Get ready for plenty of dramas and specials regarding The Titanic next year with the 100th anniversary of its sinking. James Cameron is re-releasing The Titanic in 3D, Julian Fellowes is writing the screenplay for Titanic, a new miniseries for ITV and the BBC [*see below] has joined in with their own series, Titanic: Blood and Steel which focuses on the building of the ship. I'm certain we will see other specials regarding this famous vessel pop up as well.
[*Update: BBC, which is not the producer, have said they will not be broadcasting the series]
Actors Chris Noth, Neve Campbell, and Derek Jacobi have joined the cast of the 12-part mini-series which includes Ophelia Lovibond, Billy Carter, Massimo Ghini, Branwell Donaghey, Martin McCann, Kevin Zegers, Joely Richardson and Liam Cunningham.
The sprawling mini-series centers on the design of the ship, how it was built, and the financial compromises which ultimately lead to its untimely demise. Chris Noth will portray financier J.P. Morgan, with Neve Campbell portraying a journalist covering the ship's first voyage to New York City. Derek Jacobi will play Lord William Pirrie, chairman of the Harland and Wolff company which built the Titanic.
Ciaran Donnelly is directing Titanic: Blood and Steel from a screenplay by Matthew Faulk, Mark Skeet, and Stefano Voltaggio, based on an idea by creator Fabrizio del Noce.
Source: Movieweb
From Variety:
LONDON -- Thanks to the popularity of glossy big-budget period fare, Ireland's Howth Castle, a short drive from downtown Dublin, will finally find its place in film -- alongside the Titanic.
The last time the imposing castle was used in a film set was back in 1977; its mock gothic architecture looked perfect for a vampire movie, but the picture went over-budget and was never completed.
This time around, there's no danger of the film's coin running out -- despite the grim European economy, and the fact that the driving force behind the show is an Italian producer-distributor; "Titanic: Blood and Steel," a 12-part miniseries timed to coincide with the centenary of the ship's disastrous maiden voyage next April, is backed by more than $30 million of co-production finance, tax credits and presales, and is the biggest production seen this side of the Irish Sea since HBO's "Game of Thrones."
TV projects of this scale and ambition, especially one devoted to what is an Anglo-American story involving the most widely known civilian nautical disaster of the 20th century, are usually driven by either U.S. or U.K. money, or a mix of both. On "Titanic," however, it is continental Europeans who have invested in the skein.
The idea is to parlay what appears to be a healthy appetite in the global market for high-end period sagas, especially those set in the 20th century, be they "Downton Abbey," "Boardwalk Empire" or even "Pan-Am" -- which may not be flying high in the U.S., but is solidly business-class overseas.
"The chief investors are Italy, Germany and Spain," explains De Angelis Group managing director Andrea Zoso, the Rome-based company that developed "Titanic" and is lead producer and rights holder.
Approximately three-quarters of the financing was provided by Italian pubcaster RAI, Germany's Tandem Communication and broadcaster Antena 3 in Spain, with presales and tax credits making up the rest.
Other partners include Los Angeles-based 3 Arts, Blighty's Artists Studio, Gaul's Marathon Group, Ireland's Epos Films and the Irish Film Board. Distribution is being handled by Tandem Communications and 3 Arts in the U.S., with Zodiak handling the rest of the world excluding Italy, Germany and Spain.
"We are not exactly re-inventing the wheel in terms of how we financed the series," Zoso says, "but it is an unusual business model for an international TV production."
Insofar as no licensing deals have been signed in either the U.S. or the U.K., the risks might be higher, but the rewards are potentially greater.
Continental European co-producers appear more willing to allow Des Angelis to take the bulk of the back end, as well as to have creative control, than a U.S. or a British partner would be, according to Zoso.
Zoso says there was a determination that no more than three main protagonists would be involved in order to avoid too much horse-trading among the multiple production partners over matters like casting. He says the Germans were entirely relaxed over such matters, but that RAI insisted on an Italian female lead, while a cameo featuring a Spanish journalist was written in to keep Antenna 3 happy.
"This is not a pan-European show, but an international co-production aimed at English-speaking markets," emphasizes Nicola De Angelis, co-executive producer of the project.
Inasmuch as the mini's story is set before the Titanic's launch, De Angelis says the project has more or less no overlap with James Cameron's 1997 Oscar winner.
"It is a fascinating narrative, because at the center of the story is the American Dream, and the idea of people leaving Europe, including Italians who had emigrated to Ireland, to start a new life in America," De Angelis adds, calling the show an action-based period drama. "There is political and business intrigue, sectarian problems between Catholics and Protestants, labor unrest and the beginning of women's emancipation."
De Angelis says that period drama sells better internationally than do contemporary stories, because modern-day fare is too culturally specific.
With an Irish director ("The Tudors'?" Ciaran Donnelly), English writers (Matthew Faulk and Mark Skeet) and a multinational cast (Americans Chris Noth and "Gossip Girl's" Kevin Zegers, Brit Derek Jacobi, Canadian Neve Campbell and Italian Alessandra Mastronardi), the film is certainly aiming for wide appeal.
