Castium Revelio: Johnny Joins IG as Goodwill Abounds
by Brienne Green · April 20, 2020
Goodwill is abounding right now all around the globe, and if there’s one bright spot to be found in our current situation, that’s it! Mixed in with updates on a few projects involving your favorite Wizarding World stars – including the release date for Sir Kenneth Branagh‘s Artemis Fowl, starring Colin Farrell – you’ll find information on charitable efforts they’re backing and uplifting online projects with which they’ve been involved. Oh, and by the way – Johnny Depp has finally made his social media debut. You won’t want to miss the song he’s offered up for your socially isolated listening pleasure, so grab those headphones! Castium Revelio!
As we said last week, it's a crime that we won't get to enjoy Sir Kenneth Branagh's (Gilderoy Lockhart) new adaptation of Artemis Fowl on the big screen, but we do finally have a date for its Disney+ release! The tale of the young criminal mastermind – starring Colin Farrell (Percival Graves, Fantastic Beasts) as Artemis's father, Artemis Fowl I – will hit your much smaller screen June 12. Until then, enjoy a new teaser and a behind-the-scenes photo of Branagh below. We also slipped in a bonus photo of Dame Judi Dench in elf ears. We're here to make you smile, people!
Remember the name. #ArtemisFowl is streaming exclusively June 12 on #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/86Nxf8hhyq
— Disney+ (@disneyplus) April 17, 2020
Nurses and doctors from National Health Service (NHS) institutions in the United Kingdom, along with the MyCool Music Foundation and family members and friends of health care staff from all over the world, have recorded a cover of Mariah Carey's "Anytime You Need a Friend" as the Breathe Harmony NHS Choir, and it's being sold as a single to raise money for NHS causes.
Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge) and her husband, Jim Carter, have thrown their full support behind the single, a beautiful collaboration that Carey herself has said brought her to tears. The South London Press published a statement by the couple.
We are huge supporters of the work of Breathe Arts Health Research. As actors we know the value that the arts have on our own health and wellbeing, and so during the coronavirus crisis, we need the sense of hope and community that the arts can provide more than ever. We love the Breathe Harmony & Friends track, 'Anytime You Need a Friend,' as its words resonate with communities around the world right now, as together we face this global pandemic. We urge everyone to get behind our multi-talented NHS and download this track to help celebrate our NHS staff and spread Breathe's message of global solidarity during these difficult times.
You can download "Anytime You Need a Friend" on iTunes and Amazon Music and enjoy the full video below.
Helen McCrory (Narcissa Malfoy), her husband, Damian Lewis, and fellow actor Matt Lucas recently launched FeedNHS, a campaign designed to raise funds to provide hot meals to health care workers on the front line, and McCrory and Lewis are happy to announce that the initiative has surpassed the £1 million mark. FeedNHS will now be able to provide 25,000 meals per day. To donate to the nonprofit campaign, visit its website.
Fifty writers have contributed monologues to the Abbey Theatre's – the national theatre of Ireland – "Dear Ireland" project, the Irish Independent reports. Each writer nominated a different actor to perform their piece, and Brendan Gleeson (Mad-Eye Moody) is among the 50 chosen to, the Abbey says, help "reflect the challenges being faced by Irish society."
We are artist-led and audience-focused and, in this profoundly historic period for Ireland, we have brought together the voices of 100 artists to provoke a creative conversation with the nation. In addition to making new art for audiences, we felt it was important to act fast, to document this moment artistically, whilst helping theatre makers financially, a community which has been greatly impacted by the closure, cancellation or postponement of many artistic projects.
The "Dear Ireland" monologues will be released over a period of four days, beginning Tuesday, April 28 and ending Friday, May 1, on the Abbey's YouTube channel.
David Tennant (Barty Crouch Jr.) may have had to spend his 49th birthday in isolation, but his wife, Georgia Tennant, and Doctor Who costar John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness) made sure it wasn't dull! Georgia Tennant posted a photo of her husband with a birthday cake that has likely made an appearance in the dreams of many a six-year-old. Coated in Skittles and Jaffa Cakes, the masterpiece is topped with a Hulk action figure. Barrowman, meanwhile, outed Tennant as a rather terrible flosser. We're referring to the dance, by the way; Tennant's dental hygiene is probably impeccable.
With the Season 4 premiere of The Last Kingdom – starring Ian Hart (Quirinus Quirrell) as Father Beocca and Toby Regbo (young Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1) as Aethelred – coming up April 26 on Netflix, arselings everywhere are preparing to celebrate. The show's Instagram account is fueling the fire by posting snippets and tidbits left and right, including a video clip featuring Hart and new character posters for both Beocca and Aethelred! You can check out both below. The posters are part of a photo set, so you'll need to scroll through.
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Of course we’re sure it’s him! 9 days to go, Arselings! #TheLastKingdom
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The third season of Killing Eve got underway last week on AMC and BBC America, and Fiona Shaw (Petunia Dursley) took a bit of time to reflect on the evolution of her relationship with her character, Carolyn Martens. The Irish News says Shaw "just wanted to believe" in show creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge in the beginning, despite her uneasiness about the show.
I was terrified of the piece. I wasn't sure whether it was funny or not funny. And, of course, it's both funny and not funny. I lost a lot of sleep over her. I wasn't sure that allowing Carolyn to be so unknowable would hold in the audience's imagination. But it more than holds. People want to be chasing her down the rabbit holes of her mind. Normally, I play somebody who holds the moral argument. And there's something about 'Killing Eve' where nobody holds the moral argument. There's a ruthlessness to the power of those people.
