Lionsgate announced today that it won’t be releasing the Dominic Sena-directed supernatural thriller Season of the Witch on the crowded date of March 19th as was previously scheduled. There, the film was facing four other wide releases, including The Bounty Hunter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Repo Men, and The Runaways.
The studio has not yet set a new date for the film, starring Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Stephen Campbell Moore, Robert Sheehan, Claire Foy, Ulrich Thomsen, Stephen Graham and Christopher Lee.
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Fans of the horror genre will be pleased to know that BBC3 looks set to give them something scary to enjoy in the dark winter weeks ahead.
At today’s Winter/Spring BBC3 launch, BBC controller of drama commissioning Ben Stephenson assured me that, as a big fan of horror, I am going to like Pulse, which is written by Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell and stars Claire Foy, who previously starred in Little Dorrit for the BBC.
Pulse, according to the BBC’s blurb, is set in a teaching hospital, which is home to some of the UK’s most promising trainee doctors:
But beneath its veneer of medical normality lies a secret network of dangerous experiments, pushing back the boundaries of science with potentially horrifying consequences
Now, I was a big fan of E4’s Dead Set, which, for a TV series, managed to be pretty gruesome and dark, and really provided for those who like their series a little more on the edgy side.
So I can only hope that BBC3 follows Dead Set’s lead to make sure that Pulse does something similar, and gives horror fans, who I often think are under-served by British television, something to get their teeth stuck in to.
The drama is planned as a one-off at the moment, and will run alongside two other pilots commissioned by BBC3, including a drama called Dappers from Mamma Mia! writer Catherine Johnson, and another from Leo Richardson called Stanley Park.
Neither of these is a horror (although Dappers is about two two single mothers living in Bristol — which sounds scary in itself) and I can only hope that that Pulse proves to be a hit, and that the BBC commission it for a full series.
Foy has already proved herself to be a good actress, so I am sure there will be an appetite among viewers to see more of her, if not more blood and gore.
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The official website for Season of the Witch has opened up its doors. Click here to pay it a visit!
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Claire Foy has been confirmed for a new role: She will play Erin in multi-award winning writer/director Peter Kosminsky’s upcoming Channel 4 drama ‘Homeland‘. Filming for the 4 hour drama serial will take place February – May 2010. Karolyne Erfurt will play the part of her friend.
Synopsis:
Homeland is a fictional four part drama that tells the story of Erin, an 18-year-old Londoner who, while spending a summer in Israel, finds herself face to face with the brutal realities of the conflict in the Middle East.
The drama will intercut between two timeframes and stories: that of Erin in the present-day, and that of her grandfather who, in the 1940s was part of the peace-keeping force in Palestine and witnessed first hand the violent events during the last years of the British Mandate.
The story begins when Erin’s best friend, Eliza, the daughter of wealthy Israeli-Jewish parents, is called back to Israel for her National Service and invites Erin along to spend the summer with her and her family. En route, Erin starts to read a diary that she has found that was written by her grandfather in the forties. Moved by his account and the realisation that he wasn’t much older than her when he wrote the diary, Erin retraces his steps in modern day Israel, seeing for herself the hard facts of life for both Jewish and Palestinian communities. But as Len’s story unfolds, Erin finds herself on a journey which takes her deep into the Occupied Territories, the unresolved disputes of the Mandate period – and right to the heart of the current conflict in that troubled land.
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Dotty, an avid theatre goer in London and author of her own blog Oh, for the breath to utter what is like thee!, attended the previously announced Rehearsed Reading of Tennessee Williams’ The Fugitive Kind in which Claire Foy took part on September 15. Here’s what she had to say (excerpt):
This was a gorgeous lump of a play and produced here with levity and sensuousness at a level way beyond a rehearsed reading status.
Claire Foy is like a luminous liquid flowing around the stage and the rapport between Messers Harman and O’Neill was a joy to behold.
The scenes between Claire and Rory seemed much more sexually charged because the actors rarely stood very near each other and had their playtexts on lecterns in front of them. It was all in the delivery and it had me dribbling.
