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June News Archives...
Another article about Royal Shakespeare Company, mentions Ralph...(abstract, quote) from London Evening Standard...
...The RSC needs not just to make its own stars (which it has continued to do in recent times with, for instance, Ralph Fiennes and Simon Russell Beale), but to woo major box-office draws with offers they will not refuse. So, instead of the relatively low-paid two year and 18-month contracts, which no actor in demand for film and television would want, Noble is offering six months and 12 months. The first of those to accept will be Robert Lindsay who comes to play Richard III.
To link to the full article, click here...
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Thanks, QZ and Debbie.
For more yummy pics, click...
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American Film Institute
voted "Schindler's List" number 9 out of it's 100
best American films.
For those of you receiving the update
service, I accidently put 9 out of their top ten movies of
all time. Sorry about the mistake, while still true, not
nearly as compelling. Thanks to Ivanovbabe for the
correction, :)
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'The Avengers' is returning
on tape, too
Tuesday, June 16, 1998
By NORMA CAVAZOS
Special from The Dallas
Morning News
Q. Now that the big-screen "Avengers" movie is coming in August, do any cable channels have plans to start showing the classic Sixties series again? -- M.C., Norfolk, Va.
A. The campy English spy series doesn't appear on any cable schedule right now. Encore Mystery channel was the last to air "The Avengers," but Encore's contract expired last year.
But take heart: A&E
Home Video will release digitally remastered episodes from
Season 5 of the show beginning in August. "The Avengers
'67," sets 1 and 2 (three
episodes per set), will sell
for $29.95. More episodes will be released in the fall.
Meanwhile, the big-screen "Avenger" movie opens Aug. 14 with Ralph Fiennes as John Steed, Uma Thurman as Mrs. Peele, and Sean Connery as the villain.
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New!
Incredible TEP shots donated by QZSOO!
Warning, these pictures are not for the faint-hearted...:)
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Ralph Fiennes Says NO to Fan Club
Well, everyone, it's now official. Months of planning, and preparation, and finessing gatekeepers has yielded an answer to the question, "Can we start an official fan club in honor of Ralph Fiennes?"
The answer came Thursday, from Mr. Fiennes' pr reps, and the answer was no, the explanation, "You know Ralph is a very private person and protects his privacy, so a fan club is out of the question.." Of course I asked them, well, could we at least get the answers to the questions we put forth in the proposal, which were:
1. Could we get a list of Mr. Fiennes' upcoming interviews in magazines, television interviews, and upcoming projects?
2. Can you give us an address where fans can write to Ralph, and he might read the letter?
3. Could you tell us the name of the marketing firms for his upcoming films, so that we can contact them about promotional merchandise, etc?
So, as you can see, these were reasonable questions, and not the least bit to do with his private life. Just wanted to set the record straight on that one, in case any of you were wondering what was in the proposal.
I and all of those who supported me in this are disappointed to say the least, but I think in the back of our minds, we expected this. I mean he is the man who said, "If they really were my fans, they would leave me alone..."(Vanity Fair)
Call me stubborn, or stupid, or just call me a fan, but I tried. I wish I could have asked him myself, pled the case for all the great fans out here that don't harass celebrities, who join in communities to support his career, and make friends. Well, that will continue.
The Ralph Fiennes: Interactive Fan Page site will continue to serve the fans of Ralph Fiennes. I encourage you all to participate in the forum, because I still will send posts once a month to Mr. Fiennes, so that even if we can't organize a real club, he will know what his fans are thinking. Also, I will continue to dig for news, and updates, and will search for exclusive offerings of merchandise. I guess I will have to do it the hard way, but the searching can be half the fun.
I personally was tempted to bitterness at the decision, and felt a bit betrayed as a longtime supporter of Mr. Fiennes. But I had to listen to the words of a dear friend," He only owes us his performance, that is all." She is right of course, but it hurts nonetheless.
Thanks again for all the support. I really did the best I could in the most professional way possible.
Sincerely,
Mary Kirkpatrick
Bosphug
New Service!!!
