The Eras Tour film is finally in cinemas with Taylor Swift’s fans flocking to see the three hour long masterpiece – but Swifties aren’t easy to please.

Concert films rarely get this much attention but Taylor’s fans wouldn’t let their idol down with booked out screenings and over 600 pre-sale tickets sold at Westfield London’s Vue. 

The excitement is palpable as fans arrive, buying limited edition popcorn buckets and cups, dressed in their favourite Taylor merchandise.

‘There’s a lot of hype around it,’ the Customer Assistant, rocking a gold sequinned blazer, told Metro.co.uk. 

‘It’s very close to Barbie with the excitement and everyone’s dressing up. I
don’t think any other movie [has had people] dressed up like this.’

Costumes and friendship bracelets are ditched in favour of tour tops and merchandise but fans are still beaming as they sing along to the Grammy winner’s tracks blasting in the lobby. 

The Eras Tour is probably the only time you want a cinema to be packed full of fans ready to sing along and despite being sold out, there were still a few empty seats so we were worried it would be a quiet showing.

We couldn’t have been more wrong as even the film classification card got a huge cheer from excited fans – although nothing compared to scream let out for the Midnights clock.

This wasn’t just a film, the experience is comparable to midnight screenings of the final Harry Potter or Marvel’s Endgame, with gasps, cheers, and tears at all the right moments.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t fan favourite Cruel Summer that had fans on their feet but the second era, Fearless, as Swifties gauged whether singing along loudly was okay (the answer was yes).

The awkwardness of being in a cinema melted away and fans were up and dancing, with reverence held for slower, emotional songs. Looking at you All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault). 

The cinema was buzzing as fans forgot they weren’t actually at the SoFi Stadium with Travis Kelce – maybe if we all cheered a little bit louder Taylor might hear us. 

Leaving the theatre, Aussie cinema-goer Tayla, 30, who has been a fan since Fearless told Metro.co.uk: ‘I loved seeing it so close, seeing her face as she sang.

‘Honestly, there’s nothing I can compare it too, even the audience in there andthe production value is unlike anything I’ve seen.’

‘Maybe I’m being greedy but I wish everything was in there. Treat it like the Cursed Child [Harry Potter play] and do two sittings?’

This feelings was resonated by other Swifties as the film controversially cuts six songs from the mammoth setlist – including her dedication to fans Long Live.

Deepti, 18, who sadly missed out on actual tour tickets, shared: ‘It’s our only chance to see the concert but this 100% made up for it.

‘Some of the songs that were on the actual concert got cut. I would have preferred Long Live in the film [rather than end credits] but I loved it still.’

Fan since Red and one of the lucky ones with Eras Tour UK tickets, Lauren, 25, added: ‘It’s a shame some of the songs like Long Live and The Archer got cut from the film for people who won’t get to see the tour.

‘That being said, Cruel Summer was a cosmic experience to get to sing along to the bridge like that.’

The Eras Tour Film has confirmed – if anyone was still in doubt – that Taylor Swift is truly The Man.

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Fans of Timothée Chalamet have been treated to a brand new trailer for his chocolate filled film Wonka – but not everyone is convinced.

The new Wonka trailer shows a whimsical Timothée, 27, hot off his new real-life role as Kylie Jenner’s boyfriend, as Willy Wonka, rising to fame in what appears to be quite a brutal confectionary world.

Starting with a slight creepy tone, the film which shows ‘how Willy became Wonka’ quickly shifts into a bizarre and wonderful world where chocolate is power and it’s not easily gained.

Comedy heavyweights Matt Lucas, Keegan-Michael Key, Matt Baynton, and Rowan Atkinson all get a cameo in the almost three minute trailer.

Hugh Grant also features heavily in the second trailer after causing controversy taking on the role of an Oompa Loompa, traditionally played by actors with dwarfism.

This is the third time Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is getting a big screen adaptation so there’s a lot of expectations on this outing of the kooky chocolatier.

Comparisons to Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp were inevitable but Kylie Jenner’s rumoured boyfriend has really divided opinions.

‘Nothing against Timothée, but I feel he’s more suitable for roles like dune and the king. That quirky silly character isn’t right for him,’ wrote one viewer.

‘Timothée Chalamet was such a miscast lol,’ criticised another who was shot down by someone else, who said: ‘No. He ate the role 🔥.’

‘Hugh Grant is great. Timothée kind of blah :(,’ a third said, while a fourth added: ‘Timothee first miss I’m afraid.’

However, there were many people saying they couldn’t wait to see the film, which is due out December 15, 2023.

One excited viewer said: ‘Let’s goooooo 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥.’

The film is a prequel to the events of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – so gives the Dune star and fellow cast mates chance to explore an entirely new story.

It’s sparse synopsis reads: ‘The story will focus specifically on a young Willy Wonka and how he met the Oompa-Loompas on one of his earliest adventures.’

Director Paul King did previously share that there was a chocolatier on set creating delicious treats for the cast to taste.

For a scene in which Wonka’s friend Noodle – played by Calah Lan – gets dunked in chocolate, the Paddington director revealed: ‘We actually made an enormous vat of hot chocolate – not scalding, just warm hot chocolate for them to immerse themselves in.

‘So there was a lot of chocolate around.’

Wonka hits UK cinemas on December 15, 2023.

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The identity of one of the most controversial films playing at this year’s London Film Festival may surprise you.

A film with an A-List cast led by a multiple-time Oscar winner and nominee and set to be released by Netflix later this year, the movie – reviewed below – is based on a real-life record-breaking American sports figure.

Nyad sees Annette Bening play swimmer Diana Nyad, who, with support from her best friend and coach Bonnie Stoll (portrayed by Jodie Foster), starts training at the age of 60 to finally attempt achieving her life-long dream: a 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida.

It co-stars Rhys Ifans as Nyad’s chief navigator on her quest, John Bartlett, as well as Anna Harriette Pittman as the young version of Diana, Erica Cho, Luke Cosgrove, Eric T. Miller and Garland Scott.

Nyad is also the feature directorial debut of Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, who netted an Oscar for their 2018 climber documentary Free Solo. Given its performer pedigree and inspirational subject, it is thought to be one of the streaming platform’s top contenders for the 2024 Academy Awards.

But what is the fuss around the sports movie Nyad, and why is it causing controversy?

Who is Diana Nyad?

Diana Nyad, now 74, was born in New York City in 1949, and started training as a swimmer when she was at school, with hopes of making the 1968 Olympics.

After falling ill with heart inflammation, she headed to college where she refocused on long-distance events.

She first rose to prominence in 1975, when she swam around the island of Manhattan in seven hours and 57 minutes.

In 1979, Nyad set a record in distance swimming over open water – for men and women – by swimming 102 miles from Bimini in the Bahamas to Juno Beach, Florida in 27 hours and 30 minutes.

The year before, she had attempted to swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West in Florida in a steel shark cage, covering around 76 miles in just under 42 hours before she was removed from the water due to dangerous weather and sea conditions.

After retiring aged 30, and pursuing a career in sports broadcasting and writing, Nyad resumed swimming training again in early 2010 – a few months after her 60th birthday – to attempt to successfully complete the Cuba-to-Florida open water swim.

Why is the new Netflix film controversial?

The Netflix movie follows American Beauty and The Kids Are All Right star Bening as Nyad as she tries multiple times between 2011 and 2013 to become the first person to achieve the open water swim unaided.

Two people had undertaken the challenge before – 65-year-old Walter Poenisch in 1978 and 22-year-old Susie Maroney in 1997. Both used shark cages, which Nyad rejected, while Poenisch also used a snorkel and fins.

In her fifth overall attempt, Nyad finally made it to Key West on September 2, 2013, exhausted and swollen, where a crowd of people stood waiting to congratulate the athlete after almost 53 hours in the water.

However, shortly after her triumph at the age of 64, questions were raised over the authenticity of her claim.

Nyad, as is shown in the film, is known to be a somewhat divisive figure in the swimming community thanks to her ego and previous exaggerated swimming accomplishments in her career.

These include her claim that she finished sixth at the Olympic trials in 1968, broke a world record in 100-metre backstroke, and forgetting that six women before her had successfully swum around Manhattan, according to the LA Times.

‘Am I embarrassed to have inflated my own record when my record is pretty good on its own? Yes, it makes me cringe. Some of those statements are 45 years old–there wasn’t even an internet then.

‘But I’m human and I like to think that I’ve lived a life that now makes me proud of who I am,’ Nyad told the publication in response.

Regarding her completed Cuba-to-Florida swim, sceptics questioned her surge in speed hours in, and her ability to be able to make a short speech afterward, as well as the use of a specially designed protective suit and mask to guard against potentially deadly jellyfish stings, arguing it made the swim ‘assisted’.

Nyad told the New York Times just days after her swim: ‘I’m an absolutely above-board person who never cheated on anything in my whole life.

‘They have every right to ask all these questions, and we have every intention to honour the accurate information.’

Analysis of data made available later revealed that Nyad had benefited from a powerful current in her favour thanks to the Gulf Stream.

