Carell Vs Stone in tennis drama, McGregor joins Beauty and Beast and new posters for Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland

Documentaries are often becoming the base of new dramatic films: similar ground in 2010’s multi-BAFTA-winning Senna in covered in Ron Howard’s equally lauded Rush while Oscar winners Man on Wire and Citizenfour are soon to be adapted into Robert Zemeckis’ tightrope adventure The Walk and Oliver Stone’s NSA thriller Snowden (both, coincidently, starring Joseph Gordon Levitt. It received far less exposure than the aforementioned films but the 2013 documentary The Battle of the Sexes told the true story of the 1973 tennis match between women’s Wimbledon winner Billie Jean King and retired male champ Bobby Riggs and the underlying sexual politics that the game represented.

The lead stars of the new adaptation are the Crazy Stupid Love costars and recent Oscar nominees Steve Carell (Despicable Me, Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin, The Office, Foxcatcher) and Emma Stone (The Help, Easy A, The Amazing Spider-Man, Zombieland, Birdman). The directors are Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton (Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks) and is written by Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire).

Disney’s new liveaction adaptation of their classic animation Beauty and the Beast has already garnered an incredible ensemble. Bill Condon (Kinsey, Dreamgirls, Mr Holmes) will be helming the cast of Emma Watson (Harry Potter, My Week Marilyn), Luke Evans (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Fast & Furious 6), Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey, The Guest), Gugu Mbatha Raw (Belle, Jupiter Ascending), Emma Thompson (Saving Mr Banks, Sense and Sensibility), Josh Gad (Frozen, The Wedding Ringer), Audra McDonald (Private Practive), Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda, Cry Freedom) and Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings, X-Men). The newest addition is Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting, Big Fish) who’ll play the talking candle Lumiere, famed for the iconic Oscar nominated number Be Our Guest.

Tomorrowland (sometimes known as A World Beyond) is a new Disney science fiction mystery adventure that was plucked right off the drawing board of Walt Disney himself. Brand new posters for the film have been revealed. Brad Bird (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, The Incredibles) directs the cast of George Clooney (Ocean’s Eleven, Syriana, Gravity), Britt Robertson (The Longest Ride, Under the Dome), Judy Greer (Archer, Men Women & Children) and Hugh Laurie (House).

Tomorrowland – May 22nd

Beauty and the Beast – 2017

Battle of the Sexes – 2017

Ian McKellen joins Beauty and the Beast and Eddie Redmayne favourite for Fantastic Beasts

Following the financial successes Alice in Wonderland ($1 billion), Snow White and the Huntsman ($395 million), Maleficent ($760 million), Cinderella ($405 million+), Oz the Great and Powerful ($495 million) and Into the Woods ($205 million) there’s now talks of Pinocchio and Dumbo entering the production mill. In the more immediate future, a live action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast is on the way and has just cast Ian McKellen (X-Men, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit) as the living clock Cogsworth.

This is his third collaboration with Oscar winning writer/director Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Kinsey, Dreamgirls, Mr Holmes) who directs the cast of Emma Watson (Harry Potter, Noah), Dan Stevens (The Guest, Downton Abbey), Luke Evans (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Fast & Furious 6), Josh Gad (Frozen, The Wedding Ringer), Audra McDonald (Private Practice), Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda, Cry Freedom) and Emma Thompson (Saving Mr Banks, Love Actually, The Remains of the Day).

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a spin off of the incredibly successful Harry Potter films, has been in development for ages but is only now at the casting stage. Eddie Redmayne, the recently Oscar winning star of The Theory of Everything, is the current favourite for the role of Newt Scamander, a wizard who travels the world in search of its most fearsome creatures. Matt Smith (Doctor Who, Terminator: Genisys) and Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class, Warm Bodies) previously mentioned in connection with the film but it’d appear that Redmayne is the closest to taking the role for director David Yates (The Girl in the Cafe, Harry Potter).

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – November 18th 2016

Beauty and the Beast – 2017