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Everyone knows the sound of Kathleen Turner’s voice.

Her sexy, smoky rasp most famously gave life to Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and although that was her first animated role, it definitely wouldn’t be her last. A few years later, she voiced Malibu Stacy creator Stacy Lovell on The Simpsons. A few years after that, she became the voice of Hank Hill’s boss’ wife, Liz Strickland, on King of the Hill, who famously tried to seduce Hank. And her voice career continues today with a recent guest spot on Rick and Morty and with the upcoming animated film Animal Farm, based on the famous George Orwell novel.

It was her time on King of the Hill that we set out to talk about during a recent phone interview, but that inevitably led to a discussion about her voice career as a whole and how that...

Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh have joined Warner Bros’ and New Line Cinema’s animation The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim as executive producers.

The duo’s involvement in the film, which is being directed by Kenji Kamiyama, was revealed today by producer Philippa Boyens at the film’s work-in-progress session at Annecy film festival.

“They are longtime creative partners of mine and creators of the lot of the visual world of Lord Of The Rings,” said Boyens, who co-wrote the original Lord Of The Rings trilogy and subsequent The Hobbit trilogy with Jackson and Walsh.

Warner Bros. Animation, New Line Cinema and Sola Entertainment previewed 20 minutes of its upcoming anime feature “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim,” receiving thunderous applause during the packed presentation on Tuesday at the Annecy Animation Festival.

Director Kenji Kamiyana said he was inspired by not just J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” books, but by the films of Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, who were confirmed as exec producers of the movie during the session.

The new story is set nearly 200 years before Bilbo Baggins comes into contact with the ring of power, and centers on the House of Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan (voiced by Brian Cox), with a focus on his daughter, the strong willed Princess Héra (voiced by Gaia Wise). In the clip, a dispute erupts during a council meeting, leaving Wulf, a ruthless Dunlending lord, seeking vengeance.

With just five months to go until the release of Venom: The Last Dance, we surprisingly know very little about the movie, but that’s all set to change as there have been rumblings that the first trailer will debut next week.

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) has classified a 2-minute, 27-second trailer for Venom: The Last Dance. Scooper Daniel Richtman narrowed down the release window, saying it will be released on Monday. The trailer is expected to screen in front of Bad Boys: Ride or Die, which hits theaters on June 7th.

Related Venom 3 gets a new title and release date

As I mentioned above, plot details regarding Venom: The Last Dance have been kept under wraps, so it will be nice to finally know a little of what to expect from what’s being billed as the third and final installment of the franchise. Tom Hardy stars as Eddie Brock/Venom,...

The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia will be the recipient of the 2024 Regional Theatre Tony Award, an annual honor recognizing a regional theatre company that has displayed “a continuous level of artistic achievement contributing to the growth of theatre nationally.”

The award is accompanied by a grant of $25,000.

“We are delighted to announce The Wilma Theater as the recipient of the 2024 Regional Theatre Tony Award,” said Heather Hitchens, president and CEO of the American Theatre Wing and Jason Laks, interim president of the Broadway League. “The Wilma has made outstanding contributions to the world of theatre over the course of 45 years, maintaining an unwavering dedication to contemporary theatre and a commitment to the arts that began with its visionary introduction of avant-garde theatre to Philadelphia in 1979.”

Established in 1973 as The Wilma Project, the Wilma challenged the Philadelphia cultural community to create theatrical productions of original material and to develop local artists.

Raoul Peck’s life is as fascinating as his films, filled with unexpected twists and turns. From his early stints as a cab driver and journalist, to a minister of culture post in his native Haiti, to teaching, to founding his Velvet Film production shingle to his breakthrough when he earned an Oscar nomination as producer/director with the James Baldwin doc, “I Am Not Your Negro,” the common denominator is Peck’s drive to make life better through his work. “I went into film because there were things I wanted to say, to express or deconstruct,” he explained. “And there is a fight to be had about the state of the world and wherever I’m living.”

On May 20, Peck will have his third Cannes premiere with the Special Screenings doc “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found.” It chronicles the life of a South African photographer — another of Peck’s...

Exclusive: Since Warner Bros acquired rights to make more Middle-earth films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s works and the canon established by New Line’s original trilogy, Peter Jackson and his Lord of the Rings cohorts Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens hovered over the proceedings for a long time, as they mulled how to return, and much to involve themselves into another deep dive into Tolkien mythology.

As a business proposition, the allure is easy to understand: the two trilogies – the six Lotr and The Hobbit films — generated nearly $6 billion in worldwide grosses and enough Oscar gold to fill the lair of the dragon Smaug from 2012’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Go back 23 years, and the road was far more perilous when New Line founder Bob Shaye greenlit three Lotr movies that Jackson shot one after the other in New Zealand. One of the biggest gambles in film history,...

