Archive for the ‘Movie Productions’ Category
Posted by admin on September 07, 2023

A trailer has been released for The Bikeriders in the movie Jodie Comer plays the role of Kathy. Stills / Screencaps from the Trailer have been added to our gallery, enjoy!



From writer-director Jeff Nichols (“Loving,” “Midnight Special,” “Mud”), 20th Century Studios and New Regency, “The Bikeriders” is a furious drama following the rise of a fictional 1960s Midwestern motorcycle club through the lives of its members, starring Jodie Comer (“Killing Eve,” “The Last Duel”), Austin Butler (“Elvis”) and Tom Hardy (“Mad Max: Fury Road,” “The Revenant”).

Posted by admin on May 24, 2023

The script for the play “Prima Facie” didn’t languish after landing in Jodie Comer’s inbox

The script for the play “Prima Facie” didn’t languish after landing in Jodie Comer‘s inbox. Fitting for an urgent call for change, the script demanded action. It would not be denied.

“Sometimes when things present themselves, it’s impossible to say no,” says the “Killing Eve” actor. “This piece felt very, very clear to me. There was no hesitation that I felt. Sometimes that kind of guttural instinct really doesn’t lie.”

It didn’t matter that the script represented Comer’s first stage role. No matter that she’d be alone for some 90 minutes, even asked to move her own props. “I read it within the hour and I was like, ‘What have I got to do?’”

Comer leapt in and has found herself winning an Olivier Award in London for her performance and now a Tony nomination for best actress in a play. She’s also raising her fist for women in a work that challenges the status quo.

The script was from Suzie Miller, a former criminal defense and human rights lawyer who uses the one-woman show to illustrate how current laws fail terribly when it comes to sexual assault cases.

Comer plays Tessa Ensler, a young, clever barrister who has developed a knack for getting her male clients off the hook in assault cases until she spends a night drinking with another barrister and he rapes her.

Now, instead of donning a fancy wig as a crown prosecutor, she’s left shaking in the witness box. Why isn’t her evidence presented in a clean, logical package? She must relive her nightmare in court with her motives questioned. And justice may hinge not on the actions, but on whether the perpetrator believed he had consent.

“A woman’s experience of sexual assault does not fit the male-defined system of truth. So it cannot be truth, and therefore there cannot be justice,” she says in the play.

“Prima Facie” — a legal term meaning “on the face of it” — has already created shock waves in England. A filmed version is now compulsory viewing for new judges, and Miller says a judge who saw her play has redrafted the spoken directions juries are given in sexual assault matters. The play has inspired efforts to change British laws.

Both Comer and Miller get hundreds of messages a week from women telling their own stories of assault, some telling about it for the first time, part of a larger movement fueled by #MeToo.

“I’m really trying to savor every second of it because not every piece of work creates this sort of conversation or space,” says Comer. “That is the biggest reward of all —when you are a part of a piece like this and people genuinely feel represented. That it is a source of comfort.”

To win a Tony on June 11, Comer must beat Jessica Chastain in “A Doll’s House,” Jessica Hecht in “Summer, 1976” and Audra McDonald from “Ohio State Murders.”

In terms of sheer physicality, Comer earns it every night. She moves tables together, jumps up on them, sits in rain, uses various voices and performs her own character’s rape.

“It really helped me build my kind of mental resilience, even though I have moments that is absolutely challenged,” she says. “I would say what I’ve learned from this experience is that you have to take care of yourself.”

Miller was inspired to write “Prima Facie” by the years she spent as a lawyer taking statements from hundreds of women who had been sexually assaulted. “Not a single one of them who went to trial actually ended up having a conviction,” she says. “The worst things is they’re all so similar.”

Her first play, “Cross Sections,” was about the homeless and the desperate living in the red-light district in Sydney, Australia, a work which humanized what many believed were throw-away people.

“After I wrote that there was a lightning bolt moment for me, which was, ‘Oh, wow, stories really can make people empathize and think about things,’” she says.

