint, emotionally it gives me somewhere to go. If she’s already really, really strong at the start — I mean, I suppose that’s a whole other emotional storyline that I haven’t thought about. But for me, it made much more sense to start a little bit damaged, a little bit hurt. She’s been betrayed, she’s lost her trust, and she’s been dealing with these feelings of hurt and betrayal and sadness for 60 years, and she goes on this whole journey where she steps into herself. She becomes slightly more confident, she becomes slightly more protective of her younger siblings, and she grows into herself a little bit. She may be thousands of years old, but, at the end of the day, she’s a 16-year-old girl. She wants a boyfriend. No, I’m joking.”

“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” is in theaters everywhere.

Jess By October 05, 2016 0 Comments

We have added some photos of Ella from Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children Press Conference on September 21st 2016

Jess By October 05, 2016 0 Comments

The cast of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children came out to campaign for their latest film in equally compelling fashion. Directed by Tim Burton, the movie provides a glimpse into a fantasy world, not dissimilar to the setting for the premiere: the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York City. In addition to the cast and crew, guests including Zac Efron, Alysia Reiner, and Patti LuPone walked the red carpet lining the Fifth Avenue address before taking the elevator up to the eighth floor, perhaps more commonly known 10022-Shoe, for the after-party, where Café SFA chef Alex Reyes served up unexpected bites on trays in theme-appropriate winged shapes.

For her part, actress Lauren McCrostie endorsed a conscious approach to eveningwear in a plunging creation by the rising label Vaute. “It’s like haute, but it’s spelled with a ‘V’ because it’s vegan haute couture,” she said of the eco-friendly frock, which was made right in New York and sourced from recycled plastic bottles. Echoing the transformative power of fashion brought to life in film was costar Samuel L. Jackson. “Fantasy always involves a lot of frills,” Jackson said. “The satin, the bows, the tweeds, the plaids or tartans, the buckles on the shoes—all those things that are accouterment but that we might not appreciate.” The Academy Award–nominated actor made quite the case in Giorgio Armani—when Jackson asked photographers if he was blocking the view of the Marc Jacobs Fall 2016 fashion, which filled the Saks Fifth Avenue window displays behind him, one quipped, “You are fashion!”

Ella Purnell, whose character wears a major pair of towering platforms in the film (now included among the Saks Fifth Avenue window display), also turned the red carpet into her own personal runway in a silk faille Dior gown paired with metallic sandals. “The shoes had to sell the fact that she’s weighed down because she’s lighter than air,” costume designer Colleen Atwood explained of the inspiration behind the scene-stealing accessory audiences will recall from the trailer. But as dreamy a notion as custom creepers are, which are said to boast their own magical powers, the reality was somewhat different. “I’d put on my dress and I’d feel like a princess, like a fairy, and then look down and see these huge bricks of shoes, and say, ‘Oh, there’s the Tim Burton part of this,’ ” Purnell said with a laugh. “But you get used to them after about six months.”

We have added x131 photos to the gallery..

Jess By October 05, 2016 0 Comments

Here are some recent interviews with Ella for Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Jess By September 23, 2016 0 Comments

We have added these gorgeous portraits and group photos from TIFF by Maarten De Boer…