PETER'S FRIENDS (FRENCH REGION 2 DVD)

http://thierryattard.blogspot.fr/2013/01/peters-friends-koba-films.html

Review in French only.


See also:

http://www.kobafilms.fr/film/peters-friends-296.html

THE FRYADELPHIA EXPERIMENT

[9.50 - French Time] Curious experience for The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS yesterday, with host Craig Ferguson breaking his format for a very special guest.

No cold open, no puppets (we have discussed of the puppets here), no intro song, no monologue and no "audience machine" with members of his "Robot skeleton army" (as Ferguson calls his followers on Twitter). Instead, Craig Ferguson on the Charlie Rose territory in a taped interview of one of the most illustrious British citizens: comedian, actor, presenter and Renaissance man Stephen Fry.

Maybe The Tonight Show on NBC could do a one-on-one with Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. And Jimmy Kimmel could lend Guillermo, the security guard of his ABC show, for the event.

LOST KINGDOM

The dream of a resurrection of the recently axed Kingdom - the ITV hit series starring Stephen Fry - through an eventual funding deal like the one which brought back Primeval, will certainly stay just a dream after that: The Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph report that Fry would like to move to America.

According to the websites of the newspapers, British comedian/actor/humorist/author/presenter/Renaissance man Stephen Fry, one of the UK's "national treasures", would like to settle down in Los Angeles near his friend Hugh "House" Laurie and he considers opting for US citizenship.

In the US Fry is well-known for his documentaries, his books, several roles in some Hollywood movies, and for his appearances in Fox drama Bones.

To quote the great Alan Parker from his book Will write and direct for food (http://tattard2.blogspot.com/2008/05/will-write-and-direct-for-food.html): « I mean what is the British Film Industry anyway? Just a bunch of people in London who can't get Green Cards ».

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1228449/Stephen-Fry-hints-planning-following-fellow-comedian-Ben-Eltons-footsteps-leaving-Britain.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/6586145/Stephen-Fry-house-hunting-in-Los-Angeles.html

See also:

http://tattard2.blogspot.com/2009/10/kingdom-fried-next-fixer.html

KINGDOM FRIED... NEXT, THE FIXER?

[15.30/Revised 21.30 - French Time] Life is Hell. Just when you begin to see clouds in shape of Care Bears in the blue sky, unicorns running in the fields (hello, Duncan!) and signs of recovery for ITV, Primeval is brought back from oblivion and Kingdom is axed.

According to Broadcast, ITV cancels Norfolk based Stephen Fry vehicle (launched in 2007) after three series. The news was revealed by Fry himself on his blog and twitter feed this morning (http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/broadcasters/itv-axes-kingdom/5006615.article). « Our masters at ITV have decided that there shan’t be a fourth series of the television drama Kingdom. I am sorry because it was such a pleasure making them in my beloved Norfolk » writes Stephen Fry (1).

Peter Kingdom is a solicitor in the pittoresque small town of Market Shipborough. He must endure the creative lunacy of his sister Beatrice (Hermione Norris, a galaxy away from Spooks), the disappearance of Simon - his brother and partner in Kingdom & Kingdom, the family problems of his secretary (Celia Imrie), the bad luck of his trainee solicitor, and the eccentricity of the locals. Peter's aunt, Auriel - played by Phyllida Law, is his confidante.

Kingdom is often compared with reason to Doc Martin, the other rural comedy drama of ITV1. To write that the character of Peter Kingdom is modeled on Stephen Fry would be an euphemism to the point that some critics even consider that Fry is playing himself in the show. But it's probably true and it's what makes Kingdom so lovable, with also its great supporting cast and beautiful locations (http://www.literarynorfolk.co.uk/kingdom_tv_series.htm).

The third series of Kingdom (a show distributed by Portman) ended its run on ITV1 in July with a strong audience of 4.84m (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a181343/itv-axes-stephen-frys-kingdom.html). An ITV spokesman said: « Kingdom has performed well for us over the last three years but we will not be developing any further episodes. As has always been the case, we are constantly looking at ways to refresh the mix of drama on ITV1 to ensure that we get the balance right between both old and new titles » (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/09/stephen-fry-kingdom-itv).

The reactions to the announcements range from astonishment to consternation. Following the unexpected resurrection of Primeval (axed after an abysmal third series) with an innovative funding deal where BBC Worldwide has the lion's share, Peter Fincham, the ITV director of television, said « I don’t think all drama will be funded this way, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of it. It’s a reality of a world in which it’s challenging for broadcasters to fully fund drama » (http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/commissioning/fincham-drama-deals-could-be-way-forward/5006271.article).