Blissful evening
To read the full review please go here.
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Claire won’t be attending the Emmy Awards ceremony tonight, but we’ll be rooting for Little Dorrit! 
UPDATE:
Little Dorrit comes up big:
Dark horse miniseries takes home the most Emmys
It was the little engine that could.
After staying off the radar with little marketing push, the BBC/PBS production of Little Dorrit surprisingly became the most honored program of the night with seven Emmys, including best miniseries.
It was a come-from-behind win. At the nomination stage, Dorrit was tied with its competitor in the best miniseries category, HBO’s Generation Kill, for sixth place, behind such heavy hitters as series 30 Rock, Mad Men and movies Grey Gardens and Into the Storm.
But in the end, the Charles Dickens adaptation squeaked past the dominant player in the longform space, HBO. The cabler’s Gardens was second in the program tally with six Emmys.
“This is a fantastic win that Dickens would be proud of,” said BBC Worldwide exec vp programming and production Jane Tranter, who commissioned the mini at the BBC. “If he was around today, he would undoubtedly be writing for television.”
Click here for the full list of Emmy Awards winners.
Congratulations to the entire cast and crew of Little Dorrit on a very well deserved win!!!
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Claire Foy will be doing the rehearsed reading of Tennessee Williams’ Fugitive Kind at the Donmar Warehouse on 15 September 2009 at 7.30 pm.
Unfortunately no press photos get taken at the readings. So if you attend it and happen to take any photos of Claire, we’d greatly appreciate if you could share them with us.
All reading tickets £10.
Up to 20 £7.50 standing tickets available once the performance is sold out.
GALLERY LINK:
- Miscellaneous: Rehearsed Reading of Fugitive Kind at the Donmar Warehouse
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Little Dorrit is up for Best Drama in the National TV Awards! Vote now and spread the word!
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Drama nominated in 11 categories
The BBC’s Little Dorrit will head the British charge for glory at this year’s Emmy Awards, with the drama nominated in 11 categories.
Charles Dickens’ timeless rags-to-riches story concerns the vacillating fortunes of the Dorrit family. Read More
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Sky1 has announced the cast for their upcoming adaptation of the Terry Pratchett discworld novel Going Postal – and Claire Foy is playing one of the lead characters: Adora Belle Dearheart. The rest of the illustre cast include Richard Coyle as Moist Von Lipwig, David Suchet as Reacher Guilt, Charles Dance as Lord Vetinari, Steve Pemberton as Drumknott, Andrew Sachs as Groat and Tamsin Greig as Miss Cripslock.
This is Sky1’s third adaptation of a Terry Pratchett novel – hopefully it’ll be as successful as Hogfather and The Colour of Magic. The story of the fantasy novel Going Postal is happening in Ankh-Morphork and filming has now started in Budapest, Hungary. Directed by Jon Jones (The Diary of Anne Frank, Northanger Abbey), produced by Sue De Beauvoir (Merlin) and adapted by Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle the TV adaptation is scheduled to air on Sky1 and Sky1 HD in the UK next Easter (2010) in two parts. Each episode will be an hour and a half long.
Synopsis:
Going Postal is the story of arch-swindler Moist Von Lipwig (Coyle) and the beautiful, vengeful Adora Belle Dearheart (Foy). A life long travelling con-artist, Lipwig’s crimes finally catch up with him in the town of Ankh-Morpork. Faced with death by hanging, Lipwig is spared by Lord Vetinari (Dance), who sees him as the perfect man for the role of Postmaster in the decrepit Ankh-Morpork post office. Faced with an almost impossible task, and making an immediate enemy of bloodthirsty tyrant Reacher Gilt (Suchet), owner of the rival money-hungry Grand Trunk Clacks communication monopoly, Lipwig’s first instinct is to run. That is until he meets the spellbinding Adora. Captivated by her beauty and brains, Lipwig will try anything to win her affections…little knowing the part he has played in her family’s downfall.
Sources: SF Crownest, Digital Spy, TV Scoop
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