Just got some news. First, the Good Morning America interview has been postponed indefinitely.
Jonathan is not going to be doing “Vinyl”. Instead he has been offered and accepted a lead role in a new film by Bille August. “Explosion”, based on the novel Burden of Desire by Robert MacNeil, concerns the real life incident when a munitions ship blew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1917. At the heart of the story is a love triangle between an unhappily married young man, a psychiatrist, and a remarkable unconvential young widow. Shooting is scheduled to start mid-November in Nova Scotia, Canada. Also cast are Vanessa Redgrave and Rupert Everett.
Other good news regarding “Vanity Fair”… while garnering plenty of favorable reviews, it’s also performing well at the box office in the United States. It has so far managed to earn $11.7 million dollars in just 2 weeks of release.
Despite all the newspaper and tv guide listings, Jonathan did not appear on Good Morning America this morning. Trying to find out if the interview has been rescheduled or is no longer going to happen. Sorry for the false alarm!
BIG NEWS: Jonathan will be doing an interview on Good Morning America TOMORROW morning!! The show airs on ABC from 7am to 9am.
The official US website for “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” is finally online with some new release date information. The film will be opening in New York City on June 18 of this month. June 25th it will expand to Los Angeles and other select cities.
Jonathan was interviewed on a Japanese cinema program that aired on TV recently. You can read a transcript of the interview on the program’s website.
You can now view a trailer for “The Lion in Winter” at the Hallmark Entertainment website. The film is set to air Sunday, May 23 on the Showtime Network. There will be a premiere for the film in Los Angeles in early May. Showtime is going to also air a behind the scenes look at “The Lion in Winter”:
TRACKING “THE LION IN WINTER” 17m
A look at the production of the Showtime Original Picture “The Lion in Winter” starring Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close in the fact-based story of the internecine feuds tearing apart England’s royal family during the reign of King Henry II. This remake of the 1968 original is based on the same Oscar-winning script from James Goldman.
Apr 20 10:40 PM
Apr 24 4:15 PM
Apr 25 5:00 PM
Apr 27 7:00 PM
Apr 27 11:45 PM
You can view lots of recent images of Jonathan during his promotional visit to Japan on C. Monkey’s Jonathan fansite. His Japanese fans gave him a warm welcome when he arrived in Tokyo.
A&E is currently taking pre-orders for DVD and VHS box sets of “The Magnificent Ambersons”. The VHS set will available on January 14 while the DVD will be ready on January 24 (this could be a website mistake however). The DVD features cast bios, filmographies, and hopefully more extras. Both formats are $24.95 so if you want to save money but wait a little longer, you can try Amazon.com which is selling the VHS format for $22.26 and the DVD format for only $18.71 but both are listed to come out February 26 for some reason.
A&E has also finally put up a website for “The Magnificent Ambersons” with small images, a bio for Jonathan, and an interview with him (extended text interview from the Making of documentary). If you have not read the book or seen the original film, there are plenty of spoilers in some of the interviews. Gretchen Mol’s interview is definitely one to read. Here’s a little excerpt from it: “I have to say, Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Georgie is so perfect. Acting with him, he really brings me to life, I think.”
Don’t forgot that “The Magnificent Ambersons” will premiering on the A&E on Sunday, January 13 at 8 pm (7pm Central). It will also air on the 14, 17, 18, 19 and 20th. And if you missed “The Making of The Magnificent Ambersons”, it will be reairing on A&E, Jan. 6, 7, and 13. Check your local listings for times.
Thanks to alec757 for passing along some corrected news about “The Magnificent Ambersons”:
December 4, 2001, The Record
A&E is attempting to restore Orson Welles original vision for his movie “The Magnificent Ambersons.” The cable network in January will premiere a remake of the 1942 film, based on Booth Tarkington’s novel. The cast and crew of the new version worked from Welles original screenplay, nearly 60 years after RKO Pictures executives re-edited the movie and released it against the director’s wishes.
“The Magnificent Ambersons” tells the story of a prominent but fading Midwestern family in the early 20th century. The Amberson family spans three generations, none of which can see that the world is changing faster than they are and that their tradition-bound way of living is disappearing into history.
Madeleine Stowe, James Cromwell, Bruce Greenwood, and Jennifer Tilly star in the remake, which was directed by Alfonso Arau.
A&E’s remake of “The Magnificent Ambersons” is scheduled to premiere at 8 pm Jan. 13.
Huge thanks to the wonderful alec757 for along the following information. It appears that Jonny’s first commercial, the infamous Knorr Soup advert, was shown again in Ireland.
From The People:
“You might not recognise them…but these young men are two of the biggest stars that Ireland has produced in recent years. One is the darling of British broadcasting who was recently offered millions to take his chat show to a rival station. And the other is a red-hot actor who can now command a fortune for his Hollywood movies. In case you haven’t guessed, they are top comic Graham Norton and Jonathan Rhys Meyers at the start of their glittering careers…
Jonathan, meanwhile, is seen tucking into a bowl of soup because, as few of his thousands of fans will know, he was the Knorr Soup Boy.
Jonathan later got his big break playing the young republican who shot dead Michael Collins in Neil Jordan’s film. He was soon snapped up by Hollywood to star as a rock star in Velvet Goldmine. Since then the 24-year-old actor has made more than a dozen back-to-back movies, including Prozac Nation with Addams Family star Christine Ricci, Ride With the Devil and Titus Andronicus with Anthony Hopkins. He won rave reviews for his role in the recent BBC TV series Gormenghast. And his latest coup will be starring in a Hollywood mini-series remake of the Orson Welles classic, The Magnificent Ambersons with screen beauty Madeline Stowe.
The soup advert was one of the first things the actor did after being kicked out of school at the age of 16. The advert was filmed in 1993 and showed a young girl bringing her boyfriend home to meet her parents. The meeting is not going well until the soup comes out… The stars’ early clips can be seen in tomorrow night’s Network 2 show, The Blizzard of Odd, at 10.45pm.”
LOAD-DATE: September 30, 2001
The Independent Film Channel is showing “The Tribe”! The remaining times it will be shown in May are: Wednesday, May 16 at 6AM, Tuesday, May 29 at 11:45PM and Wednesday, May 30 at 6AM. “Tangled” is having a rough go of things now that the film has been picked up by Miramax. Rachael Leigh Cook has mentioned in several interviews how the movie title was changed to “Tangled” in the first place and now about possible cuts requested that have frustrated her as a producer of the fim. Let’s hope all goes well and that “Tangled” does get a theatrical release.
Jonathan will be filming a small role in Ioan Gruffudd’s new film “Happy Now” next month in Wales (thanks to Jenny and Rebecca for passing this along). Have any plans for Halloween? “Gormenghast” will be re-airing in it’s entirety beginning with the making of documentary starting at 6:30pm on BBC America October 31 (thanks wolfgoddess).
And lastly, was sent a little tidbit of info about “The Magnificent Ambersons”. The four hour miniseries will air on A&E in the US but is to be packaged as a feature internationally (thanks Sandi). It also appears Thora Birch is no longer attached to the project. Gretchen Mol is instead reported to be playing Jonathan’s character’s girlfriend.
