Castium Revelio: “The Non-Driving Bald Accountant” and Other Tales

by · September 16, 2019

Let’s make this clear: We will gladly die on any hill Daniel Radcliffe chooses to climb in his career. We owe the guy at least that much. So even though we’re 99% sure the fictional role in another popular film franchise in which he tongue-in-cheek purported to be interested at last week’s Toronto International Film Festival will never come to pass, if that 1% ever rolls around, remember: You heard it here first. Elsewhere in Casting News this week, we’ve got new projects for Dame Emma Thompson and David Tennant, Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts alumni signing on for Season 2 of A Discovery of Witches, Jude Law taking to the stage at Shakespeare’s Globe to speak out for peace, and oh, yeah – Jamie Campbell Bower wants you to be in his next music video. Now that we have your undivided attention: Castium Revelio!

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Harry Potter Cast & Crew

Anyone in attendance at the Toronto International Film Festival last week was likely able to catch a glimpse of at least one of their wizarding world favorites. Several actors were on hand in support of their latest projects, including the man behind the boy wizard himself, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter). MuggleNet kept you up to date on all things Radcliffe as he made the rounds, promoting Guns Akimbo, but CinemaBlend says there was one other franchise the actor expressed interest in joining - though not in any conventional way.

Radcliffe noted he'd done some of his own stunts in the Harry Potter films but hadn't had the opportunity to do many since, expressing that a turn in the Fast & Furious franchise could be fun. We agree! Just one problem: He's not that great behind the wheel. "Is there a part of a non-driver in that?" Radcliffe asked, wondering if any of the street racers and spies needed someone to do their taxes or handle administrative work. Guns Akimbo director Jason Lei Howden joked that he'd need to shave his head in the tradition of Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, and Jason Statham. We can't be the only ones who want to see Fast & Furious: The Non-Driving Bald Accountant, right?

We also showed you a photo of Radcliffe's heart-melting reunion with Gary Oldman (Sirius Black), who joined Meryl Streep and Antonio Banderas at TIFF to promote The Laundromat. Oldman and Banderas also presented Streep with a Tribute Actor award at the TIFF Tribute Gala. Additionally on hand promoting Guest of Honour was David Thewlis (Remus Lupin).

While we're in the gallery-making mood, let's do one more from Toronto! Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory) made the full rounds at the festival, from red carpets to parties, and you can enjoy photos of him and Eddie Redmayne (Newt Scamander, Fantastic Beasts), who was on hand to support The Aeronauts, below. As for Pattinson's upcoming role as Batman, Heroic Hollywood says Joker director Tod Phillips was asked at TIFF whether the star of that film, Joaquin Phoenix, and Pattinson might meet in That Batman. "No, definitely not," Phillips said. "Oddly, in the States, comic books are our Shakespeare, it seems, and you can do many, many versions of 'Hamlet'. There will be many more Jokers, I'm sure, in the future." Bummer, but there it is.

If you missed Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) in Ophelia during its theater run, you can preorder the movie now on Blu-ray and DVD. Felton plays Laertes, Ophelia's brother, in the tale of Hamlet from the perspective of the girl who loved him. If you can't wait for the November 5 disc release, you can also watch now on Amazon Prime Video.

When next we meet, the Downton Abbey movie will have made its premiere, and we'll all be busy shopping online for tiaras, tuxes, and English country estates. Ahead of September 20, the film's stars - which include Dame Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall) and Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge) - are already being asked about the possibility of a sequel. Staunton and her husband, Jim Carter, recently addressed that with Express and the Scottish Sun, with Carter saying he thinks there's definitely room for more.

The funny thing is that people are already asking that and the movie isn't even out yet. And we are thrilled people are asking. I think there is plenty of room for more, and I'll be there. There is definitely potential, and I think we'd be very happy to do it.

 

 

Staunton also talked about her character's secret and her connection to the Crawley family.

Lady Bagshaw has a secret, and she isn't very keen on spending a couple of nights at Downton, because she's connected to the family in some way and knows that there might be a hint of trouble if she goes there.

 

 

Carter, meanwhile, had just one regret about working with his wife on the film: "I never even got to serve her a glass of wine." Elsewhere in Staunton news, Variety reports that Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, in which the actress portrays Knotgrass the fairy, will make its international premiere October 7 in Rome as a pre-opening gala for the Rome Film Festival's Alice in the City sidebar. Stars Angelina Jolie and Michelle Pfeiffer will be on hand for that debut. The Maleficent sequel will hit screens in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain on October 18.

