Escape from Pretoria komt volgend jaar in de Nederlandse bioscopen. Regisseur Francis Annan liet mij op Twitter al eerder deze maand weten dat er aan werd gewerkt (en er komt ook binnenkort een trailer).

Nu is ook duidelijk dat de release staat op 21 mei 2020. Distributeur is Dutch FilmWorks.

Update: 14 december 2019. De release datum is inmiddels veranderd naar 14 mei 2020. Met dank aan Pathé op Twitter voor de snelle reactie.
Update: Toch weer een andere datum op de website van Pathé: 26 maart 2020.
Update: 2 februari 2020. 19 maart.

@DanJRadcliffeNL A big Dutch distribution deal - for theatrical - is about to happen so, thankfully, you’ll see #EscapefromPretoria on the big screen

— Francis Annan (@francisannan) November 8, 2019

A Throwback Thursday photo via the official Harry Potter Twitter page featuring Harry in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

#TBT to quiet nights inside, studying for end-of-year exams. #WizardingWorldChristmas

Below you find the poster for series 2 of Miracle Workers. Miracle Workers: Dark Ages.

A teaser trailer has been released for series 2 of Miracle Workers which is called Miracle Workers: Dark Ages. The new series is set to debut 28th January 2020 at 10:30 PM ET/PT on TBS. Daniel plays the son of a king who likes to feed ducks in his spare time. Check also the Instagram Stories video from the official Instagram page below.

Daniel Radcliffe and Steve Buscemi welcome you to the Dark Ages.

From the press release:

Miracle Workers: Dark Ages centers upon a group of medieval villagers trying to stay positive in an age of extreme income inequality, poor healthcare, and widespread ignorance.

This 10-episode installment will feature Daniel Radcliffe, Steve Buscemi, Geraldine Viswanathan, Karan Soni, Jon Bass, and Lolly Adefope returning in new roles and facing new challenges.

Miracle Workers: Dark Ages (Instagram Stories)

Playmobil: The Movie will be released on DVD and Blu-ray by StudioCanal UK on 2nd December 2019. Extras: The Making of Playmobil: The Movie and Voicing the Characters. Artwork below.


Synopsis:

When her younger brother Charlie (Gabriel Bateman) unexpectedly disappears into the magical, animated universe of PLAYMOBIL®, unprepared Marla (Anya Taylor-Joy) must go on a quest of a lifetime to bring him home.

As she sets off on a fantastic journey across stunning new worlds, Marla teams up with some unlikely and heroic new friends - the smooth-talking food truck driver Del (Jim Gaffigan), the dashing and charismatic secret agent Rex Dasher (Daniel Radcliffe), a wholehearted misfit robot, an extravagant fairy-godmother (Meghan Trainor) and many more to rescue Charlie from the villainous Emperor Maximus (Adam Lambert).

Through their vibrant adventure, Marla and Charlie realise that no matter how life plays out, you can achieve anything when you believe in yourself!

From the press release:

From the Head of Animation of Disney's Frozen, Lino DiSalvo, comes an exciting new story. PLAYMOBIL: THE MOVIE takes audiences on an epic comedy adventure through a sprawling imaginative universe in the first-ever feature film inspired by the beloved, award-winning PLAYMOBIL® role-play toys. Packed with humour and excitement, the film combines endearing and hilarious characters, thrilling adventure and breathtaking scenery in this originally animated heart-warming tale. PLAYMOBIL: THE MOVIE will be available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download from 2nd December – just in time for Christmas for all the family to enjoy! An exclusive character sticker sheet available on pre-orders only: http://scnl.co/playmobilamazon

The first Harry Potter film hit theaters 18 years ago today (in the UK and US). MTV News shared a Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone press junket interview clip (2001). Daniel talks about how he cried after being chosen to play Harry, and bringing the books to life.

Dit bericht bekijken op Instagram

Een bericht gedeeld door MTV News (@mtvnews) op 16 Nov 2019 om 7:43 (PST)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was released in theaters 18 years ago today (in the US and UK). E! News has shared footage from their press junket interview from back in 2001.

Woody Harrelson's Lost in London (2017) waarin Daniel een cameo rol heeft, is vanaf vandaag verkrijgbaar op DVD. De DVD is uitgebracht door Source 1 Media.


