Castium Revelio: Christmas Specials, Award Nominations, and Vogue Covers

There's exciting news from Emma Watson first this month. She's been named a sustainability trailblazer by British Vogue and is featured on the front cover of the magazine for January 2024. She said that this is something she "genuinely dreamed about as an 18-year-old" and discussed the difficulties she has had pioneering sustainable fashion in an industry that wasn't ready at the time. She did, however, describe her journey with activism and defined the term as "connection, community, and joy."

Credit: Charlotte Wales/British Vogue

Emma also discussed her recent decision to step behind the camera instead of in front of it, taking a break from acting to work on a creative writing MA. She said the choice to "go back and write and study and get behind the camera was terrifying" because she hadn't done anything like it before, as she had "always been an actor."

There's also exciting news about a company she and her brother Alex founded. Renais Spirits has entered a five-year partnership to distribute gin across the US, with the first rollout expected in spring 2024. The deal is set to fast-track the brand's introduction in multiple states.

Our first trailer of this month stars Tom Felton. Some Other Woman is a psychological thriller about a woman who moves to a remote island. She discovers that her husband (Felton) is being stalked by a woman who looks eerily similar to herself, and she starts to struggle to differentiate reality from fiction. The film will be released in Regal Theatres only on January 5.

We've got a new project from producer David Heyman. Plot details are tightly wrapped, and we don't even have a title yet, but we do know that the Netflix film will be written by Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story) and will star Adam Sandler (Hotel Transylvania) and George Clooney (Ocean's Eleven).

We have lots of details for Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley) and Timothy Spall's (Peter Pettigrew) next project. The pair of them are teaming up for Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, the sequel to Wolf Hall. The show follows an advisor in King Henry VIII's court, specifically focussing on the final four years of his life and telling the events of the final book in the book trilogy that inspired the series. The six-part BBC series is currently filming in England and Wales and is also executive produced by Cursed Child producer Colin Callender.

Alfred Enoch (Dean Thomas) and Jessica Hynes (voice of Mafalda Hopkirk in Order of the Phoenix) are also both working on an adaptation. Miss Austen is a four-part drama series based on Gill Hornby's bestselling novel of the same name. The show tells a possible version of events leading up to Cassandra Austen burning the private letters of her famous sister, Jane.

Miranda Richardson (Rita Skeeter) is also joining the adaptation game. She's been cast in The Last Anniversary, a lighthearted Australian dramedy about a woman who moves to a mysterious island with promises of the man of her dreams but instead finds an island full of women. It is currently in production in Syndey, Australia.

Up next is the first trailer for a new show featuring Zoë Wanamaker (Madam Hooch). Criminal Record is a crime thriller series from Apple TV+ about two detectives who find themselves fighting over a historical murder case that resurfaces after an anonymous phone call. The show will debut on the streaming service on January 10.

Talking of murder, we told you last month of a spree for Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory), but unfortunately (or fortunately), nobody will be killed on his watch anytime soon. Average Height, Average Build, a film about a lobbyist serial killer who pushes for laws to help him get away with his crimes, has officially been canceled by Netflix following the departure of writer Adam McKay.

Adrian Rawlins (James Potter) has gotten himself involved in a murder case too. Vera is a long-running crime drama on ITV, with Rawlins getting involved in its first-ever Christmas special this year, The Rising Tide. Rawlins plays Daniel Rede, one of a cast of suspicious characters in a case of apparent suicide.

Speaking of Christmas, Dawn French (the Fat Lady) was on TV with a special stand-up performance filmed at the London Palladium. The show, Dawn French Is a Huge T***, recounts her career from comedy to acting. It aired on BBC One over Christmas and is currently still available on iPlayer.

Jamie Campbell Bower (Gellert Grindelwald), meanwhile, is sharing a Christmas present with us all. He released two new songs by surprise earlier this month called "Watch Em Burn" and "Wait For Me." These two songs come after the surprise release of "Heaven in Your Eyes" back in October. Check them both out from Campbell Bower's social media announcement post below!

JUMPSCARE: Watch Em Burn. Download here: https://t.co/cd2u0hiibm pic.twitter.com/I9lQKxnoNu

— Jamie Campbell Bower (@Jamiebower) November 29, 2023

Campbell Bower is also ready to get back to our screens. He will be featured in Emmanuelle, an erotic drama inspired by the cult classic Goodbye Emmanuelle from 1977. The film finished production in Paris earlier this month, and the French rights have already been snapped up.

We've got two trailers up next. The first stars Toby Jones (voice of Dobby) and Ian Hart (Professor Quirrell) in a four-part show called Mr. Bates vs the Post Office. It is inspired by the true events of the UK postal services scandal, which involved hundreds of post office owners being accused of theft due to a fault in the IT system. The show debuts on January 1.

Our next trailer stars Miriam Margolyes (Professor Sprout) and Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle) in voice-acting roles. The third and final season of Hilda, an animated action-adventure show about a young girl's travels from city to city through magical wilderness, debuted on Netflix on December 7. Check out the trailer below to see if it's for you!

Stephen Fry (narrator of the UK audiobooks) is lending his voice to two new projects. The first is We Are Home, a documentary about the Ukranian families that were displaced as a result of the war in their country. Distribution rights haven't been sold yet, but the feature-length film is set for a festival run next year.

He's also set to narrate U.Me: The Complete Musical. The first installment of the series was released back in 2021 and followed a young couple who met online and are now taking the step of flying to live together. This musical, which is formatted for radio and podcast, picks back up as their relationship takes an unexpected turn.

It's award season time next, with nominations announced for this year's Golden Globe Awards. Barbie, co-produced by David Heyman, received nine nominations across seven categories. The only two Wizarding World alums to receive individual nominations are Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge) and Gary Oldman (Sirius Black). Staunton has been nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Drama, for her performance in The Crown, which also received nominations in three other categories, including Best Television Series, Drama. Oldman has been nominated in the male equivalent category – Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, Drama. Robert Pattinson's The Boy and the Heron has been nominated for two awards, including Best Motion Picture, Animated.

Continuing with awards, Mads Mikkelsen (Gellert Grindelwald) won the European Actor award for his performance in The Promised Land at the European Film Awards 2023. The film also took home the European Costume Design award from the ceremony earlier this month.

Jessica Williams (Eulalie Hicks) is joining in the awards as well. She's been nominated for Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series at the Film Independent Spirit Awards for her performance in the comedy show Shrinking.

Anthony Boyle (Scorpius Malfoy in the original West End cast) has been busy this month. He's set to star in a West End revival of Long Day's Journey into Night. The show will begin performances on March 19 before an official opening night on April 2 at the Wyndham's Theatre.

He's also been featured in the first-look images for Manhunt, an Apple TV+ show about the search for the assassin who killed Abraham Lincoln. Boyle plays the assassin in question, John Wilkes Booth, seen on stage after the fatal shot is fired in the still below. The series premieres on March 15.

Source: Apple TV+

There's exciting news from producer Sonia Friedman too. Her production company has been involved in an adaptation of Paddington for the stage. Paddington: The Musical is based on both the original book series by Michael Bond and the recent film series. Workshops are currently taking place, and there are plenty of names already attached for writing, music, and directing. The show is set to debut in the UK in 2025.

Her company has another musical in production before that, however. Between January 27 and January 29, her company is holding open-call auditions for the UK premiere of Fangirls. The musical will hit the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre from July 13 until August 24, 2024.