61 h. ago ‘These guys are idiots’: Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black call out government’s Harvey Milk erasure

Team behind Oscar-winning biopic of the groundbreaking gay politician hits back at decision to remove his nameSean Penn, the Oscar-winning actor of the 2008 Harvey Milk biopic Milk and Milk writer Dustin Lance Black have spoken out against US defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to remove the gay rights icon’s name from a navy ship.“This is yet another move to distract and to fuel the culture wars that create division,” Black told the Hollywood Reporter in a phone call on Wednesday. “It’s meant to get us to react in ways that are self-centered so that we are further distanced from our brothers and sisters in equally important civil rights fights in this country. It’s divide and conquer.” Continue reading...

Politics

2 d. ago 'One of the best biopics ever' streaming on Prime Video director says is greatest war movie

The acclaimed director was choosing some of his favourite films

Politics

4 d. ago Electric Spark by Frances Wilson review – the mercurial Muriel Spark

A canny biography of the early career of this strange, brilliant novelistMuriel Spark, born Muriel Sarah Camberg, was nothing if not protean. Her gravestone declares her a poet; posterity knows her as the author of 22 short, indelibly strange and subversive novels. In life, she was by turns an editor, critic, biographer, playwright, Jewish Gentile, Catholic convert, divorcee, abandoning mother, spy. As Frances Wilson observes in this canny biography, she looks in every photograph as if she is played by a different actor, so drastic are the changes in her face and style. From precocious Edinburgh schoolgirl to unhappy Rhodesian wife, spirited London bohemian to poised Roman socialite, Spark made an art of unsettling transformations. She was the queen of narrative control, not least the narrative of her own life.She was also the enemy of biographers, a pursuer of lawsuits who managed to delay the publication of her own authorised biography by seven years (“a hatchet job; full of insul...

Politics

7 d. ago ‘All of us felt like we had touched gold’: What It Feels Like for a Girl, the BBC’s electric coming

Paris Lees has turned her hit memoir of growing up as a working-class trans kid into a vivid, joyful drama. Its team talks teenage sex work, nostalgia for Tony Blair, and why TV drama is so posh it’s like Jane AustenWhen the BBC was casting its adaptation of Paris Lees’s autobiography, What It Feels Like for a Girl, it wasn’t the only one wrestling with how to find the right actor to play the lead in a biopic. “Cher did an interview,” smiles Lees, “and she said: ‘We just can’t find somebody that’s Cher.’ I was like: ‘Same, girl. I hear your struggles.’ So me and Cher have been going through it.” Sitting next to Lees is the actor they went with, Ellis Howard, who you may remember as the sapling Ivan VI in HBO series Catherine the Great, but who you will never have seen being this luminous.“In the beginning, we were looking for a trans person,” Lees says. She and Howard are sharing a Zoom screen, and it’s not so much that they look similar as that they both look so cinematic, the...

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9 d. ago Best enamel jewellery to bring kaleidoscopic colour to your collection

Bright, bohemian and bedazzled accessories to elevate your warm weather ensembles

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1 week ago Barry Keoghan's trick to landing huge roles and sacrifice made to play Ringo Starr

Saltburn star Barry Keoghan reveals the demands of the job with perfectionist Peaky Blinders co-star Cillian Murphy – and how he has to protect himself to film the Fab Four biopic

Politics

1 week ago From legal issues to reshoots: is the Michael Jackson biopic cursed?

A two-part film looking at the King of Pop’s career is undergoing more behind-the-scenes issues, including the problem of how to address troubling allegationsAs adult audiences for non-spectacle theatrical releases have waned post-Covid, one subgenre has survived long enough to feel like a franchise unto itself: the pop musician biopic. Not every new entry is a Bohemian Rhapsody-level smash; some, like the dreary Amy Winehouse biography Back to Black or the misbegotten Whitney Houston movie I Wanna Dance with Somebody, outright flop. But there are still enough success stories like A Complete Unknown ($140m worldwide, eight Oscar nominations) to assure every pantheon pop artist in America will probably receive this treatment eventually.“Eventually” has become the operative word for Michael, a biopic of globally revered but controversial pop star Michael Jackson. The film from Antoine Fuqua was supposed to have been released by now; it was originally set to come out in April 2025. Aft...

