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Fans have been eagerly anticipating Henry Cavill taking on the role of MI6 agent James Bond. The iconic role left vacant since Daniel Craig’s departure after the 2021 film No Time to Die, has sparked speculation about Cavill’s potential involvement. Recent reports have suggested that the Bullet Train actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson is in talks for the role.

Henry Cavill in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

It has also been claimed that Cavill might not get the role, as the makers are seeking younger actors who could potentially embody the character long enough. When asked for updates on the Bond casting, Cavill expressed uncertainty about his suitability for the role, acknowledging concerns about his age.

Age Concerns Prompt Henry Cavill’s Doubt Over James Bond Casting

Henry Cavill is set to embody a character based on a real-life figure Gus March-Phillipps, who is believed to have heavily influenced Ian Fleming in creating James Bond,...

This Star Trek: Discovery article contains spoilers.

In terms of individual episodes, Star Trek: Discovery does not hold any kind of Star Trek record for more time travel stories. But, it’s also the Trek series in which time travel is the most integral to the stories, characters, and themes. In season 1, Trek canon introduced “time crystals” and by season 2, the entire crew became unstuck in time forever.

Now, in the fourth episode of its final season, Discovery is revisiting some of its timey-wimey themes, with a time loop-ish episode centered on Captain Burnham and our new favorite grouchy first officer, Commander Rayner. And, throughout this surprisingly tender episode, Discovery drops some very deep cut references not only to its own history but the larger Trek tapestry as well. Here are the biggest, and coolest easter eggs in “Face the Strange.”

The Red Angel

Right away, just before the opening credits,...

Henry Cavill is being thrust back into the James Bond casting conversation on social media thanks to a viral fake movie trailer partially created by AI that imagines the former “Superman” actor as 007 and Margot Robbie as his Bond girl. In four days, the AI-generated trailer garnered over 2.5 million views on YouTube and further stoked fan interest in Cavill being named the new Bond following Daniel Craig’s departure in 2021’s “No Time to Die.”

As fate would have it, Cavill’s next role is Gus March-Phillipps in Guy Ritchie’s “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.” March-Phillipps was a real historical figure who founded the British Army’s No. 62 Commando and who some believe inspired author Ian Fleming to create James Bond. Cavill’s history with 007 dates back to “Casino Royale,” when he auditioned for the role of 007 but lost to Craig.

During a recent appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show...

Henry Cavill fans can finally see the British actor as James Bond — sorta.

A fake Bond movie trailer “starring” the former Witcher star has been racking up millions of views on YouTube despite being a total fake.

The “Bond 26” trailer introduces Cavill as the new Bond using a mix of footage from other movies and artificial intelligence. The trailer also ambitiously casts Margot Robbie as a Bond girl.

So far, the wannabe trailer has generated 2.3 million viewers, presumably driven by a mix of fans enjoying it as a “what-if” effort, along with some being fooled by it.

“Please note that this video is a concept trailer created solely for artistic and entertainment purposes,” creator KHStudio notes. “I have meticulously incorporated various effects, sound design, AI technologies, movie analytics, and other elements to bring my vision to life. Its purpose is purely artistic, aiming to entertain and engage with the YouTube community.

Amidst the speculation surrounding Daniel Craig’s successor as James Bond, one name that has consistently surfaced over the past decade in various tabloid reports is Henry Cavill, known for his spy roles in “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” and “Mission: Impossible – Fallout.” Interestingly enough, Cavill had initially auditioned alongside Craig for the role in “Casino Royale” and didn’t get the role (but came close), obviously, but has been keenly interested in the role for years now.

Continue reading Henry Cavill Says He’s Not Ruling Out Playing James Bond Due To His Age at The Playlist.

The man with a chiseled jawline and undeniable charisma, Henry Cavill is one of the most talented actors in Hollywood. He has played some great roles like Geralt of Rivia, Superman, and Sherlock Homes. However, he once had his sights set on another iconic character: James Bond.

Daniel Craig as James Bond

James Bond is one of the most popular fictional characters of all time and every aspiring actor would dream to play a role as big a character. Although Cavill ultimately didn’t get the part, the audition process itself had a ripple effect that is being felt even after nearly two decades.

Henry Cavill Got On The Radar of Argylle’s Matthew Vaughn After His Audition For James Bond

A still from Argylle (2024)

Henry Cavill‘s brush with James Bond wasn’t just a close call; it was also a spark that ignited a future collaboration. While vying...

It might be fair to say that the James Bond role has always been elusive to Henry Cavill. After losing to Daniel Craig in 2006’s Casino Royale as he was too young and inexperienced, the actor is now being doubted to join the franchise because he’s already 40.