Miller has since taken up the baton of V — the “Vagina Monologues” playwright formerly known as Eve Ensler, who brings social messages to her work. It is no coincidence that Miller named the heroine of “Prima Facie” Tessa Ensler.

The idea of battling the establishment also attracted Comer, an Emmy Award and BAFTA winner, who grew up in the working class of Liverpool and has had to shapeshift in order to succeed, like her character.

When she was auditioning for theater roles, she was rebuffed because she hadn’t attended drama school. “There was a lot of feedback of like, ‘She’s not trained. It’s too big a task,’” she recalls.

The producers of “Prima Facie” didn’t ask her to audition and didn’t mind she hadn’t attended drama school.

“They didn’t see it as this kind of hindrance. And so I guess the stars all aligned at the right time,” Comer says. “This is beyond anything I could have ever dreamed.”

 

The Independent 

Posted by admin on May 21, 2023

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount’s Republic Pictures label has acquired North American rights to dystopian drama-thriller The End We Start From, starring BAFTA and Emmy winner Jodie Comer (Killing Eve).

The mid seven-figure pact marks the biggest announced deal for a project on sale at this year’s Cannes market so far. Anton and UTA are handling world sales here on the Riviera.

Comer stars as a woman who, along with her newborn child, must try to find her way home amid an environmental crisis that submerges London in flood waters and sees their young family torn apart in the chaos.

Mahalia Belo (The Long Song) directs the movie, which also stars Joel Fry (Cruella), Mark Strong (Kingsman), Gina McKee (My Policeman), Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts) and Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game).

Based on the novel by Megan Hunter and adapted to screen by Alice Birch (Normal People), pic is produced by Leah Clarke and Adam Ackland (The Mauritanian) for SunnyMarch, Liza Marshall (Temple) for Hera Pictures, Amy Jackson (Aftersun) and Sophie Hunter. Pic is currently in post-production.

Anton, C2 Motion Picture Group, BBC Film, and the BFI financed the film, which will go through Paramount’s Global Content Distribution.

Paramount Chief Content Licensing Officer and Republic Pictures President Dan Cohen said: “What Mahalia Belo has brought to screen from Megan Hunter’s novel is both a harrowing and hopeful examination of human resilience, and we are honored to be a part of the film’s journey to captivating audiences.”

Paramount revived acquisitions play Republic Pictures earlier this year. The historic label was founded in 1935 and shuttered in 1967. Among early projects on the slate are Winter Spring Summer or Fall, starring Jenna Ortega and Percy Hines White, and William Friedkin’s The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.

The slew of strong packages announced pre-market prompted hopes of energetic deal-making in Cannes. Things are slowly coming into focus. Domestic deal-making has been sluggish to date, with streamers (and global deals) largely absent from the fray, leaving the door open for international indie buyers to take their pick. We hear a number of projects are being sold well internationally and a couple of the bigger festival titles are starting to generate heat for North America.

We told you about the biggest deal finalized here so far: Sony’s big splash for the Paddington threequel, though that project wasn’t strictly on sale in Cannes and the pact was largely lined up ahead of the market. Neon made the first announced North American deal for a festival movie with Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams and Sony Classics announced a deal for animated doc They Shot The Piano Player. There was a fevered report of Prime Video working on a UK deal for Firebrand, but that all rights pact was put in place last year.

Executive producers on The End We Start From are Benedict Cumberbatch for SunnyMarch, Jodie Comer, Mark Strong, Sébastien Raybaud, Fanny Soulier, Pieter Engels, Kate Maxwell for Anton, Dave Caplan (Babylon) and Jason Cloth (Joker) for C2 Motion Picture Group, Eva Yates and Claudia Yusef for BBC Film, and Lizzie Francke for the BFI.

Posted by admin on May 15, 2023

The ‘Killing Eve’ actress made her West End and Broadway debut in the role, in which she is solo on stage for the entirety of the drama.