Her completed swim has not been ratified by any marathon swimming governing body, nor was it overseen by one, with the Guinness Book of World Records recently removing her record from its database when a World Open Water Swimming Association (WOWSA) report flagged that.

WOWSA also urged the film’s viewers to ‘watch with discernment, keeping in mind the discrepancies surrounding the swim’.

Nyad has since said that she would accept ratification of her swim as assisted.

‘We didn’t want an asterisk next to the swim. But if anybody wants to ratify it now and stamp it assisted, we can accept it. Because we did it fair and square, no help in any way,’ she confirmed to the LA Times.

Director Vasarhelyi also told the paper that they brought their ‘most clear-eyed, stringent, ethical nonfiction backgrounds’ to look at all of the questions surrounding Nyad’s swim.

‘Our film is not about a record. Our film is not about how many times someone was touched. It’s about how a woman woke up at 60 and realised she wasn’t finished, even though the world may be finished with her,’ she added.

The filmmaker also suggested in a separate interview with The Hollywood Reporter that ‘if we were dealing with a man, people wouldn’t be picking on him quite as much’.

‘But Diana acknowledges her shortcomings and I respect that,’ she stated.

Metro.co.uk contacted reps for the Netflix film and Diana Nyad for comment.

Nyad will release in select cinemas on October 20, before streaming exclusively on Netflix from November 3.

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The Aquaman 2 set was reportedly an uncomfortable work environment for Amber Heard as her co-star Jason Momoa allegedly arrived drunk while dressed as Johnny Depp.

Fans weren’t sure if Heard, 37, would return to the DC franchise after a highly-publicised defamation battle with her ex-husband threatened to impact both parties’ careers.

The case saw a jury asked to determine if Heard had defamed Depp, 60, in a Washington Post op-ed written in 2018, in which she discussed experiencing domestic abuse but didn’t name him.

The Aquaman 2 – formally called Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom – trailer proved that Mera would once again be portrayed by the Danish Girl actress.

While fans thought this would be the end of the speculation, documents originally subpoenaed by Depp’s lawyers have emerged that paint an uncomfortable picture on set.

Notes made by Heard’s therapist suggest that leading man Momoa was pushing for Heard, who is currently on crutches, to be removed from the film.

The documents were uncovered after Depp’s fans paid court fees for release of evidence following the divisive trial which saw the Pirates of the Caribbean actor leave triumphant.

‘Jason said he wanted me fired,’ read the notes according to Variety. ‘Jason drunk — late on set. Dressing like Johnny. Has all the rings too.’

Dr. Dawn Hughes’ notes allegedly refer to a session she had with Heard in late December 2021, just before the trial began.

A source connected to the actress said her lawyers fought against the release of Heard’s personal therapy notes, which were originally subpoenaed by Depp’s attorneys during discovery.

A DC spokesperson disputed the claims, saying Momoa had ‘conducted himself in a professional manner at all times’ on the set of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

Both sides confirmed to Variety that Heard was almost fired from the franchise after the first film in 2018 due to a lack of chemistry with Momoa.

A letter was even sent to her lawyers from the studio and director James Wan regarding the move but DC maintains this was unrelated to the Depp trial.

However, Heard’s partner at the time Elon Musk decided to step in on behalf of his girlfriend – despite calling the relationship ‘brutal’ in his autobiography.

Reportedly he had one of his litigators send a ‘scorched-earth letter’ to the parent studio Warner Bros. ‘threatening to burn the house down’.

The London Fields actress also believed she was treated like a pariah on set thanks to the lengthy legal battle, including by Wan.

‘He raised his voice @ me — “I can’t even post about Aquaman” — made it like it was my fault – I said “I’m sorry”,’ wrote Hughes in the notes, reportedly in reference to Wan.

Defending Wan, the DC spokesperson added: ‘James is known for treating members of his cast and crew with the utmost respect and for fostering a positive, collaborative environment on set — the Aquaman films were no exception.’

Metro has reached out to DC, Heard and Momoa’s representatives for comment.

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Molly-Mae Hague has felt the wrath of horror movie fans everywhere after ranking the most recent scary blockbusters – but making a slight blunder. 

The former Love Island star is a huge fan of the genre and fully embraces the Halloween spirit every year along with boyfriend Tommy Fury, with the two bonding over their shared love of horror films. 

It’s been an exciting year for the genre too with Saw X, Evil Dead Rise, Talk To Me and The Exorcist: Believer among the top spooky films released to cinemas in recent months. 

Molly, 24, has pretty much seen them all and decided to share her list ranking each one out of 10. 

‘On the way home from the cinema we decided to rank the horror films we’ve seen on our date nights over the last few months on level of scariness,’ she told her Instagram followers on Monday.

First up was Evil Dead Rise, which she described as ‘hard core horror’ followed by ‘scary and good’ The Exorcist: Believer with the same score. Smile was a particular favourite of Molly’s along with Talk To Me and Barbarian. 

She then threw in a few curveballs by giving the heavily panned The Nun 2 a pretty generous seven out of 10 and ranking Saw X, which has been hailed as one of the best instalments of the franchise, a measly four. 

However, that wasn’t the biggest sticking point as Molly rated fun, campy and whacky horror Megan – about an AI killer doll – just a two out of 10 and even revealed it’s the ‘only film we’ve ever walked out of’. Megan received glowing reviews from critics and currently boasts a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Fans soon noticed an error as, while Molly seemed to rate Megan as the worst horror movie she’s seen, she gave A Haunting In Venice an even lower score of just one out of 10. 

She said the Kenneth Branagh-starring film was ‘advertised as a horror but it was a murder mystery’, however, many pointed out that Agatha Christie films aren’t horror and probably shouldn’t be included on the list – although it’s easy to see why it was given it has ‘haunting’ in the title. 

‘If you walk into haunting in venice, an adaptation of one of AGATHA CHRISTIE’S POIROT DETECTIVE NOVELS thinking it’ll be a horror instead of a mystery, that’s entirely on you!!’ one tweeted. 

Finding another hole in Molly’s list, another wondered: ‘How was Megan the only film they’ve walked out of but it scored higher than haunting in Venice?’ 

One critic chimed in: ‘Saw x deserves praise, and megan was art ill hear no more about itt.’ 

Serving justice for Megan, another said: ‘Walking out on m3gan is a war crime.’ 

However, some were keen to throw Molly a bone as an X user explained: ‘She cancelled Halloween with the description “scary and good”.’ 

The only film Molly blessed with a perfect 10 was Ari Aster’s Hereditary, which she said ‘stuck with me, I don’t even like scrolling past it on Netflix.’

Concluding her controversial list, she added on a rather sweet note: ‘Tommy and I literally bond over horror movies… we really enjoy them so much.’

For those who want to form their own opinions, Saw X and The Exorcist: Believer is in cinemas now.

If you’ve already seen everything there is scary on the streaming services, Metro.co.uk have compiled a list of sleeper hits that deserve a watch.

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Maestro is Bradley Cooper’s own magnum opus with the star’s commitment to deliver a Leonard Bernstein story to the screen – it’s directed, co-written and produced by him, alongside his turn as the composer and conductor.

However, the Netflix film isn’t really so much about Cooper’s controversial transformation into Bernstein as it is about his marriage to wife Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan).

It’s she who is revealed to be the ultimate challenger and supporter of Bernstein and his much-admired musical genius, all the while maintaining her own acting career and bringing up their three children together.

She also has to deal with the damage from his continuing affairs with both men and women – as he joyously admits to the baby of mutual friends (one played by White Collar’s Matt Bomer) who he’s meeting for the first time: ‘I slept with both of your parents! What can I say? I love too much.’

Charting his life from Bernstein’s famous last-minute debut with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall aged 25 through his relationship with Felicia, we see the toll it takes on her without it diminishing their connection.

It makes perfect sense that Mulligan gets top billing in Maestro as it’s her nuanced and complicated performance that breathes so much life into the type of story we’ve seen and heard many times before – that of the supportive spouse behind the ‘creative genius’, whose behaviour often shocks.

She shares a playful chemistry with Cooper, as their courtship initially hits the ground running thanks to their fast-paced patter and matched zest for life. Their believable bond remains strong – if tested to its limits – as their relationship weathers the decades and challenges together.

In Cooper, Bernstein is an engaging and vivacious presence, but Maestro doesn’t shy away from his flaws. He’s also at his most mesmerising when lost in the music as a conductor, with the scene recreating Bernstein’s real-life performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) at Ely Cathedral enthralling.

Much has been made of Cooper’s decision to wear a prosthetic nose to portray Bernstein in Maestro – with some decrying it as ‘Jewface’, especially given that the actor-director himself is not Jewish.

However, the prosthetics design by Kazu Hiro is impressively naturalistic, and particularly staggering when Cooper is made up as Bernstein in his 70s, jowls and all.

While Hiro has subsequently apologised for causing offence, Bernstein’s children have also leapt to Cooper’s defence with a statement rejecting ‘any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts’.