Henry Cavill in The Man from Uncle

Cavill has been in the running for the role of 007 for quite some time now, even topping the list and remaining in the top 5 alongside fan-favorite actors such as Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Idris Elba.

Henry Cavill Remains Clueless On His Standing As The Next James Bond

While guesting on The Rich Eisen Show, actor Henry Cavill revealed he has no clue whatsoever about his potential casting in James Bond. He also acknowledged the rumor that he was being dismissed because of his age.

“I have no idea. All I’ve got to go off is the rumors,...

Remakes have become rampant in the film industry but the worst part is most of them lack any sense of originality. Filmmakers are constantly coming up with movies that rely solely on the nostalgia factor in order to bring the audience to the theatres. More often than not, the remakes aren’t met with positive feedback which just goes on to say that it is about time Hollywood should move on to bigger and better things.

Steven Spielberg | Credits: Wikimedia Commons

However, before it does so, the film industry might need to take a step back and look into two of the best remakes Hollywood has had to offer in the past years – War of the Worlds and West Side Story. Directed by none other than legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg, both films are perfect examples of how a remake should be done.

How Steven Spielberg Mastered the Art of Remakes...

Daniel Craig breathed fresh life into James Bond, the iconic British spy that Ian Fleming created. The actor took the character and put a different spin on it, and it was clear from the get-go in Casino Royale.

The film’s success exceeded expectations, and Craig’s outing as the protagonist was greatly appreciated too. He donned the skin of the character with panache and delivered a memorable performance. Moreover, the film established a trend after 19 years, that its predecessors had deviated from.

Craig as the iconic spy (Source: Casino Royale) Daniel Craig’s Casino Royale used an Ian Flemming title after 19 years

The 2006 film with Daniel Craig playing Bond marked a major milestone for the franchise. Based on the first-ever 007 book by author Ian Fleming, the film became one of the most successful Bond films of all time, with a rating of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes.

SUGGESTEDTruth Behind Henry Cavill...

From the glitzy casinos of Las Vegas to the underground dens of prohibition-era America, the silver screen has long been enchanted by the drama and intrigue of high-stakes gambling. In this article we delve into the mesmerizing world of cinematic gambling, where every roll of the dice and turn of the card holds the promise of fortune or ruin. At the heart of these narratives are the unforgettable characters who navigate the gaming world with charisma, cunning and sometimes tragic vulnerability. These characters are more than just players in a game of chance, they are the architects of gripping stories that explore the depths of human ambition, greed and redemption.

The Maverick Gamblers

Let’s start our journey with the maverick gamblers who redefine the rules of the game. These characters, known for their audacious and unconventional gambling style, have etched their names into the annals of cinematic history. Take,...

Veronica Carlson, the British actress and Hammer Horror Films star of such 1960s favorites as Dracula Has Risen from the Grave and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, died Feb. 27 of natural causes at her home in Bluffton, South Carolina. She was 77.

Her death was announced on her official Facebook page and by Hammer Horror Films. “A true Hammer legend and we loved her,” Hammer tweeted.

Born in Yorkshire, England, Carlson was a model when she began her acting career with uncredited or small roles in several 1967 films including Casino Royale. When producer and Hammer Films co-founder James Carreras saw a newspaper photo of Carlson wearing a bikini, he offered her the role opposite Christopher Lee in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968). Her performance as the vampire’s intended victim was the first of her trio of popular Hammer movies, and was followed in 1969 by Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed starring Peter Cushing...

Nick Harley Dec 12, 2017

Strongman will focus on the man inside of Vader's suit, bodybuilder David Prowse.

David Prowse’s connection to the Star Wars universe is impressive. Most impressive. As the man that physically embodied Darth Vader inside of that iconic black getup, Prowse was a part of a team including James Earl Jones, Sebastian Shaw, and Bob Anderson that brought one of cinema’s most famous villains to life in the original Star Wars trilogy.

Yet, Prowse’s “eccentric” behavior led to him being banned by George Lucas himself from attending official Star Wars conventions. Despite the controversy, Prowse will find himself as the subject of the upcoming biopic, Strongman.

Strongman was written by Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb (The Well) and earned a spot on this year’s Black List, a Hollywood-curated list that chronicles the best unproduced screenplays of the year.

Chronicling his journey from champion weightlifter...

Review by Roger Carpenter

While Lucio Fulci made his reputation with a series of graphically violent horror movies like Zombie (Aka Zombi 2), City of the Living Dead (Aka The Gates of Hell), The House by the Cemetery, The Beyond, and The New York Ripper, his early career was a hodgepodge of film genres including comedies, spaghetti westerns, and poliziotteschi. However, many critics argue that his greatest films were his early gialli films like A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin and Don’t Torture a Duckling. Fulci was handicapped by terribly low budgets for most of his career but some of his earlier works were actually well-funded, allowing his cinematic craftsmanship to be on full display. Such was the case with Don’t Torture a Duckling.

