\nBaz Bamigboye<\/a><\/p>\n
Last updated at 10:54 PM on 22nd December 2011<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nRed hot: Christina Hendricks takes up another 60s role<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Christina Hendricks, the actress who gives the TV drama Mad Men a lot of its heat, is growing fonder of the Sixties.<\/span><\/p>\n Hendricks, who plays Joan Holloway, the no-nonsense head of office operations in the Sixties-set TV show, is in talks to appear in Sally Potter\u2019s anti-nuclear movie, Bomb, which is also based in that decade.<\/span><\/p>\n The picture focuses on two teenage rebels, played by Elle Fanning and Alice Englart, who become involved in the Ban the Bomb movement and the sexual revolution. Potter and producer Christopher Sheppard plan to shoot the film in February in London and on the South-East coast. <\/span><\/p>\n Alessandro Nivola has also been cast in Bomb, and Annette Bening is considering a part in the film.<\/span><\/p>\n Hendricks\u2019s Jessica Rabbit meets Marilyn Monroe hour-glass figure caught audiences\u2019 attention when Mad Men took off. <\/span><\/p>\n However, \u00a0\u00a0 ………………………………………..<\/span><\/p>\n Everybody The The But the musical wouldn\u2019t be a straight lift. \u2018Some of the characters from the film will be dropped, and new ones introduced. Not all the elements from the film will be on stage, and we\u2019ll expand on things the film barely touched on,\u2019 Rebecca Quigley, managing director of Stage Entertainment, explained. The company is producing the show with Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen \u2014 who also produced the picture through their Number 9 film company. Richard Bean, who adapted Carlo Goldoni\u2019s The Servant Of Two Masters and turned it into the smash hit One Man, Two Guvnors (with a lot of help from Nick Hytner, Cal McCrystal, James Corden and Grant Olding) is writing the book. <\/span> Strike: The story of the women workers, which featured Sally Hawkins in the feature film, is being turned into a West end musical<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Action: The film boasted an array of top actresses but the show won’t be a straight rip off and some characters will be dropped<\/p>\n<\/div>\n David Arnold, who has scored several James Bond movies, is writing the score, with Richard Thomas providing the lyrics. Thomas penned librettos for the Jerry Springer and Anna Nicole operas. Joining them will be the award-winning director\u00a0 Rupert Goold. \u2018It\u2019s a purely original British musical,\u2019 Ms Quigley declared. Bean has work to do on the book, and only a handful of numbers have been written. A special reading of a few scenes was held a few days ago and the creative team were happy enough to progress to a rehearsed workshop of Act 1 early in February. \u00a0\u00a0 ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. Daniel Radcliffe admits to having his little addictions. He was once a two-a-day Flake man, but has managed to drop the chocoholic habit. Then he hit the Red Bull\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. \u2018I was doing a 16oz can a day and wondering why I couldn\u2019t sleep at night,\u2019 Daniel tells me, adding that he now satisfies his caffeine needs with one coffee a day.<\/span><\/p>\n Chocoholic: Daniel Radcliffe once had to have two Flakes a day but he has now managed to kick the habit<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He\u2019s worried that he\u2019ll lapse once he ends his barn-storming run in the Broadway musical How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying on January 1. After that, he\u2019ll travel to promote the spine-tingling Gothic ghost movie The Woman In Black (pictured), before starting two new movies. \u2018On film sets, the joke is there are two options: you\u2019ll either eat or smoke,\u2019 he says. \u2018I hope not to balloon.\u2019 Daniel confesses to one other addiction \u2014 campaigning for his Harry Potter co-star (and good friend) Alan Rickman to get an Oscar nomination for his superb performance as Severus Snape in Deathly Hallows II. Steven Spielberg has dubbed actor Tom Hiddleston \u2018the new Errol Flynn\u2019. He meant Flynn\u2019s heroic swashbuckling acting in classic silver-screen pictures such as Captain Blood and The Adventures Of Robin Hood \u2014 not his legendary swordsmanship, off screen, with the ladies. And Hiddleston, 30, certainly cuts a dash as Captain Nicholls, the World War I British cavalry officer who purchases Joey, the red bay, and takes him to fight the Hun in Spielberg\u2019s glorious big-screen version of War Horse, which opens here on January 13. <\/span> Compliment: Director Steven Spielberg has dubbed Tom Hiddleston, pictured right as Captain Nicholls in War Horse, the new Errol Flynn<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When we meet at Soho House in London, heads turn as Hiddleston walks by. Spielberg told me that when the British actor visited his West Coast office to discuss the role, all the girls were swooning over him. \u2018They went all googly-eyed and I said: \u201cThat\u2019s the next Errol Flynn!