‘It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose. Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we’re perfectly fine with that.’

‘We’re also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well,’ they added.

Their passionate response to the outcry is understandable in the context of the film, given that Cooper’s ambitious dedication to getting everything right as best he can – and serving the memory of their parents – practically pours out of the screen in every frame.

Maestro does serve up a huge amount of movie (although it runs at a modest-ish 129 minutes) in that it goes in rather hard on its attempt to be an artsy, prestige biopic with a capital ‘B’, and is subsequently a little uneven in its approach with pacing, humour and storytelling.

There’s not much of a primer given to Bernstein’s career – prior knowledge is anticipated – and the high-brow approach includes black and white cinematography for the beginning earlier scenes, as well as a slightly superfluous abstract musical number loosely based on his 1944 Broadway musical On the Town.

Any West Side Story fans will also have to make do with only a fleeting reference to what is undoubtedly Bernstein’s most famous work, as well as use of the musical’s famous Prologue to underscore a real-life scene. Unsurprisingly, given the distinction of Bernstein, Cooper made the choice to use the man’s own music to play alongside his life on the big screen, which also gives a bold drama to some of the earlier scenes.

Maestro is co-produced by Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg and isn’t shy about its suggestion of weight and status as a movie – clearly anything other than a clutch of Academy Award nominations come next year would be considered a disappointment.

Mulligan absolutely deserves her third-best actress nomination, and there are arguments for Cooper’s various contributions too, but it remains to be seen whether or not it will be squeezed out.

Maestro hits UK cinemas on November 22 before exclusively streaming on Netflix from December 24.

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All of Us Strangers is a film that packs an emotional wallop, but lets that pain and power slowly creep up on audiences thanks to its nuanced study of grief, which is wonderfully performed by central actor Andrew Scott.

The Sherlock breakout star and Fleabag’s ‘Hot Priest’ leads the cast as screenwriter Adam, who is drawn back to his childhood home as he embarks on a project about his parents, only to find them appearing to live there, just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before.

Meanwhile, he is entering into the hesitant start of a romance with his mysterious neighbour Harry (Aftersun’s best actor Oscar nominee Paul Mescal in a vulnerable but charming turn).

Written and directed by Andrew Haigh (The OA, Lean on Pete), from the Japanese novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada, All of Us Strangers becomes quietly devastating as it unfolds. It straddles Adam rebuilding a relationship with his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) that he was robbed of at 12, as well as navigating how the impact of that loss on his life haunts him still.

With atmospheric music by Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch and naturalistic, contained performances by its cast, the film is a slow burn to start with as you put the pieces together of what’s going on.

Once Adam has his first reunion with his loving parents, trapped in time, he then returns to have more challenging encounters, including coming out to them as people trapped in 1987 with the corresponding attitude.

Alongside how it contrasts with now and Harry’s experience of being queer, the discussion comes across as raw and authentic – Adam reassures his mother that no-one is nasty to him, ‘at least not to my face’.

When it is she who seems more unwilling to accept her son’s sexuality, it is Bell as Adam’s father who points out that she just needs to remove herself from the situation and ‘realise it’s not about her, rearrange a few things in her head’. And that’s not to say he gets off criticism-free either as they have a frank conversation about the bullying Adam experienced as a youngster.

It cannot be stressed enough how phenomenal the performances of all four actors central to All of Us Strangers are, with Foy and Bell utterly believable as parents to a man now older than them.

Sometimes it’s played for bittersweet comedy, such as seeing Scott dressed in his pyjamas from when he was a little boy. But when he climbs into bed with his mum and dad because he can’t sleep, that relatable comfort tugs fiercely on your heartstrings.

The humour melds well with the intelligence of All of Us Strangers, with plenty of bluntness as well as a fun (assumingly) self-referential moment from Haigh when he has Adam tell his mother than he isn’t a ‘proper’ writer, like an author of books, but rather a script writer who does ‘film and TV if I have to’.

It can also become very dark, as when Adam explains to Harry that he went ‘looking for that eye’ which his mum lost in the car crash that killed her and his father.

There’s been lots of excitement around the casting of Mescal and Scott as lovers, and they share an undeniable and very natural chemistry in their intimate scenes, which have graphic touches to them but are way more about emotional revelations than any revelling in nudity.

All of Us Strangers is a haunting and entirely relatable musing on grief and the bond between a child and their parents, regardless of any separation of time and age, that will drag out your own emotional reaction to the story as the credits roll.

It also reclaims The Power of Love (and other era-appropriate bangers from the ‘80s) from that John Lewis Christmas ad of over a decade ago. Have a tissue at the ready.

All of Us Strangers will be released in UK cinemas on January 26, 2024.

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Martin Scorsese has issued a warning to the filmmakers of the future to ‘rethink’ their approach when it comes to the reinvention of cinema.

He also slammed the idea of filmmakers being considered ‘content providers’ as ‘madness’, likening content to ‘candy’ and suggested it was something disposable that could be ‘thrown away’.

The esteemed Oscar-winning director, who recently pronounced that the film industry was ‘over’, took to the stage at London’s Southbank Centre for a BFI London Film Festival talk on Saturday, hosted by Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright.

Gangs of New York and Goodfellas director Scorsese shared his thoughts on making movies in the current industry climate, having previously dismissed superhero and franchise films, like Marvel, as ‘theme park films’.

‘I didn’t want to be the last line of defence,’ the 80-year-old joked when Wright asked him about becoming a sort of spokesperson for the state of cinema, expected to deliver a ‘state of the union’ speech.

‘I don’t know where cinema is gonna go,’ he admitted to the audience, including Metro.co.uk. ‘Why does it have to be the same as it was in the last 90 to 100 years? It doesn’t. Do we prefer what’s been happening for the last 90 years? I do, but I’m old.

‘Younger people are gonna see the world in a different way.’

Scorsese then said that he felt it was up to younger filmmakers to figure out the change and embrace new technology for ‘serious’ cinematic work over merely making content.

‘You all are in the process of a period of reinventing it. It’s quite an extraordinary time, and a lot of it is due to technology.’

He added of his breakthrough film, released 50 years ago: ‘If I had had digital or even just good video, I would’ve shot Mean Streets in that way, and I wouldn’t have had to pay for cameras. It would have given us a sense of freedom.

‘Now there’s so much freedom that you really have to rethink what you want to say and how you want to say it.

‘Ideally, I hope — and I hesitate to use the word — ‘serious’ film could still be made with this new technology and this new world we’re part of’.

When Wright raised the point that filmmakers are now being seen as ‘content providers’, Scorsese, whose upcoming film Killers of the Flower Moon is screening at the festival, responded: ‘Content is something you eat and you throw away.’

‘It’s like candy. It’s madness,’ the 80-year-old added to the audience.

Explaining that he often had his TV on in the background at home, he described how that, in his opinion, allowed things to ‘become content’ as opposed to an ‘enriching’ experience at the cinema.

‘I like having the TV on all the time. I have the sound down. That’s content, it becomes content. It’s almost like radio before television, it’s a voice in the background. That’s all that is,’ he said.

‘But if you want to have an experience that can enrich your life it’s different.’

Scorsese also repeated his fear that ‘franchise films’ were ‘taking over the theatres’.

‘I always ask the theatre owners to create a space where younger people would say they want to see this new film, which is not a franchise film, in a theatre and share that with everybody around them – so that they want to go to the theatre, that it’s something inviting that doesn’t get you to the point where they say they could see that at home.

‘Because the experience of seeing a film with a lot of people is really still the key, I think. But I’m not sure that can be easily achieved at this point.’

The director, who has been working in Hollywood for over 60 years and independently funded since 2016’s Shutter Island, recently touched on big changes he’s experienced in the industry, as well as interference that has upset him on movies including The Departed, The Aviator and Gangs of New York.

He declared that declared the industry he has worked in ‘is over’, adding: ‘In other words, the industry that I was part of, we’re talking almost, what, 50 years ago?’

‘It’s like saying to somebody in 1970 who made silent films, what do you think’s happened?’ he mused in an interview with GQ.

According to Scorsese, his theory is that studios are not ‘interested any longer in supporting individual voices that express their personal feelings or their personal thoughts and personal ideas and feelings on a big budget’.

‘And what’s happened now is that they’ve pigeonholed it to what they call indies,’ he added.

Killers of the Flower Moon sees Scorsese team up once more with his frequent collaborators Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, as well as Brendan Fraser, John Lithgow, Jesse Plemons and Lily Gladstone.

Based on the non-fiction book of the same name by journalist David Grann, the movie delves into the mysterious murders of a string of wealthy members of the Osage tribe in 1920s Oklahoma, which sparked a major FBI investigation involving J. Edgar Hoover.

Killers of the Flower Moon is set for release in cinemas on Friday, October 20.

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There’s a chill in the air and pumpkins are on supermarket shelves, which means only one thing – the countdown to Halloween is on.

Now that summer is behind us (or what summer we had, anyway), our thoughts are fully on spooky season and the film marathons that come with it.