And of course, it plays a brilliant trick, which is that the characters are charming. And they're charming because they're full of wit. And you're left slightly hooked on them, because you just don't know where they're going next. They have all the charm of virtuous people, so they lead you up the garden path, and then sometimes they're not. It's like juggling: There's always a ball in the air. And you don't know where it's going to land.
Shaw also spoke with Good Housekeeping, giving a surprising answer to the question of what other character on the show she'd like to take a stab at (no pun intended).
The obvious would be to say you want to play Villanelle, but I don't, really. I'd like to play Konstantin. I really like him. It's maybe something to do with our age group, but I love people who've lived raggy, mad lives and who are still going strong. The wonderful thing about Konstantin is that he doesn't really mind where he sleeps. You feel that he'd sleep in a doorway – or a gorgeous hotel. What's going on his mind?
Killing Eve airs Sundays at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.
The Nest Collective, in partnership with Music Declares Emergency and Culture Declares Emergency, will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day with an event titled "Singing with Nightingales: Live at Home." Folk singer Sam Lee will host the April 22 event, which will feature contributions from a number of artists, actors, and musicians, including Simon McBurney (voice of Kreacher). You can find out all the details on the Nest Collective's website.
Scottish entertainers are uniting to raise funds to purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers via the "For the Love of Scotland" event, the Times reports. The evening of music, literature, and poetry will be live-streamed from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (UTC+01) Wednesday, April 22, on Gigs in Scotland's Facebook page and YouTube channel. Among those participating is Peter Mullan (Corban Yaxley), so be sure to tune in!
We'd like to close out the Harry Potter portion of MuggleNet's Casting News with something beautiful, and we couldn't think of anything better than British radio presenter Matthew Stadlen's newly completed poetry project. Stadlen began working five-and-a-half years ago on a collaborative recitation of "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
There was no time like the present to complete the compilation video, and Stadlen asked a wide variety of celebrities to contribute lines to help him to that end. Below, you'll notice Miriam Margolyes (Pomona Sprout), John Cleese (Nearly Headless Nick), Dawn French (the Fat Lady, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), and Stephen Fry (narrator of the UK Harry Potter audiobooks) doing their part. Be sure to pass the poetry along!
A new Wizarding World star has taken the plunge into the world of social media – for the greater good. Johnny Depp's (Gellert Grindelwald) intentions aren't Grindelwald-esque, of course. The actor is hoping to encourage discourse in the midst of the pandemic, and considering he just started his new Instagram account Thursday and has already amassed 3.4 million followers, it's clear that people are listening!
Coming to us from a literal man cave, Depp said that "now is the time to open up a dialogue as the threat of this invisible enemy has already caused immeasurable tragedies and enormous damage to people's lives."
I know, for the moment, it feels like both of our hands are tied behind our backs, and to some degree, they are. But our minds are unbound, and our hearts are not changed, and we can care, and through caring, we will help each other, and we will prevail. [...]
First and foremost, and above all else, stay safe, stay well, and stay inside your homes. We need to make the best use of this time by being close to those we love, and despite our dire circumstance, we cannot – and must not – succumb to shutting down and giving in to what feels like hellish quarantine monotony. We need to keep ourselves curious. [...]
We have a responsibility to each other to approach these times with new strategies, create something, create something today that will benefit yourselves and others tomorrow; do anything you think could be of use to brighten someone's day. [...] I have hope at some point very, very soon that you and yours will all be safe and surrounded in perfection.
To help break up that quarantine monotony, Depp offered us a cover of John Lennon's Isolation that he recorded a year or so ago with guitar legend Jeff Beck. He says "Lennon's prophetic words are pure poetry" and "the profundity of his lyrics seem, to Jeff and me, especially fitting for what's happening right now." We couldn't agree more! Enjoy.
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sent with love from @jeffbeckofficial and me
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Rock photographer Ross Halfin also shared a previously unseen photo of Depp and Beck having a chat in the only private setting they could find last year at the Hollywood Bowl.
One of the many challenges for the film and television industry right now is finding innovative alternative means of shopping new movies and series without the benefit of festivals. Where there's a will, there's a way, however, and Sagafilm will be offering up new Icelandic political drama The Minister to buyers by way of an exclusive online premiere. Television Business International says the eight-part series stars Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (Skender) as "a populist prime minister with a worsening mental health condition that threatens the stability of the government and the lives of those around him." A preview of the first episode will be combined with a conversation between Ólafsson, writer Jónas Margeir Ingólfsson, and director Nanna Kristín Magnúsdóttir.
Samuel Goldwyn Films has released a new trailer for its sci-fi horror Black Ops, which it plans to release to video on demand on June 12. The film stars Simon Meacock (Krafft), and you can check out the official synopsis and trailer below. If you feel like being creeped out at the moment, go ahead and give it a watch. If you don't, it would be best to go get a snack instead. Pudding sounds good.
A black ops team finds themselves trapped in a terrifying, never-ending stairwell. Forced to climb or die, the group soon comes face to face with their past sins in a desperate fight for survival.
The Eddy will finally be making its Netflix premiere on May 8, and a full trailer was released last week. Cowritten and coproduced by Jack Thorne (writer, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), the story of a struggling Paris jazz club owner and the club's house band will have all eight episodes of its first season released. Enjoy the trailer below.
So did you wait to finish reading this week’s edition of Casting News before making Johnny Depp’s Instagram follower count 3,400,001? It’s okay. We understand. Tune in next week for more updates, and until then, stay home and stay safe!