In the play Prima Facie, Jodie Comer is alone on stage for the full length of the show’s 100 minutes, starting as a brash, bloviating barrister, then turning to a quieter, more vulnerable woman trying to find justice for herself in the very legal system that had previously propped her up.

Before making her West End debut in the play last year, the Killing Eve star says she hadn’t appeared on stage (aside from a play in a “very, very small theater” in Scotland when she was 16 years old). And so taking on this marathon role not only required intense dedication and memorization, but also a recalibration of her acting style in order to emote to an 800-plus seat theater, rather than to the camera.

In the drama, written by Suzie Miller, Comer plays Tessa Ensler, a talented, young lawyer who defends individuals accused of sexual assault and then goes through the justice system herself as a victim of rape. Comer has been playing Tessa since April 2022 on the West End (where she won the Olivier Award for Best Actress) and has now carried the role to Broadway for an 12-week run that began this April. One year in, she says the role has made a deep impact on her life.

“I realized that I was quite fearful last year of a lot of things, especially in my ability to do this,” Comer said. “And I think that actually, through this experience, I’ve been able to transform that into a sense of trust, which is a really nice feeling.”

Once she gets through the final eight weeks of the run, the Free Guy star says she’s open to doing more theater, but she notes that she’s “intrigued to see” what kind of role could bring her back, after performing in such a challenging, but “exhilarating” play.

Comer, who is Tony nominated for her portrayal, spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about why she decided to take on the role, how she prepared for it and how its changed throughout the year.

What did you think when you were first approached about doing this role?

I thought that this was mighty in every sense of the word. I wasn’t actually sure if I needed to audition or not. So I was also thinking that it may have been sent to many actresses and whoever was going to do it would be the luckiest person alive. But I also just didn’t know how I would get to a point of executing it. I knew it was going to be a challenge and it was going to change me as a person. I was looking at like 96 pages of dialogue and thinking “How on earth would you be on stage alone and do this?” so I was really overwhelmed, but just blown away by the script and the journey that I would go on in order to get to a place of performing that eight shows a week. I was deeply moved by it. It felt very important.

 

Did you end up having to audition for it?

No, it was actually given to me. I asked my agent “When do I have to audition?” And she said that James Bierman, the producer, and Suzie Miller, the writer, had said if it was something I connected with, Suzie would love to chat with me. And I remember it was the first lockdown and I was in Liverpool with my family and Suzie was in Australia and we jumped on a call and we were on the phone for like two hours. I just knew then that there was no question. And I also knew that if I saw another actress do this, I would regret it for the rest of my life. I think that’s always a good indicator as to whether to do something or not.

How did you get into the character of Tessa?

There was so much about her that I related to because of where she’s from, her family. Just being from Liverpool and the characteristics of the people who are from there, people I know, people who are in my own life. I think a big thing that I had to kind of embrace was her intellect and sense of self and power that she held and self-confidence. That felt…not foreign to me, but I almost had to embrace those parts of myself in order to find her. And how she commanded the space and the confidence that she carries in her execution. I think I definitely do have that within myself, and I’ve come to appreciate that a lot more through her, which is funny. I think that you can, more often than not, learn from your characters. It’s a transaction. It’s like, you teach them something and they always leave you with some sort of insight into your own life.

 

In the play, you’re not only speaking as Tessa, but you’re also acting out all the lines of dialogue around her. How did you prepare for and get to the place of being ready to perform that eight shows a week?

We started rehearsals in March [2022] and I had started learning the dialogue the November before, because I really wanted to be off book by the time I got into the rehearsal room. And then Justin, our director, got me up on my feet on the first day. It was kind of all systems go, and I hadn’t been in the rehearsal room a lot. I’d only been in a rehearsal room once before when I was really young, and it was all very new to me, and I was incredibly intimidated and nervous. But it was just about being in the rehearsal room and getting up on our feet and working through it and playing around with things.

How does it feel now, performing this role in front of audiences every night?