Beschrijving:
Woody Harrelson woont in Londen. Hij heeft het moeilijk om naar huis te gaan en bij zijn familie te zijn. Hij heeft discussies met oude vrienden. De wet is hem ook niet gunstig gezind. Dat alles zorgt ervoor dat hij niet kan slagen in zijn leven. In de loop van een nacht met veel tegenspoed belandt hij tot overmaat van ramp ook nog in de gevangenis.

Lost in London is het eerste filmevent dat gelijktijdig gefilmd werd en te zien was in geselecteerde bioscopen over de hele wereld. Lost in London is een absurde reis door de straten van Londen die je van je stoel laat vallen van het lachen.

Below you find Escape from Pretoria photos, including some behind the scenes via the (new) official Instagram page and Daniel Webber.

Then there are als a few photos shared via Twitter and Facebook which you could have missed: ADR (Additional Dialogue Recording), on set photo with Adam Tuominen, and an on set photo shared by Francis Annan.

Update: 28th March 2021. Another photo shared by Adam.

Through the looking glass on the #EscapefromPretoria set, with #DanielRadcliffe and @ratidzomambo #behindthescenes #actorslife #filmset

Blood, sweat and tears #escapefrompretoria #danielradcliffe #danielwebber #markleonardwinter #behindthescenes

Escape From Pretoria. 2020 #danielradcliffe #meme

Saban Films has acquired the North American rights to sci-fi thriller Guns Akimbo.

“With gaming on the rise, Guns Akimbo is a timely film that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats,” Saban Films President Bill Bromiley said in a statement announcing the deal. “Daniel is in a role you’ve never seen him in before. He and Samara shine throughout this thought-provoking take on the gaming industry’s future.”

source: thewrap.com

MovieMaker magazine spoke with Daniel and director Jason Lei Howden at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) back in September in promotion of Guns Akimbo.

Your character is a bit of a troll and my friend who I saw the movie with said that I’m a troll, because when I go to TIFF parties I tend to make up fake identities and fun lies to mess with people. So we’re very much alike.
DR: That’s probably a very good way of surviving a film festival.

I guess I’m a real life troll, but your character was hiding behind a keyboard.
DR: It’s interesting because he does say [in the movie] that I’m “trolling the trolls.” Somebody asked me that question last night at the Q&A and I’ve never really seen him that way. I saw him as someone who just spends time in dark parts of the internet looking for a fight. And then I realized… that is a troll, isn’t it? What I just described. But a lot of it is in your perspective. I feel like there’s a kind of noble trolling. Sometimes people troll people on the internet, and it’s really funny and very good or inventive, when somebody does a really clever tweet on somebody who needs to be taken down. It’s based on your perspective of what you see as good and bad trolling.

Jason—you have a VFX background, right?
Jason Lei Howden (JLH): Yeah, I do. I think it’s good to know what you can do with the VFX and what should be done practically. I try and approach stuff from a practical point of view just because I like to have something tangible, and I try to avoid green screens as much as possible. But we spit through it…
DR: You know, very few films I do now or have done recently have a lot of time. Samara [Weaving] and I came out early and had some time in rehearsal as we realized the kind of scale of what we were doing. [We knew] that we’re just going to have to come in and make our choices very firmly in the first or second take and just dive in. I have to say, Samara—her gameness for just throwing herself into lots of crazy action and prosthetics—she’s a real trooper.

You had such a great costume in Guns Akimbo, Dan. 
DR: Best outfit I’ve ever worn. Getting to go to work and just wearing boxer shorts, a dressing gown and fluffy slippers is going to be hard to beat.
JLH: My wife Sarah was the costumer and those fluffy slippers came from like halfway across the world because we couldn’t find the right ones. I had this concept in my mind and she was like, “We have to compromise, we can’t find Tiger slippers, they have to be like… dragons.”
DR: I’m glad you held out.

I have pig slippers…?
DR: It wouldn’t be right for this movie.

You’re so picky!
JLH: It was also right for this character because he’s in an urban jungle… he’s got the tiger slippers.

Did you expect the response that you’ve received to Guns Akimbo?
DR: I mean… we’re the movie about a guy who has guns bolted onto his hands. It’s not going to be for everyone, but it’s the kind of thing where “I’d rather be nine people’s favorite thing than 100 people’s ninth favorite thing.” I feel like this movie will find an audience of people that like really f—ing love it.
JLH: I feel like there’s different worlds of films. I go to a lot of genre festivals, and people are wearing t-shirts from an obscure movie about slugs made 30 years ago. They love it, and they buy the merch and the rooms are filled with horror toys. And then there’s people who just love Meryl Streep Oscar-winning movies. Not that it’s wrong, but we’re not a Meryl Streep action movie.