Things continue to stay on track for No Time to Die's April 3, 2020, release in the UK and April 8, 2020, release in the US, but after all the early troubles surrounding the film's production, we just feel compelled to keep an eye on it at all times. Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort) and company seem to be fine this week, but James Bond looks like he could be doing better.

 

 

 

Season 3 of Brendan Gleeson's (Mad-Eye Moody) Mr. Mercedes on Audience is underway, and the actor sat down recently with Entertainment Weekly to discuss his character - retired police detective Bill Hodges - as well as the new season and the bigger message behind the series adapted from the novels of Stephen King. You'll want to read the full article on EW's site.

We took Bill Hodges as an all-American guy and turned him into somebody who started off in Ireland and became an all-American guy. After seeing different people here who all had different accents but were Americans, it became less of an issue to me. A lot of all-American guys weren't born here; that's just the way it is. It meant I could go back into a backstory in my own culture, which was easier than pretending to have played softball, if you know what I mean.

A wide range of famous faces, from Prince Harry to Kit Harington, took to the trading floor at brokerage firm BGC last week to answer phones for a fundraising drive in memory of the 658 Cantor Fitzgerald and 61 EuroBrokers employees who were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, New York. Also participating in BGC Charity Day were Helen McCrory (Narcissa Malfoy) and husband Damian Lewis, with McCrory closing her donation deals with the catchphrase from her hit show Peaky Blinders: "By order of the Peaky f***ing Blinders."

Livia De Paolis (Emoticon 😉) will be directing and starring in an adaptation of Laurie Fox's novel The Lost Girls, and Dame Emma Thompson (Sybill Trelawney) and her daughter, Gaia Wise, have signed on, Deadline Hollywood reports. It doesn't look from the synopsis like Thompson will play a large role in the film, but Wise will be featured in her most prominent role to date. Check out the intriguing synopsis, and we'll keep you posted as more comes to light!

'The Lost Girls' will chronicle four generations of Darling women as they struggle in the aftermath of their adventures with Peter Pan in Neverland. The film will follow how Wendy (De Paolis) struggles to retain her creative spirit after her fantastical journeys with Pan. Like her grandmother (Ellen Burstyn) and her mother, Jane (Thompson in a cameo role), Wendy must escape Pan's hold on her and the promises he desperately wants her to keep. As her daughter, Berry (Wise), comes into Peter's orbit, Wendy must fight to save her relationship with her daughter while reconciling her legacy.

A few weeks ago, we brought you the first trailer for Thompson's Last Christmas, starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding, and we've got another for you this week: the official international trailer! Last Christmas is set to premiere November 8 in the US and November 15 in the UK, and director Paul Feig spoke recently about convincing Thompson to take a role (as Clarke's character's mother) in the movie she penned. You can read that quote and view the trailer below.

When she originally sent it to me, I said, 'I want you on set with me the whole time' because every time I make a movie, I always have the writer with me. Then I just kept thinking, 'It's crazy. I'm going to have one of the greatest actors of all time sitting next to me every day, and she's not going to be in the movie.' So I said, 'Emma, you've gotta be in the movie.'

 

 

 

 

 

Last but not least, Thompson was also included on Variety's list of 25 Climate Movers and Shakers in Entertainment last week.

The Oscar-winning actress recently played an environmentalist locking horns with the authorities in a short film that featured real-life footage from Extinction Rebellion's wave of headling-grabbing London protests. The film and TV star also vocally joined the activist group's UK demonstrations, notably from its signature pink boat. 'The climate change argument is now a race between consciousness and cataclysm,' Thompson said in a video message posted on Extinction Rebellion's Facebook page. 'It is time to stand up and save our home.' She has also joined Barack Obama in backing Earth Hour, a World Wildlife Fund campaign that advocates for urgent action on environmental issues.

The star-studded cast of Sir Kenneth Branagh's (Gilderoy Lockhart) Death on the Nile has added another member. The Hollywood Reporter says Ali Fazal (Victoria & Abdul) will join Armie Hammer, Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, and of course, Branagh himself as he returns to the role of Agatha Christie's famed detective Hercule Poirot. The movie has a December 20, 2020, release date.

David Tennant (Barty Crouch Jr.) is in talks to play murdered Russian FSB dissident Alexander Litvinenko in a new ITV series, the Guardian reports. That project is still in its early stages of development, so we'll keep an eye out for more. Tennant is also currently filming for Deadwater Fell, and he'll be joined in the Channel 4 thriller by Lilac Jackson, a Cheltenham, England, girl with cerebral palsy who made headlines last week by walking to school just 18 months after undergoing life-saving surgery. Tennant plays Tom in the series, and you can read a synopsis and check out a photo of him with Jackson (pictured at center bottom) below.