Exhilarating. It feeds my soul in such a big way. I think it is absolutely difficult and challenging, but it really invigorates me. I feel like I’m having a conversation with 800-plus people every night and getting to see how it moves them. And I think in theater, the energy is very kinetic, and it’s so addictive. I just feel so, so lucky that I’m able to be part of this huge puzzle of people who brought this together. It’s rare that you’re blessed with a piece of material and a role that challenges you in this way. So I’m just trying to soak up every second of it all.

You’ve now been with the play through its West End run and now on Broadway. Has the role changed at all or evolved during that process?

 

Absolutely. I think now it’s just kind of sunk into me. The material, Tessa. I feel like I’m finding new things. I also feel very much changed by this experience. And I think we can change so much within a year. So I feel like through my own evolution, Tess is also evolving just through different things every night that I find and think, “Oh God, I’ve never done that before” or “That felt good, and why didn’t I think of that last year?” That’s what I was actually really excited about being in the rehearsal room [this time]. We got a few weeks before we went into tech when we came to New York and just had that constant kind of discovery of going “Oh, wow, you know, why didn’t we think of this last year?” and it’s just because you’re having to think about things less.

Can you talk more about how the experience has changed you? 

I think a lot of it is deeply personal, that I don’t necessarily feel the need to speak about, but I feel like a woman. I feel like I’ve stepped into my womanhood. I feel like I have so much more trust within myself and who I am. I realized that I was quite fearful last year of a lot of things, especially in my ability to do this. And I think that actually, through this experience, I’ve been able to transform that into a sense of trust, which is a really nice feeling. That’s not to say I don’t have my moments, but I just feel like I have a clearer sense of who I am.

With such a heavy subject matter, are you able to leave the role at the theater or do you carry it with you?

 

I do a little cool down on stage afterwards and kind of consciously let go of it. Just the practical movement of stretching your body and trying to let go of anything that you’re holding on to is really helpful. My mornings are a bit slow. Sometimes I wake up and I feel like I was kind of hit by a train. It’s generally okay. You just have to make sure that you take care of yourself because I think it’s in those moments when you slip up with those things that you can feel it a little bit more. But anything I can kind of help myself, a voice cool down, body cool down. I come home, and I’m sticking my head in the fridge for about an hour-and-a-half [laughs]. That sounds weird. I mean, just more that I snack nonstop.

That makes sense. You’re on stage for so long, and you’re also running around and jumping on tables. 

Yeah, you’ve got to refuel.

Posted by admin on September 19, 2022

I have added Stills & Screencaps of Jodie in the 2017 Movie “England Is Mine” enjoy viewing the caps!



Posted by admin on September 18, 2022

Hi all, I have finally added Screencaps of Jodie Comer in “The Last Duel” many thanks to Jen for kindly donating these! You can now view them in the gallery.



Posted by admin on September 07, 2022


 

Principal photography has begun on Mahalia Belo’s UK dystopian drama The End We Start From, starring Jodie Comer.

The Emmy award-winning star of Killing Eve is also an executive producer on the feature, from Benedict Cumberbatch’s SunnyMarch, Hera Pictures, Anton and BBC Film.

A first image has been released from the film, shown above, in which Comer plays a new mother trying to get back home as environmental disaster submerges London in floods. The cast also includes Joel Fry, Mark Strong, Gina McKee, Katherine Waterston, Nina Sosanya and Cumberbatch

Based on the novel by Megan Hunter, the screenplay has been adapted by Lady Macbeth and Succession writer Alice Birch.

Director Belo’s credits include TV mini-series The Long Song and Channel 4 film Ellen, both of which earned the filmmaker a Bafta nomination.

Producers are Leah Clarke and Adam Ackland for SunnyMarch, Liza Marshall for Hera Pictures, Amy Jackson and Sophie Hunter.

Anton, C2 Motion Picture Group, BBC Film and the BFI (through their awarding of National Lottery funding) are co-financing the film.