As was the case with many gialli of the time period, the film titles were influenced by Argento’s first three gialli, collectively known as the “Animal Trilogy.

James Bond fanatics rejoice ... a piece of history can be yours, for a pretty penny. The original DVD illustration for the 2002 release of "Casino Royale" will be auctioned off by Heritage Auctions on Friday the 13th. The painting's by Robert McGinnis and it's expected to fetch anywhere from $15k to $25k. McGinnis also created the artwork poster for the 1967 version of "Casino Royale." But the 2002 illustration -- used again in the 40th anniversary collector's edition...

There will be a rare big screen showing of the 1967 spoof version of the James Bond film "Casino Royale" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The screening is Thursday, August 17 at 1:30 Pm. The film features an all-star cast including Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Woody Allen, William Holden to name just a few. The film's legacy as a debacle in terms of a production that went out of control is well documented and was covered in-depth in Cinema Retro issue #6. Producer Charles K. Feldman employed numerous directors who worked on the movie simultaneously, but never together. The movie went over-schedule and over-budget but still did big business at cinemas. Even those who loathe the movie concede it boasts superb production values, a great musical score by Burt Bacharach and at least a few genuinely inspired moments of comedy. "Casino" may be a mess- but it's a grand,...

Lavi in "The Spy With the Cold Nose".

By Lee Pfeiffer

Israeli actress Daliah Lavi has passed away at age 74. Lavi was discovered by Kirk Douglas, who met her on a film shoot when she was ten years old. She went on to stardom in the 1960s, appearing with Douglas in "Two Weeks in Another Town" before often being cast as femme fatales in various thrillers including the Matt Helm film "The Silencers" and "Some Girls Do". She also was the female lead in "Lord Jim" and showed her talents for comedy in the spy spoofs "Casino Royale" and "The Spy with the Cold Nose", as well as the zany comedy "Those Fantastic Flying Fools" (aka "Blast-off"/ "Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon"). Lavi eventually left acting to concentrate on a singing career and became a major pop star in Germany. For more click here. ...

Daliah Lavi, an actress who made her femme fatale reputation in such 1960s spy comedies as The Spy With a Cold Nose, Some Girls Do, The Silencers and the classic of the genre Casino Royale, died yesterday at home in Asheville, N.C. She was 74, and her death was announced by her family. “Daliah has lived in Asheville, with her husband, Chuck Gans, since 1992,” her family wrote. “Prior to that, she was an international actress and singer…” That international career started…...

After The Fox

Blu-ray

Kino Lorber

2017 / Color / 2.35 : 1 widescreen / Street Date March 22, 2017

Starring: Peter Sellers, Victor Mature, Martin Balsem, Akim Tamiroff.

Cinematography: Leonida Barboni

Film Editor: Russell Lloyd

Written by Neil Simon and Cesare Zavattini

Produced by John Bryan

Directed by Vittorio De Sica

After The Fox, a sunny mid-sixties farce about con-artists and movie-makers, boasts a powerhouse pedigree featuring leading men Peter Sellers and Victor Mature, a script by Neil Simon and Cesare Zavattini, music by Burt Bacharach, poster art from Frank Frazetta and the legendary director/actor/gambler Vittorio De Sica at the helm.

With such diverse talent on board, the film was somewhat misleadingly promoted as another in the line of 60’s screwball hipster comedies like Casino Royale and What’s New Pussycat. But the result is closer to De Sica’s laid back charmers from the ‘50s, Miracle in Milan and Gold of Naples (in fact,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Character actor Burt Kwouk has passed away at the age of 85. Although primarily known for his work in comedy in film and television, Kwouk was equally adept at playing dramatic roles. In fact in the year 2011, he was awarded an OBE in honor of his  accomplishments in drama.  However, Kwouk will always be immortalized as Cato, the long-suffering but fanatically devoted man servant to  Peter Sellers' bumbling Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther series. A common theme throughout the series was having Cato follow Clouseau's orders to keep him on guard by ambushing him at the most inopportune moments. Their raucous battles were the stuff of inspired lunacy. He and Sellers first appeared together in 1964 and he would continue to play the same character in new installments of the series after Sellers death up until 1992. Kwouk was also a popular presence in British television and reinforced...

London (AP) — Burt Kwouk, an actor who played martial arts expert Cato in the comic Pink Panther films, has died. He was 85. Kwouk's agent, Jean Diamond, said in a statement that he "passed peacefully" on Tuesday. She didn't give a cause of death. Born in northwest England in 1930 and raised in Shanghai, Kwouk had his first major film role in 1958's The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman. Kwouk appeared in the James Bond films Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice as well as the 1967 Bond spoof Casino Royale, and had roles in popular 1960s TV series

read more...

