Film News - Popcorn Seller lands Hollywood Film Deal

A former popcorn seller from Bristol has landed a $10m (£6.4m) deal to transform his science-fiction screenplay into a Hollywood film.

Stuart Gallop, 31, spent 10 years writing the script for In War They Come, which centres on an alien species that plucks human soldiers from the Earth during major conflicts such as Vietnam to conduct experiments on them. He had previously travelled to the American film market in Los Angeles in the hope of selling his screenplay, but finally found a buyer after taking it to Cannes earlier this year.

Gallop has come a long way from his humble origins as a snack seller at a cinema in Cribbs Causeway, Bristol, 13 years ago, an experience which inspired him to work on his own blockbuster effort.
"I worked there because it was the nearest I could get at the time to being involved in films," he said. "Even just selling people popcorn and seeing what film people were going to see was exciting because I wanted to see their reaction."
"I was worlds away from thinking it was something I could do myself. When I was there, films like Saving Private Ryan were coming out. I remember some of the old veterans who went in to watch it coming out very upset and moved. Films really, really touch people, and I knew that was the sort of thing I wanted to do some day.''
In War They Come is now seeking a director after picking up financial support from a consortium of investors following Gallop's deal with LA-based actor and producer Beau Nelson and producer Kayo Anderson at Cannes. Ironically, the trip to France might never have taken place had the wannabe screenwriter not been made redundant in April from his job as a business analyst and project manager for the student accommodation company United. He now hopes to shoot his Vietnam-set film next year, possibly in Puerto Rico.

Film News - Meryl Streep to play Margaret Thatcher

So that's how Meryl Streep is going to sound when she appears on our screens as Margaret Thatcher. On the basis of the clip newly issued by 20th Century Fox (yes, I know it's Murdoch-owned, but he's hard to avoid) I'd say the great US actor is not going to disappoint the Iron Lady's fans (though she does have a problem; I'll come to that).

1. The Iron Lady
2. Production year: 2011
3. Country: UK
4. Directors: Phyllida Lloyd
5. Cast: Jim Broadbent, Meryl Streep, Olivia Coleman, Richard E Grant
6. More on this film

But why not give it her best Hollywood shot? Playing a well-known public figure in an age when – thanks to multi-media platforms – everyone knows exactly how they sound is a formidable challenge. Like many things in life, it didn't used to be a problem. I think there are fragments of that great Victorian orator William Gladstone, recorded before his death in 1898, fewer than you might expect of David Lloyd George, perhaps the greatest of them all, in his prime. The latter lived until 1945, by which time his protege, Winston Churchill, was happy to re-record his great wartime speeches or allow an actor to copy his growl provided that he, Winston, got the appropriate cut. As war broke out in 1939, he made arrangements to keep all copyright.

Lady Thatcher was never an orator in their class and her voice was always a problem. As the film clip shows, it had a stridency that reinforced the reality of her powerful but abrasive personality. When she was education secretary – "Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher" – under Ted Heath– people laughed at her persistent habit of wearing hats at a time when they were going out of fashion.

But it was only when she got the top job – a different league altogether – by ousting Heath in 1975 that the likes of Tim Bell and Sir Gordon Reecegot to work on softening the voice. Trouble was, I suspect, that Thatcher still had the Lincolnshire lilt of her youth. She once accused Michael Foot of being "frit" at Prime Minister's Questions. What did that mean? It turned out to be Lincolnshire for scared.

So when she hit the matrimonial jackpot, married Denis (in the nonconformist City Temple) and retrained as a barrister, she carried out an accent upgrade. Consciously or not lots of regional folk do it (including me), as Gladstone felt no need to: the son of Liverpool sounded a bit Lancashire to the end, just as Churchill sounded Blenheim Palace. No estuary accent for him.

So it was a contrived posh accent she developed under Reece's guidance. Being a determined woman she did soften it significantly to sound less hectoring, and it all helped get her elected – and stay elected. Her voice had a husky style that male politicians of her generation (Labour included) found sexy, especially if she had Scotch on her breath. Even Alan Clark, the old rogue, was excited by her, though not even he would have chanced his arm.

What's wrong with the clip we've just watched? Thatcher is seen saying: "I may be prepared to surrender the hat, but the pearls are non-negotiable. That is the tone we want to stress." It is clearly an attempt to prefigure the Chobham-armoured handbag approach she would later bring to negotiations; a nice scriptwriter's touch.

But Streep is seen to smile at this point, self-consciously amused by her own wit. No, that's not Maggie at all; humour was one of her achilles heels. In fact, it was a whole bloody leg.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/jul/07/meryl-streep-iron-lady-margaret-thatcher?INTCMP=SRCH

My Beautiful Laundrette is a 1985 British comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Hanif Kureishi. The story is set in London during the period when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, as shown through the complex—and often comical—relationships between members of the Asian and White communities. The plot tackles many polemical issues, such as homosexuality, racism, and Britain's economic and political policy during the 1980s.

Cast:

• Daniel Day Lewis as Johnny
• Gordon Warnecke as Omar Ali
• Saeed Jaffrey as Nasser Ali
• Roshan Seth as Hussein Ali
• Derrick Branche as Salim N. Ali
• Rita Wolf as Tania N. Ali
• Souad Faress as Cherry N. Ali
• Richard Graham as Genghis
• Shirley Anne Field as Rachel
• Stephen Marcus as Moose