Jack O’Connell has joined the cast of 3000 Pictures and Netflix’s adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover!

DEADLINE – EXCLUSIVE: Jack O’Connell and Matthew Duckett have joined Golden Globe Winner Emma Corrin in Lady Chatterley’s Lover for Sony’s 3000 Pictures and Netflix. This will be the first film to be produced under the new partnership where Sony Pictures will offer Netflix a first look at any films it intends to make for streaming. The deal was announced in April and part of that deal allowed Sony to offer Netflix a first look at any films it intends to make directly for streaming or decides later to license for streaming, and Netflix has committed to make a number of those films over the course of the deal. Sources say that while Sony will not distribute the film, Netflix can still choose to have it run theatrically if they please for an awards qualifying run given Elizabeth Gabler, who runs 3000 Pictures, track record with award season pics.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover will be directed by The Mustang helmer Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre. Life of Pi scribe David Magee wrote the script. Academy Award nominee Laurence Mark and Academy Award nominees Pete Czernin and Graham Broadbent of Blueprint Pictures are producing.

Based on the classic D.H. Lawrence novel, a story well ahead of its time, we follow the life of Lady Chatterley, a woman born to a life of wealth and privilege, who soon finds herself married to a man that she eventually falls out of love with. Lady Chatterley engages in a torrid affair with a gamekeeper on their English estate, discovering more desire and intimacy than she thought possible. When she realizes that she has fallen heart and soul, she breaks all traditions of the day and seeks happiness with the man she loves.

Marisa Paiva and Nikki Cooper are the executives overseeing the project for 3000 Pictures.

Best known for his roles in ‘71 and Unbroken, O’Connell recently wrapped filming the BBC’s SAS: Rogue Heroes, a six-part drama based on Ben Macintyre’s book of the same name which charts the formation of the renowned Special Forces unit. He was most recently seen in Andrew Haigh’s five-part AMC/BBC thriller The North Water, portraying a disgraced ex-army surgeon who signs up as ship’s doctor on an ill-fated whaling expedition to the Arctic in the late 1850s. Among other much-admired television roles, O’Connell has also made a name for himself on the silver screen by starring in acclaimed films such as: Money Monster Little Fish and Starred Up.

VARIETY – Jack O’Connell is in advanced negotiations to play Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder in AGC Studios’ “Twisting My Melon.” The project, which AGC will fully finance and co-produce, was announced at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

In addition to O’Connell, Jason Isaacs is in talks to play Derek Ryder, Shaun’s father. Holliday Grainger (“Cinderella”) will likely play Shaun’s girlfriend and Maxine Peake (“The Theory of Everything”) will portray his much-put-upon mother. The Happy Mondays were giants of the independent music scene in the U.K., combining elements of funk and psychedelia with hits such as “Hallelujah” and “Mad Cyril.”

The project was originated and developed by Matt Greenhalgh and his production company Maine Road Films. He co-wrote the screenplay with Andrew Knott and William Ash and will direct and produce the film. Greenhalgh has dramatized the rock world before, writing screenplays for the John Lennon drama “Nowhere Boy” and the Ian Curtis biopic “Control.” This marks his feature-film directing debut.

“Twisting My Melon” will look at how Ryder’s relationship with his father, a working-class guitar hero dubbed the “Horseman,” was tested when he achieved his own musical success.

“Shaun Ryder is the son of John Lennon, Johnny Rotten with a few kilos of John Belushi stamped in,” Greenhalgh said in a statement. “He’s risen from the dead more times than anyone can remember, and his poetry will last forever. Shaun, and the last true working-class band – the Happy Mondays – mainlined into my musical DNA when I was 16 years old. Like millions of others I readily boarded their ecstatic revolution. And thanks to AGC, I feel honoured to be able to author the only rock’n’roll movie I want to see”.

Also attached to produce are Mark Lane (“47 Metres Down”) of UK production outfit Tea Shop & Film Company, and Kevin Sampson. AGC’s chairman and CEO Stuart Ford and AGC’s Callum Grant will executive produce together with Jeremy Gawade.

