Peter Kosminsky – Damian Lewis

Ten Films About the Plight of Refugees

On March 12, 2022 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Warriors

by Stephen Ariel | The Spectator | March 11, 2022

The tragic ongoing events in Ukraine have highlighted the plight of refugees, with over 2m people (mainly women and children) fleeing the country since Russia invaded on 24 February 2022. Sadly, refugee crises have been occurring since the dawn of what may ironically be called ‘civilisation’, most notably the Biblical Exodus from Egypt and Caesar’s conquest of Gaul, which began when the Swiss Helvetii confederation, under pressure of Germanic tribes, sought to cross into Roman territory on their westward journey to safety.

Movies concerning refugees range from the past (Exodus: Gods & Kings) to the dystopian future (Children of Men) and are international in scope, including the UK (Limbo), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Welcome to Sarajevo) and West Africa (Beasts of No Nation). There are also a fair number of motion pictures which follow the lives of rulers forced to exit their countries (including Leo the Last, A King in New York, The Last Emperor, The Exception, The King’s Choice, and Monsieur N), but I will concentrate on the fate of the less privileged seekers of asylum.

If you have the fortitude for watching more films in a similar vein, you may want to check out Peter Kosminsky’s BBC TV movie Warriors (1999), which depicts a group of British soldiers serving with the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia during the Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing of 1993. The harrowing drama stars Matthew MacFadyen, Damian Lewis, and Ioan Gruffudd. Video clips:

Continue reading Ten Films About the Plight of Refugees

Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall Sequel Update – Feb 25, 2020

On February 25, 2020February 25, 2020 By Gingersnap Comments Off

The Mirror and the Light: TV Adaptation Has Begun

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | February 25, 2020

According to this February 25, 2020 article in the Radio Times,

“Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky has apparently already been sent the manuscript for Hilary Mantel’s long-awaited sequel The Mirror and the Light – and the work of adapting it for TV has begun. But Piers Wenger, the BBC’s Drama Controller, said he still had no idea when the drama will make it to our screens. At a press event in London, he commented: “I can’t say that now. Genuinely I think we are engaged in those conversations around getting [co-writer] Peter Straughan, Peter Kosminsky, getting the cast back together.”

The Times February 22, 2020 article had this to say when interviewing Hilary Mantel about her third and final installment of the book series,

Continue reading Wolf Hall Sequel Update – Feb 25, 2020

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TV bosses pounce on delayed final novel in Wolf Hall trilogy

On May 25, 2019May 25, 2019 By Damianista Comments Off

The Mirror and The Light

Matthew Moore, Media Correspondent | David Sanderson, Arts Correspondent I The Times I May 25, 2019

The book is several years behind schedule but a television adaptation of the final instalment of Dame Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy is already under way.

The team behind the acclaimed BBC adaptations of the first two novels have confirmed that they are in the “active development” phase of bringing the finale to the small screen.

Mantel’s publisher revealed this week that The Mirror & the Light, the concluding part of her series about Thomas Cromwell, will go on sale next March. The author had said in April 2017 that she hoped to have it finished by early 2018.

Wolf Hall, the first book in the series, was published in 2009, followed three years later by Bring Up the Bodies. They were adapted for television by the BBC in 2015, starring Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell, Damian Lewis as Henry VIII and Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn. The six-part series was directed by Peter Kosminsky and written by Peter Straughan. Both men are involved with the follow-up, according to the production company Playground.

Continue reading TV bosses pounce on delayed final novel in Wolf Hall trilogy

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Blue Blood, Blue Collar: Damian Lewis’ Transformations, The New Yorker, January 18, 2016

On January 18, 2016October 16, 2020 By Damianista Comments Off

The actor probes his characters, but his method isn’t Method. “I’m Damian Lewis, not Daniel Day-Lewis.”

by Lauren Collins | The New Yorker | January 18, 2016

At a corner table in the dining room of Marea, a restaurant on Central Park South, the conversation was smooth but disputatious. Three men in suits were drinking red wine and eating pasta that cost thirty-four dollars a serving. One of them was a hedge-fund manager, a famous short seller. Another was the financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin. The third man, in from London, was the actor Damian Lewis.

Sorkin had made the introduction. The hedge-fund manager and Lewis were doing most of the talking. “Does your business have a societal benefit?” Lewis asked. He wanted to know what made a hedge-fund manager more than “a paper shuffler.”

The hedge-fund manager said that he and his peers basically function as market-based regulators—that they have a financial incentive to expose wrongdoing. Sorkin had set up other audiences for Lewis with financial machers. One of them urged Lewis to consider an underperforming company with entrenched management or a sclerotic board: an activist investor, even if he came in and cut things and fired people—well, that’s capitalism.

