Castium Revelio: From Venice to Toronto

Our first update this week is about Sir Kenneth Branagh (Gilderoy Lockhart), who will be appearing in the third season of the BBC Two comedy series Upstart Crow. Alongside the show’s regular cast, Branagh will be playing the role of a mysterious stranger, writes TellyMix.

The third season of Upstart Crow began airing on BBC Two on September 5.

Roma, the latest film from Alfonso Cuarón (the director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival! As The Wrap wrote, the award is the film festival’s top prize.

Roma will premiere on Netflix on December 14.

Warwick Davis, who portrayed Professor Flitwick and Griphook, has been shortlisted for the National Diversity Award for Celebrity of the Year! Also nominated for the award is Sir Lenny Henry, who voiced the Shrunken Head on the Knight Bus in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

The awards, based in the United Kingdom, will announce this year’s winners at the award ceremony on September 14 at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral.

Sir Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore) will be part of the upcoming Pinter at the Pinter, a staging of all of the short plays by Harold Pinter at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London. Gambon will be the voice of the guard in The Mountain, part of the Pinter One part of the season, according to WhatsOnStage.

For more information about Pinter at the Pinter, visit its website here.

Domhnall Gleeson (Bill Weasley) and Lenny Abrahamson (the director of Gleeson’s newest film, The Little Stranger) were interviewed by the Irish Independent about the film, which opens in Ireland on September 21. Among his comments in the interview, Gleeson said that, when looking back at his career, The Little Stranger would be among the films of which he would be most proud.

Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) is part of the cast of the new film Hotel Mumbai, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). He spoke to ET Canada about the film, and you can find the interview here. Isaacs, as well as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them actor Colin Farrell (Percival Graves), can be seen in this gallery of TIFF portraits from the Los Angeles Times.

Katie Leung (Cho Chang) plays Lau Chen in the new ITV and Amazon thriller Strangers, and she was recently interviewed by the Scotsman about her new role.

‘[Lau Chen is] a crucial part of the narrative as the episodes go on, but she’s a bit of a plot twist so I can’t really say much more,’ says Leung. ‘But she’s a complex, interesting person: rebellious, is trying to find her own identity and sexuality and she’s an activist who has been protesting against corruption within the Hong Kong government and rising property prices. She’s reminiscent of the activism that was happening during the umbrella movement,’ says Leung, referring to the Hong Kong democracy protests of 2014, that saw tens of thousands occupy locations in the city demanding freer elections. The name came from the use of umbrellas as a tool of passive resistance against police in the sit-ins organised by the movement, the leaders of which have been nominated for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize.

The eight-part series was shot partially in Hong Kong, for its exterior shots, while the interior shots were filmed in the UK. Leung also spoke to the Scotsman about how much she enjoyed being back in Hong Kong, where she had last filmed One Child for the BBC. For Leung’s full interview with the Scotsman, you can visit its website here.

Strangers begins airing on ITV on Monday, September 10.

Bill Nighy (Rufus Scrimgeour) stars in the upcoming film The Kindness of Strangers, for which a first-look image has now been released by Variety.

The film centers on Clara (Kazan), a mother looking to avoid her abusive cop husband; Alice (Riseborough), a shy ER nurse who has found her calling running an eclectic therapy group; Marc (Rahim), an ex-con now turned manager of the restaurant; Jeff (Landry Jones), a young man in desperate need of a job; John Peter (Baruchel), a lawyer with high ethics but low self-esteem; and Timofey (Nighy), owner of the restaurant and the grandson of Russian immigrants. Scherfig wrote the screenplay.

Gary Oldman’s (Sirius Black) new film Hunter Killer now has posters for its UK release! The Hollywood News has posted images of the new posters, which feature Oldman alongside costar Gerard Butler.

Clémence Poésy (Fleur Delacour) was a jury member at the Venice Film Festival and was named as one of the best-dressed stars by the Evening Standard. Check out her look here!

Chris Rankin (Percy Weasley) has revealed his first directorial role via Twitter!

 

https://twitter.com/chrisrankin/status/1036725294244261888?s=21

 

The project is a short film titled Dad, which will air on BBC Two on September 14, followed by a short period of time on BBC iPlayer thereafter. It is based on a true story from its writer, Joshua McCord, who also plays the role of Jude.

Emma Thompson (Professor Trelawney) will be appearing in the upcoming film Johnny English Strikes Again, which now has its second trailer! Firstpost described the film.

The new adventure begins when a cyber-attack reveals the identity of all active undercover agents in Britain, leaving Johnny English as the secret service’s last hope. Called out of retirement, English dives head-first into action with the mission to find the mastermind hacker. As a man with few skills and analogue methods, Johnny English must overcome the challenges of modern technology to make this mission a success.

Check out the trailer below!

 

 

Thompson was also recently interviewed by NPR‘s Scott Simon about her film The Children Act. You can find the transcript and the audio from NPR here.

Additionally, Thompson’s narration of Jane Austen’s Emma is available on Audible, as featured in the Washington Post.

Lastly, David Yates, director of the final four Harry Potter films, plus both Fantastic Beasts films so far, is the executive producer of writer/director Camilla Strøm Henriksen’s Phoenix, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7. View the film’s trailer from Screen International here.

The drama is about two kids having to grow up too soon because their mother is mentally ill; their father’s visit provides a temporary respite. Yet it’s not a kitchen-sink drama, there are elements of fantasy as seen especially from the daughter’s point of view.

Jude Law (Albus Dumbledore) and Gemma Chan (Madam Ya Zhou) both appear in the upcoming film Captain Marvel, and Entertainment Weekly has teased plenty of information about the new film! For one, Law has discussed his character and what it was like to join a Marvel film, while Entertainment Weekly has provided exclusive looks at the film through new photos.