Executive producers are Strong and Cumberbatch; Sébastien Raybaud, Fanny Soulier, Pieter Engels, Kate Maxwell for Anton; Dave Caplan and Jason Cloth for C2 Motion Picture Group; Eva Yates and Claudia Yusef for BBC Film; and Lizzie Francke for the BFI.

Comer was named a Screen Star of Tomorrow in 2016 and made her West End debut in Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie, which broke box office records for event cinema last weekend through National Theatre Live.

Posted by admin on February 16, 2022

I’ve updated the gallery with Screencaptures of Jodie Comer in Free Guy in which she plays the two roles of Millie and Molotov Girl! Enjoy viewing the screencaps in our gallery!



Posted by admin on October 10, 2021

Jodie attended The Last Duel premiere in New York, images have been added to the gallery!


 

Posted by admin on October 06, 2021

When Jodie Comer was growing up in Liverpool in the north west of England, she and her dad would mess about copying accents on the TV. She didn’t know it then, but it would be excellent training for her career as an actor (she can seamlessly go from ‘frightfully posh British’ to ‘Russian assassin’).

Fast forward to 2021 and Comer is everywhere right now. Having honed her craft on British telly, her big break came after her portrayal of Russian assassin Villanelle in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s smash hit Killing Eve. Now, she’s made the move to the big screen with starring roles in Free Guy alongside Ryan Reynolds and a new Ridley Scott blockbuster, The Last Duel.

Set in 14th century Normandy and based on a true story of the last sanctioned duel in France, Comer steals the show – which is no mean feat given her co-stars are Adam Driver, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Comer plays Lady Marguerite de Carrouges, a noblewoman who is raped by Jacques LeGris (Driver), a former friend of her husband (Damon). We chatted about her progression from small to big screen, how she feels about becoming a national treasure and the time she got her mum’s roast delivered to a film set.

The Last Duel explores a powerful story based on real events. Did that play on your mind when you took on the role?
‘Definitely. The biggest goal was to encapsulate the strength and the resilience that [Marguerite] evidently had in speaking out in a time when women were so disregarded by society and not thought of as human.’

The film exposes the power dynamics between men and women in the 14th century. Does it feel different exploring that in a period setting rather than in a contemporary drama?
‘We are naive sometimes in thinking: “Oh, this was so long ago and we don’t have this problem anymore”. There are still these issues around the world today and especially with women fighting for autonomy over their own bodies – that hasn’t gone away.’

What was it like working with Ridley Scott on this massive film?
‘It was such a dream to get to see how he works, having watched his films and been a fan of him. He has four or five cameras rolling the entire time, which is unheard of.’

There’s lots of sword fighting and elaborate costumes in The Last Duel. Did you take anything home from the set?
‘I didn’t, although I had a hefty pair of wooden clogs on, which were a size too big.  I don’t think you ever see them. Ridley [Scott] really liked them, they made a great sound on the cobbles. A lot of those costumes are handcrafted and so many hours have gone into creating them so I wouldn’t dare ask for anything off that set.’

You didn’t fancy the wooden clogs?
‘Strangely not! No, they can go back in the cupboard until next time.’

You star alongside Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Adam Driver. Did you teach them any Liverpudlian slang?
‘No I didn’t. Maybe I missed an opportunity there. It’s funny because we were in Venice recently and Ben was like: “I think this is the first time I’ve actually heard you speak properly in your own voice…”’

We’d be naive to think that we don’t have this problem anymore. Women are still fighting for autonomy over their bodies

Were the costumes fun to wear or was it a nightmare involving lots of corsets?
‘When you’re filming in a field and you have to go to the bathroom and you have 17 layers on, that’s when it gets a bit tiresome but all in all, it was amazing. The thing about those costumes is that you’re immediately transported to the world in which you’re in. You hold yourself differently.’’

