A Horse by any other Name …

damian lewis charles doughty wylie queen of the desert nicole kidman gertrude bell
source: QueenFilmFan and koenigin-der-wueste.de

In light of upcoming international releases for Queen of the Desert, allow me to take you on a visual trip into some screenshots from German clips and “fotos” released from the official German site for the film. No word yet on when we can see this large-scale saga on our screens in the U.S. Reviews abroad, so far, have been mixed, some going so far as to say that with such a conventional romantic epic, Herzog has stepped perilously far from the avant-garde aesthetic which has defined his work to date. Needless to say, one of the preeminent directors of our time certainly took a chance with this enterprise. But, what’s the value of achieving preeminence if not to be given a license to take chances every now and then? One thing is certain from the trailers and clips we’ve seen: the actors involved in this project have given it their all. I’ll, of course, focus here on Damian’s work in this film, picking apart the few glimpses we’ve seen so far.

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A Wolf Hall Junkie’s (that’s me!) FUN Wolf Hall Journey

Henry VIII is a monster, but he’s our monster. We’re perversely proud of Henry. -Hilary Mantel

source: farfarawaysite.com
source: farfarawaysite.com

Tell me… what are the odds your favorite actor plays your favorite historical monster in a mini-series based on your favorite book? I know 🙂 And, not just that, but the mini-series had its world premiere on BBC2 on January 21 — literally as my birthday gift! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

I have had this amazing journey with Wolf Hall. It started on a sunny and cold Saturday afternoon in New York City at the Belasco Theater in January 2014 and is now coming full circle at Prime Time Emmy Awards on September 20 with me getting glued to TV rooting for Wolf Hall and in particular Damian Lewis for them to turn those well-deserved 8 nominations into beautiful little statuettes 🙂 Continue reading “A Wolf Hall Junkie’s (that’s me!) FUN Wolf Hall Journey”

Bobby Axelrod: A Man of Two Worlds in Billions, Part II

source: Showtime
source: Showtime

Last week we left our discussion of Bobby Axelrod curious about the distance he would go to protect what he has… which brings me to his better half Lara and Team Axelrod! In an earlier post about Team Axelrod, one question I had was whether Lara was involved in the business, and, in fact, how much she knew about what’s going on. So, If we drop a few familiar names for convenience, the question is whether Lara is some kind of a Carmela Soprano (knows and looks the other way), Skyler White (she doesn’t want to know first but then is buried up to her neck) or Claire Underwood (an equal partner from day one).

I am happy to report that, in a nice YouTube interview, Malin Akerman gives a few hints about Lara that, in fact, answer my question: “Great character… Strong female character… just what I was attracted to… You know, it’s, instead of standing behind your man, standing beside your man in this show…” So, yes, even though we don’t know the extent to which she is involved we know that Lara is INVOLVED in business. You can see Malin Akerman’s interview about Billions in its entirety here. Continue reading “Bobby Axelrod: A Man of Two Worlds in Billions, Part II”

Ready, Steady, Write!

As you know we are all about fun over here and we thought that, on our sixth Fiction Friday Blog, maybe it was time to get you all involved as well. Fan Fiction can be lots of fun and it is even more fun when several people with a common like all join in on a ‘prompt’. A prompt can simply be a phrase, a few words or more around which you must base your story.

Examples from LilMisfit

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10492635/1/Sergeant-vs-SEAL

This prompt was given to me by a fellow Homeland fan via Tumblr, and was simply the words “Big Game”. At the time the World Cup was in full swing and while most of the fics I read were centered around that, I took my story in an alternate direction and wrote a one-shot involving Brody, Carrie, and the tall, dark, handsome and bearded Navy SEAL team introduced in S3, all playing pool together on base before Brody loaded out for Tehran. I found the dynamic between Brody and the SEAL team that trained him to be an interesting one, and wanted to see that camaraderie and friendship developed further.

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Throwback Thursday to an ’80s Cultural icon: SONY Walkman

"I remember going to work with one of those enormous, 
brick-like Walkmans that we all used to have..." 
- Damian Lewis on NPR
source: LA Times
source: LA Times

One of the great things about writing on Damian Lewis is that he’s from my generation. This essentially means I very easily relate to a lot of things about him, from the football team he supports, the pop culture references he makes, his sense of humor or the music he likes — I know some people have found his music taste “unsophisticated” on Desert Island Discs, but hey, we both grew up in the 80s, cut us some slack please ☺ And so some of the stories I write are mine as much as his… like… this one!

Today’s throwback takes us back to 1980s, to a big cultural icon and a real coolness symbol when we happened to be teenagers: SONY Walkman… And to some “tasteful” 80s music as well! 🙂

Continue reading “Throwback Thursday to an ’80s Cultural icon: SONY Walkman”