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Here’s the latest episode of The Filmmakers Podcast, part of the podcast roster here on Nerdly. If you haven’t heard the show yet, you can check out previous episodes on the official podcast site, whilst we’ll be featuring each and every new episode as it premieres.

For those unfamiliar with the series, The Filmmakers Podcast is a podcast about how to make films from micro-budget indie films to bigger-budget studio films and everything in between. Our hosts Giles Alderson, Dom Lenoir, Dan Richardson, Andrew Rodger and Cristian James talk about how to get films made, how to actually make them and how to try not to f… it up in their very humble opinion. Guests will come on and chat about their filmmaking experiences from directors, writers, producers and screenwriters, to actors, cinematographers and distributors.

The Filmmaker’s Podcast #372: From the mail room to Hollywood – Director...

After a decorated career in television, The Family Plan director Simon Cellan Jones has returned to feature films for the first time in two-plus decades.

Cellan Jones’ feature career began with 2000’s Some Voices, a British drama starring a still-emerging Daniel Craig, and he soon followed that up with 2002’s The One and Only, before spending two decades in television, helming episodes of How to Make It in America, Treme, Jessica Jones, Boardwalk Empire, Ballers and Shooter. Four of the aforementioned shows were executive produced by Mark Wahlberg, and when the actor needed a filmmaker to direct March 2024’s Arthur the King during the pandemic, he gave Cellan Jones a second go-round in the feature space. The shoot went well, so well that after Cellan Jones locked picture, he quickly started prepping their current Apple TV+ release, The Family Plan.

The action-comedy centers around Wahlberg and Michelle Monaghan’s characters’ suburban family,...

Brace yourself: The Family Plan is a very different road trip film. It’s fun, hilarious, and filled with great action sequences — but it's the plot that will win you over. After a social media snafu, a former top assassin who’s been living incognito as a suburban dad makes a frantic decision to take his unsuspecting family on a Las Vegas road trip to avoid danger. No such luck. His past and other life-threatening events follow him and his clan all the way to Sin City.

Directed by Simon Cellan Jones, the action comedy stars Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Monaghan (Mission: Impossible), Ciarán Hinds (Belfast), and Maggie Q (Fear the Night). Fueled by this solid cast, a slew of action sequences, and satisfying story arcs, the family-friendly film stands out in an otherwise packed streaming season.

In this exclusive MovieWeb interview, Simon Cellan Jones unpacked the challenges he faced shooting...

Would it have killed him to quit sit-ups for a few months? Maybe load up on some Häagen-Dazs? Famously, Mark Wahlberg wakes in the wee hours for a 3:30 a.m. workout — perhaps he could have treated himself to a five o’clock lie-in? Whatever the case, the star has made no concessions to dadbod reality in “The Family Plan.” Playing milquetoast car salesman Dan, a married father of three whom nobody knows used to be a high-level government assassin, he strips off early in proceedings — on a night of abortive anniversary lovemaking with his weary wife — to reveal a torso as jacked as the day is long. Yet those enviable xylophone abs run counter to the slim comic premise of Simon Cellan Jones’s formulaic shoot-’em-up: He’s a stone-cold killer, but everyone around him sees only a schlub.

That’s the exact word thrown at Dan by...

Daniel Craig first started performing when he was a child, entertaining barflies at the pub his parents ran. He'd perform impersonations of celebrities he'd seen on television. "I'd get money," Craig told GQ of his early acting efforts. "I suppose I've been making a living out of this from a very early age." While studying at the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, Craig made his professional acting debut at 16 in a Shakespeare production, quickly establishing himself as one of Britain's finest young actors. Craig was 32 when he was cast as James Bond in 2006's "Casino Royale" -- a role that would forever change his life. He played 007 in four more films, including his 2021 Bond swan song, "No Time To Die."

There's no argument that Bond has been Craig's signature role — not surprising since he holds the record as the longest-running 007, portraying him for 15 years. But those spy films,...

In the years since Will & Grace premiered in 1998, much ink has been spilled over exactly what the presence of Will Truman and Jack McFarland on our TV screens has done for the Lgbt community. And now that NBC's revival of the beloved sitcom has proven to be one of the fall's bona fide hits, there's no doubt that the conversation will continue. Some voices have championed the inclusion of characters in our TV landscape as daring, especially at the time of their inception, positing that their mere existence (and America's relative comfort with them) did more to further the acceptance of the Lgbt community than anything else had in all the years since or after. Even former Vice President Joe Biden falls in...

Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes's Romeo + Juliet is receiving a special screening next month with a live choir.

The 1996 movie, directed by Baz Luhrmann, will be screened at St Mary's Church near Baker Street in London among candlelit surroundings, courtesy of Backyard Cinema.

Some Voices Choir will be performing some of the soundtrack classics, including 'Everybody's Free' and 'Kissing You'.

The event will be available for three nights, from Thursday, May 28 to Saturday, May 30.

"It is really exciting for us to be showing such an iconic film of so many of our teenage years, said Backyard Cinema founder Dominic Davies.

"It was almost an institution for English classes around the country, and I have no doubt the main reason any of us started to understand and appreciate Shakespeare.

"A beautiful church inspired by the final scene of the movie is the perfect setting to screen it, and upon hearing...

David Cronenberg has said that review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes is contributing to the decline of film criticism.

The director behind The Fly and A History of Violence has said that the web and social media is "diluting" the art of movie reviewing.

"I think the role of the critic has been very diminished, because you get a lot of people who set themselves up as critics by having a website where it says that they're a critic," Cronenberg told CBC.

"Even now if you go to Rotten Tomatoes, you have critics and then you have 'Top Critics', and what that really means is that there are legitimate critics who have actually paid their dues and worked hard and are in a legitimate website connected perhaps with a newspaper or perhaps not."

Maps To The Stars review: Cronenberg tackles celebrity culture

David Cronenberg: 'All my films are comedies'

Cronenberg...

With six days to go until the midterm elections, Bloomberg Politics' Mark Halperin and John Heilemann have discovered a disturbing trend among America's right-leaning pundits. "Some voices on the right seem to be grabbing their rifles in preparation for an all-too-familiar circling firing squad if Republicans end up blowing it next week," Halperin said on With All Due Respect Wednesday.

Universal Pictures on board film adaptation of classic British series; cast to include Billy Nighy, Catherine Zeta Jones and Toby Jones

The cast of a long-rumoured film based on classic British comedy series Dad’s Army has been revealed.

Toby Jones, best known for roles in The Hunger Games and Harry Potter franchises, will take the leading role of Captain Mainwaring, a stiff-upper-lipped veteran who oversees the Home Guard in a small village toward the end of the Second World War.

His right-hand man, Wilson, will be played by Bill Nighy, known to international audiences for his roles in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Love Actually.

Both were previously rumoured to be attached to the project, an adaptation of a BBC comedy series than ran from 1968-77, but Catherine Zeta Jones is newly attached to the film as journalist Rose Winters.

The all-star British cast will also include Tom Courtenay as Corporal Jones, Harry Potter...

The Hollywood actor has said he is leaving the limelight, following a string of bizarre incidents

• Shia Labeouf: the most messed-up former Disney star de nos jours

Hollywood actor Shia Labeouf has posted on Twitter that he is "retiring from all public life" following "the recent attacks against my artistic integrity". He added "My love goes out to those who have supported me", and finally "#stopcreating".

The decision comes after Labeouf became embroiled in a plagiarism row with graphic novelist Daniel Clowes. After his film Howard Cantour.com was found to have lifted dialogue from a Clowes short story, Labeouf admitted "I fucked up" and posted an apology online. However, it emerged that the apology had been lifted from Yahoo! Answers, and Labeouf continued to post apologies taken from others. Kanye West, Gucci Mane, a Texan politician and Lena Dunham all got quoted over the following days; he even sent...

New York — "Brother against brother," says The Governor fiercely. "Winner goes free. Fight to the death."

Is this any way to run a town?

AMC's zombie drama "The Walking Dead" ended the first half of this season with a wrenching faceoff: roughneck brothers Merle and Daryl were pitted in a bloody test of loyalty to The Governor as he rallied his flock – the residents of Woodbury, Ga. – to goad them on.

That was last December.

Things haven't settled down as the hit horror serial returns for another eight episodes Sunday at 9 p.m. Est. The death match continues. The Governor, played by David Morrissey, is increasingly oppressive, even deranged.

