The British government has provided a boost for the UK film and TV industry by announcing that it is increasing tax breaks and maintaining the qualifying threshold.
Jeremy Hunt, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, said he would reform the film and TV relief from a rebate of 25% to a new “expenditure credit” of 34% from January 2024. The change represents a 0.5% real-terms increase in the tax break.
He added that the qualifying threshold for high-end TV shows would be held at £1M ($1.2M). Ministers looked at raising the threshold, to the dismay of producers who said it would discourage investment.
Announcing the measure in his Budget, Hunt told the House of Commons: “Our film and TV industry has become Europe’s largest with our creative industries growing at twice the rate of the economy.”
In addition to the changes to the film and TV tax relief, Hunt said the animation and...
Jeremy Hunt, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, said he would reform the film and TV relief from a rebate of 25% to a new “expenditure credit” of 34% from January 2024. The change represents a 0.5% real-terms increase in the tax break.
He added that the qualifying threshold for high-end TV shows would be held at £1M ($1.2M). Ministers looked at raising the threshold, to the dismay of producers who said it would discourage investment.
Announcing the measure in his Budget, Hunt told the House of Commons: “Our film and TV industry has become Europe’s largest with our creative industries growing at twice the rate of the economy.”
In addition to the changes to the film and TV tax relief, Hunt said the animation and...
- 3/15/2023
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
Paddy Considine has opened up about a text he received from George Rr Martin about his performance in House of the Dragon.
The British actor has starred in the Game of Thrones spin-off series as Targaryen family patriarch and king Viserys Targaryen.
*Major spoilers for House of the Dragon episode eight below – you have been warned*
Throughout the series, Viserys’s health has slowly deteriorated, with Sunday (9 October) night’s episode showing him breathing his last breath as he pleaded for “no more” pain.
In a new interview with GQ Hype, Considine revealed that his portrayal of Viserys had been given the ultimate seal of approval by Game of Thrones creator Martin himself.
“I got a text message that simply said, ‘Your Viserys is better than my Viserys,” he said.
“It was from George Rr Martin. And I thought: that’ll do it. Thanks for trusting me.”
Elsewhere in the interview,...
The British actor has starred in the Game of Thrones spin-off series as Targaryen family patriarch and king Viserys Targaryen.
*Major spoilers for House of the Dragon episode eight below – you have been warned*
Throughout the series, Viserys’s health has slowly deteriorated, with Sunday (9 October) night’s episode showing him breathing his last breath as he pleaded for “no more” pain.
In a new interview with GQ Hype, Considine revealed that his portrayal of Viserys had been given the ultimate seal of approval by Game of Thrones creator Martin himself.
“I got a text message that simply said, ‘Your Viserys is better than my Viserys,” he said.
“It was from George Rr Martin. And I thought: that’ll do it. Thanks for trusting me.”
Elsewhere in the interview,...
- 10/10/2022
- by Isobel Lewis
- The Independent - TV
Paddy Considine has opened up about a text he received from George Rr Martin about his performance in House of the Dragon.
The British actor has starred in the Game of Thrones spin-off series as Targaryen family patriarch and king Viserys Targaryen.
*Major spoilers for House of the Dragon episode eight below – you have been warned*
Throughout the series, Viserys’s health has slowly deteriorated, with Sunday (9 October) night’s episode showing him breathing his last breath as he pleaded for “no more” pain.
In a new interview with GQ Hype, Considine revealed that his portrayal of Viserys had been given the ultimate seal of approval by Game of Thrones creator Martin himself.
“I got a text message that simply said, ‘Your Viserys is better than my Viserys,” he said.
“It was from George Rr Martin. And I thought: that’ll do it. Thanks for trusting me.”
Elsewhere in the interview,...
The British actor has starred in the Game of Thrones spin-off series as Targaryen family patriarch and king Viserys Targaryen.
*Major spoilers for House of the Dragon episode eight below – you have been warned*
Throughout the series, Viserys’s health has slowly deteriorated, with Sunday (9 October) night’s episode showing him breathing his last breath as he pleaded for “no more” pain.
In a new interview with GQ Hype, Considine revealed that his portrayal of Viserys had been given the ultimate seal of approval by Game of Thrones creator Martin himself.
“I got a text message that simply said, ‘Your Viserys is better than my Viserys,” he said.
“It was from George Rr Martin. And I thought: that’ll do it. Thanks for trusting me.”
Elsewhere in the interview,...
- 10/10/2022
- by Isobel Lewis
- The Independent - TV
Not an easy thing, making a film version of a classic 900-page novel, but harder still for a director to make that film her own. Mira Nair accomplishes this feat in Vanity Fair, an energetic new take on William Makepeace Thackeray's novel, one flavored with Indian spices. Yes, there is too much plot and far too many characters for a comfortable period movie. The story leaps about in a jerky manner, and the movie portrays its personae in broad brushstrokes rather than with meticulous, painterly precision. No matter. The spirit of that most modern of 19th century heroines, Becky Sharp, remains intact, and Nair's Indian touches make for an intriguing, fresh approach.