Continue reading Blue Blood, Blue Collar: Damian Lewis’ Transformations, The New Yorker, January 18, 2016

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Damian Lewis Says Henry VIII “As Big A Brand As Coca-Cola” – Jan 19, 2015

On January 19, 2015October 10, 2017 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Damian Lewis Says Henry VIII “As Big A Brand As Coca-Cola,” While Plugging PBS’s ‘Wolf Hall’

Television Critics Association Press Tour, Winter Tour, Panel Discussion

by Lisa de Moraes – Deadline – January 19, 2015

Damian Lewis speaks onstage during the ‘MASTERPIECE Wolf Hall panel discussion at the PBS Network portion of the Television Critics Association press tour at Langham Hotel on January 19, 2015 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

“Henry [VIII] as a brand, is right up there with Coca Cola,” Damian Lewis said, of the oft-portrayed Tudor king he plays in PBS’s six-part miniseries Wolf Hall. “My vanity will always relish a challenge,” Lewis said, of trying to turn in a fresh performance of the historical figure. “In fact, that probably encourages me.”

Not so fresh, maybe, were his answers to question about his character, on stage this morning at Winter TV Press Tour 2015; his “syphilitic, philandering Elvis” line, in re how Henry VIII is most often perceived/portrayed, is getting a little worn out as Lewis make the press rounds to promote the project.

Continue reading Damian Lewis Says Henry VIII “As Big A Brand As Coca-Cola” – Jan 19, 2015

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PBS’ Wolf Hall Starring Damian Lewis Could Be TV’s Next Great Antihero Story – Jan 19, 2015

On January 19, 2015October 10, 2017 By Gingersnap Comments Off

PBS’ ‘Wolf Hall’ Starring Damian Lewis Could Be TV’s Next Great Antihero Story

by Ryan Lattanzio – Indiewire – 19, January 2015

Will Henry VIII be Emmy winner Damian Lewis’ first, great post-Nick Brody role? Directed by Peter Kosminsky and written by Peter Straughan (one half of the Oscar-nominated “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” duo), this six-part BBC drama adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s hit novels “Wolf Hall” and “Bring Up the Bodies” will broadcast stateside on PBS April 5.

Lewis plays the eighth Henry opposite top-shelf Shakespeare thespian Mark Rylance, playing the King’s ruthless counselor Thomas Cromwell. Claire Foy, Mark Gatiss, Charity Wakefield, Joanne Whalley and Jonathan Pryce, who was recently seen as a narcissistic asshole professor in Alex Ross Perry’s “Listen Up Philip,” head up the sprawling cast.

Continue reading PBS’ Wolf Hall Starring Damian Lewis Could Be TV’s Next Great Antihero Story – Jan 19, 2015

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Damian Lewis’ Henry VIII in Wolf Hall Has Killer Calves – Jan 19, 2015

On January 19, 2015October 10, 2017 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Damian Lewis’ Henry VIII in Wolf Hall Has Killer Calves

by Jasmin Rosemberg – Variety – 19 January 2015

Henry VIII, infamous King of England in the sixteenth century, is often remembered for his gluttonous form, his string of wives, his disharmony with the Pope and his brute beheading spree. But Damian Lewis, star of the BBC’s new miniseries “Wolf Hall” — a six-part adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s prize-winning novels that will premiere in the UK on January 21 and on PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre on April 5 — plans to introduce you to a different sort of monarch.

LOS ANGELES, CA – JANUARY 18: (L-R) Producers Colin Callender, Rebecca Eaton, actors Damian Lewis, Mark Rylance, director Peter Kosminsky, and British Consulate-General LA Christopher O’Connor attend an afternoon tea at The British Consulate celebrating “Wolf Hall” Airing On Masterpiece On PBS at The British Residence on January 18, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Masterpiece on PBS)

“He was generally regarded as the preeminent sportsman of his era,” said Lewis on Sunday afternoon, at a quaint tea held at the British Consul-General Chris O’Connor’s Los Angeles home to honor the series. “He was one of the best hunters, horsemen, jousters, archers. And he was an incredibly trim, fit man — very proud of a fine pair of calves that he had. He used to boast that his calves were better than Philip the Fair’s of France.”

How did Lewis, fresh off of “Homeland,” hone his own physique for the role? “I stuck handkerchiefs down there,” he joked (of his calves), before adding, “No, I wore boots to cover them up.” He also grew a beard and donned square-toed boots, which he thinks “might set a new fashion.”

Continue reading Damian Lewis’ Henry VIII in Wolf Hall Has Killer Calves – Jan 19, 2015

Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall Q&A Interview Panel

On January 18, 2015October 8, 2017 By mokulen Comments Off

Sunday Express TV Editor David Stephenson has uploaded the audio of the Q&A interview panel that was done after a screening of Wolf Hall episode 1 back on December 10th. Damian Lewis, Mark Rylance, Claire Foy, director Peter Kosminsky, writer Peter Straughan, and executive producer Colin Callender were there for the interview. Damian comes in at the 19.08 mark.