"With Woodbury, he has built a sanctuary, a place of safety where humanity can start again," says Morrissey. "But the negative side of power is like a wobbly tooth for him. He just can't stop sticking his tongue in there. There's something gloriously painful about it,...

The doctors of Seaside Health & Wellness soon will be out.

After a six-season run, ABC’s Private Practice comes to an end tonight at 10/9c, with a series finale titled “In Which We Say Goodbye” and boasting a happy ending for Kate Walsh’s Addison. Amy Brenneman previews the show’s swan song, shares why she’s glad to see Violet go stag at the big wedding and reflects on the “bananas” storyline that gave Pp new life.

Photos | The Private Practice Series Finale Is Heading for a Wedding

Tvline | I’m curious, when did Shonda [Rhimes] first start dropping hints...

Today, the White House will sit down with video game makers to determine what role, if any, their industry plays in fostering mass shootings like the atrocity committed by Newtown shooter Adam Lanza. Some voices on Fox News Channel, who often exhibit a healthy skepticism about the government’s ability to prevent future shooting incidents with stricter gun laws, are strikingly credulous about claims that video game violence leads directly to murderous violence in the non-digital world.

A London Feminist Film Festival panel member's decision to assume the authority to redefine her audience was unfair

The opening night of the London Feminist Film Festival last Friday seemed like a huge success: Myriam Fougère's Lesbiana – A Parallel Revolution, about lesbian separatist communities in North America in the 1980s, was originally going to be screened at one of the smaller screens at the Hackney Picturehouse, but was moved to the biggest one after it sold out, and then sold out again. Unfortunately, the film didn't end up in the centre of the event. Chair Femi Otitoju managed to introduce the panellists – director Fougère, politician and activist Linda Bellos and anti-porn activist and academic Julia Long. But even before the floor was opened for questions, Long raised her hand and asked all the men in the audience to leave.

There was an instant uproar: lots of clapping, but also lots of booing.

Some of the best moments on the The Voice come when the producers force us to play along with the coaches and judge solely on the voice. Right out of the gate, tonight’s episode took that turn when Sarah Golden took on Lady Gaga’s “You And I,” winning over Blake Shelton and Cee-lo. In the discussion that followed, we learned that Golden is a folk singer… so apparently none of the songs that the artists are allowed to sing during auditions were folk. But based on the song that she was able to attack, it seems that choosing Cee Lo was a smarter choice since he might have more to offer her when experimenting with various genres.

Two more artists joined Team Cee Lo this week, giving Golden some steep competition. 28 year old former model, Erin Martin wins the award for most unique voice of the night. Levine...

Jamie Harris is friendly and chatty and patently a sports fanatic. Clearly, then, he must have put on a very different persona—also known as acting—when being cast for "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." In the prequel, out this week, Harris plays a slightly autistic human imprisoned by the apes. "I'm a nonagressive human, possibly the only one, so my life is spared by Caesar the ape," reports Harris of his role. That, of course, leads to numerous scenes with the apes in this state-of-the-art special-effects film. And yet, there's good old-fashioned acting to be done.Though born and raised in Britain, Harris has gravitated stateside for much of his career. He appeared Off-Broadway—in Patrick Marber's play "Dealer's Choice" at the Manhattan Theatre Club and in "Some Voices" and "Comedians" at The New Group. Harris made his film debut in "In the Name of the Father.

New Delhi, April 7 – Some voices refuse to fade from memory. Legendary musician K.L. Saigal, the musician of the masses and the enduring face of ‘Devdas’ on the Hindi screen, remains one of them even 63 years after his death.

‘Saigal’s greatest contribution was that he brought music to the masses. Before he arrived on the musical centrestage, music was meant for the elite who either enjoyed it at the salons of professional.

Once in a while an underground niche will burst to the surface and lay down a title that has the power to reach a wider audience. That's exactly the kind of film Godkiller is. For a select few it will not be all that original as they are familiar with the niche, others will hate this film with a vengeance. But there's an important third group which will consider the film a real eye opener. Guess that's what happened to me.

Pizzolo markets Godkiller as an illustrated film. A very close relative to the motion comic but with more cinematic ideals in mind. Motion comics try to bring life to existing material, illustrated films aim for an original cinematic experience through the use of illustrations. The techniques used to accomplish both visions might be quite similar, but the illustrated film is way more ambitious than the motion comic.