Another international touch: A 90% replica of the Titanic was created in an abandoned arms factory in Serbia, scouted by production designer Tom Conroy ("The Tudors," "Camelot"). And standing in for the boardroom at Harland and Wolff, the Belfast-based builder of the ocean liner -- none other than one of the Howth Castle's grand salons.
Conroy sees the story as being more universal than that of "Downton Abbey." "I hope people will get a sense of the life of the time," he says.
The mini ends as the passengers embark on that fateful day in the spring of 1912, but De Angelis hopes that isn't the finish for the company's association with the Titanic theme; already in development is another 12-parter, taking up the story of the inquiries into why the ship sank so easily and what fate had in store for some of the survivors.
That miniseries would face stiff competition from a retelling of the Titanic voyage made by U.K. web ITV and prebought by ABC in the U.S. Its creator? Julian Fellowes, on a roll thanks to "Downton Abbey."
Titanic: Blood and Steel (2012)
Effie (2012)
Emma Thompson has written the screenplay for Effie, the period biopic of Euphemia Gray who was married to the art critic John Ruskin in 1850s London, and later fell in love with his protegé John Millais.
CAST:
John Ruskin - Greg Wise
John Everett Millais - Tom Sturridge
Ruskin's parents - Derek Jacobi and Julie Walters
Lady Elizabeth Eastlake - Emma Thompson
Sir Charles Eastlake - Edward Fox
Molokai: The Story of Fr. Damien (1999)
A biopic of St. Damien, a Belgian priest who sought to ease the suffering and raise the dignity of leprosy patients living at the Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement on the Hawaiian island of Molokai in 1873. The film features David Wenham as Damien as well as other familiar faces such as Sam Neill, Derek Jacobi, Alice Krige, Peter O'Toole, Kris Kristofferson and Tom Wilkinson.
Synopsis from IMDb:
Exile to Molokai was the means with which leprosy was dealt with in the Hawaiian Islands during the late 1800s. Molokai was an untamed isle located between the islands of Oahu and Maui. Abandoned for all extents and purposes, the lepers attempted to scrape out a living in their squalor without outside aid or care. Enter the courageous Father Damien. He was the first priest to go to Molokai. And even though his bishop strictly warned him that "he must not touch anyone," Father Damien risked his life and health to reach out to the suffering.
Gradually, Father Damien was able to gain the trust of the lepers. Additionally, and more importantly, his cries for additional help were heard and heeded by others. The success of his appeals was unbelievably dismaying to superiors who were more interested respect and riches than reaching out to the suffering.
Eventually, as expected Father Damien was also afflicted. This, however, only seemed to provide him with an even greater drive to ameliorate the conditions of his now "fellow" lepers. After collapsing during Mass, he was carried to the very hospital that he himself had established where he died.
Cast:
David Wenham as Father Damien
Kate Ceberano as Princess Liliuokalani
Jan Decleir as Bishop Köckerman
Chris Haywood as Clayton Strawn
Derek Jacobi as Father Leonor Fouesnel
Keanu Kapuni-Szasz as Malulani
Alice Krige as Mother Marianne Cope
Kris Kristofferson as Rudolph Meyer
Leo McKern as Bishop Maigret
Sam Neill as Prime Minister Walter Murray Gibson
Peter O'Toole as William Williamson
Dirk Roofthooft as Father Louis Lambert Conrardy
Tom Wilkinson as Brother Joseph Dutton
Aden Young as Dr. Kalewis
Trailer
There Be Dragons (2011)
Roland Joffe, the director who brought us the highly acclaimed and deeply spiritual film The Mission has returned to his roots with the epic movie There Be Dragons, a powerful story of war, tragedy, love and redemption. Set during the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War (1930s), it tells the story of two childhood friends who become separated during the political conflict to find themselves on opposite sides as war erupts. One chooses the path of peace and becomes a priest while the other chooses the life of a soldier driven by jealousy and revenge. Each will struggle to find the power of forgiveness over the forces that tore their lives and friendship apart. [official synopsis]
Trailer and behind-the-scenes video below
Starring:Charlie Cox (Stardust) - Josemaría Escrivá
Wes Bentley (The Claim) - Manolo
Olga Kurylenko (Centurion) - Ildiko
Rodrigo Santoro (Love Actually) - Oriol
Dougray Scott (Ever After) - Robert, son of Manolo
Geraldine Chaplin, Derek Jacobi , Charles Dance, Michael Feast, Lily Cole, Golshifteh Farahani, Robert Blythe
The film is both written and directed by Oscar-nominated British filmmaker Roland Joffé (The Killing Fields, The Mission, City of Joy, The Scarlet Letter). Joffe said that it's a " story about people trying to find meaning about their lives." The epic film tells the story of a present-day Spanish journalist, Robert, who is mending relations with his dying father, Manolo, who took part in the Spanish Civil War. The journalist discovers through his investigations that his father was a close 
childhood friend of Josemaría Escrivá , a candidate for sainthood, with whom he had a complicated relationship. Manolo became a soldier during the Spanish Civil War and became obsessed with a beautiful Hungarian revolutionary, Ildiko. She rejects him and gives herself to a brave militia leader Oriol. Manolo becomes jealous and takes a path of betrayal.
