J M Barrie’s legacy to the nation’s sick children is to receive a fresh boost from the latest edition of the Angus author’s most famous fairytale.

Part of the profits from sales of the audio book will go to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, continuing Barrie’s legacy to the hospital he gifted the rights to Peter Pan to in 1929.

Barrie aficionado Lumley has been joined by an all-star stage and screen cast including Kit Harington, Alex Jennings, Alex Kingston, Helen McCrory, Jennifer Saunders, Juliet Stevenson, David Walliams and Zoe Wanamaker for the project.

The story has been abridged by Martin Jarvis, who also reads, and introduced by renowned children’s author, Sir Michael Morpurgo.

Ms Lumley said: “He haunts us all: Peter Pan has never grown up and has never let us forget him.

“His shadow found in a drawer by Tinker Bell trails round the corners of our eyes.

“As I now know, like a grown-up Wendy, that most of our lives are lived in our minds, this strange, thrilling, charming and unsettling work beckons children and adults alike into the world of make-believe, without which our lives would be intolerable.

“A host of stars has gathered to read the story aloud; their gift to the charity is a gift to us all.”

Originally written as a play, the much-loved story of the boy who could fly and his pirate adventures in Neverland with the Lost Boys and the Darling children, was first published as a novel, Peter & Wendy, in 1911.

The book has gone on to sell over 85 million copies in 29 different languages, as well as being made into 13 films. Continue reading  »

If you’re a French production house looking to make the official announcement of your UK launch, who better to turn to than a couple of locals? Thanks to the incredible support of The Crown’s Tobias Menzies and Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington, Paris-based production house BIRTH found some of the best to break the ice. The “Fabulous New Roster of the Bloody French” introduces BIRTH UK, with a launch that marks an important step in the production company’s international expansion, as it also opens an office in Algiers, 2Horloges.

THE FILM

Self-deprecating and slightly absurd, “The Fabulous New Roster of the Bloody French” was created by executive producer Maëva Demurger and director Leo Bill, and came about thanks to a friendship they developed with Tobias working on another project. When the time came to announce the launch of BIRTH UK (which opened one year ago), the pair wanted to get just the right tone with a distinctly British feel. And how much more British can you get than one of the stars of a series featuring the royal family? The story grew from there.

“As Leo and I developed the idea, we then thought it would be good to have somebody else for Tobias to play off. A crazy notion came to mind: what if we could get Kit Harington? Amazingly, we managed to get in touch, told him about the concept, and to our delight, he loved the idea and was more than happy to come on board,” explained Maëva. [Source]

During a recent fan interaction on Twitter, Kit Harington broke his silence on The Eternals getting delayed. This Chloé Zhao directorial will see Kit’s big entrance into the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) as Dane Whitman aka Black Knight.

One of the exciting 2020 MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) projects that fans were really excited about was The Eternals as it marked a new beginning for the universe and allowed new superheroes to be added to the fold. It’s not just the immortal storyline that has people excited but the fact that so many talented actors are joining the MCU because of the Chloé Zhao directorial. We get to see Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Salma Hayek, Kit Harington and Kumail Nanjiani, amongst others, enter the superhero world for the first time.

While the shoot was taking place in London for a few months with even high-octane action sequences being shot, the production had to be stalled because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, Marvel also had to reshuffle release dates with Black Widow getting The Eternals previously scheduled November 6, 2020 date. During a recent fan interaction on Twitter, Kit answered several questions on Game of Thrones and The Eternals as well. When asked about the latter, the 33-year-old actor revealed, “Well [The Eternals] is done, that’s filmed. It’s just, God knows what happened or what’s going on with it, I have no idea. I don’t know what’s happening with anything right now.”

During a 2019 appearance at ACE Comic Con, Kit spoke candidly about entering the MCU with The Eternals as he shared, “A lot of people who go into something like the MCU, they haven’t had experience of, maybe, a franchise that big. I’ve lived with Thrones for ten years, I’ve known a big franchise and something that’s created a world and it has a huge fan base. So for both reasons, I’m excited and terrified.”

“This is the first time I’ve met people on that level about Marvel and I’m just thrilled. It’s a whole new chapter and a whole new character to start thinking about. Without saying too much at all, on the surface, [Dane Whitman aka Black Knight] can look like Jon Snow in the comics but there is actually a lot to be done that is different,” Harington added.

The Eternals is now slated to release on February 12, 2021. [Source]

Few have had the pleasure of playing around in two of Hollywood’s biggest franchises. After a decade starring in HBO’s Game of Thrones, Kit Harington is finally joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He’ll make his MCU debut in Chloé Zhao’s The Eternals, a production he’s currently filming. The Game of Thrones alum was on-hand at ACE Comic Con in Chicago Sunday afternoon and while there, he touched on his upcoming Marvel role. According to the new Marvel star, he’s just excited to get involved in another expansive universe.

