Eddie Redmayne, fresh from The Good Nurse, is set to play another killer.

The Oscar-winning actor will star in The Day of the Jackal series for Peacock and Sky. He will play The Jackal, a professional assassin hired by a French paramilitary dissident to kill French President Charles de Gaulle in 1962.

The series is based on the Frederick Forsyth novel and 1973 film adaptation from Universal Pictures. However, it has been reimagined as a contemporary story set amidst the current turbulent geo-political landscape and will delve deeper into the chameleon like ‘anti-hero’.

Top Boy creator and writer Ronan Bennett writes and serves as showrunner. Brian Kirk, who has directed episodes of Game of Thrones and Luther, will direct. It is produced by Universal International Studios’ Carnival Films, which is best known for producing Downton Abbey.

Redmayne will also exec produce alongside Carnival Films’ Gareth Neame and Nigel Marchant, Sky Studios’ Sam Hoyle. Marianne Buckland serves as co-exec producer, Frederick Forsyth is consulting producer and Christopher Hall is a producer.

It will air on Peacock in the U.S. and Sky in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. NBCUniversal Global Distribution will handle international sales of the series.

Redmayne is coming off the back of Netflix’s The Good Nurse, starring opposite Jessica Chastain. He won the Oscar for The Theory of Everything. It marks his first television series in 13 years when he starred in The Pillars of the Earth.

“We are excited to bring to life Ronan Bennett’s re-imagining of Forsyth’s revered thriller in the complex world in which we live today,” said Gareth Neame. “And are incredibly fortunate to have an actor of Eddie’s caliber as our Jackal. Paired with Ronan’s screenplay and Brian Kirk’s direction this is a first class creative team.”

Redmayne is repped by CAA, United Agents, and Jackoway Austen. [Source]

Redmayne and co-star Jessie Buckley both won 2022 Olivier Awards for their performances.

The Olivier-winning revival of Cabaret is getting a cast recording. The album will feature the Olivier-winning performances of Eddie Redmayne as The Emcee and Jessie Buckley as Sally Bowles. Redmayne’s “Willkommen” and Buckley’s “Mein Herr” will hit streaming platforms December 21, with the full release following January 20, 2023.

The Rebecca Frecknall-directed production of the Tony-winning 1966 Broadway musical, currently running at London’s Kit Kat Club (a.k.a. the renovated Playhouse Theatre), officially opened December 12, 2021. The original cast also featured Omari Douglas as Cliff Bradshaw, Liza Sadovy as Fraulein Schneider, Elliot Levey as Herr Schultz, Stewart Clarke as Ernst Ludwig, and Anna-Jane Casey as Fraulein Kost with Josh Andrews, Emily Benjamin, Sally Frith, Matthew Gent, Emma Louise Jones, Ela Lisondra, Theo Maddix, Chris O’Mara, Daniel Perry, Andre Refig, Christopher Tendai, Bethany Terry, Lillie-Pearl Wildman, and Sophie Maria Wojna.

The London production also features a new addition: a Prologue Company of nine actors, dancers, and musicians, who welcome audiences to the world of the club as they arrive at the theatre. The initial Prologue Company consisted of Gabriela Bendetti, Rachel Benson, Laura Braid, Julian Capolei, Hollie Cassar, Celine Fortenbacher-Popławska, Samantha Ho, Andrew Linnie, and Sally Swanson with an original score composed by Angus MacRae.

Since last October, the revival has been led by Callum Scott Howells and Madeline Brewer as The Emcee and Sally Bowles (respectively) with Sid Sagar as Cliff Bradshaw, Danny Mahoney as Ernst Ludwig, and Michelle Bishop as Fraulein Kost.

The nation’s largest university-run film festival, which has grown into an Oscar season stop of considerable importance, will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year.

The SCAD Savannah Film Festival, which has grown into an Oscar season stop of considerable importance, is set to mark its 25th anniversary with a contender-packed lineup of films and list of honorees.

Opening with The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight) and closing with Living (Sony Classics), the nation’s largest university-run film festival, which this year will run Oct. 22-29, will showcase 143 films, including 53 narrative feature films, 20 documentary feature films, and 79 shorts, with eight world premieres and six U.S. premieres.

It will also celebrate Eddie Redmayne with the Virtuoso Award for The Good Nurse (Netflix); Janelle Monáe with the Spotlight Award for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix); Sadie Sink with the Rising Star Award for The Whale (A24); Jeremy Pope with the Distinguished Performance Award for The Inspection (A24); Jonathan Majors with the Spotlight Award and JD Dillard with the Rising Star Director Award for Devotion (Sony); Nicholas Hoult with the Vanguard Award for The Menu (Searchlight); Kerry Condon with the Distinguished Performance Award for The Banshees of Inisherin; Henry Selick with the Outstanding Achievement in Animation Award for Wendell and Wild (Netflix); and Sandy Powell with the Creative Impact Award in Costume Design for Living.

