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Ab Fab and David Brent to lead way as British movies battle TV box set culture Ab Fab and David Brent to lead way as British movies battle TV box set culture
(1 day later)
It’s time to fight back against the tyranny of the TV box set, says the woman who brings many of Britain’s most successful films to cinema screens. In a challenge to the widespread belief that the best-quality entertainment is now to be found in lengthy television drama series, producer Christine Langan, the head of BBC Films, has issued a rallying call to Britain’s leading actors and screenwriters.It’s time to fight back against the tyranny of the TV box set, says the woman who brings many of Britain’s most successful films to cinema screens. In a challenge to the widespread belief that the best-quality entertainment is now to be found in lengthy television drama series, producer Christine Langan, the head of BBC Films, has issued a rallying call to Britain’s leading actors and screenwriters.
“Good British films really are the answer to the domination of television in drama,” Langan said. “I adore a long-form narrative, but I think most of us do want one with a beginning, a middle and an end, rather than something you have to invest so much time in and that may not come to a satisfactory conclusion. In film, a whole world is summoned up, a story unfolds and is then resolved.”“Good British films really are the answer to the domination of television in drama,” Langan said. “I adore a long-form narrative, but I think most of us do want one with a beginning, a middle and an end, rather than something you have to invest so much time in and that may not come to a satisfactory conclusion. In film, a whole world is summoned up, a story unfolds and is then resolved.”
And it is by bringing back some of Britain’s best-loved comic characters next year, including David Brent and Bridget Jones, as well as Patsy and Edina from Absolutely Fabulous, that BBC Films’ battle with telly commences. And it is by bringing back some of Britain’s best-loved comic characters next year, including David Brent and Bridget Jones, as well as Patsy and Edina from Absolutely Fabulous, that British films’ battle with telly commences.
Encouraged by the huge critical and commercial success of Steve Coogan’s Alpha Papa in 2013, a farce based around the television character of Alan Partridge, confidence has grown in the potential of British film comedy, a genre previously regarded as risky and lacking widespread appeal.Encouraged by the huge critical and commercial success of Steve Coogan’s Alpha Papa in 2013, a farce based around the television character of Alan Partridge, confidence has grown in the potential of British film comedy, a genre previously regarded as risky and lacking widespread appeal.
Good British Films, Langan argues, do not have to be either worthy or avant-garde. So while her slate of upcoming films includes a poignant adaptation of Julian Barnes’s book about death, The Sense of an Ending, starring Jim Broadbent, and a serious account, scripted by David Hare, of the libel battle between Holocaust-denying historian David Irving and Deborah Lipstadt, starring Tom Wilkinson and Rachel Weisz, there is also a strong new emphasis on humour.Good British Films, Langan argues, do not have to be either worthy or avant-garde. So while her slate of upcoming films includes a poignant adaptation of Julian Barnes’s book about death, The Sense of an Ending, starring Jim Broadbent, and a serious account, scripted by David Hare, of the libel battle between Holocaust-denying historian David Irving and Deborah Lipstadt, starring Tom Wilkinson and Rachel Weisz, there is also a strong new emphasis on humour.
Colin Firth will reprise his role as Mark Darcy in the new Bridget Jones film, Bridget Jones’s Baby, and Hugh Grant is starring opposite Meryl Streep in a comic biopic directed by Brit Stephen Frears about the extraordinary American heiress and socialite, Florence Foster Jenkins, and her journey towards a legendarily off-key singing performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1944.Colin Firth will reprise his role as Mark Darcy in the new Bridget Jones film, Bridget Jones’s Baby, and Hugh Grant is starring opposite Meryl Streep in a comic biopic directed by Brit Stephen Frears about the extraordinary American heiress and socialite, Florence Foster Jenkins, and her journey towards a legendarily off-key singing performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1944.
Riding high on the critical and box-office success of acclaimed projects such as Brooklyn and Lady in the Van this month, Langan is urging British writers and actors to consider homegrown cinema if they want to make quality work. Plane-loads of British actors have recently taken leading roles in high-end US TV dramas, or else found lucrative work in long-running television fantasy show Game of Thrones. Langan is appealing to them to keep British films in mind.Riding high on the critical and box-office success of acclaimed projects such as Brooklyn and Lady in the Van this month, Langan is urging British writers and actors to consider homegrown cinema if they want to make quality work. Plane-loads of British actors have recently taken leading roles in high-end US TV dramas, or else found lucrative work in long-running television fantasy show Game of Thrones. Langan is appealing to them to keep British films in mind.
“Most creatives are trying to work in both film and television and they know there is a different dynamic. I don’t mind writers and actors working in drama series, of course, but I am happiest if they have gaps in between, because I need them in our films and they need us.”“Most creatives are trying to work in both film and television and they know there is a different dynamic. I don’t mind writers and actors working in drama series, of course, but I am happiest if they have gaps in between, because I need them in our films and they need us.”
Performers and screenwriters who are not drawn to blockbusting Hollywood action films, which are often heavy on special effects and light on characterisation, should remember the range and standards of British titles, she said: “When Dustin Hoffman came here to direct Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins and Tom Courtenay in Quartet, he said to me: ‘These are the kind of films Hollywood used to make. Stories about real people,’ and I think he is right. That is what we are doing.”Performers and screenwriters who are not drawn to blockbusting Hollywood action films, which are often heavy on special effects and light on characterisation, should remember the range and standards of British titles, she said: “When Dustin Hoffman came here to direct Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins and Tom Courtenay in Quartet, he said to me: ‘These are the kind of films Hollywood used to make. Stories about real people,’ and I think he is right. That is what we are doing.”
The popularity of Lady in the Van, which also stars Smith and is based on Alan Bennett’s book about the homeless old lady who lived in front of his house, is a case in point. Not an obviously commercial pitch, a month since its release it is outperforming all other BBC films – even holding its own here as an attraction while Star Wars: The Force Awakens breaks box-office records.The popularity of Lady in the Van, which also stars Smith and is based on Alan Bennett’s book about the homeless old lady who lived in front of his house, is a case in point. Not an obviously commercial pitch, a month since its release it is outperforming all other BBC films – even holding its own here as an attraction while Star Wars: The Force Awakens breaks box-office records.
“You could say that our films present an obvious alternative to multimillion-dollar Hollywood fare. On a planet far, far away there’s a lady with a yellow van,” said Langan.“You could say that our films present an obvious alternative to multimillion-dollar Hollywood fare. On a planet far, far away there’s a lady with a yellow van,” said Langan.
The film David Brent: Life on the Road is due out in cinemas in August and Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, which takes Joanna Lumley and Jennifers Saunders’s characters to the French Riviera, is out in July.The film David Brent: Life on the Road is due out in cinemas in August and Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, which takes Joanna Lumley and Jennifers Saunders’s characters to the French Riviera, is out in July.