And October has plenty of horror delights coming to the big screen with a brand new Saw film released at the end of September, eagerly-anticipated possession movie The Exorcist: Believer, and an adaptation of the hit game Five Nights At Freddy’s.

But for the film fans who have seen it all, from the big-budget slashers to the indie psychosexual cannibal flicks, finding something new to add to your watchlist can be difficult.

But never fear – or do, as we’re talking about horror films – we’re here with some top underrated gems to make your skin crawl and spine shiver this Halloween.

Get your pillow ready to hide behind.

Hypochondriac

Where to watch: Apple TV

With so many renowned psychological horror films to sink your teeth into, finding a hidden gem among the bunch can be hard.

But if you settle down to watch any psychodrama this Halloween, make it Hypochondriac, available to rent now on Apple TV.

Directed by Kappa Force writer Addison Heimann, the film follows Will, a potter with a seemingly perfect life and a loving boyfriend.

But when his mentally ill mother reemerges after a 10-year absence, he descends into a dark spiral of madness as he grapples with a manifestation of his childhood trauma.

Come To Daddy

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

Elijah Wood stunned genre fans in the 2012 remake of Maniac alongside Genevieve Alexandra and Nora Arnezeder.

And fans of the Lord Of The Rings star can catch him in the horror comedy Come To Daddy, now on Amazon Prime Video.

In it, a privileged man arrives at the remote coastal cabin of his estranged father, whom he hasn’t seen in 30 years, after receiving a letter out of the blue.

He soon discovers that his neglectful, abrasive father has a dark past that is catching up with him – and they need to act fast.

YellowBrickRoad

Where to watch: NowTV

Andy Mitton’s incredible Covid horror The Harbinger is now available on Now TV.

Fans of the dark, supernatural horror should dive back into the director’s filmography and watch YellowBrickRoad, his debut feature release.

Available to stream now on Freevee, the film follows an expedition set out to explore a mysterious forest in New Hampshire where the entire population of a town died in 1940.

While searching for the missing people of Friar, the team discovers more than they were bargaining for as the mystery behind the disturbing event begins to unravel.

Absentia

Where to watch: Available on DVD

Mike Flanagan’s latest installment in the Flanaverse, Fall Of The House Of Usher, comes to Netflix this month.

Fans of his previous horrific offerings may have forgotten about his feature debut, Absentia, now available on DVD.

The supernatural thriller sees a pregnant woman, Tricia, and her sister Callie begin to link a mysterious tunnel to a series of disappearances, including that of her own husband.

The plot thickens when Callie discovers a bewildered man in the tunnel, leading their investigation to take a sinister turn.

Candy Land

Where to watch: Available on DVD

Religion and horror have gone hand in hand for decades – there’s another Exorcist film coming to cinemas as we speak.

And for fans of these spooky and spiritual adventures, John Swab’s Candy Land is an enthralling road movie bound to capture your heart.

The film sees Remy, a devoutly religious young woman, cast out from her religious cult and forced to turn to sex work in the underground truck stop world.

Remy struggles to navigate the world between her strained belief system and her new life under the guidance of fellow working girls, a local lawman, and a religious matriarch.

Grabbers

Where to watch: Apple TV

Monster movie fans will have no shortage of releases to watch at Halloween.

But if you’ve seen every creepy crawly, rampaging lizard, killer shark, or otherworldly being on screen, wrap your eyes around Irish comedy horror Grabbers by Jon Wright.

A co-production of Ireland and the United Kingdom, the film is set on an island off the coast of Ireland that is invaded by bloodsucking aliens.

Trying desperately to survive, our heroes soon discover that there is one thing that puts off the rampaging creatures – a high blood alcohol level.

No One Will Save You

Where to watch: Disney Plus

Hitting Disney Plus last month, No One Will Save You has garnered plenty of positive reviews from fans and critics alike.

And it’s easy to see why with a fresh and horrifying take on the humanoid grey alien tale that haunts our nightmares.

The otherworldly smash hit focuses on Brynn, a recluse who appears ostracised from her community as she struggles with the loss of her mother, Sarah, and best friend, Maude.

Her simple life is soon thrown into chaos when her home is invaded by extraterrestrial beings as she fights for survival in a place she should feel safest of all.

Daniel Isn’t Real

Where to Watch: Shudder and Arrow Player

When you think of scary stories, you will probably think of the master of horror Stephen King.

But there are plenty of haunting delights in the literary world adapted to the big screen, including Daniel Isn’t Real on Shudder and Arrow.

Based upon the novel In This Way I Was Saved by DeLeeuw, The Babysitter star Miles Robbins stars as Luke, who witnesses the aftermath of a mass shooting at a neighbourhood coffee shop.

He meets the cool and confident Daniel, who invites him to play and becomes his lifelong friend into adulthood. However, no one else but Luke can see Daniel.

Summer of ’84

Where to watch: Apple TV

The eighties was one of the golden eras of horror, sparking plenty of films in the decades since that try to encapsulate the nostalgia.

One such lesser-known film that is perfect for fans of Stranger Things and the likes is Summer of ’84, starring another actor from The Babysitter in the form of Judah Lewis.

Now on Apple TV to rent, the film sees four friends breaking up from school and embarking on their summer break.

However, they begin to suspect that a police officer in their town is behind the historic killings of 13 teenage boys, and they decide to investigate.

Dumplings

Where to watch: Available on DVD

Asia has a rich, varied culture of horror films that have terrified audiences for generations.

From ghastly spectres to murderous killers and everything in between, Hong Kong has given us titles such as Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Man Behind the Sun, and Boo! A Madea Halloween.

But obscure body horror Dumplings from the mind of Fruit Chan is one that remains notorious within the genre.

In it, fading actress Mrs Li becomes determined to find out what the secret ingredient is in Aunt Mei’s famed dumplings which seem to contain age-defying properties.

Door

Where to watch: Available on DVD

From Hong Kong over to Japan, the country’s horror offerings have spawned numerous Hollywood remakes including Ju-On: The Grudge, Ringu, and Dark Water.

One film that fell off the radar is Door by Banmei Takahashi, a film that has never been screened outside of Japan and was believed lost for 30 years – until being shown at this year’s Grimmfest in Manchester.

After being neglected by her workaholic husband and left alone in their apartment to care for their young son, a woman becomes increasingly unnerved by a pushy door-to-door salesman.

She slams the door on his hand during yet another persistent visit and soon finds herself living a nightmare as he stalks her every move.

Aterrados

Where to watch: Shudder

Demián Rugna’s When Evil Lurks is coming to Shudder after chilling audiences to their bones on the festival circuit.

Back in 2017, Rugna released his directorial debut Terrified – not to be confused with Terrifier – which has become revered among audiences for its genuinely horrifying narrative and scenes.

When strange events occur in a neighbourhood in Buenos Aires, a doctor specializing in the paranormal, her colleague, and an ex-police officer decide to try and uncover what is behind it.

As they embark on their investigation, they soon come into contact with a malevolent force, unlike anything they have encountered before.

MOM: Mothers Of Monsters

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

With an abundance of found footage horror releases in the subgenre following the release of The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, and V/H/S, it can be tricky to find something fresh.

M.O.M.: Mothers of Monsters, on Amazon Prime Video, is the debut film from long-standing TV showrunner Tucia Lyman and features a very real horror at the centre of its plot.

A mother suspects her teenage son is plotting a school shooting, and she is forced to take matters into her own hands when the authorities in place to prevent tragedy do not heed the warning signs.

She installs a system of spy cameras in their home, capturing a series of disturbing videos that seem to confirm her worst fears, leading her to find an online community of other ‘mothers of monsters’.

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There’s a gloriously unexpected cameo to look out for in upcoming A-list Netflix film The Killer, thanks to the BBC’s very own Fiona Bruce.

X-Men: Days of Future Past star Michael Fassbender, 46, takes the lead in the latest thriller from director David Fincher, known for movies including Gone Girl and The Social Network. 

He stars as a trained assassin battling his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal after a fateful near-miss.

Dark, and shot through with unexpectedly incongruous humour, The Killer follows Fassbender’s unnamed hitman (although one of his many monikers is Lou Grant) as he narrates his methods to the audience and deals with the high stakes of his profession.

Trotting across the globe between locations including Paris, New York and the Dominican Republic, Fassbender’s killer encounters some shady characters in the shape of Charles Parnell and Tilda Swinton.

Someone you wouldn’t necessarily anticipate him encountering though is TV presenter Fiona Bruce, who made news this week by appearing on Question Time sporting a black eye and with her arm in a sling.

She is instantly recognisable to British audiences from her jobs helming the likes of Question Time and Sunday evening favourite, Antiques Roadshow.

In The Killer, her cameo pops up in a tense cat-and-mouse scene based in a sleek waterfront home in Florida.

With the television playing in the background, the channel switches and Bruce’s dulcet tones fill the room as she introduces an episode of Antiques Roadshow.

She is clearly heard for several seconds so it’s obviously a deliberate choice from filmmaker Fincher – perhaps a secret Roadshow enthusiast?