The Ralph Fiennes: Interactive Fan Page now has a news update service. You subscribe to it just like any other e-mail list. Once a week you will receive a summary of the week's hottest news about RF. So, if you're interested in subscribing, just click here:
Ralph Fiennes: Interactive Fan Page Update Service
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Short Piece about Liv Tyler, talks about Onegin, here's the clip...
"We learn that Liv is still crazy about Joaquin Phoenix, despite rumors of a split. And she beat out many actresses, including Kate Winslet, to co-star in Onegin, a Russian tragedy, with Ralph Fiennes.
That movie was to include a nude scene, but Liv objected,
even though she did a brief one in Beauty. ''I'll do it if
it's central to the role. It's just that as soon as you do it
it's all over the Internet and in Celebrity Skin and
Celebrity Sleuth. I look at those magazines sometimes because
they're hysterical, but I really don't want to be in them. .
. . There's plenty of time for me to do that stuff if I want
to.''
USA TODAY June 9, 1998
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Ralph related article about the RSC coming to the U.S., hope it's success has an effect on where RF runs his next two plays...
Shakespeare's namesake troupe forges ahead with new ideas on old material
LONDON (June 7, 1998 11:44 a.m. EDT http://www.nando.net) -- The Royal Shakespeare Company is taking its show on the road, leaving behind a trail of criticism.
The company can be seen in repertory in five productions, first at New York's Brooklyn Academy of Music through June 7 and then at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., June 9-July 5.(yeah, I'm booking tickets as you're reading this!!)
The $2.2 million lineup offers an eclectic mix of the company's house playwright, the Bard, who is represented by three plays -- "Hamlet," and the lesser-known "Cymbeline" and "Henry VIII." That trio will play in rotation with the allegorical morality play "Everyman," starring expatriate American Joseph Mydell, and Samuel Beckett's solo piece, "Krapp's Last Tape."
Among the 50 actors on view will be Tony-winner Jane Lapotaire ("Piaf") as the ill-fated Queen Katherine in "Henry VIII" and two-time Tony nominee Edward Petherbridge in three plays, including "Krapp's Last Tape," which he also co-directed. Likely to be an audience favorite is 40-year-old Alex Jennings, star of a revisionist "Hamlet" that has been as popular with London audiences as it was controversial among the critics.
It's the sort of array to make American theater companies drool, since they operate in a cultural climate starved of finances and of top-rank actors ready to commit to a season -- or more -- of work.
But those are precisely the issues the RSC has had to face of late, while fielding mounting criticisms that a $50 million-a-year enterprise of some 29 annual productions spread between five theaters has grown too unwieldy.
The RSC, playwright David Hare wrote in Britain's Observer newspaper in May, "is allowed to do dismal work with lavish, unmerited subsidy, while brilliant young theaters ... offer 50 times the RSC's vitality on a fraction of its resources."
Others merely wonder whether it may be time to give the Bard a break. Perhaps, mused commentator Bryan Appleyard in The Sunday Times of London, "the greatest plays ever written ... read better than they play."
The carping falls mostly, and inevitably, at the feet of Adrian Noble, the RSC's artistic director since 1990, who admits to problems within the company but prefers to play up its strengths.
"He's the greatest humanist writer of them all," Noble said of of the Bard, who gets performed in "literally all four corners of the known world."
As for the company itself, Noble said, its very survival pays tribute to a particular British tenacity.
"The National Theater was set up by an act of Parliament," said Noble, referring to the RSC's principal rival. By contrast, he said, "the RSC was set up by an act of will -- no pun intended --by Peter Hall saying, 'I want to create this company, and we will go ahead and do it.' "
Still, when the RSC is in top form, it is a company that is second to none. In its 37 years, the RSC has largely prospered, producing such well-traveled hits as "Les Liaisons Dangereuses," "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" and even "Les Miserables," the pop musical that has provided a financial lifeline for well over a decade.
Even this season, its productions of Ibsen's "Little Eyolf" and Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" -- the latter a co-venture with London's Young Vic Theater -- have been among the year's most revelatory.
