Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years) is busy working on a new limited series, The North Water. Haigh adapted the novel by Ian McGuire and is directing the BBC four-parter due in 2020. Colin Farrell stars as a harpooner on an Arctic whaling expedition (he also happens to be a murderous psychopath, but nobody’s perfect). On board he meets a ship’s doctor (Jack O’Connell, Unbroken) who’s not quite ready for the encounter or for the brutal journey of survival the two will come to share. Supporting cast includes acclaimed actor-filmmaker Peter Mullan (Ozark) and legendary British character actor Tom Courtenay (45 Years, and, you know, little movies like Doctor Zhivago). It’s not necessarily a queer-specific story – even if the captain of this TV ship is – but it’s already reminding us a little bit of The Lighthouse, with its vibe of tortured, toxic, freaked-out masculinity and sublimated homoerotic rage. So this’ll be fun!
WATCH:
Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning 1971 musical Follies is getting the movie treatment, deservedly so, after nearly 50 years. Filmmaker Dominic Cooke (On Chesil Beach) will adapt the show, after directing the 2017 stage revival at London’s National Theatre (a production so popular it was brought back for encore performances in 2019). Featuring the musical theater standards “Broadway Baby,” “I’m Still Here” and “Losing My Mind,” (famously covered by Liza Minnelli and The Pet Shop Boys in the late ’80s) the story is set in a Broadway theater scheduled for demolition, where a reunion of former performers is taking place. The middle-age-to-senior cast tell stories of success and disappointment and heartbreak, so when casting shapes up (somebody ask Liza!) it’s going to be a who’s who of baby boomer (and older) Broadway babies. No word yet on who they’ll be, or when it’s supposed to hit screens, so more on this one soon.
Romeo San Vicente loves anything to do with Stephen Sondheim!