I’d actually love to see Meryl Streep with two guns bolted to her hands.
DR: She’s in the festival, so maybe she’ll catch a screening and get in touch?

Speaking of guns for hands, did you go method and actually bolt them? How did they function on set?
DR: No. [laughs]. They were these really well-designed props. We had several different versions of them. Most of the time they were rubber or plastic, particularly because as soon as you have actual real guns, everything has to slow down for safety. If we were filming with them every time, this would have been a very long shoot.

Did you play any pranks with them?
DR: On the first day of public filming I suddenly became aware that I’m on the street holding guns. That’s a very weird feeling I hadn’t actually thought through. So I was actually more trying to hide them under my arms and not frighten random passer-bys.
JLH: I’ve got a weird relationship with guns. I love action movies and video games, but I actually grew up as a country boy. My room was the gun room. My dad had lines of guns. But if I see someone with a real gun, I just instantly just feel 1,000 percent less safe. Even if it’s a cop or security guard, I just don’t want to be around them. I feel like there’s a place for them, and that place is not around me.

This movie is obviously super hyper-violent, almost in a glamorous way.
DR: Would you see that part where everybody’s being gunned down in the yard and think, “I would love to be in the situation?” I don’t think most people would say that. I’m from England, Samara is from Australia, and Jason is from New Zealand. When I first read the script this didn’t occur to me. In recent months, I realized that’s going to be a thing because it’s going to get released in America. But I think I have a very different a relationship to guns in cinema. I think society informs art more than art informs society. And you can say it glamorizes violence because the film is beautifully shot, but at the same time I don’t think that Miles’ journey through the film is one of becoming great in any way. It’s actually one of having his life ruined by the attachment to these guns. He get guns bolted to him and then becomes locked in a war, becoming less and less of himself and more like this violent animal.

Well, he does start out as a vegetarian, which is quite funny.
DR: All of that stuff is Jason.
JLH: Yeah, he’s pretty much me…

Are you a vegetarian?
DR: He’s a vegetarian who’s an incredibly sweet pacifist who loves f—ing violent video games. The axis of these two things, which is why I think he’s made an awesome film.

Why do you think people love shooter video games? The vast majority aren’t necessarily the kind of people who would ever want to kill anyone, or are violent…
JLH: Well, it’s that whole hunter instinct and [that’s how we] essentially express it. We’ve hunted for a lot of our natural history and I feel like there’s still some of that instinct and humanity. And we get that out by watching sports, competitive stuff, playing violent video games, watching movies, and then we can go and be normal human beings. I feel like there is an element of that, and I don’t think there’s anything necessarily wrong with that.
DR: Yeah, I’m definitely not of the mindset that video games or movies, contribute to that. I think there’s a lot of other things that can be dealt with before we get to film, or video games’ relationship to these things. There’s also a really sad fact about humanity that we enjoyed watching people suffer for most of our history as a species. From gladiator games to the public executions. The last hundred years has actually been us going, okay, maybe we should like, rein it in a bit. And I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect that we can get better and want to watch that less. But I think it’s definitely an unfortunate undercurrent for most of human history.
JLH: My theory is that being able to watch something cathartically has helped us quell the blood-lust a little bit. And maybe sports in a way as well.
DR: There’s a theory that the games in the Coliseum was some form of catharsis because once you watch that happen, there was no part in wanting to go out and do something like that. I watch this movie and think, this is the worst f—ing day ever. I would not be thinking this was cool if I was in it.

So what would you do if you woke up with these guns bolted to you?
DR: Oh man. That’s the thing. I don’t know what I would do differently. I would try and run away for a long time before I was ultimately confronted. I would probably do what happens in the film.

source: moviemaker.com

Via AP (Associated Press): On this day video featuring the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone premiere in London on 4th November 2001. 18 years ago today!

I did already share on social media that there is an interview with Daniel in the new November issue of international Physics World magazine. You can read it below.

Daniel talks to physicist Jess Wade about working with visual effects (VFX).

