5 h. ago New 'state of the art' film studios get green light in west London

The Vinyl Factory, the developer behind the project, estimates the studio will create over 3,000 permanent jobs

Politics

53 h. ago ‘Will Freya find a lovely birthday gift for mummy?’: why the Sylvanian Families movie is the anti

The trailer for the new film about the dainty woodland creatures will wash over your brain like a warm 70-second bath. Does every toy movie need to be an Oscar-worthy social commentary?This Easter, a new movie based on Sylvanian Families will be released into cinemas. If you’ve been keeping up with films based on toys for the last decade or so, then you’ll be forgiven for feeling a modicum of dread upon hearing this news. Because ever since Barbie took a billion dollars and found itself nominated for a bunch of Oscars, a toy movie isn’t allowed to be a toy movie any more. It has to be an auteur-driven toy movie; one that also functions as a commentary about the capitalist machinations that drive the toy industry.It’s everywhere. In 2022, Emily V Gordon and Jon M Chu announced that they were making a Play-Doh movie that would be about “creativity, imagination, and the purpose of art”. JJ Abrams is making a film based on Hot Wheels that he describes as “emotional and grounded and grit...

Politics

58 h. ago Forget Warsaw and Krakow – this Polish city has street art, film history and £2 pints

With industrial chic neighbourhoods filled with street art, museums and hip cafes, Tamara Hinson says it’s time we started paying more attention to Lodz

Economics

63 h. ago How O Brother, Where Art Thou? got inspired – then upstaged – by its own soundtrack

For their freewheeling comedy – back in cinemas this week – the Coen Brothers sought creative help from super-producer T-Bone Burnett, whose music for the film sparked a folk revival upon its release and launched the careers of many of its contributors. It may be the film’s greatest legacy, writes Xan Brooks

Politics

7 d. ago West Lothian Civic Centre will light up purple on international day for epilepsy awareness

The headquarters in Livingston will join over 40 iconic Scottish landmarks on March 26

Events

1 week ago ‘It’s hell on earth for me’: how did Joe Black overdose in a homeless hostel with zero tolerance for drugs?

Joe was a gifted musician who struggled with addiction and poor mental health. When he got a place at an award-winning ‘sanctuary’ in London, it sounded perfect. The reality was shockingly differentJude Black was delighted when her son, Joe, moved into Holmes Road Studios in Camden, north London. This wasn’t any old homelessness hostel. It had just won an award from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and it looked gorgeous.The 59 refurbished studio flats had en suite bathrooms and were designed around a courtyard garden. Joe was allocated No 21. Each studio was distinguished by a colourful front door – blue, brown, orange, green, red, turquoise. The rustic-looking brickwork gleamed in the sun and a stylish porthole window lit up the mezzanine bed space. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago It’s grand theft AI and UK ministers are behind it. Oppose this robbery of people’s creativity | Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alastair Webber

The plan to weaken copyright law, allowing tech firms to profit for free from people’s talent, is an outrage, and the nation would sufferWe are father and son: one has written 16 musicals and counting, the other cofounded The Other Songs, a leading independent record and publishing company. Our work has employed thousands globally, nurturing the next generation of talent. Copyright is the foundation that protects this, and all creative work: from music, theatre and literature to film and art. Copyright ensures creators retain control and are fairly compensated. It underpins the creative economy. Put simply, it allows artists and creatives to make a living. Endless studies have shown what a benefit that creativity – music, theatre, dance, art, film, TV, the list is endless – has on the rest of society.Yet, today, the UK government is proposing changes that would strip creators of this protection. Under the data (use and access) bill, AI companies would be allowed to take works, past ...

Politics

3 w. ago Patricia Arquette on Trump, communes, art and ageing: ‘When I was growing up the whole world was pretty creepy’

She won hearts with True Romance – and an Oscar for Boyhood. The actor reflects on her TV show Severance, political chaos in the US and why human beings are a disasterIf escaping the world by running for the hills looks increasingly attractive to many of us – perhaps living on a commune – Patricia Arquette feels like that too. Head to the mountains, she says. “Plant seeds and farm.” But maybe not the commune part – she lived in one as a child and it wasn’t always utopian. If our conversation is more dystopian than usual, it’s probably because we’re talking about Severance, the hit Apple TV+ show now in its second season. In the first series, we were introduced to Lumon Industries, where some workers, tasked with doing something unknown but probably malevolent with data, were willingly “severed”; their work selves detached from their outside selves, with no memory between the two. If the drama started as an off-kilter take on work-life balance, it soon morphed into something much dar...

Politics