The problems, as some describe them, lay in a company grown too gargantuan for comfort and in the ethos of today's young actors, who don't want the slow, steady apprenticeship that once turned Ian McKellen, Glenda Jackson and Derek Jacobi, among many others, into internationally known, award-winning stars. The past decade saw the rise of eventual film stars Kenneth Branagh and Ralph Fiennes.
Trevor Nunn, a longtime RSC leader who now runs the National Theater, recalls a time when attitudes were different.
"When I ran the RSC for 18 years, there were always actors who most passionately wanted to be part of the company," Nunn said. "They didn't want to be part of anything else. They didn't want to be out in that other life. They wanted continuity."
Now actors mostly want flexibility. To that extent, long contracts are out and shorter ones are in.
"Leading actors can earn a lot of money in TV," Noble acknowledged. "They leave the RSC worse off. We should be under no illusion about their financial hardship."
To that end, Noble recently announced a new system of operations to allow for two separate seasons instead of the usual, lengthier one at the RSC's home base in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace.
In an effort to revitalize the repertoire, next season will see major productions of Sheridan's 18th-century classic comedy, "The School for Scandal," and a stage version of C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," joining the Bard's "Richard III" and "The Winter's Tale" on the Stratford main stage.
"There is a danger of a decreasing pool of plays," said Noble, since the 37-strong canon of Shakespeare's work can wear thin with repetition. "We want to address that."
Also important is the need to refresh the most frequently seen plays.
Director Matthew Warchus' current "Hamlet" cut liberally and even did away with several characters without irrevocably distorting the Bard's best-known tragedy.
"I decided to make it a very personal production rather than an exercise in proficiency and expertise," said Warchus, a Tony nominee this year for his direction of the Broadway production of Yasmina Reza's hit play "Art."
That explains a lively, if sometimes coarsely acted, staging that chops the opening scene, the start of at least one key soliloquy and all mention of the invading Fortinbras in an effort to focus the play as a quintessential family drama.
"It's wonderful to be in something that makes people excited and also very cross," said Jennings, the leading player, who was seen last season on Broadway in Noble's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
But like many an RSC star past and present, Jennings looks forward to a life beyond the company, where he can earn some decent cash.
"I'd just like to earn a lot of money, really," he said with a smile. He quickly acknowledged, however, that the RSC does deliver the goods, adding, "It's the best."
By MATT WOLF, Associated Press Writer
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Oscar and Lucinda is now on video for rental
and purchase.
I'm not bothering to put up any of the video reviews, they're
as luke warm as the film reviews were. Good luck finding it.
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Blurb Alert: Interesting marketing
bit about "The Avengers"-"And catalog retailer
J.Peterman is tied to The Avengers. "
From USA TODAY
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HBO Might have "The Making of the Avengers"on at some point. Although I visited HBO.com, and no listings for June. Probably in July. Will find out asap.
********************************************************************************************** Terrific coverage of "The Avengers" production, etc. at Dark Horizons Here's the official movie poster, it's smashing, isn't it? Also, there are more pictures from the film. Visit Dark Horizons for more info and to download trailer. *********************************************************************************************
Great Picture of RF with Liv Tyler in
Cannes: Click Here to See it
from Entertainment Weekly Site
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Chat Sessions Update:
The past couple chat sessions on IRC have been
a real treat for all of us who have shown up. Topics have
ranged from violence in schools to leather pants, but believe
it or not, all were in some way inspired by a Ralph topic:)
Of course, as always, I forced my blow by blow playback
account of why I love Strange Days better than TEP, and
received proper thrashing from all four corners of the chat
room. Loved every minute of it. Also, we've had fans from
Sweden, Australia, and the US all chatting at once. No one
can say RF fans are not dedicated, or geographically
challenged! Please, if you haven't explored the IRC chat
events, please come on by when you see the announced times.
It's worth the fun and you'll definitely meet some cool new
friends. See ya there...
