Kaya Scodelario and Tom Cullen Move Into Home Invasion Thriller “Tiger House”

May 9, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

tigerhouse British rising stars Kaya Scodelario and Tom Cullen have signed on to star in home invasion thriller “Tiger House”, according to Screen Daily. Dougary Scott is also part of the cast and theatre director Thomas Daley will make his feature directorial debut on the project.

Though no plot details are given via the press release, a concept teaser video on Daley’s official website gives us a pretty good idea: A gang of would-be bank robbers, instead of bursting in guns blazing to the bank itself during business hours, break into the bank manager’s house in the middle of the night instead, taking his family hostage and forcing him to rob his bank for them. However, they miss one inhabitant of the house (looking likely that Scodelario may play the lone escapee) and that certainly throws things for the robbers off track. Filming is slated to begin in September, with international distribution rights being sold at Cannes next week.

Scodelario, of “Skins” fame, is about to begin filming the female lead role of Teresa in Wes Ball’s adaptation of James Dashner’s hit YA novel series “The Maze Runner” opposite Dylan O’Brien, and recently won raves from Sundance for her lead role in coming of age drama “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes.” Cullen broke out in 2011 romantic drama “Weekend” and recently landed a pivotal role as Michelle Dockery’s new love interest on season four of “Downton Abbey.” On the film side he has also wrapped Richard Raymond’s “Desert Dancer” opposite Freida Pinto.

Watch Daley’s “Tiger House” concept teaser video below.

Dylan O’Brien Lands “The Maze Runner” Lead; Ki Hong Lee Also Joins

April 18, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

dylan-obrien UPDATE: Director Wes Ball tweets that Ki Hong Lee has also joined the cast as Minho, a fellow Glader and ally to Thomas throughout the series. Lee is probably best known as a regular on short-lived ABC Family series “The Nine Lives of Chloe King.”

“Teen Wolf” star Dylan O’Brien has landed the lead role in Wes Ball’s adaptation of James Dashner’s best-selling dystopian YA series “The Maze Runner”, according to Deadline.

Filming may already be underway in New Orleans on the tale of Thomas (O’Brien), who begins life as one of the titular Maze Runners when he is deposited in The Glade with all of his past memories erased and finds himself among dozens of other boys who arrived the exact same way. As the boys train to become Runners, Thomas begins to question who’s behind their imprisonment and the ideas of a rebellion begin percolating. O’Brien becomes the first American to join the all British cast thus far which includes Aml Ameen as Alby, the strict leader of the Gladers, Will Poulter as Gally, Thomas’ nemesis and Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt. Kaya Scodelario plays the female lead Teresa, who is a surprise arrival at The Glade, the only girl and the final Glader. An ally of Thomas’ throughout all three books, the two often communicate via a telepathic link. “The Maze Runner” is set for a February 14, 2014 release.

O’Brien plays goofy sidekick Stiles on MTV’s “Teen Wolf” series, now entering its 3rd season, and impressed us with a charming, earnest turn opposite Britt Robertson in last year’s Sundance coming of age drama “The First Time.” He will next be seen opposite Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Max Minghella in summer comedy “The Internship” and we happen to think he’d be a pretty great Augustus Waters in “The Fault in Our Stars” too.

Watch: Kaya Scodelario in First Trailer for Sundance Hit “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”

April 17, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos Leave a comment

emanuel

British actress Kaya Scodelario emerged from this year’s Sundance Film Festival with a hearty chunk of buzz for her breakthrough performance in “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”, and today we have the first trailer for the mysterious coming of age drama.

The plot we’ve been previously spoiled on – Emanuel (Scodelario) is drawn to a mysterious new neighbor (Jessica Biel) who resembles her late mother and volunteers to babysit for what turns out to be a very lifelike doll – is not touched upon here at all, with the trailer employing atmosphere, mood, elements of magical realism in what appear to be fantasy sequences to intrigue potential audiences.

Are you intrigued? Well, unless you are planning on attending Sundance London next weekend, it may be a while before you get to see this buzzy title, which somehow inexplicably still has no distribution lined up yet. In the meantime, you can watch the trailer below.

Kaya Scodelario Lands Female Lead in “The Maze Runner” Adaptation

April 7, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

British rising star Kaya Scodelario will now get to add a major YA adaptation to her resume, which is seemingly becoming a crucial checkmark on every young actor’s to-do list. Director Wes Ball took to Twitter to announce that Scodelario has been cast in the role of Teresa in his adaptation of James Dashner’s best-selling teen dystopian series “The Maze Runner”, which may or may not already be filming.

The film will follow the still-uncast Thomas, the lead character of the trilogy of post-apocalyptic set novels, who begins life as one of the titular Maze Runners when he is deposited in The Glade with all of his past memories erased and finds himself among dozens of other boys who arrived the exact same way. As the boys train to become Runners, Thomas begins to question who’s behind their imprisonment and the ideas of a rebellion begin percolating. The all British cast thus far also includes Aml Ameen as Alby, the strict leader of the Gladers, Will Poulter as Gally, Thomas’ nemesis and Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt. Scodelario’s Teresa is a surprise arrival at The Glade, the only girl and the final Glader. An ally of Thomas’ throughout all three books, the two often communicate via a telepathic link. “The Maze Runner” is set for a February 14, 2014 release.

Scodelario is perhaps still best known for her role as troubled teenager Effy on hit UK series “Skins”, but lately she’s been earning critical raves for her roles in Andrea Arnold’s “Wuthering Heights” as well as this year’s Sundance premiere “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes.”

