Hi everyone!
I hope everyone is well and happy. So sorry for no current updates. However, I’ve been extremely busy, but I’m crossing my fingers that you all enjoy the news which are being shared in the Forum!
Have a wonderful day!
Admin
The following pic was taken on September 18, 2009 in London:
source: celebrity-gossip.net
from the Daily Mail, September 18, 2009.
by Baz Bamigboye
Helena Bonham Carter, better known as Bellatrix Lestrange to Harry Potter movie fans, is in negotiations to portray the Queen Mother in a film about how she helped her husband overcome his stammer.
The actress will star with Colin Firth – as George VI – and Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush in the film The King’s Speech, which Tom Hooper will direct.
Firth told me Bonham Carter would be ’sublime as the Queen Mum’. ‘The film takes place before she took on the cuddly Queen Mum mantle, when she was much younger, making Helena ideal.
‘This was when her husband – then the Duke of York – was going through the Abdication crisis and had to prepare himself for public speaking.’
We were talking in Toronto, where the actor was attending the city’s international film festival, to promote his new movie – and designer Tom Ford’s directorial debut – A Single Man.
Firth gives the performance of his career in the film and I predict he will become a serious Academy Award contender for best actor.
The King’s Speech starts shooting in London this autumn. Bonham Carter’s schedule is being negotiated because she’s also working on The Deathly Hallows – the two-film finale of the Harry Potter series – plus she has a starring role as the Red Queen in Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland.
The King’s Speech is about Lionel Logue (played by Rush), an Australian speech therapist who later became a sought-after Harley Street consultant.
In 1926 the Duchess of York, as the Queen Mother was before her husband assumed the throne in 1937, encouraged the Duke to visit Logue, and then helped him with breathing exercises and tongue-twisters.
Later, Logue coached George VI for the formal language of the 1937 Coronation, telling him to ‘take it quietly, Sir’ – and that slow, measured speech later became a reassuring feature of the King’s wartime radio broadcasts.
A Single Man, meanwhile, is based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood, about an Englishman teaching literature at a university in California.
He feels isolated but discovers that it’s the little things in daily life that make you happy.
It’s beautifully shot and directed. After a screening in Toronto, Firth joked he had been ’scheduled a renaissance for about now, particularly as I’ve had my 49th birthday’.
Indeed, Firth, known for roles in television’s Pride And Prejudice and on the big screen for Bridget Jones and Mamma Mia! has been turning in some finely observed portraits in smaller movies such as Genova, And When Did You Last See Your Father?, the current Dorian Gray and now A Single Man.
Here’s the first teaser for “Alice in Wonderland”:
Better late than never… Here are some pics from the UK premiere of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. They were taken on July 7, 2009 in London.
The Mirror, July 12, 2009
by Mark Adams
THE STARS
Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane.
THE STORY
With Death Eaters causing havoc in both the Muggle – human – and wizarding worlds, special magical protections are put around Hogwarts School to keep the students safe.
Dumbledore (Gambon) needs Harry (Radcliffe) to help find vital clues to defeat Voldemort… but Harry is equally concerned about dangers within Hogwarts as well as getting increasingly interested in the attractions of the opposite sex.
THE VERDICT
The Harry Potter films just get better and better… Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a wonderful wizarding adventure, brimming with action, love, drama, humour and dazzling performances. It is cracking stuff and bound to be the hit of the summer.
Though it should come as no real surprise, the young stars are looking awfully grown-up as they grapple adult issues as well as try to get to grips with their own pesky hormones. If love ‘n’ romance was a minor element in the last film, it emerges as a major player this time round.
Things start powerfully in this latest instalment as both Muggle and wizarding worlds are under attack from dastardly Death Eaters. London is in peril as the boundaries between human and magical grow more precarious.
Just as Harry is about to embark on a possible Brief Encounter-style romance with a girl from a railway station café, he is whisked off by Dumbledore to recruit Horace Slughorn (Broadbent) to return as a professor at Hogwarts. As we find out, Slughorn holds important secrets which offer clues to defeating Voldemort. Broadbent is a perfect addition to the magical teaching staff: wonderfully witty and whimsical.
Hogwarts School now feels more like a dusty castle than a fairytale playground. There is a sense of danger lurking and the film is all the better for the darker, more grown-up undercurrents.
Advertisement – article continues below »
Most fun, though, is to be had with the troubled teenage trysts as love and jealousy start to play havoc with young emotions. Quite why lovely, bright Hermione (Watson) longs for bumbling Ron (Grint) is a mystery, but as he becomes an unlikely sex symbol due to his Quidditch exploits, Harry offers a shoulder to cry on.
Mind you, he has his own romantic issues as he finds himself falling for Ron’s feisty younger sister Ginny (Bonnie Wright).
The film builds to a powerful climax as the Death Eaters find a way into Hogwarts and face off against Dumbledore. Look out for Helena Bonham Carter, who is astonishingly evil and mesmerising as Bellatrix Lestrange.
The film looks magnificent, is wonderfully acted and despite its hefty running time never feels too long. We wait now for the two-part film of the climactic book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows…
The August 2009 issue of Vanity Fair has pictures from Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland”. It includes a photo of Helena as Red Queen:
Here’s a new clip from “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. It includes Helena / Bellatrix footage! Yeah! It’s the attack of the Burrow:
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
from the Daily Mail, UK (July 1, 2009):
Most little girls like to raid their mother’s wardrobes.
But when your mother is Helena Bonham Carter your style is bound to end up a little out of the ordinary.
The eccentric actress and 18 month-old daughter Nell were photographed out shopping in London in matching outfits.
The little girl appeared to have taken on Miss Bonham Carter’s gothic fascination with gusto.
Both mother and daughter looked to be sporting Victorian style bloomers as they strolled around Notting Hill.
The 43-year-old wore a loose fitting dress over her bloomers, while Nell also went for the layered look in a patchwork dress.
Both girls sported flowers in their hair and wore slouchy socks with chunky shoes.
Miss Bonham Carter, who starred in a Room With A View, Howards End and the Harry Potter franchise, is almost as well known for eccentric dress sense as she is for her acting.
She has said in the past: ‘’I'm just not conservative. I dress according to what I like. And I’m not a mannequin.’
Nell is Miss Bonham Carter’s youngest child with partner Tim Burton, the couple also have a son Billy who is six.
The Sweeney Todd star met Burton – her partner of eight years – during the filming of Planet Of The Apes, which he directed.
The couple’s relationship is less than conventional. They live in separate but neighbouring homes in north London – connected by a secret adjoining corridor.
Burton will direct her in a new adaption of Alice In Wonderland scheduled for release in cinemas next year.
In pictures recently released by Disney, Miss Bonham Carter’s head has been digitally swelled to play the Red Queen in the film.
Dressed in full royal regalia, Bonham Carter’s body is dwarfed by her bulbous head, a physical reflection of the Queen’s enormous ego.
Johnny Depp stars as the Mad Hatter and is almost unrecognisable with yellow eyes, orange hair and pink skin.
The trio last worked together in the award winning film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd two years ago.
Here are some photos from “Alice in Wonderland”.
Helena as the Red Queen:
Other Alice in Wonderland photos (source: USA Today):