Thanks guys,
Bosphug
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Here's an unusual RF mention in a press release for Marshall's--now we know he's mainstream:
"FRAMINGHAM, Mass., May 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Spring 1998 -- Humphrey Bogart looked glamorous in them in Casablanca. Indiana Jones confirmed their durability in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Ralph Fiennes brought style to the desert in them in The English Patient. Today, dads wear khaki pants to the office, kids' school functions, family barbecues, and everything in between. What better time than Father's Day to give dad a new pair! "
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A great comeback to Avengers criticism from the Hollywood Stock Exchange Site, check it out:
"I read the piece that you posted
yesterday about the lady that was whining that the stock for
"The Avengers" (AVENG) is too high and I completely
disagree with her. I think that the movie looks rather
interesting and the cast has enough star power (and can
actually act since the top three have six Oscar nominations
between them) to make it a very successful summer cash cow.
Just because the movie was moved back to August doesn't mean
that they don't think the movie can't compete- the truth is,
there really isn't that much offered in August, and I
personally would rather be number 1 in August then split the
stakes with other movies in July. As for August being the
lowest money making month of the year, isn't that the same
month that "The Fugitive" raked in $180 million?
(even a movie like "Mortal Kombat" managed to rake
in over $100 million in
that month.)
Right now, I think the Avengers stock is in good shape and could increase as it's opening day approaches.. and $49.00 a share isn't too much to spend, and if that lady had been a little more wise with her money, she wouldn't be whining about something that is only 1/8 of the price of that lizard stock that I think could crash if the movie flops. (the critics are hating it.. as it looks like another "Jurassic park" 'look at the big lizard because we have no plot' kind of movie, and I think it will drop at least 50% in its second weekend..)
The "Avenger" trailers look a hell of a lot better than the "Godzilla" teasers, which makes me beleive that if "Godzilla" is around $200 a share, is $50 a share really too much for something that looks a lot better??"
To learn
more about the Hollywood Stock Exchange, click here
Ralph's Bond worth on the HSX
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Magazine Alert: May/June issue of CINESCAPE magazine has HUGE article on "The Avengers". Many pictures, etc... Will follow up with excerpts, as soon as I have time to read it :)
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5-23-98 Nice article about "The Avengers" by Patrick MacNee in the Daily Telegraph,
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From my home town paper, The Washington Post, 5-22-98, I'm sure all the Fiennes Fans list members will cheer this assertion:
Movie: "The Avengers"
Why the buzz: Those chic '60s secret agents, John Steed and Mrs. Peel, have been missed.
Reason to see it: Ralph Fiennes without bandages.
Reason not to see it: Uma Thurman as Mrs. Peel.
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Is the "Avengers" hope just hype? To learn more,
Link to:
Article about The Avengers on the
Hollywood Stock Exchange
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This Just In:
From Cannes Film festival-
"Ralph Fiennes, wearing a striped shirt and high waisted khaki pants held up by broad suspenders, looked every inch the dandy as the centrepiece of the annual Alliance cocktail party celebrating their films here, Babyface and Le 32 Aout, which screens today.
Fiennes was present to promote what looks to be Alliance's biggest film yet, the $20 million Sunshine, which begins shooting in July in Budapest and continues on location in Berlin and Vienna.
Written and directed by Istvan Szabo, it's the tale of three generations of Hungarian Jews, and Fiennes plays the father, son, and grandson. Fiennes learned at the Alliance party that his co-stars will be Jennifer Ehle (BBC's Pride and Prejudice) and Canadian actress Molly Parker (Kissed).
"It's not a Canadian movie," said Alliance production chief Andras Hamori. "It's an international movie." Alliance has co-production partners in Hungary and Germany, but will be distributing worldwide.
Fiennes appeared a little uncomfortable as the centre of attention at the gathering at Carlton Beach. Asked how he felt about playing a Hungarian, he said, "I'll be a bit closer to Hungary this time." He said he won't be using an accent.
"The challenge will be to differentiate the three characters," he noted, "but each is written very specifically, very detailed. It's all there in the script. I love Szabo's films, particularly Mephisto. I'm overjoyed to be doing this."
