Across The Atlantic: Second Edition, 18th November 2011

Every fortnight (that is two weeks in case you are reading this hung-over) I will collect, evaluate and release all the film-tastic news that may or may not have made your radar due to it being UK/European specific. Some of it you may read, the majority of it however will probably leave you scratching feverishly at your skull wondering “Who is this? And why am I reading this balderdash!”

Today marks something special, but I can’t quite put my finger on it…Ah! I remember now, November 18^th is the day that a certain movie is released throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. And while there may be a lot of criticism floating around on the web for this film, I believe that it could be something special, I mean it stars Nicholas Cage, January Jones and Guy Pearce for Christ’s sake!

At the 2012 BAFTA’s the likes of The Only Way Is Essex, Geordie Shore and Made in Chelsea will now be recognised in their own (crappy) category (‘Reality and Constructed Factual’) which has been introduced, according to Chairman of the BAFTA Television Committee, to show “how television production and viewing is changing.” For the worse by the look of things… [BBC]

Leigh Francis who you may know more prominently as his alter-egos, the celebrity-stalking Avid Merrion and the womanizing Keith Lemon (right), is to bring the Keith Lemon persona to the big screen through director Paul Angunawela and Lionsgate Films UK. The film will follow the wannabe millionaire as he moves from Leeds down to London in an attempt to build up a mountain of wealth. [BBC]

Ken Russell’s controversial 1971 film The Devils is finally getting an official DVD release in March 2012 by the distribution arm of the British Film Institute. [BBC]

The BBC has teamed up with Ridley Scott and director Morgan Matthews to create a project entitled Britain in a Day which aims to create a program which will showcase a portrait of British life throughout the country from thousands of user-submitted clips. [BBC]

The British Government is continuing its initiative to give British films tax breaks until at least 2015. [BFI]

The first trailer for Phyllida Lloyd’s biopic of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, entitled The Iron Lady, has shown up online. Meryl Streep plays Thatcher, who served for eleven years as the Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The picture is due for theatrical release in the United States on the 30^th of December 2011 and in the UK on the 6^th of January 2012. [HeyUGuys]

A couple of weeks ago it was the news that the ITV comedy-series Benidorm would be coming to the big screen, and now the television series Absolutely Fabulous might not be too far behind either. Jennifer Saunders is reportedly working on the script as we speak (well, type). [Guardian]

Is Video-On-Demand killing the cinema-going experience? Apparently not. Stuart Heritage explores New Empress’s survey, which has found that a quarter of the respondents noted that 3D is something that would put them off going to the cinema, along with rising prices and people disturbing the movie-going experience with their phones and other devices. [Guardian]

Whether you think Video-On-Demand is killing big screen experience or not, it is here to stay, as LoveFilm have just signed a deal to take on-board Warner Bros films in the United Kingdom and Ireland. This is no doubt a reactionary move in response to the news released a few weeks ago that NetFlix will be entering tmarket in the UK in the early months of 2012.  [Guardian]

Martin McDonagh (right), the man behind the brilliant In Bruges, is finally back on the filmmaking track with his latest film about a screenwriter who becomes entangled in the activities of the criminal underworld. Entitled Seven Psychopaths, so far Christopher Walken, Colin Farrell and Sam Rockwell have signed on to the project. [Independent]

Michael Fassbender is wanted for the lead in an upcoming film exploring the Alexander Litvinenko scandal. Titled Londongrad, the film will explore the events which led to the poisoning and subsequent death of the former KGB and FSB officer who obtained asylum in the United Kingdom in 2001. [TotalFilm]

Here are a few images from Antonio Chavarrias’s (You’ll Be Back) upcoming Spanish horror film Childish Games. [TotalFilm]

Russell Brand is to produce and star in a new comedy for Warner Bros tentatively titled The President Stole My Girlfriend. Details are scarce at the moment, but Brand says the film will follow a hippie character as he finds that the President of the United States has stolen his girlfriend (duh!). [Empire]

The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) opened on ten screens in the UK two weekends ago and it made a paltry £942 ($1500). With the current cinema prices in the UK, this equates to around 124 adults seeing the film during its weekend run… [Yahoo]

If there is one thing that everybody loves, it has to be zombies, and now the Germans are getting in on the action. Viva Berlin is a five-part webseries which will look at the nasty side of the zombie experience. You can see a NSFW teaser at BD. [BloodyDisgusting]

Kill List, which quickly became my favourite film of 2011, is finally getting a US theatrical release. It will be released in a few (and when I say few, I mean and I expect a few) locations on the 3^rd of February 2012, but if you can’t wait that long, then the film will hit Video-On-Demand on the 4^th of January. [Fangoria]

Want to know which screenplays are currently hot in the UK at the moment? HollywoodReporter have got their hands on the Brit List (our answer to Hollywood’s Black List) and at the top of the unproduced list is Charles Barker’s Sci-Fi Horror The Call Up. [HollywoodReporter]

The Harry Potter director David Yates has announced that a Doctor Who film is in the works. He says that it won’t follow on from the BBC series and is unlikely to reach cinemas for at least few years. [DigitalSpy]

And with the above news, came two extra little snippets from the wonderful Simon Pegg. The first bit of news is that he believes Matt Smith should be the Doctor on the big screen, and secondly he has no interest in returning to the television show or the pending film version. [DigitalSpy]

Whether you love him or loathe him, Lars von Trier will always be at the front of the queue when it comes to the awards season. The nominations for the European Film Awards (December 2^nd, Berlin) have been announced with his film Melancholia leading the pack with eight out of a possible nine nominations. [Reuters]

Don’t know how I missed this a few weeks ago, but it deserves a mention. HolyMoly has put together a list of the films (some with trailers and release dates) that were screened at the BFI London Film Festival and deserve to be seen by the film hungry public. [HolyMoly]

Could the Inbetweeners 2 be on the horizon? Hopefully not, but actor Greg Davies (right) says that if a sequel is to come to fruition it won’t be a cheap ‘cash in’ (which they all say…). But, the best thing about this article to be fair, is Iain Morris and Damon Beesley’s (show writers) reaction over twitter to the rumours that a second film is in the works. [Metro]

A photo on Twitter (or ‘Twitpic’) has confirmed that 23^rd Bond film, Skyfall, has officially started shooting. [Metro]

Not only is Liam Gallagher producing a Beatles biopic, which was reported in the last edition, but now he apparently has the taste for filmmaking and would consider jumping onboard for an Oasis biopic centred on the relationship between himself and his brother Noel during the last few months before the breakup of the band. [TheSun]

Apparently there are three biopics of Princess Diana’s life in the works at the moment with this article from The Sun concentrating on Oliver Hirschbiegel’s (Downfall, Das Experiment) proposed film about her two year relationship with a heart surgeon. Jessica Chastain (left) has been offered the role of Princess Di. [TheSun]

Yet another award-winning article from the tabloid newspaper The Sun covering the fact that Daniel Radcliffe was allergic to the glasses he initially wore to play the character Harry Potter. I’ll spoil the rest of the article for you, they changed his glasses and he carried on acting. [TheSun] 

Something to brighten up your weekend: Ever wanted to see a young, baby boy (and a cute one at that) recreate all your favourite movie sequences? Well look no further as Emily Cleaver and her son Arthur have done just that! [StudioArthur]