Latest news with #TheMissing
Sydney Morning Herald
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
The anti-Bond: Why Keeley Hawes' new assassin is the spy we need now
More than two decades ago, actor Keeley Hawes and I met on the set of David Wolstencroft's television spy thriller Spooks. That series, about a group of intelligence officers working in Section D of the British spy agency MI5, was hailed for the way it upended the established espionage genre. Since the first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, was published in 1953, that franchise had defined the way stories about spies and assassins were told. But if Spooks gave the genre its light and shade, the new thriller series, The Assassin, flips the script again, in favour of something more resembling a rollercoaster. ' The Assassin feels a bit like the opposite of Bond in every way,' Hawes explains, when we reconnect to talk about the new series. 'Julie is a kind of anti-hero. Obviously when we meet her as a young woman she's obviously been very, very good at her job. But even then, she's this person who's a bit sort of worn down with it. 'She is real in a way that James Bond is not,' Hawes adds. 'And I think even though they're so different, both of those shows would appeal to the same sort of person who loves a high-octane show.' Created by Harry and Jack Williams – the sibling writing partnership behind The Missing and its spinoff Baptiste, Liar and The Tourist – The Assassin is a crime thriller about a retired assassin (Hawes' Julie) who is living a quiet life on a remote Greek island and trying to reconnect with her son, Edward (Freddie Highmore). The hiccup? Mum's past has caught up with her. When Hawes sat down to begin work on the series, the scripts and the story framework were still in an evolutionary state, she says. 'So you have an idea of where the show is going to go,' she says. 'But then that can change. It is also organic. And particularly with Jack and Harry, there are some curveballs that are thrown. 'Once you've established who the character is, [and] how you'll play that person, it's quite exciting to then not know which direction they're going to go,' Hawes says. 'In this case, it just gets more and more exciting. And I just loved the work. 'I know everybody always says this, but this really was a joyful job,' Hawes adds. 'Freddie and I had this amazing chemistry from the beginning. I immediately knew that it was going to be OK. We met and had a coffee, and we did the read-through [of the scripts] and I felt like I had known this person for much longer than I have.'
The Age
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
The anti-Bond: Why Keeley Hawes' new assassin is the spy we need now
More than two decades ago, actor Keeley Hawes and I met on the set of David Wolstencroft's television spy thriller Spooks. That series, about a group of intelligence officers working in Section D of the British spy agency MI5, was hailed for the way it upended the established espionage genre. Since the first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, was published in 1953, that franchise had defined the way stories about spies and assassins were told. But if Spooks gave the genre its light and shade, the new thriller series, The Assassin, flips the script again, in favour of something more resembling a rollercoaster. ' The Assassin feels a bit like the opposite of Bond in every way,' Hawes explains, when we reconnect to talk about the new series. 'Julie is a kind of anti-hero. Obviously when we meet her as a young woman she's obviously been very, very good at her job. But even then, she's this person who's a bit sort of worn down with it. 'She is real in a way that James Bond is not,' Hawes adds. 'And I think even though they're so different, both of those shows would appeal to the same sort of person who loves a high-octane show.' Created by Harry and Jack Williams – the sibling writing partnership behind The Missing and its spinoff Baptiste, Liar and The Tourist – The Assassin is a crime thriller about a retired assassin (Hawes' Julie) who is living a quiet life on a remote Greek island and trying to reconnect with her son, Edward (Freddie Highmore). The hiccup? Mum's past has caught up with her. When Hawes sat down to begin work on the series, the scripts and the story framework were still in an evolutionary state, she says. 'So you have an idea of where the show is going to go,' she says. 'But then that can change. It is also organic. And particularly with Jack and Harry, there are some curveballs that are thrown. 'Once you've established who the character is, [and] how you'll play that person, it's quite exciting to then not know which direction they're going to go,' Hawes says. 'In this case, it just gets more and more exciting. And I just loved the work. 'I know everybody always says this, but this really was a joyful job,' Hawes adds. 'Freddie and I had this amazing chemistry from the beginning. I immediately knew that it was going to be OK. We met and had a coffee, and we did the read-through [of the scripts] and I felt like I had known this person for much longer than I have.'
Geek Tyrant
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Trailer for Freddie Highmore's New Espionage Thriller Series THE ASSASSIN — GeekTyrant
Prime Video UK has dropped the first trailer for The Assassin , a six-episode thriller that blends family drama with sharp-edged espionage. Set on a quiet Greek island, the series stars Keeley Hawes as Julie, a retired assassin trying to keep a low profile until her estranged son Edward, played by The Good Doctor 's Freddie Highmore, suddenly shows up. He's looking for answers about his father, and maybe even about who his mother really is. As expected, the peaceful coastal backdrop doesn't stay calm for long. The synopsis reads: 'A retired assassin named Julie (Keeley Hawes) living in Greece is reunited with her estranged son (co-starring Freddie Highmore) who is seeking answers about his father and his mother's past. However, both find themselves in danger when the assassin's past catches up with her.' Created by Harry and Jack Williams ( The Missing , Baptiste ) with additional writing from Krissie Ducker and direction from Lisa Mulcahy and Daniel Nettheim, the show promises a mix of emotional stakes, lethal tension, only with some fun light humor. The supporting cast features Gina Gershon, Jack Davenport, Alan Dale, and Devon Terrell. While there's no U.S. release date yet, The Assassin premieres July 25th, 2025, on Prime Video in the UK and Ireland.