Beware if...

Not Natalie Portman, not Ellen Page, in fact you might not have ever heard of the actress who finally landed the coveted role of Lisbeth in the The Milennium Trilogy and the first film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

News release …

credit: Merrick Morton

Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara have been cast in the lead roles of Columbia Pictures’ three-picture adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s literary blockbuster The Millennium Trilogy under the direction of David Fincher. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – the first film of the series, which also includes The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest – begins shooting next month in Sweden. The screenplay is written by Steve Zaillian and the film is being produced by Scott Rudin, Cean Chaffin, Ole Sondberg and Søren Stærmose. Mikael Wallen and Anni Fernandez are executive producers. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo...

With actresses like Natalie Portman, Ellen Page, Carey Mulligan, Emma Watson, and Scarlett Johansson all vying for the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, it was announced earlier today that David Fincher gave the part to Rooney Mara.

Sony Press Release:

(Culver City, August 16, 2010) — Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara have been cast in the lead roles of Columbia Pictures’ three-picture adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s literary blockbuster The Millennium Trilogy under the direction of David Fincher. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – the first film of the series, which also includes The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest – begins shooting next month in Sweden. The screenplay is written by Steve Zaillian and the film is being produced by Scott Rudin, Cean Chaffin, Ole Sondberg and Søren Stærmose. Mikael Wallen and Anni Fernandez are executive producers. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo...

The coveted role of Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's upcoming film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been filled by actress Rooney Mara who was last seen in the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Fincher went on a world wide hunt for a actress to take on this character and it looks like he found it in Mara, who beat out pretty much every young actress in Hollywood who was gunning for the role. Some of which included Ellen Page, Carey Milligan and Scarlett Johansson. The deal Mara made includes an option for two sequels that will cover The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, the second and third books in the Millennium Trilogy by the late author Stieg Larsson.

She will join Daniel Craig in the film who was cast in the role of Mikael Blomkvist, the investigative...

The competition to play the juicy role of Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has come to a close. We have received a press release from Sony announcing that Rooney Mara (A Nightmare on Elm Street remake) will play the part of the brilliant/slightly-psychotic hacker with an eidetic memory. Other finalists for the role included Sophie Lowe, Sarah Snook and French actress Lea Seydoux. Mara also had a slight “in” as she co-stars in Fincher’s upcoming film The Social Network. She will star opposite Daniel Craig who plays disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist. Stellan Skarsgard and Robin Wright are also attached to star.

The story of Dragon Tattoo centers on Blomkvist and Salander trying to uncover the mystery behind the disappearance of a young woman forty years ago. It is the first part of Stieg Larsson’s “Millenium Trilogy”. The book is followed...

Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara have been cast in the lead roles of Columbia Pictures’ three-picture adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s literary blockbuster The Millennium Trilogy under the direction of David Fincher. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – the first film of the series, which also includes The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest – begins shooting next month in Sweden. The screenplay is written by Steve Zaillian and the film is being produced by Scott Rudin, Cean Chaffin, Ole Sondberg and Søren Stærmose. Mikael Wallen and Anni Fernandez are executive producers. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is set for worldwide release December 21, 2011.The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson has been published in 44 countries and has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide thus far. In the U.S. alone, the series has sold over 10 million copies, and the sales were recently calculated...

HollywoodNews.com: Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara have been cast in the lead roles of Columbia Pictures’ three-picture adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s literary blockbuster “The Millennium Trilogy” under the direction of David Fincher. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – the first film of the series, which also includes The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest – begins shooting next month in Sweden. The screenplay is written by Steve Zaillian and the film is being produced by Scott Rudin, Cean Chaffin, Ole Sondberg and Søren Stærmose. Mikael Wallen and Anni Fernandez are executive producers. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is set for worldwide release December 21, 2011.

The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson has been published in 44 countries and has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide thus far. In the U.S. alone, the series has sold over 10 million copies, and the sales were...

