British acting duo Emma Thompson and Jim Broadbent have signed up to star in the 3-part Agatha Christie adaptation ‘Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?.’
Thompson and Broadbent, who will play British aristocrats Lord and Lady Marcham, will join Lucy Boynton who takes on the role of their daughter Lady Frankie, Will Poulter as Bobby Jones and Hugh Laurie and as creepy sanitorium director Dr. James Nicholson.
Based on Christie’s 1934 mystery, the story centres on the local Vicar’s son, Bobby Jones (Poulter), and his whip-smart friend, socialite Lady Frances ‘Frankie’ Derwent (Boynton) on their crime-solving adventure after they discover the crumpled body of a dying man who, with his last breath, gasps the cryptic question of the title.
Also in news – Brendan Fraser joins cast of Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’
Armed only with a photograph of a beautiful young woman found in the dead man’s pocket,...
Thompson and Broadbent, who will play British aristocrats Lord and Lady Marcham, will join Lucy Boynton who takes on the role of their daughter Lady Frankie, Will Poulter as Bobby Jones and Hugh Laurie and as creepy sanitorium director Dr. James Nicholson.
Based on Christie’s 1934 mystery, the story centres on the local Vicar’s son, Bobby Jones (Poulter), and his whip-smart friend, socialite Lady Frances ‘Frankie’ Derwent (Boynton) on their crime-solving adventure after they discover the crumpled body of a dying man who, with his last breath, gasps the cryptic question of the title.
Also in news – Brendan Fraser joins cast of Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’
Armed only with a photograph of a beautiful young woman found in the dead man’s pocket,...
- 8/5/2021
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The Revenant star Will Poulter and Bohemian Rhapsody’s Lucy Boynton are to lead the cast of Hugh Laurie’s three-part adaptation of Agatha Christie’s murder-mystery Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?.
Deadline revealed that The Night Manager and House star was behind the adaptation in April and the series is starting production this week.
Based on the 1934 Agatha Christie novel, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? follows the local Vicar’s son, Bobby Jones (Poulter), and his whip-smart friend, socialite Lady Frances “Frankie” Derwent (Boynton) on their crime-solving adventure after they discover the crumpled body of a dying man who, with his last breath, gasps the cryptic question of the title. Armed only with a photograph of a beautiful young woman found in the dead man’s pocket, these amateur detectives pursue, and are pursued by, the answer to the mystery.
The series is commissioned by BritBox North...
Deadline revealed that The Night Manager and House star was behind the adaptation in April and the series is starting production this week.
Based on the 1934 Agatha Christie novel, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? follows the local Vicar’s son, Bobby Jones (Poulter), and his whip-smart friend, socialite Lady Frances “Frankie” Derwent (Boynton) on their crime-solving adventure after they discover the crumpled body of a dying man who, with his last breath, gasps the cryptic question of the title. Armed only with a photograph of a beautiful young woman found in the dead man’s pocket, these amateur detectives pursue, and are pursued by, the answer to the mystery.
The series is commissioned by BritBox North...
- 6/10/2021
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Lucy Boynton (“Bohemian Rhapsody”) and Will Poulter (“The Revenant”) are set to star in Hugh Laurie’s adaptation of “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?”, one of Agatha Christie’s earliest murder mystery novels.
Laurie (“House”) is set to direct and act in the three-part series for BritBox North America, in which he plays the creepy Dr. James Nicholson, a clinical director of a sanatorium.
Christie published “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?”, which follows Bobby (Poulter) and shrewd socialite Lady Frances (Boynton) as they untangle a murder mystery, in 1934. In classic Christie fashion, there are plenty of twists and turns until the perpetrator is finally unmasked.
“I’m so thrilled to be working with Hugh and Will, and on this story from one of my favourite authors,” said Boynton. “I can’t wait to get started.” She won’t have to wait long with production kicking off this week.
“I’m...
Laurie (“House”) is set to direct and act in the three-part series for BritBox North America, in which he plays the creepy Dr. James Nicholson, a clinical director of a sanatorium.
Christie published “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?”, which follows Bobby (Poulter) and shrewd socialite Lady Frances (Boynton) as they untangle a murder mystery, in 1934. In classic Christie fashion, there are plenty of twists and turns until the perpetrator is finally unmasked.
“I’m so thrilled to be working with Hugh and Will, and on this story from one of my favourite authors,” said Boynton. “I can’t wait to get started.” She won’t have to wait long with production kicking off this week.
“I’m...
- 6/10/2021
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
The title of fourth of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe films, Alex Wheatle, practically begs of an addendum: It could just as well start with The Miseducation Of. Or, rather, reeducation. The Alex Wheatle that we meet up top, played by Sheyi Cole, is a man who at one point knew almost nothing. He doesn’t know how to take care of his hair. He doesn’t know about Babylon — which is to say, a Britain whose prime quality is its imperial evil. He doesn’t know about cops and why to avoid them,...
- 12/15/2020
- by K. Austin Collins
- Rollingstone.com
Alex Wheatle, the fourth entry in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology, offers a modest take on the process of unlearning cultural attitudes and biases through the eyes of a naïve teenager. In 1980, Alex Wheatle moves to a social services hostel in Brixton after spending his childhood in a group home, where he was subject to constant abuse from his white peers and caretaker. In Brixton, however, Wheatle finds himself immersed in the Black British community, from which he was displaced growing up in all-white Surrey, where he slowly but surely assimilates the patois, fashion, and most importantly, music of his culture. He quickly witnesses the casual daily oppression his community faces at the hands of the police and participates in the 1981 Brixton uprising for which he is imprisoned.
McQueen limits the scope of his biographical portrait to the relatively short period of Wheatle’s awakening, his transformation from a...
