World Movie News: The Last 24 Hours
Frank and Percy’s world premiere at the LFF with no AI dogs, Narnia’s first trailer, Elsinore’s awards run, the Rome Film Fest opens & Busan’s market crowns its winners.
Morning, all. After yesterday’s lap of the world, with Drishyam closing in on Rs 500 crore, it’s a day of big trailers and bigger festivals, with Rome opening and Busan’s market wrapping up.
London Film Festival: My first world premiere of this year’s festival was Frank and Percy yesterday and it always feels special to be in a room full of people who are the very first to see a film. The film received its gala screening at the BFI South Bank. As I wrote in my review, it’s a warm, very funny and occasionally moving adaptation of the hit West End play, with Sir Ian McKellen as Percy and Roger Allam as Frank, two lonely men who meet walking their dogs on Hampstead Heath, and an unlikely friendship that gradually turns into something more. It’s directed by Sean Mathias, who also directed McKellen in Hamlet in 2024. Producer Frank Pack, talking to Hey U Guys, added to the controversy over Danny Boyle’s use of AI in the film Ink (and possibly in the upcoming 28 Years Later sequel) by commenting that “the dogs weren’t AI’d”, which amused me.
Narnia’s first trailer lands: Netflix has released the first trailer for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, with a rock-inspired vision of Narnia’s creation set to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”, which TV Insider says is the first time the song has been licensed for use in a film. The cast includes David McKenna, Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, Ciarán Hinds and Daniel Craig, and Meryl Streep voices Aslan. It opens in IMAX with sneak previews from 10 February 2027, followed by a worldwide release in cinemas on 12 February, and arrives on Netflix on 2 April 2027, in what will be Netflix’s biggest cinema release to date. A cosmic lion singing a world into existence, to Led Zeppelin: it’s either going to be glorious or gloriously odd, and I’m hoping for both.
Elsinore’s awards run continues: Simon Stone’s Elsinore has won the Audience Award for narrative feature at the Hamptons International Film Festival, adding to the International People’s Choice Award it won at the Toronto International Film Festival last month. Netflix’s La Bola Negra, from directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, took the jury’s Best Narrative Feature prize at the Hamptons, after winning Toronto’s main People’s Choice Award. I gave Elsinore five stars last week and La Bola Negra 4.5 stars, so I like to think my review chip is still properly enabled.
Rome Film Fest opens: The 21st Rome Film Fest opened on Tuesday at the Auditorium Parco della Musica with Paolo Genovese’s comedy-drama Il rumore delle cose nuove, and runs until 25 October with around 150 titles from 55 countries, including 18 films in competition. Javier Bardem and Tessa Ross will receive lifetime achievement awards, while composer Nicola Piovani receives the first Banca Ifis Music Award on opening night. The festival’s poster pays tribute to Monica Vitti, and Julianne Moore is also on the guest list. Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Violette, starring Leïla Bekhti, is also among the Grand Public section’s films.
Busan’s market crowns its winners: The Asian Contents & Film Market wrapped up in Busan on Tuesday after four days of deals, and handed out its first combined awards ceremony. In the Asian Project Market, Indian director Tribeny Rai’s A Chronicle of Minor Things (working title) won the top APM Busan Award, which includes a $15,000 cash prize, along with the Norwegian Sørfond Award, while Indonesian director Aditya Ahmad’s debut feature Goldfish hit a hat-trick of prizes, and Reza Rahadian’s Casparina won the CJ ENM Award ($10,000). The festival itself continues until 15 October.
Birthdays: Sir Cliff Richard turns 86 today, star of Summer Holiday and The Young Ones. Also celebrating is Carroll Ballard (89), the director of The Black Stallion. Sir Roger Moore would have been 99 today, which seems an appropriate moment to remind you that the Bond casting rumour mill is still spinning.
That’s all for today.
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