Watch: First clip from Sundance-bound “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes” starring Kaya Scodelario

January 11, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos Leave a comment

Kaya Scodelario takes the sullen teenager act to a new level in our first look at a scene from “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”, the Francesca Gregorini drama headed for a Sundance premiere next week. Scodelario plays the titular character, who is drawn into mystery and drama when she meets her next door neighbor Linda, played by Jessica Biel, who is a doppelganger of Emanuel’s dead mother. Linda has her own issues stemming from the death of her baby, and carries around a lifelike doll which she believes is her child. Emanuel begins to babysit the doll in order to get closer to Linda.

The first scene released from the film sees Scodelario’s Emanuel having a bit of trouble communicating with her father, played by Alfred Molina, about her new job at the dinner table. You can watch it below, and catch “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes” at Sundance when it premieres next Friday night. The film has no distribution and no release date yet.

Sundance 2013: First photos of Kaya Scodelario in “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”

November 28, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Images Leave a comment

Via Variety, we have the first photo of Francesca Gregorini’s Sundance-bound coming of age drama “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”, starring “Skins” actress Kaya Scodelario. The director last helmed “Tanner Hall” and had set that film’s star Rooney Mara for the titular role here, but Mara’s increasingly busy schedule likely forced her to drop out, making her loss Scodelario’s gain.

The British rising star of “Wuthering Heights” plays a troubled young woman here who becomes obsessed with a neighbor (Jessica Biel) bearing an uncanny resemblance to the girl’s dead mother. Biel’s character has lost a child herself and has taken to toting around a very lifelike doll which she believes is her baby. In an attempt to get closer to her neighbor, Scodelario accepts a job as the doll’s babysitter. Alfred Molina, Frances O’Connor, Jimmi Simpson, and Aneurin Barnard as Emanuel’s love interest round out the cast.

The first photo of Scodelario in “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”, which frankly looks like a screengrab from a trailer that we’ll hopefully see soon, can be viewed below.

Rooney Mara, Daniel Radcliffe, Shailene Woodley and more will premiere films at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival

November 28, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in General News 2 Comments

As we begin to look towards this year’s awards season, a new crop of films have just been announced for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival - the festival where potential awards contenders first get unveiled.

This year’s selection is mostly “devoted to exploring the myriad forms of human sexuality” noted the festival’s director John Cooper, and several of our favourite rising stars will be premiering new pics.

James Ponsoldt’s “The Spectacular Now” with Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller will debut at the festival competing in the US Dramatic Competition, along with the Rooney Mara/Casey Affleck starrer “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints“, and “Kill Your Darlings“, the Beat drama with Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan and Elisabeth Olsen.

Also competing will be Kaya Scodelario and Aneurin Barnard in Francesca Gregorini’s “Emauel and the Truth About Fishes” (which Rooney Mara was originally slated to star in), “Fruitvale” with Michael B. Jordan and Octavia Spencer, and “The Lifeguard” with Kristen Bell and Martin Starr.

There are sixteen titles in all competing for the US Dramatic Competition, including other films that feature Juno Temple, Scoot McNairy, Jonathon Groff, Corey Stoll and Alison Brie .

In recent years many of the Sundance award winners have gone to become Oscar contenders (“Junebug”, “Frozen River”, “Winters Bone“), with this year’s big awards hopeful “Beasts of the Southern Wild” premiering at Sundance 2012 and going on to win at the Cannes Film Festival as well.

Take a look below the cut for further information on all the entries to this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Which do you think we’ll still be talking about this time next year?

Cannes REVIEW: Highly anticipated “Now Is Good” is a disappointing adaptation

May 20, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Reviews 7 Comments

Nearly a year after being cast, Dakota Fanning and Jeremy Irvine‘s “Now Is Good” screened this past week at Cannes Film Festival. One of our most anticipated films of 2012 and based on Jenny Downham’s novel “Before I Die”, the film follows 17 year old Tessa, a terminally ill teenage girl, and her desire to experience life to the fullest before she dies.

It’s a decent performance from Fanning, whose journey from child actress to movie star has been patchy. Fanning’s Tessa is played as mad at the world, unable to come to terms with her illness as she deals with an overbearing father and a mother who can’t deal with her daughter’s imminent death. Unfortunately for Fanning, she is hindered by a poor script which doesn’t allow us to feel any sympathy for Tessa.

Watch: Jeremy Irvine is on Dakota Fanning’s bucket list in first trailer for “Now is Good”

March 2, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos Leave a comment

Dakota Fanning’s a terminally ill teenage girl with only a few months to live, and her next door neighbor looks like Jeremy Irvine, so it’s probably not hard to guess what she wants to spend her last days on earth doing. In the Ol Parker directed film based on the novel “Before I Die”, the retitled “Now is Good” chronicles Fanning’s Tessa as she decides to stop treatment on her disease and create a bucket list of things to experience before she dies.

If we go by the first trailer below, that list includes breaking the law, watching the sunrise and sunset, skiing, dating, doing drugs and going skinny dipping. Irvine is there to help her, along with her more adventurous best friend, played by rising British star Kaya Scodelario. Paddy Considine and Olivia Williams will co-star alongside the youngsters as Fanning’s parents who struggle with setting limits on a teenager with so little time to experience life and things that would normally be off-limits to kids without time constraints.

The film will be released in the UK on May 25th with no US release date set just yet. See the first trailer below.

Up and Comers Presents: 24 Faces to Watch in 2012

January 18, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge and Rebecca Lewis in Features 16 Comments

2011 saw some great new talent rise to stardom, but now let’s turn our attention to who may be following in their footsteps.

Again, we’ve chosen a group of fresh talent who we believe will be appearing in some interesting and high profile movies this year, which may or may not propel them to another level in their career. Some may be familiar to you already, some may be completely new. You may cheer at some inclusions, rage at who we left off (it was hard for us too, trust us!), but for better or worse, here are twenty-four actors and actresses that we will be keeping our eyes on this year.

>> 24 Faces to Watch in 2012 < <

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