McQueen limits the scope of his biographical portrait to the relatively short period of Wheatle’s awakening, his transformation from a...
- 12/11/2020
- by Vikram Murthi
- The Film Stage
In “Alex Wheatle,” the fourth of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe films, we meet a young man who seems, quite literally, to have come from nothing. Alex (Sheyi Cole), born to Jamaican parents in 1963, was abandoned by his mother, and his father gave him over to the British social-services bureaucracy — which means that he grows up, in essence, as a Dickensian orphan. We see him in a home for boys, run by an “auntie” who’s a nasty piece of work; she reacts to the fact that Alex wets his bed by shoving the urine-soaked sheets into his mouth. The cruelty is palpable, but it’s not until a scene or two later, when the 18-year-old Alex gets throws in jail, that we see what it truly means to be a lost soul.
Alex’s cellmate is a burly Rastafarian named Simeon (Robbie Gee), who seems friendly enough but is having intestinal issues,...
Alex’s cellmate is a burly Rastafarian named Simeon (Robbie Gee), who seems friendly enough but is having intestinal issues,...
- 12/2/2020
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Amazon Prime Video has premiered the trailer for Small Axe: Alex Wheatle, the fourth and penultimate film in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology series for the streaming platform. Alex Wheatle will drop on December 11th, following Mangrove (November 20th), Lovers Rock (November 27th), and Red, White and Blue (December 4th).
Like the other entries in the Small Axe series, Alex Wheatle tells a story within London’s West Indian community from the late Sixties to the mid-Eighties. (The title is derived from the African proverb, “If you are the big tree,...
Like the other entries in the Small Axe series, Alex Wheatle tells a story within London’s West Indian community from the late Sixties to the mid-Eighties. (The title is derived from the African proverb, “If you are the big tree,...
- 11/30/2020
- by Claire Shaffer
- Rollingstone.com
Steve McQueen’s five-film “Small Axe” series was conceived to spotlight underrepresented stories of West Indian Londoners, from the thrill of a 1980 house party in “Lovers Rock” to the tumultuous civil rights battle of “Mangrove.” With “Alex Wheatle,” McQueen centers on a subject whose mission syncs with the project as a whole. In this hourlong origin story about the British Jamaican young adult novelist who found his calling after the 1981 Brixton riot, McQueen and co-writer Alastair Siddons have produced
Compared to some of the other “Small Axe” entries, “Alex Wheatle” occupies a somewhat awkward position within the film and TV media boundary that the anthology pushes up against: It’s not episodic, but feels more like the first act of a larger story begging for further exploration. Nevertheless, with a complex, ever-evolving turn by newcomer Sheyi Cole at its center, the story it does offer up turns on McQueen’s...
Compared to some of the other “Small Axe” entries, “Alex Wheatle” occupies a somewhat awkward position within the film and TV media boundary that the anthology pushes up against: It’s not episodic, but feels more like the first act of a larger story begging for further exploration. Nevertheless, with a complex, ever-evolving turn by newcomer Sheyi Cole at its center, the story it does offer up turns on McQueen’s...
- 11/30/2020
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
“You can’t look forward without looking back.” That’s a valuable piece of advice given to the protagonist of “Alex Wheatle,” but it’s also a summation of what director and co-writer Steve McQueen is doing with his extraordinary “Small Axe” series.
With its vivid portrayals of the horrors of institutionalization, “Alex Wheatle” is perhaps most reminiscent — so far — of the McQueen audiences have come to know in films like “Hunger” and “12 Years a Slave.” But even as its lead character endures physical and psychological torment at the hands of authorities, the film is very much of a piece with the ebullience of “Small Axe,” as the ongoing themes of community, music and defiance play a huge role in the story.
The real-life Wheatle published his first novel in 1999, but the film begins in 1981, with Alex going to prison for his role in the Brixton Riots, in which...
With its vivid portrayals of the horrors of institutionalization, “Alex Wheatle” is perhaps most reminiscent — so far — of the McQueen audiences have come to know in films like “Hunger” and “12 Years a Slave.” But even as its lead character endures physical and psychological torment at the hands of authorities, the film is very much of a piece with the ebullience of “Small Axe,” as the ongoing themes of community, music and defiance play a huge role in the story.
The real-life Wheatle published his first novel in 1999, but the film begins in 1981, with Alex going to prison for his role in the Brixton Riots, in which...
- 11/30/2020
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
‘If you are the big tree, we are the small axe’
Made famous by Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 1973 song ‘Small Axe’, that’s the traditional proverb behind the title for a five-film series by Oscar-winning British director Steve McQueen.
Two of McQueen’s Small Axe films were selected for this year’s Cannes Film Festival and in October, one opened the 64th London Film Festival. Now, all five are coming straight to BBC One and iPlayer in the UK, and Amazon Prime Video around the world. The home release has nothing to do with the pandemic; it was always the plan for these feature-length films with a cast including Star Wars’ John Boyega and Black Panther’s Letitia Wright, to air for a mainstream audience on prime time UK television.
11 years in the making, the five films were funded by BBC Studios and made to celebrate key figures in...
Made famous by Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 1973 song ‘Small Axe’, that’s the traditional proverb behind the title for a five-film series by Oscar-winning British director Steve McQueen.
Two of McQueen’s Small Axe films were selected for this year’s Cannes Film Festival and in October, one opened the 64th London Film Festival. Now, all five are coming straight to BBC One and iPlayer in the UK, and Amazon Prime Video around the world. The home release has nothing to do with the pandemic; it was always the plan for these feature-length films with a cast including Star Wars’ John Boyega and Black Panther’s Letitia Wright, to air for a mainstream audience on prime time UK television.
11 years in the making, the five films were funded by BBC Studios and made to celebrate key figures in...
- 11/10/2020
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
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