O’Connell is best known for anchoring “Unbroken” and “’71.” Isaacs has appeared in the Harry Potter franchise and recently co-starred in “Hotel Mumbai.”

AGC Studios’ slate includes the Tate Taylor comedy “Breaking News in Yuba County” with Allison Janney and Mila Kunis; the documentary “Ladyboss: The Jackie Collins Story”; and the World War II action drama “Midway.”

THR – Hope Dickson Leach is directing the family drama, with Protagonist Pictures to shop the pic in Cannes.

Jack O’Connell and Lily Collins are joining The Cradle from The Levelling director Hope Dickson Leach.

O’Connell and Collins will play a couple not ready to expect their first baby as they track down a childhood cradle, only to make a discovery that will change their family forever. Protagonist Pictures will launch the project to international buyers in Cannes.

UTA and CAA are handling North American rights. The Cradle is adapted from the 2009 novel by writer Patrick Somerville, who co-wrote the screenplay with Dickson Leach.

The producer credits are shared by Gail Mutrux and Tore Schmidt for Pretty Pictures. Production on The Cradle is set for summer 2018.

Dickson Leach is repped by UTA and Casarotto Ramsay & Associates. O’Connell is repped by CAA, Conway van Gelder Grant and Sloane Offer Weber & Dern. Collins is repped by CAA, LBI, Definition Entertainment and Sloane Offer Weber & Dern.

THE GUARDIAN – He has gained a reputation as an angry young man, both in character and real life, and is this week making headlines for spending a large chunk of his current West End play naked.

But a newly commissioned photograph of the actor Jack O’Connell shows a different side: calm, reflective, vulnerable – and dressed.

The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) announced it had commissioned the London-based Slovakian photographer Tereza Červeňová to make a portrait of O’Connell for the national collection.

It was taken at O’Connell’s family home in Derby and deliberately challenges the “angry youth” image associated with him, both in his own life and in many of his early acting roles, including as skinhead Pukey in the 2006 film This Is England and drug addict Cook in the TV series Skins.

Červeňová said: “In portraiture my aim is always to manage to unveil what lies beneath the surface and meet the real person behind it and thanks to Jack’s openness, seeing through the ‘actor’s shield’ was both natural as well as effortless.”

O’Connell, 26, has for some time been regarded as one of Britain’s most exciting young acting talents. His movies include Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken, for which he received the Bafta rising star award, and the Jodie Foster-directed Money Monster, as an ordinary joe who takes George Clooney’s TV presenter character hostage.

As a youth O’Connell was in and out of court and has talked about the day he was starting the play Scarborough at the Royal Court in London – a day when he was in a criminal court hearing if he was to get a custodial sentence, which he did not.

He is currently playing Brick opposite Sienna Miller’s Maggie in the Young Vic production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the West End, a performance described as a “revelation” by the Guardian’s Michael Billington and “unflinching” by Matt Trueman in Variety. It is unquestionably brave since he is naked for much of the play. If not naked then trying to keep his towel fixed as he hobbles on a crutch to get another glass of whisky.
Read More

VARIETY – Jack O’Connell, Chloe Moretz, and Josh Gad are starring in “Party of the Century,” centered on Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball with shooting starting later this year in New York City.

Gad will portray Capote. Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman are directing and Tim Perell will produce the film through his shingle Process Media.

Bankside Films will exclusively handle foreign sales at the Cannes Film Festival, with CAA and Bankside Films co-representing North American rights.

Hilary Davis, Stephen Kelliher, and Patrick Howson will executive produce for Bankside Films. Head Gear Films will provide production financing with Phil Hunt and Compton Ross acting as executive producers.

Capote held the ball in 1966 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City to honor Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham.

Pulcini and Springer Berman said, “Our film is a delicate balance of worlds converging at a pivotal moment in time. Jack, Chloe and Josh are brilliant performers who can embody these worlds while bringing the electricity and pathos required to make the story fly.”

“Party of the Century” is an unexpected love story between O’Connell’s working-class elevator operator and Moretz’s Hollywood ingénue, both of whom score coveted invites to Capote’s Black and White Ball.

O’Connell co-starred in Jodie Foster’s financial thriller “Money Monster.” He will next be seen in Netflix TV series “Godless” from Steven Soderbergh and Scott Frank.