\u201d. Hiddleston\u2019s old-fashioned swagger is totally in keeping with War Horse\u2019s nods to great movies from the past: Lawrence Of Arabia; Gone With The Wind; the films of John Ford and Howard Hawkes. Hiddleston \u2014 a Cambridge graduate \u2014 has about 15 minutes of screen-time, as one of\u00a0 several people who take Joey\u2019s reins for a while. \u2018Captain Nicholls is not a soldier \u2014 he\u2019s an educated gentleman, and he\u2019s in the Army because he can ride,\u2019 Tom told me. \u2018For the officer class, it was almost summer camp for the generation that was fox hunting in the winter in red coats and in khaki in the summer. \u2018They thought it\u2019d be over by Christmas, but suddenly they\u2019re charging across No Man\u2019s Land with their sabres flashing in the sun, up against machine guns.\u2019 One scene (right) shows Nicholls leading the charge on Joey. Spielberg wanted to capture the sense of confidence that abruptly turns to fear when Nicholls realises what he and his men are up against. The actor was 29 then; Spielberg told him to lop 20 years off his age. You will know the moment we\u2019re discussing because the expression on Hiddleston\u2019s face is one you\u2019ll never forget. Legendary: Errol Flynn pictured in The Adventures of Robin Hood<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Hiddleston is about to ride another mount, in his role as Henry V in a BBC TV film. It\u2019s part of a series of Shakespeare pictures based on Richard II, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. Tom also plays Hal in the two Henry IV dramas. \u2018Hal goes from being a rebellious, drunken, irresponsible prince to one of the most courageous, charismatic kings of England we\u2019ve ever had,\u2019 he said. He will shoot Henry IV, opposite Jeremy Irons, next month. Then, he\u2019ll begin work on Thor 2, reprising his role as the dark prince Loki. Loki also crops up in The Avengers (out here in April). Hiddelston has had a tremendous run lately: he\u2019s also played F. Scott Fitzgerald in Woody Allen\u2019s Midnight In Paris, and a former fighter pilot in Terence Davies\u2019s sublime film The Deep Blue Sea.<\/span> Richard Griffiths and Danny De Vito have found their place in the sun. The two stars will open in the West End towards the end of April in a new version of Neil Simon\u2019s comedy The Sunshine Boys. Producer Sonia Friedman confirmed a story that this column broke a couple of months ago: that the two men have \u2018connected\u2019 and that rehearsals will begin in March, with an opening at a London theatre which will be finalised some time in January. \u2018I think these two \u2014 Richard and Danny \u2014 and the play will be just what we need to give us all a lift,\u2019 Ms Friedman told me.<\/span><\/p>\n The Comedy Sunshine Boys: Richard Griffiths and Danny De Vito will open in the West End next April<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The playwright has met director Thea Sharrock and is rewriting some of the play\u2019s\u00a0 40-year-old dialogue, inserting some new, up-to-date gags. Set in the early Seventies, The Sunshine Boys is a celebration of the art of vaudeville \u2014 told through the eyes of a successful, but now retired double-act called Lewis and Clark. The funnymen performed together for four decades but grew to loathe each other. Clark, in particular, hates Lewis with a passion because he blames him for breaking up the act. Griffiths, who appeared in the Harry Potter films, and who won accolades as the brilliant teacher Hector in Alan Bennett\u2019s landmark play The History Boys, will play level-headed Al Lewis. De Vito \u2014 who made his name in movies such as One Flew Over The Cuckoo\u2019s Nest, Terms Of Endearment and Throw Mamma From The Train \u2014 will play difficult, argumentative Willy Clark. Although the role will mark De\u2009\u2009Vito\u2019s London theatre debut, the actor is not a stage novice. He\u2019s very much of the theatre, having trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He has appeared in many\u00a0 off-Broadway productions, including the original stage version of One Flew Over The Cuckoo\u2019s Nest. When director Steve McQueen and screenwriter Abi Morgan were researching sex addiction for their new movie, Shame, they got nothing from zipped-up Brits, so they flew to New York and it all spilled out. \u2018We were like Miss Marple and Columbo, delving into people\u2019s sex lives the way detectives probe murders,\u2019 McQueen told me. The result of their labours is Shame, a scorching picture from McQueen, who also gave us the powerful drama Hunger. Shame features a virtuoso performance from Michael Fassbender (also the star of Hunger) as a Manhattan-based advertising executive who needs sex the way a junkie needs a fix. \u2018It\u2019s an illness,\u2019 McQueen asserted. \u2018This man struggles with his sex life.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n No shame: Steve McQueen pictured with Michael Fassbender. The director had to go state-side to get the dirty about sex addiction<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Fassbender\u2019s character has to clear out his porn videos and magazines when his estranged sister (Carey Mulligan) arrives to stay. McQueen told me he hadn\u2019t intended the part for Mulligan, but she wore him down. \u2018I wasn\u2019t ready to give it to her initially, but she wasn\u2019t going to let me go,\u2019 he says. \u2018I\u2019m glad I did \u2014 she\u2019s a terrific actress.\u2019 \u2018They\u2019re usually given to irresponsible movies, and this is a responsible movie,\u2019 said McQueen. \u2018It\u2019s not as if we\u2019ve got scenes with an assault rifle and heads being blown off. The elephant in the room is that people never talk about sex.