Previously announced honorees include Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly), who will receive the Discovery Award for Taurus (RLJE Films) and will join yours truly for a live episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast; Ron Howard, who will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award in Directing for Thirteen Lives (Amazon); Evgeny Afineevsky, who will receive the Daring Documentarian Award for Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (still seeking U.S. distribution); and the directors of 10 of the year’s top documentary features — Shaunak Sen for All That Breathes (HBO), David Siev for Bad Axe (IFC), Margaret Brown for Descendant (Netflix), Sara Dosa for Fire of Love (Nat Geo), Ryan White for Good Night Oppy (Amazon), Ondi Timoner for Last Flight Home (MTV), Brett Morgen for Moonage Daydream (Neon), Daniel Roher for Navalny (HBO Max), Matthew Heineman for Retrograde (Nat Geo) and Kathlyn Horan for The Return of Tanya Tucker (Sony Classics) — who will join yours truly for the 9th annual ‘Docs to Watch’ panel.

Artists to be feted at a brunch also celebrating Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch

The Newport Beach Film Festival has announced it’s 2022 Festival Honors, which includes Oscar winners Ron Howard and Eddie Redmayne and actors from Jonathan Majors and Patton Oswalt to Keke Palmer and Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly.) The artists will be honored at a brunch in conjunction with Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch taking place on Oct. 16 at Balboa Bay Resort.

Howard is receiving the Variety Legends and Groundbreakers Award for his creative leadership. After starting as an actor in such classics as “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Happy Days,” Howard became an Oscar-winning filmmaker whose movies as director include “A Beautiful Mind” and “Apollo 13.” Most recently he directed “Thirteen Lives,” the true story of the rescue of a soccer team and their coach from a cave in Thailand. “Thirteen Lives” is available on Amazon Prime.

Another Oscar winner in attendance at the festival is Eddie Redmayne, who will attend the NBFF Centerpiece screening of his new film “The Good Nurse” on Oct. 15 where he will be honored with the Icon Award. The Netflix film stars fellow Oscar winner Jessica Chastain, with Redmayne playing Charlie Cullen, a nurse known as the “Angel of Death” and regarded as one of the most prolific serial killers in history.

The 23rd edition of the festival will be held in person Oct. 13-20 and will spotlight more than 350 films from around the world. For more information visit newportbeachfilmfestival.com [Source]

The star will present Tobias Lindholm’s thriller ‘The Good Nurse,’ in which he stars alongside Jessica Chastain, at the ZFF.

The 2022 Zurich Film Festival is honoring Fantastic Beasts star Eddie Redmayne with its Golden Eye award for lifetime acheivement.

The British actor will receive the honor in person in Zurich on September 25 ahead of the European premiere of Tobias Lindholm’s The Good Nurse. Redmayne stars in the Netflix thriller, alongside Jessica Chastain, as a nurse who poses a deadly threat to his patients. He will also participate in a ZFF Masters session while at the festival.

Arguably best known as Newt Scamander from Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter spin-off franchise Fantastic Beasts, Redmayne’s career stretches across multiple genres, from Hollywood blockbusters to independent arthouse projects. He won the Oscar for Best Actor playing physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything (2014), was 60s political activist Tom Hayden in Aaron Sorkin The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020),and sung his heart out as Marius in Tom Hooper’s blockbuster musical Les Misérables (2012).

“Eddie Redmayne is one of contemporary cinema’s most versatile actors. He furnishes his characters with a rare human depth and captivates us with his extraordinary powers of expression,” said Christian Jungen, Artistic Director of the Zurich Film Festival. “In The Good Nurse, Redmayne once again proves his versatility with a performance that keeps us riveted to our seats.”

Eddie Redmayne will speak at a one-hour ZFF Masters session in Zurich on Sept. 25.

The 18th Zurich Film Festival runs Sept. 22-Oct. 2. [Source]

The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled the lineup for its In Conversation With… series, to be headlined with appearances by Damien Chazelle, Viola Davis and Eddie Redmayne.

Oscar-winning writer-director Chazelle will discuss his career that stretches from Whiplash and La La Land to his upcoming film Babylon, which stars Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie.

