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The Thursday Murder Club to be shown in just 30 cinemas

The Thursday Murder Club to be shown in just 30 cinemas

Timesa day ago
Richard Osman has a grand plan to save cinemas. The House of Games TV presenter and bestselling author has argued on his podcast The Rest is Entertainment that they should screen big-budget television dramas alongside the latest films to tackle stagnant admissions.
However, his strategic support does not appear to have translated into real-world help around Netflix's anticipated film adaptation of The Thursday Murder Club.
'Some very good news for everyone who wanted to see The Thursday Murder Club in UK cinemas,' he said on Instagram last week. 'Netflix have listened to the clamour, and the film will now have a run in UK cinemas. See what happens when you all ask!'
However, 'delight quickly turned to disappointment' among cinema operators after they learnt that it was to be released in a 'paltry' number of just over 30 screens.
• Richard Osman envies other writers even if he's making a killing
In contrast, Brad Pitt's F1: The Movie, which is funded by the rival streaming service Apple TV, is estimated to have opened at 700 screens and sped into pole position at the UK box office after grossing about £7 million.
Cinema operators were hoping for a similarly bumper opening week from The Thursday Murder Club from August 22, propelled by fans of the book and the film's cast, which includes Dame Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Sir Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie.
• The retirement home that inspired The Thursday Murder Club
Phil Clapp, the chief executive of the UK Cinema Association, said: 'Netflix can choose where and when they release their content and given that we're still in recovery those venues which are allowed to play the film will more than welcome the box office. But a significant majority of the potential audience are now likely to be disappointed.'
Ted Sarandos, the co-chief executive of Netflix, told an event in March that audiences preferred watching films at home. He said: 'Folks grew up thinking, 'I want to make movies on a gigantic screen and have strangers watch them [and to have them] play in the theatre for two months … It's an outdated concept.'
One local cinema owner urged Netflix to repeat the successful strategy it employed for Roald Dahl's Matilda when the streaming date was held back for weeks and it became the highest grossing British film of 2022, and had takings of £22 million.
'Netflix's relationship with cinemas in the UK is inconsistent. To their credit they were one of the few distributors supporting us with films during and immediately after the pandemic. I regret that relationship wasn't built on,' the owner added.
'I can only assume cinemas are being used as either a trailer for the following weeks streaming release or even worse as a patsy for Bafta awards qualification.'
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Sabrina Carpenter stays in same posh £25k-a-night London hotel as fellow pop queens
Sabrina Carpenter stays in same posh £25k-a-night London hotel as fellow pop queens

The Sun

time23 minutes ago

  • The Sun

Sabrina Carpenter stays in same posh £25k-a-night London hotel as fellow pop queens

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Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath go out on a high at farewell gig
Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath go out on a high at farewell gig

BBC News

time36 minutes ago

  • BBC News

Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath go out on a high at farewell gig

Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath have gone out with a bang at what they say will be their final gig, in front of 40,000 fans and supported by an all-star line-up of rock legends who have been influenced by the founding fathers of heavy 76, who has Parkinson's disease, sang while seated on a black throne - clapping, waving his arms and pulling wild-eyed looks, just like old appeared overwhelmed at times. "You have no idea how I feel. Thank you from the bottom of my heart," he told the crowd at Villa Park in was joined by the original Sabbath line-up for the first time in 20 years. The show's bill also included fellow rock gods Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Slayer, the Rolling Stones' Ronnie Wood and Aerosmith's Steven a long leather robe and gold armband bearing his name, Ozzy rose from below the stage in his throne to a huge roar from the crowd."Are you ready? Let the madness begin," he called."It's so good to be on this stage. You have no idea," he told the crowd, who responded by chanting his playing five songs from his solo career, Ozzy was joined by his Sabbath bandmates - guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward - for four more tunes, finishing with 1970 classic Parkinson's, other health problems and age have taken their toll, meaning he performed sitting down. His wavered a bit but still packed a fair punch. Fans came from all over the world - if they could get tickets - for the all-day Back to the Beginning gig at Aston Villa's football stadium, a stone's throw from Ozzy's childhood star-studded show was dubbed the "heavy metal Live Aid", and profits will go to pitch was a sea of Black Sabbath T-shirts and rock hand signs, with some areas becoming a melee of moshing. One person waved an inflatable bat, a reference to the infamous 1982 incident when Ozzy bit the head off a live bat on stage - the most notorious moment of many in the rock star's wild career. The day's other performers paid homage to him and the other band members."Without Sabbath there would be no Metallica," the band's frontman James Hetfield told the crowd during their set. "Thank you for giving us a purpose in life."Guns N' Roses' set included a cover of Sabbath's 1978 song Never Say Die, with frontman Axl Rose ending with the words: "Birmingham! Ozzy! Sabbath! Thank you!"A series of star-studded supergroups saw Tyler, who has suffered serious vocal problems in recent years, sound back on form as part of a band including Ronnie Wood, Blink-182's Travis Barker and Rage Against the Machine's Tom version of the band included Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan and KK Downing from Judas Priest, another of the West Midlands' original metal heroes. Battle of the drummers Younger performers included Yungblud, who sang one of Sabbath's more tender songs, Changes, originally released in 1972, and which Ozzy took to number one as a duet with daughter Kelly in was part of another supergroup whose revolving cast of musicians included members of Megadeth, Faith No More and Anthrax.A titanic battle of three drummers in a "drum-off" between Barker, Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Danny Carey of frontman Phil Anselmo told the crowd the artists on the bill "would all be different people" without Black Sabbath. "That's the truth. I wouldn't be up here with this microphone in my hand without Black Sabbath. The greatest of all time." Momoa in the moshpit Hollywood actor Jason Momoa was the show's compere and while introducing Pantera, told fans he was joining the moshpit, saying: "Make some space for me, I'm coming in."At another point, he told the crowd: "The history of Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne is to look back at the best who've ever done it. We have some of the greatest rock and metal musicians ever here today on this stage."Momoa's Minecraft Movie co-star Jack Black sent a video message, as did other big names ranging from Billy Idol to Dolly Parton. "Black Sabbath really kind of started all this, the metal era," former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar told BBC News backstage. "Everyone looks at them like the kings, and if the kings are going to go out then we're going to go honour them."Everyone that was asked to do this, shoot, you drop everything and do this. This is going to go down in history as the greatest metal event of all of all time." Ozzy said beforehand that the show would be "a goodbye as far as my live performances go, and what a way to go out".The line-up of legends "means everything", he said in an interview provided by organisers."I am forever in their debt for showing up for me and the fans. I can't quite put it into words, but I feel very emotional and blessed."Ticket prices ranged from about £200 to £2,000, with profits being shared between Cure Parkinson's, Birmingham Children's Hospital and Acorn Children's Hospice. Back to the Beginning line-up:Black SabbathOzzy Osbourne soloMetallicaGuns N' RosesSlayerToolPanteraSupergroup including Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Ronnie Wood (the Rolling Stones), Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Adam Jones (Tool), KK Downing (Judas Priest), Vernon Reid (Living Colour), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Sammy Hagar (Van Halen), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), Travis Barker (Blink-182) and Tobias Forge (Ghost)Drum-off - Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Travis Barker (Blink-182) and Danny Carey (Tool)GojiraAlice in ChainsAnthraxSupergroup including Lizzy Hale (Halestorm), David Ellefson (Megadeth), Mike Bordin (Faith No More), David Draiman (Disturbed), Scott Ian (Anthrax), Yungblud and Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme)Lamb of GodHalestormRival SonsMastodon

Embarrassing ancestor goes from a 'bit of a giggle' to an icon
Embarrassing ancestor goes from a 'bit of a giggle' to an icon