Either way, it certainly adds an unexpected element to the scene, much like he did in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

During that film, a dangerous tussle between Daniel Craig’sjournalist Mikael Blomkvist and Stellan Skarsgård’s CEO Martin Vanger is set to the Enya’s soothing yet jaunty Orinoco Flow.

The Killer is playing at the 2023 BFI London Film Festival as part of an impressive line-up that features Bradley Cooper’s headline-grabbing Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Poor Things with Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo, and Martin Scorsese’s latest offering with Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese – Killers of the Flower Moon.

There’s also the world premiere of hotly anticipated Aardman sequel Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, 23 years after the original.

Aside from The Killer, Masetro and Chicken Run 2, other Netflix films screening at LFF include NYAD and Daniel Kaluuya’s directorial debut The Kitchen.

The Killer is scheduled for a limited release in cinemas on October 27 before streaming on Netflix from November 10.

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MORE : Tom Hardy was made for The Bikeriders – but Jodie Comer stuns the most in this slick and sweaty ride

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The Bikeriders offers the audience a raw and exciting ride, powered mostly by the engine of its slick and sweaty style and a cast led by Austin Butler, Tom Hardy and a stand-out Jodie Comer.

Inspired by the 1968 book of the same name by documentary photographer Danny Lyon, writer and director Jeff Nichols has created living and breathing characters – to a point – from the pages of Lyon’s moody subjects.

Here, the real Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club is thrown out for an entirely fictional motorcycle gang, the Vandals, founded by the powerful but deceptively quiet Johnny (a role for Tom Hardy to feel comfortably at home in).

Austin Butler is his young pal and fellow rider Benny, reckless and achingly cool in his torn-off shirtsleeves, messy hair and Levis with riding gloves hanging out the back pocket – it’s very much a film in which the actors can live out their bad boy fantasies.

These two actors in particular were born to play in this era’s counterculture sandpit and depict a believable friendship among the original, tight-knit gang in the film.

The Bikeriders unsubtly harks back to Marlon Brando’s turn as motorcycle gang leader Johnny Strabler in 1953’s The Wild One, with that character becoming a cultural touchstone of the era; Nichols leans into this by showing Hardy’s Johnny sitting rapt in front of the film, even muttering a Brando line under his breath, trying it on for size.

Acknowledging the similarity between Hardy and Brando and playing it for laughs is a sensible move. The Bane actor has long sparked comparisons with the famous star of The Godfather, especially thanks to his habit of mumbling.

Hardy also does ‘tough but tortured’ extremely well, just like Brando, so it’s almost a foregone conclusion to see him in a leather jacket with slicked back hair and leaning on a motorcycle.

Humour is a pretty major component of the movie, both from Hardy, who can underplay for laughs masterfully, and some of his more well-meaning biker disciples like Damon Herriman’s Brucie, Michael Shannon’s Zipco (who you can almost smell through the screen) and Boyd Holbrook’s West Coast transplant Cal.

It’s an entertaining collection of characters for sure, if at times feeling a little short on substance in their ‘ride or die’ mentality with the Vandals – something which ends up taking on a much more foreboding and literal meaning later in the film.

The film’s stuffed soundtrack is almost like another character too, offering up Muddy Waters, the Shangri-Las, Cream and many others, to sweep you up in the dangerous and sweaty glamour of the gang.

However, The Bikeriders belongs to Jodie Comer’s sparky Kathy, a chatty Chicago girl (of course, another accent nailed) who is pulled into the Vandals’ lifestyle, despite her reservations, courtesy of her magnetic attraction to Butler’s Benny.

Nichols is aware that both the camera and the audience love Butler, so he turns up the heat, giving lingering shots of biceps and cigarettes dangling from his lips, sucking both us and Kathy under Benny’s spell. It’s certainly effective, although Benny fades a little in the film’s third act.

Labelled the attack dog, he channels most of the Vandals’ dangerous energy to begin with as the guy who is loyal to a fault and punches first without even asking questions later. It’s testament to Butler’s talents that there’s still suggestion of a soft underbelly beneath that, even when Nichols seems to abruptly shift his story from fifth to first gear.

Comer’s timing and wry observations as she tells photographer Danny (Bafta nominee for West Side Story Mike Faist) of her entanglement with the Vandals serves as The Bikeriders’ narration and main driving force, set between three periods from 1968 to 1973.

As the Vandals expand across the Midwest and induct new chapters and members, the film starts to sprawl slightly and lose steam, while dealing with an increase in unflinching violence and crime.

The ending doesn’t quite stick the landing either, coming quite abruptly and ending on an oddly cheesy tone.

However, The Bikeriders works as a stylish and dirty ode to a toxic lifestyle that’s long been glamourised by American culture – especially the world of fashion – and thanks to its picture-perfect cast.

Expect to see ripped jeans, worn leathers and biker boots back on the streets come December.

The Bikeriders is scheduled for release in UK cinemas on December 1.

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Bond. James Bond.

It’s an iconic catchphrase from one of the highest grossing film franchises in the world – not to mention acclaimed books, TV shows, comics and even radio broadcasts.

But imagine hearing it almost every day whenever someone finds out what your full name is. That’s the reality for three men named James Bond that Metro.co.uk spoke to on the back of film, The Other Fellow, that all three star in.

Here, they talk about what it’s like to navigate life in the shadow of the most famous British Secret Service agent in the world.

Bond James Bond, 65

Sometimes when I get mail in the post, I cry.

It’s not because of the content of the letters though, it’s because I see the name that it’s addressed to and I get emotional.

My name is literally: ‘Bond James Bond’. I legally changed it from Gunnar Schäfer to that in 2007 because the fictional international spy means so much to me.

In fact, I consider James Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, a father figure. It feels like he’s been there for me throughout my life when my own biological dad left me and my family two years after I was born.

I have absolutely no memories of my dad. He abandoned my mother, two older brothers and I one day but didn’t tell anyone. To this day, no one knows where he ended up, but an Interpol search later declared him dead by 1969.

It was really hard for my mother raising three children alone. She did her best, but I always felt lost without a paternal figure to look up to.

Then, my big brothers took me to watch Goldfinger in 1965 at the age of eight. I was immediately drawn to Sean Connery as James Bond, who played the character as this tough, harder guy getting among all the action.

I was hooked on the franchise after that. I actually got a little toy Aston Martin with an ejector seat at the time, which I still have today.

From that moment on, I consumed anything and everything related to James Bond. I went to my local library and read all of Fleming’s books, which weren’t all that different to each other – but I couldn’t get enough.

I have followed the author’s life – and the wider franchise – very closely throughout my own. I’ve seen every film, from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig. Besides the nostalgia of 1964’s Goldfinger, one of my other favourites is actually Daniel Craig’s Skyfall (2012) because I feel like there are similarities with my own story.

James Bond visits Skyfall Lodge, his ancestral home where his parents lived before their untimely deaths. I felt like I was watching myself on screen trying to figure out what happened to my own father.

On top of consuming all the films, TV shows and films, I also started collecting memorabilia too. In fact, I had so many artefacts that I opened a museum in 2002 – the same year Die Another Day came out – called the James Bond 007 Museum, Nybro, in Sweden.

In it, I have my vast collection of cars, clothes, film set props, toys and even vodkas. Some of it can be quite expensive, but to me, it’s priceless.

I love the motorcycles I have from No Time To Die and the hovercraft from Die Another Day. But one of my absolute favourites is the motorised 12 metre-long gondola I got from 1979’s Moonraker.

In the film, Roger Moore is chased through the canals of Venice and I just thought that was so cool. It actually took me 10 years before I got approved by the government there to buy it and to take it with me back to Sweden.

Changing my name in 2007 felt like a full circle moment to honour the impact of both the franchise and Ian Fleming on my life. It means the world to me to have the same name as my idol.

People ask if I regret it, and the truth is, not at all. James Bond comforted and helped me while I was growing up, it feels right that I’ve devoted my life to it.

I have travelled the world to see as much as I can in relation to this life-changing spy and actually, it’s brought many people to me in Sweden too. I’ve met enthusiasts from all over the world – from places like New York, Jamaica, New Zealand and France.

That’s the power of James Bond – he connects us to each other. And I’ll forever be grateful to Ian Fleming for transporting me into this world.

A few years ago, I visited the author’s grave in Swindon and was overcome with emotion. It was very calm and peaceful to visit but all I could think was: ‘This is the closest I can get to my dad.’

James Neal Bond, 70

As I stopped at a red light in the bus I was driving, I noticed the taxi in front of me had completely broken down.

The front end of the vehicle collapsed, a bang rang out and sparks were flying everywhere while it slid through the red light and onto the busy intersection.

Suddenly, four men in suits popped out of the car and looked around desperately. They waved their arms at me, so I ushered them over to jump in the back of my shuttle bus.

They were on their way to the airport and I was happy to take them after their heinous ordeal. A few minutes into the trip, one of them suddenly burst into riotous laughter.

He pointed at a sign in my car, which read: ‘Thank you for riding the Super Shuttle, your driver is James Bond.’