Moretz will next be seen in “Suspiria” with Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton and “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” with Quinn Shephard and Jennifer Ehle. Gad starred in “Beauty and the Beast” and will be seen in Open Road’s “Marshall” and in the Fox film “Murder on the Orient Express.”

Pulcini and Springer Berman directed “American Splendor,” “The Nanny Diaries,” and “Ten Thousand Saints.”

O’Connell is represented by CAA, Conway van Gelder Grant and Sloane Offer Weber & Dern. Moretz is represented by WME and T Squared Entertainment. Gad is represented by WME, Lighthouse Management & Media and P.J. Shapiro. Pulcini and Springer Berman are represented by CAA, Anonymous Content and attorney Paul Brennan of Bruns Brennan Berry.

EVENING STANDARD – Sienna Miller and Jack O’Connell will star in Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for a new production opening at the Apollo Theatre this July.

Directed by Benedict Andrews, it will be produced by the Young Vic, making it the theatre’s first production to debut in the West End. They have previously transferred a number of their shows to the West End, including The Scottsboro Boys and A View From A Bridge.

Miller, who has had a number of screen roles including The Edge of Love and Alfie, has appeared on stage a number of times already. She starred in Flare Path at the Royal Haymarket in 2011 as part of Terence Rattigan’s centenary celebrations, and has appeared in After Miss Julie on Broadway.

O’Connell, who was directed by Angelina Jolie in the film Unbroken and is known for starring in Skins, last appeared on stage last year for The Nap at Sheffield Crucible.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof runs at the Apollo Theatre from July 13 to October 7

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – Andrew Haigh is set to direct the film about the late fashion icon, with principal photography to begin in January.
The hotly anticipated Alexander McQueen biopic has found its leading man.

Jack O’Connell (Unbroken, ’71) has been cast as the late fashion designer in the untitled film to be directed by Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years) with Pathe producing.

The script is written by Chris Urch, the award-winning playwright of The Rolling Stone and Land of Our Fathers, and based on the biography Blood Beneath the Skin by Andrew Wilson. The film will explore the creative process of McQueen — who passed away in 2010 — in the months leading up to one of his greatest shows in 2009, providing an intimate portrait of the man behind the global brand.

Damian Jones (The Iron Lady, Belle, Lady in the Van) is producing, with principal photography set to start in January for delivery at the end of 2017.

Pathe will distribute the film in the U.K., France and Switzerland and will handle sales throughout the rest of the world, introducing the film to buyers at this year’s AFM.

Haigh, who saw 45 Years pick up awards in Berlin in 2015 and earn an Oscar nomination for Charlotte Rampling this year, recently wrapped Lean on Pete and is teaming with See-Saw Films and the BBC on a new drama series.

YOU get the impression that Jack O’Connell is pretty easy going from the moment you meet him. There’s no pretence, plus addressing someone by their first name before you’ve even met is always going to win brownie points. The Jack you see is the Jack you get. He’s relaxed and all-inviting handshakes, big grins and quick to banter, at ease even after a gruelling press trip that comes with the territory of taking a lead in blockbuster movies.

Money Monster, which is in cinemas now, was shot in New York and called for the streets of the city to be shut down. “For me, it epitomised the typical American film-making experience in the middle of downtown New York,” O’Connell confesses, not a sight of a transatlantic lilt in his Derby accent. While he isn’t willing to name names, shooting Money Monster was a different experience from those he has had in the past, and not just down to the sheer scale of the project.

“Shooting this was very fulfilling. I’ve been on sets before where you’re thinking this is bullshit, this hurts, people are getting treated horribly, and no one has got any money for the budget so no one can make you comfortable. If you do enough of that you stop expecting to feel comfortable when you’re at work. I’m very thankful for all those lessons, but when I was finally on this multi-million-dollar set in the middle of New York I could feel a real sense of gratitude.”

Another thing that you notice is that O’Connell is a genuine optimist and a thinker too, although not in the sense that he’s watching his words. On his first day on set, was he intimidated by acting alongside household names? “No more than anyone starting a new job amidst very esteemed colleagues.” Instead the 25-year-old focused on the opportunity presented. “You’re offered a level of confirmation that people are going to see your movie and this can make you feel very confident, which I chose to dwell on more.”