Cosmopolitan
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Cosmopolitan
5 must-read things about Keeley Hawes' new thriller The Assassin, a hit-woman series from The Tourist creators
Anything with Keeley Hawes in it is an immediate yes from us, so we are counting down the days until her latest series The Assassin drops on Prime Video later this month. Keeley will star alongside Freddie Highmore (aka Charlie from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory) as a mother and son duo, who get embroiled in a dark chase across Europe as Keeley's character's Julie's assassin past catches up with her. Keeley Hawes as an assassin? It's tick, tick, tick from us, and given the show comes from the creators of The Tourist and The Missing, we've got a feeling it's going to be good. If you're just as excited about the series as us, then here's what you need to know about The Assassin. The Assassin stars Keeley Hawes as an ex-hit woman Julie, who reunites with her estranged son Edward (Highmore). The pair must abandon their idyllic Greek island as Julie's assassin past catches up with her. The pair go on the run throughout Europe as they battle questions about Edward's paternity and uncover a dark conspiracy that could change everything about their relationship. All six hour long episodes of The Assassin will be released on Prime Video on 25 July later this summer. Leading the cast of The Assassin is Keeley Hawes as Julie. You'll most recently have seen Keeley in the BBC series Miss Austen where she starred as Jane Austen's sister Cassandra. Hawes is also known for her roles in Bodyguard, Scoop, It's a Sin and many others. Starring alongside Hawes as her on-screen son Edward is Freddie Highmore, who you'll recognise from the movies Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Spiderwick Chronicles. He's more recently known for his roles in The Good Doctor and Bates Motel. Also in the cast of the series is Gina Gershon, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Jack Davenport, Alan Dale, Gerald Kyd, Devon Terrell, Richard Dormer, and David Dencik. When The Assassin is released on 25 July, you'll be able to watch it all on Prime Video. A Prime Video account is £8.99 a month or £95.00 a year. With your Prime Video account you'll not only have access to The Assassin but a bunch of other exciting Prime Video series and movies including The Summer I Turned Pretty, We Were Liars, Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power and Overcompensating. SIGN UP FOR PRIME VIDEO HERE There sure is! Earlier today (3 July) Prime Video shared a first look at the series with an intensely dramatic trailer and you can watch it here: Let the countdown to 25 July begin!
Telegraph
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Stolen Girl, Disney+, review: the TV equivalent of an airport read
'Posh house' drama shows no sign of waning. If you ignore the child kidnapping/parental catastrophe angle of The Stolen Girl (Disney+) there is so much useful interiors advice to be found here. I don't know whether streamers have to show that Product Placement 'P' logo at the beginning of dramas like they do on poor old ITV, but holy moly I want to know what the sofa was they were sitting on (when the police came round to arrest whoever it was). And never mind Jim Sturgess's dad having a nervous breakdown as he confessed to a bout of extramarital phone-sex – just look at the kitchen island he broke down on! Granite surfaces to die for. From which you'll gather that The Stolen Girl, a new thriller about a missing child, is quite hard to take seriously. It doesn't help that the story as it first appears is rather familiar: when nine-year-old Lucia begs her mummy Elisa (Denise Gough) for an overnight playdate with her new best friend Josie, Elisa agrees. Whoops. Josie's mum Rebecca (Holliday Grainger) is not at all what she seems, as Elisa discovers the next day when Elisa doesn't come home and Rebecca's posh house turns out to have been an Airbnb. So unfolds The Missing but in Cheshire. Faultlines in Elisa and Fred's (Sturgess) marriage quickly emerge, no one is who they seem and did I mention how cool the wallpaper is? Anyway, The Stolen Girl is the TV equivalent of an airport read, schlocky trash that moves at a breakneck pace. The idea is that with such dizzying haste, you won't have time to pause for thought and ask testing questions such as, 'How come journalist Ambika Mod is able to find out things about both dodgy mums the police can't, using only her phone?' And, 'What must the current crop of TV scripts be like if actors of this calibre are taking jobs like this?' Or, more pointedly, 'How much must Disney be paying?' Because, make no mistake, the cast of The Stolen Girl is its ace in the hole. It elevates another 'The Girl on the Train who Peaked from Behind the Net Curtain'-style psych thriller to a level of robust watchability. Denise Gough, Holliday Grainger and Ambika Mod (rocking a vintage Ford Cortina that marks the return of the impractical statement vehicle to crime dramas) are a superb central trio. Gough in particular is one of those performers who can turn a stage direction like 'she starts crying' into something epiphanic. Grainger, meanwhile, plants her flag in that moral no man's land where her Rebecca, who initially appears to be the villain of the piece, nibbles at your sympathy and lodges in your brain. The tension in The Stolen Girl – and whatever else it is, it grips like duct tape – comes as much from these performances as from the plot. If only they could give the actors a little more to work with.