The film includes the early life of Josemaría Escrivá, a modern-day saint and the founder of Opus Dei, an institution of the Catholic Church which teaches that ordinary human life is a path to sanctity. Escrivá, who died in 1975, was canonized by John Paul II in 2002. Joffé, who initially shied away from the project, was "ultimately intrigued by the chance to dramatize the life of a modern-day saint, particularly considering Escrivá's 'liberating' view that a path to God could be found in an ordinary life."
According to Joffé, they are "making a film about love, human love and divine love, about hate, about betrayal, about war, about mistakes, about everything it is to be a human being." "Reconciliation matters" is the main take away message that Joffe expects from the viewers and that this is “a film about what it means to be a saint in this day and age."
Why the title? It refers to its theme exploring the unknown territories of hatred, guilt, and forgiveness explained producer Ignacio G. Sancha. "There be dragons" is an abbreviation of "here there be dragons" from the Latin hic sunt dracones, an ancient way of denoting in maps a place where there is danger, or an unknown place, a place to be explored.
Anonymous (2011)
A political thriller about who actually wrote the plays of William Shakespeare - Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford - set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I, and the Essex Rebellion against her.
Vanessa Redgrave (Queen Elizabeth I)
Joely Richardson (Queen Elizabeth I, younger version)
David Thewlis (William Cecil)
Rafe Spall (Shakespeare)
Jamie Campbell-Bower (young De Vere)
Derek Jacobi (narrator of prologue)
From Rope of Silicon:
Vanessa Redgrave as Elizabeth I
Joely Richardson and Jamie Campbell-Bower(young Elizabeth and young De Vere)
Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Roland Emmerich, Joely Richardson, David ThewlisPhoto: Zimbio
with Rhys' comments getting a laugh from the rest of the cast...
The King's Speech (2010)
"The King's Speech tells the story of the man who would become King George VI, the father of the current Queen, Elizabeth II. After his brother abdicates, George 'Bertie' VI (Colin Firth) reluctantly assumes the throne. Plagued by a dreaded nervous stammer and considered unfit to be King, Bertie engages the help of an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). Through a set of unexpected techniques, and as a result of an unlikely friendship, Bertie is able to find his voice and boldly lead the country into war."
Directed by Emmy Award winner Tom Hooper
(John Adams, Elizabeth I)
Winner of People's Choice Award at TIFF!
Colin Firth (King George VI)
Helena Bonham Carter (Queen Elizabeth, wife of George VI)
Geoffrey Rush (Lionel Logue)
Jennifer Ehle (Myrtle Logue, wife of Lionel)
Michael Gambon (King George V)
Guy Pearce (David/Edward VIII)Derek Jacobi (Archbishop of Canterbury)
Timothy Spall (Winston Churchill)
Nov. 26, 2010 in U.S. (nationwide Jan. 21, 2011)
Dec. 10, 2010 in Canada
Jan. 7, 2011 in U.K.
LINKS:
> VIEW TRAILERS> CAST PHOTOS
> video: Colin Firth's stately role
> Video: interview with Geoffrey Rush (tiff 2010)
> Video: interviews with Colin Firth (tiff 2010)
> Video: Colin Firth interview with Katie Couric
> Video: London Press Conference (7 parts)
> Video: Tom Hooper and Colin Firth on Charlie Rose
> video: Geoffrey Rush - career award at SBIFF
> video: Cast award at SAG Awards
>Fan video: If It Be Your Will
> Listen to actual speech by King George VI
> Music SOUNDTRACK by Alexandre Desplat
> BOOK by Mark Logue & Peter Conradi
>Interview with director Tom Hooper
> IMDb
> Daily Mail article
> Film wraps up, update with photo
> Photos from set
> PIC GALLERY
> MY REVIEW
> Review in The Hollywood Reporter> Review in Variety
> Oh, Geoffrey, you're such a rush!
>USA Today: Colin Firth speaks words of love
>King's Speech to be made into Broadway play?
> read more about real-life Bertie and Elizabeth
> movie posters
> Film synopsis
Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth together again although married to other people...
King George VI / Colin Firth
Geoffrey Rush and Jennifer Ehle(Lionel & Myrtle Logue)
Queen Elizabeth (Bowes-Lyon) / Helena Bonham Carter(When I first heard that Helena was playing Elizabeth, I assumed it was QE II
but it did make more sense for her to play wife of George / Firth)
King Edward VIII / Guy Pearce
King George V / Michael Gambon(Gambon played Edward VII in The Lost Prince)
Archbishop of Canterbury / Derek Jacobi
Winston Churchill / Timothy Spall
Stanley Baldwin / Anthony AndrewsYoutube video of King George's coronation in 1937
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