News

Mark Cuban looks to be cozying up to Donald Trump again, or at least the President-elect's lightning rod of a chief strategist. The Dallas Mavericks owner and "Shark Tank" star met with Stephen Bannon Tuesday afternoon at the King Cole Bar in NYC's St. Regis. They've done business deals together in the past, but this had to be about politics. Cuban became a vocal opponent of Trump, but early in the campaign season he supported...

David Oyelowo wins for his portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr; Amma Asante collects award for Belle.

Us civil rights drama Selma and its director Ava Duvernay scored a hat-trick at the Screen Nation Film & Television Award in London on Sunday (Feb 15).

David Oyelowo, who played Martin Luther King Jr in the drama, won best male performance in film, while a public vote named Selma the favourite international movie.

A further public vote named Selma director Duvernay favourite female screen personality.

Period drama Belle won Gugu Mbatha-Raw best female performance in film while director Amma Asante collected the award for achievement in film production.

The event, known as the ‘black Baftas’, was also attended by stars including Idris Elba.

Charles Thompson, founder and CEO of Screen Nation, said: “We’re not a diversity quota anymore and never have been. We’re mainstream.”

Winnersuk Screen Awards

Rising Talent

Aaron Fontaine – Actor in HollyoaksAntonia Thomas – Scrotal RecallGeorgina Bobb – Producer...

Back in 2010, when he was riding high on the success of the penultimate Harry Potter film, director David Yates was being approached for and linked to a number of different projects. Among them was the adaptation of Bill Willingham’s DC Comics title Fables, which not-so-coincidentally has Potter man David Heyman producing. The Yates rumours never went anywhere, but now comes news that A Royal Affair’s Nikolaj Arcel is in the frame instead.Willingham created Fables for Vertigo Comics in 2002, crafting the story of fairy tale characters forced en masse from their various domains by a Big Bad known by many names, but usually 'the Emperor' or 'the Adversary'.Relocating to Earth, the likes of King Cole, Snow White, Cinderella and the rest have, over the years, settled into their own secret community in New York, which they informally call Fabletown, and hide out among us normal folk. Cole claims to run the place,...

Mahalia's voice heals the blind in "St Louis Blues"Mahalia Jackson was born 100 years ago on this very day in 1911 New Orleans as Mahala Jackson (she added the "i" sometime in the early 1930s). After a troubled childhood she moved to Chicago where her music career began in earnest. Despite never recording any secular music -- she refused to -- international fame hit in the late 1940s and she's been virtually canonized sense. Though she's never had a biopic (why not?) her history is closely tied with the story of Black America. She was part of The Great Migration in the 1930s. She was the first gospel singer to perform at Carnegie Hall and became famous all over the world. She sang at the March on Washington in 1963 and later at Martin Luther King Jr's funeral. (When she died in 1972, Aretha Franklin returned the favor and sang at hers.)  

As...

During Wednesday night's (April 13) "American Idol," Casey Abrams performed Nat King Cole's version of "Nature Boy" from the 1948 movie "The Boy With Green Hair."

Once he was done, judge Steven Tyler gave a very strange (even for Steven) praise of Casey, saying that Nat King Cole was the guy who sang, "Ke-mo, ki-mo spare-o-spare, Ma-hi, ma-ho, ma-rump-sticka-pumpernickle, soup-bang, nip-cat, polly-mitcha-cameo."

So what was that crazy nonsense?

Well, it was actually a surprising bit of music trivia coming from Steven Tyler. It's a song called "Ke-Mo Ki-Mo (The Magic Song)," which is featured on "King Cole for Kids," a 1951 LP that had other classics like "Old McDonald Had a Farm" and "Three Blind Mice."

The lyrics and audio are below. Props to Steven Tyler for knowing that song, honestly. And there's your answer, wondering "Idol" viewers.

Ke-mo, ki-mo spare-o-spare

Ma-hi, ma-ho, ma-rump-sticka-pumpernickle

Soup-bang, nip-cat, polly-mitcha-cameo

I love you.

Ke-mo, ki-mo spare-o-spare

Ma-hi,...