Traditionalists will no doubt carp about the Bollywood touches, but does anyone really want to see another anemic, literal translation of Thackeray on the screen? Reviews may be vital for the Focus Features release, however, as getting the film out of the art-house ghetto does represent a marketing challenge. The outlook in ancillary markets looks promising.
Thackeray's novel, which takes place during the Napoleonic Wars, concerns the lives of two starkly contrasted women, who first meet at an academy for young ladies. Film versions inevitably focus on Becky, a model of feisty feminism long before such a term existed and by far the tale's most entertaining and engrossing character.
Writers Matthew Faulk, Mark Skeet and Julian Fellowes follow the fortunes of both women but zero in on Becky. As played by Reese Witherspoon, this Becky, despite being a social climber and first-class schemer, is completely sympathetic. Women had little means other than guile and marriage to cross forbidden class barriers in English society of that era. Becky knows what she is doing but clings stubbornly to a moral code, albeit one not appreciated by the majority of that era's society matrons.
Certainly the first scheme of Becky and her best friend, Amelia Sedley (Romola Garai), fails to pan out. Amelia wants Becky to snare her rich but dim brother Jos (Tony Maudsley) in matrimony while Amelia herself has her heart set on dashing army captain George Osborne (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). Only George, a callow cad, talks Jos out of marrying the virtually penniless orphan.
Becky gains employment at the ramshackle country home of the Crawley family as governess and eventually marries Rawdon Crawley (James Purefoy), the second son of Sir Pitt Crawley (Bob Hoskins). When Sir Pitt's spinster sister Matilde (Eileen Atkins), formerly Becky's greatest champion, learns of the marriage, Rawdon, a self-indulgent, habitual gambler, is tossed out of the family.
George does marry Amelia, but only to spite his overbearing father (Jim Broadbent), a wealthy member of the emerging merchant class. George perishes in the battle of Waterloo, which Rawdon survives. Both women are by then pregnant. Amelia has her son, but her father-in-law lets her and the boy languish in dire poverty. Becky, too, has a boy, on whom Rawdon dotes. But as his gambling debts mount, Becky allows herself to acquire a patron in the powerful Marquess of Steyne (Gabriel Byrne). Where in Thackeray's version she become his mistress, in Nair's she is seen as compromised but still innocent.
A broken-hearted Rawdon quits the marriage and Becky drifts to the continent, where several years later her encounter with both Amelia and her brother brings the story to a close. Here again, Nair insists on an alteration of Thackeray. Where the novel leaves Becky a widow, who has ultimately realized her dreams, albeit at great cost, Nair's Becky runs off to India with Jos for a wedding in a lavish sequence shot at the magnificent Mehrangarh Fort in Jodphur.
Nair's Indian-ization of Vanity Fair is not without justification. Indeed Thackeray was born in Calcutta, where his father worked for the East Indian Co. The social world that he describes with such a critical eye in Vanity Fair was one of excesses of riches made possible by the British colonialization and the consequent rise of a middle class. Asian, African and Indian influences were creeping into London society as the Empire encountered cultures and people it barely understood.
Nair's cast is splendid. Witherspoon does justice to the juicy role by giving the part more buoyancy than naughtiness. Hoskins makes delightful comedy out of the idiosyncratic Sir Pitt. Byrne has just the right mix of hauteur and disdain for fellow aristocrats.
Rhys Ifans takes the self-pity out of the lovelorn William Dobbin, whose love for Amelia transcends her many brushoffs. Purefoy manages to project a manly exuberance that disguises a weak, hedonistic character. Atkins is great fun as the cheerfully hypocritical Aunt Mathilda, while Broadbent suggests overweening pride in the morally obtuse Mr. Osborne.
No attempt is made to age the actors; they simply appear in different costumes. Those costumes are especially rich, providing a kind of running commentary on the characters. Set design and photography are strong enough for the film to avoid that TV miniseries look from which so many British period pieces suffer.
VANITY FAIR
Focus Features
A Tempesta Films/Granada Film production
Credits:
Director: Mira Nair
Screenwriters: Matthew Faulk, Mark Skeet, Julian Fellowes
Based on the novel by: William Makepeace Thackeray
Producers: Janette Day, Donna Gigliotti, Lydia Dean Pilcher
Executive producers: Jonathan Lynn, Howard Cohen, Pippa Cross
Director of photography: Declan Quinn
Production designer: Maria Djurkovic
Music: Mychael Danna
Co-producer: Jane Frazer
Costume designer: Beatrix Aruna Paztor
Editor: Allyson C. Johnson
Cast:
Becky Sharp: Reese Witherspoon
Matilda Crawley: Eileen Atkins
Mr. Osborne: Jim Broadbent
Marquess: Gabriel Byrne
Amelia Sedley: Romola Garai
Sir Pitt Crawley: Bob Hoskins
William Dobbin: Rhys Ifans
Lady Southdown: Geraldine McEwan
Rawdon Crawley: James Purefoy
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running time -- 140 minutes...
