Gugu Mbatha-Raw will return to the London stage at the end of the summer, taking on the title role in Jessica Swale‘s historical bio-drama Nell Gwynn at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Christopher Luscombe will direct the new play, which is set in 1660 and charts the fortunes of the young woman raised in a brothel who became a celebrated stage actress and mistress to King Charles II. The production starts previews Sept. 19, with an official opening on Sept. 24. [more at source]
Gugu Mbatha-Raw & @stephenfry will announce the @EE British Academy Film Awards nominations on 8 Jan 2016! #EEBAFTAs pic.twitter.com/UXN7Vb0K55
— BAFTA (@BAFTA) December 15, 2015
Rising stars Mackenzie Davis and Gugu Mbatha-Raw are set to star in an episode of “Black Mirror” for Netflix, TheWrap has learned.
The streaming service is in the midst of producing 12 all-new episodes of the critically acclaimed sci-fi anthology series. Production is currently under way overseas.
Owen Harris (“Kill Your Friends”) is directing the episode starring Davis and Mbatha-Raw, though plot details are being kept under wraps. He previously directed the “Be Right Back” episode of the original “Black Mirror” series, whose executive producers Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones will return in the same capacity for the new episodes. [source]
Rising star Gugu Mbatha-Raw is in the running for an Evening Standard Theatre Award for her performance as one of the West End’s most infamous actresses.
Her portrayal of Nell Gwynn, who rose from the 17th-century London stage to become the mistress of Charles II, sees her shortlisted for the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress.
Mbatha-Raw, 32, is recognised alongside Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman, who played pioneering scientist Rosalind Franklin in Photograph 51, Denise Gough for People, Places And Things and Lia Williams for Oresteia. [more at source]
Sony’s “Concussion”, written and directed by Peter Landesman, is produced by Ridley Scott, Giannina Scott, David Wolthoff, Larry Shuman and Elizabeth Cantillon. It will play at AFI on Nov. 10 at the TCL Chinese Theatre.
The film opens on Christmas Day and has already emerged as a potential awards season contender. Albert Brooks, Alec Baldwin, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Paul Reiser and Luke Wilson also star.
“AFI Fest is the perfect stage to unveil ‘Concussion’ and we are privileged to have been chosen as the Centerpiece Gala,” Ridley Scott and Giannina Scott said. “‘Concussion’ is a powerful and uncompromising film about an issue that was ignored for far too long and continues to play out today.” [more at source]
Deadline has learned that a quartet of up-and-coming actresses from around the world are in the mix for Lionsgate’s Robin Hood: Origins. The Knick‘s Irish-born Eve Hewson is in the running along with Dutch actress Gaite Jansen(Supernova), Australian thesp Lucy Fry (Vampire Academy) and British actressGugu Mbatha-Raw (Belle). The global approach to casting the female lead opposite Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service) underscores the more authentic approach Lionsgate and director Otto Bathurst would like to take with their version of the iconic Sherwood Forest inhabitant. [source]
It’s been six years since Mbatha-Raw last trod the boards. But then, she was spoiled by a peach of a part: Ophelia to Jude Law’s Hamlet, in the West End and on Broadway. It was such “an extraordinary adventure” that offers since have seemed underwhelming, she confesses. “I’ve been doing films and TV, but theatre-wise, nothing else had come along that felt like it could top that … except for this!” [more at source]
The rising screen star of ‘Belle’ and ‘Beyond the Lights’ will play the title role in ‘Nell Gwynn,’ about the 17th century brothel-keeper’s daughter who became the king’s mistress.
In choosing its newest members, the film academy went for younger and more diverse.
Kevin Hart, Common, Emma Stone, Dev Patel and “Whiplash” writer-director Damien Chazelle were among the 322 new academy members announced Friday.
“It’s really gratifying to see the big increases in genre, people of colour, age and national origin,” academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in an interview.
Other new inductees include Benedict Cumberbatch, David Oyelowo, Sergio Mendes, Elizabeth Banks, John Legend, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Hardy and “Dope” director Rick Famuyiwa.
Membership in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is by invitation only. Oscar nominees are automatically considered; others must be sponsored by two members of their branch of filmmaking. [more at source]
“Beyond the Lights” star Gugu Mbatha-Raw has been tapped to play the feather duster Plumette in Disney’s live-action adaptation of “Beauty and the Beast” starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens.
Luke Evans (Gaston), Josh Gadd (LeFou), Ian McKellen (Cogsworth), and Emma Thompson (Mrs. Potts) also star. Bill Condon is directing from a script written by Evan Spiliotopoulos and rewritten by Stephen Chbosky. David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman of Mandeville Films are producing.
Production begun for a Mar. 17, 2017 release.
English actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw (‘Jupiter Ascending,’ ‘Belle,’ ‘Odd Thomas’), Keri Russell (‘The Americans,’ ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’), and Mahershala Ali (‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1,’ ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’) are set to join Matthew McConaughey on the cast of the historical drama ‘Free State of Jones,’ says TheWrap.
Gary Ross is attached to write and direct the drama, which tracks the relationship between Newton Knight (McConaughey) and a slave (Mbatha-Raw), exploring the impact the relationship had Knight’s life and the Civil War-set rebellion he led against the Confederacy.
The site has Russell stepping in to play Knight’s wife, Serena, and Ali playing Moses Washington, an escaped slave who becomes an integral ally of Knight’s rebellion.
Filming is underway in Louisiana with Scott Stuber and Jon Kilik co-producing the drama with Ross. [source]