Events

1 week ago John Lennon's sister on recreating his childhood bedroom in London – and her problem with biopics

John Lennon's sister on recreating his childhood bedroom in London – and her problem with biopics  NME

Politics

2 w. ago Braveheart at 30: Mel Gibson’s gory, hokey Oscar winner plays like a biblical epic

The 1995 best picture winner is less interested in historical fact and more in rousing fantasy and makes for a telling portrait of its troubled makerFor a storied best picture Oscar winner and dorm-wall poster staple of the 1990s and beyond, it’s a little surprising how modest Braveheart’s success was when it opened in theaters 30 years ago. Though it powered through a mild opening to become a solid summer hit, on the 1995 charts it sits below Father of the Bride Part II and Congo (though congratulations are in order; it did edge out both Grumpier Old Men and Mortal Kombat). Even among other Mel Gibson vehicles from the 90s, you might be surprised to learn that Maverick, Conspiracy Theory and Payback all posted stronger numbers.But Braveheart stuck around, both in theaters and in the public consciousness. It wasn’t necessarily tipped as an awards contender at the time of release – Gibson had only directed one other movie, a small-scale drama called The Man Without a Face – but wound...

Politics

2 w. ago John Lennon's sister criticises casting for Beatles biopics as she takes aim at Paul Mescal

‘There are more actors out there waiting for a go, and for a chance,’ Julia Baird said

Politics

2 w. ago Spice Girls 'TV project for Netflix secures big win as major British comedian joins show'

The makers behind Netflix hit The Crown are reportedly keen to create a tell-all biopic that will air next year

Culture

2 w. ago Spice Girls Netflix drama 'back on track' as huge comedian and pal of Mel C joins project

The Spice Girls' Netflix biopic is reportedly back on track - with the streamer signing a huge name to write the script

Events

2 w. ago Most inaccurate biopics from Braveheart and Pocahontas to Bohemian Rhapsody

Historical movies are, well, not always the most historical - and so the Daily Star has compiled some of Hollywood's biggest oversights and bloopers that would have left historians throwing their popcorn

Politics

2 w. ago Yorkshire restaurant ‘honoured’ as Bruce Springsteen and Stephen Graham drop in for lunch

The ‘Adolescence’ star plays Springsteen’s late father in an upcoming biopic

Politics

2 w. ago Eurovision's Cheryl Baker 'having too much fun to retire' as she shares exciting news

EXCLUSIVE: The Fizz are set to have a biopic made about them 44 years after Bucks Fizz won the Eurovision Song Contest, Cheryl Baker has confirmed

Politics

2 w. ago Newcastle’s elite rise unignorable but Arsenal links to Isak and Gordon irk Howe

Magpies can steal second from the Gunners on Sunday and Eddie Howe says club has ambitions to kick on this summerAssumptions can be inaccurate, unfair and sometimes downright dangerous. Eddie Howe and Newcastle have had their fair share of often lazy theories – about the manager’s future and the limits of the club’s potential – but they travel to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday having trampled all over assorted hypotheses.Should Newcastle win, Arsenal will have been beaten an unprecedented four times by one team in a single season and St James’ Park executives should feel sufficiently confident to start sprucing the stadium up for Champions League combat in early autumn. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson recalls being ‘so scared’ she’d find Mama June dead during her drug addiction spiral

Thompson narrates a new Lifetime biopic about her life, called ‘I was Honey Boo Boo’, debuting Saturday on Lifetime

Events

3 w. ago Joan Collins, 91, goes from acting royalty to the British sovereignty in Wallis Simpson role for new biopic about the Duchess of Windsor

She made her name as the scheming Alexis Carrington in Dynasty. Now, at the age of 91, Dame Joan is taking on a very different dynasty - the British royal family.

Politics

3 w. ago Patricia Clarkson on playing her icon Lilly Ledbetter and the political moment greeting the movie

Patricia Clarkson stars in the movie “Lilly,” a biopic about former Alabama factory worker Lilly Ledbetter who became an equal pay icon

Politics

3 w. ago Nicolas Cage transforms into NFL star John Madden in new biopic

Actor will star in forthcoming film celebrating acclaimed coach’s impressive career

Politics