Castium Revelio: ABBA, Release Dates, and a Young Newt Scamander!

Jim Broadbent (Professor Slughorn) can be heard in the animated fantasy film Mary and the Witch's Flower when it's released on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download in the United Kingdom in September! The Digital Fix reports that the film is set to be released on September 10. The film has already been released in the United States and Japan.

Combining an action-packed girl-power adventure with a magical fantasy tale, 'Mary and the Witch's Flower' introduces the spirited, red-haired Mary, spending the last weeks of summer in the English countryside with her Great-Aunt Charlotte. Following a mysterious black cat, Tib, into the woods she stumbles upon a magical flower that transforms a little broomstick into one that flies! Mary is fast whisked away high above the clouds and transported to Endor College – a school of witchcraft and wizardry! Mary is warmly welcomed by headmistress Madame Mumblechook (Kate Winslet) and the eccentric Doctor Dee (Jim Broadbent). Believing her to be a once-in-a-lifetime magical prodigy they give Mary a guided tour of the dazzling school and invite her to join. But Mary discovers all is not as it seems in this fantastical world and finds herself confronting great danger – soon she has to call on all her courage if she is to save the day.

Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort) has reportedly been cast in Terry Gilliam's adaptation of the 1994 novel Mr. Vertigo, writes ComingSoon.net. Gilliam announced Fiennes's casting at the Brussels International Film Festival, the website notes, adding that "Gilliam has been working on an adaptation of Paul Auster’s novel for seven years now."

Read below for a synopsis of the novel.

Auster, the New York Times-bestselling author of 'The New York Trilogy,' presents a dazzling, picaresque novel set in the late 1920s – the era of Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh, and Al Capone. Walter Claireborne Rawley, renowned nationwide as 'Walt the Wonder Boy,' is a Saint Louis orphan rescued from the streets by a mysterious Hungarian Jew, Master Yehudi, who teaches Walt to walk on air. Master Yehudi brings Walt into a Kansas circus troupe consisting of Mother Sioux and Aesop, a young black genius. The vaudeville act takes them across a vast and vibrant country, through mythic Americana where they meet and fall prey to sinners, thieves, and villains, from the Kansas Ku Klux Klan to the Chicago mob. Walt’s rise to fame and fortune mirrors America’s own coming of age, and his resilience, like that of the nation, is challenged over and over and over again.

We previously reported that Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, Ralph Fiennes's nephew and the actor who portrayed the 11-year-old Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, had been cast in the film After. Now, we can report that Fiennes-Tiffin will be starring alongside Josephine Langford, the younger sister of 13 Reasons Why actress Katherine Langford. PopBuzz writes that Josephine Langford will play the role of Tessa in the film, which is based on a Wattpad novel by Anna Todd. Publisher Simon & Schuster provides the following synopsis of the novel.

Tessa is a good girl with a sweet, reliable boyfriend back home. She’s got direction, ambition, and a mother who’s intent on keeping her that way.

But she’s barely moved into her freshman dorm when she runs into Hardin. With his tousled brown hair, cocky British accent, tattoos and lip ring, Hardin is cute and different from what she's used to.

But he's also rude—to the point of cruelty, even. For all his attitude, Tessa should hate Hardin. And she does—until she finds herself alone with him in his room. Something about his dark mood grabs her, and when they kiss it ignites within her a passion she’s never known before.

He'll call her beautiful, then insist he isn't the one for her and disappear again and again. Despite the reckless way he treats her, Tessa is compelled to dig deeper and find the real Hardin beneath all his lies. He pushes her away again and again, yet every time she pushes back, he only pulls her in deeper.

Tessa already has the perfect boyfriend. So why is she trying so hard to overcome her own hurt pride and Hardin's prejudice about nice girls like her?

Unless...could this be love?

Stephen Fry, who narrated the UK editions of the Harry Potter audiobooks, lends his voice to the film Duck Duck Goose, which launches exclusively on Netflix on July 20.

You can watch the trailer for Duck Duck Goose below.

 

 

Viewers in the United States can watch Bill Nighy (Rufus Scrimgeour) in the BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Ordeal by Innocence when it premieres on Amazon Prime Video next month! Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’s Anthony Boyle (Scorpius Malfoy) also stars in the three-part series. BBC America has posted a trailer for the series, and you can check it out below!

 

 

Nighy and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’s Jude Law (Albus Dumbledore) are also among a number of celebrities who have vowed to champion British theater, writes the Stage. The actors will be working with the Theatres Trust to raise money for grants.

Law was quoted in the piece, describing the impact that theater has had on him.

As a child, I was taken to the theatre regularly – to more intimate spaces such as the Young Vic, Greenwich Playhouse, the Bush and the Gate, and also historic and magnificent spaces, such as the National Theatre and Wyndham’s Theatre.

Sharing the experience of live performance with others made me feel like part of a community and was fundamental in building in me a sense of who I was as a person.