Rooney Mara cast in The Girl With the Dragon TattooDaniel Craig and Rooney Mara have been cast in the lead roles of Columbia Pictures' three-picture adaptation of Stieg Larsson's literary blockbuster The Millennium Trilogy under the direction of David Fincher. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - the first film of the series, which also includes The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - begins shooting next month in Sweden. The screenplay is written by Steven Zaillian and the film is being produced by Scott Rudin, Ce&#225n Chaffin, Ole Sondberg and S&#248ren St&#230rmose. Mikael Wallen and Anni Faurbye Fernandez are executive producers. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is set for worldwide release December 21, 2011.

The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson has been published in 44 countries and has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide thus far. In the U.

Tonight sees "Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County" air on HBO. This is the sixth HBO documentary by Alexandra Pelosi, who made the 2002.s Emmy winner .Journeys with George. and 2004.s .Diary of a Political Tourist.. She subsequently spotlighted evangelical Christians in .Friends of God: A Road Trip with Alexandra Pelosi. and .The Trials of Ted Haggard,. followed by last year.s .Right America: Feeling Wronged . Some Voices from the Campaign Trail.. .Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County. is the first Pelosi film to not be steeped in the two subjects that polarize: Religion and politics. But tonight it's a heartbreak, and shows just how tough many working Americans have it these days. If you have...

I have to admit am not overly familiar with the original Alice in Wonderland literature, and it has been quite a while since watching the original 1951 Disney cartoon, so my canvas was pretty much blank when entering the cinema to watch Tim Burton’s latest tale. With a screenplay written by Linda Woolverton, whose previous credentials include Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King (the latter possibly being Disney’s finest achievement in recent years), Alice is in more than capable hands. The familiar gothic style associated with Burton is once again present. Once Alice falls down that infamous rabbit hole we are, unsurprisingly, transported to a visually rich world containing all the classic characters: the grinning Cheshire cat (voiced by Stephen Fry), the mad hatter (Johnny Depp in his umpteenth collaboration with Burton), the Red Queen (Helena Bonnam Carter in her umpteenth collaboration with husband Burton), the White...

Morgan Freeman has become the voice of CBS News. But what is it about the veteran actor's dulcet tones that has driven him from Miss Daisy into the homes of millions of Americans?

The power of the human voice is legendary. It can seduce, it can frighten, it can talk birds from the sky (with the assistance of breadcrumbs). Some voices, it is also true, are more legendary than others. Watch the first minute or so of this video and you will hear the voice of Morgan Freeman, intoning over the opening credits of the CBS News for the very first time. You know that Morgan Freeman has a great voice, because you've heard it emote in the Shawshank Redemption. You may even have been foolish enough to buy the Morgan Freeman Sat Nav system. You may not have known, however, that his voice was great enough to announce the news.

Focus Features has hired Joe Penhall to pen the adaptation of John Williams. 1960 Western novel Butcher's Crossing for the big screen, and it is rumoured that Sam Mendes may direct.

Penhall is probably best known for recently adapting Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road, the highly anticipated feature that hits cinemas in January next year. He is also notable for writing the screenplays Some Voices and Enduring Love.

The plot synopsis for the original novel is as follows:

In his National Book Award.winning novel Augustus, John Williams uncovered the secrets of ancient Rome. With Butcher's Crossing, his fiercely intelligent, beautifully written western, Williams dismantles the myths of modern America. It is the 1870s, and Will Andrews, ?red up by Emerson to seek "an original relation to nature," drops out of Harvard and heads west. He washes up in Butcher's Crossing, a small Kansas town on the outskirts of nowhere.

The Road is a wonderful film not only because director John Hillcoat did a fantastic job of making it look bleak and beautiful, but also because Joe Penhall did a great job adapting Cormac McCarthy's novel. THR announces that Penhall will next adapt John Williams' 1960 Western novel Butcher’s Crossing for Focus Features. Before writing The Road, Penhall wrote the scripts for Some Voices and Enduring Love. Focus currently has a first-look deal with Sam Mendes, who might direct this project (pending Penhall's finished script, I'm sure). Mendes hasn't found a follow-up project to Away We Go and this has the potential to be it. Set during the 1870s, the adventure in Butcher’s Crossing centers on a man named Will Andrews who drops out of Harvard and heads west to the small Kansas town of the title seeking "an original relation to nature." There, he joins the...