BBC News

time40 minutes ago

  • BBC News

Embarrassing ancestor goes from a 'bit of a giggle' to an icon

One ancestor has a statue on a massive column commemorating his life. The other has a few photos stuck in a not hard to imagine which one the family of the time was keener to remember. However, as a musical celebrating the man in the bathroom makes clear, sometimes you have to play the long game - or as the show's title says, How to Win Against the bathroom photos depict Henry Cyril Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey, a man who bankrupted his family and died young far from home, after a few short years of splashing his aristocratic forebears' cash on extravagant and outrageous self-produced shows in Edwardian Britain, appearing in women's dresses and costumes literally made of 120 years after his death a play and the film Madfabulous, inspired by his life, is putting him firmly back in the spotlight, but what does the current generation of his family make of the man who was once relegated to a toilet? Alex, 8th Marquess of Anglesey, says Henry is now viewed with affection by himself and other family members, as time and changing attitudes have cast his exploits in a more understanding Henry married his cousin, their marriage was apparently never consummated and his wife later filed for annulment. Was he gay? No conclusive evidence either way, but it's hard not to imagine he was somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum of sexualities. Alex says he first came to know of Henry through those bathroom photos. "The one I particularly remember was him dressed up as Boadicea with big Edwardian moustaches."[It was] a bit of a giggle. His existence wasn't denied but he wasn't a major part of the family heritage."He was viewed as the black sheep of the family, this eccentric, weird bloke who we knew about and thought he sounded quite funny."When I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, homosexuality was still illegal. He wasn't necessarily gay actually, he was probably asexual, but that whole kind of thing of an alternative sexuality was certainly not generally in most circles accepted."That personal sexual liberation of the 1960s, and then more recently of course with LGBTQ identities, he has become a bit of an icon, and attitudes towards him have definitely changed." Alex says because not much is known about Henry - his own diaries and letters were seemingly destroyed by the family after his death and most of the stories about him were told in sensationalist press reports - his life has become an opportunity for creatives to fill in many blanks with their own was an only child who was left motherless at a very young age and was raised for the first years of his life in Paris by relatives, where he was exposed to the theatrical world of the then his father reclaimed him and he was sent to live at Plas Newydd on Anglesey, and his life followed the pattern of education at Eton and an affiliation with the military typical of his on the death of the 4th Marquess in 1898, Henry inherited the title, the lands and the money, and proceeded to live as he renamed Plas Newydd Anglesey Castle, converted the chapel to a performance space he called the Gaiety Theatre, and put on seemingly spectacular shows with elaborate and jaw-droppingly expensive costumes and props, inviting both notables and the local people in for free to witness his ran through most of a fortune that in today's money has been estimated at about £60m and was bankrupted, leaving a shadow of his inheritance. Estranged from his wife, he moved to Monte Carlo and died aged 29. 'It's a pity he spent all the money' And that is where Alex's branch of the family comes in. As he acknowledges, it is only because of Henry's lack of issue that he now holds the title of 8th Marquess, as it fell to Henry's cousin, Alex's grandfather, on his does he make of Henry, from the perspective of the 21st Century? While acknowledging the loss of the fortune - "it's a pity he spent all the money", he laughs, while clarifying he didn't actually quite spend it all."He wasn't totally unique. He was part of a culture, although a minority culture, people like Oscar Wilde in this country and [Marcel] Proust in France, where he initially grew up."That early 20th Century artistic, sexual liberation stuff was going on there in a minority world."He wasn't unique in that sense or even in the context of the English aristocracy - you know the empire-building, soldierly stuff wasn't the only side of the aristocracy," he says, with a nod to another Henry Paget, this time the one on the column, 1st Marquess of Anglesey and veteran of the Battle of Trafalgar, who lost his leg fighting alongside the Duke of to Henry's father being a "playboy who certainly did not take any aristocratic responsibility, noblesse oblige stuff, very seriously at all", Henry can be viewed perhaps in a grand tradition of eccentric and hedonistic aristocrats, albeit one who stepped further outside the boundaries than was considered acceptable. It was this sense of exclusion that spoke to How to Win Against History creator Seiriol Davies when they first came across the photos of Henry during a visit to Plas Newydd - which was been owned by the National Trust for half a century - as a the midst of "marvelling at all the pomp", the playwright and actor from Anglesey was struck by the contrast between the lionisation of the 1st Marquess and his heirs and "the little laminated photocopy of some pictures of [Henry] Blu-tacked on the wall next to the toilet."It said he was a very silly man who wasted all the family's money doing very silly plays."A little bell of proto-queer indignation rang in my tummy, and because I believe in swift and decisive action, decided to make a musical about it 25 years later."They describe Henry as "mesmerising, fabulous, glamorous and totally out of his time, but also kind of lost". As an only child without a mother, Alex agrees one interpretation of Henry's outlandish behaviour could be as a sort of search for connection. "Maybe this was one way of creating an identity, which he certainly did."I do think he's a fascinating character no doubt about it, and his whole persona does fit in with David Bowie and that sort of thing. There's some truth in those kinds of connections and 'he was the inventor of the selfie' idea, which comes into the film or the musical."Seiriol calls their loose interpretation of Henry's life "a screwball, riot comedy camp-o-rama but it has at its centre someone who doesn't even have his internal life because it's been eradicated."In this fiction that we're making about a character which is a bit like Henry in some ways - and this is not trying to be the truth about him - within our story he's constantly trying to find connection, find acceptance; trying to get someone to see him as him." "I think probably my grandfather's generation were pretty seriously embarrassed by him," said Alex."His existence was not denied but it's all summed up by the fact there were these photographs of him - but they were in the bathroom. They weren't portraits in the main room."And now? "We're happy to celebrate his rather weird, to some degree not happy, but to some degree rather extraordinary and marvellous life."

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