Nighy and some of his Pride costars, including Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge), have signed a letter in protest of the Turkish government's decision to ban the film in Turkey because of its LGBTQ+-related content, writes Deadline Hollywood. Jessie Cave (Lavender Brown) also appeared in the 2014 film but was not a signatory.

Gary Oldman (Sirius Black) and Jessica Alba have been cast in the thriller Killers Anonymous, reports Variety.

The film enters 'a world that exists beneath ours, beneath the day-to-day, the restraint and the order,' according to a statement. 'For every life there is a death, and for every person there is an itch that only the few scratch; the dark voice that tells us to blow out the flame of another’s life. You might walk down a street and brush shoulders with a stranger and exchange a polite smile, completely unaware that stranger is picturing themselves stood above your bleeding body as you draw your final breath. There is a place for those people. They have all killed, they all think about killing, some want to stop, some want to talk and some just need to listen.'

The film is shooting on location in London.

Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory) recently attended the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, where he was awarded the President's Award "for outstanding personalities of world cinema," writes the Daily Mail. You can find photos of Pattinson on the red carpet here.

We previously reported on Clémence Poésy's (Fleur Delacour) film Two Is a Family, which is currently being shown in Australian cinemas. The Echo has reviewed the film, which you can read here.

You can check out the trailer below!

 

 

Fiona Shaw (Petunia Dursley) can be seen in the upcoming biopic Colette, which tells the story of the French novelist who wrote the novella Gigi. The Register Citizen writes that the film is slated for a September 21 release.

Watch the first trailer for the film below!

 

 

A Downton Abbey film has been greenlit, and Dame Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall) will be reprising her role as the Dowager Countess of Grantham! Deadline Hollywood writes that the plot of the upcoming film remains a secret, though the series' creator, Julian Fellowes, has written the screenplay. No release date has been announced, but production is expected to begin this summer.

Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge) was awarded an honorary membership of the Royal Academy of Music earlier this month, as reported by the Stage. She was given the award during the Royal Academy of Music's graduation ceremony, which was held on July 5.

Staunton can also be seen in the upcoming film Maleficent 2, which now has a release date! Just Jared writes that the film will be released on May 29, 2020! Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them's Jenn Murray (Chastity Barebone) has also joined the film's cast.

Staunton, who trained at RADA and has appeared in productions including 'Gypsy' and 'Follies', told graduates: 'All you are doing is your craft. Don’t worry if you are doing it in the biggest theatre in London or the smallest 20-seater out in the Outer Hebrides, you do your best at all times, small part, big part, you do 2000% every time you perform and that will make you stronger.'

David Tennant's (Barty Crouch, Jr.) Mad to Be Normal, in which he portrays "1960s celebrity psychiatrist R.D. Laing," will be released on video on demand on August 13, writes The Hollywood News. Sir Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore) also stars in the film.

'Mad to Be Normal' reveals the story of R.D. Laing, the famous psychiatrist and one of Scotland’s greatest ever minds. Working out of Kingsley Hall in East London throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Laing performed various daring experiments on people who were diagnosed as mentally disturbed. His revolutionary methods involved experimenting with LSD on his patients and practicing a form of self-healing known as metanoia, causing outrage and controversy in the medical profession and radically changed attitudes and perceptions of mental health around the world.

Dame Julie Walters (Molly Weasley) can be seen in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, reprising her role as Rosie Mulligan. In one clip from the film, Walters displays her comedic timing as some of the film's characters cover the ABBA song "Angel Eyes." Check it out below!

 

Neil Austin, the lighting designer for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, will be the lighting designer for the new West End production of Stephen Sondheim's Company, according to a report from BroadwayWorld. Patti LuPone will star in the production, which which opens at the Gielgud Theatre on September 26 of this year.

Principal photography for Captain Marvel has reportedly wrapped, but Jude Law (Albus Dumbledore) has another project about to begin! KFTV writes that Law has been cast in the film The Nest, which will film in both Canada and the United Kingdom.

'The Nest' centres on an ambitious entrepreneur (Law) who re-settles in the UK with his American wife and children, and moves the family into an eerily isolated English manor house.

No release date has been announced yet.

We also have our young Newt Scamander! Popsugar writes that the actor portraying the younger version of Eddie Redmayne's Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is 15-year-old Joshua Shea! The website reports that Shea is from Jersey, which is a Crown dependency.

Tom Burke (Cormoran Strike) took part in a live streamed chat from the Exeter Northcott Theatre, where he will appear in Don Carlos beginning in October, as reported by BroadwayWorld.

The discussion about the play, its contemporary relevance and why classical theatre still matters in a digital age, will be led by former BBC presenter Judi Spiers, followed by a Q&A.

The talk is free, starts at 6pm on July 12, and will last for around 90 minutes.

The event will be live streamed via the theatre's You Tube and Facebook channels, the first for a Northcott production.

You can watch the archived stream below.

 

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