\u2019 I ask whether Fassbender had a stand-in, as it were, for his naked close-ups. \u2018It\u2019s all him and it\u2019s all his own,\u2019 McQueen replied.<\/span> It has to be the most entertaining show on television, and even though I\u2019ve already seen the 90-minute Christmas Day special (and it\u2019s a cracker!) I will be tuning in on Sunday to have a second look. The show certainly deserves to scoop a few gongs at the Golden Globe Awards next month.<\/span><\/p>\n Hugely popular: The next series of Downton Abbey starts filming in February with a fourth series already in the works<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0\u00a0 ……………………………………………………………………………………………… Frayn offers us a gripping study of the politics and moral qualms surrounding the development of nuclear weaponry. The play is running as part of Sheffield theatres\u2019 Michael Frayn Season from February\u2009\u200929, with David Grindley directing. Benefactors, with Abigail Cruttenden, and Democracy, with Patrick Drury, Richard Hope and Aidan McArdle, will also be part of the season.<\/span> Hughes) affections in Congreve\u2019s The Way Of The World, being revived at the Sheffield Crucible Theatre from February 2. Ms Matthews is such a fun, accomplished actress, and I always remember how good she was in Michael Grandage\u2019s production of The Wild Duck at the Donmar several years ago.
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\nshe has done a lot of other good work \u2014 as anyone who saw her
\ngangster\u2019s moll role opposite Ryan Gosling in Nicolas Winding Refn\u2019s
\nterrific dark thriller, Drive, will attest.<\/span><\/p>\nDagenham musical strikes the right note
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\nout! The story of the women workers who went on strike for equal pay at
\nFord\u2019s Dagenham plant is being turned into a West End musical.
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\nshow will be based on the movie Made In Dagenham, which starred Sally
\nHawkins as a machinist who becomes an unlikely workers\u2019 heroine. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nfilm boasted an array of top British actresses including Andrea
\nRiseborough, Geraldine James, Miranda Richardson, Rosamund Pike and
\nJaime Winstone, with Bob Hoskins\u00a0 and Daniel Mays in the leading male
\nroles.<\/span><\/p>\n
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She noted, accurately, that there haven\u2019t been too many of them since Billy Elliot. When you think about it, a lot of recent shows such as Ghost, Love Never Dies and even Betty Blue Eyes have had foreign collaborators.
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Then, if everyone\u2019s happy, the show will be developed fully, a cast assembled \u2014 and an opening night scheduled for some time in 2013, depending on theatre availability.<\/span><\/p>\n
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It would be great for the Potter series to be recognised by the Academy Of Motion Picture\u00a0 Arts and Sciences.
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<\/span><\/p>\nMeet Tom, the new Errol Flynn
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\u2018He\u2019s got honest charm,\u2019 he added. \u2018It\u2019s not false. He\u2019s very sincere. He\u2019s the real deal.\u2019
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\u2018He said: \u201cI don\u2019t want a look of shock and terror on your face. Show me the nine-year-old boy\u201d,\u2019 Hiddleston recalled.
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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will attend the London premiere of War Horse on January 8.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Legendary:](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2011\/12\/22\/article-2077769-001036C700000258-666_468x357.jpg\")
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<\/span><\/p>\nDe Vito brings a little sunshine to the West End
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The Sunshine Boys is being scheduled to run until July. If it clicks in London, it will head to Broadway.
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<\/span><\/p>\nIt’s a good job New York has no Shame
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Shame got slapped with an NC-17 rating in the U.S., which McQueen thought was the name of a rap group.
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The movie isn\u2019t just about sex, though. It also looks at alienation and loneliness. It opens here on January 13.<\/span>
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The third season of Downton Abbey starts shooting some time in February, and I hear Julian Fellowes has already sketched out a storyline for a fourth series of the phenomenally popular ITV drama.
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Henry Goodman and Geoffrey Streatfeild, who portray physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in Copenhagen, Michael Frayn\u2019s fictionalised account of an actual meeting between Heisenberg and his mentor in 1941.<\/span>
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Sinead Matthews, who will play Millamant, the young widow who becomes the object of Mirabell\u2019s (up-and-coming young actor Ben Lloyd-<\/span><\/p>\n
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