You have been in a bunch of films that use VFX in the most progressive and creative ways. What was it like starting your acting career with the extraordinary VFX in the Harry Potter films [2001–2011]?
For some of the experienced actors on Potter, it was their first time working with VFX on that kind of scale. It was different for us kids. Telling us that “the dragon is this tennis ball on the end of the stick” is a little different from giving an older actor that instruction – we’d never known anything different. And we were all kids, so using our imagination was something that we were doing a lot anyway.

Has VFX changed how you act?
I don’t think so – it’s always been a big part of my career. I enjoy the challenge of it. I think I’m weirdly good at following numbered cues now. I remember when they shot all the audience reactions during the Tri-Wizard Tournament [in the fourth film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)], and there would basically be a bunch of the cast and background artists on a big stand – sometimes on a green screen, depending on what the backdrop was. Assistant directors would hang big numbers around the studio and just say, for example, “1” so everyone would turn to the same eye line at the same time.

The Harry Potter films ended eight years ago, and you’ve done some really exciting things with VFX since then. Has it changed a lot?
Potter came at a time when people were leaning heavily toward visual effects and away from “practical” make-up or special effects. Even though, of course, we had plenty of them too. In the last couple of years, we’ve reached a nice balance – where big franchises like Star Wars and Mad Max use a lot of practical stuff in creature effects and stunt work. People see the value of having practical, on-set effects, but VFX are so good. It can also make stunt work safer because you don’t have to put a human being through what you can get VFX to do.

But certainly, VFX is improving at an extraordinary rate. If you were to look at the difference between the first and last Potter films [in 2001 and 2011] – they get exponentially better over time.

How does working with all that VFX compare to stage acting?
I think that’s the joy of my job – I’ll do some films where there’s almost no VFX whatsoever, then I’ll do films like Swiss Army Man [2016] where it’s a crazy mix of VFX and old-school practical stuff such as camera tricks. There was one scene in that film where my character gets punched in the mouth, then swallows the hand that punches him… and punches himself in the stomach to make the hand that’s in his mouth get forced back out. I wondered “how are we going to do that?”. There was no VFX involved – it was entirely clever camera angles and a bit of make-up on the arm to make it look like it was covered in spit. It’s wonderful to be able to flit between those things – the very low-fi and the highly sophisticated ways of solving problems on film.

Do you ever get involved with VFX? Do you go and see what they’re doing?
The closest you get on set is when the film’s big enough to do previs [previsualization] sequences – like an animated storyboard that no-one else ever sees. For example, when there was a big quidditch sequence on Potter, they’d have that all mapped out on a visual storyboard first, and we’d try and stick to that when we filmed. But the majority of the time, the VFX is in post-production, when the actors aren’t around.

But sometimes you go in to do that funny thing – what’s it called – ADR?
Yeah, ADR – additional dialogue recording. At that point you might see some sequences with half-finished VFX – and that’s always cool; it’s always fun to see it in a primitive phase. For someone who is interested in how films get put together it’s kind of fascinating. In this rough cut of the film there will be shots like, if you did a driving sequence on a green screen, they’ll just show the shot on a green screen with a little caption saying “VFX needed”. When films started using huge sets that were just entirely blue screen and VFX, I think actors were a bit whiney about it – there’s something about being on a bright blue or green screen that can drive you slightly insane. At first it was something to be remarked upon, but now it is so much part of the industry – I don’t think anyone sees it as a novel thing anymore.

What’s your favourite example of VFX that you’ve worked with?
That’s really hard. There are some amazing sequences in Potter – there is some really beautiful stuff. The Hall of Prophecy in [the fifth film, Harry Potter and the] Order of the Phoenix [2007] was almost entirely green screen if I remember rightly. And then in Horns [2013], when my on-screen brother took some hallucinogenic drugs and had this really visual trip – that’s a really good mix of practical prosthetics, VFX and tricks the designers built into the sets. There’s also the other side of VFX, which is less glamorous but even more useful. Like driving sequences – when you’re filming in a place where you can’t shut down roads, you have to do it on green screens. Then there’s patching up a prosthetic. Sometimes things look fantastic when they’ve been put on at 9 a.m., but when you’ve been wearing it for 10 or 11 hours, visual effects can be helpful for polishing up that stuff.

What has been the most ridiculous thing that you had to work with?
None of it feels too ridiculous at the time. The hippogriff [a magical creature that’s part eagle, part horse] in [the third film, Harry Potter and the] Prisoner of Azkaban [2004] – the reality of the hippogriff and the flight of it was quite funny. If you imagine a limbless, headless bucking bronco…

[descends into laughter] Like…a mechanical thing?
Yeah, a mechanical bucking bronco on hydraulics. Just a grey torso with no texture, filmed on a blue screen and a green screen with a motion control camera.