David Yates has been a subject of great interest recently as not only is he wrapping up work on the 8th and final Harry Potter film, but his name has also been tossed into the hat as a potential replacement for Guillermo del Toro on The Hobbit. Yesterday, another project fell into his lap via the internet, but we're still awaiting confirmation on whether or not the British director has actually been offered top spot. The film is another DC project called Fables chronicling the existence of all of our favorite fairy tale stars now living in modern day NY. The groups is led by King Cole and his deputy, Snow White, living in secret among the "mundanes" (humans) in a place called Fabletown. The necessity for Fabletown comes from a dark force known as The Adversary or the Emperor taking over all the lands of the Fables and driving...

British director David Yates, responsible for the last two Harry Potter films, as well as the final two, has been the subject of a big rumor this week -- he was reportedly interested in taking over the director's chair on The Hobbit after the departure of Guillermo del Toro (of late, the rumor is that Peter Jackson may return to block Bret Ratner or David Dobkin from taking over directing duties). That rumor was denied by a rep for Yates.

Well, here's another rumor that we'll give David Yates' rep a chance to knock down. We have word that Yates is up to direct Bill Willingham's Fables, as a possible follow-up to Harry Potter (or at least a follow-up to a follow-up). This is just a rumor, and does not come from our more reliable Hollywood Cog. However, we've been given fairly convincing evidence to definitively suggest that David Yates is,...

Los Angeles Film Festival

Winner of the audience award for best international film at the Los Angeles Film Festival, "Young @ Heart" tells an irresistible story with verve and skill. Director Stephen Walker saw a performance by a musical group of seniors in London, and he was so captivated that he decided to pursue the group to their home base in Northampton, Mass., and follow them around with cameras. The result is a documentary that inspires audiences to burst into applause at several points during the film.

Fox Searchlight, which acquired the film a few days after the festival wrapped, might have a boxoffice sleeper on its hands.

The unusual thing about the "Young" musical group is that they do not perform standards made famous by Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole but rather contemporary rock music by such groups as Coldplay, the Clash and Sonic Youth. It was the brainstorm of the chorus' director, Bob Cilman, to undercut expectations by training his group to perform today's music rather than yesterday's classics.

Most of the members of the chorus admit that these songs would not be their own listening favorites, but they enjoy the challenge of performing unfamiliar songs and finding the relevance to their own lives. Indeed, the songs they perform, including "Forever Young", "Stayin' Alive" and "I Want to Be Sedated", take on added wit and poignancy when performed by people in their 70s and 80s. (The oldest member of the chorus is 93.) Sometimes they have a bit of trouble mastering the lyrics, which provides much of the film's impish humor.

Walker narrates the film and sometimes overstates the obvious. The film is best when he lets the singers speak for themselves, or when he simply records their performances. A few of the songs are wittily staged as music videos, like production numbers from a brand new movie musical, whereas other scenes show the chorus in rehearsal and at their climactic performance in Northampton. The emotional high point comes when the chorus performs "Forever Young" at a nearby prison, and their eloquent interpretation of the song visibly moves the inmates.

The personal stories chronicled in the film also are deeply poignant. Several members of the chorus are battling serious illnesses. During the six weeks that Walker follows them, two of the most beloved members die. The deaths are a shock to the chorus, but they insist on going on with the show. Even if Walker is a bit too much of a chatterbox, he obviously succeeded in winning the confidence of the chorus members, for they allowed him to film a number of extraordinarily intimate moments.

The editing by Chris King is a major asset, for it finds just the right balance of humor, pathos and musical epiphanies. Sound recording also is first-rate. One challenge for Fox Searchlight will be securing the rights to all the music, which will jack up the cost of the film. Still, this picture is a winner. Any film that dispels stereotypes of the elderly deserves praise, but "Young" does it with a candid, impudent spirit that transcends sentimentality.

YOUNG @ HEART

Fox Searchlight

Walker George Films in association with Channel 4

Credits:

Director: Stephen Walker

Producer: Sally George

Executive producer: Hannah Beckerman

Director of photography: Edward Marritz

Editor: Chris King

Running time -- 110 minutes

No MPAA rating...