You’ve just had another watercooler moment with British TV drama Help, alongside Stephen Graham. It’s set in a care home during the pandemic, a topic that’s raw for so many people. What has the reaction been like?
‘It’s been wonderful. We couldn’t have hoped for a better reaction. We’re aware that this is still very present in a lot of people’s lives. Having spoken to carers in my research, I wanted them to watch it and felt like we had spoken for them and represented them truthfully.’

I saw people on Twitter describing you as a ‘national treasure’ after it aired. Do you feel ready to be a national treasure?
‘Ooh, that’s a heavy weight to carry! But it’s very kind. I realised when filming Help: Why would you not utilise your gift, your job, and give back in this way and tell stories like this?’

What’s the best thing about working with Stephen Graham?
‘I want to say everything. He’s mischievous. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, which I love. When you think of how crazy talented that man is and he’s so modest, unassuming and a lot of fun.’

I saw on your Instagram that you got your mum’s roast delivered to the set of ‘Help’. Were your castmates jealous?
‘They were! Well, I took it up to my room but then I put it on Instagram, because I was like: this is possibly the best day of my life – a Sunday of filming and I’ve managed to get my mum’s roast dinner to set. Everyone was like: where did you get that roast dinner from? Steven was definitely jealous. But she also used to make scouse, a meat and potatoes stew, on a Thursday for Steven and I, so we’d have lunch together.’

Killing Eve has been such a big turning point in your career. When you got that role, did you think it would be life-changing?
‘Not at all. By that point, I only had the script for episode one. I knew it was Phoebe [Waller-Bridge] and I knew the script was special. However, none of us really knew what that was going to turn into. I was overwhelmed that I had been given the opportunity, because you always think it’s going to go to someone who’s more well known than you and can put more bums on seats.’

Did you ever think that your ‘big break’ might not happen?
‘I feel like each job contributes to something. One thought I did have was that, doing predominantly television, I’d always had this insecurity, like: “I’m never going to be in films because there are film actors and TV actors and  there’s such a huge difference, I’m never gonna be able to step into that”. That was my own insecurity, because there’s such little difference.’

What do your friends and family make of your rise to fame? Are they impressed when you tell them you’ve got the part in a massive Hollywood film?
‘It’s funny you should say that, because I remember when I got my first role in [UK medical soap opera] The Royal Today and it was like: “Wooo!”, celebration, champagne popped. And now it is a little bit more like: “Oh, amazing. Well done, babe.” They’re always so happy for me but I always remember that.’

Is it true that you learned how to do accents from watching TV adverts when you were younger?
‘Yeah, anything on the television that had some sort of regional accent, whether it was Cilla Black or a KFC advert. Me and my dad would always mimic them, purely just to make each other laugh. But I think that made me a bit fearless, so then when I was going to auditions and there was an accent on it that wasn’t my own, I wasn’t intimidated.’

“I’ve always been a bit fearless going into auditions”

 

What’s the most awkward audition experience you’ve ever had?
‘Oh god. They’re all a little bit awkward, I’m not going to lie! I remember one a very long time ago when I was with my first agency and I came all the way to London. There was dancing involved, I think it was for a theatre production. I got the train from Liverpool, was half an hour late, came into a dance room where everyone was already halfway through the routine and I had to tag along and then dance with two other people at the front. That was pretty humiliating. I wanted to leave as soon as I got there.’

What’s been the most surreal moment of your career so far?
‘Doing Help, there were so many Liverpool actors there, people who I’ve admired for so long – Ian Hart, Cathy Tyson, Sue Johnston. I had a moment where I was doing a scene with Sue Johnston. I was like: “Sue, I just want to tell you this – I wish my nan was alive to see the fact that I’m in this room with you”.’

You’re filming the fourth and final series of Killing Eve at the moment. Do you ever freak people out by putting on the voice of your character Villanelle?
‘No, never. Sometimes I get asked to do it if I’m out in a bar and someone’s had a couple of drinks. My insides just go: “Urghhh” and my toes curl up. So no, I never get that one out – only when I’m on set and they say action.’