Then he said: ‘Imagine our luck being rescued by James Bond!’ Everyone cracked up laughing. That man was so appreciative that he bought the sign in my bus for $100 (£80) and told me he’d be hanging it in his office.

That’s just one of the times being named James Bond has felt completely surreal.

I was actually born in 1953, the same year Ian Fleming’s first James Bond book, Casino Royale, was published. I didn’t know it existed then though.

Having my name wasn’t an issue until I was about 12 years old in junior high, which is when the first James Bond film, Dr No came to my town in Texas – two years after its initial release.

My history teacher actually called me ‘00’ (short for ‘007’) that same week, but I had no idea what he was talking about. That nickname stuck from that point on, which I was very happy about. It was a welcome change from ‘Big Foot’ – all because I was wearing a size 13 shoe by the sixth grade.

When I eventually went to see the film, I didn’t really relate to the spy protagonist because I was a big nerd in school and not very masculine at all. That didn’t stop me from writing ‘007’ at the top of my homework, which my teachers found very funny.

That’s not the only time I leant into it. I had the number plate ‘007’ on my first car, as well as numerous Avon colognes of the same number.

There were downsides too, including people like police officers thinking I was showing them a fake ID.

After a while, I started go by ‘Jimmy’ because I felt like I was losing my own identity. This wouldn’t stop people from asking me about my relation to the spy when they saw my last name paired with my nickname though.

In my early 20s, I got married and had two children. My dad really wanted me to call my first son ‘James Bond’ too as a namesake, but I wasn’t so sure. In the end, we ended up naming him after my late-wife’s father instead.

When my second son was born, I gave into my father’s pressure and called him James Andrew Bond, but he often prefers to go by ‘Andy’.

So, my dad was James Lee Bond – before Ian Fleming even published his first novel – I’m James Neal Bond, my son is James Andrew Bond and my grandson is James Cesar Bond. 

There’s one major difference I have with James Bond though – I’m gay.

I came out to myself at 27, but it wasn’t until I was in my 30s that I sat down with family and friends. I was 31 when I came out to my dad, who said he’d always known.

At the time, I was actually a pastor for a church, who fired me because of my sexuality. I don’t regret a thing though.

In fact, being called James Bond has worked really well in gay bars – people buy me drinks all the time. I’m not the biggest martini fan though, even if you ask me whether I want it shaken or stirred.

Do I think my life would be different if I was named something else? I couldn’t say, because all I know is the hand I’ve been dealt with.

At the end of the day, 007 has been with me for my whole life – and I wouldn’t change it.

James Cesar Bond, 18

‘Hi, I’m Bond. James Bond – and I’ll be your server today.’

For the first month or two in my role as a waiter, that’s how I started introducing myself to diners at the restaurant.

‘I’ll have a martini – shaken, not stirred,’ some replied. While others opted for a cheeky: ‘Can I take your car keys?’

Each time, I simply responded by giving the fakest laugh I could muster. Why? Because my name is a great conversation starter, but it’s even better for tips.

Someone once gave me a $300 (£240) tip on a $700 (£550) bill, which I’d like to think was because I was so charming, but my name probably had a part to play in it. I’ve even had a woman offer to pay me $20 for my name tag, so I agreed and just replaced it for $5.

Growing up, I didn’t really know that I shared a name with the famous international spy. For a long time – to me – it was just my name. I even recall playing GoldenEye 007 on Nintendo 64 and still not clocking.

In elementary school, teachers would laugh their heads off when they’d call out my name, but I had no idea what they were talking about. In fact, I was given the number seven on my jersey when I started playing peewee football.

It wasn’t until sixth or seventh grade that I got in on the joke. I’d have people come up to me in the school halls and say they’ve wanted to meet me for a while – or introduce their sister, who was in my grade. It’s a little creepy because I wouldn’t know who they were but they would know about me.

As I grew up, maybe I’ve seen more of the films, but I only really remember 2012’s Skyfall with Daniel Craig. I just recall thinking how much of a badass he was – and that it was pretty cool to share a name with him. I loved that he was great with the ladies too.

I’m the fourth generation James Bond in my family, so my great grandfather was actually called it before Ian Fleming even created it.

To me, they’re just Dad, Grandpa and Grandad, but we all have nicknames – I’m JC (James Cesar), my dad is Andy because his middle name is Andrew, then there’s Jamie and Jimmy.

Before my great grandad’s death, there were moments where we were all in the same room for things like Thanksgiving, but it didn’t really feel like a big deal at the time.

That’s the thing – I’ve always been fairly nonchalant about my name. I don’t think it’s really a leg up and I don’t want to base my entire life or personality on it.

All I know is that I’d probably have a little less money – thanks to the tips – if I was called something else.

The Other Fellow – a documentary drama that explores the lives of real men around the world who are named James Bond – is available to rent and buy now on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Youtube, Sky Store and other platforms.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing James.Besanvalle@metro.co.uk. 

Share your views in the comments below.

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Gurinder Chadha has revealed she is working on a sequel to her iconic film Bend it Like Beckham over 20 years later, thanks to the Lionesses’ record-breaking success at the World Cup.

And no, this is not a drill, so get your football studs out and form up for training drills, ladies!

The England women’s football team made it all the way to the final of the prestigious tournament in August for the first time ever, before heartbreakingly losing out to Spain at the final hurdle.

The huge interest in women’s football that this generated internationally has had the 63-year-old filmmaker reconsider her stance on making a sequel to the 2002 modern movie classic, which starred Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Archie Panjabi, Anupam Kher and even former All Saints star Shaznay Lewis.

Bend It Like Beckham told the story of British Indian girl Jess Bhamra (Nagra), who was trying to pursue her football dream, inspired by David Beckham, in the face of parental disapproval.

‘With all this talk of the World Cup and the popularity of women’s football, in the past I haven’t thought about,’ Chadha told Metro.co.uk.

‘I never really wanted to make a sequel to the film because I just thought the way Parminder and Keira played it, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Archie Panjabi, I could never really follow that up and create that same magic in the same way.

‘But with the recent success of football, I just feel like I’m starting to percolate an idea for a possible sequel of some kind.’

The filmmaker was awarded one of the inaugural stars on the National Lottery’s new Walk of Stars installation on London’s Southbank on Monday, in collaboration with the BFI as the 2023 London Film Festival kicked off.

It celebrates talent behind notable National Lottery-funded films, such as Bend It Like Beckham, as well as up-and-coming stars making waves in the UK film scene thanks to their funding like Scrapper filmmaker Charlotte Regan.

Chadha also explained she had been inspired by fans of the movie too – which include many of the biggest women’s footballers playing today.

‘I feel like with all these accolades, and particularly the star, I feel like my audience around the world deserve a little taster of something.’

‘So, I’m looking at doing something that will be kind of in celebration of the film and the audience around the world who’ve loved it,’ she said.

The Bride and Prejudice director also revealed that she had actually seen the fruits of an AI bot’s work on a follow-up to Bend It Like Beckham, after a friend sent it to her.

It’s safe to say though, that she doesn’t feel her job is in jeopardy any time soon.

‘He sent me these pages, and I have to say it was the biggest pile of crock I’d ever read.

‘I said to him, “What is this? It’s perfunctory. It thinks it’s writing in a very functional way about a story and characters, but there is no emotion, there’s no heart, there’s no proper story development. It’s just functional words being put together in a sequence.”’

However, she acknowledges that its use – one of the hot-button issues of the now-resolved writers’ strike in the US, and the ongoing Sag-Aftra actors’ strike – is ‘inevitable’, although it’s quality won’t come near human creative output.

For Chadha, it probably has its best uses in terms of research.

‘But in terms of taking the place of writing proper scenes and dialogues and screenplays, if you want to write something that’s really good, and feels like it’s from an auteur perspective, I think we’ve got a long way to go on that,’ she insisted.

‘If you want to write just rubbish sort of genre stuff, I’m sure there are unscrupulous producers who might do that and then get writers to clean it up. But in its very core, I think it will get exposed very quickly for being functional and not the real thing.

‘And I think it’s part of this whole fake culture. So it’s, is this a real screenplay or is it a fake screenplay? That will become part of the vernacular, in my opinion.’

The Blinded by the Light and Angus, Thongs and Perfect director also spoke about how close it came to Bend It Like Beckham never being made, with National Lottery her last possible option and Chadha feeling ‘desperate’.

‘In the late 90s I had written the script and was desperately trying to get it made, and everyone rejected it, everybody – Channel 4, the BBC, everywhere I went,’ she recalled. ‘The idea of women playing football was a complete and utter joke. And an Indian girl playing football was an even bigger joke.’

Chadha was insisting that it was ‘the zeitgeist right now’ while everyone was telling her it had no commercial appeal, before she submitted it for lottery funding as her ‘last chance’.

However, she then caught wind from a producer friend on the committee that the film was going to be turned down for funding from the National Lottery too ‘on the basis that we would never find an Indian girl who could bend a ball like David Beckham’ – therefore it wasn’t worth financing.