Daliah Lavi had an odd career, when you think about it: ballet student, German pop singer, Israeli soldier and international film star, maybe best known for Casino Royale (the silly one). In 1963 she got the living crap beat out of her in two films, Mario Bava's The Whip and the Body, a ripe slice of S&M gothic horror with Christopher Lee as a flagellating phantom (maybe), and Brunello Rondi's Il demonio (The Demon), which is an even weirder piece of work.Rondi also had an odd career: an intellectual who provided regular screenwriting services for Fellini (La dolce vita, 8 1/2, Satyricon), his directing career slid rapidly into exploitation movies, crime to gialli to porno, which he appears to have attempted to imbue with some social commentary, with who knows what success? Il demonio is the first of his directorial efforts I've seen.Rondi plunges us into a strange world,...

Like a lot of folks, my movie watching is heading more towards a digital future rather than a physical one – and that’s despite my love of Blu-ray and all the cult movies the format has brought us thanks to the likes of Olive Films, Kino Lorber/Scorpion Releasing, Scream Factory, Vinegar Syndrome et al.

Whilst many will decry abandoning discs for digital files there are some bonuses, especially for genre fans here in the UK. The advent of iTunes has brought with it, in a lot of cases, a dropping of the borders. Movies are hitting Apple’s stores that haven’t seen the light of day since the VHS era – there’s even some films available digitally that have never previously been made available to rent or buy on these shores. Ever.

With that in mind, I’ve been trawling iTunes to find some hidden gems, the real...

Goldfinger

Directed by Guy Hamilton

Screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn

Starred: Sean Connery, Honor Blackman

Released September 1964 by United Artists

Even if you had never seen this film, just as with Ursula Andress rising from the waves like a bikini-clad version of Botticelli’s Venus in Dr. No, you’d recognize the iconic image. The girl, the bed, the gold paint. The sight of gilded Shirley Eaton spread out on the sheets is so evocative that – like Ursula – it was subjected to an ironic nod in a later Bond film. If Halle Berry wore the updated bikini in Die Another Day, instead of gold Gemma Arterton did sheet-duty wearing nothing but a coat of oil for Quantum of Solace.

Gold was the symbol of wealth in 1964, but in today’s world of global warming and fuel station queues, hydrocarbons have taken its place in the cultural lexicon. And...

Day for Night

Written by François Truffaut, Jean-Louis Richard, and Suzanne Schiffman

Directed by François Truffaut

France, 1973

From Fellini to Fassbinder, Minnelli to Godard, some of international cinema’s greatest directors have turned their camera on their art and, by extension, themselves. But in the annals of great films about filmmaking, few movies have captured the rapturous passion of cinematic creation and the consuming devotion to film as well as François Truffaut’s Day for Night. While there are a number of stories at play in this love letter to the movies, along with several terrific performances throughout, the crux of the film, the real star of the show, is cinema itself.

Prior to Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, Truffaut was arguably the most fervent film loving filmmaker, wearing his affection for the medium on his directorial sleeve and seldom missing an opportunity to sound off in interviews or in...

Julie Harris, a Academy Award-winning costume designer who outfitted the Beatles for both A Hard Day's Night and Help!, passed away Saturday at a London hospital after a brief illness from a chest infection. Harris was 94. In addition to the Fab Four features, Harris also worked on the James Bond film Live and Let Die (as well as 1967's 007 spoof Casino Royale), Goodbye Mr. Chips and 1975's futuristic Rollerball, The Independent reports.

Speaking about working on A Hard Day's Night at the peak of Beatlemania, Harris once said, "I must...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Although he was regarded as a comedy genius, the sad truth is that Peter Sellers was more often than not misused in big screen comedies. After making it big on British TV  and in feature films in the late 1950s, Sellers became an international sensation with his acclaimed work in big studio feature films such as "Lolita", "Dr. Strangelove", "The World of Henry Orient" and the first entries in the "Pink Panther" series. Through the mid-Sixties, he did impressive work in films like "After the Fox", "The Wrong Box" and "What's New Pussycat?" If the films weren't classics, at least they presented some of Sellers' off-the-wall ability to deliver innovative characters and comedic situations. By the late Sixties, however, his own personal demons began to get the better of him. Sellers was the epitome of the classic clown: laughing on the outside but crying on the inside.

Another Oscars season, and Christopher Nolan is overlooked again. With Interstellar getting a mixed reaction, we look at the Nolan backlash.