His performances in films from The Lord of the Rings to Planet of the Apes helped transform movie acting. But his decision to direct a film, Breathe, about a disabled-rights campaigner is a very personal one, he explains

Breathe is not technically Andy Serkis’s first film as a director. He had already shot his adaptation of The Jungle Book using the performance-capture technology for which the man inside Gollum has become known. But while that was in post-production, Serkis found time to direct Breathe. There is a bit of CGI – Tom Hollander plays twins – but, otherwise, it’s an interestingly old-fashioned film from a man who likes to talk about digital characters and next-generation storytelling.

It was the script that did it, he says. “I really did cry my eyes out, and that never happens to me.” It was one of the films on the slate of the Imaginarium,...

Garfield plays a man paralysed by polio in the Imaginarium Studios production; Embankment launches sales.

Andy Serkis will direct Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) and Claire Foy (The Lady In The Van) in Breathe, the story of a couple who, after the husband is paralysed by polio, refuse to give in to his disability, setting off to travel the world.

Currently in pre-production, the project is being produced by Jonathan Cavendish (Bridget Jones’s Diary) for The Imaginarium Studios. BBC Films are co-financing.

Two time Oscar-nominee William Nicholson (Gladiator) has penned the screenplay.

London-based Embankment Films are handling sales on the project, which has begun pre-sales in the lead up to Cannes next week. The sales outfit are co-representing domestic rights with CAA.

Director Serkis said of the project: “[Andrew Garfield] is a remarkably gifted actor, capable of finding and expressing the deep emotions experienced by Robin, in spite of his disability.”

Producer Cavendish...

Garfield plays a man paralysed by polio in the Imaginarium Studios production.

Andy Serkis will direct Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) and Claire Foy (The Lady In The Van) in Breathe, the story of a couple who, after the husband is paralysed by polio, refuse to give in to his disability, setting off to travel the world.

Currently in pre-production, the project is being produced by Jonathan Cavendish (Bridget Jones’s Diary) for The Imaginarium Studios. BBC Films are co-financing.

Two time Oscar-nominee William Nicholson (Gladiator) has penned the screenplay.

London-based Embankment Films are handling sales on the project, which has begun pre-sales in the lead up to Cannes next week. The sales outfit are co-representing domestic rights with CAA.

Director Serkis said of the project: “[Andrew Garfield] is a remarkably gifted actor, capable of finding and expressing the deep emotions experienced by Robin, in spite of his disability.”

Producer Cavendish added: “[Andy Serkis] is a visionary director with a superb...

Exclusive: Mad Men and Spotlight star to play opposite Brian Cox in Churchill, one of five films in production for Embankment Films.

Mad Men and Spotlight star John Slattery will play Us Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower in upcoming biopic Churchill, which will star Brian Cox as the eponymous British war-time leader.

Shoot is due to get underway on May 23 in Scotland on the feature from The Railway Man director Jonathan Teplitzky.

Miranda Richardson and Suki Waterhouse will co-star in the feature, which Embankment Films launched at Afm last year and will continue selling in Cannes.

Eisenhower served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II and would go on to serve as 34th President of the Us from 1953 until 1961.

Stanley Tucci had previously been lined up for the role but was unable to participate due to scheduling conflicts.

Churchill is one of five productions to get underway for Embankment between April 11 and...

20th Century Fox

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opens in the UK this weekend, following critical acclaim and a hugely successful opening weekend in the Us. Picking up ten years after the events of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, this instalment finds the last vestiges of humanity sheltering in a tower in San Francisco. These humans are genetically immune to the virus that wiped out the rest of the world’s population. After one of their number encounters a community of apes and shoots one in panic, the apes march on the city with an ultimatum: stay out of ape territory, or face an all-out war.

This film sees Andy Serkis reprising his role as Caesar from the first film, and his performances in both efforts have been met with universal acclaim. It comes during a rich vein of form in Serkis’ career, which began with...

The James Clayton column: James explores the path to Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, and where we might be heading next...

Feature

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes is a film about apes. The title isn't misleading or a metaphor or anything. This is a movie about primates and though there are human protagonists sharing screentime and functioning as significant pieces in the plot, it's very much an ape affair. Key characters - Caesar, Cornelia, Koba - are all chimpanzees.

Actually, that's not completely true. In fact it's a damn dirty ape lie for Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes is a work of great deception. This fresh bestial blockbuster employs the most state-of-art moviemaking technology to achieve its trickery, ironically bringing the primitive world to visceral life on screen by using the most advanced techniques available.

The truth about those convincing, hyper-real chimpanzees? Caesar is played by Andy Serkis,...

Set 10 years after its predecessor Dawn of the Planet of the Apes sees Andy Serkis reprise his role as Caesar, leader of a genetically evolved ape colony that is threatened by a band of human survivors. We’re not monkeying around when we say Serkis delivers one of the finest performances of the year, and when combined with Weta’s phenomenal CGI effects the result is something truly special.