Here are a couple write-ups from that Q&A:
The Telegraph – Wolf Hall TV show uses ‘too small’ Tudor codpieces
Deadline – ‘Wolf Hall’ Creatives & Cast On Codpieces, Tudor Politics And Killing Anne Boleyn
theartsdesk.com – Wolf Hall comes to BBC Two
Radio Times – Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky urges the nation not to “p**s away” the BBC

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Wolf Hall: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Hilary Mantel Adaptation with Damian Lewis and Mark Rylance – Jan 10, 2015

On January 10, 2015October 10, 2017 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Wolf Hall: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Hilary Mantel Adaptation with Damian Lewis and Mark Rylance

The BBC’s star-studded new tale of Tudor intrigue, Wolf Hall, is set to be one of the television events of the year. Ahead of the series, Gaby Wood joined the cast on set.

by Gabby Wood – The Telegraph – 10 January 2015

Stand by for a take, please. And we’re turning. Quiet, please. And action.’ Live trumpets sound at the entrance to Bristol Cathedral, before the heavy doors open to reveal Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn, silhouetted against the sunlight. Guards in red capes and gold sculpted breastplates frame her as she begins her slow approach down the blue-carpeted aisle towards the altar, her stiff silk train carried by ladies-in-waiting, the bulging belly that will one day be Elizabeth I played by a neat rounded cushion. She proceeds towards the bottom right-hand corner of the shot until she is out of focus. ‘Cut there!’

Damian Lewis, who plays the lesser character of Henry VIII in the adaptation. ‘He comes on occasionally, dazzles, and going away again,’ he says. PHOTO: Ed Miller

On the monitor, a clapperboard marks the take, and a flurry of activity ensues: a blur of taffeta dresses, the back of the director Peter Kosminsky’s head. The shot is replayed, silently. The long blue carpet is moved fractionally to the left. They start again. ‘Stand by for a take, please.’

It is July 3 2014 and Bristol Cathedral is doubling for Westminster Abbey in the BBC’s six-part drama Wolf Hall. Based on both of Hilary Mantel’s novels about the life of Thomas Cromwell – Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies – Kosminsky’s evocative and dazzlingly precise adaptation stars some of Britain’s very best actors and features many of its finest buildings, and is destined to be one of the most talked-about series on television this year.

Continue reading Wolf Hall: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Hilary Mantel Adaptation with Damian Lewis and Mark Rylance – Jan 10, 2015

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Wolf Hall: Bringing the Intrigue of the Tudor Court to Life – Jan 9, 2015

On January 9, 2015January 29, 2018 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Wolf Hall: Damian Lewis and Mark Rylance on bringing the intrigue of the Tudor court to life

by Gerard Gilbert – The Independent – January 9, 2015

Source: BBC

BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s award-winning novels begins this month. It’s only early January but it seems that we might already have the best new British drama of 2015 about to air, although some readers may need to suppress a yawn when it’s added that this is a BBC costume drama led by a great Shakespearian actor. Safe as houses?

Not so. Writer Peter Straughan and director Peter Kosminsky’s engrossing adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Booker-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, starring Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell and Damian Lewis as King Henry VIII, reinvigorates a genre grown comfortable in its award-winning ways, shaking it up in a manner not seen since I Claudius in the 1970s.

Continue reading Wolf Hall: Bringing the Intrigue of the Tudor Court to Life – Jan 9, 2015

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Wolf Hall: Henry’s Horrible History, Daily Mail, January 3, 2015

On January 3, 2015October 8, 2017 By Site Administrator Comments Off

Henry’s horrible history: You won’t find any left-handers or extras in specs. Accuracy is king in the most eagerly anticipated TV event of the year… but how does Wolf Hall stand up to the scrutiny of one historian?

By Lucy Worsely
PUBLISHED: 17:01 EDT, 3 January 2015 | UPDATED: 04:31 EDT, 4 January 2015

You won’t find any left-handers in Henry’s court. Or extras in specs. Or XXL codpieces. Accuracy is king in the most eagerly anticipated TV event of the new year… but how does Wolf Hall stand up to the scrutiny of historian Lucy Worsley? Event joined her behind the scenes to find out

Continue reading Wolf Hall: Henry’s Horrible History, Daily Mail, January 3, 2015

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Interview: The Charmer, The Times / Sunday Times, November 17, 2002

On November 17, 2002October 8, 2017 By Damianista Comments Off

The Charmer

by Lesley White, The Times / Sunday Times, November 17, 2002

Smooth, confident and raring to reinvent himself, Damian Lewis is just the chap to play Jeffrey Archer, says Lesley White

When we meet on the Pinewood set of the slapstick satire, written by Guy Jenkin, creator of Drop the Dead Donkey, Lewis’s flaming red hair is dyed brown, the make-up department has achieved a not totally streak-free job with the fake tan, and, with his funky shorts, he is transformed not into Jeffrey, but a cross between an Ibiza raver and a boy scout. As Greta Scacchi is playing Margaret Thatcher, we can assume no attempt at impersonation is being made.

In some ways, Lewis, 31, and the celebrated fantasist have more in common than it might first appear. While the latter has spent his adult life embellishing his biography for public consumption, the actor went through a period of reverse self-invention. Rather than admit having attended Eton, for example, he told early interviewers that he went to boarding school, then changed the subject before they could ask which one. “I tried to sever all ties to my posh upbringing. It made me feel as if I couldn’t be a genuine moody actor. I’m desensitised to that now.”
Continue reading Interview: The Charmer, The Times / Sunday Times, November 17, 2002