Davis and director Gina Prince-Bythewood will take part in their own informal conversation about their artistic drive and Hollywood careers as their collaboration on The Woman King has a world bow in Toronto next month. Davis is also known for her work on the TV series How to Get Away With Murder and movies like Fences, Widows, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and action-thriller The Old Guard.

Eddie Redmayne, who will be at TIFF this year with The Good Nurse, will also be on hand to talk about his movie career, which includes star turns in Red, The Good Shepherd, Les Miserables, and The Theory of Everything, where he played the scientist Stephen Hawking and earned a best actor Oscar.

And Toronto has booked an In Conversation With… appearance by Korean actors Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung. Jung is bringing A Man of Reason to Toronto, while Lee will be at the festival with his latest film, Hunt.

Since their collaboration on City of the Rising Sun in 1999, both have been key players in Korean cinema and TV, with Lee starring in Netflix’s Squid Game and Jung starring in The Good, the Bad, the Weird; Cold Eyes; and Steel Rain. [Source]

A revival of the 1966 musical, with Jessie Buckley as Sally Bowles, is up for 11 awards at Britain’s equivalent of the Tonys.

A revival of “Cabaret” that has been a topic of conversation here for its sky-high ticket prices as much as its stellar cast dominated the nominations for this year’s Olivier Awards — Britain’s equivalent of the Tonys — that were announced on Tuesday.

The musical secured 11 nominations including a nod for best musical revival, as well as for best actor and actress in a musical for its stars Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley.

Its prominence was perhaps unsurprising given the acclaim “Cabaret” has received since opening last December in a production that transforms the West End’s Playhouse Theater into a seedy nightclub straight out of 1920s Berlin.

Audiences enter the show through the theater’s backstage corridors, and can even have a preshow meal once inside, partly explaining why tickets cost up to 325 British pounds (or about $420).

Matt Wolf, reviewing the show for The New York Times, called it “nerve-shredding” for its portrayal of a world on the verge of Nazism. Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph called it “2021’s kill-for-a-ticket theatrical triumph,” suggesting readers “dig like your life depended on it into your pockets” to pay for a ticket.

Even with such praise, “Cabaret” faces stiff competition in the musical categories, especially from a revival of Kathleen Marshall’s 2011 Broadway production of “Anything Goes” at the Barbican, which secured nine nominations including for best musical revival and a best actress nomination for Sutton Foster as Reno Sweeney. Foster won a Tony in 2011 for the same role.

Red Nose Day, the BBC’s annual televized fund-raising event, is set to return on March 18.

Featuring comedy sketches and specials, live performances and a host of celebrity names, the live show will be broadcast from the broadcaster’s Manchester headquarters on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the U.K.

Sir Lenny Henry will return to host the event alongside former Doctor Who David Tennant, “Walk the Line” judge Alesha Dixon, former “Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two” host Zoe Ball and comedian Paddy McGuinness.

The show will include cameos from comedians Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Jack Whitehall, David Walliams and Matt Lucas as well as public figures such as Olympian Tom Daley and actor Rose Ayling Ellis.

Among the sketches and performances audiences can expect to see on the night are “Comic Opera,” which will see six celebrities given 24 hours to learn opera – and perform it in front of a live audience at The London Coliseum; “Schools Thank You” in which “Fantastic Beasts” stars Jude Law and Eddie Redmayne surprise some children at Leavesden Studios, where the Harry Potter franchise was filmed; “Rock Profile” featuring a host of bold-name music artists including Adele, Post Malone, Lady Gaga and Lewis Capaldi; “Ghosts” with pop star Kylie Minogue joining the cast of the sitcom in a one-off sketch; a special performance from “Strictly Come Dancing” winners Rose Ayling Ellis and Giovanni Pernice; “The Repair Shop,” in which French and Saunders gatecrash the show in the hope of getting a free fix; “Jack Whitehall’s Mini Golf Challenge” with Whitehall taking on soccer players Mason Mount and Declan Rice; “Bedtime Stories for Comic Relief” with Stephen Fry and some celebrity friends reading some less child-friendly fare; a musical performance from the cast of West End show “&Juliet” and “The Great Comic Relief Prizeathon” hosted by Joel Dommett and AJ Odudu.

Strictly Come Dancing judge Motsi Mabuse is leading the line-up for the Friday, October 22 edition of The Graham Norton Show.

Motsi will be joining Fantastic Beasts star Eddie Redmayne and Chernobyl actress Jessie Buckley, who will be on the sofa promoting their new West End musical Cabaret.

The new production of Cabaret, which opens next month at the Playhouse Theatre in London, is described as an “immersive” experience where the play is performed in the round for guests, with the theatre transformed into the Kit Kat Club. [Source]