Along with a handful of other journalists HeyUGuys were fortunate enough to sit down with the actor ahead of the film’s UK release, and an enjoyably chatty Serkis talked about how far performance capture has come in addition to developing Caesar’s voice and where the series might be headed in future instalments. It’s all been transcribed for your reading pleasure below.

What state was the storyline in when Rupert [Wyatt] was developing it, and what did Matt [Reeves] inherit?

As...

Andy Serkis is the star of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the weekend’s top film, and his performance as the first great ape is drawing attention—again—for his unique brand of artistic expression that fuses drama with digital effects. Some even think it deserves to be considered for an Academy Award. Yet in most serious cinematic discussion, his genius is frequently discounted: Yes, he’s amazing as Gollum and Kong and Caesar, but if only he could nab a real-person role that unleashed his gift and let us see the real him.

Folks, Serkis isn’t...

Andy Serkis is currently impressing audiences around the world with his motion-capture performance of Caesar in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and will be spreading his talents across multiple tentpole franchises in 2015. He has a role in Star Wars: Episode VII (and his company, The Imaginarium, is handling all of the film’s motion-capture), and will aid Mark Ruffalo in fine-tuning his Hulk mo-cap performance in Avengers: Age Of Ultron.

In a new interview with The Daily Beast, Serkis talked in length about Apes, his upcoming films Animal Farm and The Jungle Book, the future of mo-cap technology, and educating Mark Ruffalo and Joss Whedon about fully-embracing a mo-cap performance for the Hulk in the Avengers sequel.

Performance capture has come a long way in the last few years, thanks in no small part to Serkis’ dedication to the craft and the exceptional work he’s doing with The Imaginarium.

Exclusive: Isla Fisher, Elizabeth Debicki also board drama readying for October shoot.

The Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth, Now You See Me star Isla Fisher and rising talent Elizabeth Debicki are set to join Kate Winslet and Judy Davis in Jocelyn Moorhouse’s romantic drama The Dressmaker, which Embankment Films will be shopping in Cannes.

Principal photography is due to get underway in Victoria, Australia on October 13, 2014. Embankment co-reps Us rights with CAA.

Winslet will play an avenging angel who returns home to the remote country town from which she fled as a child after being accused of murder, to make amends with her eccentric mother.

Although ostracised, as an exponent of the most stunning 1950’s haute couture inspired by Madame Vionnet and Balenciaga, she liberates and empowers the town’s women with her quick wit and beautiful clothing. She unexpectedly finds love and ultimately exacts sweet revenge on those who wronged her.

Jocelyn Moorhouse ([link...

This is Part Two of our set visit report from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, for Part One please click here.

During a setup change on the blisteringly hot set of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes we are taken out of our very comfy video tent, just out of frame of the impressive 3D camera rigs, where we are watching Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee and hundreds of extras react to seeing a large gathering of apes take their position just outside their walls. There is confusion and fear in their eyes. Some have never seen the apes before and some are curious as to why they have showed up in such large numbers.

However, because of movie magic our apes aren’t even on set yet, although we are told we have Mr. Andy Serkis himself waiting for us in his trailer. We quietly...

Andy Serkis reprises his role as primate revolutionary Caesar in this summer's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which moves on the story started in its 2011 predecessor. This time around there's no James Franco or Freida Pinto, but master of performance capture Serkis is back (with Jason Clarke and Keri Russell on human co-star duties) to drive the hotly-anticipated sequel.

Digital Spy spent some time with Serkis on the New Orleans set of Dawn to discuss the Matt Reeves-directed blockbuster.

Where does this film pick up from its predecessor?

At the end of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, we were left in a situation where the virus had taken hold. We got the impression that humanity was under a great deal of threat - which is what happens. The virus spreads and we're imagining that about 90% of the world's population is decimated. There are surviving pockets of humans.

Warner Bros. was hoping Babel director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu would be at the helm of their adaptation of The Jungle Book towards the end of last year, but when that plan fell through, it seemed like Ron Howard would inherit the project when he entered talks to direct last month. Now THR reports it will be Lord of the Rings and Rise of the Planet of the Apes supporting actor Andy Serkis who will direct the film. Though Serkis was supposed to make his directorial debut with an adaptation of Animal Farm, it sounds like The Jungle Book will fill that role, following his work as a second unit director on The Hobbit. And if you're thinking that Serkis directing the second unit on The Hobbit doesn't necessarily mean he can take on a big studio film like this as the primary director, it was the motion-capture actor who was...

In case you’re unaware, competing film adaptations of The Jungle Book are currently in production. One is at Warner Bros. and the other is at Disney. While the House of Mouse has Jon Favreau directing and Idris Elba voicing Shere Khan, the WB version seemed to have stalled for a bit. Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu was initially locked in to helm the project but he departed shortly after his involvement was announced. We then heard that Ron Howard was in the mix to replace him but now, a report is surfacing from Heat Vision that tells us the studio has gone with Andy Serkis.