When a seemingly perfect and happy family is murdered by someone they knew and trusted, cracks appear on the surface of a supposedly idyllic community.

 

 

 

For you fans of Tennant's Tenth Doctor, here's a tidbit for you: Freema Agyeman, who played companion Martha Jones, will be returning to that role on a new adaptation of Torchwood! You can read the full details from the Sun.

PBS will be running a selection of "Broadway's Best" as part of its Great Performances series, and Playbill reports that Red, starring Alfred Enoch (Dean Thomas) and Alfred Molina, will be broadcast November 15. Set your phone alerts now!

Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley) has been mentioned in several media reports as being among the cast of Infinite, starring Mark Wahlberg, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Rupert Friend. The movie will be an adaptation of the 2009 novel The Reincarnationist Papers by D. Eric Maikranz and is set to begin filming later this month in London. Melling has yet to be listed on Infinite's IMDb page, however, so for now, we'll leave you with a synopsis and a promise to keep checking into this! The film is slated for an August 7, 2020, premiere.

[The story] centres on a group of near-immortal men and women who are reincarnated over the centuries and are known as 'the Infinite.' To defeat an evil mastermind, the group must rely on a man who suffers from schizophrenia and who will have to learn that all his vivid dreams are actually memories from past lives in order to defeat the villain.

We previously let you know that Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle) is featured in the mockumentary Greed, starring Steve Coogan, and Deadline Hollywood says the film was acquired for distribution at TIFF by Sony Pictures Classics. We've got the synopsis for you below. Greed was already slated for a November 22 premiere in the UK, so we'll keep an eye out for that US date!

The film skewers the world of high fashion, specifically looking at the grotesque inequality between a greedy billionaire (Coogan) and the female garment workers who toil on his fashion line. [Director Michael] Winterbottom follows the billionaire as he preps his lavish 60th birthday party in Mykonos, as overseen by reality TV cameras, all while Syrian refugees have arrived and set up camp on the Greek shores.

The man who's spent nearly as much time in a galaxy far, far away as he has in this one, Warwick Davis (Griphook/Filius Flitwick), sat down recently for an interview about all things Star Wars with Star Wars Insider, and you can read an excerpt from that on Fantha Tracks.

Sky and AMC series A Discovery of Witches recently announced its new cast members for Season 2, with two familiar faces among them: Adrian Rawlins (James Potter) and Victoria Yeates (Bunty, Fantastic Beasts)! Rawlins will be portraying William Cecil and Yeates the Water Witch Elizabeth Jackson in the new season, which is filming now for a 2020 release. As the story continues in Elizabethan London, reluctant witch Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer) and vampire Matthew Clairmont (Matthew Goode) are hiding in time from the Congregation, and you can check out a first-look image of those characters, along with Rawlins' and Yeates' casting announcements, below.

 

 

 

Monty Python's Flying Circus did its share of controversial things, perhaps none more so than Life of Brian. The BBC recently made hundreds of clips from its archives available to watch online, including a Friday Night, Saturday Morning interview from 1979 wherein John Cleese (Nearly Headless Nick) and Michael Palin discuss the perceived blasphemy of the spoof. You can check it out on the BBC's new site dedicated to the clip collection.

Jamie Campbell Bower (young Gellert Grindelwald) is continuing a North American tour with his band, Counterfeit., and he spoke last week with Alternative Press about what it takes to get himself centered before taking the stage.

I can be a very anxious individual. It takes a severe amount of preparation within myself spiritually to get to where I feel comfortable to perform. One of the things that I'm very keen to do as a performer and a person is to present the most honest version of myself, and I have to tend to myself to be able to get that over. Is that bravado? Probably ego-masking fear. Let's call it that.

You can read that full interview online. Counterfeit. has just released its new single, "It Gets Better," which Alternative Press describes as "one part self-help anthem and one part middle-finger-raised punk affirmation," and you can get a taste of that on the band's Twitter feed. Oh, and one more thing: If you're going to be in Los Angeles, California, this week, Campbell Bower wants you to be in a music video. No biggie. Deets below.

 

 

 

 

 

We let you know last week that Jessica Hynes' (voice of Mafalda Hopkirk) film The Fight, in which the actress starred as Tina while also directing, was headed to DVD, and Vulture Hound spoke with Hynes last week about all aspects of the movie, including the evolution of her character. You can read the full interview on Vulture Hound's site.

Initially, the idea of Tina was more simplistic and possibly more comic, but she naturally came into being. I wanted her to feel relatable, not too extraordinary, someone that could be any one of us. She's the one who's trying to keep everything together.

Lastly on the Harry Potter alumni front, Gamasutra reports Stephen Fry (narrator of the UK Harry Potter audiobooks) has lent his voice to Albert Einstein in the new app Human Heroes Einstein's Clock.

