Role Call: “Potter” TV Takeover!
It’s been a busy week for the Potter alumni. In this week’s Role Call, we have exciting new castings and projects to delve into, new updates from Tom Felton’s anticipated role in The Flash, and a glimpse of Rupert Grint’s upcoming projects – all this and more in this week’s Casting News!
Sir Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore) has joined the cast of a Stephen Frears period drama. The film is titled Victoria and Abdul and will also star actors Olivia Williams, Simon Callow, Dame Judy Dench, who will be portraying Queen Victoria, and Bollywood actor Ali Fazal, who will play Abdul. The film has started filming in Britain for BBC Films and Working Title Films.
Meanwhile, Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) appeared as the special guest at the FilmAid Quiz Gala Night. FilmAid is an organization that uses film and other media to bring information to refugees and other communities in need. Isaacs, accompanied by Harry Enfield and Claudia Winkleman, appeared at the event looking quite “dapper,” according to the Daily Mail.
Gypsy, the play starring Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge) as Momma Rose, will be available on DVD and digital download on November 28. The critically acclaimed production, which won Staunton her Olivier Award, was filmed in front of a live audience during its run at the Savoy Theatre. It is the story of Gypsy Rose Lee, a famous 1950s striptease artist. Read more about her performance here! Staunton will also make an appearance on the West End next year: she is set to star in a London revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s stage production of Follies. Looks like Staunton is taking the world of theater by storm.
Exciting news for Emma Thompson fans! Emma Thompson (Professor Trelawney) is set to star in an untitled movie alongside Mindy Kaling. The movie will also be written and produced by Kaling and revolves around a veteran talk show host. Not much more information has been revealed about this project, but we do know that Thompson and Kaling will make an excellent power duo!
Speaking of Emma Thompson, the official French trailer for the film Alone in Berlin has been released. A war drama, the film stars Brendan Gleeson (Mad-Eye Moody) and also features Thompson.
The upcoming season of The Flash has been surrounded by hype and intrigue, and a lot of it has to do with Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) joining the cast. Perhaps the collision of two epic franchises is a bit too much for fans to handle. The Potter fandom will be stoked to know that the show isn’t going to ignore Felton’s past as Draco Malfoy. We don’t know when or how, but a Harry Potter reference is probably going to make its way into The Flash. Andrew Kreisberg hinted at this, saying,
Cisco will continue to make pop culture references. We’re, generally speaking, not afraid to have a little bit of a meta-moment.
Felton himself seems pretty excited by this little bit of cross-referencing of fandoms, saying,
I’m so excited for the references. I don’t doubt the talent and creativity of the writers. I’ve got a feeling they’ll come up with some real good ones.
Well, we can only wait and see. Meanwhile, you can take a look at Tom Felton’s interview with Empire, where he talks about his character in the show and jokes about the sheer unpredictability of the plot.
With these writers, anything’s possible. It’s not even worth speculating, because whatever I guess, I’m sure will be completely wrong. I’ll be a woman by episode six, who knows?
Season 3 of The Flash premieres on October 4.
After a lengthy hiatus from acting, Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) is making his way into TV acting. He will be starring in the upcoming TV series Snatch, scheduled to debut on Sony’s streaming network Crackle in 2017. Rupert will play the role of Charlie Cavendish, a dynamic and mercurial con man. Here are a few pictures of Rupert shooting for the show in Manchester, first sporting a boiler suit, parka, and a rubber pig mask, and then a snazzy vintage suit.
He looks delightfully merry for someone who’s supposed to be robbing a van singlehandedly. We’re extremely excited to see him play a character so different from Ron Weasley’s!
Back in the 1960s, Dame Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall) starred in a production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing as Beatrice. The tape of this production was considered, understandably, lost to the ages until a copy of it was found in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Very recently, BBC Archive Development completed the restoration of the recording, and it’s been made available to schools and other education institutions in the UK by the BBC. You can watch a clip of it here! Spoiler: Young Maggie Smith is just as captivating in the clip as she is today.
Harry Potter isn’t the only epic franchise Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick) is a part of. In an interview with news.com.au, the actor talks about what it was like to be a part of the Star Wars franchise and J.J. Abrams, saying,
I enjoyed it immensely. I’m excited by J.J. Abrams’s work anyway; I love his style. For me it’s very reminiscent of the films I went to when I was a kid.
He also confirmed that he will be appearing in Star Wars: Episode VIII, but didn’t elaborate further. You can read more about the interview here!
David Tenant (Barty Crouch Jr.) was spotted shooting the third and final series of the British crime drama show Broadchurch in Dorset. (Warning for fans: images might contain spoilers!) The actor will reprise his role as Detective Alec Hardy, this time to investigate a serious sexual assault. The series is scheduled to debut on ITV in early 2017.
That’s a wrap on this week’s Role Call! Tune in next week to catch up with the Potter alumni and their many ventures. What do you think about Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling working together? Can you think of any Potter references that might make their way into The Flash? Let us know what you think about this week’s Casting News below!