Joe Penhall has been hired by Focus Features to adapt the John Williams' 1960 Western novel Butcher's Crossing, which Sam Mendes might direct. The New York Times called the book "the first and best revisionist western" and "harsh and relentless yet muted in tone," noting that "Butcher's Crossing paved the way for Cormac McCarthy." Penhall is notable for writing the screenplay adaptation for Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road, as well as Some Voices and Enduring Love. Here is the plot information from the original novel: In his National Book Award–winning novel Augustus, John Williams uncovered the secrets of ancient Rome. With Butcher’s Crossing, his fiercely intelligent, beautifully written western, Williams dismantles the myths of modern America. It is the 1870s, and Will Andrews, ?red up by Emerson to seek “an original relation to nature,” drops out of Harvard and heads west. He washes up in Butcher’s Crossing,...

Joe Penhall is following the road to "Butcher's Crossing."

The screenwriter who adapted Cormac McCarthy's novel "The Road" has been hired to adapt John Williams' 1960 Western novel for Focus Features. The project is part of a two-year, first-look deal that Focus cut with Sam Mendes, who might direct.

Set during the 1870s, the adventure tale centers on a man who drops out of Harvard and heads west to the small Kansas town of the title. There, he joins the search for a great buffalo herd.

Mendes and his Neal Street Prods. partners Pippa Harris and Caro Newling are producing with Polsky Films' Gabe and Alan Polsky.

Penhall, repped by Endeavor and the Curtis Brown Group in the U.K., also is working on the Fox 2000 adaptation "Deep Water" and an adaptation of his own play, "Landscape With Weapons," for "Road" director John Hillcoat.

He also wrote the...

Director John Hillcoat (right above), who also directed The Proposition, and screenwriter Joe Penhall (left above) recently showcased their bleak vision of the post-apocalyptic future in their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's best-selling novel The Road which had a screening at the Telluride Film Festival (read Alex's review). But the future for Hillcoat and Penhall looks to be ripe with opportunity, which is great news for both.  One new project has Penhall in talks with Daniel Craig to star in a remake of the 1973 Gaelic heist film La Bonne Annee, which follows a recently released prisoner's plan to rob jewelers in Cannes. Penhall and Craig have previously worked together on the 2000 film Some Voices and Enduring Love in 2004, however, it might be a little while before this team actually gets together again. Hillcoat is also in talks with Craig for another unnamed project in addition to adapting the novel ...

Christopher Nolan'S Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight made over a billion dollars at the global box office and was viewed by many as a high point of moviemaking, within the superhero genre and beyond it.

But a new report says the film was a low point for the film industry in its depiction of mental illness.

Screening Madness, a report by psychiatrist and film expert Dr Peter Byrne for anti-discrimination campaign Time to Change, says characters with mental health problems are being depicted on the big screen as more demonic and cruel than at any time in film history.

Dr Byrne said The Dark Knight's violence and humour was based almost entirely on a misunderstanding of schizophrenia.

He said: "Batman describes the Joker as a schizophrenic clown, and when the film's second hero Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face (pictured below right) and embraces evil, the familiar stereotype of schizophrenia is activated.

An influential report cited that The Joker from "The Dark Knight" is an example that Hollywood portrays people with mental health problems as being evil. Dr Peter Byrne, a psychiatrist and film expert who wrote the report for the Time to Change campaign, said: "Mental health stereotypes have not changed over a century of cinema. If anything, the comedy is crueler and the deranged psycho killer even more demonic." He continued: "Batman describes the Joker as a schizophrenic clown, and when the film's second hero Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face and embraces evil, the familiar stereotype of schizophrenia is activated. This is omnipresent in cinema misrepresentations . the psycho killer is immortal and sadistic, motivated by madness." A YouGov survey found that almost 50% of the public have seen people with a mental illness acting violently in films. And almost half the people polled (44%) believe that people with a mental illness will act violently in real life.

New James Bond Daniel Craig has vowed never to drink alcohol around film directors, because he often finds himself agreeing to outrageous scenes while under the influence. The 37-year-old actor, who stripped down in his 2000 movie Some Voices, blames a heavy boozing session with director Simon Cellan Jones for his gratuitous nudity. Craig says, "The scene was written as me running down the road stripped to the waist covered in tomato juice. But then I got drunk at Simon's and said, 'I'll do it naked!' The lesson is never get drunk with directors."...