Fresh off his first outing in 'Human Heroes Einstein on Time', the creator of relativity, Albert Einstein, is back on the stage - only this time, he's equipped with a ton of different clocks to help young children learn how to tell the time.

Fry's Einstein acts as a personal time tutor, encouraging children and cracking jokes along the way. The app is free, with no in-app purchases, subscriptions, or signups needed, and it can be played offline. It's available now in the App Store and Google Play Store.

Also, if you ever harbored any hopes of seeing Fry tap his toes on a show such as the UK's Strictly Come Dancing or the US's Dancing with the Stars, you should go ahead and abandon those now. The Gazette and Herald says Fry was asked about the possibility of appearing on such a show, and here was his reply: "I loathe dancing. It embarrasses me. Not only to do it but to watch other people do it. The Strictly-type thing I find absolutely nails on a blackboard. It's an allergy. I can't bear dancing. It makes me cringe."

Fantastic Beasts Cast & Crew

We all recall how dynamic an on-screen duo Eddie Redmayne (Newt Scamander) and Felicity Jones were in The Theory of Everything, and their reunion in The Aeronauts was music to our ears! The pair recently told the BBC that they had the same reaction to appearing together in the film, which is scheduled for a December 6 premiere. Redmayne also talked about his perception of the movie, and you can read the full BBC interview at the link above.

For me, it's a film about wonder. And we're in a world in which - and I'm a massive culprit of it - we spend so much time looking at our phones and looking down, and for me, the film is about looking up, so that's what attracted me to it.

Peace One Day is celebrating its 20th anniversary with this year's International Day of Peace on September 21, and Jude Law (Albus Dumbledore) will be lending his support to a special event at Shakespeare's Globe in London. The day-long event will feature a variety of panel discussions and a concert featuring the likes of Sting. Law will be participating in "Words of Peace," during which he and others will read "great dramatic or historical words of peace that have inspired change and action." "Words of Peace" will run 3:30--4:45 p.m. BST, and you can purchase tickets if you're going to be in the area or watch the live stream on Peace One Day's YouTube channel or the Globe's social media accounts if you're not.

We previously let you know about the backlash surrounding a short film titled "We Are the Land" made by Dior for its Sauvage fragrance campaign and featuring Johnny Depp (Gellert Grindelwald), and the Hollywood Reporter says the actor spoke out on the issue last week while making his way around the film festival circuit. Depp expressed surprise and dismay at the allegation the film appropriated Native American culture, particularly considering a Native American advocacy group was consulted during its making. He says the teaser, which is all that's been seen of "We Are the Land," did not reflect the full depth of the project and that Dior is working with various entities to come to a resolution. You can view his stance below, along with a gallery of photos of the actor from the Deauville American Film Festival in France, where he was promoting Waiting for the Barbarians. That film also stars Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory, Harry Potter) and Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley, Harry Potter).

A teaser obviously is a very concentrated version of images, and there were objections to the teaser of the small film. The film has never been seen. There was never - and how could there be or how would there be - any dishonorable [intent]. The film was made with a great respect for the indigenous people not just of North America but all over the world. It's a pity that people jumped the gun and made these objections. However, their objections are their objections. [...] The idea is as pure as it ever was, so we will come to an agreement so that everyone is happy.

Cursed Child Cast & Crew

Actors Equity Association President Maureen Beattie is calling on casting directors to let stage actors know whether or not they've received the parts for which they audition, the Stage reports. Beattie says it is "impossible to quantify the amount of time, energy, passion, and stress" performers face when auditioning and that they deserve to know when they haven't been cast so that they can move on to their next endeavor.

Some people who make their living out of those very performers don't bother to let us know that we haven't got the job. I cannot tell you how soul-destroying it is to find out you haven't got a job when you meet someone at a party who unknowingly tells you they are so happy for their friend because they've just landed the part you were up for. If you, the gatekeepers to work in the entertainment industry, do just one thing, I ask you to let us know if we haven't got the job.

Sonia Friedman (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child producer) previously committed to doing just that following the #YesOrNo campaign launched by actors on Twitter.

Sonia Friedman Productions works with many casting directors across a range of productions - it doesn't have its own casting department. However, the company has always striven and will continue to strive to ensure that every performer is informed of the result of their audition, whatever the outcome.

Are you booking your plane tickets to Los Angeles right now to be in that music video? Are you on board with our new Fast & Furious flick idea? Or are you still looking at those galleries full of lovely wizarding world stars dressed to the nines? We understand. Carry on, and be sure to check back next week for more MuggleNet Casting News!