Perhaps best known for his motion-capture work in the Lord of the Rings films and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Serkis will make his directorial debut on the film. With his incredible wealth of experience using mo-cap and his time spent as second...

At one time it was the game industry that wanted to emulate films. But now the movie industry is adopting the technology of video games

Amid the debate about television stealing the film industry's thunder, another entertainment form has crept up unnoticed, further threatening Hollywood's creative hegemony: video games. With a new, much more powerful generation of games consoles poised to arrive – Microsoft's Xbox One goes on sale on Friday, with Sony's PlayStation 4 due a week later – the games companies reckon they finally have the ammunition to shake off the perception that their digital epics are inferior to movies.

I'm in a place that could not reinforce that impression more emphatically: the historic Ealing studios, where classics such as The Lavender Hill Mob and The Ladykillers were filmed. But I'm here to experience the process of making a video game called Ryse: Son of Rome, an epic tale charting the Roman conquest of Britain,...

New sales exec was most recently at French broadcaster TF1.

Sara May has joined Embankment Films to steer activities in European sales, co-productions and acquisitions.

She was most recently evp of acquisitions and co-productions at TF1, where she spent nearly 10 years and acquired distribution rights for France as well as sourcing, developing and packaging for the international sales division.

Prior to TF1, Sara held positions at Europacorp as head of acquisitions and M6 as program supervisor for English-language TV series.

Founding partner Tim Haslam said: “Based in Paris and Los Angeles, Sara is a focal point for Embankment.

“Sara extends our reach throughout the business primarily in the Us and Europe, further developing producer, agent and talent relationships, working closely with London-based acquisition and marketing executive Max Pirkis.

“Sara’s appointment completes a dynamic international and multi-lingual acquisitions and sales team including Barcelona-born Maite Villarino (Hispanic territories) and Hong-Kong born Sharon Lee (Asian territories).

“Like my partner...

Andy Serkis is as much a part of the story of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings movies as Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens. The actor returns as Gollum in the first of Jackson’s adaptation of Tolkien’s The Hobbit as well as stepping into new territory as second unit director for the trilogy.

I spoke to the actor recently to talk about how his job has changed in the decade since first stepping foot in Middle-earth and how his pioneering work in the field of performance capture has led to the establishment of The Imaginarium, a studio dedicated to the art and whose first feature film, Animal Farm, is currently being worked on.

Serkis is a lovely guy, animated and enthusiastic, no mean feat considering the numerous times he has appeared to extol the virtues of Jackson’s Tolkien films.

The Hobbit is available...

The 2008 thriller, The Escapist, introduced us to the British director, Rupert Wyatt. And if you weren’t familiar with that particular work, then you would have recognized his second movie, which was much more popular: Rise of the Planet of the Apes. After finding a lot of success with that film, and opting not to direct its sequel, the director has now found his next film with the adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’ novel, Birdsong.

Birdsong is mostly centered on an Englishman named Stephen Wraysford, and the events of his life that take place before, during and after the first world war. Faulks’ novel portrays the fervent love affair between Stephen and a married French woman, and his gruesome experiences at the trenches.

BBC originally adapted the novel in an excellent two-part miniseries that featured Eddie Redmayne as the protagonist and Clémence Poésy as the illicit lover. The adaptation focused mainly...

Ahead of the European Film Market (where many projects emerge, only to never be heard from again), the fresh UK film sales outfit Embankment Films is preparing some new projects to represent. One such project is the adaptation of Animal Farm with Andy Serkis directing and doing motion capture work, but there are two new projects that we'd yet to hear about. One is Birdsong for Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt, and the other is a sci-fi film called Our Robot Overlords, which will mark the first sci-fi project for Gillian Anderson outside her iconic involvement with The X-Files on film and TV. Read on! First, let's look at Birdsong, an adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’ acclaimed World War I novel of the same name. Wyatt is writing and directing after departing Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. The story spans three generations and the...

The late River Phoenix is set to return to cinema screens with Dark Blood, a thriller that was the actor’s final film. In fact Phoenix died with nearly two weeks still to shoot on the production in 1993 and as a result the movie was all but abandoned. It’s only been restored and ‘completed’ recently after 20 years in storage when the director, George Sluizer, found new motivation.

Sluizer has reportedly pieced his movie together by using lots of voiceover material in place of Phoenix’s missing scenes – so far the feedback from the festival circuit has been pretty positive.

Phoenix wasn’t the first film star to die before his time and he wasn’t the last. Heath Ledger’s untimely death was one of the film world’s higher-profile recent tragedies and at the time the actor was working on Terry Gilliam’s fantasy drama The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.