World Movie News: The Last 24 Hours
Elsinore lights up the London Film Festival, Skydance’s first moves, Jack Lowden’s Bond odds, Hong Kong’s The Mage, El Gouna’s programme & Oscar winner Eva Marie Saint is mourned..
Morning, all. Yesterday I told you the Skydance merger had closed; today its bosses are already rearranging the furniture. Meanwhile the festival circuit shows no sign of slowing down.
London Film Festival: I finally got eyes on Elsinore yesterday, and it’s a belter: five stars from me. Andrew Scott’s Ian Charleson is the finest thing I’ve seen him do, and I confidently predict he’ll be holding the Best Actor Oscar at next year’s ceremony. I called Jessie Buckley for Hamnet after last year’s festival, so you read it here first. It’s also much funnier than you’d expect, thanks to some very dry gallows humour, and I was in bits at the end. I wasn’t the only one. At the opening night gala at the Royal Festival Hall, large parts of the audience were wiping away tears, a stone’s throw from the National Theatre where the story takes place. Critics are broadly with us, with Rotten Tomatoes at 89%, but it won’t suit everyone. My viewing companion, On Bashar of the Movie Bread Club podcast, felt manipulated and stayed resolutely dry-eyed, and The Film Stage panned it. Tomorrow I’m off to see John Malkovich in Wild Horse Nine.
Skydance gets to work: At a press event on the Paramount lot, David Ellison said HBO Max and Paramount+ will run separately at first, with bundling coming relatively soon, but that the long-term plan is to bring them together. He also credited advances in AI with helping the process along. Josh Goldstine, who ran marketing at Paramount Pictures, has been given charge of marketing and distribution across all of Skydance’s film labels, Warner Bros. included. Co-CEO Ynon Kreiz was asked about Barbie 2, and said it was too early to talk about it, while leaving some room for hope. I do enjoy a corporate “too early to talk about that”.
The Bond rumour mill keeps turning: Saoirse Ronan has addressed talk that her husband Jack Lowden is the next 007, saying the subject isn’t coming up at home because the dog needs walking and dinner needs making. She noted that Gary Oldman thinks he’s Bond, which she called “its own thing”, and Amazon MGM declined to comment. Oldman had said he’d heard Lowden was on the shortlist, and Paul Mescal, Jacob Elordi, Callum Turner and Harris Dickinson have all been linked to the role. A cheerfully non-denial denial; I’m not sure it’s going to put anyone off the scent.
Hong Kong horror heads to Busan: Danny and Oxide Pang’s supernatural crime thriller The Mage, starring Josie Ho, opens today in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan, with Singapore following on 15 October and Thailand on 29 October. It is also being introduced to international buyers at Busan’s film market. Meanwhile, a seven-member jury led by Zhang Yimou will pick the Busan Award winner from 14 competition films.
El Gouna lays out its programme: In Egypt, the El Gouna Film Festival has revealed its ninth edition, running 15–23 October, with 53 films announced so far and around 70 expected, including more Arabic-language titles. Actress Mona Zaki will receive its Career Achievement Award. The top narrative prize, the Golden Star, comes with $50,000.
Eva Marie Saint, 1924–2026: The actress died on Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles, aged 102. She won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for On the Waterfront, her first film, and was the oldest living Oscar winner. She credited her husband, the director Jeffrey Hayden, with persuading her to take Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, where she managed to be the best thing in a film that also had a crop-duster trying to kill Cary Grant. She later won an Emmy for the 1990 miniseries People Like Us and played Martha Kent in Superman Returns. She returned to the Oscars stage in 2009 to present the supporting actress award, 55 years after her own win. A true golden-age star, and by all accounts a lovely woman. Rest in peace.
Birthdays: Sigourney Weaver turns 77 today, and Matt Damon, who is 56. Also celebrating are Harry Potter director David Yates (63) and Crocodile Dundee‘s Paul Hogan (87).
That’s all for today.
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