This article contains a spoiler for the ending of Interstellar.

In case you missed it, the Oscars were this past weekend and Birdman was the big winner. The Academy’s choice to award Alejandro González Iñárritu's fever dream was a genuine shock, with Boyhood the running favourite for many months. Nonetheless, some things never change, and in that vein it's certainly a non-surprise the Academy also hardly noticed the most ambitious blockbuster of 2014: the Christopher Nolan space epic, Interstellar. Indeed, I use the phrase "non-surprise", because how could it be a winner when it was only nominated for the bare minimum of five Oscars in technical categories that are reserved as consolation prizes?

This is by all means par for the course with a film that has...

By Lee Pfeiffer

I have seen virtually every James Bond clone released by major studios during the 1960s but "Assignment K" had eluded me until it was released as a burn-to-order title by the Sony Choice Collection. I was expecting another low-brow effort done on a small budget and perhaps affording some guilty pleasures throughout. However, "Assignment K" was a pleasant surprise. It's an intelligently written, well-acted espionage yarn that goes to some lengths to avoid Bondisms in favor of a realistic scenario populated by realistic characters. The film was directed by the woefully under-rated Val Guest, whose talents were generally dismissed at the time as workmanlike competence but which today seem much more impressive. (Guest had some spy movie experience, having previously directed key segments of the multi-director farce "Casino Royale".) 

Stephen Boyd stars as Philip Scott, a high-powered executive of a London-based toy company. When we first meet him,...

It was in 1987 that the "new" James Bond, Timothy Dalton, made his debut as 007 in "The Living Daylights". It was a troubled production to bring to the screen, given the fact that Pierce Brosnan had been signed to play the role of Bond only to be thwarted by a contractual clause relating to his NBC TV series "Remington Steele". Dalton was the fourth actor to play 007 on the big screen, if you don't count David Niven in the 1967 spoof version of "Casino Royale". He followed in the paths of Sean Connery, George Lazenby and Roger Moore. Dalton is generally credited for bringing Bond back to earth in terms of downplaying the overt comedy that had characterized the series since Connery's final Bond film for Eon Production, "Diamonds Are Forever" in 1971. The good folks at the MI6 web site provide a wealth of interesting trivia relating to all things "Daylights". Click...

Discarded plots, quotes from canon, Martin Freeman's hatred of Watson's moustache... Here's a long list of Sherlock series 3 trivia...

Released this month, the collector’s edition Sherlock series 3 DVDs are crammed with nerd succour, from the episodes one and three commentaries by Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, Sue Vertue and Una Stubbs, to behind-the-scenes featurettes, falling-over and dancing outtakes, footage from episode read-throughs, a deleted scene in which Lars Mikkelsen licks Benedict Cumberbatch, technical special effects gubbins, clips from the only existing television interview with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and - we almost forgot - the series itself.

For Sherlock fans who haven’t yet had the pleasure, we’ve ploughed through all the bonus material on the discs, turning up the odd bit of trivia treasure as we did so. Find out below about Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat's plans for Sherlock to teach Mary the violin, Benedict Cumberbatch...

Ashe never got to see a ton of modern classics from his youth, so we’re making him watch them all as a nostalgia-less adult. Check out the inaugural article for more info. Not only had I never seen Annie Hall before this week, I’d never seen any Woody Allen films whatsoever, which is kind of weird because I apparently share his sense of humor (or so I’ve been told). People have asked me if I’m a fan of his and I always have to tell them no. Not out of any kind of objection to his work, but just because I’d never sat down to watch any of it. The one thing I’d ever seen him in was the old version of Casino Royale, which was… I don’t think we’ve even invented words for what that movie was. Anyway, it’s not a great introduction for him. And...

Glamorous star of the 1960s television adventure series The Champions who went on to run an animal sanctuary

Alexandra Bastedo, who has died of cancer aged 67, found fame and sex-symbol status playing the secret agent and scientist Sharron Macready in the 1960s television fantasy series The Champions. She appeared with William Gaunt as Richard Barrett and Stuart Damon as Craig Stirling in the show about three agents working for the Geneva-based law-enforcement organisation Nemesis who gain superhuman powers after being rescued from a plane crash in Tibet by a mysterious lost tribe. With computer-like intelligence and Olympian levels of strength and endurance, they can communicate by telepathy and are assigned to cases where world stability is under threat.

It was one of the globally successful series made by the television mogul Lew Grade's international production and distribution company Itc. Bastedo described her butt-kicking character as a "gutsy girl before...

Jacqueline Bisset won a Golden Globe Award for her role in BBC’s ‘Dancing On The Edge!’ But not only did she have to walk incredibly far to the stage, her speech was kind of insane!