So a ‘furious’ Chadha stormed into John Woodward’s office, the new head of the UK Film Council, ‘effing and blinding’ to change his mind. And she did.

‘He basically listened to me and he said, “You’re an important filmmaker and we do need to support you.” And no one had ever said that to me actually,’ she recalled.

She joked: ‘My parents were thrilled that I got lottery money, because of all the lottery tickets they’d bought, they were like we won in some way or another, because I got £1.1million and then all the rest of the money started coming in – and that is how I made Bend It Like Beckham.’

Chadha remains ‘eternally grateful’ for the funding she got for Bend It Like Beckham, as well as the breaks it continues to offer to other up-and-coming filmmakers in the UK.

‘Even today the National Lottery gives about £45m to the British Film Institute and that money not only goes to help finance the next generation of new film directors and filmmakers, but also it preserves our national heritage and national archive of film.’

Her first short film can even be viewed at the archive by anyone who wants to see it.

‘So I think that today, having that star with my name on it and Bend It Like Beckham is great, but it also says the BFI and the National Lottery – and that’s important.’

To celebrate the start of this year’s London Film Festival, The National Lottery, in partnership with the British Film Institute, teamed up with film directors and writers Gurinder Chadha, OBE and Charlotte Regan to unveil the ‘Walk of Stars’ at London’s South Bank. The installation shines a light on how the £30m raised every week by National Lottery players goes towards good causes across the UK by celebrating the incredible talent behind brilliant films, as well as the rising stars of the UK film industry, who have all been supported by National Lottery funding through the BFI. For more information on The National Lottery funding visit:
https://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/funding

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MORE : Sir Michael Caine, 90, in his latest film is something you’ve never seen before

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Sir Michael Caine lets himself be vulnerable in a way that audiences have never seen before in his latest film The Great Escaper, in which he stars alongside Glenda Jackson.

The 90-year-old esteemed actor boasts a career of more than six decades, playing cool and suave leading men in the likes of movies such as Get Carter, The Italian Job and Alfie, as well as a more recent renaissance as the wise, elder figure in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, Tenet and more.

However, in The Great Escaper, Sir Michael portrays real-life World War Two veteran Bernard Jordan (known as Bernie), who hit headlines in 2014 for sneaking out of his care home aged 89 to make his own Normandy landing, after failing to get a spot on an organised trip to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day in France.

Written by William Ivory and directed by Oliver Parker, The Great Escaper took inspiration from Bernie and his wife Irene (known as Rene, played by the late Glenda Jackson), who died a week apart from each just months after his daring trip.

Ivory was keen for the film to not be ‘sentimental’ in any way, instead taking an unflinching look at the realities of ageing with two of Britain’s most beloved stars.

‘We can often patronise old age in this country, and it was really, really important to me that we realised that these were living, breathing, present entities,’ Ivory told Metro.co.uk of Bernie and Rene in the film, for whom he also created a fictional ‘epic love story across 70 years’.

‘But there was also a war story to be told about the people who would go into battle to fight, and then the war people just in getting old fight,’ he said.

The Great Escaper is not a light and breezy comedy caper as audiences might expect, although there are moments of humour, with director Parker praising Ivory for finding surprising depths in ‘what could have been quite a superficial story, if charming’.

Discussing how the film addresses the ‘onslaught of old age’, Parker added of the central love story: ‘It’s not a soggy little cliched, soft-edge thing. It’s born out of grit and passion.

‘And that was what was so surprising to me in Billy’s script, was these things were almost throbbing through the story.

‘You’re in a care home, you don’t expect these emotions to be driving and it was done in a very skillful, understated way, with lots of bits of wit and fun.’

‘And then incrementally, it builds to something which is extremely difficult not to be very moved by,’ he shared.

Sir Michael is seen in The Great Escaper using various mobility aids and seeming unsteady on his feet as he looks after Jackson’s Rene in their small nursing home suite.

Although he has been pictured in real life using a walker and walking stick, it’s certainly a first to see the strapping movie star appear frail onscreen.

It even affected Ivory, watching him deliver his performance.

‘Michael’s still very handsome, he’s a 90-year-old man, he’s 6 ft 2in, he’s still this figure – and there’s an extraordinary close-up right at the very start. Normally, me as a writer, I kind of go, “Okay, yeah, I’ve seen it. Can we have some words now?”, and it just holds and it holds.’

‘When I last saw it, there was an audible sense of God, that’s Michael Caine and he’s an old man now – and that brings an extraordinary poignancy to it,’ the screenwriter confessed.

‘I think the performances that Ol has coaxed are incredible because he’s very vulnerable in a way I’ve never seen onscreen. He’s in some of my very favourite films, but I’ve never seen him play as vulnerable as that.’

Parker, who suggests that there’s a ‘sense of empathy for the actors too’ in their turns, mentioned that for casting there had been early talk of going for younger, 70-year-old actors, or ones without the ‘baggage’ of memorable roles.

‘But actually, the sheer commitment of one of these great stars – first of all, with Michael, to turn up when walking itself is a challenge. And the schedule of making a film in independent circles, which is not pampered and luxurious. You’re really working hard.’

He added of both Jackson and Sir Michael: ‘There’s just something about them as people that contributed to the value of the project because they were, by doing it, also addressing both the struggles and passions and the need for empathy.’

Parker lists the ingredients of their stunning performances as ‘courage, craft and characters’.

The two stars were ‘never overt’ in stating their desire to deliver a realistic portrayal of ageing, but Parker agrees it was ‘definitely on the table’.

‘My only concern with the casting of Michael, when every other respect seemed just perfect as an old soldier, was not having seen him do that. Not having seen him share that side of him or be bold enough… even in more recent pictures, he’s the boss, he’s still ultimately cool.

‘Bernie isn’t cool – he’s fun, he’s mischievous, he’s wonderfully brave. But he’s also old.’

Parker was then delighted to see the Oscar winner ‘completely uninhibited’ in his performance, picking out a scene in which he is filmed in a French hotel room with co-star John Standing in vest and underpants, without a shred of self-consciousness.

He also recalled former MP and Women in Love star Jackson, who died in June as the age of 87, as being ‘the least vain person I’ve ever met’.

‘She was incredible – just fierce and energetic and this is what I am, take it or leave it.’

Jackson’s family told the director that her performance in The Great Escaper was the closest they had ever seen her to her real-life self.

He revealed: ‘She brought lots of little interjections, words and sounds, that she would say in her normal day-to-day life like ‘hey-ho’ and grumbles and grunts and this whole performance, they said, was infused with her real personality.

‘They were delighted with it, that she could have an opportunity to offer that up.’

Parker also praised Jackson’s remarkable face while marvelling over the difference in Sir Michael’s (‘he’s got ridiculously smooth skin, I don’t know quite what’s happened there, what deal with what demon he’s had, but he looks amazing’).

‘She doesn’t hide a wrinkle – nor does she want to – and there’s bits of cataract and missing teeth. But boy, the passion is still there and that is just so impressive. And she moves her face in ways which emphasise; the ripple of one of the lines across a face just adds more personality. She makes the most of her age and it’s amazing to witness.’

The Great Escaper has a split timeframe, also following the younger Bernie and Rene at the start of their romance and as Bernie serves in the Navy during the war, where they are played by Will Fletcher and Laura Marcus.

Writer Ivory calls himself a ‘romantic soul’, who was keen to ‘excavate the idea of how love changes’, but he never really made a distinction between the young and old versions of his characters.

‘It was extraordinary because in my head I’m sitting there writing Young Bernie, and then I write a scene with Current Bernie – and I see the same person. I remember once seeing it made just thinking, what the f**k? Because it was a different person.’

‘It feels like there’s a DNA in this script that runs through, so it feels like they’re the same people – and I think that that was just so important,’ he shared.

‘There are moments where you could question do we want to get away from Michael and Glenda, surely they’re the movie stars, but actually it becomes a mutually supportive thing if you get the casting right,’ pointed out Parker.

He explained that with the younger Bernie and Rene, ‘we didn’t want to do little replicas, it was trying to find ‘the spirit of’’.

‘When Laura came in, she just had something of Glenda about her. It was a kind of front foot, it was a kind of fists were up very quick – not wanting to fight, but she’s got this kind of energy and fearlessness, which I really enjoy.’

He conceded that it was not easy to find a young Michael Caine, especially as everyone wants to impersonate him (including on set!), but The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power actor Fletcher was the right fit.

‘He just came it and I thought, ah. It’s that thing, isn’t it, which is what Michael has, he’s got a movie star feel about him.

‘What [Michael] does is distil everything, so he can communicate so much with so little – and so for Will, it was as much about him getting into that kind of channel of communication through his acting, where he’s just bringing it all in.’

He also praised Fletcher’s ability to be present in a scene rather than ‘just repeating a performance’.

Both young actors bear a pleasing resemblance to their older counterparts, with Parker noting a similarity in particular between Marcus and Jackson’s cheekbones.

‘But in a way, it’s more the spirit that you’re trying to capture,’ he emphasised.