Fiennes was not so overjoyed about being at the Cannes festival for the first time, even for a day. "I'd really have to think hard about coming again," he said. The worst part? "Arriving at the Majestic Hotel and not having my room ready and having nowhere to go." The best thing about Cannes? "The only redeeming quality is that I leave tomorrow morning."
From May 21, 1998 Toronto Star, Judy Gerstel
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Yet another Avengers movie prediction from USA Today:
The Avengers
Release date: Aug. 14
The recipe: Defrost the original The Avengers TV show. Add a dollop of The Thin Man wit and banter. Simmer with the retro flavor of Austin Powers.
Star ingredients: Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, Sean Connery
The dish: In the '60s, a British government
spy (Fiennes) and
his sexysidekick (Thurman) take on an evil El
Nino genius
(Connery) who is trying to take over the world
by controlling
the weather.
The taste test: Fair. Die-hard fans of the
TV series will brook no
veering from the original. The makers have
promised to stay true but spice up the effects. Could be
campy, if there's chemistry. This is serious thespian
Fiennes' (English Patient) first lightweight part. He does a
nude scene but doesn't reveal much. For Fiennes fans, it's
worth the price of admission. - E.S.
By Claudia Puig, Elizabeth Snead and Susan
Wloszczyna, USA
TODAY
Link to Article
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Blurb Alert: Yet another shake in
your boots Warner Brothers,
over the budget of "The Avengers"
from the Sydney Morning Herald:
Warner takes a high risk in August with The Avengers, an adaptation of the British flip TV action series of the '60s.
This time Uma Thurman wears the kinky
leather instead of Diana Rigg -but how about Ralph Fiennes,
kitted out with old-Etonian Patrick Macnee's bowler and
brolly? With marketing, this remake must grab $US110 million
in the US to be a hit.
Link to Article
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Blurb Alert: Here's a clip from an
article about the distribution company for
"Sunshine":
"Sunshine, written and directed by
Academy award winner Istvan Szabo, tells the story of a
family that rises from humble origins to positions of wealth
and power, only to fall victim to the events which defined
Europe over the past century. Sunshine will star Ralph
Fiennes and is produced by Alliance's Robert Lantos and
Andras Hamori. Sunshine also stars Jennifer Ehle, Rachel
Weisz, Molly Parker and
Link to Article
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News Flash from Fiennes-Fems: Ralph will star in a film entitled "Nemo". To follow progress of the movie, go to the Internet Movie Database
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STRANDS: News From The London Theater
Scene
Monday, May 11, 1998
By Matt Wolf
LONDON (Variety) - Ralph Fiennes and Jonathan Kent, the potent actor-director team behind the Almeida Theater productions of ``Hamlet'' and ``Ivanov,'' are planning a double encore. Discussions are well under way for Fiennes to star in repertory at the end of 1999 in fresh mountings of ``Richard II'' and ``Coriolanus.''
``It's our millennium project, our own Millennium Dome,'' says Kent, who would direct both Shakespeare plays, possibly at a venue away from the Almeida's Islington base. Still at the Almeida, the performance of the year to date reaches a wider public starting June 19 when Kevin Spacey transfers for six weeks (through Aug. 1) to the Old Vic in Howard Davies' revival of ``The Iceman Cometh.'' The 180,000 pound ($300,000) move is an Almeida venture in association with Trigger Street Prods., Spacey's own company.
The O'Neill play's current 19-person ensemble will travel mostly intact, though Mark Strong, Rupert Graves and Clarke Peters -- on tap to be the new Billy Flynn in London's ``Chicago'' -- are among the five who won't be crossing the Thames.
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Blurb Alert: Ralph was mentioned as a possible star of Michael Ridpath's novel adapted for screen, Free to Trade. Apparently Hugh Grant is also in the running (retch, retch). I guess this will be a financial thriller that takes place in London. I can definitely see Ralph as the Gordon Gekko of the 90's. Shall see... For full text of article, link to, Reuter's story
"THE AVENGERS"
(excerpt from New York Post, Apr. 29, 1998, Serious
Summer, by Su Avasthi)