Jacqueline Bisset was incredibly stunned to win a Golden Globe — and she made that clear in her speech! The 69-year-old actress took home the award for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or TV Movie on Jan. 12, beating out names like Sofia Vergara and Hayden Panettiere. But even when the music began to play, she refused to walk off the stage; she actually proceeded to curse and talk about her mother!

Jacqueline Bisset Wins Golden Globe & Gives Bizarre Speech

Jacqueline stars in BBC’s Dancing On The Edge, a drama about a black jazz band in London in the 1930s. She plays Lady Lavinia Cremone, a wealthy recluse.

The actress got her start...

Alexandra Bastedo has passed away at the age of 67.

The actress, who was best known for her role in 1968 sci-fi series The Champions, lost her battle with cancer on Sunday (January 12), theatre director and close friend Roger Redfarn confirmed.

Hove-born Bastedo was discovered by Columbia Pictures at the age of 16 and sent to Hollywood to make horror film 13 Frightened Girls.

She later landed the role of Sharron Macready in The Champions, which ran for 30 episodes on ITV between 1968 and '69.

The show, which also starred Stuart Damon and William Gaunt, centred around three agents for a United Nations law enforcement organisation who gain superpowers after a plane crash.

Watch the opening sequence of The Champions below:

Bastedo's other TV credits include an episode of Absolutely Fabulous in 1992 and EastEnders, in which she played Cynthia Marshall between 2008 and 2009. She also appeared in 1967 movie Casino Royale and 1995's Batman Begins.

Bastedo dated...

The Golden Globes. They’re my favorite. Who will win? It honestly depends on how drunk everyone is. But before the champagne flows like rich dialogue out of the mouth of Cate Blanchett, here are my seven big dreams for Sunday’s ceremony.

1. American Hustle wins nothing.

Confession: Mysteriously, I have seen this twice. I didn’t like it the first time when I saw it alone, and then my family wanted to see something together on Christmas and we chose this. Um? What an unnecessarily convoluted parade of overwrought performances and plot points? Only Amy Adams manages to shine with her character’s huge but believable shifts from self-confidence to pure nervous terror. Otherwise it’s the same David O. Russell situation: Abhorrent, ridiculous men kick ass and take names while the women lose their sh*t and holler a lot. I really didn’t understand Jennifer Lawrence‘s character,...

The Saturday Night Live star talks about the pleasures and challenges of working on Alexander Payne's Nebraska

Californian Will Forte, 43, appeared for eight years on the American sketch show Saturday Night Live. "I never would have thought of him, but I liked his auditions," director Alexander Payne has said of casting the comic actor in Nebraska as David, Woody's straight-laced, somewhat dour son.

This role is a departure from your work on Saturday Night Live. Were you surprised when it was offered to you?

Very. I loved the script and really felt a connection to the character, but I never thought I'd get to do it. I taped myself doing four scenes, sent them to Alexander Payne, then didn't hear anything back for four months. Even after he called me in to read in person, I didn't think I'd get it, but a month later I was offered the part.

Prolific comedy actor who worked with Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan and Hattie Jacques

The stony-faced, beaky comedy actor Graham Stark, who has died aged 91, is best remembered for his appearances alongside Peter Sellers, notably in the Pink Panther movies. His familiar face and voice, on television and radio, were part of the essential furniture in the sitting room of our popular culture for more than half a century. A stalwart in the national postwar comedy boom led by Sellers, Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Dick Emery, Eric Sykes and Benny Hill, he worked with them all in a sort of unofficial supporting repertory company that also included Hattie Jacques, Deryck Guyler, Patricia Hayes and Arthur Mullard. He was also a man of surprising and various parts: child actor, trained dancer, film-maker, occasional writer, and dedicated and critically acclaimed photographer.

Like Gypsy Rose Lee, he had a resourceful and determined...

Filmed in the UK in 1965, this rare footage captures Allen in his pomp – and telling jokes that feel absolutely fresh

Reading on mobile? Click to view the video

Title: The Woody Allen Show

Year: 1965

The set-up: If you've seen the original Casino Royale movie, my sympathy. Even by the standards of 1960s sex comedies, it is an embarrassing mess. It did make one oblique contribution to world culture, however. In 1965, when Woody Allen was in the UK filming it (playing the villain, whose plan is to make all women beautiful and exterminate all men taller than himself), he recorded a quick half-hour for Granada Television. So far as anybody knows – or at least so far as I do – it is the only complete Woody Allen standup show that exists on film.

Usually standup comedy ages about as well as a tomato, becoming furred by quaintness after only a few years,...

Hammer and Horror Film Day!

Saturday November the 9th ( 10am – 5pm )

Central Hall Westminster.