It wasn’t just his on-screen peers that may have been intimidating. Sat in the director’s chair was Jodie Foster, herself an Academy Award-winning actress with 50 years in the industry to her name who has done nothing but sung praises about her experiences working with O’Connell, telling Vogue: “He works so hard and he brings so much to the equation.” The film marks the second time that he has worked with an actress-turned-director. The first, Angelina Jolie, cast him in Unbroken, in which he portrayed Olympian and prisoner-of-war survivor, Louis Zamperini. He notes the film as his proudest professional moment. Describing Zamperini as a “hero” and a tale so epic that, “if you wrote it, people would chastise it.”

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – 327 short docs are set to be screened at the fest.

The lineup has been unveiled for the 22nd annual Palm Springs International ShortFest.

Films will span topics from Alzheimer’s to climate change and will include the acting and voice talents of such stars as Kristen Wiig, Zosia Mamet, Steve Buscemi and James Franco.

Jack O’Connell will star in the short Home, Richard Kind will appear in director Jake Honig’s Black Swell and Saturday Night Live player Beck Bennett will be seen in the short comedy How to Lose Weight in 4 Easy Steps, which also features a cameo from Conan O’Brien.

Over the course of the fest’s 22 years, 101 films that screened have gone on to receive Oscar nominations. At this year’s event, 327 films will be screened, which will include 46 world premieres among the entries from across the globe.

“We are showing more documentaries, more experimental films and more of the hard to categorize, hybrid films which play with film form in exciting ways,” programming director Penelope Bartlett said Thursday in a statement. “We cast the net far and wide to ensure we had more films from less represented regions, like Africa and the Middle East, and films by indigenous filmmakers and filmmakers of color.”

The event is set to run June 21-27 at the Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs.

The full ShortFest lineup can be found here.

ENTERTAINMENT FOCUS – Jack O’Connell and Holliday Grainger have teamed up to create a powerful short-film titled Home.

Shot in three countries, the film supported by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, will screen in selected cinemas nationwide from Monday 20th June.

As thousands of men, women and children attempt to get into Europe, Home follows a comfortable English family who experience a life-changing journey of their own.

The ambition of the 20-minute film is to address the current refugee crisis and help drive global awareness to support UNHCR’s World Refugee Day on Monday 20th June.

Jack O’Connell and Holliday Grainger get behind the refugee crisis along with the support of artists including Coldplay, Dizzee Rascal and Wiley who all donated music for the soundtrack too.

Written and directed by BAFTA-winning director, Daniel Mulloy, Home aims to remind the viewer that refugees are just like you or I – fathers, mothers, sons and daughters – for whom the meaning of the word “home” has undergone a traumatic re-evaluation.

Welcoming the UK launch of Home Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UK Representative for UNHCR, said: “UNHCR is delighted to support HOME. The film is a powerful reminder of the importance of a place to call home, which, when people are forced to flee, can be lost in an instant. At a time of unprecedented forced displacement around the world, HOME is a powerful reminder that becoming a refugee can happen to any one of us.”

Daniel Mulloy, the Director of Home, says: “We want to address the disconnect with refugees and do something to rip down the sense of them and us.”

Actress Arta Dobroshi, Executive Producer of Home says: “When I was living in a war zone, and then became a refugee, I used to think that if countries in freedom would feel what we are feeling at this moment. If they would see us as their families, just for one minute, they would help. And this is exactly what Home does, it puts you in the shoes of refugees.”

The project is further supported by leading augmented reality and visual discovery app Blippar. For the first time ever on World Refugee Day, 20th June, users can show their support of refugees in crisis by”blipping”(scanning) their hand through the Blippar app. This allows them to show support by signing the petition, watching the film and spreading the unique hashtag which will be announced on 9th June 2016.

Home was funded and produced by Black Sheep Studios, Somesuch and Dokufest, with donations from Open Society Foundation-London, United Agencies in Kosovo, USAID and the films cast and crew among many others.