“I went from a brilliant play which sort of kickstarted my career and Game of Thrones came along and that lasted ten years. As Game of Thrones finished, Marvel came along and so what I’m really excited about is getting involved in a new world and in a new universe,” Harington revealed.

Harington then made sure to point out the experiences he’s had with the various fans that have come through the convention for autographs and pictures.

“Coming here, I can see just how passionate people are about this world,” the actor continued. “This is the first time I’ve met people on that level about Marvel and I’m just thrilled. It’s a whole new chapter and a whole new character to start thinking about. Without saying too much at all, on the surface, [Black Knight] can look like Jon Snow in the comics but there is actually a lot to be done that is different.”

In another recent speaking engagement, Harington said his Eternals characters would be carrying a sword, seemingly confirming the involvement of the Ebony Blade in the upcoming film.

“Now I’m going with a Marvel movie. I’m going on to play a superhero, which is cool. I don’t know what I can say about it, I’m scared to sort of even mention it,” Harington said at first before detailing a play he wanted to join. “I’m trying to choose things as far away from Jon Snow as possible, but I’m playing a superhero and he’s got a sword.” [Source]

Emilia Clarke wasn’t the only Game of Thrones cast member who had strong feelings about her character Daenerys being killed in the final episode by her lover Jon Snow, who put a knife in her heart while embracing her. Kit Harington spoke to Entertainment Weekly as well about where Jon’s mind was in his final scene with Dany and why he thinks that Game of Thrones isn’t sexist in the way it treated Daenerys and Cersei in its last two episodes.

Clarke and Harington revealed to Entertainment Weekly that Harington hadn’t read the final episode’s script before the cast’s table read. When the moment Jon killed Dany came up, “I looked at Emilia and there was a moment of me realizing, ‘No, no…’” Harington said, and Clarke nodding back sadly ‘yes.’

“He was crying,” Clarke said. “And then it was kind of great him not having read it.”

Harington said this wasn’t a happy ending for Jon; it was a tragedy. “This is the second woman he’s fallen in love with who dies in his arms and he cradles her in the same way,” Harington said. “That’s an awful thing. In some ways, Jon did the same thing to [his Wilding lover] Ygritte by training the boy who kills her. This destroys Jon to do this.”

Harington knew some people wouldn’t be happy with the show’s final episode and Dany’s fate. “I think it’s going to divide,” he said. “But if you track her story all the way back, she does some terrible things. She crucifies people. She burns people alive. This has been building. So, we have to say to the audience: ’You’re in denial about this woman as well. You knew something was wrong. You’re culpable, you cheered her on.’”

He also doesn’t believe the show was sexist, killing off two of its strongest women. “One of my worries with this is we have Cersei and Dany, two leading women, who fall,” he said. “The justification is: Just because they’re women, why should they be the goodies? They’re the most interesting characters in the show. And that’s what Thrones has always done. You can’t just say the strong women are going to end up the good people. Dany is not a good person. It’s going to open up discussion but there’s nothing done in this show that isn’t truthful to the characters. And when have you ever seen a woman play a dictator?” [Source]

In Variety‘s March 19 cover story, Kit Harington opens up about the final season of “Game of Thrones” and growing into adulthood as part of the biggest show on television. In a conversation in London in December, Harington opened up about the similarities between the series’ politics and our own.

“I think it’s always been about two things for me,” says Harington. “About dysfunctional families — or families in general, always where the best drama is — and the everlasting idea that people who seek power are very often the last people who should have it. Unfortunately, we’re leaving ‘Thrones’ with a Joffrey as the President of the United States of America.” (Joffrey, the mad boy-king who is killed in the fourth season, has drawn frequent comparisons to Donald Trump.)

“I’m deeply sad of the state of the world as ‘Thrones’ ends. Because if it was prophetic, you’d hope that people would have watched ‘Thrones’ and tried to avoid some of the situations these characters find themselves in, and I feel like we are living in a more ‘Thrones’-like world.”

Harington also addressed the degree to which “Thrones” could be controversial, raising questions over time about, for instance, its depiction of female characters and the gauntlet of violence and assault certain of them were put through.

“I think it’s an amazing fantasy, because it deals with incredibly difficult and varied, very human characters. It has incredibly complex female and male characters in it. It was controversial, very controversial at times, but it asks questions of its audience and it asks questions of its viewership,” he says. “And so in that way it did what dramas should do, and it raised the idea of what fantasy could be. That could seem less important than other things, but it’s always been sneered upon, the fantasy genre, as being less important. But I think it’s an amazing genre and a genre with endless scope.” That scope includes, perhaps, a depiction of leadership with endless real-world resonances. [Source]