Storey’s Gate, Westminster, London SW1H 9Nh

UK’s longest running film fair and convention.

Now in it’s 40th year!

The Convention presents dealers from all over the UK, Europe, Us ,

Canada and South America.

Specialising in rare original film memorabilia and collectables.

Taking place six times a year these are truly unique events for anyone with an interest in films!

With actors and director’s signings, illustrated talks, retrospectives and film screenings taking place through out the day.

Items covering the history of cinema can be found. From the silents to the present.

From rare items of the 1920’s to new releases and the latest heart throb.

Among the many different field of cinema covered at the show is – Classic Hollywood, horror films, sci-fi, the best of British and European cinema as we as cult tv!

[Editor's note: Please welcome our newest contributor to Slackerwood, Matt Shiverdecker.]

There's an incredibly diverse slate of repertory films in town over the next week, starting with the continuation of the Traveling Circus series from the Austin Film Society. You'll want to head to the Marchesa for Max Ophuls' Lola Montes, a gorgeous Cinemascope spectacle bursting with colors that will leap off the screen in 35mm, tonight and Sunday night (Elizabeth's preview). For those of you who recently watched HBO's Love, Marilyn documentary, you won't want to miss out on Tuesday night's Essential Cinema selection of The Prince And The Showgirl, also screening at the Marchesa in 35mm.

The Paramount's Summer Film Series continues to serve up an eclectic batch of films over the next week including Wim Wenders' Wings Of Desire and a digital screening of Truffaut's new wave classic The 400 Blows at the Stateside, both happening tonight. Also on deck, an Audrey Hepburn double feature Saturday...

Paul Feig will be continuing his recent trend of directing comedies led by a female cast with Susan Cooper. His 2011 female-led feature, Bridesmaids, was a mega success, bringing in $288 million. That film will be followed by The Heat later this month. After bridal parties and buddy cops, Feig’s new focus will be on a female spy who is said to be reminiscent of James Bond.

While not much can be said of the plot, Feig will be taking a more realistic approach, unlike other spy comedies such as Austin Powers or Johnny English. Similar to The Heat, two characters will lead the story. The possibility of creating a franchise is also being discussed.

In addition to directing, Feig has provided the script and will be producing. He was supposedly inspired by one of his favorite movies, the 1967 spoof Casino Royale starring Peter Sellers. If the two films have anything in common,...

James Tiberius Kirk. Captain of the starship USS Enterprise. Courageous explorer of the cosmos. Intergalactic love machine. Throughout William Shatner's three-decade reign as Captain Kirk, one thing is clear: his devilish charm works wonders with the ladies, both human and alien.

Jj Abrams has carried this through in Chris Pine's incarnation of the character, hooking Kirk up with a green-skinned Orion Starfleet officer in 2009's Star Trek and two cat-like aliens in Star Trek Into Darkness.

To mark the return of Kirk to the big screen, Digital Spy takes a look at 5 of the cosmic lothario's most memorable love interests from The Original Series.

Shahna in 'The Gamesters of Triskelion'

Angelique Pettyjohn's green-haired drill thrall encountered the Star Trek crew on her homeworld of Triskelion, where she was tasked with training Kirk for gladiatorial battle. Naturally, Shahna was unable to resist the Captain's charm, but at the...

If you enjoy awkward pauses, excessive stammering, and nervous stuttering -- or, to put it succinctly, you're a Woody Allen fan -- then you're going to love this supercut cobbled together by the team at Huffington Post. Clocking in at 44 minutes and 21 seconds, the clip captures every instance of Woody Allen stammering in one of his movies, exhaustively digging up every cringe-worthy “um” and “uh” and “ah,” in all their painful glory. The clip kicks off with a few scenes from early Allen films “What's New Pussycat” and “Casino Royale,” picking up awkward speed and kicking into high gear around 1977's “Annie Hall,” before finishing up with 2012's “To Rome With Love.” Perhaps the most striking thing about the clip, aside from its impressive scope, is that over the 47 years it covers, Allen hasn't changed one bit. Sure, his hair is decidedly whiter than it was in 1965, but the mannerisms...

With the words, "I never play over twenty-eight," Mae West supposedly ruled herself out of consideration for the role of Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder's Sunset Blvd. It's hard to work out why she was considered, since she had no associating with silent cinema, but perhaps at that stage the character was pre-Code rather than pre-sound. At any rate, Gloria Swanson took the role and enjoyed a renaissance, in the process obscuring the fact that she had enjoyed some brief success in early talkies (including one co-written by Wilder).

Maybe West just seemed like someone who wouldn't be shy about playing love scenes with a younger man. Much, much younger. She got her chance to prove this in Myra Breckinridge (1970), at the age of at least seventy-six. It's a moronic adaptation of Gore Vidal, directed by a British actor whose big idea was to make the whole thing a dream sequence.