Has Fincham Kingdom in mind? Who's next? The Fixer? Series 2 of the best British series of the moment ended its six-part run with 2.8m viewers (http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/ratings/criminal-justice-picks-up-speed/5006504.article). But the fact that Scottish viewers cannot watch ITV dramas because of a dispute between STV and ITV certainly didn't help the ratings of this great show.

Will Kingdom get the Primeval treatment? Will ITV revamp the show as Dinosaurs do the funniest things - Market Shipborough Edition, with another Stephen... Stephen Mulhern. Thank God, Harry Hill's TV Burp comes back tomorrow (http://www.itv.com/Entertainment/comedy/HarryHillsTVBurp/default.html).

Just kidding.

(1) http://www.stephenfry.com/2009/10/09/kingdom-come-kingdom-gone/

ITV WINTER SPRING SEASON: BBC OR BUST?

Rupert Penry-Jones, Philip Glenister, Freema Agyeman, and even David Morrissey [Message to the Beeb: Make him Doctor 11 for God sake!] Where have we seen all these faces before?

TREAT OR TRICK

ITV 1 offers us a first look at the "treats" it has in store for the Winter/Spring Season 2008-2009 on its New Season New Horizons website (http://www.newseasonnewhorizons.com/). Amongst the exciting stuffs: Demons, from the dynamic Shine production company, with Philip Glenister (Ashes to Ashes), Richard Wilson (One foot in the Grave, Merlin) and Mackenzie Crook (Popetown) in a contemporary version of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Your humble servant will also wait eagerly for the third series of Primeval (« Oh, don't ask why... » sung the Bard).

The nomination for the "Suicide Squad Award" goes to Law & Order: UK, a joint venture between Kudos (Spooks), American iconic producer Dick Wolf and NBC Universal. It is of course the British version of Wolf's monument, Law & Order. Without presuming of the qualities of the show but remembering what happened in France with Paris Enquêtes criminelles (The French remake of Law & Order: Criminal Intent) and to the Italian R.I.S., to carbon copy a format is always risky. And is there a UK show where Freema Agyeman is not? The female D.A. part is always ungrateful... See what happened to the characters played by Elizabeth Röhm (the most terrible exit in the History of Television) or Annie Parisse. At least if it bombs Ben Silverman can always shows it on NBC's Prime Time in case of SAG strike.

MANY HAPPY RETURNS (?)

Anyway, it seems that there are really, really good things on ITV 1's menu to make us forget conventional ITV products like Agatha Christie's Marple, Wild at Heart or Midsomer Murders (is there still someone to kill in Badger's Drift and its surroundings?) : a second series of The Fixer - the very good surprise of last year, a new Wuthering Heights, John Hurt back as Quentin Crisp (The Naked Civil Servant) in An Englishman in New York, Whitechapel - a thriller with Rupert Penry-Jones and Steve Pemberton, an adaptation of Affinity (the novel written by Sarah Waters) by Andrew Davies, or Albert's Memorial (with David Jason, David Warner and Michael Jayston)... Did we mention new episodes of the classy Lewis and the great Mr Stephen Fry back in a third series of Kingdom?

Allow us some reserve if not apprehensions about the remake of The Prisoner shot in South Africa, with Jim Caviezel as Number 6 and Sir Ian McKellen as Number 2 (smart choice), and due to arrive in 2009 (1). The miniseries is co-produced by ITV and American cable channel AMC (http://www.amctv.com/originals/the-prisoner/), already actively present in BBC's Hustle. Remakes of classic ITC Entertainment shows are trendy, Guillermo Del Toro prepares a movie remake of The Champions for United Artists (http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2008/11/they-are-the-champions.html), which is a rather strange idea as it was one of the weakest entry of the company (X-Men, anyone?) Someone should think of a remake of Department S, with Stephen Fry as Jason King, in a CSI way. THAT would be interesting. And our Canadian friend Furious D (http://dknowsall.blogspot.com/) is absolutely right: Stephen Fry should be Q in Bond 23 as well. And King of France too...

A tip for ITV: split that Season showreel, pu-leaaaase! But the brochure is excellent.

(1) And as the wonderful wife of your humble French scribe says: « There can be only one » !