[can’t stop laughing] But you were all kids! I imagine when one 14-year-old starts laughing, everyone starts laughing.
Sure, there would be an element of that. Thankfully, for the hippogriff sequence I was on my own at the start – so I’d got used to it. Of course, it also feels slightly strange when you mark it through for the first time if you’re acting alongside something like a tennis ball, but you get used to it.

Is it weird to watch yourself after you’ve been VFX-d?
It’s not weird so much as it is cool! It’s satisfying and really fascinating to see the finished product all put together, after having seen it at its most basic stages.

Have you had experience with any cool VFX technologies?
On Potter there was something called cyber-scanning. You’d stand in the middle of around 30 cameras and a computer would make a 3D map of you. And you know, as a kid, I had to be very still for a long time. They also had to keep doing it for every film because us kids were growing up.

What did they use that for?
If there’s a scene where you’re being thrown around in a crazy way – or you’re falling from a broom or something – and they didn’t want to do it with a stunt man. They use the cyber scan to recreate a digital version of you.

It’s kind of cool but also intimidating. I think I’d hate to have 30 cameras pointing at me from all different angles.
Yeah, for sure, it’s weird. You don’t just sit there either – you sometimes have to make expressions. There will be six or seven “first do a neutral face, then do smiling, then smiling with teeth, then surprised, then scared…” – so you have to make slightly caricatured versions of facial expressions. It’s one of the weirder parts of my job – but I enjoy all of those parts of my job!

Does it feel like there’s a movement in the film industry to go back to more old-school techniques, away from VFX?
Maybe a little bit. If you go to one of J J Abrams’ sets for the new Star Wars films there are lots of practical prosthetics, make-up effects and creatures – it’s really cool. It’s one of the things people love about the films that he has made.

The directors of Swiss Army Man, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, love doing stuff practically. There are sequences in the film where we’re attacked by a bear, and there is no safe or practical way of doing that really, and we didn’t have the money that The Revenant [2015] had to do a bear attack. But Dan Kwan has a VFX/animation background and knew how to film things to make the VFX easy – there are tricks.

People used to say they didn’t want movies to look like video games – but video games look incredible at this point in time, so it’s not really a valid criticism anyway anymore. I don’t think we’ll ever get to a point where we completely do away with human actors and have entirely VFX movies – though there is a place for those movies right now, and they’re awesome. You see how people respond to films like Mad Max: Fury Road [2015], which had a lot of practical stunts, the crazy cars – that was all real. But it was coupled with a tonne of VFX – removing wires, stunt harnesses. I think the industry has got to a point where we realize the value of both and find a compromise between the two.

When you think about your career – of course you think about acting, but increasingly producing and directing – do you see yourself getting more involved with VFX?
Depending on what level of VFX is in the film, VFX teams work very closely with the director. I think it’s really important to work with people you get on with and who understand the vision of the film. I cannot overstate how important that relationship is – the VFX team can really bail you out of stuff. On Guns Akimbo [2019] there was a lot of VFX, and we had a very chill, cool VFX co-ordinator called Tony [Kock] – and whenever there was a problem on set we’d say, “Hey Tony, can you fix that?” and he’d be like, “Yeah, that’s fine.”

When you find someone like that do you not just want to ask them a tonne of questions about the technical parts of it?
I do, but it’s like when I ask you about physics – I can only understand so much.

Talking of physics, it’s not often we have a film star in Physics World. If you played a physicist who would you be?
I will reverse the question: who would you cast me as?

Paul Dirac would be great. Remember we read that great book about him [Graham Farmelo’s The Strangest Man]. But I want to know more about whether you like physics?
I was always excited by space but there was way too much maths in it for me to ever feel truly at home. I’m interested in it now though – absolutely. You know I always watch science shows and listen to podcasts. I guess I’d say I’m an enthusiast but I’m not informed. Maybe I got it from my teachers at school and my tutors on set. Even though I wasn’t great, they got me interested. But I think pretty much across the board, every subject I didn’t think I was good at when I was at school, I’m fascinated by now. I’m fascinated by mathematics. I don’t understand anything about mathematics, but I love hearing people talk about it. It blows my mind.