Welcome to this month’s round-up of some fact-based films and TV shows heading to cinemas or streaming platforms, as well as a selection of projects in the works…
In Cinemas:
> Historical drama Firebrand is set for a US cinema release this month, with Amazon Prime due to stream the film for UK audiences. Set in Tudor England, the film tells of the marriage between Queen Katherine Parr and Henry VIII. The source is a novel, Queen’s Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle. Take a look at the trailer:
> Following in the slipstream of last year’s Nyad, Young Woman and the Sea tells of Trudy Ederle, who, in the 1920s, became the first woman to swim the English Channel. The film is in UK cinemas and is getting a limited US release.
> Pioneering eye surgeon Ming Wang is the subject of the biographical drama Sight, which is getting a US release. Wang moved to the US to practice but is confronted by the violence he witnessed in Communist China when he is faced with saving the sight of a young orphan.
> Due for a UK cinema release this month, Freud’s Last Session tells of a meeting between Sigmund Freud and CS Lewis. Set at the outbreak of WWII, the film is an adaptation of Mark St. Germain’s 2009 play of the same name (hence the theatrical ‘two characters in a room talking’ set up). Expect weighty themes and plenty of verbal sparring as these two intellectual heavyweights tackle the big issues of their day. Take a look at the trailer:
Streaming:
> Hotel Cocaine comes to MGM+ on 16 June. It tells of Roman Compte, a Cuban expatriate who fought against Fidel Castro in the Bay of Pigs invasion, later becoming general manager of the Mutiny Hotel, which was at the centre of Miami’s late-1970s/early-1980s cocaine scene. MGM+ becomes available in the UK this month via Amazon Prime. A seven-day free trial is available (£4.49 a month thereafter).
Cannes:
A few fact-based film highlights from last month’s Cannes Film Festival:
> Featuring in the Premiere line-up was Rithy Panh’s Rendez-Vous Avec Pol Pot about three French journalists who travelled to Cambodia (then called Democratic Kampuchea) in 1978 to secure an exclusive interview with Pol Pot. It is loosely based on the real-life experiences of Elizabeth Becker, Malcolm Caldwell and Richard Dudman, recounted in Becker’s book, When the War Was Over. Read more
> Also enjoying a positive reception was Kirill Serebrennikov’s Limonov: The Ballad, a portrait of poet-turned-politician Eduard Limonov. It was described by Deadline as a “boundary-blasting biopic” dripping with “punk-rock energy”, which reveals “everything and nothing” about its subject. Read more
> The most controversial real-life inspired film at Cannes was undoubtedly The Apprentice, which tells of the rise of Donald Trump in the 1970s and 1980s. Not surprisingly, the subject of the film is not impressed, calling it “garbage” and “pure fiction”. Cue threats of lawsuits, accusations of election interference, and a cease & desist letter. A UK release is expected later this year, unless Trump and his lawyers get their way. Read more
Coming Soon:
> Ahead of its scheduled 30 August release, a trailer is doing the rounds for Reagan, starring Dennis Quaid as the movie star-turned-US president:
In the Works:
> Set in 1939, The Man with the Miraculous Hands will tell of Felix Kersten, who was appointed personal doctor to Heinrich Himmler, the architect of the Holocaust. Source: Deadline
> Tim Roth will take on the role of Henry Kissinger in Kissinger Takes Paris, which will tell of the former US secretary of state’s role in the Paris Peace Talks of 1968, which were aimed at ending the Vietnam war. Source: Deadline
> The curiously named Bruno Penguin and the Staten Island Princess is based on a Vanity Fair article about Bruno Zehnder, a Swiss photographer who devoted his latter years to shooting penguins (with his camera, of course!). The film will be shot on location in Antarctica, a first for a Hollywood production. Source: Deadline
> A biopic of Marlon Brando is on the way, with Billy Zane in the lead role. It focuses on a period in the late 1960s and early 1970s when Brando bought Tetiaroa, a private island atoll in the South Pacific. Source: New York Post
> Late comedian Chris Farley is subject of a biopic which will be directed by Josh Gad. Staring Paul Walter Hauser in the lead, the film, which has the family’s blessing, will be based on The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts. Source: Cover Media
> An authorised biopic of George Floyd is in the works. Daddy Changed The World will tell of the life of Floyd, as well as his death at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, which sparked global protests over police brutality and racism. Source: Deadline
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