WILL WRITE AND DIRECT FOR FOOD (SOUTHBANK PUBLISHING)

Director and writer Alan Parker is also a master cartoonist. His vision of movie-making expressed with a pencil is as sharpen and accurate as his eye of movie-maker. Will Write and Direct for Food is his third collection of cartoons on the movie industry, a funny, caustic and clever voyage through the other side of the screen.

« The (Hollywood) system IS dysfunctional at best and not a help to taking creative chances, which was and remains a pity. It is not for the thin-skinned and humiliations come in all shapes and sizes. » (Nicholas Meyer)

« It's only a movie, Ingrid. » (Alfred Hitchcock)

COME SEE THE PARADISE

When you are at some level or another of the great food chain of the motion picture industry there is always a moment when you try to recall what it's all about. Sometimes, if you are lucky, you remember all this is about films, movies, flicks, the stuff you used to watch in a dark room full of people before it goes on strange small discs and on Telly.

The Saving Grace can touch you during a lunch with Stephen Tobolowsky, while discussing with a cultivated and epicurian spanish gentleman or while you laugh reading the latest collection of cartoons by Sir Alan Parker.

Before beeing one of the greatest directors and writers of the 20th and 21st centuries, Sir Alan used to be a cartoonist in a London ad agency. Later, he kept playing with his pencil as a catharsis during the usual, frequent and exquisite « cultural confontations » with studios suits.

« Mostly, of course, you pinch yourself how lucky you are to actually be involved in making films but also, when things get rough, making a film can seem like 120 pages of sodomy. » (Alan Parker)

« Timing is everything » says the villain in Adrenalin, a german actioner. This third book of Sir Alan's little tricks and treats (after Hares in the gate and Making Movies) comes just after the summer of all fears and discontents for US box office and the Hollywood industry.

And ouch, it hurts... « I'm telling you Larry, modern cinema is the bastard child of the effects movie and the computer game: the confluence of the phony with the non existent, resulting in the unimaginable. » (Will Write and Direct for Food, page 30)

HOLLYWOODLAND BURNING

With Alan Parker the sketch game often mutes into skeet game and no-one is spared: Cameron Diaz, Madonna, Tom Cruise, Guy Ritchie... but from a purely cinephilic point of view, the deadliest bullet shot to the « Mighty Ducks » is 20 years old: the cult-classic « God, how I hate the Laura Ashley school of film making » (« A Merchant Ivory Production », page 93).

« 20 million over budget, 2 hours too long, and forty minutes after closing time. » (« Mammoth Pictures Presents The Grand Epic », page 68)

Nevertheless make no misunderstanding, Will Write and Direct For Food is not Die Hard with a vengeance. It's a funny and intelligent look over the bringers of wonders from an insider. The status of the director within the system (« In Europe the director is the author of the film: God. In the States the director is shit: a hired hand, an indeventured servant. », page 15), the multiplexes (Shrek on 9 screens, Amelie in the 10th one - page 65), the pre-production process, the execs, the agents, the journalists and the critics (after page 204 your humble scribbler considered buying a kevlar bullet-proof vest) are amongst the many themes of this Survival guide to Hollywoodland.

Sometimes the pencil of Sir Alan could strangely be taken for a crystal ball - particularly page 194 - but, as he writes in the foreword of this useful book, « nothing has changed in the movie business in a hundred years ».

FULLY COMMITTED

« I mean what is the British Film Industry anyway? Just a bunch of people in London who can't get Green Cards. » (Page 85)

Alan Parker makes Hollywoodland bite the dust and Homeland eat ashes, when targeting the British Film Industry with an almost melancholic tone (« So much leg work. So many miles. So little progress », page 81) for a past Chairman of the UK Film Council and the British Film Institute. Revenge of the Grumpy Old Man? No, Will Write and Direct for Food is an amusing and elegant piece of wit from an eclectic artist wishing to recall us all this is about making movies (« In equal doses it is an uplifting and sluttish profession »).

British Actor extraordinary Stephen Fry says about Will Write... : « You'll want three copies: one for keeping, one for sending to your friends (and enemies) and one for cutting up and framing ». Those who know the author of this article personally will guess which cartoon he could xerox and frame...

Santa Claus is coming to town earlier this year, thanks to London-based publisher Southbank Publishing and to this superb book (£14.99). Note that Southbank also publishes a book on the Shepperton Studios with a foreword by Sir John Mills and an introduction by Sir Ridley Scott.

« Alan Parker and Ridley Scott are great generals. They have vision, clarity, and GREAT PREPARATION.» (Stephen Tobolowsky)