And for all four actors, capturing the spirit of a true story, and an older generation’s struggles, is exactly what they do.

The Great Escaper is in cinemas from Friday, October 6.

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MORE : Why Dame Judi Dench, 88, deceives herself into thinking she’s 56

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Bradley Cooper transformed into Leonard Bernstein for his new film Maestro but not everyone was happy with the makeup decisions made.

The 48-year-old adopted a larger nose for the film, using prosthetics to change his face to more closely mirror that of the late composer, who was Jewish.

When the trailer came out, Cooper was hit with backlash from some people who felt the makeup – which took five hours to apply – equated to ‘Jewface’.

Dame Helen Mirren even weighed in on the concerns raised, calling it a ‘delicate balance’ to get right when portraying historical figures.

At the New York Film Festival screening of Maestro on Monday, the Oscar-winning makeup artist in charge of the transformation, Kazu Hiro, addressed the scandal.

Hiro, 54, apologised for ‘hurting some people’s feelings’ and didn’t expect the response people had to the makeup.

‘I wasn’t expecting that to happen. I feel sorry that I hurt some people’s feelings,’ Hiro explained at the event.

The family of Bernstein have defended Cooper, who both stars in and directs the new biopic, and said they were ‘touched to the core to witness the depth of his commitment.’

He revealed he and his team would spend all night applying the cosmetics so Cooper could be behind the camera in character.

The renowned makeup artist continued: ‘My goal was and Bradley’s goal was to portray Lenny as authentic as possible.

‘Lenny had a really iconic look that everybody knows – there’s so many pictures out there because he’s photogenic, too – such a great person and also inspired so many people. So we wanted to respect the look too, on the inside.

‘So that’s why we did several different tests and went through lots of decisions and that was the outcome in the movie.’

Prosthetic application and perfecting makeup take time, even for a professional and Cooper’s transformation would take a minimum of five hours every day.

Hiro shared: ‘The last stage, he had covered pretty much everywhere, the bodysuit and arms. That took over 5 hours.

‘The last stage, the whole time, our call time was 1 in the morning. The other thing was he wanted makeup to be finished before the crew call, so he would appear as Lenny to set up the shoot and everything.

‘That also kind of made our call time two hours earlier than normal, so that was quite tough.’

As the film is a biopic, Cooper needed longer in the chair depending on the age of Bernstein in the scene.

Aged lines, facial prosthetic additions, and skin discolouration all ramped up as later moments from the composer’s life were filmed.

‘(We had to) keep adding because as he gets older, we had to add more elements,’ Hiro explained.

‘The younger stage was the nose and lips and chin and a wig. After the third stage, he started having cheek and neck (additions).’

Bernstein was an accomplished composer, earning himself Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and 16 Grammy Awards – including the Lifetime Achievement Award.

His best-known work is West Side Story, for which he collaborated with famed lyricist and musicals legend, Stephen Sondheim.

Maestro tells the story of his life and relationship with his wife Felicia Montealegre, portrayed by Carey Mulligan.

Maestro is set to be released in select theatres in November then on December 20, it will appear on Netflix.

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Having grown up worshipping School of Rock, quoting Jack Black at every opportunity and dreaming of becoming a kid rockstar, we have to ask… how has it been 20 years since the iconic movie was released?!

In 2003, the world was introduced to the esteemed Horace Green prep school, where budding musician Dewey Finn (Jack) wormed his way in as a substitute teacher by adopting the identity of his housemate, Ned Schneebly (Mike White).

Despite initially bagging the job for the money, down-on-his-luck Dewey discovers that the class he’s been assigned to teach is actually filled with musical prodigies, and so he forms a band in the hope that he can finally reign supreme at Battle of the Bands.

Metro.co.uk recently had the chance to speak to Miranda Cosgrove – who plays goody two shoes-turned band manager Summer – about her experience making the movie at just nine years old, an astonishing two decades ago.

The actress – whose show iCarly recently aired the third season of its Paramount Plus revival series – revealed that filming School of Rock was special for many reasons – from staying in a plush New York hotel with her child co-stars to witnessing the magic of improv for the first time by working with Jack.

When asked about her favourite memories from making the film, the now-30-year-old shared: ‘Well, one of the coolest… I’d never been on a plane, so flying to New York. That was my first time on a plane to do the movie.

‘Then I got to stay in this really nice hotel in Manhattan for five months and all the other kids that were in the movie were in the hotel with me.’

Miranda explained that she felt like Eloise, referencing the 2003 movie Eloise at the Plaza, which follows the adventures of a young girl who lives in the penthouse of New York’s Plaza Hotel.

‘I felt a little bit like Eloise, but if she had like 10 other kids that she was best friends with, with her. So that was awesome,’ she recalled.

So what was it like hanging out with the rest of the kids staying in the hotel?

‘We’d play video games and we’d have sleepovers all the time. We’d go to Benihana which was around the corner from the hotel. It was such a fun experience,’ Miranda recollected.

After growing up in Los Angeles, Miranda added that being in New York marked the first time that she’d ever seen snow with her own two eyes.

When imagining what it was like to be a part of one of the most cherished films of the Noughties, the mind instantly veers towards wondering how it felt to work with the one and only Jack Black.

Miranda, who shared several scenes with the actor and musician, said: ‘I didn’t know what improv was until I saw Jack Black change it up so many times when we were doing the classroom scenes.

‘He would always do something different. So it kept everybody on their toes and excited waiting to see what he was going to do next.

‘I think it made a lot of that feel real because we really are all like, “What’s he gonna do?” and laughing. A lot of those reactions are just natural.’

Having spoken to Miranda ahead of the 20th anniversary of School of Rock and before the actors’ strike in Hollywood, the actress speculated over whether there could be any reunion plans to mark the milestone.

‘I don’t know exactly what the plan is going to be. I have already gotten messages about the 20th reunion and just said I’m down for whatever it is. I can’t wait, but I don’t know exactly what we’re gonna do yet,’ she said at the time.

‘We did have a 10-year reunion and that was so much fun getting to see everybody.’

The Drake & Josh star explained that when work on School of Rock first began, those behind the production conducted a widespread search to try and find kids who could really play their instruments, which is why they ended up coming from various states across the US.

‘We filmed that movie for five months in New York when I was nine and it was my first real experience getting to act and be on a set,’ she said fondly.

‘It’s something I will treasure for the rest of my life and getting to know all of those people and have them in my life for so long.’

School of Rock is available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video.

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MORE : Get in loser – the entire Mean Girls movie has been put on TikTok for free

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It’s October 3rd, and you know what that means – it’s officially Mean Girls Day.

The iconic teen movie was released a whopping 19 years ago in 2004, but is as much a staple as ever, because who can help throwing out a She doesn’t even go here, a Get in loser, we’re going shopping, or a You can’t sit with us whenever the opportunity arises?

And of course, October 3 is the unofficial Mean Girls day because of that one simple line: ‘On October 3rd, he asked me what day it was.’

Unbeknownst to the writers or the cast at the time, this would go on to create an annual holiday.

To celebrate, the official Mean Girls TikTok page has uploaded the whole film in its entirety.

The account began by teasing the film with some choice clips, and when it was officially Mean Girls Day uploaded the first scene – including the Paramount Pictures logo at the beginning.

At just two minutes long, the video ends when Cady walks into her classroom for the first time… but continues on the next video, this one close to six minutes long and ending with the first introduction to the legendary Regina George.

Every single iconic scene is available to watch on the channel, and if you’re the type of person who finds themselves watching entire two-hour long documentaries on TikTok in five-minute long clips, this is certainly for you.

There are 23 clips in total, finishing with the entirety of the crew and cast credits, which of course includes Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and Neil Flynn.

And as if things weren’t exciting enough, it was announced on October 3 (we wonder why!) that Tina Fey’s Mean Girls Musical is coming to London’s West End.

The show will premiere in the UK in June next year, after a major two-year run on Broadway.

Announcing the news, Tina said: ‘We’re so excited to bring MEAN GIRLS to London, where everyone already knows what Regina means.’

Producers Lorne Michaels and Sonia Friedman added: ‘Mean Girls’ is a timeless comedy that for decades has connected with generations of audiences across the globe. Having worked together for several years on this production, we are immensely proud and excited to be bringing this stage musical, led by this incredible writing and creative team, to London’s Savoy Theatre.’

Casting is to be announced at a later date, and booking opens on November 1.

OG Mean Girl Rachel, who played Regina, is as big a fan of the film as the rest of us, and earlier this year confirmed she’d be keen to appear in the upcoming Mean Girls musical film – a film based on the musical based on the movie.

Regina said she would ‘never’ reject an offer from Tina if she was asked to come on board.

Speaking about Tina, who wrote the original Mean Girls screenplay and starred in it, McAdams enthused: ‘She’s the greatest’.

As it currently stands, McAdams isn’t lined up to make an appearance in the spinoff – but she told Entertainment Tonight ‘we’ll see how it all shakes out.’

Paramount Pictures is adapting Fey’s Tony-nominated musical for the big screen and it will feature music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin. 

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