Traditionalists will no doubt carp about the Bollywood touches, but does anyone really want to see another anemic, literal translation of Thackeray on the screen? Reviews may be vital for the Focus Features release, however, as getting the film out of the art-house ghetto does represent a marketing challenge. The outlook in ancillary markets looks promising.
Thackeray's novel, which takes place during the Napoleonic Wars, concerns the lives of two starkly contrasted women, who first meet at an academy for young ladies. Film versions inevitably focus on Becky, a model of feisty feminism long before such a term existed and by far the tale's most entertaining and engrossing character.
Writers Matthew Faulk, Mark Skeet and Julian Fellowes follow the fortunes of both women but zero in on Becky. As played by Reese Witherspoon, this Becky, despite being a social climber and first-class schemer, is completely sympathetic. Women had little means other than guile and marriage to cross forbidden class barriers in English society of that era. Becky knows what she is doing but clings stubbornly to a moral code, albeit one not appreciated by the majority of that era's society matrons.
Certainly the first scheme of Becky and her best friend, Amelia Sedley (Romola Garai), fails to pan out. Amelia wants Becky to snare her rich but dim brother Jos (Tony Maudsley) in matrimony while Amelia herself has her heart set on dashing army captain George Osborne (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). Only George, a callow cad, talks Jos out of marrying the virtually penniless orphan.
Becky gains employment at the ramshackle country home of the Crawley family as governess and eventually marries Rawdon Crawley (James Purefoy), the second son of Sir Pitt Crawley (Bob Hoskins). When Sir Pitt's spinster sister Matilde (Eileen Atkins), formerly Becky's greatest champion, learns of the marriage, Rawdon, a self-indulgent, habitual gambler, is tossed out of the family.
George does marry Amelia, but only to spite his overbearing father (Jim Broadbent), a wealthy member of the emerging merchant class. George perishes in the battle of Waterloo, which Rawdon survives. Both women are by then pregnant. Amelia has her son, but her father-in-law lets her and the boy languish in dire poverty. Becky, too, has a boy, on whom Rawdon dotes. But as his gambling debts mount, Becky allows herself to acquire a patron in the powerful Marquess of Steyne (Gabriel Byrne). Where in Thackeray's version she become his mistress, in Nair's she is seen as compromised but still innocent.
A broken-hearted Rawdon quits the marriage and Becky drifts to the continent, where several years later her encounter with both Amelia and her brother brings the story to a close. Here again, Nair insists on an alteration of Thackeray. Where the novel leaves Becky a widow, who has ultimately realized her dreams, albeit at great cost, Nair's Becky runs off to India with Jos for a wedding in a lavish sequence shot at the magnificent Mehrangarh Fort in Jodphur.
Nair's Indian-ization of Vanity Fair is not without justification. Indeed Thackeray was born in Calcutta, where his father worked for the East Indian Co. The social world that he describes with such a critical eye in Vanity Fair was one of excesses of riches made possible by the British colonialization and the consequent rise of a middle class. Asian, African and Indian influences were creeping into London society as the Empire encountered cultures and people it barely understood.
Nair's cast is splendid. Witherspoon does justice to the juicy role by giving the part more buoyancy than naughtiness. Hoskins makes delightful comedy out of the idiosyncratic Sir Pitt. Byrne has just the right mix of hauteur and disdain for fellow aristocrats.
Rhys Ifans takes the self-pity out of the lovelorn William Dobbin, whose love for Amelia transcends her many brushoffs. Purefoy manages to project a manly exuberance that disguises a weak, hedonistic character. Atkins is great fun as the cheerfully hypocritical Aunt Mathilda, while Broadbent suggests overweening pride in the morally obtuse Mr. Osborne.
No attempt is made to age the actors; they simply appear in different costumes. Those costumes are especially rich, providing a kind of running commentary on the characters. Set design and photography are strong enough for the film to avoid that TV miniseries look from which so many British period pieces suffer.
VANITY FAIR
Focus Features
A Tempesta Films/Granada Film production
Credits:
Director: Mira Nair
Screenwriters: Matthew Faulk, Mark Skeet, Julian Fellowes
Based on the novel by: William Makepeace Thackeray
Producers: Janette Day, Donna Gigliotti, Lydia Dean Pilcher
Executive producers: Jonathan Lynn, Howard Cohen, Pippa Cross
Director of photography: Declan Quinn
Production designer: Maria Djurkovic
Music: Mychael Danna
Co-producer: Jane Frazer
Costume designer: Beatrix Aruna Paztor
Editor: Allyson C. Johnson
Cast:
Becky Sharp: Reese Witherspoon
Matilda Crawley: Eileen Atkins
Mr. Osborne: Jim Broadbent
Marquess: Gabriel Byrne
Amelia Sedley: Romola Garai
Sir Pitt Crawley: Bob Hoskins
William Dobbin: Rhys Ifans
Lady Southdown: Geraldine McEwan
Rawdon Crawley: James Purefoy
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running time -- 140 minutes...
- 9/29/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.