American-based actress explains why she followed her heart and returned to Britain for a new BBC2 drama

Jacqueline Bisset, who has worked with some of the greatest directors on both sides of the Atlantic over five decades, is returning to Britain to star in a major television drama series by the acclaimed writer-director Stephen Poliakoff.

Dancing on the Edge, to be screened on BBC2 from next month, is set in the early 1930s and follows a group of black jazz musicians who entertain London's upper-class society, encountering racism, class prejudice and nationalism.

Bisset, 68, who was once described by Newsweek as "the most beautiful actress of all time", said the series tells a story that has contemporary parallels, and explained that she had wanted to make more British drama and increase her range of roles.

In an interview with the Observer, the bilingual star of British and French descent said she...

As he has before, Edgar Chaput has inspired me with one of his pieces, this one – part of Sos’s recent Bond Fest — concerning the loopy 1967 Casino Royale. As I commented on Edgar’s piece, I didn’t disagree that Royale was a royal mess after having passed through the hands of one director after another (and one screenwriter after another as well). Mess though it was, however, I found it – as I wrote – a “fascinating mess.” Maybe that’s just a holdover from seeing it as a 12-year-old when so much about the movie seemed so dizzyingly novel at the time: it’s casual sexuality, bawdy humor, wink-to-the-audience jokes, hallucinogenic visuals, Burt Bacharach’s poptastic score. In a way, the fact that the movie didn’t make much sense and caromed from one directorial style to another only added to the sensory overload it unloaded on a pre-adolescent.

What...

Goldfinger

Directed by: Guy Hamilton

Screenplay by: Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn

Starred: Sean Connery, Honor Blackman

Released September 1964 by United Artists

Even if you had never seen this film, just as with Ursula Andress rising from the waves like a bikini-clad version of Botticelli’s Venus in Dr No, you’d recognize the iconic image. The girl, the bed, the gold paint. The sight of gilded Shirley Eaton spread out on the sheets is so evocative that – like Ursula – it was subjected to an ironic nod in a later Bond film. If Halle Berry wore the updated bikini in Die Another Day, instead of gold Gemma Arterton did sheet-duty wearing nothing but a coat of oil for Quantum of Solace.

Gold was the symbol of wealth in 1964, but in today’s world of global warming and fuel station queues, hydrocarbons have taken its place in the cultural lexicon. And...

Like the 007s of the past, bad Bond titles have died another day. Skyfall is the Thunderball of names: confident, menacing and leagues ahead of the rest

Skyfall, on one level, is basically a massive reassurance job. More than anything, it wants us to know that it is a classic Bond film. Q has returned. The baddie's got a properly terrible haircut. There's an old Aston Martin. True, Bond might have suddenly developed a taste for watery lagers now, but you can bet your bottom dollar that he still can't get enough of whatever Sony has to offer. Cast your doubts aside – this is the James Bond you know and love.

Really, though, it didn't have to go to so much effort. The most reassuring thing about Skyfall is right there already: its title. Skyfall unquestionably has the best name of any Bond film in the post-Fleming era. It's a confident two-syllable job.

There's a lot of death in Bond films - 1,300 people dying in the official films alone. Find out where and when

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• More on Skyfall

What has Blackwell, Texas got in common with James Bond? The British agent has used his license to kill to bump off a population the same size as its 354 inhabitants since the films began in 1962.

The launch of Skyfall is sure to increase that number. James Bond films are famous for two things: one is his awesome sex life; the other is the sheer numbers of people who get shot, poisoned, eaten by sharks or sliced up by a circular saw.

How violent are Bond's films? Perhaps unsurprisingly, the body counts are extremely controversial, with several sites with competing counts and methodology.

Argument reigns, for example, over whether Sean Connery's 1983 Never Say Never Again...

For his follow up to The Dictator, Sacha Baron Cohen has pitched to Paramount Pictures a remake of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery . no, wait, he.ll be remaking Woody Allen.s 1967 comedy Casino Royale. Ok, fine, Cohen will place his stamp on a reboot of Rowan Atkinson.s Johnny English franchise. No? Oh, he.s simply trying yet another James Bond spoof? Add it to the growing pile. Cohen reportedly will co-write a 007-style comedy with Phil Johnston, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The trade, in reporting the story, points out that the tried-and-true tropes of the Bond franchise make it ripe for spoofing, inspiring Michel Hazanavicius to create the Oss 117 films and all of the movies I mentioned above. But Cohen has pitched a story about a Bond-like character who.s forced to go on the run with his brother, a .moronic soccer hooligan.. At the moment,...